Andy & Ari On3 - Has Curt Cignetti solidified himself as the BEST coach in ALL of college sports? Jeff Goodman joins: Kentucky Basketball takes on Arkansas | Charles Bediako's Case

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

Happy Friday! As the week wraps up, Andy & Ari get ready to send you into the weekend with a GREAT weekend preview of College Basketball with the Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman. Before Goodman joins the show, Andy & Ari ask if Curt Cignetti is truly the best coach in college sports right now. It’s hard to argue against his track record so far. (0:00) On Today’s Episode(1:55) Presenting Sponsor(4:25) Intro: The Curt Cignetti Effect(7:37) Previewing the conversation with Jeff(10:43) Dell(11:53) Jeff Goodman Joins - Cignetti’s Impact(13:09) Cignetti’s Cameo with Jeff Goodman(15:25) Jeff meeting Cignetti(23:11) Florida Basketball(24:24) Kentucky ahead of Arkansas(33:44) Just How good is Arizona?(36:40) The Overall State of College Basketball(41:07) Dissecting Charles Bediako’s Case(45:35) Closing out with Jeff(46:00) Charles Bediako’s Latest(48:50) Previewing Michael Taaffe(51:10) Michael Taaffe Joins(1:02:46) Closing Out As a jam-packed weekend of college hoops is on deck, Jeff Goodman from the Field of 68 joins the show to dive deep into some of the top storylines in the game right now. Watch here as Andy & Ari talk with Jeff about Florida, Kentucky, Arizona, and the wild situation in Alabama and Charles Bediako. Also, how is the overall state of the game compared to college football? All that and more in our conversation with Jeff Goodman. After Jeff, Andy & Ari revisit the Senior Bowl, where Texas DB Michael Taaffe joins the show to talk about his legacy as a Longhorn, his journey getting to Austin, and his lasting impact in the locker room. Thanks for watching! Be sure to come back on Monday for another edition of Andy & Ari On3! The Dell XPS proves there’s no need to compromise—style, power, and reliability come together in one expertly crafted machine.Check out the all-new Dell XPS at Dell.com/XPS. Our show is also presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode, we continue our amazement that Indiana won the national title. We talk a little bit more about Kurt Signetti and what he did with one of the unlikeliest of people. Jeff Goodman, our friend from Field of 68, one of the best college basketball reporters in the country. He had Sig on his show the other night because Sig was at the Indiana-Purdue basketball game. And Jeff gave us a great story about meeting Kurt Signetti before Kurt Signetti had ever coached a game in Indiana and hearing exactly what was going to happen.

And Jeff will tell you exactly what he thought when he met Kurt Signetti and was told, we're going to win a lot of games in Indiana football. Plus, we talked to Jeff about Kentucky basketball and that $22 million payroll that does not seem to be going very well. As Kentucky goes to play John Caliparie's Arkansas team on Saturday. So new coach Mark Pope against former coach Cal, The fan base is upset in Big Blue Nation, but a win in Fayetteville might change the tone. Plus, we talk a little more about what's going on in college basketball, including the Charles Betiaco situation.

What happens next with the Alabama player who has played in the G League? He's got to play against Florida this weekend. And after that, my conversation with Michael Taft, the Texas safety, started his career as a walk-on with the Longhorns, went through some of the tough. seasons they had as they built back into one of the best teams in college football, also got to play in the playoffs a couple of times. He had a great summation of what this era of Texas football has been like, about what the rise was like and what you should expect from Texas going forward. And also what you should expect from Arch Manning going forward.

We'll talk to Michael Taff on this episode of Andy and Arion 3, presented by Bed MGM. We are delighted to be presented by BetMGM. lines and totals on this here show come from BedMGM. And if you're not signed up for BedmGM yet, now is the best time to do it. Use the bonus code on three. That's ON and the number three. And you'll get up to a $1,500 new player offer on your first wage with BedMGM, plus 50% off an annual subscription to the On Three College Sports Network. Here's how it works. You download the Bedmgmgm app and you sign up using the bonus code on three. Deposit at least $10. and place your first wager on any game.

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rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to Andy and R&3 presented by BetMGM. And Ari, I just feel like Kurt Signetti is this. This giant specter that hangs over the sport of college football, we spent yesterday talking about Alabama's roster building strategy.

And because Kurtzignetti's Indiana was the team that beat Alabama to knock them out of the college football playoff and beat them really thoroughly, we were comparing the two and contrasting the two. And it feels like, and you mentioned this yesterday, we're just overreacting to all this. but I still, like, I cannot believe even almost two weeks later that we just watched Indiana go 16 and O and win the national championship. He's like a, he's a figure, he's got people in basketball thinking. You know, he's a big, Andy, do you know how hard it is?

And like I just, I feel like you don't, it hasn't even landed with you yet, but you have already accepted. and I think I'm with you there, that he is the best coach in college football. Yeah, yeah. And I wonder if you ask Kirby Smart or Ryan Day if they'd say the same thing, because they have to do the job. And they've obviously done the job at the highest level.

They won national titles. They've done the really hard parts of the job. So they understand how difficult it was to win national titles at Ohio State and Georgia, which means they've presented. probably have some idea of how difficult it would be to do it at Indiana. And they just watched a guy do it. Just think about how much a person would have to accomplish in order for you or me

to say this person is the best coach in college football in a two year period. Like it would have been it like this is the only answer. Like there's no like how could you, you could say with a straight face he's a better coach in college football right now than Kirby Smart after two years at Indiana. Like it is almost. too big to fathom. And I think what Kirby Smart would say is what he's done is freaking amazing.

Like what Kurtzziah he's done is amazing. Yeah. Kirby Smart would say that. Ryan Day would say that. You go back, Urban Meyer would say that. Nick Saban would say that. Like this is, you know,

when we, we got to a point with Nick Saban, right? Nick Saban was a lightning rod of a personality for a large portion of his career. You know, all the way back to remember when over signing was a thing. Oh my God. Yes.

People used to talk about Nixon. But we got to a point with Sabin where everybody in the sport, regardless of who they root for, Auburn or anybody else, just has to acknowledge that he was the greatest coach of all time, right? Like you get to a point where somebody does so much that you can't even, there's nothing to say to the contrary. Like Kurt Signetti has gotten to that point in two years at Indiana where everybody universally has to accept that he is an amazing head coach and be the best in basketball. He's the best working right now. And it's pretty incredible. And we're going to talk to our friend Jeff Goodman from Field of 68. He's the best college basketball show on the internet.

And they are affiliated with us here at On 3. And Jeff, his daughter, Talia, goes to Indiana. So he's been back and forth to Bloomington, obviously for work covering college basketball, but just visiting his daughter. And by the way, Talia Goodman works for us at On 3. I think she's the best women's basketball reporter out there. I've told Jeff, you're no longer the best reporter in your own family. So very thrilled to have her as part of the On Three family as well.

But he's gotten to see it kind of because when Talia started in Indiana, they were still really bad at football. And so he's watched it up close. And he's going to tell us a story about meeting Sig when he was there, you know, doing some basketball stuff and getting the full Sig treatment. Like what you and I got the first time we had SIG on the show. Yeah, and it's just who he is. And I love it about him.

And I just like, I don't think that there's a negative thing that anyone can say about this man. I mean, I think back to Big Ten Media Days we were talking to SIG and we were probably framing questions wrong. Like, hey, your last season was great. And I think the implication from us was, but of course it won't happen again. And he's like, why did that? Why shouldn't it happen again? We don't expect anything different. We expect to be better.

Yeah, I just hope we get them for a long time. I hope we get him for, I hope he has 10 more years in him. I do too. He says he needs the money. He says he's not retiring. You know, that's a trap. Because your income increases,

your lifestyle increases, and you never get ahead. So it's like the great late 20th century philosopher, Christopher Wallace said, the amount of issues are directly proportional to the amount of revenue. Yeah. Oh, I mean, SIGs just, because his spending is out of control. Like, he's just like, the guy can't get a hold of himself.

Is Singh the drill tweet? Is he spending $2 million a month on candles? You know that man has jet skis. Let's put it that way. I hope so. Cusef with no shirt underneath is a jet ski guy. Definitely. So we're going to talk to Jeff Kuben, who had Coach Sig on his show on Field of 68 the other night

because Sig was at the Indiana Purdue basketball game where Indiana did beat Purdue. So it's been a big couple weeks for Indiana all around. But we're going to talk to Jeff in a minute about that. We're to talk to him about the Kentucky basketball situation and their enormous payroll that is not paying dividends. and oh, by the way, they have to go play against their old coach, John Caliperi this weekend at Arkansas. Talk about the Charles Betiaco situation at Alabama, which is still infuriating people across the sport,

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Check out the all-new DellXPS at Dell.com slash XPS. We are honored to be joined by Jeff Goodman, the godfather of Field of 68, the best college basketball, show on the internet. But you've been horned in on our territory, Goodman. You had Kurt Signetti on your show the other night. Yes. Well, come on. You know, my daughter just graduated a couple weeks ago from Indiana. So it's been really cool to be a fan. You guys know this because you cover college football. So you can't really be a fan very often. Certainly not when it comes to college football. Well, I can't be a college hoops fan. But what I can be is an Indiana everything else

fan. And I've been a huge volleyball fan, women's basketball, and obviously football over the last two years. I went to games the first couple of years. She was there, and they were atrocious, and nobody was there. Nobody. It was brutal. And what Sig has done is absolutely incredible. So he was at the Indiana Hoops game when they beat Purdue. So I just kind of texted him. I'm like, I said, can you come on for a few minutes on our show? And sure enough, he makes a cameo for a couple minutes from his house, like giving us like a tour of his house as he's doing it. How important you think this win was for them? I know you followed him from afar. You've been pretty busy doing your own thing, but obviously they needed a resume win. How important you

think this win was for him today? Yeah, I follow them from very far because we've been kind of busy. And I know they were 13 and 7 going. But, you know, it's a rival game. I mean, and if I'm not mistaken, Purdue was ranked number one in the country on the one or two preseason polls going in, if not one, you know, very, very highly. So it's a great win against a program that's been, you know, tremendous. And, you know, hopefully that gives the basketball team program good shot in the arm here to finish real strong. Coach, how much fun has it been seeing the country fall in love with Fernando? He's doing all the good morning America's now. Like, It just feels like the whole country is really falling in love with that kid.

Yeah, well, it's hard not to. You know, he's the All-American guy. And then, you know, he says all the right things in his interview. And he's extremely intelligent. He's deep. And, you know, he can be, you know, he's just an extraordinary guy. But he competes like a warrior, too. You know, he goes out there and lays it on the line.

And, you know, he's a big part of our story, which, you know, a lot of people, you know, look at our story and say it's pretty remarkable. Coach, did you give as much thought to the speech to the crowd tonight as you did the day you got hired? Yeah, about the same amount went out and winged it. I thought about repeating a couple of phrases, but I thought, we were waiting for it. We were waiting for it. You know, one of the guys that's been here a long time, Mark Deal, you know, he's been here since like 1965, probably. He actually brought the bucket with him, you know,

So to bring out with it, I said, Mark, we'll be on that now. You know, we're just taking a national team. 30. You beat that team, two years. What's that? You beat them 120 to 3 in two years. You beat them. They don't need to see the bucket.

They know her. I wanted to hear you say it again. You know, I just, I actually did, I sent them a text after they won it. Just saying like, hey, man, thanks. for the memories you gave me to be able to share with my daughter and my wife at the game. And we, you know, I paid more money for those tickets, you know, like we're cheap, sports writer. We don't want to pay for tickets for anything. But man, I reached in my pocket and paid whatever it would cost for that national title game down in Miami. And I'm so glad I did because

it's just one of those, those things you'll never forget. I did it with Talia. She's 22 years old with my wife, went in there and thank God, I mean, if they had lost that thing, I would have been regretting, like, I paid how much for those tickets? And now you know what gambling feels like. Hey, listen, I pay for Taylor Swift tickets in that same stadium, so I know the feeling. It's insane, right? And to be a fan guys, I don't know how often you guys are a fan of another sport and you go, but like, I don't really understand it because I've never really grown up that way. I've always kind of grown up knowing this is what I was going to do from a fairly early age. So I'm more a fan of players than teams. Grew up in Boston, but I'm not like a Celtics fan,

a Red So I like players more than anything. So being up there as a fan sweating that thing out on the final drive, I'm like, how do fans do this? How do they like, I could not do this for I was going out of my mind. This like, no, like it was, yeah, It was, it was a wise. You met Sig pretty early in his time at Indiana because you were probably, I mean, you obviously go through there quite a bit for your job covering the basketball team there. What was that like seeing him, you know, kind of on the ground floor of that in Indiana? So I remember going in and being like, hey, I'm going to try to do this guy a favor because, like, it's Indiana football.

They suck, right? Let me go in. I'll meet with them. Again, I can help out. I'm not helping out with NIL, but I can help out with some other things. of like, hey, why not? You know, I have a good relationship now with the new coach. At that point, Mike Woodson was still the coach at Indiana.

I did not get along with him the entire time he was in Indiana because, God forbid, I say that it was a bad hire. You know, former NBA guys, they all suck in college, all of them. And he was one of them. So I went in, met with Zig, went to his office. And I remember saying to him, you know, hey, if you, if you, if you guys go three and two in your first five, you would sign off on that in a heartbeat, right?

And he just looks at me and stares me down. And I'm like, and he's like, three and two. He's like, no, no, no, we win here. Like, all I do is win. And I'm like, this guy's got a little bit of arrogance to him, right? But I like him. I like the arrogance. And I walked away.

I'm not kidding. I walked away being like probably 20-minute meeting. He was awesome. awesome. And I'm like, this dude has no idea what he's doing. He has no idea. He has no. Who is this guy? Like, he is delusional what he's doing. And now, like, who's the delusional what, right? Like, it's great. But, but again, even when he said that stuff in Assembly Hall, right, you know, F, Ohio State, F, Michigan, I think we're all like,

well, what does he have to lose? Right? It's Indiana football. If they stink, Nobody's going to remember he said this anyway. You might as well, you know, go in, come in, guns, blazing, talk. You're talking. Man, has he backed it up? It is amazing. I've never, I don't, Staples, I mean, you've covered both sports. I can say this with certainty.

I've never seen anything like this, anything close to this from a basketball standpoint. The closest thing would be Scott Drew, what he inherited at Baylor, but it took him a long time after obviously, you know, they weren't even allowed to play conference games after, you know, murder. In a murder case, yeah, exactly. So, but nothing. I mean, what's the college football closest thing that you could come up with? Is there one? No, there's nothing.

I mean, Davos-Sweeney turned Clemson from kind of an above-average program to a superpower. Yeah. That's the closest thing I can think of in my lifetime. Steve Spurrier turned Florida from a pretty average program into a national. power. Guys, let's just back out of sports for a second. Is there a real life example of somebody saying the types of things that Kurt Signetti was saying in anybody who backed it up better in life?

Is there a lawyer or an accountant or a movie creator or anything that any, like, nobody has ever said things that seemed more insane in the moment and backed it up. And like, because like, I feel like if he would have gone nine and three and beat Michigan or Ohio State, that would have been back. it up. Of course. This is like, you want to talk about over delivering. There was a guy on Twitter who did like the best

hires of all time. Yeah. And he had Kurt Signetti number one and he had like Winston Churchill number three. Here's my question. Here's my question to you guys. Just because again, I know you want to talk hoop and we will, but I want to talk football and I want to get one thing from you guys

because you guys know I don't follow college football. I can't sit around and watch college football all day Saturdays because my wife will kill me. She knows what's coming around the corner, which is me watching college. You guys have it. Can I say this? You guys have it good. And I don't think I realized this until a few years ago.

I have to sit around and watch college basketball every night of the week. Tomorrow night, Michigan State plays Michigan on a Friday night. We used to have Friday nights. Yeah. Big 10 is killing you. No games. Now every night of the week, we have Thursday is kind of a. a slow night tonight.

I'm actually going to VMI Citadel because I'm an idiot. And I got problems. I got problems. But you guys have it good. And I don't think I realize this because Saturday, you screwed. You're sitting home from, you know,

morning tonight and Sunday is probably brutal too because you got to catch up on Saturday. And you guys have your show, so it's a little different. But at night, you can watch a show if you want to. You can go out for dinner with your wife and not worry about anything. Am I wrong? No, you're right. Now, Thursdays, their games,

I love a good Friday night game because I can kind of lock in on it. So are they good games on Friday? Are they good games? Sometimes. Yeah, okay. All right. Yeah. And college football, you have to, it's funny because that used to be true, Jeff. Like in 2015, that used to be true.

But now Tuesday night, we have a playoff reveal call that we have to be attached to. Yeah. Thursday night. Oh, Wednesday. The SEC availability reports come out. You're going to be on those. They've made it. There isn't a lot of, there aren't a lot of days in the fall.

We do things socially. Like I have a very social life, so, you know, we do think, but there aren't a lot of days where I sit on that couch. But there aren't a lot of days where I don't have. You're older like me, Staples. We're older. But there aren't a lot of days that go by in the fall where I'm not like, I hope nothing happens today.

But you don't have games that you have. have to lock in new. I feel like for college hoops, it's now seven days a week. Well, hey, you covered Friday. Yeah. You covered Florida, South Carolina on Wednesday, which, you know, not a bad drive,

because you're in Charleston now, but not a bad drive up to Columbia. But you didn't get the best game in the world. You didn't get a real competitive one. But I'm sure you got some nice time with Todd Golden. Yeah, he actually crashed our, do a podcast every week with Robbie Hummel and Matt McCall, and I didn't tell him.

So I'm in the lobby. Matt McCall, Florida legend, Matt McCall, who started as a student manager and became a D1 head coach. Yeah. So I'm in the lobby of the Marriott down here in Columbia doing the show. And at the beginning, Hummel looks at me. He's like, where are you? And I'm like, I'm in Aruba.

He's like, what? You're in Aruba? I'm like, yeah, yeah. It's cold in Charleston. I just figured I take a flight down to Aruba. And this dumb ass believed it. And then all of a sudden, 10 minutes in, Golden shows out. and sits next to me.

And he's awesome. I mean, Todd, I mean, did it like four hours before. It's a 9 o'clock game in Columbia last night. And, man, from the outset, they just absolutely mollywop. Mollywop is my new favorite word for when a team absolutely destroys another team. I would say that that applies to Florida against South Carolina and Vanderbilt against Kentucky this week. So we saw, we've seen a lot of Mollywop in this week. Yeah, we have.

We have in this Kentucky team, you know, they're. It's a roller coaster ride for a big blue nation. They have no idea. Somebody asked me the other day, they said, like, do you think Big Blue Nation regrets running Calipari out of town? Because it's been a disaster this year for Mark Pope. $22 million and injuries, but even without, you know, injury jailing Lowe out for the year. Jaden Quentin's probably out for the year.

Cam Williams out for the year now. Even without it, they weren't playing great. The only thing I would try to remind Big Blue Nation of is, like, John Calipari since, like, 2019, had won one tournament game. And remember, they bowed out first round of St. Peter's and Oakland within a three-year span. So, you know, yes, I'm not sure if Mark Pope, and he wasn't the first choice, guys. I mean, remember, they, you know, they wanted her. They wanted Scott Drew.

They wanted Nate Oates, but his buyout was too high. So Mark Pope wasn't their first choice, but last year was so, it was. magical in a sense because you had lower expectations and you had a group that completely bought in to Kentucky and the pride of Big Blue Nation and all that. And this group just hasn't done that. It's harder to do when you're playing rent a player for so many of these guys. And for $22 million, what they didn't do, their biggest issue, what they didn't do for their $22 million was go out and get a dude, go out and spend $5 million.

And they shouldn't have to outbid everybody because you're Kentucky. But even if you had to get like a Bennett Sturts, who I'm not sure he would have done it because he followed his coach from Drake to Iowa. But you needed one dude that was a culture setter that was a star. And they have too many just like OK players. So you mentioned them running off Cal, which I think is such an interesting situation that ties into what we normally cover in college football. Kentucky was sitting there at the end of that season. knowing you had Mark Stoops had just tried to leave, you just have to give him a raise,

but things were kind of turning bad in football, so you may have to have a buyout with Mark Stoops down the road, which they eventually had to pay. They were thinking about paying Cal's buyout. Eventually Mitch Barnhart decided not to, and then Cal takes the Arkansas job. But then Cal starts out slow at Arkansas, and then they get better as last season goes on.

They have a deep tournament run. They're good this year. Like, is that what bothers Big Blue Nation more that the change of scenery did allow Cal to kind of turn things around? Because I'm not sure that would have happened to the state of Kentucky. He might have needed this. I don't think it's that. Staples, I don't think they're looking at what Cal is doing at Arkansas. I don't think they don't care.

It's just what they're doing. Correct. Yeah, I don't think they're even, now, Saturday they'll care, right? When they play them, it's different. But most days, the other days, I don't, because I don't think Cal's done enough. Like if Cal was, yeah, running it again, and they were like number one in the country, it'd be different.

But they're not. They're a top 15-ish team. You know, maybe they can make a final four this year. They got a stud in Darry's Aikov Jr. But I think it's more about them. I think it's more about them. And they're watching this team against Vandy. It was a disaster.

And, you know, I was in a game against Gonzaggart this year in Nashville. And, like, it was so ugly. And they weren't playing hard. And I think that was, yeah, I had a bunch of older Kentucky fans come up to me after the game. And they're like, listen, we can deal with losing if these guys play with pride and they play hard. But we feel like they don't give a shit. And that's part of the problem is you're paying these guys big money. And they look like they don't care.

And again, Kentucky fans are smart like they are. They're out of their minds. They are smart because that's kind of all they have. So it's going to be interesting to see how they finished because like Arkansas last year, right? Arkansas was really bad for the first half of the year. Then they came on the second half and they ended up making a run. And if Kentucky can do that, at least they can salvage it, right?

If they could somehow go in a little bit of a run and go to the Sweet 16, it's still not what the expectations were for $22 million. That's the one at all, or at least to go to a final four. but again, I think you just got to salvage the season if you're Mark Pope and then figure out. And it's really, to me, and I know how you guys feel about this from a football standpoint. So for Hoops, I would say, I don't know, less than half of the high major schools have a general manager. You know, some do it with an assistant. Like here in Florida last night, Todd Golden does it with Jonathan Sapphire.

They figure it out, the assistant. You know, some have Duke's had a general manager. longer than anybody. Syracuse has a de facto general manager and Alex Klein, Corey Evans is a general, like there's a bunch of them. Carolina brought in a former agent, Jim Tanner, to be a general manager. So there's different ways to kind of skin the cat with the general manager and what you want them to do. But I feel like Kentucky. And it's, it's probably too late now. Like we're already at February almost, if you don't already have a general manager in place, you can't hire one now because it's too late. These agents are already, they're

calling. They've been calling for a month about players, their players, and are you interested? So it's, that's the key for Mark Pope and Kentucky in the off season. Can you figure it out? Can you get that point

guard? Can you get that elite level point guard number one? Better start there. Because if you don't have a point guard, you've got no chance at the high level to go to Final Four or win it all. So they've got to figure that part out, the blueprint. That's what it So $22 million is almost probably what Indiana spent on football players this year.

That's insane. And they had the Heisman trophy winner. In our meeting, in our meeting before the first year, I said, I'm like, hey, you know, your Iran Isle can't be good, right? It's Indiana football. And he looked at me. He's like, it's fine. I'm good.

And I don't think he's complained to Dolson once in two years about his NIL, which is insane. I don't do you know how much Mendoza made from the school? Do you guys have any feel for that? Forget about the exterior part because we're not entirely sure what Mendoza made. The market for good transfer quarterbacks last year was kind of two and a half million to four million. So crazy. So like, Jinky Topin at Texas Tech made four million this year. AJ DeBanza is going to make in like seven million at BYU this year.

like I just can't believe like a Fernando Mendoza, an elite level quarterback wouldn't make more than them. But I guess you got more miles to feed, obviously. But that's where I feel like it makes it worse in basketball when that roster fails. Like in football, it's like, okay, you put together this expensive roster, but like Texas Tech, they put together a really expensive roster. They won the Big 12. They made the playoff. That's fine.

They got shot out by Oregon, but it's like, okay, but you still made the playoff. and Texas probably spent just as much as you didn't make the playoff. But with $22 million for a basketball roster, you better go deep in the tournament with that. That's right. That's right. Now, again, they got about $6 million, maybe $8.

They probably have a third of their money right now that's out between Jaylon Lowe. They probably spent close to $3 million on for their point card. Probably the wrong fit for them, right? And he separated his shoulder right before the season started and finally had to shut it down when he, kept separating it. Jaden Quatence, they got a guy coming off a torn ACL at Arizona State last year.

So he was out the beginning of the year, comes back for a few games, now probably shut it down for the rest of the season. Cam Williams, two-lane transfer, shooter couldn't make shots. He then breaks his, what he'd break his foot, broke his foot a couple weeks ago. He's done for the year. So you're probably down a third of your salary right now, but it's no excuse. It's like you knew you took Jaden Quentin that's coming off to Torn ACL. Yeah.

Jalen Lowe is your point guard when he probably wasn't the guy, again, instead of spending three-ish for him, go spend five-ish and try to get a guy like a Bennett's thirts, who, again, I'm not sure he would have done it, but that's, I don't know. It's all about that, though. Like, to be honest, if you have somebody that can figure out the portal these days and figure out what's real and what? what's real and what's not? How much is this agent BS in me?

How much are we going to overpay? Like, is this real, not? And then does he fit? Does he fit? Have a point in place. Are we chasing a guy here for a week in the portal that realistically we don't have a shot to get? Because then if you miss on him, three other guys went off the board of the top point guards. So we can't get them.

And then you're down to plan B and plan B isn't good enough. So before we let you go, Jeff, I want to ask you about you and R. Ari's alma mater because more traditionally, Arizona went out and got a guy from the state of Arizona, Co-opete, you know, grew up in suburban Phoenix, and he's a star. Like from the moment he set foot on the court, he's a star,

and they are, they look like the best team in the country. Yeah, I mean, they're number one. They've rolled. I saw him play Yukon earlier this year in stores, and they beat him. That was without Terris Reed and Braylin Mullen.

So I kind of, I'm not sure yet, but they just keep beating up on everybody. And again, they're doing it with two freshmen that weren't like AJ DeBonsa, Darren Peterson, Cambozer level coming in. So I thought, I don't know, man, Braden Burries is really good. But again, is he a stud freshman? Well, he is. Co-opied, I'd seen a bunch.

He's a stud because he's super mature. And then Jayden Bradley's turned into one of the best closures in America. Crevis is an experience big. they don't shoot a lot of threes, but when they do, they make them and they can really, they got two bigs in there, you know, in Crevis and Pete

and the kid Karchenkov is an elite defender who came over. So the pieces kind of fit, but again, as Ari knows, you know, what matters in Tucson is a final four. You can win as many games right now

in the regular season as you want, but ultimately, right Ari? I mean, I think a lot of my friends, I'm in the group chat. I see it. I never, I would like, I'm like you, Jeff. I was at the Daily Wildcat the whole time I was in college and covered football the whole time.

So I didn't really have the connection to the basketball team that a lot of my friends did. But they're like, yeah, let's, let's see if we can get past the Sweet 16 for the first time in our adult lives. I think that's kind of like the tenor of the Arizona fanhood right now. Yeah, I mean, they're really good. But they're not overpowering good. that like they're really they're the number one team they've beaten everybody they're undefeated but again because they don't make a lot of threes i do worry about somebody in the ncdb a tournament

going off yeah yeah i do i do i just and again i still worry about you of two freshmen you know playing a ton of minutes and karchenkov a new guy like in the ncdbate tournament they've never been in it before um you know again i listen they're in the mix they're in the mix they're in the The question is, can they get over the hump and get to the final four? And yes, they have the talent to be able to do it. Burris is making shots. He's been exceptional. Like Co-A-Pete was great coming out of the gates.

Burris quietly has become a better player over the last month than Co-A-Pete. Jeff, I just wanted to ask one last question, and I'm sure Andy might want to ask you about Betty Aco, too, and then we'll get you out of here. But Andy and I, you know, with Indiana winning the national championship game, have had two weeks worth of shows of how did Indiana do, this. What does this mean for college football? And it's basically been a prolonged, more than a year-long discussion of how college football has changed and the impact it's having on the blue

bloods of the sport. I'm looking at the AP top 25. And granted, I don't follow the college basketball the same way you, you know, I'm kind of just kind of out there. But I'm looking at it. And I see Arizona, Michigan, Yukon, Duke, Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue, Kansas, North Carolina. I see all the same teams in basketball that, you know, when I was covering basketball 10 years ago, you know, the blue bloods. Is there an existential crisis or a hope for smaller schools doing things that they haven't really been able to do before in basketball the same way there is in football?

Or is it just different because in basketball, smaller schools make crazy runs in the tournament all the time? Like, is there a different? Stranglehold that the Blue Bloods, does Duke have less of a stranglehold on college basketball now because of NIL than they did five years ago? Well, here's what I'll say. Here's what I will say. I was talking to a high major head coach of a lesser high major yesterday.

And what he said was, hey, listen, here's the one thing is we can get a guy. If we have the money, if we offer more money than Duke offers, significantly more money. If we can raise it. And if Duke offers the kids, $4 million, and we offer him six. Let's say we have $10 million next year total. If we want to offer 60% of our payroll to one kid,

I think we can get that kid. We have to overpay, but we can do it. So there is that ability, but I think what you said at the end, the mid-major teams, they just get poached so quickly. Anybody good on their team, they can't fight it.

Like what are you going to tell? If you're a coach of a mid-major kid and you can offer him a couple hundred grand, and you see, you know, Texas Tech or whoever, come in and offer him $2 million. Like, you've got to be real with the kid. Like, hey, man, I don't know if you're an NBA player. Go get paid.

Go get paid, man. That's what I would tell my son. So I think the one-off, you could still get that one-off and win that one game in the NCAA tournament. Because, again, a lot of it is getting hot from three, right? It's a one-game deal. And if Oakland and Jack Gulke is hitting, you know, a million threes against Kentucky, they can win that game.

But for the most part, if you're playing a seven game series between Oakland and Kentucky that year, you know, Kentucky is going to win probably, you know, six of those seven games every time. But again, the beauty of the tournament, and it's why it should never be changed. And we don't need expansion. And we don't need any of that shit is just like the Cinderella's don't, don't mess with that. And that's what I'm afraid of with Greg Sankey. I really do believe, like, Sanky ultimately wants a tournament that does not have the Cinderella.

He won't say it, but I think he just, the more money for the big boys. They want more of their teams in. And those power conferences are going to keep trying to push for that. That's what the expansion is all about. The next one they're pushing. Yeah, I say that you should contract the tournament to 64 teams because that was the perfect tournament. Me too. I'm with you 100%.

65, 67, 66, 668, like, their resumes are just okay. They're not great. So, like, make it a clean bracket like it used to be. The first four generally bores me. I'm usually packing to try to go somewhere anyway. I also think if you're going to do the first four, that you let the conference champions into the main bracket, only the high majors and those conferences play in that. Because then you're getting at least brand name.

you know, maybe somebody watches it on TV. And those other teams get to play in the real tournament. And I know everybody's like, oh, but they get a tournament unit if they went on. No, they don't care about it. They want to play on Thursday. Correct. And Friday. Yes.

The kids. Right. The AD may want the, you know, the president wants the unit. The kids want to play in the real deal. Yeah. All right. One more, Charles Betiaco, get, like, I was interviewing football coaches yesterday. And they're getting asked about Charles Betiaco.

And they're like, is there going to be some guy who doesn't get drafted in the NFL who tries to come back and play? And I heard Jay Billis talking about James Najee at Baylor and how come there's not as big of an outcry over that. And because Najee didn't actually play in the G league. Right. And Najee doesn't make an impact at Baylor. He doesn't matter. He's not very good. Baylor is irrelevant.

Baylor stinks. And Najee doesn't play. Bettyaco could be the difference between Alabama, honestly, getting a front of, final four, maybe even winning at all. He's, he's pretty damn good. So that's, that's the outcry. The outcry is the Todd Goldens and the other guys in the SEC saying, oh, man, like, I wish we had done that. Well, and that's what, it was interesting because somebody asked Alice Golish, the Auburn football coach about it, and he's like, well, I don't rule anything out. We don't know what's going to happen down the road. So, but yeah, the bet you're saying, because he had 14 points in 18 minutes the other

night against Missouri. So, but I did hear Todd Golden say about a week ago that they'd just beat him anyway. So I guess he gets a chance

to back that up, back up his mouth this week. And I asked him yesterday about that. And he said, he goes, I like Nate a lot. He goes, but I would expect Nate

to say the same thing, is we're going to beat them. So, and he went on to say, there's really not a correlation like Nate has said between high schoolers in

in this country and international kids. It's a different system, which it is. But ultimately, here's the problem is Charlie Baker trying to say, hey, listen, we are not going to allow anybody who signed an NBA contractor playing an NBA game to play college basketball. And that's great. You could say it all you want. But can you enforce it when the courts get involved?

That's the problem. Yeah, can you defend it in court? Yeah. Like, it should be clear, right? The moment you check in, number one, the moment you check in for an NBA, game, you're done. You can never play.

Like, that should be the easiest rule ever to enforce. The moment you play one minute, one second in an NBA game, you have then, your college eligibility is gone so. But it's hard. Again, I get it with these G-Leodd kids because I'm looking at, I talked to this kid, Test the Ritter the other day at Virginia. He's from Belgium. He is deemed a freshman on their website.

I think he's only, he told me he's only got two years of eligibility remaining. He turns 23 on January 31st. 23. It's like how, like, and I just, I don't know, man. Like, I just don't, I don't love it. I don't love it. And the line, you can't draw a fine line right now. Like, where does that line exist?

Again, Baker said, nobody who signed an NBA contract. Well, Betty Akko signed an NBA contract. He's playing right now. Well, what makes the next guy saying, well, I only played 42 NBA games. Why can't I play? And then it keeps going. Right? It keeps going. And I actually

think if they did have to defend this in federal court, they'd win. I agree. Because I do think the fan ultimately wants some bright line there, not infinite eligibility. But now they keep filing them in state court and you get these judges who are like donors to the schools

and what are you going to do? So it's a, it's a I don't know how much we can swear on your show, but we should show. Yes. There you go. It's an absolute chit show. And again, I think the biggest thing is it's got to get so bad, so egregious before something is actually done. So it's going to keep going. And next year, you're going to see a lot more players like Bettyaco, I think, unless something is done prior to that. The funniest thing I saw this week was

truly Donovan, the Twitter account that, you know, seems to know everything. about basketball, post a, it's just a video, and it's like a super cut of Natoat celebrating different things. And the person under it goes, oh, is Antonio McDyce coming back now? Where does it end? Right? Where does it end? Jeff, you have a very interesting sport to cover right now. Thank you so much. And enjoy that Citadel game. Citadel VMI. Guys, I've been told it's actually going to be entertaining because it's to military schools. So my wife has agreed to go.

We'll do dinner either before. I think we have 5.30 dinner. So at least I'm doing something right there. There you go. Early bird special. That's the way to go. You're an old man like me. I'm old. I'm gray hair. You know, like you've got to

do the early bird, right? So by the way, the latest news in that Charles Betiaco case, Ari, is that the judge has recused himself because he Alabama donor, which if you're a judge in Tuscaloosa, like you're going to have a donation for season tickets to Alabama. That's, it's, that's going to happen. It's the case has been reassigned to another judge.

I don't know that's going to change anything. We'll see if there's another 10-day temporary restraining order issued and he gets to keep playing or if they actually do have a hearing and there's a decision on this. He did the restraining order before recruising himself. He extended it, yes. Yes, that's why he got to play against Missouri and why he's going to play against Missouri. and why he's going to play against Florida. So we'll see. We'll continue another week.

We'll find out. You realize how insane this is? Yeah, I know. I know. Because again, like I said, when we were wrong with Jeff, like people want bright lines with this pro and college stuff. They do. And I get where if you,

if you're looking at it from a strictly legal standpoint, okay, Alabama pays people to play basketball, spurs pay people to play basketball, I get that the distinctions aren't that great anymore, but I do think the end consumer still wants those distinctions to exist. So I do hope they can find a way to figure these rules out, because I don't think infinite eligibility is fun for anybody. We saw Diego Pavia at the Senior Bowl, by the way.

It's his lawsuit that kind of open the door for a lot of this stuff, but he's still going pro. Like, I don't think he's coming back. Yeah. It was a good conversation. I was excited to kind of get into that a little bit more. And I think that obviously this is a college football podcast and the thing that I loved about this discussion and our overall discussion with Jeff is that it mirrors football. And a lot of the issues that are at play in college basketball will ultimately translate into football and vice versa.

So I was happy to have a lot. One of the things I want to examine like as we get deeper in the college basketball season because I thought Jeff brought up some interesting points is they're actually a little behind the curve compared to football on the personnel stuff and the roster building stuff. Yeah. And I do wonder if when they get a little more sophisticated, how different college basketball, I say we used to call it recruiting, but I guess we should call it roster building now, how different that's going to be.

Because I think how you build a high major team now might look a little bit more like how you used to try to build a mid-major team, except with much better players. Yeah. And that's what we talk about with Signetti. with football. That's what we've been talking about all season. It's what we talked about with Alabama yesterday. So it is amazing how these two things kind of dovetail. Let us get back into football, though. I had a really good conversation at the Senior Bowl with Texas safety Michael

Taft who there's not a better representative of his school than a guy who, you know, fifth generation of his family go to the school, had scholarship offers elsewhere, decided to go to Texas as a walk on because you just always wanted to play for Texas, earned a scholarship, became one of the team leaders very quickly, and helped Texas get from a place where they were, you know, a fairly mediocre program. You know, when Steve Sarkesian got there, he was taking over what had been a fairly mediocre program for about a decade. And Michael Taff and that group of really good players, and you'll hear him kind of rattle

off some of those names. But they got Texas to a place where they are now. one of the best programs in college football, which I don't know about you. That's how it should be, right? Like Texas should always be one of the best programs in the sport. Yeah, yeah. You know, they did it before the changes in roster building became like the new philosophical debates, but now they also seem primed and built to exist in the new world.

So, you know, Steve Sarkesian, I think has done a very good job. I think if you're a Texas fan and you were disappointed by the, the outcome of this past year. That's certainly a reasonable take. But at the same time, too, when you think about how awful it looked for the first half of the year and then you actually go look at Texas's resume and who they beat in their final record, like, I think you could make the case that that he had one of his better coaching jobs last year navigating a first year starting quarterback with a below

standard offensive line. So certainly an interesting program that will continue to track and one of my favorites to win the national championship in 2020. Yeah, and Michael Taft's pretty excited about where they can go. We'll talk about where he goes next into the NFL, but also he has some really good insight on what Texas can be, what Arch Manning can be going for it. Obviously, he looked at it up close at practice every day.

Also, one hell of a story about trying to tackle Bejan Robinson, which is not something anyone can do. Here's Michael Tap. joined out by Michael Taft, the safety from Texas, who it's so strange. You started your career as a walk on, right? Yeah. But you've been a star at Texas for so long. I think people forget that you did not go there on scholarship originally.

And you're here at the Senior Bowl. Obviously, you were preparing for a massive job interview with the NFL. But can you take us back to the recruiting process and your decision? Because obviously other schools did want you. but the decision to go to Texas. Yeah. Well, first off, what a ride. It's been blessed through it all, through the ups and the downs.

But I was originally committed to Rice and was end up going to get a scholarship there. And Coach Blake Gideon, the safety coach at the University of Texas called me. He was like, Blake, man, we don't have a lot of spots, but we can give you a preferred walk on. And we know you're going to be a fifth-generation longhorn. if you end up accepting this and, you know, your tradition for the horns runs deep in your family. So just think about it, but don't make any decisions, you know, on the on emotional roller coaster. Blake Gideon who played safety at Texas also. Right.

So just answering that call, you know, growing up watching him. And I was like, coach, you know, I know you just told me don't make a decision now. It's all going to be on emotions, but I'm coming. He was like, oh, hold on. Talk to your family, you know. You know, maybe we can get on the phone with Coach Stark. I was like, all right, I'm going to. I'm going to call you in six hours after I had talked of my family, and I'm going to tell you I'm in.

So that's just, you know, I grew up watching Texas. And, you know, it was COVID, so you didn't get a visit anywhere. So I didn't get that, you know, experience of maybe like, oh, this is really cool. Let's go here. But, you know, University of Texas calls, that's, you know, that's the pro football team in Austin. Yeah. You know, you don't have a pro team that is. And just everything that I knew could come with it.

And I saw a vision, you know, and so I wasn't really surprised when, you know, good things. were going my way towards the end of my career because I always had that vision for me. Well, and being part of that group, as someone who grew up cheering for Texas, as someone whose family, you know, like you said, fifth generation Longhorn, being part of the group that brought Texas from a spot where it was in a fairly mediocre place to now, once again, one of the best programs in college football. How good does that feel to have been part of that? Yeah, it feels amazing.

First of all I credit my coaches and my teammates, but I always told myself, from the first interview I did at that little national signing day at Wesley High School with me and a couple of buddies that were going to play D1 football, I always said, not only did I say, I'm not just going to the University of Texas, but I'm going to play. And that was my mission. The other thing I did is I said the motivation is going to be

not only to play and make an impact, but to put UT back to where it belongs. And UT always belongs in the top of the top. And so, you know, unfortunately, we didn't get it done to where we're winning in a national. national championship, but we got dang close, and I think I left it way better than where I got it. Absolutely. And so how did, you know, your evolution is, like you said, you came to play, and I'm sure that was fairly obvious on the practice field immediately because you were playing

pretty quickly. But when did you see, you know, your teammates and everybody else, when did you see the level rise to where you can make the college football playoff? You can be, competitive with everybody. Yeah, the, the Jordan Whittington, Rocheon Johnson, DeMarvon-Overson, that class, Bejohn Robinson, Morrow Ojobeau,

Kandre Covarned, some really good names in the NFL right now. That class, you know, they were always, we were in the Big 12 and they're always like, we're going to win a Big 12 championship. That's what we came here to do. We're tired of losing. And so they led, you know, us to a Big 12 championship.

Some of them didn't get it done. But a lot of those names got it done in 23 with us. And for me as a young leader, you know, I was put on the leadership committee, my sophomore year and just seeing their vision, it helps me a lot because they knew what it meant to lose for three years. And I really didn't. Coming out of high school, all I knew was winning. And then that first year going five and seven, I was like, this isn't, this isn't okay. Yeah. I got to do something, whatever I got to do.

But I got to do something. And a lot of the times when we were leading, it was like, hey, guys, look, we don't know the perfect answer every single time, but we're going to try and try and try. So if you follow us, I'm telling you we're never going to quit. And we're going to find a way eventually. And I think that worked. The talent, like the names you just rattled off are incredible. And I'm thinking about some of the other names like Tevonre Sweat, you know, and then Colin Simmons shows up, Anthony Hill shows up. But it's incredible the level of talent that you were playing with.

But you mentioned Bijon Robinson. So I have to ask you as someone who had to practice against Bijan Robinson, how hard is it or is it scary when you are a tackler, and it's Bejohn and you in the open field? Yeah, well, I wouldn't say scary because fall camp, when everybody was live, he was the only one that wasn't. Oh, okay. Sarton knew where the bread was buttered.

Dang right. He knew where he was going to get a raise, and that was in number five, Dijon Robinson. But I will share a funny story. So, you know, I never really got a good thud on him before in practice. And we're going as my second year spring ball. And this one, I was really getting some more playing time. And he comes out on the edge, and I'm wearing quarters. I'm like, oh, I'm going to get him right here.

He doesn't see me coming. And I kid you not, he never looked at me. I promise you, he never looked at me. And all of a sudden, my helmet's this way. And he keeps around. I'm like, how did he see? see me to lower his shoulder. I thought I was going to clean him.

He's got eyes that go through the earhole. I swear he does. Best player I've ever played with. That is, that is an interest. And watching him do that to NFL players is just shocking. Like, nobody you're not supposed to be able to probably. Exactly. You're like, I can do this in the NFL.

They can't tackle him either. So let's talk about the past year at Texas, because obviously you guys didn't get all the way you wanted to go. I thought you got quite a bit better as the season went on. How did that happen? Take me from the Florida game through the end of the season, and what changed? Yeah, well, that first game at Ohio State, you lose 7 to 14, you play really good on defense, and offense just hadn't got their feet wet yet, and we're switching offense alignment, so that's hard for the quarterback, you know, just the trust factor.

But after that, we're like, all right, they're dang good team, number one team in the country for sure after this. So we can compete with anybody. We felt rolling. We had some roller coasters just internally as a culture and as a team. And Florida just played a really good game. And so we looked and as leaders, we were like, all right, if y'all want to go do this, you know, there's still, everything's still out in front of us.

But we got to go do this and we got to dedicate six months of the rest of your life, just six months and you'll forever be legends at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. You won't have to work again. The quote is you don't have to buy a beer again in Austin. your national champion. So I was like, whatever you all have to do, let's just do it for six more months. I promised you it's going to pay off. And that was kind of our mindset as like, whatever it takes. Just keep going, keep going, keep going. And it sucks that, you know, Georgia got the best of us. It was, you know, I think the game was a lot closer than what the scoreboard said.

Oh, I was there. Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, and you're in early in the fourth quarter, they're hitting a fourth downplay that probably changes everything. And if you should get to stop there, that that game's very different. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, you know, and, How hard is that when you know how close these things are? Yeah, to be honest, this is the first time I'm really saying this on live TV, but it was really hard ending that season because all my life, I was 10th grade, I was JVB team, and I was like, all right, I didn't make varsity at 10th grade.

That was my goal, but I have another shot next year. He makes varsity work really hard. You're a walk-on. You don't get scholarship after that first year. You're like, I really wanted a scholarship after the first season. Well, you have another shot. You get four more months, then you're on scholarship. This time we lose, and after every single semi-final, the last three years,

I was like, all right, next year is going to be the year. I promise you, I'm not letting a slot. And now I'm out of eligibility, and I can't say, all right, I have another year to go win a national championship. That was tough. You just have to swallow the pill and know that God had a plan for me. And I don't know why it was that I didn't win a national championship. I try my best to do everything I could.

but, you know, maybe down the road. Well, I was going to say when they do, you're going to still be a part of it because you help get them back here. And so you mentioned this year, you know, some of the ups and downs. How do you think Arch handled this year? Yeah. A lot of opinions on Arch throughout nationwide, but I'll be the number one guy to defend Archmanian because of who he is in the locker room, what he did to get the guys' trust in the offseason. and what type of leader he was in the offseason.

And then nobody understands when you're throwing picks and when you're throwing balls in the dirt, to still get in that huddle and say, all right, guys, trust me. I know I just threw a bad pass, but trust me, we're going to go March down 75 yards and win this game. Like, that's really, really tough to do.

And so he was the same leader from game one where everybody was bashing him to game 13 in Michigan when everybody's saying he's going to be a future highsman next year. So credit to him, he never got too high. never got too low. Obviously, he showed his emotions throughout it, but that's what a competitor does. He wanted more than what he was playing at. And, you know, through work, you could tell, you know, what that back-off season looked like for. And as I say, once the line got settled, it felt like everything was different for him. And you started to see the growth and the maturity. And now the

hype train begins to get it. I apologize in advance for that. So sorry about that. But that's the one thing as you move on in the NFL, you probably won't get that. Whatever team you line up on, you won't get the preseason hype that you guys always had to deal with in Texas. How did you deal with that? You know, everybody telling you, oh, you're going to win the national championship. You're going to do this. You're going to do that. Yeah.

Well, it was way different because, you know, going into it, it was like Texas is the same old Texas. They're going to choke in the big games. We'd rank you and everybody be like, don't you? Haven't you watched the last few years? Don't you know? Yeah. Every single year, that's what they say. And so we had a little bit of motivation of like, all right, these big games and also the games that we're going to win, we're going to take care of these.

The last two years when you're getting preseason ranked number one, number three, it's like you tell the young guys, guys, don't ride this roller coaster. That was last year's team. We haven't done. Lick, you know, like you got to put your head down and just work. And y'all are going to see it. Whenever we're doing really, really well, everybody's praising our names. But when we're doing really bad, don't look up your name on Twitter because they're coming for every single one. It's no matter if you ride the pine, you know?

I think that's great advice. I'm going to look right in the camera and say it's a great advice. Never search your own name on Twitter. Ever, ever, ever, especially if you play fordxia. Michael, thank you so much. Yes, sir. Thank you. God bless.

That is Michael Taff. Obviously, he expects big things from his alma mater going forward. I expect big things from him in the NFL. He was a great college football player. And my guess is he will play in the NFL for a long, long time. It's going to be fun to watch. Ari, it's been a fun week. I had a great time at the Senior Bowl.

I'm sorry you didn't get to go and you were in the ice planet Dallas. In the Midwest, that's what had just been Tuesday, Andy. You know, this entire city is shut down. My daughter hasn't gone to school all week. I am regretful that I wasn't there because I have a great time with you, both being around future NFL players, college football stars, but also. And being forced to eat turtle soup. Yeah, yeah, Southern cuisine that I'm not usually around.

I was devastated that I. I wasn't able to come, but my hope is that I will be in Mobile with you a year from now. So thank you for shouldering the burden of that. And you got some great stuff without me, and I'm super excited to share it on the show. Yeah, we have some more fun interviews from the Senior Bowl. There's one next week that we're going to run from SMU defensive tackle, Jeffrey Emba, who is one of the more interesting people I have ever met in my life. This is a guy who was born in Africa, moved to France, moved back to Africa,

and then move to America to play high school football and then college football. and he has had a journey. And he is one of the coolest, funniest people you'll ever meet. I believe it's the first native French speaker we've ever had as a guest on this show. You're going to hear from him next week. Here's from some of those offensive linemen, who I love talking to, some great offensive line eating stories coming next week. It's going to be a lot of fun.

And, of course, we'll follow every twist and turn of the college football offseason because it never ever stops we'll talk to you on monday