Andy & Ari On3 - Has Florida State's transfer portal strategy BACKFIRED? | Live from a rural central Florida basement

Episode Date: September 3, 2024

Welcome to Andy and Ari On3, presented by Wendy’s! Wendy’s New Saucy Nuggs take the Crispy and Spicy Nuggs you love and turn them up to 11.Choose between flavors like Buffalo. Honey BBQ. Garlic Parm. Or, if you’re a real heat seeker,try Spicy Ghost Pepper, only on Wendy’s signature Spicy Nuggs. This show is also sponsored by PrizePicks, America’s most fun daily fantasy game. Use the code STAPLES to play $5 and get $50 instantly. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/STAPLES(0:00-9:30) Intro; Recapping BC's road win over Florida State(9:31-17:51) Should Florida State make a change at QB?(17:52-31:25) Always pay off your bets! Looking for 321 Nole and a recap of past bets between Andy & Ari(31:26-32:50) PrizePicks Ad(32:51-50:36) Where does Florida go Next? (50:37-59:30) Continuing the Florida Discussion(59:31-1:00:09) Conclusion; See you tomorrow!Andy and Ari still haven’t found @321Nole — who promised to eat a certain thing on the Internet if Florida State lost to Boston College —  but that doesn’t mean they’ll stop trying.  In the meantime, they’ll break down what Seminoles coach Mike Norvell said after his team fell to 0-2 in ACC play after week one, which just seems impossible.Ari explains why living in the transfer portal still doesn’t beat stocking a program with elite high school recruits.Plus, Andy relocates to his rural central Florida basement to discuss the disastrous Billy Napier press conference he attended Monday. (Which didn’t seem so disastrous in person.)Florida may have to start freshman QB D.J. Lagway on Saturday, and Lagway may be Napier’s last chance to save his job. Want to watch the show instead? Join us LIVE, M-TH at 9:30 am et: https://youtube.com/live/_91PlxTicxcHosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by Wendy's live from a basement in rural Central Florida in a very nice office in North Texas. Hi, how you doing Ari? Good, how are you bud? There's no basements in Texas, but I would have bought a house that had one if there were, but you know, I think that the most qualified opinions and thought processes stem from underground, right? That's my thought. Well, I mean, there are no basements here in rural central Florida either. And actually, this is rural north central Florida, if we're being correct about these things.

Rural central Florida is like Tavares or Mount Dora, where I am, or like, Corral City, or Bell, or Branford, that's rural north central Florida. So, Billy Napier, get your facts straight. Too close to sea level to have basements. We'll talk about that. We'll also talk about why you always pay off your bets. But first, Ari, we got to do a little more digging into Florida State. We talked about it. We did an instant reaction show last night. So if you want to hear all of our thoughts on Florida State getting splattered by Boston

College, it's on YouTube. Emergency show. We had to. We had no choice. But we've now got a chance to listen to Mike Norvell. We've gotten a chance to process this. You've all got a chance to listen to Mike Norvell. We've gotten a chance to process this. You've all gotten a chance to read Ari's column on On3 about Mike Norvell's portal strategy. And I think that's where we should start, Ari. The portal strategy, we worried about the teams that relied on this too much. Would there be a problem with chemistry at some point?

Or I just think talent, Andy. Or talent. There's going to be a problem with talent. It's just really, really hard to hit in the portal at the rate that Mike Norvell had been hitting in it. He was fortunate enough to have guys that were one-year rentals, and he was fortunate enough to have guys that they brought into the program and developed, but they all were very good at the same time last year. And when you have a bunch of players who are very good at the same time, obviously you're going to have a very good season the way that they did, but most of them, if not all of them are going to leave too. And then when they leave, what do

you do if you don't have the high school football recruiting to fall back on? So, you know, the thing that I think will be fascinating is whether or not we will see in this new era of college football where NIL wins both in the high school ranks and after the high school ranks is whether or not we're going to see a team that recruits outside of the top 10, top 15 be really, really good, like national championship or conference championship level good year over year over year. I think that Florida State is proof that you can use the portal and you can use that strategy to create and assemble a team that could win a national championship because I do think that their team, had Jordan Travis not been injured last year, could have won the national title. But what are we going to do when those players leave? If you don't have the high school rankings or a class that's in the top 10 in the high school rankings, excuse me, year over year to replenish those spots, I just don't think it's a very sustainable thing,

especially considering the fact, Andy, that recruiting out of the portal is an inherently difficult thing. It's not just getting the people. It's what about the people that you take that don't have a ton of film or didn't work out at the place that they worked out at before? It is a really, really tough proposition to stay consistent. Low country dog. The portal is hitting on 16. It works sometimes. I like that. You know your basic strategy, Ari. Does that sound about right? It sounds about right, but you have to hit on 16 every single time against a face card. If you stay against 16, I'll get up from the table. It makes my bones hurt.

I don't think you have to do this every single year no matter what. I do think, Andy, not to rant because you know when I get going, it's hard to stop me. Nick Saban is not at Alabama anymore. There is an opportunity here for Florida State, Miami, and even Florida to take back their state.

And it just hasn't happened. The four classes that he signed, three have been outside of the top 20. One's been number 12. They had Travis Hunter committed. It didn't work out, but I do think that this is a stark reminder that it's important that roster building in college football, while very different, I still think we're going to find is relatively the same. So JC has an interesting question.

Transfer portal is not a question, more of a comment. Transfer portal strategy with Florida State needs to be seen elsewhere. Ground zero is Oxford, Mississippi for your next data point. And I think that's a really good point. So, because what does this mean? And we've talked about this with relation to Ole Miss this year,

where the expectations are super high, where they have beefed up through the transfer portal. And we think they're going to be very good. And there's this worry that if they're not what they're supposed to be, will that fall apart? That's not as much what I'm worried about, is that Ole Miss this year is probably Florida State last year. You got the right mix of guys who who you got out of the portal but have been there a long time jackson dart jordan travis that sort of thing but then you added some really nice pieces most of that is leaving because like all this is bringing back a ton from last year

at all miss it's not just went out and bought a team in the portal. Yeah, a team that already won 10 games, and I think that that might be the master class of how to use the portal. Put together a roster that goes out and wins 10 games the year before, maintain your roster from that season, and then go out in the portal and add important pieces like Juice Wells and Walter Nolan to a team that already won 10 games. Like, I think that might be the exact way to use the portal, Andy. I think that it's after the season's over, regardless of how Ole Miss does, if they lose 80% of their roster, um, to the NFL draft or 80% of their key players. Um,

how do you respond to that? The response can't be, okay, well, let's go sign another 30 people in the portal and hope it works again. I think that there is a mixture to this. And I think that, honestly speaking, we talk a lot about how good Michigan was at hit rate in the portal last season on their way to a national championship. But if you actually take a look at Michigan's roster, a very large portion of the key position players there that made biggest plays on the biggest stage

were high school talent. Some were three stars, some were five stars, but they did a very good job of accentuating what they already had, especially on the offensive line through the portal. So I don't know how we could even point to a single team that has been all portal for one year rentals that has gone on and do something like that. Obviously, it hasn't been very long, so we still have time to figure out whether that's possible. But I do think that the the most important thing in college football roster building, even though there are different ways of going about it now, is still always going to be stacking elite level talent out of high school. You might lose them quicker. There might be more attrition because you know the grass is always greener there's fat checks there's quicker routes to playing time that's all true but that's what it is that's that's that's the that's the good stuff so do you think mike norvell and dabbo need to

have an intervention with one another and mike's like here's what i do too much of and he gets up and and speaks and then dabbo gets up in front of the support group and says hi i'm dabbo sweeney i'm addicted to high school recruiting mike norvell gets up and says i'm mike norvell i'm addicted to portal recruiting and they they figure out how to do a little less. Like, do it all in moderation. It's sort of like eating cheeseburgers. Cheeseburgers are great, but cheeseburgers can make you weigh 400 pounds if you don't do it in moderation. They can. Moderation for both.

Like, Dabo, use the portal a little. Mike, get some more five stars. Like, do a little bit of both. Yeah. Like, get some more five stars. Like, do a little bit of both. Yeah, and like, honestly, I have to like bite my tongue while you're talking to not just start screaming about Colorado's build process because my number one thing about Colorado has always been that Deion Sanders' number one qualification

for being a college football coach is fame, and then I think it's malpractice that he doesn't use that fame or weaponize that fame in high school hallways every single weekend um and this isn't a colorado episode but like i think it's always a colorado episode we can always talk about coach prime people will click uh we can overthink it we can really really overthink it in today's game and i know it's tempting we've seen seen teams do really, really well in the portal, especially guys that have gone out and got ready-made players that have already been proven to play at a high level, to come in and just play at a high level for you. But I don't know if I were a fan of a team that has won a national championship in the recent past or expects to win a national championship that I would want my coach to be the portal king. Well, so in the chat,

Brett makes a point that Mike Norvell is trying to do that. His high school recruiting has improved every year. I would agree with that. So right now, class of 2025 on three industry rankings, Florida State sits at number 11. Last year, they had more top 200 recruits than they'd had since Jimbo Fisher was the coach so they have gotten better they were number 12 in industry rankings last year that has gotten better as Mike Norvell has gone on but the problem is there's not a group ready to just plug in right now. And that's what Georgia and Ohio state and Alabama have is they're always ready to plug some people in and it not, it might not all be freshmen that they're plugging in.

They might have guys that have been there in the program for two, three years that are ready to go, but there also might be a superstar freshman that you're going to play. So accept the fact that it takes time. Like, I mean, he's not that deep into his tenure and Florida state was a mess when he took over and they were literally on the brink and should have been in the

playoff a year ago. So I'm not saying that I think that all is lost for Mike Norvell or that he's a bad coach or that, you know, I wouldn't believe in his program to return to prominence in the future, but I do think that it's going to be kind of a Billy Napier discussion, too, of understanding what you need to do is one thing, right? Or saying that you understand what you need to do is one thing,

but the next thing is going out and actually doing it. So it's nice to say that it's been improving every year, and I think that's factually accurate. I think their classes were like 23 22 and 21 i don't know what order it was and then it jumped up to number 12 so you do see a tangible uh a tangible increase or uh improvement in the output of their recruiting results but it's got to be 765 765 if it ever wants to be the florida state that we grew up watching. And he's got to get it done. Well, here's the thing.

It's not a Billy Napier situation. They did go 13-0 last year. They did win the ACC. That is true. Billy Napier has never been above 500 at Florida. So those two things aren't comparable. And what Billy Napier inherited was not as bad as what Mike Norvell inherited. Mike Norvell inherited a very deep hole left by Jimbo Fisher and Willie Taggart.

And he got him out of the hole and he got him 13-0. So, look, if you're going to have a rebuild, that's fine. But you better not have another rebuild next year. And you better get out of this. And the one thing about Mike Norvell that we've seen so far I go back to his second season his second season started out about as bad as you can start out you know they had the the loss to Notre Dame in overtime and you're like oh maybe they're better oh no then they lose to Jacksonville State like they could have just completely bagged it that team actually did get better as the season went on.

And that's what I want to talk to you about next, because there is a way out of this for Florida state. Their players are not all terrible. They can play better. Can they try another quarterback? And, and this is an interesting question because what somebody in the chat asked this last night, and I don't know that we answered it to anybody's satisfaction.

So I'd like to discuss this now. In the NIL era, when you go out and get a transfer quarterback, are you more beholden to play that person over someone you recruited because you gave them some deal. I am of the mind that it's not show family, it's not show friends, it's show business. And the fact that you're paying him makes it even more easy to say, you're not performing up to snuff. We're going to try this other guy and you can suck it up yeah no i'm with you on that and it does seem like when you whittle down the motivation for the payments it is to win the football games right yes so you're paying money you're exchanging money

to get players that will give you a higher likelihood of winning uh games and if there is another player on the team that you think does that for you, I don't really think it matters where the money is being allocated. The money has been spent and now it's time to see that money in action. Obviously, there were people

on Florida State message boards from what I saw on Twitter last night that were asking if there were any lawyers that could sue to recoup their NIL donations, which I thought was quite funny. Their lawyers are all busy? Yeah, they're suing the ACC guys. But no, it is an interesting dynamic.

And the other thing that's interesting about this, Andy, is that Brock Glenn was a really good recruit too. So it's not like they have some guy who is just you know sitting in the wings that has no chance of playing like I legitimately don't know if it could have been worse at times last night well and that's the thing there were some drops but there were also some moments where DJ just missed wide open players and look you've got no game on Saturday and then Memphis comes to town if florida state plays in the memphis game the way they played in the first two games they are going to lose that

game they're gonna lose it they need to have an open quarterback competition these next two weeks and figure out who their guy is it just kind of reminds me of watching Clemson during DJ use. He wasn't this bad at Clemson. I swear I watched those games. It's not that he was this bad. And honestly, there might be something to just being in his own head now, too. Could you imagine the pressure and the mockery that he's facing? Like he isn't as bad as to miss the receivers that he missed in the end zone last night. Like, honestly, there are high school quarterbacks that would have made that throw.

Sometimes people make mistakes. They get in their head. They're nervous. They're putting pressure on themselves. I think he's probably in the pressure cooker. There's no question. But there is this thing where you feel like there's so much potential with him.

He's such a big-bodied dude with a big arm that you're constantly waiting for it to click. Joe Milton. The clicking just doesn't happen. It just does not happen. But this guy's had far more of a runway of opportunity than Joe Milton ever did in college in terms of playing time and starts made. Right.

So, and Joe Milton was winning the Patriots quarterback battle for about three hours there during somebody texted me, Joe Milton's going to win the Patririot starting job and i just wrote back you don't watch college football that's it that's a tell me you don't watch college football without telling me you don't watch college football uh we got a statement here from brandon okay and i i feel like we should have learned our lesson at this point. Brandon says, if FSU wins a national championship this year,

I'll eat a pile of dog crap live on your show. Be careful what you say, Brandon. Be careful what you say. You got to, especially with the eating things, you can't talk like that. Is there any internet sleuths out there that can take this man's picture and track down his social security number so you can't delete your online profile? We're going to get you. We're going to get you.

Well, right. Yeah. Jack Mack at Barstool is all over at 321-0. We'll talk about 3212-1-0 in a second, but we need to cleanse our palates and talk about something that we'd rather eat, something that is pleasing to eat, something that is amazing to eat. That, of course, Wendy's Saucy Nugs.

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parm, or if you're a real heat circuit here, try the spicy ghost pepper only on Wendy's signature spicy nugs. I dare you. That's seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love. Pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before for a whole new way to nug it's got to be Wendy's at participating U.S. Wendy's so Ari let's talk about 321 Noel we talked about him last night and he made a promise

you got to pay off your bets are you and I have done this we have had bets where we promised to eat something based on the outcome of a football game i think people need to see what happens when you pay off your bets what's to stand up individuals who keep their word and pay off their bets actually look like so we will start with the moment you recounted on the show last night. You eating the death chip. The one chip challenge. What game forced you to do this? I do not recall.

It was two years ago. It might hit me though so to play the clip and let me think about it um i think it was a miami game i think it was a might have been it might have been we'll we'll figure it out but this is ari paying off his bets like a grown freaking man you know what the first people also search for is? What? Has the one chip challenge killed anybody? Killed anybody. Your soul belongs to the Reaper,

it says on the bottom of the coffin-shaped box. Five, four, three, two, eat. It's just, it sounds like a chip. Just like a normal chip. He looks fine. He's starting to cough, starting to cough. He's okay so far. Uh-oh, this looks uncomfortable.

Did he get it down? It tastes awful. How hot is it? Extremely hot. Like your mouth is on fire? Your mouth is on fire? Yeah, no, yeah, of course, my mouth's on fire, man. It is extremely hot.

Is it like you put a cigarette lighter in your mouth or something? I have the hiccups. No. We have our first medical malady. Okay, Ari's undressing now. He's got his hat off. His shirt may be next. It's like brutal. He's got his hat off. His shirt may be next.

It's like brutal. It is the hottest thing I've ever eaten. Is the milk cutting it at all? Is it doing anything for you? Yeah, it's the under the tongue is the hardest part. This is, it's hard for me to talk. It's not great for a podcast, but that's okay. You've done it. Oh no, don't do it. Did you just put your glove, your gloved hand on your eye? Yeah, no, I'm good. That's why you were wearing the gloves. Okay.

Ari's going to go to the shower and wash his eye out now. He's going to drink some more milk. He has paid off the bet. You're a better man than I, Ari Wasserman. I am so proud of you. Yeah, no, this is truly awful. Production values have gone up on this show, and the hosts have slimmed down.

No, I know. Jesus. My face was a watermelon. we still got a long way to go but i i i really do not know if i've ever told you i'm sure i have on the show but i had to go into the shower with a milk jug and i was in the shower my wife was like kept walking into the bathroom and it was just like are you gonna die and i was like i think so and everybody's saying the next day was worse let me tell you when you eat something that hot that's meant to torture you and then your remedy to that is to do something that would inherently upset your stomach which was drink a ton of milk

like late at night like i think it took three or four hours for the spice to be completely gone and for my mouth to feel normal again. But the next day was arguably worse because I had an upset stomach from all the milk I drank. And then of course the exit from whatever Reaper Pepper was. And I was at a car dealership with my wife and it hit me at the car dealership. And I was in the bathroom for like an hour and a half. And it was just a miserable, miserable time.

So I vow to you there. I would rather pay thousands of dollars. Then go through that again. But you know what that did teach us, Andy? It's that if you say you're going to do something and you lose the bet, you have to do it. I didn't delete my account. That was really, really painful to do. And it was certainly painful to relive.

But I feel like I learned an important life lesson there, which is don't write checks you can't cash because you're going to have to cash them. And you were not the first of us to pay off such a bet. I had to do this in 2020. So pandemic football, I had decided I believed in Pittsburgh because I was not someone who had a lot of faith in the Panthers in years past. And in this moment in 2020, I decided, no, I believe in the Pitt Panthers. And they had a lead against NC State in a game in early October. And I was convinced they were going to pull it out. I had picked them to win.

And Devin Leary leads NC State back to a 30-29 win. Pitt pitted, and I had to eat mayonnaise. Now, those who know me know how I feel about mayonnaise. It is the devil's pomade. It is the worst substance known to man. I actually thought I was going to be okay. Because I knew I hated it as a kid. But I figured I'm a grown adult now.

Your taste buds change over time. There are foods I didn't like as a kid that but I figured I'm a grown adult now. Your taste buds change over time. There are foods I didn't like as a kid that I eat now. It's probably going to be fine. I'm just going to eat a big old spoonful of mayonnaise, laugh at Ari. It'll be great. That's not really how it went down. I don't know if there's a seal on this or not. Oh, there is.

So we've got an aluminum seal. So it's proof that there's been nothing you could have put in there. Yep, unsealing. That's right. This is nothing but pure mayonnaise. I didn't replace it with something that actually tastes good. Are you triggered by the smell? I'm avoiding the smell right now.

I'm trying not to smell it. I'm starting to smell it. Oh, this is... What did you do? This is such a bad idea. All right. NC State, I'm sorry. Pit, I'm even sorrier that I trusted you.

Here we go. That is a mammoth spoon. So, well, I'm going to have to take a few bites because I can't even get it in the jar. Yeah, you just have to spread it out with your finger and make sure it's the entire spoon. Okay. I don't want to touch it. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. ah oh it's oh why why why you actually gagged i thought maybe i could get it down you really thought you left that in your mouth way too long you should have just gulped

i i can't i feel like you choked you you could have made that easier on yourself oh my god i'm covered in mayonnaise now so i didn't go for the bourbon i went for the the root beer but mostly just to kind of get it out of there so some of it went down that is awful how do any of you eat that? I'm not going to lie That was a bigger punishment I thought you were kind of playing up the That was terrible for you you gotta dart so you guys can't see our producer river

while that's running but i can and that's the first time he's ever seen that clip river put yourself on the screen what'd you think that was that was tough to watch i mean you would look like you were in pain doing that oh there was no acting for the camera like in that moment that i was going to be fine that i had overcome my aversion to mayonnaise and i just grown out of it and the second it hit my taste buds it was like nope my body just said out of here I mean it was immediate your immediate was just in your mouth boom coming out like oh that's tough that's tough I thought you were just gonna be able to put it in your mouth real quick swallow it and just it would

be unpleasant I didn't like when you gagged like that i was like oh my god oh never again never again aj adams in the chat oh man how can you have tuna salad chicken salad a ham sandwich egg salad without mayo the only one of those things i will eat is a ham sandwich and you put mustard on a ham sandwich like a god-fearing american why would you eat any of those other things they have mayonnaise i think that not liking mayonnaise is probably a blessing for you because i really like mayonnaise and i don't know that i would eat it with a spoon but i like to think like over like the last 15 years me and you like my mayonnaise consumption if you added up all the calories of every single bite of food that had mayonnaise in it, I probably have 20 pounds of fat on my body still that is just from mayonnaise only that you never had to lose. So I think that mayonnaise is a delectable topping that you need to put on hamburgers and other things.

And I would not gag if I had to take a spoonful of it. Well, I learned my lesson. So in the chat, let's get you guys working let's give you some homework you don't have to do this during this show just be thinking about this over the next few days ari and i haven't done a bet since ari started working here i grant granted it's been 72 hours but we're gonna have to have a bet at some point so So we're going to be together all next week. So if y'all can come up with a bet that we need to settle on this weekend's games, we've already picked this weekend's game. So we're on the opposite side of a few of them. So if you can come up with a great bet,

then we can pay that off. The loser can pay that off next week. And we will of course provide video evidence because we are not like at three, two, one.21 no we do not welch on our bets we do not run away we do not delete our social media accounts we stand up like men and we eat the thing we say we're gonna eat andy the funniest thing about it was is that last year two years ago when we were doing the the bet every week thing the one that scared me the most because i was like looking back at my my size uh during that time was like i had to do like 50 push-ups and like at the time i like don't think i could do one like the thought of having to do 50 push-ups while everybody was watching like kept me up at night i'm like i i'm gonna be humiliated and like thank god i won uh whatever bet that was that week but like now I'm going to be humiliated. And like, thank God I won whatever bet that was that week.

But like now if we have to knock out some pushups, I'm ready to go. So for those who don't know, Ari has figured out he can bench press a car. So yeah, that's going to be easy. Yeah, I could throw a little weight around now. Feeling pretty good about that. But, you know, hey, I don't know who got it worse there, Andy, me or you. That was really truly awful to watch and you need to send me when we're done here the slow motion portion of that

video because i need to have that on my phone just for my personal amusement if you're on twitter and you type just type my name into the gif search it's the first thing that pops up but it's the noises that reminded me of old school when uh will ferrell got shot in the dart right into the yeah exactly exactly oh steven wilson says a shot of malort we probably should bet on a northwestern game if we're going to do a shot of malort as the uh as the punishment yeah the funniest thing uh also that that was like is if you've seen along came paulie andy you know when ben stiller's characters at the park and he's like a germaphobe and he goes

uh sir do you mind maybe putting your shirt back on and he's like brushed him off and then his face at his chest it was like right when all the sweat was on his face fun with slow-mo and yeah if we have more eating challenges we will of course bring them in slow-mo a perfect cracker says andy is hawk to a i spit that thing out spit on that thing i spit that thing out all right we got to go down to the basement after this, but first

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It'd flood. You're right. Exactly. You would be underwater. So Billy Napier is underwater and well let's let's contextualize this by playing what billy napier said on monday i was in the room when this happened this is a classic case of hearing something in real time seeing it happen in real time and not really having it hit the same way as it hit when it got clipped and posted on social media i'm going to play you a longer version of of what

went out on social media i'm going to play you the part immediately before and the part immediately after included in this clip so you have more context to judge from but i don't think it changes anything. Here's Billy Napier. Ultimately, a loss early can be a blessing if you don't waste it. And I think ultimately, one thing I can say is we have a group that's working hard. I do think that we have character. We've got to go to work on the football part. I think we've got to become a more

consistent team and we have to execute better. If we can focus on those things and not necessarily what some guy in his basement is saying in rural central Florida on social media, then we got a chance to get better. So I think that's the key. But sometimes you deserve criticism. And I think that's one of those things I would say, I have no excuses.

So we got to go get it fixed. So the basement, the rural central Florida thing, I know a lot of people took that as like, he's calling you a bunch of red. He's from Chatsworth, Georgia. Okay. He's as much of a redneck as you guys are like, that's not as, as big of a thing as the, we have character, but we're working on the football part. The football part is what they pay you six-something million dollars a year for.

In year three, you should have the football part pretty much down. You know, the thing that I think you have to latch onto with that, Andy, is that the statement would have been 100% fine if he would have not used the word basement. I think if he said, we do not have to lock in or if we don't worry about what somebody in central Florida is saying, or rural even, central Florida, I don't know that that comment would have hit the same way that it did. But when you add in the word basement, that word has been used on social media and by sports figures for years to demean whoever is writing the message. Basically that you're a loser who lives with your parents and you're in the basement and you don't know anything like that

to me was where he slipped up. So I think I understand the point that he was trying to make, which is we need to lock in and focus on what we're doing and not let the outside criticism bother us. I just think the way that he said it was, was not very good because when you start going down that road and lashing out at fans who have every right in the world to be upset by the product, I mean, like, it's not like they're irrational for being angry. It wasn't like you lost on a fluke play or, you know, Miami kicked a field goal to win the game in a very highly contested battle between two really good football teams. Your team lied down at home in an opener after you spent the entire off season telling everybody about how great it was going to

be against an in-state rival that hadn't beaten you in your stadium in over 20 years. Like, I think that the, the rural basement part is, is really, really, he should not have said that. No, he shouldn't have,

but I don't think it matters what he says, because I'm telling you right now, unless DJ Lagway saves him, there is no saving him because they have reached the situation. And we saw this with Willie Tigard at Florida State. They've reached the point where it becomes a math problem. And this is how most coaching situations work. And people never want to hear this. People don't want it to be about something more than this, but it's a math problem at this point. How many dollars of donations and season ticket sales will you lose if you continue to

have Billy Napier as your coach versus how much does it cost to fire Billy Napier? The moment the first number is bigger than the second number, the decision is made. And I'm telling you right now, unless DJ Lagway comes in and remember, he's probably got to start this weekend because Graham Mertz has a concussion. Unless he comes in and they are suddenly a million times better than what they Saturday, the decision has been made. So what does DJ Lagway saving Billy Napier look like to you, Andy? It's going six and six or seven and five or better against this schedule. Well, it's been pretty exciting and dynamic in the process, making people want to watch him. So you're going to beat Sanford.

You're going to beat Mississippi State, probably. I'm not giving them Mississippi State yet. But that would mean you'd need to win four games, at least, probably five, from this group here. Texas A&M, UCF, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Texas, LSU, Ole Miss, Florida State. Now we saw Florida State. That might be the easiest of that bunch. But you get Florida State at the end of the season where they also have a chance to figure it out too. Right, they could be better. They could be better.

And so DJ Lagway needs to be the second coming of Tim Tebow. Now he's got to do it behind the offensive line that they've put together. And if you saw the Miami game, remember Miami had Reuben Bain, their best pass rusher, go out after one play. He did not come back. The other guys at Miami terrorized Florida's offensive line for the rest of the game. On the other side of the ball, Florida generated zero pass rush

because that's what happens when you lose your best pass rusher to Ole Miss and you don't do anything to replace him. Yeah, no, when I look at that schedule, I'm having a hard time circling it. You gave them Mississippi State. I'm not giving them Mississippi State on the road. I'm not giving them Florida State. The only one I'll give them on this entire schedule is a bona fide absolute win at Sanford. Yeah. After what we watched on Saturday together.

You saw it in person. Yeah. I mean, that was a team that was not competitive. And I think that Miami is going to be a very good football team this year. I'm on record saying that I like their roster and what I saw from them. And Cam Ward was much better than I thought he was going to be a very good football team this year. I'm on record saying that I like their roster and what I saw from them, and Cam Ward was much better than I thought he was going to be. But if Miami is still a 10-2 or 9-3 team, a team that wins five or six games with that schedule

does not get blown off its own field in an opener. No. Unless Miami is some sort of juggernaut that's going to go out and win a national title this year. That's not what that game looks like. Yeah, and look, Miami may be really good. Miami may be the best team in the ACC. They may go to the playoff.

They may win games in the playoff. But I'm willing to bet that Georgia's better than them. I'm willing to bet that Texas is probably equal to them or better. That Ole Miss is probably equal to them or better. That Ole Miss is probably equal to them or better. Tennessee is probably close. These are all games they still have to play. Craig in the chat, UF has an interim president with a dead man walking AD and a head coach. This is the worst situation ever for the Gators.

It is a tough situation. And so this is something that may be a little too inside baseball for everybody. I know the Florida fans have been talking about this and it's similar to some other situations we've seen in the past. But so Ben Sasse was the president of Florida. He resigned in July. If he'd still been the president, given how he kind of functions and governs something may have happened on sunday but he's not there anymore kent fox is the interim president kent fox was the president before ben sass he's fairly deliberate his managerial style is fairly hands-off he doesn't

really like to deal with athletics all that much the board of regents would prefer not to have to deal with this. But again, the math problem is the math problem. And so the buyout, in case anybody's wondering, and this, we always talk about this already with buyouts, like it's not just the dollar figure. It's also how it's structured. And this one's not structured in a great way for Florida because it would be, it's 85% of the remaining contracts. So like after this season, it would be $26 million. If you do it during this season, you just sort of prorate 85% of whatever his salary would be in that bunch. So it could be a couple more million than that.

Half of it is due up front. I believe within the first 60 days, the other half is due over the life of the contract in periodic installments. So that's a poison pill that's pretty tough. They've got to come up probably with $14 million cash right off the bat. And they also have to buy out any other contracts that they would have to buy out. It's expensive. It also may be that they have to because the people who fund the NIL, the people who are paying, they want to do a stadium. Scott Strickland, the athletic director, wants a stadium renovation. The people who would be giving the money for that can say, nope, not doing it. Now, I would argue you don't need to be doing a stadium renovation

right now because that costs half a billion dollars. And the much quicker, cheaper way to improve your stadium is put better players in it. Possibly with a better coach. Yeah. You are so much closer to the pulse of this than me, but it does seem like something is around the corner here. And, you know, I actually felt bad for Napier coming into the year because I thought to myself, even if he is right and his team is better, he's going to have a very hard time doing anything that puts him in a position to feel success. I think I asked you in the car on the way into the stadium on Saturday, what does Florida have to do in your mind for Billy Napier to have his job next year?

And I think you said win eight or nine games. No, I said seven games. Seven games? Yeah. Even seven. Even an improved Florida against that schedule would have had a hard time reaching seven games. So you start your season off, and it's not just the L.

I think it's what the L looked like too. It looked like the team regressed, and you cannot be regressing in year three the way that they are. Well, Stephen Wilson with a great point in the chat. Remember where Tennessee was pre-Danny White and the multitudes of dysfunction? That's what I want to point out because I think we need to help everybody with how things actually work now,

because one of the things I've been doing during all this is, is I've been going, you know, on our Gators online are on three Florida site. And I've been reading the message boards and there's a fundamental lack of understanding of how the world works in college football right now. And it's not anybody's fault because it's all new. Everything's changed in the last three years.

So everybody keeps looking at things through the old prism. And so let's, let's help this explain to them how this really works. And I think the Tennessee example is a really instructive one. So remember when Tennessee friar, Jeremy Pruitt, remember everybody was jumping into the transfer portal and, and, you know, they just hired Danny white is the new athletic director.

They had fired Phillip Fulmer and we're like, Oh my God, they're going to suck for like seven years. They have no play. How are they going to rebuild this roster? Well, Josh Hypo won 10 games in year two, because it turned out the players who left were the ones they didn't want like so that's sometimes leaving is a good thing andy i don't think people also understand right the florida fans i these are the most common best reporters posts i see, if you fire Billy, the whole roster will leave. How's that a problem? Well, if you fire Billy, DJ Lagway will leave. Yes, there's always another five-star quarterback. If they fire Billy Napier, there is a chance DJ Lagway will leave. But if you hire another coach,

they're probably bringing their own quarterback who's highly recruited like you saw jonathan smith get the michigan state job and bring aiden chiles from oregon state like that's what what happens now they bring their own so the other thing about dj lagway look he gets a pretty lucrative deal at Florida right now. If he and his family view whoever they would hire if they get rid of Billy Napier, if he and his family view that next person as an upgrade and the bag stays just as big, who's to say they don't stay? Right.

Yeah. It's a very difficult proposition when you're talking about a quarterback in Lagway's position because you have to also consider the fact that Florida fans' number one gripe with the previous regime was pluck a five-star quarterback that is as talented as DJ, it almost feels like when you're a Florida fan that it's hard to duplicate that because they had gone so many years without getting those top-end players that they were so accustomed to getting in previous regimes. But you have to understand that you're not supposed to feel that way. You're not supposed to feel like getting a five-star quarterback or a bunch of top 100 players is impossible at Florida. That's supposed to be the norm. And if you do feel that way, then you have to ask yourself, why am I feeling that way?

And if why you're feeling that way is your coach, then the only thing to do is to put somebody in place that will put you in a position where you can get those players more often so it doesn't feel like life or death when you lose them. Right. Exactly. You should never be in a position where one player leaving feels like the program's crumbling. I'll give you an example. Alabama this year. Caleb Downs is the best safety in America. He may be the best defensive player in America. They lost him. Did Alabama's program go to seed after that? No, because they had a bunch of other really good

players. And that's what happens when you recruit a bunch of good players, you can lose one. When you only recruit a few good players, you freak out about losing one, but you don't realize the problem is not that you lost the good player. It's that you only had a few good players to start with exactly the truth and this is another message board one never let your message boards hire a coach the truth says just throwing it out there what if urban goes back to florida what if the thing about urban meyer who won two national titles at florida and areU covered Urban at Ohio State. So we've both covered Urban Meyer as beat writers. We know how he operates. The way he coaches will not work

in this version of college football because it is much closer to the NFL where he failed miserably than the old version of college football. Yeah, I think that when you're in an era where players are being compensated, there is a level of power that players now possess that he did kind of reign by fear a little bit, kind of made people in the building have to earn the right for him to know their name. Even when there was no payments, it was a situation where some players just could not and would not play for him. So I don't know if reaching back for coaches who were successful in 2009 is the answer

because we've seen some coaches that are still head coaches now struggling with the transition. And I don't know this for a fact, but I know maybe in my gut that I think it's possible that Nick Saban would still be coaching right now if the sport didn't change as much as it did. So like when you go back and you look at previous coaches and you like long for the success that they had, you have to ask yourself like what would Urban Meyer look like in the NIL era? What would Urban Meyer look like in the transfer portal era? Now he adapted and did a pretty good job of making changes when Ohio State came up short during his time there. But I don't know if his skill set as a coach really jives and meshes well with the way that you build rosters now and the way that players demand and expect

to be treated. So one of Urban's key motivational tactics was, I'll have you on the next bus back to Poughkeepsie or wherever you're from. If you try to do that, and Urban recruited great players. He recruited elite players. So he's saying this to elite players to motivate them because that is a good way to motivate them back then when you have to sit out a year if you transfer. Now the players would ask if it's first class ticket. The player would go, you keep your bus ticket, coach.

I'm going to call my agent and be on the first pj to athens like that's exactly what happened now that's not to say you can't coach people hard i just mentioned athens like kirby smart and his coaches they coach very hard but they also say look how many first rounders we just made that's why you can coach them hard yeah and also too it's just like somebody here just mentioned in the comment andy but like and i and this happened last year too with a and m it's like everybody like urban meyer would be a splashy hire there if like in this fantasy land world of him going back there but i just don't know if splashy is how you win now you know what i mean like i didn't a i don't and i also don't know if there's anybody there that would even meet that like who is the splashy hire for florida

right now like i mean we saw a few coaches leave destination jobs to other big time places but like both of them are getting yelled at they just played each other and and you know lincoln riley was getting yelled at and now brian kelly's getting yelled at but the the other thing about that is the idea that that florida is cycled through so many coaches and and you can't win there no no if you hire the right coach they can win there and i i think tennessee's a good example of that again but we don't know like it's really hard to hire the right coach danny white had an advantage in that he had worked with josh heupel before and knew how he operated and knew exactly what he was

going to get even when the fan base was like uh i don't know about this guy. Because Tennessee fans, be honest. We know what you actually thought when Josh Heupel was hired. We know what you said. Those VolQuest message board posts, a lot of them are still up. So don't lie now and say you always knew that was going to work because you didn't. But sometimes the right guy is the right guy right and like you said uh picking that person out and think about the millions of dollars spent on search firms and research firms and vetting and all these things and it's still wrong

more often than it's right yeah yeah yeah perfect cracker says if I were Florida, I'd hire Brian Odom from UNLV. I think Brian Odom is a former player somewhere. Barry Odom is the UNLV coach, and he has been in the SEC at Missouri before. So I imagine he'd bring Brendan Mary and his offensive coordinator with him from UNLV, and that offense is a little bit different. But look, I know what the wish list is.

Andy, I love that it's September 3rd right now and we're going through who's... I'm not surprised, though, after what we saw on Saturday. I saw in the chat, well, can they get Lane Kiffin? I have no idea. He's got a really good job right now. I don't know that I'd go there. I mean, you would obviously you would obviously try cause why not? But yeah. And the whole, you know, don't do, do the exact opposite

of the last thing you did. Okay. I get it. So maybe don't, you wouldn't hire a group of five coach, but I'll point out that the best coach in college football right now, the best working coach in college football right now had never been a head coach before and was a coordinator when he got hired. By the way, the other day I was talking to somebody and it put me down this weird rabbit hole. Oh, I know who it was. So I was on Bark After Dark, which is our Dogs HQ, Georgia on three site, Jake Rowe and Jakeake rouse and we were talking about the the various firings at florida over the years let me throw you a hypothetical what if when will muschamp was hired instead of jim macklewain jeremy foley had hired kirby smart or tried to hire kirby smart because

we we know that auburn tried to hire him i believe auburn tried to hire him when they hired gus so that would have been between 2012 and 2013 but alabama was in the middle of winning a national title uh auburn wanted him to go immediately and he didn't want to do that what if what if jeremy foley had gone there and kirby had said this so this would have been after the 2014 season and kirby said okay i'll come when the playoff is over and so after that Ohio State lost in the Sugar Bowl Kirby Smart had taken over Florida would Florida be Georgia now I think they would I think it's hard to envision a world where they wouldn't be because we've seen how effective uh Kirby Smart has been at at Georgia and what he's built there like why the one thing that you can say that georgia possesses um that florida doesn't and it's even kind of half true is that they are the only game in town for the most part in their own state and their state correct georgia georgia tech is um yeah like brent key is doing a good job

at georgia tech but it's not on the same level as Georgia. Hasn't been in a long time. May never be again. Georgia's situation is more like Ohio State's and LSU, where it is the thing in the state. Yeah, but unlike Ohio, Atlanta is the epicenter of high school football talent. Now, the most ironic part about this, Andy, is if you go look at Georgia's recruiting classes the last few years, they've been far more national and they've left a lot of players on the table. I think they went like they won the recruiting crown last year or were flirting with it. And I think they only signed one top 100 player or sorry, one top 10 player in the state of Georgia. And that player was Dylan Rayola, who's not even from there or would have been Dylan Rayola if he wasn't from there. So I don't know what it would have looked like at Florida, but this is crazy to

say, but obviously there's a hell of a lot of talent in Florida too. So I cannot envision a situation where that would not have worked. Well, and the thing is, so 2015 would have been his first year. And let's remember what Will Muschamp left behind on defense. So, you know, you had Keanu Neal, first rounder, was a starter on that defense. Alex Anzalone, first rounder. Jonathan Bullard, Brian Cox Jr., both very good college players. Taven Bryan was a first rounder who was on that defense. Jared Bryan was a first rounder who was on that defense. Jared Davis was a first rounder who was on that defense. So I think Kirby would have been okay,

but it would have been, that's just one of those what ifs that popped into my head because everybody keeps saying, you got to give somebody time. You got to give somebody time. No, you just have to hire the right person. Unfortunately, hiring the right person, identifying the right person is hard. Yeah. And you know, it's like funny. We just

got done talking about, uh, Dabo Sweeney and where he's falling short, um, at Clemson, but it's like, he is the perfect result for every type of hire for programs that are really good or been pretty good into being great. And it's like, I don't know how many dabbo sweeney's have been hired at all when you think about like all of the coaching searches that have been done and how many hires have been done since he was hired 10 years ago like how many people have come close to accomplishing with that ari dabbo was hired 16 years ago oh my god we are so old dabbo was hired in 2008 he was elevated oh my god after terry bowden got fired uh sorry after tommy bowden got fired uh and and as tommy bowden once told me uh never lose wake forest on thursday night uh i feel like that should be stitched into a pillow somewhere i think i've

gotten to the age where everything that seems like was a long time ago was just 10 years ago in my head like i don't know how to like time is a flat circle i have no idea how to keep track of all this but you know it is crazy to think like if you go back 16 years how many athletic directors made hires hoping it would work out the way that it did for for clemson and dabbo sweeney and how many have i mean everybody thought dabbo was a joke when he got hired yeah and how i guess you could make the case that Kirby Smart, to a certain extent, probably has done or eclipsed what Dabo did. Now, I think that Georgia's starting point was further down the line than Clemson was, but it's just a very, very hard proposition,

and there's so many teams that want to win and compete for national championships, and the fact of the matter is it's a really hard thing to do. There have been a lot of really good football teams with loaded rosters that have done everything right that have lost. It's just a hard thing to do. It is. And that's why everybody gets paid the big bucks

and they get paid bigger buyout bucks. Ari, my ultimate dream is to get paid millions of dollars to not work. But until then, it's a dream come true working with you. So happy you're here. It's been amazing. First half of a week.

It's only going to get better. Guys, we have so much to talk about. We'll get into the games tomorrow. We got a lot to break down. Talk to you soon.