Andy & Ari On3 - How do Dan Lanning and Oregon take the NEXT STEP?

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

When it comes to making the best hamburgers around the basics matter and Wendy’s?... well they’ve really got those burger basics on lock and boy does it show. So what’s the secret to all those hot and juicy hamburgers? Simple. Wendy’s always crafts their hamburgers with that fresh, never frozen beef they’re famous for. The result? Hot and juicy beefy hamburger perfection - every time. No matter which hamburger you order from the Wendy’s menu, you already know that thanks to those Wendy’s burger basics, it’s gonna be exactly what you were craving. Fresh beef available in the contiguous U.S., Alaska and Canada; not available in Hawaii.(0:00-1:31) Introduction(1:32-14:34) Deep Dive into the Oregon Ducks(14:35-22:00) Oregon's Roster in Eugene(22:01-32:30) Oregon's 2025 Schedule(32:31-36:42) Should the CFP change its seeding format?(36:43-46:17) Department of Education Rescinds Title IX Guidance(46:18-53:51) How to Attain an Elite Receiver(53:52-1:10:00) Ari's Potential Breakout Stars(1:10:01-1:16:48) Ari Goes on Paul Finebaum today! Tuesday’s conversation about what success looks like for LSU sparked a similar question about another program. Oregon has been on an upward trajectory since coach Dan Lanning arrived. The Ducks were the best team in the country in the regular season in 2024, but they got buzzsawed by Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. So what does Oregon need to do to keep the momentum? Is it as simple as winning in the College Football Playoff? What is the next big step? Later, Ari and Andy break down Ari’s list of potential 2025 breakout players. It includes Michigan QB Bryce Underwood, Texas RB C.J. Baxter and Ohio State QB Julian Sayin.  Watch us on YouTube instead! https://youtube.com/live/QcYg3Ijd7wo Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy and Ari on three. Happy Wednesday. Happy hump day. How we doing Ari? We're matching. We are matching. We are we are monochrome, which is good. It pops off the background, which is which is what you want. I do think it's very interesting and kind of funny and mildly

ironic that we're talking about the team with the best and most diverse uniform combination repertoire and we're both wearing plain black hoodies but you know what I'm super excited about today's show and I've been thinking a lot about it. I don't know. I'm sure you're like this too but once I know what the topic for the next day is, I really really think about it to myself. A lot of my thoughts come to me while I'm in the shower as you know and I've got some takes and I've got some imagery there exercises yeah well it's actually a lot better than the imagery

would have been a year ago but daddy's pushing the 220s now whoa very nice yeah that's it so like when we're washing the armpits are we like okay, okay, what's the biggest transfer for Oregon? Is it Dylan Theeneman from Purdue? Is that- And then we move to the hair like when conditioner is day and landing time. Is Dante Moore really good? Oh, it's a good question.

Well, let's set it up for the folks. Let's set it up for the folks, because yesterday we had this discussion about LSU and what represents success for LSU in 2025 and Ari and I were talking about it after the show and we said we need to ask the same question of Oregon because it's a different situation. Obviously the Oregon fans are very happy with how everything is. Their 2025 win total at Vandal right now is 10 and a half, which is among the highest in the country. Everything is going swimmingly for the Ducks, with the exception of the way this past season ended.

So what to them is a step forward? What keeps that trajectory going? Because like you cannot do better than they did in the regular season last year. You obviously can do much better than they did in the playoff. So that's the logical obvious answer is yeah, go deeper in the playoff. But I think there's a lot more nuance to that. And I asked the folks on the scoop duck message board, that's our organ sighted on three, if you're an organ fan, get yourself signed up. And they had some some great answers because

they clearly have thought about this a lot amongst themselves. Yeah it's an interesting question because the one thing there you go I mean that makes sense what you just posted there the one thing I couldn't stop thinking about is if they would have lost to Ohio State by the spread, if they would have lost on the last second field goal by two, would our perception of Oregon be different? Yes. And would their fans be more content with where they are as a program? Because I do think, and I wrote this after the game, that I went to it. I was at the airport at LAX waiting for my flight and I wrote that what happened

against Ohio State isn't a reflection on Oregon. It's more of a reflection of what Ohio State is. And people at the time went crazy because they're like, well, Ohio State lost to Michigan. They lost twice, like they're not that good. Oregon already beat them. And then Ohio State went on to do what it did. And I think that it aged pretty well.

And I don't know that Oregon's identity as a program could be judged by whether or not it's stacked up with a roster that may never exist again. Like I think that our judgment is clouded and honestly too Oregon didn't play well. Ohio State was hungry in a way that you couldn't manufacture through just, you know, locker room fodder and bulletin board material. Like I just think it was like a bad time to play them and frankly speaking Oregon got screwed in the seating. But if your prevailing thought of where Oregon is as a program is based solely or largely on the Ohio State game, I think you're looking at it wrong. And I think that's probably the difference between

the Oregon fan base, which I think is pretty reasonable about this and rational because they were with it all season. They followed it all and had followed it through Dan Lanning's entire time there. They understand the whole concept of the trajectory. More nationally, more casual fans or fans of other teams who are just looking in and going, oh, this team went 13 and oh, and then they got smoked in the Rose Bowl. They're probably the ones saying, Oh, Oregon was a fraud.

I don't think anybody watched Oregon all season would ever think that. I think that's, that's one of those that if you just dropped in and that's one of two or three Oregon games you saw, you think that, But it's really interesting because I feel like Dan Lanning each year has kind of given you something more. You got a little bit closer. So it goes back to my, I always go back to Kirby Smart with this, where I said, if you knock on the door enough, you eventually go in. I think that's where Oregon is. That is absolutely where Oregon is. And they keep reloading the roster

through high school recruiting and through the transfer portal in a way that should keep them there. That should keep them on the threshold, knocking on that door. And then you just kind of figure out, okay, is this the time where we catch the break that gets us through? And I'm glad you pointed out that this the screwed in the seedings situation, like what happened to Oregon, I think is if they

make a change in the college football playoff structure this year, it would be because of what happened at Oregon because Oregon wins. The Big Ten Championship game, Penn State loses and Penn State gets the easiest path, which makes if you if you if you flop and this is no disrespect to Notre Dame, but if you flop Penn State and Oregon in the seating, I think Oregon plays for the national title. I think the rematch with Ohio State's in the national title game. Still a tough half. You'd have to beat Georgia and Notre Dame, but yeah.

No, no, no. Penn State had to beat. Oh no, no, that's right. Notre Dame would have already beaten Georgia. You're right, you're right, you're right. So they would have played Notre Dame in the semis. And I think they would have done just fine in that matchup considering what we just saw with how they played against Penn State although Penn State played them close. So like that's the thing the how many times in the next 10 years Andy do you think that the national or the the number one seed will lose to the eventual national championship team in the first round or in their first game? I actually think the way it's set up is it's entirely

possible because that the team now, if you change the seating, it becomes less likely. But right now that the team that is the eight seed, which is the team we we think will usually be the one that winds up playing the one seed in the first game. The team is the eight seed is really the sixth seed. And if you're really the sixth seed. You're not that different from the one seed. You really aren't.

I get maybe the difference is in one bounce in one game. Yeah, no, I mean, you've got the same exact path as the one seed. You have to play an extra game, obviously, but you have to go down the same area of the bracket. So, you know, like Ohio State's had what we said is the hardest path in the country. Oregon would have had to go down the same path that they won as the one seed outside of playing Tennessee, right? So, they would have had to beat Ohio State in Texas and Notre Dame. That would have been very difficult for Oregon. And you know, I guess everybody should have a hard path once they get to the semis, but it's just so bizarre to me. So like to me, like, I think I put

Dan Lanning number three, I did, on my coaches list. And I think if you are an Oregon fan, number three, I did, on my coaches list. And I think if you are an Oregon fan and you are a college football fan that pays attention to the entire sport, you know the formula to be very, very good. You know the formula and you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that Oregon is unequivocally following that formula. Okay, so from that standpoint, the results are not always going to be where you want them to be. Ohio State is on top of the world right now. Ask them how the last 10 years went. They've had the winning formula for 10 years and they went a decade without winning a national championship. So a reminder that winning a national championship is inherently difficult,

much more difficult than I think people realize given Nick Saban existed. Secondly, you're gonna have bad games. Like part of the reason why I picked Oregon to lose to Texas in my bracket, to beat Ohio State and then to lose to Texas is because I didn't think a team could go 15-0, which we've discussed. They are loaded again next year. They have recruited at an elite level. They are killing it in the portal. They retained Evan Stewart. Like in terms of roster assembly, I think that you could actually legitimately

legitimately make the case now that Oregon is a top three team talent wise going into next year. And truth hurts, they were not on the same playing field as Ohio State from a talent perspective from top to bottom last year, which is a problem they're not going to have to run into again. Well, I mean, no, but nobody was. That's what nobody was on the same place. That team exists next year. Like at this point last year, February 12 2024, we could have unequivocally said, wow, that Ohio State's a super team. Like, is there another team in college football right now that resembles what Ohio State was a year ago at this time? No. And it's the same for Notre Dame.

It's the same thing for Notre Dame. Notre Dame is doing well enough to win a national title. They just had the misfortune of playing a team that resembled 2012 Alabama. At the end, all the teams that lost to Ohio State are really really good football teams they were made to look like they weren't because they aren't assembled the way that Ohio State was in Ohio. State is no longer assembled that way.

Correct, so quick, Joe, what it working through the lens of Ohio State? That's not the right way to look at. Well, actually, let's let's kind of do that. I want to I want to give. One and this is more of a nod to Oregon. Oregon has something going to 2025 that Ohio State did going into 2024.

Now it's not the same because one of these people is an alien. But this other person might be kind of an alien too. Oh yeah. Ohio State had the number one receiver in the country coming in. Now Jeremiah Smith was the number one receiver in the country coming in. Now, Jeremiah Smith was the number one recruit in the country as well. And immediately got dividends from that. Immediately he made a difference. Oregon has the number one receiver in the country coming in in De'Quirion Moore. If he makes an immediate difference, because remember they lose Tess Johnson, but they keep Evan Stewart. But if De'Korian Moore is truly special, if he's special in the way that we expect the number one receiver recruit in the country to be,

there's a good chance this offense takes another leap. Now, I know what you're saying. We don't know about Dante Morgan. No, we don't. We don't. But I do trust Will Stein at this point, the offensive coordinator, to have his quarterback coached up. Yeah. So I'm gonna kind of pump up the tires on a story or a list that I put up on On3 today. We'll be talking about it later today too. Yeah, but the thing that I wanted to say before we get to the list is that there were three Oregon players either on it or in contention

to be on it and Moore was one of them. So like that, that to me is a, You know, a really important thing because. The perception is that Oregon lost a lot of players last year and they did, but I wonder if any year from now will find out that they replaced a lot of them with better players. Now that's a huge question mark,

and I guess we could go into the Dante more discussion right now. But they have a quarterback replacement. Now, like that to me is interesting because there's two ways to look at it, Andy. And I think that players in general who have transferred early on in their careers have been viewed as busts very early.

I think the fact that Dante Moore went to UCLA, played some and then left as for being a starter is kind of like a black mark on his resume. But the decision that he made to go to Oregon to sit a year behind a quarterback that has been in the NCAA ranks for 27 years and learn from somebody like Dylan Gabriel and learn the system, get some of the pressure off of his shoulders and try to put himself in a position where he can be something. I think that that's a very encouraging

situation. Now, again, I don't know how much faith you lost in him because he wasn't Joe Montana right away at UCLA. I think I also I don't and I'll tell you why. Like, I don't think it's a black mark that he transferred from UCLA because when he transferred from UCLA, I would imagine if you played quarterback at UCLA and you were the starting quarterback at UCLA for a period in 2023, that you were aware of what was going on behind the scenes at UCLA, you were aware that they were probably gonna fire Chip Kelly at one point, then they decided now we'll keep him, but we're probably gonna fire him next year.

And you were probably also aware that Chip Kelly was trying to find other jobs. So leaving UCLA at that point is not anything you need to be concerned about. But he's perceived as a failure, not as somebody who left him. Like stupid people. But I'm just saying, I mean, there's a lot of stupid people out there. Well, but here's the thing.

And we don't know if this is gonna mean anything or not. I found it very interesting that when he was picking the next destination, he chose Oregon because he could have gone quite a few different places where he could have probably been the starter. In Michigan, he might have been the starter. I can't imagine that he wouldn't have been as good as what they have. Correct. So he decided, Hey, I got, I got thrown in as a true freshmen as the starting quarterback, and I probably wasn't ready for that. So what I'm going to do instead of going into another

place where I'll be thrown in as the starter is go to a good program where there is a good OC, where there is a veteran quarterback that I can learn from. That is a very interesting thought pattern for a young person. And you know, I always go back to like when I was 18, 19 years old, I was a moron. Like I would not have thought that far ahead. Yeah. And it does do seem like, oh man, being a backup for a year would suck. But Andy, you saw how fast that year went. Like it's not that long of a time. We're here now. It's time for him to be the guy. Yeah. And it did. it happened quickly.

And again, that being the quarterback at Michigan wouldn't have been awesome. I mean, he is from there and Michigan's a great program and he might've done well there, but the decision, if that's how it played out, I'm not ready for this. I need a year of development is a mature decision from somebody who I would assume has the tools, at least physically, to develop the way you would need to for a year in order to be ready.

Well, the other thing to consider about Dante Mori is he was committed to Oregon originally, and he flipped to UCLA late. And the flip to UCLA felt to me like a playing time flip. Like that job's open, I'm going to go get it. And maybe, especially because UCLA isn't known as a gang buster NIL outfit. Right, exactly. So maybe that experience taught him,

hey, maybe early playing time wasn't the number one priority or shouldn't have been the number one priority. Maybe development should be the priority. It's a, look, I think that's a very mature decision that kind of shocked us because we just don't see it happen very often. Yeah and if you make the decision then it's easier to take the leap of faith that the correct amount of work and dedication to that development will be there.

Like a lot of times people flip and change and money bags and this and that. And it's like, they're thinking about the short-term payout and not the long-term. If you have somebody who's focused on the long-term, then you are probably more comfortable in projecting that person to be better, right? Like does that thought process make you feel like he had a better year of development than somebody else would have?

Yeah, that's ducks ducks forever 87 in the chat pointing out He always liked organ decommitted after dealing with Kenny Dillingham went to Arizona State which at the time if you don't know Will Stein, cause they had to hire Will Stein. And if you don't know Will Stein and he's just coming from, from UTSA, you don't know what you're gonna get. Then you had a whole year of seeing Will Stein with Bo Nix and it's like, oh, okay.

Dan Lanning replaced Kenny Dillingham very well. Yeah, yeah. And what you always say in terms of reading the tea leaves, it's not like Oregon went out and got somebody they could plug in right away. So does that mean incompetence or does that mean comfort in what you have? With Oregon, it's certainly not incompetence because we know how they operate. Well, right. And that's, that's why I keep saying with Texas in their offensive line, like Texas has shown us in the past few years, when they have what they perceive

to be a hole, they go fill it in the portal. So if they're not filling it through the portal then you should perceive that they feel pretty comfortable. Oregon, same thing. Oregon, when they have what they perceive to be a hole they go fill it out. Example this year, Dylan Thienemann, one of the best young DBs in the Big Ten. His freshman year, he was incredible,

and it was a shock that he stayed at Purdue. This year, the Purdue Fire's Ryan Walters, the writing was on the wall at that point. But that's a guy at a position safety that Oregon has had some issues with over the years. It ain't gonna be an issue now. Yeah, yeah and like the fact that I mean like do they have a overt weakness in a personnel grouping? We don't know how good their offensive line is gonna be but I think some of those young guys are getting better. Their center whose name I will not butcher right now and would rather not is a freak of nature. They brought in Isaiah world who's like the most aptly named transfer in the, in the transfer portal this year.

He's a Nevada offensive tackle who is the size of the world. And he was one that was, was a big, everybody wanted him like Ohio state wanted him to. And then they also brought in Emmanuel Pregnant who would have been USC's best returning offensive lineman, had he not transferred to Oregon. So that was the group I was wondering, how is that gonna look? And I feel like they answered that question very well. Also, they are returning, or they added, I should say,

running back with the most yards from last year who's returning to college football. He finished ninth nationally in rushing that's Mackay Hughes from Tulane and all the eight players that were ahead of him in the rushing statistics are draft. Yeah. So and like also I don't know how much most people spend watching two lane football, but our guy Cole Kublick, who watches a ton of film, and I believe maybe on the show here in the near future, listed Hughes already as a top 10 returning player next year. So when you combine firepower at running back to replace Jordan James the next day,

like that's then that's how Oregon operates man. Jordan James off the league the next day, Hughes is in the bag. Hughes' brothers with Naeem Offord, the five star defensive back who's coming in. They've got Evan Stewart and De'Corian Moore coming back. They have Dante Moore and Austin Novasad, who was a Baylor commitment, who flipped Oregon at the lap, is still on the team. So he gives them another look at quarterback potentially, if things don't work out with Dante Moore. The defense should be very good again. I'm looking at a team that legitimately could win the national championship as soon as this year. So like also...

Look at this schedule. Look at this schedule. I just saw that for the first time. They got they got to go to State College and and by the way you and I may be in a maybe in State College on September 27. That's gonna be electric. That I gotta tell you. I love State College. I love Central Pennsylvania. I love the food. I love the food. It's called the snack belt. Do you know that? I didn't know that. They have these things. They have the oh yeah because they've got the best local chips on the face of the earth. And you know, I'm a big local chips guy. That's right. And then I don't know if this is a Pennsylvania thing. The pepperoni rolls that they serve there? Is that Pittsburgh? That's like a Pittsburgh and that area of West Virginia because if you go to Morgantown,

lots of pepperoni rolls there too. Yeah, a lot of pepperoni. Yeah, so I didn't know if West Virginia claimed it or Pittsburgh did. All I know is that they're very widely available in that region of the country and, you know, they're delicious dough with cheese and pepperoni, no sauce. Delicious. I'm gonna put down about nine of those when I go there. Well, and Oregon fans who are watching slash listening right now, if you're going to state college, Barrel 21 Distillery, thank me later.

It's spectacular. There's an on-campus sports bar in state college that had a really, really good pizza when I went there. And I can't remember what it's called. I think Champs downtown is what it's called. Very good pizza for a sports bar. We've got, and it's funny because we're focusing on that one, but that is really the, that's the biggest road trip that Indiana comes to them. We'll see, we'll see what Indiana is. They do have to go to Iowa, which is going to be

tough. That's that's always tough. And they're at Washington this year. One thing I would I want to point out because one thing the folks at scoop duck wanted us to pass along to the people because I feel like we've done a fairly good job of explaining this. But for Oregon, Washington is their biggest rival. Yes, Oregon State is a rival. That game is important, but the Washington game is the most important.

And beating Washington last year, getting back on the winning side of that rivalry was a massive, massive deal. Now I think that game at the end of the year at Washington could be pretty tough because I Don't know. I'm sure the Oregon fans pay attention to this stuff I don't know how much the rest of the country was paying attention to Daman Williams, Jr The the new quarterback at Washington who we saw in the last couple games last season

He can be really good like Jed Fisch is gonna have that team much better than last year. Yeah yeah, there's going to be a. Good football game there that day, hopefully, but very manageable schedule like this is. This is a team that could definitely repeat as Big 10 champ. Can I ask a dumb question, Ari? Yeah, go for it man. Do they want to repeat his Big Ten champ? After what happened this year like.

I mean, we always want to get to that game and rest your starters. Rhett Lashley was on the show. And he said you don't want to win your conference championship game. I think that was kind of, or was talking about why even playing it, right? Yeah. And I think that it still worked out for SMU. Obviously they lost their conference championship game

and got in. Maybe Rhett Lashley isn't the right example. Maybe it's the Lane Kiffin thought of like, do you even want to win? Yeah. It played out. It played out for Oregon. And who knows? What if Oregon would

have been Penn State shoes and Penn State was flipped? And then they they I mean, who knows Notre Dame could have beat them. It's not an easy thing to just say Notre Dame would have lost. Notre Dame was very good this year. But you play Ohio State in the title game, you get some some momentum back after a layover or hangover and you never know. I mean, I don't know. They were good enough. Who was the best team Ohio State beat on the way to the title? Oregon probably. I mean if we're going with how the season went and it happened early

enough in the bracket as a result of dysfunctional seeding that it made us not appreciate what they built there last year. Yeah, I mean, look, Texas and Notre Dame, you can compare favorably with Oregon. They're all really good, but Oregon had the best resume. So, yeah, if you're going, let's talk about what equals success here What what makes them happy with the trajectory? I just say it's go deeper in the playoff and it's interesting because Oregon. Made the first 12 team playoff and made the national title game in Los Ohio State, but they have not experienced that semi final atmosphere.

In a long time, like I think getting there would be good enough and and then you kind of just keep talking about knocking in a long time. Like I think getting there would be good enough and then you kind of just keep talking about knocking at the door and knocking. But I also think like you just said with this roster, if they get there, if things break their way, they can win the whole thing. Yeah, I think if things would have broken the right way

last year, they would have won the whole thing. Yeah. I mean, so yeah, I think that the concept of what you said about landing is true, giving them a little bit more than you did the year before. It seems like every year, cause it was, it was, you know, the first year, he's a first year head coach. The second year he loses twice to Washington, but it's close like that first right there. Regular season game against Washington with the going forward on 4th down like

he made the correct analytical decision every time it just didn't didn't work. And then you. When that big game in the regular season against Ohio State this year, the win the conference like you beat Washington. So yeah, that next logical step is you get in the playoff. You remember how it worked last year because you look you might get screwed again in the seat.

We don't know if they're going to change the seating as we sit here on February 12th. We don't know if they're going to change the way they see it. I think there will be wholesale changes to the playoff for the 26th season. I don't know what they're going to do for the 25th season, so but let's assume for now it's the same and let's say Oregon blows through the schedule and wins the big ten. There's a chance that there is

a buzz saw waiting for them as the eight seed. And they have to be ready for that. And I think- But we know, unequivocally, that whoever the buzzsaw is at the 8 seed will not be in possession of a talent that the 8 seed last year had. That's no- No. There is no team like that. But there is a chance that you're sitting there playing a Georgia or an Alabama or

somebody that has elite talent. I just don't think Oregon is going to play anybody next year where they don't have a talent advantage or at least have equitable talent. Right and they lost so far the game of their year was to a team that they had a talent disadvantage against which does not exist anymore. Huge. Yeah. So far we've seen that when Dane Lanning has equal or greater talent. He he wins or it's close. Yeah, and I think you can make it. I would say the Washington team that made the national

title game had as much or more talent than Oregon, especially in certain positions. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's fair. They they assembled it in a different way, and it was a veteran team. And I think everybody looks back at the Michigan team that won the national title two years ago and talks about how old they were. Like Washington was way older than them.

Washington was super old. And the last 10 years, I don't know. Yeah, well, and they also was in the playoff discussion and they had multiple elite receivers and they had a way better offensive line that I think people really I mean they won the Joe Moore award but Like we're gonna see how good like as the years go on So, you know several of those guys are gonna be NFL starters for a period of time Like it's not like they just stitched that thing together. That was a very talented team

Oregon not like they just stitched that thing together. That was a very talented team. Oregon, now we're gonna see though, and I think this will be interesting, as Oregon starts putting more players in the NFL under Dan Lanning, I think we're gonna see where those guys get drafted goes up. Because I think that's the thing Kirby Smart and Ryan Day, and we'll see what if Kalan Dabour can use that advantage because he inherited it from Nick Saban. But it's not just that they get a lot of players drafted.

Is they get a lot of players drafted really high. So I feel like that's the that's the difference there. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. Thinking back to the accomplishments of what you said, giving them something that he hasn't given them, he's done a lot, right? Conference champion. Did they win a conference championship in the PAC 12? Am I forgetting? Oregon did under Mario Cristobal, but not under Daly. Never under landing. So conference championship, big marquee regular season win

beating Ohio State at home, undefeated. Never done that before. And was it his first time beating Washington? Yes. That's four things he did last year that they had never done under him. Yeah. Now small sample size, but yes, he, I mean,

that's what you want. You want to see that, that level of progress. Now progress becomes much more incremental and difficult once you've done all, all this stuff. So making the college football playoff semi-final is a reasonable goal and an attainable one. I would agree. I would agree. Steve in the chat says Andy word is the ACC in the big 12 do not want seed changes, right? Can't the big 10 and SEC bully them into the changing their minds

with possible major changes controlled by them in the future? It's hard to figure out where the leverage is here because everything has to be unanimous to change anything for 2025. And so if you're the SEC, the big 10, do you waste any of your leverage trying to force anybody into doing something right now that you know you can easily do in 26?

Yeah, I don't know that you do that. I think probably you would save your bullets for 26, which may be a longer period of time and you can get more done. I think that's so interesting to me. I don't want to hijack this, but the playoff worked. I mean, it worked. Yeah, the best seem one but it didn't work for Oregon because, and I would argue it didn't work for the Big 10 because the Big 10 would like its championship game to be meaningful. And when the team that won the championship game got screwed and the team that lost got

rewarded, that's a problem. So if I were the Big 10, I would definitely want something to change. The SEC, I don't think it really affected at all, but the SEC looks down the road and says, well, it might affect him this year. Yeah, I think that doing it one through 12 makes a lot of sense. I don't have any qualms about that.

Because the other idea is, can't the committee just make the bracket and make sure those 12 teams are in it? Like that would be the other the other idea is can't the committee just make the bracket and make sure those 12 teams are in it? Like that would be the thing. It's like you can have the rankings and then they assemble the bracket based on what they think is equitable in terms of your seating and being rewarded. Because I'm assuming that's the people in the committee. I mean there's a rule for a reason. The rule is there because they want to reward conference championship. Because remember The rule is there because they want to reward conference championship. Cause remember all what was the whining all of those years when the sec got two teams into the 14 playoff.

It's not fair. You should have to win your conference. That was a nod to all of those people. I mean, in theory, they already do what I just said. They just do it in the rankings. They just, you can rank the teams based on where you think. But the thing is, if the ACC champ is your 11th ranked team and they're the third highest ranked conference champ,

that's the three seed. Yeah, right. No, I'm with you. Eliminating the bye week for the champions is my number one step. Yeah, we'll see what they do. I don't know what they're going to do. I don't have a read on.

I would assume everybody thought it looks so bad that everybody would be on board with tweaking it just for this one year anyway, because it's all going to change in 26. Like, even if you're fighting to hold on to this, because you know it has to be unanimous, Even if you're fighting to hold onto this, because you know it has to be unanimous, you know you're gonna lose it in another year. You wanna hear a bonus Wendy's hot take?

I know we are not doing that. Yeah, give me something saucy. Actually, it'd be a fresh take because it's all about Wendy's ground beef. Yeah. fresh take because it's all about when he's here's a fresh take around beef. Yeah. Uh the college football playoff will change its formatting. The way it feels will feel the same as it did this past year. I think even when they fix it, this is

gonna happen. Oh II do too II. They're they're gonna be situations where the the eight seed beats the one or the seven seed beats the two. It's gonna happen. It could have happened this year. Yeah, well it did happen this year. The eight seed did beat the one. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

In that other. And the seven seed did beat the two. Yep. I think that we're gonna keep t tinkering. I think here's the thing. I think if your goal with tinkering with this is to avoid blowouts, that's the wrong viewpoint. I think if you want to tinker with it to make it fair to the teams that earned more in the regular season, that's the right viewpoint. But I don't think there's any formula that's going to completely dismiss the regularity of the blowout. Blowouts happen in college football all the time. And blowouts happen in the NFL too. It happened in the Super Bowl, man. Like, it's football. Yep. All right, we have a little bit of news that dropped this morning, and it is highly regulatory. But it's interesting. So remember a few weeks ago when we were talking about revenue sharing is coming and the house

settlement and all that, the Department of Education dropped some Title IX guidance saying that all revenue sharing payments must adhere to Title IX guidelines. It must be split equally among men and women. Well, that guidance is now gone. That is as of this morning, no more. And we said when it happened that there's a good chance that this is going to happen. Because when was that Title IX guidance offered? It was in the last week of the previous presidential administration from a department that is going

to get radically changed by the next administration, which we knew. So that was it. I said this because also the Department of Justice issued a memo that same week saying, we don't know about this house settlement thing. My thing was Ari, and let me ask you this, if you know your job's not gonna exist on Monday, why would you go into work on Friday?

Why would you write a memo on the previous Wednesday or Thursday? What would be the point of that? Yeah. You get paid those five days? You still get paid. It's a government job. I don't know. If anything, we established anything on Tuesday. Well, so here's the quote. It's in peak NACOS story on three right now.

The NIL guidance ran through by the Biden administration in its final days is overly burdensome, profoundly unfair, and it goes well beyond what agency guidance is intended to achieve. Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Traynor said in a statement, without credible legal justification, the Biden administration claimed that NIL agreements between schools and student athletes are akin to financial aid and must therefore be proportionally distributed between male and female athletes under Title IX. Enacted over 50 years ago, Title IX says nothing about how revenue generating

athletics programs should allocate compensation among student athletes. The claim that Title IX forces schools and colleges to distribute student athlete revenues proportionately based on gender equity considerations is sweeping and would require clear legal authority to support it that does not exist. So there is that. The bigger picture thing here Ari is this revenue sharing where the schools pay the players directly is coming and we've got the house versus the NCAA case, the settlement, which is not approved yet,

may or may not get approved. The judge in the case has said preliminarily that she would approve it, but she's not positive yet. So we're gonna find that out probably in the next couple of months. But here's my Wendy's fresh take, fresh move of the week. It's gonna happen whether it gets approved or not. The schools are already set up to pay.

They've already made the deals to pay. A lot of places already changed their state laws to allow the schools to pay. They're going to do this because they've already, like the system has already got the machinery in place for it they ain't going back yeah seems like a pretty big deal in a major shift in the paradigm of sports in college though doesn't it it does it doesn't we've been talking about it and we've been trying to explain what it means and it is the reason why these NIL numbers that you've heard for players this offseason have been banana land. Why they've been so high and why

receivers who probably would have commanded like 500 grand last year are in the 1.5 million dollar range this year. It's because everybody has money. Like Iowa State had a very limited pool or Wake Forest had a very limited pool because it was based on how much you could get your donors to donate to NIL. Now, Iowa State, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Boston College, all of them can spend up to 20%.

At least, well, that's what the settlement says. If the settlement doesn't get approved, there's no cap either. Because the cap is the part of the settlement that won't get approved, that might not get approved. Because they didn't negotiate it with the players. So now you can use ticket revenue, you can use TV money, you can use athletic department revenue.

You can ask your donors to just donate to the athletic department, which they can write off on their taxes, as opposed to making them donate strictly to NIL, which they may or may not be able to write off on their taxes. Like, all of this is moving toward allowing everybody to pay quite a bit more.

So it's what we talked about with Clemson, where they don't have the biggest fan base in the world. It's very passionate, it's not huge, and that's why they didn't have this massive NIL war chest. But guess what? When Clemson can use the money from selling out that giant stadium and the money from its TV deal,

well, now they've got some money. Got a few shackles laying around. Mm-hmm Yep, so that's why those numbers are so huge and It's funny because I remember arguing with people on the internet for years about this and you'd have Actual athletic directors and and and conference commissioners who would say, there's no market for these athletes. You're acting like there will be a market and there's no market. It's so funny because it is a very competitive market. Now that we see it in, in action, we see how much somebody needs a good

receiver or how much somebody is willing to pay to get an offensive tackle they could just plug in. So Zach in the chat says everyone is guessing on NIL amounts. No, we're not guessing. We talk to people. Like we're not guessing on A's. A lot of these we're pretty aware of what the offers are. So like yeah, the money, the money that was floating around the, the, what was reported to be offered to Jeremiah Smith and Cardinal Tate, the Ohio State receivers, that's the number. Those are the numbers that were offered.

Would have been worth it too. It would have. Well, look, State made it work their wild stay. Yeah. So Raymond Horton says just fix the transfer portal. NIL is fine. I'm with you, Raymond. NIL is just a market. It's just a free market economy. Can you separate those two things? Yeah. Yeah, you do it.

Change the mechanisms of player movement without taking away their right to get paid. But NIL makes the transfer portal more obnoxious in the moment. As it correct. But under new guidelines and restrictions, it might not feel as is. Yeah. And the thing is, like what you would hope is that there would be some some ability to have contracts that people would have to adhere to. But again, if you're going to pretend they're not employees and you're going to pretend you're not paying them for football, then you're not going to be able to do that. So if the schools wanna stop pretending on this,

they can start doing some stuff. Because one of the things I think you're gonna see, and you're seeing there's a case involving a Wisconsin player trying to transfer to Miami right now, you're gonna see into these NIL deals, these clawbacks that say, if we gave you some money, you're gonna have to pay it back before you leave mm-hmm that's gonna keep you from leaving the question

is whether it's actually enforceable and if if it's an employment contract and yeah it's very enforceable but it's not enforceable if you're just pretending it's not for anything like we're just giving you this money out of the kindness of our hearts. So we'll find out. But I see everybody in the chat, Travis says, true transfer limit. Okay, again, you can't do it unless you negotiate it with the players, you can't just impose that.

I still think most people don't understand that. Like the problem schools have is they cannot just say You can't just impose that I I don't I still think most people don't understand that like the problem the schools have is they cannot just say here's what we'd like the rules to be these are the rules and the thing with that too andy is how many players actually transfer more than twice like that's like not i don't think that would cut down on the way it feels yeah it's a small group and and it's interesting because because I've been working on a story that should come out at on three later this week. Cause I was thinking about this, like the dumbest thing I've said,

and I've said a lot of dumb things in the past few months, the dumbest thing I've said, I think is that Penn State should just buy good receivers. Because I was looking at it, it's incredibly hard to buy good receivers in the transfer portal. Incredibly hard. There's not a lot of them to begin with in it. They don't transfer.

Like the numbers are crazy. So I'll give you, I'll give you a little taste of the numbers in this story. So I took the top three rounds of the draft, the last three drafts. And then I used Dane Bruegler at the Athletic, his top 100 for the 2025 draft. So there's four draft classes in there. So in that sample, there are 17 quarterbacks. How many of them do you think were transfers? 1411. In that same sample, there are 40 wide receivers.

How many of them do you think were transfers? 1111. That's right. But I just felt like. Yeah, and it's it's usually situations like Matthew Golden last year going from Houston to Texas. His coach got fired Right right Evan Stewart's coach got fired it is it is very rarely I'm happy my coach didn't leave Jordan I'm leaving like rare

Jordan Addison is very rare But if you if you dig deeper into the Jordan Addison thing, remember his first round quarterback was gone. Kenny Pickett, the offensive coordinator Mark Whipple went to Nebraska. His receivers coach Brendan Marion went to Texas. So like how many his whole world changed? How many receivers have been in the portal off the top of your head? The since Jordan Addison left pit for USC that had the Jordan Addison impact.

Like I think that like Zach Branch is the biggest one that we had this year and there are some questions about whether I would say Noah Thomas, Keon Coleman, Michigan State to Florida State. Keon Coleman was a big one. Yeah. Yeah. But and that one Mel hadn't gotten fired yet. So that that that is a more that's what you're looking at. Think about that. That was two years ago. Can't think of really many so that that that is a more. That's what you're looking, but think about that.

That was two years ago. Can't think of really many examples that stack up with that, I mean, right? And so the point of this. The point of the story is if you if you want to have a good receiver room or if you want to have a dynamic elite receiver. You better get him out of high school. What do you think?

I'm sure you're going to theorize this in the story, but what's the theory as to why the numbers shook out that way? I have talked to some people who are in personnel. And the simplest explanation, and it makes perfect sense to me, is. With receivers, also with running backs. Everyone can see.

Immediately, what the traits are that make you good at it. And also because you play one quarterback, so it's not always easy to get on the field. Most teams that throw the ball a lot regularly play five to six receivers. So if you are good, you're gonna play as a freshman. And so they prioritize retaining those guys because they've seen them produce already. Yeah. And the thing I was gonna say is, if you're a receiver who goes into the portal like Keon Coleman, it means you probably got fed a lot and were really good and everyone's excited about you. And usually receivers who get fed a lot and are really good, like, are happy.

Right? Like, you don't want to leave a situation where you're getting fed the ball a ton because all they really care about is getting fed the ball a ton yeah like I mean it's different also when when you go in now I think this will change as these front offices in college sports become more like NFL front offices where their priorities are similarly aligned and they understand more about how the game works. But it's harder for an offensive line coach to go in and tell the people running the collective. This guy is going to be great in two years.

We may not be able to play in the first two years, so you gotta you gotta pay to retain him like a starter But he's not there yet It's very easy For the coach to go in and say did you see this guy average 12 yards a catch as a freshman? He's gonna average 16 yards a catch as a sophomore. We need to pay him I think when you say to Penn State to like go get a big-time receiver Maybe your message should be go get go overspend for a high school five-star prospect Exactly, and I think that's that I think is what I'm saying

So if your Penn State like Florida's in that situation right now and Florida put in big bets on high school players They have vernell brown the third who now granted his dad played at Florida, but Dallas Wilson was going to Oregon and then they flipped him. So they're hoping one or two, one or both of those guys works because they got one receiver out of the portal, Jay Michael Sturtevant from UCLA. Like they're going to need one of those freshmen or Eugene Wilson or Aide Mizel, you know who they sign out of high school, like they're going to need somebody like that to step forward. If you're Auburn. Now, I will say there's two receivers in this

transfer class that I feel like can make well, there's a few like there's three Noah Thomas going to Georgia. Eric Singleton going to Auburn. Yeah it's a big one. And Casey Concepcion going from NC State to Texas A&M. I feel like those guys are maybe I don't know if they're the anomalies and we could we could probably go with with Nick Anderson and and Barryon Brown at LSU as well. Dane Key going to Nebraska from Kentucky. Perhaps those are the anomalies,

those are the ones where they're gonna change the trend. But I don't know if they're gonna change the trend. Because they weren't, like Anderson was hurt, the Kentucky guys, you could argue it was the offense and not them but I just don't know like they weren't maybe they weren't productive because They aren't going to be that productive Yeah Singleton is the one I'm really interested in though because Georgia Tech didn't have anybody

Else who truly scared you in that receiving core. Cam Coleman should scare everybody and now Eric Singleton is playing with him. You know what's interesting? The two most high profile receivers who transferred are Keon Coleman and Jordan Addison. Addison was a late first round pick and Keon Coleman was an early second round pick, but it's not like when you transfer as a receiver, you go from because like I I think Jordan Addison would have been a late first round pick if it would stay with a pit. I mean the guy

won the ball off. So like yeah, it's not like you're transferring and then also seeing a huge upgrade in your draft position like sometimes people transferring and then also seeing a huge upgrade in your draft position Like sometimes people leave and they go to a new school and their new school puts them in a position to get drafted three Or four rounds higher and like I don't know that that's happened now. They got drafted high So maybe I'm maybe I'm under selling where they would have gone had they not left But it's not like they trumped into the top ten as a result of their move Yeah, I don't know. Well, and that's the thing like you look at the ones that that were chosen at the top of the draft.

They are guys that were at their schools. And the thing is Jeremiah Smith who are just freaks right and but the thing is the guys at the top of the draft were all good as freshmen. They're all immediately good, or at least apparent, how good they would be was apparent the second they walked on campus. So it was a case where the schools made it a priority to keep them.

Speaking of guys that you wanna keep, let's talk about your potential breakouts. Because I love this list. I love this list and Cam Coleman is a guy we were just talking about is one of your potential breakout guys, the Auburn receiver who was a freshman last year. It kind of took him a while to get going but then by the end of the season, and I know he had a couple little nagging injuries, but by the end of the season and I know he had a couple of nagging injuries. By the end of the season, he had become their go-to target and probably you see what it can be,

especially alongside Eric Singleton. Yeah, 37 receptions for I believe almost 600 yards and eight touchdowns is the type of stat line that you say, yeah, he flashes a freshman. Like that's what you were talking about with the guys. Here's the more important part of that. He doesn't catch more than four passes in a game through September and October. Their final three games, he catches eight, seven and seven. It's a matter of him finding his place in the

offense, them figuring out how best to use him. I think they figured it out. Getting a quarterback and getting a quarterback. I think that Ryan Williams and Jeremiah Smith has altered what flashing as a freshman looks like, because Cam Coleman flashed as a freshman. Like, no doubt about it. Those who dominated as a freshman.

Yeah, this is about as good of who dominated as a freshman. Yeah, this is about as good of a year as you could like to me. This is a successful freshman year. What what Jeremiah Smith and Ryan Williams did was an exceptional freshman year that you don't see very often, but Cam Coleman has the measurables has the talent and we knew this coming out of high school. We knew I mean, Cam Coleman was in the same sentence as Jeremiah Smith coming out.

Now, one team had a quarterback that could deliver the football and didn't turn it over a bunch, and one team benched their quarterback in the middle of the year and then went back to them. I think that there's a huge, huge potential for Cam Coleman if and when Auburn improves the quarterback position

greatly this year for him to have the type of season that those two had as a sophomore. And I don't know, like everybody knows who Ryan Williams is and is talking about his, you know, nail polish, NIL deal. Do you think if you asked a random Arizona State fan who isn't a recruiting nut, who Cam Coleman is, if they would know who he is? No. I think that at this time, if they would know who he is. No. I think that will this time next year. Everyone will know who he is,

which is I think it's the literal definition of breakout player. Yeah, I I think you're exactly right. And I think that the way last season ended should tell you and also like we were just talking about when you bring in Eric Singleton. Now they had.

They had Keandre Lambert Smith last year and he was their leading receiver. He averaged 19 yards a catch. He was he was as good as you could hope for out of out of a transfer receiver which is that he was a transfer from Penn State. Singleton should allow for some of the same things where you've got to worry about where Singleton is on the field because he's one of those you play words Waldo with him, move him around. And cam Coleman, if they're focusing on Singleton, you get a one on one with cam Coleman, you throw it to him. Vice versa. If somebody's rolling a safety over the top, because they're scared of cam Coleman.

You met you play around with Singleton in the middle. It's yeah, it's very similar to what Ohio State did with Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Bucca. Yep. Yeah, I mean, I'm really excited about his future. Do you want to go through some other ones? Yeah, yeah. Okay.

I would we're going to throw Gabriel a bone because he said Arizona State mentioned again, Jordan Tyson. Yeah, back for Arizona State. That's another guy who's going to have a big year. Probably should be on the list. Yeah, but let's let's let's let the receivers made it. If you want to do receivers. Producer River helped me with one. That's Mike Matthews, the former five star receiver that's at Tennessee who entered the portal and stayed at Tennessee needs to have a big year at Tennessee. Tennessee needs a breakout receiver.

They lost seven receivers, five to the portal after last year. That's the most of any position group. The team's roster was decimated. Like if Mike is who we think he is from a physical trait standpoint, he will be the number one target for Niko next year and has an opportunity to break out. Another receiver is USC's Jacobi Lane. And he had a pretty good year, 43 receptions, 525 yards. And what really flashes with him is his ability to find the end zone with 12 touchdown receptions. Zach Branch is gone.

I know that USC, are we certain that Jayden Mayov is going to be the starter? They have Sam Hewer, the Utah transfer in Huson Longstreet, the true freshman five-star. Yeah, we're not sure. We're not sure who the starting quarterback is going to be, but I think that it's a safe assumption at the very least that if you're a receiver in Lincoln Riley's offense, you're going to get targets. So he is, he's the player that everybody at USC was was pointing to when people were freaking out that Zach Branch left. Well, you've also got Makai Lemon there who who had 760 receiving yards last

year and I think that he already broke out last year. That's why he's not it. I would agree. It wasn't him. Yeah. Yeah, but but the thing is you have Lemon, which forces people to concentrate on him and gives Lane a little better chance. When you saw that Branch left and they lost Deuce Robinson, you thought, okay, is it just going to be Jacoby Lane or just going to be Buckeye Lemon? Because you were worried about one of them leaving too. But the fact that they've got proven receivers more than one. Yeah, two.

Gives you hope that that's going to be a productive passing offense. Two receivers made the honorable mention area and then we can move on to different positions. That would be to Corrie and Moran Oregon. I didn't put them on the list because I already had two Oregon players on it. And wide receiver Chris Hilton from LSU and wide receiver Kevin Coleman from Mizzou. Those are three receivers that were in consideration. Okay, Kevin Coleman is an interesting one. He's bounced around. So he's Jackson State, Louisville, Mississippi State, now Mizzou.

Yeah. And stepping into a pretty big Ryan Wingo already broke out in the chat. He's already good or already known, I think. We've already decided that Ryan Wingo is good. Sorry, Zach. Is that, is that, do you think he could have been on the list or maybe I left him off on accident? I don't know. I felt that he was already too accomplished. That's why guys like Colin Simmons and Lenora Sellers and Arch Manning and DJ Lagway are not on it because they haven't emerged fully as stars yet, but they are household names already.

I thought that. Yeah, everybody. Ryan Wingo had already said. Producer River. I agree with Producer River, though. I don't think and Zach in the chat. I don't think Ryan Wingo is a household name yet. I think that might be because you and I follow recruiting closely.

We know him. He had some pretty big plays in the playoff and that was part of the thought process but if you want to get upset about that I won't get mad at you back. Speaking of pass catchers Andy, tight end Luke Reynolds for Penn State. I know that we don't. Big shoes to fill and I don't know if he can throw passes or run the ball. Can he snap the ball? But he is a former top end, high end, four star prospect, hard to be a five star prospect at the tight end position. Doesn't mean that he's not a five star talent at his position who steps into an already pretty talented offense with Nick Singleton and Katron Allen, Drew Aller returning. Penn State didn't go out and get, as we just discussed, a ready-made, no-doubt-about-it receiver who's going to come in and take over the world. There's a lot of targets and a large piece of that offense through the passing air that's up for grabs, and I

think that Luke Reynolds is in a prime position going into a sophomore year to be a recipient of those of those targets. So, you know, he's gonna be and he's a big kid to 642 40 pounds. We already talked about running back Mackay Hughes from Oregon. How about somebody from Texas guys running back CJ Baxter? So this isn't one of the players that would have been on the top 10 returning players list with of which Texas almost had four But this is a former five star prospect who is a bigger, stronger, tougher running back than Texas has had, and he blew his knee out before the year started. I would have loved to see the ceiling at which Texas would have been able to reach, you know, had he not gotten injured in the preseason camp, getting him back to join Contrevian Weissner is a huge, huge situation for Texas' offense and their balance.

We already talked about quarterback Dante Moore from Oregon. We talked about Coleman. Here's one that might be a little bit off the reservation, Andy, and I want to know what you think because you're a big pass rusher guy. Defensive end Will Helt, the first defensive transfer Dabo has everabo has Dabo in the portal, baby, and they have Peter Woods. Okay, and Peter Woods is good. They've got TJ Parker. We know TJ Parker is really good. You add in a edge rusher that had five sacks last year and it's still pretty early in his career to an already dominant defensive line. And then add in like some of the defensive talents that Clemson has on top of it like he could be a game record next year like it kind of reminds me of things like working a little bit from like perception versus output of last year. Well, Ryan Walters did not have a successful tenure as produce head coach. He brought in some good defensive players. Dylan Thienman, we just mentioned as as a guy who transferred to Oregon, will help as a true freshman

really flashed. And now he goes to Clemson where, look, when you got Peter Woods on the inside, life's easier on the outside. Oh yeah. Like you just saw this with the Eagles rushing four and beating the Chiefs were there. Five couldn't block the Eagles for like that's what that's

what Clemson is trying to create and look what the best Clemson team ever. Had four that would be your five every time. We're not gonna happen. We're not gonna we're not going to compare. This Clemson defensive line to that one yet. We could, I mean we could at the end of the year. Well, if we can, that'll be great. Cause that'll mean Clemson is a national title contender. But that's the thing.

We always wonder what will happen when Davos starts using the portal. This feels like getting an impact player out of the portal for Clemson. Yeah. You have Clemson pretty high in the top 10 and you had I do. I think you do that. I think it's good with the expectation that the defensive line is going to be dominant. I don't know that you

can do it without that. So I think the defensive line is going to be better. I think their offense is going to be better as well, but they needed their offense is actually fine last year like it. Once that it didn't look good against Georgia, but once they've got things figured out like that their offense was fine. Their defense was what let them down at the end of last season. So yeah, well, if I can't we talk one last one in your list.

One last one. Well, there's only one quarter or two quarterbacks on my list. Julian saying is the last one one I didn't mention. We already talked about Dante Moore. I don't know how you know there's another there's another quarterback that you threw out as you were working on it. Oh yeah. No, no, no, no. He made it. He made it. Okay. That's the grand finale. Okay. I forgot. All right. All right. But Julian Sain don't need to explain it. He is the expected starter at Ohio State next year.

Former five star prospect went to Alabama and then promptly transferred when Nick Saban retired shortly after he signed and ended up at Ohio State has been developing behind the scenes. You know, I think CJ Carr is another player who's in a similar position, didn't transfer, but as a five star who's been developing, who's presumably gonna be taking over this year.

He probably should have been on the list, but let's get to the graph. I don't really view Julian Sane as a transfer either, cuz he'd been in Alabama like two days. Yeah, but Ohio State's quarterback position is a pretty important fixture in the sport, so had to put him on the list. And then lastly, Bryce Underwood, Michigan. Semi-big recruit. I had a hard time with this because Michigan brought in

Mikey Keene from Fresno State who has 8,000 career passing yards. And that you would assume is presumably the starter next year. And was the starter in Chip Lindsay's UCF offense at the end of the 2022 season? But everything I keep reading about this kid, Andy, is that he is a talent that will not and cannot be kept off the field. So maybe you have a Kelly Bryant-Trevor Lawrence situation. Nobody in Michigan is complaining about that, right? Yeah, and these are potential breakout stars

So he might not might be might be a year from now, but I don't know that you could have written that list and then not mentioned him I Would agree with that and you're sure on more and you know that underwood is much better or Has a higher ceiling and can play at a high level early like what do you do? You put him in and I think the thing that you have to if you're Schroemmer what you've got to evaluate is Can he handle the pressure of this? Can he handle if something goes wrong? Because you're worried with a talented freshman is you don't want to break their confidence But guys are just dogs. And if you see that early, then you shouldn't feel

reluctant to put him in. Like you just let him rip, let him learn, because it can't be as bad as last year on offense for Michigan. Their defense defense we assume is still gonna be pretty good. We actually saw most of the guys that are gonna be starting on their defense in the bowl game against Alabama and they looked awesome, but the offense has to be better. It was barely functional last year. It has to be functional now and if this kid is is halfway decent and seems mentally tough enough to deal with, maybe taking a few lumps along the way, let him roll.

That's what you're paying all that money for. You know, he could be like an arch manning type player in the sense of like, he never was the full time starter, but was utilized enough and made exciting enough plays during his limited time in the game where he comes into was utilized enough and made exciting enough plays during his limited time in the game where he comes into the next season and is already too big of a name to be on the list because like Arch Manning hasn't started yet he's not on the list because everybody knows who Arch Manning is. We have started a couple games we've seen Arch Manning as the Texas starter. Yeah yeah and you know had some of that crazy legs Club Nick plays in him too or he's running

down the sideline and has a good arm. I love it. I know it hasn't taken off nationally, but in black crazy like club Nick has landed with you because that is my favorite. I mean, if you watch those touchdown hunts, his legs were going crazy. That pit game, I'm just standing there yelling at my TV,

crazy legs, it's TV, crazy legs. It's time for crazy legs. And then boom, it happens. So I, yeah, I, I am, I'm so excited about this season and I realized it's so far away and that is slightly depressing, but this is going to be a lot of fun. There's that's one thing I hope that you guys, as you watch through this off season, just make mental notes about some of these guys we're talking about because you're going to amaze your friends at the bar when you're sitting there in August and they're like, well, shoot, who's going to be good this year? And you're like, well, Auburn's got these two receivers.

And Texas A&M's got these these these guys they got in the portal. So hopefully we can help you with that. There is a way you can help us though. We have not done a mailbag show in a couple of weeks. It is time for us to answer your questions. Dear Andy and Ari, you know how to find us at Andy underscore Staples on X and Instagram at Ari Wasserman on X and Instagram. You can email me, andi staples on three at gmail.com. You can email Ari, Ari dot Wasserman at on three dot com. And we will answer your questions tomorrow. We also will be recapping. A very special crossover event,

and I believe they're probably going to give us a little video that we can. We can play on our show. It is Ari versus Brad for making. On fine bomb today. Yeah, uh. 3 o'clock central for Eastern, I think. Um, oh yeah, no, no, no. My DVR is already set.

And they've actually asked me to come on to, uh, to break it down afterward. Are you going to? Of course. Um, so let me ask you this. How is, how do you think Fine Bomb's gonna do this with me? Like, do you think he's gonna? He's gonna let Brad, he's gonna let Brad talk. Paul, Paul, so you and I have talked about this behind the scenes. I don't know if we talked about this on the show. Paul the pundit who goes on first take or who goes does the Sports Center hits and is highly opinionated or when he comes on our show like those are strong opinions he offers about everything. When Paul is hosting his own show, he

lets the guests and the callers handle the strong opinions. I just hope that I don't want to debate him about nonsense. I want to debate him on the thing that he called into make a point about. So I don't know what the question is going to be, but like I'm going to make sure that we are on point here, which is what did you not like about me saying that the seating was right and what is your perception of what the committee did wrong? And I want to, I'll have a frank discussion about that. I can't wait to hear it. I mean, you're a big tenor, according to him.

Yeah, I'm a big tenor. But, you know, it is, even if I am, what're a big tenor according to him. Yeah, yeah, I'm a big tenor, but you know it is. Even if I am, what did they do wrong? Even though you went to a school that was then in the Pac 10 and is now in the Big 12. Yeah, but yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully we can get the clip for the show tomorrow and you know. Never thought that this was going to happen, but I will be locked in and ready. Oh, I've been in touch with Brad. We may do a home at home. We may bring Brad on this show too. We'll see how it goes. If we feel like we need a round two, we'll bring Brad on this show. I don't think this is gonna be

like a Tyson Holyfield thing. Like I don't think anybody's ears gonna get bitten off but I am so excited for this because Brad is pure passion, pure energy. I don't know how rational his arguments gonna be. In fact, I'm pretty sure it won't be. And I think that's gonna throw you off. Yeah, it's kind of like going to a poker table and playing with somebody who's never played before and like anticipating that they're making rational decisions and then making decisions based on that and then losing you know it's like almost harder to play poker with people who don't know what

they're doing than it is against good players because at least good players know when to fold and all this stuff. So for people who don't know Brad is a fine bomb caller from making Georgia George's right I think Georgia's a fan, right? I think he's a Georgia fan, I'm assuming. I know he's an SEC guy. I mean, he has called into the fine bomb show and criticized me pretty relentlessly after spots that I've done.

And we got, I don't know if you guys remember the last fine bomb spot, but I went on after the first round of the playoff to defend the college football, uh Playoff committee because there was this notion from sec hued people that The committee is responsible for the playoff and that they messed up somehow and what I am waiting to hear Is how specifically did they mess up and what the solution is from the people who did it and guess what you haven't heard that because there's no answer to that it's bullshit so you know we're gonna I can't say that

on ESPN I had to let one out now but like it is I'm glad I'm glad we could be your safe space I'm looking forward to hearing whatever thing it is because he will deal in in the past and he will deal in emotion and I will deal in fact and I think that usually when those two things happen it will the results will that will bear out. I like the confidence I like the confidence I have not I'm gonna have to get with the the boys in the desert we're gonna to handicap this thing before it starts. I just hope that I have enough time to speak.

Do you think Brad will give you more or less time than I do? I've been talking over you a lot lately. I think that the thing that I was disappointed with, and I told this to Paul, was I was disappointed that when he brought me on the show to have a debate with him, he didn't debate me. He just let me rant for eight minutes and then hung up. So like I am looking forward because I haven't had, there are a lot of people out there on Twitter and in bars across the country who have this perception that the committee was negligent and I'm just trying and I

have never had a discussion with anybody who could give me a rational discussion of like what they did wrong and what they should have done. Like if your thought pro and it sounds even stupider now to say that they should just put Alabama in. Like it didn't sound as dumb at the beginning of the tournament but at the end of it it's like oh god, is that your solution? That's your king? What's the salute? Like, yeah, what is it? Tell me what I can't wait. What should I have done? We will, we will recap it all on tomorrow's show. Plus your questions. You know how to find us at anyOwnerShore staples at Ari Wasserman, Andy Staples on three gmail.com, Ari.Wasserman at on three.com.

Send us your questions. And wish Ari luck because I can't wait to watch this. I am very, very excited.