Andy & Ari On3 - How does Ohio State's Ryan Day BOUNCE BACK? | Can Dylan Sampson RUN Tennessee to a win against Bama?

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

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(0:00-4:47) Intro(4:48-21:35) Discussion of Oklahoma, QB Situation(21:36-27:25) Penn State Fan Trolls USC, Continued(27:26-37:40) Georgia at Texas preview, Presented by PrizePicks(37:41-43:04) Jeff Sims named Starting QB at Arizona State(43:05-52:07) Dear Andy & Ari: Ryan Day, Ohio State(52:08-1:00:58) Starting to worry about the program at Alabama?(1:00:59-1:07:15) Is Tennessee RB Dylan Sampson underrated?(1:07:16-1:14:52) Big Ten CFP Dominoes(1:14:53-1:20:42) Clogging a Toilet at a Friend's(1:20:43-1:24:14) Defining "Grab Ass"(1:24:15-1:25:31) Conclusion; See you Saturday! It’s a Dear Andy/Dear Ari day, and your questions are spectacular. But first, some news. Quarterback Jeff Sims, last seen at Nebraska not having a great time, will start for Arizona State this week against Cincinnati in place of the injured Sam Leavitt. Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said he and QB Jackson Arnold have discussed redshirting but that Arnold is prepared to play if needed. Penn State coach James Franklin FaceTimed the Nittany Lions fan who paid to run out of the tunnel with the USC team just before it played Penn State. We’ve also got your Georgia-Texas Prizepicks preview. Can Georgia QB Carson Beck keep pace with Texas QB Quinn Ewers in a shootout? Now it’s time for your questions… How can Ohio State coach Ryan Day be more like Dan Lanning? Should Alabama fans be worried about the longterm health of the program? Is Tennessee back Dylan Sampson the most underrated back in the nation? Watch us on YouTube instead! https://youtube.com/live/b8oF-izZFM8 Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by Wendy's. It is a Dear Andy and Dear Ari day. Your questions will drive the show and you have some tremendous questions. Tremendous questions. Ari, we're going to talk a little Ryan Day. And I know you have a column add-on 3 that people can read about Ryan Day. We're also going to talk about Dylan Sampson, tennessee back as we head into the alabama game we are going to talk about big 10 tiebreakers we're going to talk about all kinds of things it's a it's gonna be a fun show

you got the spectacles on today which means you're going to be super intellectual right i'm going to be as serious as humanly possible well you know there was a guy who got mad at the question i asked kurt signetti about the nebraska fan who'd said he would shove an ear of corn up you know where if indiana won the game and he said it was classless so i'm trying to class up the show a little bit i don't want mr cabot on twitter to think that we don't have class as a show because we are the world's number one college football podcast like you you can look at the podcast charts it's not we're the world's number one right now like we're just behind uh the the the new grok show and we're behind the kelsey brothers but like neither of us is dating taylor

taylor swift neither of us is in a buffalo wild wings commercial so i think we're doing pretty well and you know there there are no we're america's top college football podcast but there are no college football podcasts in other countries other than the the college football lads who i i have been on their show in Great Britain. But I believe we're ahead of them on the charts as well. So I think we're number one. I've seen that we're pretty big in Cambodia too. So that's good.

Don't just limit us to America. Yeah, it feels good. We're worldwide. Nathan, who did not ask a question today, but usually asks question he's in tel aviv so this is this is the classiest college football podcast at least when i have my glasses on yeah also too uh i don't know if this is gonna disagree with any point you just made but like we're not here to be classy we're here to be fun like we're here to enjoy the sport that we love we're here to make people laugh we're here to analyze it so you can learn something we're not here to be classy. We're here to be fun. Like we're here to enjoy the sport that we love. We're here to make people laugh. We're here to analyze it so you can learn something. We're here for a lot of things, but you know, I don't have a Medill degree behind me for a reason.

You know what I mean? Like I'm just trying to have a good time. Wow. I mean, we've worked with plenty of Medill grads. I wouldn't do people outside of our world even know what that means. No, but people in our world hear about it a lot. Medill is the name of the journalism school at Northwestern. Ari, I don't know, is the College of Journalism at the University of Arizona, is it named after someone? It's going to be named after me after the show explodes. Oh, okay.

Well, good. See, I'm planning on getting my name on the University of Florida Journalism School, although I think it's probably going to be Bob Vila sooner rather than later. He is the most famous graduate. I think in journalism, we had Jeff Goodman at Arizona, which is a pretty big name if you're a college basketball person. Shane Bacon, who is an incredibly handsome man who covers golf and like has like literally living the best life of anybody I've ever met. We were at the paper together at the same time and, uh, and me, right? So Bacon Wasserman Goodman would be a pretty cool law firm or the name of, uh, Arizona's

journalism school. We'll see the Wasserman school of journalism and other classes stuff. That is Scott's suggestion. Wasserman Bacon Goodman bacon goodman i like it so you know it's uh it's a bacon sandwich like i would definitely hire washerman bacon and goodman to get me out of jail and if i'm forgetting somebody that went to u of a who's super successful i'm sorry those are just the people in sports i know well i mean here's the thing like aaron andrews israel gutierrez from espn andrea adelson from espn like we were all at uf at the same time but none of us hold a candle to bob vila so that's what we're trying to do we're trying to build this show up so that it becomes bigger than this old house was at its height, so that I can then be the most famous University of Florida journalism grad.

But I got a ways to go. I got a ways to go. We're working on it. We're working on it. Yeah. All right. We got to talk. Well, dear Andy, dear Ari,

I'll throw a question out right off the bat, because it feeds into something we got to talk about anyway. It's from Brian. Dear Andy and dear Ari, I'm so sorry you had to watch that. Signed Seth Luttrell. Seth Luttrell is Oklahoma's offensive coordinator. He's saying he's apologizing for what we had to watch at the Red River shootout, which was not a shootout. It was a, it was, it was bad. It was, it was a bad game for, for everybody. And this has been an interesting week at Oklahoma. I feel like there's been some soul searching offensively. And I wrote a story about this at on three and you can read,

you know what I said, because I felt like after two weeks, the best thing they could come up with was this super complicated, uh, counter like with sprint draw action thing. Like this is, they were, they, they went into the Texas game going,

this is the stuff that's going to work against Texas. Missing our top five wide receivers with an offensive line that can't block very well and a true freshman quarterback. And so they came up with this super complicated like Rube Goldberg contraption of an offense. And of course it didn't work. Of course it didn't work. So now hopefully they've simplified things for the South Carolina game because Ari, I'm worried about Oklahoma. I am worried about them with this schedule going forward.

I'm worried about Oklahoma going forward in this current season, and I'm worried about Oklahoma long-term. I'm not as worried about them long-term. Okay, so talk me off the ledge then. Tell me the way out of this. The biggest reason it look the receiver thing is bad luck you can't control that the biggest reason they are as bad as they are on offense is in the in in the recruiting classes of 2021 and 2022 they just decided not to sign

high school offensive linemen which knowing you were going into the SEC in that 22 class, like that is, it's real bad. Now, what happened between 2021 and 2022, Lincoln Riley left so that you were in a coaching transition class. So that was going to be tough to sign high school, like blue chip high school offensive lineman. 21, I'll just chalk that up as malpractice on the Riley staff. Now, of course, Bill Biedenboe

the the offensive line coach was on both staffs he stayed after Riley left but basically what happened was Ari they decided hey we're not sure about this NIL thing Biedenboe was not real big on the NIL stuff at first and they're like we're not going to play that game. And so really good offensive linemen didn't want to sign with them. So they only signed four high school offensive linemen in the classes of 2021 and 2022 combined. That is not nearly enough. You should be signing at least for a year. And for, for comparison's sake, Oklahoma and I'm sorry, Texas and Georgia, who will play against and I'm sorry, Texas and Georgia, who will play against each other on Saturday, Texas and Georgia signed nine each in those two classes

combined. So Georgia, I believe went four and five, Texas actually went two and seven. Cause remember 21 class was a transition class for Texas, but Sark's first full cycle class. He signed seven offensive linemen. Three of those guys currently start all of the class, he signed seven offensive linemen. Three of those guys currently start. All of the starting offensive linemen for Texas were signed in the classes of 21 and 22. Four of the five were signed for Georgia in the classes of 21 and 22, and Xavier

Truss was 2019. So that's how you have to do it. Like the only way to be successful in the sec, like the bare minimum, the cost of admission. If you want to be good in the sec is you have to sign lots of high school offensive linemen and you have to develop them. Like you cannot portal an off an effective offensive line. If you want to be at the top of the sec and Oklahoma is paying for that right now,

that is not something you can fix right now. But if you look at their class of 24 and you look at their class of 25, they're fixing it. They're working on it. The NIL part of it, Biedenbaugh, who's an old school guy, but he's been like, okay, I understand. We got to do this. We got to play this game. Oklahoma's now playing that game i think they'll get out of that eventually it might take another year i think they'll get out of it though but it doesn't help them right now yeah well also too the thing that you know about offensive lineman andy is that you're not fixing that problem immediately with high schoolers either

right like it takes correct that's what i It takes two or three cycles to get them into the program. Yeah, it's probably 2026 when you're feeling pretty good about it again. Okay. So now let's go back and discuss Oklahoma's time arc here of when they have to be good before things start getting bumpy for that coaching staff. I don't know. I don't think Oklahoma fans are at the fire Venables stage at this moment.

I don't know that they should be yet. But what if they go 8-4 or 7-5 next year because their offensive line still isn't good enough? They're going to have to hit the portal in the offseason anyway to add some offensive linemen. But that gap of two years that you just described is a four- or five five year problem to me. Well, the thing is two, two are the years, three of the years have already happened. So yeah,

it's, it's a two year problem now. And yes, you, you're going to have to be very effective in the portal to bridge it next year. But here's what I'm saying about the offensive staff. You've got to figure something out now. And I, I know I use this Don Draper quote all the time. That's what the money's for. Seth Luttrell makes $1.1 million a year to be their offensive coordinator. Figure it out.

Like that's why you get paid that much. Yeah. Figure out something that works because you have to, because here's the thing. If they don't figure it out, they're going to lose a bunch of games this season. Brent Venables is going to fire Seth Luttrell. And, you know, Biedenboe may stay,

but that may be it. They may clean out the offensive staff. But Venables will go into the offseason just answering questions about job security, which is no way to recruit. So they got to figure it out right now. Which is why I'm scared long-term. There's a way out.

I'm not saying it's hopeless, but there is some turbulence on the horizon. And the other thing, too, which we talked about after the game on Saturday and on the podcast, I believe, on Monday, is if you're uncertain of your offensive line, it makes it incredibly hard to evaluate your quarterback, and they're going to have to make a quarterback decision this offseason one way or the other. Wait, I'm glad that it may not be this offseason.

I'm glad you brought that up because Brent Venables got asked about that on Tuesday. Here's his answer. Somebody asked, basically, no holds barred, are you guys talking redshirt with Jackson Arnold? Brent, given what's kind of the current state of college football and how things are always evolving with Jackson playing only the four games, has there been any discussion about him possibly taking the rest of the year

as a redshirt or, you know, just maybe he gets in there in case of injury? Has that been discussed at all? It's been discussed between us. You know, what was told to Jackson, we put you in, it's because we need you to help us go win. And, you know, we're certainly sensitive to everything. We're not sitting here with our head in the sand or naive to what it is, but, man, he's a great teammate.

He wants to be the starting quarterback at the University of Oklahoma. His focus and his priority is with the team where he is right now. He's practiced extremely well the last couple of weeks. I feel that it's only right to give Mike the opportunity to be the quarterback and to have, again, a body of work, you know, that says he's either is or isn't the right guy. And what he learned from, you know, his past mistakes, every week is a season of its own. As we know, every opponent is going to present different issues and problems.

Every week that you play, offense or defense, the kicking game, there's always a different – there's some DNA that you're going to do that is always going to be the same. Things that you can hang your hat on. And then there's always, you got a game plan. And so you want to give guys an opportunity to show how well they can quickly, they can pick up those things and execute them on game day, things of that nature. So Jackson's been fantastic, all things considered. He's taken it in a really tough-minded way, and he's ready to play. And if he wasn't, he wouldn't still be here every day. And it would be the same with, we've got a handful of receivers,

they're dying to play. So that's where Jackson Arnold's at. And, you know, it's a tough spot for him because I imagine he would like to preserve this year, but he's put in all this at Oklahoma. He wants to be the quarterback at Oklahoma. He committed to Oklahoma in 2022 already. Like, this guy's been in for a while with the sooners and now he's gotta gotta figure out what comes next now it sounds like he's ready to go in and play and burn this year of eligibility if it comes to that but the question is like how does that decision get made if you're brent venables

if michael hawkins isn't working great do you do you go to jackson arnold be like okay are you ready to do this because because once you go in that's it i want to understand your math even if he red shirts this year why would he stay well what what if he's supposed to be the starter next year but i said they're gonna have to make a quarterback decision this offseason and he said maybe not this offseason i'm trying to figure out well no they managed to make it now oh okay i thought you meant like in the future. I'm like, I don't understand the math. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, they, they, uh, they are going to continue to evaluate their quarterback during a time in which it's very hard to evaluate quarterbacks. Right? Like it's just, if you look at the tape,

if you're not calling plays that are putting your quarterbacks in the best position, as you broke down in your column this week, then how do you rightfully or accurately judge Michael Hawkins and what he's capable of and who should be the guy? You know, like if you are concerned or worried that Jackson Arnold isn't the guy for reasons that are outside of his concern, then this is a very, or outside of his ability, right? Like the notion here, Andy, is that Michael Hawkins is starting because his elusiveness gives you the best chance behind an offensive line that can't block. That has no bearing on Jackson Arnold's skill set in the right system. So when you are putting together your roster for not just the rest of this year, but for next year, if you have incomplete tape for Michael Hawkins' ability because you're not putting him in a good position offensively through the play calling, and you're not putting him in a good position offensively through the play calling and you're not putting Jackson Arnold into the game because he can't effectively be himself

without turning the ball over or getting sacked every other play then when you make that decision because that decision is going to happen have to happen in the next few weeks or into the offseason it's a very uncomfortable position to be in when you're making that decision yeah now i i am uh fascinated by this because it's a decision they have to make essentially if they feel like michael hawkins is not giving them the best chance to win because the injury part we understand like if michael hawkins gets hurt jackson arnold's in the question is if it's if it's a question of effectiveness and you want to maybe try something else that's when you have to have that conversation. Because if you're not going to be the guy, and it sounds like they want to give Michael Hawkins every chance to be the guy.

Did they give Jackson Arnold every chance to be the guy? Well, that's the thing that I'm curious about. Like, let's just say OU loses this weekend, and then they go back to Jackson. Did you do the right thing with Jackson? Like, I think that that is an interesting situation because the issue at play here is still going to be an issue if you put Jackson Arnold in the game.

The offensive line didn't automatically or all of a sudden get infinitely better. You're still going to be putting him into the same situation you removed him from. So what does that tell you about the decision-making process to begin with? And does that damage the growth or the potential trajectory of the quarterback that was supposed to be your future? Which goes back to the same things that I was talking to you about a month ago when this happened. And a reminder, they're playing South Carolina this weekend.

They're at Ole Miss after that. They get Maine at home, then Missouri, Alabama, LSU to close the season. South Carolina's got some dudes on their defensive line, don't they? Yeah. Yeah, South Carolina has lots of dudes on their defensive line, and the edges are are really really good so this is going to be a really really fascinating situation because that that can roll downhill very quickly if oklahoma does not now i think oklahoma's defense keeps them in most of those games uh the line has dropped to a point and a half we have two and a half is when we pick

this game the lines drop to a point and a half in favor of oklahoma and i saw some folks in the chat saying how is oklahoma even favored well if you think about it they're all they're giving them is the three-point home field advantage here like that's the only reason they're even favored at this point yeah this was a neutral site game south carolina be favored playing points in any situation with any situation with Oklahoma right now is kind of a hard proposition, especially after reading that story you wrote. It's just like... It's tough. There's not an easy solution

because I can say, Seth Luttrell, you make seven figures, figure it out, but that is much easier said than done. There's not a lot of threading that needle of figuring out how to run things that are simple enough that your true freshman quarterback can handle it, but also that your offensive line can manage because you can be simple, but that also makes you simple to stop if you're being physically overpowered.

So it's going to happen from time to time. Yeah. It's just, it's, it's, it's crazy to me that Texasxas like because you look at the way texas was managed for decades well decades but the past decade and the way oklahoma was managed for the past decade and it's shocking that texas came in so much more prepared to be in the sec than oklahoma did but this is why this this is the reason i think part of the reason too is that oklahoma has traditionally recruited far worse than texas too i don't know that it's part of it but but they've always had i mean in the since speed and bow's been there and he goes back to the you know when stoops is the head coach they've always had good offensive lines he's run you know universally revered as one of the best teachers

of offensive line play but he was involved in this too So I'm not saying he's blameless here. I think the path for Texas. They didn't give him enough raw material. I think the path for Texas to being situated from a roster standpoint the way they are now for Sark was shorter than it was for Venables when he took over. Is that a fair thing to say? I think that's true, and I think Texas has done a good job,

not just with the high school recruiting, but also with the portal part of it. But the offensive line is all high school. Let's give Kyle Flood his flowers. Former Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood, he's their O-line coach. He's done a really good job with that group. And Andy, too, just not the ideal time to be having a program crisis if you're Oklahoma. No, first year in the SEC is the worst possible time.

Because this is the type of conference, too, where South Carolina, if they were still in the Big 12, might have been like Texas Tech. You know what I mean? Teams that you might be in. Texas Tech is a pretty good team this year, but you get what I'm saying. Every single week,

you're playing against a team that has dudes like South Carolina does on their defensive line. You don't get a break in this conference. So if you have a war to win. You're basically like your post-Texas schedule isn't Texas Tech and Kansas anymore. Yeah. Like South Carolina is their easiest remaining SEC game,

and they're only favored by a point and a half. That's what that tells you. That schedule is freaking brutal. It is. They, they did not get in haze. They're like, why are they getting haze more than Texas?

I don't know, but they're getting haze. Let's go to a question from haze. And this is a very good one. Y'all were talking about the Penn state fan running through the tunnel. The ultimate would be if a Gamecock fan bought his way to run down the hill at Clemson. All right. Is that the ultimate? We were talking about this yesterday and I was saying, you know, in certain SEC and Big Ten

stadiums, if you let this happen, what happened with the the Penn State fan Jordan's I believe is his name who paid like 1500 bucks to run out of the tunnel with the USC football team and did it in full Penn State gear if you did this the AD would get fired the next day at multiple SEC and Big Ten schools but I think I think Hayes is right like Clemson would be the worst because you are running down there like imagine some dude running down the hill in Garnet. It would never happen, obviously. They would never let that happen, which is why USC is an unserious program. But just imagine. We have to do an investigation of who even offers this.

I didn't even know USC did this until I saw this happen. But could you imagine a USC fan, USC fan running down the stairs at Notre Dame and hitting the Play Like a Champion sign? Oh, hitting the Play Like a Champion sign. Oh, my God. That would be amazing. We should start this trend of opposing fan bases, infiltrating pregame traditions with the team.

How much money can you pay to get as close as possible to a team yeah and how close can you get to like doing what they do um but i have a feeling they're gonna be ultra aware of this moving forward because yes you know it's like college football just in general too it's like oh this will be great don't think it through and then something hilarious happens and then like all of a sudden you have to like think about things that you should have thought about from the beginning yeah i i mean the troll factor in college football is so high because clearly what usc folks didn't didn't think about the the administration didn't think about is what if an opposing fan did this they just assumed well nobody's gonna pay that and only our fans would pay that like no the value of this troll is so much higher than the dollar amount he had to pay to pull off the troll like it's so much higher

it's incredible so uh our guy jordan by the way got a thank you call from Penn State head coach James Franklin. Jordan, you are the man. An epic experience. That was hilarious. It's funny because I saw you. You know, I'm kind of busy, so I'm not really kind of thinking about it. I'm like, why is there a Penn State fan like down here? He goes, I think you said something like, let's go, boys.

Let's go, boys. Let's go. So it almost seemed like you, like, were a partner, kind of like leading us out on the field. Yeah, no, it was absolutely wild. Never expected it to go as viral as it did in the last day or so. I love that. I love it.

You got it done. I just wanted to take a minute and call you and your creativity and your thoughtfulness and obviously your passion for Penn State's really cool. So I just wanted to take a minute and give you

a call and I can't tell you how much we appreciate your support. Yeah, no, I greatly appreciate it. Go kick butt the rest of the year and we're looking forward to making it back to Beaver Stadium at some point this year. 1-0, 1-0 CJF, 1-0. That's right, that's right. Hey, thank you so much brother.

Have a great day. Alright, thanks. Right back at you. We are. Penn State. See you brother. Have a good one. That's pretty cool.

That's pretty cool. So that's the guy. That's pretty cool. So that's the guy that ran out with you. That is amazing. Now, here's my question, Ari, because we covered a lot of these major blue blood programs. Usually, if you want that much time with the head coach at a major blue blood program, it's going to cost you. It's probably going to cost you, like we're talking maybe like a $5,000 a plate

fundraising dinner sort of cost you. So Jordan got a bargain. The worst part about those fundraisers too is that they serve you wedding food there. Oh yeah. It's never good food no yeah please cater that with like a barbecue place if you're gonna do it it's there's no reason to do rubber chicken and when people are forking over that much money it's probably not

gonna cost you anymore to put it on but we're way too uh early into the season uh or way too late into the calendar however you want to look at, for me to go on my wedding food rant. Well, we don't need to worry about that. I just want to reinforce again what a genius Jordan is for this because he got what normally would cost you $5,000 to $10,000 as the fan of a a blue blood program or well like the the running through i'm not sure what the dollar figure was that the the booster paid i don't think we ever found out but i think it's a like six figure type donation that the tennessee booster had to pay to

run through the t so because it really remember penn state comes out of the same tunnel in the coliseum so essentially he was leading penn state onto the field what a bargain let's go boys oh i love it all right all right we got to do our prize picks preview of the biggest game of the week. Georgia at Texas. There's an F1 race. Austin's going to be popping. I've had one Georgia fan send me his complete itinerary from Thursday through Sunday. I don't know how in the world they're going to eat this much without exploding, but I'm impressed with the planning. This game is going to be incredible. Now, if you want a more detailed breakdown of Quinn Ewers and Carson Beck, we've got videos on the On3Sports YouTube channel about both of those guys in this game. So by all means,

watch those as well. But I think we've talked about this a lot already this week. Do we agree that this is probably a shootout and that the only way Georgia wins is in a shootout, right? What is the definition of a shootout? Are we talking like 38, 35? Everybody's in the 30s or more. I think that if Georgia is going to win they will both have to score 30 yeah or i mean they'll have to score 30 points so if that's if that's the answer to your question then yes yeah so i look at these prize

picks numbers like quinn ewers 255 and a half passing yards, more or less. And if you're not playing prize picks already, download the app. Use the code STAPLES. Play $5. Get $50 instantly. You're picking squares. So basically, you've got a player, statistical category. You decide if they're going to do more or less. You pick at least two squares.

The more squares you pick, the higher the potential payout. For Quinn Ewers in the Georgia game, the square is 255 and a half passing yards, more or less. And the last three games he's played, now one of those is a game he got hurt in, so it's hard to say there, but the Oklahoma game and the Michigan game, he didn't have to go more than this for them to win. Now, I do think he's going to have to do that this time because he's playing a functional offense. Yeah. I think that Quinn Ewers is in a position to where, you know, and I don't know if this is like just a narrative that's been beaten to death, Andy, but like I think that since Quinn came into college football and was quickly recruited behind by Arch Manning,

that there is this way that we forget about what his recruitment was and who he was supposed to be. Right. And for the first few years of his career in college, he has gotten incrementally better after transferring from Ohio State to Texas. But I don't know if we have seen, even at points last year, that he is a bona fide stud, star, right? Like, I don't know if you think that's wrong. But this year... I think he's become what he was supposed to become in recruiting.

I think he definitely has. I think that he has become a very, very good quarterback and potentially a first round pick. But like this is the game that Quinn Ewers at the final destination of what he was supposed to be. This is like the final boss. Like, I almost feel like i want to write about this like if when yours leads texas to a win here thinking about when he initially committed to texas under tom herman when he flipped and when he came back what that program was to what they can be and what they are now with a win over georgia is like the full making good on a promise. Like, does that make sense?

Like that is the fullest extent of like five star fantasy come reality. Now I think that there it's been a slow burn. He's been injured a lot in his career. I don't know that he has become like Trevor Lawrence was when he was at Clemson yet. Right. Like that's what five star, I think. Yeah.

I mean, Trevor Lawrence is a pretty unique case he led the team to national title as a true freshman that it's not yeah that's not normal but when Quinn Ewers was a recruit people were saying he was the best quarterback prospect of all time like it so when I compare him to people like Trevor Lawrence it's because that's what we thought he was when he was right that's was. Yeah, that's where he that's who he actually was compared to as a recruit. But I think that like he doesn't have to play the biggest game. But if he plays a game like he did when we saw him in person at Michigan, where he's efficient, he moves the chains, he makes some some really good throws in the tight

windows, plays within himself, doesn't turn the ball over. Texas has a really good chance or probably a probable chance to win this football. Yeah, I don't know that he even has to put up huge numbers here, plays within himself, doesn't turn the ball over. Texas has a really good chance or probably a probable chance to win this football game. Yeah, I don't know that he even has to put up huge numbers here because I think a lot of that depends on what happens on the other side. Now, Carson Beck is an interesting case here because you go back to that Kentucky game, he only throws for 160 yards. But the Alabama game, they get in trouble. They get down 28-0.

He throws for 439 and leading them back. And if not for that incredible ryan williams catch along the right sideline georgia maybe wins that game so he's got two 400 yard games this year including last week against mississippi state and of course the alabama game so like we've seen him do this against a defense in alabama that has the same athletic profile as the Texas defense, the same level of athlete as the Texas defense. So it's possible.

So Carson Beck's passing yardage numbers, two 65 and a half. If you want to go real wild and, and add in his, see if he can run for five yards and not take any sacks. Uh, you can go for the passing plus rushing yardage number of 270.5, but the 265 and a half, he's got to go more than this. If Georgia is going to win this game, I just, I just think

Texas can be able to score too much on the other end. I like this can't be your typical Georgia boa constrictor game like that. I don't think they can win that way. I think they have to go win in a shootout. Now, here's the thing about Georgia. They've shown over the past three years that they can win games multiple ways. What do I always talk about? If you want to compete for national titles, you've got to be able to win games multiple ways. Ari, I think Georgia can do that.

Yeah, it's also too like I wrote a column after Georgia's loss to Alabama that I felt more confident in their ability to win the national title than I did before the game. And I think people were kind of caught off guard by that. But the reason why I thought that, Andy, is because to, first of all, I never would have thought in a million years that Georgia was built to play from behind right now. And that might have been no softer coverage or second half trying to get

out of the game for Alabama or just a mixture of a bunch of things but they proved that they could put up points with explosive plays in the passing game repeatedly in that situation and i was uh uncertain that they could do that in any situation against anybody right like we didn't know who their receivers were going to be or the guy who was going to step up and multiple people made amazing plays down the stretch of that game. And Carson back through for 476 yards, right? Like almost 500 yards in that game. If he can throw for 350 in this game, I think Georgia is going to win. Yeah. I I'm looking at some, some interesting prize pick squares. The one I one i i was most intrigued by is gunner helm the the texas tight end uh 32 and a half receiving yards more or less uh there's also

a demon square for gunner hell and the demon square is a higher potential payout of 0.5 rushing and receiving tds now uh gunner helm has scored touchdowns in the Michigan game and in the Oklahoma game. So that's good. It seems to show up in the big ones. But the touchdown thing is a little more chance. The 32 and a half receiving yards, more or less. I feel pretty good about more than on this one. Because I think he's going to have...

He feels like an X factor in this Texas offense. And this is the type of defense that your X factor has to play well against. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And the hardest thing with Texas, and part of the reason why I feel comfortable with Quinn Ewers passing more than, is because they have a slew of options. And sometimes it's hard in games like this to pick which ones it's going to be.

Like one week it's Wingo, one week it's Isaiah Bond, another week it's hard in games like this to pick which ones it's going to be you know like one week it's it's wingo one week it's uh you know isaiah bond another week it's helm like you don't know it's it's hard for me to pick like which person i think it's going to be but when the quarterback's just you know dialing up all of them then you're in a good position so like i think quinn's gonna probably i feel very comfortable with his passing output and the touchdown ones are just fun. Like I just like knowing who to root for when they get in the red zone, you know, college fantasy at its finest.

Yeah. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch this game. This is exactly what everybody had in mind when Texas joined the sec. And I can't wait. The spectacle is going to be spectacular. The adding the F one race, and of course, a Texas game is the perfect place to have the bougie F1 crowd also there.

Because Texas, bit of a wine and cheese crowd, though they can get loud. Obviously, there's 100,000 people in the stadium. But they are the bougiest program in college football and so georgia coming in like this is exactly what you want i'm so excited for this game don't know who's gonna win it but like that gunner helm more than 32 and a half i do feel pretty good about that i never understood the wine and cheese thing i've had some pretty wild nights with some wine and cheese. I don't know about you.

If you replace the wine with whiskey, the night gets wilder. That's pretty much it. I think the drunkest I've ever been in my life was off a wine once. Well, the worst hangovers are wine and champagne, for sure. Yeah. There's no tequila. You get the right wine that kind of feels like grape juice. And, you know, the big fella's getting after it.

Oh, we're going to we're going to have Ari just take us through his favorite varietals later. But one more piece of news before we get to the to the dear Andy and Ari proper. Jeff Sims, a name you may not have heard in a while. He's going to be starting quarterback at Arizona State against Cincinnati this week. Sam Levitt went out in the Utah game. Sims, remember, former starter at Georgia Tech, former starter at Nebraska. His time at Nebraska was an unmitigated disaster is probably not even strong enough. Like it was bad.

There were so many turnovers, but I like this guy. I like what he did this off season. I was fascinated by, I thought it was really smart the way he handled his situation because obviously he was coming off a terrible stretch at Nebraska, but he wanted to be a power conference quarterback. He wanted to have a chance to, but he wanted to be a power conference quarterback. He wanted to have a chance to play in a power conference. And so instead of just jumping to a school in the winter portal where there were some people looking at him going, I don't know, after what they saw in Nebraska. He went and finished his degree at Georgia Tech and trained.

So he spent most of the spring training in Atlanta, finishing his degree at Georgia Tech and trained. So he spent most of the spring training in Atlanta, finishing his degree at Georgia Tech. So smart guy, he's got a Georgia Tech degree and then waiting for something to happen. And that something turned out to be Jaden Rashada leaving and going to Georgia. So that opened up a spot at Arizona State. He hops over there.

Sam Levitt gets hurt. Now he's got his opportunity. I'm telling you right now, the guy has all the physical tools, but it's like Peyton Thorne with the turnovers on steroids when he was at Nebraska. So he's got to figure out how to not do that. This is a tough game for Arizona State. Cincinnati's been really good this year.

Brendan Sorsby, the transfer quarterback from Indiana, has been quietly one of the better portal additions of the offseason. But Ari, if Jeff says we're going to have to have a conversation, eventually we're going to have to have a conversation about the cradle of Big Ten quarterbacks or starting quarterbacks that came from Indiana. Because we've got Jack Tuttle going at Michigan. Does Jack Tuttle count because he originally came from Utah?

It does, yeah. If you go through Indiana and then you start somewhere else, it counts, yeah. Okay. All right. Well, yeah. You're going to look for him. You get the Bloomington fairy dust on you, and there you go. Yeah.

So, well, Jeff Sims, we'll see what happens. You're a big Kenny Dillingham fan. If Kenny Dillingham can help Jeff Sims be a quarterback who doesn't turn the ball over all the time and actually does unlock his vast physical potential, what does that mean? Yeah, I mean, I likedny dillingham the higher i mean you remember i wrote a column about why asu should hire him before they did and that was all predicated on understanding what it takes and understanding arizona and the way that they would have to

recruit and all the things and the thing that i liked about him the most is a that he was young and had some ideas and was energetic. But, two, he struck me as somebody who wants to be at Arizona State for a long time. You know, a lot of people have stepping stone jobs and, you know, use success in a one- or two-year period to, you know, upgrade. And, you know, he had a pass with Florida State and stuff. Like, you could see, like, a pathway for somebody like that

to want to go somewhere else. But I think, like, it's his dream or his desire to make arizona state a really good football program for the long term and to live in phoenix because phoenix is great it got off to a rough start right it got off to a rough start but like arizona state is five and one right now and that's the thing i i think that nobody expected them to be good last year. What happened last year is completely expected. What's happening now is completely unexpected. You didn't see this coming.

And I do think that you need a season in the early periods of your coaching tenure to sell to your vision, right? If you want to, quote- to quote unquote activate the Valley, like the Valley needs to see people caring about them. The Valley needs to see them being pretty good and competent. And I think this is a huge step for a person that's laying the foundation, hopefully,

for Arizona State to be a really, really good place to be. And I've always, a million years, and everybody else says this, I think that Arizona State has some untapped potential in terms of where it's located, its recruiting base, its cool uniforms, their stadiums in the mountains,

like living in the city that that's located in is a great time. I grew up there. It's amazing. Like, I think that Arizona State has the potential to be a really, really good place, but it takes somebody who, A, believes in it, which I'm not sure the retread hires that they've had in the past

were on that list, and somebody who is passionate enough to want to stick around to build it. So this Jeff Sims thing is interesting because I did watch him play at Nebraska last year, and it was uncomfortable how bad it got at times. I'm very curious to see how he plays this weekend. He did score last weekend. Maybe, you know, Kenny Dillingham can get them to six and one with Jeff Sims. That would be quite the, quite the statement, Andy. It's certainly, certainly would. All right.

Now we get into dear Andy and Ari proper first question. And it ties into a column you wrote this week, which is one of the reasons I picked it. But it's also, this is a guy that everybody's talking about this week. And every time this team loses, it feels like the walls are closing in. So this is from Jared. What can Ryan Day do to be more like Dan Lanning? Can we hire Nick Saban as a consultant to teach him how to prepare for massive games? Can we get Mike Vrabel to buzz him when he messes up like the replay refs? Talent level is there, but how it's deployed never seems like it lives up to measure

ari that i would say that mo trying to word this correctly because i don't want to paint with too broad a brush would it be unfair to say that the average Ohio State fan is very much questioning Ryan Day's leadership of the program right now? The majority, yes. Okay, okay. And the thing is, he has a record and he has a roster-building ability that most programs would kill for. But I'm not dumb enough to be like, oh, you should be happy with this.

It's Ohio State. They expect more and they have earned the right to expect more. Andy, the job at Ohio State isn't to beat Rutgers in Indiana. Well, maybe not this year, but in past years. It's not to beat the crap out of Michigan State and Iowa. That's not the job. The job is to beat Michigan, win Big Ten championships, and compete for national championships every year. And I think that because Ohio State's been so good in beating up on the opponents that they should beat, they have tangentially competed for national championships every year.

Even when they didn't win the Big Ten two years ago, they went to the playoff. And they almost beat Georgia, almost won a national championship. But the thing is, is you have a senior class on this team, a lot of people who returned for a fourth year to change what has occurred there before they left. And all you've gotten is more of the same so far this year. And it is crazy to say,

because if you go and like, look at like Nick Saban's record, not that that's a fair comparison, but like Nick Saban, like didn't he go like a stretch of 15 years where every person who stayed in this program for three or more years won a national title? Like you have a senior class right now,

a very veteran senior laden team at Ohio State that has never won a Big title. Like, you have a senior class right now, a very veteran, senior-laden team at Ohio State that has never won a Big Ten championship game, never beaten Michigan, never competed for a national championship. That's a pretty crazy thing to say. Like, I don't know, and I saw Josh Pate went on this rant about how Nick Saban... Are we talking about the Ryan days,

the modern-day John Cooper? Is that the crazy thing? Well, I think... No, no, I think that people are conflating this Ohio State, you know, criticism with, like, having to live up to Nick Saban's standard. And I think that's wrong. I don't think that that's what's happening here.

I think that the standard for Ohio State is to beat Michigan and to win the Big Ten, and they haven't done that for three years. So, like, however you want to put it... The standard for Ohio State hasn to beat Michigan and to win the Big Ten, and they haven't done that for three years. So however you want to put it. The standard for Ohio State hasn't changed, and it really doesn't. The standard for Alabama is, we're actually going to have a question about that next, but the standard for Ohio State hasn't changed for decades. This is not revisionist here.

Ryan Day is not meeting the standard that has existed for decades. And that's what he's got to figure out how to do. Yeah. And like the thing about it is, is that you're also taking over at a time in which the previous two coaches dominated Michigan. And part of that was because, you know,

Michigan was down for a portion of that time. But you can't take over for a coach who went seven and O against Michigan and then go 1-3 including 0-3 in very high leverage situations. Last year's game was, I think you can make a case, the biggest game in the Ohio State Michigan rivalry even more so than 2006. It is certainly fair to question him and Ryan Day is a rational, nice man who understands completely what he signed up for.

And he understands that they're not doing what they need him to do. Now, that said, I wrote a column this week, as you mentioned, about whether or not it's time to give up. And I don't think that time is now. I think that Ohio State has a very good team. I think that Oregon is an excellent team. and they went on the road and lost, and that Ohio State will be playing in multiple high-leverage games this year. Big moments. They're going to be at Penn State in a few weeks.

They're playing Michigan again, and then I think there's a high likelihood that they're going to play Oregon again if they win those games in the Big Ten Championship. So it's frustrating if you're an Ohio State fan as it is to live through what happened on Saturday, a game that was very winnable and wasn't won. I know you're tired of saying almost or should have or could have. You want results. That's all rational. It's what you're used to. It's what you're hired for. And Ryan Day is a $10 million a year coach. That's what you get. But I would wait to see him fail in the long runway of

opportunities to win big games for the rest of the year before i would punt on him that's my only thought if they lose to michigan again this year or they lose to penn state or they get knocked out of the playoff in the first round or whatever and it's just like every time they play i think that like you're in a very dangerous spot, right? Like I think Ryan Day has to get it done like the rest of the year. Well, and here's the thing. I posted a comment that said, you know, who's Ryan Day asking for a friend or what's Ryan Day's buyout asking for a friend from Florida? Look, if this all came to pass, like they lost to Michigan again, didn't win the Big Ten.

I don't think you'd have to pay whatever the buyout is to get Ryan day. If you're another school, I think it would be the lawyers would all talk and be like, okay, you can go take that other job. That'd be great. And I think there's plenty of places that would love to have Ryan day. So that's, but that's, I think that's the less likely thing. The more likely thing I still think is Nick Terry's comment. So if Ohio State beats the team up north, wins the Big Ten, and makes it to the national championship game, does that end the criticism? It ends it until he loses again because he's Ohio State's head coach,

and you're not supposed to ever lose as Ohio State's head coach. Well, here's the thing that we have to consider, too. He accepts that. Like when we talked to him in Columbus a few weeks ago, Ari, it's clear Ryan Day understands and accepts that. When we talked to him in Columbus a few weeks ago, Ari, it's clear Ryan Day understands and accepts that. It is. You don't take that job without accepting it. But here's the thing that we haven't mentioned and I haven't really seen in a lot of different places,

but I wrote about it in the column that I wrote, is that Ohio State losing to Michigan last year was about as rough of a loss for an Ohio State fan as I can remember. Like they had some ones in the 90s that were really tough. But when you think about the stakes of the Ohio State-Michigan game last year between the Spygate scandal, the bad blood between Ryan Day and Jim Harbaugh, having lost two in a row already, the game being on the road, playoff spot, Big Ten all on the line being on the road playoff spot big 10 all

on the line like the hatred that those two fan bases have for each other bubbled to an all-time high last year and Ohio State lost that game right and they ended up losing to the national champion but they lost so in the offseason Ohio State spent all this time and money to win the offseason right to have successes in the offseason, to help, you know, put some cream on those sores that you got from the previous season in order to build up to this year. And what you got, Andy, is a roster that is being compensated more than the entire Detroit Tigers professional baseball team. And you are supposed to be a monster this year, and you're supposed to be overwhelming opponents

because of what you built and returned from a year ago. And the fact that the first time that you played a team that even comes close to stacking up with you talent-wise, you not only lose, but you lose a very winnable game. And that calls into question what I thought was possible for them this year, which was for them to be the only super team in the sport. And now you can't say that anymore. So they can go win the Big Ten. They can go win a national championship. I don't think that them losing this game has changed my mind on either of those two things. But what has changed is that they did not at least assemble a team,

not even from a talent standpoint, from a functionality standpoint, with a defensive line and the defense not playing the way that they should be. Opportunities being missed, bad play calls at the end, not being prepared for the clock to stop. Like, from a coaching standpoint, to not play like a super team. And I think that's real. Like, if you want to be upset about that, then I think that that's fair. But punting on him when there's so much runway left on the season, like there's a lot of game left here.

Let's see it play out. And if he loses again, then do your worst. All right. I'm glad you went that direction with that question, because I think it dovetails with this question. This is from Tyler. As an Alabama fan striving to be rational, when should I start to worry about the status of the program? Not the season, the whole program. Cardiac Kalen is killing me, but I don't want to be too premature in my judgments. So Kalen DeBoer has lost one game as Alabama's head coach.

Now, it's the Vandy game, so it obviously weighs a lot. Is that counting as four? At least. And then, let's be real here. South Carolina was really sloppy and should have won that game in Tuscaloosa last week. Yes. That's not good. That's not good when you're at a program that just didn't have multiple regular season losses very often under Nick Saban. It was very rare that that happened. And so you're now looking down the barrel of potentially multiple regular season losses starting this week and it might not be the last one so it is natural to worry but so i i actually answered this in the written dear andy and ari i want to read you a quote from nick saban. So this is Nick Saban to me in his office in 2017, because I was,

I was kind of asking, you know, how do you keep doing this? What is the motivation here? You know, because most coaches wouldn't keep adapting, wouldn't keep changing because I always thought that was his superpower that he's willing to adapt. And so he said, I'm never satisfied. My greatest fear professionally is that we might lose the next game. It's not because of the fans. It's not because of the expectations. I want to do the best job I can to help our players have the best opportunity to do that. I hate the feeling you have when you lose, but I also hate the feeling you have when you didn't do a good job for your players. Now, what he said next, I think, is the most important piece of this. When I get to where I don't feel that way anymore,

I would rather call it quits than to be satisfied watching it go down. Nick Saban was always five steps ahead of everybody. Do you think, as he tried to adapt to the NIL era, to the unlimited transfer portal era, he realized that it was going to be impossible to dominate the way he had dominated at Alabama, that nobody was going to be able to do that anymore? I don't know if this is a hot take or an opinion or just a hypothesis, but i think that if the rules were the 2018 rules he would still be alabama's coach i think you're right i think you're absolutely right i i think he knew he couldn't keep that standard up so even with if nick saban like maybe maybe they don't

lose to vandy if nick saban's the coach but i bet they still might have a problem with South Carolina. Well, here's the thing, too. I don't know if that is it. I think that it's possible that he looked at the tenor of the sport and said, no matter how good of a job I do, I'll never be able to be as dominant as I've been. Because it's just the movers cut up in a way. Exactly, because he can't stack the talent the way he did. But I also think, too, that there was probably a part of him, if he were being honest, and maybe this is, again, a guess.

I've never talked to him about this, that he didn't have the desire to adapt in this way because you always talk about adaptability. Adaptability when it comes to rules or what you're able to do from a given year. This is like an entire shift in how the game is won and how rosters are assembled. This isn't adaptability.

This is like rewiring your entire coaching being in order to exist in this world. It's what we talked about with Dan Lanning kind of being born into it rather than having to adopt it. I think Nick Saban would still be an excellent elite level program builder in this world if he decided to take that on. But at this age, I don't know that he left because he was scared or that he was worried that he wouldn't be able to win three national championships every five years yeah i think it's because he probably didn't have the the stanham left after winning as many titles as he did to undergo such a tiring and rigorous process to reinvent himself as somebody who can dominate this era the way that he did in the previous one right and kirby smart who's still in his 40s you notice whenever he got asked about any of that stuff he's like whatever it's those are the notice whenever he got asked about any of that stuff, he'd be like,

whatever it's, those are the rules. Now we've got to deal with them. That's the, those are the words of a man who knows he's got to work for 20 more years. Now he doesn't, he's made enough money, but he plans to work for 20 more years.

So he's just going to deal with it. And also to like Kirby smart is still at the beginning portion of his, like Nick Saban has already accomplished everything that there's to accomplish. Like, I mean, if Nick Saban would have won a title or two more that would have been stacked onto a legacy that's already untouchable like at a certain point it's like you know I might want to go on ESPN

and not be as stressed as I am every day and kind of live out the twilight years in an awesome way like that's I mean I understand why he did that um but he seemed to be getting younger like that's the thing like Saban and also too with the way that his program was situated I still think that Alabama and playing for Saban would have given him a easier opportunity to assemble a roster than anybody else in college football like I think Alabama with him under the in this new era under this, starts further down the line than other coaches. Kalen DeBoer is not at the same starting line as Nick Saban would be if he were the coach there. He's got work to do in order to get there. Now, that said, when you're answering

this question, Andy, in terms of Alabama fan being worried, my number one worry with Kalen Nabor from the jump has always been about whether or not Alabama can assemble rosters that looked like the ones that Saban built and he might not be able to just by default because the rules changed but I didn't think that they would be a team that was struggling the way they are in the season immediately. I thought Caleb Nabor's coaching and – Are they – They lost one game. If they go beat Tennessee by two touchdowns this weekend, they're not struggling anymore.

We're like, oh, whatever. Yeah, true. But I didn't think that they lost to – They went literally 17 years between when they last lost to a team like Vanderbilt. It's been that long. And then you almost lose to South Carolina. And again, almost losing at Alabama feels like a loss, because I know how it is at places like that.

If they go out and beat Tennessee by 14, you know, you feel a lot better. But if they lose to Tennessee, it's like, I did not see Alabama struggling with these players under his leadership in year one, which then calls into question both, can he continue to assemble a roster that makes Alabama head and shoulders better than most of their opponents like they have been in the past, but somebody who has also suffered upsets at other previous stops in his career, you know, is he going to be able to avoid those in the future?

I think those are all things to be, you know, analyzed. And frankly speaking, the man was a power head coach for what two years before he got hired yeah two really good years two really good years but you know he's still got a lot to prove and and this is a different job than the one that he just came from it is agreed at washington you can be upset and people can forgive you like at alabama if you get upset like think about if he has the Marcus Freeman problem. What if that happens? What if Alabama loses to the bottom half of an SEC team

every year for the first three years of his tenure? They're going to go crazy. I don't know that there's a third year if you do it in the first two years. That's, I mean, I'm being dead serious. It's Alabama. I'm not out of the woods here, so. Yeah.

I think that it's okay to be cautiously nervous, yeah. Yeah, so here's my thing with Alabama. I think Alabama is still going to be capable of winning national titles, still going to be capable of winning SEC titles. I think it's just not going to be as dominant as it has been, which should worry you because if you're an Alabama fan, you're used to that level of dominance. Now, nobody's ever been able to enjoy that before,

and probably nobody's going to be able to enjoy that again. So maybe Bud Wilkinson, Oklahoma fans, so Oklahoma fans in the 50s, I guess. And can you even question whether Kirby can do it? Are you at that point? Oh, listen, Kirby may take loss number two this weekend. Yeah. Like, I just think that's the game now.

I think it's different. And I think that's part of it. Let's look at another, the other side of this weekend's Alabama-Tennessee game. This question's from Forge. Is Dylan Sampson the most underrated player in the country so far? He's the rock that Tennessee has leaned on while Nico is figuring it out. And currently, Sampson is averaging six yards a carry, is on pace to hit 1,400 yards, and 30 TDs.

30 touchdowns. Now, before we talk about Dylan Sampson, we have to watch Dylan Sampson try to teach his dance again. Look at this. Look. I told you I'm a waist bender, not a knee bender. So wait, down, down, you can really grab like, Oh, I just grab him? Yeah, like look, you want to set your feet like this. On some rear, you can grab, and then it's like rowing really.

Yeah. That rowing dance I didn't show my moves why didn't you show my moves well your moves are too good they're not funny okay here's your moves you think that's not funny

no because you're too black you're too good at it right away look at that I gotta say I was ridiculed in my personal life by everybody I know who saw that. So I'm happy you think it's good. I think that looked ridiculous.

It was amazing. It was well, because it's compared to me. It's amazing. Let's answer the question now. Here's the thing. Any running back this season not named Ashton Gent, is going to be under the radar, probably. Because Ashton Genting, Boise State's Ashton Genting. Let me read these stats to you guys.

126 carries, 1,248 yards, and 17 touchdowns through six games. That is amazing. That is amazing. That is incredible. And that is, it's really cool to see because he's actually just the coolest guy ever too. Yeah. Yeah. Ashton Gentry or Dylan Sand.

They're both cool. Ashton Gentry, by the way, I don't know if you've seen the memes. When he stands waiting for the snap, he doesn't put his hands on his knees like most running backs do. He stands like Michael Myers when he's about to go kill somebody. And it's just perfect.

It really does. There's no stance. He's just standing there waiting to be like, come get it, dude. Yeah, but I do think that he's a really good player. I think that this is the most fascinating matchup of the weekend. It might not be the highest stakes, although the stakes are really high too because this could be a playoff elimination game. But I think this goes up there for the college football freaks who aren't just ranking watching for Texas and Georgia.

In terms of what we're going to find out about two teams, these are two teams that you and i both um had as potential national champions like three weeks ago right like and uh losses and weird games have changed our our thought process a little bit or the entire country's thought process but one of these teams comes out and rocks rocks the house and beats the crap out of the other then all of a sudden you're vaulting them back into that discussion. So both of these teams have kind of been flying under the radar the last two weeks since they lost. They both had ugly wins on Saturday last week,

and they're coming into a game in Knoxville that I think is going to be very telling for both of these teams. And I think that to answer the question, Dylan Sampson is what one of the three or four best players on the field in this game. Yes. And he's very important. And one thing that I, that Dylan Sampson does really well, he's got 15 rushing touchdowns already. He is not afraid to run it between the tackles. He's given Tennessee an option inside the 10 yard line that it feels like they haven't always had. Now they got to get it inside the 10 yard line that it feels like they haven't always had.

Now they got to get it inside the 10 yard line. And he's got some breakaway touchdowns as well, but he is not afraid to run it from, you know, into a packed box and get you that yard that gets you over the goal line. And I think that's think that's critically important in a game like this. It's obviously a very athletic defense that they're dealing with, but that's where Dylan Sampson is at his best is when you need a touchdown, when you need to score

and you are on the three yard line, you're not afraid to hand it to him. You're not doing any sort of cute stuff. You're just handing the ball and he's going in there. And I think now it's up to Nico to get them there. Nico's got to get them down the field. We talked about this a lot this week. We've got a separate video at the on three sports YouTube channel about Nico specifically.

Like he's got to start hitting open receivers. He's got to make it a little easier on everybody else. If he does that, this is going to be a great game. If he doesn't, I think Jalen Milrow and company are going to feast. Okay, yeah. It's going to be – I'm seeing a lot of Tennessee is fraud, fraudulent in the chat, and I'm seeing that a lot on Twitter too. And I'm seeing the look on River Bailey's face, our producer,

and he's just disgusted by hearing that. But again, it's possible that Alabama's a fraud too, right? The Tennessee offense we've seen the past two games cannot win this game. It has to be better than that. Yeah. Andy, a few things that I saw in the chat too, or there's an argument happening in the chat before we go.

I know it's an hour six here. Ashton Genting would not be doing this in any other conference, I think, is just absolutely wild. Ashton genti would not be doing this in any other conference i think is just absolutely wild ashton genti would be doing this now maybe he's not averaging 10 yards of carry he would be the best running back in the country no matter where he played it would not matter like what he's doing because boise state does not have a joe moore award winning offensive line he's doing this where he's getting contacted pretty quickly after getting the ball and he's just breaking tackles like crazy. Well, that's the thing, the yak with him.

That's the thing that's most impressive. Anybody can break through the line, not touched and run 80 yards, but that's not what's happening there. He is running through people. So we've got a couple more questions i'm going to do one more serious question before we get to the good stuff uh this is from dd wag i actually covered this in the in the written column too we don't have to go too deep into this but i i think people want to know this one because every time ohio state lose loses people want to predict ultimate doom for the Buckeyes. This is probably not going to happen, but it's a fun thought exercise. If Indiana, Penn State, and Oregon

all finished 12-0, while Ohio State is 9-3, with the only losses being to the undefeated teams, which undefeated team would be left out of Indy? And B, would Ohio State make the playoff? I think Ohio State would not make the playoff. It would probably depend on everything else, but probably they wouldn't, especially if Notre Dame made it or you had a two from the ACC situation. I don't think Ohio State would make the playoff. That's not the interesting part of the question.

The interesting part of the question is what would happen? This is not going to happen. Indiana, Oregon, and Penn State are not all going to end up undefeated, but let's say they did. How would the Big Ten tiebreakers handle that? And so Big Ten tiebreaker number one is head-to-head matchups among the tied teams. That's out, obviously. Big Ten tiebreaker number two, record against common conference opponents. That's out as well because none of them has a loss.

Tiebreaker number three, record against common conference opponents based on conference opponents records which basically means how good were you against the best common opponent you played also out the window because none of them has a conference loss tiebreaker number four is the one that most likely would solve it i mean it's possible they end up tied after this but most likely they would not and it is essentially you rank the teams based on their cumulative conference win percentage. So essentially, who had the toughest conference schedule? And so we don't know yet who does have the toughest conference schedule, because obviously the schedule is so front-loaded with non-conference games,

we don't know who's going to wind up having the best records. But we can kind of guesstimate here. Oregon's best opponents are Ohio State, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Penn State's best opponents are Ohio State, Illinois, Wisconsin, and USC. Indiana's are Ohio State, Michigan, and Nebraska. They all play Ohio State, Maryland, and Washington. So obviously what those guys do doesn't even matter because it affects them all the same way. So really it comes down to like Indiana would need Nebraska to win a ton. Penn State and Oregon would need Illinois to keep winning. They would need Wisconsin to be really good.

That's how it would work. I would guess, Ari, in this scenario, you have an Oregon-Penn State Big Ten championship game. You know what is the best part about this is? Yes. If all three of them are undefeated, you would want to lose the tiebreaker. Right, right, because then you don't have to lose the championship game.

You don't have to play in the championship game and you replace the championship game with your first round opponent as the five seed um against the the 12 we don't know who that's because you probably are the five seed because it's not it's not like you had a worse record than the team that made it into the championship game so the committee's not gonna ding you for that that banana land scenario came true they would

1000 be the five seed whoever doesn't play in the Big 10 championship. Now here's the question because everybody always says with wear and tear and injuries that, this is the debate that people have with the 5 seed Andy, is that you would play tougher teams if it meant you played less games right? That's the argument against it

but if you remove the Big 10 championship from your record it would be a tough game where an injury could happen and then replace it with the 12 seed But if you remove the Big Ten championship from your record. Which would be a very tough game. It would be a tough game where an injury could happen. And then replace it with the 12 seed, you would have an easier path technically to make the national championship game. Now that said, I am wondering, and I don't know if this is weird, and I don't know if it's blasphemy, so just save me from this. But as we get more mature into this system,

and I want you to be frank with me. Call me an idiot if you think it's stupid, but this is a show. We're all friends. We're all family. At what point if you have SEC or Big Ten conference championships, and I understand that conference championships matter a ton to these

programs, okay? Right, right. but you are both undefeated or you're both firmly in and you're playing for the one seed in the five seed because we're gonna know going into it a lot of times what what's at stake okay you think we'll ever see a team rest players in a conference championship game no and i'll tell you why. The reason they're talking about moving the playoff to 14 teams is to make the SEC and Big Ten championship games

matter in this way. So that's really the only way you can get a bye is when the SEC or the Big Ten. That's why they want to go to 14. Yeah. And that's going to happen in two years. Because if I were a coach,

I would pick missing the Big Ten championship game. If I could go and winning the Big Ten would not be a problem. That's why they're going to go to 14 to make sure that doesn't happen. So you're only going to get this year and next year in that scenario. What do you think is most important to coaches and fans? I'm very curious. If you are an Oregon fan, national championship, how important is winning the Big 10 to you this year?

Well, an Oregon fan is an even worse question because that's not even the conference they've been in. So. Well, I mean, but Indiana probably cares about that more than an Ohio state would. Right.

Or a Penn state would, but like, do you probably state is the perfect, perfect one to ask Penn state fans. Would you rather win the big 10 and have a tougher route to a national championship or not play for a Big Ten championship and have an easier route to a national championship? Which one do you think they would take?

I think if you can win the Big Ten, it proves that you can handle the path no matter what. It doesn't mean that you don't want to just because you can bench 500 pounds. I know. I think you're right and again that's why they want to go to 14 to avoid this so this question doesn't come into play anymore making the final four is a better accomplishment than winning your conference right but the winning your conference lasts forever

making the final four but not winning the national title doesn't well do you think that Right. But the winning your conference lasts forever. Making the Final Four but not winning the national title doesn't. Well, do you think that the Final Four, I know it's different in basketball because there's so many more teams, but do you think making the Final Four, because this is one of the selling points that we got about expanded playoff, is you know how important it's going to be for these programs to make it to the semifinals? Are we going to hang banners for making it to the final four in college football

i think so well it depends on the program it depends on the program i was i was talking to gabe eichardt and teddy layman before the texas oklahoma game and gabe and teddy played at oklahoma and they were joking about the idea of bowl rings oklahoma does not give out bowl rings oklahoma only gives out rings for conference championships and national championships joking about the idea of bowl rings. Oklahoma does not give out bowl rings. Oklahoma only gives out rings for conference championships and national championships because they're a proper program that's serious about football. Like that's like when, is there an Alamo bowl ring somewhere out there? Not for Oklahoma.

No, I know. But for anyone like, yes. Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But like Steve Spurrier had a rule when he was at florida

you don't get rings unless you win a conference title or a national title like that's the rule like that's what a serious program does so i just it all depends on where you where you are like in the stratosphere would ohio state hang banners for final fours probably not would indiana hang banners for final fours absolutely so that's that's where it is all right we got a question from tony ari this is an important one at a friend's house watching texas and georgia this weekend and i clogged the toilet and there is no plunger, what do I do? Andy, who's the friend?

That means everything. Like, is a friend a girl you met on Tinder two days ago and are on a second date with? Are you Ruben Pfeffer in this scenario? In a long-came poly where you're just clogging a toilet and ruining a loofah with the water overflowing? Or is it your best friend like if i'm over at a friend's house and i clog their toilet and like they're a buddy of mine i'd be like hey bro like i have a problem i clogged your toilet sorry and that would be it okay so this is somebody that you're being embarrassed about you you you are at one of your wife's co-workers house that's okay so that's not a

friend this is like a person that i don't know it could be it could be someone you are friendly with but not like no not best buddies so yeah let's let's define it more here's what i'm thinking i am going on a commando mission like the episode of the office where they have the party, the Christmas party, and Dwight is going through Michael Scott's condo like a home inspector, like that would be me going to all the different bathrooms trying to find the plunger. And here's my other thing about the plunger. If you're one of those people who keeps the plunger in the garage you're an animal the plunger goes next to the toilet that was last clogged you just leave it there i think we have a plunger in every bathroom here that's a classy joint is that classy we have one animal we have

one plunger and it goes back and forth between three different bathrooms my bathroom or our master bedroom bathroom because i tend to clog the toilet my son's bathroom because he tends to clog the toilet our downstairs half bath because my son and i tend to clog the toilet that's the i don't know i think i told you this but my wife bought me a bidet for my birthday for one of our toilets. That was my birthday gift. Yeah. And unfortunately, our plumbing in our

house is done in a way where the toilet and all the plumbing, like, you know how you can see behind a toilet, like the tubes and the... Ours are all behind wall. Like, you can't see in our house like any so you couldn't we couldn't set it up but in doing so we also thought this is funny you bring this up because with the bidet you might not need as much toilet paper which then would then solve the

clogging problem because people most of the time don't clog it with excrement they clog it with using too many speak for for yourself, Ari. I mean, yeah, I don't know. I don't know that I've ever clogged a toilet because for reasons other than toilet paper or too much toilet paper. Speak for yourself, Ari. But a plunger is like $3. Just buy them and put them in your bathroom

so that that problem doesn't happen. Should you, oh, oh, here's the thing. Because I like to be, I like to keep things in my truck that I might need later. Like I've got a socket wrench in my truck at all times with a socket set just in case I need it. Should I carry a plunger in my truck? Just in case so I can run out of the plunger and get it done back into the scenario. Andy is if you're at your wife's co-worker's house.

You have to emerge from the bathroom okay yeah and then you're on the clock because you have to hope that nobody goes in there and nobody goes in there to discover then you get that bastard left the floater yeah and the problem the other thing you have to concern yourself with is if you're successful in leaving the room and then nobody going in behind you, you have to reenter the bathroom with the plunger undetected. And how well do you know these people? If it's somebody that you're. Oh, no, no. If I bring the plunger in my truck. I am coming in with the plunger over my shoulder like Paul Bunyan with his axe.

And like, I did this and I'm fixing it. coming in with the plunger over my shoulder like Paul Bunyan with his axe. Okay. I did this, and I'm fixing it. You're not concerned with the fact or the notion of you clogging it, getting around. You're more concerned with being the person who fixes it if that happens. I just want to make sure the next person is not – because here's the thing. If it's – and I realize there's some of you who think this is all too much information but i also realize there are some fellow men of large carriage people who've

you know had 75 wings in one sitting before this happens it's part of the deal if you walked in on that if you were unaware if you were a person who does not know a person like this in your life and you walked in on it and you saw what's in there because you keep saying toilet paper and i keep telling you it's not there's no toilet paper involved you would be mortified and you would think differently about the person most people most people would be afraid to admit they did it like you would have to like own it like that's the thing like you have a conversation there is a measure of pride like you've never had anything where you just look down you're like i i kind of want to leave that there just so somebody else can see it

yeah i mean it's amazing like it's better to talk about it and fix it than to leave it and it be discovered but like i think the my goal would be to resolve the situation as undetected as possible now i i'm with scott in the chat we're gonna own it and i'm gonna go get that i'm gonna go find a plunger the only way i'm gonna find a plunger all right one more one more and that last question was was to set up this question because we like to we like to bump set and spike here this is from jj dear andy and ari first off congrats on the success of the podcast love the chemistry you guys have my question is what exactly is grab ass do we just know it when we see it it has become one of my favorite sayings

from the show i do love jj paraphrasing former chief justice potter i don't know if he's chief justice but former supreme court justice potter stewart who when describing the definition and definition of obscenity said i know it when i see it. Yeah. So grab ass. I believe producer river grabbed the urban deck, urban dictionary definition for us. Here it is. Grab ass definition. Number one,

the act of wrestling or chasing another person with the intention to squeeze that person's butt. Number two, no one's ever used it in that context, by the way. No. Number two, to insult someone who is slacking off or wasting your time by inferring that they were grabbing each other's asses. This is every football coach in the history of the world.

You boys out there playing grab ass. Yeah. While y'all are all playing grab ass, I was designing an offense that would beat this, you know, double legal six. Like that's what that's what you got from your high school football. I'll tell you why I started saying it. So, this was a term that was very common when we were kids, right? Like, people said that, said grab ass all the time, and then it disappeared, right? Like, if you were messing around or you were at, like, you know, like at the DMV and your brother and you were chasing each other, your dad might be like, quit playing grab ass and get over here.

You know what I mean? It's like a way, it's like fooling around. It's messing around. But then like that became extinct to me because it became extinct to everybody for 10 years or 15 years as I grew up and went to high school and college. And then one time, and I don't, this is why I say it. And it's because of Bill Landis,

my former coworker at the Athletic and Cleveland.com, who now is on a podcast with Doug LaMaurice. But Ohio State used to do this thing called Best Fridays in Football, and they would do this weird game with a football and trash cans. And I don't really even know what they were doing. They were just horsing around on Friday before the big game. So they were playing like American Gladiators Powerball. Whatever they were doing.

They were like broomsticks and big trash bags. It was like some weird. And I was like, what are you? And I asked Bill one day, what do you think they're doing out there? And Landis goes, I'm just playing grab ass. And that was the first time I heard somebody say that in like 12 years. And then ever since then, like I have said grab ass in my everyday life all the time and then grab ass became if something stupid happens in a game or if you know like a

weird interception where the ball bounces off someone's helmet like that isn't football that's grab ass and that's what that means to me and so i want to thank landis for saying it to me and re-bringing it back into my in my vernacular but man that is the perfect term for like when things go off the rails in college football like there is no better term than calling it grab ass and if you're just trying to test your grab ass instincts this show the grab ass portion began when we when we asked tony's plunger question like that's that's where the grab ass started and this is where the grab ass stops because we're done we got games all right i cannot wait for this weekend yeah there's so nebraska indiana alabama tennessee georgia and texas some game that we're not even thinking about that is going So Nebraska, Indiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Texas.

Some game that we're not even thinking about that is going to be the one that blows our minds. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited for football. I'm excited for grab ass. I love the grab ass on the show. I love the football on the show. Cannot wait.

Friday is always a weird day when I don't get to see you. But we will be locked and loaded for live episodes as permitted on Saturday and of course you guys can get us at 1130 Eastern Saturday night for whatever reaction we have to the whole day and of course Texas and Georgia. Listen, we got quite a weekend. We got the

Spoiler Makers hosting the Ducks on Friday night. Spoiler Raves. I don't know if they're going to be the Spoiler Makers hosting the Ducks on Friday night. Spoiler Makers. I don't know if they're going to be the Spoiler Makers this week, but that's happening. That's a high grab-ass potential game. It is. We got Boston College, Virginia Tech tonight.

We got an ACC game tonight. Ari, best sport in the world. Best sport in the world. We'll see you guys on Saturday