Andy & Ari On3 - How much TROUBLE is LSU’s offense in? Latest on Garrett Nussmeier

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

It's a Megaboard Wednesday, and there is some big news on the On3 megaboard. Watch here as Andy & Ari breakdown the latest involving LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier. Are the LSU Tigers in trouble, or will they be just fine as they face the 2nd half of their schedule? (0:00) On Today’s Episode(0:53) BetMGM(2:31) Intro - Megaboard Wednesday: Atlanta Braves(4:20) LSU Update on Nussmeier(12:45) Huel(13:58) Introducing Cole Cubelic(15:07) Cole Cubelic Joins(19:26) Auburn’s Offense(23:32) Vanderbilt at Alabama(28:32) Auburn at the QB position(31:11) Texas-Florida(37:29) Closing out with Cole Cubelic(41:13) Gametime(42:42) Clark Lea on Vandy-Bama(50:21) The trolling of Lane Kiffin(53:30) Michigan, State of QB?(59:29) Penn State’s outlook at QB(1:09:27) Conclusion: See you tomorrow! Next, Cole Cubelic joins to talk all things Auburn football and preview the Vanderbilt-Alabama game and the Texas-Florida matchup. Later, Andy & Ari dive back into the Megaboard for more: Lane Kiffin's trollingIs Michigan the state of the QB?Penn State's Outlook at QB Our show is presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. This show is also brought to you by Gametime! Take the guesswork out of buying college football tickets with Gametime.Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Swipe. Tap. Ticket. Go. Download the Gametime app today! Visit Gametime.co. Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code STAPLES15 at https://huel.com/STAPLES15 (Minimum $75 purchase)  Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube!  https://youtu.be/CKwAR0-rqHYHosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River BaileyGuest: Cole Cubelic Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM, LSU's Brian Kelly, shooting down rumors regarding quarterback Garrett, Gerasmeier. It is a megaboard Wednesday. We troll through the message boards all across the On3 network. And man, we have a lot to talk about Cole Kublich from the SEC network, ESPN, the Mac and Cube show joins us. We talk Auburn, lots of megaboard. topics regarding the Tigers. We talk Alabama Vandy. We talk all things SEC with Cole. Also, how do the Penn State fans feel about Drew Aller coming out of the Oregon game? A few megaboard threads on that as well. We'll talk about it all today on

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loses. Just make sure you use the bonus code CFB when you sign up. Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See betmgmgm.com for terms 21 plus only U.S. promotional offers are not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler in the U.S. Call 8778 Hope N. Or text Hope N.Y. 467369 in New York. Call 1-800 next step in Arizona. Call 1-800-327-50-50 in Massachusetts. Call 1-800-off in Iowa or 1-800-1-081-0-0-2-3 in Puerto Rico.

First bet offer for new customers only, subject to eligibility requirements, rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for bed at MGM yet, use the bonus code CFB, and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to Annie and Ari on 3, presented by BetMGM. We got a lot to talk about on this Mega Board Wednesday. That's right, the Mega Board. If you're an on three member, you have access to

the greatest treasure trove of information known to Man. That is the message boards of our various team sites. And of course, the Mega Board is sort of the All-Star Message Board, where we take the juiciest and best threads from all of those. Ari starts with the Auburn Board, Auburnsports.com. They broke the Braves managerial news last night, and it didn't actually break on Major League Baseball media until Wednesday.

I'm up for on three. That's what you get when you sign up for on three. You get college football information, get to talk it through, you get major league baseball in from i i just love that there's if you go to if you go to the bunker at auburnsports.com three fourths of the threads are about hugh freeze and whether he's going to remain employed through this season and then there's this one there's like hey by the way brian snicker's going to retire tomorrow and they're to kick him up to the front office do we know who posted it uh well he's he's

screen there so there you go and uh yeah i didn't know if we knew who that was uh i don't know who that is but i'm sure the justin hoakinson at our uh at omertsports yeah knows who that is so but we got we got inside information coming out the wazoo on the megaboard a thread that hasn't hit the megaboard yet that by the time this show is posted probably will have hit the megaboard shea dixon from the bingo tiger our ls u site asked brian Kelly on Wednesday about rumors involving the health of quarterback Garrett Nussmeyer. And Ari, this is a situation where we don't know exactly where Garrett Nussmeyer is health-wise. We know there was an issue that Brian Kelly acknowledged after the Florida game involving

like an abdominal issue or a core injury. But LSU fans just want answers. They want to know why their offense is not working. You know, they're frustrated after the Ole Miss game. And it's weird because LSU only has one loss. It's not like LSU's out of the playoff mix. It's not like their goals are not. The girls are still very much in front of them.

But it feels like the fans are getting really angsty. And I wonder how much of that is the Clemson win and the Florida win, which if we talked about them winning their first four games before the season, would have looked like tent pole wins and now they're not yeah um in the thing with garret nussmeyers is that i if i remember this correctly andy like injury stuff was swirling around him before the season started right correct like this isn't like something that is just like he's playing poorly and lSU can't score let's try to blame it on an injury like this stuff's been going on since august um and like i i don't know what your take on it is because you know neither of us

our medical doctors, but I do watch LSU and I do watch him. And he does not seem to be playing at a level that we anticipated. Now, there's a lot of- Because you're going to say you watched ER reruns or House MD or something like that. I've never been a doctor show guy. I don't know about you. It never interests me. And I don't like Gore.

It's been a while. First few seasons of Grey's Anatomy I was in on, but then I went, when they had to rescue the deer, I was pretty much out. My wife watches doctor shows constantly, and I feel like they're all the same. But anyway, he's not playing up to what we thought his potential was. There was a discussion in the offseason about whether or not he'd be the number one overall pick in the draft coming up. And I think that when you're an LSU fan or a fan in general,

I mean, the same thing was going on with Arch Manning, right? Arch Manning didn't play well. And everybody was wondering if he was injured. We're breaking down facial expressions after ball and threw in the dirt. I mean, it's not like this is the only scenario. But injury often is, if you're not playing full speed, the explanation for why a player isn't performing. And like Brian Kelly said to Shea Dixon that it's misinformation and denied unequivocally that he's not made. There's no major injury.

He did acknowledge the ab muscle strain that he had and that he's been kind of a nagging injury. But like there's no like what are we thinking? Like this is a major, major injury that's not going to go away and he's just playing hurt. And, like, if it is, you'd want to acknowledge that because at least it explains the overwhelming performances. So here's what Shea asked Brian Kelly. He asked about speculation and rumors that Garrett and Usmeyer might need in-season surgery. So that was the key phrase there.

And this is Brian Kelly's response, his exact response. That's misinformation. Those are not based on any facts. They're quite silly, actually, Shea. And I know you have to ask the question. so I'm certainly not throwing you under the bus for asking it because people want to know. But this is misinformation. Yes, early on he had an ab strain, not a core injury in terms of a core injury that they have to deal with.

And it's been slow to heal. But as I mentioned, he's on the backside of that. He's getting the rest this week. He'll be the Garrett Nussmeyer. He needs to be as we get into the very difficult part of our schedule. And I want to point out the last part of that sentence. Yeah, I was going to say, it gets. really difficult from here.

So LSU's off, and I would agree that with a nagging injury like that, if it's something that rest would help a lot, not having a game at all is probably the most helpful thing. They don't play again until they play South Carolina next week. But after that, in a row, South Carolina Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, the Vandy Games on the road, then they get an open date, then they play Alabama. That is a gauntlet. And this is the part, I think we probably need to talk a little more next week, Ari, with regard to all the SEC teams, because we're about to see everybody hit these stretches of three and four games in a row, everybody can beat you.

It's interesting that you just brought that up because I did a bubble watch project this morning, and I needed Andy's help. because as you're doing these, you look at who should be in as a projection right now. And then you also look at, you know, teams that are on the cusp of being. And there's a lot of teams in the SEC that you could project into it at the moment. And I believe that LSU is probably one of them. But LSU and my project, not to spoil anything, isn't in it. And like, there are teams in this mix right now that are either undefeated or have one loss

that might end up losing for. four times. And I feel like we're like a week or two away from getting right into the meat of that where every week these teams are playing each other and then the cream is going to rise to the top. Now, I was also a little bit amused by the fact that, you know, Brian Kelly said when they get into the difficult portion of their schedule, it's like, buddy, you guys have already lost and you and you haven't even gotten to that point yet. So, you know, if there is a reason for that, if I were a coach, I would at least want to provide the proper contact. for why a player isn't performing. Now, I saw a lot of the responses to Shea Dixon's tweet and it was like true. It's like, okay, well, if he's not hurt, then he just stinks then? Like, what is the- And that's the frustrating part for LSU fans because their offense just looks broken. And I don't know if that's the case because here's the other part of it.

Florida's defense was healthy when they played Florida. So the healthy version of Florida's defense is good. Yeah. The Ole Miss defense might be good. Ole Miss might be the best team in the SEC for all we know. So we don't, like, I would say don't quite give up yet. Now, if Dylan Stewart comes in and he's harassing Garrett Nussmeyer and it causes him to throw a bunch of terrible passes,

okay, maybe freak out at that point. But I don't know that it's time to freak out quite yet. Well, it's also good, like you mentioned, that they don't play this weekend. So if he is dealing with a nagging injury of some sort that isn't going to require surgery, which was, you know, denied pretty fervently on, on, what day of the week is today, Wednesday? Wednesday. It's a good time to maybe take a break for a minute, reset,

and see if you can figure some things out, unlock some things, and then go play a really good game against South Carolina. Because as you said, LSU is down in the dumps right now. You go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in a very short amount of time, but no team in the SEC yet. I mean, like look at Alabama. I mean, they were ready to fold up shop right into the first week of the season. They weren't.

We were folding it up for them. Yeah, yeah. And it turned out, oh, no, they're still really good. No, the fans were in that same category. And it's so much changed it so quickly. I mean, if LSU goes out and wins two or three in a row, then they're right back in the top five and, you know, off we go. So my hope is that Garrett Nussmeyer's healthy.

But I think that everybody watching, whether he's heard or not, would agree that we're not getting the production or the explosiveness that we're anticipating out of them this year so far. Yeah. We will see. LSU off this week South Carolina next week and gets pretty tough

as Brian Kelly said Ari next up we're going to be joined by our friend Cole Kublich you can see him on ESPN on the SEC network on his own show the Cube show you can listen to him at Mac and Cube in the morning on WJOX in Birmingham

he's everywhere also Cole a former Auburn Center and of course we had to ask him about his alma mater and we are going to that. But first, let me tell you about Huell. The Huell Black Edition is the best meal replacement going 40 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals. It is spectacular. I put the powder in, I shake the bottle up, I drink it, done. My meal is done. And it's great when you have a busy

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So go to Heel.com. Staples 15 is your code for 15% off your first purchase of $75 or more. Do it now. You will not regret it. Ari, let's talk to Cole Kublich, and I'm going to press a couple of Cole's buttons early, just because I know how that works out. The thing I love about having him on, Andy, is that he, He's such a, like, he's funny, first of all, he doesn't get enough credit for how funny he is.

But he has such a wealth of knowledge and telling and explaining things that have to do with, like, actual X's and O's because of his experience, obviously playing the game. But the guy crushes tape, dude. Like, he watches tape in a way that he's also one of the rare tape grinders who can actually translate it into English. And I think that's the part that makes Cole special is he can talk about it in a way that someone who's never set foot on a football field. understands exactly what he's talking about. And you're going to see that when we talk about slide protection in a few minutes because that may be a concept that you're not aware of, you've never heard of, or maybe you've just every once in a while heard of somebody mentioned in a game.

He's going to explain what it is, why he hates it, and why it may be killing Auburn and Jackson Arnold this season. Here's Cole Keeble. Cole, I have been perusing the Auburn message boards. And of course, when they're not breaking the news of the Atlanta Braves manager getting kicked upstairs, they're discussing a variety of things. And I want to throw this one out here. And this is actually not off our Auburn side.

It's off the rival's main board. Jackson Arnold is on pace to set an NCAA record for most times sacked in the season. I didn't fact check that. I'm going to choose to believe it because I've watched their games but mostly I just wanted to tee you up to complain about slide protection one more time

it is a bait of my existence and here's my problem with it we talked about this I did Kentucky South Carolina Saturday night we highlighted it in that game from a Kentucky standpoint and then Roman and I spent more time on it on read and react on the SEC Network Monday night

Auburn was a big part of that Of course, Roman, when we had our meeting on Sunday, he goes, I'll take Auburn offense. I'm like, yeah, I know you will. You would love to do that just to team me up and infuriate me on a regular basis. The problem with it, Andy, is, as you know, as a former offensive lineman, it has its place. And people who don't understand this or know this, it's essentially the entire offensive line going one gap to the left or one gap to the right. Two main issues here. One, we are coaching players to be robotic.

I had about a 30-minute discussion with Brian Kelly on this exact time. topic, not even just slide protection, but the robotic nature in which players are being coached. And BK had two really good thoughts on it. He's like, one, the portal, as you know, works against this because I think people forget when you go from Alabama to Oregon or you go from USC to Ohio State, you have to learn not only the new terminology, but fundamentals are taught different. You take different steps on different run plays, even if it's the same run play. Different coaches have different techniques for hand placement, hat placement, how to take those steps, how to take a pass set, when to take a pass set.

It's all different in different places. Well, you have to relearn that. That hinders your ability to understand collective football and understand the entirety of it, what the entire play is attempting to accomplish, not just you. So we're almost forcing tunnel vision on a lot of these guys. And that is the genesis of it at its worst because you just say, step to your right. right and guys step to their right and they sit there. You can see their brain saying, I'm doing what you told me, dude. And here comes the linebacker in the A gap right next to him. It's like, all you guys do is just like help here a little bit, even though, yes, you are

technically doing what we told you, but you're allowed to help and keep your quarterback from getting killed at the same time. And we just don't do that. And so he said another thing that I thought was really interesting. And he's not the first coach at LSU to tell me this. He goes, one problem, Cole is, he goes, kids aren't watching football anymore. He's like, I know you think that's crazy. He said, but they watch highlights of football and they watch the film that they need to watch. He goes, but they don't sit down and watch football games anymore.

He's like, they're watching their screens, their phones, their iPads, they're doing seven things at once, or they have four games on at once, so you're never dialed in on one game. Y'all know how we watched football growing up. Like, we had the Jefferson Pilot game, we had like the CBS or the ABC game, and you had your one or two primetime games you chose from. Thursday night was huge because it was the only thing on. Yep. And like, would we rather watch that than, you know, Steve Urkel or whatever?

Like, yeah, we watched the football. We watched the game. So we watched the whole game. It was here for Urkel strays, but we can keep going. Yeah. Urquil's on Friday night. Yeah, I'm sorry. But I was talking to Shane Beamer about that. I was like, I just remember Corey Moore absolutely wrecking somebody on some Thursday night. We were in our team meeting watching it on the big screen in our team meeting room. And this, I don't know if it was Georgia tag, who it was.

They literally could not block Corey Moore. And we were just sitting there thinking, good Lord, I'm glad we don't play Virginia Tech this year. Because, like, nobody was blocking that dude. There was a Thursday night game in 08 or 09, rainy night, Columbia, Missouri. I'm pretty sure Indama and Sue murdered Blaine Gabbard. I really don't know how Blaine Gabbard came back and then played the NFL.

But, yeah, it was one of those is like, oh, my God, what is this? Yeah. To your original point, it has its place. It is a quick protection. And one of the main issues I see with Auburn right now, there are not quick routes being added to that quick protection to assist with, because that protection is not meant to hold up for seven seconds. You got to get the ball out,

which Jackson Arnold is having an issue with that as well right now. So it's collective, but that is, yes, it infuriates me. I know that like you guys are offensive. lineman. Okay. And I love being here in the presence of offensive line, you know, mentality. Is that what you think is wrong with Auburn's offense? That is one thing that's wrong with Auburn's offense. Like I said, a second ago, Ari, it is collective. There is not one individual or one position group that we can point to because there are multiple breakdowns and protection that a back has gone the wrong way or a tight end has missed a block. So you can't

just put it on the offensive line. Are they playing decent football? No. Not probably since the second game of the season. I haven't seen them play even above average. So they are a big part of the problem. The quarterback's a big part of the problem. I think I sat down with you guys in the off season. I told you. Jackson Arnold has a letting go of the football problem. That has to be coach out of him. And then it's got to be coached back into him. And that was going to be a very difficult task for Hugh Fries, regardless of the level of talent, which he has an abundance of. But it's obviously not out yet because there are multiple plays in which the ball could be should be could easily have been released and it's not and it's been simplified to the point that I can imagine the

frustration there and watching it saying you had that one and that one you didn't throw to either one we're done at that point so just leave just run make the best of it and then there are times that an individual offensive lineman is just getting smoked and then there are other times and here's the part of slide protects it that's bad the defensive coordinators are smart And I know no offensive guy ever wants to admit that. Like, they all think they can outsmart the defensive guys. But I'm sitting there watching Kentucky run side protection. Like, guys, Clayton White knows how to beat this.

Like, it's not hard. All you do is overload one side. There goes to protection. You drop a couple of those guys. Bring someone, retract them back to the slide they who slid away from, and occupy the backside guard. There's a giant gap between the sitter and the guard. And somebody's going to run through it.

There's nobody home to be able to help. And the guys can adjust. So it's not just the opposite. It's like designing a basic offensive play. So I watched Cube Show this week. Everybody should be watching Cube Show. And you explained how Clayton White does it, how Mike Elko did it against Auburn. It is essentially like an offensive coordinator designing a run play where you are moving some people over here to draw the defense's eyes.

And then you're blocking these people, which it's not blocking exactly, but you're occupying. It's very similar. Yeah. There's no difference than when you see there, it's, it's. You know, it's called split zone now. We didn't have that when we played football, Andy, but you run inside zone to the right, and you'll see a tight-in come across this way

or a jet motion come across this way. There's no intention of that individual on that play. Now, down the road there will be, but all it is is to get that linebacker to take one step, and then I have the angle to be able to go and grab that guy. Like I talked to Eli Drequist this past week. I'm like, dude, that little counter thing you guys were doing? Because they ran basically the offensive line-blocked zone to the right

but then the running back ran a counterstep and like counter the opposite way with the splitter coming with it as the puller and he said all it does is help our angles and that's as an offensive lineman you just want a favorable angle to be able to get somebody blocked like give me the advantage to get the proper angle

now then making the blocks a totally different thing but as long as I have a chance to body that person up at the right angle we can get a hat on a hat and we can go like Ole Miss this past week they didn't blow LSU off the ball but they got a hat on a hat hat when they needed to and they allowed an elite running back in Q1 Lacey to be able to grind

out some yards. Sometimes that's all you need. Like Brian Kelly said, it only takes one. That's right. Andy, I don't know if. Go ahead. If you have another offensive line question, go for it. I don't. I don't. This is not another office. I want to take Cole back a year because Cole was on the call for one of the most memorable games of last season. It was Tom Hart, Cole and Alyssa Lang did Alabama Vanderbilt in Nashville last year. And so the Auburn message board has a very interesting question, which, Cole, you don't have to answer this because you've got to announce these games. You've got to be unbiased regardless of where you went to school. But the Auburn fans are trying to decide whether they should root for Bama or Vandy in this game.

And I find that hilarious. But this is a game where Vandy surprised Alabama last year. I don't think they can surprise them this year. but can they still compete with them this year? Absolutely. Number one, Vanderbilt's a better football team than they were last year. I've heard you guys talk about this multiple times. You and Ari have both complimented them as their facets of their team

that are just flat out better than the season ago. And I actually do think they can still surprise them to an extent because so much of what they do contains options, reads, in different ways that a play can be successful. And first and formal, if you're an Auburn fan, You don't root for, unless Alabama is playing Iraq, like you, do you don't root for Alabama? Is that a real thing? It's the only way.

Like, no, that doesn't happen. I don't care when it is or where it is. But I do understand the fact that you've got to play Vanderbilt later this year. And if they beat Alabama, that's going to give them a lot of confidence. They are much more capable along the offensive line this year. Physically, they look as much like an SEC offensive line as I have ever seen. Jordan Rogers has echoed those sentiments telling the stories how his tackles were 252 pounds when he played quarterback at Vanderbilt.

That doesn't mean that it's super clean or it's teach tape that you're going to show or the fundamentals or technique is just expert level. It's not. It's still sloppy at times. But they want to hurt you. They want to inflict pain and they're physical. Their entire off-season study was a yards before contact because they knew they had Cedric Alexander and he was an elite back, which I believe he is.

and he was getting touched at the line of scrimmits on a very regular basis. They've changed that. They become less reliant on quarterback run. They now have receivers that can hurt you down the field and hurt you horizontally. Even if it's just jet sweeps to keep you a little bit more honest, that's going to open up some of the Reed option game and the RPO game from Diego Pavia. I think he's throwing the ball a little bit better. I'm not saying that he's, you know, this NFL passer all of a sudden,

but there are a couple throws with high level difficulty that I've seen him complete this year. the one thing that they do still have is, and I've listened to y'all's podcast so I can say this, Diego probably is going to give you about three, oh, shit plays a game, okay, where... Good or bad, both? You don't, that's what I'm saying. Like, you're going to sit there and watch it and say, oh, shit, and it might go for 50 and be a touchdown. Or you're going to say that, and it's going to be eluding pressure, back foot, fade away, sidearm, heave into the end zone into four defenders and it's intercepted or he's running to his left he's

getting tackled he does this like you know jason williams white chocolate behind the back pass is an opposite pitch to his running back who's not even there and the other team gets it and runs it back so it's like if vanderbilt survives the three or four oh shit plays they're going to be in the game they will be in the game because visually what they give you is one of the things alabama's defense does struggle with like you can steal their eyes it's happened multiple times this year. And the guy who gets no credit with what they're doing right now, their offensive coordinator can do that a lot.

Nobody wants to talk about how good he is, but he deserves a lot more credit than what people are giving him. Tim Beck's been amazing. Yeah, yeah. Last year, the thing that was so interesting to me is that even when Alabama tried to answer something, the options that Vanderbilt had on offense, it was like methodical. It almost felt like surgery up and down the field the entire way.

And I wonder if they'll be able to put them in that position. again. I think they can, I mean, listen, they're going to go into this game. I'm sorry, Ari, they're going to go in this game playing ball control. That's who they are, is what they want to be. They've told us that this year when we had it against South Carolina. They said, we want to shorten the game, we want to eat the clock, we want to limit possession.

So you go back to whether it was Army at Oklahoma a few years ago or some of the other games in which you've limited the times your opponent touches the football. That's exactly what Vanderbilt wants to be and we'll try to be in this game. Andy, I got to jump in with one. other thing I wanted to ask. Oh, yeah, absolutely. There's a mega board post, but this is still Auburn themed, and I wanted to jump back to Auburn for a second.

All the other mega board Auburn posts are about Hugh Free, so this probably connects somehow. Yeah, I'm sure it does. And I'll make it connect. How about that? But you said something that I thought was really fascinating about Jackson Arnold earlier, and I wanted to dive into that, where he has a holding onto the ball problem.

You have to coach that out of him and then coach it back into him, right? of like when to hold, when to throw. And I thought that that was interesting. And it also seems like a very intensive, long process that you can't just do in a week, right? Like that's something that takes a long time. And given the situation that Auburn is in with their head coach and Hugh Freeze and the importance of winning now and showing something in terms of growth, do you try to stick through with Jackson Arnold or does that process, which seems like an offseason spring football fall camp situation, and do you make a move at quarterback and try to give yourself some options there?

Like, where are you at with their quarterback position? I've seen some Deuce Knight stuff. You know more about it than I do. Is there any smoke with that or any fire with that smoke? Or is that just fans being fans online? Yeah, I think it's actually a very fair question, Ari. And I know it's a question that a lot of times people can use in an unfair manner of just, hey, you got to bench him.

And I know it's not what you're doing here. If that continues, you absolutely have to look for other options because he's not giving your team the best chance to win. And even if you found somebody with less mobility that didn't have the straight line speed or didn't have the elusiveness, but could get the ball out quickly and forced defenses to play you in a little bit of a different way, because now what's going to happen is what happened this past weekend.

Texas A&M had a safety towards Cam Coleman, and they're going to be super aggressive up front with their blitz packages and their simulated pressures and how they're going to run them. You're not getting out of that until somebody, throws you out of that. And if Jackson Arnold can't let go of the football to even attempt to throw you out of it on a regular basis, you have to look at what's next. I know they love Deuce Knight. I think they believe that he's going to be a great quarterback one day. I don't believe that they think he's ready now. But I think this is one of the reasons you went and got Ashton

Daniels is because if you need a stop gap because of an injury or if this situation, if it worsens, not in a second, but if it worsens because you want to give him a chance to get out of it. If it were to worse than, then you have somebody with real experience that could go another two, three weeks until maybe a deuce night was ready or go the rest of the season. And it wouldn't go to head and there's been a lot of money on receivers this year too. Like, and those guys are going to be in the NFL soon. So I know Cam Coleman has one more year, but like you want, you want to give them a chance to make a play and change the game too. There's no doubt. And you want to also keep them happy because with one more year, you want to make sure it's in Auburn as well. Yeah. So,

Cole, we got Texas coming to Gainesville this week to play Florida. We don't know what's going to happen with Arch Manning. We don't know if you're going to see the U-TEP version of Arch or the Sam Houston State version of Arch. But at this point, are we going to see the same version of DJ Lagway? Like, is that the version of DJ Lagway that you're going to see this year? Or is there a chance that he ever goes back to what we saw at the end of last season? there's definitely a chance i mean it's it's in there and this works both ways i've always said that you know the turnover genome inside of quarterbacks it cannot be rewired we can't play

Jurassic park in college football like we can't go in there and change your chromosomes when you when you when you when the turnover it's like gatorade when it's in you it's in you when you're going to throw the ball the other team you don't just stop doing that you know you can do it less frequently or be more responsible with when you do it uh but garret nussmire's a perfect example of this And, you know, McElroy and I go back and forth on this. And he talks about his growth. And I'm like, he's still going to throw the ball of the other team two, three times a game. It's a matter of do they catch it or is it in a situation where it doesn't hurt your team that bad?

But I think DJ Lagway has good football in him. He just looks uncomfortable to the end degree. I thought there were a couple of times my biggest concern with him is he appears as though he's protecting his lower body. If you really dissect the LSU film, there's a couple of times that he jumps when he throws. Looks like he's trying to avoid you to defend. who might be coming in low, and he looks like he's backing away from defender sometimes when he's throwing the football. I'm not George Whitfield. I'm not a quarterback expert, but I know that when I see those things happening, I don't often see them with guys playing good quarterback.

So I wonder what's going on there. I don't know if they're, I'm not even trying to allude to an injury. I'm just saying something is in his head that's forcing him technically and fundamentally to be wrong. And then with that, he's making poor decisions. That offense cannot be simplified much more. It's a very quarterback friendly offense. I mean, it is run the ball, play action. When you come off play action, one, two, get the ball out. You have the opportunity to tuck it and run. And when you do drop back, it's a very friendly system of going low to high

and how you get the ball out. So I think there's good football in there, but Billy's just got to find a way to help him get comfortable. And it's the same thing with Arch Manning. The growth that I have seen with Arch Manning this year is very simple to me. And he's not even close to being completed with it. He has started to find his car. calm. And this is one of things, like, go watch the times that Jackson Arnold was rolling out

against Texas A&M. When he releases the football, I honestly thought he was going to fall down because he's running so fast and trying to throw it so hard, it looks like he's just going to literally like roll himself to the ground. One thing that Archmanning has started to do a little bit is you can see him finding his calm in the pocket. And I don't think a quarterback can truly excel until they do that. Because once you calm down, then you are in control of how you want to deliver the football, where you deliver the football, how you operate in the pocket. If you can't find your calm, it's like Bo Knicks at Auburn. He never truly calmed down.

Then he gets to Oregon and it's like, this dude's just standing in the pocket. And you're like, well, where was this guy? He completely transformed himself mentally and emotionally as a quarterback. And that's what Arch Manning's biggest flaw was, in my opinion, early in the season, is he was trying to do everything 100 miles an hour. And some of that he wasn't really trying to. It's just that you're amped up to the point where that's happening. And you've got to figure out, hey, we just got to go play football here and find a way to bring yourself down and get your emotions and check.

And I do think he's made some progress doing that. Arch's biggest problem is this. The guys around him are not playing near to their capabilities. None of them. Like the offensive line is not blocking people at the level that they're capable of. The running backs are not breaking tackles anywhere near to the level that they're capable of. And the receivers are not catching the ball and then running when they do catch the ball to the level that they're capable of. If you put the Texas run game on last year, if you got those guys in a one-on-one,

they were going to the house. This year, it's like they allowed UTEP, UTEP to put on the most impressive individual four quarters of tackling that I have seen this year. That is not a joke. That is not sarcasm. They got more guys to the ground in one-on-one situations than any other team I've watched this year. You're Texas. Those guys with that level of talent cannot allow that to take place.

that's interesting yeah who do you have more hope for turning it around based on the film that you've watched of the two this year I would say arch

because like I said there are some issues with him he has his flaws but I don't feel like it's as much on him with Florida I feel like first and foremost the run game's got to go if DJ is going to work, just because the offense is not designed to be a, let's get in shotgun, drop back 50 times, spit the ball out quickly, left, right, then get our shots in down the field. Like, that is an offense, and the reason I love that offense, I love Billy's offense,

is it's all married to each other. And there are certain offenses, some of the SEC right now, that literally look like they're drawing plays out of a hat. And that's never going to be Billy's offense. But that run game's got to go first to set everything else up. It just has to. there are parts of the Texas offense that are there. I mean, listen, Sark will probably tell you right now,

if I get my running back in one-on-one with the corner, you better make him miss. If I get you with the linebacker in the whole one-on-one, that's your job to make him miss. Now, we'd love to have it clean up to a safety, but Sark is getting his guys in space. They're just not making plays to the level that they need to. And the fact that Arch has started to find a little bit of that column

tells me that he can continue to do that through the course of the season. Cole, I know you've been playing her. We were trying to diagnose various SEC quarterbacks, or at least their fan bases are, trying to figure out if there's something off with them. I know you've been playing hurt. I listened to Tuesday night, date night, which is your podcast with your lovely wife, Catherine.

And you're getting a sinus infection. You're on 19 different TV shows. You do a daily radio show. You have your own podcast. So I feel your pain. Your wife has no sympathy for you whatsoever. And I just want you to know that we feel you here. I appreciate that.

And that's at least one person I can go to her because I am the individual that when I get sick, I just need to shut down. I just want to go to the room, lay down, turn the lights off. And everything just has to, I just need time to sort of decompress. And it's going to run its course. There's not what we can do. And my life is the opposite. Like, I'm a baby when I get sick. I'll be the first one to admit.

I just am. And she has zero sympathy for it. None. She's like, get up, go get doing this, go do that. We need this need to be done. I just need to lay down. okay i can't breathe out of my left nostril my my throat's burning my eyeballs are sore just give me a minute to just relax and try to overcome this and there is no time for her she feels

like i just need to be up and at him right now she'd be a drink she'd be a great college strength coach she's who cares get in there and do your bench press go that's uh very similar to the way my life works i don't know about you andy but my wife oh yeah euro she's like she takes care of me but there's like a hint of resentment underneath it. Well, no, when you're a mom, there's no sympathy whatsoever because it doesn't matter when your kids are little. And you guys both have little kids.

I don't anymore. But when your kids are little, like they don't get a minute off. The mom never gets a minute off. So it doesn't matter what has happened. And this is, you know, I feel like I help out around the house and that sort of thing.

And I know you guys do too. But it's just different. the mom has more responsibility yeah in terms of that and so when they have to go through that when your kids are three four five years old like they don't give a shit what you're going through because they've been through worse in my defense though when my wife gets sick I'm like going to your room I'll bring you dinner love you sweetheart relax get better I've got everything under control out here and it does not go that way when I'm sick well that's the thing do you know how bad it has to be for her to go into the room

yeah i mean that's true but like she'll play through a lot more than you will yeah i can't play through injury that's for sure but it's like she'll bring in this because she's so sweet and she's such a good wife and i'm sure yours yours too cool like we'll bring like medicine and soup and whatever but there's just like unspoken like here's your soup you piece of shit 100% 100% and all right one of the things we talked about

one of the things we talked about is i've had like six or seven surgeries since we've been married and she has been the best caretaker you could ever imagine just unbelievable it's like what do you need what can i get you make sure like has the schedule for the medicine and like everything yeah and we talk about this sinus infection here she is walking by she's mad right now i'm gonna take more hell for this i can feel it through the microphone i can feel this is where you tell her save it for the podcast save it for the show she she's it's funny she's actually started to learn that like saving content for the show instead of just talking it all out right then but as she said last night she's like it's just a cold get over it

i'm like it's not just a cold you know what this is i get these two three times a year it really puts me down give me my time and and just let me be alone but no we had no sympathy cold public thank you for coming on here in plain hurt we are forever indebted to you i appreciate that and what i'm not going to do is go take a nap right now because she would never have that because she says she's never done that so she wants to go for a walk she's telling me right now let's go walk let's go walk get off your ass and go walk no sound better with the sinus infection than going outside and being amongst the leaves so yeah 100% happy fall on season cole there you go that's cole kubelik you can find him pretty much

everywhere and yeah don't forget the podcast with katherine kubelik Tuesday date night now Cole's going to be at a game this weekend. If you want to be at a game this weekend, download the Game Time app right now. Redeem the code Staples. You get $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply, of course. If you would like to be where Ari and I will be in Tallahassee for Miami in Florida State, yeah, you can get tickets to Doke Campbell Stadium. It's, you might have to pay a little bit because this is a huge game. This is one of the biggest games at Doke Campbell in a long time. But if you want a bargain, you can go watch Davo Sweeney take on Bill Belichick in Chapel Hill. They got tickets less than 100 bucks on game time right now. Who knows, you go to

ludicrous concert in Chapel Hill beforehand. Use the code Staples, $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. And remember, at game time, the price you see is the price you pay. They don't tack on a bunch of fees there at the end at checkout. You know exactly what you're paying. If it says the ticket is $82, you're going to pay $82. So get those tickets now. If you don't want to do it now you want to still think about it that's fine game time is the best for last minute tickets if you wake up saturday morning you're like i got to go to a game pop open that game time app i guarantee you you're going to find something you like go to game time code staples 20 bucks off your first purchase all right we talked to cole about Alabama and vanderbilt which i this game is

so exciting because of what happened last year because how good diego poppy has been because how amazing Ty Simpson looked against Georgia last week for Alabama. Clark Lee, the Vanderbilt coach, got asked about Vandy's history in Tuscaloosa, which of course is pretty bad, just like most of Vandy's history against pretty much other, every other SEC team. Clark Lee had a very interesting response. I know you know the history with Vanderbilt and Tuscaloosa and how long it's been since you guys have won there. I don't know that history.

I don't know a whole lot of you. To change things in the past like that, though, how much of it is just believing that you can do it? Like you mentioned, this team doesn't have skepticism. Like, they all believe they can do it. How big of a deal is that when you go into a place you haven't won at for a while? You know, we don't, we just don't, you know, I mean, usually that's me and Laura talking after the game and saying,

hey, you know, some of these have been like, you know, whatever it was, 19, 18, when we scored 70, whatever points. And my response to that is like, what in the world were they doing in 1918 to be able to score that many point? Was that tempo offense and spread? I mean, my God. So we just don't pay a lot of attention to that. We're creating our own history here. That's how we see it.

And that really is the spirit of this group. And I mean, even in the way we, this is Team 5, you know, it's not because the history of this program isn't important, right? I'm a part of the history of this program. But there was an intentional, purposeful break to say what has happened before has no bearing on what is to come. And here we are five years in. And we've, the kind of methodical and, you know, investment over time, the painstaking, the suffering and sacrifice has given way to a program that feels solid and feels. whole and and um i think gives us a chance to again create create the history we we want to actually define this program hire him and said what's that i would hire him to do any job

he's at his alma mater baby you're not talking about football i'm sorry i needed somebody to put together my daughter's doll house which took me four and a half hours the other day i would do i'd have him do it because you know he knows how to build stuff he seems relentlessly competent and And I'm excited to see what this looks like because I do think Vanderbilt is better than the Vandy team last year that beat Alabama. But I also think that they're not going to surprise Alabama one bit. And I'm telling you right now, Ari, if I were Kailen DeBore,

I would love this Vanderbilt love fest so much because it allows me to get my players into us against the world mode, which for Alabama, that's hard to do most of the time. like you have to really contrive it really kind of well it's gotten a lot easier the last two years I mean true but at least but this time I mean all the casual fans are rooting for vandy you got everybody saying all vandy's going to cover like the vama fans are mad at us for for saying that we thought vandy was going to cover I think this is going to be really really fascinating to see how Alabama responds to this because I again bandy is not surprising them this year's nothing

surprising about it. Now, the other thing that's interesting, if you read Chris Lowe's story on three about Diego Pavia, guess who's mentoring Diego Pavia now? Johnny Football. Yeah. Architect of one of the greatest upsets of the home team at Bryant any stadium that anybody's ever seen. So I think probably Johnny Football has a lot of good practical advice for Diego Pavia as he is a celebrity in Nashville in the new world college football but also probably some good advice about how you handle a game like that so we'll see if that winds up helping him or does Alabama with the advantage of oh nobody actually believes in us like this is the one time Alabama can be like nobody believes in us and they're right i mean i

believe i think we're probably wrong about that you're 11 you know 10 and a half point favorites it's not like you know people believe that they can win i think the the actual reality of I think the world is rooting against them other than their own fans. And I think that's helpful. But that's helpful in this situation. Like, and again, they're not going to be surprised. They're the one

seeking the revenge. It's not Yeah, they're seeking the revenge. I think that this game is a perfect illustration. And, you know, we don't have to say this every single time. A formerly lower tier team is competitive with a higher tier team. But this is more

of a testament to the foundation. that was built at Vanderbilt and the fact that they have players that are capable of being on the same field as Alabama and it's partially... We made fun of Clark Lee doing the this is how you do the warm-ups and we're not going to actually practice

until we can figure out how to do warm-ups right and doing warm-ups for two and a half hours in year one. We made fun of that but he knew what he was doing. It worked. You know, and just the evaluation that Barton Simmons and his staff have done to bring in players that

could grow into those bodies and illustrate an athleticism that, you know, turns into a productive SEC player. Now, I don't know this off the top of my head and I'd be interested. I might actually look at this up before the weekend. Do I have a column ammo for Saturday? But like how many players on Vanderbilt's roster actually are viewed as, you know, first or second or third day NFL draft picks? There's only three days, right?

First or second day draft. They're only three. High end round. First three rounds is what you're saying. Yeah, right. That's what I meant. Yeah. And like it doesn't even matter. Like it's like we look through that prism. But like if you have 20 productive SEC players, that's better than having two high-end draft picks and nobody else. Like they're a functional team that can exist in these games. And it's not because we think that Alabama stinks so that there's no chance that they can win the national title. In fact, if you're one of the people or listening to the show and you're an Alabama fan, you know that Andy and I have been. quite complimentary of their turnaround. So, like, for me, this is just a game between two SEC teams. I think it's, like, more offensive because there's a V on their helmet and we can't

escape from the past of what they used to be, but Vanderbilt, like, if this Vanderbilt team was wearing a South Carolina uniform, would it be as offensive? No, it's just because it's Vanderbilt. And I don't think the world is caught up to the fact yet that they are good. Like, they're a good football team. I don't know if they're a great one. I don't know if they're one that can win the SEC, but there's certainly one that if they put it together on the right day can beat anybody and that was already proven a year ago and they're

better than they were a year ago so it's not an alabama shade discussion it's a discussion giving flowers to vanderbill also acknowledging that georgia alabama ohio state and some of these other teams aren't as deep in talented as they used to be because they can't be it's hard i also think it just the shade helps alabama like that just that just feeds alabama makes it easier for them to win makes it you know less likely than anything shocking happens because they're just going to be prepared. One thing you can never prepare for some good Lane Kiffin trolling. Elsewhere on the megaboard, we had a thread where Lane posted a photo.

And this is, he's trolling Brian Kelly again. Like, he can't stop trolling Ryan Kelly after beating him. It's a photo of Trinidad Shameless, Ole Miss's quarterback, who they got from Ferris State as a transfer, at camp at Notre Dame, with. Brian Kelly. This is an elementary school, and Haynes, like, you had your chance, buddy. Everybody had their chance. He was at Ferris State last year.

Exactly. You know, that is a funny question, though. Who does Lane Kiffin like to troll more? Hugh Freeze or Brian Kelly? And I got to say, like, we should do a ranking of this. I don't know if now's the time because I would be putting you on the spot. Like, who are the coaches that people like to make fun of the most? You know who used to be on that list that's not in coaching anymore?

Jimbo Fisher. He was a very trollable person. Like, who was trollable? Brian Kelly is a trollable. Definitely Brian Kelly. I think Brian Kelly's number one. Yeah. I think, I think Hugh Freeze is up there. Ryan Day was for a long time and probably still is by Michigan fans. You know, there are certain people, and I don't know why this is the case, but in high school and college, there are certain people, even if you like them and they're cool and they're successful now that you just like want to pick on for some reason like my wife has a woman that that works for her uh name linda and she's smart she's gifted in her field she's successful and like when

she's in the room everybody just piles on her no matter what and it's like i just feel like that sounded weird that's not the way i meant that sorry linda but i didn't you i didn't want you to have to make your show debut this way she she's very uh very she's just an easy target and i feel like brian Kelly is an easy target. I feel the same way, and it's not, I don't think it's anything he's doing on purpose. I just think that's the way his personality works. And Lane Kiffin, of course, is a master troll. We learned last week that it's apparently genetic.

His daughter is a better troll, maybe even than Lane Kiffin, but hard launching the week's relationship the week of the LSU Ole Miss game. There is a distinction that needs to be made, though, about the trolling. anybody can be trolled for lack of success. Like it was easy to troll Ryan Day when they were losing to Michigan or are losing to Michigan because that means. Very hard to troll Ryan Day now unless you're Michigan. Like even, you know, I think Brian Kelly at a cellular level is trollable for some reason.

And I don't know what it is. I'm trying to think like Lincoln Riley is easy to troll now. No one trolled them when he was at Oklahoma because he was good. You're trolling the results. Who are the humans that you troll? a producer river throws out former balls coach bush jones he was definitely one when he was in tennessee people don't do it to him as much at arkansas state now but yeah so this but this picture that lane kiffin posted arey leads me to another megaboard thread okay it fascinated me

this is from our michigan site the wolverine this is the fort uh message board Michigan is the now QB state. Bryce Underwood, currently playing for Michigan, high school in Michigan, Dante Moore at Oregon, Detroit area guy, Trinidad Shamblis playing in Ole Miss from Michigan. And it talks about how amazing this is an Indy Wolverine 23 then jumps in the first reply.

Don't forget CJ Carr. Yeah. Also from the Ann Arbor area from Saline Michigan. how certain geographical pockets just in recruiting just tend to have certain players. Like remember when Georgia had Justin Fields and Trevor Lawrence at the same time? Oh, yeah.

And they were from, you know, 25 miles away from each other. Yeah, like two players who are starting in the NFL, think about how hard it is statistically to start in the NFL as a quarterback and the fact that they were the same age and grew up 25 minutes away from each other, like the statistical anomaly that that is.

And it pops up all the time in recruiting. Like sometimes and like even state by state you know one year the state of alabama has nobody in the next year they've got four pro bowlers in the same class and i don't know why that happens maybe it's just like math but it's like that's funny that they pointed it out that way and you know Detroit itself is a very very good high school football town you know it's a tremendous high school football town but like dante more is from cast tech right yeah yeah yeah i don't know he didn't play cast tech no he's not for cast tech he's yeah but he is he is from metro detroit metro detroit yeah um and i

remember just back when I was in on the Ohio state he went to MLK high school so yeah so he's trying Detroit they used to go up to Detroit all the time and write recruiting profiles because it was like at the beginning of the urban Meyer era like they were attacking Detroit as like a secondary a secondary uh a secondary um city for them outside of their own state as an emphasis and they did a really good job of recruiting some players that you know wound up being very productive for them and it's cool to see that it's happening a quarterback and it's you know what's the best part, Michigan has one of them. Like 15 years ago, Michigan might not have had any of them.

Yep. So the fact that they're able to get that done. And he's from Belleville, Michigan, which is, again, you know, suburban Detroit is basically halfway between Detroit and Ann Arbor. Right. And Ann Arbor is like basically Detroit to me. Yeah, Ann Arbor is essentially a suburb of Detroit. Yeah. So, and then C.J. Carr is from essentially suburban Ann Arbor.

so yeah there's a lot of good football being played a lot of good quarterbacks we saw that we saw that with phoenix a little bit where yeah phoenix had quarterback yeah they were popping up all over the place and i actually just story about it for the athletic because that was when when brock purdy was really blowing up and but were the other ones andy do you remember just i can't forget i can't it was it was a bunch i mean it kind of started with brett hunley remember him at ucla and so it wasn't Brock purdy probably is the biggest star that came out of there, but there were a bunch of high profile recruits that were signing with big time schools.

Like, that was when Jack Miller was being recruited by Ohio State. And I'm trying to, I'm blanking on the name of the NC State quarterback who came from there. And then his brother also went to NC State as well. But they had, it was just a bunch of guys in Phoenix that kind of came of age. Spencer Rattler came through there. All kind of came of age at the same time. we're seeing that now with that that part of michigan yeah and finley is is who i'm thinking of at

nc state yes yeah i'm looking at the story now uh you know you had kyle allen was was one of the originals that's at the same time but jack plumber um that right jack plumber was was young at that point i think he'd just gone to perdu um um yeah i built that's i built that story around the Purdy's. And because at that time, Chubba, uh, Brock's younger brother was being recruited by that he was, he was going to go to Louisville and then he flipped to Florida State there at the end. But yeah, it was a headline, uh, the valley of the quarterbacks. Good headline. Yeah, it was a good, good headline. But I, but I, but such an athletic headline. You're seeing that in Metro Detroit right now where it is produced these, these guys who

We're fantastic college quarterbacks. And, like, Trinidad Chamblis is the one that we weren't even talking about. And now we're, you know, over the moon with him. Yeah. And it's funny. It's just like, you know, sometimes you lose track of people. Like, it's like easy to make fun of Brian Kelly. It's like, oh, look, you Trinidad Chambleus is at your camp.

It's like Brian Kelly is not the only person. Everybody missed on him. Not like he did something wrong. Actually, I think you can make the case. He's from Grand Rapids, by the way. So he's not from the same part of Michigan. as everybody else but he is from michigan you can make the case that when a player like this is overlooked by everybody that the people who overlooked them had the right process and there was

something that wasn't adding up with them in the high school recruiting process and that doesn't take away from the fact that anybody can have a renaissance like well the other part of this was everybody when he hit the portal he was going to go to temple and i think part of the reason the bigger schools a lot of stayed away where they assumed he wanted to go somewhere to start because he'd been a starter already, but Ole Miss was willing to try to recruit him as a backup and he was willing to take it. So this is a, it's just a fascinating story. And yeah, Michigan seems to be the place.

So the next great quarterback recruit the pops up out of Michigan, you better all jump on him because he could be a superstar. One more, Ari, this is a quarterback, not for Michigan. We've talked about this person a lot. So this is from the Lions Den from our Penn State site. UNCPSU fan for next season, go get a quarterback from the portal. Basically, instead of trying to develop one, just go get a ready-made one. And I was wondering what you think about that for Penn State, Ari, because other than Trace McSorley,

who had Sequin Barkley with him in his offense. We could say, is it Trace McSorley? Is it Joe Moorhead, who was the offensive coordinator at the time? I'm going to Occam's razor this and say it was probably Sequin Barclay as the differentiating factor. So Penn State has tried to home grow these quarterbacks. And I would say between Sean Clifford and Dural are pretty underwhelming results. Yeah. So should they just go try to get a ready-made one next year?

Well, I mean, it's an interesting film. philosophical debate about whether anybody should try to do it. It's not just a Penn State thing. It's like if you know that there's going to be a John Mateer every year. Now, the problem is that I don't think that that behavior is like mutually exclusive to the behavior of trying to still sign good quarterbacks out of high school. You can always have the option to do it even if, you know, the question really is, did Penn State make a mistake in sticking with Aller as long as they did? because like if Penn State knew and listen his story's not written yet by the way like he can still go out like I'm not out on him 100 percent like I know that everybody else is like I think that like this discussion about Beau Probula and the stuff that we're going to have to talk about I'm getting there Ari I'm getting there and I think that it's fair to be getting there but like if you're the head coach of Penn State the question is is do you have to stay steadfastly loyal to a player that has illustrated a lot of of good things and has potential, or should you be aggressive and try to go get John Mateer,

even if you have a player like that? Well, here's the other thing, and we're relitigating this now, but when Drew Aller comes to you in December of last year and says, I'd like to come back, you know, Georgia had that discussion with Carson Beck. Now, whether that was the correct move or not is another story. but you don't have to say welcome back right it can be done now the other the other thing too about the portal is as we continue to get more and more into it and it becomes regular there usually are four or five guys um that are out there that can come in and play right away like who were the five like i have a bad memory carson beck was one john mater was another um who else am i forgetting that was a there weren't a lot that you you thought were completely ready made this so if you do this you do this that as your plan, it's very easy to say, hey, go out and get a ready-made quarterback.

Well, hey, you don't know who that's going to be. Yeah, it was Nico and then Joey Aguilar, and then Grinowski, and Nico and and Grinowski have not ended up working out that great. Right. And I do wonder with Nico if he would have gone to Penn State in this hypothetical, like I'm sure it wouldn't be going as bad as it is

going right now. Like, part of that, too, is UCLA just fired the O.C. They've already fired the head because they fired the OC on Tuesday, so. But you can't you can't, like, from a philosophical standpoint, it's hard to just say, we'll portal it. Because it's, like, the one thing you know for sure is that there's 50

or 100 quarterbacks at the high school ranks year over, year over year that you can bring in. You don't know what is going to be available, who's going to be available, where they're going to be from. You know, I mean, Penn State could have got like a Steve Angelly type player, but would you rather have Steve Angelly?

Oh, Fernando Mendoza. Fernando Mendoza? Would you rather have Fernando Mendoza or Dr. Aller right now? I've seen Fernando Mendoza popping up in mock drafts because I like looking at mock drafts in the middle of college football season because I'm a sicko and I think it is actually kind of interesting to see which players

these NFL people are like latching onto and I've seen a few mock drafts this week that at Fernando Mendoza going 1-1 in the draft this year. Interesting. I mean and he's like big tall, big arms. So he's got the things the NFL guys like Darien Mensa is another one.

Yeah. So maybe there's more than you think. It's just do you think that your team can close and if you are and if you abandon trying to develop your own quarterback and then you happen to miss you might have a problem like you know so it's very interesting I think we haven't mentioned bro per bulla yet yeah who was on their team already I mean yes but it would have stayed because he was a Penn State kid through and through I mean so for those who don't remember the the way it was supposed to work was that Drew Aller was headed to the NFL after last year the plan was for Broper Buehula to succeed him

and Broper Bule had been the backup at Penn State for a couple of years and when he had to come in for Aller he'd been effective and then Aller decides no I'd like another year in college I think it would be good for me and so and we talked to James Franklin about it on the show like at that point it's not fair to ask Per Buell to stay like he needs to do what's best for him and he goes to Missouri now the question is though

is Missouri, is Broper Bula this good because he was always this good? Or because now he's playing for Eli Drinkwitz instead of playing at Penn State? Yeah. Well, here's the other question, Andy. If you have a reasonable succession plan where you have a quarterback who's playing and a backup you're excited about who will presumably play in a year. and then the player that you are presuming will leave finds it necessary to return to college for another year. Is that the point of demarcation where it's like, well, if you're not good enough to go to the NFL now,

but we thought you were. But it wasn't because Drew Aller wasn't good enough to go to the NFL. If Jeweller had entered the draft and been in this past draft, I bet he would have been a first round pick. Maybe. Just on tools alone. Not on tape. Certainly not on tape, but on tools compared to the other guy.

especially because it was a week at quarterback draft. Correct. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. I think it's an interesting thought exercise, but what I do think is this, if I were a college football head coach and I were in James Franklin's position,

and it's much easier to say this from on this seat here than it is to be James Franklin, I would operate in a way that was ruthless to my players because that's the real way to, like, do it, right? and I don't know what that does for locker room culture, but there's no question that John Mateer in the offseason was a better quarterback than Drew Aller for the most part. Now, maybe it's easier to, you know, hindsight with being 2020

and we know what Mateer has done and we've watched Drew struggle a little bit. But like, what's not, what's to stop coaches from recruiting over players? Like, that's nothing, but they always did before. So should, the question should be, did James Franklin make a mistake by not recruiting over him or by keeping him? It's not a philosophical high school problem. It's by keeping him, but I don't know. And again, if he doesn't keep him, that means Perbule is their starter this year.

And I don't know if Perbula is as good as he is at Missouri in the Penn State offense. Well, there's nobody that would have known what Perbula brings to the table more than James Franklin, presumably, right? He's on his team. He practices with them. But I'm just saying, like, Eli, Drinkwood. has a history of producing very productive offenses. James Franklin's offenses are not, like the quarterbacks don't put up huge numbers typically

with the exception of Trace McSorley. So part of it, I think, is philosophical more than anything else. Yeah. It's difficult. It's difficult. Getting a quarterback is difficult and how you want to do it is difficult. I do think that every coach in college football should aspire to sign one a year in every cycle just because they're so transient to begin with.

And you know, you should try to build your program around guys that you are homegrown. But as you look at the way college football is going, how many the teams in the top 10 right now have quarterbacks that were homegrown? And does Ohio State count? Probably, I mean, it probably counts because he went to Alabama for like three days. I'm going to pull up the AP top 10 right now. Let's see how many teams in the AP poll have a. transfer starting quarterback. Okay, Oregon's is a transfer, Miami's is a transfer, Ole Miss is a transfer, Oklahoma is a transfer. Marcel Reed isn't, right? He signed.

He was signed by Texas A&M. Penn State is a transfer. Not a transfer, but Indiana, Texas is not a transfer. Alabama is not a transfer. 10 is not a transfer. So 7 out of 10. But if we were to go, and then if we were to go into the next five, Texas Tech not a transfer, Georgia not a transfer LSU not a transfer Iowa State not a transfer Tennessee a transfer yeah so it's like it kind of feels like 50-50 almost like it's like do you have yeah yeah I didn't if we go if we go into the next five Vanderbilt transfer Georgia Tech transfer Florida State transfer Missouri transfer Michigan could have been a transfer but it wound up not being one he flipped at the last second on signing day so he is home homegrown of homegrowns

Because he's right from down the road. But yeah. So, yeah, it's about a 50-50 proposition now. Good question. Good discussion. It is a really good discussion. And that is why you hit the megaboard. That's my favorite thing to do is gone on3.com and just press megaboard and see what everybody's talking about.

Because you never know what you're going to find. You might get breaking Atlanta Braves news even. Who knows? And I understand, too, like, why Penn? State would be talking about this. I mean, they had to watch Will Levis leave and then he was pretty successful. I don't know if that, you know, but like, you don't like seeing your players that could have been playing for you leave and

then go be successful elsewhere while you're struggling at that position. Now, if Alar has a really good second half of the year and you can question whether or not that's possible, certainly, given what we know about him, but if he does, then he'll be, like, you know, the story still be written. So, um, I am not nearly, I just don't think they're going to let him turn it loose. Again, I think this is part of this is Drew Aller, but part of this is philosophical

on the part of the coaching staff. So maybe they're either going to let them turn it loose or not. They look back at the fourth quarter of the game and go, hey, our offense was. Yeah, they had no choice and they did it. So maybe just do that the whole game. Do that the whole game. Yeah.

And maybe, I mean, maybe you're so programmed and not having a good receiver on your team that you forgot how to use them. But like, it's like Penn State still has much, plenty in the tank. Like they're going to make the playoff this year. So I think. if they beat in Indiana.

But yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Fernando Mendoza, transfer. We'll see. All right. Tomorrow, your questions answered on dear Andy and dear Rie. Also, we were on Matt Rules podcast.

Talk a little bit about that, and you'll get to hear a little bit of our banter with the head coach of the University of Nebraska. Maybe a couple more surprises tomorrow. We shall see. We've got a few things in the hopper We'll let you know We'll talk to you on Thursday