Andy & Ari On3 - How Oklahoma State improves IMMEDIATELY with head coach Eric Morris | Most Improved CFB teams in 2026 | Michigan AD Warde Manuel SPEAKS OUT

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

Over in Stillwater, the Oklahoma State Cowboys welcome its newest head coach in Eric Morris. Coming over from North Texas, Morris brings in a number of new players to the Oklahoma State roster. Watch here as Eric Morris joins Andy & Ari from Big 12 Media Days in Frisco, Texas. Do you think the Cowboys will be much improved from a season ago?   (0:00) On Today's Episode (1:20) Presenting Sponsor (3:10) Intro: Previewing Eric Morris (12:24) Eric Morris Joins the show (18:44) How Morris evaluates QBs (24:05) Building a roster in Stillwater (26:35) The Retirement plan for Eric Morris (28:21) Ari on a farm? (37:00) Ari's front door (40:25) Most Improved teams in 2026 (41:35) SEC: LSU & Florida (44:53) Auburn (48:39) Big Ten: Penn State (53:05) UCLA (58:45) Virginia Tech (1:01:26) Recap: Most improved (1:04:58) Warde Manuel Latest (1:18:41) Conclusion: Thanks for watching!   Once the fellas wrap up with Eric Morris, the guys run through their most improved teams before the 2026 season. With a team or two from each power conference, do you agree with Andy & Ari's list? Who should have been mentioned?   Later, Andy & Ari dive into the latest surrounding Michigan AD Warde Manuel. Going on a radio show Tuesday morning, what did the Michigan AD say about his future with the university? Watch here as Andy & Ari break it all down here to close out the show.   Our show is also presented by BetMGM!   If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works:   1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB. 2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. 3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you 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. This promotional offer is not available in DC, Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET (Available in the US) . 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only (if applicable). Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel   Check out Zen AI here: http://bit.ly/zenAI_bpp_itf   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/ICUZHz8feqc   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   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, Oklahoma State coach Eric Morris joins the show. He's in his first year after coming over from North Texas. We think that the Cowboys may be the most improved team in the country this year. He's going to explain how he evaluates players, how he decided who was going to join him at Oklahoma State, whether it was from North Texas or coming from somewhere else. It's a fascinating conversation. And then we're going to get into conversation about the other teams that could be the most improved in the country. We think Oklahoma State probably has the market cornered in the Big 12.

But in the SEC, what about LSU? What about Florida? In the ACC, Virginia Tech? Hello, James Franklin. In the Big Ten. How about Bob Chesney taking over at UCLA? How about Matt Campbell taking over at Penn State? We'll talk about potentially the most improved teams in the country.

Also, Ward Manuel, the embattled Michigan Athletic Director, went on the radio in Michigan on Tuesday and defended his record as the AD. Is it going to change what's going to happen later this week? I don't know. We'll talk about it all. On today's Andy Narion 3 presented by BetMGM. This show is sponsored by BetMGM. All the lines and totals you see come from.

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We're going to talk to a guy who I think we've already anointed one of the best first year coaches in the country. He hasn't coached a game at his new school yet. but I feel like Eric Morris has the benefit of the doubt from most of the country that he's going to turn Oklahoma State around. And I find it interesting because in a lot of other cases, it's not a slam dunk. It's like, okay, how's this going to work? This feels like everybody you talk to says this guy's going to get it done. Yeah. I think there's a lot to unpack here, Andy.

first of all, the thing that I've noticed in my now going on 15 years in college football media is that there is a disease that exists where if something just happened, that's the way to do it. And that's not just the way that fans expect things, but that's also the way that I believe sometimes media approaches stuff in that Kurt Signetti just went to Indiana from a place that James Madison, that was very good, brought a bunch of players to that new place and then won the championship. Now, I don't think that the expectation is for Oklahoma State to go win out a national championship in the imminent future. But I do think that there is this prevailing view that if you are a really good group of five, group of six coach, who brings a bunch of players from a successful program to a place in the power that you have a chance to be really, really good out of the gate.

But Oklahoma State does have a very good chance. And I think that the bar for what they were a year ago is so low that it seems relatively unlikely that Oklahoma State won't be at least very improved. But I think that people have gotten so excited about Eric Morris. And maybe this is a testament to what he's done, especially bringing quarterback Drew Mestemaker, that they are going to be a dark horse to win the Big 12 that I almost feel like the expectations for Oklahoma State have the pendulum has swung so far to the other side. That is going to be hard for him to even feel like his first season is a success because everybody's, already like priced that in. And I don't know if that's the right thing to do.

So was very curious what you thought about that. I just don't think you can be any worse than they were last year. Like I think the bar is so low. Like if they're barely functional as a program, like a, you know, a borderline bowl team, then they've improved dramatically from last year. So like you've got that going for you. But I do think you're right. I do think we have swung it farther that, you know, now basically people,

thinking, oh, they've got to win eight, nine, ten games. I don't think that's necessarily the case. This team was awful last year. The program was terrible. It was as bad a shape as it could be. And I think part of that was intentional because, listen, firing Mike Gundy is not an easy thing. He's the greatest coach in program history. He's an alum.

He's accomplished more than anybody ever has there. He took Oklahoma State to a place that when he got the job, you didn't know that the Cowboys would be able to go. And so it had to bottom out to fire Mike Gundy. And I think they created an environment where they knew Mike Gundy well enough to know that that's how it would bottom out. And so I do think Eric Morris is getting significantly more resources than Mike Gundy was getting going into last season.

I think this roster is going to be pretty good, pretty competitive right away. We mentioned Drew Mestemaker. Wyatt Young, the best receiver from North Texas has joined him to, 70 catches. 1,264 yards last year. And you're going to hear Eric Morris talk about, you know, some of the other guys he added from around, you know, other parts of the country as well, not just the North Texas guys.

This is a brand new team, brand new program. Yeah, they are the bar to improve Oklahoma State as low, as you mentioned. The thing that I find interesting is that he is not being judged against what Oklahoma State was last year. I think he's being judged by what North Texas was last year. And maybe that'll be more common. Maybe that'll be more common.

in this new world where a coach takes a large portion of his previous team with him to the new job. But, you know, like that doesn't, listen, it's not like he's going to get fired or something, but I do wonder like if the momentum or at least the momentum of thought of where he is has swung so far to the other side that it's going to feel hard for Oklahoma State fans to enjoy an eight-win season. Like all of a sudden, that's going to be a disappointment. I think they'll enjoy it after last year. Okay. I hope that's right.

last year they would enjoy that. Yeah. But I have seen how awful it was. Oh, for sure. I always just, there's always one game that comes to mind for me. And that's the Oregon game. And obviously they were going to lose by 100 no matter what, but just like how non-competitive they were.

It's so much worse. No, the one last year for me was the Tulsa game. And that's the one he got fired after. That's the one where you just thought, oh, okay, this is not, this is not getting fixed. And now it's interesting that you mentioned, you know, the situations. So I would say that Alex Golish, who comes from USF to Auburn, is doing a similar thing, similarly bringing a lot of the roster from USF, Byron Brown, the quarterback.

But we're not expecting the same kind of turnaround necessarily. Well, you know, obviously everybody hopes they turn it around. But we're not saying they're definitely going to do it because Auburn had really good players last year. And they weren't good under Hugh Free. Well, Oklahoma State did not. Let's just be honest. Let's just be honest, too. A large portion of Oklahoma State's hype has to do with the perception that their schedule is not very difficult in comparison to the SEC schedule. So, like, I think that people think that Oklahoma State has a chance to win 10 games.

If Eric Morris took was, if Oklahoma State was in the SEC, that I don't think that, I think that he would be probably viewed in the similar vein as, you know, Auburn in the moment. Now, I don't know. It's a very interesting question to you, but who do you think has more hype coming into the year? or Byron Brown or Drew Mestemaker. Like I think that like you could make the case that it's Mestamaker. Yeah. So even though Byron Brown might be a freakier athlete, like Mestamaker, some people view as a potential future first round draft pick as a pure pro style

quarterback. So, you know, that's also. And White Young's really good. Like they brought good players. And we watched a lot of North Texas last year, Andy, because they were like in the playoff mix and the G5. And like they were a really fun team. So I think at the bot at the very least.

You know, a lot of times, I think in the offseason, we have this, you know, obligation to try to tie a coach's future success in the upcoming year to a specific or, yeah, specific win total. And, you know, a lot of times I also think that, like, those are misguided and it's more about vibes and how you feel watching the team. Because we don't know which teams are going to beat, which teams are going to, you know, lose to. But what we do know is that what a team feels like when you watch them is a very palpable feeling. and I think that like if they are a fun team and maybe even a fun team that wins seven games I think that's going to be a success for them. Here's an example.

They are playing Oregon again this year. Like, if they lose 40 to 28 to Oregon and it's a competitive game for two and a half quarters, I think Oklahoma State fans would walk out of that game going, all right, we're feeling pretty good about how this is. We're feeling pretty good about it.

Yeah. I have watched or have you seen CBS right now is doing a series. of trying to predict everyone's schedule game by game. And obviously, good luck at that. It's very difficult, but it's kind of fun just to see which games people think they're going to lose. I think we should steal that idea and do it ourselves, actually. But I have like watching that.

Yeah, I love stealing other people's ideas and then saying on the show we're stealing them because what are you going to do? The thing that I've seen, though, is Oregon preview content, not just from CBS from around the country of people like circling the Oklahoma State. game is like, this is not last year, guys. So, like, I do think that there was this expectation that Oklahoma State isn't just going to be very improved, but will be very good on its own merits. And I think that that's a testament to Eric Morris's accomplishments at North Texas. And, of course, the reason he was hired in the first place. Well, let's hear from Eric Morris, who, you know, we've had him on the show before,

talking about how good of a quarterback evaluator he is, a primary recruiter on Baker Mayfield at Texas Tech. He's the one who got Cam Ward and incarnate work. and then brought him with to Washington State. The Drew Mestimaker story is well known. Drew Mestemaker didn't start at his high school. Eric Morse was also a primary recruiter on Patrick Mahomes to Texas Tech. So this is a guy, John Mateer is another one that he was the primary recruiter on when he was the OC at Washington State.

So this is a guy who's been able to find those quarterback diamonds in the rough. Can he find him at the other positions? Because it's not just who you brought from North Texas. this roster needed a lot of work. So let's talk evaluation with Eric Morris. We're joined by Eric Morris, new head coach at Oklahoma State. Okay, we were talking beforehand about the idea of living in a nice small college town, raising kids there. How does still water compare to where you grew up in West Texas?

It's big. I grew up in the small town of shallow water. 2,000 people, zero stoplights. We had one convenience store and that was at no, no restaurants or anything. You had to drive into, into Lubbock was the closest town. And so dad was a coach there.

And so that's all we did. You know, we never locked our door. You know, we had to come home. We rode bikes everywhere. You come home when the street lights come on at night. And, you know,

there wasn't a ton of rules, but a great way to grow up. Dad was basketball coach, right? Dad was a hoop coach. I grew up in the basketball gym. Unfortunately, I'm only 5-8.

And so, you know, had a good basketball career, won a state championship. You hit a buzzer beater when a state championship. Let's not undersell this. So that was a good sports memory for me. But then obviously there's this little guy named Wes Welker who was dominating from Mike Leach at Texas Tech and went to some camps. And luckily, Mike offered me a scholarship. And that was my path. I can't imagine what it would be like to hit a buzzer beater in a state championship game.

What was the evening like that night? It made it, you know, even more special because my dad. out of coaching. It was the first ever state championship. And so, you know, I think just for the whole family to be there and to, you know, celebrate that night. You know, I have a bunch of uncles. It was in Austin. And so one of my uncles from Austin, we had the whole family. There had to be 50 people, family members all staying at his house. You know, I couldn't partake and in a cold beverage afterwards at that age. But the rest of my family did. Do you want to know my peak athletic? Athletic. I fell on a fumble. once in high school football. And you stay on to Joe. Yeah, I fell on. Yeah, it was the nose guard.

And I fumbled the snap and I fell on. You got video evidence? Yeah. I was happy to see that. You know, I really, we do a lot of talking in the off season and we're getting to the point now we're starting to play games. But Andy and I, unfortunately, failed to identify Indiana last year as a team that could do what they did.

Right. And I got the thinking about teams that we might not be identifying. And I keep coming back to Oklahoma State as a team that, you know, I'm not trying to put national title expectations or anything on you, but like could be much better than people are thinking because it's a different team. And, you know, in college football, it's hard sometimes to erase what you know about the recent past that it plays, even if something's changed. How different do you think this team is going to be and how much better? Can you get a sense for how much better your team can be by, you know, knowing what happened last year, looking at films, seeing the players that are still on the team. You mentioned on the podium earlier that you have a few guys that are on the team who haven't won a conference champion or a conference game yet. I mean, how much can you sense that things could be different?

Yeah, I think, you know, for us, like we have to build the confidence in these guys over the course of the next two months. And if they don't believe in themselves, then we're going to have issues down the road, right? And so I think first and foremost, that's going to be our biggest task as a staff over the course of the next couple months, especially in training camp, right? When we get the pads on and it's hot outside and those dog days get longer and longer and to keep them committed and focus towards the goal. Now, the cool thing is we just have so many people on this team

that have played significant amount of reps in college football. And some of that might be Division 2 level. We have some Division 2, All-Americans on our team. Some of that might be FCS. We have some other transfers, you know, quite a bit of them coming from North Texas. And then at the same time, we have some guys coming from big schools

that are coming from some – bad experiences last year where they didn't play as much as they felt they should have. And so we have a lot to prove this year. And that starts with me. That's the way I've coached my whole entire career. I've never been at a place with a ton of resources. You know, people told me I was nuts when I took the Carter Word head job at that point in my career. And that gave me motivation for me to go out and prove something, right?

And same thing at North Texas. And so that all starts over. And so in my mind, we haven't won anything. Now, do we have some talent on this team to be able to go out and convince me? compete this year. You dang right. We do. Where did you come into your own as an evaluator? Was it an incarnate word? Was it when you were at Texas Tech with Cliff? Was it at Washington State? Where did you think, okay, now I know what I'm looking for. Yeah, I've had bosses that have always allowed me to go out and do my own thing. And so, you know, my first full-time job was with Mike

Leach. And so really the quarterback stuff started, you know, because Mike Leach couldn't go out in the spring recruiting as a head coach. So I was responsible for doing all the quarterbacks. And so I got to sit in a room and learn about all the qualities Mike had been built up over the course of so much time and listen to Mike and really be a sponge and learn from it. And then the year after that, you know, I go to Texas Tech. Same thing with Cliff Kingsbury. So then I sit in a room with Cliff Kingsbury. And so I've had two, you know, great quarterback minds really teach me the processes and what they're looking for and what's important when you do it. And so we have a whole system that we go through right now.

And it's not bulletproof by any stretch of imagination. You know, the human element of this game is, is apparent. And more so now than ever, because the parody is showing, because nobody can hoard all these good players like they could back in the day. But, too, you know, I've made plenty of mistakes. I tell people all the time, you know, one of the first learning lessons on the job at Washington State, Mike Leach and I sat down and watched Cooper Cup because he's from Washington. He was a senior coming out.

We didn't watch him live. And so we ended up not taking him. liked him. We took a kid from Southern California named River Craig Craft who played in the NFL too. Yeah. But at the same time, like I met about, like you miss on people. You got to be okay with it and you're going to miss in this. I think limited in those misses and then and then really finding for me in the past has been dime in the rough because everybody asked, what was it like recruiting Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes and Camor? Well, nobody wanted those guys. Yeah. It wasn't hard. It wasn't like. When you're looking at a division two guy and you're

trying to decide, is this someone who can jump up to this level? Is it, is it more traits? Is it more personality? What is it that tells you that person can make the leap? Yeah, I think you start with the traits and do they have the physical attributes to go out there and perform whatever task you're going to ask in your scheme? And then it moves on to do they match with you, you know, with a personality traits. And there are certain things, you know, we've had kids come on visits that I didn't like their personality one way or another, and we've stopped recruiting the guys. And so, yeah, I mean, I think it starts with the physical and then you continue to go down a checklist. And you've got to be okay saying no, like all these recruiting rankings and the different things that they have

us rated right now. Like, there might be some of guys that we lost that we had on a visit we didn't like and don't think they fit personally to what we're trying to do from a schematic point or from a personality standpoint. And so I think just staying true to myself on the things that have worked, it's going to get harder and harder each step I take up because people are looking and they're going to say, hey, why is our recruiting ranking this? And like at the end of the day, like these people want to see us win games. I have two questions that are very good. We love recruiting.

This is the part of our I'm supposed to say recruiting rankings don't. We work for on three. They matter. I do think now, now there's a class to it like where we pay attention. Obviously, I mean, there's a lot of data that these five stars playing the NFL. Like, I mean, there's some no brainers out there that. But you know what you want. Yeah.

And you have to, at the end of the day, that person. Yeah. I mean, the number one pick of the draft last year, you know, was at one offer, and incarnate word. And so there's still these things like our method has worked, although, you know, it might not always be the sexiest method. Yeah. I have two very different questions, but unrelated, but somewhat related to what we're just

talking about. Andy and I were having a discussion last night about how many big time quarterbacks get offers when it turns out they have pretty big holes in their game that get exposed when they get to school. I'll give you the backstory without naming any names. It has nothing new with anybody you've recruited. We were sent video of a guy that someone had heard us talking about on the show. And it was of the person throwing, warming up for a game. And this person had gotten a scholarship to a big school, had transferred to another big school. And like watching the video for a few minutes, like, oh, my gosh, this person can't actually throw football.

How does that happen? Yeah. What is the mistake? It's surprising how many times. Now, there's some, there's like three or four things I really look for in a quarterback as far as on. There's other things I think I can change. And it's some geeky stuff. Like I look at some lower body mechanics, which are super important.

A bunch of people nowadays don't have their lower half tied to their upper half, which is really hard to correct. You know, I love level shoulders when they're throwing the football. Obviously, they're going to change the plane a little bit when they're throwing a deep ball. but accurate quarterbacks, you know, nine out of ten times are always going to keep level shoulders. And then there's some stuff like, like, I like balls to get out fast in our offense with RPO's and they have to be able to handle the football in some fast situations. So there's some key things I look at, but I'm like, there's some things that we look at on tape and they'll be like, hey, coach, this kid's going.

These are his three official visits. I'm like, there ain't no way now. So what mistakes you think is being made? Yeah, the evaluation process has to be, you know, and I, and I, and I, do think to people nowadays, especially to get ahead in the game, I think people will throw out blanket offers, you know, especially like in the state of Texas if they're from out of state, like, you know, you're going to throw out, you know, 35 offers where, you know, the majority of those kids probably couldn't call and commit or have them just to be able to get ahead of the game.

So I think there's probably some of that. I'm a huge in-person eval guy. Like, I won't take a quarterback unless I seem in person. And I've missed on some guys that I probably could have gotten because they wouldn't come to my camp. they wouldn't throw or I wasn't able to see them live. And it's just, it's been a non-negotiable for me because I have just like you guys. Like I've made mistakes over just tape before.

And, and I see them in person. I'm like, oh, like, that's not what I have. Yeah. Well, and I'm curious, you know, because like, Cam Ward doesn't have the most, you know, orthodox throwing motion. Yeah. Do you have to kind of decide, wait, this works for this person. I got to, I got to let this be.

Yeah. I mean, Cam, we found him at camp and he had probably, probably the best camp I've ever seen to this day. And he was a little bit overweight at the time. But my quarterback coach at the time is the offense coordinator at Texas Tech, McLeff, which brought me a piece of paper and it had his number, you know, whatever number he had written. And it had highlighted and said, this guy's a dude.

This was during warmups. So obviously the arm talent, the pop. Right. It was coming off. You can see that. Yeah. You could see it. And so then we got into camp and we kept him afterwards and put him through, you know,

a gauntlet of what we think are our hardest throws. we're going to ask him to make and it was like we're like just flabbergasset like holy yeah so then we go inside and watch the tape and there's like three passes on it and the rest you know he plays in a wingtie doesn't throw it and there's one of those unique opportunities where we felt like okay like this might be an opportunity for us to steal one yeah yeah uh coach the other thing that you touched on that i find very interesting is you know as you have progressed in your career as have the size of the jobs that you've taken right and and now that you're stepping into the power level, you know, things change in terms of how to build the roster, the types of players you're

going to be facing and all these things. And you mentioned that you do have to adjust the way that you do your process. But how do you evaluate before ever coaching a game as a head coach in the big 12 what to change about your process, if at all, in order to fit into a different league, a different level of skill? Is there any recruiting tweaks or philosophical changes you have to make when you go up a level? adjustment for me and and I don't know it's going to require some change for sure but um you know and I've always been pretty pretty true to what's worked for me in the past and I'm a big believer and once you find something to work like you don't need to you know deviate so far but you know

I think self-reflection is good and I'm not a I'm okay with change like there's a better way to do something I'll always listen to people and get advice but the biggest thing for me now is the size of our staff has gotten so much bigger and so So just being learning how to delegate better, I think would be the biggest thing. And it's been hard for me this first six to seven months. You know, you're used to sitting in a room, you know, five years ago in incarnate word where it's just you and your, you know, nine assistants. And then you go to North Texas and you got, you know, your 10 assistants and probably 15,

you know, support staff people all over. That includes every, every department. And now, you know, I sit in my first staff meeting. And, you know, there's 47 people in there looking. at you're like, holy smokes. Do you know everybody's name? No, not at first. I do now.

And so, yeah, I think, and then just making sure, you know, as you delegate and having people that are responsible for their own, you know, pieces of the puzzle and letting them, giving them a leadership role within their department and then just having weekly meetings to make sure everything's going is planned in the right way, just because I don't have enough time in the day. because I still, my favorite thing about this job is calling plays on Saturdays. Like, I'm not giving that up. Like, that's where I'm at peace.

That's where I'm at home. And so for me, especially, like there's a bunch of coaches. I'd say the majority now, there's only a handful left of true play callers left. You know, they have more time to delegate throughout the day because they're not sitting in all of the offensive installs and watching film after practice. And so I have less time to start with. It seems like it would be exhausting, even though you have all this help with all these people, evaluating how everyone's doing at their job. Yeah, so my wife's family, they're cotton farmers.

And so the last couple of years, that's what I've done, you know, for retirement plans. I've bought some farms and I want to. I tell you. You on a farm. I want no part of you on a farm. I didn't say doing work. I don't think he's going on on the farm either, right? But I want to live there someday.

My wife doesn't when we get down. She wants to live on the beach someday. But I love processes. I love to watch. things grow and happen and you dedicate your time and you're reaped for for the time and effort you put into it and like that's great for coaching right that's what I do now the cool thing about a farm is that that land and those those plants they're not going to talk back to me at any point so I can sit out there and I can watch this process and you know just to pick up truck and myself

driving around and not have to have conversation just because I think at some point which I have a lot of years of coaching left in me don't get me wrong I'm I'm young at this I got a lot of energy. But at some point, I always joking my wife. I'm like, yeah, I love the process of watching something happen. But my time will be delegated a lot different than I'll just, I'll be praying for, for rain. Absolutely. I don't know. You can't wear the linen. Well, you can wear the linen bled on the farm because it, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, yeah, but it's the best thing with being a head coach, so the cool blazer you get to like where. My wife picks out colors on all the stuff. I'm terrible at fashion and stuff. And so my wife is definitely someone.

that and I trust her. So I'm not, you know, shy or not don't want to wear whatever, but I wouldn't be someone that could go in and pick something out. Oklahoma State's got a unique orange and she nailed this.

She nailed this one. There's no doubt. Coach, thank you so much. Good luck with cotton farming. I appreciate you guys. That's right. Football. We got a lot of football till then.

All right. That is Eric Morris. Future, future farmer. Eric Morris. Yeah. We always talk. Yesterday, Andy, I don't know if this is an appropriate time to bring this up,

but you intentionally publicly embarrassed me because I don't own a bucket. But this is funny because when he talks about the future version of himself, like the post-college football coach, and he's talking decades down the line. We're not talking in a few years of Oklahoma State fans. He's a guy. Yeah, yeah. But I think that he has this romantic view for his life that he will be a farmer

and live in the country and, you know, take care of land and stuff. And for somebody like me who doesn't do this stuff, like I can still feel like the same romanticism that he does. Like I'm like, that would be really cool for you to be this big time football coach and then to go out into the country and just kind of live the life that you grew up living and just like kind of being at peace on land.

And like I watch things like Yellowstone and I watch, you know, people, but I don't watch people do things that are physical with their hands that are like super impressive and like I wish I could be that person sometimes and like I don't think don't even own a bucket. I don't own a bucket. So, you know, Andy, why would I need a bucket? And I'm like, you own a home. You need like six buckets at least.

I know when your birthday is because you share a birthday with my daughter, but I don't know if you know when my birthday is. Do you know my birthday? And that's okay because you're not supposed to know other adult males birthdays. Right. No, it's coming up on Monday. I'm turning 39. That's right. That's right. You're July. I'm sorry. I'm terrible. So I'm coming up on 10 years of co-home ownership in my life and my 40th year. And I will look at you in the eyes right now and go, there's never been a day in my life where I thought to myself, shit, I wish I owned a bucket. Until yesterday. So, and that was nothing to do with household chores. People ask me lots of questions because they want to know, do you want to, do you want a shovel?

I do not. Do you own a drill? I do. Do you want a chainsaw? No. Okay. Why would I own a chainsaw? Honestly, why would I own a chainsaw?

To cut small limbs off trees. To cut up things that you have taken apart. I'm really nervous to ask this question, because I don't want it to come across as me being a snob, so please don't take it this way. But is having a landscaper or somebody who comes and works on your, yard once every week or every two weeks weird to people like is that like a is that like a luxury that most people don't okay no in my neighborhood almost everybody does it I mow my own lawn because my lawn is

tiny your lawn's tiny your lawn would take five minutes to mow so yeah we pay a team to come out and in the winter it's less because grass and stuff doesn't grow as much but I think they come every 10 days or something now and if there's a limb that needs to be cut off a tree that's in their purview so I don't own the tools that it would right like is that like is that weird though like I don't hire someone we hire someone to trim our palm trees because we they're too tall and we don't have the necessary safe way to do it but everything else we pretty much do ourselves like i had to i spent the weekend digging out dead sod because we're going to that area just we've had a terrible drought you don't have a landscaper no why would i need them i know how to do all that stuff myself yeah yeah i know

that's what i'm saying i would i be that person you've seen my front it's a pretty big front yard but like if the tree needs a limb like there's people that do that so like that's why i don't own the stuff like why would i own a chainsaw if there's a limb 50 feet in the air then absolutely you you probably need to hire somebody but if the limb is eight feet off the ground you get on a ladder with your chainsaw and you cut it off it's not that copy of the guy no matter what andy i don't the guy who comes and takes care of our lawn oh your own lawn then don't pay him oh yeah that well i try to you're amazing I tried to mow my lawn once when I moved to Dallas, and I did it a few times at the other house, and it was so ungodly hot.

And then the shavings were getting everywhere. And I was like, this is the most miserable time ever. Yeah, the clippings or whatever, you know, aren't you supposed to pick those up and put them in bags and then find a way of disposing of them? Why? That's what I was told. Don't you just set it on mulch mode so that it shoots them back because that's how grass? Yeah, I mean, I think so. but I thought that you weren't supposed to do that.

Either way, it was the worst day of my life. And I was like, if I could pay somebody $100 to come every 10 days a month. Because these guys come and they knock it out. Like, that's the other thing, too. It took me like two and a half hours. And maybe it was the first time I was ever using a lawnmower, but it took me a long time. And it's like they did it in and out. Yeah.

So like what I'm saying is I understand my male deficiencies. And I kind of wish I was that. As Ari would not last a day in Rodgersville, Tennessee. Well, here's the other thing. river if you want to pop up you're right i wouldn't and you got to understand too that like i wasn't i wasn't groomed and and raised in that environment i was raised in in a in arizona we had no lawn i was going to i was like sixth grade i had to mow my yard and rake leaves when i was a kid but like i learned the first house i owned is when i really learned how to like i learned how to

change out a light fixture and a ceiling fan and yeah no electrical stuff i wasn't i wasn't i didn't up in that environment. And my dad didn't grow up in that environment. My dad's dad was like an artist. My dad didn't teach me how to do that stuff. Do you know what my grandfather did for a living? And it was really cool. You can teach you anything. You know, before there was AI and computers, my grandfather used to draw was like, he would like draw like blueprints for airplanes and stuff. So he was a professional artist, but he would be the person. What? That's very manly. That's a very manly. He wasn't very manly, but he was also very talented. No, I'm saying that is a very manly job.

No, he was an illustrator, but he also didn't change light fixtures in his house. So like my family has never taught me these skills. I've never been, it's never cultivated in this environment. Do you know what teaches you everything? It's called YouTube. Did you teach yourself how to hang light fixtures when you were 11 years old with YouTube? No, I taught myself how to do it when I was 31 years old with YouTube. Yeah.

Yeah, I also psyched myself out and get very anxious when I'm doing it. and it just turns into frustration for me. And, like, again, Andy, I'm not, like, sitting here saying that it's that I'm, like, not weird. Like, I know that, like, I wish I could be like you. You're more normal than you think. You're a lot more normal than you think. Yeah. I just, like, whenever I try to do things around the house, because there have been times that I've attempted, because even my wife gives me crap about it,

it just ended in failure and frustration. And then I get more frustrated. And if it's not going the way it's supposed to immediately, I get really psyched and angry and just it doesn't it's not a good situation i also just want to know how to do things i want i want to i want to feel self-sufficient i have a a kind of complex where listen our jobs not a not exactly essential like if the lights go out tomorrow yeah i don't know how valuable i am to society so i want to know how to do some things just in case that's also my biggest fear like if i've no longer viable in this career field like what would i do for a living um but i think

I think I would, I could figure something out. But like yesterday, you know that, you know, yeah, not landscaping, nor do I think, I think it would be a miserable job being out in the heat like that and getting stung by bugs in Texas and all. It's not, I'm not a farmer. I'm not a person that wants to do any of those things. But I do think like, I'd be a pretty good car. Except when Eric Morris says, you like, that sounds awesome. But being able to do it sounds awesome. Being ripped from Yellowstone sounds awesome.

I wish I could be a guy who gets on a horse and herds cattle around a ranch. That would be amazing. The problem is being ripped from Yellowstone is you have to do everything Rip did from when Kevin Costner found him as a foundling. Which is all the worst things. Yeah, exactly. But I also wouldn't make fun of Rip from Yellowstone for not being able to write a 1,200 word column about college football in 14 minutes. Like, everybody has their own skills. That's what he has Beth for.

Yeah. But I'm saying, like, I have my particular set of skills and they don't involve being a man. You know, quite a team. You've got an attorney and a rancher. I got absolutely hosed yesterday, by the way. You know, the big front door that we have? The people who built the house put the wrong hinges on it. So the door was starting, like the hinges were starting to bend because it's an incredibly

heavy door. Front doors are a pain in the ass. And so it was really hard to open and close. And it's like I would like to be able to open and close my front door pretty easily. And we had somebody come yesterday and it took three people to fix. And it took them about an hour. Do you know how much it cost to fix our front door? Oh, it's probably over $1,000.

It was. And I wish I could be somebody who could get on a ladder and fix the hinge. Now, this is probably a little bit different. Here's the thing like a front door like yours. Yeah. Your normal home handyman is not fixing that. Like, that's a hiring somebody. Yeah, we had to call a door specialist because it's a very heavy front door.

You've got to be able to understand that, like, part of it is understanding the difference between what is a hire somebody job and what does it do it myself. Yeah. So here's one that'll really make you. you upset. I found out as an adult that if you put a bunch of celery into the garbage disposal, that's a bad thing. Like, I don't know if you know this. Don't put celery in the garbage disposal because it's very stringy and it like the strings. Lots of cellulose high in fiber. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So a man would have been like, how do you fix the garbage disposal? I call the handyman to come fix ours. I replaced my garbage disposal like months ago. And somebody told me a friend of the

pod that listens to the show and a friend in real life named Warren told me that you could just YouTube, how to fix a garbage disposal, go to YouTube and buy one for 50 bucks at Home Depot and just do it. So maybe if something like that happens again, I'll give it a shot. But like I had to call somebody for that. Like I don't like I don't have those skills. Garbage disposal replacement is very easy. Like I don't recommend you do a lot of plumbing work, but that's pretty easy. Yeah.

So one final thing and then we'll move on to the rest of the show is the reason why I don't have those skills, these tools, which I'm assuming the chainsaws $1,000. Maybe it's not, but it seems like an expensive. How much is a chainsaw? Oh, you can probably get one. for a, listen, the manliest men are going to laugh at me for this. But listen, we're in an age of tools where if you are someone with not a giant yard who just needs to get some stuff done, the electric tools have gotten really good. Yeah.

You can buy an electric chainsaw with a 40-volt battery that you can get it for like 250 bucks. And it will do most of the things you need to do. You're not chopping out a tree with it. Although I have cut down a tree. I've cut down a magnolia tree with it. So I think it would be really cool to own. Prices have down on that stuff. You know,

the areas to entry are not as high. You know the sections in some people's garages where they have like these cool tool sets and stuff, like where it's like a cool area. You might even have one. It'd be cool to really own those things. We have tools hanging all over our garage because we use them. That's right. If I have no intention of using them, then I find it to be a waste of money.

That's why I don't own those things. we'll get you there we'll get you there we'll get you a bucket at least because we did have some some folks challenge us the als ice bucket challenge i am on the road but when i get home uh we i have lots of buckets so we'll we'll get that and i was looking at amazon i could buy a bucket for four so i'll just buy that and then i'll have it shipped to my house go to home depot are they even cheaper at home depot right right in the front yeah oh yeah okay i'll go buy a big yellow orange bucket and i'll put in my garage. Every time I come home, I feel like a man. There you go. Awesome. Awesome.

Manly. All right. You know, it's manly improving your football team. That is pretty manly. Eric Morris, we talked to him. We obviously think that Oklahoma State is going to be the most improved team in the country this year, in part because there's nowhere else to go but up after last year. But also because he's bringing a lot of good players. He's bringing Drew Mestemaker. we think they are going to be, like, we think they're going to be at least a bowl team,

which would be a massive improvement over one and 11. But if they were to win eight, nine games, Ari, that is, that's probably going to be a bigger win increase than anybody else in the country. But I am curious who else we think is going to fit into this category because in the Big 12, Oklahoma State is the obvious, obvious choice. But I think there's, in the other leagues, it's not quite so cut and dried.

Well, in the other leagues, too, there are major landmines in terms of teams that are in the national championship conversation that can help sway our perception of improvement. But I'm going to start with a layup one, the one that comes to mind. I mean, I think that honestly, if you would just ask this question before we ever talk to Eric Morris, I probably would have said Oklahoma State just from institutional expectation and knowledge of what they did to their roster. But the one that comes to mind to me is LSU. in terms of the investment that they made in both their coach,

the buyout of the previous coach and their roster in the offseason, not to mention the fact that their team wasn't very good last year. Even if this is a playoff team, I still think that's a pretty big improvement specifically because of the conference they play in. Yeah, and that's the piece of it is they weren't good last year. I think LSU and Florida both in the SEC, obviously quite a bit of room for improvement. LSU, we think Wayne Kiffin will improve them dramatically.

immediately we don't know as much with John Summerall in Florida if that I think John Summerall will make Florida better but I don't know what that means it does that mean Florida is now a a bowl team are they a seven win team or they an eight win team I have a hard time predicting that we don't know what their offensive lines going to look like quite yet we don't know what the quarterback decision is going to be that we think it's Aaron Philo with LSU I feel like we know we know they're going to be competitive right away yeah the thing that I'm amused by with LSU is the fact that people will probably roll their eyes as that answer. But like, I think people forgot they went seven and five last year.

They were bad. Like, like even if they go 10 and 2 or even 9 and 3 and look like a functional team, that's a major improvement from what we got last year. They started the season winning 17 to 10 on the road at Clemson. And that thought like a change of the guard for Brian Kelly. We turned out to find out that Clemson also wasn't very good. Ari, imagine, imagine if Clemson and Florida has been as good they were supposed to be last year.

Like LSU might have not have made a bowl. Yeah. And Florida, you know, God, thinking about Florida last year makes me upset because of how dumb I look. But Florida had already lost to USF by the time they played LSU. So like we were already like off,

off the Florida bandwagon at that point. And Billy Napier was like in coaching hell at that point. But if they wouldn't have lost to USF and they were 2 and O like our perception of, I mean, there were conversations in the first month of the season. I remember when we were doing like AP poll debates about why LSU wasn't ranked number one. Don't you remember that? Like that happened last year at the beginning of the year.

I mean, I don't take part in those, but our guy J.D. had him win in the national title. Yeah. The J.D. Pekyllis of death. But if LSU wasn't ranked number one after beating Clemson in the first month of the season, LSU fans were very upset about it. So that actually happened less than a year ago. So there was a time in place where we thought they were going to be very good. And then, of course, they weren't.

So, like, I think 10 and two and making the play. is the bare minimum of what Lane Kiffin needs to do to be successful this year. And if they do that and then lose in the first round of the playoff, I still think that that reaches the threshold for most improved. You also have to remember that they play. I think even if they're in the in the playoff mix, probably they're fine. Yeah. I just like there's two different debates, though.

There's the LSU debate of how much better do you have to be from last year, right? But I think it's different than how much do you have to be commiserate with what you invested? Like those are two very different thresholds. The other one in the SEC, though, that we've mentioned earlier in the show. We haven't talked about in this segment is Auburn because Alice Golish is doing something similar to what Eric Morris is doing at Oklahoma State, where he's bringing, you know, a lot of really good players from a group of six program. The quarterback has been exceptionally successful. Byron Brown was excellent at USF.

Does Alice Golish come in, walk in the door? remember like he kept DJ Durkin at defensive coordinator who was you know one of the better parts of the coaching staff on the old staff. Mm-hmm. Does Alice Goldish come in and immediately improve on it? And I want to point this out because the Auburn fans point this out to me regularly and it still blows my mind. They haven't been a 500 team. They haven't had a 500 record since Gus Malzons last year.

Yeah. Like this program has been bad. See, I'm on high alert. There's a lot of up above where they've been. I'm on high alert for one of these coaches in the SEC to have a transcendent year, one of these first year guys. And I feel like it's possible that we could get to November and be like, holy crap, we were not talking enough about John Summerall,

although I think we've given them his due. We have not talked to play in week three. So we're going to get some hints about what's going on with. But if you look at Auburn's schedule, let's just say that Byron, Byron Brown is a seven and a half or eight out of 10 in terms of effectiveness in the SEC, which I think would be a massive improvement from the quarterback play that they've gotten two years ago. Auburn plays Baylor in week one, which I do think that Auburn should be expected to win that game, although Baylor has DJ Lagway. It'll be fun to watch.

Then they move to Southern Miss at home, Florida at home, which I think is a winnable game, obviously. then Vanderbilt, I think that they are still going to be a very good team, but I don't know if they'll be as good as they were last year. And then on the road at Tennessee, like it is not impossible. And I'm sorry, River. I know that you're a huge Tennessee guy. It's not impossible that Auburn could start the season off 5 and 0

and get people excited going into a road game on October 17th at Georgia, right? Like if they're 5 and 0. Oh, that would be huge. I mean, is it like, is that their path is, their path is difficult because going on the road to, Knoxville on the first weekend of October is tough. Vandy coming to you is no longer

what it used to feel like. Vandy coming to you is a challenge. But it's not like, we got Vandy at home. That's a win. I think it's a tough first five games. I don't think it's an impossible first five games, which I think could be interesting if Auburn is much better than we think.

Because I actually think that like we said this last year, Auburn was the best bad team in football last year. Yeah, they had talent. They were the best bad team. Yeah, they had talent, and they actually played hard, and I thought that they hung in there, despite the fact they had such a hard time offensively. Like, what if they just click? Like, I mean, I don't know.

I don't think that it's impossible that Auburn could be mentioned on this list. It is not impossible. And that's why we're mentioning it. LSU feels like the easiest answer, but Florida and Auburn are the ones that one of those is probably going to click and work. Yeah. although Auburn, the one thing that you have to at least acknowledge about Auburn is they did lose their best offensive playmaker to Texas. So, you know, if they had Cam Coleman on their team still, I think that we would be viewing them a little bit differently right now.

And I think part of the reason why we're viewing Texas so highly. I mean, honestly, like most improved from last year is probably Texas. I mean, they might win the national championship this year. But is that it's not fun if the team is already pretty good. They've been good. Like, yeah. Okay. Let's move into the Big Ten.

because they're two, and I commend producer river for running this one around the office yesterday to get a consensus on this because I agree with the guys in the office. UCLA and Penn State feel like the best candidates for massive improvement in the Big Ten, which like the Penn State thing, I still think we're going to find out that last year was an anomaly. the James Franklin thing. Yes, it probably had run its course at Penn State, but I don't think he's that bad of a coach. I think last year just was sort of a perfect storm.

Stuff happened. You bring in Matt Campbell. He brings in some of the best guys from Iowa State, and you have a schedule that is very conducive to having a good record. They should be in the mix for a playoff berth. They should be massively improved. You know what?

My expectation for Penn State is this year. And I don't know if this is going to annoy Penn State fans, but I think maybe some of them would probably take it. I think Penn State will be like those James Franklin teams that won 10 games that weren't good enough to get over the hump. Like I think that that's a good thing to reestablish your basement or to reestablish your consistency in year one. I think that Penn State winning 10 games in year one

against that schedule should be the expectation. And I think even if they go 10 and 2 and make the playoff or 9 and 3 and miss the playoff, but like get back into that range where they win the games that they should and maybe struggle or lose the games that they shouldn't, you know, that should be a pretty good, you know, reestablishment of who they are. The thing with that is tough is that they don't play Oregon or Ohio State. Did you hear, Andy? So if you don't play Oregon and Ohio State and then you only win nine games,

then who are the three losses to? I guess you could say, you know, USC, Washington, and Michigan or something. But against this schedule, like, I think that 10 wins is like a pretty clear and understandable expectation considering the, the coach that Penn State just fired. Is that a fair thought process? It's fair. And I realize Penn State fans probably just like smacking their foreheads at this point. Like, well, I don't know.

Are Penn State fans like, oh, we're going to win the national title this year? Like, I don't think that that's where they're at. I think that what they won is their. I think there's some gals. his humor about the fact that here we are again talking about going 10 and 2 and not and not winning the the games that matter on the schedule I think they also might be able to win some of the games that matter on the schedule. Yeah, well, because the games that matter on the schedule aren't. Yeah, well, the games on the schedule this year also aren't Ohio State and Oregon. So like, that's a little bit

different. Uh, you don't have those games at all. So, um, you know, I do think that River, if you put the schedule back up for me, um, because I don't have it in front of me, like beating USC at home in October shouldn't be impossible, right? Especially considering the fact that USC has such a dismal record playing in the Eastern time zone. It's so funny, though, Ari, because you say that and you make it sound like it's that easy. Like, if that happens, we're having a totally different discussion, probably the other way about Lincoln Riley and USC.

Certainly within possibility that Penn State beats USC at home. Absolutely. And it's possible that they go to Michigan and win that game. Like, yeah, I mean, honestly, this is. There isn't a team on this. Like if they were playing Ohio State this year, I'd be like, okay, they're going to lose. Or if they were playing Oregon, I'd be like, okay, they're going to lose. But there's no game on their schedule in 12 games that makes it feel like they have an L on their schedule that you can just assign to them on July 14.

It's either a win or a coin toss right now. Based on what we know right now, it's a winner for every game. The thing that I'm going to be most on guard for with Penn State isn't if they're competitive in their biggest games. I think that the number one thing that Matt Campbell has to do. And the thing that I frankly don't think that James Franklin got enough credit for during his time there is consistently winning the games against the teams are supposed to beat. Penn State did a remarkable job of that. And I'm very curious, like what happens. Until he didn't, he got he got fired because that stopped.

Yeah, yeah, right. Like, I mean, but like, I thought this in the L.A. Northwestern. I mean, he had a good five-year run of winning most games that they showed. Right. But if they drop a game at Minnesota or something, that would be. kind of a new Penn State twist, and I'm very curious if people would react to that. So UCLA was one of those games last year that cost James Franklin the job. That's the other program that feels like it could make a big jump. And it's because of Bob Chesney.

Bob Chesney comes in from James Madison. You know, you'd seen him win at Holy Cross before that. He's won at every, like, he's literally won at every level. He's won at Division III, Division II, FCS, and now FBS. and now he goes into the power conferences. There's nothing in his history that suggests he will not adjust well to this, too. And if you talk to people around college football about what programs feel the most different under their first year head coach, UCLA is the one that pops up. I think that UCLA probably feels the most different of any of them.

And maybe not Oklahoma State, but I think that UCLA is in that territory. But I also think because UCLA has kind of been an afterthought nationally for such a long time that people aren't excited. about it. But I do think that it's possible that you look up in a few months and like UCLA is actually very functional and good. And then all of a sudden we start talking about them again. But it's been so long. Like Andy, we've been podcasting now for five years together. Have we had a real, the only real discussions about UCLA that I recall ever having on the show with you were when Nico chose that last offseason because it was speaking, but it was more Nico oriented. We had a really fun interview with Tim Skipper, their interim coach when they won a couple

games. But that was, that's pretty much it. Now, look, the question is like, what's success for this, this schedule is hard and UCLA is coming from a different place than Penn State. Like, Penn State is still extremely talented. You know, you never, you never felt like from a talent standpoint, they fell off. UCLA is trying to build into that talent pool, but they open at Cal, they have to play at Oregon. Like, Minnesota is not going to be easy. easy. Illinois is not going to be easy. And then obviously Michigan and USC, not easy. Well, yeah. So what is success here? Like what are we talking about that would make us feel like year one for Bob Chesney is a massive success and a massive upgrade? Now, remember they were three

and nine last year. I think if they won seven games this year, that would be a huge turnaround. Yes. Yes. I agree with that. I am also very am used by the fact that they brought 10 players from James Madison with them, which feels very Kurt Signetti-ish. And I know that it's probably not fair to view Bob Chesney in the same vein as Kurt Signetti, considering the fact that Kurt Signetti is remarkable. But when you are at the same place that Kurt Signetti came from and then you go to a big 10 school that people thought, you know, would be a very difficult place or an

impossible place to win, bring a bunch of dukes with you and then are pretty good. Like it's the same exact blueprint. And if you go look, Andy, today on On Three, we're doing, or this week's On Three series, conference series is the top 10 most impactful transfers for each conference. And like, I have Wayne Knight in my top seven, the running back at UCLA. UCLA, I don't know if you know the stat up your head, but I looked this up yesterday. You know, UCLA didn't have a 400-yard rusher last year? Wow.

Like, no, I did not know. crazy. And they bringing in a guy that, you know, we mean 400 yards for a season. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a pretty tough scenario, like, in terms of what you had last year,

but then you have wide receiver, Landon Ellis coming in. And then edge rusher, Sahir West, who I think is going to be on a lot of those impactful transfer lists. So, like, they have some guys coming from James Madison, who, if they're even 70% as good to some of the James Madison transfers that went to Indiana, they could be a seven-win team and be on the right path. Now, hey, dare to dream, UCLA. What if you go make the playoff this year like Kurt Signetti did?

And they just, there's something in the water at James Madison. I don't know. But there's reason to be excited. And like, I've come across some UCLA fans just in life and they are so excited. So good hire to bring them. I'm glad because they haven't gotten a chance to be excited for a long time. And yeah. The biggest battle is, will that excitement ever, will that excitement ever manifest in people going to the games?

Like, to me, that would be the most frustrating thing. We were talking to a coach that was at a program, and I don't want to tell you which coach that was because it would make him or his team look bad, but who was frustrated by the fact that people wouldn't come to the games or even when they're very good, it was hard to get people to come to the games. And I understand why they would be frustrated because the one thing, thing that you have to give Indiana credit for, Andy, is that when Kursignetti breathed life into the program, those guys showed up. I mean, those people showed up to the games. The fan base became robust. The games were selling out, like, all these things. Like, if UCLA ever has any designs of

getting back to where they need to be, I think people need to show up to the games because it's been kind of dire. And I don't blame them. You're in one of the most beautiful places in the country and your team is terrible, like there's other things to do. But if you ever want momentum back, I think that the Rose Bowl needs to rock a little bit more in October and November, not on January 1st. Yeah, I mean, you can tarp off some sections. Like, you shouldn't expect them to fill the whole thing. Like, that's asking probably too much. But a good, steady crowd is not asking too much.

I think that'd be fine. A place where they do fill the stadium, already time and time again. It produced one of the greatest environments in college football. But they have not had as much to cheer for. Virginia Tech, that's the one in the ACC. that I would peg as the potentially most improved one. James Franklin comes in. Very unusual situation, though,

because Brent Pry, the coach who got fired, is the D.C. under James Franklin. And I think that's because Brent Pry is the type of person who, unlike most people who ascend to become a power conference college football coach, head coach, Brent Pry has no ego whatsoever. And he's willing to say, You know what? I'll be the D.C.

At the place where I just got fired. But I'm almost appalled by how low, how little ego he has, which I think is a compliment. But like, it's like unbelievable. Yeah. But I think that helps them evaluate the roster.

Like most coaches come in and it's like, oh, you know, we're just watching some tape and we're, we got to watch practice film and try to figure out who we need to keep. And we have like three days to do that. That's not something the James Franklin crew had to do because they had, Brett Pry there, Michael Hazel, who's the chief of staff there,

was with James Franklin for a long time at Vanderbilt and Penn State. So they had people who could honestly evaluate the roster, who could tell them what was going on, everything they needed to do differently, everybody they needed to keep. Like we know Virginia Tech is giving them more resources. We had James Franklin on the show. He was very clear about he didn't think that Brent Pry or Justin Fuente,

who, you know, like Brent Pry is a James Franklin guy. Justin Fuente, there's no connection there. but Franklin in his research into the program basically said, hey, look, these two guys did not get the resources they needed. And they are now giving us the resources we need. Yeah, and wouldn't have taken the job if he didn't feel that way. So, yeah, I think that this is really, really interesting. And I do think that, you know, perspectives in this sport are so interesting

because it's like one place is just not pleased with something and one place would want that thing that you're not pleased with so bad. And I think that Virginia Tech, if they just want steady 10-win seasons, got the right guy. So they got a hell of a draw from the ACC. Like this is, the ACC didn't do any favors year one with the scheduled draw. You're at Cal, at Clemson, at SMU, and at Miami. And oh, by the way, you obviously still have to play Virginia and you have to play Georgia Tech. So, like, they'll get challenged.

But I think this is going to be a much better program than we've seen at, Virginia Tech for the last. I'm sorry, it's Fuente's first year. They went to the ACC championship game, and then the quarterback just wildly decided to go pro right after that. And it's been downhill since then. But you bring in Ethan Grunkumeyer,

who is the QB at Penn State after Drew Aller got hurt last year. I thought he did a pretty good job considering the situation he was thrown into. Yeah. I think he should be viewed as a a person who could be very good down the road. Marcellus Hawkins, the tailback who stayed,

he averaged 6.4 yards of carry last year. Like, they've got some guys. Yeah, yeah. I'm excited. I don't know, like, what is your thought process on Grunkumeyer? Because, like, I do think that, like, the number one catalyst for change is usually, like,

amazing quarterback play. And, you know, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt because it wasn't an easy situation to come into, but I don't know if I like view him as like one of the more impact quarterback transfers in the country. I liked what I saw last year. I liked what I saw despite the the direness of the situation. I did a thing.

I was doing the top 10 quarterbacks in the ACC, and I had I had Grunkumeyer on the list. But the list of schools that he had to play right out of the shoot when he became the Penn State starter is insane. Hold on. I'm calling it up now because, like, imagine you didn't think you were going to play, and then the starter got hurt. And these are the first defenses that you must play. The first three defenses that Ethan Grunkemeyer had to play at Iowa, at Ohio State, Indiana.

That's wild. Needless to say, maybe that's my perception being. Yeah, that's not decent against Indiana. By the way, Virginia Tech, very underrated uniforms. Every single time I see them, they strike me, and I always forget to mention them when we're doing uniform. Your Rune and Orange is not a combination you'd think to put together, but it goes, it works.

It goes well, yeah, especially when the accent numbers on the shoulders are, yeah, I know this, we're turning into a uniform, sure, little by little, but the white helmet, you know, that picture and that graphic, I mean, it's beautiful, beautiful uniform. But I will say, If you look at Grunkamire when he was playing against Michigan State Nebraska Rutgers. Now look, those aren't the best defenses in the Big Ten. They're in fact probably some of the worst defenses in the Big Ten.

But guess what? The defenses in the ACC are going to be more like them than they are like Iowa and Ohio State in Indiana's defenses. Exactly. Except for Miami. They got a really, really bad schedule draw. Yeah. At Cal might be really difficult too in October, like all of them, all in a row. They did schedule for success in the non-conference.

So they're going to win some games. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, James Franklin's a very interesting figure to watch. I'm excited. Yeah, so that's, if we're going to recap, Oklahoma State, I think everybody in the sport thinks they will be the most improved team. Again, really know where to go but up for them. But in the SEC, LSU, Florida, Auburn, we'll see Big Ten, Penn State,

UCLA, ACC, Virginia, Tech. Those feel like the ones. If you're looking for massive improved, you know, let's say you're scrolling in bed, MGM, and you're looking at the wind totals, those are the ones we think are going to be massively improved over last season. For sure.

Ari, let us talk about the news story that is dominating this week, and that is Ward Manuel, the Michigan AD. He has gone on the offensive on Tuesday morning. Word manual visited with Sam Webb, Michigan Insider on the radio on WTK AFM in Michigan. And it was a previously scheduled interview because basically Sam reached out and scheduled

this interview after Dusty May left. And Sam said before the interview, I wasn't sure if he was going to, if he was going to show up, but he did. And so Ward Manual talking about the situation he's in and basically coming out strong in his own defense. Now, the reporting over the last two or three days is that the law firm that is investigating what happened in the Sharon Moore situation is about done with the investigation. They're about to brief the regents. There's a regents meeting on Thursday, and that the reporting was that there were buyout discussions that have already happened with Ward Manual.

Ward Manual, this is his quote to Sam Webb on Tuesday. I think I've been fired by social media three times in my 10 years here. I just moved through it, man, because to me, it's nonsense. Later on, Ward Manual says this about his tenure. I do feel confident in the things I've done here at Michigan. Not for me, not for Ward, but on behalf of the University of Michigan, our student athletes, our coaches, our staff, our fans, our donors, to drive success with our student athletes academically and athletically.

And I think if you look at the things that have been accomplished over the last 10 years that I've been here, I am very proud of what we've accomplished. Ari, that sounds to me like a guy. who I think knows what's coming, but he's trying to make it where he might have another job at some point. So, yeah, this is the thing that I think is interesting because I agree with him. In terms of all the things that the University of Michigan's athletic department has accomplished under his purview, in terms of success on the field, great.

But this isn't, the lack of success isn't the reason why his job's in question. right so like that like so those are two very different things like well like we talk about this on the college football inquire at yahoo and and stephen godfrey brought up an interesting point he did screw up a football hire like sharon more is him screwing up a football hire which yeah at most big big 10 or s cc schools that will get you fired he screwed up a football hire well there's that but there's also been this litany of scandals like matt weiss so christmas so christmas Partridge, the assistant who got roped into the NCAA investigation who was suing Michigan,

he amended his lawsuit and basically said, hey, everybody at Michigan knew about Matt Weiss, too. That was the OC who was later found to basically been like cyberstalking and stealing identities. He's been charged federally with this and accused of that. But that they knew that they, I believe in the lawsuit, they said that they did turn it over to to the feds. So there's that, but you also had everything that happened with Sharon Moore. You had the sign stealing.

You had letting Jim Harbaugh go, which I still don't blame Word Manual for that because I think Jim Harbaugh was leaving and going back to the NFL anyway, but there's that. There's losing Dusty May right after he won the national championship in basketball.

So I think Word manual has been pretty embattled. Yeah, there have been a lot of lot of left there were a lot of of off the field situations or off the court situations during michigan's last nine years that i think you know are troublesome so the thing that i want to respond to godfrey's point because i think it's interesting it's like that was like a layup dude does that even count in terms of like making the wrong hire yeah it's it still counts just because we thought it was a good hire at the time, you still screwed it up.

It's not about whether we thought it was a good hire. I think good hires all the time that turn out to be bad. It's whether or not any other athletic director in the entire country would have done something differently. It's like sometimes you just like step in the pot hole. You say that, you say that, but depends. Again, I don't know how much they're going to release. Yeah, if he knew this stuff at the time, then that's why he's being fired.

Like that's allegedly, allegedly that was all going on. when he was the offensive coordinator, when he was the acting coach, when Jim Harbaugh was suspended during the national championship season. So allegedly, people knew about that already, whether Ward Manuel knew about it or not, is what we're trying to find out.

So the distinction, though, here, Andy, isn't that he made a bad football hire? If Michigan has come up to find out through the investigation that he was aware of Sharon Moore's transgressions, and that is a bad football hire, because you knew that was going to blow up on you at some point. But that's not just a bad football hire. that's just being incompetent in your job at that point,

and which is why he should be fired. Like that, but it's like, I don't think that like, there are two different things here. There's a bad football hire and there's a higher that should not have happened because the person wasn't fit to be in that position based on what he did. So like that, like, I don't think it was a bad football hire if he was unaware at the time of the hire of what was going on. But, but I think if he was aware,

then that's insane. It should be fired yesterday. Yes. You're like, yeah, not just, well, not just from football, Sam, from a human being from a, a, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, but I, exactly. Yeah, but like if, sometimes people do things after you hire them that you couldn't have ever envisioned. It doesn't make it a bad football hire. Yeah.

So I, I thought Sam Webb asked a lot of good, relevant questions during this interview. And one of the questions he asked was, have you had buyout discussions? And so I'm going to read you Ward Manual's verbatim response here. I've had several conversations over the last six or seven months about the future and things that have happened in different opportunities and different ways that things could go. There's no doubt about it. I'm not going to hide from that conversation. But as it relates to, you know, where things are going to go, I'm not 100% certain. And so part of this is the conversations happen.

Things you know are discussed along the way, but it's not taken away from me doing my job and what I need to do to help us drive success. And so all those conversations come together. and when it's going, when it's going, anything's going to be announced and all that, I don't know. I can't predict that. You know what? That is not all of those words. You know what they're not?

A, I know what they're not. I don't know how to say it. It's not a. They're not no. They're not no we haven't had buyout discussions. Yeah, well, it seems to me based on all the things that, you know, we've talked about and what he said in the interview that this is coming to an end in the near future. That's my, that's my, that's my, that's my,

Yeah. One of one of the, one of the quotes in the interview is, I know I'm going to be here today. I know I'm going to be here tomorrow. And I'm like, so Thursday? Yeah. That was my immediate reaction to that.

I mean, I just, I feel like it's very specific. It's very cut and dried to me. If you knew anything before he was fired, you cannot stay in your job. If you didn't, then we can have a discussion about how successful the teams have been on the field. Right, right.

Isn't that simple? Yeah, and one thing I find interesting about this is I don't get the sense of Michigan fans are rallying around more manual because there's been success. Like a lot of them want him to go. I would argue that it's more than it's the majority of them want him to go. And usually in these situations when there has been on field on court success, there's more fan. support for the person, you're just more willing to forgive. I don't get that sense from the Michigan people at all. The Michigan fan base seems like they are ready for a change.

Yeah. There are a lot of things that have happened, like, you know, breaking rules during COVID's dead period and, you know, other things that people have done that are completely just other grown men doing things they shouldn't have done, which happens at every program. across the country. But the frequency in which major things have happened, both in rule cheating or rule breaking, potentially or cheating.

And then two, human being level stuff is concerned. It's bad. Yeah, bad. So like the thing that I don't know is, are Michigan fans not rallying around him because they're pissed about Dusty May or are they pissed about the thing they should be pissed about?

I think they're pissed about all of it. Okay. But if all the, if like the, if the off the field stuff didn't happen, and they would be happy to keep them probably, right? Even with the Dusty May stuff. Yeah, I think they'd tolerate it.

And the Dusty May thing, like, I'm not sure he could have stopped Dusty May from taking the Mavericks job. Also, I'm not sure there's much he could have done. Let me ask you this. I think I asked you this in, where were we indie when this was happening? But is there a coach in college football anywhere?

And I would be very curious to even ask a Georgia fan this. maybe Nick Saban would have been the only exception, but is there a coach in college football right now that you would not willingly allow to walk away as a fan if it meant that you got one more title? Would Georgia fans let Kirby walk or or accept he would walk if it meant they won the title this year? Yes. So the hypothetical here is, well,

as Falcons just hired a coach, but like, yeah, Kirby's going to be the next coach of the Dallas Cowboys, whoever. and I don't realize they just hired a coach too. But you're guaranteed another title. He will win the title this year and then he will leave. Here's how you phrase it. They'll take it. They win the national championship this year,

but he leaves right after, or you get to keep him for the foreseeable future and you don't know what happens and there's no guarantees. What do you do? I think they take the title. A better one is Notre Dame. Because like the Georgia fans that have had to reach some titles at least.

Which is why they might not trade him for it. That's it. The better one's Notre Dame. If we told you Marcus Freeman's going to take an NFL job, you will win the national title this year, though. Yeah. Or you just continue going down the course of history the way we are now, and you don't know what's going to happen.

What do you do? Yeah. And again, like the Harbaugh thing, I don't really lay at the feet of Ward Manuel. I know there's a lot of Michigan fans who do. He was going back to the NFL. He made it very clear. So,

and I just think it's really, really hard. Like Tom Isso was one of the greatest, coaches of all time. His team hasn't won a national championship in two decades. Right. Like, it's really hard to win the national championship in basketball, dude. Like, I think that you, I think you take it. I think that there was a good trade. Like, yeah, I don't know. The Jenner and Brock will, we'll see what they release. I don't know. This is the law firm that's investigating everything. I don't know what they're going to tell us. The way these things usually work is, well, the way, the reason you hire a,

a law firm like this is so that you don't have to release anything. You tell the law firm, hey, don't put anything in writing that you give to us. Keep all the stuff that's in writing on your side of the table at the law firm. And you give us an oral report on what you found. And if we need you to put something out to justify us firing somebody for cause or to just justify anything that we want to do, then we'll let you select certain details that you can put out. We watched this with Baylor with the law firm called Pepper Hamilton when they did their investigation.

And they revealed more than I thought they would, but they were also running out the president, the AD, and the football coach. So you kind of needed to say, here's why we're doing these drastic changes. And that was also one of the morbid off the field situations that we've ever encountered in college football history. So like that was. Exactly. Exactly. So this one, it kind of depends probably. And I do wonder, like, so Ward Manuel is not an AD who tends to speak up publicly a lot. He's been more public the last few days.

And I think part of it is a defense of himself. Part of it may be trying to get his buyout. He's owed over $6 million if they fire him. Yeah. If they fire him without cause, if they fire him for cause, he's out $6 million. So. Well, the thing is that if they fire him for cause, there was not. nothing you can say on a radio station about how many titles you've won that's going to save you

from that. That's my point. I think that like we're making it. You're just going to go to court if that had. And I think that's probably why you try to negotiate a buyout because you don't really want him dragging you into court. But you also don't want to pay him all the money because if you're firing him, it's for a reason. Yeah. So. Yeah. But I think it's like did you know or did you not know that's your future period. We will probably learn more. Like Ward Manuel said, he's going to be there today, which is Tuesday. He's going to be there tomorrow. Sounds like Thursday's up in the air.

Guys, as we get toward the end of the week, we want to hear from you. Dear Andy, dear Ari, we do it every Friday. Send us your questions. Andy Stapleson3 at gmail.com. Ari.com. We love your questions.

It helps drive the show. And you guys have just great ideas. And I love the way you think about the sport. So hit us up with those questions. And we will tell you. talk to you on Wednesday.