Andy & Ari On3 - How QB Behren Morton played through a BROKEN LEG | Can Texas Tech win vs Oregon in the Orange Bowl?

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

As New Years Eve is right around the corner, so is the Quarterfinal round of the College Football Playoff. While Ari was at the Cotton Bowl Media Days yesterday, Andy has made his way down to Hard Rock Stadium to cover the Orange Bowl Media Day. Andy talks with Texas Tech QB Behren Morton on how he played through a broken leg and still led the Red Raiders to a Big 12 Championship title. Do you think the Red Raiders can defeat Oregon in Miami? (0:00) Today’s Episode(0:38) Presenting Sponsor(3:05) Intro: Texas Tech vs Oregon(4:56) Behren Morton’s Health(17:12) Joey McGuire in Miami(23:04) Did Elon go to college?(24:37) Gametime(25:44) Chip Kelly hired as Northwestern’s OC(34:27) Northwestern Alumni(36:23) Academy Sports + Outdoors(37:10) Mulligans: CFP Quarterfinals(47:09) Ole Miss RB Kewan Lacy’s health(51:40) Deuce Knight entering the portal(53:17) Conclusion: Talk to you tomorrow! After discussing the Orange Bowl, Andy & Ari head up to the Windy City, where Chip Kelly will become the newest offensive coordinator for the Northwestern Wildcats. How will Kelly fit in with David Braun's system? Andy & Ari discuss. While the quarterfinals start tomorrow, it's time for Andy & Ari's mulligans. As the lines for these games have barely changed, Ari makes his decision to change a pick. Also, does Kewan Lacy's status affect anyone's decision? To close, Ari delivers some transfer portal news as 5-star true freshman QB Deuce Knight is planning to enter the transfer portal, which opens on Friday, January 2nd. Where might the talented QB land? Thanks for watching! Our show is sponsored by Academy Sports + Outdoors! https://www.academy.com/discount 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. 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 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. 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/wFegLwiA68g Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: 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, the quarterback who's been playing on a broken leg all season feels healthy now. He's fully practicing. How much of a difference will Baron Morton healthy make in the Orange Bowl as Texas Tech faces Oregon? Plus, Kiwan Lacey, we have word on his availability. The Ole Miss running back bruised his shoulder against Tulane. How healthy will he be against Georgia? And a very familiar name in college football is headed back. after a brief foray into the NFL.

Chip Kelly lands at Northwestern. We'll talk about it all on Andy and Arion 3, presented by BetMGM. We are proud to be presented by BetMGM. We use all BetMGM lines and totals on this here show. And if you're not signed up with BetMGM yet, what are you waiting for? Download that app. Sign up using the code CFB. That's CFB as in college football, and you'll get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager.

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where Oregon and Texas Tech will play in the Orange Bowl on Thursday. Ari, at home, he will be at Miami, Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. Wednesday night. Ari, it's so close. We are almost to the quarterfinals for matchups, all of which I am very, very excited about. Coach football, right? Like, I don't know why. I don't know why I'm muted.

And it looks like River unmuted me, so it's River's fault, just like the Pube and the microwave back in Nashville. Yeah, it is my fault because I mute you whenever he reads the on today's episode, and I forgot to unmute. It happens every day. Oh, the mystery. The mystery solved. Now if we can just figure out the pew in the microwave.

Yeah. Not me. We live in two really good locations for this playoff and for college football in general. You get to pop down from Gainesville, go to the game in South Florida, and I'm here in Dallas, and I'm really fired up. The college football playoff is going to always have some less than desirable games in the first round. I don't know if that's an unavoidable scenario, the matter what you do, rules-wise, that's always going to remain the case. But now that you get to the second round, you have

four highly compelling matchups that I'm excited to go to go to one of them and watch the other three. Well, and this is what changing the seating rules to a straight seed did. It created these four compelling matchups. There's nothing that you're not excited about. And so this game that I'm at, we just finished the Texas Tech session at Orange Bowl Media Day. Oregon's going to be in here in about 45 minutes. Very interesting talking to Baron Morton, the Texas Tech quarterback, because everything we've said about Texas Tech the last few weeks has been about their defense. We've not been particularly excited about their offense.

Their defense just smothered people in the Big 12. But when you look at Oregon and you see how complete that roster is, it's like, okay, the Texas defense is good, but Oregon's still going to score some points. So Texas Tech offense has to be able to keep up with Oregon. Can they do that? Are they capable of it? And then you think about the fact that Baron Morton has been playing with a broken bone in his leg all season. He suffered a hairline fracture of a fibula in the Arkansas Pine Bluff game, in the season opener.

And he's been playing through that barely practicing. Like he's been in a boot a lot of the time. And basically weekdays, he's been in a boot. And for a lot of C-Tex-Tex about done, that's the announcement right there. But for a lot of the time, he's been in a boot. He's not really been able to be a full participant in practice. Like he was talking about the Big 12 championship game where he got one day of actual practice without the boot on.

Well, guess what? For this game, he's been practicing without the boot. I mean, it's pretty remarkable that you were able to recover from an injury that serious while playing in games every weekend. And I didn't give the listeners of the show an update, but I went snowboarding and I fell really, really hard on my ribs. And it was one of those knock, knock the wind out of you deals that I haven't felt since playing high school football. And like now my entire right side of my body hurts every time I like turn my body or lay down or anything. And I think I have a bruised rib.

Now, could you imagine if I had to play in a high school football game or I mean a high school game or a college game every weekend? how did that heal? How is he healthy now? Well, time. They actually got some time. This is one where it's interesting because we've talked about how much the layoff hurt the teams

that had the layoff last year, Oregon being one of those teams last year that got hurt by the layoff. Texas Tech may be the one team that benefits from that long, long layoff. Remember, Texas Tech has not played since the Big 12 championship game, and that's allowed him to heal up

and get him where they feel comfortable with him playing, without the boot, practicing without the boot, and moving around. And apparently, it does hurt like hell. Like, don't believe Baron Morton when he tells you. But it apparently hurts like hell to play on a broken. Like, Ari, you're playing hurt right now. You mentioned you got your bruised ribs.

There was a point yesterday, and this was not while we were recording, where I thought you were having a heart attack because you were trying to, I think you were trying to reposition the muscles around your ribs to the right place. I bent over to plug my computer charger in, and I moaned, and you thought that I threw up. And I almost did. It was one really bad fall. And, like, Brits, like, go to the doctor.

I'm like, well, you can't put a cast on your rib cage, even if it's broken. I have nothing, I have no choice but to live with it. So I am playing hurt. But, you know, the good news is that my laying down on my stomach writing position, I fought through the pain and rotatory that way. So that's amazing. I'm no warrior like Baron Morton, but I think it's an interesting discussion because, you know, all the discussion around Texas Tech has been about their phenomenal defense.

And there's very little discussion about their offense. And in a game that is a coin flip, spread-wise, it's in one or two points, like you do have to score a certain amount of points to keep up with this Oregon team. Even if Oregon is having a bad day offensively, they're probably still going to be good for 21, 24 points. Does Texas Tech have the offense to win the game? Is I think the question of the entire matchup. And Baron Morton's been an efficient quarterback in spite of the injury, 8.8 yards per attempt, 22 TDs, only four picks.

Like he has, he has done a very good job in spite of the injury. But I talked to him a little bit today about his injury and what he's been dealing with. And it's interesting. I think it's kind of changing my perspective on the game a little bit. This time off has been great just because, you know, the game plan of Oregon, you know, we got to see them play against JMU. So, you know, I feel like we have a good game plan. And it's also helped me because I'm actually getting to practice now.

So, you know, to be able to practice, you know, that those are the big reps you need throughout the week to be productive on Saturday. How much pain were you in? It was quite a bit of pain, you know, staying in a boot, you know, the whole entire week, not getting to practice, you know, then taking the boot off on Saturday and getting to play. It wasn't fun at all, but, you know, at that point in the season, it was kind of the point of the season where, you know, everyone's not feeling good, so you just got to buckle up and go finish. Now, I imagine a lot of almost everybody knows who you are, but was there ever anybody you were talking to? I've been playing with the broken leg. No big deal. No, not really.

I mean, people in Lubbock, they obviously knew. But, you know, I'm walking around in a boot on campus. It's probably not a good look. But, yeah, there's probably a lot of people. What was it like when you finally got the boot off and practicing? How different does that feel? Yeah, it makes a big difference. You know, going back to the Big 12 championship,

Coach McGuire, let me get out of the boot for one day out of the week for that practice. And it felt so much better. And then leading on to, you know, prep for this bowl game, man, I felt so much better, you know, just moving around, getting the lift weights, getting the squat again, you know, all the stuff that I haven't been able to do for the last couple months, you know, getting to do that again felt good. So when he talks about Joey McGuire letting him practice without the boot on, that probably meant that he fought Joey McGuire for a solid two months saying, let me do this, let me do this, let me do it. I went and talked to Joey McGuire after I talked to Baron Morton, and that was one thing Joey McGuire said about Baron. He'll fight you now. Like they had an incident where he got hit hard on the shoulder that he had surgically

repaired this spring. And that was early in the season as well. And they didn't have a medical tent. That wasn't something they'd been using on the sidelines. And he apparently Baron Morton went to war to stay in the game. And Joey McGuire, after the game, is like, we're getting a medical tent because we don't need people seeing all that. Yeah, he's you can yell in the medical tent.

So you said that this changes the. the way that you view the game explain well i wonder how limited texas tech has been offensively and joey mcgoyer mentioned you know they're obviously not a huge quarterback run game team but just the mobility of baron morton like remember the first b yu game when he like b yu's defense was teeing off on him in the first half and they ended up scoring i think 26 points in that first game it was good enough because the defense was so dominant b yu just really couldn't move the ball but i wonder if he's more mobile, how many times does he slip a sack and keep a play alive and be able to throw it down field?

Yeah. So let's just, you know, cut the shit here. Yeah. Here's the game. And I know that it's obviously important to have your quarterback healthy. And that should help Texas Tech offensively. Texas Tech is a one-lost team who has not played a single team this year that has talent that Oregon has. Now, Oregon hasn't played well or hasn't looked dominant in ways big games like they did a year ago.

They beat Ohio State in the regular season last year. This year they lost to Indiana. It's not the same look. But when you get into a playoff scenario where letdowns don't happen, everyone's fired up, everybody's playing their best, they're rested, all these things, do you believe that in one portal cycle that Texas Tech has situated at, itself with enough talent on both sides of the ball to actually play four quarters of high level football against a team that has this many good players like that's the game yeah and

here's the part where I'll take another step back because I was talking about this with somebody the other day and this also hit me what is the one time this season when Texas Tech has faced an NFL quarterback who also by the way has an NFL receiver as his wide receiver one. The only loss. Yeah, that would be Arizona State. Now, Baron Morton didn't play in that game. So that also has something to do with it.

Perhaps if Barry Morton plays in that game, they win that game. But that is the thing, as good as this defense has been. Now, look, Arizona State didn't light up the score more. I think that Arizona State scored 26 in that game. But that's what I worry about because, okay, Evan Stewart's out for this game. So his comeback will not happen at the Orange Bowl. They've listed him as out on the availability report. But Decorian Moore, Gary Bryant, Jr., Kenyon Sadiq, the tight end, who is he,

Kenyon Sadiq's the freakyest athlete on this field. I don't know how Texas Texas defense, as good as it is deals with that because we've not seen them play that level of talent stacked up. Yeah, and I don't know. I don't know if we have announced on the show today, but I think we're going to do our Mulligan segment at the end. Yes. You said you felt differently about this game.

You initially picked Texas Tech, if I remember correctly. No, I picked Oregon. I initially picked Oregon. Now is a one and a half point spread. It is now a two and a half point spread. Oregon is now a two and a half point favorite. That's really the only line that's moved, by the way. There hasn't been a lot of movement in these lines.

But have you altered your viewpoint of the game enough to change your mind on what side you're on? Well, we're going to save it for the Mulligans segment. Yeah, we can't be giving away the Mulligans. But I don't know. spoiler alert i don't know that it does i don't know that it completely does but it does like before this i was thinking organ like organ's really going to have to screw this up to lose this game now i'm thinking a little more like okay perhaps we are underestimating what texas can be on offense because we've not actually seen a healthy baron morton yet yeah you know what i think a lot

about and maybe this is like a bad or it brings up bad memories or bad thoughts for Texas Tech, but could you imagine if Micah Hudson produced or became the receiver he was supposed to be in high school? Like, if they added that to this team, to this team. Like, I know that, like, that's not a fun thing to think about, but like in the conversation that we were having yesterday about Jeremiah Smith and what side of the, of the, you know, field he's coming off of how that would impact the game. And I wrote a column about that on three today. I had a thought of like, well, if you had a person that's 80% as good as Jeremiah Smith, which would make you a top 10 receiver in college football, and you inserted them into

this Texas Tech roster with a healthy Baron Morton. And, like, I think my pick would be different. Honestly, like, I'm afraid that Texas Tech is too limited offensively to win the game. Like, that's the whole. Well, and it's really, like, that's probably the one, because they, they went out and got pretty much a whole defensive line. They revamped their secondary through the portal. Their linebackers were already really good.

Like, they didn't really need to do much to. improve them. They got a couple offensive linemen. Reggie Virgil was their big signy, their big transfer signy. And he was at Western Michigan, he had big, rangey receiver. But yeah, if they could have gotten, like, imagine they had gotten Casey Concepcion instead of Texas A&M getting him. Like, how different are they if they have one more guy? And that's the thing when you build this roster this way. And look, it's not like they didn't try. You mentioned they signed a five-star receiver in Michael Hudson in

2004. It just didn't work out. Right. And like a lot of times, too, like, you know, you're in a position where you take a leap of faith in the high school recruiting game and it just doesn't work, you know? And he was somebody who transferred or was going to transfer and stayed, and I'm sure they had to compensate him to do that. And they just, I don't think he's been productive at all this year. So that said, what was it like just seeing Joey McGuire in that setting?

like because it's just a it's a weird you would when he took the job you wouldn't think that this would happen even if he was successful yeah and he's he's loving this and and i it was interesting because i asked him i'm always fascinated to the guys who come from the high school ranks and what they what they bring with them from being high school coaches and he said something interesting he's like you know for all these college coaches this is new this playoff stuff is new this multiple multiple rounds stuff is new he's like don't let a high school coach get the playoff that's what we live for So he's enjoying every minute of this. I think, you know, I think they built a team. We've talked a lot about Cody Campbell. We had him on during Big 12 media days. Cody Campbell is the former Texas Tech Offensive lineman, who's an oil and gas billionaire, who has helped them fund this roster. I think the pressure was on them to win the Big 12 championship.

And Joey McGuire said that, you know, he wasn't going to talk about an extension to his contract unless they won the Big 12 because he would have felt like he failed if they didn't win the Big 12. And I think they wouldn't have given him an extension if he hadn't won the Big 12. But he did, and they did. And so I think they feel like they got what they wanted here. And now they are in a position. Like, I feel like they think everything beyond this is great. They wanted to make it.

They wanted to prove they could be here. But I think now it's really important for them to prove they belong with a program like Oregon that has been putting great rosters on the field for a long time. You know, it's funny you bring that up because I was actually. going to take the conversation here and you did it naturally because it's a it's a natural mind meld but ralph russo our friend who listens to the show very regularly uh at the athletic wrote a column after the field was announced uh pressure ratings or pressure meter and he had joey mcguire towards the top if i remember correctly oh he's the lowest pressure of anybody here yeah i i was like that that's wrong i think um and if i miss remembering ralph you can text me and

and harassing me about it, but I don't think I am. I remember it striking me. And, but it's funny because there is some pressure, uh, from the Big 12 standpoint. Like the Big 12 is continually going to be a point of contention in the CFP. And I've actually done some thinking on this, Andy. You know, in the last round when you and I were together and we did the show, uh, in the middle of the JMU Oregon game, what was the,

What is the prevailing topic of that, of that show, do you recall? That these guys didn't belong, that this was an abomination that we needed entertaining games. It's a television product. Why are the games not entertaining? Yeah. What if the Big 12 gets a high seed or continues to have an automatic bid in this deal, then we get six, seven years into this thing and they don't ever win a game? Like, I think, like, eventually.

They were fourth and 13 away from beating. Arizona State was fourth and 13 away from beating Texas last year. They were right there. I get it. I get it. But you don't think that the Big 12 is in any danger of having that become a talking point in the future? It will if they lose six or seven

of these, but again, they've played one and they nearly pull off the biggest upset yet. So I think that it's interesting because I'm thinking. Let's let them get blown out once or twice before we get to that. Yeah. I was thinking though about the column that I

wrote about Texas Tech after they won the Big 12. And the discussion point was, you know, this is what Brett Yormark wanted because he wanted teams to separate. We've had this discussion on the show quite a bit. And two teams very clearly separated.

I guess three teams, if you count Utah as well. I mean, yeah, but I think there's a difference between separating yourself in the rankings in an individual season and separating yourself as a legitimate annual contender. And nobody's done that. Not even Texas Tech. Now, Texas tech seems to have a high chance of doing it because if they're going to continue to invest in

their roster this way, they should be very good year in and year out. But I do think that while Joey McGuire is not on the hot seat, I think you could say he came into the season on the hot seat because not because he's been bad. He told us that. He told us that a Big 12 media day. He's not run from it at all. I do also think that there is a level of like the Big 12 needs to win one of these. And maybe we're too early. Maybe we're too early in that. You're right. State did almost beat Texas a year ago. But these spots and who takes them is going to be a point of contention year after year as we try to perfect the field.

You've got to win. You've got to win. But if you're competitive every year, you're going to win. Like, if Texas Tech plays the kind of game against Oregon that Arizona State played against Texas last year, they will have a chance to win it. And if you keep playing like that, you're going to win. You're going to win like that. It's our knocking on the door.

Like you keep knocking on the door, eventually you get through. And unlike all the other ones, and like maybe this is something that, you know, Kenny Dillingham would resent. But I feel like Texas Tech is more, more able to be situated in a position where they're back here next year than Arizona State was at this time a year ago. And that's part of the reason why when Kenny Dillingham signed, excuse me, that hurts really bad. An extension? Lay and hurt.

The first thing he does after he signs the extension is, plead for millionaires to step up and donate to the program because i think he knows what's necessary and what it takes and texas tech has that so i'm very curious yeah well that's the thing kenny dilling kennie dillingham's pleading with millionaires and tex tech's got a billionaire there's a difference yeah there's levels to this it's math i mean i don't know if you've been just math there's a few people lurking around i can stroke a 20 million dollar check step up they'll make you the most famous person in the city that's true but but i'll take the billionaire who played for me who played for my team.

Can you imagine if Elon Musk liked football? Yeah, that team is going. And what team would he pick is the question? I have no idea who he'd pick. Did he go to college? I don't know anything about him. Did he go to school? Now I'm going to look it up.

Well, I mean, Tim Cook, the Apple CEO, went to Auburn. Like, if Tim Cook ever really wanted to go, I think that would be, I think that would be, probably the one you can't overcome like i don't know the the larry ellison is up there i need any of the third richest man in the world now he's not doing it for his alma mater illinois he's doing it for his wife's alma mater michigan did you know that he went to you pen oh okay quaker go quakers and he and he briefly enrolled in the phd program and applied physics but left at stanford uh two days he was at stanford two days

i think it all worked out for him i i i feel bad for Andrew law because I don't think he's going to be able to tap Elon Musk to fund the Cardinal. But, man, if the Ivy League ever decides to give football scholarships, the Quakers are going to kill it. Kill it. I do fantasize about, like, the richest people in America. And I know that that's also a point in contention just like in American politics right now. But like the richest people in America are becoming obsessed with college football,

the way that Larry Ellison did for his wife. Happy wife, happy life. I know that makes Kyle Whittingham. I'm happy. That's all I know. Ari, we're going to talk about the games themselves, but how do you get to the games? I tell you what, I'm so excited to cover this Oregon, Texas Tech game. If you would like to be in the stadium with me covering, well, I'll cover it. You just watch, have fun, drink a beer, drink a medello, you watch, I'll cover.

You can get in for under 100 bucks with some really nice seats at Hard Rock Stadium. So on game time right now, there's some $97 seats. that are awesome. And actually, then if you want to go to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, if you're out west and you want to see Alabama play Indiana, the Hoosiers have not completely taken the thing over. In the mid-100s, there are very reasonably priced good seats. So if you want to go to some of these games,

you want to go to the Cotton Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, go to Game Time, download the app, use the code Staples and get $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. And that's a good chunk of that Orange Bowl ticket. that you get off with that first purchase. So download the GameTime app, use the code Staples, $20 off your first purchase. Ari, we got to welcome somebody back to college football.

You're ready to be the welcome wagon? Sure. Chip Kelly, welcome back to college football. He is the new Northwestern offensive coordinator. So he was the Ohio State offensive coordinator two years ago. Obviously, the UCLA head coach before that was legendary. at Oregon, had the foray into NFL head coaching with the Eagles and the 49ers. He was most recently the Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator was the highest paid

OC in the league, got fired mid-season. They still had to pay him out. And now he's going to come run the offense for David Braun in Evanston. They're going to open that beautiful new stadium. They'll have the beautiful practice facility. The question is, are they going to have some money to get some dudes for Chip Kelly to run an offense with because I got a I like where Northwestern's at under David Braun they've outpunched their weights so far the situation he was thrown into was horrific and he got out of it

I think there's a good chance that adding Chip Kelly if you if you are willing to invest in this roster you could be one of the better teams in the big 10 uh Andy trivia question yes how many jobs says Chip Kelly had in his career? Oh, my God. I mean, I can count the one since he was the New Hampshire head coach, but I don't know before the New Hampshire head coach, I'll go New Hampshire head coach, Oregon offensive coordinator, Oregon head coach, Philadelphia Eagles head coach,

San Francisco 49ers head coach, UCLA head coach, Ohio State offensive coordinator, Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator, Northwestern offensive coordinator. So that's nine since he was the New Hampshire head coach. I went all the way back to the beginning of his career in 1990, and it's 15. Is that a lot? I don't think that's a lot for 35 years in college and pro football. Yeah.

Because he spent a long time at Oregon and he spent a long time in New Hampshire. Yeah, he must really like moving. I'm just trying to think like. I mean, he got fired. I think the plan was to be in Vegas for a while, but it didn't work out. Like Pete Carroll's probably not going to be there much longer either. Andy we always joke about like the stark change between like some of the transfers like one kid who like left like one of the military academies and then transferred to ASU last year like we joked about that yeah offensive coordinator of the Las Vegas Raiders and then offensive coordinator to Northwestern is pretty close to that I think I don't know have you watched the Raiders I mean the talent gap between Northwestern and Ohio State the Raiders and the rest of the NFL probably not that different like the Raiders stunk this year why did the Raider stink. They actually have some pretty good players. I don't know why they have a couple

pretty good players that you know, like Max Crosby, you know, Brock Bowers is probably the best young tight end in the NFL, but they don't have anything else. And Ash and Gentie is going to be good. Gino Smith was not good. Gio Smith was not good. Jacoby Myers isn't on the team anymore. He's a Jacksonville Jaguar now. I know. I said while he was on the team. He was pretty good. They were still losing. Yeah. And then Gino Smith was the wrong QB. So it didn't work out. I don't think Pete Carroll is going to last more than a year. And it's not like Pete Carroll can't coach either.

I just don't think they stock the groceries particularly well there. I'm very interested to see Chip Kelly in this job because I think this is about as close to what Chip Kelly wants in a job as anything. Because I don't think he's going to be asked to be, you know, the get after recruiter. That's obviously not what he was at UCLA. He likes coaching ball, which is what they allowed him to do at Ohio State, did not force him to do a lot of the recruiting stuff that other college coaches like better. And he likes coaching really smart players, and he's going to have really smart players at Northwestern. Yeah, such an interesting career arc, but I think that, you know, when he had the players last year, they won a national title. So it's not like he doesn't know how to call an offense.

and Northwestern has, you know, been one of these teams that can surprise you some weeks, but has kind of been more, you know, closer to what we expect for them in the last four or five years than, you know, they had been in other previous times during this decade. So, you know, interesting, higher, you know, not a lot of times where I think a school like Northwestern has a former NFL head coach as a coordinator, and I'm excited to see how it turns out. Yeah, I want to see how he adapts because, look, he doesn't, if you think, he's going to come in and try to run the Oregon Blur offense. You haven't been paying attention.

I mean, he changed the offense when he got to the Eagles. It was a different offense when he became the UCLA head coach. It's evolved quite a bit. It evolved a lot when he was the Ohio State head coach. So I don't think, I was the Ohio State offensive coordinator a couple of years ago. Shoot, that was just last year. It was just last year. He was still coaching for Ohio State this time last year.

But he's pretty good at adapting what he does. to the talent on hand now northwestern which has spent a lot on its football facility which is gorgeous spent a lot on a brand new stadium which is about to open which is going to be beautiful i i wrote a column r and i got yelled at by northwestern fans oh boy i think it was back when we were the athletic and i think it was they'd gotten like a major gift that that was kind of the last step to finishing up the stadium project and i said guys the best way to improve your stadium is buy better players for it and they didn't like that they're like no no no we're we're going to have this gorgeous we're going to have the best stadium in college football i'm like okay great

have the best stadium in college football put better players in it and all of a sudden everything will get better there will be more money that comes from winning if you've got the money to build this level of stadium which is i mean it is cost a fortune i was half a billion I think the new Ryan Field cost. If you've got some more money, let's get Chip Kelly a quarterback. Let's get Chip Kelly some dudes to throw to. I want to see. I mean, they haven't got Preston Stone last year.

It's not like they didn't do that last year. Like, and I'd say what you want about Preston Stone, but, you know, that's a former high-level recruit. The backup quarterback at SMU, sure. How about go get a starter? No, I know. I know. There's still somebody else's starter. The way you phrase things is interesting sometimes.

I mean, he had like 4,000 yards throwing in his career. I know. And then he got beat out by Kevin Jennings. I know. I remember. I saw it all. They went and got a pretty good and expensive quarterback last year, I think. I'm sure that wasn't cheap. I'm telling you, we're just, what do you just get through talking about? Texas Tech. Texas Tech went out and spent to get players to elevate their station in life. Dude, Stuart Mandel needs to step up and donate part of his checks. That's exactly right. All these Northwestern Journal, all these Medill grads, Medill. For those who don't know, when we say Medea grad, those are Northwestern Journalism School

grads. They are very high and mighty. They get all the best internships without even having to try. The state school kids work a lot harder. That's why we tend to be a lot better. But I'm a state school kid. Exactly. You can be a state school kid. That's right. But they got some scratch is what are he saying. We know when the athletics sold to New York Times, I think Stuart Mandel made some bank. So, Stu, it is time to step up for your almost. Monter. I mean, he lives in Silicon Valley. He should have an investor of mentality. Like, that's what they buy them an offensive tackle for God's sake. Sorry, Stu. I love that we're singling him out when it is literally like half of our

profession. Who else? Like other prominent people like on ESPN, that might be making more money than Stu went to Northwestern. I mean, you could look this up. And I don't want me. Yeah, it's interesting. Like what the funny thing is about the geography of it. The, the richest guy in our business went to school like three miles from there, but didn't go to Northwestern is Shams who went to Loyola Chicago. Shams Sharania, the NBA reporter for ESPN, he went to Loyal of Chicago. Yeah. I don't know. If I ever become a billionaire, Arizona, you're going to be set. I promise you, I'll buy you a tackle. At least you have one tackle. You get one tackle. That's my guarantee. We'll see how I got that money

and what I have going on in my life. But I'd like to help you out. I'm looking at the alumni page, by the way, of the Missouri. Missouri is the other one, by the way, which is a state school, but also the other hoity-to-to-d journalism school. I'm looking at the Northwestern grad list.

And it's all people who've won like the Pulitzer Prize. So I'm trying to get to our level. But like Mike Greenberg on ESPN, and that's a Northwestern grad. That's a very famous, very highly compensated Northwestern grad. I don't know if this is the, right time for this, but Arizona, can you stop, like, soliciting me for money? You want to donate you? How about the 50 Gs I gave you back in 2005?

Like that, I think that should hold you over for a while. Do you still get solicited from Florida? Absolutely. Absolutely. The good, the good thing is that they're, they're very nice about it. I, like, you know, live in the same neighborhood as some of the people work at the J. So I know a few of them, but they're not too bad about it. They understand. I get a random I'm not like the NVIDIA, like one of the co-fathers of NVIDIA went to Florida. Like, that's who they're hitting up. Andy, I get a random robot call from the 5-200 area code in Tucson like once a month. They're really hungry.

Well, you know who the most famous Florida Journalism School grad was, right? It's not you? It is not me, for sure. Who is it? Bob freaking Vila. This old house, baby. Yeah. I just typed.

Arizona Journalism graduates. Let's see. There's a few Pulitzer Prize winners here. Never heard of these people, but you know, they're pretty good. We got to hear Andrews. Do they only have one Pulitzer Prize a year, or do they hand out more than one? Well, they have multiple categories. So you have you have column writing or

you know, basically like, yeah, opinion writing. You have investigative. You have public service, I believe. There's a few different categories. Yeah. I'll never win it. So you'll never win it either. So it's okay. We might only get like five grand as the cash prize.

Really? I can't. I don't want to win it. Take your five grand. Speaking of winners, we do have to get to our mulligans. But first, let's talk about our friends at Academy Sports and Outdoors, one of my favorite places to go. And guess what?

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So go to academy.com or shop in person at your local Academy Sports and Outdoors. Are you? Do you have one? I don't know if I do because these lines have not changed very much. So let's talk about it. We did this during the year. Late in the season, we added the Mulligan segment where if a lion had moved,

if we got a weather forecast. By the way, the only weather forecast that intrigues me, I got to look at the Pasadena weather, but the last time I looked at it, it did not look great. It looked like it was going to rain during the Rose Bowl, which I'm sorry, that should be illegal. Like, you control the sport for decades because your weather's perfect. You're not allowed to not have perfect weather. If you don't have the, honestly, if the Rose Bowl didn't have perfect weather, it wouldn't be any, it wouldn't be special.

That's literally what makes it special. Right. Right. And those of us who live in places where the weather is perfect most of the winter don't get it anyway. Like that's, that's also 90% of the source. schools that are recruiting at a high level or sorry playing at the highest level aren't in really nice locations that have that right like i mean the majority of the sport the entire midwest and much of the south like i know it's warmer in the south but still gets cold and dreary in the south

in the wintertime so right um there is no better feeling in the world than you know i remember the first rose ball i covered i had to shovel snow off my car in the morning and then i landed at lax and drove out to pasadena it was 701 It feels like you're like watching HD TV for the first time. Like I don't even know how to describe it. But okay, do you want to go into my mulligan? I do want to go into your mulligan. Well, let's review the lines first.

So I'm looking at the most current lines on BEDMGM. Ohio State is a nine and a half point favorite in the Cotton Bowl against Miami. As we mentioned earlier, Oregon has moved up to a two and a half point favorite against Texas Tech. That was one and a half for the longest time. Indiana holding steady as a seven point favorite. against Alabama and Georgia is a six and a half point favorite against Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl. All right. What is your Mulligan, Ari? You know, uh, that time you told me that one of the low level staffers or one of the tape people from the 2006 national champion Florida's

team. Yep. The DVDs early and then he said, congratulations, we're going to win the national title when he turned the DVDs over to the staff, right? That stood out. Correct. Yes. Yes. I was at the Media Day yesterday, and nobody made a declaration like that, but I don't know how you are on Media Day. When I was a beat writer, it used to be like the most stressful day of the year because you want to talk to as many people about all the people you never get to talk to all year. You have to go interview. Yeah. I got the story I wanted to do in 15 minutes, and I got the schmooze yesterday. And I was hanging out with some of the Miami staffers.

And they seem quite confident in what. they bring to the table and uh you know what ohio state's weaknesses on film are i laid the 10 points uh the first time around i guess because it's a mulligan i lose that half a point because now it's nine and a half i'm switching my pick to miami plus nine and a half ah well i i i have already locked in at miami plus 10 and i'm going to stay there because yeah i just i just think in terms of of probable outcomes for this game like ohio state close win or miami win And I think those are two-thirds of the likely outcomes. The other third, of course, is an Ohio State blowout win.

But I think there's a good chance this is a close game that Ohio State just wins. And if it's not, and Miami wins, great, I win too. But I think in terms of high-level talent, Miami has more high-level talent than Ohio State has seen yet. Now, Indiana may be a better overall team than Miami. But in terms of people who might be picked in the first round, I think Miami has more. more of those than anybody that Ohio State has seen all season. And the differences, I will not

make the comparison of this Ohio State team to the 2006 Ohio State team because that team, the reason it got beat so badly by Florida was because it was not very athletic in the trenches. This Ohio State team is Uber athletic in the trenches. And we can

be very sure that Jeremiah Smith, Caleb Downs, those are top five NFL draft picks. Top five. Like, Arvel Reese, Sunny Stiles. Human beings like that don't exist on most other teams. So I will not compare that Ohio State team to

this Ohio State team. That's it. I do think Miami is going to present a challenge that they have not seen yet. So I have been thinking a lot about the 2006 Ohio State comparison because I thought it was such a fascinating question and something to dig into

Andy. Let me read you the NFL players on the 2016. for Ohio State. Troy Smith. Yep. Heisman trophy winner. What a career Troy Smith had, yeah.

Yeah. You're going to catch a trend here soon. Okay. Antonio Pittman, the running back, no NFL career, really. Chris Beanie Wells, which, you know, he had an okay career, but he wasn't like a 10-time all-pro. Ted Ginn Jr. was probably the best NFL player. He was very good, yeah.

And he was like, I think, a 15, 17-year NFL vet. Anthony Gonzalez, the receiver, very good college player, nothing in the NFL really. Now, a congressman, I think he's still in Congress. He's in politics somewhere in Ohio, I believe. Well, no, he was a U.S. representative from Ohio for a while. Yeah. Roy Hall, Brian Hartline, and Brian Hartline was a sophomore, so I don't even remember how much of a factor on the field. But he got to his second contract in the NFL.

He was a pretty good NFL player. Yep. Ryan Robiskey, great college player, nothing really in the NFL. Jake Bauer, the tight end, really nothing. thing, Aaron Petrie, which is a kicker, Quinn Pitcock, Jay Richardson, Vernon Goldston, maybe the biggest bust in NFL draft history or one of them, defensive end, really great college player, James Lorinitis linebacker, Austin Spitler linebacker, and Larry Grant linebacker. Now, the really, really good player, Malcolm Jenkins was maybe an NFL

Hall of Fame. So he was really good. He and Ted Genn, Jr. are both awesome. Yeah. But when you look back at it, I remember that team being ultra-talented. and it had really good college players, but from an NFL perspective, if you were to compare the 2006 national championship game participant to the 2002 National Championship winning team, the NFL talent on those two teams wasn't even close. And I would say that this year's Ohio State team

has a lot of really high-end NFL players on it that the 06 team did not have. And we'll never know, you know, we'll never know until we know, right? Like we might need to wait 10 years, how it all plays out. And last year's team lost a lot of players that are really good in the NFL already. Like a Mecca, Bucho, Jackson, had a pick on Sunday. Like, it's not the same deal, I don't think. Well, and I said Miami presents a more high-level talent than they've seen,

but that doesn't mean Miami has more high-level talent than Ohio State has. They don't. Ohio State still has more. And if Ohio State is more of a, you know, I don't know if that's going to show up. like the deal is like there's no like Florida waiting for them in this in this thing there's no team that they're going to face that go as well we've got 15 better players than you and no one knew it yet like that's just not happened this year yeah that's not going to happen and now I think the key to this game like if Miami's

going to have a chance they have to take some chances with Carson Beck let him throw it down the field which they didn't do against Texas A&M because I think they were confident that if they kept the score low they were going to be in a position to win the game in the fourth quarter which they were. I don't know that they can keep the score that low in this game. Maybe they can, you know, because the Texas Ohio State game was a 14-7 game, so maybe it plays out like that. But in the end it was 1310, obviously.

But my guess is Ohio State can score a little bit on them, which means you've probably got to let Carson Beck turn it loose. And if you do that, you do risk the possibility of a quote-unquote Carson Beck game where there's three picks and Ohio State wins by 17. points i could definitely see like a 20 to 13 2012 type type game that's what that's what i'm thinking is going to happen that that's what i think we're looking at here and and that's where miami has a chance to win a game like that it's if they can force ohio state to make a mistake they might be able to to win the game like that yeah and it makes me the question whether i

think ohio state's actually going to repeat as champions like if you would have if you would have asked me who's the national championship pick a month ago before the Indiana game, I would have been like, this is easy. But like, I think that Ohio State weaknesses have been exposed in Miami's strengths as a team from a defense, I mean, even Michael Irvin. And I don't know, like, how much

like Michael Irvin and his behavior really moves the needle in terms of like what you think of his football analysis. But he went on ESPN the other day and was like, they haven't seen a defensive front like this all year and they've struggled to block people. And it's like, well, he's kind of right. Yeah, they're so, like, Texas was pretty close, though.

I don't know. Who's, who's, yeah, I mean, they have Colin Simmons, so that certainly helps. Ruben and Ruben Bain is really good. That's the thing. I think it's fairly comparable. They have seen something like it. Now, that was in Julian Sayans' first game as a starter. This is Julian Sayans' 14th game as a starter.

This game might be just like that, where Ohio State's winning 21 to 7 in the fourth quarter, there's never really a doubt on who's going to win, although Texas did have the ball down a possession late in that game. I think it felt pretty clear that Ohio State was going to be winning that game for the majority of the second half.

could see that happening with Miami covering or honestly speaking Andy I could see Miami winning so um all right so you're now on my side on that we're both picking Miami to cover in this game I got them at 10 you got them at 9 and a half I'm not changing my pick on the Orange Bowl I had Oregon minus one and a half I would probably take them minus two and a half still but I don't have to so do you feel any anything different about the rose I that we both picked Indiana to cover in the Rose Bowl and I did we both pick Georgia to cover in the sugar bowl. No, I picked Ole Miss to cover.

Okay, now, interesting thing about that, and I don't think this certainly won't change yours. I have to consider this now. Kiwan Lacey is listed as probable on the availability report. That's the star running back for Ole Miss. Remember, he bruised his shoulder against Tulane, and you kind of wondered, okay, how's he going to do? Because he's a violent runner.

He's a guy who breaks tackles. He keeps runs alive. And if you've got a bruised up shoulder, it's going to be hard to do that. But he says he's good to go. He talked about it at Media Day, said that this was on Tuesday morning, said that he's not limited in any way at practice. He feels like he is completely ready 100%. So we've seen this game once.

We saw this game in Athens. Ole Miss was scoring like crazy. Ole Miss was actually up 10 to start the fourth quarter. And Georgia's defense finally stepped up, got a couple three and outs. Ole Miss never kept Georgia from scoring in that game. Georgia scored every time it had the ball. And I feel like that game kind of unlocked a little bit of the Georgia offense. And you learned a little more about Gunner Stockton in that game.

And Georgia's offense, other than losing Drew Bobo, their center in the Georgia Tech game, like their offense was clicking pretty much the rest of the season. Yeah. And if we get that Ohio State, Georgia, you know, Fiesta Bowl, that's going to be quite the banger. But I don't know if I'm ready to assume that's going to happen yet in either game. So. Yeah. So how about the Lane Kiffin factor?

So you're still picking Ole Miss in spite of no lane Kiffin. The thing I think is interesting is Pete Golding is the new head coach at Ole Miss. This will be his second game as a head coach. He didn't really have to do a lot of high leverage decision making in the first game because they jumped all over Tulane and just kind of cruised to the win. You and I have talked a bunch through the years about Kirby Smart and his evolution as a coach. And I always said, you know, Kirby needed time to grow into a national championship winning. head coach. You know, he probably want, I'm sure their decisions in that, the national

title game, the second of 26th, they lost Alabama. That was his year two. I'm sure there's some decisions he'd want back. I'm sure he would want back that fake punt that he called in the 2018 SEC championship game. And all of that led to him being kind of a fully realized monster of a head coach when they did win two straight national titles. He's got the huge experience edge over Pete Golding in this game. Now, that doesn't mean that the younger coach can't put one over on the older coach because Marcus Freeman did that in this game last year to Kirby Smart. I think I would be far more concerned if they had new coordinators. Yes. And I think that is, it is going to feel familiar. Now, the coordinator, like Charlie Weiss Jr, the offensive

coordinator has been doing double duty working as an LSU assistant coach as well. Their entire offensive staff has had to do LSU double duty the entire time. I don't know if that changes anything. I don't know if that changes your mind about anything, but we knew that going in. We knew that was going to be the situation. I'm buying the Disney script here. Oh, you're playing feelings ball. I got you.

Yeah, who, you know who I am. You know who I am. That's, I asked Mario at Media Day the other day, or yesterday about like feelings and, you know, whether this is a chance for Malachi Tony to, you know, assert himself as a star. and like what this means for the Miami program. And he goes, you guys just think about storylines all day. We think about like the next rep. And I think that's probably true.

But yeah, I think like Pete Golding is like passing the vibes test immaculately. You have to admit. Yeah, I think he's doing great so far. I'm excited to see what he can do as a head coach. I mean, you're talking about getting thrown into the deep end. This is, you got the sugar bowl against Kirby freaking smart in game two of your head coaching career. But I'm going to stick with George. to cover six and a half you are going to stick with

Ole Miss to cover the six and a half and I think this is this is going to be a lot of fun I like being on different sides on this game Andy I know we have to wrap up and you've got to get back but I think there's an important piece of news that you need to at least share on the show today and that is that Deuce Knight from Auburn is expected to enter

the transfer portal. Ah, very interesting Deuce Knight the quarterback freshman in Auburn he actually got to start the Mercer game and looked really good. But yes, he's, well, and look, we expect Byron Brown to be rejoining Alex Golish at Auburn. So it would make sense that Deuce Knight would be on his way out.

Deuce Knight, former Notre Dame commit. Obviously, Notre Dame is pretty well off. They've got C.J. Carr right now. They have two freshmen coming in in the class of 2026. So I don't think Notre Dame's an option there. I'll be very curious to see where Deuce Knight lands. That is another one. We don't know what he is as a college.

college player. We've seen one game, looked great, but it was against an overmatch opponent. But yeah, the Auburn roster, look, their AD John Cohen made the whole coaching search about keeping the roster together. I think we've learned enough now to know, like, if you're an AD, stop that. Don't do that. Don't worry about it. You're fired the old coach, except that the roster's going to turn over. And if you want to feel better about it, Auburn fans, go back and look at how much the USF roster turned over in Alex Golish's first year and they went from one in 11 to seven and six like he's fine he knows what he's doing and ADs except that you're not going to keep your roster together when you fire your coach like when you make

the decision to fire the coach you were also making decision to have an entirely new roster next year that's part of the deal we'll see what happens with Deuce night but Ari this has been it's been a lot of fun I got to go talk to some organ players excited to see what these guys look like, how ready they are for this game, how pumped they are for this game. Because like I said, they're in the position that Ohio State was in against them last year. And they may be able to jump all over somebody. We shall see. But we'll see how the vibes are with Dan Lannning.

And we will talk to you guys tomorrow.