Andy & Ari On3 - How two LSU receivers grew into 1st rounders | QB Jaden Rashada might go where? How the Portal Works

Episode Date: April 19, 2024

This show is sponsored by Fanduel. Go to fanduel.com/Staples to sign up and new customers receive $150 in bonus bets when you bet $5. Fanduel recently released odds on which teams will make the 12-team College Football Playoff. Is your team favored?(0:00-4:06) Introduction(4:07-15:28) Transfer Portal Update - Jaden Rashada(15:29-21:50) Damien Martinez Visit(21:51-37:37) LSU WR Coach and Co-Offensive Coordinator Cortez Hankton Jr. Joins(37:38-1:03:22) On3's National Scout Cody Bellaire Joins to discuss how the transfer portal ACTUALLY works(1:03:23-1:04:55) ConclusionThe transfer portal is expecting a very interesting entrant soon. Quarterback Jaden Rashada, whose original signing with Florida disintegrated after a collective reneged on a contract that purported to be worth $13.8 million over four years, is leaving Arizona State after one season in Tempe. Where might he wind up? On3’s Pete Nakos reported he possibly could be headed to an SEC school.Next, LSU receivers coach/co-offensive coordinator Cortez Hankton Jr. joins the show. Hankton will be in the green room at the draft next week with former Tigers receivers Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., who are expected to be picked in the first round. Hankton, who came to LSU from Georgia and who could have as many as six former players drafted next week, discusses how those two developed into first-rounders.Later, On3 national scout Cody Bellaire explains how college personnel departments are handling the transfer portal window. Bellaire, who worked in the personnel departments at LSU, Texas A&M and Texas Tech, breaks down exactly how the process works from a player deciding to enter the portal to choosing a new school.Want to watch the show instead? Join us live on YouTube, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/mmwTheMEUIQMust be 21+ and present in select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas StarCasino, LLC. First online real money wager only. $5 pregame moneyline wager required. First online real money wager only. $10 firstdeposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com.Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania,Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona, 1-888-789-7777 or visitccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, 1-800-9-WITH-IT in Indiana, 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 1-877-770-STOP inLouisiana, visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland, visit 1800gambler.net in West Virginia, or call 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope ishere. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or textHOPENY in New York

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. We got a lot to talk about today. Happy Friday. Transfer portal madness. A very familiar name. At least if you've been following all the offseason exploits in college football. This person did do some stuff in season this time. But very familiar name.

Entering the transfer portal. Plus some updates on some players that are going to be highly coveted in this particular version of the transfer portal. Also later in the show, Cortez Hankton Jr., the LSU wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator joins us. There might not be a guy more invested in this year's draft. Why? Well, think about this. Cortez Hankton, two of his receivers from this past season, Malik Nabors and Brian Thomas Jr., probably going to be first rounders. So he's going to the green room with those guys. They are two of 13 guys in the green room at the first round of the NFL draft.

So they're probably going in the first round. I don't think there's any question neighbors is Thomas probably is too, but Hankton could have as many as six of the guys that he coached in college drafted in this draft from his receiver room. Cause remember he was at Georgia before he was at LSU. So you, these are guys, the Georgia guys are guys that he was actively involved in recruiting and also obviously coaching on the field. But they've also kind of moved around as well. So it's crazy because he could have guys from four different schools, six receivers from four different schools that could be drafted in this draft, including potentially three first rounders.

So we mentioned Malik neighbors. We mentioned Brian Thomas Jr. A.D. Mitchell was a guy that he helped recruit and he coached at Georgia. And so he remember he left Georgia, went to Texas. A.D. Mitchell might be a first round guy. We don't know, but he's probably going. If he doesn't go in the first round, very early in the second.

So there's another one. Jermaine Burton played at Georgia, then moved to Alabama. That's another one. Ladd McConkie starred at Georgia his entire career. And then Marcus Rosemey Jackson, we'll see where he winds up. But if he winds up getting drafted,

that would be six total draft picks for Cortez, Hank, and Jeter. That's quite a haul, and so good reason for him to be very invested in the draft. He'll explain how Malik Nabors and Brian Thomas Jr. evolved into what they were. Going into the offseason last year, we thought, okay, LSU guys are pretty good receivers. We did not know they would have two other worldly receivers and a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback in Jaden Daniels. But that's how that worked out. And Cortez can tell us how they became that and grew into that. Also, we're going to talk to Cody Belair. He's on Three's National Scout. He's worked in the scouting departments and recruiting

departments at LSU, at Texas Tech, at Texas A&M. And he's going to explain to us how the transfer portal really works, like the timing of things, the NIL negotiations, basically how you decide who you're going to recruit, how players decide who they're going to take visits with. It's a fascinating process because like Cody came up through the high school recruiting side, and that is a very different one. He can explain it better than I can, but if you think about it, high school recruiting is a process that takes years. Portal recruiting is a process that takes days and in some cases hours.

So really interesting look at how the transfer portal actually works with Cody Belair. First, we got an update on the transfer portal and the news that came down Thursday night was one of those. It's just, I posted the grab your popcorn gift because I mean this name, when I, when I heard it was coming, I just, of course, of course. Jaden Rashada is in the transfer portal. Jaden Rashada, quarterback at Arizona State, is in the portal.

We've got a fairly good idea where he might be going. And that's a crazy story. But his story is just crazy all around, has been crazy from the jump. So for those who don't remember, we'll set the scene. Jade Rashad is a quarterback from Northern California. He was an elite 11 type guy. He was a big time recruit in the class of 2023, one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the country. And he became the subject of an NIL bidding war between Miami and Florida.

And originally he committed to Miami, decided he wasn't going to go there. He flips to Florida. Now, his people sign a contract with Florida's collective. And now, this is not the collective that that is servicing Florida now. This was this was the Gator Collective which was the original collective that serviced Florida. So, this

contract and I wrote about this at my old job, I got a copy of it and wrote about how it worked. Four years, $13.8 million. 13.8, the max it could have paid out. It's an insane number. Nobody's even close to that. Still, nobody's really come close to that. The problem was the money wasn't real. Whoever had backed the contract, whoever said that I will back that contract, when they got the actual number, it was like, nope, I didn't say I was going to pay that much. It was a wild story. And no one will admit how the numbers got so inflated. You had a lawyer representing the collective who also represented the agents for Rashad at the time. You had Florida versus Miami trying to figure out who could get the

big name recruit. It was a lot of drama. And so what happened was there was a payment that was supposed to come, I believe it was December 5th, 2022. An initial payment, which would have been a massive violation of the NCAA rules at the time, which no longer exist. But it would have been a massive violation of those. So whoever wrote the contract didn't understand how the rules worked either. That payment was missed. A couple days later, the contract was terminated. Yet somehow they still convinced Rashada to sign with Florida. And then they tried to make another deal and that fell through and

they let him out of his letter of intent. He ends up at Arizona State, which is where his dad played. He actually ended up playing at Arizona State this year early because remember, Arizona State had taken Drew Pine as a transfer from Notre Dame. The plan was for Drew Pine to be the veteran starter. Drew Pine injures his hamstring early on. Jayden Rashada has to start a couple games. He ended up starting his Oklahoma State. He then misses time with a knee injury, ends up playing a little bit at the end of the season against Arizona, but then could not really compete this spring because he injured his hand while moving, not moving around the practice field, but like moving from one apartment to another. So Sam Levitt, the transfer from Michigan State, has the inside track on the starting job at

Arizona State. Trenton Bourget, who was there before, is still there. Jaden Rashada, who didn't really get a chance to show what he could do this spring, has decided to enter the transfer portal. And where might he wind up according to on three's Pete Nacos? You ready for this? You ready? You waiting? Waiting?

Waiting? Georgia! That's right. The team that has won two of the last three national titles, maybe the most dominant team in college football right now. That's where he might be going. And that was one that just blew my mind. And I called a couple of people. I was like, yep, that's a very, very strong possibility that that's where he's going. Willie in the chat,

Rashada and the portal seem like a match made in heaven, LOL. Oh yeah, oh yeah. The soap opera continues. But Georgia, now, do not get this twisted. Do not assume that because all of those numbers were thrown about wildly when he was being recruited by Miami and Florida, that that's what's going on now. Because Arizona State did not come with a big NIL deal for Jaden Rashada. Georgia is not going to come with a big NIL deal for Jaden Rashada. He will

enter the Georgia quarterback room. Obviously, no one's expecting anybody but Carson Beck to be the starting quarterback at Georgia this year. He's the guy. And then Jaden Rashada, who has four years of eligibility left, if he can make it work, he could play himself into a nice situation. If it doesn't work out, it's no skin off Georgia's back. They'll just take more quarterbacks. So that's the situation because Georgia right now has Carson Beck, who is the starter. They've got her Stockton. Who's been there a while. He was presumed to be the backup. Ryan Puglisi, who's a freshman this year from Connecticut. They also have a commitment from Ryan Montgomery from Finley, Ohio for the class of 2025. So like

Georgia's quarterback recruiting rolls on. They want four in the room at all times. Jaden Rashad is the fourth in the room. Remember Brock Vandegrift left Georgia and is probably going to start at Kentucky this year. So that's where that situation is. And for Jaden Rashada, it could be a good situation. I thought going to Arizona State with Drew Pine coming in was going to be a pretty good situation for him because Pine was supposed to be the guy. Jaden Rashada wouldn't be under any pressure and ends up he has to play pretty quickly that probably isn't the case at georgia but hey stranger things have happened but here's the deal and writing a lot about the rashada situation at the old job and then following it obviously since

he got to arizona state and since I've been at this job, I never got the sense that Jaden Rashada, the person himself, was driving any of that stuff that was going on before. And that perhaps if he could just be somewhere, have a chance to develop, then we could kind of see what he might be as a quarterback. If he had had to go to Florida, if he'd wound up going to Florida,

because remember, you had Graham Mertz coming in, but let's say that contract had been real. Let's say the booster who had guaranteed it had actually decided to pay the money. At that point, you probably have to play Jaden Rashad if you're Billy Napier. Behind the offensive line you saw from Florida in 2023, it would have been an utter disaster. It would have broken the player. Perhaps physically and definitely mentally. Like Graham Mertz, who was a three-year starter at Wisconsin, was much better equipped to come in and play in that situation.

But if you have a guy making $4 million a year, four plus million dollars a year in the locker room, you're going to be under massive pressure to play him. You're also going to be dealing with the locker room itself. And that's what, you know, I talk about how these NIL situations work and people say, well, you know, this will divide the locker room. And I was like, well, it doesn't divide NFL locker rooms or your workplace when people make different dollar amounts.

But that only works if everybody's making a logical amount relative to their ability, relative to what they provide to the operation. That's how that system's supposed to work. That number was so out of whack, it was going to screw everything up. So now if I'm Jaden Rashad, I'm still pissed because I signed a contract saying that's the amount of money I'm going to get. But now he gets a chance. And I just, I'm imagining Florida fans right now. They're like their ultimate nightmare is this guy is somehow Georgia's starter in like 2026, and he goes into Jacksonville and beats Florida.

That's the nightmare scenario. Will that happen? I don't know. I don't know if that's going to happen but it is just like if you had told me during all that drama that jayden rashada might end up at georgia as well he never actually showed up at florida so this is still only his second school but as the fourth school in this saga, if we're including Miami and Florida, I would have said there's no way, that there's no possible way, but we'll see.

Oh, the transfer portal is the gift that keeps on giving. By the way, hold on, Zach in the chat says that the pay differential works better if the coworkers don't know how much less they're making. Not really true. Most companies, you have some idea of what's going on, but the person getting paid a bunch more money usually provides a lot more value to the company and people understand that. Where you have problems is if you have an out of whack salary and the person is not providing any value. And I think we've all been there too. So that's where that Rashada thing would have been utter disaster, but that's not the situation now. He's going to Georgia. He will rise or fall on his own merit and we'll see what happens. But Carson Beck's the guy.

So all of that will probably happen behind the scenes. Elsewhere in the transfer portal, you've got some guys that are going to be highly coveted. So remember when we talked Texas and Oklahoma earlier this week, commonality between both programs, they are both looking for D lineman in the portal. We're going to talk to Cortez Hankton, the LSU receivers coach. We didn't talk to him about this because not his, not his thing, but LSU also looking for D tackles in the transfer portal. Everybody wants D lineman,

D tackles, D ends in the transfer portal. It just aren't that many. And there definitely aren't that many that are capable of helping right away. And also if you're an sec school, they're not that many from outside the sec. Cause those are the only guys you can take who could play this year. You can't take somebody from another sec school and they'd be able to play this year because, because of the sec rule. So that makes someone like Michigan state defensive end Simeon Barrow very interesting.

That makes somebody like TCU defensive tackle Dominic Williams very interesting because they can go to an SEC school and play right away. They're in the portal now. Barrow, we'll start with him. Started a bunch of games over the last three years at Michigan State. Last year, he had 36 tackles. He had five and a half tackles for loss. He's been an All-Big Ten honorable mention.

This is exactly the type of person who probably has a chance to upgrade their circumstances in the spring transfer portal. They can go to a team that probably expects to contend. So Simeon Barrow visiting LSU this weekend. We'll see if that's where it ends or is he going to look elsewhere too. Dominic Williams, Perron 3's Hayes Fawcett. Listen to this week. He's visiting Oklahoma this weekend. Then he's visiting Texas, then Colorado, then LSU. And he still hasn't set dates for Missouri and Oregon. So you've got Oklahoma, Texas, LSU, Missouri, four SEC schools in it for Dominic Williams.

Because remember, they all need D tackles. And he didn't play in the SEC last year. So that makes him very, very valuable. Also, Colorado and Oregon. We know Colorado always looking for people in the portal. Oregon has been one of the better portal schools. So Dominic Williams will have a bevy of options. It's going to be one of those. Keandre Lambert-Smith, the receiver from Penn State. It's another place where there's a lot of SEC team shopping and they need to find somebody who didn't play in the SEC. Keandre Lambert-Smith is scheduled to visit Auburn and Texas A&M.

Meanwhile, Damian Martinez, who's one the the bigger prizes in the transfer portal former oregon state running back he was at arizona he posted some pics he got him in the throne in tucson so he's enjoying that experience it it's it's it's interesting because some of the the transfer guys do kind of turn this into a full-on second recruitment. Let's do the whole thing. When we talk to Cody Belair later in the show, we will talk about the difference between the high school official visit and the transfer portal official visit. Because they can be very, very different situations. So we'll talk about that with Cody a little bit later.

Next up though, we got to talk about these LSU receivers, Malik neighbors, Brian Thomas Jr. Their position coach, Cortez Hankton Jr., who again, might be the most invested assistant coach in America in this draft because he was at Georgia. He's now at LSU. He's got potentially six guys who could get drafted. One of those Jermaine Burton who played for Georgia and just played at Alabama. Zach says the NFL draft has been kind of down on Jermaine Burton. I thought he would go in the second, but they're saying fourth is that's fine. All I got to do is get in there. Puka Nakua, I believe was a fifth or sixth rounder last year, turned into a very good receiver. So it's a very deep receiver class.

They're going to be guys who get taken in the fourth, fifth round who wind up being really good NFL players. But our guy Cortez Hankton, he's got two guys from LSU that are almost certainly going in the first round. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been invited to the green room. So 13 guys in the green room, three of them from LSU that are almost certainly going in the first round. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been invited to the green room. So 13 guys in the green room, three of them from LSU, one of them's Jaden Daniels. The other two are Malik Babers and Brian Thomas Jr. Before we get to Cortez Hankton, though, I got to tell you about FanDuel. Go to fanduel.com slash staples, the best sports

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the two receivers who are likely going in the first round plus the guy throwing the ball also going in the first round. Here is Cortez Hankton Junior. Joined now by LSU wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator Cortez Hankton Junior. Cortez, you are headed to Detroit. Gonna have a very fun week next week because you're going to be in the green room. And your LSU Tigers have three dudes in the green room, including two guys from your position room, Malik Nabors and Brian Thomas Jr.

What is this like getting ready to watch those guys get drafted? Well, first off, it's an exciting time for LSU football, to have three caliber players of that nature to be able to be in Detroit as a first round prospect is huge. And for me, it's been a blessing to coach two of the most talented receivers in the nation, man. And they were a joy to coach. They were a joy to watch on the sideline making plays. And I'm excited and happy for both of them. So you came in with Brian Kelly when he took over. You'd been at Georgia, so you'd obviously been coaching some really good receivers there as well. But when you get

a hold of Malik and Brian, when you first start seeing them at practice, what jumped out about each guy? Well, I had a little history with the both of them because I recruited them coming out of high school. And so I was familiar with their skill set. Malik was always ultra competitive. He was the guy to play the game with a chip on his shoulder. There's this way about him that he can will himself to make a play. Brian Thomas is probably the most gifted athlete that I ever coached and also has high football intelligence. And so when you are blessed to coach those guys, they make your job a lot easier. Jaden Daniels, also obviously the other guy who's going to be

in there, the Heisman Trophy winner. But I think about these three guys. This is a case where we knew all of them were good that first year you guys were with them. But it felt like they took just a huge step in between year one and year two with the new staff. What happened and how did you kind of see that growth in the offseason last year? Well, I think it's a couple of things. One, it's taking ownership and growth in the offseason last year well i think it's a couple of things one it's taking ownership and growth in offense um also it's building the chemistry and offseason working out together i think those guys did a great job of getting better on their own time and not just when we're out there practicing and working out and and i think they all knew what they were playing for you know every year at this place you want to compete to play for a national championship you know in the midst of that

they made a lot of plays and we had a hell of offense so we talked to the draft people and they're all saying okay we don't know if it's going to be Malik or if it's going to be Marvin Harrison Jr or Roma dunze it do you feel competitive for your guy on that front or does it matter i mean you've played in the nfl absolutely now let me say this i think that this is one of the more talented draft class from the receiver positions that we've seen in a long time i mean the guys that are in this draft they can go but you know with malika bt i think those guys are the upper echelon and when you just watch the tape i think it proves that and in terms ofon. And when you just watch the tape, I think it proves that. And in terms of guys you coach,

you also might have Ladd McConkey in this draft. And well, you definitely gonna have him somewhere in the draft, it just depends on where. What is it like, and you've done this at Dartmouth, at Vanderbilt, at Georgia, now at LSU, when you see these guys grow, mature, and finally do get that chance to go into the league. Well, for me, especially with Ladd, because he's a young man that fights against the odds.

Blue chip mentality, blue collar, didn't have a whole lot going on coming out of high school, but he was ultra competitive. And he believed that he could compete at the highest level, and he proved that, whatever opportunity that he to what i what i mean to tell you like he is a guy that every day he walks into that building he has it on his mind to make a point and prove people wrong and so i love that about i love that about this young man and you guys were all over him at georgia i mean it's others weren't but I remember this

reading the stories about Kirby Smart you know going to his high school and kind of camping out and and saying no no I don't care what y'all think about this guy we we love this guy yeah trust guys you know ultimately what it comes down to is the evaluation of not only the skill set but the redeeming qualities of a young man. You know, you see him play multiple sports. I remember being at a basketball game and his team was down like 11 points in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter of the game. And I mean, it made a bunch of plays, tied it up, going to overtime, and then it went. And he was a leader of that team. And so that in itself showed me his competitive nature, his will to fight for his team and also to lead him to a

victory so you you mentioned uh Brian Thomas and and you know Malik's been getting a lot of the headlines obviously because there is that that competition for wide receiver one in this draft but Brian is probably a first round pick he's invited to the green room one of only 13 people in the green room we say he's the the maybe the best athlete you've ever coached what was the first kind of wow moment for you either at practice or in a game well i'll go back to when he was in high school i had an opportunity to go watch him play at a basketball game and i just i was so impressed by how somebody that big could move the way that he can move. Real fluid, just a smooth athlete, and everything that he does, he just makes it look effortless.

I mean, and I think that's why people will wow by his speed because it looks like it doesn't take him much effort to run fast, but that's just who he is. So when you get the receiver's job at LSU, how quickly do you hear from from some of these guys that are in the league now because what I mean the the legacy of LSU receivers especially recently is just incredible with you know Odell Beckham Jr. Jarvis Landry Justin Jefferson Jamar Chase I mean how how quickly do you hear from those guys and how often do your players hear from those guys?

Well, it's interesting because, you know, the tradition is really rich when it comes to playing receiver LSU. I mean, the history speaks for itself and it's ironic just the duos that play together. You know, you go back to Odell and Jarvis, Jamar and Jets and now just more recently Malik and BT and I mean all of those guys put up big numbers and the the former four I've had had good NFL careers and I'm looking for these two two dudes to do the same thing um yeah and that's that that's the thing and I remember I remember when Jarvis and Odell were playing together right you know Zach mettenberger's throwing on the ball and you thought okay when they get to the nfl it'll be a weird situation because usually you go to the nfl and the other receivers on your team are better than the ones you played with in college in this

case they're not better than the duo and you think okay will these guys drop off no not a single one of them dropped off yeah well you know what that's actually part of the self when it comes to our recruiting is look we want to make this room as close to a sunday room as possible and so when you get to that point and you're playing at the highest level the competition you know you're used to it because this these are the same type of guys that you were used to competing with day in day out so you're using that in recruiting, obviously, but how much with the current players, the guys who played with, with BT and who played with Malik, how much is this motivating them as you know, you just finished spring practice. I'm sure you're talking to them as they go into off season workouts. How much does seeing this motivate them?

I mean, it motivates them on a couple of different fronts. First, they get to see their brothers achieve things and about to achieve something that is, you know, we're talking about the 1%. And they also know that there's a lot of production that walked out of the room. And this is their moment. This is their time to compete for the same opportunities and so they're excited for them but they're also excited for themselves because now they get an opportunity to show exactly what they can do and you guys just wrapped spring practice how did you feel that group progressed i mean kyron lacy we've seen him obviously but i'm sure there's some

younger guys now that that as you mentioned are ready to kind of take the baton. Well, it's interesting because when you're in year three of the offense, everything just becomes more efficient. Right. Guys know what to do. They understand conceptually what you're trying to accomplish. And so it tends to run a little bit smoother. And so it was almost like we picked off right when we left off. The guys are still explosive. We're making plays. The young guys have a better feel for what we're doing offensively so they were able to play with confidence and so it was it was really good to see we got a talented group and you guys are in the rare position of having a starting quarterback who has waited his turn at the school so like these guys been catching passes from garrett nussmeyer for a long time now

yeah and that also means a lot you know because they have trust in this young man because they play with him. They've competed with him, practiced with him. And so they know him. And and that you have built in chemistry just from the time that has already been spent. So it's that's huge. It's been huge for us. So what is it like for you? You're a New Orleans native. You went to Texas Southern, you and Michael Strahan, the two big alums. Here's what's crazy. He's finally getting inducted into the Texas Southern Hall of Fame this year. Could he just not make it before? Let's just say we had a little catching up to do.

Michael, you had a good pro career but we need to see if you can host like a morning show on a major network television group man hard to have group but I'm excited for it that is incredible but but as a guy who grew up in New Orleans what what is it like when you when you get the call to come coach at LSU? Well, it's a little surreal. And for me, I haven't lived in the state of Louisiana since 1998. And so coming back 22, man, it was awesome. And you don't really realize how much you miss it until you come back. Whether it's the culture, the community, the food, you know, you put on way fast. So you got to watch yourself, you know, but just just being and having an opportunity to coach in Death Valley,

where we watch watch so many greats play, you know, Saturday night and play at a high level. And so for me, man, it's been awesome. It's awesome to have my my kids my sons, to be close to my parents and our family. It's just been an amazing experience. And we were talking before we started recording about your high school, St. Augustine, the Honey Badger, Leonard Fournette, just an unbelievable line of great players that came from there. When you walk into your alma mater or another high school in New Orleans, how much does it help having grown up in that atmosphere and being able to say, Hey, I've been in your shoes. Yeah. Well, I think at the foundation of St. Aug, what it,

what it teaches is brotherhood and discipline. And so there's also this natural competition that occurs within those hall hallways that, uhways that allows the guys to push each other. When you're having those conversations with them and you talk about your journey, you talk about your path, I think it resonates because they want to be where you are. For me, I'm thankful for that journey, and I'm always hopeful for the guys that are currently walking through those hallways to do some good things now where you're going to be next thursday night is is the draft green room that is a very high profile place lots of cameras lots of eyes do we have our suit ready yet oh we read it we read it malik and BT, they're both ready. And look, so here's the deal. It all started off last year before the season started.

And let's say on the Tiger Walk, the boys, they dress to impress. And so I try to compete with them a little bit. Well, Malik, basically, we make a deal. Yeah, he says, coach, if I go first round, are you going to hook me up? Are you going to buy me a suit? And without a doubt, I said without a doubt i said man look you do that we're gonna get it done and so he made it happen had a big year and and and so i made sure i i held up to my end of the deal and and in the midst of that i said you know what bt since you uh you joining the party then we gonna we're gonna go ahead and hook you up too. So, you know, shout out to Johnny Mack.

Taylor, that's been hooking me up for a while. It's taking care of those guys. And, man, I'm looking forward to how good they're going to look in their draft suits. So this will be no 2003 NBA draft. No, we're not going to have too much fabric. This is going to look good. Like my guys from New Orleans. No, we're not going to have the big woody suits.

You know, we're going to have some nice, some clean, tailored, Italian tapered, you know, type fashion going on on draft day. Beautiful. Cannot wait for – I don't know if the draft has a tunnel walk, but the green room is the fashion show. So we are ready for that. Cannot wait to see where those guys end up. And imagine you get back to Baton Rouge and can tell those dudes playing for you now.

See? See where they are? You just got to work like them. That's right. You know it. Hey, they're living proof. They're living proof. Well, Cortez, thank you so much, and have fun next week.

Thank you, Andy. I appreciate it. Cortez Hankton, Jr., LSU's wide receivers coach, co-OC. That's a proud dude. Can you imagine you work with these guys, and you know they're pretty good, but you know they've got some untapped potential, and then they tap that potential, and then you get to go with them and be there as their lives change. That's a pretty incredible thing.

So I imagine that's going to be a lot of fun for Cortez when he goes to Detroit next week. We'll talk a lot more about that draft next week. We've got some interesting things planned. We're going to take a little trip down memory lane with some of our recruiting guys, with some of our scouts to talk about what those guys were like, the people who will be drafted in this draft, what they were like as high schoolers. One guy who watched a lot of these guys as high schoolers,

Cody Belair, who's on three's national scout. Before he came to us, he worked in the personnel departments at LSU, at Texas Tech, at Texas A&M, and got to see all of this from the inside. Also got to see how things have changed because he was working in those departments and working in college football when the NIL rules came in, when the transfer rules changed. So he's seen this version of college football from the inside. And he helped us kind of break down what happens now. Like when a guy goes in the portal, how does this work? How does the school find the player they want? How does the player find the school they want?

And what happens in between? So here is Cody Belair explaining how the transfer portal actually works. We welcome Cody Belair on three National Scout, a guy who worked in multiple college personnel departments and this is going to be a fun one because Cody is a great resource for us here at on three because he can help us understand how things

actually work in a college personnel department in a recruiting office because he's been there and been there fairly recently. Cody like you you've actually worked in these departments since NIL and the new transfer rules. Correct. Yeah. I mean, I was most recently at Texas Tech as the director of scouting. Before that I was LSU as the assistant director of player personnel. So when this started rolling, I was definitely there at the infancy stages. So it's been fun to see how it's developed over time. Well, and that's what I wanted to have you on cuz we're in the midst of a spring transfer portal window. We're talking about guys going

into the portal. We're talking about these recruitments. We're talking about what visits they're scheduling. The timeline of this is fascinating to me because you got these guys who enter the portal on Tuesday. They've got visits set up by Wednesday. They're gonna take the visits this weekend. They might have a decision like next Monday. Right. How quick is all this stuff?

It's extremely quick. And I mean, in order to compare it to high school recruitment Andy, you and I, the fans, we've all seen the tweets go out from kids now that say extremely blessed to receive an offer from whatever school. Wait, wait. After a great conversation with coach, insert coach's name here. Exactly. And they say, oh my gosh, like you click on the kid's profile and it says class of 2027. And you say, oh my gosh, that kid's currently a freshman in high school that's the

way high school recruiting has been going for some time now I mean programs are offering scholarships to players earlier and earlier in their high school careers just so they can build those relationships earlier and that way they can secure on-campus visits and build relationships with these people over time in the hopes that it pays off in the long run, right? Let's say a team goes to the distance, they go the distance and they land that 27 recruit that they offered as a freshman. You're talking about a recruitment that lasts over three years. That's a long time in the college football landscape. You have coaches and staff members that could all be gone by the time that kid sees the field as a sophomore. So the process with high school kids

is definitely more of a marathon than a sprint. But for portal guys, Andy, we're running the 100 meter dash. I mean, it goes by fast, fast. Like players are entering the portal most of the time. They're looking to see what programs can take care of them financially and which programs can send them to the league. The recruiting process for these guys is strictly business.

No glitz and glamour, no cake and snacks and cookies waiting for them at the hotel with a cool poster that they can take home. These guys want to visit campuses. They want to have in-depth conversations with coaches and they want to talk NIL. That's it. Those visits could be done in like five hours

compared to high school OVs that are baking in as many things as they can in a 48 48 hour window um i mean it's frantic it's fast paced and frankly andy it's complete chaos at this point well that's the thing i mean i imagine you you and the person that you're recruiting probably have some idea as soon as you send them the cut let's say you're recruiting a linebacker as soon as you send them the cut up of your defense showing what their position is doing right like they're they're eliminating you or they're like okay that's me andy i'm telling you it's funny it even it it's almost done before we even get to that point i had a source that um i've talked to for a while now and he's's at a school. And he said, now the visit could be over

by the time you get home from the airport. So he told me a story where he picked up a prospect from the airport. Their family had never been to the city before. And he was like, hey man, how's it going? Really excited to have you guys here. You guys hop in the car, I will talk to you all about how the city's going

and what things we're looking forward to seeing. The kid gets in the car and says, yeah, man, I can't wait for the NIL presentation. X school's giving me X amount of money. Hopefully you guys can match it. And if you're not prepared, that's it. You're done already. So it can be as done in 15 minutes. This feels like airplane flight plus meeting could have been a text. Like just have the head of the collective just send the number before you get on the plane. 100% that's this is a Zoom that the kid could basically just say end call and that's it. The relationship's

done. That recruitment is over and it wastes nobody's time. It is amazing and you've been tweeting about this recently about how college personnel departments are going to have to change and mirror NFL personnel departments. And so, so explain how, how an NFL personnel department works. Yeah. So with, with the NFL side of things, they have, they've had this model in place for decades, right? They have dedicated scouts for current NFL players who have boards for prospects that their team could inquire about for trades or free agency if they hit the market. And then they have a college scouting side, which has personnel dedicated to the NFL draft and guys coming out of college. So what I think is going to happen in the college game and what is happening at a few programs right now is the creation of separate entities within personnel departments.

Right. You're going to see programs who have general managers or personnel directors who are going to oversee two operate or excuse me, two separate operations, college scouts and high school scouts. The college scouts will evaluate their own roster and identify potential transfer portal prospects that line up with their team's positional factors or team needs. And essentially they'll fill their college boards with players that haven't even hit the portal yet. Just to make sure that they have the evaluation locked in, just in case that player does inevitably hit the portal at some point. And then the high school department is going to be doing what they've been doing for years and continue the high school recruiting process that we've all come to know and love for decades at this point. Now this in the NFL, this works in concert because all of that information that your scouting department gathers during the draft process then goes to the pro personnel department because those guys want to know everything they need to know in case somebody pops open as a trade possibility or in case somebody gets cut

and you need the 53rd guy at the bottom of the roster like now. And so I would imagine this works the same way in college when you have, as you're saying, 24, 48 hours to really close this deal when a guy hits the portal that they've got to have that data available to them in those relationships and they call you know high school coach they can call parents and get some intel pretty quick oh absolutely absolutely i mean pff has become essentially a must-have for departments across the country group of five power five it doesn't matter. You have to have the information at your disposal.

The beauty of it in high school is there has been so much time now for people that have been in the industry to get out, create these companies that give these schools and programs data on the high school level. There's all sorts of programs now that companies that give these schools and programs data on the high school level, right? There's all sorts of programs now that companies have that deal with tracking, track and field information that. Well, it's tracking football.

It's a great example. In my old job, I did a story on tracking football and I actually watched them give a Zoom presentation to a scouting department at a big school. And it was basically saying, hey, look, when all these guys hit the portal and you don't know anything about them, at least you can kind of parse the information about how athletic they are based on all these publicly available track times that we have consolidated into this one database. A hundred percent. To me, there's three holy grail programs that every school in the country, if they have unlimited funds, you get these three first. It's UC Report, Tracking Football, and Z Crew.

Tracking Football, like you mentioned, it gives you all the track and field data for a high school prospect in relation to NFL draft prospects or NFL combine testing. That way you can say, hey, this receiver that ran 10-9 out of high school at 6-1, 175,

what does that compare to all these NFL combine or draft prospects that also ran times in high school? And it gives you a percentile to say like, hey, you know, I'll give you a story, Andy. We were in a staff meeting at one of my prior schools and we had a defensive coach that came from the NFL. And we're sitting there and we post these times on our little like display that we do to show prospects. And the coach reads this kid's high school time. It's a corner that ran a 10, 8, 500 meter as a junior in high school. That is incredibly fast.

Like that's upper 90 percentile fast. And we had a defensive coordinator say, isn't that slow? And the whole staff just kind of like whips their heads around. Like relative to Usain Bolt. Yes, exactly. He was like, I'm sorry. We're talking about a guy that's almost running 11 flat in the hundred like that's not fast and you have to pull up this data to say no coach i'm telling you like 10-8 as a junior in high school that is rolling like that can really that guy can really run and so you have programs like that that have been evolved and they have been essentially a staple to these departments for a few years now because it's people that have dedicated their time to a program

that assists that level of recruitment. The only one that colleges have their hands on right now is PFF. That's in the lexicon of most programs at this point. PFF is the only one. It's the only place where you can get the college film from all of these players that enter the portal. And you get real time data that says like, hey, was that can this guy play or can this guy not play? And essentially, that's the only program that exists right now. And so if you don't have that, you're leaning upon heavily your personnel department to give you evaluation notes and data that say like, Hey, this guy can play or he can't. Well, and the dirty secret is we get a lot of these guys that go into the portal. They've got their visits set up within 10 hours. They

already knew who they were going to visit. So how, how rampant is that? But how often is it coming? Cause we know it comes from the team side. How often is that coming from the player side where sent me a screenshot of another conversation with a GM who got a text directly from a prospect agent. Not the player's agent or parent. Oh, it was the player and the agent. He threw them in the text together, right? Oh, wow. So this player and an agent said, hey, whoever, this is my client and they're entering the portal now. This is their career stats. We are asking for X amount of dollars in NIL.

And they are like specifically seeking out these staff members within these teams to essentially barter and find out if they can get some sort of contract like squared away before they even reach out to other coaches before they even get on campus. It's, it's pretty wild west out here, Andy. And it's I think it's only going to get worse before it gets better. Yeah, we talked a lot about the system and how it probably will have to change ultimately, and the courts may force it into that but right now this is going to and they can't enforce any of the rules they're going to be even fewer rules before all of this changes again so what programs do you think have handled this

the best in terms because you mentioned something that I want to come back to that I think is I think it might be the most important factor in all of this evaluating your own roster like I look at Florida State. I feel like Florida State was way ahead of everybody else on accurately evaluating their own roster because they didn't the the battle's end is a really good collective, but they did not have a super robust collective they didn't have tons of money they have unlimited funds but they never seem to lose anybody they

really wanted to lose right and i think there's two that really stick out florida state is one so you're crushing great job the second one would be old miss and the way they've essentially transformed their rosters in two years time, maybe a year. Because the thing that I don't think a lot of people realize too, and I think Carl Reed at 24-7 mentioned this yesterday or two days ago, but he mentioned now, and this is a rule that's in place already. And I don't think people are aware of this. When I joined Joey McGuire at Texas Tech, that first year, you can essentially kick anyone on the current roster to the curb. As long as you guarantee them a scholarship at the school, right?

Exactly. Exactly. And so essentially you can clear out room on your current roster off the jump immediately when you step on campus. And so guys at, I don't think people realize like how cutthroat it really is and how easily teams can essentially flip a roster in one to two years. I think when we first kind of started on this journey of the portal and figuring out roster management and all that, I think people thought you could flip a roster. It would take about three to four years, kind of like it does for any new coach. And then Deion Sanders said, hold my beer and was like, I'm going to flip 80 of these dudes like off the jump. I'm going to flip 60 to 70 guys on the roster. And people were like, oh, I guess you could really

do that because if you have room, players are going to be interested in coming. Like if you have the space, by all means, if you find the talent, bring it in. It's very interesting to me because Ole Miss and Florida State, they were able to do it and not have any headaches. And to your point, Andy, it's about the evaluation of the roster, and it's about understanding. The big thing I think that's going to be another change in this, Andy, people are going to have dedicated staff members that are essentially salary cap machines. And they're

going to say, Hey, these guys are all worth X amount of money. These guys are all worth X amount of money. We can afford to lose this tight end. That's commanding $250,000. And we can say, okay, let's use that 250,000 to get two corners and a running back. And that makes us better. So I think that's what the next step in this is, is the evaluation of your roster and understanding where your funding goes to make you better. Well, and that person still has a job. Let's say they go to a CBA and there's an actual salary cap. That person still has a job. Absolutely. 100%. Well, and that's the other

thing that I find interesting and we've talked about this in relation to like how busy or not busy the spring portal season has been because I think some people were thinking it was going to be a bunch of starters from big time schools just jumping in and trying to get the biggest bag but I feel like collectives have gotten sophisticated enough that they know where the market is like i had i had somebody tell me about there's a there was a running back at a school and they said you know he's he's scheduled to make this is a person i thought tons of stores would target sure you know he's scheduled to make 300 grand a year or this year i'm like oh well he's not going anywhere because very few schools would even pay him that correct and it's funny andy what i'm hearing from guys in the industry that i know

really well they're all talking to each other like no one's getting surprised like everyone's sort of the camaraderie of this business and the personnel side of things it's a very niche there's a very small group of us right that have been in the business and personnel. Everybody knows everybody for the most part, or you know someone that knows someone. So if you're getting a number from a prospect or they're telling you they're making X amount of money or whatever, it takes about two phone calls to really get that number. Like, Hey man, are y'all, this kid's telling us he's making 300.

Is that really the case? Two phone calls and you go, Oh no, dude, that gets to making 150. You're like, all right, cool. We're going to let him know that he's like, we called his bluff essentially. And I think that's the tough part right now is you're having prospects essentially command their own number. And you're either going to have schools that call their bluff or don't, and they're going to be losing out on some serious cash that way. Well, and now the information is so much more available. I heard a story about a case a couple of years ago where it just happened that the two head coaches that this person was considering were

very good friends. And I'm not sure that person knew that and told one coach, Hey, they've offered me this. And then told the other coach, hey, this other school's offered me this. The two coaches talk like, hey, what'd you offer? And both coaches go back to the player and are like, I think you need to take that if that's what they're offering. Yeah, it's funny because I had some, I was talking to somebody the other day and they were saying like, it's almost laughable that some of these prospects and agents don't think that these numbers are like they think it's just like for

instance it's like if somebody dms you like an extremely negative comment or whatever or they think like hey i took this to dms which means it's gonna stay between us right right like that's not how this works like no I can still screenshot this. Or like, I can still send this to someone else. Like, it's not private information. Like, it's- I feel like my old cheating for dummies column, where one of the rules is nothing in writing.

Yes, absolutely. You need to reinforce that with people. Like, I don't care if you're using Snapchat, which will tell the person that they're screenshotting. Everybody's got two phones, or they've got another device that has a camera. And they're gonna switch hot thing. Exactly, exactly. 100%. Well, it is fascinating how this is evolving. And like you mentioned Ole Miss, and they, it feels

like did upgrade their line of scrimmage talent in the portal this year which is something that that we've talked about a lot over the last couple years like wait we you can't do that the the linemen just don't move right how'd they finally do it like how how is it just that they targeted those guys that they made that a priority or is it possible that that that marketplace is starting to move and in coming years you'll be able to do it yeah i think it's it's funny andy i think what's happening is people are realizing the dollar amount that is being

spent on other position groups so if i had to rank it right now in terms of position groups that are commanding the most money right in terms of like nil compensation it's quarterback obviously if you're top tier qb you're making ridiculous money but the two positions after that are offensive tackle and interior d-line like those are where the two those are the two big money spots right now because everyone's understanding the impact that those positions have in the game of course but if only there was a level of football where we had publicly available salaries where we could have guests that no it's funny i love that because i would talk to people like you you know you do these like touchdown club speeches and this is pre-nil and they'll be like well how how are we going to handle it when the quarterback's making this

and uh the running back's making this the offensive tackle is not making anything i'm like right you know the offensive tackle is gonna make more than anybody but the quarterback right like correct how this works there's a whole league i don't know if anyone's aware that has professional players that are also being paid money that people are starting to stem their systems off of it's crazy um but yeah i mean that's that's sort of. It's crazy. But yeah, I mean, that's sort of how it's operating. And so what I think is happening is programs like Ole Miss and Florida State, they did such a good job. And I'll give a shout out to my mentor, Austin Thomas. He was the GM over there during the time at Ole Miss when they landed Jackson Dart and got Walter

Nolan and all those guys over there. It was the way they were able to operate and rank prospects coming from the portal and tagging them essentially with dollar amounts and saying, guys, if this is our pool, right, if this is our dollar pool, how much can we really dedicate to certain position groups? So they basically turned into a fantasy keeper league. Yes, that's exactly correct andy i mean a hundred percent it's not rocket science it's really not it's really not but it's just about being realistic and sort of saying hey guys when we sit here and we look at all the puzzle pieces

what is the most efficient way we can basically put all these pieces together and give us the outcome that we want? And I think Ole Miss and Florida State are essentially laying out the blueprint for how to do that for everyone in the country. And how quickly are the others evolving? Because I look at Ohio State this year, which obviously has a ton of homegrown talent that they have recruited and developed. But then they add pieces like Caleb Downs, like Quinn Sean Judkins, like Seth McLaughlin. Like it feels like they're, they're pretty good at targeting, uh, at Michigan under Harbaugh. I felt like was great at finding those two or three guys that they needed to supplement what the, what they already had.

Absolutely. And I think you'll see it with the Blue Bloods specifically, right? The teams that have the funding and they have all the resources in the world, everything that we just talked about, right? In terms of separate entities and all that stuff, those guys are going to do it. In less than five years, you'll see every single, in my humble opinion, I think you'll see every one of those blue blood programs, they'll split their operation. They'll have a college side. They'll have a high school side.

They'll have an advanced scouting side. They'll have all of these bells and whistles to essentially cover themselves in every area of need. The schools that have an extremely hard time with this are the group of fives. They already don't have resources they already are struggling in terms of high school recruiting and they have to play behind everyone else right like there's some high school or excuse me there's some group of five schools that genuinely don't start the recruiting process for kids until they're like that first signing day's over because they don't want to commit time to practice

recruiting and wasting all these resources for kids that end up not going there now let me ask you about that though because I'm curious is the is the pool of high school kids that get signed getting smaller though at those Blue Bloods as they take more portal guys it would feel like the group of five schools would have a larger pool to pull from in the high school ranks I would agree and the other piece of this that also plays into a factor and teams did this very early especially when the portal existed Juco junior college yeah same exact thing those kids that used to be top top top dollar Juco ready to go plug and play guys out of juco those guys don't they're portal prospects now that's the walter nolans of the world like those are the evan stewarts of the

world like those are the plug and play guys now for these blue blood programs which is i think why you see a lot of these junior college prospects hitting middle of the road power five programs and stuff like that, because they're not the hot commodity anymore. And I think to your point, Andy, group of five schools are going to take advantage of that. And they're going to take advantage of the high school pool and essentially become sort of like a development program for the portal for these next, uh, next couple of years. And it's interesting with the Juco guy, because let's say you're a good group of five program that gets a good Juco guy, and he just blows up.

He's not leaving you for a blue blood. He's going to the NFL. Yeah, exactly. That's the hope, at least. If you nailed it, kudos to you. Then you played the game exactly right. To your point, Andy, it's very interesting how that window plays a factor, especially now though, Andy, that you're seeing what's going to happen to Andy is

players are really going to start. And you're seeing this already. Players are really going to start sitting there and saying, okay, what's my signing bonus as a fifth round pick compared to being the star of my current college program. And essentially that's what teams are going to have to say is say like, and that's even the more cutthroat part of this, right? Is you have programs that are telling these prospects, Hey dude, we're not going to break you off in NIL. So you can either hit the portal or declare for the draft. You have one of those two choices. I'm telling you, it is absolutely bonkers. And I send all my good graces

to the roster managers out there because it's coming from all. Well, and especially with one more year of COVID guys, our friend Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl says this is going to be the deepest year of talent in college football, probably in the history of the sport. So it'll be a fun one. Not a bad thing, right?

For us, not a bad thing at all. I love it. I absolutely love it. Well, Cody, this has been a pleasure and we will be talking to you again very, very soon. Appreciate you, Andy. Thanks so much. That is Cody Belair. And I do mean very soon. Appreciate you, Andy. Thanks so much. That is Cody Belair.

And I do mean very soon. We're going to, we got something coming with Cody next week. This can be a lot of fun. Also next week, it's NFL draft week. Trevor Sikama from Pro Football Focus will join us on Monday's show to break down the draft. And the reason I love Trevor, he's not one of those draft Knicks who doesn't actually watch college football. He's not like, well, I don't start watching the tape until the guys are already done. No, no, no. He's watching the whole time. He's a giant college football fan as well. So he can put things in better perspective for us who are like,

wait a second. Wait, wait, wait. JJ McCarthy's a top five pick? Okay. Why? Oh, okay. So we can talk to Trevor about that. Also, we got a lot of spring games going on. We got Texas, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Texas A&M. Spring practices will be ending. So we'll be talking about what that means for those teams on the field next year also what that might mean if their players maybe decide i'm gonna play for a different team next year because we could see more action in the transfer portal the window remains open we talk to pete nakos

our transfer portal guru as well tons to talk about there There is no off season. College football never sleeps. Enjoy your weekend, everybody. We'll talk to you on Monday.