Andy & Ari On3 - Hugh Freeze and Kirby Smart got weird questions; we ask better ones | ETSU's harrowing journey

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

Wendy’s New Saucy Nuggs take the Crispy and Spicy Nuggs you love and turn them up to 11.Choose between flavors like Buffalo. Honey BBQ. Garlic Parm. Or, if you’re a real heat seeker,try Spicy Ghost Pepper, only on Wendy’s signature Spicy Nuggs.  This show is also sponsored by PrizePicks, America’s most fun daily fantasy game. Use the code STAPLES to play $5 and get $50 instantly. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/STAPLES (0:00-1:12) INTRO(1:13-21:51) CFP Discussion, Ari's Rant(19:29-22:54) PrizePicks(22:55-28:03) DJ U's Injury at Florida State;  Seminoles Discussion(28:04-36:15) One Coach, One Question: Kirby Smart(36:16-43:09) One Coach, One Question: Hugh Freeze(43:10-47:31) One Coach, One Question: Sherrone Moore(47:32-52:28) One Coach, One Question: Dabo Swinney(52:29-1:13:37) ETSU's WILD Experience with Hurricane Helene(1:13:38-1:16:37) Conclusion; Thanks for listening, see you tomorrow! Andy and Ari have questions for coaches across the country, but first, they’ve got to break down some news. ESPN reported Monday that the Big Ten and SEC will be seeking more automatic bids in the next version of the College Football Playoff, which begins after the 2026 season. Also, Florida State QB DJ Uiagalelei was listed as a co-starter with Brock Glenn on the depth chart for this week’s Clemson game, but reports emerged Monday night that Uiagalelei has a broken finger on his throwing hand is expected to miss several weeks. Now it’s time for questions. Andy and Ari heard some strange questions asked of Hugh Freeze and Kirby Smart after their games on Saturday, so they decided to ask better questions of… Freeze Smart Sherrone Moore Lincoln Riley Dabo Swinney Mike Elko Later, East Tennessee State coach Tre Lamb joins the show to discuss his team’s harrowing journey through a flood to reach Charleston for Saturday’s game against The Citadel. At one point Friday, the Buccaneers were stranded on their buses in North Carolina and were warned they might not get to leave until Tuesday.  Watch us on YouTube instead! https://youtube.com/live/RXjGSB6_7v0 Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy and Ari on three presented by Wendy's. What going on today? We got questions for coaches. We have an incredible interview with East Tennessee State Coach Trey Lamb, whose team had the wildest trip to the Citadel through all of the areas, basically, that were devastated by the flooding after Hurricane Helene and just incredible to hear the stories of what they saw on their trip to Charleston. And also, Trey Lamb wanted to come on and wanted to talk because he wants people to know exactly how bad things are in East Tennessee, in Western North Carolina, and how you can help.

So we'll talk about that later in the show. Ari, we got to talk about a little news first, though. We've got, do you want to start with the college football playoff stuff, or do you want to start with DJU? Where do we start here? Oh, man, how do you lose? How do you pick the wrong thing there? How about we just do the playoff and really get into it, and then we can talk about a team that won't be a part of it no matter what the way it looks like.

Exactly, exactly. So last week, Ross Dellinger of Yahoo put out some news about this joint Big Ten SEC meeting that the athletic directors are going to have in Nashville next week, and they're going to talk about a scheduling agreement which could become like an SEC Big 10 challenge in the early season, which sounds pretty cool to me, but they're also going to be meeting about the college football playoff and

Heather Dennis from ESPN provide a little more detail on that on Monday about what they may be talking about with the college football playoff. And I know people are kind of sick of this and I understand this because it's it's crazy to think they've not played a single game we've not seen a single bracket for the 12 team playoff yet and they're already talking about expanding it to 14 and so heather's story explained that they've got contracts set up for either a 12 team format or a 14 team format not a 16 team format 16-team format, by the way. So we can put a pin in that for a second. But Ari, the Big Ten and the SEC seem to be angling

toward more automatic bids for themselves, whether that will be three each or four each. Mm-hmm. And I feel like we're in the public negotiation phase here where they're just trying to see what the public in general can stomach before they actually go set their their agenda and then go meet with the other conferences and and hammer that out because that actually has to be decided pretty soon because that next version of the playoffs starts after the 2026 season. Oh boy.

We're going to do this today, aren't we? We're really going to do it. Yeah. Okay. Two opinions right off the gate here. And then you can freak out because you're going to, but 12 is too many. 14 is too many though. It does seem inevitable.

You know how I feel about it that hasn't changed but when it comes to the automatic proved you wrong this weekend because that game was awesome and it it didn't knock either one out of the playoff but did you go on did you think that my premise was that football is no longer fun is that what you think i think um okay secondly Okay. Secondly, I think I'm okay with the automatic bid requests from these two conferences. Like I know that people think I'm the big time, big program snob, and maybe I am. But I think that throughout all this expansion and all the evolution that we've seen in the sport, Andy, that we've lost track of what the college football playoff is supposed to be, which is a mechanism for crowning the national champion.

And I think that that system should cater to, or at least create an avenue to winning the national title for the programs that are serious about actually winning the national championship. And most of those, like it or not not reside in the big 10 and the sec. So I think it would be an epic disaster if the playoff was ever cut off from including the other conferences. You know, I'm happy that if we are going to go to a 12 or 14 team system, that everybody in college football theoretically could win the national

championship if they got good enough. I think inclusion is important, but when it comes to finding playoff teams at the end of the year, we should be doing that with the chief goal of trying to find who the best team is not to make everybody feel good. So in that sense, why wouldn't you give automatic bids to the conferences that are most serious about winning the national title like is that a controversial thing or are you with me on this well i i think they would get there anyway if you just said they would have somebody pick the best teams but here's we're gonna find that out this year andy by the way we're gonna find that out this year yeah exactly now my thing already is i'm out of opinions on this because it's changing so much and so fast.

And I also think there's a distinct possibility the whole economic model may change in the next few years. And that's really, this may be window dressing. And obviously when the Big Ten and the SECADs meet, they're going to be talking about all of that even bigger picture stuff too. So it may be that it doesn't even matter because it may be just these guys at a certain point.

Raymond in the chat, if you're going to give out eight auto bids to two conferences, then go to 16. Okay. I'm going to explain to you why they're not going to 16 because this is, and this is what part was why I'm out of opinions i'm completely cynical on this whole thing at this point now and and you know me i'm i'm mr big playoff i love the big playoff but i'm out of opinions they're going to 14 for one reason and one reason only because the big 10 and sec championship games even though we've never seen it in a 12 team playoff, I can tell you right now, like when Ari and I decide where we're going to be on the last weekend of the season, on the championship weekend, we're going to, one of us is probably going to the big 12 championship

game. One of us is maybe going to the ACC championship game. Somebody may be at the mountain West championship game. You know, we're not going? The Big Ten or the SEC. Because the two teams that are going to be playing in those games for each league are getting in the playoff. We know they're getting in the playoff. There's no drama whatsoever other than the winner's going to get a bye. But the thing is, the loser may be the five seed and may actually have an easier path. But if you go to 14, then the only buys available are to the big 10 and the SEC champ. Whether you write that into the rules or you make it where the two highest ranked conference champs get the buys, it's going to be the big 10 and the SEC champ. So that changes the

math on it completely. Now you've added stakes to make those must watch games again. Cause remember those are cash cow games for the leagues. They want that money. They need those games to be relevant. It makes those games relevant. That's why they're doing it. That's the only reason that's what that is. As far as the automatic bids, I don't really care. Here's what I'd like to see, Ari, because they've thrown the four automatic each out. And I think that's a negotiation. Over bargaining for what you actually want. I think they'll take three because they know if there's five at-larges. The way it would work with three is three Big Ten, three SEC, the next three highest-ranked

conference champs get in, and then five at-larges. They would probably be four of the five at-larges. They're going to get them anyway. They do that, but they say, we're trading this. We're trading this to you. And this is something I would like to see them trade for. We're trading this to you to eliminate that deal at the top that says the top four have to be conference champs. Because we've talked about this a whole bunch already. We haven't seen it play out because it hasn't happened yet, but it's going to play out. You should not want to

be number five over wanting to be number one. That is wrong. That's a dumb way to do things. And so if you take away that requirement, it eliminates the deliberate misseating it takes away that number five is actually the best spot situation yeah i think that they should do that anyway like that to me no one cares about the the number of that they're that's next to their name in the playoff they care about what their path looks like i think that's also been very true in the past with the NCAA tournament. You could be an eight seed and have a much more advantageous path with matchups to the final four than it would be in another seed.

So I think that the desire to be the five seed kind of throws a wrench in the entire debate of who should be what seed at the end of the year, or trying to play for the bye, because I do think that there is a legitimate chance that we will be talking, and probably a likelihood, that we'll be talking at the end of the year or like trying to play for the buy because I do think that there is a legitimate chance that we will be talking and probably a likelihood that we'll be talking at the end of the year Andy about how the number one seed has a harder path to the final four than the five seed and people think that's crazy because you know who would who wouldn't want to buy but you know having a chance to play in two games against teams that you're favored by 23 against is probably better than having a buy and then playing a game that you're a four-point favorite in. I think a coach would probably take that.

I know injury risks and wear and tear on the body, et cetera, but when you're much better than the other team, you have a chance to get out of there early, rest some players, go to the next round. I don't think that Georgia or Alabama or Ohio State playing the G5 champ is going to be an overly daunting task. It might be. I don't know. Boise was good. Cincinnati was really good when they made it in the 14 field. But nine times out of ten, it's going to be a pretty easy game for them. The automatic bid thing doesn't really fire me up all that much

because you're basically negotiating for the thing that's already going to happen anyway. It doesn't matter if they're automatic or not. We're looking at the season this year. It's like how many teams in the big 10 are in your bracketology right now how many teams are in the sec does it make up eight of 12 already just naturally and i don't know if it's gonna get seven of 12 right now but i've had as many as six sec teams in there yeah right now i've got two acc and two big 12 though i i will say the 11th seed I had, Kansas State, that could have easily been Missouri. That could have been Utah or Arizona. It could have been Notre Dame. It could have been Ole Miss. It could have been LSU. It could be anybody.

Yeah, and Andy, I just want you to meet me halfway here on this. If we get to the point where we're in a three automatic bid situation with the Big 10 and the sec can we just stop pretending that conference championships matter anymore like can we just at least do that can you at least meet me there oh i'm i'm already there i i'm just i'm telling you how they're going to artificially create some stakes for their conference championship game but i'm saying like the pursuit of winning the conference is already i always thought that was stupid because because you have the you had these people.

Through the 14 playoff, we said it should only be conference champs. Well, yeah, I guess if conferences were equal, but they're not like. The SEC was always better and deeper than the other conferences. The Big Ten is now work to catch up. And the ACC and Big 12 are now far behind on that front. People are saying that the SEC is overrated, and that might be so, but there's nobody in the history of the planet that would ever say that winning the Mountain West is harder than winning the SEC.

So you have to have a certain understanding that it's never going to be created equally in the NFL where you have division winners in the playoffs, those teams are more evenly matched. It's not the same ball game. Like we're talking about, but people, people who are fans of, of schools outside the sec and outside the big 10 want to believe it's the

same thing. It's not. Yeah. Well, they also want that system Andy, because it then creates an easier threshold for their team to be included. Because if the only thing that's stopping a team from making the playoff and having even footing at the final tournament of the year with an SEC team is winning the Sun Belt, then that's a completely different proposition. So, you know, I know that we get into these conversations and, you know, things always go off the rails because you and I don't see eye to eye on this.

But I do think that it is funny. And if you've seen my Twitter account on Mondays, it happens every Monday. People are freaking out about the teams they see on the bubble watch and Notre Dame and Clemson and all these teams that have lost early. And I do not think that people realize what teams are going to make the playoff this year. And I'm just going to remind you, this is what you wanted. This is what people wanted you want Notre Dame you want Clemson and you know what if Georgia loses two more times this year and wins the national title that's what you wanted so stop complaining about bad teams being included in bracketology stop complaining about bad teams being included in the bubble watch the bubble watch graphic that

you're looking at right here has teams like Ole Miss who lost, Kansas State who've been blown out, Michigan who can't throw a forward pass, USC who lost to Michigan, Arizona who's been blown out by Kansas State, LSU who's lost to USC, and Iowa State who's undefeated. You want to know why? Because the numbers that you're seeing represented on the first four out are 13-16 and 17-20. Those are the teams that we're talking about now. These are the teams that are going to be included,

and it's only going to get worse, guys, because teams are going to keep losing, and they're going to keep being included because we want everybody in the playoff. This is the 12-team system, and deal with it. It drives me nuts. It drives me absolutely nuts that people don't even know what they want. Like, you're mad at me for thinking that the expansion

of the 12-team playoff is stupid, that I'm not inclusion. All I care about is big teams, all the things that I say that make you angry. Okay, that's fine. Then be happy when you see Notre Dame included because that is what you want. Isn't that what you want? Like, am I going nuts?

Like, do you think I'm crazy? Nope. I don't think you're crazy. I think people like to complain, and I think they're going to complain no matter what. And that's just how it's going to happen so i almost passed out like i had like a lung capacity issue there because like it just like i just don't understand how a how a group of people can be so pro 12 team playoff and then so disgusted by what it looks like it's like there's a disconnect between my team can be included,

but then when other teams that stink are included, then it's a problem. You know what I mean? It's like your team when they stink being included, it's good. But when Notre Dame loses to NIU and they're in, then it's a problem. Ari, it's the same as NIL with the stupid people. I want somebody other than Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State

to get good players so they can compete for the national title. Miami gets good players. And I owe money to get good players. They're cheating. No. This is what you wanted. This is what you asked for. Because, like, I am from the era, the heyday of college football, Andy,

where losing to NIU was a crippling blow to your chance of winning the national title. And typically, it's going to work itself out. I can see this. That if you're capable of losing to NIU, then you're probably capable of losing to other teams, which will knock you out anyway. But when we're talking about this new playoff era, and we're talking about the negotiations that we have been discussing, Andy,

and you're talking about three automatic bids and stuff, you cannot look me in the eye right now and tell me that it has no impact, no material impact in the regular season. It just doesn't. When you have eight teams that are on the bubble watching in bracketology from the same conference, then the games inherently do not matter as much. And I know that you can point and say, well, Saturday night was a lot of fun. Well, shit, yeah, it was. Everybody likes watching Georgia and Alabama playing a thrilling game, but it wasn't the same because it didn't matter who lost. I wrote a column on Monday about how I feel better about Georgia

winning the national title this year after losing. I almost vomited on my keyboard. You want to know why? Because when you're a Georgia fan or an Alabama fan, you expect excellence. You don't look at the the silver lining and losses and it's supposed to hurt that's the point of the game it's supposed to really hurt in this game i know in the past might not have counted either like

right in the 14 era both of these teams could have played this game and both of these teams still could have gotten the playoff they've played uh multiple times in the national championship game in the playoff era. I understand that. I just don't understand this completely misunderstanding of what the field that you wanted was going to look like, which is why I was screaming about it all of last year. The people complaining about it are probably the same people who, like you, were complaining about there being a 12-team playoff.

They're the people that want the BCS. They're the people that want the bcs they're the people that want the 14 back i want the 14 back i want so yeah you know what i want andy that's incredibly stupid so you know what i want that's okay i want the 16 that's it so that for the state can't happen again i want a 16 playoff where every conference champion from a power conference champion if if they're undefeated, makes it no matter what two at larges or whatever, figure it out. And then like, it'd be very,

very small, very, very hard because I like a world where when you accomplish something and it's hard, it feels really good. Like that's to me, like, I don't like a world where I get more entertaining games and this will

give me more entertaining games. So I'm okay with that. But again, I'm out of opinions on it as they continue to evolve it even though they've never actually even played 12 team can you just can you just at least meet me 30 of the way i will walk to you you walk to me andy no i'm right on can you can you please can you please just admit that the regular season is not as compelling as it used to be? It seemed pretty compelling the other day. No, games are compelling, but the results of the games and what they mean are not.

Well, here's the thing. It's not less compelling enough to justify taking away all the good games we're going to get down the road to go back to the dumb old system where we got less good games so it's pretty simple math there we gotta do the math more good games over we gotta do the math outside of the expanded playoff of the extra games that you get like like how you come up with the idea that there are more like i i still don't like as we're two or three years into talking about this and i don't know. Yeah, we'll talk again in November, December, January. And you'll be like, oh yeah, there were way more.

Those games existed. They still existed in the past. They just existed in September and October. But the thing is we're still moving them back. They're not adding. We're still getting a lot of joy out of the games we're getting now. Like look at the schedule, October 12th and October 19th. Andy.

Look at the schedule. Fans got enjoyment and fun out of the Aloha Bowl three years ago. Like, it's college football. I don't think anybody's ever enjoyed an Aloha Bowl. I have. They were in Hawaii. I've enjoyed it a lot. People who didn't have money on it.

All right, Ari. Did you not think this was going to happen today when we started the show? Like, did you think that we were just going to get through it? Okay, all right. No, this, Ari. Did you not think this was going to happen today when we started the show? Did you think that we were just going to get through it? Okay, all right. No, Ari. I planned for this. I expected this. I should have sent some oxygen to your house.

You're making moves from up here in your ivory tower. Exactly. Exactly. See, like I said, and this is unfortunately when is an, unfortunately when I get cynical about something, we don't get the us yelling at each other argument. Well, I knew that you were going to go off and I was, I was ready for that. The one thing I do hope we get, and I'm afraid, and this has been of all the reasons why I've been hesitant, Andy, in the past with this playoff is that we will be talking about seating

and these conference championship games are going to matter as it pertains to your path to the final four. hesitant, Andy, in the past with this playoff is that we will be talking about seeding in these conference championship games are going to matter as it pertains to your path to the final four. Yeah. But you want to know the one thing that I'm going to miss or that I'm worried about losing more than anything, not games that matter, not games where I'm going to the contentious discussion about who should be in starting at the end of October and into November. And I really hope we still get there because I don't know. We will just with teams that are much more flawed than the teams we were arguing about before.

Okay, but I hope it feels as important. Oh, I will because people love to argue. That's the part everybody fails to grasp. We just like to argue about something. Because you boil this whole sport down. And what does the sport boil down to? Discourse. It's about talking shit.

It's about arguing. It's about analyzing the game. And it's really the perfect thing to have a podcast about. It is. It is just a year-long argument. Yeah. The argument is the feature, not the bug. That's what, when Bill Hancock would come out and say,

well, this will never solve all the controversy. Why would you ever want to solve all the controversy? The controversy is the entire point. And we're stuck in this place between why even play the games and we want to argue. And I don't know what the solution is there because in the NFL, there are no arguments. Everybody plays by the same set of rules. Everybody's even and everybody wins or loses. There are more NFL podcasts and more people talking about the NFL and actually more people watching and listening to NFL discourse.

Yeah, no. Yeah, for sure. So. It must work all right we have to move on though we're gonna talk a little prize picks first best daily fantasy game in america download that prize picks app when you sign up use that code staples play five dollars and get fifty dollars instantly they're already starting to populate the college football board. So you've got some squares for the Oregon-Michigan State game on Friday night. Do you think Treshawn Holden will score a touchdown?

That's a square. K'Ron Lynch-Adams, how much do you think he will run for? Dylan Gabriel, how much will he throw for? Those are all squares that you can pick. They got some USC Minnesota squares, Max Brosmer and Miller Moss. You already know for Saturday night, prize picks is getting you ready for the weekend, but Hey, you can play prize picks anytime because they've got the NFL, they've got Major League Baseball, they've got the WNBA, you name it. Sign up now, use the code Staples, play $5 and get $50 instantly on prize picks. All right, Ari, one square I don't think we'll be seeing this weekend is a DJ Uyunglele square because on

Monday, DJ Uyunglele and Brock Glenn were listed as co-starters for Florida State for the Clemson game this weekend. Then later Monday, Matt Zenitz and Brennan Sinona 24-7 and then Pete Thamel from ESPN put out reports, each detailing an injury to DJ Ungolaleh's finger on his throwing hand that could keep him out several weeks. Now, they may have been benching him anyway. You guys can, I will let your imaginations run wild on this if you want. I don't think it matters. What does matter is it looks like Brock Glenn will be starting

at quarterback for Florida State against Clemson. So everybody, including me, who's been, who was wondering this, although I think I stopped wondering this at a certain point, Saturday night, like,

why haven't they just made a change? Why haven't they tried something different? We're possibly going to find out why, because we're going to see the alternative on Saturday. Yeah. Well, I mean also also too and i don't know this has just been a year-long sport for us of like trying to talk ourselves into florida state's quarterbacks and uh maybe giving brock lynn an entire week to run with the ones and to feel like he's in a position to start and be the guy no matter what happens in the game will you know help prepare him and make him play looser and less uptight.

I don't know. I'm trying to come up with a scenario here where Florida State will keep it close. Now, there are people that crunch the algorithms and the numbers that are much smarter than me that the algorithm is telling you to bet Florida State this week. And I don't know how you could listen to the math on that because I don't know how Florida State's going to get a first down. But it's just the quarterback saga of that place right now is just in shambles. And, you know, you would hope that Brock –

I mean, Brock Lenn wasn't just some loser recruit. I mean, he was a lead 11 player. He was a big-time recruit, started the ACC championship game and the Orange Bowl for them. Now, offensively, they didn't recruit, started the ACC championship game and the Orange Bowl for them. Now, offensively, they didn't do much in the ACC championship game. The defense won them the game in the ACC championship game. And obviously the Orange Bowl was what it was. They got destroyed by Georgia.

So he's not had a particularly great time as in his brief experiences, FSU starter, he came in and didn't look good again in the SMU game. But like you said, he was not running with the ones all week. So this is a situation. And I think the ACC championship game was a little weird situation too, because remember Tate Rodemaker had started the Florida game and then he got knocked out. And so Glenn is sort of pressed into duty there. I hope for Florida State's sake, he's better than DJU. And, you know, maybe this is a face-saving thing for DJU, or maybe this is a serious injury that's going to take some time. I mean, we've seen Cam Rising miss multiple games for Utah with an injury to a finger on his throwing hand so

do you want to hear a crazy stat about that that i saw just on an aside because it's a podcast and i just like it popped in my head do you know that uh cameron rising tore his acl the same weekend that damar hamlin suffered his hit that knocked him out, and DeMar Hamlin's played in more games than him. I did not realize that. I just want to see Cam Rising play. I know. That's all I want. He has a broken throwing hand.

He's a quarterback. I know. It's just like, come on. Play. Yeah, Raymond asking, is Tate Rodemaker still there? No, Tate Rodemaker is the starting quarterback at Southern Miss now. Yeah. Yeah, and like, here's the thing, too.

It's like Florida State also lost Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson and Trey Benson, and who else did they lose? There's other people. They lost a lot. I mean, that's off the offense, and then defense lost. Well, I'm just saying from an offensive standpoint, like they didn't have anybody there that can take the offense and then and then defense lost well but i'm just saying from an offensive standpoint like they didn't have they didn't have they don't have anybody there that can take the pressure off of the quarterback either there's nobody that can hit a screen pass for 60 yards like there's no running back that's going to take over the game so it's like you're also putting in

a person who may or may not be very good at football and you're not giving them a lot to work with on top of it so it's like it's not just dju's fault this is a roster problem yeah i'm not saying that he's he should be good enough to overcome that but florida state doesn't just have a quarterback problem they have an offensive skill problem well i still wanted to see dju play against clemson and now we're not going to get to see that so i did want to see that too yeah it's unfortunate yeah i and i i was hopeful i guess that it was going to be different but and that dju just finds the magic again just even for one game but alas that's not that's not where things are at right now all right are we got to ask some questions because some of our brethren have not asked the most amazing questions in the world.

I want to play you a couple of questions that got asked after games this weekend. Just because this is probably not the direction you want to go. Both coaches handle these questions well. All right, here is Kirby Smart after the Alabama game. And, boy, he gets a zinger. Now, one in six in your career against Alabama. Is there anything that leads to that? I don't know.

What's your master record, Justin? Not great. No? Anybody got one better than one in six? Displayed them six times? I don't think so. I think they got really good players. They got a great program.

They got a massive amount of respect for them. They do a great job so. I think they got really good players. They got a great program. I got an immense amount of respect for them. They do a great job. I mean, they're pretty good players. Caleb's got good players in here. It's a tough battle. Of those, two of them have been here. They've been tough. They've been really tough battles.

So a lot of credit to those guys. A lot of respect. God bless Kirby Smart, Ari, because I would have volcanically exploded at that question. Yeah. And he's actually smiling and laughing, and he's just lost the game. And we know how volatile Kirby Smart can be.

We play the pregame speech all the time. I don't think I would have been this patient with this question yeah I mean it's like a reporter's inherent duty to try to diagnose or find an issue right it's if if you're one in six against Alabama and you're Georgia and you're Kirby smart like it is like why is that it's like everybody wants to know, but like the actual answer here is just, well, they played another team. That's just really, really good and rarely loses. And the one win that he does have is against Alabama in the national title game.

Like if you're trying to diagnose what's wrong with Kirby smart after a team game like that, where they came back from 28 down and and took a lead in the fourth quarter. It's like, I don't know that that's the time or place. Now, maybe that question would have been better served, you know,

had, um, you know, Georgia lost 38 to 10. You know what I mean? Or like what, what's going on here, but yeah,

it was 28, nothing score had continued in that vein for the rest of the game then maybe yes but not even then maybe not take the lead so yeah I mean I understand why the person would have to ask that but like I don't think that we're in a position to question Kirby Smart's program building and whether or not he has an Alabama problem so what would you ask Kirby Smart's program building and whether or not he has an Alabama problem. So what would you ask Kirby Smart right now as they go into the Auburn game? They sit with one loss. They do have some very tough road games ahead at Texas and Ole Miss. And, you know, the path into the playoff is not as laid out.

Yellow Berk Road is as people would like to think. Yeah, I mean, I guess like what I would ask in a public setting or what I would like to know are two very different things. What would you like to know? Because this is a safe space here. And we've asked, let's be real here, we've asked some really dumb questions ourselves of coaches at press conferences, outside press conferences, you name it.

Oh, I've done it. I once asked Urban Meyer if he'd ever sleep over at a recruit's house to get him that feels like a good question at the time because the answer you're gonna get is gonna be spectacular you know what it was it was no that's what i got back having asked urban meyer a lot of questions in my career i can just imagine the the the look, stare, like stare through your soul and shake your head. Because he knew exactly what I was getting at at the time too. So like, it's like he, he just sighed and like looked at me like you're an asshole.

You know, um, the, the, you know, I actually would like love to know, like take me into the recruitment of Ryan Williams and where did it go wrong? For Kirby? Yeah. And like, he's from Alabama. I mean, maybe that's where he just wanted to stay in Alabama. No, I know. And then like also to like, why are you in a position where you don't

have a five-star stud that's right there, ready to go? That that's the question that that is the legit question and i think that's where he he'd probably be pretty up front like that's an oversight by me and they and they probably thought maybe we're getting london humphries out of vanderbilt that maybe they had replaced it well enough they got ben yorosik from stanford at tight end who who in the past had done some brock bowers like things and so they probably thought that's what that would be and but they haven't really replaced lad mcconkey and i don't know that you ever really replaced brock bowers because i don't think we've seen a player like brock bowers so but the mcconkey replacement yeah you look at oh State has Jeremiah Smith,

who's a freshman, who obviously Georgia and everybody else wanted. Ryan Williams is at Alabama. Cam Coleman's at Auburn. Maybe that has to be your absolute priority if you're Kirby smart. And there also was a pretty interesting window there in the Ryan Williams recruitment, right? Like Ryan Williams is at Alabama because Caleb DeBoer closed him after he decommitted once Nick Saban retired.

So it wasn't like I'm from Alabama roll tide. There was never any question of whether or not I was going to go there. And Ryan Williams, I believe visited Georgia multiple times. So like, I'm not saying that he he's bad for not getting him but i do think it is fascinating and maybe it's not even as big of a hole as i thought because i did write that i thought that the the skill position players on georgia's team they were more explosive in the second half for sure we've seen them all i don't know if that was a result of defensive scheme or you know the circumstances of the game that caused it but like it is not as glaring of an issue but i am fascinated

by this new era of college football where even teams like georgia could have a hole in their roster when that never used to be the case what would you ask me let's same thing that that's exactly that that's it right there is is was that not as big of a priority or did you just not like because obviously everybody would have taken jeremiah smith everybody tried really hard to get jeremiah smith everybody tried really hard to get ryan williams everybody tried really hard to get cam coleman did it just not work out for you this time do you need to change your strategy on that because like ohio state strategy at this point and i think they have a prohibitive advantage because brian heartline keeps producing first round receivers like hey look at what we've look at what we've done here look at look at you come here you're going to be a first round and then it becomes a self-fulfilling

prophecy too and alabama's kind of the same thing you get the best players over and over again then they keep going to the nfl because they're the best players. And Georgia does that on the D-line, but hasn't really been able to do that at receiver. So, Cortez Hankton, who was the receivers coach at Georgia, is now the receivers coach at LSU. He just sends Brian Thomas and Malik Nabors into the first round. He was also pretty critical in recruiting Ladd McConkie when he was at Georgia. So, maybe that's it i because remember like their d-line coach trey scott georgia has paid and paid and paid to keep him because he's the one who one helps recruit all those future first rounders and then develops

them into the first rounders when he gets them so maybe that's it but that's certainly something that like it there's not a lot of critical questions you can ask kirby smart he's done a very good job you know i'm talking about football on the football field the driving stuff you can you know that's a different bucket but in terms of football stuff there's not a lot critical you can ask him but i think that's something that that would be a legitimate question. And I don't know that he would answer that honestly in public, but I think in private, he'd probably tell you that's the one spot they've got to do a lot better. Let's go to the weirdest question

of the weekend. This is one that Hugh Freeze got after they lost to Oklahoma. Coach, a long time ago after I lost to Tennessee, a quote a man spoke, it's going to be a lot of days when you lay your guts on the line and come away empty-handed. Ain't a damn thing you can do about it but go back and lay them on the line again and again and again and that man was Coach Patrick Fane Dye. Is that the kind of message you're going to take to your team? Yeah, that's what I told them in there is, man, I couldn't be prouder of the way they represented Auburn with their heart and fight today. And, you know, me not helping them find a way to win that game is it sucks and it stings and because they they deserve to be celebrating right now. One, if you ever wondered what Jeremy Pruuitt mixed with johnny cash sounded like

it's that reporter do you think that oh go ahead yeah that's i there's a certain type of homer reporter and and i don't want people to think this represents the entire auburn beat corps because i will say the auburn beat corps has asked some really good questions of Hugh Freeze over the last couple of weeks. There was one on Monday that was right out of the box. What are your biggest regrets from the Oklahoma game? And Hugh Freeze just went on like a five minute journey of self-flagellation explaining all the ways he screwed up in the Oklahoma game. And it was a great question and actually produced a really revealing answer. So I don't want people to think that this is all the kind of questions Hugh Freeze is getting,

but there's a certain type of Homer beat writer or Homer reporter who feels like it is their duty after a loss to give the coach a platform to say everything's going to be okay. This can backfire. Hugh Freeze actually answered this question about as well as he could have. I go back a couple of years to after Dan Mullen lost to Georgia in 2021. And remember Kirby had said, you can't out, you can't out scheme talent. And so Dave waters, who does a podcast covering Florida on that Monday, tries to ask Dan Mullen a softball about recruiting so that Mullen will say, no, we recruit, you know, we're always recruiting too. We're, we're working really hard at recruiting. And that's when Mullen responded with, when it's time to talk always recruiting, too. We're working really hard at recruiting. And that's when Mullen responded with,

when it's time to talk about recruiting, we'll talk about recruiting. And that was kind of the beginning of the end for Dan Mullen. That was my first payback from paternity leave. Yes. So your Homer question can backfire. Because just because you throw a softball doesn't mean the coach is going to connect all the time like people can swing and miss and softball questions too you know have you ever seen me play softball pal let me tell you it's possible um yeah i it's like how colorful do you think the auburn jersey that reporter was wearing in the post game was do you think it was like an away

jersey or do you think it was i mean he used pat do you think it was? I mean, he used Pat Dye's middle name. Yeah. So yeah, I don't know, man. I, every beat has it and you just kind of roll with the punches when, when it happens.

But you know, the Hugh freeze thing is an interesting question for like the one question. I can go first again, if you want, you can go first, but like, there is no question that

I would either ask him a personnel question about the quarterbacks being like, why did you arrive at what you did honestly in the offseason? Did you think Peyton Thorne was good enough, or do you despise having to pay somebody a lot of money to come to you? And then secondly, I'll ask him, why are you acting this way? In terms of every single time he gets in front of a microphone, you throw your own team under the bus. Like, I don't know who he thinks he's helping when he's doing it. Those are the two things. I don't think he did it this time.

Like, if you watch his press conferences after the game and on Monday, like, it's almost like there's a device in his head that's shocking him before he throws his team under the bus again because he took a lot of heat for that last week but you saw what we inherited this week he did say that and and that's true i mean that's the that's the crowning jewel of throwing your team under the bus well you're also throwing brian harson under the bus which the auburn fans they're okay with that but when a coach starts going you saw what we inherited you're spinning on your roster and you're blaming somebody else like i think that that is like the triple crown

of well he's saying he's saying those guys left he's saying what we inherited you know those guys but i'm with you no sympathy for hugh freeze he gets paid a lot of money to do this and he is very much veering into billy napier territory here because that's what Billy Napier spent all summer doing. All offseason doing is complaining about the roster that he inherited from Dan Mullen, which before year three in this era of college football, you're not allowed to do that anymore. Like, yeah, that's your fault. You could have fixed that and you didn't. Hugh Freeze was supposed to have fixed that. Now he's still trying to fix that.

He's trying to flip Deuce Knight from Notre Dame. The question you would ask Hugh Freeze, I think is a good one. I think I'd even go further and say, I want you to take me, because we're doing truth serum questions. Were they actually going to answer honestly? Which they never would. If we went to a press conference and asked Hugh Freeze this question, he would never answer this.

But this is what I would love to know the actual answer to. Take me step by step through all of the quarterbacks you evaluated in the transfer portal this year and your decision-making process. Who did you think was too expensive? Who came to you who would have loved to play for you that was at a reasonable price that you said no to like i want to know i want to know everybody you had a legitimate chance to get whether that was if you paid up or if you just decided you liked them and who did you say

no to yeah and how seriously uh were you actually in the market? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Because there wasn't a ton, but Cam Ward was out there. I don't think Cam Ward had entered the transfer portal saying, I definitely want to go to Miami. I think Cam Ward was going to

seriously consider everybody who wanted to offer him a gob of money to go play for them. So that could have been you. You could have Cam Ward right now, probably if you'd been willing to be the highest bidder. Wouldn't you want that? Yeah, I'm with you, pal. So that's what I'd love. I'd love that step-by-step take me through it. All right, let's run through a couple more coaches

of what we would ask them. Ari, what would you ask Sharon Moore at Michigan right now? Who? Did you know? No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I don't know. Yeah.

I would ask him if he is resentful of the way things went when he took over that handcuffed him from improving his roster in terms of Jim Harbaugh taking too long and whether or not he thinks that that could have been avoided if the coaching search went a different way. But maybe it wasn't Jim Harbaugh's fault, but I do wonder if he feels like he's behind the eight ball to start this thing.

Yeah, the only way, and I think the truth of the matter is, yes, the way that timed out did this. But I don't know if you win the national championship without it timing out that way. So I'm sure Teron Moore would, would accept the trade gladly of having to deal with this now versus not winning the national championship. But I agree with you. And I think if you were being honest,

he would say, yes, it completely screwed me. And now I have to deal with it. You have to consider this like Sharon Moore. I don't know. Michigan fans are going to have to help me out with this, but Sherron Moore is probably a legend in his own right there already, right?

Because he helped them win an national championship. The end of the season last year, yeah. Right. So let me ask you this in return. Do you think that he will have a longer leash at Michigan than he otherwise would have had he been an outside hire and what is the expectation that he feels he needs to reach in order to maintain success there because I don't think that winning a national championship again is going to be an easy proposition for Michigan at this point like what they did took a long time. Jim Harbaugh had a very long runway there to get it done.

And if they were able to duplicate it again, that might be a year six proposition, right? Like we're not talking about something that happens every other year. I know the portal exists now when it didn't at the beginning of Harbaugh's tenure, but to analyze and assess undervalued prospects, to bring your guys in, to develop them, and then to accentuate your roster with key pieces who will start when those guys are ready is not a one-year project.

Like what Michigan did was not a one-year flip. So like how – I guess this would be the question really. What is your understanding of what is expected of you and what does success look like at Michigan for you? I think that's a great question. I do think his, at least from the Michigan administration, that they're very understanding because they went through it with him. They dealt with all of that with him. Like I'm trying to think of how you could have

even done it gracefully and made it work. I guess if Harbaugh had come out and said before the playoff, I'm leaving after this, this is my last ride. And then they could have elevated Sharon to be the head coach for this season. He could have taken part in the portal in December and started building the roster for this year. That's the only way that would have worked. But Harbaugh wasn't going to do that because Harbaugh was going to leave the option open to return to Michigan if he didn't get an NFL job. So that wasn't going to be a possibility. So I think that's a good question. I would ask him something more on the field. And again, you can never really get anything out of coaches asking them scheme in real life,

but we're in fantasy land right now. So I'd just be saying, what is the next evolution of this offense this season what does it look like when you get Alex Orji throwing the ball what is what is your idea of Alex Orji throwing the ball effectively and you guys you and I talked about this yesterday like if you could get Alex Orji throwing for between 150 and 190 yards a game I actually think that's probably enough in most games maybe not oregon and ohio state but probably everybody else yeah yeah and how do you get there if it's even possible yeah i think that's interesting uh and i'm very excited to watch to see if he can figure it out because i am too you're the coach now so yep the chess match with a bunch of guys who've been in the nfl on that washington staff this week is going to be a lot of fun. Ari, one more, one coach, one question. What would you ask Dabo?

What is your actual aversion to the portal? Like, what is the root of the reason why you don't want to do that. I can tell you right now, because he said something last week. I don't think it's an aversion more than they just can't afford the kind of people who would help them in the portal. Because remember, they do have to be better than what Clemson has in terms of its young guys that they signed in high school. And those guys are all pretty good. I don't think they can afford it because Clemson is not a large donor base. So Davos said this last week, basically when revenue share comes in, Clemson's in the game. As far as that goes, he didn't say it outright. He didn't say it in so many words, but I guarantee you if they have $ million dollars of clemson money to spend on players they will get guys out of the portal well let me ask you this let me ask you this

happened because we don't know if the house settlement's going to go through and we don't know if the schools would just decide to do revenue sharing themselves andy so do you think he's vict he's blameless in this in? Cause if you believe that, then you believe it's not his fault. I believe that he is, he favors the guys he already recruited. So yes, he deserves some blame in this. There are players they could have gotten who would have loved to come to Clemson because going to Clemson means you're going to be competitive. And maybe they're coming from schools where they're not competitive. And you probably could have gotten a little discount because you're going to be, you're going to surround them with better athletes,

give them a better chance to help their draft stock. Like there would be players that might give you a discount. And I think he probably didn't look that hard. But I also think that he doesn't have the donor base that can just generate the kind of money. Because remember, you can't pay somebody new more than the best players that you're retaining. Yeah, for sure. So it's a delicate balancing act if revenue sharing goes through i guarantee you

clemson will be active in the transfer portal dabbo's aversion to it will suddenly disappear guaranteed that was a productive uh answer i think yeah i don't i don't think he would actually say that in so many words but that i guarantee is how it feels he would help himself a lot if he did i think i feel like he said it without saying the problem is he did you have to be somewhat careful because every time you say something like that it does throw your current players under the bus a little bit. So he's trying to walk that tightrope. But I think he's gotten the message across. But I also respect him for caring about that, unlike some coaches.

Yosef says, wouldn't their competitors also have revenue sharing money? They would. But the thing is, their competitors have more money than them now Clemson would have some money for this thing for this department as opposed to no money relative to Tennessee and Oregon and Clemson should be a more attractive landing spot in the portal for players in Miami for instance but Miami is winning those battles because they have more money and are more eager to get players to come in but i do feel like even last year like when clemson was blah like keon coleman should have been on clemson right like he should not have been in the state like they should have had

and they didn't go after him so we have no idea what he would have done yeah but i'm saying just people like that there have been times in the last two years where Clemson has had a glaring issue, and there have been very, very good players that would have solved that glaring issue in the portal that went other places that could have been at Clemson. And if you think the reason for that is that Clemson could literally not afford to get them, then Dabo is not at fault here. But I also feel like here's the thing with Dabo. He's partially at fault it's not it's

not an either or like he's partially at fault because his attitude toward it has been pretty stubborn but there's a reason it's stubborn and i i think he's trying to err on on one side and you you can be a little more flexible about it and still have a chance to get some guys who might help you, even if you don't have a ton of money to spend. But I guarantee you, if he has millions of dollars to spend, that it will happen. So we'll see what happens. I mean, it doesn't sound like the house settlement's going to go through,

but it does sound like a lot of the schools still want to do the revenue sharing, so we'll see that that happens. I don't, I mean, it doesn't sound like the house settlement is going to go through, but it does sound like a lot of the schools still want to do the revenue sharing. So we'll see that that happens. All right. Enough of this high finance talk. Let's talk about some people playing much more for the love of the game, a different level. We're going to go down to the FCS right now. You may have already read about the tale of East Tennessee State's football team trying to get to their game against the Citadel over the weekend. If you haven't heard it, prepare to have your mind blown. Because what they had to do to get to Charleston was crazy. They basically went through all of the stuff you're seeing on the news about the devastation in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. They drove through it all.

They were stuck in it all trying to get to this game. We talked to Trey Lamb, the East Tennessee State football coach, told us the whole story and then the rest of the story after they got back. So we'll talk about it with him, but also just for those, if you want to help, because when you hear this story, you may say, hey, how can I help some of these people? And I'm not talking about the football players. I'm talking about the people who live in these areas. The American Red Cross, Tennessee region, the American Red Cross in North Carolina, if you'd like to help, you could donate there, be it supplies, be it cash. There's a lot of people who need your help.

And I think that's why Trey wanted to come on because he wanted to explain the stories of these people because they saw it all in front of their own eyes as they were trying to get to this game. So here is Trey Lamb, East Tennessee State. Honored to be joined now by Trey Lamb, the head coach at East Tennessee State University. Trey, you had one of the most unbelievable weekends that any college football coach has ever had that started Friday morning at 1030 a.m. when your buses rolled out of Johnson City. Friday morning at 10.30 a.m. when your bus is rolled out of Johnson City, you had to go to the Citadel to play a football game. It's in the middle of the hurricane coming through North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee.

It feels like 10 minutes in, things got nuts. How did all that go down Friday morning? Yeah. You know, we were debating on, you know, waiting a couple hours and seeing what it did in the area. Also debating on taking a different route up through Virginia, uh, down to Winston Salem and kind of down 95 that way, which would have taken about nine or ten hours and we also thought about leaving earlier that morning and I think any of those options probably would have been better than what we did if we awaited we probably would have would have realized that there was no path through on 26 and it would have worked out better and then if we had left earlier we probably would have split

through there we missed it we missed it by about five to ten minutes um and we just hit it at the perfect time where uh we left exactly when we shouldn't have and we got trapped right there where 26 closed behind us 26 had just closed in front of us and 40 was closed in both directions so we were in a little pocket right there with um about i don't know a thousand other stranded people surrounded by water, kind of in a little area of high ground right by I-26. But it all started that morning. I texted State Trooper at like 7.30 when I got up and said, hey, let me know if we need to make any travel adjustments. We need to come up with some options here.

And he was like, look, I think the earlier we go, the better. We had a walkthrough at 9 o'clock. I told the team to stay around the coaches offices and as soon as we make the call we're going to get in the bus and go and he thought you know there was there's a river called the Nolichucky River which is like 10 minutes from campus and he thought if we could get through there we could get to I-40 and kind of get to Maine interstates and be able to make it to Charlotte and then down to Columbia and into Charleston. But we get about 15 minutes into the trip. Then Nolichucky splits the highway behind us and floods the highway, so there's no way to get home.

And then we get word that I-40 is closed in all directions. So we were stuck at that point. About 15 minutes into the trip, we know it was going to be pretty bad. You're 10 minutes into the trip, and now you can't go home. I remember waking up Friday morning and seeing pictures of I-40 kind of near the Tennessee-North Carolina border where part of the road had just disappeared. So I-40 is closed for miles and miles.

You can't go through there. Try to go I-26. can't go through i-26 and then you just get stranded what is that feeling like when you are in buses and you're just sitting there for hours as as the water rises yeah it was a it was a terrible feeling you know um you feel responsible because you're the head coach, and, you know, it's kind of your call. And, you know, you sit there and kick yourself, could have done some things different.

But at the moment, man, we had to react on our feet. You know, there was a lot of decisions that had to be made. We originally parked down by a shoe store in Fletcher, North Carolina. We tried to get off and go to Spartanburg Highway, and it was completely washed out, flooded. So we were completely stuck. We parked at a shoe store, and it was kind of low ground, and the water was rising into the parking lot. And I told the trooper, hey, we got to go. We got to get somewhere where we can get higher ground. It was kind of put things in perspective because, I mean, there was literally families being rescued and walking out of the water,

50 feet in front of us. We were watching it happen. Little kids, people losing their homes, flooded trailers, flooded parking lots. And the water was just rising and rising. And the, and the it kind of put it in perspective. I kept saying to the coaches, like, Hey, we, it could be worse guys. We could be fighting for our lives. We could be, you know, could have lost our home today. We're going to get out of here no matter how long it takes. We're going to keep getting to higher ground, and we're going to be okay.

So we go up to the Burger King, which is about, I don't know, 200 yards up the hill where the water was still rising. So we got out of there, and an hour later, that parking lot that we were in was 10 feet deep of water so we got out there and get to the burger king we parked the burger king for about six hours and the most frustrating thing about the whole thing is you could not get outside contact you could not get cell service even our state trooper his sat phone wouldn't work he's got two emergency phones and a radio and there's zero communication with the outside world.

One of our video people had a Starlink updated sat phone that we could get a couple texts out to. So I text our director of operations and our AD and let them know what's going on. I said, you're going to need to email the parents right now on an email list because I know they're wondering where their kids are. You need to email the coach's wives right now and tell them what's going on. We're safe for the time being. My plan is to get us to high ground, try to find somewhere to stay for the night. We're safe and see how we get out of here tomorrow when the water levels go down. But it was eerie, man. It was apocalyptic. You felt like you were stuck in the 1900s. No cell service, no internet, no way to get any information.

The rescue crews would come by every couple hours, and you could ask them, hey, what's going on? At one point, they told us, we may not get out of there until Tuesday. That was one report I got back. And then other reports were like, hey, it may be open tomorrow, Saturday at 5 o'clock. So then you're looking at 24 hours. So it started getting dark and we go to Ingalls the manager at Ingalls happened to be in there it was locked the lights were off obviously our police officer shined his

light in there they let us go in there and take a cart and get whatever we wanted and for free so we pretty much raided the Ingalls with sandwiches and sandwich meat and peanut butter sandwiches and then we drove to the homeless shelter because we knew it was on high ground so we drove to the airport we're going to park the airport where the airport was flooded with people because that was kind of a safe haven we were going to sleep in the airport but it was already kind of taken by people evacuated then we drove to the homeless shelter, parked in the bottom of the parking lot, fed the players. And then we kind of dozed off there for a while. Um, so really two good Samaritans in this whole deal, the guy at Ingalls, you know, we're going to send him a care

package, invite him to a game, um, you know, do the whole thing there. And then there's a guy from Michigan that was stranded that gave a couple of our coaches a ride to use the bathroom, um, at a hotel, they hitchhiked with him. And then he ended up coming back at 1.30 in the morning and telling us that we were good to go, and 26 was open. Coach, when you're in a position where you are a leader of men, right? You're always leading them into battle in the games and game planning and all this stuff. What is it like in a moment of crisis that has nothing to do with football? Are you still having to coach them on how to get through it? It's a lesson too

in terms of just how life doesn't go the way it's supposed to. What is your temperament during this period of time feeling responsibility for these kids, but also having to be the leader? What was your inner turmoil like and how did you handle it? I became a head coach at 30 years old at Gardner-Webb, and we went through the whole COVID deal my first year, which was absolutely brutal. The transfer portal, NIL.

So I've coached in the modern era of this is all I know, but that was certainly the most difficult position I've been in in my five years as a head coach. Anxiety levels were through the roof, but I was trying not to let anybody see it. I was never necessarily scared for our lives, but I had just visions of us getting on top of a building or on top of the buses. And that was kind of my nightmare. I did not want to get to that point. I wanted to get somewhere where we could have safety, even if it was for two days. We could find food. We could find bathrooms. There's no power, but I felt good about us being able to survive

if we got to a place of high ground where we could kind of set up shop for a couple days. I didn't know how long it was going to be. But the anxiety, a lot of prayer, if you can just get us out of here. I think our players handled it probably better than I did. I let them stay on the bus. They slept most of the time. But, I mean, the frustrating part was just no contact with the outside world.

We really were trying to get somewhere we could get cell service. We couldn't find it. But anxiety was high. I don't like those situations. And I thought we reacted well as a coaching staff. Our trainers did a great job. But it was certainly scary. So you mentioned the two good Samaritans and I, I can't wait to see the manager at Ingalls when, when he's honored in, in Johnson city,

that's going to be awesome. But you had two assistants that they try to go, you know, try to find a bathroom. They get picked up by a guy from Michigan driving down the road and he takes him to the bathroom. And then he comes back at one 30 in the morning and knocks on the bus door to tell you the road is open. What was that moment like for you guys when you find out we might get out of here? Because you at that point, you like you said, you're potentially hunkering down for two days um you know the key parts of that story that are kind of cool the guy drove so our guys are walking to a gas station it's closed then they go to the airport airport bathrooms have no toilet paper long story short so now they're trying to get to a hotel these three three coaches um and they flagged down this guy in an electric vehicle.

It's like not a Tesla, but one of the electric vehicles. And most people are out of gas, and gas stations were closed. And this electric vehicle drives by, and our office line coach is trying to hitchhike. And the guy turns back around, kind of shouts light on him, and he says, hey, look, we're not weird. We're the football team. We're just trying to get to a hotel. We heard that there was cell service at the Hilton. That's another thing that was weird.

You know, there's a bunch of people around because a lot of people are stranded. So you're hearing all these rumors of, hey, this place has this. This place has food. This place has a bathroom because you can't talk to anybody in the outside world. So, you know, some people are like, Hey, we're going to be stranded for two days. Some people are like, Hey, we're going to get out of here at midnight. So there was a lot of rumors going around and you couldn't really get to the truth. So, um, anyways, the guy comes back around. He says, Hey, we're not weird. We're the coaching staff with a team and we're trying to get to a

bathroom. He says, Hey, jump in. We'll take you up here he was stranded from michigan uh take him to a hotel they use the bathroom they go to the top floor of the parking garage they're able to call our wives got a little cell service up there call our athletic director and let them know what was going on um yeah and the guy comes back and kind of saves us um knocks on the window or he knocked on the uh the defensive bus defense coordinator had no idea who he was. Now, keep in mind, we're 200 yards from a homeless shelter with about 150 homeless people and evacuated people and kind of a rough clientele. And we got a cop in front of us guarding our buses, our state trooper.

But they pull up and knock, and honestly, it was kind of scary. He kind of freaked out a little bit. He's like, who are you? Why are you trying to get on our bus what are you looking for he's like i need to see coach joe which is our offensive line coach and our coach joe was on bus one so he walks around the bus one knocks on our window i said hey can i help you he says where's coach joe i said he's under the bus sleeping so they go down there and get joe who hitchhiked with him and said hey wakes him up uh he was sleeping sleeping like in the storage department department of this in the storage area under the bus where the bags are because that's

the only place you can really stretch out wakes knocks on it wakes him up and says hey 20 i'm getting word my buddy just drove in from town 26 east is open it's the only way out of town you guys need to go um so we cranked the buses. I sent the police officer ahead and said, hey, go check it out. So he drives back 30 minutes later and says, yeah, we can sneak through there. There's some water and some trees down, but I think we can make it. So we made the decision at that point to head down. And you get there at 4 in the morning.

And Waffle House is still open because, of course, Waffle House is still open because Waffle House is also always open. How good does that feel when you get that team to a hotel, get them some Waffle House, and you know you made it? When we got to Columbia, South Carolina, we got cell service. And that was about 2.30. And that's when it felt like a big relief. Like the roads were clear. We were south of the damage, south of the flooding. So when we got to Columbia, we were able to call people.

So I called the director of operations who was at the hotel. She had not heard from us in 14 hours. No idea what's going on. Since 10 o'clock that morning. Called her, said, hey, we got out. We're on the way. I called my dad, called my wife, called the athletic director. This is 2.30 in the morning.

It's our first contact really with anybody on a phone call. So we were kind of getting everybody up to date. And I called her. I said, order as many waffles as you can, as many breakfast sandwiches as they can make. Go pick them up. Have them ready for our guys. There's a call in the morning at 630 with the Citadel's Athletic Director, the Southern Conference Commissioner, and the President to figure out what's going to happen with this game.

I said, I want to play it no matter what. We've been through hell and back. Our kids want to play. That was the only option we had because we weren't making it back to Johnson City. The roads going north were a disaster. So at least if you went further south, you were out of the flooding for the most part. So once we got out of the flooding, I felt great. I didn't care if we stayed in Charleston for four days as long as we were safe and away from the damage and the flooding. But our area is super affected up here, man.

There's a lot of people missing in the surrounding counties. Western North Carolina, Boone is absolutely washed out, which is about 45 minutes from here. Asheville is a disaster. Unicoi County is 50 people missing, which is like 10 minutes from our campus. The water was shut off for the weekend up here. It's been pretty bad. We've got a girl on our video staff who is missing family members. There's a lot of damage up here, and it's been pretty rough.

So you played this game. You won this game. You won this game. But what you just talked about, how much bigger is all of this than just a game? But that said, you mentioned it was important to play the game. What was that three and a half hours like? Yeah, I think we lacked focus. We did not play very well, to be honest with you, but I didn't expect much. I did tell the team before the game, look, we're not going to make excuses. Whatever happens is going to happen.

We're going to go play this game and see what happens. But I think the biggest thing is we grew together on that trip. And, you know, when things like that happen, you can – it's easy to get annoyed with each other. It's easy to fight and moan and complain. But our guys didn't do that. They the most of it they were still in good spirits laughing joking we got out the parking lot the homeless shelter and played music and kind of had a little dance competition we had no phone so the guys were kind of going going crazy but when we got to Charleston they were

ready to play they slept from about 5 till noon we got him up at 1 o'clock, ate lunch and went and played football. And you could tell we didn't play very good. We had four turnovers and 11 penalties and still found a way to win the game. So, you know, really proud of the way our guys responded. We got in a resilient group and we didn't really didn't make any excuses. And I'm proud of that. Yeah. It seems like quite the ordeal and hoping obviously for the safety and welfare of the people in your area. What's it been like getting back to campus? How's the vibe there and what's next for you and this team? Got back at six o'clock last night and there was a couple hundred people welcome party, kind of welcoming us back us back and uh fans and faculty and um administrators that was

cool um but the appalachian region man is in in dire need right now and i think that's the biggest uh biggest message we're trying to send is like hey if we can be a beacon of light for this community and we got homecoming this week against the rivalry in Chattanooga. We play for the rail trophy and big rivalry game for this area. And this fan base really cares about East Tennessee State. And we care about the fan base. And, you know, we're just praying for all the people that are still missing and the families and the damage. But that, you know, this area is going to take a long time to recover,

in my opinion. This is a couple years worth of, um, we'll see how it, how it plays out. But, um, you know, we appreciate any support and any, any national media attention we can bring to the Appalachian region is, is certainly welcomed. Uh, we need it and we need the help. Is, is there a way that our viewers, listeners can help if they want to? Is there a website they should go to or any organization that should help? Yeah, I think the Red Cross is super involved in this deal,

and I think they're taking donations. Food and water and gasoline are still at a high premium in this 30-mile radius, trying to get gas and food into Asheville and Irwin, Tennessee, really the two most affected areas around here. So any way you can support there would be awesome. But I just think bringing national media attention would be big to this area. And this is a tough blue-collar city and blue-collar area. As you know, the Appalachian region has got some tough people.

It's blue-collar. City and blue collar area as you know the Appalachian region's got some tough people and um it's a blue collar and and this this area will bounce back and um we'll be we'll be we'll bounce back and be ready to go well you guys had had an unbelievable experience this week and I imagine it makes you a tougher better team but getting through this is everybody's got to, got to band together. It sounds like, yeah, this is, this is the kind of thing that can kind of, you know, this you'll be talking about this 40 years from now as a, as a program and as a team, as, as friends and family, um, you know, I'll never forget it. Um, and I don't think our players will either, but you know, it would make the story even better if we went on to accomplish great things as a team and, you know, it was big to win that game, and it's great to talk about that Saturday, but what if we really banded together and got close and found a way to win a bunch

of close games here down the stretch and somehow won the Southern Conference, somehow made a playoff run? That would be an even better story. But our kids are locked in. They're focused. We're giving them the day off today, and we'll start on Chattanooga tomorrow. Well, good luck, Coach. We appreciate it. Yeah, thank you, guys. And we're thinking about all the people in those areas, you know,

East Tennessee State, and a lot of football-playing areas, football-playing schools that are going through this right now, areas, you know, East Tennessee State, a lot of football playing areas, football playing schools that are going through this right now, East Tennessee State, Appalachia State, Western Carolina, you know, that have to deal with this. Chattanooga has to deal with this. Wofford has to deal with this. They're all playing games against each other this weekend. So thinking about those guys, if you would like to help the American red cross in Tennessee and in North Carolina, they're accepting donations. Uh, that's probably the best way to do it.

And, you know, it's, it's a tough deal. Uh, Ari also one more thing I'd like to, to shout out, uh, our guy, Dominic, who's been listening since the old show, uh uh he's having a kidney transplant today so you've seen him in the chat a few times and uh he's having a kidney transplant today so we're thinking about you today Dominic and good luck and uh Ari I hope that you are getting ready because it is your responsibility tomorrow to bring the sauce It is the sauciest take presented by Wendy's. And I did three last week and I, I'm feeling pretty good about my Jalen Milrow Heisman moment.

Saucy take. Yeah. So you're up. Can you do something? The playoffs should be matched. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. We'll come up with something.

We've got 24 hours to figure it out, but we'll get there. We'll get there. No spoilers, Ari. No spoilers. I want everybody to be surprised tomorrow. Come back tomorrow for Ari's three saucy takes. I will be judging what the saucy take is. And yes, to answer Scott's question in the chat,

the Red Cross is probably the best, best place. If you're looking to help the folks that are affected in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. Uh, and I'm going to have a story out on, on three later today, uh, just discussing everything that the trail I am talking about. So we'll try to get that out to as many people as possible. And speaking of getting things out to as many people as possible, Ari, we haven't talked about this, but I want to thank everybody for how you guys have responded since Ari has joined the show. We've seen the podcast charts.

We've seen the numbers. A lot of you have come in. I think a lot of you are telling your friends, hey, they're these two idiots that talk about college football and you need to go listen to them. And we really appreciate that. So if you have friends that maybe they're a little casual and they need to get a little deeper into the sport,

give them our names. Tell them to listen. Tell them to watch. Tell them where they can do it. Because I know you guys are doing it and we really appreciate it. So I know you guys are doing it. And we really appreciate it. So I just want to say thank you for that.

Ari, get those takes cooked up. Get them sauced up. I'll do that. Talk to you guys tomorrow. Thank you, guys.