Andy & Ari On3 - Indiana PROVES itself at Oregon | FIRE EVERYBODY (Florida, Wisconsin, Penn State, Florida State)

Episode Date: October 12, 2025

Andy and Ari break down an absolutely wild day in college football! Indiana went to Oregon and put to rest any questions about the Hoosiers’ legitimacy. Now where does Indiana rank among the best in the country? Elsewhere, fans — or at least Penn State, Wisconsin, Florida and Florida State fans — wants to fire their coach and Auburn fans want someone other than SEC officials to work their games. (And probably want to fire their coach.) Andy and Ari break it all down. (0:00) On tonight's Instant Reaction(0:48) BetMGM(3:00) Intro: Week 7(4:30) Northwestern 22, Penn State 21(14:36) Indiana 30, Oregon 20(22:46) Modelo(23:20) Georgia 20, Auburn 10(32:000 LSU 20, South Carolina 10(33:00) Texas 23, Oklahoma 6(37:15) USC 31, Michigan 13(42:34) Nebraska 34, Maryland 31(43:56) UCLA 38, Michigan State 13(46:01) Tennessee 34, Arkansas 31(47:49) Alabama 27, Miami 24(51:44) Pitt 34, Florida State 31(56:40) Texas Tech 42, Kansas 17(59:49) Iowa 37, Wisconsin 0(1:06:20) Texas A&M 34, Florida 17(1:09:15) Going back to Penn State(1:12:50) Names to jump from G5 to P4?(1:16:46) Brent Venables?(1:18:30) Re-visiting the White Elephant CFB Party(1:19:32) Conclusion: Thanks for watching!   Our show is presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel.  This show is also sponsored by Modelo! Some things in life are just made for each other. Peanut Butter and jelly. Macaroni andcheese. Modelo and college football. If you’re watching this, it means you live and breathe football. All season long. You know what that makes you? A Full-Time Fan. Which means you deserve a Modelo. Because football wouldn’t be the same without you. Modelo is the official beer sponsor of The College Football Playoff. Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/E4bPHd0XRWg Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On tonight's is a reaction episode of Andy Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. Indiana goes to Eugene and wins a massive game that legitimizes the Hoosiers to all the haters, even though some people like cookies and some people like brownies. Also, Texas has a big win in the Red River shootout. Georgia survives at Auburn. USC with a big win against Michigan and basically everybody else wants to fire their coach

Florida Florida State Penn State Wisconsin they all want something done and they want something done now. We'll talk about it all on 80 Rion 3

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This is a crazy day in college football for the wins and for the losses because we've got to talk about Indiana going to Eugene and winning a game. We got to talk about Alabama going to. to Columbia, Missouri and winning a game. We're going to talk about USC, winning a game at home. Georgia, going to Auburn winning a game. But we also have to talk about Florida and Texas A&M and what that means now for the Gators.

Iowa and Wisconsin, and what that means now for the Badgers, which even feels more immediate than the Florida thing. Northwestern and Penn State. Holy crap. I honestly can't even think of a parallel for what's going on there like in terms of like anything that i've lived through my professional career i can't remember like the wisconsin thing feels like when it was over for paul chris it feels like when they lost to illinois and brett beilema out wisconsin wisconsin like that made sense that made perfect

sense but paul chris gets fired luke fickle is worse like that all you understand it james franklin losing back-to-back weeks to ucla and to Northwestern makes no sense whatsoever. So I think I would have, like, bet my life that that wouldn't have happened. Unbelievable. And Drew Aller's out for the season. I don't know if it would have changed anything. Oh, no, I think the damage was done.

I mean, obviously you don't want anybody to get hurt. Yeah, they were going to lose that game anyway. His career is now finished. His college career. Yeah, right. So no more Drew Aller at Penn State unless he decides to sue somebody. I don't know. for the time being, he's not going to be playing at Penn State.

But, yeah, even if he was still healthy and ready to play for the rest of the year, like, I don't know what you salvage from that. Like, the only explanation that I can come up with, Andy, for what's going on here is that people had just thrown in the towel there. Like, there's no other explanation. Well, Patrick says his Penn State fan losing today didn't even cause pain, if anything, I felt relief. And I wonder how many Penn State fans feel that.

But here's the thing. It's like if the buyout is around $60 million. It's in the high $50 millions. I don't know if they're going to pay that. Yeah. Yeah. I guess the question is, is how dire does it need to get in order to do something

irresponsible financially? And if the answer is very dire or worst case scenario, like I don't know how you could draw up anything worse than this. because it's not just that they lost two. It's the first time I think I saw in 30 years a coach has lost back-to-back games is a 20-point favorite. two or nine and three and losing to all the top 10 teams in the regular season schedule and then not making the playoff like losing these two games it almost felt like because they didn't get it done against Oregon that they didn't have the fight collectively as a group to go through that again it was like almost like that was it like we can't do it now then we're not going to be able to do it at all and it feels like people just jumped off the side of the ship.

I don't know how else to explain it than that because this is, and like, listen, UCLA did play a little bit better again and they've dropped 38 points. Like obviously something fun is happening in Westwood, you know, but again, even if they turned it around, there's still not supposed to beat the betting odds favorite, you know, from even two weeks ago to win the national title, like just not supposed to happen. So like, you know, I think that there are in-depth conversations about whether or not schools are going to come up with the money to actually fund these buyouts. I don't know if that's like an entire episode on Tuesday, but if we actually like ranked the

situations right now of all the schools that you named in terms of like most dire, like I don't know that Penn State wouldn't be the runaway favorite at number one there. Well, it feels like Florida is ready to do something. I don't know if they're going to do it tomorrow. They have an open date after the Mississippi State game. Florida went to Texas A&M. It was a look like a shootout early. It was 14, 14.

in the end of the first quarter, and then Texas A&M just basically took the game over. I think Florida's the most likely to do it because Billy Napier has been fired 19 times in the last 12 months. Yeah, I think he's run out of lives. I just feel like this is a perpetual weekly conversation that goes back and forth. But, and like we understand and knew what Florida's situation was kind of coming into the year. So when it happened, it was more of the same. Like, what's going on at Penn State is so abnormal because James Franklin, for the most part, for the past five years is not lost to anybody. his team was favored against one point or or 28 points it didn't matter he beat all the teams

they were supposed to beat so now you're losing to the two worst teams in the big 10 back to back weeks after having a reoccurrence of coming up short against Oregon and it's like this is the most freshly dire situation that there is and like listen I don't know if it's going to be one of these deals where it just he's too soon into his 10 year guaranteed contract to start having these conversations but like I don't even know it's one thing to just say okay this season's a wash, but when you lose or a lost cause, but when you look into the off season in terms of like momentum and program building and what's next, like, I don't even know where you go from here as a program.

Like, it's not just a lost season. It seems like they've lost their way as a program completely. Yeah, it makes no sense. And I don't know how you come back from that. I don't know how you come back from it this season. I don't know how you come back from it next season. They're not coming back from it this season. It's over.

But like, what do you do in the off season? I don't even know, like, go get better. running backs like you got yeah you've got really good running back your your OC's pretty pretty good like a new defensive coordinator good someone who made the highest paid defensive coordinator in college football after he won a national title last year like they have the personnel they're going to go replace zane durant for the better defensive tackle like i don't know like what the move is and it almost feels like it it almost feels like to me and i actually think that james franklin has done a above average to good job at penn state overall okay

I don't know that it's just like this guy has just been in over his head for the past 10 years like that's not true I think that Penn State should have some appreciation for the consistency that he's brought to their program for the last decade but in terms of the hunger and the desire to get

more than what they've gotten it just does not feel like James Franklin is the person to bring them there so I guess we have to have that same conversation that we've had with Michigan in the past which when Jim Harbaugh was having his struggles which is but then he did bring them there. Yeah, yeah, but it's the same conversation. You're going to cut James Franklin's pay in half. I don't think he's going to take

that. I think he's going to say, pay me my money. Jackson asked, is this the death of super coach contracts, will the 80s finally play some offense in Andy's 80s versus agents? This is a good question because like the Billy Napier thing going to happen. It's 20 million bucks, 10 million do up front, 10 million doing installments. That's going to happen. We don't know if the Luke fickle thing's going to happen, even though it feels like it has to happen because it's mid-20s it's a lot of money for Wisconsin they don't typically have the stomach for stuff like that but it feels like it has to happen he might be happy we've had to be happy we've we've had that

Why would you, but I wouldn't leave. I would make them fire me. Yeah. I wouldn't leave voluntarily. Why would you let them off the hook? Yeah. No, I know. And maybe he comes back and they're back to being 10 and two again next year.

I don't know. You know, it feels like this can't go on anymore. Like, what other option do we have one? But like to go back to the question of like the God contract phase happened like four years ago, right? Yeah. And it all happened to Brian Kelly, Lincoln Riley. Yeah. line after that they're like well if you're going to give it to Mel Tucker then you're giving it to me

especially when you're trying to get people to go but I thought the timing of the James Franklin's contract extension and the way it was awarded was kind of a weird timing to begin with because at the time he was given that contract they weren't like exceeding expectations beyond measure like it was just kind of like he was given it to at a time where half the fan base was kind of and different to whether or not he stayed. So, um, Vance coming strong in the chat. Ask the team Florida just played if paying the buyout was worth it. That's a pretty good column, actually.

Dude, Vance is. I'm right in that. That really is. I'm writing it. I'm writing it. Yeah. That's a great idea of it. You have to give him some credit.

Of course I'm getting advanced credit. Listen, Vance is always all over. Vance is one of the smartest commenters we got. The thing that you have to actually have a discussion about is can programs who have reached a no turning back point, regardless of how much they owe the coach, play the game of, well, what if it gets worse? Or do you constantly have to be aggressive and improving? Like, that's the thing. Like, I think at times people get squirly about it.

I was like, well, if you hire James Franklin or fire him, be careful what you wish for. Right. It could always get worse, but you actually might make a good hire. There is a chance you could make a good hire. And that's Texas A&M tried to not make a good hire. They tried to hire Mark Stoops. but the Regents revolted and they ended up hiring Mike Elko and he has them looking like the best team in the SEC now. So perhaps it works if you hire the right coach.

And that is the deal with any of this. You have to make a good hire. And we're going to talk more about these dire, these dire situations, the dire fire situations. Well, do you rank them for me though? I'm curious what you think. I don't, we didn't talk about this today. In terms of how dire they are? Of the four, like which ones are the worst, like the most dire, the least?

dire well Florida just it's run its course you got to do it yeah Wisconsin you got to do it I don't see how you can at Penn State unless they just want to pay the Jimbo fisher type buyout because the the death same with Florida State the yeah the death penalty or the death the kiss of death in coaching in keeping your job has always been the perception of losing a locker room right like isn't that like the last straw yeah but nobody cares about that anymore you're going to get different players with the new no I know but like that's the thing that happens when it's like this guy cannot go on. And like, I think it's kind of hard not to accuse or at least say that James Franklin

has lost his. Like, there's no other explanation for this. Yeah, I don't know what you do with that. But here's the thing. If you make the choice to make a change, even in the most dire of circumstances, you're to see how I'm going to pivot here in a second. You might hire Kurt Signetti. Yeah.

Indiana sucked and they fired Tom Allen and they hired Kurt Cigetti and now they're freaking awesome. And Kurt Signetti also didn't command out of the gate a contract that Lincoln Riley did. Right, and neither did Mike Elko, by the way. Yeah, and that's what I thought was functional about their hire to begin with. Yeah. Do you think that we're going to escape this world of guaranteed long-term deals because of all the coaches? I think the structure is going to change.

I think you're going to go more heavy up front, higher per annum, per annual, you know, per year basis. and guaranteeing less. Billy Napier, if you had guaranteed him a three-year $13 million contract, so a $3.39 million contract, you would pay him, you would wind up paying him much less than you paid him. And he would have signed it immediately coming from Louisiana, Lafayette, immediately. Yeah. So, but let's get back to Signetti. We'll get to these firing guys. Yeah, because there hasn't been a single person, though, that has gotten a contract that I can remember that's been successful. Right, right. We'll get to these. We'll get to these. We'll get to these. firing guys in a second. Because we need to celebrate Kurt Signetti. We need to celebrate

what this man has done. Because Indiana was awful when he got there. And he made them good immediately. And we all said it's just because of the schedule. They're not actually that good. Well, after today in Eugene, Oregon, you cannot say that anymore. It's not because of their schedule. It's because they're freaking good. They went to Eugene. They punched Oregon in the mouth. Oregon is a really good team. Dan Lannning is an excellent coach. We all this. And Indiana went and punched them in the mouth.

Indiana, from my vantage point, beat them for four quarters. There was no like spurt of 20 points or weird turnovers. It was not a fluky win at all. They went there on the road and beat them four quarters straight up by multiple possessions. And like, I'll be honest, we both picked Indiana to cover this game. That's not the way I thought. Neither of us thought they were going to win the game. came out right not yeah not a chance but you know i think that there is a case to be made about them

earning with their resume a number one ranking uh or at least number one votes i didn't do that but i think that the fact that they have the case is yeah i mean the thing is like if if they continue on this path which i think they're going to they will play ohio state and that will all get sussed out before the rest of their schedule the bracket gets revealed michigan state UCLA Maryland Penn state Wisconsin, Purdue, I think that it would almost be... They're going to be favored by double digits in every game. They're literally, it's likely that they will be an undefeated

representee in the Big Ten championship game, likely against who what we could have a 12-0 versus 12-0-0. When's the last time there was a game like that? Was it 2009, Florida, Alabama? I can't remember. I think it was 09, Florida Alabama. There are two

avenues to take from this, Andy. One is the easy layup, which I took in the column that I wrote, which is, I think that because Indiana was not a traditional power, it almost felt like a mean girl situation to me. If you were a fan of a Florida, Alabama, Ohio State, USC, or a blue blood, like there is a you can't sit with us vibe for new age teams. And I think, get in, loser. We're paying buyouts. But like, I, but don't you think that there is this kind of resistance from legacy fan bases to accept someone new as really good? I mean,

took Oregon almost a decade of being questioned before they finally got their seat at the table. But Indiana, last year, gave them all the ammo they needed. You can't, you can't escape the fact that they didn't play a hard schedule and the only two times they played national. played in the who played in the championship, they were not competitive. Like, that is a fact. And they spent the entire off-season hearing

about how their schedule, you know, skirted the heart of the game, and then people got into the playoff, we're not going to play hard games, and all the things that you happen. At those legacy. We're back. But we got it, this stream is less than James Franklin.

What does that mean? Hey, everybody. You guys, tell us, is it working now? We're doing better? It's working right now. It's a little, still a little glitchy, so. With Indiana. What do they have to do now?

Do you think everyone will be satisfied? Do you think most people will be satisfied that they will say this is a very good program. This is a deserving college football playoff type team. I think that everybody who watches the sport would accept them. Because in order for you to get that seat at the table, you have to take it. And I don't think that playing a competitive game against Oregon would have been enough. I think before when we were talking about it, I said, hey, as long as they play a competitive game, there will be an acceptance.

I don't know if that's true. But the fact that they went out there and won in a physical way, I think they're there. I think they're there. I think they're accepted. So they're going to sit there probably, I think, at three. As long as Ohio State's winning, as long as Miami's winning. And then they will just probably play Ohio State, which is, yeah.

Look, I think Kurt's significant. Eddie probably would have predicted that at the beginning of the season. But I don't know how many other people would have. But they are better than they were last year. This team is better. Fernando Mendoza is an upgrade over Curtis Rourke at quarterback, and Curtis Rourke did a good job for them. So I'm just very impressed with this.

And they, it's funny. It's like a Seth Davis Sharpie thing during the NCAA basketball tournament when he Sharpies a team to the next round. I feel like we're sharpying Indian. into the playoff like they're the first well i guess probably the second behind ohio state that we're sharpying into the playoff yeah um we we should have an episode about it this week about who's this who got a sharpie because there's some other teams that i think got a sharpie but the last point i wanted to say and um this is really important because uh you know when it pertains to

indiana i think that because indiana was not as good as ohio state last year and they got into the playoff over you know SEC teams that you know people viewed as more deserving because of the they played, that there was this overall dismissal of what Kurt Signetti actually did. It was like, they're a fraud because they weren't as good as Ohio State. And it's like, do you realize he took over a program that literally was the four and eighth year before he took a big 10 for decades? And then they made it to the playoff. And I feel like for some reason, and maybe it's because they are a weird logo that we're

not used to seeing, there wasn't a proper appreciation and acknowledgement of how far Indiana had come and that Indiana was actually a desert. serving team like we did we got so far into the bullshit schedule discussion that we never stopped to look around and be like holy crap kurt signetti really built a great team yeah they brought they brought back a lot of the guys that made them special last year and then added on to it yeah it's great uh jackson with an interesting point texas tech is in a similar spot to indiana neither is considered elite by the media yet they've been dominating her schedules we we're we're going to have a texas tech conversation tonight too because i think i think jackson makes

a good point, and I think Texas Tech has maybe separating itself from the rest of the big 12, which was the point of spinning on this roster. I'm going to talk about that in a second, but first, I want to hand out a medello or a lot of medellos to one particular fan base. The Auburn fans, I want you to have all the medellos. You've suffered greatly. The Oklahoma game, the refs blew a call. There was a rule that they

maybe they weren't aware of. I don't know. They just didn't enforce it. And it led to an Oklahoma touchdown, which may have cost you the game. Against Georgia, there's a Jackson Arnold fumble as he's going into the end zone to put Auburn up 16 to nothing pending an extra point that would have made it 17 to nothing. Ari, the video, Sherlock, to me. me like he got the ball over the plane before it got knocked out yeah i saw a lot of discussion about well it was jarred loose a little bit by somebody else and then they jarred it more once it crossed

the goal line or whatever like i don't know uh you know i'd not a ref so you know maybe i didn't see something in the videos that i've seen weren't that clear but it sure looked like the touchdown to me so clay says i've been a lifelong college football fan but i don't know how i can keep watching after this the refs screwing auburn for two games now is disgusting And then TechMetak says, I'm not an Auburn fan, but I've never seen a more obvious screw job than what just happened to them. Listen, I don't think they do this stuff on purpose, but the fact that it happened to Auburn, the team that the SEC had to admit they screwed up with before

is just too much. I feel so bad. And that's why Auburn folks, I want you to have all the Modellos that you can. You should open that can so we can hear the noise. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I may have a medella tonight. If the internet keeps acting up, it may be a lot of medellas for me tonight

while I'm working on the projected playoff. But, Ari, okay, all ads aside, let's have a serious conversation about this Auburn thing. There's nothing they can do about it. The SEC can't change the result of the game. They can apologize again, but I don't think they will in this case because they'll say, well, we reviewed it,

and that's what we found. Yeah. You know, I am on, On two separate sides of this, because one, it did look like a touchdown and going up 17-0. I don't think Georgia wins if that happens. Yeah, like I think that you could make the realistic case of what you just said. We will never know for sure, but I think that 17-0 changes the entire, you know, tenor of the game. And the other thing that we have to, you know, at least acknowledge, and whether that be because of the refs or because Georgia clamped down, like Auburn, I think, had like 25 yards of total.

They did nothing in the second half. Like ever since that moment, then you can attribute it to the moment or you can attribute it to whatever you want. And the defense essentially let Georgia go on about a, it felt like a four-hour drive. I think it was actually only seven or eight minutes in game time. Yeah, well, I mean, Auburn just never had the ball in the second half. So it just felt like Georgia was on one prolonged, never-ending drive. But, you know, if you are a mentally tough team or a team that's really, really good, or a team that you think perceived to be as good enough to beat Georgia, which we thought we saw tonight.

Like, you can't let a second quarter call tank you from being able to get a first down for the rest of the game. Right. You were still winning the game at the majority of the game, or at least up to that point, they were dominating the game, it felt like. You know, and it kind of reminded me a little bit, Andy, of the Fiesta Bowl in 2019 that we covered when that targeting call happened. Ohio State was dominating the game. And then the targeting call happened and the entire tenor of the game switched. Like, I understand that referee calls do do that. but Auburn had plenty of opportunity to win this game well the the question now for

Auburn is what do you do because they're 0 and 3 in the SEC they expected better out of this season this the rest of schedule is hard I mean we we're going to talk about how good Alabama is we saw again how good Alabama is on Saturday by going to going up to Missouri but Auburn's got to play Missouri they got to play Vanderbilt like it doesn't I mean when you think about like fan bases that have been tortured by individual results and things that have happened in individual games like Auburn's got to be number one the last and this team should be better than this this is a this is a probably a nine potentially nine 10 win roster this is the same discussion I have a Florida like Florida has a really good roster you know

and they're not going to have a good season it just almost feels like all that luck that you how much luck would you have to have used for the kick six and then oh it's just it's just like boomeranging back on them. Yeah, I mean, it's like you used 10 years of luck. This is the regression to the mean. I don't know. I mean, well, don't forget the miracle of Jordan here that happened in the Georgia game that year, too. The Ricardo Lewis catch.

But at the same time, that that Isaiah Bond catch a few years ago. Yeah, I think that probably, that probably did. I don't know. We're trying to come up with the supernatural here. What I do know is that Oh, oh, yeah, and this one, Kirby did call a timeout and then gaslighted the ref and

thinking he didn't call time out. I was clapping. I didn't call time out. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, neither of us are excusing the odd refereeing. No one, no one's doing that. Well, and the SEC took an unusual step

with that crew in the Oklahoma game. They said they were going to discipline. And I don't know that they, the Big 12 actually told us, you know, the crew that worked the Kansas, Missouri game, the Big 12 told us they were pulling them off their next assignment. I don't think the SEC told us what the specific discipline. discipline was for the crew that worked Auburn, Oklahoma. You tar and feather them in public, nude.

Yeah, I don't think they're going to do that. But I am curious to see if there's any even acknowledgement, because the Kirby thing, you could probably acknowledge. Like, you were made to look dumb with the replay of that. Like, the officials were made to look very bad with the replay of that. It was very obviously trying to call time out. But, you know, Auburn, for better or worse, I think they're a better team than they were last year,

but this season is starting to remind me of last year, which is just a team that is physically capable of competing with anybody, but they just never, for whatever reason, can get it done. Well, and Hugh Fries has a $15 million buyout was a huge amount of money, but compared to what we were talking about with James Franklin and with Mike Norvell, it's not. It's manageable for an SEC school. And I think that's probably, if this wasn't it,

if they don't just make a run, I think that's, it's probably going to be it. The thing that I can't get out of my mind with this is how much welfare does Hugh Freeze earn back by beating Georgia, which I think is quite a bit. Oh, it would be a lot, yeah. And I feel like he was semi-robbed of that. And like when you look at at, well- Oh, he has a case for I got jipped out of that big time. You know, like I didn't, for a second in that game, like there are times when you're watching Florida where you're just like, oh, here we go with Billy again, you know. Yeah. Like, I didn't really get that when I was watching the Auburn game.

of like, oh, Hugh Freeze is blowing this or the reason why Auburn is losing is because of Hugh freeze. Now, the quarterback situation, I think you can make a case. Like, there was some, you know, a play at the end of the game where Eric Singleton got behind some defensive backs and the ball was overthrown. It seems like they're having a very hard time

getting it to their two receivers who are both running over the chat. Says it was a fumble, by the way. He says he was there. Yeah. Or he thought, well, Keith, I'm going to tell you most of the internet thinks that it was a touchdown. Like, listen. we weren't there. I don't know if you were there.

We were watching on TV. We probably had a better view than the people who were there. We saw the replay. I hear, like, there's people, there are a lot of people who hold the same opinion as him. So maybe we're not seeing something, but we sat next to each other and watched it, and it looked like the ball was over the goal line while in his hands to me.

Yeah. So, you know, I don't know. Again, bad break, regardless, you know, even if the ball did come out, like, The mental toll that it takes having to live through something that traumatic obviously would have been the same result. Right. And Auburn was winning the game 10 to nothing at the time, dominating the game statistically, dominating Georgia's offense. Yeah, I think that Georgia had 20 yards of total offense for like 85% of the first half. It doesn't excuse Auburn not being able to do anything in the second half because Auburn failed on offense and on defense in the second half.

it wasn't like one side of the ball didn't hold up its end. Both sides failed in the second half. I do think you can blame the call and Hugh Fries can certainly blame the calls. Ultimately, I don't think it's going to change anything. I think ultimately they'll probably make a move. I don't know when they'll make a move, but I think it's going to happen. Dyer, not nearly as dire as the other three, though, to me. It might be more imminent.

I don't know. Because it's more manageable. Yeah. But I don't know. I didn't feel like Hugh Freeze blew it tonight. Sailor Joe asks, what was the bet that leads one of you to butt chugging? I was the one I'm off the hook. He's off the hook.

Thank you, LSU. Because South Carolina had to win five in a row starting with the LSU game for me to butt funnel a McFurray. Look at me in my eyes right now. I'm the cap in here. I would have 1,000 percent not, like I would have done that. Like, I'm telling you that right now. Now, like, I would have been my funnel guy.

I would have done the funnel. I'm aware. I'm just saying, like, that wasn't a ploy to, like, get people excited. Like, and you knew that it wasn't going to happen. You didn't even make it out of the first week. I'd say. But I would. South Carolina didn't even cover nine and a half in this game.

If South Carolina would have won this game, the first thing I would have said about the game is like I was ready and prepare it to be the funnel guy. Yeah. Yeah. Now, they, they play Oklahoma next week. So, yeah. They were not going to win. Oklahoma has its own issues. We can talk about them.

If you want to see a deeper discussion of Texas and Oklahoma, we did an instant reaction video right after the game. We were at the game. This was a huge win for Texas, huge day for Arch Manning, huge day for the Texas offensive line, which started off shaky and got stronger as the game went on. And Texas exposed the weaknesses of Oklahoma in ways that Auburn didn't and Michigan didn't. and we'll see what happens with Auburn, Michigan, down the stretch. But, you know, we did the instant reaction video. And again, we encourage you to go watch it because we talked for 10, 15 minutes about the game from the game at the stadium.

But we did the instant reaction video before we did the news conferences. And, like, I wanted to bring up something to you as we, because we have to highlight this. Absolutely. Did it seem to you that Steve Sarkesian took all the things that people were saying about Arch and Texas personally? Yes. a hundred percent bringing it up oh yeah i'm like i mean he said he said the words he used in the press conference which is not like him are there's a lot of shit thrown at them yeah this week people talked a lot about a lot of shit about my team and these players and they backed it up this week

um and it's just a absolute hilarious thing to me that the coach would be hurt by that because they've got a million things going on but if you think that like the criticism that Texas was, you know, getting. I mean, we were burying them. Not me and you. We collectively as a country. Yeah, everybody. And he made a good point about Arch getting too much of everything.

But I want to give Arch some credit here because I think Arch deserves credit here. Yeah. When the offensive line was still a little bit shaky early in the game, Arch was still making sure there weren't terrible negative plays. He was escaping, throwing the ball away. finding an open receiver in ways that he hadn't been doing all season. And he was accurate, very elusive in a good way while extending plays in the pocket. Yeah.

Yeah. So he helped disguise their deficiencies better than John Meteer helped Oklahoma disguise its deficiencies, if that makes sense. Like the running game that Oklahoma has not had outside of John Meteer, they still don't have it. Texas, meanwhile, came out in the second half. said, we are going to run the ball because we know we need to, because they're just going to tee off on Arch if we don't. And so they started handing a ball to Tray Weisner, and guess what?

It worked. Yeah. It's pretty great how other people stepping up and making plays can help the quarterback look more. Texas offense in the first half, and at halftime, it felt like they were hopeless. Like, their offensive line wasn't playing that well in the first half. Their receivers weren't getting open. They weren't running the ball.

And, like, there were even comments being made in the press box. Like, what's Steve Sarkesian even supposed to do here? They're outmatched at all their positions. And to see them flip the script and take control of that game against a really good team, you know, I still think that Oklahoma is a really good team. Like, I don't know if they're a great team, but I think they're a really good team. Yeah. And I think that they deserve a lot of credit.

There's still a potential playoff team, though they have a really tough road the rest of the way. So I don't know if they're going to make it. Because the next six games are very hard, and they're going to have to go five and one. The one final thought until we move on to the next one, Andy, is my expectation and hope for Oklahoma coming into this game was that they would play a competitive, great rivalry game. And for two and a half, three quarters, it felt like, you know what, they might win, they might lose. But at least we're not going to go into the news conference like we did last year with Brent Venables on the hot seat talking about how we. his team got blown off the field. Yeah.

And in my opinion, in the fourth quarter, they got blown off the field. Yeah. So I don't know how you take that in terms of, you know, the gap between the two programs. But as you mentioned in the instant reaction show, I think that that gap still exists and it showed up. Yeah, Texas has more playmakers than Oklahoma, even if Texas doesn't have as many playmakers as it had last season. All right, let's move on to a different game. What if I told you Michigan played against USC and that one team? ran the ball 36 times for 224 yards, which is a 6.2 yard average.

And the other team ran the ball 31 times for 109 yards, which is a 3.5 yard average. Which team do you think would be which? I would have thought that Michigan was the team that ran the ball effectively. It was not. USC out Michigan, Michigan. And guess what? USC is alive and well in the Big Ten. Like they...

The stuff that we said after they lost to Illinois, we said if they don't fix this, if they don't just get better defensively, if they aren't more physical up front, they will not be able to survive in the Big Ten. They fixed it. I don't know if they fixed it forever, but they certainly fixed it tonight.

And they mauled Michigan up front. King Miller was awesome. King Miller, 18 carries for 158 yards in a touchdown. he had a 49-yard run that was his longest but he was gashing them that was a really impressive performance jade mojave was good but this wasn't one of his better statistical games he's had better games and he had a pretty just horrible interception there uh in the red zone but brys underwood also traded one back on that next position but bryce underwood actually not bad as a passer but because michigan could get nothing done going in the run game because

u s defense was stopping them USC won this game going away, and it is a big deal that they won it this way, because this, you know what, this team can go beat Notre Dame. This team's good enough to go beat Notre Dame. The thing that is funny here, Andy, is if Michigan were the team that ran for 36 times for 225 yards or whatever the stat was, we would be putting Lincoln Riley to nudge. night in that same bucket that we started the show with. We sure would. We sure would. And I think there's some Michigan fans that are putting Sharon more there.

I'm not ready to do that yet. It's year two. Like, no. I just don't think that USC fans could have lived through another game where USC got physically manhandled by a traditional Big Ten program. Like, I just don't know if they could stomach it. And it makes me feel a little bit weirder about what happened against Illinois. Maybe it was just a tough road game and Illinois played their best game.

I don't know. But when you see USC, excelling in an environment that they have previously failed to excel in, I think that that's a growth that needs to be acknowledged. I definitely do. And so YJP in the chat says,

let's not overreact here. USC's not on Notre Dame's level. I don't know that. You don't know that either. Yeah. And also, no one said that. I don't know. I just said they could beat Notre Dame if they play like this.

Yeah, I don't know. Notre Dame level. And also, we don't even know what level Notre Dame's on right now. People's watching them struggle every week. they ended up covering the NC State game on Saturday, but they haven't looked like the epitome of playoff contention themselves. Yeah, so I don't know what they're. I know if USC plays like they played against Michigan tonight.

They have a very good chance against Saturday. Yeah, I mean, at least you don't feel like going into the game that they're just going to get mauled physically, you know, and I think that we know that USC has some pretty special players. I saw that Jaden Maiava was getting some Heisman love last week. Obviously, we know Mackay Lemon is one of the best receivers in the country. King Miller for Heism. King Miller is out here doing what he's doing

with all those rushes and touchdowns and all that whatever. I don't know. I think that USC, if you're a USC fan, you probably feel pretty good. And the other thing, too, is avenging what happened last year this weekend. You know, they got absolutely embarrassed on the final drive against Michigan a year ago.

They allowed a, you know, a two-minute drill to go as we've referenced on the show 500 times without a pass. And for them to kind of return the favor at home, to improve the five and one and maybe make you think, hey, is this a team that can back door this playoff discussion? I think it was a really, really nice thing

to see for Lincoln Riley. It had to be such a satisfying way. I mean, Lincoln Riley has been beaten up incessantly the last two and a half years and I think he deserved it. If USC is on its way of pulling out of it, that's a pretty exciting sign. I think that this might be one of the five

most significant USC days since he took over. We've got a fact check this from Astro. King Miller's Dr. Dre's nephew. I'm going to do that. Just sing into the microphone. These eyes, these eyes have seen a lot of love. Okay, now we're not doing that. I'm not singing.

But I was just really impressed with this. I think it changes the tone in the Big Ten. But I'm excited to see what they're doing at Notre Dame now because I think if this team shows up, we're going to see a very different Notre Dame game than what we've been seeing. elsewhere in the Big Ten. I see people saying the Dr. Dre thing.

I can't not confirm it, but that sounds awesome if he is. I'm looking at his Instagram and trying to find. Dr. Drake has a name on a building at USC, doesn't he? He's got headphones. Did you know that? I have heard of that. I'm actually wearing one of them right now. So Nebraska goes to Maryland, fourth quarter comeback.

Guys, I got to say, the Big Ten's good, not good, entertaining at least. Oh, the Big Ten race is, it's interesting because it feels like the Big Ten race for the title is going to be Ohio State and Indiana, just rolling toward each other. But beneath that, the teams in the Big Ten that could potentially be 10 and two and potentially make the playoff, like look at the rest of Nebraska's schedule and tell me that's not possible. I can't. I know we're not talking about Maryland right now, but by the way, Maryland's pretty good. has lost a couple of heartbreakers in the last. They're pretty good. Washington, by the way, we didn't mention Washington because they played Friday night, but they just poured it on to Rutgers after what was a fairly close game for a while.

Washington had to come back winning against Maryland last week. I feel bad for Maryland because they keep getting victimized by these comebacks, but Washington and Nebraska look like they can be very competitive, maybe not at the Ohio state level, but again, that might be that no one can. Yeah, and in the 12-team era, the litmus test for, or whether or not you had a successful year isn't are you Ohio State. So, you know, that doesn't even matter. Oh, and let's not forget who also controls their destiny for the Big Ten title.

The UCLA Bruins. UCLA Bruins control their own destiny to the national title, not the Big Ten title. Well, because you don't lose for the rest of the year. Because they could conceivably win the Big Ten title. If you're laughing, but let's explain to do this, they would have to take out Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio State, Washington, and USC, all in a row. And then they would also have to beat whoever they play in the Big Ten championship

game, which could be a rematch with Ohio State or Indiana. But let me put it this way. If they win every single game they play for the rest of the year, at the end of the year, they will be the national champion. That is a fact. It's true. And it's not something we thought we'd say.

Remember how many jokes we had about Northwestern UCLA two weeks ago? Oh, yeah. We had all the jokes about that game. those teams are just getting it done like UCLA went to East Lansing all at Penn State's expense but UCLA went to East Lansing 9 a.m. local kickoff for them for their body clocks. It was it was a noon kickoff in East Lansing. They destroyed Michigan State and I don't want to have a Jonathan Smith conversation because I feel like we're we're firing everybody tonight and I really hate that. I don't want to keep doing that. I'm sure the

Michigan State fans are pretty mad about. Can we talk about somebody who has been fired? Sure. I feel bad for Tino Sincere. I can't imagine what it would be like to get removed from a position and then watch your team go from inept to great. Right. Without you. You have to pull the Taylor Swift. It's me. Hi. I'm the problem. It's me.

I'm high. Yeah. I don't know what that means. But yes, it seems like there was a coaching problem. And that has been rectified. And now, let's be honest we're not we're just joking about the national championship stuff but they are clearly a more competent fun and effective and productive offense without him so um you know and yep the the the blonde hair new heisle is just getting it done jerry baby jerry new heisle getting it done yjp in the chat speaking of fired coaches arkansas looks pretty good bobby petrino went to knoxville and gave producer river a heart attack but the balls did come out victorious they did not cover But, yes, Arkansas was very competitive. And I've said, because there's two schools of thought on this. The one school of thought is they fired Sam Pittman when they did so Bobby Petrino could win enough games to get the permanent job. The other school of thought is they fired Sam Pitt when they did because the schedule is so hard that Bobby Petrino would lose so many games that they couldn't give him the job.

I still think it's the latter. But if he's competitive against all these teams, you've got to at least consider him. Yeah, well, like, I don't know, like, we'll do the net positive net loss on his, like, title, or I mean, his retention hopes. Like, that was a net positive, right? That was a net positive, yes. Going to Knoxville, only losing by three. Now, look, you can't. Check for why you should hire him.

Yeah, the only lose by only gets you so far. But if they beat some of these teams on the, on the remaining schedule, then, yeah, you've got to consider them for the job. I mean, they also didn't give up 60 points, which was a nice break from the usual. Let's give you Arkansas's remaining schedule. schedule. Texas A&M, Auburn, Mississippi, State, LSU, Texas, Missouri. So if Bobby Petrino wins three of those, if he goes three and three the rest of the way, give him the job. How's that sound? Is that fair? I think that's fair. That would be hard, but it's doable. Yeah. Hard but doable.

B.T. B.T. Bates. As an Arkansas fan, I don't want Bobby to do anything but coach our offense, so hopefully more schools don't fire their coaches. B.C. B. B. B. B. B. B. B. B. I's, I I don't know what to tell you because I think, oh, no, we still have to talk about Alabama. Then we're going to be back to firing everybody. Okay. Let's talk about Alabama. Alabama went to Missouri. Missouri gave Alabama all manner of hell, but Ty Simpson is so good on third down and fourth down that Alabama survived.

That is why Alabama survived. Jam Miller going out. I hope Jam Miller's okay. They seem like a different team without Jim Miller. Yeah. They seem like a really, really good team with Ty Simpson, though. Oh, yeah. he's good uh yeah i i was kind of iffy about that coming into the year i mean we didn't know

what to expect and of course our first taste of the tie simpson era was a blowout loss to florida state also without jim miller um and maybe you're finding the the real you know straw that serves the drink there but i have been super impressed week over week i mean the command he has with the ball and you know putting it where it needs to be an escaping pressure he's slippery as hell. He can run. He can scramble. I mean, he's effective, like you said, on third downs and you can't watch him. Touchdown on fourth down. You can't watch Ty Simpson play and not be blown away by how awesome he's been. You know, in Alabama, you know, we're doing it now every week. It's like, are they back? It's like, it's not even funny anymore. They've won three really

tough games against ranked SEC opponents in a row. And it's, and the gauntlet continues with Tennessee and Tuscaloosa next week. Yeah. So, I mean, they're going and, you know, how do you get to where you want to be in terms of an accepted national championship favorite. The thing that, you know, I'm going to drop a bomb on you right now, but of all the teams in the SEC, which ones are unequivocally dominant? None. Like, you even put Alabama in the bucket of none, but in terms of which team you might want to latch your, your, Alabama is definitely one of Alabama, Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas,

A&M. Those are the three, not maybe not in that, maybe Alabama first. then A&M, then Ole Miss. Those are the three that I feel like I feel good about if I say they could win the SEC title and make a run in the playoff. Yeah, but there's no team in this conference that is up and away. No. Definitively better than everyone else. No, producer river, please put Alabama's schedule back on the screen because, again, they have a loss. their remaining games are Tennessee, South Carolina,

LSU, Oklahoma, Georgia State, and Auburn. This is not easy the rest of the way. They should win enough to be in the playoff. They should. It is not going to be that easy. But if they can get through this Tennessee thing, then South Carolina, then they get the open week. If they can get to the open week with only one loss,

they're making the playoff. There's no way they don't make the playoff. If they get to the, if they beat Tennessee and South Carolina, they are making the playoff. Yeah, I mean, you look at the schedule and we're right back into where nine and three was last year. You know, they almost made it last year and they would have had a much worse resume a year ago than they do now in nine and three because if they

lose to LSU and Auburn, then they still beat Oklahoma and they still beat Tennessee and South Carolina. Like they had in Georgia, I mean, their resume would back that up again. Yeah, and Missouri's probably going to keep winning too. Like, that's the thing. They didn't go expose Missouri today. and it's not Alabama stinks because they only beat Missouri by three. Missouri gave Alabama everything it could give them.

And Missouri is a good team that probably is going to win nine or ten games this year. Yeah. The thing that I think is always fascinating to see in college football is that when you are a really good team, if you beat the shit out of somebody, then the team that you beat the crap out of is bad. And now all of a sudden they're terrible. And I wonder if Alabama will actually gain more. more from a respect and ranking standpoint if Missouri win was only three and the Missouri keeps

winning. Yeah. Producer River asked a great question in our group chat. Are we good with labeling the Florida State win over Alabama a fluke? Yeah, I'm pretty good with that. I am very good with that. And now, okay, let's start firing everybody. Wait, have we got through all the games already?

No, we just have to get to the games where people are wanting firings. Okay. So we go to Tallahassee now. Pittsburgh, and its new starting quarterback, Mason Heichel, the freshman, who's awesome. The Panthers go into Tallahassee and beat Florida State 3431. The Florida State fans, I hit War Chant after the game, and the message word, it was fire him. One thread said, we want to join the SEC, and this is what we're doing. One thread said is D. on the answer question.

Oh, yeah. Oh, by the way, huge win for Deon today. Yeah, huge win for Deacon. Congratulations to Deon in Colorado for beating Iowa State. But the Florida State thing, so the Florida State fans were all the way out in the middle of the Miami game last week. I think that's where they go, all right. Really? Yes.

They were saying Miami is different than us. and in a really good way for Miami and a really bad way for Florida State. Miami has built a team that looks like it compete on the national stage. Florida State is a step beneath that. And so maybe Florida State can finish out and have a good season in the ACC this year.

And I realize they've only lost two. Yeah, who thought? They could go on a run. What did we veer off of eight and four is good? Improvement. It's improvement, but the beating Alabama got them excited. I know, but at the beginning of the year, we said if he goes 8 and 4,

you move on to the following year and feel good about the direction of the program again. Where do that go? Because they beat Alabama, that changed? Yeah, and it dissipated. Now, they've lost three games. So you make that you can make the case then that if you replace the Alabama win with this pit win, they're happier than... I'm also not sure they're going to

go 8 and 4 because Clemson looks better. That game's on the road. The Florida game's on the road. Florida may have fired its coach, but Florida is still, like, Florida has the kind players Florida State would love to have on its roster. Yeah. So this is the hypothesis, though.

If you remove the Alabama win and turn that into a loss and then you take Virginia or Pitt and turn one of those into a win, are they less disgruntled right now than they are? Probably. Which is funny. I think the Alabama win gave them hope that this is over, that they're going to be competitive on a national stage from this point forward. And now they're looking, now they're counting.

their wins against power conference opponents since they lost to Georgia in that Orange Bowl. And it's miserable. It's a miserable record. And Mike Norville has one of those God contracts. I don't see how you do anything. Like it is $57 million, I believe, to fire Mike Norville. It's not, I don't think it's not going to happen.

I don't know. Ever since we had Matt Jones on the show from Kentucky Sports Radio last week, he said that Kentucky is prepared if it has to to pay a $37 million buyout that would be due within 30 days, all of it. Yeah. And all these other buyouts we're talking about are doing installments. So they're basically large mortgage payments. Ever since Matt told us that, I've been like, ah, maybe all these are on the table. Yeah.

This made me laugh. Justin Goodman, kind of like how Michigan and Oregon and Penn State lost today and make the Big Ten look so good today. This is in a response to FSU losing their SEC look bad or overrated. That was funny. Yeah. Here's the thing. Everybody's going to make the argument that makes their team's conference look better and all the other conferences look weak.

There's more parity at the top now. Teams lose games. I don't know. And the thing is, I don't really know if the top of the Big Ten is that much better than the top of the SEC. I do know the top of the SEC. see is really muddled and there's a lot of teams that can beat each other yeah like i think ohio state and miami and i think i would even put indiana in that mix or the three teams that seem to be hovering over everybody it feels like everybody can agree on those three but i also think

that alabama would probably be right there at number four i would agree with that would be the next team or texas a nm a nm's got the norder dame win which is nice we'll see it i think what USC does against Notre Dame will give us a little better picture of that. I wonder if Texas Tech continually blowing out. Oh, yes. Sorry, we did have, before we fired everybody, we need to have Texas Tech conversation. Has Texas Tech become something different than what we expect in the Big 12, which, by the way, was the entire point of putting together this roster?

I mean, we don't really think much about that beautifully minted three and a half point when we're talking about them, do we? No. No. And so this was their first home game in the Big 12. They jump on Kansas 21. Nothing. Kansas comes back. It's a four point game for a minute. I lose 2117. And then Texas Tech just turns on the afterburners. wins the game 42.17. They were running the ball like crazy in this game. Cameron Dickie, 21 carries 263 yards and two TDs on the ground. That's a Barry Sanders game. Yeah, Will Hammond, the backup quarterback, eight-carriage. for 61 yards he was awesome this is this is a wagon ari this is what they put this roster together to do and this is what brett yormark was talking about where you kind of need somebody to separate you need somebody to be a big foot at the top they're playing like that now they're at

arizona state next week if they do this to arizona state i think there's a good chance they do it to everybody the the b yu game in game game 10 is probably the last really challenging one for them. Yeah, and I think that BYU is currently losing to Arizona 24-17 with a minute left. There you go. That's actually, again, we should probably toss on. No, Arizona State is down 283 to Utah right now also. Arizona is beating BYU by seven, and BYU with 29 seconds left.

BYU's got third and gold from the three. Oh, we can get that up on the old iPad. Let me pull that up for us. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, Jeff Sims, remember Jeff Sims is playing QB for Sparky. And so it might be that with Sam Levitt back, it's a very different situation. I would assume that Kenny Dillingham, making sure Sam Levitt is healthy.

Yeah. Or healthy enough to play against Texas Tech because that's the- Arizona State's going to lose to Utah tonight. And that'll just be their first big 12 loss. So they're not finished by any stretch of the imagination. But that's not good. You know, fourth and goal coming up for BYU, down by seven. and this would be their first loss of the year if they don't get it.

I'm bad at multitasking, so I'm not able to get it up. We're going to find out in a second whether they score or not. And if not, then we can figure it out. But, yeah, I mean, Texas Tech and everyone else in the Big 12 right now. Yeah, it feels like they've separated. And obviously, they still have to go through and win the conference championship. But, you know, Ari, if they roll into the conference championship game 12 and, oh, I don't even know if they have to win the conference title game.

Yeah, I don't know about that. They don't have a great non-conference schedule, but... They don't have any marquee wins right now. But a 12-win team is probably not getting left out of the playoffs. Probably not. I mean, yeah, I don't know. Again, I think that it would depend... BYU scored.

It would depend on what else was out there, but you're probably right. Yeah. So, but yes. So, all right, back to firing, everybody. Let's talk Wisconsin, because I think that's a very... it feels obvious what needs to be done. I don't know if they have the stomach to pay the money. Yeah.

Texas A&M had the stomach to pay the money, and they're really happy. But everybody laughs at them. No one's laughing tonight. No, no one's laughing because A&M paid the money. They hired, well, they tried to make the wrong hire. They wound up making the right hire. and Mike Elko has them where they want to be.

Six and O for the first time since 2016. Oh, someone calling an ambulance, but not for me. Exactly. The reason why I did that, stupid impression that I've done four times today is we made, or I made this analogy earlier in the week, but it reminds me of this same thing. If you needed to have a life-saving medical procedure, how much money would you pay?

And the answer to that question is every last, dime I ever have or I have or I ever will have because survival is the most important thing and I think that there are circumstances that are dire enough where the buyout money seems to say though it's painful seems essential for the long term health of your program it's not impatience it's disparity yeah it's desperation not disparity I should say sorry desperation um and I wonder Wisconsin should be desperate if you were desperate like they were firing Paul Christ for way less they Yes. Yes. This, I mean, look, Iowa beat them badly last year, too, but to show no life, to give me 37 to nothing, Iowa at home. Come on, man. It's pathetic. Yeah. So that's the, that's the rub with all these things. It's like, do they have the money? I know we're at a very interesting cross section in the sport where NIL and revenue share and all the things that are happening in a financial world are kind of colliding. I don't know what it's like to have to come up with buyout money.

that's uncomfortable during a time in which you're trying to figure out how to get your players the money. But like this cannot go on. YJP says Paul Chris who quit on recruiting it. What is Luke Fickle done? I mean, I think that the number one criticism for Luke Fickle while at Wisconsin is he hasn't brought in good enough players. Yeah.

So I mean, no one cares how hard you're trying at it. They care if you're effective. Yeah. And, and you know, we're going to talk about Billy Napier in a second, but Billy Napier did bring in good enough players.

He just didn't coach them all enough. Yeah. The point with all these jobs, when they pay you this much money, you have to be able to bring in good players and then also coach them well when you get them. Yeah. It's really hard,

which is why only a very few people succeed at it. I also think that there is like River pointed out in the text I just read. And when we do this together, I read his texts because they pop up on your computer. Why don't they pop up on your computer? Because I muted him. Why would you do that? Because I'm afraid.

River's the most important person in our lives. I didn't mute him. I muted the chat because I'm afraid that. This is why you never get our text. No, no, I mute the chat during the show because I'm afraid. Little, little behind the scenes. Half the time Ari misses our show chat texts. Now I know why.

Now I understand the mystery's been solved, River. No, you're, you're, I don't just mute your chat. I mute all my texts in the, because I don't want things to pop up and distract me while I'm talking to the microphone. Yeah, you didn't know how to mute your text. You, you didn't know how to keep the sound. Have you seen us? I've got 26 texts. Have you seen a single one pop up on my computer?

Yeah, but you need to read them. What if something important happened? Luke texted me. Yeah. That's our boss. Yeah. He said I'm fired. Oh, good.

But you can go now. I'll finish up. Get out of my house. Dyer. That's the name of the game here. How dire is it and how much money? Do you feel like you need to pay the money to save yourself? Do you think Wisconsin can win another game this year?

No. Like if you are Chris McIntosh, the AD, I don't even know if he gets to make this decision. If you are on the board at Wisconsin, If you are a major donor at Wisconsin, if you are, you know, the person Big Cat calls when he's looking to help, you know, do some NIL deals. Do you think you can win another game? Here's the schedule. You ready? Ohio State, Oregon, Washington, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota.

I will tell you right now, I do not think Wisconsin can win another game. Dude, first of all, I read this in the chat here, Andy, and I want to make sure that people know that. I didn't mute the live chat. I muted the text messages. I got on Indian River. I still read your chat. We see our stuff.

Yeah. But the saddest thing I think I saw today was when Jesse Temple, a former colleague of ours. He works for the collective now. Yeah, but he used to work with us in cover with the constant at the athletic. He just tweeted, and I'm not saying anything he did was sad, but the tweet was sad was another embarrassing loss for Wisconsin, 37-0-0 period next up Ohio State. It's just like, it's like, okay, I guess they're just going to, you know, play Ohio State next weekend. But it's bad.

It's bad. And it almost feels like you, you know what? Honestly, don't you think Luke Vickle probably wants to go to? Like, I can't imagine that he's fired up to come to work on that. So we're talking, we're talking high 20 millions. high 20 millions to fire Luke Fickle is so much money for Wisconsin perspective of how much Penn State owes James Franklin it's mind-blown that's true right less than half of what Penn State owes James Franklin so maybe that makes you feel a little better how much into

A&M pay Jimbo 77 yeah yeah 77 million dollars that stat never gets like less 17 million up front the rest of installments that number never isn't shocking even how many times you hear it, 77. But I said we were going to get here. Good for Jimbo. And we got here. They paid the 77 million. They hired Mike Elko.

Not without trying to hire Mark Stoops first, but they hired Mike Elko eventually. And now Texas A&M is one of the best teams. You never hit on the wrong girl on the pursuit of finding your wife? I definitely did. Yeah, you do. But they're now where they want to be.

And they may have... close the book on the Billy Napier era at Florida. They may have. They may have done that tonight. Yeah. I don't know. Are you going to be like an alert for this happening on Sunday? I will be on alert for,

and I know Florida has an open date after Mississippi State next week. So perhaps they wait. But you don't fire her coaches ever coming off of a win, do you? It's been done. So LSU when they fired Coach O, they actually told Coach O, Scott Woodward, the AD, told Coach O before the Florida game that he was fired. It didn't get out. It didn't leak.

They won the Florida game and they fired him the next day. So it's happened before. So it, you know, maybe, maybe logistically it works differently. I'm just trying to figure out how Billy's going to get out of this. He has found ways. It's like, well, we can't fire him. Fire him after the byway. I don't think they have a way out.

I don't think there's a way out of this. Now, I think tonight was proof positive because, and here's the thing that every coach who's played Florida this year says, oh, my God, that roster stacked. They say it before the game, they say it after the game. They're even more effusive than their praise after the game because everything they saw in film, they see them in person, and it's like, oh, wow, that is just a loaded roster. And the fact that it can't, it just can't end up in wins often enough. Yes, they just beat Texas. They also lost the USF. They lost to Miami.

They lost to LSU. They lost to Texas A&M. And you can say, well, they're the first team to, I believe they're the first team to have played four consecutive AP top 10 opponents in a row since 1968. It doesn't matter. The coach at Florida is supposed to get his top 10. Yeah. To do that, you've got to be able to beat top 10 teams.

Yeah. Yeah. My buddy Kyle's in this year, and he says Jimbo was fired after a win. I didn't remember. He was. That's right. They beat Mississippi State. Yeah. That's exactly right. Mississippi State is the team here for Florida. Oh, boy. Here we go. I didn't remember that. So if it doesn't happen tomorrow, maybe I'll be at the Florida Mississippi State game next week. Yeah. So, well, who knows? So that one I think we can feel fairly certain of. I think we can feel fairly certain of. I think we can feel fairly. certain of Luke Fickle, even though it seems like so much money and it seemed at this outset of the season, like not something Wisconsin would do. But like, could you bring him back after 2 and 10? It's the same thing I just said earlier about James Franklin. What do you do?

Yeah. Like, what do you do in the off season? At least with Penn State, you can say, well, he made the playoff last year. And it's just, this is just not his year. He gives back some of his salary a. Mike Norvell this year. That worked out well. yeah i don't know it's it's such a it's such a dilemma with james franklin and because he's been good there he got him out of a tough situation but you should expect more what you are paying top dollar and you are not getting top dollar results no and that's bad that is the the bottom line with all of these jobs if if it's like doeshawn's fault at UCLA was not being paid top dollar.

They low-balled him. They low-balled everybody that they offered that job to. So, I don't know. Maybe somebody in the business texts us, no way they fire Franklin. No way. And this is a person who knows everybody. Do you think that that text came from somebody watching live? Yes.

Hey, you know who we're talking to. I don't know if this person is still watching. It was good to meet you recently. Right. So it's a strange, it's such a strange situation with Penn State and James Franklin. It's something we can probably dedicate an entire show to this week, and maybe we should. Maybe we bring on Sean Fitz from Blue and White, illustrated and talk to him about it.

Sean understands the dynamics a lot better than we do of Penn State and where they're at. Do you know the thought that I had? Hmm. And you're Mr. I know all the agents and, you know, are good at this sort of thing. But you know how we always talk about like whether or not a quarterback should come out of college because a draft is weak? Yes. Do schools in coaching searches ever consider maybe this is the wrong off season to fire a coach because there's a lot of jobs coming open and we wouldn't be able to get the guy that we want to do because there's so many jobs that are open. And it's funny because last year, everybody was freaked out because Rev. was coming and they didn't want to tie up money

that they needed to pay to players. And so you had a record low number of jobs. It's just not a great time for Wisconsin to have an open job. They're going to be, right, there are going to be so many openings. When we counted them up, what do we count? 14 power conference jobs that we think are going to open. I think it's going to be more than that. I think it's going to wind up being more than that.

Because James Franklin wasn't on that list when you did that list, right? Right. And I don't know that. And I don't think James, like, I still right now, as we sit here at 11, 49 central, do not believe James Franklin will get fired this season. No, I don't either. I don't either. But this is kind of more of a Wisconsin thing.

It's like if Auburn's open and Florida's open and all these jobs are open and who are the candidates for all these jobs? And I know that you have all these lists. Yeah. It's not like it used to be where. Well, like the Florida fans are like Lane Kiffin. Okay, but Lane Kiffin's team is undefeated. Also, who is Florida State fans think they're going to get? they wanted lane kiffin too they would all like they would all like lane kiffin can chop his body up in three different pieces and go coach at three different places one of you guys are going to be left wouldn't that be awesome if lane kiffin were like one of those one of those worms that you could like cut into pieces and they just regrow into a new being picture wisconsin like a body and then like the wisconsin logo is the head you know like how you see on some of these memes just sitting at a bus stop in the rain with like a sacked lunch by himself like like if they do it that the

wrong time that's what i'm thinking in my head i think here's the thing i think if you're in the big ten of the cc you can still draw a really attractive candidate pool because you have so freaking much money who are the five biggest names that we know are no doubt about it up-and-coming coaches who would leave alice go let usf okay okay uh is he a hot shot ryan silverfield at memphis who we talked about the other day. Okay. John Summerall at Tulane. Okay.

Okay. I think Auburn's late claim to him, or at least the Auburn fan base has. I like that. It's kind of like dibs on the school. Yeah, we got him. I was told the other day, and this was about an SEC job

that has not opened, that maybe Sunny Dykes would be down to move to the SEC or the Big Ten. Woody? Well, the person who told me, I think, would know. I'll text them. Yeah, you can ask. Producer Rivers says, Dan Mullen. I'd think Dan Mullen for the right job.

Not a job that requires national title type recruiting. I don't know if I'm just, like, imagining this in my head. But, like, remember when Urban Meyer was at Bowling Green in Utah? Like, how certain everybody was. I was a Florida beat writer when Urban Meyer was in Utah. Do you think any of those names, like, stack up to what urban what like those guys who else am i forgetting well lane lane kiffin lane does lane does now no i know lane's already at a major school and he's also so far advanced

in his career that you kind of know what you're going to get with him i don't know uh i just feel i feel like maybe 10 years ago like every single year there were five dudes that really moved the needle like ryan silverfield was our show last week and i love the guy yeah he's a great coach I think he'll find success at Memphis or wherever he goes. Or Wisconsin. He's not moving the needle at other places the way that Urban Meyer did when he got hired at Florida. But that person doesn't exist right now. That's what I'm saying.

And then if you add in 15 job openings, you're getting to the bottom of the barrel very quickly. Did Mike Elko move the needle for you? I loved it. When Kurt Signetti got hired in Indiana, did you, Ari? No. Okay. Sometimes you just don't know. And there are also assistants.

Like I see Tiki Man says Glenn Schumann. that's the Georgia defensive coordinator. He's going to get some looks. Will Stein, the offensive coordinator at Oregon. He's, he's potential, like, if you are the offensive coordinator at Oregon, it used to be you would go become a head coach at a G5 school. He's not doing that. Will Stein's next job is head coach at a power conference school,

probably in the SDC of the Big Ten. Yeah, because every single G5 job would be a downgrade, wouldn't it? In pay and probably prestige. So yes. Yeah. So the only two things that anyone cares about, yeah. Yeah. So, yes, there are.

candidates and you the next great one's going to be you don't know like Clemson the next great one was the receivers coach with the funny name in 2008 it is a funny name mm-hmm uh the next great georgia coach was alabama's defensive coordinator the next great ohio state coach was ohio state's quarterbacks coach sometimes you don't know yeah so and yeah maybe you could make the case of all the Urban Meyer type hires that have been made, that Urban Meyer was one of the relative few ones that actually lived up to it. Yes. Yes. Because you have seen, like, we'll see what happens with Brian Kelly at LSU, but that's

that type of hire. Lincoln Riley at USC is that type of hire. They were coming from big prestige programs, whereas Urban Meyer was coming to worldwide, from Utah, which was a Mountain West School at the time. But the ones who were viewed as sure things. But Jimbo Fisher was viewed as a sure thing when he went to Texas A&M. Do my guy, Kyle, and he's in here running point, and he reminded me of something I wanted to ask you. We're talking about coaches who are entering or are in danger zones.

This one? We spent the entire offseason discussing Brent Venables' seat. Yep. And it's various levels of heat under it. We had forgotten about him. I don't even think you put Brent Venables on that list. We were at his game today, and we watched him get beat badly. What do you think about how things could turn with him as soon as maybe three weeks from now?

I think if things go badly in the next three weeks, he could turn on him very quickly. It felt like he was out of the woods and then you're right back in it. But I also think if you win a couple of those, you're fine. Yeah. I just feel less enthused about the notion that they will. So, again, Prisoner of the Moment stuff, who knows. but, you know, it's out there. Yeah, Jimbo Fisher is out there waiting for another offer.

Listen, I'll take your head coaching job because I'll be terrible at it and you'll fire me and my dream's always been to be paid to not work. So I'm in. Like Wisconsin, you want to hire me? I love Madison. I will come up there. I will put together a roster that is probably as performs as badly as the one

Luke Fickle has and you can fire me and pay me. And I'll leave. And then you finally hire Jim Leonard like you should have all along. Dude, that's a good plan. Yeah. Or maybe they just do that now. Yeah, my dream is to be a fired anything that gets paid. That's true.

I guess it doesn't have to be a coach. I'll be a fire to anything. Ari, this is going to be a crazy week. If you did not listen to Thursday's show, I do, I recommend you head back to Thursday's episode. the mailbag segment. I believe this question starts around the 31 or 32 minute mark of the show. It's Lori's question in the mailbag segment where Lori brings up or imagines the white elephant party. It's also called a Yankee swap or they're different names for it.

But it's you bring a wrapped gift and you can kind of trade them, steal them. And what Lori posited was that you have a white elephant party for coaches and a white elephant party for programs. which programs would go to the party and try to swap their coach and which coaches would try to go to the party and swap their programs. We had a very interesting discussion about it. We mentioned James Franklin, and we said James Franklin probably would go swap for another program. Penn State would probably go swap for another coach just because it kind of run its course. We never in a million years imagine we'd be talking about Penn State losing Northwestern or night. Never in a million years.

but I think we're going to have to have the white elephant conversation again this week. Yeah. Yeah, there's new names that are in the mix and new what-ifs to discuss. And that was such a good discussion. Maybe we're just trying to go back to the well for more of it. Thank you, Lori. But there is this constant churn of results that changed the circumstances. Like Lincoln Riley was one that I put up on Friday, a Thursday.

Lincoln Riley's gold. He's a made man now. 48 hours later. Yeah. Vice versa with some guys. So, yeah, I'd be happy to do that again. This is going to be a crazy week. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be very interesting.

I have a feeling the next two or three weeks are going to be very interesting because these jobs are going to start popping because people are going to start panicking and start making moves. But I do think, like Wisconsin was something we were only obliquely talking about. They're now in full desperation mode. Penn State will have to see what happens. Florida, we think we know what's going to happen. Auburn, we think, we don't know.

But yeah, thank you for watching. Be sure to subscribe to the On 3 YouTube page. If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, please subscribe to the podcast. Leave reviews. Yeah, leave reviews. We like the five-star ones. Those are nice.

But any honest feedback is welcome. We love you guys. Thank you so much. We will see you on Sunday with some stuff. I imagine we'll have We'll have to preview some games for next week But we're probably going to have to deal with some breaking news too So we'll talk to you on Sunday