Andy & Ari On3 - INSTAGRAM OFFICIAL: Why LSU-Ole Miss is the BEST game of College Football’s Week 5 Schedule

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

On Monday night, Lane Kiffin tweeted the 3 words "Take the over" with a football emoji at the end of it. What prompted this? A social media post with Lane Kiffin's daughter and LSU LB Whit Weeks ahead of the LSU-Ole Miss game this weekend. Now that the world knows that Landry Kiffin is dating LSU's linebacker, this game in Oxford just got a lot more interesting. Watch as Andy & Ari break this news down and then dive into the LSU-Ole Miss matchup from Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mike Gundy video here: https://youtube.com/live/NiNO8IxSj6k (0:00-1:22) Mike Gundy News(1:23-2:01) On Today’s Episode(2:02-4:22) BetMGM(4:23-7:09) Intro: Today’s world of dating(7:10-18:17) Whit Weeks + Landry Kiffin ahead of LSU-Ole Miss(18:18-19:29) Huel(19:30-23:03) Are they Legitimately good?(23:04-31:21) Ole Miss, Legitimately good?(31:22-32:34) Modelo(32:35-41:39) Florida State, Legitimately good?(41:40-45:15) PaniniAmerica.net(45:16-58:17) Texas A&M, Legitimately good?(58:18-58:50) Conclusion Later, the discussion of Ole Miss leads Ari into diving into other sneaky good teams ahead of week 5 in college football. Headed to Tallahassee next, Andy & Ari dive deep into Mike Norvell's rising Seminoles. To close, Andy & Ari take a look at College Station, where the Aggies are set to host Hugh Freeze and the Auburn Tigers. Are the Aggies a REAL threat for the CFP? Watch as Andy & Ari discuss here. 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. Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code STAPLES15 at https://huel.com/STAPLES15 (Minimum $75 purchase)  We’re also brought to you by Panini! Panini delivers the most collectible sports cards and memorabilia on the planet. Check out the new exclusive Arch Manning collection or the Panini Prizm Draft Picks College Football series. Visit PaniniAmerica.net to start your collection today. Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/LlzejwSYLko 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.

Hey, it's Andy. You may be looking at the headline of this show and saying, wait, are they just ignoring the biggest news of the day? No, we are not. While we were recording this show, Oklahoma State fired Mike Gundy. And so we decided we were going to drop everything from the show that we were working on and then do a fully dedicated Mike Gundy live stream, which we did. So we did 30 minutes talking about Mike Gundy, who is the best coach Oklahoma State has ever had. What he made. meant to the program and also why he got fired, how everything course snowballed until what happened on Tuesday with his firing. So we talk a lot about that. We talk about potential candidates at Oklahoma State. So if you want to talk Mike Gundy, if you want to relive the rant, if you want to discuss the reasons things fell apart over the last few years, Ari and I talked a lot about it. We've got a whole video on the On Three Sports YouTube page. Also, it is in the podcast feed. So If you want to listen to it rather than watch on video, all your podcast platforms will have that show as well. So we're going to talk Lane Kiffin, Landry Kiffin, and Witt Weeks.

We're going to talk about programs that we think might be good, but we're not quite sure yet. But if you want Mike Gundy, we got all the Mike Gundy talk you want on the On3Sports YouTube page and on your favorite podcast platform. So go check it out. on today's episode of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM there's a new relationship or at least it's now Instagram official that just turned the LSU Ole Miss game into the most interesting game of the weekend and maybe the most interesting game of the season

also are yeah areas are these teams good Ole Miss is one of those teams Florida State Texas A&M Missouri We've got a few of them. Are they good? It's a legitimate question. On today is Andy and Ari.

We are presented by BetMGM, and if you have not signed up for BetMGM yet, now is the best time. Sign up now. Use the bonus code CFB as in college football, and you'll get up to $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with BenMGM. Here's how it works.

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This is, well, I need help from you because you're younger than me. You were single a lot more recently than I was. You were, you dated in this era of dating. I did not. Crushed it, by the way. I don't know if you know that about me. Crushed it. Oh, I know.

You were all over the apps. I hear people complain about the dating apps. River. Our producer doesn't like the dating apps. And I get that it can be a hard world out there. There's some hay to be made on those things. So, when I. was last single, which was a long, long time ago, my 25th anniversary is next July.

There was no social media. Social media did not exist. So the rules of how things work now are a little foreign to me. I do have teenagers. So they've had, they've explained some things to me. So when you are dating someone, you are not Instagram official until you post a photo of yourself and that person on Instagram. Right. So that is that is now the announcement to the world that you are dating someone, that you are in a relationship, is when that photo appears on Instagram. It's a big deal.

It is a big deal. It's like an announcement. I remember when I was dating my now life, we dated for months before really communicating that to the world. And when you post the first picture, that's like, you know, telling everybody in both lives,

like everybody in her life and everybody in my life that, hey, we're seeing each other. you know that's uh that means something now i can't imagine being a public figure to that extent you know like we are well i mean it's sort of the the version of when a celebrity back in the day would step out on the red carpet and allow themselves to be photographed with this other person yeah and like you know you and i are quasi public figures um but not public figures and nobody cares like my instagram and maybe i need to like be better about this from a professional standpoint, but my Instagram is purely personal.

And so when I posted Brittany for the first time, that was a acknowledgement to my friends and family of that happening. And for her, too, this one is a little bit more intense and the timing of it. Let me explain. So this pops on to Instagram yesterday. And it was one of those things that within minutes of it appearing on Instagram, it was all over the internet. So this is the photo that Landry Kiffin, who is the daughter of Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin, posted on Instagram. Now, I'll point out it was not the first photo because people

will post a series of photos and you have to swipe to see them all. This was photo number two in a set of photos that she posted on Monday on Instagram. Eagle-eyed SEC football fans very quickly identified the gentleman that she has her arm around in this photo. that is LSU linebacker Witt Weeks. And it certainly seems like Landry Kiffin and Wittweeks were making their deal, Instagram official on the Monday of the week that LSU plays Ole Miss. You know, I'm not a big TMZ guy, but I do think that the level of troll that Kiffin is, you know,

doing at this moment is legendary. levels and lander or lane uh lane this is lane i want you to tell people your conspiracy theory i think lane did i think lane put her up to this so if you want acknowledgement like you think okay maybe this wasn't this is just somebody messing around so whit weeks was the first person to comment on this this photo and he said nice dude and landry kiffin in response to it thanks bud I do love how they talk to each other. Like, I talked to my wife after 25 years of marriage. They're flirting, Andy.

They're flooring. Yeah. Hey, thanks, pal. Yeah. But it is, it is very, very conspicuous the timing. And Lane Kiffin, of course, being the troll that he is, like, I feel like this is an op to get inside the head of Witt Weeks star LSU linebacker. And Lane Kiffin, by the way, saw that everyone noticed this.

had a message for the world three word message take the over I like it I like the play I do like the over Andy so I like that you and I what are we like 12 or 15 years apart in age not that many I turn 47 next week so okay so less than 10 years okay yeah but like there is still a generational gap between 10 that's a lot of time and River and I dating apps and when I was single if you met someone on the internet it meant they were going to chop

you up in little pieces. Yeah and you also got married very young so you missed the whole thing. And River is about 10 or 15 years younger than me so he's in the heart of it and the one thing that I am confused about and I don't know if this was true for you when you were in Florida or at Florida I should say but and we're also not

oh by the way you know who's a student at Florida when I was Hey, Layla Reeves, now Layla Kiffin, Landry's mom. Oh, okay. So here we go. Yeah, we're all wrapping it up. But the thing I don't understand, we don't have celebrity football coaches or parents. But I feel like I didn't meet a lot of people who went to school at other places when I was in college. Now, funny enough, my now wife apparently visited U of A when I was 22 years old and I met her.

at a bar and I had a girlfriend at the time and I like was dismissive apparently of her in that moment and I hear about it because we didn't meet until like 10 or 15 years later but I don't have any friends that went to ASU really I didn't have I didn't meet people that went to USC or or place see at Florida we would have we would have friends from high school who would bring their friends who went to colleges elsewhere and especially they went to college up north where the up north schools have fall break yeah we would all bring their friends down to visit us on their fall break because our our weather was still good it was still football season and so that's how you would meet people from other colleges when I was in college yeah but

I see like like didn't Quinn yours's girlfriend go to Oklahoma like it's like I don't even know how that's like how that works now also do they know each other in high school like I would imagine if you went to high school in Dallas, there's a good chance you go to Oklahoma or Texas, yeah. But there is a lot of like intermingling between like athletes and people of, and maybe it's just Instagram makes the world smaller. I don't know what we don't have an origin story on this thing yet. So it could be friend of a friend. It could be, you know, there's a lot of different ways this could have gone.

Now, the rabbit hole, like Lane found out when we did. Like that's the point. No, Lane already knew. And so the internet tells you these things. Like as soon as I posted the screenshots of it. Somebody posted a video in the comments that's from like two weeks ago of Landry Kiffin and Whitwick's sister on a video together, I don't know, and Instagram Live, something like that. And so clearly the families know, everybody knows. So this one I saw on the internet and I was watching this video of Landry and Lane together.

And this is from two weeks ago. So this is the day that Ole Miss played Arkansas, but all. of the day that LSU played Florida. And Lane had a question for Landry and watch the interaction here and tell me this isn't Lane trying to get her to go public with it then. Okay.

The pick of the week by Landry, here we go. Because she studies football a lot, really. Watches a lot of it. Okay. Oh, there's a big one tonight. Florida Gidders, your mother's alma mater. Going to Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. to play the LSU Tigers.

What's your prediction? I think LSU will win. By how much? 14. There you guys have it. She was close. They won by 10. The question is, did she stop watching after the first quarter?

Because Wittweeks was ejected for targeting in the first quarter of that game. well i mean we have to give some flowers here like whit weeks is a dog like i mean i had a good job what weeks coach and my daughter was dating somebody i would be just fine with whit weeks being the guy you know uh there are a lot of good players on uh lsu's team i think it is very funny that they are playing this week um and it actually is a this would be the game of the week i think in other instances

if like Alabama and georgia and penn state and oregon weren't playing so like this is like a funny little anecdote to talk about but like this is actually a huge game now this is the one question that i have for you andy okay your conspiracy theory is true there are dynamics here between father and daughter and daughter and boyfriend that i'm interested in and that is if lane kiffin told landry to hard launch this thing on social media this week and you are correct and by the way if lane kiffin would do anything it is that like i am like full i I'm not a conspiracy theory person. It's in his wheelhouse.

That one is like, feels probable to me. You are also needling your boyfriend. So where does the loyalty land? Because you don't want to disrupt his preparation for a huge game in his young career. You want to help your dad. What if Whitley's older to post it? I don't know. Ari, you've out kicked your coverage.

I've out kicked my coverage. Whitweeks is in the midst of outkicking his coverage. I actually disagree. I am a very attractive man. You are, but I don't think I'm speaking out of school here. I saw your wife yesterday. Yeah. Like in person.

Yeah. So you know the power dynamics when one has out kicked his coverage. Yes. Whitweeks, if we're a total pole of power here, One of the Kiffins is at the top. Maybe Landry or maybe Lane, I don't know. But he's a distant third in the paradigmics of this. All of this.

Yeah. I just like he's at it. I think you can make a case that this game might be more important to his life than this game is the Lane Kiffin's life. Right. So, you know, there is some emotional, you know, I love talking about feelings. I love talking about feelings. You do.

This game just got a little more with regard to football. Yes. Yeah. All football is is feelings. That's all it is. So, yeah, congratulations to the young couple. I hope they find happiness and are in love and all the wonderful things that come along with that.

We got a football game this weekend, though. And I'm very excited to see this. Take the over, baby. Yeah, take the over. And what does he mean by that? He means we're going to pile on the points on your boyfriend. Yes. Yeah.

This is my version. of cleaning the shotgun on the porch. Yes. We're going to hang 50 on you. The question is, is, what jersey does Landry wear to the game? Oh, well, here's the thing. It's an Ole Miss home game. It's an Ole Miss home game, and she's an Ole Miss student.

And she's in the Greek system at Ole Miss. She ain't wearing a jersey, or she's wearing a dress. Yeah, what color dress? Maybe you go like a blue dress with a yellow scarf or something? I don't think so. I think she probably just goes full Ole Miss colors right now. Why don't we just get a seamstress to like cut a dress in half and do half yellow on one side and half blue on the other, you know, and do the whole. Because that would be hideous.

And you've never been to a game at Ole Miss. We went to a game at Ole Miss together. It's plain to me that people who go to college in the SEC who dress up for games want to look good. Like, I get it. Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing. You can't do any of the normal tricks when you are dressing to impress at an Ole Miss game. Like, you just have to do what you were going to do.

Yeah, yeah. Third most interesting game of the week that I think is going to go a long way and determining how things shape out in the SEC in November. And I don't know if we've done our time here, but this might be a perfect segue to what we're actually talking about today. It is a great segue. LSU, we are pretty sure, is good. Ole Miss, we're not necessarily sure,

and we want to see if they get on the list. But before we go into the list of teams that we think might be good but aren't quite sure yet, I want to tell you about Hewle, the world's number one complete nutrition, the Hewle Black Edition, chocolate, vanilla, it's a complete meal,

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42 vitamins, minerals, and superfood, super greens, adaptogens, lions, main mushroom, four grams of fiber, electrolytes, and antioxidants, all in one can. Get your day started the right way with Hewle. Go to Hewel.com. H-U-E-L.com, use the promo code Staples 15. So Staples-15. You get 15% off your first purchase of $75 or more plus a free gift. That is Huell.com. Code Staples 15 for 15% off, first purchase of $75 or more and a free gift. Hule, the world's number one, complete nutrition. All right, all right. So we can talk about this. Ole Miss fits into this category of a team

we think might be good, might be a playoff contender, but we're really not sure. yet. And I think I feel more sure based on the way the defense played against Tulane because their defense was my biggest concern after the Arkansas game. And really after the Kentucky game, because they did make Kentucky look somewhat serviceable on offense, and I wasn't sure if Kentucky was serviceable on offense. So I think I feel better about that. If they beat LSU, they're certainly in the mix for everything, for playoffs, for SEC

championship, you name it. Before we go into this, because there are certainly other teams that might fit this category. Can you give the list? Because you wrote about this ad on three earlier this week. I'll give the list and I'll explain how I arrived at the list. Okay, so one is Missouri, okay, Vanderbilt, USC, Texas Tech, Georgia Tech, Florida State, TCU, Texas A&M, and Ole Miss. So all of these teams are undefeated. Okay.

Now, some of them claim some pretty important wins. I think that Florida State probably stands out in Georgia Tech maybe, depending on how you view it. I don't view a win against Clemson that way. So I think Florida State certainly can claim that. But then also A&M of undefeated teams who have what you would think to be quality wins on their resume. Florida State stands out the most because they beat Alabama. and I think that we think that Alabama is still a pretty good football team. Yeah.

So there are teams that have actually lost games that might fit this category. I didn't include them because they have lost. Like Notre Dame, for instance, I think would fight in this category. Even, I don't know if you could put Illinois in here because Illinois lost by so much. But Indiana, we're not put in here because we just think they're good. Yeah, right. Like, these are teams that we think are good. It's not a guarantee that they're good, but ones that, like, I'm concerned with.

And, like, there's one pretty big omission in River. I want you to make a graphic of this behind the scenes if you can before we get to them. But I believe Tennessee also deserves to be on this list of teams that, you know, have shown stuff this year and look really good and are certainly worthy of being excited over. But are they actually, when I say are they good, I meant like good enough to make a run in the postseason. Right. And I think Tennessee does belong in this list, but they've already got a loss. This other group is a bunch of undefeated teams that we have not seen them face it. yet. But I also think that Tennessee's loss, although I'm not a huge moral victories guy,

proved just about as much as any loss could possibly prove. So, you know, for me, I still think that we undervalued, or at least I did in the offseason, what Tennessee might be capable of at the upper tier. Now, I don't know if they'll achieve that, but their ceiling as much higher as a team than I thought it would be. And that's because Joey Aguilar obviously has been more effective than you would have thought that he could be given the circumstances of his arrival. So Ole Miss to me is maybe, you know, Missouri is the poster child of this because Missouri has two exciting players on offense that everyone's talking about. They've beaten the crap out of everybody that they played, but they have yet to really get to the meat of their

schedule yet. And we like the Kansas win and we like the South Carolina win. Like we think those are very respectable wins. Very encouraging wins. Yeah. And that's why I though the poster child because I've done it twice. But in the name of the segue, let's go back to Ole Miss and try to break this down. Ole Miss is undefeated. Ole Miss was the team last year that went all in on the portal that was supposed to have been the peak example of how much a good team can turn into a great team and they vastly underachieved. And it was a damn shame because Andy, you and I both saw both in person on television that when Ole Miss was playing peak level football under Kiffin, that was a team

that could, I truly believe and will never be able to prove it. Last year's Ole Miss team playing its best football could have beaten Ohio State on the right day. And that's the team that ended up winning the national title. And I know that Ole Miss fans probably feel that way too, which is part of the reason why there were so much disappointment with the way that last year ended. Now, we've seen all these players go off into the NFL, like Prince Lee, I can't say. O'Meemie Ellen, was making plays in the NFL. yesterday all over the field they had dudes on their team that they don't have anymore but is this

team capable in your mind andy of doing something even better than they did last year yes and we talked about this in the off season fairly obliquely because we didn't really know how it manifests but we said okay they got another good transfer portal hall it does not have the name brand cache of Walter Nolan coming to them, you know, in the position that they probably needed the most. And, you know, they don't have necessarily the great D-line that they had last year, where they might have had the best D-line in the country depending on the day. So there's not one obvious position group or anything else, but they may just be another good group of athletes that Lane Kiffin's put together.

And I think Lane is, he gets credit for what he does in the portal. I don't know if he gets enough credit for what he does with the guys he takes out of high school or the guys that they take out of the portal early, early in their careers, and they actually end up spending most of their career at Ole Miss and developing there. I think he's done a good job. We've not seen a chemistry dip for Ole Miss under Lane despite the roster churn. So I think he's pretty good at this. And this team specifically, you know, they went and got a quarterback out of the portal that nobody was talking about.

Because they brought Austin Simmons up. He was a high school signee. He was the backup to Jackson Dart last year. He was the heir apparent. He gets hurt in the Kentucky game. And they bring in Trinidad Chambleau, who came from Ferris State, which, by the way, that Ferris State offense is all over the power conferences. right now. So Faris State was the D2 national champ last year. And a bunch of players from Ferris State wound up on good time teams. Trinidad Shameless, though, is the headliner of that bunch. He was the

quarterback. They wanted an experienced backup. That's what he's there for. And now they've got the best problem to have is you've got two good quarterbacks. Yeah. I mean, I think that that's the number one interesting thing about this to go get a player that can play at that level unexpectedly too because he came into a game without any prep that week as the starter right two weeks ago um so and it's played at a high level now we've gotten to the point where austin simmons who we we spent the entire off season saying had a chance to be an absolute dog if he's injured we're like oh that's not a big deal like they're playing lSU and oh it's not a big deal like that is a huge coup for them so uh you know old miss you know the one thing that i worry about

with them and you're better at this identification maybe than i am but we spent some time earlier in the season watching south carolina in person and we came up with this alien test um in south carolina funny enough uh is a two lost team now um but they have three legitimate human versions of aliens. That makes sense. They've got three aliens. They're freaks. They're freaks. Dylan Stewart, Lenore, Sellers, and Nick Harbor, yeah. Who are Ole Misses freaks? And I wonder if when they start playing teams like LSU this weekend, who has freaks,

when they play big-time SEC games, they've got Georgia on the road in Oklahoma back-to-back later on on their schedule, which, by the way, not a great one-two punch for your schedule, are those people going to show up? Because last year you could name three or four guys on Ole Miss's team that fit that mold, and I don't know where to go with it here. Am I missing somebody obvious? That what you would consider as a freak? Not obvious because, like, Central Perkins is a very interesting athlete, but I don't know that you put him on the list of like where Walter Nolan was last year. And obviously very different, very different players.

Perkins is kind of an undersized edge guy. but he's they can do a lot of things with him Q on Lacey's been really good you certainly wouldn't call him a freak he he looks like a really good running back basically um you know they got what they had on their team last year I know I know it doesn't there's nobody who stands out in the same way if you know as last year let me just name the names Walter Nolan Jackson Dart who just five minutes ago was name starter for New York uh giants this coming weekend against the chargers which brings us to trey harris freak six foot three two and five pound receiver who's a starter in uh la tray amos princely uman mien me ellen

did i do it right jordan watson chris paul junior who i believe is also playing and starting chris paul was awesome now he wasn't one that was a big headliner going into the season last year but it was just critically important to them and then you had guys like jared ivy who'd been there who were really good, solid players who are now NFL players. Yeah, so they are not nearly as deep from a freak standpoint as they were last year, but I wonder as we get further and further removed from the five-star high school recruiting era, if teams that are functional gel well are coached well, obviously they're very creative offensively, provide a avenue for winning games at a level that wasn't available to them

five years ago. And I think this would fit that mold. So, you know, we'll see how it goes this week. We both pick them to beat LSU. And LSU is a team that has four freaks, I think, that we can come up with, and one of which, I don't know if this is the appropriate time to refer to a certain linebacker is a freak, but he's very good. So, you know, we'll see, but Ole Miss is certainly on my radar. I would definitely put them on there. And look, Ole Miss is favored in this game. The line has moved toward Ole Miss even since it opened.

Like it's gotten bigger since it opened. Yeah. And I take a lot of stock in what they just did to Tulane. Now, I know Tulane isn't an SEC team and, you know, whatever. Tulane was, I think, one of our three favorite G5 programs to make it with the way that they were playing with Jake. With Jake Reds left, Tulane beat Duke. They beat Northwestern. Like, that doesn't mean anything, but they beat Duke.

To beat them 45 to 10 means things were working. If you're dunking basketballs on the sideline in the second half, things are going well. But this is yet another game where Lane Kiffin in the past. has not shown up. We thought he got over that hump last year and blowing out Georgia. Can they do it again and do it again at a time in which

it's early in the season and you can really get those people on Oxford fired up. All right. We're going to continue with this list. We're going to leave the SEC and go into the ACC for another team. But first, I want to tell you about Modelo.

Grab yourself and stay game day ready all season long. We talk about the full-time fans. We've been handing out medellos, well, ceremonial medellos to full-time fans all season. We're going to keep doing that throughout the year. When I get a chance to sit down and watch a little college football and I'm not working, which is rare, but when I get a chance, I crack a medello. Just an amazing, amazing, amazing beer. So grab yourself a medello. Stay game day ready all season long. You're a full-time fan. You've earned it.

You have earned that reward for rooting through what you've had to root through in a lot of these places. We're about to talk about Florida State. Florida State fans, full-time fans, because those guys suffered through last season. Now they're enjoying it. The question is, how much are they going to get to enjoy it? And we're going to talk about that right now. But reward yourself with Medello for what you've done already and then get ready for the cheering you're going to do. so stay game day ready all season long with medello ari as we move through your list of teams we think are good but we're not entirely sure yet here's an interesting one florida state probably the biggest win of any team on this list with what they did to Alabama in week one and we don't entirely know what alabama is we'll have a much better idea after they played georgia this week but i think we have a pretty good idea with

Florida State because it didn't seem fluky even after that they play teams they should be blowing out but they really are blowing them out and making it look like you know kind of name your score blowouts this is so much smoother than last year and it really just makes last year even more confusing but I kind of wonder Ari like we talked about this last year sometimes maybe a group of people just don't work well together and we're maybe seeing that with Clemson this year. And maybe that was just it. Maybe it was that particular group of people just didn't work. But this particular group of people that Mike Norville has assembled in Tallahassee this year seems be working really well. Yeah, I also hate to pile on individual players. But, you know,

I think it's a fair assessment that Florida State's quarterback situation did not work. It was a non-functional situation a year ago. And I wonder how much that permeates the rest of the roster. You know, when things feel hard, when you don't have confidence in your offense to move up and down the field, even against overmatched opponents, I think that that does a lot to kind of quell any jelling or, you know, momentum, a program could probably have Andy, like, and I think that was part of it. And I think, you know, going into this offseason, because we didn't know what Florida State was going to be, I think that, you know, my viewpoint was eight and four is their ceiling. And if they reach it, then they're on the right track. And now it feels like if they go eight and four, that would be a pretty big disappointment. Now, a lot of the misfires last year at the quarterback position, I think maybe put Tommy Castellanos in an unfair situation. Because when you look at the circumstances of the way that things went for him at the end of his BC era, the fact that he came in in the off season is an undersized

player, you could have made a lot of parallels between, hey, we're going to get another quarterback that at times in his career at another place showed flashes, but there are red flags. you know, and it was easier to write off Florida State's attempt at fixing the quarterback position, but the way that they went about doing it. And then he comes out and says all the interesting, fun things about Alabama and the offseys, and then backs that shit up, dude. Like, he backed it up.

Oh, yeah. And, like, the fact that he backed it up, you want to talk about, like, pieces working together, what galvanizes a locker room or a group of people of hearing your young or your new quarterback? poke the bear, the biggest bear in college football, and then slay that bear. I, you know, I take a lot of credence in that. You know, whether or not Florida State is a team that can go on to win games in the playoff, I still think remains to be seen. But there isn't a single game on their ACC schedule that scares me.

Now, the rest of their roster, I think, is in Miami does, but you don't even have to beat Miami. You know, Miami does. Yeah. You know, I said doesn't scare me. Miami should scare you. There are certain games that should scare you. There aren't any games on their schedule that I think that they cannot win. Like, there's no way that I can view a Florida. And Miami might be the only one they're not favored in the rest of the way. One more thing about the, the reclamation situation and Tommy Castellanos, the other piece of that is Gus Malzant. Because, we had we had given up on Gus Malz on the play caller because Gus Malz on the head coach at UCF the offense just really didn't work and so when he became the offensive coordinator at Florida State

we were like oh yeah he did a UCF a favor they didn't have to fire him but we didn't really consider the possibility that as just the OC with only that to worry about yeah that he goes back to being what he was as an OC which was an ingenious OC yeah you know and they also have like pieces on their roster that were once highly rated prospects that weren't overly productive at their previous stops who are doing really well and i think that inspires confidence i think the one that stands out to everybody of course is obviously tight end deuce robinson now he only had one catch against kent state i don't know how much you read into that but also the half-pack not much gavin saw chuck you know averaging 8.8 yards of carry against kent state 11 carries for 97 yards two touchdowns like they have guys on their team that are familiar faces, familiar names. And you did bring this up on the preview show on Monday, Andy, of like, hey, just because somebody wasn't producing at a previous place doesn't mean that a new change of scenery,

a new scheme, a new system, a new coach even can get out, you know, better results and more production out of those players than they got a previous stop. So, you know, I don't know that this is like a victory lap that, you know, Florida State is, you know, a ready made ACC championship team level this year. I think we're going to find out on Friday night. That might sound crazy, but Friday night is a finicky line on the road, and it's a weeknight game at Virginia, and it scares the crap out of me. And as I booked my flight to Florida State this morning,

I sure as hell hope that that game is between undefeated Florida State and undefeated Miami. But, like, I feel like I am on high alert for, you know, this is an ACC contender, and we're going to find out a hell of a lot as soon as, you know, three days from now, and I can't wait to watch it. Yeah, I think the way they beat Alabama, tempers a little bit of this fear because I think if they were just sitting there at undefeated and they hadn't really played anybody yet but they'd looked great like they have against the

lesser lights on their schedule they're just sitting here at three and oh you'd go well I don't know anything I need to see them beat Virginia Tech but the way they beat Alabama that's very repeatable Like a team that can do that to the level of talent that Alabama has can do that to anybody. And I look at this schedule now, and obviously the Miami game is going to be tough. But Pittsburgh, Stanford, Wake Forest, even Clemson, they're going to be favored. Virginia Tech, NC State, they're going to be favored. God only knows what Florida will be by the time Florida State has to go to Gainesville. And so they're going to be favored in that too.

This is a team that their expectations, it's interesting because their expectations probably rose immediately once they beat Alabama, but they should feel very realistic about having high expectations for this group right now. Yeah. And you want Tommy Castellanos to continue to play well. You know, you want those players to produce. You want Deuce Robinson to keep catching balls. And the thing that I will say more than anything. And, you know, this is a commentary that I've had. against, you know, Alabama in that opener and certainly for Florida State,

there is a look about teams, a passionate look. Like Florida State plays angry, Andy. They play like they are so tired and still. I mean, the clips of their backs lead blocking on Alabama linebackers and just knocking them on their butts. It's personal time. Yeah. And the fact is, not everybody can do that.

Not every team can do that. the fact that they did suggest they can do it again and you know in the in the picks segment I picked Florida State to cover this seven you pick Virginia to cover it but we're going to find out a lot

about Seminoles on Friday night yeah cannot wait to watch it and again if we can get a vintage Florida State Miami undefeated undefeated situation going you know in a week was that week six like God please please please and that's listen

no matter what happens in Charlottesville on Friday night, that's going to be the biggest game in week six, but it's going to be Titanic. It's going to feel like the 90s again with Florida State and Miami. And I've never been to Tallahassee before. I've never been to the city. So I can't imagine being indoctrated. You're going to like Doke Campbell when Florida State's good,

because when Doke Campbell is rocking, it is one of the coolest stadiums in America. You've got the marching chiefs blasting out from the top of the end zone. It is an intimidating place for the visiting team to play when they're really good. And right now, they look really good. So we will find out on Friday night a little more about the Seminoles. Don't know if we'll find everything out, but we really only need a few more days after

that before we know exactly what kind of team we're dealing with and whether this is a real playoff contender or not. Ari, before we move on to one other team, we're going to go back to the SEC. But you want to rip a Panini pack? Oh, yeah. Let's see if we can pull out another one-to-one Mahomes. That's right. That's right. I got a one-to-one in my homes on the show last week. And I still got this autographed Bazooka Joe Milton. I know he got in the game when they were getting blown out by the Cowboys.

It's so funny watching the NFL fans still hold out hope for Bazook-Joe. Guy's got a cannon, dude. You say what you want about Bazooka Joe. The guy can throw the ball. They'll never give up. The Tennessee fans will probably try to educate them, but they'll never give up. All right. A classic Dan Marino. Look at Dan Marino in that beautiful, with the Dolphins logo looking like it's supposed to look. C.J. Stroud.

Oh. Little Bo Nix in the classic Broncos throwbacks. Mike Singletary. Got a numbered Pooka and Akua here. That is numbered. to $2.99, this is Pooka Nakua. Got a bright beginnings jersey swatch, Brock Bowers. Got an unforgettable Joe Burrow, and Bingles fans are not forgetting Joe Burrow.

They're just depressed that he's not playing. Got Derek Harmon, who made his NFL debut for the Steelers this week. Malachi Stark's, former Joe. Georgia D.B. now at the Ravens. And Jack Beck, former TCU Hornfrog and LSU Tiger, now playing for the Raiders. So no one of ones in that one. Got the numbered Pooka Nukuoka, got the Jersey swatch, Brock Bowers. But this Patrick Mahomes from last week, still the king. I've got a few that I'll show you while I'm here. I'm not running back, but I got some pretty big Rome-Odunze cards here. This one is a RPA out of

Immaculate. Now, that's a higher end product out of Panini, but that is a RPA numbered in the 99 and that's an on card auto. So you want to hold on to that one. And here's one out of the Panini one where you get one or sometimes two cards per box and they come sealed. This one

is Romo Dunzei Orange number 20 rookie patch auto. I've got an immaculate auto here of Tyreek Hill. He's pretty good, right? And a few other Panini ones here to show you. got Lashon McCoy, remember Shady McCoy, Andy?

Oh, absolutely. It's on what's one for all. This one's numbered to 99. And then this one, you might want to hold on ice. This is a immaculate collection standard Caleb Williams rookie patch. And that's numbered to 49.

Maybe Sunday was the beginning of something very, very special between Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams. We're kind of negging Caleb, you know, so far in his career. I think that he's shown some flashes of, but here's one more, an immaculate patch auto. It's not a rookie, but this is Chris Godwin, another great receiver from the NFL. You should be back soon, which will give Baker Mayfield some help because Mike Evans had a hammy issue. Yes.

Yeah. So best hobby in the world. Paniniamerica.net to start your collection today, they've got a bunch of cool college products. They've got a new Ohio State team set that's really awesome. So go to paniniacca. dot net and start your collection. Ari, let's move to college station because we talked about Florida State. We talked about Ole Miss. I think Texas A&M belongs in this bunch too. We saw them beat Notre Dame. We don't exactly know what that means yet. But they play Auburn this week.

And Auburn's in a desperate situation after losing at Oklahoma last week. So A&M facing a dangerous team. This is a team that really A&M should be out for revenge based on what happened last year when they played at Auburn because A&M was a playoff contender going to that game. After losing to Auburn, A&M goes to the Texas game where they still could have gotten in the SEC championship game, but they would have had three losses. So they were shocked by Auburn last year. I don't think they're going to let Auburn shock them. I don't think Cam Coleman will surprise them. I think everybody is aware of how. dangerous he is.

But this Texas A&M offense, let's talk about their receivers. Let's talk about Mario Craver, Mississippi State Transfer, Casey Concepcion, NC State Transfer, Marcel Reed, the quarterback, who I think people were surprised when he came in last year, but now realize they knew what they were doing with this guy. Yeah, so let's talk about feelings first, my favorite topic. Of course. Are you willing? Or are you able to change your tune about what seems to be constant inevitability?

About there being something supernatural about Texas A&M not ever reaching its potential? The supernatural guide to 8 and 4. I am looking at A&M schedule at the moment, and I'm sure River has it. He can show you. You are looking at a home game against Auburn. Then you have Mississippi State, Florida, and Arkansas before facing LHU and Missouri, which is the most important two-game stretch of their season. South Carolina, Sanford, and then they close at Texas.

I think that we have to be 10 and 2 against the schedule to make the playoff this year. With what we've seen out of A&M so far, and I, you know, say what you want about Notre Dame, that was a hell of a freaking win. That was a hell of a win. And not just because they won the game, how they did it, where they were when they did it, in the circumstances of that final drive. You know, I'm wondering, and I'm going to write about this this week,

but if the fumbled or muffed, I don't know what the right word is, mishandled snap from Tyler Buckner, Notre Dame's holder. Holder is the spell coming undone. If there's something supernatural there, because that is so something that would happen to A&M. So you think extra point Jesus is now on Texas A&M side.

I know. Supernatural and, you know, holy are different, I think. But, like, I think the fact that they not only got the extra opportunity because of a freak play to be down six instead of seven. And then not only did that happen, they capitalized on it by converting on fourth down in goal from like the 12-yard line, like, makes me feel like maybe it's time. for the for the dice to start rolling numbers for A&M. Maybe the past bad luck is now on their side. This is the karma evening out. And if A&M actually does possess one of the best offenses in college football,

and I don't know if you're there yet, I don't know that I'm there yet. But what I do know is, is I love the sum of the parts. I love Marcel Reed and what he showed in that drive. I love their offensive line. Levy on Moss, the running back is one of the most underrated running backs in all of college football. That kid runs so hard. And then you add in two very capable receivers who are not only good, but producing. Like A&M has had good receivers in the past that

haven't produced. I mean, the last time they had a bona fide number one receiver that lit college football on fire literally was Mike Evans, right? And they had Evan Stewart on their team. They've had other guys on their team that just never really matriculated into something great. But if you start to actually buy the hype that A&M can score and score at will on anybody, because I don't think, you know, Notre Dame's defense scoring 41 is something that we just, you know, throw away as Notre Dame's defense stinks. Like that is an incredible performance. And then you look at this roster, where is the third and fourth loss? Now, obviously, that doesn't rule out A&M being A&M, which is losing games, it shouldn't, right? Like if A&M goes and loses to South Carolina or something or Mississippi State, I don't know.

But if they beat Auburn on Saturday and then they beat Florida, even if they go one and two against Missouri, you in Texas, that's probably a playoff resume, and who knows, maybe even an SEC championship level resume. I talk myself into, you know, I am closer to A&M. My wife went there. I have a lot of Aggie friends, but all I see from them all the time, and I'm talking to you, Warren, specifically, a very big Aggie who listens to the show and I appreciate it, is that like they have this existential dread that the bottom, that the shoe is going to drop. Okay, well, we're feeling good right now, you know next week it's just all going to come back to you know just aggies being aggies but like if you can finally let go of that feeling you have a new coach um who is starting to find his stride Mike Elko

feels different for some reason I am willing to buy in at both the roster level and the feelings level now this brings us to our defense I said our defense I'm an Aggie their defense so you can say whoop but i can't i can't no i actually just like you can't if you didn't i do it all the time you're not supposed to unless you went there i don't have a ring i can't hit him with the woo you've never done you've never dunked your agi ring i do love all their traditions it looks like it's so much fun to have gone there and be in part of that club except for the part of the supernatural eight and four thing yeah because when you think about the statistical improbability of having as many resources care want to and players and coaches that

they've had it on those sidelines over the course of the past 35, 40 years of them never being good, it's kind of staggering. Like, it almost feels Cleveland brownish to me. Like, what is wrong with the, there's something wrong with the entity that is removing it. I'm going to throw all that aside. And like, I think I might even just say, like, as we're asking the question, is this team good? Like, I think I might put my neck out there and just say, I think A&M is going to make the playoff this year.

Like, can I just, like, make that prediction right now? Yeah, go ahead. I do think they're going to, like, I wholeheartedly believe they're going to do it. I think there's a chance. I am not ready to go that far, Ari. And it's interesting because, you know, we picked this game. You picked Texas A&M to cover six and a half against Auburn. I picked Auburn to cover, but I'm not picking Auburn necessarily to win the game.

I think Texas A&M probably wins the game. I just feel like that's too many points. But I do feel like Mike Elko makes this feel different. What is it about him to you? I don't know. There's an adult in the room feeling to him that A&M hasn't really had. And look, I actually, I feel bad because I think there's some revisionist history with Kevin Sumblin. Yeah.

Kevin Sumblin's one of the best coaches they ever had at Texas A&M. but it did feel like they'd have these hot starts and they just fall off the table. And Elko feels like he can keep them steady. Now, I say that with no real evidence of that because they did lose two games right at the end of the season last year. So maybe that's not true, but he gives off that vibe. And he didn't, he wasn't boastful about anything,

but I will tell you, I was indestine at the SEC. Spring meetings, and it sort of passed unnoticed when he said it, but I took a little mental note when I sat in there and listened to him, say this. He said, I like our team better in every position group. I like our roster better in every position group. And you and I talked to him last year, and he said how much work there was to do, how much, like he was trying not to throw Jimbo Fisher under the bus, but clearly he was saying, I realize there have been some highly ranked recruiting classes here, but we didn't have a very complete roster. Yeah.

I think he feels like he has a more complete roster this year. You know, do they have a pass rusher as scary as Nick Gordon? I don't think they do, but the totality of their defense, I think they feel pretty good about. Yeah. I think they like their offensive line. We know they love their receivers. that they got out of the portal. Yeah.

The adult in the room thing is very interesting. Now, listen, Kevin Sumlin assembled a football team that if they competed in this era might have done something. Oh, my God. The 2012 Texas team in the playoff would have been the scariest team in the country. Yeah. And I just, I believe that the adult in the room theory is great because it felt like Jimbo Fisher was just kind of all over the room.

the place and i don't know what it was about him this he just never was the same guy that he was when he was building up floristate and i don't know if something changed if it was the amount of the contract the guarantee i i don't want to ascribe anything to jimbo fisher either way but the fact of the matter was he was not the coach that they hired they were trying to hire the guy who got to Tallahassee and got the head coach job in 2009, 2010, and built that thing up. That wasn't him. Elko is doing this in a much, at least what feels like, a much more sustainable way. I really, really, really think.

And I don't know if this is just because of my, this is my confirmation bias, Andy. And you remember like when the Jimbo Fisher firing happened in the circus of who A&M was going to hire was coming, you know, around like all the different crazy theories of like all the things that A&M could have possibly done with all of that oil money and all the splashes they could have made and how big of a statement they could do and get going out and just getting a steady human adult that wasn't sexy, that wasn't going to, you know, get all the crazy headlines and wasn't. going to be some absurd amount of money that would have needed to be paid in order to get him there. It didn't feel like they were making a deal with the devil or selling out every single thing that they had resource wise in order to convince somebody to come to A&M. They got somebody that fits. And I feel like A&M has never really tried to make things fit. They've been trying to throw money at problems and that doesn't do it. And I think that's problem. That's probably the, if you want to get to the real source of like what that supernatural spell is, it's probably because

they have not done things functionally. They've done things expensively. This wasn't the most expensive move they could have made. It wasn't the sexiest move they could make, but it was the most functional one. And if they have an adult functional coach in charge of players this good, there's no, I don't believe in supernatural crap. I don't even like the supernatural movies. We know you don't. You don't watch any of them. I can totally buy into this. Now, I don't know about their defense.

I don't know if their defense is going to show up. Right. We don't know if they are susceptible on defense or they just ran into a really good Notre Dame offense. We're going to find out. Although Miami's defense did not give up that many points to Notre Dame, but in UTSA and Utah state both scored three touchdowns on them. So it's not like they've. been the steel trap and the overmatched opponent.

But we're going to find out a lot about Texas A&M this weekend because Auburn is good. If Auburn can win this game, Auburn should be thinking about potentially playing for the SEC championship, potentially making a playoff. So A&M's got to beat a team that has very similar expectations and aspirations. If they can do it, they're going to be in a great spot. Yeah. Ari, this has been a fascinating conversation. Probably got a few more of these.

I wouldn't mind getting into Missouri. Wouldn't mind getting into Vanderbilt. We can do that later this week. Guess what, Andy? We've got games, and we will get into that. We got games. Thank you for watching. Be sure to subscribe at the On3 Sports YouTube page

or on your favorite podcast platform. We will talk to you again on Wednesday. Thank you.