Andy & Ari On3 - Iowa's Caitlin Clark GOES OFF for 41 to beat LSU | How good could D.J. Burns be at football?

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Want to watch the Final Four without cable? Prime Video has you covered. Watch every game live, on your phone, on your laptop, or relax and watch at home on Prime Video, with a subscription. Prime Video gives you choices to add on channels like Paramount Plus and Max, both featuring March Madness tournament games, all in one place. It’s March, it’s Madness, stream it all on Prime Video.Learn more now…https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/storefront/ref=atv_hm_spo_c_rEmqNT_6_2?contentType=tournament&contentId=amzn1.dv.icid.64a44c0e-3ac7-4b14-ad4d-c2a438001f2c&jic=8%7CEgNhbGw%3D(0:00-9:09) Intro - LSU vs Iowa, WBB Recap, Final Four(9:10-33:26) Kyle Huesmann from the Hawkeye Report joins to go in-depth on Iowa Women's Hoops(33:27-39:24) Transition, Subscribe to Hawkeye Report, On3's Iowa Site!(39:25-1:00:31) Jim Nagy joins to discuss DJ Burns, NFL Draft(1:00:32-1:01:46) Conclusion - Checking in on Ohio State tomorrow!Caitlin Clark dominated the national title game rematch between Iowa and LSU. Clark scored 41 points, dished out 12 assists and grabbed seven rebounds as the Hawkeyes beat the Tigers 94-87 to advance to the Final Four in Cleveland.Kyle Huesmann of The Hawkeye Report was in Albany for the fireworks, and he joins Andy to discuss a game that was a classic for a half before LSU went cold from the floor.Next, Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy joins Andy to play one of Andy’s favorite games: Which March Madness star could make a fortune in the NFL? This year’s candidate is N.C. State big man D.J. Burns, who might have missed his calling as a cornerstone left tackle (he’s also VERY good at basketball).Jim also weighs in on the Marvin Harrison Jr./Malik Nabors WR1 debate and updates us on the draft stock of Michael Penix Jr., Bo Nix and Spencer Rattler.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us live, 8-9 am ET, M-F! https://youtube.com/live/SqpG_RtUeDM

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Tuesday. What a night in college basketball. I didn't know how long it would take before we led this show with a women's basketball game, but I felt like the entirety of the sports world was watching LSU and Iowa on Monday night. It was pretty incredible because this was one of those that had set itself up because you had the meeting the year before. You had the Kim Mulkey drama. You had her saying the Washington Post is writing a hit piece about me. And then the story comes out. You have multiple stars in Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and Flagey Johnson.

It had everything. And we've been talking about the men's tournament. We haven't seen anything like this because UConn on the men's side doesn't have a foil like this. There wasn't somebody last year who challenged them on their way to the national title who could come back and get revenge. They don't have anything like that. And that's something that college basketball in general, men's, women's, has been missing is the stars and then the stars seeing each other over and over again. Like this women's tournament this year is storyline, storyline, storyline. Like Caitlin Clark and Iowa against Angel Reese and LSU. Rematch of the national title game.

Revenge factor. And oh, by the way, if Iowa wins, they get to play against the team that wanted nothing to do with Kaitlyn Clark, and she really wanted to play for them. Kaitlyn Clark wanted to play for UConn. That's the opponent in the Final Four, in the National Semifinal. There is so much drama, so many storylines. and and look the players are all going to downplay this I'm sure Caitlin Clark will be downplaying this like crazy as we get toward that game but if you read that great right Thompson story that he wrote for ESPN a few weeks ago you know that was the team she wanted to play for So I guarantee there's a little extra here. There probably was

a little extra last night, 41 points for Caitlin Clark. There was no way to guard her. There was the moment at the, I think it was the third quarter where she dribbles up to the wing. Haley Von Lith is trying to guard her. And Caitlin Clark goes behind her back, steps back and hits a 25, 26 foot three pointer. And Haley Von Lith does the Michael Jordan shrug. But when Jordan did it against, in the NBA finals, it was,

I can't believe I'm hitting all these threes. When Haley Von Lith did it, it was, what do you want me to do about this? I can't do anything about this person. She is too good. And they tried Flagey Johnson. That didn't work. She was getting cooked off the dribble by Kaitlyn Clark. And the one thing about the game that you wish was different was Angel Reese twisting her ankle in the second quarter.

If she doesn't do that, I'm curious if Iowa can pull away in the third quarter like it did. I don't know if LSU could have done anything to change the result because Kaitlyn Clark was so unstoppable. But I do think some of those second chance baskets go in. Angel Reese is probably a little more accurate from the floor. Post-injury, it was tough. It was a slog for her, and you could tell she was hurting. And Lisa Bluter, the Iowa coach, pointed it out after the game. LSU had, I believe, 23 offensive rebounds,

but only 14 second chance points. That was probably the difference in the game, LSU had, I believe, 23 offensive rebounds, but only 14 second chance points. That was probably the difference in the game. If they put back a few of those rebounds, then you're talking about a much tighter game and a much different situation. But Iowa, they had everything working at times, and especially that third quarter. The game lived up to the billing. It was 45-45 at the half. They played a blistering pace in the first quarter.

It was a lot of fun. And then the follow-up, the UConn-USC game was great. Paige Beckers, who wasn't in the tournament last year because she tore her ACL, she gets to the third final four that she can get to of the ones she's played in, of the tournaments she's played in. She's gotten final four every year. Juju Watkins, she's next. We'll see. Angel Reese hasn't made a decision about her future yet, but she may be back in college basketball. But if she leaves and Caitlin Clark is leaving, we know that, then Juju Watkins may be the next massive megastar up.

And you saw her. She's a freshman, but she set a record for most points by a Division I freshman last night for the whole season. So there's a lot going on. It was fun watching the game with everybody. This is one of those. It felt more like football season. You know, we haven't, even in the NCAA tournament,

in the men's tournament, we haven't had a situation like this where we were all kind of locked in on one game. I guess a little bit in the Elite Eight. But for the most part, the best games were happening while other games were going on. I think back to the first Friday of the men's tournament, like when you had Colorado hit the crazy shot to beat Florida

while at the same time Yale was going up on Auburn. So people's attentions were kind of split. This is one where everybody was locked in. And I suspect everybody's going to be locked in on UConn and Iowa as well because, again, Gino Auriemma, UConn, the titans of the sport, they dominated the sport for most of this century. It's the team Caitlin Clark always wanted to play for. And then, oh, by the way, I have not even mentioned South Carolina, which is waiting there to smash potentially whoever they wind up playing.

We're assuming they reach the national title game. Now they lost Iowa last year, so there will be a revenge arc there because that was the game where Iowa just dared South Carolina to shoot from the outside and South Carolina didn't have anybody to do it. Well, guess what? Don Staley fixed that problem. So a lot of storylines for the women's final four, a lot of storylines for the men's final four. We've talked about that. We're going to preview it again on Friday. But today we're going to talk about DJ Burns from NC State play one of my favorite March Madness games. Who should be playing football? Who in this Who should be playing football? Who in this tournament should be playing football?

We're actually talking to Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl about the possibility of DJ Burns as an offensive tackle, which by the way, he has shown no interest in. I think he intends to play professional basketball, but we can dream. And also Jim will talk us through some other NFL draft scenarios. We do need to get hardcore into the NFL draft talk because we've got less than a month before that first round

of the draft. And there's a lot to chew on between the quarterbacks and the receivers and the depth of the offensive tackle class. We've got a lot to talk about, but we're going to dream a little bit about DJ Burns and share some stories about some of the basketball to football guys that we've seen over the years, because there've been a few, and it's fascinating to me how that process works. So we'll talk to Jim later in the show. But first, if you do want to watch that men's final four this weekend without cable, Prime Video has you covered. Watch every game live on your phone, on your laptop, or on your television. On Prime Video, all you have to do is within Prime Video, you add on

a subscription to Max. That'll get you TBS. That'll get you the final four games of the national championship. Prime Video gives you choices to add on different channels. And when you do, everything is available within the same app, one password. You don't have to do the, hold on, let me go to my phone. Let me scan the QR code off my TV. No, you're just, you're logged in. Once you get logged in, you're logged in. It's a fantastic process.

Plus you get all the Prime Video offerings, that Fallout show, I saw the trailer for that. Listen, they figured out how to make the shows based on video games. That Fallout show looks cool. So click the link in the show description to learn more, to get yourself signed up. If you're watching on YouTube,

it's in the show description here. If you're listening in podcast form, it's on the show description on your favorite podcast platform. Click that link, get signed up for Amazon. You can watch the men's Final Four. No cable necessary. All right, back to the women's Final Four, which is set.

We go now to Albany. Kyle Huseman of the Hawkeye Report. Kyle, you are in Albany right now. You were in the building last night for this spectacular game. Was the energy as great as it seemed through the TV? Oh, I mean, absolutely. First off, thank you for having me on. Oh, we're not hearing Kyle.

We got Kyle muted. We got to figure out how to unmute Kyle. So that's all right. We'll put Kyle down for a second. We'll get him straightened out. I that's all right. We'll put Kyle down for a second. We'll get, we'll get him straightened out. I'm going to vamp, but we can talk a little more about this game. And I was very impressed with the way Iowa ran LSU defenders, whoever they were through screens. It was Haley Von Lith for a while.

It was Flagey Johnson for a while. The Haley Von Lith thing in the second quarter, I posted the gif of Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons stepping on the rakes. Maybe the greatest scene in the history of the Simpsons, if you haven't seen it. It's the Cape Fear takeoff, where he's basically the De Niro character.

But they just have a bunch of rakes slaying on the ground. And he keeps walking, taking one step, stepping to rake, smacks him in the face. And he's like, what? That was Haley Von Lith trying to go through ball screens last night. Iowa was absolutely crushing it. So I don't know. Apparently we've got Kyle, so let's bring him back up. I don't know why I'm not hearing him, but how are we doing, Kyle?

What was it like in the building last night? Yeah, first off, thanks for having me on. It was exactly what you would have hoped for for that type of game. Obviously there were a lot of storylines from last year's national championship game, and there was a lot of hype coming into this game for it. And the energy inside the arena was absolutely what you would expect. Iowa fans traveled really well. I would say that they probably had 80%, if not more than 80% of the fans there.

So with Iowa winning the game, it was really loud for most of the night. But the first half and really even the whole game certainly met the hype that was built up for it. Just a fantastic first half, both teams going back and forth, both teams making runs. But, you know, this is kind of what we hoped for was, you know, a game that lived up to the hype, one that hasn't really happened for women's basketball in a while um the game's growing like like it never has before and you really needed a game to live up to the hype you know had i or lsu just blown the other out um i think people would have been disappointed but you know back and forth game for the most part was

was exactly what you hoped for and that's exactly what they got well and you need last year's game to make this year's game feel this special it feels like it if it doesn't work out like if South Carolina beats Iowa in the semi-finals and it's a South Carolina LSU final we're not talking about this like this the fact that there's the history and you have the Kim Mulkey storyline you have Angel Reese all season being a story it felt like everything came together and then you know as you're watching because that first quarter the pace of the first quarter was insane as you're watching that is it like hard to catch your breath yeah I mean a little bit I'm kind of used to it from watching Iowa so much I mean they love to go at that type of pace but coming into the game you, if you would have told me

that Iowa was going to hit five first-quarter three-pointers, LSU is a team that doesn't make a lot of threes. They came into the game just averaging four per game. So I would have thought that five threes from Iowa in the first quarter would have put them in a pretty good lead. But LSU, their credit hit a lot of shots there. I think they hit three first-quarter threes. But, yeah, the first seven minutes of the game was just back and forth

at an incredible pace. It didn't seem like anybody could miss a shot. And then it settled down there towards the end of the first quarter. LSU really went on a run. I think it was 10-0 to end the first quarter. But, yeah, that first quarter, that first seven minutes, was just an incredible pace. And you knew for a little bit that it wasn't going to keep up with that

because they were on track for something like 150 points at that point. It was a really entertaining first five or seven minutes of that game. When Reese got hurt, I believe she goes up to defend, I think, a Kaitlyn Clark layup and then gets knocked into the photographers and twists her ankle. How bad did it look and how different did she look the rest of the game up close because it it looked like she she kind of got back to full speed but then you look at the stat line afterward you're like oh okay she was missing a lot of shots she

probably would have made yeah i was on the other end of the court so i didn't really necessarily see it she kind of went down near you know where the photographers were where the band was and she came hopping out wasn't putting any weight on it right away hopped over to the bench and sat down and my initial first thought was that's game changing you know when you have a player like her that can I mean she finished with 20 rebounds when you have someone that can do that um and all of a sudden they're potentially limited that certainly changes the game uh she wasn't out for very long, came back in. I don't know if she got taped up, tied her shoe tight or whatever she did. But, yeah, I think it certainly changed the way that she had to play, especially with as athletic as she is, the way she is as a rebounder.

Any type of pain in your ankle or foot or whatever it was, that's harder for you to play that game, that jumping ability, things like that, or hurt when you hurt your ankle. I think she shot like one of 10 in the second half, something like that. She was able to get rebounds still. You know, she didn't want to make any excuses of it in the post game. So you never really know how much it impacted her. But I certainly believe that it impacted her. You know, especially like I said, with her athleticism, being able to jump, being able to do things at the rim,

having an ankle injury certainly impacts that. And it's disappointing to see an injury like that impact a game that there was so much hype for. Yeah, because that feels like that was the biggest advantage that LSU had, where with Reese at full strength, they were more athletic in the post. It really felt, though, like Iowa's perimeter players With Reese at full strength, they were more athletic in the post. It really felt, though, like Iowa's perimeter players, not just Kaitlin Clark, but Gabby Marshall was tremendous defensively.

The one play late in the game where LSU starts trying to set up their offense and she just jumps up and steals the pass inside. I thought Kate Martin had a couple big drives too where it felt like that took pressure off Caitlin Clark to do everything. They're putting so many resources into defending Caitlin Clark. If Kate Martin can get a one-on-one matchup on the wing and drive and score, it felt like at that point, what's LSU going to do? Yeah, and when Iowa's playing at their best,

it's when those other players are hitting shots as well. When Iowa can have a more spread out attack. I mean, I know Kaitlin went for 41, but Kate Martin had 21. And so the Fulter had 16. And other players like Hannah Stolke, I know she was in foul trouble. Addy O'Grady did a really good job off the bench. When those players are doing their role and hitting those shots when Kaitlin can find them, that's when they're at their best.

And you mentioned Gabby Marshall. Not always a person that's going to score 15 points in the game. She's a really good three-point shooter when she gets going. But the defense is where she's at her best. She didn't come off the floor last night, played all 40 minutes. And she just puts her head down She didn't come off the floor last night, played all 40 minutes. And she was just – you know, she just puts her head down and grinds on the defensive end. She talks about it.

You know, she doesn't worry about how many points she scores. She knows that her job is to go out there and be a good defender. You know, she talked recently actually about in high school she was a scorer. But she knew that with her size in college, defense was going to be where she was going to be able to get on the court. And then, you know, you see know, that pass that she knocked down, that was, she just snagged that up. Yeah, that wasn't a deflection.

That wasn't anything like that. She just caught that ball in the air. Yeah, it was a charge. She did not take a charge a little bit later, I guess. That was, I forget who took that charge. But she's made plays, you know, the last few games, had a block against Nebraska in the Big Ten Tournament Championship, had a block against West Virginia in the second round.

So she's been making plays on the defensive end recently. That was a – the steal was sort of the perimeter version of a stalk, the blocked steal because it wasn't a block because she was pulling out a pass. But, yeah, they were shocked by that. Gabby Marshall is fun to watch on the offensive end though because you can tell she feels like she has Caitlin Clark's range. And when she's moving without the ball, she's constantly demanding the ball to shoot, even though there's always somebody right there. So I wonder if that's kind of an inside joke among the players, because she is, she she's you see her constantly saying I'm open I'm open

and Caitlin's like I'm good yeah and like I said Gabby's a fantastic three-point shooter early in the year she struggled with you know hitting some shots at times but when she gets going I mean she's I mean I wouldn't say she's just as good a shooter as Caitlin but I mean when she gets going it's she gets a lot of those transition threes and and open threes and when she gets going she has a lot of fun with it you know a lot of players on thisrees and open threes. And when she gets going, she has a lot of fun with it. A lot of players on this team can hit shots when they really get going. I mean, Kate Martin can hit shots as well. Taylor McCabe is someone that we didn't really see off the bench.

I think she could potentially be the best three-point shooter on the team. So they have a lot of players that can hit those shots. And like I said, when I was at their best, it's when Caitlin can dish off to Gabby or dish off to Kate or even sit a full throw on the three-point line and hit those shots. I thought three-point shooting coming into the game was one of the big things because, like I said, LSU isn't a team that's going to really fill it up from three-point range. So I knew three-pointers was an area where if Iowa could really outscore them in that category, that's where they were going to have the best chance to win. And they outscored them. I think they made 13 and LSU only made eight. So

a 15-point gap in there was what they were looking for. What was it like in the arena when Clark hit the behind the back step back? That's the one where Haley Von Lith just did the I can't do anything with this. What was the pop like in the arena when she hit that shot? I mean, it was just like what I've heard all season in Carver Hawkeye Arena. I mean, it was really loud. I think all the LSU fans were kind of thinking the same thing as Haley is. I don't really know what to do at this point.

I think Kim Mulkey is probably thinking the same thing. But I mean, IO fans have just been incredible in the way they've traveled this year. And you know, if that's a 50, 50 crowd, it's nothing like that. It would have been loud for both sides, but yeah, when she was that, that early in that third quarter she hit four or five of them in the first five minutes of the third quarter. She was on another level, really locked in at that point. And that's when Iowa kind of took over the game

is when she started hitting those shots. But, yeah, I've never had to defend Kaitlin Clark, obviously, but I get that. I get what Haley Van Lith was, kind of that shoulder shrug. There's been a lot of times, you know, watching games throughout the season where she hits shots I'm just like yeah I don't I don't know what you would do as a defender there's not much you can do in those situations yeah you've seen that the frustration in a lot of different defenders eyes throughout her career let's let's hear from Kim Mulkey about the strategy or lack thereof for defending Kaitlyn Clark share what

those were well there's not a whole lot of strategy. You got to guard her. Nobody else seems to be able to guard her. We didn't even guard her last year when we beat them. She's just a generational player, and she just makes everybody around her better. That's what the great ones do. I think they had a kid that scored 21 and 18.

She had 12 assists. Katelyn Clark's not going to beat you by herself. It's what she does to make those other teammates better that helps her score points and them score points to beat you. What did I say to her? I said, I sure am glad you leaving. I said, girl, you something else. Never seen anything like it.

And that's really what it is. Nobody's seen anybody like this in the women's game. And Kyle, I'm curious, how much did the Iowa players want to beat this team that took the national title from them last year? Yeah, I think they actually did a really good job, I would say, talking to them in the lead-up to the game on Sunday morning is when we got to talk to them. They really kind of brushed it off with,

hey, we're just trying to make another Final Four. We knew LSU was a possibility when the bracket came out out but they were really focused on the task at hand um you know but then they did kind of talk about at times yeah there is a little extra motivation when it's the team you know everybody works to make the national title game they want to win a national title and when you make it to that point if you lose that and you get a chance to face that team again of course there's gonna be a little extra motivation. But they talked a lot about not making the game more than it is. You know, they weren't going to go in there and try to get chippy with them, talk, things like that.

They had the motivation to win the game, but ultimately when they stepped on the court, it was we're trying to make the Final Four for back-to-back seasons. But, yeah, absolutely there's extra motivation. When a team cuts you short in the national title game from getting that ultimate goal and you get to face them again, yeah, of course, there's going to be motivation to get them back. And that's what they did last night. I thought Kaitlin Clark was interesting talking about the moment and the game and trying not to let the moment be bigger than the game itself. Because that situation, with everybody's eyes on it could have been one

where you do tighten up. But Kaitlyn will let her explain it. But they did kind of keep the main thing the main thing. To be honest, like when you step on the court and you're a competitor, like you don't feel that. Like you just – you're there competing. It's 5v5. Like there could have been nobody in the gym,

and we would have – both teams would have competed the exact same way. And, yeah, you're playing for a little more with a Final Four on the line. But to me, like, I'm not thinking, like, oh, my God, there's 15 million people at home watching this game right now. Like, no, like, that's not what's happening. It's like, what can I do for my team to help me win the game right now? That's what's going through your mind. If you're too worried about everything else, you're not going to be successful.

You've got to be completely locked in on, you know, what's happening between the lines. And I thought our team did a really good job of that. You know, it wasn't so-and-so made a bad call. It wasn't like, oh my God, they've made three shots in a row. It was all about us and what we need to do. And I think that's one of the reasons we won the game, honestly. It was pretty impressive the way they locked in in and they've got to do this again.

I mean, Kyle, if they are to play for a national title, they have to get past the UConn didn't recruit Caitlin storyline and also UConn and Paige Beckers. And then South Carolina is probably sitting there on the other side. So how do they how do they keep this up as the stage gets bigger? Yeah. And I think they just kind of keep doing what they've been doing. I mean, they, they knew coming in, especially with the way the bracket played out when they saw, you know, Colorado, who's a team that they played in the sweet 16 year before,

when they, they saw, you know, Kansas state was a potential on a team they'd already lost to her in the year when I saw LSU, they knew that they were going to have to beat good teams to make it to that ultimate goal again, which is to make it back to the National Championship game. And they knew that it was going to be Connecticut or USC or maybe even Ohio State, a team that they had lost to. But they kind of just talked about, you know, if you want to get to that ultimate goal,

you're going to have to beat good teams. And I think the good thing for women's basketball now is, you know, it used to be like a team like UConn, they'd make the tournament and be, well, we can just pencil in for the Final Four. Women's basketball is made to the point where the players come out and they say, hey, it's not going to be easy to win the second round game. It's not going to be easy to win the Sweet 16 game. But I was playing a lot of these games.

They have the experience from last season, making it to the Final Four, beating South Carolina. So I think they're prepared for this. It's a pretty veteran team, you know, with Gabby and Kate and Caitlin. They're the ones that have been there for a long time. They've been through a lot of tournament games. And this is a team that's won three straight Big Ten tournaments as well. So they've played in a lot of hostile atmospheres.

I mean, this whole season they've been playing in front of sold-out crowds. So I think they're really ready for this moment. There maybe is a little bit of a revenge factor. I know they didn't talk about it at the LSU game, but this is a team that knocked Kaitlin and the Hawkeyes out in her freshman year in the Sweet 16, in the bubble. You know, and Paige Beckers was on that team. It was her freshman year.

So I think they're going to be motivated. They know that the test doesn't get any easier. I mean, you're in the Final Four now. It's the next level. But they're just going to attack it the same way they did last season when they went and had to play South Carolina. So we haven't seen the ratings yet. I'm sure it's going to be a fairly big number for this LSU-Iowa game. But it feels like this is kind of a watershed moment in the sport. And Angel Reese got asked about that last night and I thought her answer was really interesting. I think it's just great for the sport just being able to

be a part of history like I said no matter which way it went tonight I know this is going to be a night for the ages and just being able to be a part of history is great playing against another great player of course is always amazing in our viewership going up and i'm sure so many different people watched us tonight so i'm just happy to be here i'm happy to just keep raising women's sports not just women women's basketball but just women's sports in general i mean could you feel that in in the building because it certainly seemed like on social media as you're watching yes i thought espn and i didn't realize you were at the game but i thought espn did a good job with the cinematography for lack of a better word like they made it feel huge and did it feel that huge inside

the building yeah i mean i i thought um you know i was in there an hour and a half before the game started when fans started filing in and it just kind of had that feeling of watching the two teams warm up. This is two really high-level teams. We're about to see a really high-level basketball game. You mentioned the talk on social media. I think in terms of we talk about growing the women's game, this is the matchup that needed to happen. Had LSU lost to Middle Tennessee.

They cut a very low well loss and they're losing the third quarter. Had UCLA lost or something like that, it would have been different. The viewership numbers wouldn't have been the same. So at a time right now where you're really trying to grow the women's game, this is the matchup that needed to happen.

The talk on social media was incredible. It seemed like every other tweet was about the Iowa-LSU game. And the energy inside the arena was certainly one that made you feel like, hey, this is going to be a huge game tonight. I'm curious to see what the viewership numbers are. I know they was right around 10 million last year, peaked around 13. I think it'll be similar to that. I'm really curious to see if they could potentially beat last year's game. Because it just seemed like everybody was really excited to see this game.

And kind of different than we've ever seen for women's basketball before. Yeah, I would imagine that this will beat all of the men's tournament games so far. Now, maybe not the men's national championship. We'll see. I mean, it depends on what the men's national championship game is. You know, if it's UConn versus Purdue, I think that's going to be a pretty big number, but we will see. And honestly, if it's Iowa, South Carolina in the women's national title game, we may see a bigger number there. So that's, that's, what's amazing to me is, is how much Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and, and all these different, these stars that have kind of come up organically through the women's game.

And then a lot of it is there, you know, in the men's game, you used to have guys that stayed three, four years. They became stars. You're seeing that again because of NIL. But the women's game has had the stars, but you brought it up earlier, Kyle. I think you made the best point. There are only really four or five good teams. Now there's probably 20 pretty good teams that can beat each other on a given day. That makes that tournament a lot more interesting.

Yeah, I mean, absolutely. And Caitlin actually just a few games ago talked about, she thought the round of 32 is becoming the toughest round of the tournament. You know, that's 32 teams at that point. I mean, Iowa lost to Creighton a couple of years ago on their home floor in front of a sold-out crowd. And then they had to battle Georgia to the wire last year when they made the national title game. And then this year, West Virginia gave them all they could handle. So it's not what it used to be where, you know, the one season and the second round were still winning by 25, 30 points.

I mean, you're running into a team that played like a top 25 team at times during the season. They just weren't as consistent. I think the tournament has gotten to the point where outside of maybe that first game, we don't really see the 15 over 2 upsets or the 14 over 3 upsets. But after that, every game is really hard to win. It's really great to see the women's game get to that point where every game feels like anyone can win. Because that's why women's basketball wasn't watched as much as 10, 15 years ago.

It's because you could say, hey, UConn's just going to win this game by 30. They're going to be in the final four, and then we can start watching. And that's how you grow the game is when the talent starts to spread out. And I think to your point that you mentioned, at times, there's players that stay in the men's game for four years, five years. But at times, people don't know the men's players as well because it feels like they rotate a little bit more. I mean, Kaitlin Clark, Gabby Marshall, Kate Martin. Kate Martin's in her sixth year at Iowa. Kaitlin's in her fourth year. Gabby's in her fifth year. You know who those players are.

You've watched them for several years. I don't know that I would say you get to know them, but you know all these teams. It's not, oh, who's this freshman playing for Kentucky? And then the next year, it's like, oh, this is a new freshman playing for Kentucky. You just don't know the players. And I think that's where the women's game has really, really helped them. You get to see these star players for more than one year. It's three, four. With the COVID year, sometimes it's five years. Yeah, exactly. And you think about what is Cleveland going to be like?

Because you're going to have Iowa, and they travel great. UConn has a very big traveling contingent with the women's team. Now, they've got split because their men's teams in the final four as well nc state has the bins and the women's teams in the final four so they may split up a little bit but south carolina has a rabid like sells their arena out every game cleveland's gonna be crazy yeah and you know speaking from my experiences last year iowa fans really traveled to seattle they really traveled to Albany this year. They really traveled to Dallas as well.

So I don't think there's going to be any issue with Iowa fans getting to Cleveland. They're going to show up. It will be interesting, though, to your point. It's not very often. I'd be curious the last time where NC State and UConn having their men's and women's teams. That seems pretty rare to have that happen. UConn, because of Jim Calhoun and Gino Auriemma, I think had it a few times. But it's not normal.

And it's definitely not normal at NC State. So it's going to be a fun weekend of hoops on men's and women's side. Kyle, have fun. That sounds like a crazy event. And what a ride you've gotten to cover. Yeah. I mean, I, I, this is my third year covering Iowa with Caitlin Clark and you know, just as an observer of the game, just watching, you know,

women's college basketball last few years, you know, Iowa winning last night means that I get another chance to watch Kate and watch this team play. They're so fun to watch. And it's just one of those where, you know, when they lose or if they win the national title, then it's over. You know, Caitlin will move on to the WNBA.

Gabby will move on. Kate will move on and there'll be no more of this Iowa team. So getting to see them another time in the final four, again, it's going to be fantastic. It's been, it's been really fun to watch this team. Seeing the publicity that Caitlin's gotten and for me to be kind of to be kind of up close and watch it and talk to her a lot

and see her for weekly media availabilities, things like that. I've been really close to it, and I've been really fortunate to be able to cover what I think is the best player to ever play women's college basketball. I think you're going to have a lot of people who agree with you. Kyle Huseman from the Hawkeye Report, thank you so much. Have a safe trip home from Albany. Yeah, thank you for having me on. So if you're not already subscribed to the Hawkeye Report and you're an Iowa fan, what are you doing? That is on 3's Iowa site. Fantastic community.

They've had a lot to celebrate with Caitlin Clark. They've had a lot to complain about with Brian Ferentz. But new offensive coordinator, new year, new everything. This is going to be a really fun weekend of college basketball. Between the women's final four and the men's final four, there's a lot. And it's interesting because what Kyle and I were talking about with the way the women's final four used to work, and it really was like, okay, we're going to wait until UConn and Tennessee play or UConn and Notre Dame or UConn and Stanford that's pretty much it there would be like three teams that could really compete it almost feels like the men's side is like that this year where

this is the UConn invitational like can anybody actually compete with UConn on the men's side it feels like those Gino Auriemma teams that Dan Hurley's got them playing like, and we'll see. Maybe Alabama is that team that can compete with them, or maybe it's NC State or Purdue coming from the other side in the national championship game. But Adrian, he's hitting back on Kyle's assertion that Kaitlin Clark is the greatest player in the history of the women's game. Best player ever. You must not follow all the great players that played for UConn. Okay. So we're talking about Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Maya Moore. Maya Moore, who is Caitlin Clark's idol. I mean, I'd love to ask them, Rebecca Lobo called the game last night.

We're talking about great former UConn players, but I would argue that Kaitlin Clark is up there, if not better than all of those. We can bring the classic Tennessee players into this too. We can talk about Candace Parker, Shemeika Holtzclaw. Kaitlin Clark just takes over games. It is, I'm trying to think of anybody else who took over like that. Taurasi, I think for me, would be the other one where it felt like she could just slip into that unstoppable mode. And I covered Tennessee early in my career. So I would, you know, the Lady Vols were huge then. Pat Summitt was still coaching.

This was toward the end of the Meeks era. And so there was this, at that point, that was when UConn was developing the aura of invincibility. And Taurasi was just, she felt unstoppable at times. So if I had to say, who is it? It's probably between Caitlin Clark and Diana Taurasi. So you just got to figure out who that is. But it's a very interesting GOAT debate. And one that I think that more people are going to have because more people are watching. And we just spent 30 minutes on that game.

And it's been interesting in the chat. You got people arguing back and forth. It feels like everybody watched it. So that was, that was fun. That was a lot of fun. I can't wait for this weekend because again, you've got those games on the men's side, very intriguing. Women's side is going to be wild because you're either going to have Iowa and South Carolina, UConn and South Carolina, or you're going to have NC State pulling off potentially the biggest shocker in the history of the tournament if they beat South Carolina. So this is going to be a lot of fun. Speaking of NC State, on the other side, on the men's side,

they are the darlings of the men's side of the NCAA tournament because they ran through the ACC tournament, five wins in five days, got an auto bid into the NCAA tournament, and they've been awesome ever since. They've got the three post guys that all, you know, Diara, Middlebrooks, and DJ Burns that do something different. They've got Horn who can score, but DJ Burns is the one who has captured our imagination. And for me, I always do this every year where I look for these players in the basketball tournament, like who should be playing football here? And DJ Burns, obviously, I remember watching him in games, in regular season games last season at NC State. And for those who don't know his story, he actually started at Tennessee. Then he went to Winthrop and then came to NC State before the 22-23 season.

And it kind of didn't immediately make his impact felt. It took a little while. It took about half of that season for him to really get going. But then you realize he's this huge guy with this incredible touch. If you double team him, he's going to pass. He's going to find somebody open. If you do not double team him, there's a play the other night where he's waiting for the double team to come. It doesn't come. He dips that shoulder, spins around just so quick and so light on his feet for someone who is a massive guy. He's listed at 6'9", 275.

Our next guest, we're going to apply the NFL scout's eye to those DJ Burns measurements and see if we can get the real thing. But Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl, he's been tweeting about this all tournament because this is a man who made his living as an nfl scout he's now the guy who brings all the the dudes to the senior bowl that you know they think are going to be potentially some of the best players in the draft every year so this is a man with a very trained eye and the second he saw d Burns, he's like, this man is an offensive tackle. What are we doing here? So let's talk to Jim about imagining DJ Burns as an offensive tackle.

And also, we got to ask some questions about this year's draft, including where does Jim fall in the Marvin Harrison Jr. versus Malik Nabors wide receiver one debate. Here's Jim Nagy. We welcome Jim Nagy from the senior bowl because I saw a tweet on Monday that said, I have received information from multiple NFL scouts saying they were intrigued by NC state's DJ Burns. And this was a follow-up to a tweet from a couple days ago where you said, we got to see this guy kick sliding. We got to see him pulling, firing out of his stance.

And I'm thinking, okay, maybe it's an April Fool's joke, but I don't care because Jim, you didn't know this about me before we started doing this, but every year when I've watched the NCAA tournament, half the reason I watch is to see who should be playing football. Well, I certainly didn't mean to create a stir on social media, and it was not an April Fool's joke. It's a sickness, man.

I can't watch. It is most football, guys. I'm not alone. I mean, you're in football. You're watching a big, you know, 275-pound dude with dude with you know nimble feet and soft hands and really skilled um you're that's where your mind goes man like what could this guy be so look uh maybe he's got an nba career i don't know i'm not an nba scout i don't i don't know what the future is for for uh this young man but um it was just intriguing so i put it the initial one out

and yeah i got like three texts back um and they're like, yeah, we're thinking the same thing. And then today after it really blew up, a buddy of mine who lives in the Research Triangle area that scouts for a team, he was like, man then he was just going to slide down the street and work DJ out and try to do it privately. But now this thing's kind of blown up. But, again, there's so many things that come into play, Andy, when you make this projection, like whether they've played football in the past or not. I think Antonio Gates is probably the best example of that. The guy was a good high school football player. You know, are they tough enough?

Like how strong are they? But it was just intriguing. So I threw it out there in the middle of March Madness. Oh, and it's unbelievable. So I, like when I was covering the tournament in person every year, when I worked at Sports Illustrated, there would always be somebody, like every single year there'd be somebody. I had Marquette one year and Jay Crowder's out there.

Jay Crowder's from there jay crowder's from villarica georgia which is like west georgia i-20 right you know between atlanta and the alabama border like he's born to play tight end and i'm like how is this dude not and i remember asking him about it he's like no i played some football growing up but i like basketball better and credit to jay crowder he's like a 15-year nba veteran so he's it's worked out very well for him but the other guy the other guy who i was like how is this dude not playing football it was a vcu year tournament when when vcu was in the tournament and mo alley cox was kind of a big four for them or you know a small like a short four but powerful and mo Ali Cox is a tight end

for the Colts now so like it does happen where people see these guys and like VCUs and exactly like they don't even have a football team so it's not like a Tony Gonzalez situation where he played both or Julius peppers where he played both like just like you said somebody scouted this and realized this dude has all the tools well you know you brought you brought up a couple names when we were off the air like rico gathers from from baylor uh you know jai lewis from i think that was william and mary when i think it was george mason maybe george mason there you go that's exactly what is and going way back in time now to when i was in college at michigan I've always wondered what Robert the Tractor trailer would look like on a football field, man.

I mean, again, I'm probably dating myself and some listeners don't know who Robert the Tractor trailer is, but I always wonder what that dude would look like playing left tackle. So, again, it's just, it was, you know, it's one of those things, a lot of things have to line up for this guy. And again, if he's never put pads on, maybe it's far fetched. I don't know. He has. So DJ Burns has, he said he stopped playing football in the eighth grade when his basketball coaches said, Hey, look, you, if you take this very seriously, you could, you could be a scholarship guy. But here's the thing. And this is, this is where it's interesting, and I wonder if he will at least explore it afterward because DJ is not like a prototypical NBA body.

Like DJ has a future in professional basketball as a 6'9 guy with agility and touch and great passing, but he might not be a guy who sticks on an NBA roster. He might be a guy who makes seven figures playing in europe every year and the question i because here's my thing like if you can be the the number eight or nine guy on an nba roster that is better than like 85 of the jobs in the nfl because of the cba and how much money they make but if you can be a a cornerstone left tackle in the NFL, that's one of the jobs that's as good. And especially if you maybe can't make it into the NBA.

Yeah. I mean, look at Jordan Milano for the Eagles. They stashed him away for a couple of years. Look what you got. So, yeah, it's probably a developmental thing. It's good to hear that he has at least put pads on at one point in his life. But, yeah, you've got to give him in the weight room. I mean, it would be a two- or three-year process. Nobody's watching these games thinking this DJ is going to be out on an NFL field next fall on Sundays. But, shoot, in two years from now, who knows what you have.

And, again, I promise you this, Andy. If you get this guy with nfl scouts he is not measuring six nine you know you know that as well as i oh no no okay i i wanna so you i wanna test your scout's eye on this because you he's listed at six nine you're thinking probably six seven at at pro day 275 is as a as a someone who watches a lot of football and and has to has to kind of gauge lineman weight 275 seems a little off as well to me I'm guessing right around six seven maybe even like 6066 6067 I don't know 69 looks really generous and yeah I think he's north of three bills. I would think in that six, seven, 300, 310 pound range. Again, if I ever lost my job in football, I always, I always joke,

Andy, I could get a job at the circus. That's one thing I can do. I can, I can guess weights. I can guess heights. That's kind of, that's kind of what we do. That's my fallback plan. But, but, but I'm with you. He looks like a tackle. Some people have said tight end. I've seen people come and say tight end. No, it's not tight end. And it's not defensive line. It's definitely tackle. Well, and so I always thought Zion Williamson would be the greatest offensive tackle who ever played if he decided to go that route because there's nobody like he could carry 315 pounds and look amazing. And there's nobody that explosive at that weight. Nobody in the world who would be that explosive at that weight. But DJ, you put him in a football weight program.

I'm thinking 6'7", 325, and still moving like a ballerina? Yeah. I always put it in this context too, Andy. I go back to Jimmy Graham. I was just telling the guys in the office this story. So I met, I met Miami. They've got two other senior tight ends. I want to say Clive Wolford was one of them. I'd have to go back and look at my notes. And they were doing an edge set drill at the beginning of practice. It's August, right? Like this guy just exhausted his basketball ability. And from what I remember, Jimmy was kind of the dirty work guy on that Miami basketball team. So Jim, his freshman year, I was covering Florida and went down to Coral Gables to cover Florida at Miami and poor Jimmy as a

freshman just got eaten alive by Al Horford and Joe Kim Noah but I remember when he he finished his career and popped up on Miami's football team I'm like oh that guy that guy he could be really good at football but I think he ended his life that is in their top 10 in career blocks and you know he's good rebounder but he's just kind of he was and I don't even know if he started I think he ended his life in their top 10 in career blocks, and he's a good rebounder. And I don't even know if he started. I think he might have been their sixth man, if my memory serves me right. But they're out there. They're doing an edge set drill.

I mean, it was mano a mano. You know, I mean, pads are cracking, and Jimmy's just getting ragdolled around. And I'll never forget, I was standing next to a longtime scout, Joe Collins. You might know Joe. He's retired in the Jacksonville area now. and I'll never forget I was standing next to a you know a longtime scout Joe Collins you might know Joe he's up he's retired in the Jacksonville area now a longtime guy with the Giants and Browns and 49ers one of the one of the greatest guys ever and he and he said you know we're watching these three tight ends they're all going to be draft eligible and he's like that that that uh Graham kid he's going to be the best one Jim and I I was like the guy that's getting the guy that's

getting ragdolled around out here is going to be the best one and then they then they did they went to seven on seven or you know routes on air or something and then you saw jimmy graham move a little bit and and i'm like i looked at joe collins i was like man you might be right and he laughed he's like i i cheated he's like i was here yesterday too. So he'd seen him run routes already. But then, you know, credit my predecessor, you know, two predecessors ago. Now, Steve Hale brought Jimmy Graham to the senior bowl. And I think Jimmy only had about like 18 or 19 catches that senior year. I was there.

And remember the scouts just flocking to him after practice because he had such a crazy amazing story his life story is incredible yeah and then you had the other piece of it where he was so new to the sport but you knew you knew he could be great but that's a great get for the senior bowl i mean you get a guy like 17 balls and as a one-year player to bring him here like i give all all credit god rest his soul to steve hale um and look at him. So long-windedly, the point I was going to make is that if Jimmy Graham were like the dirty work guy on an ACC basketball team, and he ended up with a borderline Hall of Fame career, certainly like a Saints legend. I saw something the other day. Someone posted, what would Jimmy Graham's career numbers have looked like if they wouldn't have traded him and he could have played his career out with degrees. And I saw Jimmy Graham quote tweet that.

So if the NFL had let him be paid like a receiver. Right. Right. So my point being, if that's what Jimmy Graham turned out to be in the NFL, what would LeBron James have looked like in the NFL? I mean, seriously, we're talking about a guy that was a sixth man in the ACC to the all-time greatest, you know, here, Michael Jordan, greatest NBA players ever. And he was a dominant high school football player. He'd done it. He'd been there. He'd done that. He'd wore pads.

He knows the game. I mean, holy cow. I mean, so that's, you know. Yeah, because LeBron is a legit 6'8". And, like, I'm sure his weight is one I'd love to turn your scouts' eye on too because I think LeBron, he's older now. He's probably playing a little bit lighter. But peak LeBron was probably playing at 280.

I agree with that. He would have been so dominant on a football field because he would have he would have moved like a 6'4 235 pound tight end but been 6'8 280. he would have been bigger than gronk but moving like a wide out yeah it would have been insane i actually ran into lebron i didn't run into him i saw him in an airport when i lived in cleveland ohio uh back when i was scouting for the patriots and again like sometimes those NBA guys, I'm used to being around big people, but I was shocked at how big LeBron was in person. It's amazing. So I hope DJ at least kind of explores it. Now, I think he's got to...

It's funny because even if he doesn't play in the NBA, he can have a lucrative professional basketball career. I remember talking to a guy I'd covered at Florida one year who was playing in Greece and he's like, everybody thinks I failed because I'm not in the NBA. He's like, I make $750,000 a year and live on the beach. If that's failing, I'll take failing every time. So I imagine DJ will be just fine. But again, I would love to see it. I do want to ask you about the guys in the draft that we know are in the draft. And so the Malik neighbors, Marvin Harrison Jr. discussion blew up after LSU's pro day.

And I just, I have a hard time getting on either side of the argument, Jim. I feel like it's, they're going to be awesome, and you just pick which flavor you want for your offense. And again, I'll stay out of that argument as well, and I'd add Roma Dunzi to it. I mean, I think I'm a huge Roma Dunzi fan. So you had all three of those guys. If I were Monty Asinport with the Cardinals or, you know, Joe Ortiz with the Chargers and everyone wants these quarterbacks and we know who the top three guys are probably going to be. And, and then if there's a trade up for JJ McCarthy, as people are pontificating about right now,

these guys are going to be staring at some really, you know, legit number one NFL wide receivers. So it's, it's going to be fun to see. I mean, I, I was at the, I was at the Baton Rouge pro day. I will say this for Malik neighbors and I'm not, I'm not knocking Marvin Harrison jr. There's not many guys I've talked to in the NFL that are taking a hard edge towards Marvin Harrison for not doing anything during the process, but they did appreciate the fact that neighbors went out there and did everything. And not only did he run, you know, one 40, which you know, he was in the high four threes on that one and the, and the only did he run you know 140 which you know he was in the high four threes on that one and the stopwatches i was around um then he ran a second one you know like

a lot of these guys right now they it's funny at the combine you sit there and you see them run their 40th first thing they beeline it for their phone to tell them if their agent if their agent's going to tell them to run a second one again but uh but neighbors went up and ran a second one it wasn't quite as fast as the first one but i think everyone in the nfl appreciated the fact that you know what this guy's here to compete he went through all the drills and uh you know and same thing with the dunes he like my thing with rome when when you know when neighbors left the combine and marvin harrison left the combine roma dunes he not only did he stay and do everything he did the three cone like 10 times or whatever that was.

I remember, you know, they were down on the field watching. He had a certain time in his mind that he wanted to hit, and he wasn't hitting it. So he just stayed down there to try to, you know, get what it is. So which tells me he's kind of a perfectionist. He's very competitive. So I don't think you can go wrong with either of these three guys this year. Speaking of Roma Dunzi and the Washington Pro Day, Michael Penix Jr., who you had in your game,

is the only one of these big quarterbacks to run the 40. And he ran a really fast one. And I'm curious, we're hearing more about J.J. McCarthy now. Where do you think Michael Penix Jr. and and Bo Nix fit into the equation here yeah both guys we we had here in Mobile um you know I think with Michael the medical is going to be big as as everyone has said right Andy and usually the medical stuff doesn't get out to the media into the fan bases like Michael Penix's injury stuff has I think everyone's kind of just leaned on that as an excuse to like hedge their bets on where Michael Penix is going to has. I think everyone's kind of just leaned on that as an excuse to like

hedge their bets on where Michael Penix is going to get drafted. So I hope that comes out clean and everyone's just got to, you know, stick to a real tape evaluation on the guy. But I'm glad he ran, you know, the guys, I talked to guys that were there and they had him anywhere between like four, five, one and four, five, six, four, five, seven, which is a really good time. I actually went back and watched Indiana tape today to see if he ran a little more there. Cause he just didn't, he didn't use his legs a bunch these last couple of years at UW. And he really didn't at Indiana either to quite honestly. Everybody remembers the two point conversion against Penn state as a huge run, but yeah,

right. He didn't, that wasn't a huge part of their offense. No. And I was trying to come up with content content i was going to post some videos of him running around in indiana and there was nothing there um so no yeah he's the only guy and it's too bad and not that again i don't think the league's taking a hard stance on this but being in baton rouge there was a couple guys on the lsu staff i didn't make this up to get clicks on social media a couple of of the guys, when he, when he opted not to run, we're like, Jim, if he would have run, he would have run close to, to Thomas and neighbors, you know, Daniels. Yeah. Yeah. Jaden Daniels, my bad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jaden would have run, would have run close, you know, just based on their GPS stuff. So if he would have been in the four fours and then JJ McCarthy can roll, I know he can, um, it just would have been in the four fours and then JJ McCarthy can roll. I know he can. It just would have been fast.

Yeah. I think, I think Bo Nix, I went back, like, so I did that. I went back and looked at the Pennix, Indiana stuff.

I went back and looked at some of Bo's Auburn stuff to just watch him run around and be more of an ad lib player. And he's a really good athlete and he didn't test. I mean, Bo's a really good athlete. So it's, it's an interesting class, man.

It's going to, we're here. We are, we're, you know, less than a month out now, but, Bo is a really good athlete. So it's an interesting class, man. It's going to – here we are. We're less than a month out now. And that's probably all we're going to talk about for the next three weeks. But they're six legit guys. And then, I mean, shoot, Rattler. You know, being maybe the seventh – Right, MVP of your game. I mean, Spencer Rattler is a guy that people like

that think that he could be an NFL starting quarterback. Michael Pratt at Tulane. I was at his pro day last week. And, you know, there was a bunch of quarterback coaches and offensive coordinators at that pro day. And listen, they don't go to pro days if they think the guy's going to be a backup in the NFL. So, you know, there's starter love for Michael Pratt, too. So one thing I love about talking to you is you bring out the guys that we're going to be talking about come next fall that blow up as rookies you know it we saw pukunuku this year so you had a thread on twitter the other day where you you were saying guess the player this guy's you know the nfl scouts really

love this guy this is a guy you're going to be talking about a lot in the fall so so tell us about cole bishop from utah yeah so cole Cole is an early out junior. So he's a young guy. I think he's only 21 years old. Younger guy, came out as a true junior, played a lot as like an underneath zone player for them. They blitzed him a lot. He's a really good blitzer. What you didn't see a lot, you didn't see him play from depth a lot, and you didn't see him in a lot of man coverage, which I think scouts got to see him do that here. And he checked both those boxes. And then he went to the combine and he ran like mid four fours.

His agent tells me it's been adjusted down to a four four. Oh, who knows? Who cares? Mid four fours fast enough for a safety. That'll work. Yeah, that'll work. But, you know, really, really similar. If you want to do a comparison thing, that's Jalen Petrie.

So when Jalen Petrie was at Baylor a couple years ago, and he had the 17 and a half tackles for loss, he was basically kind of an apex player, and they would bring him off the edge, and he would blow stuff up. And they blitz Cole a lot as like an A-gap, B-gap blitzer. So you just didn't see a lot in coverage. So he checked those boxes here he ran really well and we were at the combine um the night he ran the 4-4 and uh moved around really good in drills and and i brought his name up to some guys i was out with that night from teams and i'm like where does he go is he going the third and all three teams said dude he's not

getting out of the second round so i was like i was like that's awesome that's cool you know that's cool for me to hear because before he came to mobile I thought maybe like early four late three kind of fringe top hundred so for him to get up in the second round that's a nice jump what one more guy in your game who I I'm curious about what you foresee from him in the NFL like what role role you see him playing, is Jaheim Bell. He started his career at South Carolina, finished at Florida State, could be tight, he played tight end, it was used essentially as a tailback at times. What do you foresee him doing for whatever team drafts him? Well, he's the positionless player, right? I think you talk to defensive coordinators, they're all looking for the positionless player, and that's think you talk to defensive coordinators, they're all looking for

the positionless player. And that's such a departure from where we were 10 years ago. Those guys would have been tweeners back then. And teams would have been looking for reasons not to draft them. Oh, they don't fit us. I think if he gets with an imaginative offensive coordinator, again, pick a guy off the Kyle Shanahan tree or Sean McVay tree. He can do all that stuff, Andy. I really do. I think he can do all that stuff. I think he can be a ball carrier. I think he's a mismatch in the slot. I mean, you're going to have a hard time putting safeties on him. You certainly can't cover him with most linebackers. So again, I just hope he goes to the right place that can kind of use him and be creative with him because he's a talented playmaker.

All right. Well, Jim, I expect your full scouting report football-wise on Zach Eadie next week. So we'll get Zach Eadie and Donovan Klingin next week, the 7-2 and 7-4. Make sure that we place them in the NFL as well. That's a quick summary. Too tall. It's easy. That's a quick summary. Too tall. It's easy. That's scouting right there, baby. Jim, thank you so much. All right, Andy. Thanks, man.

Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl, one of my favorite people to have on the show because he takes you so far behind the curtain of that scouting process. And he just thinks the same way I do. And he sees someone who looks like a great football player. Doesn't matter if they're playing football or not. It's like, let's figure out how to make this guy a football player. That was a lot of fun today. We're going to have a lot of fun tomorrow. We're going to be talking a little Ohio State.

We're going to check in on the Buckeyes. The team that I think probably is going to go into the season preseason number one, expected to win the national title. We'll see if they can live up to it. Right now, they seem to have a roster for it. We'll see how that is progressing through spring practice with our friend Spencer Holbrook of Letterman Row. We'll talk to him on tomorrow's show. We'll talk to you on tomorrow's show. We'll talk to you on tomorrow's show.

Thanks so much. Remember, subscribe on YouTube to the On3 Sports channel. Subscribe to Andy Staples On3 on your favorite podcast platform and never miss an episode. We will talk to you tomorrow.