Andy & Ari On3 - Is Bill Belichick at North Carolina going to work, or is it going to BLOW UP?

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

We hosted Andy & Ari On3 LIVE from the Draft in Green Bay last week, and it was a blast. Thanks to Culver’s for bringing us to the Great Wisconsin Tailgate. Born in Wisconsin, Culver’s is the home of the legendary ButterBurger, Fresh Frozen Custard and Wisconsin Cheese Curds—there’s no better representation of America’s Dairyland than that. But Culver’s isn’t just in Wisconsin. There’s one near you now. So grab a ButterBurger and a Cement Mixer and let’s talk some football.(0:00-1:29) Intro(1:30-4:40) Dear Andy: Beating UNC & Belichick?(4:41-6:34) Update on Belichick and Girlfriend(6:35-7:00) Culver's(7:01-13:25) Continuing the Belichick conversation(13:26-23:47) How good can UNC be in Belichick's first year?(23:48-27:53) It gets weirder(27:54-35:11) Lifetime movies: who plays Bill Belichick?(35:12-39:54) On3 acquires Rivals(39:55-44:33) What does it look like with a 9-game SEC Schedule?(44:34-54:25) USC's Ceiling in the Big Ten?(54:26-55:40) Kentucky Athletics as an LLC(55:41-1:06:50) Was Quinn Ewers misevaluated?(1:06:51-1:14:41) The Arch Manning Infatuation(1:14:42-1:24:15) Arch Manning as "The Best Burger" ever(1:24:16-1:25:56) Flashback with Nick Roush(1:25:57-1:26:52) Conclusion: Happy Anniversary, Ari! It’s a Dear Andy/Dear Ari show, and you have some incredible questions… Will coaches savor beating Bill Belichick the way they savor beating Deion Sanders? Also, who will play Belichick in the inevitable Lifetime movie about his relationship with Jordon Hudson? If the SEC goes to nine conference games, what currently scheduled non-conference games might get canceled? What is USC’s ceiling? Was Quinn Ewers mis-evaluated?   Watch Andy & Ari On3 LIVE, M-F at 9:30 am et! https://youtube.com/live/E2g4k0CsSUE Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Want to partner with the show? E-mail [e-mail]

Welcome to Andy and Ari on three presented by Culver's. It is a dear Andy, dear Ari show. You have lots of questions. I have lots of questions as I read all of this bill Belichick stuff. So, I mean, there was there was a sentence in a New York post story. I don't even know what to do with it. I wouldn't know what to do with that sentence if it was in anywhere. I don't know. I didn't even know what to do with it. Like I wouldn't know what to do with that sentence if it was in anywhere.

Like I don't know. I didn't even know those existed. Hey, well, apparently, apparently we just don't know the area very well. We'll get, we'll get into that. We will get into that, but it is a Dear Andy and Dear Ari show. Your questions drive the show

and you have sent in some, some doozies this week. There is some significant Quinn Ewers Arch Manning discourse questions that have been raised by stuff we've talked about this week. I have intentionally pushed that to the back of the show because I do think there are some people who are tired of hearing us talk about Arch Manning right now. Oh, I don't feel like we talked about them that much. Do you? I do, but it's okay. I also think this Bill Belichick thing was a little bit of a slow I don't think we've talked about them that much, do you? I do, but it's okay. I also think this Bill Belichick thing was a little bit of a slow burn at first,

and we weren't really sure how to talk about it or what to talk about, and now we know exactly what to talk about. Unfortunately for Bill Belichick, it's not what he wants us to talk about. It's not football at all, but it's, it's just bizarre. So I think we need to take a little deeper dive and we'll start with a couple of questions that we got on the topic. So I will start with this question from Blue Devil Quaker. So we know where

we know where this person's allegiances lie and it ain't with Bill Belichick. So on a scale, on a scale of one, two better than beating Dion, how much joy will other coaches experience when beating the tar heels this fall? Well, this assumes they're going to beat them. Uh, the North Carolina schedule is not entirely challenging. Am I, am I putting that generously enough? I thought when he said when teams beat North Carolina this fall was that it's probably not going to happen that much

because they're not playing very many good teams, but he's saying Duke's going to beat North Carolina this fall, which given Dukes record last year, maybe they've got a better quarterback. Don't think I don't know. I just look at it and I think that they are actually going to win eight games by default and if he's, you know, has more Bill Belichick magic up his sleeve, we'll probably win more potentially. I don't know. I have a hard time kind of capping what North Carolina actually is as a team to begin with because they've lost a lot of players and they're, you know,

relying on a quarterback potentially that, you know, didn't play at this level and, you know, there's there's questions about them, but I don't know that other I think other coaches if they beat Bill Belichick will probably get joy in a different way. I feel like they're going to be honored to be playing against Bill Belichick. Yeah, other coaches have a lot of freaking Bill Belichick like it's not like he's a pariah yet. I mean like I don't know like what is happening here. Like Andy, I

don't know. I have a really hard time with this because I joked about you know what's going on with Bill Belichick on Twitter last night and it's like how much I just don't know how far out we can go. All I'll say is this. Respectfully, something seems off here. Respectfully, it sure does. Okay. Respectfully. But you know, I'm just saying like I don't know what's going on here, but if you, I mean, I don't know if you want to dive into the New York Post story. We can, so the New York Post story, well, it was a follow up on a story from,

I believe the Daily Mirror, which is one of the London tabloids about Jordan Hudson, who is Bill Belichick's girlfriend and publicist. I think I don't know manager. Well, Bill Belichick himself put out a statement yesterday at who, and he described her as somebody

has a personal and professional relationship with so. I think we say manager, right? Publicist is a great thing. himself put out a statement yesterday at who, and he described her as somebody he has a personal and professional relationship with. So I think we say manager, right? Publicist. It seems to be the role being played here. That's the first time there was a public acknowledgement that there's a professional situation happening.

Yes. Right. Yeah. And, and so I, we can start with his statement, which is from the, this is based off the CBS News, CBS This Morning weird story where they show Jordan Hudson breaking in when they asked how they met. It was a very weird deal, like, why would you not answer that question?

But he released a statement, he said, that it was supposed to be all about the book, basically. He said, prior to this interview, I clearly communicated with my publicist, Simon and Schuster, that any promotional interviews I participated in would agree to focus solely on the contents of the book. Unfortunately, that expectation was not honored during the interview. I was surprised when unrelated topics were introduced, and I repeatedly expressed the reporter, Tony Ducoupil, and the producers they preferred to keep the conversation centered on the book. After this occurred several times Jordan with whom I share a personal and professional relationship stepped in to reiterate that point to help refocus the discussion.

I'm talking about this. Yeah we're not talking about this. We are talking about this Jordan, I'm sorry. We're not talking about this. We are talking about this work. I'm sorry. Bill can do that himself. One because he's Bill Belichick and two, how old are these people? Okay, we know Jordan's not that old, but but Bell's old. You've been on earth long enough to know that when you agree to do something to hype a book

up that if the people think what's in the book is boring, they're going to ask about the interesting stuff. Like that's how interviews work. We ask about the interesting things. It was funny because it reminded me of the time that Deion Sanders was before the Super Bowl three years ago, right? When he was at Jackson State, you know how he doesn't really talk to the media unless you go to Boulder He was like sponsored by Frito-Lay and

he had to do like a conference call about chips and his sponsorship with Frito-Lay and Everybody was just like asking him football questions while he was at Jackson State and in every answer to his credit, he like brought it back to the chips and I thought it was really funny. Well, that's just doing what you pay to do. That's, hey, we're presented by Culver's. We're gonna talk about some cheese curds here now. We're gonna talk about some frozen custard.

We're gonna talk about some butterburgers. We do need to remember this. That's just doing what you pay to do. An entire show filled with like curds and cement mixer quips. Because that's what he did. He answered the questions. He answered them, but he used like metaphors and analogies and things with the chips. And I thought it was hilarious. But Andy, he did make it weird, but we have to have to talk about this real estate

situation. Like this is the victim like that. This is what we couldn't get Ari interested in this story. Like we talked about this several weeks ago and he's like, I don't get it. Why does everybody care? As soon as real estate entered the picture, Ari's dialed in now. It's not real estate. It's a real estate portfolio that people in America would amass. Bill Belichick is worth roughly by estimation 70 million. Okay. And that will probably go up to 100 million through the

remainder of his deal here. She has amassed 10% or 15% of his net worth in properties since they've met. Is that correct? Maybe she's mobile. Maybe she's got a good eye for investment properties. I'm assuming that if you spend millions of dollars on a house in Cape Cod, that's probably a pretty good investment. I don't know if you need to. I mean, she might be a better real estate broker than PR agent, PR firm manager. I don't know. Explain to me what's going on here. I mean, you probably can't.

But what I can tell you is I've been around the block enough as a 37 year old man to know something's not right here. It sums up. It's weird. It's not, but hey, love who you love, love who you love. And that's all fine and good. My question is, is any of this going to affect Bill Belichick on the football field this year? In fairness, when I met Britt, I probably would have given her 10% of my of my net worth too if she wanted it. Of course, I

would have done anything. You've actually given her 100% of it. Yeah. Now now definitely 100% of it. You should see the shoes that we got delivered to our house yesterday. It's insane. Uh the. But in fairness, her net worth is larger than yours. Her net worth is pretty good too. Uh, but like I. I'm also dealing with much lower stakes here as well. Like my net worth couldn't amass property in Cape Cod.

Um, I don't know if it's going to impact them on the football field, but what I do know is is that their behavior in that interview has now opened up a Pandora's box. And like yesterday stories about the property was the first part, but you have people digging now. You people. That's a great point. This is what I was trying to explain the other day when we were talking about the situation when it happened. The second you shut down something simple, like how did you meet? You are waving a giant red flag that says, please dig into every aspect of this.

And people will not stop till they get to the bottom of it. Right. And after you get a story like yesterday, because like as you joked about Andy, I didn't really care about her or their relationship at all a month ago. Now I'm kind of interested in a way that I didn't realize I was like reading everything online last night. Like I read zero. Like if you would have told, asked me what Bill Belichick's girlfriend's name was seven days ago, I don't know that I would have been able to tell you like I, that's how little I

cared about it. Last night I spent that's how little I cared about it. Last night I spent an hour and a half reading about it and texting you and Luke and other people at the athletic about it. And it's just like insane. It's just not normal behavior. Not to mention that the, call it what it is, but a 70 something year old man dressing up

like a fisherman and pulling a mermaid out of the ocean is troubling behavior. Like say whatever you want about it. But like, Oh, that was a cute picture. Come on. It's a cute picture. We know you don't like whimsy. I don't know what that means. The thing that you never see, I tell you what it means every time and you never know what it means. What does it mean? Whimsy. It's whimsical. Oh, the word whimsical. That's like a, okay. I don't know what that means. All I know is that that Bill Belichick is the coach on earth that probably lacks the most most zaniness in his personality. And I don't see any other coaches in any sport doing this.

But also to let me tell you I was raised on Gordon's fish frozen fish. He is dressed as the Gordon's fisherman. He has dressed up for Halloween before before he met her. So there's a there is a history there. Yeah, Bill Belichick. Maybe just like a sneaky secret big time Halloween guy. Yeah, maybe he just loves Halloween and we need to learn that about him. All I know is those fish sticks if you get them in the air fryer slap city. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So am I saying them off off base here though? Like or does it feel odd? Like does it feel like something weird is happening? It does feel weird. It feels very weird, especially considering this is a guy,

and because we've got a long history of Bill Belichick and his dealings with the media and how much of his private life he's been willing to reveal and let out there. And Jordan Hudson is very active on Instagram. She's the one putting most of this stuff out before, like before Sunday, before everybody started digging, most of the stuff that we were talking about was coming from her.

Like she was the one putting it in the public sphere. And you got Bill Belichick who historically has not let much out into the public sphere. Like we have decades of him as a successful football coach, not like very clearly not letting strategically not letting much out. And I would argue that he's still strategically not letting much out. Like, what do we know about North Carolina's football team right now, other than their best returning defensive starter just left for Ohio State, and they're bringing in Gio Lopez, who was the South Alabama quarterback,

probably to be the starting quarterback. Like, we don't know a whole lot about that team at all. And I think that's all by design. And also too, let me just tell you that like his football acumen is really really good. Right? Like if any coach in the country thinks that they can come into college football remain under the radar, build

something coach the hell out of their team and create a really good discipline football team. It's Bill Belichick. Like that's not lost on me. Um, I don't know. I think that there are, um, reasonable doubts that you can have that that's something that is effective or can be done in college football. But I think in the ACC, where you don't have mega teams, maybe outside of Clemson this year, a well coached, uh, sneaky, talented football team that was well evaluated in the portal can do can put up numbers, especially against that schedule.

So like I'm on high alert for like Bill Belichick coming out and having a very successful first year. Um, so like his football and what North Carolina can be on the field is a completely separate discussion from like, what the hell's going on off of it. I am interested in what North Carolina can be on the field. Like, do you think that Bill Belichick and obviously he used Freddy Kitchens is the OC now. Freddy Kitchens was on the North Carolina staff last year, but he's been in the NFL.

He's actually been an interim head coach in the NFL. Steve Belichick, Bill's son, who's been an NFL coordinator, who was the Washington defensive coordinator last year. Do you think they're going to be able to coach circles around everybody? Because that's the part I'm curious about. I don't know if it's about coaching circles. What do you mean like fundamentals and you know lower pad? Not even fundamentals like just pure game planning or pure adjusting to what they see. Cause obviously like Bill Belichick has gone up against the best of the best. But this also this brings you back to the point, which is how many coaches in college

football have even done like how many coaches of college football have won at a high clip or taken a program that isn't amassed with an insane amount of talent and coached their way to 11 wins. Like, I don't even know if that exists in college. I think 90% of coaching is talent accumulation in college. Now, coaching at the NFL level is probably more in-depth because you have equitable talent in every game you play, for the most part. But even then, like, when he didn't have Tom Brady, like they were terrible offensively and like they weren't a very good football team. So like I just, and I, and I,

and I pushed back at the notion that because you coached in the NFL that you know something or have something up your sleeve from the next point that people in college aren't equipped to keep up with. And Steve in the chat makes a good point. His football acumen wasn't so hot after Brady left. Like this is also probably a referendum on Bill Belichick post Tom Brady. Like, but how much of it was Tom Brady?

But I also hate. I also hate, hate, hate, hate separating the two. Like it was all Tom Brady. It was all Belichick. Or even if there was like a person. Yeah, like by the way if you're watching if you're watching on Twitter right now we're moving you to YouTube the link is right below the link you're watching on Twitter come join the chat because the chat is on fire right now they're all in there 3,000 of you are watching now let's

make it let's let's let's, let's come over. Like you're going to enjoy it. And if you're enjoying the show, the same show, just different place. So come, come watch. And I appreciate you guys in the chat and all the, uh, faces and names that we recognize every day. Like you're our family and I appreciate that. Um, but like back to, to Belichick though Andy,

like I don't like separating the two because I think that having players on your team as part of you know coaching, like I don't know like do you take all of you know Nick Saban's titles away because Devontae Smith and. Right, cause he had the best players. It's like no, but I know it's different.

Also. Within the rules of the NFL salary cap. And the draft and everything else managed to have a team that was capable of competing for Super Bowls throughout multiple errors like yes, Tom Brady was there the whole time, but. Really, you can only Brady was there the whole time, but really you can only keep an NFL core together for like four years. And Bill Belichick had them competitive

through about four of those eras, four or five really, where they were competitive in every one of them. In the NFL is much harder than having a dynasty in college. And this, but this brings me to the, a good point that Vance here in the, in the chat, um, brought up. Who would you say are the scheme lords of college football and who, and who, like, cause that's like the hardest part about it, right? Like every single time we talk about college football, it's players, players,

players, players, and then especially now that in the NIL era, it's players, players, players, players and compensation, But it's like which coaches do you believe, um, skeined their way into something or at least earned the reputation of being elite level, head and shoulders above better at drawing up football plays and their counterparts. Well, one, one who was going to be on Bill Belichick schedule is gone. Dave Claussen at Wake Forest was recognized as one of those guys. Because he was the one like every time Clemson played Wake Forest, Abbas would get up and go, yeah, we're more talented, but I'm scared of this game like every single time.

So and they lost a lot, maybe a lot less than they would have if somebody else for the coach, but even the best scheme people in college football are often found at places that have less talent. Um, and it's kind of hard to quantify how much their scheme actually made a difference. Maybe games were closer, but you don't remember them getting closer. Six weeks removed from it. You remember that they lost.

So like it's that's like with North Carolina, like he has to be a scheme Lord. I like that, that, that, that, that, that, that's a t-shirt right there. But I don't know that he has a scheme Lord. I think he has to be an evaluation Lord. And I think that there've been a lot of coaches in the past who we would assume have great evaluation acumen

and it wasn't enough. So like, and like the point that you make about Deion Sanders in Colorado and North Carolina is so true. When Deion took over at Colorado, they were an absolute dumpster fire starting from rock bottom, haven't tasted victory or even being relevant for over a decade.

And any improvement that he could have brought would have been viewed as a success. His first year was even viewed as a success. And I think they lost seven games in a row to end it. Um, Bill Belichick going six and six is a failure. So like he has a high, like North Carolina hasn't been a team that, but they played in the ACC championship game two years ago. Like this is a team that has had some pretty good success and some good teams.

And by the way, I know that it might seem like ancient history at this point, but North Carolina before the NIL era was recruiting some really, really good classes there under Mac Brown. And they were really, really killing it in recruiting, especially in the state of North Carolina, which I think is one of the most undervalued and underappreciated states for high school talent in the country. So like there is a path there,

but also too the thing that we know about college football that's most interesting. And what we don't know about Bill Belichick is, is that if you build something the right way, it's not a one year flip. Now it can be one year improvement. If you do really well in the portal and you can have a big blip on your schedule,

but program improvement is still a long hard path. Ask Florida State. Like that's not something that you do have a big blip on your schedule, but program improvement is still a long, hard path. Ask Florida State. Like, that's not something that you do in a year. If you want your team to be consistently good year in and year out, regardless of what you happen to strike gold in the portal, you have to build that thing through high school. You have to build that thing consistently, and it might take four or five years. And that's four or five years, and I'm not sure Bill Belichick is going to give the North Carolina. So like as it pertains to like, what is it going to be? What does the success look like? What, what is expected of him? Those are very hard questions because a, we don't know the timeframe that we're

dealing with, and this is a lot of the same thing that we were, we were talking about neckling with Dion and like Dion now is going into, you know, what year three there and his recruiting players to stay, it seems like he's going to be there for a while, which is really,. I mean, if you look at, you look at Dion's use of the transfer portal this year, it is significantly less. Like it is kind of, it's, it's the high end of average, but it's average.

Whereas before it was significantly more than everybody else. So is it going to be like a guy who plans to be there a while is exciting to me. Like my number one doubt with Dion outside of the high school stuff was whether or not he was committed to Colorado past his son playing there. And I thought that his recruiting strategy was a clue that he wasn't bought into being there in the future and I was wrong about that.

So the fact that he is going to be there and hopefully there for four or five more years because who doesn't want to see how the Dion experience is going to play out in the five, seven year period? I didn't want to see a two year experiment. I wanted to see a five, seven wholesale attempt at rebuilding a program. And I think we're going to get that, which is super exciting. I don't know. So now like when we go back to Belichick, we're back in that same place, which is how committed are you to being there long-term? Are you just going to be the head coach of the Browns in a year? Like, I don't know what is his long-term plan, but that's also the danger of

hiring somebody who's accomplished everything in the world already and is getting up there in age. And that's the most ironic part about the whole thing. Like I think that like a lot of the people internally in North Carolina that I spoke to were concerned about Mac Brown's age and they went out and hired somebody who's the same age who probably has less desire in the tank to be great because he's already won six Super Bowls or whatever. It's insane.

Got a scheme Lord for you. Samuel in the chat. Jeff Brahm. Yeah, that's the scheme Lord. Now in the ACC, not someone Belichick has to play this year He should be grateful for that because Louisville is gonna be pretty good this year Alright, let's get to the Senate sorry The Senate's in the New York Post story already was fascinated by all the property stuff the the amassing of a portfolio of property by Jordan Hudson I was fascinated by this sentence It's describing her background. She was raised in Maine.

Her parents ran a fishing business. They went bankrupt around the turn of the century. Here's the sentence. Her mother eventually moved to Provincetown on Cape Cod where she manages a sex toy shop and museum. So it is not only a sex toy shop, it is also a sex toy museum. Andy, I gotta tell you, bud, I love you.

I love you so much and I'm so grateful for what you've done for me in my career and being your co-host. You are trying to kill me these next two weeks. The thing that we said with Dion last week, you're putting me in an unwinnable situation here. What goes on in a sex museum? Listen, I'm not- Not sex, apparently.

I'm not Casanova, okay? Like I'm, you know. You and Romeo ain't never been friends? I, you know, middle grade lover, I would say. I don't know what the hell goes on here. Explain it to me. Remember for the soundboard, please clip the phrase middle grade lover. Please clip the phrase middle grade lover. Not talking about this. Oh, yes, Jordan. We are. What is it like the first sex toys and like their origination?

Like what the hell are we doing here? I'm guessing like, I don't know. I think I like Adobe made of Adobe or something. Andy, Andy, Andy, Andy. I got a question for you and I don't know. You want to take the show to the next level? Well, I think we need to go there.

Let's do a show there. It's topical, topical. I mean, like it's somewhere in, in like Cape Cod area, right? That'd be hell of a- So I will, I will point out when I tweeted about this last night, the people in the comments, very adamant that I've never been to Provincetown if I had been I would understand this completely

Okay, and I accept that your eccentric place like Sedona, but on the East Coast yeah, I accept that I Showfield trip so here's the thing or does that something? You need to have a show field trip. So here's the thing. You know what blows my mind? When you look at the innovation of our world, at least in my life, like my grandma, my great grandmother, Esther, God rest her soul,

was born in 1905 and died in the early 2000s. So she lived a long life. And I marvel at what she saw from a technological advancement standpoint, right? Like when you think about what it would have been like to be a 10-year-old in 1915, and then to see World War II happen, see airplanes, see cell phones, the internet, all the stuff that like was apparently taking over our society when she passed away. the stuff that like was apparently taking over our society when she passed away. Like in one lifetime, how much can change, right? What changed in the sex toy industry that she might've seen? Like, I don't even know like what, like to bring it back. I mean, what, what, what it's like, well, there's been so much advancement in

plastic and polymers. I mean, things were probably made out of chicken wire back in your grandma's day. I know, but the, the same relative shape, I would assume. I don't know how much you can- I think the shape has probably never changed. I think the materials have changed. As the materials have advanced, it's probably got a little more comfortable.

So they have like vintage sex toys made out of bark? Like, I don't know, like- That's what I'm saying, Adobe chicken wire. I don't know. Like, I've never been to this museum and I'm fascinated. I mean, I don't know. Like, I'm not a freaky guy. So like, I don't know. Like, that's the one thing I can say about me personally, is I'm a weirdo and I got some weird stuff going on in my head, but there's no like sexual skeletons in my closet. Like, I'm ready. I just write down the book. So I feel like we got to go. I feel like we got to find this out. And however this relationship ends

up, whether it is a fairy tale, they get married, they live happily ever after or it blows up spectacularly because some tabloid found something, I don't know what's gonna happen. All I do know is that the Lifetime movie that they make about this is going to be the greatest Lifetime movie ever made. By the way Lifetime movies are really good. They're all kind of the same and it always ends with somebody on the back of an ambulance with a blanket wrapped around them after something horrific happened but they're always like really.... Oh, no, that would not. You're thinking. Yeah, no, I'm thinking more like a lifetime Christmas

movie. Oh, okay. So yeah, I don't know. All I know for sure is that lifetime. You want to, you want to, uh, yeah, the, the, the, the traditional lifetime movie you're talking about, like the title is usually like the guy did it. Yeah, or it's the guy's fault. The guy next door or whatever. I don't know. I don't all I know for sure, Andy. And this is a perfect segue. Not segue, but this is a we'd have another question on this. No, no, I'm not done with it. Okay. The whole show is this. I got news for you guys. Like when I saw when I read that that line of works in sex shop, and I went like this, I was like, okay. And then when I read the word museum, I went, what?

I don't know what museum. Museum part of it makes the whole thing. Like sex, people work in sex shops. It's a very big business. In the Lifetime movie, whoever plays Jordan will be going to ask advice of her mom, and the scene will always take place in the sex toy museum. So you will have the Adobe and chicken wire sex toys.

Did you Google? I haven't Googled the business yet. I need to Google it. I wonder if they have. I have. No, I'm not getting Dateline confused with Lifetime movies. I'm a Lifetime aficionado. And I want to tell you something right now. I know that horror movie. Like, if you like, go to a movie theater right now, and I'm gonna go on a 13 second rant

about how they don't make good movies anymore again, it's a children's movie, a comic book movie, a remake of some sort, a sequel or prequel of some sort and a low budget horror movie, right? Where somebody, where ghosts are getting stabbed or like, it's always just a really gory disgusting horror movie that was made by a 10 year old. The real horror movies are when people like do things in like

relationships to each other. Like that to me is the scariest part. Like if you are with and I'm not implying that is your the fodder for your traditional Lifetime movie. Right. Like somebody's strange dad and stealing the children, a strange dad stealing the children is pretty popular plotline. Lifetime is. The legitimate horror channel. Until Christmas time, until Christmas time,

and I mean, they do have like cute love stories, too, so that's the lifetime you're talking about the But that's the lifetime movie I'm envisioning. So like when the Jordan character goes to visit her mom to ask advice about her relationship with Bill. She drops her groceries outside the store and Bill Belichick helps her pick up the apples and puts it in the bag and they look at each other and they fall in love.

That's the life. Exactly. Or they meet on a plane and she's reading a book about deduction. Yeah. Unless that's not happening then. Everybody's telling me to go see Sinners, Andy. Yeah. And apparently it's one of the best movies that they've released in 10 years. And I asked what the plot was and it's vampires.

Alright, so the question we have is from Justin. Who do you cast as Bill Belichick in the Lifetime movie? I've made a list. My initial thought, the first person who popped in my head unfortunately is no longer with us. He recently passed. Gene Hackman would have been ideal. Yes. And we've seen Gene Hackman as a football coach before

in The Replacements, which is like the idea behind the replacements is terrible. The execution was actually really good. Gene Hackman, Keanu Reeves, good movie. John Voight, who we've also seen as a football coach. He was Bud Kilmer. I don't think he can break Bud Kilmer, Andy. Like he's always going to be Bud Kilmer. I think he can do Belichick. I think you could do it a Harvard man Tommy Lee Jones. I Think that's our guy I've got a guy who's passed away though. Oh

And I should have sent this to River beforehand, so I'm gonna vamp for a second when I send it to him Philip Seymour Hoffman And I should have sent this to River beforehand, so I'm gonna vamp for a second when I send it to him. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Well, yes, he could play anybody. He could use a great actor, but he also... him as Capote. Like he could make... they could make Philip Seymour Hoffmore look like Belichick. Like, uh, and I sent him a picture. Hopefully he can get it up here on time. If he can't, you know what Philip Seymour Hoffman looks like. Now, the one thing I will say about Philip Seymour Hoffman that needs to be said about any show that breaks down high level American cinema classic is that his role as Sandy Lyle in Along Came Polly is the greatest

individual acting performance of our generation. So that, and that's an underappreciated movie that I don't understand why people don't talk about more. Have you seen it recently? Not recently. I'm going to have to rewatch. All right, I got I got another one for you. Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks is 68 years old. He's exactly in the age bracket.

And I could see him pulling off the work we're on. We're on Cleveland. Like I can see that. Yeah. Here's another one though. Because we tend to like to make our people sexier when we put them in a movie. Yeah. You're ready.

You're ready. You're ready. Brad Pitt. I don't know about that. How old do you think Brad Pitt is? Upper fifties. He's 61. Okay. I don't know about that. Ari, how old do you think Brad Pitt is? Upper 50s. He's 61. Okay. He's a very handsome man.

I'm telling you. Well, you want to make him more handsome. So, yeah. Now, as for Jordan, I don't know who plays her. I think we have to have Lacey Shaw Bear in the movie. Because you cannot make a lifetime to have Lacey Shaw Bear in the movie. I mean, because you can't you cannot make a lifetime movie without Lacey Shaw Bear. So Lacey Shaw Bear who we grew to love on party five back when you know times were simpler.

She's 42 years old. I don't know that she can play Jordan. She may have aged out of the world, but she can play Jordan's mom. Andy and the proprietor of the sex toy museum. Ladies, you should be playing the proprietor of the sex toy museum. I was going to tell you, when you watch a movie about high schoolers, you find out the actor's like 39 years old, like they could make that work. Oh, I found that out the other day.

We've got the new show on Netflix that has Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly, and I'm doing the math on Minka Kelly and realizing she was like 30. When they were doing Friday night lights, by the way. Minka, if you're watching, I love you so much. Minka could also play Jordan's mom, but again, Minka could do anything requires Lacey Sharber be cast in the Lifetime movie I don't know if you believe in God but like the fact that there's somebody as perfect as Minka Kelly on earth proves that this Isn't all an accident like that. There's no way she came from the Big Bang Theory Just none

There's so many atheists out there going huh, I think I never thought of it that way You think that molecules exploded a billion years ago and it led to Minka Kelly? Get out of here. Ari, we do have some football questions. Actually, well, first of all, we gotta answer Odin Horn's question because it involves current events involving our company.

Yes. So River, throw up the question from Odin Horns. Please comment on rivals being acquired by On3 per reports rival sites will cover high school recruiting and rankings while On3 sites will focus on college football teams. So not exactly. On3 will focus on college rivals will focus on

recruiting the brands. The team sites will focus on the teams so the team sites will like if you if you go to. Let's say you go to the Wolverine. Your Michigan fan. You will get on three stories about the Michigan people now and you will get on three. You will get rival stories about the the Michigan people now, and you will get on three, you will get

rival stories about the people Michigan is recruiting. And that's, that's how the split's going to work. But it's a, it's a crazy full circle moment. Cause our, our founder, Shannon Terry, you know, he found, he founds a site, they, they had a network called Alliance that they sold the rivals in the nins. Rivals then went bankrupt. Shannon bought it out of bankruptcy. Built it up, sold it to Yahoo. Then founded 24-7, built that up, sold it to CBS, then founded on three. So this is this is all coming full circle here.

Yeah, I don't know how much we're allowed to talk about this. Because we were on some conference calls yesterday. I'm putting that I'm putting what's in the in the release out there. This I'm only going by what we've publicly released. I'm just gonna say this. Yeah, rivals is the oldest.

Recruiting brand that there is in the modern day era. And Shannon created that. I think when you think of Rivals, that was my first professional job in the world was at a Rivals site. When you think about recruiting rankings and profiles, you think of Rivals because that was the OG and it's been around for over 20 years.

I'm excited to see the revival of the Rivals brand mean what it always used to mean. It's going to be awesome and there's going to be a lot of recruiting, all of the recruiting resources that we have at On3 and what Rivals brings to the table are going to be used under the high school umbrella and like Rivals is going to be what it used to be. And I am so happy because some friends that we haven't been able to have on the show because they've been in the competition, like I'm really excited.

So like Larry Williams, who runs the Clemson Rivals site texted me yesterday, he's like, let's go. And like, I'm so excited because some of you guys might not know him, but nobody covers Clemson better than Larry Williams, Nobody. And my former Tampa Tribune co-worker, Anwar Richardson, who covers Texas for Orange Bloods, loved him. We used to do stuff together all the time, but obviously couldn't because of the competitive relationship. Well, now Orange Bloods is in the family.

So this is gonna be really exciting and it's gonna be lot of fun. And I just, I can't wait. I, I, it was when the news came down yesterday and obviously we were getting texts about it during the show before it was released to the, to the general public and it's, it's a big deal. So very exciting day at the company and I can't wait to see where it goes from here because I do think this is a signal that this thing's only going to get a lot bigger over the next few years. Yeah, yeah. And it's always fun. You and I have been on the ground floor of a media business that was growing, and that was a lot of

fun. I mean, one of the best and most important professional achievements that I've had, not awards that have been won or stories that have been written has been a part of the athletic before anybody knew what it was. And then it's seen to get sold for $600 billion. The New York Times was a pretty important like milestone for me. So I'm really excited about, you know, I'm not one of the OGs here at on three. Yeah, but also being a part of a company that's still trying to, you know, stake its claim in this business and, you know, build a website and a brand and traffic and all the things

that we're trying to do here, again, has been super exciting and this is a nice step in that direction. So super excited to see what the future holds and super excited to write a recruiting column for rivals. Like it's gonna be great. It'll be bad. And fellow football player dads,

I still can't get your kid an invite to the last day of the rivals can't. Sorry. Maybe a year from now if he hits the ring. No, these kids gonna have to get some offers. I'm sorry. Sorry about that. All right.

Next question comes from Dale. If the SEC goes to a nine game conference schedule, what currently scheduled games are we most likely to lose? And what what Dale means by this is not necessarily games within the SEC because if they go to a nine game conference schedule the annual rivalries will all get kept the those those will be easy to keep because you'd have three fixed opponents and then you rotate through the rest so that part wouldn't be the issue. The issue would be there's games coming up like. You know, there's a Texas, you've got Texas and Ohio State this year, like you've got a return game on that.

You've got the Michigan, Texas return game from last year. Michigan and Oklahoma are playing this year. There's also a return game on that one. Would some of those games get canceled down the line because the SEC added an extra conference game? My read on this is it would not because the situation right now is they're only going to nine. If the college football playoff is going to have automatic bids, so they're going to stay at eight. If that doesn't happen. If they go to nine it's

because it doesn't really matter how many you lose out of conference anyway. Because if the SEC gets four automatic bids to the playoff, your SEC records all that matters for that. So you can make the out of conference schedule as hard as you want. And also part of the idea for this is there would be extra revenue from ESPN. My guess is there is not as much extra revenue if in response to adding a ninth conference game, you cancel non-conference games

that ESPN wants to televise. Right. In favor of ones they don't. So, my guess is they would keep them all. Yeah, but I think that's a huge scenario for people that everything would say the same except that FCS game that everybody plays And I don't know something that you know, you know, we'll see how that plays out, but that's the hope of how it would turn out

Yeah, so and here's the other thing that I I wrote this story the other day And if you if you read to the end of it, you saw this Pretty clearly most of the SEC schools have geared up for a nine game conference schedule in 2026 because 11 of them have three non-conference games scheduled. And then only two of them have four scheduled and then there's a couple that only have two at this point. But basically the majority of the conference is set up for there to be a nine game conference schedule in 2026.

But again, I don't think they're gonna do that unless they get the automatic bids into the CFP. I am now pretty firmly convinced they're not. Now, if they stay at eight, again, I'll say this every time, you have to figure out a way to have Texas Texas eight and play every year. You cannot do something different. You can't. You're, you're just completely moronic.

If you, if you don't have those two teams playing every year. Yeah, I'm with you save that at all costs. Yeah. This is great. My life. I mean, we just went 12 years without it. Like, come on. The, uh, the best part about it was I played golf, you know, 10 days ago with an Aggie and with a with a Longhorn and they're

going at it about the like, yes, on the golf course. Like we have to have. You have to have that every year. And obviously, you know, you talk about entertainment product and why people consume it like, you know, change the sport. But like when you have something obviously, you know, you talk about entertainment product and why people consume it, like, you know, change the sport. But like when you have something that, you know, exists as a result of change that people might not have wanted to begin with, then you have to at least save that. Right? Like we were not supposed to have this game every year

anymore and we got it back. So like the worst thing in the world that could happen is that these two teams are in the same conference and still don't play every year. That'd be insane. Yeah. So figure that part out. If you stay at eight. Now look, I think Greg Sankey and Tony Petit, you're going to get what they want when it comes to the CFP negotiation. So it'll be interesting though, like, cause Sankey said he wants to have the conference game total discussion done before they go to Destin this year and they go to Destin right after Memorial Day. I don't think

like if they say yes to that if they go to nine games and the CFP has not announced a format yet, then I think we know what the CFP format is gonna be when they announce it. Yeah So yeah, we'll see it. We'll see what happens there but that's I don't think you're gonna lose any of the good non-conference games if they go to nine because they're not going to nine, if the non-conference records going to matter. Next question from DD WAC. If USC has the best defensive line in QB play in the big 10 next year, what is their ceiling?

Holy cow is if doing a lot of heavy lifting hair Ari. I read this and I was like OK. But they probably won't. I mean, Alessa San Longstreet becomes the starter and is just awesome. Yeah, the D line part I just can't see if I drop the Bugatti engine in my Prius. Would it be the fastest car on the road like I don't know what we're doing here. Like, I, well, let's, let's, let's adjust.

Let's just ask what is USC ceiling in the day 10 this year. I don't know, man. Will you start every little time we talk about USC, I end up on USC like message boards. Well, here's the thing. I feel like if we're going to be fair to USC, because there is a team that they were somewhat like last year, and we're giving benefit of the doubt to that team, but not giving benefit of the doubt to USC. So I will. Let's do it that way. USC had a very similar season to Auburn in that they played a lot of games that were one possession ones that they could have come out the winner of.

And had they, we would be looking at them completely differently. So I'm talking about the Minnesota game. I'm talking about the Maryland game. I'm talking about the Penn State game. Talking about the Washington game. Like all talking about the Penn State game. Talking about the Washington game. Like all of those are games that could have turned out very differently.

And if they had, we would be talking about a nine or 10 win team and it would not seem as dire as it is. So, or the Michigan game too. So is it possible that like we've said about Auburn, USC can turn those results, at least a few of them around because if they can, then we're talking about an eight or nine win team or maybe even a 10 win team. So here's the difference between SC and Auburn. Auburn had a glaring deficiency last year in a way that tanked most of their losses.

Correct. Their losses all happened the same way. Yeah. At the same position. And now there's going to be a competition for those players. They've got three new quarterbacks to choose from. So I think that the reason why we've given Auburn the benefit of the doubt is because

they lost a certain way and they addressed that specific way with new talent. Okay. Now USC does have good receivers, right? Like there's a lot to like about Mackay Lemon. There's a lot to like about Jocoby Lane. Like they've got good players that they're outside. I also think that, you know, Lincoln Riley deserves some benefit of the doubt as pertains to drawing up offense and scoring a lot because that's what he does. He's done

is developing quarterbacks. So my only reservation is how much like I was kind of surprised that USC didn't try to portal a quarterback. So maybe that is Lincoln Reilly telling us that they're very comfortable and excited about Jane Myava. And like, I think it's them being excited about his on Long Street. And if that whether whether he I don't think he's gonna be the starter. Day one, and I don't think the plan is to start him at all this year. But I think they're excited about him. I surprised they don't have they didn't bring somebody into maybe start this year.

That's kind of the thing too. When Nico hit the market, USC was the number one destination that people thought would happen. It wasn't even a consideration actually. It wasn't even a consideration, but if that was the case, they probably would have done something in the winter. But also too, the fact that everybody's mind went there,

I think is an indication of what people think of Mayava in their offense. So, and then the hope is that Lincoln Riley's right and we're wrong. But if they have, you know, middle tier quarterback play, which is far away different from what the question asserted, then I assume that they will be a tough team that wins eight games again and

kind of looks a lot like they did last year. But if my Ava takes a huge step and is awesome, which the question is asserting, you know, I think they got Keyshawn Silver in there to play, you know, defensive line. He was a former five star prospect that initially went to North Carolina. He was at Kentucky last year. I don't know if his ceiling still exists to what we thought it was when he got to college, but he was a freak athlete when he went to UNC. I guess there are some elements to like about it, but I just find myself disenamored with their quarterback situation, which is not something that I would expect to feel two

years in a row at USC with Megan Reilly as the head coach. That said, I don't think it's out of the question that USC wins 910 games this year. But like in terms of best quarterback play, I don't know if you went down the list of quarterbacks in the Big Ten, if you would even consider taking my Alva in the top five. Like Luke Altmeyer. Mm-hm. Drew Aller. Drew Aller. Dante Moore. We don't know about saying an Underwood, but we assume they're going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say,

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I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, Ready for another Big Ten quarterback? Uh-huh. Nico Iamaljava. It's weird to say, but yeah. So like I just don't know if I'm there with them. So if you're there, thank you for asking the question. I guess it's possible because Lincoln Riley does deserve the benefit of the doubt in that regard. I'm just not there with them. So and I'm further down the line with Auburn, although they did lose games in a very similar way, I think it's a fair comparison, I am more comfortable with the way

that Auburn directly attacked their weaknesses and tried to turn them into a strength. Auburn also has Keldrick Falk, which is a huge difference. They also have potential top 10 defensive lineman, Cam Coleman and Eric Singleton, who let's not forget about the receiver improvement that they also made to a team that because like I think that like Cam Coleman might be the second

receiver off the board in his draft after Jeremiah Smith. When it's all said, Ryan Williams gonna be in that draft too. This is gonna be pretty loaded receiver. How that all works out from the NFL because they're all really, really good and it'll be cool to see how how those freshmen line up when it's all said and done. I think Cam Coleman's a

bigger bodied kid, which might be more attractive than the first round of the NFL. But I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to that. So we'll see. But that's the difference to me. And I think we I'm comfortable with like, you know, and here's the last thing I'm going to say about USC is that USC and Auburn get treated differently because the ceiling of USC's program when Lincoln got hired seemed to be so, so high that winning nine games or even taking the marginal improvement steps after they fell off a few years ago is disappointing to me. Like my, my thought process of what USC was going to be was so high. Like right. And Auburn was considered a rebuild.

Yeah. Like I, I, I thought that USC was going to get closest to being what they were when I was a kid under Lincoln. I don't know that they were ever going to be USC from 2003 ever again, but I thought that they were going to be cool. I thought they were going to recruit like, like bad asses. I thought they were going to have the number one quarterback in the country every year. I thought they were going to put up a shit ton of points and that they were going to run the big 12 and, and be a national championship contender on an annual pack. 12, you mean, uh, what did I say? Big 12?

Well, combination of the big 10 in the Pac 12 was two conferences they've been in. Yeah. Yeah. I said big 12. I meant Pac 12. But you get what I'm saying. Like the, yeah, the Pac 12 was dead. Okay. And I'm still trying to reconcile that. It's just my compare like to me, like USC winning 10 games or nine games doesn't move the needle for me. Like, no, they should be doing That's that's the minimum of what they should be doing. We look at the schedule. Obviously the Clay Hilton coming to USC is spectacular in week two. Also, if they win, if they lose that game and I don't think that they will. What if they do? Is that the lowest of low points for USC? It doesn't get worse than that. No, but I don't I don't see that happening, but Here's the thing Illinois, Michigan

Notre Dame, that's it. That's a three game stretch that is probably gonna be their most important stretch of the season and If you could come out of that two and one somehow you're you're feeling really good about the rest of the way but if you go one and two or oh and three in that stretch, then then you got you got some issues. Yeah. It's gonna be something I'm excited. I just every time I see these games and schedule like let's come on get here sooner, but it's not it's still a while. It's actually going to be here really fast. Andy, like I feel like we're wearing me now.

Today's May 1. Tell me. Happy anniversary, babe. Three years today. Very nice. Is that the wedding anniversary? Very nice. Wow. Yeah, I don't know if we're counting anymore on ours. What are you like? Well, it's a big number. It's a big number. Now, twenty twenty four in July. And he got married when he was 13, everyone. I don't know if you know that, but the child husband, you are going to be the person that has this 50 or 60 year

wedding anniversary. I'm yeah, I might. So that's pretty cool. Yeah. From Josh, this kind of fell through the cracks last week because the draft, but can you explain the Kentucky athletics becoming an LLC thing to me like I'm five and what it will or won't mean for the future of college athletics? Great question, Josh. We're going to bring on someone who

can actually do that tomorrow. So Nick Roush from from Kentucky Sports Radio, our friend Nick Roush, he's coming in. He's going to help us handicap the Kentucky Derby. He's going to explain how you name a horse to Ari, and he's going to explain like we're all five. So we can all understand Kentucky's athletic department becoming an LLC. And I wonder what he has to say about Niko because he was the person that made some news last week or last year. I'm a volleyball player and I'm very curious like what he thinks now.

That's true. Like all of the Tennessee fans. He got so mad at Nick. I think I think they they might owe him an apology. Yeah, I think they also might want to steal some of his insults. So yes, we will let Nick just provide Nico Fodder for the Tennessee fans who would like to now utilize it.

Yeah. Glad you mentioned that. We got that clip. But we'll have to play that clip for Nick to refresh his memory. All right. Now we get to the Texas quarterback stuff that we've talked about a ton this week, but let it keeps generating more questions and I think very interesting discussion points. So we had a couple people yesterday, I thought, sent great either questions or comments about what we were talking about on the show yesterday. So I know a lot of you are sick of this. This is why we're doing this at minute 56 of the show and not at minute one.

But we'll start with Billy's question. Dear Andy and Ari, first time long time. Enjoy the pod. Looking forward to showing Ari tailgate Valhalla in Baton Rouge anytime. Yes, Billy and Billy's a hell of a cook, by the way. I know Billy personally. I'm ready to discuss and push back on something Ari said earlier in the week in response to the idea that Quinn Uers is one of the greatest mis-evaluations in recruiting history. Let me

say first that I have nothing personal against the kid and he's a very good college football player and he has you should have nothing to regret about his career. However, given both the standards of the recruiting five-star system and Ari's own feelings about it vis-a-vis Stars Matter, I think there's certainly an argument that he was mis-evaluated. By the standards of the star system, a five star prospect is considered a future first round pick. That's why there are only 32 in a given cycle. Not only was Ewer a five star, he was the number one player overall in his class and written about at the time as one of the best high school quarterback prospects ever. For him to only be a seventh round pick a few years later

without any major injuries would suggest that none of these things were true. And he was a pretty significant mis-evaluation. Would it not? Now again, that's not to kick yours when he's down, but I think it raises a more interesting question about the nature of recruiting rankings and the flaws in the system. Broadly, I agree that stars do matter, but are there really 32 future first round picks every year? Obviously, there have to be from the NFL's perspective, but most scouts would tell you that different years have different levels of true premium talents. It might do on three or other services well to take a more holistic approach to how these rankings are done. Some years, maybe only 10 or 15 kids truly deserve that fifth star. You're never going to

have perfect talent evaluation, but it's the off season and I think it makes for a fun topic. So that's a great question from Billy. And there's been a column that was well written too. Thanks, Billy. Well, Billy, Billy, Billy also writes for a site called and the valley shook, an LSU site. So he is, he makes good points about this. And I've been thinking a lot about the quarterback evaluation process, because obviously quarterback evaluation from high school going to college is pretty much a crap shoot. We've gone down those lists of who the top ranked QBs were and how many of them bombed out. Obviously going from the college level to the NFL is a crap shoot because we can make very long lists of first-round QBs who flamed out.

So well let me just start here real quick. I never said on the show that yours wasn't miss evaluated. I said I pushed back at the notion that he was the worst miss evaluation ever which is what the tweet said. Like I thought that was insane. Like it's not even close. Um, but right. Cause there are guys who were, who were very high five stars who never played a snap in college football because they

bombed out. There's five star prospects that like literally in the last three years who have transferred to FCS schools, like within a year or two. So like that happens. I also think that it's an interesting point because when you think about not having 32 five-star prospects on an annual basis, I think that that makes sense holistically,

but at the same time, even when the draft happens, if the talent equity in college is lower than you, people become first round picks who might not be first round talents. So I think it ebbs and flows on a given basis. So you have to do 32 because the 32 best players in the country are the 32, you know, players that might end up being first round picks four years from now, because that it's just like a numbers game. Um, um, also too, I think in most years, and I'm not Cody Belair or Charles Power,

like I don't, but in most years there are 50 or 60 players in a given cycle that have a potential to be viewed as a five-star prospect. And if you go through all three services or now two, you will find that there are five stars on some platforms and five stars on others. And for the most part, five star prospects are built from a physical standpoint where they're kind of hard to miss. Like you don't need to be a talent evaluator to pick to the five stars. But I also think it's much easier to do it with an offensive lineman or defensive tackle tackle because you're gonna see some good on good tape

and you're gonna be able to project that person will probably still be bigger, fast, stronger when they get to a higher level. And so predicting that is probably easier than predicting the quarterback. Like when, and I texted Cody Blair some questions and he hasn't gotten back to me yet. I really wanna talk to him about this. Maybe we'll bring him on the show and talk about this next week because I think this could be an interesting discussion. When you're looking at a quarterback in high school and a lot of these a lot of times the evaluation of these quarterbacks start when they're freshmen in high school and sometimes even earlier than that.

And sometimes even earlier than that. I wonder how are you putting the same premium on arm strength that an NFL scout would? Because there are a lot of throws you can make in college that you can get away with. And I think like the, the, the chief complaint about quineers, like if you read a lot of the anonymous draft, you know, anonymous scout quotes, was that he did not have the arm strength to power the ball down the field or power the ball out to the sidelines,

which is the requirement for that is different in the NFL than it is in college. Because NFL players are so much faster, can close the gap so much faster. So, and you also just have to be able to throw in a tighter window. So you've got to be able to zip the ball a little more. Now I'm not saying that arm strength is the most important aspect, because obviously if it was, Joe Milton would be a hall of famer. He had the strongest arm and he was not a he was an okay college starter that's probably being generous so that I'm not saying that's the only thing that

matters but if we're gonna give that fifth star which does say this is someone we think might be a first-round draft pick do you have to put arm strength very high on listed criteria because it needs to be someone who the NFL will recognize as having a strong? I just don't remember. I remember covering Quinn Ewer's recruitment. It was during COVID, but I went to the opening or the elite 11, not the opening, the elite 11 finals one year when he was a senior and a five star and a more overall player. And I stood behind him, maybe a foot or two behind him while he was throwing. And when he was throwing the ball, like he would throw it and it would almost feel like the ball would speed up on the second half of the route. Like, I mean, he had a big arm in high school.

Like, I don't think that people viewed him as a weak arm. And maybe that's it. Maybe, maybe a 16 or 17 year old, like you just don't know that people viewed him as a weak arm. And maybe that's it. Maybe a 16 or 17 year old, like you just don't know yet what their arm strength will be when they're 21, 22. Wasn't the thought that like Quinn was battling a pretty painful injury for the second half of the season this year?

Like, didn't he have like- His injury history was like, I think Billy minimized that. His injury history had a significant impact on his draft stock. And he didn't he didn't have a major injury that ended a season, but he was consistently injured, and I think he was playing through pain in the second half of his of his final year. Yeah, the injury history certainly affected his draft position.

Right. So, so like, I don't know that he was able to drive the ball the way that he needed to in the playoff, because I think he was hurt hurt not because he doesn't have a good arm. Yeah. So again, like if arm strength meant everything, Mike Glennon would be the greatest quarterback in NFL history. But here's the thing, arm strength isn't everything when you have it. It's everything when you don't. Correct. Yeah, correct. And there's a minimum threshold that I think the NFL scouts have in their head. This is gonna be different than you'd have when you're evaluating for,

is this guy gonna be successful in college? And accuracy in the NFL is a completely different proposition than it is in college. Right. And in order to be accurate, you also have to have strength to get the ball in the window that it needs to get into at the right time. Like it's not like, can you put the ball where it needs to be accurate, you also have to have strength to get the ball in the window that it needs to get into at the right time. Like, it's not like, can you put the ball where it needs to be?

You need to put it there with velocity and you need, like there was different types of throws. Like, I just don't know if people appreciate and I certainly, and that's why we talk about drew Aller and how the NFL scouts love him. Cause drew Aller's arm is incredible. Like, he can throw rockets. I just don't think people appreciate how small the window is in the NFL. Like there are some throws that you go back

that even Jalen Hurts made last year that Aaron Rodgers made in his prime where it's like he's throwing off platform off of his back foot and putting the ball in a like one millimeter window where if it's lower, it's intercepted. Like the ball is perfect. And you need arm strength to do that.

So it's not just how far can you throw it downfield, it's whether or not you have the velocity and the strength in different throwing motions to get the ball in that perfect. And can you control it? I can control it, right. It's hard. So, and that's in college quarterbacks yeah and

with the college quarterbacks the can you control it part is usually a bigger question like that one of the reasons that I've been so all in on DJ lagway even though he can't completely control it he seems to have the gift of knowing when to put some touch on the ball and when to absolutely zing it. And also usually in college, if you can zing it using it in college, how many percentage of like receptions when you were watching Alabama game or Florida game or an Ohio State game to the receivers make where they would be considered wide open in the

NFL, probably like 50% of the time. There's a freight. They call it college open college open. Yeah, but like college open is wide open. You don't feel like nobody gets that open in the NFL. Like every time you catch a pass in the NFL, you're doing it in traffic to some degree. So like there are times where you'll see coverage

busts and stuff in the NFL or Tyreek Hill will run past the and be wide open. But like for the most part, like every single reception that you get in the NFL, you have to work for. So and in college, I don't think it works that way. Do you have Jeremiah Smith? He'll slant and put somebody on his back and be wide open across the middle. That's just not gonna happen in the league. Yeah. Our next. This is more of a comment than a question, but it was really good. And you got this yesterday and sent it to me and I was very impressed with this. And so this is from Buckeye Info Wars on Twitter. And

normally I'm not big on Twitter threads, but this is this is an excellent one. Ari, here's the problem with your arch infatuation you're not seeing. He's the only guy that you're certain is gonna be a top five QB purely off projection. The only other guy remotely close to it is DJ Lagway, but at least he put out enough tape to justify it. There are plenty of other former five star recruits going into great situations like Julian Sayen,

CJ Carr, and Dante Moore, and you're leaving them off your top QB list for guys like King, Haynes King at Georgia Tech. If you're going to project Arch on that list, how can you not say that one of these guys will also be there? Also, Texas moving on from yours means nothing. Kansas State did the same thing to Will Howard last year and he was much better than Avery Johnson. The fact is your Arch takes are entirely based on the last name and that he's in the SEC. Otherwise, he'd be in the same Carr and Moore group. At the end of the day, Arch B on your list isn't horrible, but stop acting all offended when

people call you out on it. If you're going to project Top QB, say it with your chest, be a man, and make an actual prediction. Some of these northern guys will be top 10, I promise you. Same with my chest. Arch is going to be good. Arch is going to be good. Arch is going to be good. Very good comment. And Buckeye Infowars is a friend of the show and listens a lot and I appreciate your criticism.

And that's the best part about this is that like, we want, dear Andy and dear Ari isn't only about asking us questions because we're levitating above the rest of you. We, it's a time for you to also share your comments, your criticisms and your concerns. And we wanna display those because even if I disagree with what you're saying, I want the show and the listeners

and the people watching on YouTube to feel and hear your comment too, cause it's important to us. So thank you for that. So let's start off with the first part, Andy, which is the saying car more point. So I made a list of top 10 quarterbacks and my top three were, uh, DJ lagway, Lenora sellers and arch Manning. There it is.

Good job. Um, but for the most part, everybody on my list outside of Manning has had some sort of, you know, game tape. Okay. So like I did lean towards the, the Greg McElroy of this, but at outside of Manning has had some sort of, you know, game tape. Okay. So like I did lean towards the, the Greg McElroy of this. But at the time that I published this, which was I think six weeks ago, Julian Sann and CJ Carr had not even won their battles yet. So like it's like, I haven't even done what you're accusing me of yet. Like I can probably redo it now that we know who's winning, but like I couldn't put a player on the list that hasn't even won his own job. Because at the time

there has been some concern that neither of them would win it. I know San was probably more likely to do it than this, but there was some talk that CJ Carr might not win that job. So now the question is in terms of likelihood, if you wanted to put Dante more or you want to put Julian Sand or CJ Carr on this list, who are you taking off of it is the problem. Now they are certainly worthy of it. You can take Nico off it. They're certainly worth the discussion and don't poke me right now.

But in terms of like who I think is most likely to be awesome, Arch Manning based on what I've seen, based on what I understand about his situation, based on his measurables, is most likely to not only be good, but to be better than some of the other players on the list. I still think that it's in question that CJ Carr, Julian Sayen, or Dante Moore

are gonna be that great, although it's certainly within the realm of possibility and you might turn out to be right. Lastly, when it pertains to the Kansas State discussion about Will Howard being better than Avery Johnson, I think that you could probably say that that was true last year, right? Do you have any pushback on that? Not at all.

And actually, the Dear Andy written column leads with a question about this because it's it asks about Arch and is it possible that it's a like Oklahoma situation where it you know, Dylan Gabriel is out. Jackson Arnaud comes in and doesn't do as well as Dylan Gabriel could have done. Now, all situations are different. Like the Oklahoma situation last year, Dylan Gabriel was leaving the moment Jeff Levy was leaving. Anything in part because he kind of knew what was going to happen in Oklahoma. So like, I don't think it was an option to keep Dylan Gabriel. I don't think it was a case where Oklahoma coaches chose Jackson Arnold over Dylan Gabriel. I think Dylan Gabriel

made the choice for them. Now maybe they would have chosen Jackson Arnold anyway. Kansas State coaches absolutely chose Avery Johnson, but there's a reason for that. Avery Johnson is the biggest in-state recruit they've ever had. He's a quarterback and he was going to leave if he didn't get the starting job. So it's not always about who is better immediately. It's also how you want to build your program. There's a political factor to that too, but yes, a ceiling factor as well. You got to peel back the political factor, Andy, and it's just even if he is not as good immediately, there was a chance. We thought that Avery Johnson had a chance to be better, and I'm assuming the coaches did too. You also have to understand what that means from a program perspective. If a coach is willing to move on from a proven asset who actually went out to win the national titles somewhere else,

that means that they are very high on what the other person brings to the table for multiple years of program building, which is an assertion that they're very good. So even though you make the leap from, you know, Avery and Will, like Kansas State will probably tell you that they feel better and more secure as a program going into this year with Avery Johnson than they would have had they not moved on from him. So also he's from Kansas and he's your guy, like you kind of have to do that if you're them. I just think that there are statements that are made that are just more complex and more deep than straight line of who was better immediately or like what did they do on tape? Like you have to be able to read between the lines and look at what a coach is telling you when they do these things.

The coach is telling you that they have all the faith in the world that this kid is going to be awesome and that the program is in better hands if we move on to him than they were from the first. It's not always just a straight line of who's better right now. You have to accept when you make that decision, you might get second guests. And Chris climate has been second guest and will continue to be second guest for that. But like if you look at the proposition of CJ Carr and I know Jayden Gatehouse is really good and I know that Jeremiah Smith exists with. For Julian saying, I mean, those are all very good situations and I'm assuming that if I had to make a top 20 list, that all three of those names would be represented

somewhere in the top 15. Like the thing about this list is that the quarterbacks don't stop existing after 10. It's just yours only 10 you can put on there. And like, I just think that the proposition of Arch Manning being as productive and as good as anybody in the country, the likelihood from a mathematical standpoint, based on all the evidence and information that we have

about him is a lot higher than it is with those guys. It's not because I think they stink or it's because they're from the north. I think that this guy listens to Bill and Doug. Also Julian Sayen is not from the north. He's from Southern California. It's very sunny and warm there. I know but they claim the northern quarterbacks as their own and I appreciate that. But like listen if you, Buckeye Info Wars, if you listen to the show a lot and you know me, like you know that I've given Ohio State its due, I'm not trying to, you know, unfairly treat Ohio State. The question is, is how good are they going to be this year and how good is Julian Sand going to be? I actually think that of all the quarterbacks that I have on this list of, I feel like Julian Sand would probably be the third on that list Andy in terms of most likely to be good. Now he's got an alien that he's throwing to but like if you had to pick Dante more CJ Carr and Julian Sam

like what order would you go in with those guys? That's a tough question. That's a dear Ari dear, dear Andy question from me. All right. One more is from Sean. We're gonna close it with Sean, because I think Sean says it very well. And Sean is on a cumio in the chat, by the way. We have a really good long questions that are well thought out.

And Andy, I know that you said that, he said this to me on the phone, I wanna say it to you. We love these. You guys are really, really smart and really good at this. And like you make our show better. So please keep doing it. Email. And I'm happy that I'm getting some emails now.

I'm getting emails. It's not just Dear Andy. This guy sent it to me. Yeah, Sean sent this to both of us. No, he sent it to me. He sent it to you too? Yeah. Oh, I hate this question now.

No, this is Sean in Orlando. Here we go. I feel the need to represent the people who don't get the Arch Manning hype as reasonable as possible. So here goes. You guys like food, right? I'm a big fan myself and I know you love burgers.

And I bet that in all of your travels, if you got word that a local establishment in College Town created the best burger ever, you jump at the chance to try it out. Well, that's what Arch is to a lot of people. He's a burger most people haven't gotten a chance to sample yet. Normally when you get some hype food,

it doesn't take three to four years to get a chance to taste it. It's normally ready to go right away. This burger has been hyped up for three or four years now. Oh sure, you've read posts on Reddit that's the most amazing thing ever, but no one really knows the poster and can't tell if it's legit or not.

It's always been taste tested behind the scenes where only the finest chefs have had the privilege of savoring it. You've also seen posts about how that burger and of course my iPad dies. So are you going to take over here? Posts about how the burger has had random samplings over the past few years that have garnered mixed reactions, i.e. poor performances in high school games and aired on ESPN networks, padded stats against bad non-components, inserted into the UGA game and then pooled for almost always injured, coin yours in the second half. And now this burger is pegged

to win an award for best burger next year and no one has really had a chance to eat it yet. Sean. Here's the thing. And this is the thing that stood out to me because I love the burger analogy. Ari, there's two more slides to this question. Oh, okay. Next slide. Here you go. This is the third one.

Guys, is this it? Did you change it? Yeah. No, this is it. Yeah. Yeah. Keep going. Guys, over three or four years, how awesome the burger is.

We've been told it was the best burger ever conceived, literally ranked the best prospect ever. Well, it looks like everyone else will get a chance to chow down on this delicacy on August 30th and America can decide for themselves. With this much hype and anticipation, there's literally zero chance for Arch to live up to it. You can't tell people he's the best prospect ever while he sits on the bench for two years. I will say if he goes into Columbus and lights up the scoreboard, I'll apologize and give the kid his flowers. bench for two years. I will say if he goes into Columbus and lights up the scoreboard, I'll apologize and give the kid his flowers. But the kid is not who we're sick of. It's the social media graphics, it's the clickbait, it's the never-ending discourse surrounding him, like he's some sort of secret doomsday weapon that dare not be launched in the fear of ending all life on Earth.

We can't expect people to wait this long and not wonder, does this burger actually suck? I'm an Oklahoma fan. Imagine if 20 years ago, Adrian, I put that together by the way, on the question. I'm an Oklahoma fan. Imagine if 20 years ago, Adrian Peterson was hyped as the perfect recruit and instead of having an amazing freshman year, he was runner up for the Heisman. He didn't play much because we couldn't dare

take away playing time from K. Juan Jones. Or being told he's not ready yet over and over and over again, because it's all part of the plan. We just want to see the dude do something of note first. Sean. Okay, I appreciate it. I'm gonna go back on my diatrod now. Thank you, River, for the questions on the graphics are much bigger than they are on the email. There's one thing that stood out to me about this question, because I love it, and like, here's the thing that I want to tell you about food, Andy. And I don't know about you in this, you are- I was thinking about Franklin Barbecue, to be honest, when he was talking about this,

because what he described is actually the Franklin Barbecue thing, where when it first started, this is a barbecue place in Austin, they have like a four hour line every day. When it first started, you know, you could get there, if you were lucky enough to be in Austin, if you had time four hour line every day. When it first started, you could get there if you were lucky enough to be in Austin. If you had time to wait four hours for it,

you'd find out it was the most amazing thing ever. It was beautiful, it was wonderful. It's probably not even the best barbecue in Texas now, but the brisket is amazing there. But you tell people this and they'd be like, I don't believe you. It became more of a thing because of the hype. And it was hype so much that when people tasted it for the first time, finally after a few years, they were like, yeah, it's pretty good,

but I can go down the street to the barbecue and get something almost as good. So here's the thing about food, Andy, that I wanted to say before we go into the question, which is I understand this feeling a lot of wanting to go try something new in food and then you get to it and then you're super excited, you're super amped. Everybody talks about how awesome it is. And then 90% of the time, honestly, I think it's 90%, I come away from those experiences disappointed. Like, I don't know if that's your, because you are like the most well-fed human on earth.

But a lot of times- I get so nervous when I recommend a place to somebody and they're about to try it because I don't want them to be disappointed. I don't want them to think I overhyped it too much. But I actually feel like when you or somebody I respect in food recommends a place The likelihood of that converting into being awesome is higher than it would be from like a reddit post or things that people talk about On social media

So like I understand like a lot of times those places are kind of tourist trappy and you go there and is the foods not Actually, I've had a few that I wanted this barbecue place in Mississippi once it was supposed to be great like the guy was on the Food Network it was one of the worst experience I've ever had and I'm just like yeah this is such a letdown so like from that standpoint I totally understand like where he's coming from because the the hype of things is, especially when it doesn't pay off. So like, I get that. But at the same time,

the thing that stood out to me about this question that I can't get out of my head, Andy, is that the way he was describing Arch Manning's playing history was as if we didn't have like the eye test. Like the eye test with food is so, so important. If you see the best best greatest burger of all time and you see a picture of it,

there's a pretty good indication by looking at the picture alone that it's going to smash. There's only one place that looks amazing aesthetically that has like very flavorless food and that's from Auntie Brothers. Like I'll die on that hill. You go there and it's the perfect. It's the perfect.

We're definitely not getting that endorsement deal. Well, it's the perfect sandwich. They've got. We're definitely not getting that endorsement deal. Well, it's the perfect sandwich. They've got fries. They've got the meat. The bread looks good, and then you take a bite into it. And there's no flavor. I don't understand how people like that place.

But like the. I'm sorry, Pittsburgh. I don't think I would. I think most people in Pittsburgh are like, yeah, it's a little overhyped. It might have been great when it started, but the expansions of it. And I've only eaten it twice, and I never

ate at the original location in Pittsburgh, but every time I have I've eaten at the original location. I'm not that far off on your assessment. There's all these wonderful ingredients fries salt, you know meat Bread and like you take a bite out of it and there's no flavor profile. It's very it's It's okay. Like the the idea is great. The execution Now is not as good as it could be. Yeah. But I don't know that I would categorize Arch Manning's playing history in the negative light that he did. So that's the thing. I'm interested in hearing your perspective on Andy. When you look at Andy or when you look at the...

Well he compared it to Adrian Peterson, which I think, you know, comparing a quarterback to Adrian Peterson is a little bit different because most quarterbacks are not as ready to come in and be a star as Adrian Peterson was. Yeah, I just don't know that I would be like flopped, like using the Georgia game as like a way to like neg his potential, I think is like irresponsible. Like, I don't know if I would like use that as like, okay He stinks the guy got one drive and then was pulled out of the game and they were getting a butts kicked

Like I don't know that he would have been ineffective if he played the entire game now Quinn You were did a really good job of bringing him back So put I don't even think that he should have been in the game to begin with and you can go back and read the shows And how I read that argument didn't we? So anyway, like that's the only thing that I'll say. Like I think that the burger thing is perfect. I just don't know that I would categorize what we know about him as like negative reviews because I don't get that from him. I mean, it's Texas.

It should have been a barbecue analogy. And let's be real. When you're smoking something, it takes a while. It doesn't happen immediately. It's not ready immediately. It's not fast food. It's slow cooked. So he's coming off the smoker.

He's coming off the smoker. They're slicing off the point and they're about to start carving the flat. In Columbus, we're gonna get to see what that smoke ring looks like. We're gonna see, is it juicy? We're gonna see, is it dry? We will get our answer.

And that's the best part, is at some point we'll know. Now, are we gonna have to talk about this for a few more months? Sure, but fortunately, Ari, we've got the Bill Belichick story to keep us warm. And we've also tomorrow got Nick Groush. Remember when Nick Groush said this? Hey, TC, it's it's there's never a dull moment. Vanderbilt's

probably going to host college game day next week. They're throwing goalposts in the river. Uh, just shame. Beamers would get on side kicks. I know that works, but it's still not working. Like this is fun. It's not always fun if you're for your specific team, but it is fun to point and laugh from afar. So Tennessee fans, I know you're out there.

I know you want me to get triggered, but Hey, I don't have an $8 million volleyball player who can't throw a go ball. So it's okay. It's okay, guys. Hypo system's fine. You're going to be fine. Maybe you'll find a quarterback who can hit some open receivers. It couldn't against Florida. You'll probably figure it out against Kentucky, but it's okay. As long as you're not winning national titles. Don't look like you're going to be doing it with that guy. So fine by me.

Have fun with that guy. I don't know him where that was, Nick. But first of all, go watch the show back and then look at Andy in my face when you said that. And then also, I don't know if you know this, but producer River is behind the scenes here. Andy, did you get a scope of his face when he said that? Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. Cause he's a Tennessee guy. The last thing that the people of Pompeii saw as the lava came down. It was like. I tell you. He was more the Alonzo morning gift cause he's thinking about, he's like,

how can he say that about Nico? And then he thinks back to the Florida games. Like, well, actually that's kind of what happened. We're gonna definitely revisit that with Nick tomorrow, but he's also going to help us handicap the Kentucky Derby. He's going to teach Ari how to name horses and explain to us like we're five year olds what it means that Kentucky's athletic department is now an LLC. Andy, before we get out of here, I just want to take three seconds. People accuse me of

forgetting my wife's anniversary. I never would. Happy anniversary, babe. I love you and thank you so much for supporting me in our new endeavors and creating a life with me. I just wanted to do that. I love you. What Ari means, Britt, is thank you for letting me get the car that you don't understand why I bought. I love it. She won't even look at it. She won't even look at it, but I I want to be personal a little bit.

I love you very much. Thank you so much for being the best partner ever. And I'm so blessed to be with you. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful family. You know, this is beautiful. J.D.

Piquel, he's on next on the on three sports channel. So. We're going off the air. 11 a.m. Eastern 10 Central. J.D.'s on. So we're going off the air. 11 a.m. Eastern 10 Central JD's on. So we gotta go. We love you. Bye.