Andy & Ari On3 - Is Curt Cignetti the BEST coach in college football? The state of College Football?

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

As the national championship is just days away from being kicked off in Hard Rock Stadium between Miami and Indiana, a fan sends in a question for today's Dear Andy & Ari show: Is Curt Cignetti the best current coach in college football? Watch here as Andy & Ari discuss the recent changes in college football that may confirm Curt Cignetti as the best coach in the game. Do you agree? Who do you think is the best current coach in college football? (0:00) On Today’s Episode(1:12) Presenting Sponsor(2:56) Intro: Dear Andy & Ari(5:40) Is Cignetti the BEST coach right now?(16:04) What about Mario Crisotbal and the others?(22:36) Dell(23:45) Is CFB in a good or bad state?(38:56) Huel(40:30) Offense with multiple QBs(46:30) SEC as a National Championship next 5 years?(50:20) Where will Ari run?(55:20) Conclusion: Indiana vs Miami After the Curt Cignetti discussion, Josh poses another interesting question: Is college football in a good or bad state? Andy & Ari go in depth and discuss the current state of the game. Next, Andy & Ari take a look at how new offenses could be constructed. With Lane Kiffin picking up Husan Longstreet at LSU, could the head coach in Baton Rouge implement an offense with multiple QBs? To close the mailbag, a fan asks if there will be an SEC team to win the national championship in the next five years? Who is your pick out of the SEC? The Dell XPS proves there’s no need to compromise—style, power, and reliability come together in one expertly crafted machine.Check out the all-new Dell XPS at Dell.com/XPS.  Get Huel’s full High-Protein Starter Kit with this exclusive offer of 20% OFF online with the code: Staples20 at huel.com/STAPLES20. New Customers Only. Code only valid for the bundle. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting our show! Our show is also presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/h_1DhUtTOsI Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. It is a dear Andy, dear Ari show, and you have sent in some incredible questions, including one from new On 3 subscriber Josh, who asks, is Kurt Signetti the best coach in college football? This is a legitimately fascinating question because there's a good chance the answer is yes, but there's also a good chance we probably need to reevaluate how we did who the best coach is in this era. We'll talk about that. Plus, with Lane Kiffin collecting quarterbacks, could he put more than one on the field at the same time? Is that possible?

Also, you have some suggestions for Ari's punishment if Arch Manning does not make it to New York for the Heisman ceremony in 2006. This is going to be a delicious year. No matter what happens, It's going to be fun just to watch Ari sweat this out. I'm so glad we've started now. We have months of this ahead. It's going to be amazing. Your questions answered today on Andy and Ari on 3, presented by BedMGM. We are presented by BedMGM.

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rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for bed MGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. It is Thursday. That means it's dear Andy, dear Ari. Your questions answered. And Ari, our man, Josh, hit us with a doozy right off the bat. He wanted this answer in the off season.

And I'm like, no, no, we're answering this right now. Okay. Let's get into it. I'm excited. And we're headed to Florida here today and tomorrow. And I'm sad but pumped. Yeah, it is amazing that it is over almost. We've got one game left in college football this season,

but it is a doozy of a game. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. We've talked about we think it's going to be a close game between Indiana and Miami for a lot of the reasons I love. I just love the way both these two teams play in the line of scrimmage. I love the way both these two teams commit to running the ball. It makes me happy to watch them play. So I'm excited to see this.

But this ties in. to Josh's question. So Josh is a brand new on three subscriber. So one, welcome Josh. Two, if you're not already an on three subscriber, go to on three.com slash join. And right now, you still get half off your first year. So 5999 for on three rivals, you pick your team site. For example, if you're an Indiana fan, you get the Hoosier. If you're a Miami fan, you get Cain Sport. If you are a Tennessee fan, it's Volkest. If you're a Michigan fan, it's the Wolverine. You get your team site, your community on that message board. You get to read all the other people's crazy message boards.

You can also interact with them if you want on their message boards. And you get all of the great recruiting news from rivals, all of the great national coverage from our on three national team, including Pete Nacos and Chris Lowe. You get to read me and Ari. What more could you possibly want? Yeah, the interacting with other message boards when you're not a fan of that team is super like wearing the rivals jersey to the game that your rival's not playing in

energy, but I love that about you. It's so much fun. I just like to lurk on the message boards. And I feel like the fans, you know, if you're a hardcore Auburn fan, of course you're going to post on the corner at Auburnsports.com, but you're probably going to go read the BOL roundtable at BAM online just to kind of see what they're talking about, just to see, get inside their heads a little bit. if for no other reason than to pick on your friends who root for the other team.

So you know where their insecurities are at that point. So, yes, everybody followed Josh's example and sign up for on three right now. But Josh wrote this while watching the Indiana Oregon game. As I'm sitting here watching Indiana absolutely dominate Oregon in the Peach Bowl, my mind can't help a race for two intriguing debates. We're going to do the first one. The first is whether Kurt Signetti is currently. the best coach in college football. Given that this conversation will probably be exhausted for the

next several months and that my fellow dog fans will lose their minds just considering the argument, let's put this topic on hold. No, no, let's not, Josh. Let's do this right now. And so Josh is outed himself as a Georgia fan. And I think he's right. I think there are probably a lot of Georgia fans that will freak out at the notion that Kirby Smart isn't the best coach in college football and somebody else might be. But I think this is an argument. we need to have because I think the criteria for best have changed over the last few years. The system has changed. Kurt Signetti is doing something that we thought was literally impossible. I'm actually using the word literally literally. I can't even say it. I'm using it correctly there.

I'm not using it like Rob Lo and Parks and Rec or all of my teenage daughter's friends. I'm using it correctly there. We believed it would be impossible to make Indiana a good football program. And he's done it. I think the biggest difference maybe between now and 10 years ago would be the longevity issue, right? Like I think back in the day, like if you were having this conversation in 2018, you would be, well, whose teams in the playoff every year, who has won the most national championships and who has built a consistent winner. And like now I don't know if consistency is possible. Now consistency meaning, you know, what Alabama did this year, does that count towards consistency for Alabama? You know what I mean? Like making the playoff being very, very good,

might still count. But the thing that we don't know about Kurt Signetti is whether Indiana is going to be in the national championship game in 2031, like, or if this is a incredible run with the right or whether he'll be coaching in 18 in 2013, are he? He's 64 years old now. Yeah. But that's how we used to get it, I think. Like, teams had runs. There were there were coaches. I mean, I think Jed Fish comes to mind. Like, when he was walking out of Arizona, he was like one of the sexiest coaching candidates in the world. And now when his name got brought up, people didn't care. Like, I think it's a very fleeting thing. And the way that we used to gauge it back in the day was who did it every year consistently. And I used to think Davos Sweeney was number one. of the modern era because he did something during an era where it was difficult, which was build a solid team into an elite one. Now we're talking about somebody who in a two-year period has turned the worst program, quite literally, again, used correctly,

into a team that is one game away from winning a national championship. So like from that standpoint, I think that it's different. So before we answer the question, I want to know from your perspective, like what is the criteria for best coach in America? because like Kirby Smart, given the fact that, you know, the question was asked by a Georgia fan might have something to say about it when you look at what Georgia has accomplished. But is it harder to win a national championship now?

I think unequivocally yes. Is it harder to do it at Indiana than it is at Georgia, unequivocally yes? All these things come into play. So what is your main criteria for this discussion in 2025 and 2026? That's my problem is because you brought up the, main issue with judging this. It's a different job at Georgia and Indiana. It's a different job at Ohio State in Indiana. It's a different job at Oregon in Indiana. And are the best coaches going to be the ones that can take the schools that did not have a chance before into national

title contention now? I think, I still think Kirby Smart is one of the best coaches in college football, if not the best coach. I still feel that way about Ryan Day. I have a column on three about Dan Lannning, where I said essentially what I said on the Dante Moore episode yesterday, if he keeps doing this, he's going to break through and win a national title. If he keeps getting them closer and closer and they keep putting together good rosters every year, he's going to win one. So those people all belong on the list. Like, anybody who you say, if your coach got fired tomorrow and you say, well, the AD has to call this guy and make him say no, those are on the list. So Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame is on the list too. But Signetti is doing

something that none of these guys have been able to do. Now, some of them haven't had the jobs to be able to do that. Like this is Kirby Smart's first head coaching job. This is Ryan Day's first head coaching job. but this would be like if Nick Saban had taken Michigan State and won a national title in two years when he was early in his mid-goating career. This is much harder. But here's the thing, and I got asked about this on a radio show yesterday,

and I've been thinking a lot about it. Not to take anything away from this year's Indiana team, but I think if this year's Indiana team played 2019 LSU, it would get his doors blown off. I think if it played 2020 Alabama would get his doors blown off. And I think that we also have to acknowledge that the cream of the crop in this sport

is not nearly as creamy as it used to be. So rising to the top and running it. Because it changes, and this speaks to the criteria. The criteria before, and we agree that Kirby Smart is a good X's nose coach, that Nick Sabin is also a genius for the X's and O's. But the most important factor in being one of the best coaches in the country in that era, the Stars Matter era, was accumulating talent. Simple stockpiling.

And nobody's stockpiling. Some people are stockpiling, not nearly to the degree that they used to. Now, here is why my answer to this question is yes. Kurt Signetti has done both things excellently. he has brought in really good players and I wonder like if you if there if he's striking lightning in a bottle right now because he had the right group of players at James Madison at the right time or if this is the beginning of a long stretch of Indiana success the only way we'll find out is is by watching but he did the roster part right you know with Cole Kublich on the show

yesterday we talked about how Indiana isn't just a plucky underdog they've got first round picks on their team they do he brought them there But then when you watch Indiana play, they also rarely make mistakes. They play complimentary football. There's no selfishness. There's no stupid turnovers for the most part. They're clean. They're aggressive.

They arrive at the football. They don't just get, you know, that they make a statement. And I think that the way that Indiana has been playing the games, it's not just winning, the way that they have been playing them. And this is a consistent measure over two years. Last year they lost Notre Dame because they didn't quite have. have a good enough roster. That was just what happened. But the way that they play is about as excellent as I think I've seen in college football on a given Saturday. So on both runs,

he's excellent. And he's doing something at a place where we thought it was impossible. Now, I think it isn't impossible anymore because the sport has changed, but still he's doing it at Indiana. Yeah. So at this standpoint, like, could you pick a coach who has yet to win a national championship. He might on Monday, but has still yet to win a championship over a person like Kirby who has won multiple and has had one of the most consistent things. Well, let me ask you this. Who would you hire tomorrow if your job was open and you could hire anybody for this era of college football? Who would you hire tomorrow? Which coach? Well, I think that this might be complicated, but I think I would decide based on what the job is. What school are we talking about?

I think that's a legitimate point because if it is a traditional recruiting power, you probably are going to go Kirby Smart or Ryan Day. If it's not, you're probably going to go Kurt Signetti. Now, I would pick Kirby Smart to coach Oregon. I would pick Kurt Signetti to coach Mississippi State. Right, because you feel like he's going to get more out of it. Right. Now, the question here I have to you, too, Andy, is what does long-term sustain, like, if we want to look for consistency? Because the one thing that Kirby Smart has that, you know, or Ryan Day has that some of these other traditional, you know, badass coaches have is consistency and longevity of output.

And we're only in year two. And like, you can go back to Kurtzegetti's previous jobs and say he won there and that counts. But like if Indiana turns into a perennial eight and four, nine and three team, like a team, like a team. that's really good, solid, is never at the bottom of the Big Ten again. If they win the national championship this year, is that still really good? Or is the bar for Indiana to turn into Georgia? Because I think that's a completely different thing. Like, winning a championship in one year with the right guys is so much different than Indiana's in the playoff for the next five out of the next six years.

Like, that is a completely different ball game. And I don't know if I believe that's going to happen. We think based on his past that that will happen. and we think based on what we're seeing in the transfer portal right now and the way he's, you know, some of his actual recruits from Indiana are starting to shine. We think that's going to have involved. So that.

We think. We know with Kirby Smart and Ryan Day. Like, we know they're going to keep building massive. They'll be in the playoff, more years than not. Yeah, yeah. Let me throw one more name at you, though. What about Mario Cristobal? I feel like people have some.

Definite opinions on Mario Cristobal's ability as a coach. I feel like he has destroyed the narrative of he's not a good endgame coach this year. I think this playoff run has shown that he does know what he's doing in game. I think he's figured out the way to build a roster. Like, I would say what Mario does in terms of the roster building recipe is probably the most consistently good one. in this era of college football. Well, Mario kind of like the hybrid between these two, right?

Yeah. Home grow your line of scrimmage for the most part. Find your truly special skill talent out of high school and have that veteran quarterback every year. And when you got a hole on your roster, go get a veteran to fill it. Yeah. Do you remember what it was like when Mario left Oregon?

I think I'm going to write about this this week. And I've been thinking about this a lot this week, unless you want to. We'll decide. It's all yours, Betty. But when Mario left Oregon for Miami, that was one of the big moves. That was up there with Brian Kelly and that was up there with Lincoln Riley. Like, I think that for whatever reason, Mario Cristobal has fallen out of the sexiness category to a lot of the general fans. And I think part of the reason why is because they perceived that Miami wasn't very good for the first few years that he was there. And I think that the uninformed fan would fall into that

trap, especially after, you know, they fumbled the ball when they should have been taking knees. Like, I get like it's easy to fall into narrative. But, like, if you actually zoom out, Mario was building Miami slowly. Now, Kurt Signetti did it in a minute. It took him a few years, but Miami has gotten incrementally better every year that Mario Chris the ball has been there. And it feels like after this season that they'll be capable of being in this spot again. It's not like, yeah, Francis Maui Noah is going to the NFL.

Ruben Bain's going to the NFL, but there will be more behind them capable of coming back here. Right. And I think that maybe timetable is just different for everybody else, but we have lost track of the single most important thing about the Mario Cristobal situation is that we all look at Miami, like the 2002 team. We all look at the 2001 team and go, wow, Miami is badass. And we lose track of the fact that Miami has stunk for, 20 years without him.

So there was a major, major, major brand rebuild that had to happen there. And I think that Miami was probably closer. Maybe this isn't true. Was Miami closer to Indiana or Georgia before he got there? Somewhere in the middle. They were in the middle. I'd say they were square in the middle. And that was the frustrating part is they were right in the middle.

And it drove them crazy. But now Miami is like, a legit program again? Like that was built. Like that's the thing that I struggle with with Ryan Day and Kirby Smart and it's of no far to their own. But they got taken into very advantageous situations. Okay.

And the thing that I think is so interesting about those guys is that they are brilliant. They are great coaches and they are certainly wonderful stewards of success at their programs. The thing that we will never know is what would Ryan Day look like if he had to take the Baylor job tomorrow? Well, right. 2015 was a very interesting year because that's when Kirby's in his last year as Alabama's defensive coordinator. He's decided he's going to take a head coaching job. Part of the reason Georgia fired Mark Rick when they did, because Mark Rick, I think, won 10 games the year he got fired, is Kirby was about to take the South Carolina job.

And if Kirby takes a South Carolina job, does he make them a national title? contender? Does it look like Georgia does? I don't know. Because Mark Rick had a good program. It wasn't getting over the hump the way they wanted to, but they had tons of talent. And Kirby will tell you, he inherited

an incredible roster for Mark Rick. So, yeah, I think it's really interesting because what Kurt Signetti had to do and what Mario Cristobal had to do were much bigger reclamation projects. Ryan Day got plugged into a situation that was rolling.

Kirby had work he had to do, but he was already several steps ahead. Well, it's also, it's not even just about like what's on the roster at the moment. It's where are you situated? What's the buy-in from the administration? Where are you at as a recruiting juggernaut? Like, Georgia recruited at a high level under Mark Rickt and was always been a recruiting monster.

And like Kirby Smart's brilliance was making it reach its potential. Like I feel like it's hard to have this conversation because you don't want to diminish, you don't want to diminish the amazing work that he did there. I do think if Kirby Smart became Mississippi State's coach tomorrow, he would make them better almost instantly. But what if he became Mississippi State's head coach first before he got the aura? Yeah, that's the question. And that's the thing we'll never know.

Yeah. And like Dan Lannning gets it. We both have very high opinions of him and what he's done at Oregon. But if Dan Lannning took the Oregon State job first, like I think it's easier to become the best coaches in college football when you are at the places that manifest success through things that are out of the coaches control the best. And like that, that's an important distinction.

What Kurt Signetti is doing at Indiana to wrap it back around to the question is doing it at a place that has never, throughout a century of football known how to be successful. And maybe that's changed in the last two years to a certain degree because being in the Big Ten inherently gives you a leg up from over programs that aren't.

But still, this is the first time it's ever happened there. And there's something to be said for that, regardless of whether the system makes it easier or not. There definitely is. So, Josh, because he's a brand new on three subscriber and we love him, it's going to get question two as well.

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Okay, now, part two of Josh's question. The coach thought led me to an even more interesting debate. Is college football in a good or a bad state right now? On the one hand, you have more parity in the league than perhaps ever. Teams like Indiana can go from being the worst program in college football to the number one team in the sport in just a matter of two years. The biggest right that fans had about football at the college level is that you have the same few teams playing for a national championship each and every year.

In comparison to the NFL, the sport has been uncompetitive and uninteresting to watch unless you happen to be a fan on one of the top programs. That is no longer the case. On the other hand, the way we landed at this result feels gross and inconsistent with what the college game should stand for. A, you have a system where these players are now professionals, not college athletes. B, it feels like the school with the richest donors will be able to buy their teams, wins in championships.

And C, you have an unrestricted transfer portal where players can play for five schools in just as many years. The commits you land at a high school are no longer celebrated because the chances they finish their college career at the school they started feel slim to none. So what should we value more? The result of a more exciting and competitive league or the extremely flawed process that helped get us here, interested to hear your thoughts. I think it really depends on who you root for.

If you're a fan of one of those four teams that the old system benefited, you think this sucks. If you're a fan of everybody else, you should love this. You know what the actual answer is? I agree with what you said. College football is a year-round sport, and college football has the games in the fall. People get excited,

and I think the on-the-field product in terms of what it's like to watch the games is, you know, changed greatly in the parody department, as the question acknowledged. You know what hurts the most? The other nine months in the year where people were engaged in the recruiting battles and people were engaged in the roster development and spring football

and watching their young players that they're harboring at their place, play in their spring games. And all the things that used to keep people engaged and connected to their teams don't exist anymore. Like I remember five years ago when you turned on a spring game, like when you watched Georgia's spring game and they had a five star that never played the year before who had 160 yards receiving in the spring game and you got a glimpse of like, This is the kid that they got from high school, that they identified,

that they brought in, we're going to harbor for a few years, and this guy's going to come out and be the next great star, and that person is going to identify with the University of Georgia for his development, for his life experience, and for his connection to the fans, and that is gone completely.

Like, I don't even care. Like, spring games used to be an event, and we still talk about them because you get to watch the ball and spring. Spring games are an event to us. They're not an event to the average viewer. But spring games used to be an event to the average viewer. No, they did not. I will show you the TV ratings.

They weren't even close to an event. I thought that people got really excited about that. But at the very least, even if you want to quibble with me about how important watching the spring game was to people. You know what is unequivocally true? Being bought in on that recruiting battle with the number 79 overall player in June when it's Texas and A&M coming down to that player because they knew that not only, was that decision going to be an important piece of their roster building, but that is a decision that that player is going to make to be a Longhorn or an Aggie for the rest of their life.

And like that was high stakes. And like now in the portal, you have players transferring to their rival. Like I think I've seen three or four just in this cycle alone. That went to Oklahoma Parker Livingstone. Yeah. Like there's other examples. They're escaping me because they're so frequent.

But like it's, you know, there's no, the fabric in the soul of what it meant to be an Aggie or what it meant to be a dog or what it meant to be a hurricane doesn't exist anymore. And like that, but here's what I'll tell you though. That that was true of a lot of players that wanted to be an Aggie, wanted to be a dog, wanted to be a Longhorn. That still is true of a lot of players. They don't all leave every year. They don't, but a lot of them do. 70% of the players on college roster state.

That's not an impressive figure. It's the vast majority. Yeah. I mean, 30. So, but what I'm saying is even before it, what they weren't necessarily picking it for the reasons you thought they were. They weren't picking it because they love the school the way you love the school. They picked it because they like the coach. They picked it because they developed better for the NFL.

They picked it for like professional reasons. No, I know. I like I suffered we both covered a lot of recruiting and recruiting decisions over our years but you know what did happen? Players would pick the coach or the school or the compensation package under the table or whatever and then and then become that when they get there. Yes. Yeah. I'll give an example like Brandon Spikes works for Florida now. Yeah.

Brandon's from North Carolina. Like he didn't grow up a Florida fan. Right. But there is no bigger. Mr. Gator, like if you run into Brandon Spikes, there's no bigger, my blood runs orange and blue, I'm a gator than Brandon Spikes.

You will never meet anybody else who cares as much. And speaking of people who play football in Florida, what's Carson Beck? He's from Jacksonville. Oh, is he a bulldog or is he a hurricane? When he looks back at his college career, you think he's going to remember Georgia as like the place? No, it's going to be the place.

Yes, because he's been four years. I think he will. I don't think you will. Yeah. What about Georgia fans? He's going to remember the place he lived for four years. You're going to think more of a hurricane, especially if they win Monday Day. Do you think that Georgia fans will remember him as a bulldog or a hurricane?

They will remember that he, if he wins the national title, they remember that he wanted as a hurricane. Yeah. You know, I'm going to be mad about that. You always get mad at me for being bad for business and I might be bad for business here. I think it's great that players. are being compensated, I think it's great that the portal exists, and I think it's great that people can be the master of their own ship. I think it's also great for content that somebody will flip their portal decision or will enter the portal. I think it's good for drama, and I think drama is a net positive for college football.

I think where we are currently in the system sucks. And I also think that college football, when you zoom out of it, is basically the exact opposite. of what sports are supposed to be about, which is joining together as a team, fighting through adversity, making it work, loving your brothers, all the cliches that you hear, like, that shit does not exist anymore.

And like, I think that part of the fan experience at the college level and the reason why there are people who prefer college football over the NFL is because they care a lot about that. We can roll our eyes at it. We can say it's corny. But people love that aspect of it.

And this is more transactional than pro sports now. This is worse than pro sports. Way more. transaction. No, I don't think that's being bad for business. I think you're right. I think the sport needs to get back to that in a way that complies with the Sherman Antitrust Act. I am 100% I can. Me and you agree on this. This is one thing that we agree on. Yeah. I think that they need to come to a system where players can leave and sign agreements that they feel are best for them while also adhering to a set of guidelines and rules that protects the sport.

And like what should we emphasize more? Should we be celebrating that Indiana can win the national championship more? Or should we be emphasizing that the system that is cultivating that championship sucks? Like, I don't know which one it is. I think, but I think you can have the system that cultivates that championship in a more organized way. But the current system sucks, right? Right, right. In a way that allows you to sign a player, if that player wants to go,

to your school and sign for four years that you can sign a four-year deal with that player. Now, you can sign a multi-year deal with the player now, and you're actually seeing that. Like, as messy as the DeMond Williams thing was, contract worked. The juice wasn't worth the squeeze. He's staying. I'm very curious how Washington fans are going to view him. I'm sure they'll come right back around if he's good. If he plays well, they'll love him.

If he doesn't, they'll hate him. It's pretty simple. I know. I always overthink the shit. Yeah. But there is a way to do it. And I know I'm a broken record here. But I'm just telling you what's going to happen.

Like when I told you they were going to pay the players, when I told you the sport wouldn't end when they did, when I told you it would make more competitive sport than less competitive. Like, I'm just telling you what's going to happen. One thing. You're going to have a collective bargaining agreement. Yeah. They will have rules that they can enforce.

And we'll get back. It will be more orderly. guys will still get paid. So the number one way that we can judge whether the sport is dead or hurting is by one thing and one thing only, which is game ratings, right? And I don't think there's anything that can ever stop people from watching the product. That said, I think that fan engagement in the summer and in the spring is very down. Yeah, well, they need to fix the count. they need to have the portal in the spring.

If you want to do it for Fanningate, if you want to treat college football as the commodity and the product that it is, and you want to sell it to fans year round, it's not just to have a more orderly system that you would want to put the portal in the spring. It's not just so that you could change the coaching carousel and move it to January,

which you could do if you put the portal in the spring, which all the way, by the way, also would be better for college football as a commodity. It's that you would make the calendar such that you are selling something to somebody all the time because you have your best games in December and January. You have your championship games, your playoff games in December and January. Then you would have your coaching carousel. You notice the NFL has Black Monday.

Like when the regular season ends, that's when they're coaching carousel begins. It doesn't begin in the middle of the season. A few teams fire their coaches, but nobody's allowed to interview anybody or hire anybody. So you'd have your coaching carousel in January. That's one of your biggest news times, when interest is at its peak. You would then have your player movement in March or April. So what we've just seen for the last two weeks, you'd be doing it at a time when nothing else is going on. you wouldn't have me and Ari coming on and going,

well, we could talk about the semi-final game that's tonight, but here's 18 things that happened in the transfer portal today. Yeah. So this is me saying you want to get back to the fabric of the sport. There's a way to do it and also do it in a commercial sense. It's not just the fabric of the sport either. I think it's anarchy. People don't like anarchy.

Like, listen, I do this for a living. you do this for a living when the portal closes i have to sit down and study where people went like i still don't have a full grasp of where people are yet and we play this funny game in june every year of like where does this player play and it's like i don't think that's good like if the fan can't keep up with the roster movement then like there's no engagement well okay so producer river just Producer River just sent us a tweet from On 3. This just happened yesterday. The NCAA has announced the transfer portal in men's and women's college basketball

opened for a 15-day period the day after their national championship games. So now, granted, that's a lot easier because their season ends at the end of the spring semester. So there's a nice natural semester break there. With football, you're just kind of have to accept. that there are going to be guys on your roster who are not going to be there next year who were still there in January. So there was a player.

If you want to do it in the spring, which would make it much more orderly like this, you have to accept that. And most coaches, I think, are coming around on that, but they're not there yet. There was a player that entered the portal and still played in the semifinal game. Yes. And there was a lot of that last year.

So I want to ask you this because I don't know this. I don't know. And this is like me admitting it. What does the transfer situation look like for that player? And why can't that just be used for everybody? Like there are players who are going to. Some people aren't grownups about it and some people don't want to stay and some people No, no, I just mean from a calendar perspective.

The new school says we need you now. Sometimes the schools you're looking at are like we're not going to look at you while you're still playing because you might get hurt. When did the calendar academically end? and begin at most colleges. Like hasn't like the semester already started for most places? Most places, but you can you can still get into class at a lot of colleges for the next probably week and a half or so.

Okay. For the semester system colleges, yeah. Okay. Because I never, I don't remember. I thought like if you didn't start by the beginning of the semester, you're out. Usually there's like ad drop goes for a week into the semester. And I think if you're the big football player that the school really wants, they

probably can squeeze the thing. I'm just saying like if they started the portal the day after the national championship game for a seven day period, could they not make it work academically? Not not to get them in for the spring semester at semester system schools. No, you'd have to just say, you know what, you're going to enroll in summer A at your new school. That's when you're going to have your spring practice. That's the only way you can do it. But it's not, it's not the worst thing in the world. It really is. Because they are, they're also doing summer school when most students aren't doing summer school too. So like they'll make it up. And they can change the pay schedule as well. They can say your contract ends in February. There's ways to do it.

Actually, we talk about this is Davosweeney the other day in Charlotte. Like, there are ways to do it. It's just a matter getting everybody on board. So we've got a very good question from Matt that is a more on-field question that makes me happy to see. And I really hope it happens. I don't know that it will, but I hope it happens. But before we do that, that I got to tell you about Hewell. The world's number one, complete nutrition. And it starts with the Hewle Black Edition. You can get the powder.

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All right, all right. This question is from Matt. So Matt, when he's not complaining about Mike Bobo, Matt's also a Georgia fan. It's not, we didn't exclusively pick Georgia fans today. It just sort of worked out that way. Is it not about Mike Bobo? No, it is not.

Though it might be a subliminal message to Mike Bobo, I don't know. Dear Andy, Nari, with the announcement that Lane Kiffin has collected another transfer portal quib at LSU, I jokingly asked Andy if Lane's offense next year, we'll have three QBs in the backfield. So what he's talking about is Husson Longstreet, the USC transfer committed to LSU yesterday. They already had Sam Levitt from Arizona State and then Landon Clark from Elon. So the three transfer portal QBs within about a three day period. Back to Matt's question. Then I had a eureka moment with the proliferation of big athletic QBs in football now. Why not create an offense that replaces the running back or tailback position with a

second quarterback. You could have them line up side by side in the shotgun, but with more equal spacing, something like the T formation, but without the traditional QB. It'd be like a double wildcat, but with the threat of the pass. So Matt wants to know, can this happen? Could this be somebody's offense in college football? I'm here for it, Ari. I want to see it. Now, Shannon Dawson just like snorted a line. I knew we're getting there. Andy, we always wonder, like, what the next wave of like because like you know like the you know rich rod era was like intoxicating you know what's going to be the next thing and I do think there are enough athletes like and I don't know maybe I'm nuts but like I covered Braxton Miller like that guy could have lined up in the

backfield and thrown the ball or run it like he was a great quarterback and then moved to receiver because they had other unicorn how many people are like Braxton Miller like I don't know Malachi Tony this is why you brought up Shannon Dawson. in the Miami offensive coordinator. Malachi Tony got pressed into having to play quarterback in high school. It turned out to be a very accurate passer. There are a lot of things you can probably do with Malachi Tony, but would you build your whole offense around your kind of traditional quarterback being one option and Malachi Tony being another option on a snap to snap basis? Like, could you have two really good athletes back there? Like you have another really athletic QB. I'd probably

probably not a Carson Beck type, but you have another really athletic QB, and you have them both back there and the center could snap to either one. Neither of them could be a dropback prototypical passer, I don't think. And then you would know one of them would have to replace what the running back does because you would still need traditional running place. Somebody's got a block. Like, yeah, would you trust them in pass pro? And for example, the one who you, there's always going to be one who's more of the thrower than the other.

you're going to know that that's not the guy who's probably going to have to take on a blitzing linebacker and pass pro. And defensively, you will draw it up that way so that you'll attempt to get him matched up on that guy and get him run over. We have seen this a little bit recently, Ari, a little bit. Kansas did this. So Andy Codalnicki, when he was the OC at Kansas,

and by the way, he's back there now after a Senate Penn State, when he had Jason Bean and Jalen Daniels at the same time, time. He would put them both on the field at the same time and play them both kind of interchangeably. Because both of them are really good athletes. Both of them were good enough athletes to have been a starting college running back. And I think that's the key. Do you have somebody who's a really good thrower who's athletic enough to be a starting college running back or a starting college tight end? Because that would be deadly. You're like if Kenyons and E. Catamarm on. Yeah, oh my God.

That would be insane. Also, how good of a passer do you have to be to be the secondary passer at the college level? Like, you're not like putting it into windows. I think Marshall took a team to the national title as a starting quarterback. I don't think you have to be. And like most players play quarterback. Most athletes play quarterback in high school. I don't know.

This is crazy. Like, I mean, like, how much fun would this be? I mean, it's just like you come up with all these different ways to revolutionize football and how things are done. like this, you know, I mean, it's a, it's a crazy question. I think Matt knows that. But at the same time, it's like, what else could they possibly come up with? Well, maybe two quarterbacks in the backfield is it. But you would need a sustained running attack.

If you did this where both players were limited as runners, it could not work. You need somebody who can pound out five yards of carry if you get into a game like that. And I don't know if there's enough people with the skill set to be able to do that. I would, it would be so much. But it was, it was really fun when Kansas did it. it was very fun when Kansas did it, but I just don't know. I think like it's sort of like when I was younger,

how come they never run the option in the NFL? And there's a lot of reasons, like the hash mark width, the speed sideline to sideline the defenses, but also you would never have a franchise quarterback who takes up 20% of your salary cap running that much. It's just, it's not. And I think it's also because Jaylon Carter can run like a four second 40.

Exactly, exactly. So it's just not, it's not advisable. And so probably the same thing is, it's probably better to have one guy who just concentrates on throwing than trying to manage two at once. But if you had the right two and the right OC, I do think it's possible. And I think it would be magical.

Magic. It's like, you know, somebody who's ambidextrous, like truly ambidextrous, would you, would you have them play left-handed or? right hand. I can slap ass with both hands. Of course you can. You can grab ass with both hands too. Yeah, I can grab ass with both hands. All right, all right. Here's one from Eric. This is, this is a fun one too. The premise. Place an uncomfortable life-changing amount of money right now on one of these five SEC options to win the national championship in the next five years.

one, Alabama, two, Texas, three, Georgia, four LSU, five, field, or none. So the other 12 SEC teams, so you would get Auburn, you get Tennessee, you get Oklahoma, you get Florida, you get Ole Miss, you get Texas A&M, or none at all. No SEC team wins a national title the next five years at all. Who you got? Which of those five options are you going to take, Ari? five you're going to take the field or none just more options if you're like I agree with you on that I agree but it's it is telling because three years ago we would have been deciding whether to take Alabama or

Georgia yeah I mean Texas is kind of it's kind of spicy there I think Texas is spicy there but but I'm with you I will take the 12 teams like in case somebody's in Indiana here and it's not like it's not like Auburn or Florida or Oklahoma are coming from the Indiana place. Like these are teams that have won national titles. Like these are teams that have been really good somewhat recently. I mean, there's also an opportunity for multiple of those answers to come true. So like it's not like back in the day, if you had a five-year period, it's like, well, three of them are going to go to Bama and two of them we're going to go to Georgia.

It's like now there might be a different national champion each year for the next five years. Could none be the answer? though. We're about to have our third consecutive season without an SEC national champion. You think the street could stretch to eight or do you, I think the sport at this point is too random for that. I think somebody, somebody from the SEC will win in the next five years. Yeah, I think that like the point that I'm trying to make about the SEC is that it's on the level playing field with the Big Ten. I think that the people who think the SEC stinks and will never compete are just stupid. Like, that's just not the right thought. Like, they invest too much and care too much and

have too many good players to not get back. And five years is an eternity in terms of like. Are they going to have like 12 national titles in 13 years again? Probably not. I don't think they're going to win 12 or 13 anymore, but I do think they'll probably win six of 13, right? Like I think that that's like a pretty reasonable expectation. So no, I don't think that like, I mean like none would be cool to have because you're

just like now just fading four teams on that list and hoping they don't win the national championship. but like but having the other 12 in this environment feels pretty good like I feel pretty confident that somebody's going to going to make the leap there yeah it's also hard too because like I feel like each of the first four options and the question could do it so like that oh yeah like it's not like I'm fading all of them I just feel like in a sport that currently has so much variability you'd want to have the most options and most outs to win right yeah it's interesting because If I had to Texas, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, LSU, LSU would probably be pretty high on my list of who I'd pick with Lane Kiffin coaching LSU.

So, yeah, I think that's a fascinating question. Indiana is an eight and a half point favorite in the national championship on Monday. You don't tell me that Florida could be really good in three years? Like, we don't know what they're going to look like in two years, a little long this year. But imagine asking that question five years ago, a completely different answer. Well, five years ago, the data was slower developing. five years ago, who were the recruiting classes the last three years and where they currently signed right now? That's going to tell you the story.

Now, the entire roster is different year over here. Yeah. All right. We got one from Sam. This is an alternate suggestion to your punishment if Arch Manning does not make it to New York for the Heisman ceremony. It's slightly longer than five miles, six point two to be exact, but I'd like to suggest that y'all run the Peachtree Road race if Arch isn't a Heisen finalist. It's one of the best races in the country. plenty of walkers so you can take your time and you get a free waffle at waffle house as part of

your race swag. Yes, it's on the 4th of July in Atlanta so it's hot as hell if you don't finish before 9 a.m. But that's just motivation to hustle. We'd love to see all tackle Cardiac Hill and enjoy our beautiful city. Love the show. I actually covered a Peachtree Road race as an intern at the Atlanta Journal Constitution in 1999. So I have seen the majesty of this race. I think it's a great idea. Here's my only issue with this, Ari. I want you punished before that. I don't want to wait till July 4th, 2007 to pay off your punishment if Arch doesn't become a Heism finalist this year. I want it happening in December.

The suggestion, but let me say this as plainly as I can. I would rather eat shit and die than do that. And it's not because it's not a wonderful race. It's Atlanta and July, like no shot. Like, I can't even walk outside from like 7 a.m. Ari, by the time you're done, And it would be fine. It is miserable there in July. You want me to run six and a half?

More miserable place in July. I promise you. I run every day in July. Like, it's fine. If I have to run five miles, it will be done in a climate controlled setting in the winter time. It will not. It's chilly out.

Yes. I'm not doing it on a treadmill. Okay. All right. That's fine. But I want to. The timing of the bet is going to coincide with the Heisman ceremony. So that means it'll be wintertime when I have to do it.

Like, like, I would love to do a scenic six. I think I would do a, I would rather run 6.2 miles in a scenic, beautiful weather controlled area than run five miles in the heat. And where you live, where I live early December,

the weather's going to be pretty nice. So there's a lot of, where's the national championship game next year? Good question. I think it's in Vegas, right? I think so. And if it's in Vegas, I'll run the five miles with you on the strip if I lose.

That is in Vegas. Oh, yeah. Okay, perfect. The weather will be great for that. And it'll be perfect weather at that time. A ton of weed smell there. That's not a pleasant running smell. You and I walked four miles on the strip not so long ago.

So I can take a route like that. Yeah, it's do it from. I can run from the Venetian to the Mandalay Bay or something. I love that you can mark distance between casinos. Like, that's so on brand. I've been there on a phone life. Yeah. But I appreciate the.

suggestion and like 6.2 to 5 like doesn't really seem that terrible. It's it's more about first of all, he said cardiac hill or something. Like I'm not running uphill either. Like get out of here. Up hill in the heat. Yeah, I have a loving suggestion. Why don't we just turn Ari's awful punishment into something that is immeasurably more awful. Thank you for that. It's not that thousands of other people doing it that day. Carth that there are a thousand volunteered. I saw a tweet recently that said, do people who run marathons know they don't have to? And I was like, yeah, I think that. They don't have, you don't have to do that, guys. I wish I was, if you can. I wish I was one of these people that was like, it's Thanksgiving. You know what I want to do? I want to start my day off by running.

I wish I was one of these people like you who just like, I'm going to go for a run. I'll be back in an hour. Like, I want to be that. Thanksgiving run in the morning is so nice and gets you set up for dinner. It's, it's amazing. I want to be that time for football. And I envy you. He comes to my house. We have trails around my house. He goes on runs. I wish I was that person. I unfortunately am not. So, you know, I'm going to. Yeah, I guess. You know, we'll see how the run.

Just imagine your ears, no broke boys, no new friends, and you're just, you're just how long. I'll run 10 miles and 20 minutes if that's the plan. Andy, one last thing, and then we got to go. Well, one more, one last last thing and then I'll give you your last thing. What if Arch, what if Arch wins the Heisman? Do you have to do anything? Or is it just all negative for me?

Well, if he's a finalist, I guess I should do something. What do you want me to do? I don't know. Let's put it out to the folks. What's my punishment? Because it's not that I don't think Arch is going to be a finalist. I think he will be. But we probably do need to have another side to this bet.

So, and it's probably what sucks is there's a really good chance I don't have to do it. So be gentle, everybody. You know how to find us. Andy Staples on 3 at gmail.com. Ari.wasse, minute on 3.com. One more from Jeff. Jeff sent me this on Twitter.

Andy, am I ever going to get another shout out for being the original bandwagon driver for Indiana football? I had it first by a mile. Yes, Jeff did have it first because Jeff was telling me Indiana was going to be good in like 2019.

So he was very early. Probably had no idea what was going to actually happen. But Jeff has been loyal to the Hoosiers. Jeff has never stopped. Yeah. Congratulations, Jeff.

Enjoy your Monday. It's going to be a good day. That's right. Have fun with this. You never know when you're going to be back. So save her every second. Thank you for watching. When next you see us, we come to you from Miami with Modelo.

We will be at the Miami Beach Convention Center, 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday. Come join us. Come say hi. And we will be recording our national title game preview right there. And come. Raise a medello with us. We'll see you in Miami, in Miami Beach, actually.

On Saturday.