Andy & Ari On3 - Is Marcus Freeman a LOCK to stay at Notre Dame? Pop-Tarts Bowl, ReliaQuest Bowl, Citrus Bowl, & Vegas Bowl Picks

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

As the New York Giants continue their search for a new head coach, Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman has been a name to come up for this opening. Is Marcus Freeman staying put at Notre Dame? Andy & Ari discuss Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame, the alignment the Irish currently have, and if the move to the NFL would be logical. Do you think Freeman makes the move or stays at Notre Dame? (0:00) On Today's Episode(0:50) Presenting Sponsor(3:04) Intro: Holiday Cheer(5:35) Previewing Bowl Picks(8:45) Marcus Freeman, Staying at Notre Dame?(15:00) The Alignment at Notre Dame(24:07) Modelo(24:54) Timing of Freeman?(28:00) NFL jobs to possibly be open(30:00) What signing an extension really means?(38:00) Notre Dame-USC revisited(40:42) PaniniAmerica.net(44:34) Pop-Tarts Bowl Picks: Georgia Tech vs BYU(51:10) ReliaQuest Bowl Picks: Iowa vs Vanderbilt(55:30) Las Vegas Bowl: Nebraska vs Utah(1:00:50) Ari's Travel for the Cotton. Bowl(1:04:10) Cheez-It Citrus Bowl: Michigan vs Texas(1:13:17) Conclusion: Thanks for watching After the Notre Dame and Marcus Freeman discussion, Andy & Ari pick some non-CFP bowl games! Pop-Tarts Bowl: BYU vs Georgia TechCheez-It Citrus Bowl: Michigan vs TexasReliaQuest Bowl: Iowa vs VanderbiltSRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl: Nebraska vs Utah We’re also brought to you by Panini! Panini delivers the most collectible sports cards and memorabilia on the planet. Check out the new exclusive Arch Manning collection or the Panini Prizm Draft Picks College Football series. Visit PaniniAmerica.net to start your collection today. This show is presented by Modelo! Some things in life are just made for each other. Peanut Butter and jelly. Macaroni and cheese. Modelo and college football. If you’re watching this, it means you live and breathe football. All season long. You know what that makes you? A Full-Time Fan. Which means you deserve a Modelo. Because football wouldn’t be the same without you. Modelo is the official beer sponsor of The College Football Playoff. Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, IL 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/u2P9WvXNkG0 Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy Nareon 3 presented by BetMGM, how interested are the New York Giants in Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman? And conversely, how interested would Marcus Freeman be in potentially making the jump to the NFL? We talk about the most wanted coach in college football who has a really, really good job already. Plus, it's bowl pick them. That's right. It's not just all about the college football playoff. We break down some of the more exciting bowls.

We got Georgia Tech, BYU, and the Pop-Tarts Bowl. We got Iowa Vandy in the ReliaQuest Bowl. We got Michigan, Texas in the Citrus Bowl. And, of course, Utah and Nebraska in the Las Vegas Bowl. We're going to talk about all those games today on Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. We are proud to be sponsored by BedMGM. All the lines and totals we use on the show come from the folks at BedMGM. Here's how you get started.

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Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3. Was that the holiday remix of the theme song? The Christmas mix, Ari's muted. He doesn't, he's not even saying anything. I said, who did that? Was that River Boy? I think, I produced a River with the, I believe that. it's the Christmas trap remix of the Andy and Arnie theme song. And I love it. I love it.

I think I got to get up and get me some eggnog or something. I don't know. Find a fireplace or something, man. Well, I will tell you, I have fallen down the Christmas trap remix rabbit hole. If you've not done that, just Christmas trap music, enter it on your music service. Let the playlist run. Andy, I'm not sure you're aware of this. There's been a lot of really interesting Christmas music remixes online that have been floating around that I've been into. I've seen a few, yes, yes. We're friends in different countries. Yes, it's amazing.

We're going to hear those sleigh bells jingling and ring tingling too. I know that we're two days removed from Christmas, but I do want to say that I am very, very thankful to be here, to be doing this with you and to have our people here. And I just hope everybody has an amazing holiday season. Yes. Also, because look, we're going to be doing shows. We'll have a Wednesday show because Michigan still doesn't have a coach.

There's a chance Michigan might have a coach by Christmas. We'll see. Jeff Brom is playing in a bowl game. Like, as this show drops, Jeff Brom will be playing a bowl game. We think he might be a legitimate candidate for the Michigan job. So we may have news on that. But we have a show Wednesday. We're also going to have a short show Thursday.

Marshall, the Texas A&M fan, who sent the hardest mailbag question we ever had to answer, has sent us an update. So we will talk about that on Thursday's show. It's wild. It's not what I expected. Let's put it that way. It's not at all what I expected to happen. But Marshall sent us an update. So we will break that down on Thursday's show.

We understand you may be with your family at Christmas. We also understand you're probably running around travel. traveling on Friday, you may be running around returning gifts. So we got shows for you. Don't you worry. We're to talk some bowl games today. One of the games that we're talking about is happening on Saturday. That's the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

That is Georgia Tech and BYU. If you haven't seen the helmets with these sprinkles on them yet, they are spectacular. The mascot, the mascot out of the protein Pop-Tart. Have you seen the Jacked Protein Pop-Tart mascot, Ari? I have. Yeah, they're raising the stakes this year, for sure. They're getting better every year. And I will say, you know, we did have a lot of serious discussions about the Pop-Tark Bowl two weeks ago after the CFP reveal.

It is a masterclass of what every brand who sponsors a bowl game should be doing. Because we would not, it is talked about more than any other bowl game. That's not a college football playoff ball and it is because of the brand, not because of the game. And the thing is the bowl people, the people who run bowl game, bowl games. They complain so much about how their product has changed in the college football playoff era, and they whine about, oh, well, you know, all this is hurting our business. Look at what the Pop-Tarts Bowl is doing. All you have to do is be creative. All you have to do is have some fun. They have fun. The people in Charlotte, the Duke's Mayo Bowl, they also do a great job.

Like, they make sure that there's a reason you want to watch. And Georgia Tech, BYU is a good matchup anyway. But I love the ritual, the ritual sacrifice of an anthropomorphic breakfast pastry. I mean, it's what we're all there for. Andy, I don't know if I'm making this up or if I saw this somewhere, but I think I read last year that Pop-Tarts like sales went through the roof too. Like it actually worked in terms of like their bottom line. Well, and that game last year was a, was a banger.

because that was the one where Cam Ward played the first half for Miami, and they were winning against Iowa State, and then he's out in the second half. And Emery Williams comes in, and Iowa State comes back. And, yeah, it was a good game. It actually worked out well for them, because when you think about storylines and a reason why a human being who likes college football

would tune into the game, you had a quarterback chasing a record who, you know, was going to be a pretty high draft pick. You had the controversy of him coming out. You had to look at the future, then open the door about what Miami is going to do with the quarterback position, you had an exciting ending. That was like the perfect bowl game in the modern era to me. Yeah. Because like, listen, we're not all going to pretend. No one's pretending anymore that these games mattered. We used

to pretend that they did before the CFP or that there was some sort of, you know, accomplishment to be gleaned off of winning that game. And I'm not saying that people don't feel good about winning a game. But in terms of, you know, what people are probably looking for more in these bowl seasons now more than ever it's not a validation of the season it's a reassurance or a litmus test for where you're headed in the future and if you can throw some some pop tarts grab ass around to make it better or more entertaining and frankly funny i think that that's probably the best model for posting or throwing a really good bowl game in 2025 and going into 26 now we have to talk about the team that opted out of pop tarts grab ass though and that's Notre Dame and so we've talked

all about Notre Dame, skipping the bowl season, missing the playoff. That, we've talked that to death. What we do need to talk about now is something that it's kind of been bubbling under the surface and it was agent chatter for a while. And with agent chatter, you never know because agents really want movement to happen. They want coaches to move around because it helps agents move their coaches into other jobs, get new contracts, get bigger salaries, that sort of thing. But now we've seen it from the NFL side too.

So Mike Garifolo from the NFL network on Sunday, talking about the New York Giants opening, mentioned Marcus Freeman as a prime candidate for the New York Giants job, which, again, that's something that's kind of been burbling in the agent world for a few weeks now. If you're Notre Dame, are you worried about this, Ari? Oh, yeah. I mean, what's the one thing that can happen that can turn this Notre Dame against the world mentality that's kind of happening? right now over up onto its head i mean losing the main person that's involved in this your coach

your your north star your anchor right like um you know reports are reports and we had heard about them and it seemed like unlikely but from marcus freeman's perspective if he has a personal goal or it is attractive to him to try the nfl and become a person who lives in that world he has a complete role at potentially coaching one of the biggest franchises in the NFL in one of the biggest markets. Because even if things don't go well, he would be a top candidate at the college ranks the second that didn't go well, right? Do you view it that way? Yes, agree. Now, I would argue, and this is what's interesting because the Giants jobs, the one we're talking about, there will be other NFL jobs open, and we can extend this into, will any college coach be considered

in the NFL other than Marcus Freeman? We do think Marcus Freeman will be considered for NFL jobs. But the Giants job used to be a really good job. In the NFL, we talk about ownership matters. And it's sort of like the athletic department mattering in college. You know, Notre Dame is a great job because the Notre Dame Athletic Department gets it. They think football is important. The administration and and the athletic department pull in one direction. That's what makes Notre Dame such a good job. The Giants job used to be one of those jobs.

And now it's really not been. The Mara family has not exactly been a great steward in the last 10, 12 years. I mean, they had that rate run. They won those Super Bowls. And then they're kind of just cycling through. They want to keep the GM, who we all watched, you know, Fritter away, Sequin Barkley on that HBO show. So I don't know.

That was wild. That was one of the wildest things I think I've ever seen us. I was like, how did you let a camera in there? What are you doing? I know. I was like, this is bad. It's like, hey, my wife's leaving me. Can you bring the camera crew in?

Yeah, I don't know Joe Shane at all, but I felt terrible for him in that moment. But I also wouldn't, if I was going to be the head coach, would want him working there. So, and he's still there. Sequin had already left, right, when that show aired. So we had the 2020 vision of the whole thing, too, while we were watching it,

which made it even more cringe. Yes. So this is me saying, Marcus Freeman, if it's that one, I don't think you should take that one. But I do understand NFL jobs, Andy, and I'm always very curious about this, because, like, from my perspective, and I don't pretend to be an NFL expert, but I think that you know and have been around, you've covered the Jaguars for a little bit. Like, you know more about it. But from the thought process with the administrative pool and everybody going in the right direction and things,

it seems a little bit even more important in the NFL because the coaches have less control over the personnel. Like in college, you need fundraising. You need your AD to support you. You want coaching salaries for your assistance, all the things. And if you don't have a administration that's willing to support that, that's going to be an issue. for you. But in the NFL, if your GM and your coach or your owner, you know, gets into things, things, you don't even get to control who's on the field. And that's a major part of it. That said, if you're taking a coaching job in the NFL, how much do you take role on who's on

the team? Because I'm actually surprised at how bad the Giants have been. Now, Malik Neighbors is out. But if you think Jackson Dart is the right person, you know, they have a really good defensive line. they have neighbors coming back. I think they're not that far away. Him, yeah, I'm a little bit wary of whether he might not be back next season. Yeah. But he was electric in his short time there. Like, if Jackson Dart is the guy, then I know that the jury's maybe still out on that.

Yeah. If you look at the Giants roster ago, this is kind of an attractive place to go because you don't usually get to take over a place that usually when teams stink in the NFL to that extent, they don't have as many good players as the Giants have. I just look at them cycling through Joe Judge and Ben McAdo and then Brian Dable and never quite being on the same page and just say, I don't, because Notre Dame is as on the same page as you're going to get. And Notre Dame hasn't always been like that, but Notre Dame is like that now. Notre Dame is so aligned right now.

And in fact, what you just saw Notre Dame versus the world was an example of that. People may not have liked it, but it's an example of an athletic department in complete alignment. Notre Dame also is in a very advantageous spot when it comes to the college football playoff. We've got the situation where they now, depending on how the format shakes out next year, but if it's 12 or 14, they are in if they're in the top 12 or in the top 14, depending on the number of the teams. and I think I just I think this is one of the best jobs in college football

they're going to pay Marcus Freeman like it's one of the best jobs in college football and that brings me to Eric Hanson's column so Eric Hansen writes for blue and gold Eric's been covering Notre Dame for a long, long time and knows the program really well and Eric wrote about basically why he thinks

Marcus Freeman will stay at Notre Dame even if he entertains the thought of going to the NFL that why he probably sticks around mentions Pete Bavocke with the athletic director. And Pete joked about this in his press, that press conference that we talked about last week. Pete joked about Marcus. He said, you know, I wouldn't be shocked if somebody wants to put Marcus in a movie with Leo DiCaprio. He's like, everybody wants Marcus.

And that's sort of a joke at the rest of the college football coaching carousel where we all said, hey, you call Marcus and have him say no. Like, he would have been the top of everybody's list. So he's obviously viewed as one of the best coaches in college football right now. He has one of the best jobs in college football right now. And I do think Notre Dame will make sure they give him what he needs to stay. The only reason he'd leave is if he just wants to be in the NFL. I don't know.

And that's a Marcus Freeman choice. That's not anybody else's decision there. Yeah. as the sport evolved and the playoff expanded and now the playoff is going to have rules that favor Notre Dame's quest to get in, would you say that there's been a program in college football that has had a bigger glow up in terms of its positioning and its ability to compete the Notre Dame in the last four years? Because Notre Dame, think about where they were five years ago.

And maybe part of that was our misunderstanding of the program, because they didn't have a coach that could recruit at this level? Because the recruiting class that Notre Dame just signed. What you're saying is it's Marcus Freeman. The reason this has happened is Marcus Freeman because Brian Kelly, we thought,

oh, Brian Kelly is doing really well. He's got Notre Dame and it's ceiling. All it took was Brian Kelly leaving, underachieving an LSU, and Marcus Freeman surpassing very quickly what Brian Kelly had done at Notre Dame to realize, wait, maybe Marcus Freeman's a better coach

than Brian Kelly. Yeah, and I have a hard time because I think it is Marcus Freeman, but how much was it system changing, playoff expanding, and how much was it coaches, the coach is changing? Because I think a lot of the coach is changing.

Yeah, so you think if Marcus Freeman would have taken the job in 2016, they would have been more competitive in playoff games? Would he have been ready for the job in 2016? I mean, he would have been like 31 years old. This version of Marcus Freeman.

This version of Marcus Freeman. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, I do. Because I, you know, we've talked about this. Their roster is so much deeper than it was before. You know, I go back to, it was at 2018, they made the playoff, and when they're playing Clemson,

and they had a really good team at Notre Dame that year, but it was one of those situations where if a key player went down, you were in trouble. Julian Love gets hurt in that Clemson game, and it's over. The game was over. They just picked on the guy who replaced him, ended the game right there. Last year, they had multiple,

key players get hurt like offensive line injuries throughout the year um they lost a key defensive lineman in the in the last play like last series of the indiana game in the playoff like and they still got better because they're deep they're really deep and that's marcus freeman brian kelly could not create a roster that deep and marcus freeman has been able to yeah um just so everybody knows i don't know how many people who listen to the show are recruiting nerds, but I would have suspected a lot of you are. Notre Dame just signed the number two overall class in the rivals industry rankings. They signed four or five star prospects in a single class, and maybe part of that is

NIL, but that's the most five stars. I think Notre Dame has signed in a single class in the history of the internet rankings. And that isn't something that happened because the playoff expanded. Like that happened because a coach recruited at a high level. So when you say a lot of this is Marcus, I think that maybe we were the ones, or I was the one that made a mistake in saying that Brian Kelly had him at their ceiling. We just thought it was their ceiling because of academic. I think most of us did. I think most of us did.

And last year disabused me of that notion. And now you see what he's doing even further in the recruiting process. And then thinking what's interesting here, Notre Dame is. in a better position in this era with the transfer portal because the kind of player who picks Notre Dame wants the Notre Dame degree. So you've actually got a better chance of developing somebody because there's a better chance of them staying. Like if they don't play their first year, they're not as likely to just bail. They're going to sit there, sit back and say, okay, can I get a degree from this place? And then if it's,

doesn't work out, maybe transfer then. But you've got a chance to develop somebody. And I think you look at those offensive linemen that they have. Those guys, they're willing to come and understand they might have to sit for a year or two before they really get to play. And the fact

that they keep reloading there tells you that they got something really special going. So one, actually, since you brought up the recruiting class, we should mention this. This is something that that was news this week. at Notre Dame. So Teddy Girard is the quarterback that they were signing or they were going to

sign in the class of 2027. He's reclassifying to 26. So I don't think you do that if you think the coach is leaving for the New York Giants. Yeah. I think it's a smart decision to enroll early now. Players are more able to play earlier in their careers. But if you enroll when you're supposed to be a senior that allows you to sit for a season, learn the system, and not lose your age as you wait for your turn while also making money. Like, I don't know. What's the downside to enrolling early missing prom? Well, listen, I spent the second half of my senior year wishing I was not in high school anymore. So I, all these guys who leave in December and enroll, I get it. The, the whole year, missing your whole senior year.

I don't know. That one, that's a little different for me, but it's everybody needs to run their own race. Everybody needs to do what's best for them. Now, remember, remember, because I had serious senioritis. I don't know if I'm. Once my, once my senior football season was over, I didn't want, I didn't need to be there anymore. I already knew, like, I knew I could pick a college. Like I had, my SAT scores were in.

My grades were essentially in. So I could just pick a college. like back then if you I wasn't a big time football recruit so I was going to be picking a college in the spring anyway so if but if I'd have been a big time football recruit I would have already known where I was going to college so I would have been like as soon as football season was over I'm out well you were a football player so maybe that's a little bit different than me or like a player that was thinking about playing in college my senior year was awesome because my grades were in I think I had half days half the time because I did summer school classes when I didn't need to and I like it was like it was like like a year of vacation for me where I got to go to school and hang out with my friends and see pretty girls but never stress yeah I wasn't built for vacation back then I like vacations now but I wasn't built for back then you're not you know what I need to hear this from a friend you're not built for vacation now you're a worker dude I don't have a real job are you this is I'm not I'm not putting roofs on houses buddy so I know I know but you're not built for vacation

Speaking of Lake Mary High School, by the way, where I went to school, Notre Dame also has another 26th quarterback commitment from there, Noah Grubbs, who is Lake Mary's quarterback, who just led the Rams to a 7-A state title. You've seen the last play of the state championship game because it was a sports center's number one play last week. But, yeah, so that, that, they are building for the future. They are building, Marcus Freeman is building as if he's going to be there, is the point to this.

I don't know if he will do anything. I don't know if it will change anything, but I am fascinated by this process. And so I want to expand out the window, but first, before that, I want to offer all the Notre Dame fans, and I know we've offered you Medellos quite a bit over the last few weeks,

but grab yourself a medello, crack a medello. You may have a tense moment or two after the NFL season ends and this job coaching carousel spins a little bit I think he's going to stay I think Freeman's going to stay and I think so crack a medello now

if you're stressing about a little bit crack a medello to celebrate when he says he's going to stay but when in doubt crack a medillo grab yourself in medella stay game day ready all season long all off season long too because there's never a bad time to celebrate with

medella I don't know if this was a good segue way to the show or if I should have said this before the Medello reading because if Marcus Freeman leaves for the Giants like in what's the timeline for this would this be like in two weeks it would be but maybe a little bit later than that so the NFL season has two more weekends the Giants are obviously you know they're not going to the playoff so that they will be done a week from Sunday and then they can have a coaching they could hire Marcus Freeman at any time if that's who they wanted to hire.

obviously they're probably going to look at guys who are still in the NFL, and you can't do that until after the season ends. So it's probably going to go past that. But I also think that there's a chance other coaches get involved in this, other college coaches, because there's not a ton of hot NFL coordinators right now. So remember we had the Diana Rossini report that Steve Sarkisian's agents very quickly poo-poohed that Steve Sarkesian might be interested in an NFL job. And you had the Desmond Howard taking his garbage out Instagram video

where he's like, I don't know, maybe something going on in Texas. Maybe Sarkis wants to go to the NFL. And I found it interesting, R.A. over the weekend that Texas fired Pete Kukowski as their defensive coordinator and then hired Will Mustchamp, former Texas coach-in-waiting, former Florida and South Carolina head coach. as the defensive coordinator because that seems to me is like it's insurance

in case an NFL team were to scoop up Sark well this isn't really just an under name discussion because if the hire does happen after the portal at least you have that but like we're going to talk more about Michigan on this episode

and they're having a hard time based on the timing of the Sharon Moore firing right it might wind up working out for them but the candidates that they've been you know rumored to be involved with are all the same candidates that were rumored to be involved with every every job and a lot of the dominoes have fallen if this if michigan goes and out and gets their guy here in the next you know week or so um maybe even sooner than that and then no Notre Dame or another program like Notre Dame loses their coach in January like what do you do like we're at the bare bones of

this thing here. Notre Dame, Notre Dame seems pretty easy, presuming this is not Michigan's choice, and I don't think it is. There was a guy who was in the mix in a lot of places and talked to a lot of places, and he was definitely in the mix at Florida. Clark Lee at Vanderbilt. Clark Lee was Notre Dame's defensive coordinator

before he went to Vanderbilt. Now, Vanderbilt says all modern. Nationals is hometown. I get that. But if Notre Dame calls, I think you would answer. he would thrive there. But again, I'm going to go out in a limb and say, I do not think Marcus Freeman leaves.

I don't. I don't know if Sark would either. But I'm going to say this, because there may be some college coaches we're not even thinking about in terms of maybe looking at the NFL. I'm going to read you the possible jobs that could be open,

because right now we have the Giants, we have the Titans. I don't think there are any other actual open jobs, but there are going to be more open jobs. and so I want you to think about this and then we'll talk about the number of or the scarcity of hot coordinators in the NFL because usually there's like six of them just waiting

it's really like three this year and so it's kind of like the college carousel where there were more jobs than people that you thought would be able to get them so all right the jobs the Bengals could open the Cardinals could open the Browns could open the Titans have opened

the Giants have opened the Falcons could open the dolphins could open now I know he's the owner has said that he's bringing Mike McDaniel back but again if you watch them play the other day you're not so sure about that

the Raiders could open if Pete Carroll's like why am I doing this what am I even doing here that's eight jobs we haven't even like what if Andy Reid retired or something like that So, eight jobs. The hot coordinator list in the NFL is really short this year. You got Jeff Hathley, former Boston College coach,

who's currently the Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator, Clint Kubiak, the Seahawks offensive coordinator, and Jesse Mentor, the Chargers defensive coordinator. Those are the guys who reviewed as maybe kind of next man up, potential head coaches. There's talk to advanced Joseph, who's the Broncos defensive coordinator now, but has been the head coach there before, could get a second chance as a head coach.

That's four people. I just named eight jobs. Like some college coach are going to get called here. Yeah, that's wild. Andy, I want you to explain something to me like I'm 12 because I think it will be important to the audience. So when you bring up Clark Lee, who just recently signed an extension at Vanderbilt,

how, what does. signing an extension mean for coaches like Kenny Dillingham, who just announced, you know, a few days ago that he did, you know, all these coaches that signed extensions, Eli Drinkwitz, guys that we perceive to have come off the board. Why is it that Clark Lee would now be available for Notre Dame? And does it just mean it would be more expensive? Like, and then why is it usually means it would be more expensive. But like I'll point out with, with, it really has to do with your leverage. And the thing is, if you're really wanted, which a lot of these guys, people, we're very interested in them, you have a lot of leverage. And so if you have a lot of leverage, it may not be more expensive. Like Eli Drinkwitz, I don't believe his buyout to leave, went down at all or went up at all. I think it's either $4 or $5 million. I think it's exactly where it was before. He's just getting more money for Missouri and more years on the back end.

So really, when you think that, oh, someone signed an extension, they're off the board. in theory it feels like that but in actual if some circumstance changes you're you're still able to leave for the same amount in some case correct correct and it's really you're looking at the jobs you're looking at and you're saying i would rather stay here than have those if something new comes along and yeah you your buyout to leave is your buyout to leave and if someone is willing to pay it then you can go So that's all it is. It's not like you're suddenly locked up and you're never leaving again, as long as someone can pay that buyout. Now, if somebody signed an extension that did not have one of those buyouts that said you are bound to this contract until it's over or until both sides mutually agree to break it, then you'd be stuck.

But that's not the case with these guys because they have lots of leverage, usually when they do these deals. Yeah. And when they have the leverage, the school is giving more money while not protecting itself. They're hoping that more money will keep them there. But in theory, that's not always the thing that keeps someone somewhere. Correct. Correct.

So that's why, like, yes, if Notre Dame suddenly opened, I would have a bad deal. It's a bad deal with that. It's a terrible deal for them. But that's, they don't have any leverage, especially in this market already. It's the same. And it's the same thing with the NFL jobs. If they come calling, you're going to see. see college coaches get some massive new deals because they're scared to death because it's

sort of like what we were asking with Alabama when Michigan wanted to talk to Kalin DeBoer and again I don't think that don't think that's going to be an issue anymore but when when Michigan did you said okay who who does Alabama hire if he leaves because it's just the same names that we just went through with the whole coaching carousel with with Penn State and LSU and Florida like who do you hire if i were a school and maybe again i'm just not appreciating how dire situations are and how much leverage comes into play i would say i'm committing to you long term yep x more money to prove that my heart taking the other job all right thanks nice talking to you i haven't even finished what i was going to say it doesn't matter you don't have any leverage

But, yeah, I'm just saying, I'm going to give you a raise. It would be nice if you showed me by accepting the terms of a larger buyout that you're here with me. This is Jimmy Sexton. Hey, Jimmy, what do you think of that? No. Jimmy says no. Jimmy says, you're going to give me the raise, and we're going to keep the buyout the same. That's right.

If I were the school. If you're the school, you better have another candidate ready. You better have a person you're ready to bring in instead. And this is, this I would argue, is the issue with schools. This is the reason they've been knocked in the creek so many times by agents. Athletic directors are really bad at realizing when they only have a replacement level coach. Now, we say this, producer Rivers playing Notre Dame B-roll. Notre Dame does not have a replacement level coach.

Notre Dame has an excellent coach who they should do everything to keep. Other schools, maybe not so much. other schools should say you know what then fine you keep the buyout the same we're keeping the salary the same see and if you if that means you leave buy yes yeah yeah you call you are doing you signing an extension for more money isn't showing me i'm just paying you more you're not doing anything for me in this scenario so if you if you if you feel like you need to keep the buy out low because you want to leave then this extension does nothing for me and i'm not giving it to you yeah so ad's have your list ready have have your list ready

and be willing to let that guy walk if you really don't want to be mortgaged to if you don't want to mortgage your whole future on this person be ready to let them walk and if you don't have a replacement level head coach and it's proven the way that it's proven with Marcus Freeman then just back up the brake truck which is why I think you see him what they want

Pete Pavakwa saying during a public news conference that Marcus Freeman will always be amongst the highest paid coaches in the sport because they know what they have But I think that it is funny because if you actually look back at a lot of these contract extensions, it is mediocre to average coaches a lot of times or maybe slightly above average coaches taking advantage of the entity as if they are Nick Saban. Yeah. And the thing is like that can backfire on the coach too. I mean, financially it doesn't backfire. But in terms of job success, it can backfire.

Look at Mark Stoops. He goes after the Texas A&M job. They're going to give it to them. Then they're bored revolts. That was the end of Mark Soupes at Kentucky. Whether he knew it or not, that was the end. Yeah. Do you think that if Mark Soups didn't have this insanely high buyout

that he would be the coach at Texas A&M right now? No, it wasn't the buyout. I didn't think it was. He wasn't expensive. Remember, there's two buyouts. There's the buyout if we fire you and the buyout if you leave. The buyout if you leave was not the issue. The issue was having.

having to guarantee him so much money at Texas A&M. Because he was a whole, yeah. Because he already had this big contract at Kentucky. So, yeah, okay, now I get your question. Yes. Yes, that's why. That Kentucky had given him such a big contract. You're not leaving unless you get a bigger one.

So the Texas A&M board was like, okay, we're about to guarantee Mark Stoops, the same amount we guaranteed Jimbo Fisher, who had won a national title. Yeah. And I also think that Mark Stoops' name at the time right or wrong, carried the weight to pay that much, which is why, where they would is why, which is why we thought that Kentucky was the best job in America. Yeah. Yeah. And now, and now we know it's Minnesota because Mark Stoops got fired in Kentucky. Now, he got a lot of money to get fired, but it's still Minnesota. Is Minnesota the squad? Is that the new squad? Somebody wrote in on a mailbag

show and suggested Minnesota as the next one. I think so because, uh, keeps threatening to leave. They keep giving him raises. And I don't recall them being in the Big Ten championship game anytime recently. Minnesota is pretty cool because Minneapolis is also a badass city. Great town. Yeah. Yeah. Great town. All right. All right. We go from Notre Dame in the NFL to, uh, we're going to go to Orlando. So sorry. Okay. I wasn't with you yesterday because I was on an airplane. it is absolutely insane insane that they're not playing that game

yeah I just wanted to say that no I that would be the Notre Dame USC game we talked about that on the show yesterday they're not going to be playing it for at least the next four years it sounds like I thought Petro Petros Papadakis hosts Petrus and Money one of the biggest shows in L.A.,

the biggest sports talk shows in L.A., former USC running back I think he said it really well. He's like, you may as well start playing UC Davis every year. Like, what are we even doing here? Like, he painted this as a failure of the entire university leadership to understand what's going on here. Now, Notre Dame and USC released a joint statement saying, hey, we know it's special to you.

We're going to try to get it back. But listen, as the years go on, how important is it going to be for them? Because it clearly wasn't important enough. Well, I mean, the hardest part about canceling the series is canceling the series. Whether they say they're going to work on it or not, whatever. That doesn't make anybody feel better. They already did the hard part. Yeah.

And they don't have to break their backs to try to make it work again in the future because they already did the hard part. Exactly. Yeah. It sucks. It's terrible for college football. It's terrible for USC. It's terrible for Notre Dame.

And I said it yesterday. Like, I get why USC felt the way they felt, why they wanted the game moved to September. I get it. it doesn't make it any less crappy. It sucks. Yeah. And I find it a little bit. Now, Notre Dame did just sign a home and home with BYU.

Right. It doesn't make me feel better, but at least from the college football playoff, resume inclusion standpoint, at least it's not a total loss. From a competitiveness standpoint, they went and found another good competitive game, and that's good.

I'm glad they did that and didn't replace that game with, and Notre Dame needed to. It's like, because Notre Dame does not have, have an SEC or a Big Ten schedule to fall back on, they can't say, well, we just got a hard conference schedule. They have to go out and fight in hard games. Yeah, because like from a need standpoint, you would make the case that Notre Dame needed it more based on, especially after what happened this year. But from a need standpoint, I think the fans and me and you needed it

more. And I'm really upset about it. Every single year that goes by another Domino falls and the sport changes a little bit more, and it's going to be unrecognizable if the shit keeps happening. I hate it. Well, when the Super League comes, they'll play each other again. So you got that going for you. We go from one game Notre Dame's not playing to another game's not playing. We're going to go to Orlando and talk Pop-Tarts Bowl. But first, our friends from Panini America have sent us some beautiful, beautiful things.

This is the Panini Prism draft pick set. This is the NFL players in their college uniforms, college players, current college players in their college uniforms, in their college uniforms. Panini, America.net is where you go to start your collection of your favorite college and NFL stars.

I'm going to rip a pack right now of Panini Prism draft picks. Oh, one of my favorites. First round draft pick from this year

having a great rookie season. Will Campbell, LSU tackle now with the Patriots, Trey Harris, former Ole Miss, wide receiver, Jordan Burke.

Oregon Edge Rusher, Trevor E.N., Georgia, back, and then South Carolina running back, Rocket Sanders. I love these cards, Ari. They are beautiful. The Jordan Birch is the purple. Andy stood in my kitchen as I opened up 50 packs, and my daughter was asking me a question. I was like, can you get away from me right now? Like, I'm working on important things. Terrible father when Panetti's in the room. I love this product because there are actual major, major hits.

You pulled an archmanning autograph out of one of these boxes, right? And I'm trying to or tried to send it to River, but I have bad service right now. I will post the picture of it to my Twitter, and I'll send it to River for the future show. But like, yeah, I saw it. It was glorious. And we posted the picture of the Archman. that I pooled in the concourse in Norman on Friday night. So like it is the best product and they have the color blast in it,

which is the most beautiful card ever assembled or ever made ever in the history of the product or of the industry. And if you find a card in there with snake skin outline, the very next pack has a color blast in it and you can get Jeremiah Smith, Caleb Downs, I believe that there's just about every NIL player that's in the product has one. There's Drew Breeze one. And it's just a picture of a player playing football on a white card. And then like colorful powder behind him.

And it's beautiful. And I'll show you guys, you know, as we continue to talk about this. But it's one of my favorite. And I may pull one from one of these packs, too. I've got a few packs to. Here's the thing. Open another one? I do.

But it's open another. There's the thing. I don't know. We both got sent an allotment from Panini. There are, I believe, 12 boxes in a case and there's one of those cards in every case. I opened up four boxes and I didn't get one. So, you know, I think that you're opening up the actual blaster boxes and you're not opening up the hobby boxes right now. So you're not. Yeah, I have a couple of blaster boxes and I have a couple of hobby boxes too. So Derek Harmon, Oregon Detackle, got an Elijah Robber. from SMU, got an autograph here. New recruits, Will Howard from Ohio State and Kansas State, of course. Tyler Booker from Alabama, who's a rookie for the Cowboys this year. And of course, everybody knows this

guy because he is trying to break the NFL single season sack record. It's Miles Garrett, playing for Texas A&M. It's such a rush. Thank you, Pini, for sending us the stuff. We will be ripping these packs and showing you guys all about it. But if you're interested in the hobby. Panini is the place.

Panini America.net to start your collection today. Now, you can also start your Pop-Tarts collection because they have many flavors that they're pumping in this game. BYU will be playing Georgia Tech. We're of course going to talk about Pop-Tarts flavors as much as we're going to talk about football. There's a cookie dough Pop-Tart now, Ari. I haven't tried it yet, but it is high on my list of things to do when I go to the

grocery store today to sample the cookie dough Pop-Tard. tart. You and I are in complete agreement, too, that cookie dough is the best ice cream flavor, right? You and my son are. I do love cookie dough ice cream. It is not my absolute utter favorite flavor, but I do love cookie dough. I think cookie dough tastes better than a baked cookie cookie. Like, you know those like cookie dough rolls that you buy at the store from Toll House? I'll hold that thing like this and eat it like that. Well, when you come to my house, I will make you the scratch made. I make the best chocolate chip cookies on Earth. I don't know if you knew that, but I will make you a bowl of batter and you can you can eat the batter if you want before I bake the cookies.

Well, I know you're a human while you're making your best cookies on the face of the earth, you do taste the batter, right? Well, you have to. So what tastes better to make sure you did it right or the finished product? My cookies are the best on earth, so I would say the finished product. I'll be the judge. Grandmother's recipe. yeah i'll be the judge of that but yeah i'm a i'm a i'm a trash panda so like if you just put like those little pre-made cookie dough squares from toll house in the fridge i'd rather eat them just

like that than put them in the but my mom used to tell me you can get salmonella from that which is that made up that's made up no it's the same thing with anything eating raw eggs that it is there is a danger there uh like the bodybuilders who do the 12 raw eggs and just drink them they they say you you should be careful with that but i I'm just going to let everybody do what they do. It sounds made up if you're eating us. I eat the cookie dough. I'm okay.

It'll be fine. So here's what I like about this game, Ari, besides the sprinkles on the helmets. Haynes King versus Bear Bachmeier. I feel like Haynes King after this game should, there should be like he should have some sort of object or totem. Like, I don't know what signifies a really tough quarterback. Like, I want him to hand that to Bear Bachmeier at the end of this game. Like, he's passing the torch to Bear Bachmeier to be the battering ram of a quarterback for next year. Maybe it's like a stuffed animal of a dog.

Yeah, just a dog. DA, well, you can't say that for Haynes King. He's a short check player, but yes, I can't wait to see this game. These, you know, these two offenses, they're going to, they're going to run the ball at you. Both these teams value line of scrimmage play. This is going to be a lot of fun. Yeah.

And my understanding of this game is that like BYU is out for blood. Yes. Which makes it interesting. Well, they want to show that the CFP committee was wrong. It's the opposite of the Notre Dame thing that both felt like they were unjustly left out and BYU wants to play and prove that, Notre Dame wants to not play and prove that. Yeah, and I think that's an admirable thing to want to prove,

and I personally like what BYU did in response to that better than Notre Dame, and I wish that they were playing Notre Dame, honestly. But if you're going to sub in another team that's not Notre Dame, how about those gritty yellow jackets that have similar helmets? And I also believe Do you think they went to Georgia Tech? They're like, we need an ACC team with gold helmets and we can't take Boston College.

George Tech, come on. I think it's actually like a burn because Georgia Tech is who they were playing in the movie Rudy. That's true. That's right. See, there's connections. There's levels to this. Chess Checkers, man.

Exactly. So BYU is a four and a half point favorite in this game. Listen, picking bowl games that are not college football playoff games, probably a bit of a fool's errand because you don't know who's going to play or how long we're going to play or how seriously either team is taking the game.

I think Ari, you've pointed out, BYU will be taking this game very serious. I think Georgia Tech will too. I think the way Georgia Tech played all season tells you they're going to be serious about this. Yeah, I'm going to go for the team that feels hurt, though. It feels hard. trade by the Canadian.

Yeah. Take the Cougars to cover? Yeah. I mean, listen, you know I'll bet on anything. This is the craziest stuff to bet on. This is not gambling advice, guys. This is just, we're doing our best here. This is for fun.

I don't know who's playing. Yeah, you know, I don't know who's playing and for how long they're playing, but I know that BYU was upset about the CFP decision on one hand, but also upset at not being able to play Notre Dame. because that would have been a more legitimizing opponent. So my understanding from their perspective is they're out, like I said, for blood, and they want to prove something. And I will take any team that wants to prove something in a non-playoff game.

So I'm going to take the Yellow Jackets in this one. For all those reasons you just said, which make perfect logical sense, in the bowl game, nothing makes logical sense. And this is the old champ sports bowl. like this was always there was always some crazy stuff in this game like it's not just the pop tarts piece of it this game historically has been really interesting like that there was that Notre Dame Florida state one years ago where Florida state started a freshman on the all the freshman on the offensive line and got just destroyed in the first half and came back in one in the second half and like

that that was the foundation of the 2013 national title team like there have been some really fun matchups in this game. This is another one. I am going to take Georgia Tech to cover here. You're going to give me four and a half points.

I'll take it. They play close games. They've lived dangerously this season. I will take them to cover. Let us move to the Relia Quest Bowl. Let's go to Tampa.

So that game, by the way, the Pop-Tarts Bowl, Saturday 330 ABC. Let's go to the Reliqqest Bowl in Tampa. Iowa, Vanderbilt. Vandie's a five and a half point favorite. This game is on New Year's Eve at noon on ESPN. Diego Pavia's last game as a college player.

Now, he said he's not playing anymore college football. I guess there are multiple lawsuits pending that could change that, but he has said he's done. And then, of course, the Iowa team that dragged some really good teams down into the mud this year, but couldn't quite get over the hump. These are two teams that, you know, if a bounce of the ball, goes a little bit different, they might be in the college football playoff. Yeah,

the bounce would have had to be a lot different for Iowa, I think, but the bounce for Vanderbilt, not so much. I don't know that. I mean, the Indiana and the Oregon games were pretty damn close. Yeah, they would have to like bounce twice, right? Yeah, maybe.

I think that Vanderbilt would match up better with one of the better teams in the country than Iowa would. Is that a fair thing to say? They agree, and it's because of Diego Pavia, because he's a dynamic quarterback who changes everything you can do offensively.

And that's, I think that's what Iowa hoped it was getting this year, but it just didn't quite work out that way. They got a more dynamic quarterback run game, but they didn't really, Mark Garnowski did not give them a better passing game. And so, yeah, I think Diego Pavi is the X factor here as he's been for Vanderbilt since he got there. Yeah. And listen, I'm not going to pretend to know who opted in and out of all these games.

There's just too much happening to keep track of all that. But from what I understand about these two teams, like Vanderbilt's the play. Because Vanderbilt has proven all year that they can win in multiple ways. Look, I think that they can exist in that Iowa game, even if they get dragged into it and win by seven. Yeah. No Eli Stowers for Vandy, the great tight-in. Yeah. He's opting out and getting ready for the draft.

But I still think if Diego Pavia is playing and Diego is playing the way he normally plays, even with Iowa's defense being as good as it is, I think Vandy covers here. Well, the last thing, and I just kind of never got your take on this, the last thing that we heard from Diego Pavia was how he made that social media post that said F the Heisman voters. Yeah. And everybody freaked out about it. And I'm like, what the hell of who cares?

I saw, I even saw one Heisman voters. This is the guy who pissed on the New Mexico logo when he played for New Mexico State, and they were in a bowl game practicing in the New Mexico facility. Like, what did you think he would be? He's exactly who he's told us he was all along. Like, why are you surprised? Yeah, like a Heisman voter, I don't remember who it was. Like, released a statement or made a comment that, you know,

the only thing more classless than, that is i don't know it was just like took himself so seriously and i like irked me it's like yeah f the voters man f me yeah some people voted for him so i did yeah so you you're f you are for voting him number one how dare you that's what he's saying no but i mean like listen the guy was it was a social media post guys relax he didn't like yeah i just like the conier in the room I'm like, come on. If you thought Diego Pobby was Mother Teresa, again, I refer you back to him peeing on the New Mexico logo

when given the opportunity. Like, this is who he's always been. Like, what did you think? Like, he was, and I get it. Like, if you're in the same room. Johnny Mansell, when college game day invites him to be the guest picker, the night after the Jake Paul Anthony Joshua fight, like that? Yeah, he just didn't make it.

Yeah. Shocking. Shocking. When people tell you who they are, believe them, guys. That's the lesson here. They made it work, though. They made it work. But yeah, yeah. Anyway, give me the dog.

I'll take the dog every day. I'll lay the points here. Yeah, yeah, Vanity to cover in this one. Okay. Let's go to Vegas. Nebraska, Utah. Kyle Whittingham's last game is Utah's head coach. Utah is a 16.5 point favorite.

Nebraska opt out. city. Yeah. So put that together with the spread there, Randy. The Kyle Whittingham thing is wild to me because he does not want to be leaving.

This is, he has said this. This isn't a retirement. Like he, if Michigan called him, he'd take the Michigan job. Like, this is a weird one because he's done so much for this program.

This is the man who, replaced Urban Meyer when Urban Meyer left for Florida. So for 21 years, Kyle Whittingham's been kicking ass at Utah. I think they got to the point where they're ready to move on Morgan Scalley, who's been the coach in waiting for a while. But Kyle Whittingham, who he had a run, that run ended a few years ago, but he had a run where he was just unbeatable in bowl games. Do you think he just runs that back one time for this one?

And he's like, all right, let's kick the crap out of everybody and remind everybody i know what i'm doing here pretty bizarre scenario you don't really see 21 year 10ured coach walking away from a program and not retiring when things aren't in the in the gutter very often yeah they were good they're another yeah yeah like i can't remember uh another instance of that but then like it's funny we we said will mush champ's name on the show earlier today it's like well you've got a guy who's been waiting in the wings to take over for what it seems like five years now uh probably longer than that um but like officially three years yeah so i don't know you don't want to lose your future i guess if you're

utah um it's kind of so your best your best offensive tackles have opted out caleb loomu and spencer fano have opted out 16 and a half points is a lot now when you say nebraska is opt out city are we talking like 15 names 10 well Yeah, but that's the other thing. We also, like the one that is the headliner wasn't going to play anyway. Right. And the quarterback that's playing has played now for, you know, three and a half weeks. So I'll take the points here blindly, Andy, especially because the two best players in the actual game are Utah opt-ups.

Exactly, exactly. I think that's a good way to look at it. That said, these things are so weird and you can never predict what's going to happen. But I'm going to, this is where, like, you and I, we flip because you're actually looking at this from a football perspective. I'm going to look at it from a feelings perspective. Yeah.

Kyle Winningham goes out on a high. Utah covers, baby. Yeah. Just go on feelings. Yeah. And I don't know, like, is he going to, not coach next year? Well, if he doesn't get offered anything,

what I think you should do to go back to the game we were just talking about before, he should Jerry kill this thing. Like he should become somebody's Jerry Kill. So for those who don't know, Jerry Kill is the former, well, he was Northern Illinois, then Minnesota, but most recently New Mexico State head coach where he just, I mean, made that program so much better

than it had been, coach Diego Paveh there. And Jerry Kill with Tim back, the offensive coordinator, went to Vanderbilt. And Diego Pavia followed them to Vanderbilt. And he's a big reason why Vanderbilt's been so good. So if Kyle Whittingham was somebody's Jerry Kill next year, oh, God. Like, when GM puts the futures out on whatever team that is, betty over. With all due respect to Jerry Kill, who, by the way,

major, major piece of Vanderbilt's success this year. He also didn't take the coordinator job after leaving as the greatest head coach in program history somewhere else at other power four level. I mean, he was the greatest New Mexico state head coach in program history. Yeah. I mean, at 21, are we? I know. How long was his tenure, though? Like three years?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He had 21, 21 years, the best coach Utah ever had. and took them, you know, from a group of five wasn't even the term back then. It was non-BCS conference, took them from a non-BCS conference to a power conference and just changed the whole complex of the program.

Urban Meyer sort of lit the fuse, but Kyle Whittingham's the one who did the heavy lifting to get Utah where it is. And so, yeah, I will take Kyle Whittingham and Utah to cover this massive spread in the Vegas baseball. That game's 3.30 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN on New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve's going to be a hell of a day. Ari, you're covering the Cotton Bowl later that night. That's the Miami, Ohio State game. And I got my credential approval. I know you were concerned about that. I figured it out. Are you proud of me? I was concerned about you forgetting to apply. That was my concern. I would have forgotten. I would have forgotten if you didn't.

Yeah. Before we get out of here. In our relationship, like I feel like my wife is the one who's constantly reminding me of things that I would never remember otherwise because all I think about is football. And so I'm, I'm her in our relationship. I'm sending Ari's screenshots of the email. The Cotton Bowl credentialing system is reopened. In my defense, I'm not the best at email. You know, we used to do the, the, you're not the best of text messages either.

let's not let's not limit it to email in my employee review at the athletic oh my god every year was the same thing Mitch light will cut a test of this you suck at emails and your calendar and planning sucks and like that also is my annual review in my own house by the way I'm just not like I feel like I don't get things for work i don't just not show up i i don't right you don't you don't johnny football this yeah you're always you always eventually get there if i say i'm going to do something i do it like i'm not an unreliable person right i do feel like i could be better about i get overwhelmed with a lot of texts and and and no no hold on invites and all these things you can just put the period on the

after the word lot i get overwhelmed with a lot yeah Yeah. Yeah. But see, I recognize you're a very special talent. And I recognize that we need to elevate the things you do well. And we help you with the things that, yeah, that you struggle with. And so the critical requesting is hard for me. Yeah.

River and I are more organized when it comes. Yeah. River and I are more organized when it comes to this stuff. So River and I handle the schedule, handle the planning, make sure. the B-rolls ready and you just show up and shine that's what we that's what we're doing with you yeah i also don't want there to be any underlying resentment behind the scenes about this i i do need to be better about like like i like i like i have a family calendar and a professional calendar and i don't keep a calendar in my life like i don't have so you have two calendars you don't

update that's good do you have do you use your phone calendar every day yes like do you use your phone calendar every day? Yes. Like do you plug stuff into it and stuff? Yes. And we have a family calendar that if I need the rest of the family to know about it, I make it yellow. If it's just something I need to know about, it's purple. And then when you do that, does everybody's phone automatically update?

Yes. They don't get the purple stuff. Yeah, they don't get the purple stuff. They only get the yellow stuff. But yes. Yeah, I will show you. I need you to teach me how to put Britt and I on the same calendar because a four-year-old could do it. Don't worry.

I'm sure it'll only take about two days to teach. So, all right. One more bowl game. Back to Orlando for the Citrus Bowl, Michigan, Texas. Texas is a seven and a half point favorite. I don't think Will Mustchamp is coaching the defense in this game, though. I've watched the gif of him when he was the Texas, D.C., slamming that whiteboard so many times. I'm pumped.

Yeah, a lot happening here, huh? Well, the Michigan. thing. Again, as we as we discuss this, this show dropped in the middle of Jeff Brom's bowl game. They're playing Toledo today. So I don't know if that's definitely where it's going. It seems the reading the tea leaves. It seems like there's a chance it may go that way. So Michigan may be wrapped up. We'll see. I put out a list of if Michigan wants to widen the net candidates on Monday where I said, you know, if you're if you're going to look at other people, People maybe look at like Manny Diaz or Jason Eck. But if it's Jeff, if it's Jeff Brom, I would be very good with that choice. But Biff Pogh, the Michigan interim coach, made his case for the job in a press conference,

but also talked about the job in general and what whoever gets the job is going to have to deal with. Here's Biff Poggi from Monday. Everything that happens in this building has to be re-evaluated, quite frankly, because it's, it is. it is not up the standard. The staff has to be re-evaluated. And I mean the coaches, I mean the, you know, the analysts. I mean everybody in the building, except Dave, but has to be evaluated. Our strength and conditioning, our nutrition, our medical, everything.

Because obviously it has been five years of, you know, let's just call what it is a malfunctioning organization where there's something every year and I know that I know what the athletic director has made very clear he doesn't want any more of that and so if if I am named the coach which again I don't know if I am but there will be a massive um uh self examination of what happens in the building and you can expect a lot of changes a malfunctioning organization now i will point out that bif pogee was at michigan on the staff for quite a few of those things that happened so obviously like some of it's a lot of it's out of his control maybe all of it's out of his control but it is

interesting that he the way the way he phrases that makes it sound like he wasn't there also So the one thing that doesn't need to be evaluated for those who don't know who Dave is. Dave is Dave Abloff, the sports information director. He was not talking about former Michigan AD Dave Brandon. He was talking about Dave Abloff, who does a great job and does not need to be evaluated. That kind of sounded like a job interview, so that was nice. That sounded nice. Yeah.

I also find it absolutely hilarious that usually when coaches speak like that, you're talking about like a terrible program that sucks and they like won the national title during that window they were nine games this year are they were nine and three yeah this team was nine and three and it's not to make light of the serious thing that just happened there uh obviously that's uh that's not football that's that's personal life stuff uh but yeah the camera what is it camera gate what do we call it spy gate like all that stuff Connor Stallion stuff yeah

you don't want to get in trouble and I get it that said do you think he made your list do you think this is somebody they could hire I don't think so right because

the only reason is because I don't think you're making that hire for a longer term you're making that hire as a probably a one year situation and I don't think that's not something you want to announce to the world like hey we're just we're just going to do this for a year and so I think you hire the person you think will lead you into the future acknowledge two things one he was the head coach in another program and it went awful so like you have to take that into account I will point out so he was six and sixteen and two years at Charlotte do you know what Tim Albion was at Charlotte this year

They only won one or two games this year, right? It was one in 11 and they fired the AD. Yeah. Yeah. But here's the other thing. You know that evaluation that he said needed to occur? Every single coach who gets hired in a new place does that evaluation. It's the first thing they do.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. You know, you take stock of what you have and how things are going, what went wrong, and you make those changes right out of the gate. So I don't think that the evaluation of every. everybody in the building is a, it's like a unique thing to him that he, he's the only one that could do that or would do that.

But yeah, I think that we will be getting Michigan coaching news at some point in the next, what, eight days just based on the calendar. So, yeah, I would think before this game gets played. This is Citrus Bowl is Michigan, Texas. It is December 31st, so New Year's Eve, Orlando, three. p.m. Eastern on ABC. So I suspect we'll, we'll have the interview with whoever Michigan hired at the game. Like they'll be watching. Hey, what do you think about the Bryce Underwood? Blah, blah, blah, all that. So, and Biff got asked yesterday about Bryce Underwood. And he said,

hey, we're just worried about, he said, I assume he's going to be here for next year, he said. And then, and they said, hey, we're just worried about Texas. They got some monsters on their defense and they do they definitely do so what do you think happens in this game because this is another one where i mean i have no idea where this thing goes and obviously the michigan players have been through the ringer these last few few weeks i think texas is going to do to michigan what ohio state did to them in a less less of a margin like i think that uh michigan's going to have a very hard time scoring and it's going to look a lot like and that that doesn't even take into account like is everybody on the team like devastated you know like

right and you know biff pogee himself said they felt betrayed so i'm going to lay the points here and i feel pretty comfortable doing that it's what yeah i i am like they like they care yeah and i would assume texas will play like they care i did now texas thought they should have been in the playoff now the thing about texas though and and this is you've you brought this up in relation to in order to name, Texas knew it wasn't getting in. And so it wasn't a shock to the system. They haven't spent a couple weeks going, we should have been in, we should have been.

They had to process that we should have been ends a long time ago. Like after they lost to Georgia, they started processing the we should have been ends. Yeah. And I actually think, you know, of all the cases of teams that feel like they should have been in, that they have one of the more compelling ones. So, you know, you can't lose the extra game. It doesn't matter who you're playing. They lost.

I don't feel bad. They don't get in. But when you look at the resume and totality and the record, you know, I think that they had a, if I were a Texas fan or a Texas reporter, I would have written. And I did write about, you know, that's a compelling case.

But I think their defense is nasty. I still think Michigan is limited offensively. It's much better than it was a year ago, but it's still not where it needs to be. Give me the defense with the freaks on it. against that offense. Once again, because this is a non-CFP bowl, you make perfectly legitimate football arguments for your case,

and I agree with all of them. But this is feelings ball, baby. Give me Biff Pogie and the ultimate victory cigar. Give me the Wolverines to cover. Actually, I don't know if he gets the victory cigar. He's got to win. Yeah, it's a way. Are you speaking, but I'll win?

I'm going to take the points. I'm not stupid. I'm going with feelings here, but I'm not, one of the feelings is not stupidity. So I will take the points here. Yeah. It'll be a nice little appetizer to the playoff game the same day. I'm excited to watch it. It's going to be awesome.

We got football all week. As I mentioned multiple times during the show, if you want to watch some football, you could have the sound down and be listening to this show. But this is my favorite time when you're rapping presents and watching day bowl games because we got Louisville and Toledo playing right now as this show is dropping. And who knows, maybe the head coach at Louisville will be the head coach at Michigan next year. Or maybe not. Maybe the search continues.

We shall see sport never ceases to be interesting. Megaboard Wednesday coming up tomorrow. We'll talk to you that. Thank you.