Andy & Ari On3 - Is Ohio State Close to a portal QB? | Inside the Rose Bowl’s Final Play | Nico shines for Tennessee

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

Coming off the conclusion of an incredible semi-final in the College Football Playoff, we have some news to get to in the world of college football. Pete Nakos joins to update us on the transfer portal, Andy breaks down the Rose Bowl, and Brent Hubbs joins us to detail the debut of Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava.Tonight’s show is brought to you by Fanduel, America’s best sportsbook. Sign up at fanduel.com/Staples. Make one $5 bet and receive $150 in guaranteed bonus bets!(0:00-2:36) Intro - Back to News(2:37-19:06) Pete Nakos Joins to break down the portal(19:07-33:53) Andy Breaks down the final play of the Rose Bowl(33:54-44:11) Chris Balas from the Wolverine joins from the Rose Bowl(44:12-59:51) Brent Hubbs from VolQuest joins to discuss Nico's Debut(59:52-1:01:34) Conclusion - Dear Andy tomorrow! Send your questions to [e-mail] to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube, and don't forget to subscribe!https://youtube.com/live/GP4wUSTozyMMust be 21+ and present in select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas StarCasino, LLC. First online real money wager only. $5 pregame moneyline wager required. First online real money wager only. $10 firstdeposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com.Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania,Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona, 1-888-789-7777 or visitccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, 1-800-9-WITH-IT in Indiana, 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 1-877-770-STOP inLouisiana, visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland, visit 1800gambler.net in West Virginia, or call 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope ishere. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or textHOPENY in New York

Welcome to Andy Staples on three still in California about to head home but what a trip it has been but here's the thing with these classic college football playoff semifinals that both came down to the last play a national title game that's got a bunch of new blood in it we got to concentrate on that obviously we've talked a ton about it but the rest of college football has kept on moving the transfer portal still open in some cases and people who are in the transfer portal still looking for homes you've got other bowl games going on you've got new eras dawning for some other teams that are going to be very

excited. You're going to have that, that bowl bump where we talk about them all off season because they played great in the bowl game. That's going to happen. We may need to do some bowl bump rankings or maybe some, some bowl terrible rankings as well, where,

you know, some team had a horrific bowl game and now we're going to be down on them all off season when they're really not that bad. I'm talking, probably talking about you, Ohio state. That's, that's probably, you're the poster child for that one. Tennessee, probably the poster child for the other direction on that one. And we'll talk to Brent hubs from ball quest later in this show about the dawn of the Nico Yamame Lava era

because he looked pretty damn good in a 35-0 win against Iowa in the Citrus Bowl. But before we do that, before we dive deep into the final play of the Rose Bowl, because that's one that everybody just kept coming up to me and asking me about after the game. Monday night, that was the biggest question i got from family members friends what'd you think of the play call what'd you think of that play we're going way deep

into that play with comments from nick saban comments from jim harbaugh and a little little film study as well and it's it's pretty fascinating but first we got to talk about all the news that was going on while we were getting ready for these playoff games and some potential news that we could be getting later this week that's a pretty big deal transfer portal related blue blood related there's a lot going on so of course of course, you know what that means. You're going to get some NACOSifications. Pete NACOS, on three national reporter, joins us to talk about all that is going on in the portal right now. We have been delinquent in our duty to provide you with NACOSifications.

And we're going to fix that now. We've been so hyper-focused on the playoff games that all this stuff's going on in the transfer portal, Pete NACOS, and we've not got a chance to talk to you about it. Have you slept yet? Will you sleep ever? Hopefully, yeah. That's the plan.

We'll see. We shall see. This week could get really crazy in my opinion well and that okay is that because now we see all these really good teams finishing up their bowl games and there is a window like the transfer portal window closes unless you your team was playing past it and now you have a few extra days right right i i think the other thing too is you have this window of athletes who went in after the dead period started and now the dead period stops and they can go back on visits and i think we're going to have another slew of decisions and visits and things like that coming up the next 72 hours the one everybody's waiting on it you

talked last week and and week and told us first that the Will Howard Ohio State smoke was real. Will Howard, the former Kansas State quarterback, helped them to a Big 12 title in 2022. Is it still sort of trending that way for Will Howard and Ohio State? I still see it trending that way. I continue to talk to multiple sources who continue to say that Ohio State and Will Howard have had conversations. Maybe a commitment could be coming. Not ready to, like, full-blown say he's expected to commit, but I continue to hear that Will Howard and Ohio State is very likely.

And, Andy, you and I can talk about it, but how the Cotton Bowl went on Friday night, I think definitely made a lot of eyes open about the need for a quarterback possibly in 2024. Well, right. And Devin Brown gets hurt again during that game. We see Lincoln Keenholz, but probably a bad situation for him to get thrown into. But yes, my takeaway from watching that game was they may need a veteran to come in in 2024. Look, you got Jeremiah Smith coming. You want to make sure you have a guy to get that guy the ball.

Will Howard, if that's who it ends up being, a veteran quarterback who's played a lot of big games, who frankly has never been surrounded by that kind of talent before. You saw him playing well. Deuce Vaughn was great but yeah the kind of guys that ohio state can surround you with it's a it's a different you know different league yeah i mean you look at the wide receivers and then i think the other thing that you have to kind of bring in like ohio state loves aaron noel the quarterback coming in the 2024 class um but i think the other thing you have to think about too is like devon brown is at so many injuries i think at this point ryan day and his staff kind of feel that like

it they wouldn't be doing their due diligence without trying to bring in a veteran and there were like the two weeks there where it didn't seem like they were going to bring anyone in um but then the cotton ball played out the way it did and i think that will howard is someone that ryan day has kind of always had his eye on since the beginning of the portal season. Yeah, Aaron Noland, it's funny because we talk about Jeremiah Smith. At receiver, we think we will contribute right away. But Aaron Noland, you're asking a lot of a quarterback to come in and do that right away when you could possibly get a guy

who's led a team to a Big 12 championship. That feels like an easier move but we'll see what happens and so you were on top of these this is this is stuff that all happened as we were hyper focused on the playoff games but cam ward did make his decision the washington state quarterback who was in the transfer portal he decides to go to the nfl meanwhile that domino that falls after that is dj uyangale commits to florida state yeah i mean what a wild like 30 days but also just a wild 48 hours leading up to that camberwood decision right like when he announced he was gonna go in the portal he really emphasized the nfl and his graphic as multiple people have pointed out to me in his camp and then i mean like 48 hours before you know 24 hours before he made his decision to

enter the nfl draft i was told it was down to miami or the nfl i reported on that on new year's eve and then i wake up the next morning and people were talking about auburn being involved and also confirmed that on my end and i'm like what going on? And then 90 minutes later he announces he's going to the NFL. So yeah, that decision from Cam Ward has really brought some clarity to the quarterback market. But yeah, I mean, just the whole Cam Ward saga is something I think we're going to be talking about in years to come with the portal and just how the NFL can play a factor. Well, and I'll be interested to see how he does he's going

to play in the shrine bowl so we're going to get to see how he does against the you know NFL level competition and it'll be interesting to see where he gets drafted because it did not seem like he he was going to be a super high draft pick. He wasn't trying to decide between a first or second round draft pick and going back to college. This is a little bit different story. And so this is going to keep playing out. It was part of Will Howard's process too. So we're still waiting to see if that affects Will Howard.

But, yeah, I'm very curious to see how that works. But Cam Ward visited Tallahassee, visited Florida State, and DJ Uyunglele visited right after. And it felt like the Seminoles were kind of waiting to hear what Cam had to say before the DJ thing got consummated. Yeah, we talked about those 24 hours, right? Like Florida State made the decision, I believe it was Saturday or Sunday, if you will. Florida State just made the decision, we're going to roll with DJ.

He wants to be the guy. He can be the guy. And yeah, Florida State made the decision to move on right before. My timing's a little off, Andy. But Florida State made the decision to go with DJ, and then it kind of went down to Miami in the NFL. For Cam Ward, okay. Yeah, for Cam Ward.

Now you have Miami in this very peculiar position. Yeah, Miami still needs a quarterback. Tyler Van Dyke's off to Wisconsin. You've got Emory Williams, who looked like the starter of the future. He gets hurt against Florida state. I, I would imagine that's still very much a possibility for them, but are they still an active player in the, in the transfer portal? Because they certainly were looking around previously.

They definitely are. Um, they've been in communication with Malachi Nelson. I mean, and that has been dating back to almost a week now from what my sources have told me. KJ Jefferson was always going to be one to watch in Coral Gables, but then like right after Kim Ward and DJ made their announcements, KJ was off to UCF, and that took another kind of piece off the board, per se, for Miami. There's also another one to watch, too, the UNLV quarterback.

I believe the, uh, mountain West, uh, mountain West, uh, offensive player of the year is a true freshman. Um, I mean, he's going to be very intriguing for a lot of schools and I know Miami definitely his interest there. So another guy or another school that, that had been looking around looking around and USC met with Will Howard. I mean, it looked like Lincoln Riley was looking in the portal for his 2024 quarterback. We saw Malachi Nelson jump into the portal.

But after that Holiday Bowl performance from Miller Moss, it feels like they may have their guy already, Pete. Yeah, I don't – just from people I've talked to, there isn't a name that really pops up right now with USC. I mean, Lincoln Riley has been really open, but he wants to bring someone young in. Juju Lewis is class of 2026 or yeah, class of 2026. So my point is that they don't really have a lot of quarterback talent coming up with the pipeline at the moment.

So going to the portal makes a lot of sense to add someone behind miller moss but lincoln riley probably said it best himself after the holiday bowl he said miller may have just scared away all the competition for that starting job yeah i mean he looked awesome and that it is something that that people should think about as they make their transfer portal decisions in the future i thought that was really interesting because miller moss given the circumstances could have easily just thrown his name in the portal and gone somewhere else but he wound up maybe winning that job and i think like lincoln riley said scaring everybody off but if miller moss had wanted to enter the portal the next day i'd imagine there had been a bunch of people ready to snap him up. Right, right. Just the testament of what the portal is and isn't.

I mean, the same thing happened with a Western Kentucky quarterback who had a great performance in a bowl game and now he's staying with the Hills Opera. Yeah. So, yeah, just really interesting to see how the portal comes about. And bowl games are all of a sudden like exhibitions, but also an awesome opportunity to show what your worth is. Or the opposite.

And I think you know which school I'm going to here. You know, we talked before the Music City Bowl about Hugh Freeze's rhetoric seemed to be that Peyton Thorne's the guy for 2024, that they're very happy with him. They get smoked by Maryland, and all of a sudden it feels like Auburn is a player again in the quarterback transfer portal market. Yeah, Auburn's in also a very interesting position. I mean, Auburn came up right away with Riley Leonard.

Obviously, Riley's at Notre Dame now, but Auburn was in the mix there real quick. And obviously, the way things went this weekend, they're kind of back on the market. We heard about the Cam Ward-Auburn trying to get in. Just a quick explanation behind that. Hugh Freeze and Cam Ward had a relationship from the first time in his transfer portal. Cam looked at Liberty, and Hugh and Cam got to know each other then. But yeah, definitely really interested to see what Auburn, what kind of move they're going to make. They definitely want a quarterback.

Yeah, we'll see what they do because I remember talking to Hugh Freeze at the Senior Bowl last year, and he said that it's very important to get his Auburn version of Bo Wallace. And for those who don't remember, Bo Wallace was a JUCO quarterback that Hugh got when he got to Ole Miss. And Bo was kind of the stabilizing force on that team, on that roster, until they started bringing in the serious talent, the Laramie Tunsil, Robert Cambici class. And you saw Bo Wallace beat Alabama in 2014. But that's the sort of thing he's looking for.

I think he hoped Peyton Thorne was going to be that guy i'm i'm thinking they're wondering if that's going to happen i mean and he has some great wide receiver talent coming in too and i think that just almost leads to hugh phelan they need to go get someone especially if peyton isn't the guy and we saw the cracks in that against maryland so what what can we expect you mentioned that that dead period's over. So guys that are in the portal are going to be taking visits now that maybe weren't going to be taking them before. Do we have any more surprise entries here in these next couple days after the window for the guys who played in bowl games?

I think there's some really intriguing quarterbacks at the group of five level that I know a lot of blue blood blue bloods per se have a lot of interest in right now and do they go in do they not go in i think that's gonna kind of define the next 48 hours or so in the final slate of transfer portal entries and then on top of that andy right you have the ncaa putting the new uh five day past like a game for like the teams that were playing college football playoff and late new year six so um with alabama and texas losing there could be another wave there um ohio state's window is still open lsu's is still open so just gonna be interesting to watch the portal and how it kind of plays out the next 24 48 hours well and meanwhile washington and

michigan are sitting there. Right. Waiting on it. But let's talk about the national title matchup and how the portal affected that. Because I have a segment later in the show where we're talking about the last play of the Alabama-Michigan game. And Josiah Stewart, who Michigan got from Coastal Carolina, makes a massive play. His role in that play cannot be understated. He's just one of those guys that I don't know that a lot of people knew

much about him, but he was an incredible pickup in the transfer portal. Meanwhile, their, their center Drake Nugent, Ladarius Henderson, their left tackle came from the portal. Washington has Michael Pennix Jr.

Who not this year, but last year came from the portal, Dylan Johnson, the running back for Mississippi State. It really has affected how you build a roster. And by the way, these two teams, not top five type high school recruiting teams, and they're playing for the national title.

No. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on this, but I think what Michigan and Washington really show off is how the portal is that version of NFL free agency in the sense of like, if you go in it knowing what positions you need to fill, it can be the best spot to reload. I think we've also seen, though, how only taking athletes from the portal, the building roster maybe isn't the best way. You need the good mesh of high school and portal. And, I mean, Michigan and Washington are both good testaments of that, right?

You think of what Jim Harbaugh has built around J.J. McCarthy, but at the same time, right, J.J. was a highly touted quarterback coming out of high school and went to Michigan. Yeah, you've got to get your J.J. McCarthy's and your Will Johnson's, but you also have to get your Josiah Stewart's. And I actually heard a story that there was a there's an alternate history or mikey saner still at michigan who's one of their you know one of their great dbs doesn't convert to db from receiver but instead transfers to go play receiver elsewhere and they kept him and so that

the retention piece of it's just as important. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, retention is the name of the game now, right? With NIL and collectives and everything and Michigan and Washington are both schools who have pretty strong collectives. And obviously Michigan did the like return for another year fund that, that brought Blake Corum back for another year. Yeah. Yeah. And Blake Corum, as we know, he had a very very important yeah one of the best runs i have ever seen that's one of those that i i just i was on the goal line watched him twist his way in i've you you talk about someone who would not be denied and

you're right when when he did that deal and he announced he was coming back, he said, this is why I'm coming back. They made it come true. And now we're going to see them in Washington play for a national title. Transfer portal had an awful lot to do with that. Pete Nacos, thank you so much. Thanks so much, Andy. That's Pete Nacos, and he's busy, busy, busy. And like he said, the next 48 hours could get very interesting.

We'll obviously keep you up to date on that as we get ready for this incredible national title game with two teams that have not been on this stage in quite some time. Before we talk about how Michigan got there on that final play, I want to tell you about FanDuel. They're the ones who give us all those lines, that four and a half point Michigan favorite opening line. That's from FanDuel. FanDuel.com slash Staples is how you sign up. And if you place a $5 bet, you get $150 in guaranteed bonus bets. There's going to be some fun action on this game. You'll be able to bet it live. And, of course, you've got the NFL. You've got the NBA.

You've got college basketball. If they got a scoreboard, FanDuel probably is going to let you put some action on it. FanDuel.com slash Staples. Sign up. Place one $5 bet and get $150 in guaranteed bonus bets. That's fanduel.com slash staples. Now, let's talk about how Michigan put itself in the national title game. It came down to a fourth and goal play on the three-yard line in overtime.

Alabama tried to put the ball in its best player's hands. Michigan blew it up. This is how it all went down. Let's talk about Alabama's last play. I think we need to go in-depth on this one because this is one that's gotten a lot of debate. This is one, a lot of argument over, did Alabama make the right play call?

What was the intent of this play? What did Michigan do to stop it? I also think you can kind of tell a lot of things about college football in 2023 I guess 2024 now with this play because the cast of characters involved here very emblematic of how things work now and I think we will we'll start out and we'll just take a look at the snap I think that every place starts with the snap the snap was a big deal here Seth McLaughlin is Alabama's center I'm not going to pile on him too much he's been piled on enough as it is but he had issues snapping all season there were a lot of issues with snaps in the Rose Bowl where they were low and they were coming in at Jalen Milrow's shins, sometimes his shoe tops.

And you got to understand when a snap comes in low like that, the quarterback has to get his eyes down and concentrate on catching the ball. Typically in a shotgun, the quarterback is getting the ball in basically the same spot every time. And he and the center kind of work out what that's going to be in the offseason. And the center is usually going to hit that spot almost every time. There'll be times when it'll move a little bit, especially given the quality of the player in front of the center. But usually it's coming in about the same place.

And the quarterback does not have to drop his eyes to catch the ball or concentrate on catching the ball. It just becomes a matter of instinct. And in this case, Jalen Milrow spent a lot of Monday night reaching down to catch the ball, looking down to catch the ball. And when you do that, you lose a fraction of a second. And when you look back up, then you have adjust your your line of vision to everything you see and as you saw in that last play things got muddled very quickly and so when he looks up it's a problem now i mentioned this has been an issue all season in alabama and your next question is probably okay so why didn't they do anything about it? You can't do anything about it if you don't have somebody else that you're confident in can snap and then block. There's two parts to the center's job, snap then block. Seth McLaughlin

is capable of blocking most of the time the monsters that SEC teams or a Michigan will put in front of you. But Alabama didn't have anybody else that they felt confident in, could get a snap back there and then block. In 2012 and 2015, that's probably different because Alabama's probably deeper on the offensive line because they can stockpile. But in the age of NIL, in the age of the transfer portal, if you have capable offensive linemen, they are going to go find a place they

can play. They're not going to sit around for three years. They might hang out for two, but they're not going to sit around for longer than that. And so it does affect the depth of some of the top teams. So this is a situation where Alabama, they were doing the best they could with the player who gave them the best chance, but this was the situation they were in. And you have a big problem from the get-go on that play because the snap is low.

Now let's take a look at one particular matchup at the beginning of the play. So here's Jalen Melrose taking a snap, and you've got J.C. Latham, one of Alabama's best players, probably their best offensive lineman. He's the right tackle. He's matched up on Josiah Stewart. So who is Josiah Stewart? Josiah Stewart is a transfer from Coastal Carolina.

He was an outstanding player for the Chanticleers, and his last year, he decided to go to Michigan. Now, the reason he decided to go to Michigan, the Coastal Carolina staff left and went to Liberty. He actually had a chance to leave before that, but liked playing for Jamie Chadwell and company, so he stayed with them for another year. But here's the interesting piece of this.

So Josiah Stewart, same high school, Everett High School in Massachusetts, as Isaiah Likely, the former Coastal Carolina tight end who now plays for the Baltimore Ravens. Also the same high school as Mikey Samerstill, the Michigan DB who used to be a wide receiver. And so this is where a lot of this sort of comes together. So why does he wind up at Michigan? Well, his former high school teammate, Mikey Samer, still plays for the Wolverines. And if you watch this play, this becomes a very important matchup, but we'll get to that in a second. So as the play gets going, you've got Jaden Roberts, Alabama's left guard, number 77. He's pulling to the left. So he is trying to move to the left, get the last man on the line of scrimmage. This is quarterback power, basically, is this play. Now, a lot of questions about what's going on with Roy Dale Williams, the Bama back.

You see him circled out there wide. I'm not sure if there was an option for Jalen Miller to throw it to him. It probably disappeared with a low snap if it was. But that's one of those situations where I think they were just still going to run it with Jalen Miller. Jalen Miller was not – they're not running tons of RPOs with Jalen Milrow. That wasn't part of Alabama's game this season. That was, this was probably Jalen Milrow was supposed to run this ball in.

And if you look at the way they were blocking it, the hole probably was supposed to be to the left. So you've got the right guard pulling, supposed to clean out the last man on the line of scrimmage. Then you've got guys blocking down. Soj dippery's the tight end he's number 81 we'll go back to the snap so you look on the left of the line of scrimmage you got cj dippery and then you've got caden proctor the left tackle and you've got tyler booker the left guard those guys have good angles they should be able to move their guys or at least shield them off. And then Roberts is going to come in and clean that out,

which should open a hole. What messes that up is CJ Dippery trying to block Derek Moore. Now, Derek Moore is the Michigan edge on the left side of the screen. Derek Moore senses that he's supposed to get blocked down upon, and he gets real big and real low, and he does not move. He clogs that hole up. It's a pretty impressive job by him because C.J. Dibri has a great angle on him, and he just gets in there and clogs it up. And that makes it a big problem when you have what's going on to his left, to our right on the screen. So you've got Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant, the two Michigan defensive tackles. Graham is being blocked by Tyler Booker.

Grant is being blocked by Seth McLaughlin now Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant are fantastic defensive tackles now I thought it was interesting because that there were two timeouts before this play one called by Alabama one called by Michigan and I remember before the play was run Michigan changes out its personnel package and you see Chris Jenkins one of their best defensive tackles, coming off the field. And he kind of waves to his teammates as he goes off the field. Like, you got this, guys. But when you think about it, Mason Graham, who had that incredible submarine play to tackle Jace McClellan earlier in overtime, he's great.

He's going to be a top 100 NFL draft pick Kenneth Grant who if you watched the Sunday show you saw my interview with Kenneth Grant if you watch the Michigan Penn State game you saw him chase down K-Tron Allen Kenneth Grant is the best freakiest player in this game on either team so he's the one that Seth McLaughlin has to block. And then you've got Josiah Stewart on the other side of them with J.C. Latham. And so you get this thing where Graham's not moving, Grant's not moving, and then Josiah Stewart deposits J.C. Latham on the ground in front of Jalen Milrow. There's no chance this play is going to work.

No chance whatsoever. And it's a great job by everybody on the Michigan defensive front. But Derek Moore and Josiah Stewart, especially the two because the D tackles they did a great job because the O-linemen they were that were blocking them had great angles on them and they didn't move they couldn't get them out of the hole but what Derek Moore did is even more impressive because he took up so much space and then what Josiah Stewart did is he just dropped a grenade in the whole play. It had no shot, absolutely no shot to work. And it was a great play.

Let us hear now from Nick Saban about the Alabama side of that last play. We called three plays. One they called timeout, one we called timeout, and the last one that didn't work. So the fact that it didn't work made it a really bad call. You know what I mean? So we called timeout because we had a bad look we had a good look on the first one they must have known it but Tommy just felt like the best thing that we could do

was have a quarterback run which was kind of our two point play one of our two point plays for this game and the ball was on the three yard line which is kind of our two-point play, one of our two-point plays for this game. And the ball was on the three-yard line, which is just like a two-point play. But we didn't get it blocked, so it didn't work. We didn't execute it very well, and it didn't work.

And they pressured, and we thought they would pressure. But we thought we could gap them and block them and make it work. And it didn't. So that answers your Roy Dale Williams question. Was there an option there to throw? Probably not. That was probably supposed to be a QB power all the way. And I don't fault Tommy Reese for going with that.

That is Alabama's best player on offense, getting the ball in that situation. That's who you want to have the ball. And if you talk about the blocking scheme on that play they got good angles they've got a puller who should be able to clean out the last man on the line of scrimmage there should be a hole open Michigan just played it really well it was a it was a fantastic job by Derek Moore by, by Kenneth Grant, and by Josiah Stewart. They did what they weren't supposed to be able to do because in the case of three of them,

well, actually in the case of all of them, their blocker had an angle on them. But they just made a great play. Now let's hear Jim Harbaugh and Michigan linebacker Junior Colson explaining how they saw that final play. That last play when Alabama had the ball, it looks like you guys went back and forth with timeouts. What did you see? And then when they finally snapped the ball, what did you guys see on defense? Yeah, we just had everybody in there. It was everybody.

It was, we call it twister. And there was everybody there there. It was everybody. It was, you know, we call it Twister. And, I mean, it was everybody there, everybody to the ball. I mean, similar to Alabama. Every time you get inside the five-yard line, I mean, they're in zero every down. And my favorite play, our favorite play, JJ's favorite play, you know, got us in the end zone there when we really needed it. But, yeah, we were just – it was just – we were just all out, selling out, and, you know, playing for that.

Well, Junior, go ahead, Junior. Why don't you describe it? We were playing cover zero. You know, coach was telling us, you know, all the time, like, you know, this is the moment we were built for. This is the moment we're – you know, we can, coach was telling us, you know, all the time, like, you know, this is the moment we were built for. This is the moment where, you know, we can come out here and play for. And we knew exactly what was going to happen, you know, because, like, when the moments get tough, who do you go to?

You always go to your best player. Then we go to our best player. And when we're right there, stop it, you know. So we sent the house, you know, I said, it's fourth down. It's one last play. Everybody's strained. Everybody's strained to the ball. So you got to read a little bit of tea leaves with Jim Harbaugh.

He can go a little off topic sometimes. When he's talking about J.J. McCarthy's favorite play, and he's smacking J.J. McCarthy on the thigh, I think he's talking about Alabama being in cover zero when J.J. McCarthy hit Roman Wilson for the touchdown at the end of regulation when they were deep in the red zone, when they were on the goal line, and they got Roman Wilson open, and it was actually a pretty easy throw for J.J. McCarthy to make.

But you heard twister. That's what they call that defensive call. And they really did get everybody in there, and it created almost a tornado in the line of scrimmage and you know i i just we talk about how much it matters in the trenches and you know the question about who is the more talented team in this game i think these teams were very close in talent but i would give the michigan defensive line an edge over the Alabama offensive line. We talked about that before the game.

We were talking with Richard Johnson from Sports Illustrated. We were talking about how it felt like both defensive lines maybe were a little better than both offensive lines. But I will say that Michigan's offensive line held up better against Alabama's D-line than Alabama's O-line held up against Michigan's D-line. And on that particular play, with the game on the line, it made all the difference. Michigan's D-line came up huge. And that's why that play got blown up. So the Wolverines head to Houston to play Washington for the national title game. On the field at the Rose Bowl, I caught up with Chris Ballas of the Wolverine

to discuss how Michigan got there and what to expect in this next week. Joined by Chris Ballas on the field at the Rose Bowl. Ballas, Michigan was done. They were fourth down right there, right where the stage is that they celebrated winning the Rose Bowl, Ballas, Michigan was done. They were fourth down right there, right where the stage is that they celebrated winning the Rose Bowl. They had a fourth down, and if they didn't make it, they were done. They were, and they had not moved the ball, and they were stagnant. They had 40 yards through the second quarter and a half or something like that. And really, this is the second time that Nick Saban's made great adjustments against Jim Harbaugh in a bowl game in the second half. And you know what?

You thought, okay, do they have one in them here? It was hard to really have faith in that. But give credit to J.J. McCarthy. Give credit to Blake Corum who played his best football at the end there. I do feel like this was a case of the best players emerging at the right time. It was a throw to Blake Corum. And Blake did most of the work on that fourth down play to get the corner. And, you know, they get called for the block in the back.

Right. But he'd already gone far enough to get the first down even after the penalty. So it was that. And then Corham in overtime. Like that last touchdown run is one of the more amazing runs I've ever seen in person. I was stationed along the goal line. And just to watch him twist and turn and fight. Yeah.

Wrote that he was not going to be denied. And that's the Blake Horne that we saw most of last year before he got hurt, and we hadn't seen a whole lot through much of this year, but really to emerge at this point, he's as healthy as he's been in a month, and you could see it on that run. Well, and the defense needs to get some credit too, because throughout the whole game, they were harassing Jalen Milrow. They gave him all kinds of problems. Probably some bad snaps contributed to that. But they were in his face at all times.

And there was a play where Brandon Graham just came straight up the middle and swallowed him up at the last play of the game. Kenneth Grant? Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham. It was both of them. Mason Graham. Kenneth said he's happy with the half tackle. He said Mason got him first.

Kenneth fell on him. But that was fourth and three, fourth and goal from the three. It's a game. It's essentially a two-point conversion play, which I remember thinking during the timeout, you know, Alabama holds a whole playbook for this because everybody has a playbook of two-point conversion plays from the right hash. So if you're the offense in that situation, you have an advantage there.

And that was just a pure, I'm going to beat this guy in front of me by Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham. And it was unbelievable. And I asked Jesse Minner, Michigan's defensive coordinator, about that in the locker room, and he said, we were bringing everybody up. We had our receivers and man coverage. He said, Junior Colson, the linebacker, got to the back, and he said, we just sent our guys at them.

And you know what? It was a battle of wills, and you just kind of had the sense right there on fourth and three that they're going to rise to the occasion. Well, and that's what the situation you would expect to have, because just as Michigan gave it to Blake Corham in overtime, Alabama's going to put it in Jalen Milrow's hands in overtime. That's the best player on the field for them. That's who they're going to give it to. It was pretty spectacular because there were times where it felt like early it felt like it was slipping away from Alabama. They come grab the momentum back and then it was slipping away from Michigan. They come grab it back and that's what you want in this kind of high stakes game. But for Michigan it feels like they sort of exercised some demons of the past two years. They did and they didn't

play a great game and special teams were terrible, and they lost a lot of plays out there, starting with the punt. They missed an extra point. They missed an extra point. That would have been the difference in the game, and then knock on overtime, and then they missed a 49-yard field goal. So this has not been how they've been playing all year, and J.J. McCarthy missed some throws that he would normally make.

But to play your best ball at the end there on the last drive, and then to bring it to overtime like they did, and two-play drive, go to your bell cow, Blake. Well, and that's the thing. Nobody's going to come away from this saying the wrong team won. They're going to say these two teams gave each other their best shot, Michigan won, they're off to play for the national title. The Sugar Bowl is being played as we record this,

so we don't know who they're going to play yet. But when you think about going through this season, six games without Jim Harbaugh, all of the controversy, all of the stories about the sign stealing, all the accusations, NCAA investigations, double Big Ten investigation, did you think they'd be able to get through that to get to here? I did not. And I'll be honest, I picked them to beat Penn State and Ohio State. But with Sharon Moore, what a job he did. And then these kids putting that noise behind them. You can see

the body language against Penn State, for example, when they went out there and Jim Harbaugh had just gotten the TRO rejected. And they're like, OK, now what do we do? They came out a little sluggish, but there's so much talent and veteran talent on this team that they really got the job done. I think that's a big difference. I heard a lot of people talk about two years ago. That Georgia team from two years ago is a completely different animal than anybody in this playoff this year. This playoff, all four teams going in could win it. You saw the difference in talent between Michigan and Alabama was pretty negligible. It was. They were bigger, but I thought Michigan was stronger

and faster at some positions, especially in the trenches. And when they started getting to them early, I thought, okay, we're going to have a ball game here. So now Alabama did run the ball in the second half like I thought they might and had some success, but then Michigan really adjusted. Well, this is one of those where both D lines we felt like were pretty good. Both O lines had been suspect at times. I think Michigan's offensive line played a much better game than Alabama's did tonight. I think they did as well, and it surprises me. I'll be honest.

Without Zach Zinner and the way they've played all year, but they stepped up. And I thought Alabama's ceiling was higher. It turned out it wasn't. And obviously you don't want to lose Zach Zinner, but it does feel like Carson Barnhart better at guard. He is. And, you know, Trenta Jones comes in at tackle. And the five they've got out there now seem capable of blocking anybody you put in front of them. Now they're going to get

whoever they wind up getting. They're going to get some dudes. They are. But I was stunned at how well they did against their edges. I thought that might be the difference in the game. They've got two guys that are going to be playing on Sundays. Yeah. And they had a tough time with Chop Robinson, remember? Oh, yeah, absolutely. They got two of these guys out there. But what a job those guys did. Darius Henderson and Henderson and Trent A. Jones did a great job. And J.J. McCarthy was asked about it after the game. And he said Brad Nessler, the CBS announcer, called him up and said, hey, watch out for 15 and 41.

He's talking about Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell. And J.J. McCarthy goes, I didn't feel them all game. They didn't. And that was stunned. That, to me, was probably the most stunning part of this football game. But credit to these guys. These guys are veterans, man. And they really needed to get to that next step, right,

to legitimize themselves as an elite program. And credit to them for doing that. And so they get an interesting situation. This has happened a couple of other times, at least one other time. I think the Alabama-Georgia national title game was like this, where semifinal Monday, title game Monday. So it's almost like a real game week now. And you get into the normal prep.

So Jim Harbaugh was asked the question at the end of the press conference. Rachel Bachman from the Wall Street Journal goes, could this national title game be your last game at Michigan? And Jim Harbaugh said, the only thing in my future is a happy flight home to Ann Arbor, Michigan. And so it's going to be probably business as usual for the next few days. And I'll say this, it's going to be the usual January that we have to go through. You know what? And if he were to win a national championship here, even getting this to this point, he wanted

to go and chase the Super Bowl, then you know what? More power to him. Well, who's got a national title in a Super Bowl? Nobody. Who's got it better than them right now? Exactly. And give him credit with everything that he's gone through and kind of keeping his wits about him and everything else. You know what? I think the narrative has kind of at least died down a little bit about the sign stealing. Yeah, I think that's going to come back as the investigation comes back.

When something happens, but that's not going to happen until the offseason. Right, exactly. So right now it's about football and this is a team that has a chance to win a national title. Exactly, and not just because of sign stealing like a lot of people would like to think. Alabama was huddling up in the third quarter. I was like, what? Exactly.

What did they figure out? What do they know? No, this is one of those I think both teams gave each other their best shot. They did. Michigan was just better. Yeah, and a lot of people thought that this would be exactly this kind of game. I thought I had the score wrong. I had 27-20.

I had Alabama winning. But you know what? Credit to Michigan. You know who did know? Who did? Vegas. Vegas did know. Because not only was Michigan favored.

Michigan was favored by a point and a half for most of the week. The Whales came in on Monday, pushed that line to two and a half. They knew. They did know. We didn't know. They knew. Exactly. You and I were talking about this before the game when we saw all the SEC teams wreaking

havoc on the Big Ten teams. We thought, okay, you know what, now this is SEC's best. I think Georgia's probably a better team. Alabama just got them. Well, and this is a great example of the way the playoff is now versus what it'll be like next year. Yes. Because this game might have happened, but then Michigan may be going,

uh-oh, Georgia's still out there. Exactly. Now we've got to go to Georgia. You know what? Credit to them. And you could see how euphoric they were. But now they understand that they've got one more to win, right? And you hope that they aren't too high, that they don't take the next one.

And I don't think they will. I think having so many players on this team who lost a couple semifinals, I think they understand if they do get two up that they will have a problem in that game. Right. And, you know, it feels like both teams were rusty and kind of nervous in this game. So maybe having played now for the first time in a month, and then the two teams that are playing for the national title get just a week between, maybe we get a sharp and just everybody clicking the whole time.

I don't know. It's going to be hard to beat the intensity of this. Unreal. But you never know. Even with the fans going back and forth like that. Dixieland Delight. You had Mr. Brightside on the other side. What an atmosphere, man. It doesn't get any better than this. Two songs about stuff we

probably shouldn't be looking at. But you know what? It was beautiful tonight. It was fun. Absolutely it was. Thank you so much, Chris. Appreciate it. Thanks, Stapes. Appreciate it, bro. Beautiful. Thanks to Chris Ballas of the wolverine we will reconnect with him in houston but now let us talk about one of the other bowl games from new year's day that was flying under the radar because the playoff games were so massive but it's not flying under the radar for the Tennessee fan base. The Vols are very excited

because it is Nico time in Tennessee. The quarterback that was promised, Nico Oyama-Meyalava, delivered in his first start against Iowa. It was a 35-0 win, and the Vols look great now. It wasn't just Nico. In fact, we're going to talk about the guy who probably is the actual best player on tennessee's team going into 2024 with brent hubs of vol quest but of course we got to talk about nico first we are joined now by the great brent hubs of vol quest.com and brent is back home from orlando and the Vols, a very happy group of people because we saw the debut as the starter of Nico Iyama-Mealaba, and it could not have gone any better.

A 35-0 win where Nico ran for three touchdowns, threw very efficiently against a very good defense. And Brent, how happy were the Vols, coaches, players, fans, leaving Orlando? Well, I think excited about the – happy and obviously excited about the future, Andy. And I think it's beyond the number, you know, the numbers that he put up. And they were solid numbers. Don't get me wrong. I mean, he didn't hit a big, you know, a big long one or anything like that.

But his legs were important. But the bigger thing was he didn't hit a big, you know, a big long one or anything like that, but his legs were important. But the bigger thing was he didn't have to call a timeout. There wasn't a delay game penalty. They played with tempo. Everybody seemed to be on the same page. The game never seemed too fast for him pre-snap, post-snap, or anything like that. And, you know, I think when you talk about good quarterback play,

we all know how vital it is in college football and the NFL. It starts first and foremost with game management. And I thought Nico managed the game really well. Did he have the wow throw? Maybe he didn't have the wow throws where you're like, holy, what a laser rocket, whatever. But the game never seemed too fast. The moment never seemed too fast for him,

which I think for Tennessee fans is a really nice starting point for 2024. Well, we talked about the pressure he'd be under and also the issue of facing such a good defense in your first start. But I do think Tennessee's defense helped out Iowa's offense and its usual futility helped out. But once Tennessee got that pick in the end zone, you were like, OK, I don't know that Iowa is going to get back here all day. It probably did give them some comfort in terms of just what they could do with Nico.

Yeah, I think it did. And it got the ground game going a little bit there, which was important. And obviously the running game in Josh Heupel's system is really not talked about enough probably in terms of its key to the offense's success, but they got that going. That's the most yards Iowa's given up all year on the ground, and I think that helped everything, you know, going along.

But, but again, I mean, he was, Nico was under pressure. He was sacked six times at one, maybe two of those were on him, but the others were not, he did not have a ton of time out there, but he took care of the ball. I mean, you're sitting there with that game at 14 to nothing, Andy, and you're going the only way Tennessee loses is if Tennessee does something crazy, if they turn it over, you know, you're loose with the football on a scramble and you get the ball knocked loose. If you're the quarterback

or you throw it up, you know, in harm's way under pressure. And he just didn't do that. He managed the game. And I know that's such a bad word. And when you talk about quarterback play, but he really did, he was smart with the football all day long, which I don't think you see all the time with young quarterbacks, freshman quarterbacks. I don't think we've seen it the entire bowl season. There's been some freshmen out there who have had some moments where they're just freshmen with the football,

and he didn't seem to have any of those. And Dylan Sampson, who had been pushing for this kind of role all season, got it, and 20 carries for 133 yards. Pretty good. It's the quietest 133 yards you'll ever see. Like it's one of those deals where he popped a couple of runs for 15 yards. Hey, good run, whatever. And then you look up and it's like, okay, he's gone for 133.

And there just wasn't, I mean, it was just really steady Eddie. And yeah, I think Dylan is a guy who's got to continue to improve his pass pro. I think that's something that coming out of this game you're reminded of. That's a continued area of growth for him. But he runs bigger than his body is. I think a great offseason for him in the weight room means the sky is, you know, potentially the limit for him. They had him on a screen pass.

If they hit the screen pass, it's a touchdown. I will be very anxious to see how they use Dylan Sampson in the passing game next year because he's a much better receiver than Jalen Wright or Jabari Small, who's been Tennessee's focal point at tailback for the last couple of years. How does Josh Heupel, Joey Hosley, and Nico incorporate the tailback to the last couple of years. How does Josh Heupel, Joey Halsley, and Nico incorporate the tailback, the running back passing game or into the passing game?

It's going to be fun to watch in 24. So we're going to be talking about Nico and that offense, I think, mostly offseason. But I imagine the NFL people are going to be focusing on James Pierce most of this offseason because he's going to be draft eligible after next season. He showed again why he might be Tennessee's best player. Yeah, and the thing about James is, I mean, you look at his stat line

and his three tackles, a sack, forced to fumble, interception, which is a good stat line, don't get me wrong. But when you watch the game, he affects the offense in so many different ways just because you have to find him and you have to be aware of him. You have to chip. You have to help. So much of your focus is there. It opens up guys for other opportunities.

He affects the game much greater than his numbers show up. But I'm going to tell you what, in seven defensive snaps, he turned a 14-0 game into a 28-0 game, and I've used this comparison because I think their body types are a little bit similar. He's got a little bit of Micah Parsons in him, you know, Andy, just in terms of his body type, but there's been a couple of plays this year that he's made. The pick six this year are in this game, and he had another game earlier in the year. Maybe it's against a and M I think it was where he tackled Evan Stewart or somebody on a crossing deal.

That was like, how in the world do you at that size make that play? He can really play in space. He's not just a one trick pony edge pass rush guy, which is why NFL scouts are foaming at the mouth of him. Well, and I'm curious to see what happens with another off season for him because he was a huge year one to year two jump. Now, I'd imagine there's probably not that much room between here and the ceiling, but there's still room and it's going to be fun to see what they do with him next

year. Yeah. And I mean, I think he's a guy that could move him around a little bit. I mean, you really could stand him up. You could blitz him in the A-gap. They ran a lot of twists with him this year. He can speed rush. He plays the run a little better than I think people give him credit for because he plays with really good hands. He's pretty physical with his hands.

He's got long arms. You put another eight pounds on him and put him at 250 to 255, I tell you what, going to be a really fun player to watch play. The thing he's got to do is he's got to stay really focused because everybody's in his ear right now, right? I mean, it's going to be all the talk about how much you're going to make and where you're going to be drafted and all that kind of stuff. But he has set himself up for a potential great third year in college football

and a potential early call on draft night in the NFL draft because much like quarterbacks, offensive tackles, defensive coordinators, scouts in the NFL are looking for one thing, and that's the guy who can get to the quarterback, who can affect the game the way he can, makes him a really hot commodity. Going to be fun to watch. You talk about James Pierce and putting on weight. I'm curious about Nico because he's so tall and lanky, but if you meet his family, they're big people. His dad is 300 pounds plus.

It feels like as Nico fills out that his effectiveness as a runner becomes even more interesting. And especially after a game where he scored three touchdowns on the ground, to think if he does physically mature a little bit, he's a true dual threat. Yeah, and I think he's put on about 15 pounds since he's been at Tennessee, maybe 18 pounds, somewhere in that range. It doesn't really look like it because he's 6'6", as you mentioned. But when you watch him run, he's a little more slippery than you think. He had the one touchdown where he got popped really good at the goal line. Josh Heupel kind of met him about the hash marks and was kind of like, hey, that's great. But you know what?

Let's throw that one there, okay? We're trying to get it to tie it in. If it's not there, you can throw that one away, and we'll live to play another play. So how they use him in the run game I think is going to be interesting. The first touchdown was a scheme play because I would have seen him play 54 snaps and had no idea he could run a quarterback draw the way that he did. He's got a lot of burst. Okay. There's a

real acceleration to him. And I think that's what can make him a good running quarterback. That was something Hendon Hooker had. That wasn't Joe's greatest strength, right? Joe was the guy who had to get three or four steps in Andy before he got going. That's not the case with Nico. Well, and I remember watching his high school film and being impressed by the fact, because he was in high school 6'6", like 190. He was very thin, but was a physical runner even then. And you can imagine what he ultimately winds up being. We're probably talking about a 225, 230-pound guy.

If you already have that mentality, plus you're pretty fast fast that makes things very interesting once you're at the next level well and the thing he does too that I think his game will grow as it slows down a little bit now he took care of the ball yesterday but you know the game was fast at times for him I don't I don't care what any he says or anybody else says it's just natural but I think the thing that you look with him, he keeps his eyes downfield. He's kind of not one of those drop your head and run guys, like taking off and that's it.

And I'm not calling him Patrick Mahomes, but we've seen this in the RPO game stuff. If you're a lineman, you probably aren't going to just take off downfield because he could be a guy who looks like he's getting ready to take off and, boom, might just dump it over the top of somebody or our little sidearm, somebody to create an improv there. I just think everybody's got to be careful, including us, right?

This time of year ago, it was the, it was the Joe Milton train was coming down the tracks and here we are and all that stuff. So I want to pump the brakes myself a little bit on, okay, what's he going to be? It's going to be this, that, and the other. But, man, he was in total control yesterday. There's nothing about that that you came out yesterday and went, man, what a cannon, what a physical play he made there. You came out of there and went, man, mentally,

he looked like a veteran on the football field yesterday. And I think that's where you take a lot of encouragement moving forward if you're a Tennessee fan. And I think like you pointed out, just instinctively, his game more mirrors what Hindenhooker brought to Tennessee than Joe Milton. Because if you said, what is the key difference between Hindenhooker and Joe Milton? It's that Hinden had that improvisational skill that Joe maybe just didn't. Yeah. And I think in this offense, there are going to be times, Andy, where a guy's just cut loose, right? I mean, they just, they get you, right? So you're

going to get a free runner at you, a free edge blitzer or something. Can you make a play off of that? Whether it's with your arm, whether that's spinning out with your legs? What is that? Can you make that play there? Hendon Hooker was fantastic at it. Okay. We talked about that two years ago. I mean, heck, he made a play in the Florida game at the end of the first half. I'm still not sure how he made the improv there.

Nico has that ability, okay, because everything's got a burst to it, right? There's a suddenness to it. He can stop on a dime. He's got a quick enough release. He can get it out if somebody's in his face. He makes quick decisions. He can accelerate quickly. There's a lot of things he can do that can get you out of trouble. And I think that's what Hendon did well. And I think that helps this offense really hum along I know they can win with a variety of quarterbacks Josh Heupel's stated that and he's done that but I think when you talk about prototypical how do you make one up whatever this guy's got a lot of what you're

looking for in that prototype speaking of helping the offense there was some news on Tuesday that sounds like it will help the Tennessee offense tremendously. Brew McCoy, season ended prematurely because of a pretty nasty injury. He's coming back rather than go to the NFL. Yeah, and I think for Brew, it's a couple things. One, the NFL, I think just would want to see him healthy. And I think to help his stock, he's going to have to show them that he's healthy over a longer period of time. And returning to college football made the most sense.

He really likes it in Knoxville. Knoxville has been a great fit for him. He's been a great fit for the community and for the team, for the locker room. I think it's a great get for Tennessee. Nico said publicly at the bowl site, he was recruiting Brew hard to come back. He wanted him back to make Brew feel really old. Nico has talked about how much he enjoyed watching Brew play in high school growing up because they're from California. And so now they're going to play together. He wants to play with him.

They have a really good rapport. I think Brew helped Nico in his adjustment from the West Coast to Knoxville. I think the two have gotten along really well, and I think they will play off of each other well. And then you look at the receiver room and where they are, Andy. Mike Matthews is a five-star athlete who's coming in, who did some really good things at the Under Armour deal and at bowl practice for Tennessee. You're talking about Braylon Staley who's coming in as well. They

bring in the Brazel Kid from Tulane as a transfer. It's a pretty young room when you look at where they are. So to have a veteran who goes about his business as a pro every day on and off the field at 23 years of age is a real nice comfort level for Josh Heupel in the locker room, in the meeting room to help those young guys get ready to play. Speaking of Josh Heupel, next time you see him, thank him for not kicking that last field goal for letting the time run out. Because on this show, we always pick the Iowa total. And it was 36 and a half in this game and

that kept that score 35 nothing so Josh Heupel uh you've done service to the listeners of this show there's some there were some people in the stands who do not agree with your viewpoint on that because there were a lot of people who had gone at that point and and Gaston Moore's throwing it and I'm looking in the Iowa section and there's not a ton of people gnashing teeth and pointing and screaming like, why are you still throwing it? And then it got down there to a chance on fourth down. What are you going to do? You're going to go for it or what you're going to kick or what?

And there were literal cat calls from all around that stadium and Camping World Stadium went kick the field goal! Kick the field goal! Because some people had the over. Well, they never learn! Well, they never learn! You're not just college football. I mean, your team got beat 35-0, and you're like, I can't win this offense.

But, hey, kick the field goal so I can hit it. It'll help the ride back home. You know what I mean? It's like, just let us have this. It was unbelievable. Brent, thank you so much. Thanks, Andy. Appreciate it, man.

That's Brent Hubbs. A lot to look forward to in Knoxville. Going to be a very interesting offseason. And, yeah, people are going to be pumped. They got this bull bump last year from Joe Milton against Clemson in the Orange Bowl. Probably going to be as intense or more with how Tennessee played against Iowa in the Citrus Bowl. But I do think there is reason to be excited. And this is one of those situations where you've been excited about this QB for two years.

You've been waiting to see what he could do. And now you finally got a taste of it. It's very intriguing, but we'll see if Nico can get it done against a very tough Tennessee schedule in 2024. I bet he's glad James Pierce is also on his team because that dude is awesome. Thank you so much for watching. Been a fun day, but I now have a request of you. We haven't done a Dear Andy show in two weeks. It's Wednesday tomorrow. It's Dear Andy Day. So send those questions in. Hit me up. Twitter and Instagram, Andy underscore Staples or andystapleson3 at gmail.com. Don't forget to turn the camera on yourself if you would like to be marginally internet famous for a few minutes. I love your questions.

And given all that's happened, I imagine you have a lot that you want to ask about. And I'm very intrigued to see where you take it. So hit me up for Dear Andy. Andy underscore Staples on Twitter and Instagram. Also andystapleson three at gmail.com send those questions in and we will answer the best of them on wednesday's show