Andy & Ari On3 - Is Ohio State ready to re-take the Big Ten? | The spring transfer portal window is opening

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

Thank you to Gametime for sponsoring today's episode! Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed.(0:00-7:42) Intro - Spring Ball Whiparound(7:43-23:49_ Spencer Holbrook from Letterman Row Joins(23:50-36:29) Nick De La Torre from gators online joins(36:30-56:41) Pete Nakos joins to preview the spring transfer portal(56:42-57:45) Conclusion - See you tomorrow!A lot of schools wrapped spring practice Saturday, and Andy breaks down some of the most interesting elements from the spring games at Georgia, Penn State, Miami, LSU and others.Spencer Holbrook of On3’s Lettermen Row joins to break down the Ohio State spring game. Does the QB1 job belong to Will Howard, or does Devin Brown still have a chance. Is freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith as good as advertised?Next, Nick De La Torre of On3’s Gators Online joins to talk Florida’s spring game. Fans got their first look at freshman QB D.J. Lagway. How exciting was his debut? Can Florida’s defense improve enough to help the Gators manage a brutal schedule?Finally, On3 national reporter Pete Nakos joins the show to preview the spring transfer portal window. We already know some names (Oregon State RB Damien Martinez, Penn State WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith) likely headed into the portal when it opens Wednesday. But how many players will jump in, and how radically will that affect some teams?Want to watch the show instead? Join us on YouTube LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/e9RtF-YXktc

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Monday. Happy tax day. Happy day before the transfer portal opens day. We're going to have Pete Nacos on, on three's master of the transfer portal. We'll be talking to him later in the show about what to expect when that transfer portal opens. I realized a lot of people have been predicting utter and absolute chaos. And as someone who goes on the internet every day and does a show, that would be awesome for me if that happened. It would not be awesome for you if it happened to your team. And I have fairly decent news for you. I don't know that it's going to be utter and absolute chaos in the transfer portal.

It might be somewhat tame. There might be some names that pop in. There might be some significant movement, but there might not be just utter devastation for certain teams. And there might not be wholesale movement. It feels just based on what we've seen so far. We've seen some preliminary preliminary announcements and then talking to some coaches and some personnel people. It feels a lot like bottom of the roster guys who maybe didn't crack the two deep who think they should be playing right now are going to go find places where they can play immediately. That's the sort of thing I think we're going to see the most of. Now, we probably will see some guys who are moving, and we'll talk to Pete about it later, but we'll probably also see some renegotiations where there may be some threat

of going in the transfer portal or even going in the transfer portal, but then returning to the current team when the deal gets done. We got to talk about the guys on the field, though, the ones that are playing for their teams and staying on their teams, because there are more of those than there are of the other guys. And there were a bunch of spring games this weekend, and it was spectacular.

You could whip around. You could just, if you wanted to go on Sunday and just watch the highlights on YouTube of all the games it was awesome you had the incredibly weird scene in Tuscaloosa of Nick Saban watching Alabama play watching he's still wearing the the it wasn't a pink blazer this year I think it was more of a more of a crimson blazer. But he's not coaching. Kalen DeBoer down on the field coaching. Huge crowd, of course, because it's Alabama.

But that was a strange, strange scene. At Ohio State, we're going to talk to Spencer Holbrook of Letterman Row in just a few minutes about the Buckeyes because they are the ones. Ryan Day said to Joel Klatt in the interview before the game, said to Joel Klatt, this season is about winning a national championship and beating the team up north. It does not get any more direct than that. We'll talk about the Buckeyes in a second, but the defense made life really hard on the offense and that defense is really good. Tennessee, we are going to learn to pronounce Nico's last name. We are. Ia Maliaba. Ia Maliaba. Nico Ia Maliaba. Get used to it.

I think, granted, quarterbacks aren't live in spring games, but I think what we can come away with, and we saw him in the Citrus Bowl, so we had a little bit better idea because we've seen him play a full game against an Iowa defense that had basically everybody but Cooper and Gene. There is going to be a lot more improv in Tennessee's offense than we saw last year. It's going to seem more like when Hendon Hooker was the quarterback

where there will be, if a play breaks down, it's not over yet. And I think that's going to be a big, big change. Now, I don't know how good Nico is going to be overall in terms of playing and structure the offense. We haven't gotten a chance to see him against an SEC defense yet. But I can tell you right now, just from what we've seen, the little bit of what we've seen, improv is back at Tennessee. And I think that's going to be a lot of fun. At Penn State, they kept that new offense under wraps.

Andy Kotelnicki, the new coordinator, didn't see a lot of the crazy motions and shifts and stuff that he did at Kansas. Trust me, they're putting them in. They just didn't do it. Top two running backs didn't play. Four starting offensive linemen didn't play. James Franklin was trying on a sousaphone after the game. Keiondre Lambert-Smith questions got deflected. That's the receiver who's probably going to the transfer portal.

But I think the Keiondre Lambert-Smith thing is interesting because people say, he might have been their top returning receiving threat. Their passing game wasn't much of a threat last year, and I think that's part of the problem. So we'll see. It'll be interesting to talk to Pete about what that transfer actually means. So we got people in the chat.

Joy, by the way, left this long before the show started because we're talking about ohio state i said is ohio state ready to retake the big 10 joy says no ohio state is not ready so long as ryan day is there osu will never get ready get all the osu nil cash you want in the end day will choke how many more years does it take to see day wins only versus bad teams oh joy versus ryan day is going to be good. Meanwhile, mellow says natty season incoming for Ohio state. David in the chat in spring games, coaches only let us see what they were willing to show. So is there anything we can take away

from what we see in these games about how much better a team might be in the fall? I'm thinking specifically about LSU's defense. Well, David, I was just about to talk about LSU. Garrett Nussmeier, who our guy J.D. Bickel insists upon calling the gumbo gunslinger. That touchdown pass to Xavier Thomas was pretty. Steps up in the pocket. Pocket had kind of opened around Nussmeier. This is one of those, it wouldn't matter if the quarterbacks were live or not. In a real game, he would have been able to get this throw off, and it was a busted coverage, and Xavier Thomas is there for the touchdown. So no, we don't know yet if LSU's defense is any better. We have no idea. That is a great question from David.

Florida, it's definitely Graham Mertz's team. You got to see some DJ Lagway, though. There was a throw over the middle against a zone for a touchdown. Receiver settles in the middle of the zone. Lagway just zips it in there. It was pretty. It was pretty. It's one of those that got people excited, got people thinking about a brighter future. We will talk to Nick Delatore from Gators Online later in the show about that spring game Kentucky

Kentucky was up tempo on offense the reporters in the press box were struggling to chart the plays now Mark Stoops said they were intentionally vanilla they didn't show that much but Kentucky was blazing on the offensive tempo under new OC Bush Hamden. I don't know if blazing is the right word, but compared to Kentucky's past, blazing. And that's been the question, is when will Mark Stoops let his offensive coordinator cook? Could this be the year? I don't know, but they did show us that. So this will be a lot of analysis of a very limited sample size.

That's what this is. But I thought that was very interesting. All right, let us now move to Columbus, Ohio. Spencer Holbrook of On3's Letterman row was at Ohio state spring game and Spencer. It did seem like that defense, which brings back a ton of veterans, which added Caleb downs, which moves Sonny styles to linebacker where he, the good Lord built him to play. It felt like they made life very difficult on the offense. Yeah, it is honestly kind of difficult to get a read on where this offense is Andy, because they go against this defense every day. And so when you do that, you're going to look a little pedestrian. I don't think Ohio State's offense will be pedestrian this year, but the defense is just so good.

Like they lost Josh Proctor to the NFL. He's probably going to be a fifth or sixth round pick. They replaced him with Caleb Downs. He needs no introduction. They lost both starting linebackers. They replaced him with two former five stars, one who's a freak athlete that played safety and one who's a freak athlete that's played linebackers his entire life. They lost a defensive tackle and they replaced him with a partial starter from last year and then two top 50 prospects that were rising up the ranks last year and Larry Johnson feels like

are going to be good. That's it. Everything else returns. The number one pass defense in the country, all three corners, Jordan Hancock, Denzel Burke, Davis and Igbenosin, they're all three back, and then Latham Ransom decided to return. Caleb Downs is in there. The linebackers look like they're better in coverage a little bit this year than they were last year. I don't see a hole in this defense right now, and that sounds crazy on April 15th, but that's where we're at right now because this defense was so good a year ago.

And Jim Knowles is getting even more comfortable in Columbus in year three than he was in year two. I think that's a fair statement though, because there are so many guys who played in games. It's, it's very similar to like when we talk about Michigan's offensive line going into last year and how many good players they had on that line, we had seen those guys play in games. It wasn't like we were guessing about this. So with Ohio state's defense, they bring back all of these

guys that we have seen be incredibly successful and they have upgraded the talent with other players who we, or Caleb Downs, who we have seen be successful at a high level elsewhere. Yeah, it's pretty remarkable. And, you know, credit to everybody wants to point to the NIL operation at Ohio State. And like, yes, they did a great job of bringing those guys back. But, you know, I promise JT Tuimolo was going to make more money in a couple weeks in the NFL draft than he was, you know, from NIL, whatever Ohio State's giving him. Jack Sawyer, the exact same way. So many of these guys were going to make so much more money playing at the NFL than they ever will at Ohio State.

So they did this to prove a point, to do the things that, quite frankly, Ryan Day put right out there at the 50-yard line in the horseshoe on Saturday and just kind of came out and said it. They have very, very clear, defined goals, not only for this defense defense but for the entire roster and for what this schedule should look like well and that's the thing i find interesting is like you said he did it at the 50 yard line in front of the whole crowd he said the goal is to win a national championship beat the team up north interesting i don't know that he was looking at the order necessarily if you do any well this year you don't have to do the first if you want to do the other you may have to do it eventually

if you want to do the other but you don't have to do it maybe the first opportunity but that is as direct as you're going to get from a college football coach like normally coaches won't even mention a national championship they won't talk about it but he just came out said it well ryan day does a good job every year of defining the goals. I remember 2022 Big Ten media days, Ryan Day said, we have three goals. We want to beat the team up north, win the Big Ten, win the national championship. He said, but we're not there yet. We have a long way to go to get to those goals, and we have to take it day by day. No, he is completely done with that mindset. He knows exactly what the big picture is.

And I think that's the biggest shift in Ryan Day especially. He's no longer calling plays and having to worry about what to call in week four against Marshall or what to do on third down against Western Michigan in week two. He's more worried about the overall health of the program, what he needs to do to get this team to where it needs to be, and quite frankly, where it has to be this year. And so he is very much like in the mindset of defining things and just telling you what it is. He knows the pressure that that brings,

but he also knows that he has the roster to do everything and kind of shut everybody up and deal with that pressure in a way that results in a national championship. And so he has completely shifted. It's a completely different Ryan Day from what I'm used to seeing, to be honest with you. So Chip Kelly got asked after the game, how do you evaluate your offensive line? Which is the group that probably faces the most questions on this team?

And Chip was, it was pretty funny hearing him talk about it. Cause he's like, it's actually kind of hard because the defensive line is so good so you're trying to figure out is there a lot of improvement that needs to be made or is it just that nobody's going to be able to do anything against these guys and so that's probably going to be a question mark really until they play games right yeah last year in spring ball we thought that they should have taken some of the defensive tackles out and not let them practice so the offense could get some reps.

And then it resulted in the offensive line just being not very good last year because they not only were they going against a good defensive line in practice, but they just didn't really gel together at any point last year. This year, it's a little bit more of a stalemate. You know, the defensive line still winning the day most days just because they're so, so good. But this offensive line has held its own in a way that we did not see from last year's unit. And I think this offensive line has improved. The left side is completely set. Josh Simmons, for all the scrutiny that he got at the beginning of the year last year, was actually turned out to be a pretty good left tackle for Ohio State. And the Buckeyes feel like he can be a first team all big 10 guy. Donovan Jackson, he's a known quantity, former five-star. He's got the left guard spot locked down.

Center, it looks like it's Seth McLaughlin. People kind of scoff at that because everybody watches the Rose Bowl. It's the Rose Bowl. But the center issues, he hasn't had any snapping issues the entire spring so far, and Ohio State hasn't seen that. And so they think that they're past that. It's that right side that Ohio State needs to get taken care of. Can Josh Fryer step up and be that right tackle that everybody needs him to be,

be that bookend on the other side of Josh Simmons? Can the Joshes take over these tackle spots? And then the right guard spot, I think that's one area where you could see if Ohio State needs somebody in the transfer portal. It could be a right guard. It just looks like it's a little too fluid for their liking right now, whether that's Carson Hinsman, their liking right now, whether that's Carson Hinsman, the former starting center, Luke Montgomery, second year guard, or Tegra Shibola,

third year swing offensive lineman who can kind of do a little bit of everything. But does he do one of those positions to the point where he can start? You're just not really sure right now. And so if there's a spot on that entire roster right now that I think you could see them be aggressive in, if they feel like it's a little too fluid to call right now, I think you could see them be aggressive in if they feel like it's a little too fluid to to call right now it's that right guard spot if you go out find a proven commodity plug that person in then you feel like you're set on the offensive line so you asked Ryan Day a really interesting question after the spring game and I've got his answer here and you had asked him about depth at receiver and I think most of the people watching who aren't necessarily Ohio State fans are going what are you talking about that's the deepest team

in America at receiver how how can you be asking this but you pointed out in your question their goal is to play 16 or 17 games in this 12-team playoff so here's Ryan Day's answer to that I think it's a legitimate question um you know I think when you have Mecca, you know, and then Jaden Ballard, Jeremiah, and you get into, you know, has done some really good things this spring. I know he had a couple of plays today, but we think he can really help us next year.

We're missing Brandon Ennis. Brandon Ennis, same thing. He's having a lot of momentum and then there was a procedure we just felt like out of caution, we had to get it done. We just didn't want it to linger, so we did that. So we'll need him to step up in a big way. And then to your point, we're going to need a couple more guys to step up

to build that depth there because we do have some really good players, but we're going to need them all. So I think it's important that some of those younger guys do step up. This is one where Julian Fleming's at Penn State right now. And you remember that. And when you point out 16, 17 games, you think about, man, if they don't have the depth of receiver, who does? Yeah.

Yeah, it's an interesting question because Brian Hartline has recruited at an incredible level. But that 21 class with Emeka Abuka and Marvin Harrison Jr. also included Jaden Ballard. And Ohio State has just been not begging, but really hoping that he comes along and becomes a deep threat that can take the top off the defense and do things. And if he does that, then I think they're probably okay at receiver.

But if he doesn't do that, that 2022 recruiting class was a four-man class, but it's largely gone. And the two guys who are still there, one guy's at Iowa now, Caleb Brown. Caleb Burton is now gone as well. So the other two guys in that class were Keon Graves and Kojo Antwi, and they just haven't progressed the way that normal Brian Hartline receivers have. Keon's done some decent things. I think Kojo's a decent special teams player,

but those aren't guys that you're going to be able to rely on against a Georgia or even like a Michigan at the end of the year. So if they go through injuries to Emeka Buka or Jeremiah Smith or Carnell Tate or Brandon Ennis, who's currently on the shelf, they have to have guys who can produce at the Brian Hartline level. It is a non-negotiable. The standard, as they say at Ohio State from Jim Trestle, the standard is the standard.

And so, you know, if they're not meeting that standard, then you can't play them. And so you've got to have some depth. Is Bryson Rogers the answer there? Former four-star kid from Florida they really, really like, but is he ready for that role in year two? I'm not sure. Can Mylon Graham, the five-star, on three five-star kid from Florida they really, really like, but is he ready for that role in year two? I'm not sure. Can Mylon Graham, the five-star on three, five-star receiver,

come in, you know, in the summer because he didn't get – he wasn't here in the spring and take up some reps and show that he can be reliable in the slot in case Nemeca or Brandon Ennis goes down? Like they have to answer those questions pretty quickly. And I'm not like, you know, sounding the alarms on the wide receiver position. And I think everybody in the comments would probably tell me I'm an idiot if I were to

sound the alarms on the Ohio State wide receiver room. Like that would be crazy. But also if they don't have the depth to win a national championship, they need to go find the depth. Well, I, and I also think, I think you're pointing out something that every team that aspires to win a national championship is going to deal with. Even when you think you're deep, like we're going to talk about Georgia and we talked about Georgia at length on Friday with Jake Rowe. Like they're really deep on the defensive line.

They still might have a couple of key injuries that change that as the season goes on. They will be looking in the portal for that one more little extra piece as Ohio State, well, that one more little extra piece that will give them the depth they hope to need to go, like you said, 16, 17 games. I think that's the part that the Ryan Days and Kirby Smarts of the world are considering. Maybe most of us aren't considering it because we haven't seen it yet, but it is a reality for them if they want to win a national championship. Well, and the thing about it is I think it's really smart for these coaches. I think that way every coach thinks they're going to win the conference championship, right? Like Kirby thought he was going to beat Alabama last year in the conference title game.

And I thought Georgia would win that game easily. Well, in the new playoff format, since they lost to Alabama in the SEC championship game, yes, they're going to get in the playoff still. But that means if they're going to win it, they have to play an championship game yes they're going to get in the playoff still but that means if they're going to win it they have to play an extra game because they're not getting that first round bye let's say Ohio State goes out to Eugene on October 12th and beats Oregon and then Oregon gets revenge in Lucas Oil uh on in late December well then all of a sudden Ohio State's playing 17 games because if you want to win a championship you're not getting that first round bye as one of the top four conference champions just because of an upset loss

in the championship game or a loss to an equal team. And then now you have to play that extra game and you got to be ready for 17. So it's one thing to prepare for 15. It's another thing to say, well, we might have to play 16, but you have to prepare for 17 because you just don't know what's going to happen on conference championship weekend. And, you know, it's not even a round robin anymore through these teams. So you might lose one game in conference and not make the conference championship game. And so you've got to be ready to play 17. And so these coaches that really get it and know what they need to win a national championship, they're not thinking about 16, even though they want to.

And they think they should think about 16 because they should win the Big Ten. They should win the SEC. But you have to think about that extra game, that 17th, and that could be the difference. That could be the difference between having the depth to go 16 or being battered and beaten by the end of 16, and you don't have it for 17, you lose the championship. One more before I let you go, Spencer. Will Howard or Devin Brown? Is this really a competition or is it Will's job and they're just making this go longer? What did Devin Brown do this spring to make it a competition? Yeah, I thought Devin was really – he was good. I thought he was pretty good in the spring.

He was very intentional. That's the word I was looking for, intentional in the way he did things. He commanded the offense well. He got Chip Kelly's system pretty well. He's still mobile with his feet, even though he had that ankle injury there in October of last year and it sidelined him for a while. He had that injury in the bowl game, but he's still pretty mobile. He throws a decent ball. He's got good touch on the football when he needs to.

I think he does a good job of just commanding the offense. With that being said, if they're both equal in practice, and Will Howard and Devin Brown feel like they are pretty equal right now, I think the X factor in this is that Will Howard is always going to look a little better in a full 11-on-11 than he does in practice settings with the black jersey on because the things he does with his feet, the bulldozing mentality, running the football the way that he is, the physicality that he runs the football with,

is exactly what Chip Kelly wants. And if they can both throw the football the same way, but you get in those 11-on-11 full contacts that Ohio State won't get into until August 31st when they play Akron, I think Will Howard can make that difference stand out because of the way that he runs the ball, the physicality, the durability that he showed at Kansas State. I think that's what's going to end up winning out, but I do think that Devin Brown has done... There's nothing Devin Brown has done that leads me to believe that he's out of this race. I just

think ultimately it still ends up being Will Howard. And the longer he's in it, the longer he stays on the roster as the transfer portal opens tomorrow. Spencer, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks. All right. That's Spencer Holbrook from Letterman Row. We're talking some Ohio State. We're about to talk some Florida Gators with Nick Delatore of Gators Online.

But before that, I want to talk about game time. Do you want to see the Gators and Miami play in the swamp? You need to take a right now on game time. Do you want to see Ohio State go to the to Austin Stadium and play Oregon? Do you want to see Luke Combs in a football stadium this spring? It doesn't matter if it's sports, if it's concerts, if it's comedy shows, GameTime has your tickets. It could be the day before the event. GameTime has your tickets. So download that GameTime app. Find your seat. By the way, you could look at exactly where your seat would be

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comedy shows. It does not matter. They have tickets to everything. Thank you to game time for sponsoring today's episode. And thank you to Nick Delatore from Gators online for joining us to talk about Florida's spring game. Because, Nick, the excitement for DJ Lagway is palpable. That touchdown pass over the middle, split in the zone, beautiful. That said, I think Graham Mertz leading the winning field goal drive at the end of the game

still tells you where Florida's at for the near future. Yeah, it's interesting because DJ Lagway is the future, while Graham Mertz is the present, I guess you could say, and the future for August. So Florida's in an interesting spot because I think I'm, I was trying to go back and in 2000, they didn't really have rankings, but Brock Berlin probably would be the highest rated quarterback Florida has ever signed, not named DJ Lagway. So there is a, a palpable thirst from the fan base to get more DJ Lagway, but Graham Mertz is going to be your starting quarterback.

And I think that's not questioned. And because that's not questioned, Graham is comfortable. He's not looking over his shoulder. I think you're not getting a situation like Johnny Menzel and Brian Hoyer in Cleveland where Brian Hoyer doesn't talk to Johnny because he's worried about losing his job. Graham's not worried about losing his job.

And because of that, he's taken DJ under his wing and is showing him how to be a college quarterback, how to be the quarterback at the University of Florida. And I think that's going to eventually be really good for DJ. And DJ will eventually be really good for the Gators. But it's Graham Mertz's team this year. Yeah, and it's interesting because we've seen these situations play out in the past few years where it's been clear that the very highly rated freshman came in expecting to play right away and then was slightly surprised. It feels like this has been explained, telegraphed, I don't know how

else to describe it, but everybody was on board with this when DJ signed. Graham was on board with this. I wonder if Graham Mertz isn't a guy who started three years at Wisconsin, who came to Florida, reinvigorated his career. If he's not that person, if he's somebody who's only started for a year, I would imagine it's a little more dicey situation. Yeah. Yeah. It could be. And listen, if Graham didn't have the year that he had last year, if he had thrown some more interceptions, if he hadn't won the locker room over, maybe it's different. It's funny to say that a quarterback on a team that didn't go to a bowl game, his job is safe. But I think that's where we're at. And I think the conversations that Florida had to have with DJ and his dad and the family, like you said, Andy, everyone was on board with this plan.

And I think Graham himself had a good spring camp. Um, I think the best way to put it is Graham is probably taking college calculus and DJ Lagway is taking algebra in terms of their knowledge of the playbook and, and what the offense is trying to do. Um, that being said, I don't think there's any point in not playing DJ Lagway. There's no point in red shirting him. If he is as good as we think he will be. There's no point in red shirting him. If he is as good as we think he will be, he won't be in college for three years.

And if he's not, he'll probably use the transfer portal as quarterbacks do and go find somewhere where he can play right away. So there's really no point in red shirting DJ Lagway. And that then falls on Billy Napier and Russ and russ calloway and ryan o'hara to try to figure out how to use dj in impactful ways so that you're not wasting one of the three years you'll get with friday give him there is a history of florida having a highly rated freshman quarterback and an established senior quarterback and finding a package for that highly rated freshman quarterback that worked out really well so it's it's been done before it can be done again.

But as you mentioned, Florida didn't make a bowl game last year. I would not pin that on Graham Mertz in the offense. The defense was not great, Bob. It was, uh, it needed some work and then they lose Prince Liam, Amy Ellen to the transfer portal to Ole Miss. What has this group done in the off season to get better? The ad, they added a lot. I think Florida, if you look at their last five games, the defense averaged giving up 38 and a half points a game. Offensive just wasn't able to overcome that. So I remember talking to Will Harris around the time of signing day and asking him like, how do you come in?

Like, you don't know who you guys are recruiting. You just got here. And he said he was going to watch the film on his flight back to California. And shortly after that, a transfer portal scholarship offers were sent out. And I think DJ Douglas, Traquez Bridges, and Asa Turner come in to give you a lot of experience and a lot of tackling in a secondary

that wasn't really interested in tackling last year and wasn't good at it when they did find the interest to tackle. So I think adding those veteran guys, adding thousands of snaps to the secondary and guys who are proven tacklers, I think is the biggest thing. The secondary, in my opinion, this spring is the group that I think is transformed the most and probably the one I'm most excited about. Well, and that would be, if they really are better, it would help in terms of limiting the big plays,

limiting the yards after catch. Because the big concern when you lose Prince Liam and Miellon is pass rush. And I'm curious because I think it feels like they're pretty high on TJ Searcy, who will fill into that role. Do you think they can generate enough up front so that those guys in the secondary aren't dealing with people that they have to tackle every single play?

Yeah, I think TJ Searcy can play at the level of Princey and Wimmy Ellen. And then I think Florida adding, you know, Joey Slackman and Brian Taylor, some of these guys in the middle, I think they, I don't know that they have an all SEC guy outside of, you know, a Joey Slackman, a Brian Taylor, some of these guys in the middle, I think they, I don't know that they have an all SEC guy outside of, you know, first team all SEC defensive lineman outside of maybe Searcy if he reaches his potential. But they have two or three deep at every position. So you shouldn't be in the situation that Billy Napier was in his first year where a 320 pound Gervon Dexter is playing 68 snaps a game.

And I think getting those guys 25, 30 snaps, 20 to 25 snaps a game and keeping them fresh should help the pass rush. But I think Florida's – I'll put the challenge to Florida's interior defensive lineman, Joey Slackman, Cam, and Caleb Banks. I think Caleb Banks probably held off Joey Slackman to hold on to his starting job. And then big Des Watson. It'll be a big offseason for him as he heads into his senior year. And can he finally make an impact outside of every Saturday,

the TV talking about how big he is? Well, if he recovers some more fumbles and stiff arms, the quarterback, poor Spencer Rattler. Spencer Rattler didn't know what hit him in that play. But yeah, that is the question. Joey Slackman, you mentioned, is a transfer from Penn, a grad transfer from Penn. And it is really about how well I would think they evaluated in the transfer portal.

And that's kind of been one of the problems in the Billy Napier era is it doesn't seem like they've really brought in the impact transfers. I want to ask you about the offensive line because that was the one where they brought in transfers last year. They did not really pan out as well as they'd hoped, but it sounds like they've got one transfer specifically this year who has allowed them to kind of move everybody into the positions that they probably should be playing. Yeah, I think Brandon Crenshaw-Dixon is going to win that right tackle job, and he'll sit there, he'll stay there. Austin Barber, when he's healthy, we'll take left tackle.

Najee Harris, a sophomore from IMG will be at left guard. Jake Slaughter, who was a surprise last year. He was on the team for so long. You forgot that he was there as a backup. And then he starts playing for an injured Kingsley Gwokin. And I think even if Kingsley was healthy, Jake was playing well enough that they would have kept him there last year. So Florida's big question then is right guard.

They've kicked Damian George inside. I don't think it's just you're too slow to play right tackle. You can play guard. So I don't know that Damian George will be the starter. I think Florida might go into the transfer portal looking for more help on the offensive line. And then Bryce Lovett is a redshirt freshman who I think they like, but he's also played all five positions. So it'll be interesting to see if he takes that right guard spot

or if they are going to try to find a veteran with a year to play who can come in and play right guard right away. But Brandon Crenshaw Dixon kind of took over that tackle spot and then Florida felt comfortable, like you said, Andy, to kind of start putting other pieces into spots to see if they feel good about it. You and I've talked a lot, Nick, about the temperature of the Florida fan base and the kind of apathetic vibe that was going on. I got a sense after people got a chance to look at DJ Lagway that there was a little spark, a little bit of spark came back. So I don't know how long that lasts, but it does seem like, you know, if they could win some games early maybe the momentum

comes back maybe the feeling comes back well he might be similar in the way of the that other freshman quarterback you were talking about or alluding to where in practice it it maybe just doesn't look the best um also dj lagway has been the biggest, fastest, strongest player on any football field he's been on for three years now, four years maybe. You have to kind of get out of that mentality and learn to throw the ball away. DJ used to be able to just run around the field. He was the biggest and fastest guy, and he would pick up 10, 15 yards. Now you have linebackers in the sec who are as big as you uh and might be as fast as you as well um so he's gonna have to learn as billy

napier said like poker when to fold your two seven offsuit and not try to turn that into you know trip sevens and and get lucky so i think in practice did billy napier actually use those cards or was he just quoting Kenny Rogers? I added, I added the two seven. I kind of figured, I kind of figured,

I think, I think Billy Napier knows Kenny Rogers songs. I don't know if he knows Texas Hold'em. Yeah. Well, well, I added that. That's my journalistic flair to add that in.

But, but kind of like Tebow, it always didn't look great in practice. And I think something that stood out to me is Billy Napier said, we're going to do an overtime period. And whoever wins this overtime period is going to start the spring game with three points. And he said that you could kind of see DJj's eyes light up a little bit and now hey now we're really competing for something in practice uh and dj's team uh to our confusion

uh when the spring game started the orange team had three points we were like what was going on here we thought the uh scoreboard was wrong so we had to ask Napier about that later. That is tremendous. I can't wait to see what happens because it's one of those things where if they have something for him, if he can come out and make some plays early, it could change the complexion of the early season. But again, they've got to beat Miami out of the gate. Their early season schedule is not as easy as everybody thinks.

Like Texas A&M is going to be tough. UCF is going to be tough, but it will be interesting because if they have evaluated well in the portal, they can be competitive. Nick, thank you so much. Thank you, Andy.

Speaking of the portal, the transfer portal opens very, very soon. Pete Nacos on three national reporter joins us now pete is it 11 59 and 59 seconds and then just ding and names start pouring in is that how this works it's like round one of a boxing match it's just like it just starts coming at you so yeah let's go i was i was talking to i was talking to our good friend jd piquel last week he's like oh man you must be so i'm like this is like christmas it's like the portal's back open let's go let's let's see what happens here it is it is so fascinating because it feels like every time the portal opens there's another wrinkle

just because everything is changing there's all these lawsuits. And really this portal season will be affected by a federal lawsuit where basically the NCAA transfer rules do not apply right now. They are, to use a legal term, enjoined until the trial, if there even is a trial, which there probably won't be because the judge has already said the NCAA is going to lose. So everybody who's transferred before can transfer again doesn't matter if you're a grad doesn't matter if you're undergrad you don't have to sit out unless you are an SEC player trying to go to another SEC team does that affect the number do you think Pete or or are the other decisions, whether it's playing time, NIL, are they still taking precedence? So before I jumped on this one, I was looking at the numbers.

Roughly like 650 jumped in the spring portal last year, and that was obviously without. I would think that number ticks up. Even in the last week, some of the stories I reported on about kids going in the portal, those are multi-time transfers taking advantage of that rule. And Andy, I'm sure we were going to talk about it but i'll bring it up now the other uh preliminary injunction you got to keep an eye on during these next 15 days um nil collectives right booster funding collectives can now openly negotiate with athletes before they commit um and then the ncaa has also come out and said that they're not going to launch investigations into these collectives.

So multi-time transfers and college football, free agency, the wildest we've ever seen it. Let's go. Yeah. So there's a really interesting orange County register story that came out over the weekend that explained kind of the workings of, of USC's house of victoryective and how the pay,

how payments get made or don't get made. And basically it is a very before, and you and I have talked to people who run collectives about this. It was a very weird process where they kind of had these handshake agreements. They didn't have written agreements. And a lot of times you'd have either confusion on the part of the players And a lot of times you'd have either confusion on the part of the players and their parents, or you'd have basically straight up disagreements. And I'm not just singling out USC here. This is everybody. You'd have these straight up disagreements where you said this, I thought you said this. And, but now they could actually put some stuff in writing. So it seems like it's going to be a little more straightforward.

Yeah. A lot more in writing, um, a lot more just talking to collectives and some personnel directors right like might see an offer letter uh this portal season um i think when athletes make their visits to campus i think the conversation will with collectives will be much more intricate than it has been the last 35 months or so um And, yeah, I mean, you mentioned, right, the contracts are definitely going to be much more upfront. And the other thing people need to realize in the first three years or whatever of NIL, it's been these contracts, right, no one really wanted them public.

But now if I know we're talking about USC, but any other school screws over an athlete, I don't think we'll be stunned if a contract is leaked on social media somehow by a parent or an athlete. Oh, yeah. And I thought it was interesting, the Damian Martinez situation at Oregon State. And now that one, I don't think was a case of anybody feeling screwed over because like John Canzano did the story and Damian Martinez said, no, I didn't, I, I feel like I got everything I was supposed to get. And the, the collective explained that they'd paid what they were supposed to pay, but it was interesting just seeing the numbers because, and then the, then the format, because Damian Martinez was, was scheduled to make $400,000 this year at Oregon

state. Uh, he was getting paid quarterly. He had, he'd gotten one quarterly payment and they backed out some money he owed for a car down payment and that was that was it and and every all the parties were saying the right things and i took away from that because damian martinez is in the portal and this is a guy who averaged six yards to carry last year yeah i took away from that is this is a guy who doesn't want to play a mountain west schedule. He wants to play in a bigger conference. Yeah, that was my immediate takeaway. Obviously, Pete Thamel put the number out. I went and confirmed it on my own just to be sure.

That might be one of the higher paid running backs in the country. So anyone who's leaving for money, huge misconception there. A lot of running backs making between $200,000 and $300,000 a year. $400,000 is up there so you i think you hit the nail on the head yes i don't think he wants to play a mountain west schedule he just had a great year obviously i think he needs to consider his nfo draft prospects and that that factors into the competition he's playing so we saw keanddre Lambert-Smith announce or kind of leak that he may go into the portal. James Franklin didn't say anything specific after the game when he got asked about it,

but it sounds like that's happening. So this is one of Penn State's leading receivers coming back from last year. What do you think he's looking for in the portal? Yeah, so late Friday afternoon, got some confirmation from someone close to his camp that he does intend to enter the transfer portal. Put that story out there. I think that what people need to think about here is it's a fifth-year guy. Drew Aller has a lot of upside.

He didn't have the best year ever last year. I think that Keiondre Lambert-Smith is looking at the situation and saying, hey, I need to go to a situation where the ball's being thrown my way a lot. I feel confidence in the quarterback. I think that's what happened. I think Kim Ward just had a really good spring game. I think Miami looks attractive right now to a lot of wide receivers. And I think that's just kind of the situation around here right now.

I heardami looks attractive to some running backs too yes that as well that as well this is this is definitely going to be very interesting because it we we had the bear alexander situation last week the the usc defensive tackle remember he transferred from georgia this time last year he tells hayes fa or well his people tell hayes faucet that they're they're going to the portal bear tweets the next day hey i don't know where all this is coming from i'm not going to the portal do you think we're going to see a few more of these situations where we get word that somebody's going in and then shockingly 24 to 48 hours later they're not

yeah i i have a feeling that that is going to be started with the theme the next 15 days uh have a portal primer coming out later this morning and i think in the first six paragraphs i mentioned how financial threats are going to be common um yeah i mean bear alexander had all the leverage in that situation i don't i haven't seen his contract, but I would imagine maybe threatening to go in the portal maybe ups that collective contract a little bit. Yeah, and I think there's a lot of players that can do that with their teams. This is the part that I've been curious about. You and I have talked about this a little bit.

Neither of us sees massive Armageddon going on right now. But I do wonder on teams like Arkansas, teams like Florida, where the coaches starting the season on the hot seat, there are people saying, well, you're not necessarily going to have the best season here. Do you think that schools will aggressively go after what they consider to be quality starters on those teams? Yeah, I almost tweeted about this last week because of how much you and I have talked about this. I feel like the last four months or whatever it's been. Yeah, I do think that schools like that are definitely primed to be poached from.

I think that's reality. I think that you have this mix now of athletes having more freedom than ever before, and maybe they do see the writing on the wall. I think that definitely has to be taken into consideration when you evaluate Florida and Arkansas and a couple other schools. The other one I keep thinking about is Arizona. They did a great job of keeping everybody together after a coaching change noah fafita i heard him talk in person about the decision he made and then basically all of those guys who came in together deciding they wanted to stay

together but those are some really good players now they've had a spring with brent brent brent and they can decide what they want to do is that another one where we're going to have to watch it to see if they all do stick together? I think you have to watch it. The other thing that comes to mind for me too, Andy, right, is we're talking about like I've had so many sources tell me it's not going to be Armageddon and nobody can really name like a really sexy quarterback at the moment.

Think of a few to one in, right? UCLA would be there. Northwestern would be one in right. UCLA would be there. Northwestern would be there. And obviously Michigan would be there. A lot of attractive options. So I don't have any intel at this very moment that he's going in, but you're right. He did stay.

He's going to have the option to go back in. Does he go in? I'm not sure, but the options are going to be a plenty. Yeah. And the thing is, it's hard because we don't really want to speculate on who might jump in if we haven't gotten word that they're jumping in

because that just pisses everybody off like this is off the fan base of the team that the player plays on a lot of times pisses off the player because they're like no i'm not so it's it's i know you i've seen some questions in the chat like Like, who do you think is going to get, we're going to be a little cautious about that. Yeah. Even if we've heard stuff, we're going to be fairly cautious because it's bad business to speculate too much

on who's going to be going to the transfer portal. But you mentioned Michigan, you mentioned quarterback. We've been talking about this all spring. Our folks at the Wolverine have said they think Michigan's quarterback, the starter for 2024, is probably somebody who will come out of the transfer portal. If you are Michigan, how do you handle that? How do you handle that situation as this portal window opens? So you have Alex Orji on the roster, who has a ton of upside, really athletic,

has seen most of his reps previously running the ball you have to handle it really delicately andy you cannot afford to lose a quarterback in the portal especially when we just touched on it we don't really know who's going in in the quarterback market so sharon moore needs to keep that quarterback room together and he's going to have to evaluate who goes in but i mean at this point if you told me michigan doesn't take a quarterback in the transfer portal i wouldn't be surprised well and that's the the other thing you mentioned how delicately and it's not just michigan teams have to handle this situation because you can if you're not

careful especially a quarterback i think other positions are different because you know obviously if you are not the starting middle linebacker you might be able to play outside linebacker if you're not starting right guard you can be the starting left guard like the quarterback is such a different animal and you could be taking people out of the portal but you might find out you wind up with no backup at all or no experience backup at all. And I think that's, that's the big concern because we've seen teams that go into seasons like

that. They lose their starter in the first few games. And all of a sudden the season is a disaster because of that. That's the part I would be so scared of. If I was a team that maybe is looking for. So Michigan, you mentioned Auburn would be another one in this situation yeah like if you take somebody do you risk losing everybody else yeah because at this point if you take somebody who you think is a starter level quarterback the other quarterbacks

on your roster know what you're doing like they're not stupid i think and talking about michigan auburn specifically here i know both those fan bases kind of have the mindset of like, okay, let's go get the best quarterback in the portal. Well, hold up for a second. Michigan and Auburn both have two of the better young quarterbacks in the country on their roster in Jaden Davis and Walker White. Do you really want to bring in a quarterback with multiple years of experience left?

Because then you have the chance of losing two pretty good talents. I mean, I know Auburn is so high right now in Walker white. So do you really want to risk losing the future of the quarterback position? Yeah, that's, that's the part that I, I'm just so fascinated by because the,

the domino effect of some of this stuff, like we don't think necessarily it's going to be big names, but the names could get bigger. if there is a domino effect. I want to go back a couple of years when Jordan Addison left pit following winning the Bolitnikoff, he goes through spring practice, kind of says, you know, I don't know that I like the changes around here that much. I'm going to USC. Is there any chance that there, we could a big big name like that or is that do you feel like those types of names are settled right now i think there's a chance i also think that nil is much more robust around the country than it was when jordan adison went in transfer

portal and i think roster retention is just more talked about now. And I think that would probably factor in a little bit more. Yeah, that's what, so you and I were talking about this with, with a couple of players on a big 12 team the other day, where we were talking about, I found out what, what they might be making this year. Cause we,

we thought maybe they were potential targets to get picked off and found out what they're making. We're like, Oh, nevermind. They're not going anywhere. And you're right. How much more sophisticated have teams gotten,

collectives gotten in terms of figuring out what's it going to take to keep this guy and making sure they're at that number? I think where we're really seeing collectives grow and then impacting the transfer portal market and roster retention is collectives and coaching staffs have gotten a lot better of, of communicating and having conversations like, Hey,

we need to watch him. We need to watch him. We need to have these exit conversations at the end of the spring to make sure everyone's on the same page. And I'm not saying that wasn't happening in, in 2021, 2022, but I think the grip is,

is much stronger of having an understanding of how to, to kind of evaluate these situations. I don't think it's because of contracts. We keep reading more and more about how their memorandums, how there's handshake deals. It's athletes are not staying put most of the time because of the way a contract is phrased um it's it's because they're getting more money well and we talked to neil brown earlier and neil brown had one of the bigger exoduses a couple of years ago and it

felt like things were going completely south of west virginia and he said their collective getting stuff together, figuring out how this all works, allowed them to retain last year and even better retain this year off a team that won nine games. And he did not seem all that concerned about anything happening because it, how much of it is Pete? Like now everybody kind of knows what the market is. They know if they're overpaying a running back that that running back is probably going to stay. So you're right that everyone has a better idea of the market and what other programs can offer. I also think that's something that the common college football fan, including myself two years ago, didn't understand, but I'm more in it now. When you see someone go in the portal, sometimes the coaching staff is encouraging them to go in the portal. Right.

And they need to offload because they're over the scholarship count number. I think that needs to be factored in more and more when you see some of these guys go in and that doesn't, that isn't like the stars, but more like the backup right tackle. Well, okay. If school Y has 89 kids on scholarship, they might need that backup tackle to go in the portal. And George is one of those. Jake Rowe told us that the other day.

He said that they're sitting at about 88 right now. I believe Alabama is in that situation. There's a few schools that have to get down below the 85, but they also may be shopping a little bit. So you're going to see movement there. And, you know, the interesting question, we talked about this early in the show with Spencer Holbrook

about a question he asked Ryan Day yesterday. And I thought this was really fascinating because Spencer asked Ryan if he felt like they had enough receiver depth to win 16 or to play 16 or 17 games which Ohio State as a as a team that wants to win a national title may have to play and Ryan Day's answer is of course not we're not deep enough we may have to may have to add to that and that's the that's the part I'm curious about Pete is not just that side of it like the ohio states of the world or the

georgia the world trying to fill a plug a hole but the the player at an alabama at a georgia who is going to play a role this season but may not play a major role and maybe decides like if a couple years ago you had jermaine Johnson leave Georgia for Florida state because he wanted to be an every down player. Yeah. Could that be, because we always talk about the money, but the market is sort of work the money part out. Yeah. But playing time is a different animal. Playing time is a completely different animal. So yes, I do think that is going to have to be definitely factored into decisions. And you're right. The money part has kind of come out a little,

like it's not as big of a deal, but you know, it's still matters handy reaching the NFL. And a lot of these players believe that if they're in a situation where they're getting a lot of playing time and getting good reps, that is helping them get to the NFL. So yes, I a hundred percent think that is going to be a factor these next 16 days yeah because that that's

the one like we talk about these schools that are that are over the 85 that they're going to have to drop some guys i still think they might lose some guys they don't necessarily want to lose and i think it's going to affect this is this is how we've seen parity increase in the nil era is not necessarily the star player leaving it is the player that you thought you were going to get a little more out of this year that wants to go be a starter somewhere else and you know the the other thing i'm keeping my eye on these next couple weeks and i know we kind of touched on it is like i don't think any like stud quarterbacks are going to go in like at this point.

But I think the other thing we need to watch is I think the backup quarterback market could be really interesting. Right. I mean, you have some, some quarterback rooms across the country that are four and five deep. And if they lose a couple, they're going to have to go add a backup.

And what does that market look like? And I know, I think Wally in the comments made a comment about ford estates quarterback room last year uh yeah that was jorge excuse me you were right uh but i think that that definitely factors into to how teams are going to handle this and the impacts that we'll see i have a story coming out this week on a quarterback who uh most of our viewers are very familiar with because he started at two different power conference schools.

He's in the portal now and has been, and he just is waiting. He's sitting there waiting for the QB dust to settle, for the dominoes to fall, to see if somebody needs, I think he's looking for somebody needing a starter, but I think it may come down to like, does somebody need a backup?

And that may be where he winds up yeah it's uh yeah that's the reality of the transfer portal and free agency it is the ultimate free free agency it starts on tuesday pete you want to run this back tomorrow morning i would love to let's do it let's do it let's do it all right we're gonna have pete bright and early tomorrow morning there will be action there will be names will they be super superstars we don't know but that's let's put it this way pete i don't think there's gonna be a lot of coaches sleeping super easy tonight no not at all not at all pete nakos get ready for your notifications set your phones if you're not already following him on on twitter if you're not already set to receive a notification

every time he tweets now would be a great time to do that and also now would be a great time to subscribe if you're not already subscribed to the on three sports channel because pete will be front and center on all of our shows here over the next two weeks because he's going to be bringing you the news fast and furious we're going to be talking about all this stuff we know how it works it's transfer portal time it's free agency there are no rules we'll talk to you tomorrow