Andy & Ari On3 - “It's just another game” vs "Livelihood” | Bryce Underwood & Julian Sayin on Michigan vs Ohio State | Tennessee QB1 Battle | New Mexico Head Coach Jason Eck Joins

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

On Tuesday, Julian Sayin joined the show and commented on the significance of the Michigan vs Ohio State rivalry. A few hours later, Bryce Underwood’s interview with John Fanta dropped, and the Michigan QB gave his thoughts on the rivalry. Saying “it’s just another game” with Fanta sparked quite the buzz on Tuesday afternoon. Watch here as Andy & Ari dive deep into the comments made by both quarterbacks on the significance of the rivalry.   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (1:12) Presenting Sponsor (3:00) Intro: Bryce Underwood Comments (7:44) What Julian Sayin Said (10:50) What is acceptable to say? (14:30) Revisiting Rivalry Draft (17:28) Does Michigan care? (20:30) What Jeremiah Smith said (23:41) Romanticizing Rivalries (24:55) Rhoback (26:40) Latest on Tennessee QB Battle (38:11) Gametime (39:49) Polymarket Mountain West (41:35) Previewing Jason Eck (44:20) New Mexico HC Jason Eck Joins (51:55) Jason Eck’s Glow Up (54:30) Jason Eck’s journey to becoming a head coach (59:25) Coach Eck’s Tots (1:02:10) The New Mountain West (1:05:00) New Mexico’s Rad Trips (1:07:52) Eck’s Rules for Life (1:08:50) Car, Truck, or SUV? (1:10:30) Thanks for watching! See you tomorrow   Once the fellas wrap up with the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry, Andy & Ari turn their sights towards Knoxville, where the QB battle between George MacIntyre and Faizon Brandon is heating up. Who will be the Vols QB1 vs Furman in Week One? VolQuest’s Austin Price joined Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic to give the latest update. Andy & Ari discuss.   After the Vols QB discussion, the fellas head west to visit with New Mexico head coach Jason Eck. Winning 9 games in his first season with the Lobos, Eck is quickly climbing the ladder in the group of 5 coaching ranks. How will New Mexico fare this year in a new-look Mountain West?   Thanks for watching!   Send your questions to: [e-mail] [e-mail]   Our show is presented by Polymarket!   New User Offer: Deposit $10, get $20 upon sign up   https://app.polymarket.us/S8ac/ON3   Trade on College Football games every week on Polymarket. Download the Polymarket App with code ON3 for a $20 bonus upon sign up.   18+ only. Restrictions and eligibility requirement apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur.   We are sponsored by Rhoback! Use the code “ANDYARI20 “ on Rhoback.com for 20% off for all new customers through the end of this week. Rhoback.com -  20% off all Performance Polos, Shorts and more with code: ANDYARI20   We are sponsored by Gametime! Take the guesswork out of buying tickets to every type of event with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Gametime.co   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/Od9GRKCz9Pw   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's Annie Narion 3 presented by Polly Market, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood says the game is just another game. If you watched our Julian Sayan interview yesterday, you know that Julian Sayan, the counterpart at Ohio State, says, that game is everything. It, quote, becomes your livelihood. Who's right? Does it matter?

Ari is fired up. That's all I know. Also, quarterback competition heating up. up at Tennessee, Faison, Brandon versus George McIntyre striking back early in preseason camp. Who's going to win that job? Plus, New Mexico coach Jason Eck joins the show. If you've not been following his career, you're going to probably want to start, especially if you've got a big school that might be looking for a new head coach sometime soon

because Jason Eck is one of the hottest names on the market. But he's also got a team right now that, is expected to be at the top of the Mountain West and maybe a playoff contender. We'll talk to Jason next today on Andy and Ari on 3 presented by Polymarket. We got a new sponsor alert Ari. We're now brought to you by Polymarket. That's right. Available in all 50 states.

Download that Polymarket app. And now we're taking positions. It's what we're always doing. We're moving markets. It feels great. Yeah. We're market movers, guys. Exactly.

So this works very much like. what you're used to, the difference is, well, if you've traded soybean futures or pork bellies, you're really going to know what's going on. But basically, you're taking a position saying something to the tune of, I don't know, I think Auburn will win more than seven and a half games. And based on how many other people take the position either with you or against you, that changes your payout. And it also changes as the season goes on. So you've got that. You've also got positions you can take on games that are going on right now, like Major League Baseball. or once college football gets kicked off,

there will be positions on games that are going on. There will be spreads. It will be very similar to what you're used to. So, download the Polymarket app and use the code on three. New users get $20 when they deposit 10 on sign-ups. So you deposit $10, you get $20 from Polymarket, and you start trading. Ari, it feels like football season, man.

There's nothing better than my two favorite things in the entire world, Andy, college football and trading. That's right. So let's start trading with Polymarket. Download that app, use the code on three. We need deposit $10. You get $20 right off the bat. Ari, let's have a show.

Let's have a show. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur. Welcome to Annie Aron 3 presented by Polymarket. And Ari, I knew. I knew when our friend Johnny Fanta

to drop the clip yesterday on the internet that we were going to be talking about it today. And it's just very kind of convenient that it happened when it did because those of you who watch our show every day saw our interview with Julian Say in yesterday, where

the Ohio State quarterback talked about the importance of beating. He doesn't even call them Michigan. He calls them the team up north. And very clearly laid out how he feels about the rivalry. Ari, Bryce Underwood then talks to Johnny Fanta from NBC about how he feels about the rivalry.

Let's just run the clip of Bryce Underwood first. How do you define the game? It's a blessing to being, very physical. Like I said, it's all around taxing mentally. Physically, you got to stay strong mentally. You got to stay strong physically. You can't quit. I can't give up.

When you think about your first meeting with Ohio State, what comes to mine? I lost. So it's all it is. Does that drive you? I mean, my goal is to be one and no every day, you know? Saturday's where I want to be one and no. Sunday's going to be one and all. Monday's on to be one and all.

So that's what drives me. How much different is that game from any other youth played in? It's just another game just with guys in a different color. so I see it. Okay, Ari. Just another game. Go ahead. Hey, you know, it's like the Ace Ventura.

You know, Andy, you know my main takeaway from this because I actually saw our friend Nick Baumgardner tweeting about this yesterday, too, about like asking teenagers questions on national platforms that are going to incite and answer one way or the other that is not worthy. Like, I kind of see a little bit of that of like he's just a young kid. and he's trying to figure it out. But then on the other hand, it's like, you know what I would like to see one time? Because I haven't seen it before in many years,

exposed this rivalry, somebody who's won the game diminishing the value. I just don't understand how you can exist in the greatest rivalry in all of college football and then diminish what it means and what it is, especially considering the fact that as a recruit, you told reporters, and it's been online and very famously shown,

that it's over for Ohio State. Obviously, Bryce Underwood was not dealing with a full deck of cards last year. We know what went on with Sharon Moore. Obviously, we know that he was young, maybe, you know, even thrown into the starting role a year too early. So I'm not going to bag him for not playing well in that game, especially considering the fact that I think he's got a pretty bright future as an athletic specimen. But I think it's a disservice, especially now in the NIL era,

which is something that I haven't seen anybody talk. You are paid handsomely to come in and win games. you are expected to elevate the place that you're going to. You're being paid to do so. And I will say this, man, I think that not appreciating the game is a disservice to the rivalry. And I totally take it offensively, especially if you're not the one who won. And you played quite poorly in the game that you lost. So I know that this is coming around Andy the same time that Kyle Woodingham made some headlines that we had a small disagreement about a few weeks ago about not hating the team.

but I think that there's a difference here. Yeah, I think this is a different. Yeah, like to hate Ohio State. I understand where he's coming from. Saying that it's just another game, I think, is disrespectful, and I don't like it. Well, I hadn't thought it until you just said this, I had not thought of it from a business perspective.

Saying it's just a game's actually bad for business, for you, if you're Bryce Underwood. Like, yeah. Your job as the Michigan starting quarterback and presumably a job that you get paid pretty well for but you could also get paid more for, or you could pick up more endorsements along the way. Embracing the things that you know the Michigan fans will eat up

versus the things that they'll hear you say and it will make them throw up in their mouths a little bit. Like, that's smart business. Like, smart business would be saying, that game is everything. It killed me to lose it last year. I'm going to make sure we don't lose it again. Something like that.

that's good for business. What he said is bad for business. Now, Julian's saying, I don't necessarily think he's thinking from a business standpoint, but it's interesting because we had Julian Sayan on yesterday's show. We talked to him last week in Columbus. Julian San's from Carlsbad, California. He's not, did not grow up educated in the rivalry.

He originally intended to play for Alabama. So, like, none of that really applied to him. But when you hear him talk about it, he sounds like someone who grew up in Lima, Ohio and hated Michigan his entire life. Do you hear what Jeremiah Smith was saying when they were losing? Like, I mean, he never shied away from the importance of the game. He made headlines in the offseason. And I think just a few weeks ago was on Urban Meyer show and he said he hates them.

Like, again, like the hate thing. You don't have to say hate. I don't want to relitigate the hate thing. That's not important. What's important here is at least acknowledging the fact that it's important. It'd be like working it on three and saying that that, doing written work isn't important because I'm here to do. You don't want to just spit in the face of the people who are cutting your fat checks.

So it's just, you know, you knew as a recruit what to say. You lose the game and now you forgot what to say. That's kind of how I feel. It's like a little disingenuous to me. Well, here's Julian Sayin, who was on the bench for a loss and then was QB1 when Ohio State snapped the losing streak. here's how he feels about it. As much as you accomplished last year with being a Heisman finalist and being in the playoff,

are you driven at all by unfinished business from last season? Definitely. I think we didn't end the last season the way we wanted to and didn't achieve our goals. So I think there's definitely that chip on our shoulder for our team and for myself going into this season. How do you talk about those goals amongst yourselves? Are there specifics? Is it just national championship? or do you have smaller guideposts along the way?

No, we definitely have goals. You know, we want to beat the team up north. We want to win the Big Ten championship. We want to win the Nash championship. So it's always those goals and, you know, those goals in Ohio State. When you got here, by the way, did you ever accidentally say the M word? You know, you learn very quickly when you get here. You learn the history of that game.

You learn how important it is to this state and to this fan base. And, you know, it becomes your livelihood. You haven't lost the game as a starter, but you've been in Columbus when a loss happened. What was it like in the building kind of reeling from that first one? And is it a feeling that is just so awful that you just can't imagine having to go through it again? Yeah, it's definitely not a good feeling. You know, I was fortunate enough to be on that team and watch that leadership and those players, you know, rally back and end up winning the national championship that year.

But it's definitely not a feeling that you ever want to go through. not a feeling you ever want to go through. Bryce Underwood's been through that feeling, and he still answered the question that way. 63 yards, I forgot to mention that. Yeah, he threw for 63 yards. It was a very bad game for Bryce Hunterwood. And Ohio State dominated them.

So it kind of calls into the question, Andy, what do you think is acceptable and unacceptable when talking about this game in the offseason or leading into a season? Like, because, like, you were okay with winning. And you have to point out that winning him. But Whittingham in the same breath said it's a special game. He just said, I don't hate Ryan Day.

So do you think that at the very base minimum, we agree, that you have to at least acknowledge that it's a difference maker, right? Yes, yes. Because like even Nick Saban, who was the ultimate, nameless, faceless opponent, we treat everybody the same. Every game's supposed to feel the same. Even he said of the Auburn game,

you have to win that game. If you lose that game, your season, no matter what else happens, there's going to be a butt attached to it. Great season, but. But, I mean, even Ohio State's National Championship two years ago has a massive butt.

And I know I'm not a very popular person when I say that, but there's a huge butt to that season. You won the national championship, but it was one of the worst losses in program history just a month before. And you can't escape that. Yeah, Bryce Underwood went nine and three

as a starter as a true freshman. But 63 yards at home, man. And he certainly understands it. If he didn't say what he said as a recruit, maybe, but you know, you're already jabbing them before you get there. So you understand. He's from Detroit, Ari. He grew up in this. Like he knows exactly what's going on here.

It's not like he's from some San Diego, Julian Sands from Southern California. You know, and the thing that I tweeted this yesterday and I was texting you guys. But during the, I don't remember what the record was, but from 2005 to 2020, like Michigan, I think maybe won one or two games during that period. Ohio State dominated the rivalry. Urban Meyer went seven and oh. But the thing that I would, I remember even, I brought up Nick Baumgartner a minute ago, but him and I and you used to work together at the athletic. He was the Michigan beat writer.

We used to get drinks. And I would argue with him in bars at night while drunk about why Michigan has all the resources and the ability to recruit and to win the game. game and he goes, they just don't care as much. And I think that was the number one criticism of Michigan during that drought. They don't care as much as Ohio State. They don't invest as much in their football program. They don't invest as much in recruiting. They don't invest as much in offseason training for the game.

And Bryce Underwood is the embodiment of that new investment, by the way. Yes. And to hear that new investment kind of admit or say out loud, the thing that they were most criticized for for more than a decade is just wild to me. And I know, again, I don't want to do. diminish the fact that he's young. He's still figuring things out, both as a player, but as a face of a program and being famous. Like, I, I want to at least acknowledge that it's probably not easy to say the perfect thing all the time. But I just thought that, that when you think about all the players who were defined, the coaches who were defined, John Cooper won the Big Ten, I think three or four times.

He's a college football Hall of Famer. You know, he is the one who, who modernized Ohio States program as a national recruiting outfit. What's the only thing you think of when that's But he couldn't beat Michigan. And that's his entire legacy as Ohio State's coach. It doesn't matter that he recruited Eddie George and Orlando Pace. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that they had Terry Glenn on the team and David Boston. What matters is they couldn't win the game, period.

That's his entire legacy at Ohio State. And he knows it. He talks about it freely and openly. So, like, and I do think too, and I don't know about you. And this doesn't even just go for the Ohio State Michigan game. This goes for me with the Iron Bowl. It goes all all the rivalries that make. college football special. The reason why we love this sport so much is because it has these

games that the NFL just doesn't have. I know that the Giants and the Cowboys don't like each other, but it's not the same. Anytime anybody diminishes any of these games, I get bothered. It's not just the Ohio State Michigan aspect of it. If someone said the Iron Bowl isn't important, then why the hell do we celebrate it so much every off? We talk about rivalries in June. I was thinking about this because we had the rivalry rankings. We did the rivalry draft, and I made fun of you for letting me take the Iron Bowl and you take Texas OU. But the thing about Texas OU, I've never heard a single Texas player or coach or a single Oklahoma player or coach say that game's not special. Every single one of them says it's special. The setting is special.

They have a special stadium and special seating arrangements for the game. Like what do you mean? It's not, it's, it would be insane to say that. Yeah. So like never once had I heard a player say that. When we did the draft that he just posted with River, it was like, who gets number one? Because there was no doubt what game was going to be chosen. Yeah. You guys made fun of me for taking OU, Texas, and that's fine. The Iron Bowl's insane, and maybe it was a terrible pick. It doesn't matter.

But the fact of the matter is the game that was drafted without even a second thought above the Iron Bowl and above Red River, you have the quarterback who's getting paid millions of dollars to win the game, talk about how they're just wearing different colors. I don't want to hear that stuff. I don't want to hear that stuff from anybody. And honestly, if you lose the game and say it, it makes it worse. Well, I get. It's interesting.

I want to go back to this point that you made at the beginning because I think you hit it. And I think I, this is probably the reason because maybe 10 years ago, if the starting quarterback at Michigan says this, it's like, okay, yeah, I don't know if that's how you should feel, but whatever, you're on scholarship. You're the face of the franchise now. You're like you're being paid to be the face of the franchise now. So we do throw those responsibilities on NFL quarterbacks when they get drafted to a franchise and they get their, you know, they're anointed to starter. Like, okay, you're the face now.

Bryce Underwood is the face of the Michigan program. Now, Kyle Whittingham is obviously going to be a very popular face of the program and he's the head coach. but this is the recruit that like we were talking about was the embodiment of Michigan getting more serious about all this stuff. Yeah, it's investing into the player, I think changes the dynamic of this a little bit, Andy. But I know that players are defined. And I also feel like as a player and as the face of a program, you also have to be in touch with what the people who sit in the stands feel.

And can I pick an old scab by the way? way and you need to rain me in okay so i'm gonna i'm gonna go off the side of the cliff here you're holding onto the rope pull me back up if i go too far i don't want to relitigate the spy gate situation about whether it's cheating or whether it's not but what do you think the original motivation of that whole system was like like everything that they did like the motivation of getting good and the investment in brys underwood but everything that happened before it the the spy gate situation was probably all predicated on ohio state and getting to beat them and to to even the field a little bit. Like the rivalry game that happened the year that Jim Harbaugh was suspended and the

third base comment and all the things that, you know, Jim Harbaugh used to say about, you know, reaping what you sow or whatever when he was jabbing Urban Meyer on Twitter. It's like, that was one of the most hateful matchups in the history of the game. And we have a, we have a series called the 10-year war on this rivalry. And five, six years ago, we had one of the most bitter moments in all of it. And now five years later, and Michigan actually gets back on the top and wins four in a row, which I would have thought is inconceivable before it happened. And now the quarterback who's getting paid more than $5 million during his tenure there, doesn't care.

It's just insane to me. It's just an insane thing to say. And honestly, I know he's young. I know he's learning. But somebody, like, I think they got to tell these people the second that they get there, this is, you're going to be asked a lot of things about this in the interview process. Like, you can't. You know, and he's going to get asked about it again.

I'm assuming that this is a story that we're going to hear. And hopefully when he gets, you know, you're going to ask about it the next time. he talks and yeah he'll probably have a different answer because i'm guessing they will kind of get in his ear and say hey look you know you are the face of the the the franchise here all these fans want to hear is you want to beat ohio state yeah this is it's it's interesting so this goes back to something we talked about with our friend producer river not long ago uh and we had butch we had butch jones on and which jones down the the the head coach at arkansas state he used to be the head coach at Tennessee.

And he got up at SEC Media Days in 2017 and would not say he was disappointed that they didn't win the East in 2016. He just wouldn't say it. And people like Producer River, who at that point is, middle school or high school, is like, well, screw you then,

if you're not upset about it, if you're not disappointed, because I'm disappointed. Yeah. I know Butch Jones was disappointed about it, but he wouldn't say it out loud. And here's the other thing about Bryce Underwood. Well, I'm sure Bryce Underwood, it burns that he lost Ohio State. Go ahead and say that out loud.

You don't have to be that cool about it. And this is also somebody who has spent the entire office season saying that he envisions he'll be the greatest player that's ever come through Michigan. Like he said some things this offseason that, you know, I would want to hear from my quarterback. I think Michigan fans want him to be, you know, boisterous and confident in his own abilities in these things. But if you're able to say the things about how great you are or how great you think you're going to be and proving yourself right in all these things, you're not too cool to acknowledge the fact that last year's game didn't go the way that you hoped, that it drives you every day. I think that like Jeremiah Smith is the perfect example of it because, you know, they lost his first time around and he was asked about it the following off season.

And he goes, I hate them. I think about beating them every day. And I do think that it makes it better for your fans. I think it makes it better for you. I think diminishing the value of it is disrespectful. Because if you don't think that it's special, then you shouldn't be Michigan's quarterback. That's what makes going there fun.

Jeremiah Smith is a dog, one. So that attitude isn't surprising. But Jeremiah Smith also is very savvy. You notice when Jeremiah Smith talks. He usually has a pretty clear message. And he's done a remarkable job, too, of capitalizing financially on his ability and his persona. I think Jeremiah Smith is probably the biggest example of players in college football who have done NIL the legitimate way. I mean, he's in commercials and, you know, he uses himself as a brand.

And I think part of the reason for that not only is the fact that, you know, he's so open when he talks to the media, but, you know, acknowledge that losing to Michigan sucked. What did he do the next year? He was really injured going into the Michigan game, and he caught a touchdown pass in that game and helped them win. I think that the redemption argument is huge. He understands what will make the Ohio State, maybe the biggest fan base in college football.

It's top two, if not the biggest. He understands how to make those people love him. And it's not just playing well. Playing well, obviously, is the first thing. But he knows what to say to make them love him too. Bryce Underwood has a chance to make another one of the largest fan bases in college football love him forever. And you can do that by winning. You can do it like J.J. McCarthy is a legend at Michigan forever because he helped them win a national title.

But maybe that won't happen for Bryce Underwood. But there's a way to be beloved when you're done, even if you don't want a national title. Bryce Underwood could win the national championship, could win every other game that he plays but go own three. against Ohio State. He could even win the Heisman, and they won't not view him as a great player, but you will hear about that record against that team for the rest of your life, period. So you can, you cannot acknowledge it. You can acknowledge it, whatever. Ask Mike Hart, who was a really, really good running back at Michigan, what people say about his record at Ohio State, oh and four. I hear it all the time his entire life. And I'm sure he's aware of that.

Ask Rich Rod, if that game mattered. Ask people who have gone on both sides. You have John C.J. Stroud didn't beat Michigan. That's something that follows it. Excuse me. So I think it's important. It is. It is. I mean, it's the biggest rivalry in college football. One of the biggest rivalries in all of sports. I don't know. It might be the biggest rivalry in all sports.

I'm not a, I don't know much about the Barcelona, Real Madrid rivalry. So I don't know. You should know more about that one than me. I'm assuming that some of the soccer rivalries with some of the historical reasons their rivals are probably more intense. but I will say this as a college football community, because I know that like Michigan fans right now are probably going to rally around their guy, and they should.

But if we are going to romanticize rivalry games and what makes this game special, this sport special, then I think that we should defend our rivalry games, which is why Andy and I were so wound up about the Notre Dame S. How many segments have we had about Notre Dame USC? Like how many segments do we spend talking about how that game is? Because this stuff's important.

It's important. It's important. It makes our sport, our podcast worth. having like these are this the the celebration of our sport are on those saturdays you know britt asked me last night are you get tell me which games you think or which weekends you're going to be out of town and i said well i don't know where we're going to be but i know somewhere on rivalry saturday andy and i are going to be somewhere you want to know why because it's the most important

weekend of the year so anyway uh that's my soapbox i'm sorry if i annoyed people but i i think now that we're in the nil era too we can have more frank conversations about what players can can't say because part of your job description isn't just winning, but it's also respecting the games and the schedule that you have. You're also probably costing yourself money. Yeah. You make a lot of money, but you could probably make more by embracing the rivalry. That's all there is to it.

One place that embraces all the rivalries and all of your schools is Roeback. And a new endorser for Roeback. They just welcomed Phazon Brandon, the freshman quarterback at Tennessee, to the family. That's the Hezzie hoodie he's wearing. I'm also wearing one right now. It is the most comfortable piece of clothing in my arsenal.

I have it in many, many colors. My alma mater is represented with its own hoodie. There's one of the Gators ones. There's actually quite a few of those. But they just dropped a bunch of new designs. There's one of the new Tennessee ones. If you are not rocking rowback at Stadium this fall, What are you doing?

They got polos. They got hooties. They got Q-Zips. This Ohio State Q-Zip with the stripe across it, I mean, that'll make you feel special about the rivalry right there. It is gorgeous. So go to Roeback.com. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Also get your everyday wear there.

They've got it all. Polos, joggers, shorts, workout clothes. Close with the ladies. They sent some to my wife, and she is wearing it everywhere. Use the code Andy R-E-20. That's A-N-D-Y-A-R-I-2-0 for 20% off your first order. Ro-B-A-C-K, load up for the stadium. Get a polo for those early games when it's hot.

Get a hoodie for when it gets a little bit cooler. Get a Q-Zip for when you want to go out drinking Friday night before the game. You will be looking better than anybody else at the stadium with Ro-back. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Code is Andy RE 20 for 20% off your first order. Now let's talk about Faison Brandon Ari because he is up for the starting job at Tennessee. There is no guarantee that he's going to win it. He's going against George McIntyre.

Faison Brandon is the true freshman from North Carolina. George McIntyre is the, well, we can't call him a red shirt freshman anymore. He's a sophomore from Nashville. And they are in a locked battle for this thing. and our friend Austin Price from Volkwest went on Cole Kublich and Greg McElroy's show and said that the George McIntyre might be striking back a little bit in this competition. George has had a really strong start, Greg. You're exactly right.

And a lot of the national narrative, you know, for the last several months was that Faison was trending. And he was. He's trending after coming out of spring. But Faison also went into spring with no pressure. And George kind of was thought to be the, you know, the slight leader in the clubhouse. And all of a sudden it flipped, right? I mean, all of a sudden, the pressure goes to Faison because he's supposed to win the job. And no one was giving George much of a chance heading into fall camp.

And he's been really, really solid through the first, you know, a little over a week now. And we'll see where things go. At the end of the day, this thing comes down to scrimmage play. Now, they do a lot of 11-on-11 work in practice. They're out there right now on the practice field. And that will tell a small part of it. but the main course of this competition will be both Saturdays, this Saturday and the following Saturday.

I always wondered, like, how do you judge Faison Brandon? Because part of his game is his ability to move around and use his legs. And with red jerseys on, Greg, you know, they're blowing a whistle anytime you get within a couple of feet of the quarterback. So, you know, that was always Dobbs's thing, right? I mean, no one knew who Dobbs was in practice because he couldn't be Josh Dobbs in practice. as I told somebody the other night, both are going to play against Furman because it's Furman.

Like if both aren't playing, something's wrong. So, like, when we get to Georgia Tech, I would be shocked if you see two quarterbacks unless there's an injury or unless something goes bad. I think he has traditionally Hypo likes to have a guy, have a guy picked and roll with that person, you know, and kind of give them the chance to be successful the best he can.

So I would venture to say he sticks with that. I do know this. He intends to name a starter coming out of that second scrimmage in the days coming out of that second scrimmage. I'm not saying it's the next day, but I think that's his every plan is to do it mock game week. And that way he has a quarterback that is established leading into game week against Furman. Second scrimmage is a big time at a lot of these camps with quarterback competitions. You heard Austin say that with the Tennessee one. The Alabama one, very similar.

they have a scrimmage on Thursday of this week and a scrimmage on Thursday of next week. Tennessee is Saturday of this week, Saturday of next week. So like I would, yeah, I'd be interesting. So Monday, Monday, August 24th, Ari, could be a big day. Because maybe that's the day we find out who wins the Tennessee quarterback competition.

You know, Austin is 100% correct in this when he was talking about Josh Dobbs and players who play like, I assume, Phazon Brandon will. play where it's kind of hard to make a truly 100% informed decision about your starting quarterback in camp if they're not being hit. Like sometimes people in those positions that are, you know, pro contact, bigger, stronger athletic guys need to be thrown into a place where they're in live action where you can

truly evaluate how they're going to play on Saturday. So, you know, I think that this is a difficult, you know, decision. And, you know, I'm not boots on the ground every day in Knoxville, but I'm not, I wouldn't be surprised if this, you know, bled into the season a little bit. So you could get some live reps against real competition to see how, to have a complete evaluation of how he's going to play the game. Well, that's the thing. Even if you think George out plays him going in and you name George the starter,

you will probably get extended time looking at Faison Brandon against Furman. And then you can have a better understanding of what he's going to look like in that environment. And when he's when he's live and when he can hit. I mean, one of my favorite stories is always talking to Cliff Kingsbury when he was the Texas A&M OC that first year with Kevin Sullen and Johnny Mansell. Because they didn't know what they could call for Johnny until they saw Johnny play in a game. And remember, their first game against Louisiana Tech was postponed because of a hurricane. So they didn't play a game until week two against Florida, which actually ended up being one of the best defenses in the country. they had no idea what they were, what was good to call for Johnny and what was not.

And that evolved as the season went on because obviously Johnny couldn't get hit in practice. So that is going to be really interesting to see if George ends up winning, if McIntyre ends up winning the job, do you see a little extended time for Phazon Brandon against Furman? And then is there a reevaluation after you've seen him in a truly live situation? I do think that makes a difference. And then how do you do it, too? Even if you go into the season and you don't name somebody and you kind of use that game as like the final test.

Because, you know, let's be honest. That game is the final scrimmage. How do you do it? Do you go every other? Do you give somebody the first quarter and the second quarter? Like, how do you go about trying to figure that out? But we'll be very interested in this, Andy, because this is one of the most high profile quarterback battles in the country. And anytime you have somewhat seasoned veteran versus hot shot freshman, like that's in it.

a highly compelling situation. Yeah, it is going to be a lot of fun to watch. And, you know, Tennessee, I had a lot of Tennessee fans all over me because I put out my top 25 and I didn't have the balls in it. Now, most of the rest of us at On 3 did have Tennessee, somewhere in the top 25. You had them, I think you might have had them the highest at 17. Is that right?

Yeah, 17 or 18. Yeah. So, but we don't know because we do not know what they'll be from a quarterback standpoint. point and I don't think they know yet either. So I could be hilariously wrong here in Tennessee. You could wind up being a top 10 type team, a playoff type team, if one of these guys is truly special. I get the sense, Andy, that if Phazon wins the job or ends up being the starter at some

point this season, it'll be because everybody watching can see it. Sometimes with these guys, you just know it when you look at it. Yeah. I don't know. We just don't have a big enough sample size. And that's, I say the same thing because you get the Alabama fan. who saw the spring game and you're like, well, of course it's Keelan Russell. Of course it is.

Now, Austin Mac was injured in the spring game too. So, but you can't say that because that's all we saw or, you know, Florida fans saying, hey, based on the spring game, it's got to be Tramel Jones. Well, no, there were other practices too. No, I mean like on on game Saturdays. I think you can. Yeah. Like when when action is live and people are playing, you know, you can get a sense.

well, if somebody can do something special. And you get the sense that any play, even a breakdown can turn into something. And I don't know if special is the right word to use here, but like last year, we could tell right out of the gate for Tennessee that Joey Aguilar was going to be good. When they played Syracuse week one,

it was like, oh, this guy is super comfortable in this offense. He's going to let it rip. He's going to be fine. They're going to be fine at quarterback this year. But we didn't know that until we saw it. Yeah. River, what do you think? Pop up here.

Be the resident Tennessee. Be an insane. What do you think? Who do you want? Look at the rowback. By the way, I know that the power T one is really nice. But if you're a Tennessee fan and you don't have the rowback one that he's worth. The throwback logo.

Oh, yeah. That's perfect. All right, River, who do you want or who do you think? What's your... I mean, I don't have a preference. I just know that Josh Hypo will make the right choice. I mean, the last, like we've talked about, the last true freshman he started was Dylan Gabriel,

but I'll go with Faison Brandon. It's like the new toy, the one you're excited about. Can I step in here? Yeah. Have we forgotten that he picked Joe Milton over Henning Hooker that one time? Have you ever seen Joe Milton throw the ball? I can understand. Come on.

You've seen that guy throwing orange. Joe Milton fooled the entire card collecting community into paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars for all of his rookie cards because they saw him throw one pass in a game. Look, man. If anybody's going to fool somebody, it's Joe Milton, Andy. I was at practice that year. I was at practice that year.

And Joe Milton was an all-time practice player. All time. Oh, yeah. It's unreal. Well, I was warned by someone the first time I went to at Tennessee practice that Joe Milton and Hennon Hooker were involved in. The person warned me, he said, you're going to stand behind Joe Milton, and you're going to say to yourself, this is the greatest quarterback who's ever lived.

So, I mean, I guess we have to cut him a little. slack. I think that his track record and picking the right players and getting the most out of young players is pretty steadfastly good. If Joe Milton is your exception, then I think that that's something that you can live with. Well, I do think, High Highple has done a good job choosing quarterback. So I'll give him the benefit of the doubt here. And I also, I'm fascinated by this competition because Ari, I'm not sure we'll ever see one like this again. where it is kind of the old school, two guys who recruited by this school, both were blue chips. One guy was last year.

One guy was this year. Like, I'm not sure we're ever seeing this again. Yeah. Well, I hope we do. I really do. And I wonder to as rules change and stuff. And, you know, if we ever get to a place where there's a salary cap or whatever, I don't know. Yeah, maybe there's a more orally system.

Yeah. Maybe we'll revert back to investing into younger players and trying to retain them on your team. So we'll see, but I can't wait to see what goes. And Tennessee, I think is an interesting team this year. And obviously, a quarterback battle splices that up a little bit. Utterly fascinating because the thing about all these schools with quarterback competitions, especially ones where the guy has not started anywhere else, one of them special changes everything.

Everything. So that's really why, like we are zeroing in on Tennessee and on Alabama and on Florida. because we don't know what these guys are going to look like when they pick somebody and maybe there's somebody sitting there that is the next big thing. I don't know about you. You know I like feelings. But I think one of the biggest joys of the first part of the season, even if you don't have traditionally great matchups,

I know this year's first week sucks from a helmet standpoint. But I find it utterly fascinating to finally see people playing for the first time. New uniforms, transfers, freshmen, whatever, however you want to do it, the find out period, which is who, who are, we working with? What are we working with here? I think all that is very exciting and revelatory. And I think it's super important for this podcast and the viewing experience. So we might not have the greatest slate the first week, but I certainly can't wait to get there and, you know, finally see these guys on the field and actually playing and getting a better sense for who they are.

Every team is new. Our next guest is going to tell us that. Jason Eck, the head coach at New Mexico, about to join us. But first, I got to tell you about game time. If you'd like to see Jason X's season opener at New Mexico against Central Michigan. Well, 39 bucks get in price on GameTime. That's a pretty good deal. Game time has tickets to every college football game, every pro football game, sporting events, concerts, comedy shows, they've got it all. Download the GameTime app, redeem the code Staples for $20 off your first purchase terms

apply, and it's beautiful. You type in what you want to see. Like, Week Zero, I want to watch NC. State play at Virginia, week zero. Well, you can get into that game for 41 bucks right now in Charlottesville. Remember, they were going to play in Brazil, but then they decided not to, and they're playing in Charlottesville, Week Zero. So that's a bargain. You want to go see Oklahoma play at Michigan, Week two? Not such a bargain. It's a little more expensive, but guess what? It's a great game. And when you're trying to figure out where you might sit

at the big house, well, you click on the seat, and it shows you an image of exactly. where you'd be sitting in the stadium. You turn your phone. It's like you're turning your head inside the stadium. So you know exactly what the view will look like. And by the way, Bryce Underwood, you may not think the Ohio State Michigan game is a big deal.

But the ticket buying public certainly does because it's over 400 bucks to get into that game as we speak. That's right. You can get your tickets on game time right now. Download the game time app for Dean of the Code. Staples for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Okay, Ari.

I am looking at Polymarket right now. Mountain West Football Championship Winter Market. Who do you think is, who do you think the most people are in on? I would say New Mexico. That's right. The Lobos, and it's crazy because Producer River is going to put it on the screen, but I have watched it change multiple times in the last few minutes. As I am currently looking at it, 27% of the market is on New Mexico,

25% on Dan Mullins' UNLV, 23% on New Zealand. North Dakota State, the new guys. Well, Andy, obviously that this is a interesting market because it's a Boise Stateless market now. That's right. That's right. They're in the 12th. Yeah. So they're you know, they've been favored to

win this conference every year for multiple decades. And it'll be interesting to see you know, how New Mexico traverses this new path. But, you know, you have three favorites here on Polymarket Air Force, Hawaii, by the way, at 15%. I know,

Hawaii has been a trendy, a trendy preseason pick as a team that could be a dark horse for the playoff. So I watch out for that one too. Could week zero game against Stanford last year? They play again in week zero this year. That could be a lot of fun to watch. Hawaii beats Stanford, didn't they last year? I believe they did. Yes, they did. So Jason Eck, if you're a Wisconsin fan, you already know him because he played for you. He played O-Line for you. Very funny guy.

he's been funny on Twitter pretty much since he got on there. But he's been grinding it out at the FCS level for most of his career, was an O-line coach in the FCS for most of his career, became an O-C at South Dakota State, which is obviously one of the best programs in the FCS, and then became a head coach for the first time a few years ago at Idaho. Ari, this guy is going to be a big candidate for big jobs if he keeps winning the way he has been first at Idaho

and then now at New Mexico because I think everybody wants the next thing that just happened that was really good. So Kurt Signetti is the model now for everybody. UCLA just hired Bob Chesney, who also coached Division III, Division II, FCS group of, just worked his way up and had success at every level. Jason X, another one who has had success at multiple.

levels like that. So he will be the first, the first name a lot of people turn to, I think, when they go, like if Chesney does well this year, and they don't have to go win the big 10, but let's say UCLA is better. There'll be a bunch of people saying, how do we find another Chesney or Signetti? Yeah. In college football and, I mean, think football in general, who's popular, who's the next guy, I think kind of changes a lot. I always go back to the way that people reacted when Sean McVeigh had all that success early on in his Los Angeles Rams tenure. They wanted to go get them. So many handsome coaches got jobs in the NFL. So many handsome coaches got jobs. And I think that it's funny because that had nothing to do with prowess.

It just was a purely physical trend. But I think that if there are people who have longstanding records of winning consistently at multiple places, even in the lower levels, I think that that's like the, you know, bat signal for hiring at the moment. And Jason Neck certainly finishes that. I also think the guys that won at the FCS level in the past 10, 15 years, understand how to deal with this transfer portal NIL world a little better maybe because if you were in a big time FCS program, one, you did have to develop still, you did have to keep your players from leaving for a higher level, but you also were sometimes taking guys coming down from the FBS.

and I think it changes the way you evaluate. I think it changes how you deal with that. You had to remember, they could split up scholarships. In the FBS, you just gave somebody a scholarship. It was a full scholarship. In the FCS, you split up your 63 among 100 guys on the roster. And so I think they have a little better baseline for this world than maybe the guys who are always in the FBS.

For sure. But it was a great interview, Andy. You want to get into it? Let's do it. Jason Eck from New Mexico. joins us right now. We are joined now by the head coach of the New Mexico Lobos, Jason Eck. This is a man who I started interacting with him on Twitter when he was the O-Line coach at Ball State.

And it has been an odyssey since then. Winona State before Ball State. Then Hampton, Western Illinois, Minnesota State, Montana State, South Dakota State, where he became a coordinator, became the head coach. at Idaho in 2022. First shot at an FBS job last year in New Mexico and tore it up. Jason, I heard you on another show say you were a 25-year overnight success. How does that feel?

It's been good. It's been a journey. And I think that's a lot of what we talk about with our players with grit is, you know, all your experiences that you go through even when they're not always positive. And, you know, maybe you got to move your family because, new head coach comes in and you don't get retained. That wasn't always great to go through at the time, but I think it's made me better and prepared me when I did get my opportunity

to be a head coach to take advantage of that. You know, I look at your past with, you know, going from a walk on to a starter for the Wisconsin team that won the Rose Bowl, when you think about the path that that would probably, how hard that path was and what that could do to shape a man, how does that shape you as a coach in the way that you go about, you know, forming your teams in there? and their personalities.

Well, I learned a lot in that experience at Wisconsin. Now, I wasn't a great player. I never became a starter there. I was kind of a career backup. But a lot of the things I learned from Coach Alvarez are still things that I use today. And I think he had a great way of building confidence in his football team and building belief. And, you know, even though we were, you know, maybe not as talented as Ohio State or a Penn

State or something, we were still very confident. that we were going to go in and, you know, beat those teams and play well. And that's something that I think I've taken from him and try to instill on our own teams here, a lot of confidence. I think it's helped us, you know, play well when we've had our money games. And, you know, last year, I think the highlighted that was beating UCLA in the Rose Bowl. Well, and that's the money games are interesting because that that is where it's different now. Because I've heard you talk about like when you were in Idaho and you guys played Oregon tooth and nail that last year you were at Idaho.

And you've said, like, you knew a guy who blew up in that game was going to be a transfer target for everybody. And I'm sure it's the same thing. Y'all played at Michigan last year to open the season and then destroyed UCLA. Is it sort of bittersweet knowing now that when you guys have a game like that, all of a sudden your whole team's on everybody's radar? I've gotten better with it over the years, Andy. I think my, you know, our 23 team at Idaho was probably the first time I had gone through. that. We had a good team in 23 at Idaho, and we lost a lot of really good players right after the

season. And I think we've just had to embrace the new changes in college football. And, you know, last year we had a great tight end against Michigan. He had 10 catches and two touchdowns. You know, he's at Cal now, you know, when guys have those performances. You know, we played Oregon tough. You know, we had a corner who stayed on top of everything, didn't give up any big plays. He starts at Nebraska now. We had a detackle who made some big plays in the game. He starts at Wake Forest. and those guys were guys who recruited to FCS. And I just think when any industry changes,

you got to embrace the change and take advantage of it. And again, I think we use that as a selling point for our program. We took a lot of players that were not very heavily recruited coming out of high school and created value for them and their families through being a part of our program. So I think as things adapt, you just got to adapt with them. Coach, obviously, we know how much the sports, has changed and adapt. I think traditionally people would have viewed New Mexico is a pretty

difficult job in terms of recruiting footprint and, you know, status nationally. And obviously, that's starting to change. But what's your viewpoint of how challenging it is there, having a very extensive, you know, resume at different places? And are the new rules and the new setup as much as it is difficult to lose players making it easier to win at places like New Mexico in your mind? Yeah, you know, I'll see this. I think, I think it's a lot. lot easier now to turn around a program fast. And we were able to do that, you know, in Idaho and go from, I think, four wins the year before we got there to seven wins. And then we went to nine wins last year here after they won five the year before. Just the amount of new players you could

bring in, you know, for a long time, there was that cap and you could only add, you know, 25 scholarship players in one class. You know, now our team last year had 75 new players on it. So I I think that just makes it easier to flip things. We've kind of embraced, you know, guys coming up. You know, we've got a lot of guys who, you know, I think four of our five guys who were first or second team all conference last year were guys who were FCS players who transferred up. And, you know, I think the nice thing about that is you're getting proven players with experience

and, you know, everything's relative. You know, obviously at New Mexico, you know, we don't have the same kind of stuff as you do at Texas at USC. But, you know what? it's a lot better than what you have in Idaho or Weber State or the, you know, the big sky school. So I think everything's relative. And I think really that is probably helped me here too, just coming here to New Mexico as I see the glass more half full than half empty, you know, where they've had some other coaches here in the past, you know, Bob Davy, Mike Loxley, who've been around big programs and things like that. And they probably have a different viewpoint.

So how did you manage to keep both your quarterbacks from last year? Jack Lay started he's come he's back and then James Lobstein who was your your backup is back too and I mean most of the like power commerce schools can't do that how'd you do it well you know there's probably some good luck and some bad luck in there you know you know Jack has been very loyal to us you know he jack started with us at Idaho and he was a walkout at Idaho so he's a great story to go from an FCS walk on to you know a quarterback who won nine games as a starter at the FBS level and you know Jack had an off-season surgery. And I think that, you know, obviously doesn't make you quite as marketable

to go into the portal when you're, you're having surgery and your elbow. And he's still battling with that. And then, and then James, we thought he was done. You know, James was not with us all spring. He went through Pro Day. And then I got a call in May. You know, he had appealed, you know, to the NCAA for some extra years, you know, this was kind of last year you can do that because he had, you know, some junior college years. He had some years at a Division II school before he got to New Mexico and he won his waiver. And so I was, I got a call in May. I was going for a walk. I was down in Texas, actually. I got a call from our compliance officer and got right off phone with her and called James and said, hey, you want to play another year of football? We were

able to get him back. So, you know, there's some good and bad luck in there, but I think that is a good deal. And then, you know, we got a pretty good transfer who came in as well, who's competing for the job, Luke Moga, who came over from Oregon. And, you know, we took, you know, took him, not knowing James was back and took him, you know, knowing that Jack Lane was coming off of his elbow injury. So I think now our quarterback room has become kind of an area of strength. We got a really nice second year player that we really liked that we recruited as well, who's done a good job. So I think we got a heck of a quarterback room right now. No, I just want to come out and ask this, Coach.

You are somebody who everybody views as like the next great one. I don't know if you've noticed how much your name has been circulated amongst, you know, media and people like what's it like like i know that your specialty is the glow up of the program you've done it in multiple places but what about your personal glow up what does it been like to be you the last you know year or so well i think new mexico people in new mexico are pretty excited about us turning around and um you know i think some people when i talk to people about this job uh you know some people said yeah be careful about that job i don't know if it's good they they haven't won much you know it's a basketball school but uh you know i kind of bank

on just America as a football country. You know, the NFL is the number one sport. Are they college football is number two? And, you know, I think a lot of those schools that have been basketball schools, you look at Indiana. You know, it's maybe been like kind of a band-aid because you've been not been good at football. And then as soon as you get good at football at Indiana, they turn out and it's the most expensive, you know,

national championship ticket in 10 years and things. So I just kind of felt like they had, you know, maybe been choosing good basketball over bad football. And if we could give them good football, they would come out. And I think the support we had is really good. We had our first sellout last year here since 2007 for the New Mexico State game. We had another game over 30,000 when we played San Diego State. You know, our average attendance has really gone up.

So I think we were number one in FBS last year and percentage of increase of attendance. So, you know, definitely as I'm going around town, I'm getting recognized a lot more here. And, you know, I think it's a positive to have that good talk. And, you know, I think that's something. then our team's going to have to deal with this year. And that's, I think the challenge, especially at our level is, you know, when you're doing well, and I expect us to do well this year, there's going to be distractions. Our players are going to be playing well.

They're going to have agents reaching out to them about other things and transferring. I'm sure my name's going to get linked to stuff. But, you know, we just got to stay in the moment to keep creating value for ourselves going forward. Because if you start worrying about that other stuff, it keeps you off, you know, off track. But, you know, I think it's been a journey, you know, I got a great wife who's been with me now. We've been married 24 years, and we've definitely had some ups and downs, but it's been fun to have the success.

And, you know, kind of a family deal here. Our son's playing for us. Our other son works with us in the equipment room. So it's been a really heck of a deal for our family here this first year and a half in New Mexico. Does your journey help you deal with that? I mean, you were grinding it out for a long time as a position coach in the FCS. And, you know, one, when did you do? decide I do want to be a head coach. And were there moments where you thought maybe this isn't

going to happen for me? Yeah, to be honest, Andy, you know, for most of my career, I wouldn't have said being a head coach was my overall goal. You know, I think, you know, I like coaching the offensive line a lot. That was a passion of mine. You know, I probably would have said more my goal was a, could I coach in the NFL someday as the O-line coach? And, you know, obviously there's some pros and cons of each. I mean, I think a lot of those NFL line coaches, you know, you're in a big city, dinner and nobody knows who you are. No one's coming up to your table like you are when you're a college head coach or something. But it really was when I was at South Dakota State as the offensive coordinator, we had a year where FCS football played in the spring, you know, because of

COVID. And that fall, South Dakota was a pretty good place to live during COVID. There wasn't a lot of restrictions. So the high school season went on is normal. So my son, Jackson, that was his sophomore year in high school. And Brookings High School there in Brookings, South Dakota played in South Dakota State Stadium. So I'd be watching games on Friday nights in the fall where we weren't playing the next day. We weren't playing to the spring. And I was sitting there with my wife and she'd look at me once a game and say it's so weird to be sitting here in the stadium next to you watching a game. Usually you're on the sideline. And that kind of grew to, I knew at that point my son was going to be a college player, but we didn't kind of know what level.

You know, she thought it would be so hard to, you know, have him playing somewhere on a Saturday and me coaching somewhere else. And she's worried about two teams and torn with where to be. So really, that got me thinking about being a head coach. I knew my son's a linebacker. So as the offensive coordinator, I wasn't going to have a lot of say in recruiting. Jimmy Rogers was our linebacker coach, who's now at Iowa State. And so that really got me thinking about being a head coach and kind of changed my perspective. So I'm very thankful for my son, one for being a really good player and making that part of it easy coaching your son.

But, you know, again, if I didn't have a son to play college football, I might still be coaching the online somewhere. Well, I'm curious about this as someone who came up as an online coach. I feel like that's not what most Aedes think they're looking for. But guys like you, guys like Mario Cristobal, guys like Andy Reid, I feel like now people are showing, hey, that that is a legit path to a head coaching job. The thing I think that prepares you, Andy, and as a former old line, I know you probably know this.

I mean, the O line is a big position group, you know, so you're dealing with, you know, 20 guys anyway, so you're dealing with different personalities. You know, it definitely is a developmental position. I think offensive line is the most developmental of all the positions in football. And, you know, I do think, too, it's a position that, you know, the O-line coach has a lot of motivational thing in there.

You know, it's, you don't have a lot of, you know, stats that easily define offensive line. You know, you're, I think sometimes you're dealing with building up the confidence of that group because, you know, just the average de-alignment's more athletic than the average alignment that you've got to try to block every way. So I think the, you know, building belief in those guys, building confidence in those guys, getting them to play connected, you know, five is one in the O line, I think can really carry over well when you go. to the whole team. And I'll say this, you know, just my time at coordinator, I spent four years as an offensive coordinator. And that helped me as well, because obviously now you're dealing with, you know, the skill guys and, you know, who's getting the ball

and who's upset. They're not getting the ball. That stuff you don't really deal with as much with the O-Line. So I think that was still valuable experience, you know, getting ready for that. But I do think it prepares you well. I think, you know, probably the biggest thing into it is it's tough sometimes to go from an O-line coach to coordinator, and so many head coaches come from coordinator positions. Coach, you think it's weird that the pancake block isn't an, or the pancake block isn't an official stat? I think it probably should be.

I knew one time the sacks weren't an official stat, then they added those only like in the last 30, 40 years and stuff. There's no sack records from like 1950 or something, so it probably should be there. We've heard there's a company that's going to be trying to push that. this season. And listen, we're all on board, no free ads or anything. But we're all on board with that. Because I firmly believe, though, because we have all those stats that say, you know, if a team rushes for, you know, 100 yards in a game, they're this, they have this record.

Or if they have this many runs versus this many throws, they have this record. I firmly believe the team with more pancake blocks wins 100%. Has to be the 100%. Like, there's no way. You know what? I probably should put it in those terms, Andy and Ari. But I do tell my team that the team who's most physical usually wins and probably the team is most physical has more pancake blocks. Yeah, exactly. Coach, go ahead, Andy.

Oh, I got to ask you, one of the most fun things that I saw from you guys in year one was Coach X Tots. If you're a fan of the office, you've seen Scott's Tots. How did those turn out? Pretty well, like I said, our attendance was way up. And we got a lot of, you know,

basically kids 12 and under. got in free, and that really helped out with our attendance. And, you know, Fernando, our former AD, I think he was very creative and I'm very appreciative to him because he did a great job promoting the program. And, you know, again, I'm open to whatever it takes to try to get butts and seats because I see the advantage of it. You know, when we beat San Diego State last year, you know, if we hadn't had a great crowd and had 30,000 people in here, we wouldn't have created three fall starts and the second

overtime when we beat them in double overtime. So that stuff makes a difference. So I'm, you know, I may try to set up an acting career, you know, when I'm done with coaching. Who knows? I think you're acting in that skit may have helped Fernando get the Colorado AD job. So, like, he definitely owes you a cut. He tells me thanks, you once in a while. He definitely will send me a text and he's appreciative.

Coach, what's like to have Oklahoma on the schedule? We mentioned earlier on that you, you know, have showed up in some pretty big games there. but, you know, does it, does having a game at Oklahoma change anything during fall camp during the offseason the way that people approach things? Well, a couple things. You know, I feel we had a great schedule this year. I mean, this will be my, you know, my fifth year as a head coach, and this is the first year that we've only had one money game. You know, my three years at Idaho, we played two FBS schools every year. You know, we were able to, you know, play Oregon tough, but we, you know, we beat Nevada and beat Wyoming when I was there.

And then last year, you know, we played UCLA and Michigan. So a couple things. I do like playing, I like getting some games under our belt. You know, the last couple of years we played Michigan and Oregon, the first game of the year. And, you know, I do think the first game of the year, people are always excited to play no matter who you're playing. So I do kind of like getting a few games under our belt before we play Oklahoma. I'm relieved that we only have one game like that. But I think it's very exciting for our team.

you know, to play a team that was in the CFP last year. And, you know, I think when you only have one game like that, you certainly can get up for it and give them their best shot. But they're a very good team. Coach Venables is a heck of a coach. They've got a great quarterback. It's going to be a heck of a battle. So New Mountain West, because some teams left and went to the new PAC 12.

It's a different lineup this year. Is it weird for you as someone who coached it at South Dakota State for six years to see the bison on the schedule? I said that right when I found out. I said, I thought I was dumb playing in that dome, you know, because that dome's a tough place to play up there. And I got a one-year respite because they come down here to play at the end of October. So I'm excited about that.

But, you know, that was a really good addition, you know, for our conference. I know when they added, you know, U-TEP and Northern Illinois, I think those were kind of like just stabilizing the conference and, you know, making sure the conference didn't go away. But I felt like adding North Dakota State now we're kind of like back on the attack. building a great conference, and that's a great brand. And, you know, it was interesting. You know, I took the job knowing those teams were already leaving.

And, you know, I thought that was a plus for New Mexico. You know, Boise State was picked to win this league 20 straight years, which is kind of amazing. You know, there's not probably any other league you can say that one thing is picked to win 20 straight years. So I thought coming here at a time, you know, when they were leaving and really, when you just look at the last, you know, 50 years of New Mexico football, you know, there was a lot of losses during that time to teams who are now in bigger conferences, you know, TCU in the Mountain West and Utah in the Mountain West and BYU in the Mountain West.

So I think seeing all that made me, you know, kind of have a reason that, hey, when this conference changes, we can be more of a half in this conference where usually New Mexico has been a have not. I think we got, you know, probably even exceeded my expectations last year getting the nine wins in the regular season, you know, with those teams still in the league. but I expect us to be right near the top of this league every year going forward. And does that, you say you expect it, does it put more pressure on you? Because obviously, you guys and UNLV are the ones everybody's talking about as the ones that should be at the top of this league. Well, you know, I think, you know, obviously I've taken over two jobs that did not have high expectations and typically didn't.

But I think that's what you want as a coach. I mean, you want to be at a place where you have high expectations every year. and, you know, Texas and Ohio State never going to a year where they have low expectations. It's, you know, it's every year you have that. So I'm excited by it. And I think it's a, you know, the message I've had in my team is, you know, a lot of that stuff, expectations and predictions are based on what last year's team did. And even though we have a lot of guys coming back and amongst the most, I think,

in the group of six coming back, we still have to define this year's team, you know, because last year's team was tough and gritty and was able to accomplish a lot. We still have to earn everything we do this year. We don't, you know, we don't start our first game with a 7-0 lead because we have high expectations. We've got to earn everything we get. But, you know, it's exciting. And, you know, it's exciting to have people around Albuquerque talking about football season. Usually they look forward to basketball season around here.

And a lot of people have been talking about football all offseason. So that's exciting. Coach, what's it like to coach in one of the most aesthetically pleasing conferences in terms of geography? And what is every single road game you're going to a vacation spot? And I know that you've coached on the west western part of the country. for a large portion of your career. But also, what's the road trip like Hawaii, like logistically for you guys? Yeah, you know what?

I fell in love with the West. You know, we, I was a Midwesterner. My wife's a Midwesterner. We were both originally from Wisconsin and, you know, right when we played high school ball in Atlanta, though. Played high school ball in Atlanta. We spent four years down there. But again, not too many mountains around Atlanta either.

So it was, you know, my first, a G8 for Wisconsin for three years for Coach Alvarez. Then I went to Colorado for two years when Gary Barnett was the head coach and they were in the Big 12 the first time before they came back. And, you know, just kind of fell in love with the West. And that, you know, that led us, you know, to go to Idaho and then later to Montana State. And, you know, it's beautiful out here with the mountains. You know, the travel does, you know, bring up some, you know, difficult things here because

you've got to deal with, you know, Hawaii and the distractions going out there. got to leave a day early for that game. I think almost everyone does. You know, we'll go out Thursday morning rather than Friday morning for a typical game. You know, when you play at Wyoming, you're at, uh, over, you know, seven thousand feet, high elevation, you know, and that game's a night game on, on a Friday night and late November. I mean, you could have a blizzard. Uh, yeah, game, uh, you know, going to UNLV, you got to keep the team focused and avoid the distractions there with all the, uh, the glitz and the glamour, you know, same thing, you know, you know, you know, Reno, we stay at a casino, so you got to make sure the guys are focused.

They're not trying to sneak into the casino. Give any walk-on spots, coach? Yeah. It's a pretty good trip, man. It's a pretty good trip. And then, you know, Oklahoma, you get to go play in a football mecca where they're going to have 90,000 people. It's like every week there's something with you. There's no just like random trip to just nothing, you know?

There's always something. No, it's a heck of a trip. And it's almost every year. You know, we said that last year. You know, last year, you know, we play in the big house. We play in the Rose Bowl. We played in Boise on the iconic blue turf. You know, guys like to play at UNOV because you're playing in NFL stadiums.

They think about, you know, all the NFL guys who play there. So, no, it's been, you know, there's a lot of space out here in the West. And it doesn't make travel easy. You know, last year, every game we had was a flight. This year, at least we can bust down to Las Cruces when we play in New Mexico State. But it's beautiful out here and definitely some great settings for football. And I think it'll provide a lot of your East Coast, people watching your podcast and stuff

with some good entertaining football late Friday and Saturday nights after they're settled into their couch. Yeah, they may want to chase a little bit on that. Okay, we get first time guests. So we have a question we ask every first time guest. But now we've actually got a second question. We've got to ask every head coach

when we haven't established the answer. So first question, what are your rules for life? My rules for life. I do think there's a, we talk a lot about within our team championship behavior that really, you know, different areas of your life affect others. So, you know, if you're underachieve it in certain areas of your life, it's going to carry over to other areas.

So I think you need to be consistent and everything you're doing, whether it's your, you know, profession, your personal life, because there definitely is carryover between the two. And, you know, again, I thought, you know, last year our team, when we had, you know, the best, you know, regular season here, you know, 30 years. Last time they'd won nine games was 1997. You know, we set the school record for Chief.

in the first semester. So that was a great example of, you know, excellence in one area of our life carrying over to another. All right. The other one. And we got a great answer from Ryan Day the other day. So this is why we're going to ask every every head coach is from now on. Car guy, truck guy or SUV guy? I'm an SUV guy. You know, I got five kids. I got a big family. So you got to have a lot of seats, you know, to get everybody in there. Now, you know, my oldest tour are in college now. they don't live at home anymore. They're 23 and 21. So there's not, you know, it's not like every day we're getting all seven of us in the car at the same time.

But we got to be able to. So SUV, when I got here, they wanted to give me a smaller pickup truck. And I had a schmooze our car dealer here, which Ford here to get me a nice, you know, expedition. So I got seven seats to get everybody in the car. Well, expedition is kind of like a truck, right, Andy? It's built on a truck frame truck engine. Nothing wrong with that. It's F-150 platform.

No shame in that game. Now, Ryan Day makes pretty good money. His answer might have been a Lamborghini or something like that, right? With the tax bracket that I am. His kid talked him into an AMG. He says he doesn't hit the gas very hard because he doesn't want players to have a bad example. But no, Joey McGuire, we posted a picture of his Corvette the other day. And he DMs me.

He's like, trust me, I have a truck as my daily driver. I don't want people in Texas thinking I'm a hard. guy. He's a car guy, though. He's got a few gifts over the years for cars. His wife's a sweet lady. I know she, I think this might be the second car. She's gifted him over the years.

Nothing wrong with that. Hey, listen, we all hope to be in that position where our wives are just handing us cars. That's right. That means we made it. Jay Sek, thank you so much. Appreciate you guys having me on. Thanks, Andy. Thanks, sorry.

Yeah, thanks, coach. Appreciate you being here. That was awesome. That is Jason Eck. They open against Central Michigan week one. Going to be crowded when the Chippewas come to town. As you heard from Jason that that stadium is getting pretty full these days out. The Lobos are winning.

It's not just, hey, let's go to the pit and watch and play basketball. Let's go see and play some football. So they open against Central Michigan. We will probably all be watching week three when they show up in. in Norman to play an Oklahoma team that, by the way, will be coming off a game at Michigan. So that could be a fun one too, Ari. Yeah.

Kind of a scary game there. I don't know that I think that Oklahoma will lose, but New Mexico has a pretty good history, at least a one-year history, of playing these teams pretty tough. So really awesome interview, and I'm so thankful that Coach Jack came on the show, and it's just making me feel kind of excited for football season a little bit more.

Oh, yeah. No, it's getting close. we talked to quarterback competition today. Tomorrow, Fred Siegel, Mr. Freezing Cold Takes, joins us. He got a new book out about college football. The worst cold takes in college football history, it's hilarious. You know, Ari and I had to go digging through some of our really bad takes from the past. A few of my life.

Yeah, it was painful. But that's okay, because there's a lot worse ones in the book, I promise. Fred will join us on tomorrow's show. Never stops. We're getting there. A couple weeks. Games are coming. We'll talk to you tomorrow.