Andy & Ari On3 - James Franklin has 2 NEW coordinators and 8 more chances at the CFP | UCLA coach Deshaun Foster

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

Everyone had a interesting story at Big Ten media days on Wednesday, so we’ll whip around the league.(0:00-3:21) Intro(3:22-12:15) James Franklin Joins(12:16-18:00) Deshaun Foster's Opening Statement(18:01-24:20) Deshaun Foster Interview(24:21-35:55) Lincoln Riley Entering Year 3(35:56-37:15) Nebraska Discussion(37:16-43:07) Huskers Center Ben Scott Joins(43:08-50:54) Nebraska's Ty Robinson Joins(50:55-1:13:59) John Canzano joins(1:14:00-1:15:27) ConclusionPenn State coach James Franklin joins the show to discuss how new coordinators Andy Kotelnicki (offense) and Tom Allen (defense) will blend what they’ve done in the past with what Penn State players have done. Franklin also weighs in a classic Pennsylvania debate: Sheetz or Wawa?New UCLA coach DeShaun Foster’s opening statement got panned by the Internet, but the Internet should have listened to how Foster answered the questions he got about taking over the Bruins under less-than-ideal circumstances. Foster joined Andy to talk about replacing Chip Kelly and about how he reshaping UCLA’s recruiting operation.Next, Andy breaks down some of USC coach Lincoln Riley’s answers at media days. Riley says USC is still playing catch-up, which probably isn’t satisfying to hear as year three begins. But if Riley is right about the defense getting better under new coordinator D’Anton Lynn, then there should be reason for excitement.Later, Andy talks to Nebraska center Ben Scott and defensive tackle Ty Robinson about being huge.Finally, Andy sits down with John Canzano (JohnCanzano.com (http://JohnCanzano.com)) to break down how the Big Ten became this new version of itself.Want to watch the show instead? Join us LIVE, at 8 am et, M-F, on YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/MTJP3eJzG70Host: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Saples on three big, big day on Wednesday at Big Ten Media Days. It was loaded. Basically, everybody you're thinking about, want to talk about, there's a subplot for everybody who's here. It's USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten, Michigan State with a new coach in Jonathan Smith, Penn State, James Franklin. They've got a 12-team playoff. This was the thing that if there was a 12-team playoff before, they would have made it six times since 2016. Can Penn State get over the hump and make the playoff this year? Nebraska, Matt Rule, can he break the bowl-free streak? If you saw my bowl predictions, well, I think they will. I think, in fact, in the first six games, they'll get bowl eligible. But he's still got to do it.

Very, very interesting day at Big Ten Media Days. A lot going on. A lot of people to talk to. We talked to James Franklin, the Penn State head coach. We talked to Deshaun Foster, UCLA's new head coach. And we'll talk about that because I wasn't sure we were going to have Deshaun Foster on. And then people started clowning his opening statement.

And it kind of bugged me. So I thought we'd have Deshaun Foster on, give him a chance to give you some real answers to questions because everybody was watching his opening statement. Nobody was watching the answers to the questions he gave after that opening statement, which were pretty impressive for a guy who's in one of the more difficult positions in the Big Ten. Talked to some Nebraska players, one on the offensive line, one on the defensive line. Oh, man, they're a lot of fun. You're going to enjoy that.

Ben Scott, the center. Ty Robinson, one of the defensive tackles. Big, big day. Big, big day. But let's start with Penn State. Let's start with Penn State because all these years, they've been behind Ohio State, behind Michigan. When they beat Ohio State in 2016 and won the Big Ten, they still didn't make the playoff, and Ohio State did. When does Penn State get over the hump? How does Penn State get over the hump?

Well, the procedural part has been taken care of. There's now a 12-team playoff. The question is, is Penn State going to be good enough to make the 12-team playoff? And it's going to be tough. They would have made it last year. Can they be good enough this year to make it? Two new coordinators.

A lot of questions. Can Drew Aller get better? Abdul Carter moves full-time to defensive end, which I think might be one of the better positional switches in college football. James Franklin talked about all that stuff on the podium. Talked about how Penn State was a place where people get mad at you for winning 11 games.

I definitely wanted to ask him about that. But even before that, I wanted to ask him about one of the most divisive issues in the state of Pennsylvania and see where he stood. Here's James Franklin. I'm here with James Franklin, and you just came away from, well, one of the more politically savvy situations I've ever seen you involved in. A gentleman from Pennsylvania was wearing a Buc-ee's hat. For those who don't know, large gas station chain based in Texas, all of its south. Great gas stations. But as the head coach at Penn State, you have to stride a line here.

So how do you handle one of the most controversial topics in the state? How do you handle the Sheetz-Wawa dispute as the Penn State coach? Well, first, I'm just going to say as a local Penn State beat writer to wear a Buc-ee's hat over Wawa Sheetz, that's controversial. So I'm trying to shift the focus to him and away from me. You're trying to bring it back to me. But I didn't know how you handle this. But I'm trying to shift the focus to him and away from me. You're trying to bring it back to me. But I didn't know how you handled this. But I grew up just outside of Philadelphia, so always Wawa. Oh, okay.

Always Wawa. Now, hold on. Been at Penn State now for 11 years, so I have come to appreciate and respect Sheets. And over the last 11 years, it's been Sheets for me. Look at him riding down the middle of that. I did that, but it's also the truth. Grew up Wawa, last 11 years, it's been Sheetz for me. Look at him riding down the middle of that. I did that, but it's also the truth. Grew up wah-wah, last 11 years, Sheetz. I understand.

My first experience in the rivalry was in state college, Sheetz, 2 in the morning, the kiosk asking me if I want jalapenos on my hot dog. And I'm like, sure. Good spot. But now we have wah-wah where I live, and it has taken over. It's like my kid power rankings. I have two kids. We update the kid power rankings every day.

So we'll see. Next visit, we'll get another Sheets experience. I'm going to take a picture of him. I'm going to put it on social media, and I'm going to add Wawa and Sheets, and he's in trouble. Exactly. Exactly. Big trouble.

Now, you're not in trouble. No. I just want to talk ball. You are out of place. I'm hoping and waiting for a football question. It's coming, it's coming. So you mentioned this today. You're at a place where you win 10 or 11 games.

People are still mad. Yep. Is that a blessing and a curse? Yes. Or just a blessing? No, I think it is a blessing and a curse to be able to coach at a place that has really high expectations and standards. I don't even know. Somebody said today over your 11 years have averaged nine wins.

A lot of programs in the country would die for that, right? And I think on top of that, you know, we've been so close so many times. But, again, this is a place that's got really high expectations and standards. We embrace that. We talk about that with the recruits. Every coach we hire, you know that. So that comes with the territory. That also comes with a 107,000-seat stadium.

You don't fill up a 107,000-seat stadium with people that aren't passionate about what we do. So it is a blessing and a curse, and we embrace both sides of it. And so you bring in Andy Kotelnicki to run your offense, Tom Allen to run your defense. Let's start with Andy. He comes from Kansas. He's worked with Lance Leipold for a long time. What are those conversations like as you bring him in where you have an

experienced quarterback, you have experienced backs, a line that's been working under a certain set of rules and circumstances? How do you bring him in and say, do what you do, but here's what these guys do well? Yeah. of all i got a ton of respect for lance lipold um all the way back to buffalo i consider him a friend obviously it's hard to make that call you don't want to make that call but i've been following lance and andy we played them when they were at buffalo um so for us you know we don't do what you just described this is year 11 we can't start over so hiring andy or tom it's sitting down and say listen i'm hiring you for a reason andy you had one of the most explosive

offenses in college football last year that's where we were lacking we need that but you know do you have the humility to be able to say listen i need you to come in and i need you to study everything we do, and the stuff that we don't need to change, don't change it. So now one guy's learning new stuff rather than 45, 50 guys learning new stuff. But the things that we've got to change and you've got to tweak so that you're comfortable to call it and to get us to be the explosive offense we need to be, then do it.

And he was awesome. Him and Tom were awesome about doing that, and I think it really helped our players hit the ground running in spring ball, and the same thing for summer camp. And with Tom, kind of a similar situation to Manny Diaz, where he'd been a head coach before, now coming back to being a DC. How have you liked having that someone who's actually sat in your chair before? Yeah, I think the first thing is my last three defense coordinators

have all had top ten defenses. So they deserve a ton of credit, but I think also how we operate in the system we run helps. So same thing with Tom. Are you comfortable with that? The head coaching experience is important and different than Manny. He's got head coaching experience in this conference with similar opponents. Obviously the four new teams changed things a little bit,

but I think that experience is really, really valuable. As you probably know, he's a great human being as well, and he's in it for the right reasons. He has a relational leader. Our kids love him. And a great recruiter. And a really good recruiter. And he's really just embraced his role,

and I think he's really happy to say, listen, you take care of all that stuff I didn't like doing for the last seven years anyway. Let me get back to coaching ball. That's what I wonder with a lot of the guys when this happens is do they say, well, I'm glad I'm not doing that right now. Well, I think the changes in the game have had a lot of people question that because you get removed further and further away from why you got into this profession in the first place we've seen it there's other examples of that but but

tom's in a position where i just think he's like listen i did it for seven years i enjoyed it had a great experience but now i'm back to doing what i love and why i was put on this earth speaking of all-star coaching staffs i gotta ask you this because you brought this up on the on the big stage that you were talking to raheem Morris, who's now the head coach of the Falcons. The Ron Prince staff at Kansas State, you're the OC, Raheem's the DC, Scott Frost is

a GA. Ricky Ronnie, who's now the Old Dominion coach, was your OC. That was an all-star team. What were the staff room discussions like back then? And did everybody know everybody was kind of headed for superstardom? No, I don't know that.

I think it's hard to kind of predict those things. But I just love working with Raheem. A lot of times with offensive and defensive coordinators, you're trying to win in practice. It's ego. You know, four verticals. You don't want, if you're a defense coordinator against cover three. He'd say, hey, I want it versus cover three because I want to challenge my defense

and put him in an uncomfortable situation. And we were able to have that, and I think it was really good for our program. I tell that story all the time to our coaches. But Scott Frost, I still talk to. Ricky Ronnie obviously was with me for a long time. So we were fortunate to be around good people, and Ron did put a hell of a staff together little apple the little apple incubator that's right thank you

James thank you so much appreciate it all right beautiful that is Penn State coach James Franklin seems to be enjoying things with Andy Kotelnicki and Tom Allen as his new coordinators we haven't seen a game yet what's that offense going to look like? Kodanicki's offense was a lot of fun at Kansas with Jalen Daniels and with Jason Bean and sometimes with Jalen Daniels and Jason Bean together. Does that mean a Drew Aller-Bo Pribula combo on the field? We've seen it happen. But James Franklin, you heard saying, you know, we wanted him to take what he's doing,

meld it with what we do. So the players aren't learning something completely new. And if you think about it, that's, that's how Nick Saban would do it at Alabama every year, where he'd bring a new offensive coordinator in and say, Hey, here's our offense. You call your flavor of it, but this is what our players know, and this is what we're going to run. Now, at Penn State, if you're going by what was on the field last year, you don't want to see them running any of those plays. I understand that. But a lot of it is, what do you do before those plays?

How does the motion work? Does it get the defense out of position? Do you put the receivers in a place where Drew Aller feels more comfortable throwing to him? He's one of the more risk-averse quarterbacks in 2023. Do you tell Drew Aller, just rip it sometimes. You might throw an interception. It might happen. These are all questions that need to get answered won't be answered till we see them on the field they will be challenged right out of the gate they're going to morgantown to play west virginia we're going to find out a lot about penn state very very early but this is a year they should be very excited because the thing that was in their

way the the four-team playoff where you're in the same division as Ohio State and Michigan, that's gone. No more divisions, 12-team playoff. This is the year Penn State needs to get over the hump. We'll see if they can. A coach who's not predicted to go to the playoff, because I'm not sure anybody knew he was going to be a head coach this time last year, is Deshaun Foster at UCLA. Strange situation. Strange situation.

How often does a sitting head coach, who's about to be moving to a conference, leave his head coaching job to become a coordinator in the conference that he was moving to? That's what Chip Kelly did. And we've talked about the various reasons for that. You remember last year, toward the end of the season, it looked like Chip Kelly might get fired at UCLA. Then he was keeping his job, but it kind of felt like it might only be temporary.

And so Chip Kelly, who already was not pleased with the way the sport was going, with the way the head coaching job had evolved over the years with all the different crap you have to deal with as the head coach. He started looking at NFL coordinator jobs, didn't get one of those. And then Bill O'Brien leaves Ohio State after a couple of weeks to become Boston College's head coach. Suddenly Ryan Day, Chip Kelly's former player at New Hampshire and former assistant needs a plate caller. So Chip Kelly leaves. Into the void comes Deshaun Foster, who was working at UCLA, who is a UCLA alum.

Loves the place. But he was not a guy that was necessarily on the head coaching track at that point. But he's now been thrust into that role. He obviously wanted it. But he came to Big Ten Media Days. And the way this usually works is the coaches give an opening statement. Sometimes they give a long opening statement intentionally so they don't have to take a lot of questions. Deshaun Foster got up there and I think he probably had something in mind.

And I've been there. I've been there on this show. You've seen it. Where sometimes the thing in my brain does not wind up coming out of my mouth. And that's what happened to Deshaun Foster on the stage at Big Ten Media Days. How you guys doing? I'm happy to be here. Glad to be a part of this great conference.

Finally putting two great emblems together, UCLA and the Big Ten. We're a school that's won, what, 123 championships, so this fits us being right in this conference. Football-wise, we're just excited. You know, I'm sure you guys don't know too much about UCLA, our football program, but we're in L.A. It's us and USC we I'm just basically excited really that's it

any questions now here's my thing that happens Really? That's it? Any questions? Now, here's my thing. That happens. It's weird being up there the first time. I've had to speak to rooms. I actually had a guy come up to me. Well, not just a guy. Andy Backstrom from Letterman Row, our Ohio State site, came up to me and said, hey, you probably don't remember this, but you spoke at a convention, a high school journalism convention that I attended when I was in high school. And it was down at Walt Disney World. And they had invited me. I was working for Sports Illustrated at the time. And I get up there and there are 2000 high school students.

And my mind is just spinning because they didn't tell me there would be this many people. And I got the words out, but I'm not entirely sure what I said. Andy said I did okay. But I saw a lot of people on their phones. Let's just put it at that. So I know the feeling of getting up on stage, looking across, and sometimes the connection doesn't get made. But here's the part that bothered me about the way that opening statement from Deshaun Foster got treated. You didn't see the rest of it. When he took questions, he gave fabulous answers to

those questions. He clearly was prepared to answer any question he got. And, you know, this is a weird situation because they are moving into the big 10. UCLA is an iconic brand, but it's not really been an iconic football program for a long time. And, you know, you look at the way Chip Kelly ran the program. He had his own ideas about how he wanted to recruit. A lot of it went toward the portal toward the end. And his method of recruiting out of high school was very different than most programs used now. Like, Ohio State doesn't recruit the way Chip Kelly liked to recruit at UCLA. Ryan Day has very different ideas about how that should work. And obviously, it works pretty well, what they do at Ohio State.

Deshaun Foster at UCLA would like to get more back to that, back to, you know, when Jim Moore was coaching there, which, there, which they played for the Pac-12 title at that point, they got some really good players. Didn't always get a class that was rival to USC's, but would get some four stars, some five stars. Would go after the best players in Southern California. And it's not like they've been doing that lately, but Deshaun Foster is doing that now.

So we talked to Deshaun Foster and of course I thanked him for not filibustering because I'd rather have time for us to ask questions. And he graciously answered all of mine. So here's Deshaun Foster. Joined now by Deshaun Foster, new head coach at UCLA. And this is, you know, a year ago this time, probably not a place you imagined yourself being. What has this last nine months been like for you?

It's been a true blessing. You know, got the job at a, wouldn't say difficult time, but at a different time. Yeah. It's just a true blessing that I'm the new head coach here at UCLA. And, you know, to be your school, to be a place that you love. I remember watching the first few press conferences and it just kind of radiated. You know, how proud were you to, to be that guy? Like, cause I imagine it's something

when you got into coaching, you thought, okay, what's, what's my first head coaching gig going to be? And the circumstances are so strange. You probably never could have imagined that, but that it is UCLA. Yeah. Um, you just, you just, you have those goals, but you don't know if they're obtainable, you know, and, um, you always want to be a head coach and you're always coaching to, to, to get to higher ups or whatnot, elevate in your profession. But, you know, I just wasn't sure if that was even capable, you know, the opportunity presented itself and, you know, I was able to get an interview and just killed it from there. So you come here and the opening statement, like appreciate, like, I appreciate it. I know there's some people on the

internet saying well he didn't have an opening thank god you actually were there to take questions because a lot of people just filibuster and don't let us ask any questions so you said you know what we're here we're from la ask me anything i didn't think that a lot of these reporters had an opportunity to ask us questions before. Oh, yeah. So I went into more. No, it's actually strategic with a lot of your brethren where they're going to go, I got 15 minutes on stage. 13 and 30 seconds are going to be me talking. Oh, yeah.

And so I do have some questions about, you know, this putting the coaching staff together, like you said, at a weird time. Because normally when you're taking over a program, the season's just ended. Maybe signing day hasn't even happened yet. The transfer portal stuff hasn't really gotten started. You had to do it when all of that was already in full motion. How did you do that? Just execution. full motion how did you do that um just execution i really had a plan and you know i just didn't know if i was going to be able to execute at that time and um just because of how late it was yeah but you know trying to trying to get the offense trying to hire offensive coaches get the offense

installed right to the new coaches and then install it to the players before spring ball and the defensive staff had just been hired because dan lynn had just gone to usc it was just a little bit before but that's why i'm really proud of the coaches that i was able to hire and get because they did a great job of just being prepared and getting our guys ready what does it mean to have eric the enemy on your staff it huge. It's just somebody that I can lean on in all different aspects of coaching. When the recruits come in, how many Patrick Mahomes questions are they peppering him with? There's probably a million.

But he's coached at a high level. He's coached Hall of Famers. So you know they're going to have questions. And do you ever tell these kids, did you see this dude run at colorado like do you throw on some tape what's funny is that um with the current team yeah i had one of our guys put his highlights on so they could see because i didn't think our current players even do oh yeah yeah once they saw that but it's ucla you got a lot of smart players yes yeah i've

known chase griffin since he was like 11 he's got to be president someday, right? I will agree with you. This is one of their backup quarterbacks who is – Chase is one of the smartest human beings you will ever meet in your life. So, I mean, what's it like kind of, you know, knowing the roster, understanding what they've been through in the last few months? What do you say to them? It's just mostly just I want guys to get out there and play hard yeah and i love the way that they like operated during spring ball yeah you know

yeah that carried over into um summer training yeah and now hopefully it can carry back over to training camp so looking ahead a little, you've also turned your recruiting focus back toward the high schools, back to UCLA getting, you know, trying to get the four-star and five-star. We're on three. We cover a lot of recruiting. So you were going to get these questions,

but is it, how different is that world now with the transfer portal NIL trying to juggle it, but saying, hey, I want to build the foundation on high school recruiting it's uh that's something that's changing daily you know so it's just it's just a hard it's a hard thing to really grasp and get a hold of but because it's changing so much but you gotta embrace it yeah that's the only thing you can do and how are like when you go into high schools in southern california how are, like when you go into high schools in Southern California, how are they receiving, obviously you couldn't go out in the spring,

but how are they receiving your staff? And what have you guys done to try to say, Hey, look, we're very interested. We're going to be engaging you earlier. Offers are going to come a little bit earlier. What's the response been to that? I think that they, we, we, we really got our process out and explained it to coaches and everybody so they understand the system. We kind of want guys to get 12 to 13 high school varsity games before we can offer.

Right. I think once we got that out and guys are understanding the number and see it, we do have qualifications. Right. Yeah. So we just needed to get it out there just so they knew what it was instead of it being in the dark and they just thinking we're not approved. Yeah. Right.

And now those lines of communication much more open. And, well, excited to see what you do. Coach, appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah. That's new UCLA coach Deshaun Foster. Big job ahead of him as he enters a very tough new conference

in a weird situation where he got his job not at the normal time. So this is a bit of a year zero, I think, for UCLA. It's year three for Lincoln Riley, meanwhile, across town at USC. That one is a little bit different. He's getting a lot of questions because the first year, USC makes it to the Pac-12 title game. They are probably a Caleb Williams injury in that game away from going to the playoff.

Now, the defense fell apart in the second half. Maybe they still would have lost, but Caleb Williams at that point was about to win the Heisman Trophy. A healthy Caleb Williams probably keeps them in that Utah game, at least keeps it competitive until the end. But they don't make the playoff. And then last year, even with Caleb Williams, it kind of fell apart, looked very mediocre. Lincoln Riley has gotten a lot of hard questions this offseason. We've talked about it as they've had some really good commits and then decommitments from the class of 2025.

We've talked about the body types. We talked with Josh Schwartz about that on yesterday's show. We've talked about how they coach defense, how Lincoln Riley views defense as part of the holistic view of the program. You know, do you practice in a way that allows your team to be physical? I don't think USC practices like Georgia practices. I don't think they practice like Michigan practices. I'm not at all these practices, but I've seen some of them.

And I don't think they do. I don't understand why if you don't tackle well, you don't just call somebody who's worked at Georgia or somebody who's worked in Michigan or somebody who's worked at, at Alabama and say, how did you guys practice? And then just practice like that. But it's something that USC is going to have to correct. And I think Lincoln Riley is trying. I keep saying this over and over again, and I will wait as long as possible for him to prove me wrong. But I think Lincoln Riley is too smart to let this go. He's too smart and too good of a coach on the offensive side of the ball to not fulfill his full potential as a head coach. And his full potential as a head coach is that he can take a team to a national championship. But he's got to run a program

that values defense as much as offense, that values physicality, and that recruits big people very, very well. Right now, that's not what's happening. But he's hired Dantelin as the defensive coordinator. The idea is that's supposed to get better. But it's interesting hearing Lincoln Riley talk. I heard him say this a couple of times off the microphone. He said it in his podium session at Big Ten Media Days. And this is definitely clearly part of his messaging this year that there was a lot of catch up to be played at USC, that he did not, he was not quote unquote born on third base to borrow a phrase from Jim Harbaugh, that he did not, he was not quote unquote, born on third base to, to borrow a phrase from Jim Harbaugh, that, that he did not inherit a ready-made program like Ryan day did or like

Dan Lanning did because Dan Lanning for, for all the criticism of Mario Cristobal, Mario Cristobal left behind a really great roster for Dan Lanning. Lincoln Riley is telling us that Clay Helton didn't leave him a very good roster at all and that USC was behind on a lot of things. Now, I'm not sure this is a satisfying thing you want to hear in your three from your coach who makes $10 million a year, but that's what he's saying right now. Oh, for sure. We are playing catch-up.

We're playing catch-up in facilities. We're playing catch-up in NIL. We've been playing catch- up in resources within the park. We've been playing catch up in damn near every way that you could think of. But when we catch up and we are going to catch up, that's when the things that this place has that others don't shows up again. And it's coming. Now, he ends on the optimistic note, but. That's a buying time answer. That's a saying. Well, we're going to get there, but that's a buying time answer. That's a saying, well, we're going to get there, but it's not going to happen now.

It's coming, but it's not now. And I'm also not sure that's a satisfying answer as you go into year three. But again, I think he is taking the steps he needs. I'm very curious to watch how Dantelin's defense plays. Riley got asked about what, what's one thing he felt like his team improved upon in spring practice. He said, tackling very clearly and had a very good answer about that.

If they are better on defense, then yeah, be long on USC. Assume that they will continue to recruit better and they will get better. Because I do think, it's like Jeff Schwartz said yesterday, there needs to be a little proof of concept

before some of these bigger defensive recruits are going to be willing to take the plunge and go play for USC. Even though USC is the bigger name brand or the more old blood name brand, like Oregon has put players in the NFL at those positions more consistently lately. So that's where the recruits are going to want to go. It's up to Lincoln Riley and his staff to prove that they can develop them.

And that's not easy. Now, one way you can do that is by going toe-to-toe with LSU week one and looking really good. This is a game that is fascinating to me because there's going to be a lot of takes that get spawned off this game. Both teams have good offenses, lost Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks, but should still have very good offenses. Both teams had very bad defenses last year, changed defensive coordinators, and are hoping that those changes pay off in a better defense. Now, USC did a lot more reconstruction of the roster on the defensive side of the ball than LSU did. LSU has a lot of the same players that Blake Baker,

the new coordinator, is going to have to deploy differently to get better. Danton Lynn brought in a lot of guys that fit what he would like from a physical standpoint. And we'll see if that allows USC to get better on defense. But Lincoln had an interesting answer when asked about this game, because this is a great game. It's going to be on Sunday night.

The whole country's going to be watching it. Two huge brands, the beautiful USC helmets, those gold LSU Tiger with the block LSU. Think about how gorgeous that's going to look on the field in Las Vegas. But unfortunately, Riley, and I think he's probably right on this, thinks games like this might not be scheduled as much in the future because of the way the conferences have grown.

Yeah, I think if the conferences stay the way they are, or excuse me, if the playoffs stays the way that it is right now, then I think you'll see less and less of those, especially with us in the SEC. Just because our schedules are already going to be so good, at some point you're like, all right, are we getting – is the juice worth the squeeze, right, in terms of playing these games? I think as competitors we all want to play these games.

Now, if and when the playoff shifts again, if you start talking about, you know, if something were to happen, let's say like, you know, guaranteed spots, you know, even more guaranteed spots in some of these conferences, all of that, then I think it could lend itself to these games being back and more prevalent, which would be good for the game. Because, I mean, games like this are all. I am with Lincoln Riley on this. It would be good for the game to I mean games like this are all I am with Lincoln Riley on this it would be good for the game to keep these games and to have a postseason format that values these games so either the committee rewards the teams that play these games and win these games or there's a system where there's enough auto bids that you're not that worried about whether you take a loss in a game like this but these are the kind of games that you get very excited about. I don't want to see the Big Ten and

the SEC not play each other until the playoff. I would like to see them play. I would love a Big Ten SEC challenge to start the season where you just match them up one versus one, two versus two. I think that would be phenomenal. But I understand what he's saying. I just hope it doesn't come to that. Now, he got asked that USC had a series with Ole Miss that got canceled. He got asked about that. And then as a follow-up, James Creppia, the reporter from the Oregonian, asked him about a recent Joe Castiglione comment about Lincoln and the SEC.

You'll see how he responded to that. To my knowledge, yes. Yeah, that was kind of in the works for a while. But, I mean, you know, you got a responsibility to what do you think is going to put you in the best position to do it. And, I mean, we probably have just about as good an argument as anybody in college football because, you know, we've got a yearly game against, you know, a good opponent in Notre Dame along with this schedule. So it was, but I mean, the hard thing right now

with all this scheduling is you're having to make scheduling decisions so many years in advance, but then all this is changing, and you're not exactly sure what system that you're scheduling for, which is a challenge. When that series gets canceled, Lincoln, and then Joe Castiglione says that you didn't want to stay there to play in the SEC. I'm not getting into that. Nice question. Next question, indeed. Yeah, I didn't think Lincoln Riley would take kindly to that line

of questioning. If you don't remember, when Oklahoma officially joined the SEC, Joe Castiglione, the athletic director there, was on the stage on the SEC network alongside Commissioner Greg Stanky. Gets asked about, do all the coaches, how do they feel about going to the SEC? And Joe Castiglione basically says, all the coaches who are here now are happy about going to the SEC. Which, yeah, definitely a shot. Ed Lincoln Riley, who left Oklahoma with knowledge that they were going to the SEC, gets to USC and finds out they're going to the Big Ten. So here he is with similar challenge, facing big dogs like Ohio State and Michigan.

Obviously, they were playing Oregon already in the Pac-12, but now they got to deal with them as a Big Ten opponent. Penn State, Nebraska, they got to figure it out. I think Lincoln Riley can figure it out. I keep saying that over and over again. But, he's got to show it. They've got to get better defensively.

Can't wait for that LSU-USC game. We will probably overreact to whatever the result is. And it may not tell us anything for real. At least until, you know, we get to see them play a few more games. But I definitely want to see what they can do against that LSU offense

because I think that LSU offense is going to be very good. Garrett Nussmeyer taking over. Great offensive line. I'm excited to see that game because it will be a great test for that new USC defense, and we'll get a little better idea of what's going on there. But Lincoln Riley, definitely in a very strange position. When he took that job, I didn't think by year three he'd be getting questions like this.

I thought they'd just be rolling at this point, but that's not the case. He's got to get it figured out in the Big Ten where the level of difficulty just goes up. Speaking of programs that have been dealing with a level of difficulty, Nebraska has not made a bowl game in a while. Matt Rule and company were in attendance at Big Ten media days. They feel very confident that this is the year that streak's going to end.

Matt Rule basically said it on the big stage. And I think a lot of the reason is Nebraska has some veteran players up front. We're talking a lot about Dylan Ryle, the quarterback, a true freshman, has not been named the starter. We are assuming he's going to be QB1 there. But I don't think it's just about him. It's about a defense that brings back a ton of veterans. Tony Weitzbach is the coordinator.

It's about an offense that should be better, but doesn't have to carry the team. The offense needs to be adequate. As long as the defense is as good as we think it's going to be, this is a team that will definitely make a bowl game. The question is, can it surpass that expectation? Nebraska just needs to get over that hump, get the six wins, but this is a team capable of winning more than that. Talk to Ben Scott, the center, and Ty Robinson, one of the D linemen, about this season at Nebraska and coming to play for Matt Rule. Ben Scott's one of those.

He started at Arizona State. He's from Hawaii. He's had quite the odyssey. Here is Nebraska's center. So Ben and I were talking before I went to Tempe. His freshman year in Tempe. I was doing a story on Ladarius Henderson, who wound up as a national champion at Michigan. Here you are in Nebraska starting year two after three years at Arizona State.

What a ride from Hawaii to Tempe to Lincoln, Nebraska. Yeah, it's been a crazy ride, you know, and I wouldn't have it any other way. So now you grew up in Hawaii how different is is life in Lincoln Nebraska than than living in Hawaii oh it's a lot different but I I love every second of it though you know Hawaii has its beaches has nice weather but you know Lincoln is just so awesome you know you meet a lot of cool guys and play for Nebraska football so it's awesome. Is there a better place to grow up, though, to train as an offensive lineman than Hawaii? Because it feels like, you know, preponderance of really gifted D linemen that you get to work against probably every day at practice.

Oh, yeah. You know, we had so many so many guys go Division one from my high school, especially so. And I feel like as like a middle schooler they're all like so much bigger than me and I had to figure out a way to actually block them so you know I think uh that really played a part into how I got here so that's what that's where you learn the leverage is playing against dudes who were just naturally massive right off the bat oh guarantee so when did you start to catch up in size? I feel like I never caught up until like my junior year of high school. Okay. And that was when I

really started to get big and get strong and actually like figure out how to, how to play all line, you know? And yeah, so before that, those guys just whooping me all practice, not to figure out a way to block them until I started training and started getting bigger and stronger and tried to figure it out. This has got to be a little surreal for you having played in the Pac-12 and you walk in here and you're seeing the Oregon logo and the USC logo and the Washington and UCLA. You're back with these guys. Yeah, it's been crazy. Seeing those guys join the Big Ten it's been a sight to see.

What was the decision-making process when you decided to leave Arizona State and go to Nebraska? What did Nebraska feel to you? Having Coach Donovan Rolo there and having that Hawaii connection, that really intrigued me. That was one of the biggest reasons. Also, playing in the Big Ten was a big one under Coach Rule. So, yeah, Big Ten football is where the trenches are really important. So it was something I really wanted to join. Who was the D-lineman last year for you that you had to play against in the game

where you're like, oh, man, competition level is pretty good here? Yeah, I'll say every game was really good for us. And it was a big challenge every week we went into the game. I think probably the biggest one was Illinois. Oh, yeah, Johnny Newton. Yeah, they had a bunch of good D linemen across the board. So, you know, that was a big challenge for us. And I think we attacked it well.

Now, you guys have to play against great defensive linemen every day. Ty's here with you, but Nash and Mike are also. How – especially on the interior, how well do they prepare you for what you're going to see? Every day we do team competition, and Ty and Nash end up across from us, and we just got to attack it. You know, it's iron sharpens iron at that point, and I think it's great going against those guys every day.

It makes me a lot better. So who's tougher? I'd say they're both equally tough. I can't choose one or the other, but they're both different kind of play styles, but I think they're both really good. Better nickname, Ty, Vanilla Gorilla or Nash Polar Bear? I like Vanilla Gorilla better. It rhymes. But, like, I never Vanilla Gorilla better. It rhymes.

But like, I never hear it that often. That's true. Everyone kind of shied away from it. I think we got to bring that one back. Well, he puts it on t-shirts and sweatshirts. He's trying to sell them. You got to use it. I know.

He never uses it. You need a nickname though. You've got the, you know, the monosyllabic first name, last name. You're the center. Like we got to, we got to figure something out. The pivot or something like that. Well, we were talking earlier and you said, you know, you had to play tackle at first at Arizona State.

Then you kind of got moved back to center and you said, where I belong. When did you know you were a center? Like, what point in life? I think even in high school, like, I knew I was going to go to center, you know. I'm not, like, super tall. I'm I'm not like super lanky or anything. So I think center is kind of, kind of where I thrive at. And I just, the, the idea of you have to make a perfect pass back to the quarterback ever. Do you think about that ever? Or can you think about that? Is that something you've got to keep out of your head? Oh? You kind of got to keep it out of your head.

You know, you work it so much throughout the weeks. And especially now during OTAs, it's something we got to focus on. And, you know, it's kind of muscle memory at that point. Yeah, because I think everybody still thinks of the center as like, oh, the quarterback's got his hands all up in there. But you're in the shotgun most of the time now. I feel like that's way more pressure. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot more room for error.

But at the same time, it's just like it's what we've been working on this whole time. So muscle memory. Now you have Ty watching you right now. And so what is it like when you look up and you're about to snap and that's staring back at you? Yeah, you know, it's great going every day and just getting better. You know, Ty Ty makes me a lot better and I hope that I make him a lot better. Just going out there every day.

He needs to use the vanilla grow nickname for that for sure. Oh yeah. Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. That has been Scott. And he was staring down Ty Robinson as our interview ended.

So, of course, let's talk to Ty. Here with Ty Robinson. Natural 300-pounder, got to college at 300 pounds, did not have to put on weight. It's hard to do that. Everybody wants to eat to gain weight. I can tell you as someone who's done it, it's no fun. How glad were you that you were the weight they wanted you to be? I mean, I was super grateful that I was blessed with the body to have that.

But you forget that it's hard to also not eat. Right. You have to stay that way. So that's probably one of the biggest challenges I had growing up was, you know, I could eat, eat, eat. Oh, yeah. And, you know, not eating was a big deal for me. The reason we got in this conversation was because Ty sat down and he did the,

the, the big guy classic, like, well, we'll got to make sure I don't split my pants here. And it is, it's, it's crucial. Like people who've not been big, who've not had large thighs and a large butt do not understand every move you make in dress pants is a risk is a risk yeah i mean i when i went and got these tailored i said listen i've split two pairs of my life i don't want to split them on tv well that's the thing like you're not skipping leg day so you want to show off the gains right but you you can't do that too much because just

the pants world is not ready well i wouldn't be sitting here with you. I'd have to be standing or something. Exactly. Exactly. All right. So Ben Scott and I were talking about your, your nickname, the vanilla gorilla, and then Nash hut marker is the polar bear. So you're two interior defensive linemen, great nicknames,

but Ben says you don't, you don't use that nickname enough. You're not utilizing it. I mean, you sell t-shirts. Yeah, I sell t-shirts about it but you know i just you know if it's a nickname they want to call me that's what they want to call it our old athletic trainer had given it to me he just i how it happened was my uncle gave me a sweatshirt that had vanilla gorilla okay i just worn it into the facility one day just as a joke and then our old athletic trainer had started calling me that and then everyone started to

kind of get thinking it was a funny nickname and then kind of got on i just think you and nash need to kind of do it as a tag team right i think that's the way to do it it's more like an old school wwe tag team right like the legion well the road warriors the legion of doom whichever whichever version of you prefer but i think that would be spectacular because it is really, I mean, you don't usually see the two guys. Now that the Illinois guys had law firm last year as a tandem. Okay. So I think you guys could pull that off this year. Yeah.

We might have something that works then get something going on. Well, I saw, I was actually talking to your athletic director for an interview that's going to run later about in the state of Nebraska. Like when you guys hit big, like let's say you guys have a really good season, the guys who are the stars on the team, the NIL deals, they're going to be good. Right.

There are going to be some opportunities for you guys. There will definitely be. I mean, there's great opportunities now, but I can see, you know, as that goes on, I can see the opportunities just becoming bigger and bigger. What's been your favorite NIL? Have you done any pitching? I recently just did a commercial for Action with their water heater sale. Oh, very nice.

If we win the conference championship, then you get your money back on the water heater. Wait. So if I buy a water heater in Lincoln, Nebraska, and y'all win the- Bradford White. Bradford White from Action. There you go. From Bradford White from Action, and y'all win the Big Ten, I get my there you go from bradford white from action and y'all win the big tent i get my money back you'll get your money back wow so if the person who previously owned my house had not run their car into the water heater requiring them to then buy a new water heater i would be all over that but but right now it's it's probably too new it's

too new it's probably too new to change but that how how fun was the commercial or is it not fun is that is that something you you like no i had a great time the team that they had there was awesome uh we did you know photoshoot and we filmed the commercial those guys were great uh you know real professional and i told them i'd work with them again i mean they made it really easy and fun it's hard with the guys on the line because it's you really's, you really goes one of two ways. Like you either want the attention or you want no one to ever look at you or talk to you. Right, right. I mean, yeah, no, I, you know, I didn't go out seeking them. They just, you know, talked to our NIL guy at the university and he had, you know, given me this opportunity. I was

like, you know what? Yeah. I mean, it sounds fun. I'll do it. Um, and yeah, no, I'm happy to be the face for that campaign. I do have actual football questions because yeah, I mean, it sounds fun. I'll do it. And yeah, no, I'm happy to be the face for that campaign. I do have actual football questions because this defense, what y'all bring back has got to be very exciting because everybody's played together pretty much. You kind of know what you've got. Coach White is back. I know that there are people sniffing around him as a head coach. How exciting is that? It's super exciting. I mean, Coach White would make a great head coach. He's he's that type of caliber. The players love him on both sides of the ball. He's really personable. He's really friendly, but he's also got that switch on him. When we get on that practice field,

there's an expectation and there's a standard to what he wants from us. I think he's done a great job implementing that in the last year or so and especially over the summer getting ready to go in fall camp. How excited are you to just get started? Cause the way last season ended was tough. You were kind of right on the door bowl as a buddy could not quite get over the hump. How exciting is it to have that, that fresh chance where you've had a whole off season to work at? Yeah. I mean, you know, coming off that surgery, I didn't have much time to prepare for last season, but being able to be under with Coach Campbell and his staff and Kristen,

our nutritionist, I've leaned out a little bit. She's the one to make sure you don't eat too much. Yeah, she's the one to make sure that I don't eat too much. You know, just seeing the changes. I mean, it's not even just for me, though. I mean, I've seen it in all of our guys on the D-line and on the team as well. I mean, these guys have made huge jumps.

We'll bring this question back. We did this last year whenever we had alignment on. We haven't done it yet this season. But what is the perfect steak? Cut, and how is it cooked? Rib eye. Okay. Medium rare.

Correct answer. I go rare. I realize that's a little extreme for most people. I don't mind it a little bloody. Okay. I don't mind it. I'd rather have it more bloody than done. But the rib eye, the more marbled, more flavor it's now is that's i grew into that i was more of a fillet

guy and then moved into the ribeye as i got older new york strip okay there you go so i moved on i was introduced to a ribeye and i said i don't think i'll ever be going back and you never ever should the correct answer ty robinson thank you so much. Thank you. That's Ty Robinson, the vanilla gorilla. Yeah, you can call the defensive line, the interior defensive line, the zoo. With the polar bear and the vanilla gorilla. We come up with some names for the edge rushers. We do the whole defensive line.

We need animal names for the edge rushers, too. But the interior of the line, we're going to call it the zoo. Illinois had the law firm last year. Nebraska has the zoo this year. So it's been a weird, weird day at Big Ten Media Days because like UCLA and USC are here.

Oregon and Washington are coming on Thursday. This is a very strange time. So who better to help us decipher it than a guy who helped us get explanations as all of this stuff happened over the past few years. John Canzano, former newspaper columnist in Oregon,

but now runs his own website, johncanzano.com, has his Ball Face Truth radio show. One of the better reporters covering college football in the Pacific Northwest, covered the fall of the Pac-12 as well as anybody. And now he's watching these Pac-12 teams move into the Big Ten. He used to cover Purdue and Indiana. He never thought he'd be back in Indianapolis for work covering the Big Ten. But here he is. Here's John Canzano.

Joined now by a man from the heart of Big Ten country, Portland, Oregon, John Canzano. Yeah. So if you've been reading John Canzano dot com, he's got the bald face truth radio show in Oregon. John was one of my go to's during the the the fall of the Pac-12 empire. Yeah. John, you knew this was all coming. You covered every second of it.

Yes. But to see here today, UCLA and USC with Oregon and Washington coming on Thursday. How weird is it? It's bizarro world. It's walking in and seeing the Oregon mannequin with the jersey on in between Penn State and Ohio State. It doesn't fit. Right. It doesn't. And you look in Washington's there next to Wisconsin.

And so that's weird. And then hearing the questions that are being asked, like, you know, people are asking UCLA players, like, what's it going to be? You've never been to Iowa. You've never been to Rutgers. Yeah. And it's just. We've seen corn. Yeah.

It doesn't fit. But I'll tell you, the second day, day two, I kind of got over it. You know, and I kind of it leads me to believe that once they start playing football games, that it's just going to be college football again. Well, I really like Ohio state, Michigan, USC, Oregon, they are big time football programs. Like they recruit from the same pool of players nationally. Like all the players know each other from the various elite camps and whatnot. They are more same than different, I think. Yeah, I agree with that. And I think, too, it's interesting to see Oregon included in that conversation, right?

Yeah. And it's, you know, Chip Kelly took him to the national championship game. Mark Helfrich got there. You know, they played on a big stage. But I think forever in my time in Oregon, people, the Duck fans just wanted to be included in the conversation. They're there now. I think there's some mixed feelings.

There's some people who I think are looking back saying, hey, that was 108 years of history. What will they blow up next? But there are also a lot of fans who are going, hey, we're getting Ohio State at Autzen Stadium, going to Wisconsin. Going to Michigan. Going to Michigan. There's going to be some new matchups that are fresh.

It's not Utah, Arizona, Stanford. It was getting a little mundane in that way, but, um, you know, it's part of everything that's happening. Yeah. And, and the Oregon being a co-favorite or, well, being a favorite to reach the big 10 title game, I think Ohio state is probably the favorite, but Oregon being a favorite to reach the big 10 title game to make the 12 team playoff. We talked about this over the last few months, and we've seen them recruit very well of late under Dan Lanning. But it certainly feels like Oregon is one of the nationally elite programs.

But they also didn't win the Pac-12 last year. They played Washington twice. They didn't beat them. What do they need to do to get over the hump and really be in that group? It's those big games. I mean, Dan, you've seen Dan Lanning. I love his trajectory, love the way he's recruited. You know, he's got the quarterback. It's a quarterback centric game. He's got Dylan Gabriel. You know, last year, I think we were looking at Bo Nix going, well, we'll never see another quarterback who started 55 or 58 games. Here comes Dylan Gabriel. All right. He'll break the record. I think I in in fact, wrote that. We'll never see this again, and

here it comes. But he's done all the right things, and he's won some big games, but he hasn't won those breakthrough that show you that they are truly an elite program games. And guess what? Clock's ticking. You've got Phil Knight, 86, 87

years old, who invested a billion dollars. He'll never say it. He's not going to say, hey, I want the. Wants his national title. Invested a billion dollars. He'll never say it. He's not going to say, hey, I want the title. He just wanted a Rose Bowl back in the day. But when all the uncertainty was going on and USC and UCLA left, I talked to some other people at Oregon, and they said he did not spend a billion dollars to get left behind.

And so you kind of knew Oregon was going wherever college football was going. But the pressure's on Lanning. He's got to win those games. Can he beat Ohio State at home? Can he go to Michigan and win? Can he avoid losing a game at Purdue after, you know, the big games, kind of the trap game? The trap games of the new Big Ten are wild because it used to be, yeah,

you'd have to, like, if you played at Purdue after a big game, there's a chance, like when Jeff Braun was to, like, if you played at Purdue after a big game, there's a chance. Like, when Jeff Braun was there, he could come up and bite you. And there are going to be some good, like, Rutgers feels like a great trap team this year. Sure. Nebraska could be a good trap team for some people because they're going to be better this year.

There's a lot of higher quality. Like, everybody, I think, assumes it's very heavy at the top and then there's a big gap. I'm not sure the gap's that big. Yeah, and it's the middle of the pack teams that you got to watch, and that Purdue game for Oregon is a Friday night. And so there's another kind of twist. It's on the road, on a Friday night, after a big week, they're coming off a big game. So he's got to win those games. He's got to get them to the Big Ten championship game he needs the breakthrough moments that's when we go hey he's taking a step I I didn't think about this until you just said it but what what a callback to the Pac-12 Friday night road game

right in one of the conference outposts yeah like it's like going to Pullman on a Friday night after a big big Saturday game it is you always lost when you did that. It is. And it's like, it's Oregon State. I mean, it's like I always said, I covered Purdue as a beat reporter, 98, 99. Drew Brees was quarterback at Purdue. And when I got to Oregon State, I said, gosh, this is Purdue.

Like these fans are Purdue. They've been through it. They're looking over at Indiana in the same way that Oregon State fans were looking at Oregon. Yeah. And with that complex of, you know, hey, we have to get over that team. So, you know, that exists in the same way that Oregon State fans were looking at Oregon. Yeah. And with that complex of, you know, hey, we have to get over that team. So, you know, that exists in the Big Ten.

I also think, Andy, there's some question. Like, you know, I heard coaches say the right thing. You know, Brett Bielema was talking about, you know, it's great to have four new schools in the conference, whatever. But I actually think, like, Iowa, Illinois, Purdue, Northwestern, they're not going to be happy about four new teams coming in that they have to get over. You can't like this if you're in the end of divisions is something that I don't think is going to bother Ohio state.

It isn't going to bother Penn state because they don't have Ohio state and Michigan lording it over them anymore in the East. But if you are Minnesota, if you are Iowa, if you're Illinois and you built yourself to win the big 10 West, now that doesn't even matter. That might not get you above seventh in the league. Yeah, that's not a thing. And what's a great season anymore, right? So I am ordained as a minister.

This summer I got ordained. So you can call me the prime minister if you want. But I did a wedding. And the people getting married were from Iowa. They were getting married in Oregon. They were coming out. They're football fans. They said, hey, we don't know anybody.

Will you get ordained as a minister? So I did it. We subscribe to your podcast. So please marry us. So I did it. And I was at the rehearsal dinner. And they were talking on the other end of the table. They're Iowa fans.

And they were talking about not being happy about oregon and usc in particular yeah because if iowa has a great season it's no longer are they in the conference championship game it's are they fifth are they fourth or you know i don't know it's funny that you say that because actually i think if iowa has a good season this year if if that offense is improved, this is the other piece of divisionless giant conferences. And we've talked about it with the SEC and the ACC and now the Big Ten. Schedule draw matters. Iowa got a great schedule draw. Oregon did not.

Oregon got a terrible schedule draw. Yeah, and here's the thing. Does anybody know what the tiebreakers are? We're working on it. Yeah, because I hear that from the. Because I hear that from the sec, I hear that from the big 10 and I kind of think the tiebreaker is we got to talk to ESPN or we got to talk to Fox and we got to see who do they want in this game.

And I, I hate to be that guy, but I don't know. I think committee rankings, like we always talk about the committee rankings before the final one didn't matter. And they were just a TV show. Maybe they matter at that point because I remember when the Big 12 South,

I'm going to date myself here, when the Big 12 South had a three-way tie at the top with Oklahoma Texas Tech, they basically broke the tie by figuring out who's the most likely one of these three to make the BCS title game if they win the Big 12. So that's how you do it. Maybe that's how they do it because I can't game if they win the Big 12. So that's how you do it. Maybe that's how they do it. Because I can't get an answer from the Big 10. The SEC is not saying.

But you're right. I mean, these conferences all know that that's where the money is buried. Those playoff berths will matter. I think everybody's expecting the playoffs going to be fantastic. If you get the right teams in it, we're going to see matchups we've never seen before. I love Miami. Could Miami play Oregon in a playoff game? It it could happen there's storylines that are yeah like oregon alabama was the game we never got like chip kelly era oregon versus nick saban era alabama i think

is is the game of the 2000s that we never got yeah and we may have we may ultimately get it yeah i think we will it's kayla de bourneBoer and Dale Ellington. Yeah, but the question, too, beyond that is, like, okay, let's throw Boise State in there. Let's say the group of five berth is in there. Okay, so you've got an athletic department budget that's like $50 or $60 million competing in a game against, you know, Ohio State or somebody who's spending, you know, a multiple of that. So are we really talking about, like, an NCAA tournament thing where, you know, just getting to the playoff is going to be enough for the G fives or will they be able to get in there and punch above their weight? That's I'm interested. The problem is your number five team is going to be the second or third best team in the country. Yeah. That's who they're going to play. Yeah. They're not going to play the fifth best team. They're going to play the second or

third best team. Yeah. And that's where it gets a little weird. But it's funny because all the little ways that the world gets smaller and things cross. Today, Jonathan Smith was here. The new Michigan State coach who was Oregon State's coach. And nothing more emblematic. I think it's the most emblematic thing in conference realignment that Jonathan Smith at his alma mater, Oregon State, who was And nothing more emblematic. I think it's the most emblematic thing in conference realignment that Jonathan Smith at his alma mater, Oregon State,

who was doing a fabulous job there, had to leave to take the Michigan State job because you just couldn't stay at Oregon State and get where you wanted to go professionally. Yeah, he had to. Look, I tracked him down here today, and it was a, I'm not going to say it was a tense conversation, but there were some questions that he

needed to answer and I think Oregon State fans feel bad about his departure meaning they're angry at him they're frustrated with him took a lot of good players there took his players he left the day after the Civil War game there's some question on you know did they mail it in for that game he stops at Goodwill on his way out of town he drops all his

coaching gear at Goodwill fans saw it had his name inside of it, just some bad feelings. And so I tracked him down and he seemed genuinely confused about people being upset. Now I understand and you understand why he left, but fans who were in it viewed Jonathan Smith as he's one of us. He's a grinder. We're stuck. We are far from home and in trouble. And, uh, he's going to be the guy who helps us get out of this and then he takes off so he said um he goes to goodwill every year it was just what he does he has extra gear he said it was he he felt bad it was a hard decision but he had to do it professionally yeah if you want to win a national title yeah you can't do it for a team that

no i mean they have they're officially a conference but they're not really in a conference right now they're they may get their feet under them here if they plot right and the right things happen but it's he would have lost his talent his quarterback Aiden Childs would have ended up somewhere else his best running back did end up somewhere else it would have been a really difficult thing for him so I get it I get what his agent was thinking I get what he was thinking but I still think coaches you know he was even honest about it. Like he came on my radio show right before he left. And he's, I asked him, are you talking to other schools? And he said,

my agent better be talking to other schools. That's what I pay him to do. And he said, that's the reality of it. He says, and he said coaches will never say that. He says, you know, we all know what's going on. We know what our agent's doing. So I give him credit for that. But I think, and he said it today, I think he needed to come out and say to oregon state fans hey look that was really hard yeah that's my alma mater i'm still gonna root for you but i had to do what was best for me personal no yeah and that's but but it's gonna be that way i mean we will probably see it on thursday when

washington gets here and yes you know the ads are coming to these deals pat chun yeah was washington state's AD. Yeah. And now he's Washington's AD. And I saw Troy Dannen today. Yeah. And he's walking around. He was Nebraska's AD.

I don't even think he moved or unpacked, but he was. And I thought, you know, it's just business for these guys. And I think for fans, though, it's hard because, you know, you grow up in it. Your grandparents go to games. Your parents go to games. You're in the tailgate. It's so deeply personal to so many people and you take that it's just been ripped apart essentially and now you have this new thing

and if you're oregon i think it's fine because you're looking at it like hey we want to compete for national championships we should be playing against michigan and ohio state every year yeah and that ilk of team another one that I think is interesting, USC. Now, we heard from Lincoln Riley a little earlier in the show and about how they're playing catch up there, which he's not used that level of rhetoric. That's strange to hear that. Before this year.

Yeah. But he's used it several times here today. Yeah. And, you know, it's a way of saying hey i realized dan lanning and i came in the same year why because that's i walked in on him with his his local beat core answering a question and and clearly the question had been something in the tune of you and dan lanning showed up the same time how come they're there and you're where you are and one of the things he said was, I'm not a magician.

And look at where they were and look at what I inherited. Yeah. And I don't know if those answers are good enough. No. In this day and age. Not when you're making $10 million a year. I mean, that's your job. Your job is it.

And by the way, you're in an era where you can catch up very quickly with the portal. And you are USC. You are one of the brand names nationally. So I think it is a little bit of a testament to what's happening at Oregon, the investment in football that Oregon has made. They do so much right. What do they do on day one of media day? They're not here. They throw the duck in the river and everybody sees it.

And that's what people are talking about. And it's, you know, I think schools like Oregon State and Washington State could take a page from that. They need to get outside of their DNA and do things that are more forward thinking. But to hear USC talk about, you know, I'm not a magician that, you know, I had a coach tell me that once before it was Jerry Tarkanian. And I'd asked him I'd asked him to give me a academic success story. And he said, I'm not. What do you think I am a magician? You know, but it's i don't want to hear that from a guy who has that contract i want to hear that i have answers here are my answers uh usc has no excuse they're usc yet they enter this league yeah without us really trumpeting them there's not much fanfare as they come in everybody i think is excited about seeing the helmets sure you know, USC versus Nebraska. That's a game on the schedule. USC versus Michigan is their first Big Ten game. But, yeah, it's weird because when he went to USC, now we didn't know they were going to Big Ten yet.

Yeah. But I just assumed, like, it was going to be a ride. They're going to win. Well, I think offensively they are. They're an elite offensive team. He knows what he's doing he's doing defensively they have just not been able to put it together and maybe it is some of the you know mike leach used to talk about the guys uh you know that they couldn't get defensive tackles in the pack 12 well now you're in the big 10 can you get a defensive tackle yeah you're still in la though yes so yeah but i would argue that that being near to home which used to be the

biggest factor recruiting is no longer like and oregon's a great example of that yeah oregon is oregon goes anywhere in the country they feel like somebody can help them and i think usc is gonna have to do that too and you saw them try to do that with with some players from georgia they had committed earlier this year but they don't have them committed anymore. But I mean, Pete Carroll was willing to go anywhere. Yeah, and Oregon's going into their backyard and beating them over and over again. It's not a surprise

when Oregon takes a guy out of USC's backyard. So they got to pay attention to that because if they don't stop that, it doesn't end. And Oregon's in front of them right now. It was this day of Big Ten media days last year that Colorado announced it was going to Big 12. And then it was another week or so,

and then all hell broke loose. Yeah. Does that seem like a fever dream? Like, I'm thinking about that Oregon trustee on the golf course. Right. In that meeting where they decided to go to the Big Ten. None of it was real.

It's going to be a hell of a movie. But yeah, I remember when Colorado left, I talked to George Kiyofka the day Colorado said they were leaving. Yeah. And he was like, we're just going to replace him. Like he was replacing a divot on the golf course. But they had already lost the LA schools. Oh, that was San Diego State.

That was, yeah. Now here goes Colorado. It's clear that there was a failure of leadership. And I was thinking about this, and maybe this is an episode for you one day. I'm talking to Tony Petitti yesterday and I'm, you know, turnkey. The search firm hires Petitti, hires Kleofkov, hires Yormark all outside the box. All of them, none of them from, you know, the collegial world. They hadn't worked on campuses. This was these were new hires.

What happens if Kleofkov is the big 12's hire? What happens if Yormark is is the big 12s hire? What happens if your mark is the Pac-12s hire? You know, is, is it different if Petitti ends up with the Pac-12? Are they still the Pac-12? I wonder about that because I think about, you know, I think about like sliding doors, the movie, this is sliding doors, the college football movie. Absolutely. That is crazy. It's true. You're're right the same search firm placed all these people and everybody was looking for something different yeah no you know because like jim phillips in the acc was more traditional he'd been sanky too sanky had come up through that and and was in the sec

office already but yeah because everybody wanted something different klyavkov came from the world of MGM and Hulu. He was at Hulu. Right. And then Jormark was in WME and entertainment. Sales guy. He's a marketer and a sales guy. Jay-Z's. Rock Nation.

Yeah. And then, yeah, Petiti was a TV guy. Yeah. All outside the box. It's not like Greg Sankey was running intramurals at like Ithaca College, you know? He was the compliance guy for the Southland. Yeah. These guys had these new era commissioners had no campus experience. And so I just wonder, like, you know, you're playing Yahtzee and you throw all these commissioners into a cup and you shake it up and you spill it out and you go, OK, what if. I really don't think it would have mattered to Brett Yormark which one he got. Right. I don't.

You put Yormark in the Pac-12. I wonder if the Pac-12 is still a thing. Or were the presidents so inept that they, you know, or the, you know, USC, UCLA, where they leave no matter what. Yeah. That is an episode for you for another day. Oh, my God. We do love the what-ifs. Yeah.

That's a great off-season what-if. Yes. My God. Can you? Yeah. Brett Yormark winds up at the Pac-12, I don't know that he could have kept USC and UCLA. But do they take that $30 million that was on the table like he did?

He convinced his president. Well, that's exactly what he did. What he did, and I explain this to people, because everybody's gone after a job and had some competition when they're going after a job. It's like two people who are basically equally qualified go out for the same job. One of them asked for an extraordinarily huge salary.

The other one asked for a salary that is basically in line with what the company was expecting to pay. Who's getting the job. Yeah. In line guy. Exactly. Cause the extraordinary guy is going to be difficult later. You got to,

you got to talk them down And it's just more effort. Yeah. That's what the Big 12 did. That's how the Big 12 outlasted the Pac-12. And the question is, was it a leadership issue only? Or were there bigger forces at work? And were networks involved? Or were there presidents who had just had enough in L.A. and said, we need more money and nobody's giving us respect?

Yeah. It's truly amazing that all of this has happened so quickly. Yeah. Because, you know, this was, and that's why everybody keeps saying, well, you know, the Big Ten doesn't want Florida State or Clemson. That's done. They're going to have to go to the Big 12. We don't know that. The Big Ten wouldn't wink its eyes at Washington or Oregon until all of a sudden

the pressure's on, you've got, you've got a clock on, are you going to take them or not? Yeah. And the, and look, nobody wants to be the bad guy. Nobody wanted to blood on their hands, but the fact that Colorado got a incentive, you can't help but see that. And then think about the dominoes that fell after. What was that day like in the state of Oregon? You had the Oregon part of it, but also the Oregon state part of it. Everyone was nervous. And I think, though, the messaging from the Pac-12 CEO group didn't change. It was still, we are unified.

Oregon was still seemingly on board. And I was hearing from Rob Mullins, the athletic director at Oregon. He says, hey, we value access to the playoff. We want to be in the playoff. That was what was important to Oregon. The question was, were they better off in the big 10 getting to the playoff or could they just dominate the PAC 12 and stay there? Was there enough money there? Uh, and part of the issue too, is that these presidents were so tired of being sold promises by Larry Scott, that distribution on the PAC 12 network and the revenue on the Pac-12 network never really came to fruition.

By the time the Apple deal was pushed out there, nobody was willing to buy like, ah, that's a speculative deal. No, no, we'll take the, we'll take the real money.

Well, and I think we've seen with the streaming stuff now, if you're not the NFL or the NBA, it's probably not something you want to mess with right now. And I think, look, I think the Apple thing, I actually think Oregon would have been fine with Apple because Oregon's brand

would have sold those subscriptions, but Oregon didn't need to do that. You know, they had the big 10 going, Hey, we will cut you in and we'll get you to a full share. NBC and CBS and Fox. And I was told, you know, a high ranking source at Oregon told me the night before the decision was made that this was a 10- and 20-year decision, not a two-year decision. And at that point, I kind of just wondered, okay, is something in the ecosystem driving all of this? So it may not have mattered.

Your mark might be looking at him going, ah, he blew up the Pac-12. He didn't lead. He couldn't convince his presidents to get on board. All the what-ifs. Yes. But we do know something for certain for now, at least for now. Oregon, Washington, UCLA, USC in the Big Ten. We got the Ducks and the Huskies at Big Ten media days on Thursday.

The rivalry continues. It'll be wild. It'll be wild. And I think Oregon will be great. Oregon is under the lights. They know what to do. Washington, I think, is going to have some growing pains in the first couple of years.

They're not as equipped, I think, to hit the ground running, especially losing a coach is always so difficult. And USC, I think, they could be sneaky. But UCLA is going to struggle. I just – they're a basketball school playing football right now, and this world is not meant for them. And so I think it could be a really rough season for UCLA. We will find out.

You heard from Deshaun Foster already on the show. He's got his work cut out for him. John Canzano, thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate you, man. Thank you to John Canzano, thank you so much. Appreciate you, man. Thank you to John Canzano. Thank you to James Franklin, Deshaun Foster, Ben Scott, Ty Robinson. What a fun day. This is action-packed.

You know, Ohio State sucked the oxygen out of the first day. Everybody just wanted to talk about the Buckeyes. But everybody had an interesting plot line on day two. We talked to some folks from Iowa. We're going to let you hear from them next week. That's one, again, sneaky, sneaky team in the Big Ten this year. I think they could surprise you. But everybody who was here on Wednesday has a story and a really interesting one.

Thursday gets interesting too. You have both sides of the Oregon-Washington rivalry. You have Kurt Cignetti, the new Indiana coach, who came in and was like, yeah, we want to beat Purdue, but we're going after Ohio State and Michigan too. Love it. Love the energy. And of course, the defending national champs and new head coach, Sharon Moore. They're coming too. Can't wait. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye.