Andy & Ari On3 - Jedd Fisch is ready for a RESURGENCE at Washington

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

This show is brought to you by Panini America, makers of the most collectible sports cards on the planet. The Prism football card series a vibrantly paralleled base and insert roster featuring college football’s brightest former and current superstars. Panini sets include NIL autographed cards from players including Arch Manning, Quinn Ewers, Cam Ward, Jalen Milroe, Dylan Raiola, DJ Lagway, and Luther Burden. To start collecting, visit PaniniAmerica.net. Busy mornings, late nights, working through lunch—life doesn’t always leave room for a complete, balanced meal. That’s where Huel comes in. This podcast is sponsored by Huel, spelled H-U-E-L, The World’s #1 Complete Nutrition Brand. It’s a complete meal in seconds—just grab, sip, and go. No more skipped meals or unfulfilling snacks. Huel makes it easy with nutrition that fits into your life. And right now, you can try it for FIFTEEN PERCENT off your first purchase of $75 or more with the code STAPLES15 at HUEL.com. Fuel up the easy way with Huel today! huel.com/STAPLES State and Liberty makes modern athletic fit clothing for men who want to look great and be comfortable at the same time. Whether you’re looking for an athletic fit suit or your new favorite hoodie, State and Liberty has what you need. New customers get 10 percent off when they use the code ANDYARI, or you can visit this link: https://tidd.ly/4gVLuUE Washington coach Jedd Fisch joins the show! Fisch discusses why he’s still having a spring game, why the college general manager job still isn’t the same as the NFL general manager job and why we should get excited about Huskies sophomore quarterback Demond Williams Jr. playing behind a beefed-up offensive line. Andy also asks Fisch if he realized former boss Bill Belichick was taking notes with a plan to move into college football.  It’s a great discussion with a coach who can speak authoritatively on the recent flow of NFL people and NFL ideas into college football because. Fisch has worked extensively at both levels. It’s also a Dear Andy/Dear Ari show, and as always you’ve asked some tremendous questions… Should Arizona State be offended by the level of uncertainty from the national media following Cam Skattebo’s departure? What is the potential of Maryland football? Could Iowa or Nebraska be the teams that surprise everyone next year?(0:00-6:04) Intro: Washington ahead of Year 2 with Jedd Fisch(6:05-7:14) Huel(7:15-26:50) Jedd Fisch joins the show(26:51-35:25) Jedd Fisch on CFB and NFL(35:26-37:24) Jedd Fisch's Rules for Life(37:25-41:24) North Carolina's Practice Jerseys(41:25-47:21) Andy & Ari's College Days(47:22-49:03) PaniniAmerica(49:04-54:27) Nebraska, Under the Radar?(54:28-1:01:17) Iowa's Potential, Ari's Pitch to Dominos(1:01:18-1:10:07) Maryland's Potential?(1:10:08-1:16:36) Coverage of Smaller Market Teams(1:16:37-1:20:47) Oregon and Dan Lanning Agree to 6-Year Contract(1:20:48-1:22:11) Conclusion: Guessing logos tomorrow Watch us on YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/60-VLy2t_I4 Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy and Arian, three big day today. We got a big guest, a big 10 head coach, which feels weird to say about the Washington coach, but yes, Jed Fish is a big 10 head coach, played his first big 10 schedule last year. He went from Arizona to Washington and was gonna change conferences either way, and he wound up in the big 10.

Yeah, it's still kind of weird for me. I don't know how many years it'll take. I think it's like the three once it were three years and it become, it starts to feel normal, right? Like, uh, I don't know, but I feel like Washington may be uniquely equipped to compete this year. Andy, I think you may be right. And we'll talk to Jed Fish about his quarterback, DeMond Williams Jr., who if you watch the last two games,

the Oregon game and the Sun Bowl, there's a lot of reason to be excited about this guy. And I wanted to bring Jed on because he's just so interesting in this era of college football because you have all these people that are trying to bring these NFL ideas in. They say, oh, the sport is so much closer to the NFL now because of the NIL era and

the transfer portal. And here's Jed Fish, who's been straddling the world's all along because he, you know, he would go, it seemed like he would go from an NFL job to a college job, to an NFL job, to a college job. And so he was like, he was Jim Harbaugh's offensive coordinator at Michigan. He was Al Goldin's offensive coordinator at Miami, but he also worked with the Jaguars and the Texans and the Vikings and, and the Patriots. And so he's seen this from both sides. And a lot of stuff he's doing is stuff that that has always worked in college football and he doesn't seem all that interested in changing it.

No, no. Um, you know, the thing that I think is interesting about him, Andy, um, is that two years ago, this happens a lot, not just with Jed Fish, but like coaches become the hottest name in a cycle. not just with Jed Fish, but like coaches become the hottest name in a cycle. And before he took the Washington job, I think people, I mean, his name was coming up for every job, right? Because of what he did in Arizona and how well it went. And then last year they couldn't win a road game at Washington as he had to retool the entire roster. And then you stopped talking about him. And it was funny. We didn't talk about it in the interview, but both of us left him off the list of coaches, uh,

top 25 coaches and he got, uh, he had a word about that. But at the same time too, like it's so funny how transient our thoughts are with this stuff, because if we would have done that list a year ago, coming off of the Arizona season he had, he probably would have firmly been on it. And like, if you believe that Jed Fish is who we thought he was two years ago, which I still do, right? Like I still believe in the man to rebuild the program and you know, too.

And the Washington thing is not as big of a rebuild as the Arizona one was. I mean, Arizona had nothing when he got there. I think you can make the case of the Washington situation, though, the program was certainly five or six steps ahead of where Arizona was. That the rebuild was just as drastic. Didn't he say that they had to replace 20 of 21 starters or something? They did. They had a pretty big rebuild. Yeah, and they had 40, I believe right around 40 scholarship players when he got the job. So it has been significant, but I would argue that in year two, they're way ahead of where Arizona was in year two.

And look at this. They've got kind of a tricky schedule. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ohio State and Michigan, and obviously their rival is Oregon at the end of the year. So it's not going to be easy. They also get Illinois.

We'll see what Wisconsin is. But this is a team that can be good now. Like this is a team that can be good this year. Yeah. And just the fact that they have an offensive line that they, they can trust and rely on, they're bringing back, I believe 14 of 21 starters from last year's team, last year team wasn't very good for Washington Standard, especially coming off of a national championship year.

But at the same time, they had very few offensive linemen in spring football. They had some holes on their roster that they filled this year. So, you know, I don't know that I believe that they're gonna go out and win the Big Ten this year, but Jed Fish in year two at Arizona made a massive jump. If they win one of the games

that they're gonna be underdogs in, we could be talking about them as a playoff contender. Yeah, because 10 and two, if they beat Ohio State, Michigan, or Oregon and Illinois even, might be a resume booster if they're able to win that game. You know, they have a, that's the interesting thing about just the off season too, Andy. It's like now that you have 12 teams that are in the mix here,

you know, you look at schedules differently too. It's like 10 and 2 is like that's the benchmark now. It's not 12 and 0 like it used to be. And it's hard enough where they could get credit for, you know, winning the right games, but it's manageable enough where they can get credit for winning the right games, but it's manageable enough where they can get to 10 and 2, even if they're not the most elite team in the world. So I think that when we're talking about or when Fish's video is playing, I'll go look at the total for their wins. But if it's somewhere around 7.5 or 6.5, like it might be,

I think it might hit the over on that. So Washington's going to be you're talking about sleeper teams on the show yesterday that I haven't populated a list of that but I feel like Washington is certainly one of the teams that would fit that description. I'm glad you mentioned that because after we talked to Jed fish, it is dear Andy dear Ari show and we do have a great question about two potential sleeper teams that we have not

talked about yet as potential sleeper teams that we have not talked about yet as potential sleeper teams, but I like where this listener's head is at, because I think one of the two probably is one we'll be talking about deep into the season as a maybe playoff contender, but one that we probably have been missing on, so we'll see. But before we get to Jedfish,

let's fuel up your morning with Huel. This is the Huel Black Edition. This is a complete meal in a bottle, 27 vitamins and minerals, 35 grams of protein, seven grams of fiber. When I need something that is gonna get me to lunch, that is going to be quick, right there, and everything I need,

and I know exactly what I'm putting in my body, I reach for a Huel, the world's number one complete nutrition promo code is staples 15 and you get 15% off your first purchase of $75 or more plus a free gift. And if it's the free gift I got, which was the Hewlett t-shirt, oh, they're tremendous workout shirts. So grab yourself some Hewlett, workout shirts. So grab yourself some Huel. Get a case, ship it to the house, load up your fridge and you will have breakfast, lunches, quick meal on the go, everything you need in this one bottle. Like I said, 27 vitamins and minerals, 35 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber and it tastes delicious. The chocolate is my favorite. Get yourself some Hewels. Staples 15 is your code for 15% off your purchase of $75 or more. All right,

Ari, let us talk to the head dog, Jed Fish. We are joined now by Washington coach Jedfish who we've learned in the last 30 seconds has the coolest desk in America coach. Can you just can you just go up and down a little bit for us? Just sure hit some switches. up going down. Okay.

Now, we'll go the other way. Yeah. It's quite literally Andy electric. This is incredible. This is better than Nick Saban's button that closes the door. It's an important, it was an important part of the job. You know, we came up with this idea back in Arizona. So when people came to see me, I didn't have two screens in front of me. You know, it's a little tricky when you're watching tape and like game planning and had, so I'm like, I need things need something that just brings it down. So we did it, we did that.

So when Troy Dannen offered me the Washington job, I said, I mean, there's only a few non-negotiables for me. One of which is a new desk, because I need to make sure that it works the same way. And it took a while, but we got it done. That's an interesting like thing to think about Andy, like coaches who take new jobs who have Non-negotiables. I wonder if like motorized the gym hardball bathroom is the ultimate of that

The gym hardball bathroom caused a lot of strife at Stanford because nobody else got their own bathroom I'm just wondering because you mentioned Troy Dan and offers you the Washington job Jed He took the Nebraska 80 job shortly after that. I'm sure Matt rules like why do I have a new desk now? Yeah, does Matt rule have an like, does he have a desk that goes up and down? That's a real question. Now, if you could get it to go side to side, I guess, like if I were a coach and I was in the position, I would want my own bathroom to like like with a shower in my office. Yeah, because I'm a shower when stressed out, shower

when hungry, shower when sad, shower when happy kind of guy. You know those guys that like shower just to like escape whatever's going on or to revel in like a victory? I don't know. Like I- Ari, don't make the guest envision you in the shower. This is not good.

This is not good show. Where do you think that happens? In my office? Ari, this is something that's not, right now it's not clicking for me. So, I would want to trap door. I'm in my office. It's not right now. It's not clicking for me. Yeah. So, I would want to trap door so that when when someone pisses me

off, boom when there's somebody in my office that's giving me bad news, boom when there's somebody at you know, maybe maybe it's a it's a recruit who I keeps, you know, maybe, maybe it's a, it's a recruit who keeps, you know, keeps bugging the staff. But we've said, you know, we like you, but maybe it's not for us. Boom. Okay, I like that idea. Well, I mean, there's already been that kind of but a little

bit more violent than the Austin Powers movie just that button that you knock back and it just throws you into a fire pit. Like if a if a parent is in your office complaining about playing time. Have you ever seen the view out of my office? Oh can we move the camera? Oh boy. Wow. We are filming a recruiting video for the University of Washington here. That is so that is Lake Watt that is the stadium and then behind it Lake Washington. It's exactly. Jed, we talk a lot on the show about stadiums that we haven't been to that like bother us and Washington has, I've never, I've never covered a game there. That, that's gotta be maybe in the top three of stadiums I haven't visited that I

would have to go to in terms of like view atmosphere. I heard the press box shakes, gets super loud there. I can't stand that I've never been there. You know, you sail gate, so you take a boat right up to the practice field, get off your boat, walk about 53 and a third yards across and you're in the stadium, man. It's pretty amazing. in the stadium, man. It's pretty amazing. So amazing. Interestingly, because this this feeds right into a question I had because Ari and I got in this discussion on yesterday's show coach about all these guys saying we don't want to do a spring game. Don't want tampering. Don't want this. Don't want that. And you said absolutely we want to do

a spring game. We would like every network to cover it. Yeah. So why are you not scared? I mean, I know, first of all, our spring games may second and the portal closes April 26. So that's the first reason. The second reason is like it's spring game man you gotta have a spring game I don't know I grew up man in Gainesville Florida watching you know the blue and orange plan and the orange and blue game is one of the greatest spring games you could have so like I mean I remember times when Andy's coach Jimmy Ray Stevens was the head coach of one sideline. Jim Collins was the head coach of the other.

Then the next year, Bob Sanders had a team and Dwayne Dixon had the other team. And all those things are just great memories. They're great memories and going to the spring game as a student, going to the spring game, my whole fraternity house would go and you'd make a day out of it, make a few hours out of it, whatever it is. So we're trying to do the same thing. I think we'll spend a lot of time marketing our spring game to the student body, obviously have a DJ at the spring game, make it a party,

make it an atmosphere, make it fun. We got 90 players that wanna compete to try to become starters and we're going to have a normal game. And I just think it's, I don't know, I don't get it. I don't get the idea of like turning it into a combine. I don't get the idea of, you know, closing the practice. Like, I mean, just play ball, have fun, but everybody could do their own thing. We're just going to do ours. And you know, I've said that we hope we have fun, but everybody could do their own thing. We're just gonna do ours and I've said that we hope we have 40,000 people attend our spring game. At Arizona, our spring game helped us change the program.

Literally changed the picture when we brought back Gronk and brought back Ruski. And they told me that they didn't think more than 2,000 people would show up. First year we had 5,000, second year we had 15,000, third year we had over 20,000 come into spring game. And I just feel the same way here and same conversation. Last year we had over 20,000, so I challenged our fans to see if we can get 40,000 at this one.

You know, that's an interesting thought process. Jed, let me just ask you this. From a coaching perspective, when you have a spring game, you said you had guys that want to compete, try to earn starting jobs. In your experience as a coach, how important are spring games to your evaluations heading into the offseason, if at all? And do you set this game up in a way where you can have real evaluations of players and position battles and the things that are occurring

in terms of your roster management? Yeah, I mean, we set the game up, um, pretty much like it's a real game. It's we do. What do we do? We do like two full quarters running time to two full quarters running time, two 12 minute quarters running time, have a half time, and then we play the fourth quarter. So it's like a three, we do like a three quarter game, I think is what we do. And, you know, we tackle to the ground.

The only guys that don't get tackled are the quarterbacks. My first year at Arizona, they got tackled too. My first year at Michigan, they got tackled. But in this case, we're not gonna tackle our quarterbacks. I don't think we sit anybody or we didn't sit anybody for the game. We try to let everybody play. We try to get guys in different matchups. We don't play a lot of coverages.

We don't run a lot of coverages. We don't run a lot of plays. But we let, in the past, Jimmy Doherty called it for one team, Kevin Cummings for the other. Steve called it for one team. I think Coach Bala called it for the other. We'll rotate coaches, but we'll play. But hey, man, if you have a chance to wear a helmet and shoulder pads and you're gonna line up to play the game,

then you're gonna get evaluated. Maybe it's only eight plays. Maybe it's one go ball against a corner. But whatever it might be, we're gonna let it rip. And obviously, we're gonna use the other 14 practices to really evaluate. So one guy who may not need a lot of evaluation in the spring is is Demond Williams Jr, your quarterback and we all taste to him at the end of last season. And that the bowl game, I'm telling you, I know the bullying didn't go the way y'all wanted it to,

but you had to be pretty pumped about the future of the offense coming out of that. Yeah, you know, like we went for two the last play of the game. Um, you make it, you win it, you miss it, you lose it, you know, down, you know, down a point with eight seconds left. Um, then we almost got the onsite kick actually, but yeah, demanded four touchdown passes, one touchdown run, uh, really, you Really, I think he completed 26 of 32 passes for the game. Had showed a lot of poise, a lot of confidence coming off of his only other start was Oregon the week before where he went, 17 to 20.

Just took a bunch of stacks but protected the ball well. And in the ballgame, he really showed what he can do, made some unbelievable plays. We're just so excited for Daman to get after it. We got Kai Horton coming in or who came in for the spring from Tulane to do a really good job of backing him up and then Dash Byerly and Keenan McMillan, two young freshmen that are also here in spring. So we should have four quarterbacks, five quarterback battle and let guys rip it around a little bit and see what it looks like. Can I say that you have nine more offensive linemen this spring than you

had last spring? That's true, yeah. Well, we had seven offensive linemen last spring and two of which were coming off of ACL injuries. So we had five scholarship offensive linemen and we had three walk on offensive linemen. So in total for our 15 practices, we had eight linemen. So that made life a little tricky. Our spring game, our linemen wore a different color because we had to rotate. You know, we got to make sure we always had five in.

There was a liberos. That was a little bit tricky. But we had fun with it and let them try to get better. But the problem is when we look back on who we practiced with in the spring, our starting left tackle, our starting left guard, our starting center, our starting right guard, our starting center, our starting right guard, all were not part of our spring football last spring.

The only guy that was there was our right tackle. So, and that's gonna be, now this year, I would expect, I think we have 17 offensive linemen that are here, you know? And I believe we have one maybe that I can't think of right now that comes in the summer. But other than that, we're all here ready to go, which makes such a huge difference on where we are as a team. I guess last spring, the three linemen grab at formations you could have practiced would

have been pretty cool. You know, like, you know, those ones that you could have done Emory and Henry's tremendous. People just don't know. When you get an offensive tackle lined up outside the numbers, it's a threat. It's a real threat. It's a real threat out there. I was a weapon in high school. You said something really interesting, Jed, and I knew this about you and you guys brought Gronk back to Arizona for the spring game and you know the jump starting of a program and I think that that can manifest in different ways you know at different places and I think Washington's a little bit further along the line you know in the build than Arizona was when you took over but you know what could be the jump

start to Washington you know getting you know a quick turnaround the way that you guys had in Arizona and just having a young exciting quarterback that the entire country's you know, getting, you know, a quick turnaround the way that you guys had in Arizona and just having a young exciting quarterback that the entire country's, you know, really excited about a good eye or is there something else maybe that we're missing? Well, you know, I mean, I think that when we went to Washington, it was coming off of the national championship game, but there was only one returning starter. So we have 21 new starters. Now we have from last year to this year, we'll have about seven new starters. So in the one year, we'll be able to make sure that rather than find 21 new players off of only a spring portal or a high school recruiting class, which we didn't even have, you know, because we didn't get there till January 18th.

Now we have the ability to kickstart it with anyone that transferred with us, which is about 15 players from Arizona, and then anyone that transferred from a couple of the other in the spring, anyone that came to us, and then a bunch of players that never had an opportunity to really start in the two years that, you know, they had so many NFL players, you know, 13 NFL players the year before we got there. So I think we're kind of kickstarting it all over again. Now we managed to go six and six this past year and then have the ballgame we talked about and lost to Louisville 35-34. But I feel really good about the energy of the offseason.

We're able to have our offseason program which we were not capable of having last spring. We only had 44 scholarship players in January. We only had, I think it was 60 that participated in the spring. So we don't have that problem now. So we're able to have a full off season program, player run practices, all the things that go into.

Now I feel like we have a real good chance to be a much more competitive team than we were a year ago. And then of course we're also in a much tougher conference. The Big Ten is a beast. And we play at Michigan, we host Ohio State, we host Oregon, we play at Wisconsin. So we got our work cut out for us, along with bringing in Illinois, Rutgers, going to Maryland Maryland and there's some work to be cut out. You know, we got some work to do. I was reading something you said the other day and it struck me because a lot of people have been coming in from the NFL of late into college football and say, oh, the game is

more similar to the NFL. It needs to be structured this way. And so you just promoted Matt Doherty to your senior director of player personnel. And somebody asked you, why didn't you, why didn't you make him the GM? And I thought your answer was very interesting because you were obviously, Howie Roseman was your college roommate, but you also worked with Les Snead with the Rams

and you're like, well, NFL GM's job's completely different. Yeah, I guess I just have like this, as I, as I look at how I want to structure the team or the program, like I kind of look at, you know, what went onick made the final decisions regarding, let's call it the personnel and the team. But there was other duties that other people had. And you look at Howie or Dave Caldwell or Les Snead or Eric DeCosta and Ozzy Newsome, whatever it might be, you start thinking about what everyone did. And I didn't feel like the general manager was the right title at this time for Matt. Matt runs our personnel department. He runs recruiting, he runs the transfer portal, he runs the evaluation of our, of the outside players, and he helps with the evaluation of our roster. The GM is responsible for the training staff, the strength staff, the equipment room, you know, working side by side with the president of the league or of their team. That's not what we're asking Matt to do,

so we made Matt the senior personnel executive, made him in charge of the personnel department and then I Bring somebody else in to really be like the president of football operations and really oversee everything football outside of football and personnel and then we're able to kind of have that senior leadership program that That I believe the best set of all teams have to have that senior leadership program that I believe the best NFL teams have. Jay, there's a new trend, and I'm assuming, and I know you're aware of this, in terms of just like what the term GM means. I think like a few years ago, people were just calling the DPP's GMs, and now they're kind of trying to hire them.

Your program at Washington has been one that you you know, you're trying to mirror the NFL the best way you can in terms of your employees. And this is gonna set up Andy for, I think, the next question. But what is your thought process on, in the future even, hiring somebody or promoting somebody from within to run your personnel department

who may have, you know, as much say in who you bring in as you do. Because it's been, it's kind of weird, right? Like, I mean, back in five years ago, the coach was the last person, right? They were the evaluator. They were yes, no. They, everybody on their staff worked for them. And like at Oklahoma now, you have Jim Nag Nagy hired and he's making personnel decisions and may not directly always answer to Brent Venables. It's just a bizarre change in a sport that's evolving pretty quickly in your places as close to an NFL outfit as there is

in college football, right? Yeah, I just think that we work very collaboratively. We work, we're constantly discussing players. We have, we've been able to build out our personal department from six people last year, which was way understaffed, to 11 people this year. This year meaning over the last two weeks we made these hires.

So we've added five people to the personal department to really assist us in evaluation, assist us in communication. Our coaches are very involved in the evaluation. Our analysts or assistant position coaches are very involved. We run what I would consider draft meetings at least probably twice a week where we go through our board and discuss exactly where we are. I read everyone's evaluations. In the end, I guess one person has to make the final decision if we're going to go on a guy or not. But I really believe wholeheartedly in our staff approach and our collaborative approach, I don't believe we need somebody else to make that final decision. So right now we're not going to do that.

Well, and you came from the NFL into college football, not because the game was changing in a similar way. You wanted to be a head coach. You went to Arizona. But I find it interesting because you've got more practical experience in both than just about anybody who's working in college football right now. And you haven't made any wholesale changes. You've made some changes that you, because I look at the way you structure your program, the way you talk about it, to help your players become NFL players. But it's interesting, which is a long way of getting to, did you realize Bill Belichick was cheating off your paper

the entire time and getting ready to go into college football? I didn't do it, man. Just hit him with it. No. I cheated off of Coach Belichick's paper and a lot of the things that we do. We have a great relationship.

It was a privilege to always be around, any chance I have to be around coach, any chance I still have to be around coach, I appreciate it more than he could ever imagine. I think the bottom line is this, that we all wanna run our program a certain way. And when you have an opportunity of coaching the NFL for 14 years, or in his case for 49 years, you know what it, you know, you know what you want it to look like.

For us, I had an opportunity to coach college football with Jim Harbaugh, with Jim Mora, with Al Golden prior to coaching college football in Arizona. Tim Brewster also. All of those guys had NFL experience, two of which were head coaches. So Jim Mora, Jim Harbaugh, those guys were pro head coaches that became college head coaches. In the same regard, cuz I came with Harbaugh after he was at the 49ers. And then in my case, it was always a matter of if I was gonna work for somebody in college, let's call it anytime after 2012, 2011, I was going to make sure that that guy was an NFL kind of raised guy, an NFL coach.

Because I just believe in that. I think Coach Belichick saw it in a very similar manner, that there are so many similarities in what you do. I was also a part of the staff when Pete Carroll transitioned from USC to Seattle. So his first year at the Seahawks after being at USC for 10 years. So there's so much, you know, in those transition years that you could learn from other people

that you could share with other people. I think it's pretty cool that a lot of the things North Carolina is doing is similar to a lot of the things that we do. And a lot of things that we do is similar to a lot of the things that we do. And a lot of things that we do is similar to a lot of things the Patriots did. So I believe it's gone full circle in a lot of ways, but obviously I would say Coach Belichick

has inspired our program far more than we inspired his. I think that this is, I have to ask two quick ones and then I'll let Andy close you out here. But one When we're in our college football world We are in our college football world and then bill Belichick just shows up in the middle of the night Carolina which by the way is absurd like That could happen. Like the guy won, what was it, six Super Bowls?

I don't want to shortchange him. I mean, eight if you count the DC of the Giants. Yeah. Is it bizarre to you that he's the head coach of North Carolina? And because it's such a interesting move, it's almost in the Deion Sanders category of how is this going to go? Like, can you help us and our listeners with some context or perspective of like, what's that going to, is that going to work? I mean, I didn't put you on the spot, but like,

what's going on there? Well, I would say, you know, the most important thing about coaching is players and the better players you have the better coach you are and When or I mean I don't know the roster of North Carolina if they have really good players or not if they have great players good players Whatever it might be when they have good players or if they have good players right now. They're gonna win He's elite at what he does.

He's an incredible teacher. He's an incredible motivator. He gets guys to play extremely hard and physical and tough. And I think that they'll benefit from having coach around. And in turn, but there are a lot of good coaches out there. There's, it is not like't I don't think I was as surprised as so many people were because I know how much he loves coaching and when there's an opportunity to coach, why would you walk away from it if you

want to keep coaching? And that was the opportunity he had or that he chose. And I saw a picture from spring practice yesterday and he looked like just like everybody else that's out there in March. A guy that wants to coach ball and is excited about it. I'm just excited for him, for Steve. Steve was on our staff last year as our DC and I know it's super cool for Steve to be able to coach with his dad again and really excited for those guys. You had one last one for me. So last week when Oklahoma hired Jim Nagy, I did some calls, I made some calls around college football

just to ask about that move and what it would be like. And what I got back was some even resentment from people that the notion that just because some, and this isn't about Bill Belichick, so don't get that confused, cause he's the goat, just because some, and this isn't about Bill Belichick, so don't get that confused, because he's the goat, no one's, but that if you had the NFL sleeve on your chest at any point in your life,

whether that be as a head coach, assistant, or quality control, whatever, that you are superior or better at doing your job with that experience than somebody who has been a lifelong college person. And as we've come to find out, college coaches have been very successful in this realm, have gone to the NFL and have been successful. And you've had NFL coaches come down here. Even that, even the way of phrasing it, down here is almost derogatory. And I'm wondering, from you, from your perspective, does having coaching experience in the NFL or working in the NFL give you a leg up on somebody who's been in college their whole career? Like, are you automatically more qualified or better at your job if you're coming from the NFL? Yeah. Well, you know, I would make an argument that, you know, you could go from college football

to pro football or pro football to college football and the arbitrary kind of like stats that people throw out that, well, this college coach wasn't successful or in the pros. There's a lot of pro coaches that aren't successful in the pros. Right. So I don't think that really has a lot to do with it. In the same regard, pro coaches that go down to college go down. I just said the same thing. Pro coaches that go coaching college, there's no guarantee that's always going to work.

It's it's the coach, it's the program, it's it's the person. We're all individuals. And, you know, when when Pete Carroll left college football to go to the Seahawks, he then went and won a Super Bowl and played in two of them. It was one of the winningest coaches in pro football. When Jim Harbaugh left Stanford to go be the head coach of the 49ers, and when Jim Harbaugh left Michigan to go be the head coach of the Chargers, they were very successful in the NFL.

But on the same token, when he left the Niners and went to Michigan, he also won a national championship. So I really believe that what it comes down to is it's the person, it's the individual, it's the program they wanna run. I think that there's some benefit of coaching in the NFL when you're coaching in college, and that benefit really is you can explain to this player what it's really like in the league. You can actually explain to them what practice looks and feels like. What do meetings look and feel like? What does a schedule look and feel like? Not just what you could find on the internet or what somebody told you. On the same token, if you're a college coach to go coaching the pros,

if you've never had any NFL experience, I think it's a challenge. If you've had NFL experience, I think it's another job where if you have good players and good ownership, you'll win, and if you don't, you won't. Last one, and this is when we asked everybody this, about your rules for life, or even if you have one rule for life.

Like Joel Klatt told us, never fight someone with a large belt buckle. Rich Rodriguez said, be competitive in everything you do, because he doesn't trust people who aren't competitive. So what is Jed Fishes rule for life? Say, don't embarrass yourself. Don't embarrass yourself. Make decisions in life that you don't embarrass yourself with and that comes

down to your off-field decisions, your on-field decisions, how you handle yourself. We talked to our team, oh that's our one rule, don't embarrass yourself. And if you don't embarrass yourself, you won't embarrass the University of Washington, you won't embarrass your family, you won't embarrass, you won't make decisions that come back to haunt you. I like that. That's a, it's a, it's a little twist on one. I remember when I was a, in high school, I went to the South Carolina football camp

and Brad Scott was the head coach. His son, Jeff went on to be the OCA Clemson, but Brad Scott was a head coach and he cut, it's the one big speech from the head coach during the camp. And he said, we only have one rule in our program. Do what's right. And don't the head coach during a camp. And he said, we only have one rule in our program, do what's right. And don't embarrass yourself is a better version, I think, especially for 2025,

than do what's right. Because you think, wait, what's mom and dad gonna think if I do this? Yeah. I've had some time to consider my rule for life. And I think I've landed on my rule for life. Okay, go for it. Don't eat at a restaurant that doesn't focus or specialize in one cuisine.

Oh, I said this the other day to my son as we were walking by a place that had a neon sign on one side of the window that said pizza and a neon sign on the other side of the window that said tacos. I was like, neither one is good there. Ooh, that's a good one. Yeah. Yeah. That's the most important thing going on in my life. Jed, thank you so much. I would just play with the desk all day, but I'm sure you have much more important things to do. I appreciate it, guys. Thanks for having me on. Thanks, Jed. All right, we'll see you. I am going to get a desk like that.

Got to. I think it's actually for people who like to stand while they work, so I'm just going to stick with mine. Oh, of course, you're a sitter. There's, there's a lot of standing desks at the on three headquarters. There are a very in-shape company. I don't know. I don't know if you noticed when we go there, like everyone is tall and jacked.

Yeah, I've noticed that. Yeah. Huh. So these psychopaths are standing and typing. That's right. That's in that Naco's hasn't gotten there yet, but we're going to, we're working on him. So I thought it was interesting because we talked about the bill Belichick of it all. And obviously Steve Belichick was with Jed Fish last year. And Bill Belichick spent a lot of time around that program. Now, Bill Belichick and then Michael Lombardi, his GM,

they've advertised that they're gonna be the 33rd NFL team. That's something Lombardi has said multiple times about North Carolina. But did you see the photos from the early spring practices at North Carolina, Ari? They don't have numbers on their jerseys and you gotta earn them, Bill Belichick says gotta earn your numbers. If you're the 33rd NFL team, this is high school stuff.

Like, what are you doing? High school stuff. Ohio State did that. I'm sure other places do too. And there was like, Coach K would tell his players they couldn't wear Duke stuff all the time and basketball Billy Donovan would kick him out of the practice facility at Florida when he was the basketball coach. They're like, it is time honored in college, but it's also more of a high school thing.

Yeah. Ohio States was, they had a black stripe top, the crown of their helmet. Yeah. He did at Florida too. When they remove it, then you're actually a Buckeye. Yeah, so yeah. I mean, like that's the thing, dude. Like no matter what you say or how you recruit or what your program's North Star is, you still have to, they're still children in a lot of cases, you know? You can't, can you start, I mean, I know that the NIL happened

and people are getting paid now and they're getting older faster in terms of maturity, but I mean, they're still always gonna be 17, 18 years old when they get there. And like, I think that you have to approach coaching, even as personalities and expectations and things change with children, There are still children, right? Well, they're not children because when you're 18, you can go join the military

and go off to war. So you can vote. So they are young adults, which is probably even more touchy in terms of as a time in your life like you have all this freedom suddenly But you don't have the life experience to know how to use it I mean, I remember I was right you were you not nervous when you went to college for the first time and your parents left Like oh, no, no, I can I can tell you exactly what happened So this is this is the day before the dorms open So I went up with my friends because their apartment complex, their lease had started,

and so I'm helping them move in. And my parents weren't there. My parents were still back in Orlando. And their parents were there. And so my friend's dad takes us all out to lunch and we get lunch, we get back to the apartment. He says his goodbyes. And I remember sitting on the couch,

looking at everybody else going, our parents are gone. Let's go find some booze, which is exactly what we did. One of the other guys brothers was over 21. He hit the liquor store and we were going. That's funny. I remember the first night of my college experience, my parents dropped us off at noon and left. I was in Tucson, they drove back to Scottsdale. We went to the student union and got Papa John's pizza, which was the official pizza of Arizona at the time, and a girl was sitting like two tables down. Did you steal her pizza? Two tables down. No, I didn't take her pizza, but I was like enthralled by how beautiful she was.

And then that girl I saw like three or four hours later ended up living four doors down from me in the dorms. And one day when we have one of our drug podcasts, I'll tell you how the story ends, but I remember how unbelievably amazed I was of like, not only were my parents there, there were like girls living four doors down from me in the dorm. And I was like, Oh, my God, like, this is like an apartment situation. I was like, Holy crap.

How do we get them eat cute? Yeah, I don't know what it's like at other colleges, but at U of A, it was like a... Did they have girls living in your dorm? Yes, when I was there, it was still... The dorms were separated by floor, by gender, the older ones, and I was in one of the older ones. So, it was all guys on my floor, the girls were on the floor below and the floor above. But there were other, the newer ones had basically apartment situations where each individual suite had,

it'd be all guys in this one, all girls in this one. Now, a lot of my friends, cause it's such a big school at Florida, not everybody lived in the dorms right away. So the story I just told about me sitting on the couch going our parents are gone, let's go get some booze. That happened at an apartment complex called University Commons. The apartment complex next door to that was Oxford Manor. At that

time, at that very moment, Jed Fish and Howie Roseman lived in Oxford Manor. That's funny. That is one of those small world moments. Now, we obviously didn't know each other. But yeah, so the head coach at Washington and the GM of the Philadelphia Eagles were probably boozing it up one apartment complex over from us. Yeah, I lived in La Paz, room 8302 at U of A.

And what it was was, uh, you lived on the same floor as girls, but there was like a partition in the middle where there was like a staircase where you had to walk through a door and then there was a staircase and then another door and then it became girls. So it wasn't like they were walking around, uh, you know, in the same hallway. But like I was-

I dated a girl who lived on the floor below me in my dorm my freshman year. So, and there were several of us in that situation where somebody on my floor was dating somebody on the floor below. And we had every trick in the book to figure out how to keep that door open or wedged so it wouldn't lock so we could get upstairs to use the bathroom and come back down.

Yeah, that was the big deal. I remember like being dorms of like the bathroom situation and you know the public bathroom and all that stuff. But I will say that like when you get to college you're in such a rush to go live in an off campus apartment. Like I only lived in the dorm one year. I don't know how it worked at Florida. And the off campus apartments in Arizona are awesome. They're all like have big pools and they're in the mountains up by like a five star resort actually called star pass.

And I remember like the best, one of the best years of my life was the dorms man. Like just like all my friends that I still have from my hall, like it was just, it was just an awesome time. I'm glad you had that experience. My dorm experience sucked. I was in a juggling first, then I got moved over to a double.

The room sucked, the air conditioner sucked, the bed sucked, and my apartment was awesome. I don't know how it worked now. My roommate, my freshman year was my best friend from high school. So it was like there was no transition of like I lived with people I didn't know. Yeah, so I think that would be different

but then a lot of times too it just works out that that person's your really good friend unless you get put in the room with a Dungeons and Dragons kit or something. I'm kidding. I got put in the room, like the second room I was put in my freshman year, it was interesting because there was a guy who alleged,

my friends told me about this guy because I wasn't in this dorm at first. And they're like, this guy kept walking around to everybody. He's like, sup, you work out? To everybody, like the first week on campus. And he didn't obviously work out, like he wasn't all jacked or anything, and it was just a very strange,

and so I get moved, and I'm moving my stuff in, and I obviously had some friends that were already in that dorm that I was moving into, and they start laughing at me as I'm walking in there, like, what room are you in? I was like, and I said the number like, oh, you're with the stuff you work out guy. Was he trying to be cool?

No. No, he didn't. I didn't know if he was just having a hard time with the icebreakers or what. No, I think that's probably what it was. He was trying, he was doing his best, but it was no, and I didn't know moving over moving in with friends from high school after that. So it was much better. You were I'm gonna start saying that

the people suck you work out. So you work out. It's as icebreakers go. It's, it's a tough one. Yeah. It's just imagining him like on the way to college. Like what's it going to be, man? What's it going to be? What's the end? He landed on that.

But I mean, the thing is, like, if you if you look like Thor, sure. But if you don't, yeah, no. All right, we got to we got gotta answer some viewer slash listener questions and there's some good ones today. But first, let's talk about our friends at Panini America. Most collectible sports cards on the planet. Ari's got some nukes to show us.

Visit paniniamerica.net, start collecting your favorite college, NFL, and NBA stars. We've been ripping these Prism hoops packs. I've been hunting a Caitlin Clark autograph. Hasn't happened yet, but I did get baby Jordan the other day, Harold Minor. This is numbered 201-49. It's a beautiful card right here.

And also, I was opening some of the Rookies and Stars product, the NFL one. I got a Tyson Bajan autograph here, a little uniform swatch autograph. I told Ari he can arm wrestle me for it. As long as I don't have to arm wrestle Tyson Bajans dad because Tyson Bajans dad is a professional arm wrestler. I don't know whether there are

parts for his dad. This is that I showed you this yet. I can't remember. Yes, DJ Lagway Silverado I got. Love it and then this one's a key on Coleman bomb squad out of down rust, Don Russ this year, uh, rookie autograph. I thought that was a cool art for a card and that's number one 99. So we're,

you know, I have a stack here. I just threw up on eBay. Um, here's a Rishi rice rookie spectral auto, uh, to 35 out of a spectra. So we're, we're So we're working through it, but yeah, my favorite, favorite hobby and so happy that they're with us, man. It's the best. So visit PaniniAmerica.net to start your collection today. We'll be ripping a few more packs as the weeks go by.

I've got some Prism draft picks, football and basketball to rip. Ari, we have good questions? Dear Andy, dear Ari, we start with one from Justin and it feeds into something you've been talking about this idea of, uh, under the radar teams that we have not started talking much about yet that we probably need to as the season gets closer, that that may be the surprise for next season. From Justin, could Iowa or Nebraska be under the radar teams to surprise this upcoming season?

And I think both of them could. I'm very interested in both of these teams. I thought Nebraska hit the transfer portal really well. Now look, they lost quite a bit of defensive players, you know, to the NFL to the portal. Tony White goes to Florida State their defensive coordinator. So you had some players leave after he left. But I thought they did a good job in the portal, replenishing and got some interest like Williams Numerary, who is the number one edge rusher prospect in the class of 2024. He played at Missouri last year. He didn't immediately flash, live up to all the recruiting hype. But that doesn't mean he can't. So I'm interested to see what he does in that defense. And then they bolster their offensive line

in a couple of different ways. They got Elijah Pritchett from Alabama. They got Rocco Spindler. They got Spindler, right? Pat Coogan went to Indiana the two Notre Dame guys who hit the portal who started the national championship game, so It is uh, it's gonna be interesting at Nebraska because you guys a year your tool of Dylan Riola He's definitely the starter like there's no question about it going into this off season. I'm fascinated by them. For sure. And I also think too that we're gonna know this year

whether Dylan Rayl was gonna live up to the hype. Like first year, you know, freshman, true freshman year, you know, you saw some flashes, some ability to throw the ball downfield. Thought he struggled a little bit with, with pressure, but he, um, if he's going to be a dude, like we're going to know it, right? Like, you don't know, this isn't a three or four year deal.

Like if he's going to be the guy, he's going to be baby Mahomes. I think we're going to get a real sense of that this year. So, you know, whenever you have somebody like that in the fold and quarterback, um, if you, you know, play tough defense the way that Nebraska typically does, you bring in some important transfers. Dane Key came in at receiver, he has a good year. Like, I mean, like, yes, I think that the answer for like, the difference is like, when you say sleeper, like, what is what would be a sleeper year? Nine wins, like is that good? Like is that what we're hoping for for Nebraska fans?

I think Nebraska fans would be thrilled with nine wins, right? Over the moon. I think nine and three would be a really good year. And you know, they could beat Cincinnati, they could beat Akron, they could beat maybe, you know, UConn was pretty good last year, but they got Michigan, Michigan State, Maryland, Minnesota. I mean,

their schedule isn't overly daunting and the first five games are in Lincoln like. If you yeah, as as producer River says, that's not you con, so we're we're going to have our FCS logo competition and grab ass tomorrow. By the way, tomorrow show hardest and easiest schedules. What is that? Houston Christian, formerly Houston Baptist. You could see how I made that mistake though. Absolutely. It is it is It's a blue and white

Husky dog that is staring directly at you the Yukon one has his mouth open a little more And now this for but if you're not paying attention like you you could see how yeah, this one looks a little meaner and now I see the difference, but if you're not paying attention, like you could see how some of them could be. This one looks a little meaner. This is why we decided to do this, because I saw the Eastern Illinois logo in the Alabama schedule

and thought Georgia State had just changed its logo. Yeah, but there's no way that I would have ever been able to identify what that was. Well, tomorrow you're gonna get your chance. Yeah, it's gonna be embarrassing. I think I'm supposed to be good at this, but I won't. Yeah, we're playing to be embarrassing. I think I'm supposed to be good at this, but I'm playing. We're playing STS logo quiz and grab us tomorrow.

We also have a great grab us question. But Nebraska. So Rocky Top Tom says context, gentlemen, context. If Nebraska obviously exhibits the potential win 12 games, but only wins nine, Nebraska fans should be pissed. OK, if Nebraska exhibited the qualities to win 12 games, we'd be having a very different conversation about Nebraska right now.

Yeah. I don't know if I'm there yet. Let's see them win eight or nine first. Yeah. But they also, like, if you think about the big four, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and Oregon, they only have to play one of them, which is good. Yeah, now the Michigan, like,

Michigan's a big one again, so. But also, two Michigan we're perceiving is probably the fourth best team in terms of what we know at the moment. Probably, yes. Oh, they could play Penn State and it could go higher. Yeah.

I've gotta play two. But yeah, like I think that it's conceivable, conceivable, that they could be eight no going into the SC game. And I know we play this game with Nebraska every year. I don't know, like, is it not conceivable? It's conceivable. Seven and one is fine, if that's the case. Now,

all those other games, I think. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm really sure Nebraska. Obviously they finished the season with Iowa, which is the other team that Justin asked about. Iowa might have a legit exciting QB this year. They do. And that is what I find very interesting.

Mark Grunowski, former South Dakota state Jack Rabbit, a guy who a lot of people thought was gonna transfer up to FBS last year. This is interesting because I don't think Iowa's had a quarterback. This good at this athletic in in quite some time, maybe going back to CJ Beathard. I mean, I think from a career stats perspective, isn't he one of the most like he has some of the most passing and rushing

yards combined of anybody's ever played at the position in Iowa. Um, he's already been more productive than anybody who's been in that, in that position. So, um, and yeah, like I thought that he was going to end up at a place and be super exciting. And maybe if he ended up somewhere that wasn't Iowa, we'd be talking about him more. But the fact that he did get there, uh, is, is a pretty huge situation. And if you look at Iowa's too deep,

I believe at the moment and this could be wrong unless this list isn't updated, that they only have one transfer in their starting 22, which either is a good thing or a bad thing. Is that a bad thing? I think they're going to have. Well, Kronowski is one and then.

I think they might have one more. One Jacob Gills at Northwestern transfer, but he's he's been at Iowa, right? That's yeah, I'm trying to remember. From this past season is what I'm Oh yeah, yeah, no they. They are pretty consistent here and the other thing is look at how old

their defenses yeah 4th and and fifth player beer players all over their defense. Yes, they lose really good players like Jay Higgins. But they lose really good defensive players every year and replace them with other really good defensive players. I'm not worried. Jay Higgins is really, really good. Oh, yeah, I know. Cooper G is really good. They lost him the year before. So yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, it's like, under the radar teams, I think

Iowa is perpetually under the radar. You know, it's just a matter of like, whether or not you think that Iowa is going to have a good Iowa year or a solid Iowa year. Like, I don't think that Iowa is going to be a below 500 team by any stretch of the imagination. The thing Ari is a solid Iowa year now gets you in the playoff. Like look at this schedule. Okay, if if they only lost Iowa year does a solid Iowa years like the one they had

last year. Yeah, okay. I got you good. I would but if they only lost to Penn State and Oregon, they're 10 and two. They're probably in. It's really really hard to play play this game because you don't know what the rest of the country looks like. 10 and two most years will probably get you in, but if they lose to Penn State in Oregon, then you know what the discussion point will be. It's Indiana again. Yeah, so like you have to. I think that like it. I don't know what you think. What if Indiana's like Indiana's on this list?

What if Indiana is good again and they beat them? What if SC is good and they beat them? Like this this is the part where it's harder. Iowa State this year uh like Iowa State's gonna be pretty good this year so like that you know but it also could be a quality win for them too so um yeah but Iowa you know what the thing that we need to do and I don't know if we can get this done on the show, but I think we need to get a committee member to join the show in the off season. We need a former committee member to join the show. Yeah, yeah. Who can actually tell us what really goes on. what really goes on. But like in terms of like reformed behavior year over year of like, okay, we learned last year, you know, again, my position is sternly that they did nothing wrong a year ago, but I wonder if previous years and how they turn out impact the way they rank in the future.

Because they are humans. It's like when you say, Oh, we're gonna get Indiana again. It's like, well, if you get Indiana again, they should get in again, right? Like that's like a no brainer, but. You know, I wonder if they'll rank them the same and obviously how the seating turns out here in the next few months is going to go a long way and determining that as well. But yes, I think that both of these teams, you know, have schedules and personnel to win nine games and maybe more if they have an exceptional, you know, sleeper year. Yeah. That's what I, why they they could be.

Potentially playing for. An at large birth at the end of the season. Yeah, I mean, I always is, you know, in the 89 win territory, so like you're not asking for more now, and imagine if they have an offense that scores 29 points a game. Yeah, and they played.

They played a really fun game last year. Oh fun. Was right. Colt McCoy was calling it. It was it was weird and we were all watching the 8 overtime Georgia Tech Georgia game, but it was a very close game. It was a walk off. So I gotta tell you Andy. Watching that game with you is like one of the highlights of the entire season for me. I was so like into it like that. I had was like one of the highlights of the entire season for me.

I was so like into it, like that I had to like pee in between every overtime. Like I was like, remember how many times I went to the bathroom? Like I was like- Well, you see how much I started hopping around when I'm watching a close game. Like even I don't care who wins, I just can't stand, I can't sit.

And like my wife and kid were not in the house that night. Right? So we were able to scream and really like, yeah, that was a fun night. We got to do that more often. We even like a weekend where we're not going to the game. Like I should come to your house and just watch the games with you

in your living room all day. Done. Let's do it. Or I will travel for Domino's. I will. We pick it. We just pick a weekend where somebody good is playing at the Gators.

Like just come for Texas Florida weekend. Yeah. No, I want to sit in the house from 11 a.m. until two in the morning and just sit on the couch with you and watch games. Do that too. We did have a blast on championship Saturday in Nashville doing that.

So that was a great, I had a great day that day. We might just make that a live watch next year. Just put the cameras on. How many just watch with us? How many days did we watch football together? And how many of those days did we get dominoes? 80%? It was a lot.

We got dominoes the first night that I came to announce that I was at on three. We got dominoes at the on three headquarters. We not an advertiser, by the way, not an advertisement yet yet yet. It should be. I mean, who are we kidding? Because I actually like I believe in the product. Or you know pizza rolls.

We either one of you. Another question from Joe Ari long time listener from Maryland love the content. What do you guys think about Maryland football's potential? They just came off a four-win season, yet they're killing it recruiting. They have the number one player committed in the class of 2026 and a four-star local quarterback in the 2025 class. With the Under Armour CEO and the recruiting hotbed of the DMV, what do you think the program's potential could be? So I've said this about Maryland and I've said this about Rutgers too. And I think we've now reached the

point where I understand that I can't keep saying it because it's not going to happen. Like if a Rutgers coach could keep every good player in New Jersey, in New Jersey going to Rutgers, then Rutgers would be a perennial big 10 contender. If the Maryland coach could ever keep the best players from the DMV consistently going to Maryland, then Maryland would be one of the best teams in the country. But even though Mike Loxley, who's a great recruiter, historically, he's been there a while. They've just never been able to do that. Okay, I just sent River something and I don't know how fast he works, but it's a screenshot. He's fast. Or like how hard that is. I have no idea. Like he's got a tough job. I can't do that stuff, but I'm going to vamp while he's doing it. From Clevelandcom September 21st 2016 and the headline reads

why isn't Arizona State a good program the biggest sleeping giants in college football okay and I'm looking through it and it's so funny because we all feel the same way there it is thank you River look at that dude amazing round of applause the river Thank you River. Look at that dude. Let's give him a round of applause, River. And the dates on there, you can see it. And I'm looking at the list here, and Arizona State is obviously in the headline because I think Arizona State, for the most part, is the number one sleeping giant. Arizona State and North Carolina, those are the two that always get mentioned.

Arizona State, to me, is even bigger than that because of the size of the university, the location, uh, the uniforms, the recruiting territory, the fact that Arizona as a state is getting more talented as kids get older. But the other ones on my list here, Andy, and I'm looking through it, Rutgers, which you just mentioned. Okay. Houston, which was, uh, you know, and this is, I think it was before they were a power team in 2016.

It was so totally, you know, it was on their UCLA coming off a good year that year. UCLA was one and Maryland. And I think that like the thing with, you know, Joe, that is. Honestly true because we, we did have this notion that Maryland could be like the East coast, Oregon, if they really wanted to write or like, if they really, if they had a, I don't know how Under Armour never really got the market share from Nike. No, and we've actually seen them scale back. Is Under Armour as a company still killing it? Like I've never bought an Under Armour thing before.

The deal they have with the Rock, I think, has done a lot of, you know, they've done a lot of sales with that. Do you own Under Armour stuff? with the rock, I think has done a lot of, you know, they've done a lot of sales with that. But under armor stuff. No, my brother-in-law wears all tons of it. Like he's got the entire rock line, but I don't have any. I've never bought their shoes. And maybe maybe the difference between Maryland and Oregon is just that Nike is cooler than under armor.

Definitely. Yeah, I mean, like, like kids grow up wanting Jordans and like Nike is cooler than Under Armour. Definitely, yeah. I mean, like kids grow up wanting Jordans and like Nike is the direct line to that. But if Under Armour, you know, somebody saying Under Armour is is going bankrupt, but I don't that may or may not be true. I but I have no interest in their brand personally. But if Under Armour

went all in at the program, like they've tried their cool uniforms. They had the Maryland flag on the helmets. They're in a very nice town. Like I really enjoy going there. Conceivably could be, and also too, if they became a giant in recruiting in the DMV area. Mike Loxley is an excellent recruiter.

If you put Mike Loxley as the head coach at any of the Tiffany Blue Blood programs, he'd be hauling in top three classes every year. But it's also, this isn't a pump sunshine show. Yeah. And I gotta tell you, we've been saying the things that were illustrated in the question for a decade now. Right, that's what I'm saying. They've always gotten good points.

I can't keep saying them unless Yeah. There's proof of concept and there's not. I think in theory, yes, they have a high ceiling, but in execution, they haven't done it. So like, I'm at the point now where I'm kinda like, probably not, right? Like I mean,

before you gotta stop. Here's the problem. I do not doubt Mike Loxley's ability as a recruiter. I've seen him do it multiple places at multiple levels. Like he is a great recruiter. Maryland has done a really good job of getting players in the building. They've done a terrible job of keeping them in the building.

Well, and they haven't stacked them. You got to stack them. Like you're going up against Ohio state, Penn state and Michigan. Like you got to stack these guys. And so they get the occasional one or four years in a row where they like flip the five star on signing day. A five star, but you got to get. No, I know.

I know. But I'm saying it starts with a five star. I mean, there are a lot of programs out there that don't get a five star. Um, but then they're out of the program 12 months later. I think like Rakim Jarrett was the only one that played his entire career there. Am I, was it? Well, I mean, Stephon Diggs and, and Locksley was on the staff when they got Stephon Diggs and Locksley was very much responsible

for helping get Stefan Diggs, but they didn't use Stefan Diggs very well there. Urban Meyer was obsessed with Stefan Diggs. That was the guy that he wanted more than anybody when he first took over at Ohio State. River, who was the Tennessee kid that they flipped? There was a five star that was committed to Tennessee. I thought that they flipped on signing day. I don't

know. Maybe I'm misremembering that, but you know in between flipped in LSU commit during locks. Lease tail, but but the thing is like they don't. They don't stack it up. It's not just the five stars. As you know, it's the high four stars. How many of those do you get? And like if you look at an Alabama or Georgia class, those are super deep in Ohio State class. They're super deep. Penn State class are super deep like Maryland doesn't has to get three top 100

players from DMV in one cycle and all three of them stay and become good and then you have to build it. It's not like overnight. They're going to sign a top 11 class, right? Like they got it. They got to do it slowly and I thought that those those late. Additions of splashes that they made the last few years, including Rakim Jarrett were like the, the precursor to that evolution happening. And it just never happened.

So, yeah. And the thing is like, so Billy Edwards, the quarterback he's gone, he's gone to Wisconsin, like they knew he was gone. He's gone to Wisconsin. Like they knew he was going to be gone mid season last year. Yeah. It's just, I don't know. For whatever reason, they can't seem to establish it as a beach head where this is a place you go and you stay and you.

You become a star. Cause Maryland's actually a great academic institution too, isn't it? Oh, fantastic, yeah. What do you think of their uniforms? The more old school, closer to what Boomer or Syison wore, the better for me. I like the old ones that say Terps on it. I think that the flag ones are iconic. Yeah, the script Terps. A little bit too loud for my taste.

Yeah, so it's it's it's interesting because, you know, Oregon and Nike, and you've seen this with with Oklahoma State and Nike, like they'll go for it. And it usually looks pretty cool. When Oregon has had some flopsops though, let's be when Under Armour and Adidas have gone forward. It is not looked all that cool. Yeah, so that's that's it. But I gotta see it. That's that's the problem is is I just gotta see it because when you look at it, great school surrounded by really good players. You're basically in suburban DC in College Park. It should be better than it is, but I'm telling you right now, like Mike Locksley is not the problem in terms of player acquisition. Mike Locksley is a great recruiter.

And if he can't recruit the way we're talking about, I'm not sure if anybody can. Yeah, that's that's the way I look at it. All right, one more from Devin and we're we stay on the sleeping giant situation. Love show is an Arizona State fan. I feel like I'm in a weird situation. People talk about how great Kenny Dillingham is but who knows what the team will be without cam scataboo. They're also keeping praise on Sam Levitt and us getting Jordan Tyson back. I believe we're the best team in the Big 12 and one of the top 10 in

the country, but I love the doubt from the national media. So my question is should fans of smaller market teams love the praise even if it's off-handed and somewhat ho-hum or should we be more angry that we're not talked about and just be the Cinderella? I think that's personal preference. Like you could choose to embrace the Cinderella, the chip on the shoulder. Like here's the thing. Think about all those interviews with Georgia players

where they're like, nobody believed in us. Well, everybody believes in you, but they're gonna pretend that nobody believes in you. They're gonna say, the national media doesn't believe in you. And somebody might be dumb enough to believe that. But with Arizona State, we think Arizona State's good. Now, Ari, do we think Arizona State coming back with those no-cams scat-a-boo is absolutely the best team in the Big 12? No. Because the teams in the Big 12 were really close when they had scammed at camp scat-a-boo.

Yeah, the Arizona State thing is interesting because it's almost like, did they peak too soon? It's like if Arizona State would have gone nine and three or 10 and two and missed the playoffs last year. I mean, maybe this is a dumb argument, but like, you know, the building process is supposed to take longer, right? Kelly, Kenny, Kenny Dillingham did such a good job

of getting them good fast that like, it's almost harder to believe that it's sustainable. Like as you go like from from four wins to six wins to eight wins and then you get like you are building something. Whereas they built it so fast and they hit the lottery with Scadaboo in the portal. It's like, well, what can Arizona State ever do to accomplish what they did last year? But the other side of that is that Arizona State unlock the activation of the Valley, which is what he keeps saying. Are they going to be? Is the giant away? Like, is this the,

is this the first step of getting good players believing in ASU and building it? Because like Arizona State, I'd want to play there. I'd want to play there, especially now that they went to the playoff, Kenny Dillingham is a player's coach. People like him. Hopefully they'll get their money up and compensate people. But like Arizona state's a really cool place to play. Now the other thing too, about the sleeping giant thing that we have not discussed with Arizona state that is no longer true is that they are no longer

in a power conference. Now it's considered one at the moment in the current playoff structure, but the Big 12 is not the same thing as the Pac-12 that I wrote about when they were a Sleeping Giant 16 and even when Kenny Dillingham took the job. So does being in the Big 12 alone stop your potential of hitting up a team, of being a team that perennial... I'm having a really rough day today.

Perennial. Nope, try again. Perennially. Nope. Will you say it for me? Perennially? Perennially, competes for a national championship. But like, honestly, like I know that we have to like pretend

like things aren't real sometimes, but like the big 12 is a power conference by label only. Right, exactly. And the other part of it is going away. The big 12 is jam packed at the top. If you in Arizona state, probably pretty close. If Utah gets going again, probably pretty close. We'll see how Kayden Salter does it Colorado, but probably pretty close. Iowa state pretty close. If Kansas gets rolling again, pretty close.

If TCU like Baylor and Texas Tech finished the season really strong last year. I mean, just here, here, here. Ari and Andy question comes from Ari Wasserman. Can there be a team in the big 12? Is it possible in your mind in this conference, the way that it's situated right now, ever build a team that can, that we expect to compete with Oklahoma and Texas

on an annual basis? Like, is it possible to do that? Or do you have to be in a conference that is funding through television contracts enough money in order to sustain that? I feel like you could do it. At one of the the places that's close to really good players, but you'd have to have some significant donation money and some good backing in terms of NIL.

So if you had the oil, Aaron, TCU, the dude from land, man. Yep. Houston. You got a billionaire bankrolling them. Arizona state got, got players around. So it could be done. You need to be Arizona State with the billionaire. I don't need the billionaire or the other. I mean, I guess Houston Houston has the billionaire. Houston has the billionaires and the players. TCU has the billionaires. So and the players.

Yeah, it's possible. It's possible. It's not easy. And there's a very specific set of circumstances. Big 12 could be a power conference again. If TCU and Houston turned out to be juggernauts. I just don't know if it's possible at the same time, especially considering the fact that LSU, Texas, Ohio State, Oklahoma. Texas A&M. Yeah, everybody's like that.

Being near players isn't the only thing. Like being near players but also being the ninth best team on the pantheon of trying to get those players doesn't mean anything. Right. You need to become their first or second option. And that's the problem. The problem right now is a great player in Dallas, a great player in Houston, their first, second, third options are like Texas, LSU, Ohio State, or Texas A&M, or Oklahoma, or whoever else comes.

Because they all come in. Alabama will come in. If you're your fifth best option, like is your fifth like your fifth best option in Texas, if you're a high end three star prospect is Arkansas. Like you know what I mean? Like it's not like it's like that's the thing. Like if you're a high end three star prospect in Dallas, would you rather go to Houston? Ole Miss may come get you. Like yeah.

Yeah. I mean like you're talking about everyone's in Texas. and three-star prospect in Dallas, would you rather go to Houston? Ole Miss may come get you. You're talking about everyone's in Texas. Yeah, and that's part of the problem is there's a lot of SEC and Big Ten teams that are just coming in even if they aren't in Texas. All right, we got a little news. Ross Dellinger of Yahoo! reporting that Oregon and Dan Lanning have agreed to a six year contract averaging nearly 11 million per season. It's a $2 million raise per year for Dan Lanning. Congratulations on the money, Dan Lanning. He deserves it. He deserves it, but did they have to pay it?

I think it's my question. I'm going to write this. You go ahead. They still didn't have to pay it. Who was after him? Yeah. Okay. So you think this is, this is interesting. This is interesting because you did your flow chart.

Well, okay. But here's the thing. Somebody has been interested in Dan landing nearly every year. It's just this year there wasn't a job open that was good enough. That's it, right there, that's what I'm writing. Yeah, it's like, okay, no one's interested right now, no one's trying to get them right now,

but they will next year, like, just give them one. This is proactive, so okay, I take back my credit. In the flow chart, this qualifies, because every year somebody is interested in Dan Lanning. Now, I will say, maybe part of this with me saying you didn't need to do this, is the way Dan Lanning. Now, I will say, maybe part of this with me saying you didn't need to do this is the way Dan Lanning has handled all these things because he has been very, like he's not really played the game.

Obviously he's got Jimmy Sexton representing him who plays the game better than anybody. But Lanning has been great at not publicly playing the game and almost going against it publicly, being like, I'm not leaving, I would never leave. What are you even thinking? So I think maybe I believed him so much that I'm like, you don't have to pay him anymore.

I'm gonna leave with your flow chart and how this is an exception. Well, it's an exception because there were teams the year before, Alabama would have- Man was in the Alabama discussion and the team got better this year like correct correct so that's it any big job that opens in the next two years his name will come up even though he's made it abundantly clear he doesn't leave Oregon and his bio is huge around with

it he shouldn't mess around with having to worry about it yeah his buyout is huge. Morgan shouldn't mess around with it. He shouldn't mess around with having to worry about it. Yeah, his buyout is enormous if you wanted to hire him away from Morgan anyway. So they've secured themselves on multiple fronts. They've secured Dan Lanning on multiple fronts. But yeah, you're right. My instinct, my knee-jerk reactionary is always who was coming after him this year,

why are you paying this now? But in this particular case, this is someone who is going to be marketable every year. So just keep him happy. Oregon's on the ascension and you are locking up your future with that. I like, I'm okay with this one. Big deal.

Zach in the chat says he was never an option for Alabama. The buyout wasn't an option. It was a smokescreen for DeBoer. He was an option for Alabama if he wanted to go to Alabama. He didn't. And yes, his buyout at Oregon is enormous. But if Alabama really wants you, I don't know that there's an enormous number that's too enormous. So that's the thing. A&M wanted to kick the tires on him. Alabama wanted to kick the tires on him.

So Ari's right on this one. I'm wrong. Like they, this is one time where you do, you do pay up because you got a good thing. You want to make sure you keep them. Yeah. And also too, the one thing that I might disagree with on your flow chart is did they just win a national championship being like the only metric for like success? You know why I put that there? Huh? No, I put that there. It's because you can spend all the money you want right after you win a national championship and no one will care. Yeah, I'm saying Oregon Oregon's current situation. My camera died. My camera. Yeah, you didn't buy that cord.

I told you to buy. I know. Yes, I did. It doesn't charge. There you go. This is what I actually look like everyone. All right, wrap it up before people see my. All right, tomorrow, tomorrow's show, tomorrow's show.

Hardest and easiest schedules in 2025, plus a bonus edition of grab ass, where Ari and I will try to guess the logos of FCS programs. As you've seen in the past two weeks, we're pretty bad at it. Andy, somebody said on Twitter when you posted your Puka Panini gold card, if Ari goes two weeks without a technical difficulty,

you can give it to him. Like that can't happen. I feel like it's a safe bet. It's a safe bet. I mean, the other day we were doing an interview with somebody already already asked an entire question while muted. His camera died today. Good fish. Yeah. Oh, no. No, it's Rich Rodriguez. Yeah. Okay. Well,

that was a fun show. I'm happy we got our it's on your fault for it's your fault for letting the show go this long. It's always my fault. I understand. Maybe got to an hour. It's on your fault. It's your fault for letting the show go this long. It's always my fault. I understand. Maybe I just like hanging around with you. He's your co-host. Have you thought about that? Or I just want to make sure that people are entertained right up into the point. We get to the hard count with JD Pichel, which is next on the

On3 Sports YouTube channel. 11 a.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Central. JD is next.