Andy & Ari On3 - Jeremiah Smith’s SLIDING DOORS moment | Why he picked Ohio State over Miami

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's episode of Andy and Arion 3 presented by BetMGM, it's Jeremiah Smith's sliding doors. We've talked in the past about how Jeremiah Smith almost chose Miami, which is the team that his Ohio State team is playing in the Cotton Bowl. He explains further why he picked Ohio State. And it also explains a lot of why Ohio State's been as good as it has been. It also might explain what could be next for Miami, not Jeremiah Smith. Of course, he's coming back to Ohio State next year. also coming back next year marcus freeman plans to run it back at notre dame no matter what some nfl team decided to throw at him he doesn't want it he's staying at notre dame not going anywhere

Starting point is 00:00:42 who is going somewhere cam coleman former five-star receiver spent two seasons at auburn he is now heading into the transfer portal where might he wind up what team could benefit from him the most. And what does Cam Coleman need to do in terms of selecting that new team? Plus, one more move. Danton Lynn, the defensive coordinator at USC, is about to become the defensive coordinator at Penn State. He will join Matt Campbell's staff. You wondered who was going to replace John Haycock, who was Matt Campbell's longtime D.C., who retired. Well, now you know, Danlin, and it also does some serious damage to a conference rival. We'll talk about all of that and more on Andy and on three presented by bet mgm we are proud to be presented by bet m gmgm we use all bet mgm lines and totals on this

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Starting point is 00:04:01 Welcome to Andy and Rion 3 presented by BetMGM. Ari has been a busy, busy boy because he was at Cotton Bowl Media Day today, catching up with the Buckeyes and the Hurricanes, and now you've high-tailed it back home, which has brought us some very interesting video. Yeah, the media day is always the best day, especially for a print journalist, because you get to talk to everybody on the team. And, you know, I don't know if people realize this, but not everybody's made available at most programs throughout the year. So it was really cool to get out there. But now, I've been thinking about this game quite a bit, Andy, obviously through the Christmas break.

Starting point is 00:04:37 And I hope everybody had a great break. Is this the single most impactful individual recruiting decision for a matchup that you can remember? And I'm talking about Jeremiah Smith, who I learned today had Miami clothes in his backpack the day he announced. I don't think that people realize how close Miami actually was to getting him. I think they remember the saga of how long it took for his NIL to come in. They remember, you know, Ryan Day fainting when the letter finally came in during his news conference, all those things. But when you think about where he's from, where he was considering, and, what it would mean to remove him from Ohio State's sideline and put him on Miami's the last two

Starting point is 00:05:24 years, you know, is he the missing piece? And they haven't placed in this in this game, just in this game. And we've talked about it. Like John Ewing from Bed MGM has explained to us what individual players mean. And he said, remember we talked to him about this at the beginning of the season. He said, of the non-quarterbacks, Jeremiah Smith is the one player who would really move a line so like if jeremiah smith played for miami instead of ohio state in this game it's ohio state minus 10 right now would it be ohio state minus four or minus five i mean if you put jeremiah smith on the other team it might be closer to a pick and like i know that mathematically that doesn't make sense but i think all the statistics for the course of the entire season would be

Starting point is 00:06:10 different and we would be viewing miami as a different team like when you you think about ruling out a player for an individual matchup in a in a in a line situation you're removing their production from an individual game but if you have somebody like that in your program for two years what does that mean for everybody else in the offense what does that mean for malic i tony what does that mean for the quarterback and the ease in which he operates like jeremiah smith's value to ohio state is far more than what he has in the stat book and i think that as we would have gone through the year, I think Miami would have rushed it better. I think their quarterback would have thrown less interceptions. I think things would have been easier. They might not have

Starting point is 00:06:52 had to run all those gadget plays against A&M. And thus the entire team raises. And I think that the viewpoint of who Miami is right now. And it's like the sliding door thing is really fun. But they're actually playing each other. They're playing each other in a game. And it's very easy to go down the fantasy island route of what would Miami's program be had he chosen the Hurricanes two years ago. Now, we asked him about this at Big Ten Media Days, and he gave us a really good answer and gave us more insight on it than any of us had previously known about how close it was. And a bunch of Ohio State fans got mad at us. So here's the thing. We're not suggesting he go to Miami now or anything to be different. It's just really interesting. It's an interesting

Starting point is 00:07:38 college football story. And it also explains why Ohio State is as good as it is. has been as good as it's been because they've been able to get players like this time and time again it also explains why on three exists yeah like i mean i know that people think that stars don't matter as much as they used to and individual recruiting battles don't matter as much and maybe that's true to a certain extent but when somebody like this comes through the high school ranks and he comes into a team and then helps them win a national title as a true freshman like the truly generational players like Jeremiah. Their individual decision

Starting point is 00:08:18 changes the course of multiple programs and when they play each other, it's impossible not to talk about. Like, listen, this guy knows half of Miami's roster. Him and Jojo Trader are like best friends and he described them as blood brothers today. They hang out with each other. They're from the same area. You know,

Starting point is 00:08:39 and Miami when they were recruiting Jeremiah Smith was still in the pretty beginning stages of their roster program build under Mario Cristobal. And if you think about last year's team, maybe there's nothing that Jeremiah Smith could have done to fix their defense last year. But if you put him on last year's team with Restrepo and Cam Ward and all the guys that they have been one of the best offenses we've ever seen. And maybe if you have one of the best offenses we've ever seen, your defense gets a longer

Starting point is 00:09:09 break and like but imagine putting him on this team with tony and fletcher and beck like it is a massive difference and he's wrong you talked to jeremiah smith today and asked him about all this stuff and i thought his answers were really interesting so here's ari and jeremiah smith if miami had won or played in games like this before you signed out of high school would your decision may have been different um most likely yeah i probably end up going to Miami if no Deans was on the right shot then and there

Starting point is 00:09:43 but you know I chose to stick with Ohio State sorry so that's a pretty big deal and what he's saying is if Miami had been further along if Miami had been in this part

Starting point is 00:10:01 of the build two years ago then he probably goes to Miami and we're talking about a completely different thing And again, this tells you about why Ohio State continues to be as good as it is because every time there's somebody like this, it feels like Ari, they get him. But I think it's also kind of frustrating for a Miami fan to hear that because on one hand,

Starting point is 00:10:26 I understand like if you're Jeremiah Smith, let's just back up the bus for a second. Okay. Home pride is certainly important. Staying home in being the missing element or the missing piece to a program bill that you grew up around rooting for understanding the power of has to be near and dear to your heart. But if you are an asset, and we have to start talking about these players like their assets because they are now, and your future indicates that you have the potential to be the number one overall pick in the draft and a pro football Hall of Famer, the way that his profile was,

Starting point is 00:11:05 you could make the case that going to Miami, it still would have worked out the same, but that's not a gamble you take. You go to the path of least resistance. You go to the place that has been putting players into the first round at your position for years. You don't make that risk. And the funniest thing about this,

Starting point is 00:11:24 and the hardest thing I think it is for Miami fans to understand or wrap their heads around is he probably made the right decision for his own personal development. But until players look at Mario Cristobal and say, you guys aren't where I want you to be, but I'm the person that brings us there. That's the difference because you need good players to take the steps that Jeremiah Smith wanted them to take.

Starting point is 00:11:50 If you went there, they would have taken these steps and probably further with your presence and they are behind Ohio State on the build chart because you did not go there. Like that's like a two-pronged, like thought process. Here's the part where we are going to make Ohio State fans a little nervous because there is a big reason Jeremiah Smith chose Ohio State that the next Jeremiah Smith, and I don't mean the next five-star recruit. I mean the next five-star receiver. The next one, and I don't know, because they did sign some five-star receivers this year, even though Brian Hartline, the receivers coach is leaving.

Starting point is 00:12:27 But Brian Hartline is the receivers coach who helped devils. develop. Chris Olavay, Jackson Smith and Jigba, Marvin Harrison Jr., Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate. There are guys I'm leaving out who are NFL stars right now. I'm sorry. It's hard to think of them all at once. But that is the just epic run that Brian Hartline has been on as Ohio State's receivers coach. He's the best receivers coach in the world. Like I'm not exaggerating there. He's better than anybody in the NFL. He's better than anybody else in college. He's now the head coach at USF. So the next time around, the next full recruiting cycle,

Starting point is 00:13:03 he will not be trying to get five-star receivers to be Buckeyes. He will be trying to get him to be bulls. Yes. And I think that it is kind of fascinating too, because I spoke to Heartline today, and I'm sure we'll play a clip, is that like Heartline deserves all the praise that you just put on him.

Starting point is 00:13:22 But at the same time, too, Ohio State also now gets to absorb the benefits of developing Jeremiah Smith, even though I think my daughter could do that. Like, part of that to me is like, and I'm not saying that he would, he's not better because he is being coached by heartliner. He's not better because he went to Ohio State and has all the abilities and the resources that Ohio State offers to develop their players. But Jeremiah Smith could have gone to Kent State and been a first round pick. He could have gone to USF and been a first round pick. And that's what I'm talking about, Ari.

Starting point is 00:13:54 Yeah. And I think that, and I think that, um, a lot of the players that came through Ohio State certainly got better, but go check JSN's high school take. Right. JSN was awesome. Like, Chris Olavay is probably the one that you didn't know would be that coming out of high school. But also, and we're going to talk about it. Like, Ari, we're going to talk later in the show about a five-star recruit coming out of high school who had all the tools, came out the same year as Jeremiah Smith,

Starting point is 00:14:22 who has not lived up to that potential, who has not been developed in the way that you'd want to be. we'll be talking about Cam Coleman and entering the transfer portal. So it's part of that too, Andy, though, too is, and like this is maybe where the brilliance of Brian Hartline really rests is being able to pick amongst the ones that you're taking. Like continually choosing right because there are other players at his position that were rated really high that didn't produce at all. And I think Cam Coleman's a terrible example because I believe that wherever he ends up, if he ends up in a better situation, he's going to be a star next year. I think he's going to watch that guy play for four minutes and you know. Yeah. He's a good example for what I'm saying is if Kim Coleman had gone to Ohio State, he'd have been awesome.

Starting point is 00:15:01 He'd already be awesome in college. Right. So, like, it's kind of a complicated thing, but at the same time, like, I understand where Jeremiah Smith is coming from. I also feel like Jeremiah Smith's mindset is the reason why it's been so hard for other teams to build because they go to the path of least resistance. places like Ohio State get to promote and celebrate that they developed Jeremiah Smith for the next five years, or the next 15 years, or however long it takes, that guy is going to be in the pantheon of their great players. And I truly wholeheartedly believe that if Jeremiah Smith went to Miami, he might have been the best receiver or one of the best receivers in program history there, too. So what did Jeremiah Smith want to do, want to do? He wanted to win a national title and become a first round pick.

Starting point is 00:15:46 He's already won a national title. Might win another one. Might win a third one. Who knows, depending on how this goes. he's going to be a first round pick. So mission accomplished. And I understand. Let's hear what you, you talk to Brian Hartland.

Starting point is 00:15:58 Let's hear what he said about, about that run of receivers. When you look at how individual recruiting results play a factor in game, sometimes it's stark, sometimes it's not. But the recruiting result of Jeremiah Smith, if you were to switch sidelines, what he would have meant to that team the last two years. Can you picture, like, how one individual recruiting result can change the impact of a game? game as much as this one maybe? I haven't thought about it like that.

Starting point is 00:16:28 I think it's not just really recruiting as it is just, you know, the impact of players. Like everybody wants to talk about, you know, coaches or, you know, I think all that stuff is very important. I'm not minimizing that. But ultimately, players are the ones that deserve all the credit. Players are the ones that make the plays. Players are the ones that get their bodies ready to be available. Players are the ones that change games, right, and change trajectory for programs.

Starting point is 00:16:58 And so ultimately, anybody that can impact those players and those players to be better, that's the secondary effect. And I think that whether it's the training staff, whether it's coaches, those guys are very, very important. But ultimately, players are the most important piece of all this. And obviously, Jeremiah Smith being. the elite player he is, Cornell Tate being the elite player that he is,

Starting point is 00:17:24 Caleb Downs being the elite player that he is, whether you come from high school or maybe through a university, still can change trajectories for programs. I think that's another piece of it. He mentioned Caleb Downs, who didn't sign out of high school with Ohio State. He played at Alabama for a year,

Starting point is 00:17:40 and Nick Saban retired, and then he chose Ohio State over Georgia, which, by the way, another sliding doors, if Caleb Downs picks Georgia instead of Ohio State, is Georgia the number one seat in this playoff this year. Like, yeah, that's, that's important too. But the other thing about Jeremiah Smith's choice specifically or any of these guys' choices to pick Ohio State is they put so many other good players around you, not just at your position, but you know you're going to be surrounded by the best of the best, which is going to raise your game and is going to raise your level of play and practice. It's going to make you work harder.

Starting point is 00:18:13 It's going to make you work hard in a wait room. It's going to make everything better. And Ryan Day has done an incredible job. that yeah i asked ryan day today if you put uh jeremiah smith on miami's sideline um what the game would look like and he said i don't like to play hypotheticals that's what you do uh but i'm happy you know so it's just an interesting subplot and i do think that the really special thing about college football and i don't know if it's because there's so many different players and so many different recruits recruitments and but these stories tend to pop up quite a bit in the playoff like

Starting point is 00:18:48 what if the person from this place played here? Like, I mean, the natural intersection of university and player and geography seems to pop up in all these matchups all the time, whether it's a coach leaving to another school and then has to play his old school. I mean, like, look, like Carson Beck and Georgia are on the different sides of the bracket here. Could you imagine? Like, it's not. I was just about to say the Caleb Downs thing I just said. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:19:14 We're going to have that conversation next week if Ohio State wins. on Wednesday and Georgia wins on Thursday. And then is they going to play each other? If it runs through the bracket, then you're going to have the same conversation about Caleb Downs and Bama. I mean, especially now in the Transfer Portal era,

Starting point is 00:19:28 when you have really good players going to top programs from each other, like I believe Cam Coleman's probably going to end up doing, these types of things, especially in the expanded playoff world, where more teams are at play here. Like, you know, four years ago, this matchup never would have happened

Starting point is 00:19:43 and now we're getting it. So, yeah. Yeah, I mean, Jeremiah Smith, too, like, I know that it's funny to say and I'm assuming that Ohio State will do what they did last year and back up the Brinks truck and make sure that he's made whole and given what he's worth. But like, you said he was returning to Ohio State next year and it's like, I think he is. But is that a fact? Is anything a fact?

Starting point is 00:20:04 In the world in the world of on top of Revs year, you can put the real NIL. Like Jeremiah Smith commands more real NIL than anybody in college football. So they'll be able to get him whatever he needs. Yeah, and I'm assuming that they will. But also if you're Jeremiah Smith and you would like to play with your best friend and back at home and you're already a solidified product. Like, you know, I'm not trying to drum up controversy here. Yeah, you are.

Starting point is 00:20:32 You know the Ohio State fan base better than anybody. No, no, I'm sure he will be back. But I just don't know if in today's college football landscape, if you can just definitively say that year over here when these guys are free agents. I think he can say that. Yeah. I mean, he was asked about it.

Starting point is 00:20:53 I don't know what his answer was. I saw it on Twitter before we started the show. Somebody asked him if he's coming back next year. So, like, I'm not the only one thinking that. All right. Well, if you want to collect Jeremiah Smith, the real one plays for Ohio State. I think he'll be playing for Ohio State next year.

Starting point is 00:21:11 But if you would like to collect some. beautiful images of Jeremiah Smith playing for Ohio State from various different Panini products. Panini America.net is the place to start your collection. I've got the student orientation card. It is beautiful. This is absolutely beautiful. That's a photo of it. It's back at home. It's one of my favorites. It's from the prison product. There are Jeremiah Smith cards sprinkled throughout Panini products. And that is part of the fun of ripping those packs. Plus, there are Arch Manning cards. there are well you see these color blasts that Ari sent us with the

Starting point is 00:21:49 the Riley Leonard Joe Montana and with Jeremiah Smith like there's so much out there so Panini America.net to start your collection including lots of Jeremiah Smith just out there in packs waiting to be ripped. All right. Ari. Andy. There's a Jeremiah Smith that I pulled out of the product that they sent us, 2025 prism break or sorry prism draft picks this is number to 199 this is purple cracked ice Jeremiah so he's in there I want that okay I'll trade you for the

Starting point is 00:22:25 you always do that with me you know you can't have my Pooka by the way that card's value probably went through the roof because like last year he was really good like can you make the straight face declaration that he's one of the three best receivers in the NFL right now because I think you could yeah I sure can but you know who else is JSN, your guy collecting, and who played for Brian Hartland at Ohio State.

Starting point is 00:22:48 It all ties back. But yeah, go to Panini, America.net to start your collection today. Ari, now we got to talk about something. We had a show on this last week. I did not expect this to resolve itself so soon, but it's resolved.

Starting point is 00:23:04 Marcus Freeman ain't going anywhere. The NFL teams have kicked the tires. He has kicked the tires on them. He ain't going anywhere. Marcus Freeman tweeted on Monday, 2026, run it back, go Irish with the shamrock emoji. That's got to be,

Starting point is 00:23:20 I don't think the Notre Dame people, I definitely don't think the administration was that worried. I think maybe Notre Dame fans might have been a little bit worried. But this has got to set everybody's minds at ease. The coach, because we've talked about this, Marcus Freeman and Dan Lending are the two coaches that if your coach left,

Starting point is 00:23:36 you'd want one of those two guys. Everybody wants Marcus Freeman, including NFL teams, the Giants, the Titans, you know, he's one of those leaks from from the NFL side where it's like, the Titans are doing their due diligence on Marcus Freeman.

Starting point is 00:23:51 Marcus Freeman ain't going to the Titans. What does due diligence? What does due diligence look like? Well, it's what Michigan didn't do on Sharon Moore. That's pretty heavy. I was kind of making a joke. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:24:07 But like, if you're the Titans employee that is in charge of doing your due diligence on Marcus Freeman. How long does that actually take? Probably not very long. Now, Mike Vrable is not going to take your phone call anymore because you fired him, but he'd be a good person to ask. And you could ask that whole Ohio State linebacker group chat, you know,

Starting point is 00:24:27 the AJ Hawk, Bobby Carpenter group. Like, now I know they've kicked him out a little bit because he's the Notre Dame coach, so he doesn't get, he's not privy to every text, but those guys still love that guy. Yeah. By the way, like, I don't know how close or how. real this was. I know that there were reports out there that Marcus Freeman was a legitimate candidate for these jobs. I'm not surprised by this. I don't know if you are either, but, you know, this is a really important step. And I don't know if I'm off on this, but I truly

Starting point is 00:25:02 believe that there is no team that has had more of a glow up. Well, that's not true. Indiana's had a pretty big glow up. But any of the teams that were in the mix before the CFP expansion in the NIL era, to like going from pretty good to great, like annually, like Notre Dame is in the position that it felt like it was impossible that they could reach 10 years ago. Like they're like a legitimate national championship contender every single year under this guy's leadership.

Starting point is 00:25:30 They just signed what I believe is the best recruiting class in program history, or at least in the recorded history of online recruiting rankings. and like they are of a lot of momentum and I know that things suck this year and I know that Notre Dame fans probably aren't really big fans of the system or me or the show at the moment but guess what they'll be coming back watching the show next year when we have them rank in the top 10 and they're going to be awesome again so they're probably going to be better and they're going to be in the playoff and they're going to go deep in the playoff probably like they did last year

Starting point is 00:26:01 and so this guy is the reason like Brian Kelly was there and we thought Brian Kelly had them at their ceiling and it just shows how wrong we were. I will never forget Ari watching that video of the Notre Dame players who had just been told Brian Kelly's leaving for LSU learning.

Starting point is 00:26:23 I think it was the next day. It was very soon after, but learning that Marcus Freeman was their permanent head coach. We should have known then what was coming. We should have to decipher if they were celebrating that Brian Kelly was leaving. or that Marcus Freeman

Starting point is 00:26:38 given what we've seen the reactions with Kelly leaving, but yes, I heard a lot of Marcus Freeman is going to recruit at a level that Notre Dame was unfamiliar with in the past, and I always took that with a grain of salt because there's no personality or no human being

Starting point is 00:26:56 that I think it could traverse some of the challenges that Notre Dame was facing in terms of culture fit, you know, academic requirements to get into Notre Dame, all those different things, and he's done it. And, you know,

Starting point is 00:27:07 maybe part of that, that is coinciding in the NIL era where certain things aren't as important as they used to be. But if Notre Dame is going to recruit recruiting classes with four or five, five star prospect in it on any annual basis, like Andy, like this year's playoff is a referendum on can you win the old-fashioned way still or do you have to do it? Like look at all the the playoff matches. And my buddy Doug Lee-Marie wrote a column about this today, but it's like Indiana versus Alabama, traditional recruiting outfit versus portal heavy, Oregon, traditional recruiting

Starting point is 00:27:42 outfit versus portal heavy, Georgia and Ole Miss, every single game that's left in the playoff is old school roster building retention. Except Ohio State, Miami, which they're closer to each other than the others. Yeah, but Ohio State Miami still is a pretty wide gap between how many of the top 50 players or the top 40 players in each roster were homegrown high school. yeah Miami is certainly not Texas Tech or Indiana by Miami's for yeah closer to Ohio State and Georgia than the others are but all four matchups that we have left in the playoff are between new school old school type type teams and it'll be very interesting to see we have some results Indiana has already beaten Ohio State so Georgia Georgia has already beaten Ole Miss so like we'll see how it actually plays out while all the marbles are on the table but it's a very interesting play off. And, you know, and Notre Dame is in an interesting spot with this. And it's, it's interesting to think about now because Notre Dame has still been very good at signing people out of high school and getting

Starting point is 00:28:48 them to be patient. Like these offensive linemen, they don't, they don't, you know, like Anthony Knapp played as a true freshman, but a lot of them don't. A lot of them developed for a couple of years. And, you know, it takes time. It's not, it's not instant, especially when you have to be able to play at that level. So they've done a good job of that. And I think part of that is because of Notre Dame itself. Because if you, once you get to Notre Dame and you understand the power of the degree, the network, all that stuff, I don't think, even with some of these really top level recruits, they're not going, I didn't play as a freshman. I'm out of here as soon as I can get out of here. They're probably going, I'm going to stick this out because I do want this Notre Dame

Starting point is 00:29:34 degree. And so I probably will get to play here. And I think they have a much more traditional development path than even some of the schools that have been getting guys at high school and developing them well because their players are probably a little more apt to be patient. Yeah. I think that like if you look at what Notre Dame has accomplished in the last 12 months, that is your like this Marcus Freeman's the guy because of last year's playoff run and maybe that's the most important thing. But what he did in the 2025 recruiting cycle is the thing that I know makes them an annual contender. Teams make runs sometimes. You know, they were really good last year. They lost their quarterback. They lost important pieces from that team a year ago and they were

Starting point is 00:30:25 better arguably this year, although you won't be able to see how it plays out. year they're going to be like they're recruiting one other really interesting thing about notre dame too versus some of these other places they went rent a quarterback two years in a row they rented sam hartman then they rented riley leonard but they developed cj car and cj car is probably going to be the best quarterback of those three yeah cj car is a pro pro prospect for sure yeah um and some of the again we've talked a lot about on the show the difference between good quarterback and great good great college quarterback and pro prospect and Riley Leonard was a hell of a college player not much of a pro prospect and that's you know maybe

Starting point is 00:31:10 the next level of what they're doing there so yeah huge huge step in the right direction and honestly speaking if Ryan Day accused me of it today it's true I like playing hypothetical games let's play one more hypothetical game Andy all right let's do it if Notre Dame missed the playoff to climb the Pop-Tart Bowl, and then Marcus Freeman left. Could you imagine how dire things would be there at the moment? Especially because LSU, Florida, Penn State, and Michigan, all hired coaches already. And the portal's opening in a few days. Like, it would have been an absolute nightmare,

Starting point is 00:31:46 and a lot of the, it would have been a Jenga tower falling of all their accomplishments the last few years. Like, to retain your coach, to retain the person that has brought you into the new age and, you know, elevated you from a place that we previously perceived as your ceiling is massive. You can, you know, it's, it's not rocket science to tell you guys that, you know, retaining a coach is important, especially when he's good. But like, in this specific instance, it's a complicated place. It's transitioning at a time during which college football is evolving. Like, they need their guy. And there's a reason why Pete

Starting point is 00:32:21 Povacua said during his news conference a week ago that he will be amongst or the top played coach. How many times have you heard an AD say that publicly? They don't usually say it. I've heard it. I think Malmore said what I'm going to say one time. But yeah, they don't really need to say it. And then people of aquas has been pretty up front about how Fort Marcus Freeman is to what they do. And I think when you find the guy that fits you the best and you fit him the best, you fight like hell to keep them. And it's just great job by them. great job by Marcus Freeman understanding where he is

Starting point is 00:32:56 and look it doesn't mean he's never going to try the NFL or he's never going to leave but I think it means he's going to be very discerning about what he does because the coaches who want to go to the NFL like Jim Harbaugh when he was leaving Michigan was going to take the first NFL job he was offered

Starting point is 00:33:12 he was leaving he was going to the NFL Marcus Freeman probably would have had his choice of NFL jobs this year and wasn't leaving Now, look, the NFL jobs that are going to be open, the ones we know about, are pretty poorly run organizations. So why would you leave what is a very well-run organization at Notre Dame to do that? Yeah, but, you know, Andy Reid's going to retire eventually and, you know, jobs open.

Starting point is 00:33:42 So, like, I don't know what, like, we don't know the exact reason why this happened or, you know, what his thought process was about the organization or, you know, whether the Giants was the right fit. But, like, one thing I know for certain, Andy, is if you're a Notre Dame fan, get used of this shit because he's going to be awesome. Yeah, I mean, he's going to be a candidate for just about every possible job that opens in the foreseeable future. And I got to tell you, it's kind of a fun place to be because you want your coach to be a candidate because that means he's good.

Starting point is 00:34:17 Yeah, like Notre Dame and like Oregon, you want your coach to be desired and want him to be the first name that pops up every time a job opens, but you also want him to do exactly what Dan Landing has done and exactly what Marcus Freeman has done and say, you know what, I'm good here. And, you know, Notre Dame's going to be good. I think as long as Marcus

Starting point is 00:34:37 Freeman stays, Notre Dame's going to be good for a long, long time. Yeah. So, congrats to Notre Dame. Huge, huge, huge, huge, huge retention there. Absolutely. So if you need some new Notre Dame gear, by the way, Roeback.com

Starting point is 00:34:51 is the place to go. Uh, they've got amazing, look at that a quarter zip, those shamrock quarters if that thing is beautiful. I'm wearing my Hezzy hoodie right now. Uh, mine is, is not with a team logo on it. Mine's a solid one, which by the way, goes with everything. But if you want a beautiful hoodie, beautiful quarter zip with your team logo on it, Roeback.com, look at that Ohio State helmet stripe quarter zip. Beautiful.

Starting point is 00:35:18 Use the code, Andy, get 20% off your first order. That's our, Roeback.com, R-H-O-B-A-H-B-A-H-H-B-A. ACK.com, the coolest school logo gear that you can get and just the best gear you can get, period, that can go from the office to the golf course, to the bar, you name it. Roeback.com, R-H-O, B-A-C-K, hoodies, polos, Q-Zips, joggers, the butter soft material on the joggers? Unbelievable. Roeback.com, R-H-O-B-A-C, code Andy for 20% off your first order. all right are you the transfer portal opens friday we are going to get more and more transfer portal news the closer we get big big bomb dropped on monday though cam colman

Starting point is 00:36:05 auburn receiver plans to enter the transfer portal a big time recruit five-star recruit in the class of 24 i think we're we can be fairly certain that cam coleman did not reach his potential at auburn but auburn wasn't very good at getting people to throw him the ball now Auburn has a new coach in Alice Gullish. We're assuming Byron Brown is joining Alex Gulles from USF, but Cam Coleman is going to hit the market. And Ari, I bet there are a lot of teams out there that feel like they could be in the Cam Coleman business. Other receivers who are in his recruiting class. Jeremiah Smith.

Starting point is 00:36:45 Yep. Ryan Williams. T.J. Moore. Micah Hudson, Ryan Wingo, Mike Matthews, and Bryant Westco, Jr. Now, there are other players that were rated lower that have had pretty good career so far. But I think the reason why Cam Coleman, and I've shared this on the show before, hasn't been given his star as a two multifaceted issue. One, he happened to be in the same recruiting class as two true freshmen that took the

Starting point is 00:37:19 sport by storm right like say what you want about ryan williams a season this year and frankly i think it's kind of interesting that he's disappeared you know by and large from a lot of their game plan and i don't know what the reason for that is but ryan williams was absolutely electric as a true freshman electric enough for him to be on the cover of the video game and then jeremiah smith who we spent the first 25 minutes of the show talking about goes without saying it's been very good but if cam Coleman, who he was pretty productive in his first two years, now not sensational, but 93 reception, 1,300 yards and 13 touchdowns in two seasons at Auburn. If he goes to a place, and I don't know where that's going to be, but if he goes to a place

Starting point is 00:37:59 with a good quarterback, a competent offensive philosophy and a place that is committed to getting him the ball, he is a star. This is an NFL receiver. And you know what? And I don't know if he stayed at Auburn for one more year, he might have gone in the draft the following year and been a third round pick this guy is going to play on sundays for a very long time look look at these photos we keep showing of him catching touch this this photo from the vandy game is insane i don't know if this is a touchdown of the two-point conversion i can't

Starting point is 00:38:24 remember which one that is it doesn't matter what he's got a similar catch in the oklahoma game where it was against a freshman corner and you're like there's no hope for the for the corner in that situation six three 200 pounds can run can take the top off of defense, great body control along the sideline and in the red zone. All right, all right, let me, let me throw some hypotheticals. I'm going to be Mr. hypothetical on this one for you. What if, what if he had Marcel Reed or Arch Manning throwing him passes? I think it would be going pretty well for him.

Starting point is 00:39:02 Would you have a choice between those two? Would you have a pick? I would take Texas. Okay. Yeah, Texas or Texas A&M, I believe are. yeah they're on the wish list or he's on their wish list for sure yeah what i do know is that if cam coleman or on texas's team this year they would probably made the playoff like i like i i believe that so um he is a huge fish and i don't know what he commands an nil but this is a

Starting point is 00:39:30 seven figure player to me and i don't know if you agree with that i i think i do i want to ask you because you you said texas if he's on a and m's roster this year now granted If they, they did spend on receiver in the portal with Casey Concepcion and Mario Craver. Obviously, both of those guys were awesome. They were big hits. They were the reason, part of the reason Texas A&M made the playoff. But if you had added Cam Coleman to that offense, do they beat Miami in the first round? Probably, yeah.

Starting point is 00:39:59 Okay. I mean, while we're hypothetically adding receivers to teams, like we have been all show, like, Cam Coleman playing for Texas A&M, they do, they do get in the end zone, I think. against that Miami defense. I think if you put Cam Coleman on Alabama, they're better. You put them on Georgia, they're better.

Starting point is 00:40:17 I think if you go down the entire list. Every team. Ohio State, he might have, he might have probably get targets. Yeah, I mean, he's still better.

Starting point is 00:40:26 That wouldn't be like, yeah, like you want to put Cam Coleman on the same field as Carnell Tate and Jeremiah. I mean, they would be better for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:40:33 And I think that it's interesting. Like, Auburn probably has a sour taste in its mouth. Because he was compensated quite generously this past year. along with Eric Singleton and their passing game never amounted to much

Starting point is 00:40:45 and of course he was the player that fumbled the ball at the end of the game the Alabama game which is probably the reason why Notre Dame fans hate him because maybe if he holds on there in the playoff

Starting point is 00:40:54 but it is a tough sell to me to try to pretend like this isn't a this is the single most impactful player in the portal right now right who else is in there Sam Levitt okay I guess certainly

Starting point is 00:41:10 the most not impactful non-quarterback. Quarterback so we're going to take the cake. But like this is a huge, I'm writing about this after we're done. So help me workshop it. Like what is your takeaway from this? This is a per. And it's funny because we like, if you're watching this as a separate video,

Starting point is 00:41:28 it's part of our whole show, Andy and Ariana 3, which you can watch every day, new episodes drop Monday through Friday, 3 p.m. Eastern time. But we talked about Jeremiah Smith and had he chosen Miami, out of high school, how different this Cotton Bowl might look. With Cam Coleman, we can do the same thing. And we just did it with Texas and Texas A&M. You can do it with other schools, too.

Starting point is 00:41:51 What does he make your offense? What is having this type of player, which is a true wide receiver one, who can take the top off of defense, who can go over the middle, who, again, can catch touchdowns in the red zone. I think he's one of the better red zone targets in the country. What does he do to your offense? And there are so many teams, so many fan bases who can go, we, we absolutely need someone like that. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:42:20 And as we've kind of gone through the last few years, like we always kind of change, like, well, what kind of quarterback do you need to win a national title? What kind of player at exposition do you need? Like, aren't receivers, like outside of the Michigan team that won the national championship three years ago, like hasn't every team that's one that's one that's one? the national title or been in the mix to win the national title had a huge star at receiver. I mean, I need to look

Starting point is 00:42:46 at the, River, I have a terrible memory, and Notre Dame did not last year, and that's probably why he lost the game. He also had a huge playoff. He did have, and in a big last couple of playoff games, big gaming is Penn State and was good against Ohio State. River, put up the graphic of the

Starting point is 00:43:02 field right here, because I can't remember who's in the playoff anymore. That's how my brain works. But Malachi, Tony, of Miami. Ohio State's got there, guys. Who's Georgia's number one? Well, it feels like Zachariah Branch has finally started to do the things they want him to do

Starting point is 00:43:20 out of the portal. Yeah. It feels like in the last few games, they've gotten more out of Zachariah Branch than, and obviously he's a different kind of receiver than Cam Coleman, but he's what they needed. They also got Noah Thomas, and I would argue they haven't gotten as much out of Noah Thomas.

Starting point is 00:43:36 Colby Young, the Miami transfer. Yeah, Zachary Branch is their leading receiver. So portal receiver. Yeah. You look at the Indiana-Alabama matchup, Elijah Surrott and Omar Cooper, and you've got Jeremy Bernard and Ryan Williams. I mean, most of the teams have it.

Starting point is 00:43:54 I don't know if Ole Miss is, Ole Miss is kind of a spread-it-around team. I'm looking at their stats right here. And they've got three separate receivers with more than 40 receptions. Yeah. Deshaun Stribling, the Sean Stribling was a great pickup out of the portal

Starting point is 00:44:08 from Oklahoma State this past year for Ole Miss. Yeah, but they have five players that have more than 500 yards receiving on the season. So they're more of a, I don't have their dynamic number one only person, but they have a lot of guys productive. Trey Wallace, their leader in receptions and yards, they got out of Penn State last year. He was Penn State's best receiver year before. Pretty crazy because he also covers college football for outkick while while doing that. So it's pretty cool. Different Trey Wallace.

Starting point is 00:44:37 Only one of them is related to the race car driver, Bubba Wallace, and that's the writer. I didn't know that about him. That's crazy. Yeah, Cousins. So that is, it's amazing what a good receiver out of the portal can do for you. I mean, obviously, Ole Miss is a great example with, we've mentioned Wallace and Stribling are two guys they got out of the portal this year. And, you know, Oregon's been able to do it with guys that they got out of high school,

Starting point is 00:45:02 the Corey and Moore, you know, now Evan Stewart's a Texas A&M transfer, but they haven't really got, they haven't been able to use him this year. They might be able to use them in this playoff. We'll see. But Oregon's done a good job getting those guys out of high school. Sometimes you've got to get them out of the portal. And this is a big one. I really, because this is a guy who can change your offense.

Starting point is 00:45:23 So I'm sorry, Auburn, that it didn't work out. I feel bad because I, you know, Camp Coleman was the best Auburn receiver signee, maybe ever. And Auburn's never been a school that has just light the world on fire receivers. and I thought he might be the first one. And I don't know. Maybe it's just not meant to be. Six foot three, I think 220 pounds, very rangy human, long arms, freakish alien type category.

Starting point is 00:45:56 It sucks that it didn't work out for Auburn, but whoever gets this guy is going to have a resurgence in offense production next year. And I think it's a massive, massive story. And I'm excited to see where it goes. but you seem to have some insight too on like where he might be leaning well i know i know people who know people who know pete nekos okay so but yeah i mean you know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody for sure exactly now i i would i would love to see if this this comes down to a texas texas a n tug of war it may be what determines Which of those is better next year?

Starting point is 00:46:39 And both those teams are going to be playoff contenders. Both those teams are going to be SEC title contenders. They're going to be high, high up. Bonus Panini ad. Our training are kind of expensive still, but not nearly as expensive as they were last year. You had Ken Coleman there. Like hype for Heisman starts back up again.

Starting point is 00:46:59 Don't let me do it, Andy. Don't let me do it. We'll see where Cam Coleman lands. He may be in maroon and white. he may not be in burn orange or he may there may be another school that just jumps in because again almost every school except ohio state needs somebody like this ohio state's already got somebody like this but yeah most of these most of the school like michigan needs somebody like this pen state needs somebody like this everybody needs somebody like this like if i'm michigan

Starting point is 00:47:26 just here's a check it's like the beginning a blank check you ran over cam coleman's uh bike with your car you don't have time to deal with fixing whatever happened here give him a check and just see what he writes right right yeah don't limit you don't limit your options cam coleman because there's some people going to throw some money at you yeah that's that's and that's andy's financial advice corner all right all right we have more movement to talk about it's in the the coaching world in the coordinator realm but before that crack a madele pen state fans you get to crack a medillo we're going to talk about you getting a new defensive coordinator, uh, and you're going to like the guy you got, but Madelo is the official beer of the college football playoff. You grab yourself

Starting point is 00:48:13 Madelo to stay game already all season long and especially during this college football playoff because it's a stressful time. It's even if you're not in the college football playoff, it's a stressful time because you've got you've got coaching carousel, you've got transfer portal, you name it. So, hey, when you have something to celebrate, when you have a victory in any of these realms, that's when you crack a medillo. So right here, the, the Madelo Negra, 12-pack cans have hit the shelves in my local supermarkets, and I am so happy about that because I live in a place where it's always pool season, it's always beach season.

Starting point is 00:48:48 And so when we get some of the most delicious beer in the world in cans, that means we can take it anywhere we want. And so whether it's the white can Madello Especial or the Modelo Negra in the black can, Stay game to be ready with Medello all season long. Ari, let's talk. Danton Lynn, USC's defensive coordinator now headed to Penn State. Our Pete Nacos reported that earlier on Monday and now it appears that it is headed toward finalization. This is a big one because Dan Lin was a big part of what made USC better this past year.

Starting point is 00:49:26 It's a sick Photoshop. I should have put the Penn State Nittany Lion on the hat. the hat but um you know i i think that like people understand that dan lynn is the coordinator that lincoln riley hired away from ucla to help fix their awful defense from two years ago right correct successful in doing that my question to you is is pen state a better defensive coordinator position than u sc and why is this move happening like that's where my brain immediately went to and it's like if you're a u sc fan and you have designs of winning a national championship or being a top five program in the country, you have to ask yourself

Starting point is 00:50:03 the question, why am I losing our hot shot defensive coordinator to a conference rival that is in a less desirable place to exist, right? Like, am I overthinking? We're talking about a less desirable place to recruit, I guess, but not really. Penn State's a great, like, who's had better players on the defense over the last 10 years, Penn State or USC? No, I understand. It's not even close.

Starting point is 00:50:25 It's Penn State has been a better program, period, and recruiting. players out of the Midwest and Philadelphia and the East Coast, that's not my point. My point is is that is Penn State unequivocally a better job than USC and what does USC have to do to make that not the case anymore? Like that to me is like, and like, listen, everybody in these positions have personal relationships and you know, you never know like what the main motivation is. But like I only see snow versus palm trees and I think, well, these are two similar programs. This might be a financial raise. This might be a better job. It is. it like what does USC have to do to not lose a coordinator to a conference rival?

Starting point is 00:51:05 Like, and that, that's kind of where my brain went when I saw the news this morning. Well, I think this is a huge, huge hire for Matt Campbell at Penn State. Because remember, Matt Campbell in going to Penn State did not bring his Iowa State defensive coordinator, Jim Haycock, who ended up retiring. And Jim Haycock had been working a long time. Jim Hacock was the most copied defensive coordinator the past 15 years. He essentially is the guy who created the scheme that works against today's offenses. And everybody wanted something, you know, wanted a piece of that.

Starting point is 00:51:43 So the fact that he lost him and that's who he went to go get is John Haycock. Sorry, Jim's his dad, I believe. John Haycock was the D.C. at Iowa State with Matt Campbell. Jim Haycock was the defensive coordinator at Ohio State. At Ohio State, yes, that's correct. Yeah. So, yeah, John Haycock is the one that everybody's been copying. And I think if you're Dan Lynn, you look at this and say, well, this guy must be pretty good to work with.

Starting point is 00:52:23 And I'm talking about Matt Campbell. And you're going to a place that has historically recruited incredible defensive players. And that's just, that's not just the James Franklin era. That's going back, you know, through the Joe Paterno era as well. Like, they have always had elite defensive players. They have always had freak show guys. I mean, LeVar Erington, Micah Parsons. You just saw Abdul Carter last year.

Starting point is 00:52:49 Like, they always have freak show guys on their defense. And I'll take that. I'll take that. for sure um big and like listen whether a coach uh is successful at his new stop or a new destination really a lot of times is boiled down to did you make the right coordinator hires and i think that that's a home run for penn state right out of the gate for sure yeah i i am i'm excited to see what happens here and now here's my question do you think if you're a defense coordinator that that matt campbell is a a head coach that you'd rather

Starting point is 00:53:26 work with because he's going to play complimentary football because that's something that the lincoln riley era as a head coach has been a been an issue like it feels like defensive coordinators have not been able to to run practice the way they want to i think that changed with danton lynn and i think that was there's kind of one of dantan's demands when he got the job so i think riley's evolved on that front but i think matt campbell if you look at the iowa state tenure has always valued playing complimentary football. Yeah, I mean, I don't understand why you can't have a good offense and also play complimentary football.

Starting point is 00:54:04 Like, I've never understood the dynamic there. But if your entire pro- You can. You can. I mean, like, why did Clemson become what it was? Like when Clemson ascended to national title contender, so they went from being a, you know, good ACC team in 2011, 12, 13 to national title contender is because Brent Venables came and dabbo Sweeney and you know, at the time you had Chad Morris as the OC and then he left and

Starting point is 00:54:29 you had the Tony Elliott, Jeff Scott combo. They all got together and they said, here's how we can work together to create a great team and not just a great unit where, okay, we've been running this lightning fast offense, but you know what? That might not be the best thing to do for our defense. So like starting in 2014, which was Deshaun Watson's freshman year at Clemson, Clemson slowed down, and they ran a dominant defense. Now, they still could go fast when they wanted to. And look, Lincoln Riley has done that, too. Lincoln Riley has evolved considerably as an offensive play caller.

Starting point is 00:55:06 He can throw different speeds. Like, he's a pitcher who throws a bunch of different speeds when it comes to playing offense now. It's not 2017 anymore. And I think maybe that's not as big of an issue now. So as he hires Dan Lund's replacement, I think you probably are going to be working from a deeper pool because they can look at the last couple of years and go, all right, you are going to play an offense that allows my defense to

Starting point is 00:55:32 not be on the field all the time that allows us to practice in a way that allows us to be physical. And that's the thing. Like, Matt Campbell is going to practice in a way that allows you be physical. That's not going to be a question if you're a D.C. Yeah. And maybe there is something too like playing or coaching at a place that has taken pride in your side of the ball. Or traditionally like a Midwestern that's that East Coast that's more East Coast right but it's definitely East Coast you know that like

Starting point is 00:56:01 It's nothing to do with the region it has to do with the fact that they value it and have historically valued it yeah and has existed in a conference for decades that plays that way so John is Jim's brother not son John Haycock Jim Haycock's a brother

Starting point is 00:56:16 yes yeah if one retired and the other one retired like they're probably not Yes, no, they're actually fairly far apart in age, but they are brothers. So, yeah, I was, because they, they were in such different eras. It was like, wait, but yes, brothers. Yeah, I went in fact-checked the, uh, the birth dates on it.

Starting point is 00:56:38 I think they're only 12 years apart, but I didn't want to make you look like an idiot on the show. Oh, I can make myself look like an idiot. It's just fine. Thank you very much. So, but yes, John Haycock, the former Iowa State Defense Coordinator, who, again, probably the most copied defensive coordinator of the last 15 years and

Starting point is 00:56:55 I'm excited to see how all this works because these guys like Dan Lin I thought made USC's defense quite a bit better and he had a lot of work to do because when he took over they had the personnel

Starting point is 00:57:12 to run out, Scrunch's defense that one was typically undersized it at the line positions like Dan Lynn had to work to get the roster in shape to get the right kind of players that fit what he wanted to run. I don't know that he's going to have to work that hard at Penn State. We'll see, I mean,

Starting point is 00:57:28 because I think Matt Campbell's going to walk into Penn State and probably like a lot of what he sees. Yeah, yeah, it's the perfect fit, man. It really is. Now, the bigger question is, will any USC defensive players follow Dan Linn? Yeah, and who are those players

Starting point is 00:57:44 that you would be worried about? That is going to be a very interesting yeah we have what four days before all hell breaks loose i guess we'll let the dominoes fall and we'll react to all of them but it's going to be a it's going to be a wild time and i'm super excited to cover here with you it is going to be amazing so let's talk about the schedule for this week because it's a little weird but we got a show tomorrow 3 p.m eastern time we got a show on wednesday at 3 p.m eastern time that one's probably going to be a little bit shorter because we'll be back

Starting point is 00:58:16 after the Cotton Bowl on Wednesday night. Ari is going to be at the Cotton Bowl in person. I'm going to be at the Orange Bowl. So I'll be at Orange Bowl Media Day tomorrow. So I will have talked to Oregon players, but will not have talked to Texas Tech players by the time we do the show. And then I will be at the Orange Bowl on Thursday.

Starting point is 00:58:34 And so Ari and I are going to try to come to you live after every CFP quarterfinal game. So Wednesday night after the Cotton Bowl, and then after Oregon, Texas, second the Orange Bowl, where I will be in person. and then, of course, Alabama, Indiana, and Rose, Ole Miss, Georgia, in the sugar. So busy, busy week. And we haven't actually started the offseason schedule, the Monday through Friday schedule yet,

Starting point is 00:58:56 but we will have a show on Friday because, as already mentioned, all hell breaking loose, transfer portal opening up on Friday. There's been a lot to talk about. This is maybe the busiest week of the year in the sport. And we're here for you because nothing more fun than talking about college football. So thanks so much, and we will talk to you tomorrow. Thank you.

Andy & Ari On3 - Jeremiah Smith’s SLIDING DOORS moment | Why he picked Ohio State over Miami

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