Andy & Ari On3 - Jim Harbaugh to sit for Three Games | Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy | Dear Andy

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

Jim Harbaugh to sit for three games | Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy | Dear AndyWant to watch us on YouTube? Check it out here and subscribe!https://youtube.com/live/MvPIyrySMv8It's a Dear Andy show, but first we've got to address some big news.Just now on On3's YouTube channel, Vestavia Hills, Ala., edge rusher Jordan Ross committed to Tennessee. In Big Ten-on-Big Ten poaching, USC swiped Washington's athletic director. Also, Ohio State coach Ryan Day said he's open to playing QBs Kyle McCord and Devin Brown in the season opener against Indiana. (0:00-6:51)The biggest news, of course, is that Michigan self-imposed a three-game suspension on head coach Jim Harbaugh as Cheeseburgergate continues. Chris Balas of The Wolverine joins to explain why the Wolverines took this step. (06:52-14:02)Next, Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy joins the show to talk about draft prospects from around the country. Andy asks if Harbaugh's estimation of 20 Michigan players drafted next year is accurate. Nagy also discusses the talent level at Texas A&M and what makes Texas Tech edge Steve Linton (a Syracuse transfer) such an intriguing prospect. (14:03-35:23)Then it's time for your questions:Why all the Wisconsin love? (35:47-43:01)Give us one thing to look for in each Week 0 game. (43:02-53:39)Could College Football adopt the premier style model? (53:40-56:09)Which programs need to win to survive the upcoming Great Culling? (56:10-1:01:57)Should Georgia fans be worried the Bulldogs don't have more in-state commits? (1:01:58-1:06:13)Extra Point: We get a question from a fan to make the Ultimate fast food combination (1:06:14-1:10:02)

Welcome to Andy Staples on three big news day in college football. It's a dear Andy show, but we got a lot of news to cover first. You just saw on the on three YouTube channel that four star edge rusher, Jordan Ross of Vestavia Hills, Alabama has committed to Tennessee. He also considered Alabama, Florida, and Texas. This jumps Tennessee up to number six in the on three industry rankings for 2024. So he joins Mike Matthews,

who's the number one receiver prospect in the country. It's a pretty big deal for the Vols. And we will see how that continues because they have, they've been a little bit of a run of late. So Tennessee, congratulations, Jordan Ross, congratulations on your commitment, but we've got lots of other news to get to as well. The Jim Harbaugh news is the biggest one. Three-game Michigan-imposed suspension.

This was not the NCAA suspending him. And remember, Harbaugh and Michigan and the NCAA had been negotiating a resolution in this case, which involves, well, it involves a cheeseburger, despite what the NCAA says, that it's not about a cheeseburger. It is also about a cheeseburger, but it's also about Jim Harbaugh meeting with prospects when he wasn't supposed to, and then saying he did not recall meeting with those prospects, and then they showed him a receipt, and he still said he didn't recall. So that's the gist of it.

They were negotiating a resolution, kind of a plea bargain type deal, where he would have missed four games. That was rejected by the Committee on Infractions. So that pushed the whole process forward, basically to where they would need to have a Committee on Infractions hearing. And it's going to take a while. It's not going to be resolved for a while. But Michigan trying to get resolved for a while, but Michigan

trying to get out ahead of things, suspending him now for three games. And, you know, we'll, we'll see if that really means much in terms of Michigan on the field. I doubt it because they opened with East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green. He wouldn't even miss the Rutgers game, which he would have missed it. It'd been been suspended for four but this feels more like a get him out there have him miss the three and so if it is a more serious than four game suspension then he's got three games time served already and then the rest of it you'd have to deal with next year we will talk about that quite a bit more in a few minutes with Chris Ballas from the Wolverine but we've also got some other stuff going on in the world of college football we got big 10 on

big 10 poaching okay well right now it's pack 12 on pack 12 poaching but if it were next year would be big 10 on big 10 poaching that's right USC has a new athletic director, Jen Cohen, from Washington, headed down to Los Angeles. Cohen has been at Washington since 2016. She replaced Scott Woodward when he left for Texas A&M. She's done a very good job at Washington. The idea is go to USC. You've got Lincoln Riley already there. Lead the Trojans into the Big Ten.

So she helps get Washington into the big 10 so she helps get washington into the big 10 and now she will work for usc as the trojan or for the the usc ad job and well that's probably because they had narrowed it down to jen cohen at that point so congratulations to jen cohen on her new gig and it's just a it's a very newsy news newsy day, and we were wondering when that USC thing was going to pop. I probably should have noticed when Alford released that statement, oh, that probably means they've got their person, and they went and got one of the most respected athletic directors

in their own conference, and she would have been one of the most respected athletic directors in the Big Ten at Washington, but now she will be one of the most respected athletic directors in the Big Ten at Washington. But now she will be one of the most respected athletic directors in the Big Ten at USC. So Washington now looking for an AD as it is about to move conferences. Other news. We talked yesterday about Georgia making the decision on Carson Beck. We talked about Alabama probably pushing that decision

past the season opener. They probably played multiple quarterbacks against Middle Tennessee. Another team could be playing multiple quarterbacks in the season opener, and that is the Ohio State Buckeyes. Kyle McCord and Devin Brown still duking it out. Ryan Day said on Monday he might play both quarterbacks against Indiana in the season opener. Now, a little bit different situation than Alabama playing Middle Tennessee. This is a conference game for Ohio State.

Obviously, yes, they will be favored heavily against Indiana, no matter who they play at quarterback. But this is Ryan Day saying, hey, not ready to make a decision yet. Don't feel pressure to make a decision. You might see them both against the Hoosiers. So, Comacord, Devin Brown, we will see which one emerges, but it could be a case of one of them comes out first, but the other one gets a shot, and then it all gets reevaluated following that first game. So we will see what happens with the Buckeyes quarterback situation trending very much like the Alabama quarterback situation right now.

But let us delve deeper now into this Jim Harbaugh situation at Michigan. It's a Dear Andy show. We will get to your questions, I promise. But we've got a couple things we need to hit. We've got Chris Ballas talking about Jim Harbaugh and about that suspension. And we've also got Jim Nagy, the Senior Bowl Executive Director. He's going to be coming on every other Monday in the rest of the season. And he's going to help us decipher who are the big NFL prospects, who are the guys that are jumping up the board,

who are the players that we should be watching at maybe smaller schools. Tyson Bajent was a guy playing for the Chicago Bears this weekend that not a lot of people knew about. But if you watched senior bowl last year in the senior bowl practices, you knew that Tyson Bajent was the D2 all-time touchdowns leader from Shepard College, and that his dad was a professional arm wrestler. That's the sort of thing you know if you're talking to Jim Nagy long before the Senior Bowl, because he was on Tyson Bajan very, very early. So I'll talk to Jim Nagy.

But right now, let's talk to Chris Ballas from the Wolverine that's on 3's Michigan site about this Jim Harbaugh suspension. Why this? Why now? Let's talk to Chris. We welcome Chris Ballas from the Wolverine that is on 3's Michigan site, and it has been quite a busy day. Chris is at the golf course, probably not playing much golf because the University of Michigan has self-imposed a three-game suspension on Jim Harbaugh. Chris, you wrote about this earlier today. What was the decision-making process and what made them decide to do this now? That's a great question. And when I was going to come on with you last week, I was going to tell

you when they said, hey, this isn't going to happen until next year. I said, don't be so sure. People were still talking. And Michigan is Michigan. You know what? They don't take these things lightly. And sometimes they bend the knee when people don't think they should. And I think a lot of people think that's exactly what they did in this situation. So they're thinking about, OK, do we really want this to drag on? Do we really want to be the school that the NCAA comes after and tries to make an example of over, you know, whether you can call it improper contact or buying a cheeseburger or whatever. They are already upset. As we can tell, the NCAA released a statement,

which is just not in their nature. So I think they wanted to get ahead of it. And as Ward Manuel, the athletic director said in his statement, he said, you know what? He said, we are working towards a resolution with the the NCAA we're hoping that this will be a step forward in that but sources close to Michigan said this does not close the book on the Jim Harbaugh NCAA saga I think that's pretty clear it does for the Michigan assistant coaches Sharon Moore and Grant Newsome who will get a one game suspension and then be back on the sideline for game two and they've said they're not announcing the interim situation. And obviously if Jerome Moore,

who we would assume would be the interim is out game one, does that mean probably Mike Hart for the East Carolina game? That's what we've heard. Maybe Jesse Minter, but Mike Hart who's been associate head coach at Indiana, as you know, would probably be the guy. And then we've heard Jerome Moore probably for the three games or the two games after that, before they play Rodgers and Jim Harbaugh comes back. So it's interesting because to put this in terms people understand,

I always try to put it in legal system terms, even though the NCAA is not a legal system by any stretch of the imagination. But they were negotiating a resolution, and that was the four game suspension. That was when we were talking about that. That's like the prosecutor in the defense negotiating a plea agreement and then the judge rejecting it. The COI rejected that. What seemed to me that they didn't think four games was enough. And I, Chris, the one thing that I keep coming back to is the,

the easiest comparison to this case is Jim Trestle at Ohio State, where he was because as the NCAA, it's not about a cheeseburger. Well, it isn't. The bylaw they're prosecuting Jim Harbaugh for allegedly violating is misleading information to NCAA investigators, which that's the same thing they got Trestle on. Trestle, if everybody remembers, now nobody remembers what happened because Trestle got pushed out of the job before his hearing, but he was suspended five games. So if this were to happen and Jim Harbaugh would be suspended for five games,

he's got three games time served. Right. And then you could miss the first two of 2024 which is does include the Texas game but still not a you know a significant chunk of the season yeah and speaking to somebody close to Michigan just a little bit ago they said the same thing you know what we could revisit this next year it could be the case where this goes into next year I asked what's that next step and they said I said how long is this going to drag out and he said a year and he said you know what it could be And they said, I said, how long is this going to drag out? And he said, a year.

And he said, you know what? It could be that they come back with another game or two. And then the other interesting thing he said, if Jim is still here, you know, if he gets an NFL offer again, Andy, he might just say, screw this. You know what? I'm done with it. I'm done with the NCAA. I'm going to the NFL. And you know what?

You guys can deal with this. But the one thing he doesn't want this to be is a distraction to his team. So when they came back to him and they said, you know what, three games, then I think he said, okay, you know, if that's what it's going to take to get the focus back on my football team, then that's what we're going to do. Well, it also helps that the games are East Carolina and UNLV and Bowling Green. It's not like they're very concerned. This team is going to overwhelm those teams with talent no matter what. And bonus, like you said, and Michigan fans get mad at me when I say that Jim Harbaugh may be the NFL next season. It's not like it's that far-fetched.

He has talked to NFL teams each of the last two seasons. He is a proven NFL head coach. It's not like he's some dude who, well, we think he might. No, no, no. He's a good NFL coach. So that is something that is a possibility. And if that's the case, now you have Mike Hart or mentor or Sharon Moore, who maybe you have auditioned at this point.

Yeah, I think Sharon Moore. I was talking to Fred Jackson, who was a former Michigan running backs coach and associate head coach under Lloyd Carr. He's now an analyst there. He said, Sharon Moore is a star. He could have been somewhere last year. He can hold out for a better job because he is one of the rising stars in this profession. I could see Michigan doing that. If Jim Harbaugh were to move on saying, hey, we've got our guy in waiting here and Sharon Moore. Jim Harbaugh has said many times, Andy, that this is the guy. You know what? This guy is a rising star, and I could see him.

He's ready to be a head coach. So do I predict it will happen? No. Who knows if the NFL is going to want Jim Harbaugh, but I can promise you that if that interview had gone better two years ago, Andy, Jim Harbaugh was taking that Minnesota job. He's still got that itch, and it's really hard to get rid of that itch without scratching it.

Well, and that's the thing. It's very similar to the Ohio State situation where Urban Meyer got suspended for three games and Ryan Day got an audition, and they knew by the end of that season Meyer was ready to step down. They've got their guy. And if that happens, they've got their guy. But this also, it is a fairly creative solution, I think, if Jim Harbaugh is still there.

Because if he was going to get five or six games out of this thing, that's a tough deal going into a season. Now, if it's two or three, you can probably deal with that. Yeah, especially like you said, with the three games that it is. And Rutgers has given Michigan a battle, three of the last four halves that they've played. So you know what? They would love to have him back and they're going to have him back. But one thing, Andy, you'd love to have this thing resolved and put behind you. That's certainly not going to be the case at this point. Now it's going to go, it's going to linger. It's going to

be hanging over their heads. People are probably going to be using it against them and recruiting. So not ideal, but at the same time, you've got your head coach for the meat of a schedule and a year in which you are one of the favorites to win a national championship or at least get to the playoffs. But the threat of Jim Harbaugh not being there hasn't hurt them in recruiting yet. So I think at this point, they're impervious to that. A little bit. It's more the NIL stuff and battling the pay to play. They still need to get up there. They don't have the recruiting class that they should coming off of big 10 championships back to back and playoff appearances, but they're still doing okay. Yeah. This is just very interesting that this keeps going, but Michigan seems to have found a way to mitigate it. However, it's going to end up. So Chris Ballas, thank you so much.

Anytime, Andy. Thank you. That's Chris Ballas from the Wolverine. And it is a very creative solution, I think, by Michigan. And you've seen this before. You've seen schools self-impose things with the hope that the NCAA will not come down any harder or the Committee on Infractions will not come down much harder. I think given the fact that the COI rejected the four-game suspension, three games probably won't be enough, but it probably does help them if it's more. And like I said in that interview with Chris, if they're looking at it as,

we gave Jim Trestle five games for this, and everybody forgets because Trestle was separated from his job by that point, but that's what they gave him for essentially the same thing Harbaugh is accused of. So if it were five games, it would mean two games next year. Of course, that,

that does mean the Texas game stitch ass did Ross pick Texas yet? Hook them emoji, hook them emojis. So bad news, bad news, stitch Jesse James. He definitely picked an orange UT team. That is correct.

He picked Tennessee though. So we'll look forward to all the who's the real UT battles when Texas gets into the SEC and Texas and Tennessee are both UTs in the SEC with varying shades of orange. We can go back to Michigan though, for a second, because we're going to talk to Jim Nagy from the senior bowl. And this is going to be a regular appearance every two weeks, every second Monday, you're going to hear from him. And this is one of the great resources in the sport. He is outstanding talks to all the NFL scouts. You will get a much better idea of the talent level on your team from talking to Jim Nagy. And I asked him about Michigan and I asked him about what Jim Harbaugh said at Big Ten

Media Days. He told Bruce Feldman that he thought maybe 20 guys would get drafted on this team. So that sounds outrageous. But let's talk to Jim Nagy and see what he says about that. We're joined now by Senior Bowl Director Jim Nagy, who has been all around the Lone Star state of late. But listen, he's got people everywhere looking at the prospects who will be in next year's draft or maybe the year after next year's draft.

We never know, Jim, with the sixth-year seniors in the NIL, right? No, I can't wait to get through all this COVID stuff, I'll tell you. It's crazy. And I know the FSU people were having some fun with you because you put Jared Burse on the side of the Renaissance in Mobile, the Florida State defensive end, who is is a fifth year senior but could actually play another year if he wanted to probably not going to but they're like way you know the collective may kick it in and and he may be back these i mean god love the fans i mean they think that a guy like jared verse is going to come back for a sixth year like come on um and i'll tell you

what like that's the power of uh graphic design so we didn't actually put jared versus billboard up there we had we had blake quorum on the other day the michigan running back um that was just great graphic design work by by our guy dave rogers here at the senior bowl kind of piggybacking off you know the bow nicks last week and all that so that's all we were doing but yeah obviously, obviously, Jared versus a great player. The NFL world was shocked that he came back, you know, for another year this year. So all those Knowles fans, just enjoy watching him this fall.

I would be hard-pressed to think he's coming back for a sixth year. Well, that's the thing. There's a lot of guys that they're going to be so good that they're not going to really have a choice when it comes down to it. I wanted to pose a question. When I saw you at sec media days, we're talking about Michigan's offensive line. And you mentioned how many guys that are on that line now that the older guys,

not even the freshmen and sophomores, but the older guys that you think could be in an NFL camp this time next year. And then I go to big 10 media days and uh jim harbaugh tells bruce feldman that he thinks 20 guys might get drafted on this team so is jim harbaugh exaggerating or is it is that is that really possible okay it sounds like an absurd number because what's what's the record well i know forever it was teen i think it was i want to say it was 14 for a long time because that was an Ohio State team back when I was doing the Midwest for the Patriots. And then I think the Joe Burrow team may have matched that

or beat that a couple years ago. But 20 would blow it out of the water. It's like breaking the 100-meter dash record by, you know, a second. I don't know how you get like five more players drafted than the all-time record. It's 15 at Georgia this past year okay 15 to just so you're you're you're you're getting five more than than the record um it does sound crazy but when you look at it like we've got seven offensive linemen with PFA priority free

agent grades are better uh most of those draftable grades you got two running backs you've got a transfer tight end from Indiana you've got the quarterback if he comes out as a junior you've got two wide outs cornelius johnson and uh roman wilson and that's there's the offense you know and then the defense you've got you've got two good edge players you've got an inside guy you've got an off the ball linebacker junior you've got three or four db so maybe jim's right i don't know. We'll see. But a heck of a lot of talent on that football team. And that's the thing.

I've kind of adjusted, especially getting to know guys like you more, how I gauge teams. Because a lot of it before was kind of talent in and not necessarily development out. But Michigan feels like even though they don't recruit the same exact level as Ohio State they've closed that gap by developing their players as well or better than Ohio State which by the way is saying a lot because Ohio State develops them really well it does no I think uh and the first person that comes to mind is Ben Herbert right there their strength coach who I I forget what the stops he had right before Michigan but I know he's at Wisconsin for a long time is where I first met Ben on the road has done an awesome job you know and I think that when you build the roster that

they have now and the every year is kind of a new roster construction process you can you can fill holes easier whatnot I think you can be more patient with the younger guys. So you don't have to play those guys right away. So if you're forward thinking in your high school evaluations, you might instead of taking the ready-made 300-pound offensive linemen, you take the 230-pound tight end and be patient with them. And then when you get in the upper class levels and you need an offensive lineman, well well then go get one in the portal and plug him in um and just be patient so i almost i feel like the smarter schools are really like going to like at least have part of their signing class is like a developmental group right it's almost like a practice squad group like

we're not going to expect too much out of this this crew out of this class right away this is this is for more three or four years down the road so you know they've done it they've done a great job of developing their guys and not just in a weight room obviously coaching them up to showing more on the offensive line I mean go down the list they've had a lot of really good position coaches there so you went through Texas recently and visited several schools A&M one. And that's one that everybody saw last year. And a lot of people have kind of written the Aggies off or they see them ranked in the top 25.

How could they be ranked in the preseason top 25? What is it for you when you walk on that practice field and see that roster? Well, I would say the bodies. And thank God the day I was there, they were in their brand new indoor facility. So we weren't outside burning. Uh, the next day at Baylor, I was, we were melting out on the field that afternoon. Um, but no, I would say the bodies, you know, they've had a lot of these, you know, upper level recruiting classes. Not that I pay a

lot of attention to that, but I do know they had some top five, top 10 classes back to back. And, and usually the five-star guys look the part um they don't always play it but they usually at least look it because they they're given five stars for a reason they go to these these camps and these showcases and and they look great um so it's a good looking football team right i mean there's some seniors there's some guys that you know mckinley jackson the defensive tackle um and i smith at wide receiver i mean there's you know laden robinson at guard there's there's guys um cooper at linebacker there's guys in the senior class but i really like talking to jimbo like he's fired up about some of these young guys too so they're they're far off our radar and we

probably hopefully won't deal with those guys for a few years but like he pointed out a freshman left tackle um from new jersey number 71 i don't know the kid a few years. But like he pointed out, a freshman left tackle from New Jersey, number 71. I don't know the kid's name, but he looks like he could line up in the NFL tomorrow. So, yeah, man, that's a good looking football team. And again, I think it all is going to revolve around the quarterback position. I know they've got a few guys there that are kind of jockeying right now, but it's a good looking team. And usually good looking teams play good so we'll see Anaya Smith's an interesting one because he he probably could have left

after last season and is obviously a very important player for them but where does he where does he slot as a as an NFL prospect you know he's uh yeah he had the injury last year he's a guy that was firmly on our radar and then had the injury, and that really forced him to come back. I know he was thinking about maybe coming out regardless, just come out injured and roll the dice, you know, see what happens. But, no, he's a smaller guy. When you get up on him, like, he's certainly not a big man, but he plays bigger than that.

He's got some substance to him on contact, which slot receivers at the next level need to have i think that's what he projects as he projects as a slot a return guy gadget guy i mean he is good with the ball in his hands uh they've used him at running back over his career there so you're looking at i think the real kind of easy thing to do right now is label like you know he's debo samuel like there's not going to be another Debo for a while. I wouldn't say, but in that vein, like that's going to be the role. Like, does he play that role as well as Debo? Not many guys do, but I think that's what everyone's looking for. Kind of that

hybrid playmaker, wide receiver, running back, returner. And I do think the return stuff will help him. If he can prove that he's a legit punt returner at the next level that'll help Anais so you also went to TCU and we had Sonny Dykes on last week and I was asking him about Josh Newton the corner who they got from Louisa Monroe last year and who became one of their best players and potential you know all-american all everything this year and Sonny said that they kind of knew within a few practices what they had in him in terms of his temperament. And obviously they'd seen what they saw on film, but when you watch Josh, what do you see?

Really good football player, man. And they said the same thing. I said from day one, he just acted like he was the guy, right? Like there was just something about him coming from La Monroe. Really cool story. I mean, that's his only offer out of high school is Louisiana Monroe. The team in his backyard was his only offer, and he was a wide receiver. So they flipped him early there. They had the foresight.

That's the one thing about Portal, man. Not to go on a tangent, but I do hate it for these schools that, you know, find a guy and kind of a diamond in the rough and develop them. And then they end up losing him. But no, what I see on tape is a really good football player, man. Like he's kind of average size, you know, right at 5'11", you know, 190 pounds. But he's feisty. He loves to insert himself and make tackles and be a factor in the run game.

And then in coverage, just really competitive. You know, there's going to be some teams that think he's more of a nickel cause he's not real long. But I think that he plays big enough and he's got enough speed to play out on the outside. I do think he's got that kind of versatility. And then just the makeup of him, the way that, the way that people at the school talk about him. And then I had a chance to meet Josh after practice and man, he is,

he is dialed in. Like, if anything, like the conversation we had was like, Josh, you've got to enjoy being a senior, man. Like, you came back here. Enjoy this. Like, enjoy the time with your teammates. Because he just – and even he kind of admitted to it that he puts a lot of pressure on himself. And, you know, it's very important to him.

So, again, every NFL team, that's all they spend their time through the pre-draft process. I mean, the bulk of it is who really loves football, who's really passionate about it, who's going to work at it when we give them a second contract. And, and just in the 10 minutes I spend around Josh Newton, you can tell that dude, that dude is all about football. So another guy you saw on that trip who probably would have been in your game last year if he hadn't gotten hurt was JT Clark, the receiver at UTSA. And that's a team that, you know, they're moving conferences, but they're very talented and they go play at Tennessee.

They have some opportunities to make some noise this season. What was it about JT Clark that caught your eye? Yeah, a big man that plays big. You know, he's 602.3, so almost 6'2.5", 210, 215 pounds, I think is kind of where he lives. And he's big at the catch point. He can go up and get it. He's got a huge catch radius, big hands, big strong hands.

Like when he goes up, he'll muscle it away from people. And then he had that injury. You're right. Yeah. We would have invited him last year and it was unfortunate, but to be out of practice and watch him, he was off on the side the whole time, you know, working on his rehab, trying to get ready to go for that opener at Houston against Houston. So, but a big, strong guy, regardless of position, every NFL team wants to see a guy play to their measurables. And that's, that's what, what JT does. And again,

I do need to give a shout out to coach trailer there, man. It is, that's an impressive place. There's, they, they, they have won back-to-back conference titles for a reason. That is no fluke, man. That is an impressive operation they have going. Really crisp practices, competitive. So yeah, JT is another guy that I got to talk to a little bit. And man, he's focused on coming back and being the same player he was before the injury. So really hope he gets back to where he was because he's a darn good football player. Yeah, they're going to the American Conference. so they go up a little bit in competition, and it'll be good to see what they can do. And Frank Harris is back.

Another place in Texas, I know you're headed, you didn't get there on this swing, but is Lubbock. And everybody I talk to about Texas Tech is very excited about this season. You were tweeting about a guy the other day that I think people if you saw him play at Syracuse it's a completely different experience but but Steve Linton who transferred from Syracuse to Texas Tech now Texas Tech just lost Tyree Wilson a first round edge rusher they've got Miles Cole who was a transfer last year from ladies in row, but Linton comes in as he was two 30 playing kind of down inside at Syracuse. Yeah. Yeah. Gosh, you bring up Lama and rogue and there's

another guy. Yeah, I know. Yeah. With Linton. He's a, I saw those guys at the personnel symposium in Nashville a couple of weeks ago, James Blanchard and the personnel staff. And I was like, how'd you guys get this guy? Like, I can't believe not every power five program would have been knocking down his door based off the tape we watched. Because again, you like you said, he was 230s playing inside, like as a three technique, playing over guards, and not just sometimes when those big, you know, undersized longer guys kind of athletic guys play inside they're just out quick and people um they're they're an athletic mismatch for for guards on third down you see some of the pass rush stuff to me what stood out about Linton was how he

held up at the point of attack I mean this guy was he was taking on double teams you know he was he was stacking bigger men and getting off blocks. I mean, just really had like some functional substance, if you will, functional strength. He played like a much bigger, heavier guy. So now you bump him outside and he's going to play kind of a wide nine, I believe is how they're going to play him. But if you play him over a tight end, he's going to kick the mess out of tight ends. Yeah. I'm watching what he did against guard. So and then just let him let him get wide and use his get off. He's got a tremendous get off. He could be one of the breakout players in all the college football this year.

And again, you know, three months ago, we didn't know much about him. And they gave us a heads up. I mean, credit to their staff, those guys, I mean, they, they're really high on this player. And when you put on the tape, you understand why. So week zero coming up on Saturday. Anybody you're excited about, Notre Dame, USC, San Jose State, Vanderbilt, Hawaii, anybody who you have kind of circled like, okay, I want to see them in game action. Yeah, all those guys.

But we'll stay in the backyard. We are going to roll up to Jacksonville State. Oh, there you go. And see them play UTEP. UTEP's got a quarterback, Gavin Hardison, who we got really excited about, not this past summer, the summer before. We were watching Jacob Cowing, who I saw he just got named second team AP All-American today, receiver at Arizona. That's right.

He's a transfer from UTEP. So we were watching UTEP tape two two summers ago and just you know going through the cut up and watching him like man some of these throws whoever's making these throws is like making some money throws and uh we look i'm like who's the quarterback we're all sitting around as a group had our scouting assistants in there and it's this hardison kid so he was on our radar firmly last year um had a little bit of dip in production i think a lot of that was due to losing a guy like Jacob Cowing they lost some some skill guys but man when you watch this guy throw it um I mean he he's got velocity he's got touch he's got movement and so there's a lot to him and I thought he was

going to be like an under the radar guy for us and And then I've heard, you know, some of the, some of the NFL combine services have draftable grades on them too. So that kind of shot, shot the sleeper thing out of the water for us. But so that's the closest he'll get to, to mobile. So we're going to get up there week zero and, and check out Gavin and the UTEP guys. Miners versus the Gamecocks. I love it. Very nice. And, and, and yeah, the under the radar thing, you, I'm sure you'll get them though. Cause like the world is discovering Tyson Bajent now, but

you guys were on him forever ago, you know, long before he played in your game, you were, you were scouting shepherd college tape. Yeah. So, you know, Tyson was one of those on, on draft day last April was a, was a bummer for us, man. We got close with Tyson. All-time touchdowns thrower in Division II history, right? And, you know, there was enough love around the league. Like, that was the thing. We're only trying to bring guys to Mobile that the league wants to see. And, you know, he was right there with, like, Aiden O'Connell and a couple other guys.

But, you know, I felt like, you know, when it's like a big school player against a small school player, we usually defer to the small school guy just because the league needs to see those guys against great competition. So we brought Tyson. I thought he did plenty down here and to get drafted, but he didn't, you know, and now fast forward, here we are in the preseason. And I saw him a little bit on TV the other night against the Colts and he looked really comfortable in there. And then just reached out to one of my buddies with the Bears this morning just to say, like, is what I saw real? Is what I'm reading on Twitter real? Sometimes it's not. And they're like, no, man, he's from the day one. He's looked,

he's been poised. He's been accurate. He's been a leader. He doesn't seem like a D2 kid here. So to get a guy that not just an undrafted free agent, make your 53, Tyson looks like he could also be the number two, which would be a really cool story. To me, there's a big difference. The skill set behind Justin Fields makes sense, though. Yeah, because Tyson can move around for sure. And you know this.

I mean, there's a big difference between being a three on somebody's roster and a two oh yeah so if he could go from being an undrafted guy to a two that's that's a really cool story and it just kind of adds to tyson's overall cool story i mean the guys just kind of overcome the odds everywhere he's been so really happy for tyson you were on it and you didn't even have to arm wrestle his professional arm wrestler father to make it happen tom pelissaro got to do that i'm'm out of that. That would have been embarrassing. I mean, good on Tom for at least putting himself out there because I don't know if I would have agreed to that. So Jim, we'll let the folks know now you're going to be on with us every couple weeks during the season. I can't wait. This is so exciting for me because I love when you're

enlightening us about the guys that the NFL wants and the ones that we need to be watching who are making big impacts, maybe that the TV broadcast isn't showing us. And so we're going to make some very informed fans this year. So thank you so much for that. Yeah, Andy, it's going to be fun, man. I'm glad we're doing this. Thanks, Jim. So in case you were taking notes there, Chase Besantis is the freshman offensive tackle that Jimbo Fisher pointed out to Jim Nagy.

He's a 6'6", 320 pounder from Don Bosco Prep in Jersey. Chase Besantis, remember the name, is what Jimbo Fisher is telling you if he's telling that to the guy from the Senior Bowl. All right, it is time to answer your questions. That means it is the time where you get to take over the show. You get to be the star, so you can ask live in the YouTube comments. We've got some questions that folks have sent in throughout the day, and man, there are some good ones, and we're going to start with Nathan in Jerusalem. Dear Andy, I'm here at Jerusalem's old city with a question. Why is everyone,

including yourself, so high on Wisconsin? I don't get it. Compare them to another team in the West, like Nebraska, and they both have new coaches. They're both changing their system. Wisconsin has some more proven talent, but Nebraska has recruited substantially better over the last couple of years. They both have pretty comparable schedules. You can kind of go on and on and on. Both of them have new coaches that are quite well respected. But at the end of the day, Wisconsin is predicted to win the West and Nebraska is predicted to go fifth. I'm not saying that Wisconsin is going to stink this year, but I don't understand the hype. You know, isn't it much more likely that they'll end up

six and six somewhere in that ballpark? What's your thoughts? Explain this to me. All right, Nathan. I actually think Greg McIlroy explained this very well the other day when he was talking about why he's so excited to see Wisconsin this year. I had not thought about this comparison, but it's exactly right. So Greg compared Wisconsin this year to how he felt about TCU last year. And this is not revisionist history. You can go back. Greg's on record before last season started as

being very excited about Sonny Dykes at TCU. He didn't predict that they'd make the national title game, but he did predict that they'd be considerably better than everybody else. All the rest of us were sleeping on him. He was not. And this is why he predicted that. You had a very good coach, very good program, someone who recruited to a specific identity and was great at that. Maybe the message got a little stale. Maybe things weren't working the way they used to. So in comes another coach who is very well suited to coach at this program. And then all of a sudden it takes off. And, you know, in this comparison, Sonny Dykes does not come in to TCU with the bona fides that Luke Fickle comes into Wisconsin with. So you take

Paul Crist, who was a good coach at Wisconsin, who recruited to a very specific identity, knew exactly what they were looking for. And they were very successful really until the last couple seasons. And I think they pulled the plug on Crist very quickly because they didn't want it to go downhill. Instead, they wanted to take advantage of the fact that they still had players that Chris, who is a good evaluator, evaluated and found. And then bring in Luke Fickle, who I think we would all argue, objectively speaking, is a better coach than Paul Chris, or at least his history suggests he is. Would Paul Chris have taken Cincinnati to a 14 college football playoff? I don't think he probably would have. But Luke Fickle's done that. Luke Fickle also helped build Ohio State into what it is.

So he understands what he's up against. Yes, they are changing systems. Yes, they are doing things differently. But I think they did that with a purpose. When Luke Fickle was on this show at Big Ten Media Days, we asked him why Tanner Mordecai. We coached against Tanner Mordecai the last two years when Cincinnati played SMU.

They had success against him, but when they watched the film, they were like, this guy's just slicing and dicing everybody. Luke Fickle fell in love with him. So it's very purposeful, everything that Wisconsin's doing. This is not to say that Nebraska's not doing purposeful things either. It's not one against the other. I think Matt Rule is going to improve Nebraska, but I think if you would like to make the argument that Nathan's making about Nebraska versus Wisconsin, I would argue that Paul Chris did a much better job at Wisconsin than Scott Frost did at Nebraska in terms of recruiting and a coherent philosophy and a team identity.

So I think we're talking about two different situations. I think Matt Rule inherited a tougher job. Luke Fickle inherited a program that's a lot further along. And the reason he inherited it when he did is because Chris McIntosh, the AD at Wisconsin, said, you know what? We're not going to let this slide further. We're going to take care of it right now. And so there's a very good reason Wisconsin is expected to win the West.

I think if you gave Luke Fickle truth serum, he would be very disappointed if they don't win the West this year. They should win the West. You want a game to point to. Let's look at week two. They're going to Pullman. Last year when Washington State came to Madison and beat Wisconsin 17-14, that was a big uh-oh moment. That was like, ooh, something may be off here. And then they lose to Ohio State, which wasn't a surprise, but the way they lost to Ohio State was embarrassing.

And then you had Brett Bielema coming in and out-Wisconsining Wisconsin with Illinois, and that was the sign that things had to change. But I'm telling you, when you take a very good program, and Wisconsin has been a very good program that has not really fallen off. They have slid a little bit, but have not fallen off. And then you fire the coach who's pretty good and replace him with somebody who's better. That's why everybody thinks they're going to be good this year. And I agree. I think Wisconsin're going to be good this year and and i agree i think wisconsin

is going to be very good i think they should win the big 10 west in the final year of the big 10 west and then we'll see what luke fickle can do because they seem to have a good nil situation going there the collective seems to be working and and everybody seems to be pulling in the same direction can they get the kind of players you're going to need to get to overcome Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, USC, Oregon? I don't know. I don't know. Can they do that, recruit those players, develop those players to the point where they can be the second best team, the third best team, the fourth best team in the Big Ten to make the playoff? Yeah, they can do that. They can absolutely do that. You heard Dan Katz, Big Kat

from Pardon My Take, who's a proud Wisconsin grad. He saw what they did, and the way he put it was really interesting. And I think there's probably a lot of Wisconsin fans who feel this way. The floor was really high for Wisconsin, but the ceiling wasn't much different in a year. Now the ceiling is potentially higher. The floor should stay where it is. So I'm excited to see them play. I really am.

I think just the fact that they went and got Luke Fickle, who is not the type of guy who is going to jump at just any job, I think tells you there's potentially something special brewing there. We'll find out though. All right, let's head to the Rent Free podcast with our next question. Hey, Andy. After a year and multiple months And especially the last few weeks Of talk about high end PowerFock brands and conference Realignment, I guess outside of Colorado

Do you find it ironic That week zero is here And the prime time game is UMass at New Mexico State I can't be the only one that's fired up for this Give us one thing to look forward to for each of the seven games involving an FBS team in week zero.

Also, Jim Mora era is back, baby. Go Huskies. Pack the rat. Heck yeah, the Jim Mora era is back. The Huskies made a bowl game last year, for goodness sakes. One of two teams we'll be discussing in the next few minutes that when they made a bowl game,

you're like, wow, whoa, that is a hell of a coaching job. We're going to be talking about another one of those very soon. But let's talk about these week zero games. I know you may look at it and say, well, other than USC and Notre Dame, I'm not seeing a lot of big brands there. But I'm going to do you one better than one thing to be excited about in each game. I'm going to do one thing for each team to be excited about in each game.

So let's, let's bring up that, that zero slate and we can hit all of the games because listen, it's football. It's on your TV. Some of it's from Ireland. We'll see if they, they, the cat, the credit card machines break and they have to give away beer again, like they did with Nebraska Northwestern last year. But we'll start with Notre Dame Navy

in Ireland. And obviously with Notre Dame, this is Sam Hartman's debut as the Notre Dame quarterback. I think that everybody's excited to see that. We loved watching him at Wake Forest. What is he going to be in this offense? Jared Parker, the new offensive coordinator at Notre Dame, replacing Tommy Reese. How are they going to mesh together? And no slow mesh for Sam Hartman. That's back at Wake Forest. So what will he look like behind a very good offensive line? I don't know that his receivers necessarily are as good as they were at Wake Forest. Wake Forest has very good receivers, but the backs will be very good. The line will be better than any line he ever had at Wake Forest. I'm very intrigued.

And then meanwhile, you've got Brian Newberry's debut as Navy's head coach. Ken Niamatalolo fired after last season. They promote Brian Newberry from defensive coordinator. So Newberry's defenses were very good. It was kind of the offense that had fallen off the get six philosophy. So it's a, it's a combination of turnovers, defensive touchdowns, three and outs and turnovers on downs. If, if you have your stats in those, those categories add up to six, you should win the game. Now, a lot of this Grant Chestnut, the new offensive coordinator

who came from Kennesaw State, he's going to have to help out there. So Navy still running the triple option, not a drastic change like Army is doing offensively, but should be very interesting. New head coach for the midshipmen and Sam Hartman making that debut for Notre Dame in Ireland. OK, let us go to the aforementioned UTEP Jacksonville State game. If you listen to Jim Nagy, you already know you're watching the minors quarterback Gavin Hardison.

Everybody's very excited to see him. Meanwhile, Jacksonville State. I wonder if there's a contingent from West Virginia that might be watching this game. I you know, I've talked about Yolo Neilent from West Virginia that might be watching this game. You know I've talked about Yolo Neil Brown at West Virginia. He knows that basically he's got to win a bunch of games or they're going to fire him. If they do fire him at West Virginia, well, Jacksonville State Gamecocks head coach Rich Rodriguez would be someone that I imagine a lot of West Virginia fans would be intrigued by. Also, in terms of great names in this game, the Gamecocks, yes, they are also the Gamecocks. They have a safety who transferred from Maine. They're the Black Bears, by the way. This guy's name, he's a safety,

remember. This is the perfect name, Austin Ambush. What a great name for db austin ambush all right let us go to the aforementioned umass new mexico state game this one we were talking about jim mora and yukon job he did you know who might have done an even crazier great miracle jerry kill with the aggies so he won seven games in his first year at new mexico state jerry kill remember former minnesota and northern illinois head coach seven games he went to a bowl game with new mexico state come on who does this what can he do for an encore as the aggies move to Conference USA now Don Brown former Michigan defensive coordinator former Boston College defensive coordinator did not work a miracle in his first season in Amherst the the Minutemen were not very good but they will try to reverse

their fortunes led by and this is somebody that Don Brown just announced as the starting QB former Clemson and Georgia Tech QB Tyson Pumichon so he will be playing against Jerry Kills Aggies all right moving on Ohio the Bobcats at San Diego State Ohio's won seven of its last eight. Last season did not start great, and then they got on a roll. The seven of eight, the only one they lost was the MAAC championship game. Curtis Rourke is back, baby. We saw his brother Nathan, our other favorite Canadian MAAC-tion quarterback. He plays for the Jacksonville Jaguars now.

We watched him with like five Dallas Cowboys hanging on him, throwing a touchdown pass in a preseason game. Well, Curtis, who was playing for the Bobcats last year, he's back. He's got some unfinished business. He had a torn ACL late last season, but Pete Thamel from ESPN reported on Monday that he is going to play against the Aztecs. Meanwhile, the San Diego State quarterback situation,

much more settled right now. Jalen Maiden is the starting QB. But remember, he started his career as a quarterback, I believe at Mississippi State, then transferred. He started last season at San Diego State as a DB. And was down on the depth chart at DB. But they had injuries at quarterback. The lefty had to come back to quarterback

and wound up being the guy for the rest of the season, and now he is the starter going in. All right, back to games involving Power 5 teams. Hawaii at Vanderbilt. Manny lost their leading rusher, Ray Davis, to Kentucky. That was in our whose team is it anyway game with dan rubenstein last week but possibly patrick smith will be able to carry the load for the commodores patrick smith better known by his nickname cheeks so cheeks will try

to prove against hawaii that he's not booty meanwhile for hawai Hawaii, Tylan Hines averaged 7.6 yards of carry for the rainbow warriors. Now, Timmy Chang, all-time great Hawaii quarterback. He's the coach there. Now he has now gone full run and shoot. Tylan Hines will be running the ball. He will be catching the ball and who knows he could be gaining a lot of yards, but Vandy's going to be heavily favored. This is Vandy team that won five games last year, beat Kentucky and Florida late in the season. Clark Lee's squad looks very intriguing right now. San Jose State at USC, obviously Caleb Williams.

Who doesn't want to see Caleb Williams? Returning Heisman Trophy winner. Feels like the best shot to be a repeat winner. The only repeat winner other than Archie Griffin feels like it. He can pull it off because he's very special. He's probably the number one pick in the next draft. Love watching him play. Love watching him work magic. I also want to see USC's defense. Now, obviously they should be okay against San Jose state, but it's Tulane against Utah at the end of last season, they were not tackling anybody. How much have they improved? They've obviously hit the transfer portal hard. I keep mentioning

bear Alexander and Anthony Lucas bear Alexander for Georgia, Anthony Lucas from Texas A&M. Those are big defensive linemen that took out of the portal. They definitely changed the body types up front on defense through the portal. And I want to see that. But San Jose State, Shevin Cordero, the Caleb Williams of the Mountain West, the Hawaii transfer, had a great year last year at San Jose State.

He's the guy who could maybe challenge that USC defense a little bit. If they're not better, he can make some stuff happen. If they are better, then they should be able to keep them under control. Now we go to a conference game in week zero, Florida International and Louisiana Tech. For Louisiana Tech, kick returner Smoke Harris averaged 27 yards per kickoff return, and he's nicknamed Smoke.

Meanwhile, Cyrus Allen averaged 22 yards a catch so it could be some explosive plays fiu really hoping we get to see freshman tight end rowdy beers because he's named rowdy beers he's a tight end from colorado don't know what we're going to see out of him he is a true freshman after all but we would and probably will see Eric Rivers playing receiver for the Panthers. Now Rivers is an interesting story because he was at Memphis. He transferred to FIU. He was a DB at Memphis and Mike McIntyre,

who's now the head coach at FIU coached him at Memphis. And when he got him at FIU, he said, okay, you were a receiver when he got to Memphis. Then you moved to DB. Let's move you back to receiver. And it looks like he could be their top target. So that one will be a very interesting game. And again, you could see a lot of explosive plays. I'm just so excited because we're going to watch some football.

You guys may not be as excited as me about these games, but I cannot believe it's finally here. I've just, I don't know. Every off season feels longer than the last, even though as you know, we got the playoff now, it should be a little bit compressed and the transfer stuff, but this one felt especially long. So I cannot wait for these games. And just talking about what we might see in these games makes it even more exciting. And yes, I still really, really want to see rowdy beers. So our next question comes from Craig. You have referenced Greg Sankey, the SEC commissioner reading the club, which is a great book.

If you haven't read it about the formation of the premier league. And I don't really like soccer very much. I was engrossed in this book and it's because you can find so many parallels between the formation of the premier league in England and what is going on in college football right now. So you've referenced Greg Sankey reading the club and how college football could adopt a Premier League style. Are we technically already there with what happened to the Pac-4? No, we're not there yet.

Because what happened in the Premier League is you had all these different clubs and they were kind of, you know, mom and pop, very regional. Suddenly they decided to go corporate, basically. For lack of a better term, they decided to go corporate. And they said, the top 20, we're going to go do our own thing. We're going to sign a massive TV deal. That TV deal actually wound up being with Rupert Murdoch's Sky Sports.

Kind of educated Rupert Murdoch on what he should do when a few years later with Fox, he got into the NFL by buying the NFC out from under CBS. So it's fascinating how it all went down. We're not there yet because there still is a Big 12. There still is an ACC. The SEC and the Big 10 are not conjoined. So it's not Super League yet. I realize for soccer people, Super League means something different because that's something where all of the international top clubs tried to get together a few years ago and basically were beaten back by the fans who said,

no, you can't do this. That's not happening in college football. The fans are not seemingly able to say, no, you can't do this. That's not happening in college football. The fans are not seemingly able to say, no, you can't do this. They keep doing this. So they're not there yet. But are they headed that way? Unfortunately, it seems that way. And I think what you saw with Cal, Stanford, Oregon State,

Washington State, and what options they were left with after this round of realignment, I think that that should tell you all you need to know. So it is unfortunately going that direction. It's not quite there yet, but read that book, the club, if you want to kind of have a better understanding of what's going to happen. All right. Speaking of that question, let us go now to Ben from Wisconsin. Dear Andy, most of us need things to cheer for outside of the national championship picture.

What better than the ability to keep playing meaningful football? Just looking at the weirdness of people taking Tulane seriously for moving up, I think that properly timed good play does make a difference in terms of the attractiveness of a program. Not a decisive one, but a difference. And seeing as we've got eight to ten years or so before the great culling of the lower tier of the old power five, who's going to actually make it through? Some programs could have their worst decade ever, and they'd still get in the Premier League. A lot more could have their best decade ever, and they'd still never be allowed in the door. Where do you think the dividing lines are for the top and bottom of programs that have the ambition to get in. Who are the most prominent programs if they screw everything up could

actually fall out? And who are the least prominent programs if they do everything right could get in? I'm thinking the upper threshold is somewhere around the Tennessee-Wisconsin line and the lower threshold somewhere around like BYU and Virginia. Thanks. Football is back. Let's go. My thresholds are probably a little bit different because I don't think it's going to be like a 20-team league. I don't think it's going to be 32 like the NFL.

I think it'll be bigger. I think that that version of college football, however we're going to do it, the Chip Kelly idea where you have essentially like the NFL. I think it'll be bigger. I think that that version of college football, however, we're going to do it. The Chip Kelly idea where you have essentially what is the power five now, and that's the league. And then you just divide it into divisions. That makes more sense to me. I see it falling somewhere between like 40 and 50 teams. So, you know, Tennessee and Wisconsin being the upper belt where like Tennessee or Wisconsin could get thrown out if they're just horrifically terrible for the next 10 years. I don't see that. I really don't.

I think they'd be safely in. So here's where I would go with that. If we're talking about teams that potentially could be tossed from the club, that if they are pretty good right now are going to make it in the club, Minnesota, Virginia tech, Purdue, Ole miss Mississippi state, South Carolina, UCLA teams like that. They would need to, if they were complete disasters, they might get thrown out. Like we're assuming Vandy's not invited. We're assuming Indiana's not invited. So now maybe perhaps they could win

their way in if they're just, you know, gangbusters for the next 10 years. That's a different story. But those are the ones that if the wheels fall off, if they're just horrendous for the next 10 or so years to whatever magic date this is when all of this comes together. That's the ones you got to worry about. The other side of this coin is who could win their way in. And I'll give you two examples of TCU and Utah when they were in the Mountain West just kept winning and winning and winning and winning and winning. And then they got pulled up. They got called up. And look at those two programs. They've probably been the most successful programs in all of this round of realignment. Utah's won the Pac-12 twice.

TCU's gone to the national title game and won a playoff game. So winning will do that, especially winning if you're a team with a very passionate fan base that can make something happen. So I would say the whole Big 12 actually qualifies for that because those are all programs, and I'm talking about the 16 team, the new version. Those are all programs that care very deeply about football. TCU, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, they love football. But also Cincinnati, BYU, UCF, Houston, they love football, have shown a willingness to commit to spend on football.

So I would say the most successful of those, you would want them in your super league because they're fun. They're well-managed. They're going to play well in that super league too. Maybe they aren't going to compete with the top of the top all the time, but they're going to be capable and functional and they're going to provide good competition. So those are the ones that I would say the top half of the new Big 12, however that works out, would be a really good option in that Super League. Let's say we get to that point and Utah, TCU, Baylor, Kansas State, UCF, Cincinnati, they've all been just winning like crazy. You're going to want them in that Super League. Now, I realize everybody else

is going to say, what about relegation? Okay. Relegation is not going to happen in American Sports League. It's just not. it would, it wouldn't have happened in England had it not already existed. So it's not going to happen, but I do appreciate the thought because I mean, let's be perfectly honest. How cool would an Indiana Rutgers game where the loser has to go to the Mac be, that would be a lot of fun, but it's not going to happen. I'm sorry. It just isn't. So that's all there is to it. Now, let's go to a question

that's going to make a lot of you laugh. I'm ready. Just get ready. This question is from Parker. Dear Andy, Georgia's recruiting this cycle is very interesting and I'd love your take on it. They currently have the number one class and will probably hold that spot until unless something

drastic happens, but they only have one top 10 recruit from the state of Georgia. And that's Dylan Rayola who just transferred into the state for his senior year of high school after committing to the Bulldogs while Florida state has four of the top 10. So should Georgia be worried about not having as many recruits from the state of Georgia? And again, I know a lot of you are laughing because they do have the number one ranked class in 2024. Dylan Rayola, number one quarterback in the country. Now he's from Phoenix. He transferred into Buford, Georgia after committing to Georgia. So he's the in-state guy that Parker's talking about, but they also have Ellis Robinson, the fourth. He's the number one cornerback prospect in the country. He is from New Haven, Connecticut, but plays at

IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, Justin Williams, Conroe, Texas. He's the number one linebacker prospect in the country. Jaden Riddell, the number two tight end prospect. He's from suburban Kansas City. Nathaniel Frazier, the number two running back in the country. He's from Mater Dei, which is in Orange County, California. So Georgia's going out and getting the best players in the country. But where Parker's worried is, for example, Landon Thomas is the number one tight end prospect in the country. He's from Moultrie, Georgia.

He flipped to Florida State, initially committed to Georgia, flipped to Florida State. But I will say this, Parker, about Landon Thomas. He is a Georgia guy. But if you know your Georgia geography, Moultrie, Georgia is about an hour and 15-minute drive from Tallahassee. It's a lot longer to get to Athens. So the thing about South Georgia is a lot of those people grew up Florida State fans.

South and middle Georgia, a lot of those people grew up Auburn fans. So it's not necessarily an assumption that because they're in the borders of the state of Georgia that they're going to Georgia. And because Georgia has been recognized as one of the best talent-producing states in the country, I think at times per capita it's probably the best talent best talent producing states in the country. I think at times per capita is probably the best talent producing state in the country. The competition is pretty fierce as Florida teams come in, as Alabama and Auburn come across the border, as Clemson comes across the border, as Tennessee comes down across the border. So it's just not that easy, but Georgia is still getting the guys they want for the most part. Now, KJ Bolden was another one. He's from Buford, which is where Dylan,

sorry, I called him by his dad's name, where Dylan Raiola is playing. He decided to commit to Florida State, but he was also looking at Auburn. And so it's not going to be everybody because they're in the state of Georgia wants to go to Georgia. But the thing is, most everybody in the country, if they get a Georgia offer, is going to consider it. These guys consider their Georgia offers. And then these other guys from other places took it because how can you not look at what Georgia's done in terms of draft picks

and not want to go there? So I don't think you should worry about competitively how it's going to affect Georgia through the years. I think there will be other years where there are more players from Georgia. There will still be guys who grew up wanting to be Bulldogs who are going to go to Georgia who are in-state guys. But there will be fierce competition, and that's to be expected. As long as you're getting a bunch of number one guys at their position, I don't think you've got to worry about it. That's just how things go right now.

We were talking to Greg McIlroy the other day. He thinks Texas has probably gotten better because it's gotten away from recruiting just Texas guys that, that it actually helps them find guys who are maybe not as close to their ceiling and can be developed. So it's not the be all end all to have guys from your state. It's the be all end all to have the best guys. And so far Kirby smarts proven he's pretty good at finding the best guys.

So I wouldn't worry too much about that, Parker, right now. Let us go to our extra point, and it's from our friend Matt, who you see him in the comments quite a bit. Dear Andy, imagine fast food chains were like college football. How would they use menu item realignment to create better versions of themselves? For example, Chick-fil-A brings in Bojangles biscuits to replace their awful biscuits and owns breakfast or Wendy's takes McDonald's fries. So Matt, you're onto something here.

I'd say it's more like the transfer portal, the menu item transfer portal. But however we want to describe it, this is brilliant. So we'll start with your first suggestion that Chick-fil-A, which has delightful chicken and it's chicken biscuits, but the biscuits are awful. They really are terrible, which is strange because Chick-fil-A is usually pretty good at almost everything, but their biscuits are garbage. You're almost there with the Bojangles suggestion. Almost. If you wanted to truly create the greatest breakfast item in fast food history, you would take the Chick-fil-A chicken. You would put it inside a Hardee's biscuit, a Hardee's biscuit with Chick-fil-A chicken inside it. I would eat a hundred of those. I know what you're saying. Andy,

you said you'd eat a hundred Chick-fil-A nuggets that one time and you almost died after eating 61. I would attempt to eat a hundred of these and I would love it. I don't care how full I got. Hardee's biscuit, Chick-fil-A chicken, you can't beat that. Now, the next suggestion that Matt, Wendy's getting McDonald's fries. You're sending McDonald's fries to the wrong place, Matt, if you want to create complete fast food domination. What is the place that we always say, if they ever decided to serve fries that didn't suck, could be the greatest place in the world? Now, they're not in all the country.

They started on the West Coast. They've moved east slowly. They're in Texas now. But synonymous with California. In-N-Out Burger. Give McDonald's fries to In-N-Out Burger. If McDonald's fries entered the transfer portal and then signed with In-N-Out Burger,

it would be the greatest restaurant of all time. I cannot understand why In-N-Out Burger continues to serve the worst French fries in the world when they could just make good fries and be the best fast food restaurant on earth. I don't understand why they do that. But if someone could convince McDonald's, like In-N-Out, tamper with McDonald's fries. Find their trainer from high school and have him text them and say, listen, I know you're under scholarship with McDonald's, find their trainer from high school, and have him text them and say,

listen, I know you're under scholarship with McDonald's, but come to In-N-Out Burger. That is the match made in heaven. That's the dream. An In-N-Out Burger with actual good fries on the side. It would be unbeatable. It'd be like USC with a good fries on the side. It would be unbeatable. It'd be like USC with a good defense. That's the show for tonight.

Appreciate it, guys. Love your questions. Thank you so much for all of those thoughtful questions. Tomorrow, ACC preview. Roddy Jones from ESPN joins us. And also, we get a visit from the new Wake Forest starting quarterback, Mitch Griffiths. We talked Sopranos with him.

Thank you so much, and we'll talk to you tomorrow.