Andy & Ari On3 - Jimbo Fisher FIRED at Texas A&M | Who's Next for the Aggies? | Michigan and Jim Harbaugh Update

Episode Date: November 13, 2023

As the Week 11 Slate is behind us, we now take a look ahead, but first, we have some BIG news coming out of the SEC. Today's show is brought to you by PrizePicks, the easiest way to play daily fantasy. All first time users that deposit and use the promo code ANDY will receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. If you deposit $100, PrizePicks will give you $100. If you deposit $50, PrizePicks will give you $50.Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/ANDY(0:00-5:59) Intro - Jimbo Fisher OUT as A&M's Coach(6:00-29:52) TexAgs Billy Liucci joins to Explain what's ahead (29:53-45:09) Candidates to be the next A&M Head Coach(45:10-57:00) Week 12 Resume Rankings and New Years Six Bowl Projections(57:01-1:13:17) Clayton Sayfie from the Wolverine joins to break down Penn St-Michigan1:13:18 Week 12 Opening LinesWant to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and don't forget to subscribe!https://youtu.be/YYRXIxAnqXA

Welcome to Andy Staples on three massive news in the college football world. Jimbo Fisher has been fired at Texas A&M. 76 plus million dollar buyout. That is the American dream, folks, to get paid to not work. And he's folks to get paid to not work and he's gonna get paid to not work he actually could work and still get paid there's no offset on this thing 25 percent due within 60 days that's over 19 million dollars what a deal for jimbo fisher but for texas a&M a decision they probably had to make at this point because the Jimbo Fisher era had gotten to the point where it was what it was

it was not going to get better it may not have appreciably gotten worse but it was never going to be what they wanted it to be they hired Jimbo Fisher to compete for SEC titles to compete for national titles it's really the same thing they did when they hired Jackie Sherrill back in the day. It just didn't turn out the way they wanted it to. They never got to the level that they wanted. And it's one of the great mysteries with Texas A&M that they can never seem to get to that level. This is a program that hasn't won a national title since the 30s, and we're about to have some more 30s. It tells you how long that's been, but they have the location, the fan base, the passion, the giant stadium, the access to recruits, you name it.

They have all of it. They have all of the things that the schools that win national titles have. But for whatever reason, Texas A&M has never been able to get over the hump. They thought they would be able to when they hired Jimbo Fisher, who at the time was five years off a national title at Florida State. But it never, ever quite worked out. And it seemed like they were just destined to be on this eight and four plateau, seven and five plateau forever. And that's a, that's a terrible place to be when you're paying a bunch of money. But here's how that worked. When they hired Jimbo Fisher,

they gave him a 10 year, $75 million guaranteed contract. Scott Woodward was the athletic director who hired Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M. Woodward then left for LSU. In 2021, Woodward was the athletic director who hired Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M. Woodward then left for LSU. In 2021, Woodward fired Ed Orgeron at LSU, which opened that job. Now, Jimbo Fisher, because he had all the leverage when he took the job at Texas A&M, had no buyout at Texas A&M. So LSU could have hired Jimbo Fisher and not paid A&M a dime. So that's why A&M panicked and gave Fisher a 10-year $95 million fully guaranteed contract that they are now currently stuck in and stuck paying for. They panicked thinking that LSU was going to grab Jimbo Fisher.

They probably should have called LSU's bluff. LSU ends up hiring Brian Kelly, who you would argue is a much better hire than Jimbo Fisher was at Texas A&M. And A&M gets stuck with the bill. And so here they are paying that bill. And they will pay another bill when they buy out whoever they hire from their job, and there's a lot of names, and we're going to get into all those names.

We're going to talk to Billy Lucci from Texags about the firing of Jimbo Fisher. He broke the story on Sunday morning. We're also going to a couple other firings. The seal finally broke. We were talking about it with Jesse Simonton last night on the show. There had not been a firing for on-field performance yet. There had just been Pat Fitzgerald and Mel Tucker so far.

Well, Texas A&M broke the seal on Sunday morning. Later Sunday morning, Andy Avalos from Boise State was fired. Not a head coach, but Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yursich fired. I was at the Penn State-Michigan game on Saturday. Can confirm Penn State's offense is bad. And in year three, it should have been better with Drew Aller, the hot shot, big-time recruit quarterback. They should have had a functional offense that if you put it with that

defense they could have competed with ohio state and michigan this year but now they are doomed again to probably go 10 and 2 and forever live a notch below ohio state and michigan and maybe with the change in the playoff format that changes but they'll be doing it with a different offensive coordinator james franklin obviously very safe in his job there but he'll be doing it with a different offensive coordinator, James Franklin. Obviously very safe in his job there, but he will be looking for a new person to run his offense. But I know what you all want to talk about. 76 million freaking dollars. The biggest buyout in the history of college football.

Remember, the previous largest buyout in college football history was $20.5 million to Gus Malzahn when Auburn fired him after the 2020 season. This nearly quadruples that. It's crazy. But if you think about it logically, it had to happen. Remember, it was a fully guaranteed contract. So it was 76.6, 76.8 this year. It would go to 68-something next year, 59-something the year after that. It's always going to be a giant number until you get into the 2030s. So they had no choice choice they're forking over the money and now they gotta hire somebody when we come back we will talk to billy lucci of texags about the firing of jimbo fisher we welcome billy lucci from tesags.com. He broke the story on Sunday morning that Jimbo Fisher was going to be fired. He has since been fired.

$76 million buyout. Billy, you reported that this process of making the decision on Jimbo Fisher started at the Board of Regents meeting last week, a regularly scheduled meeting that happened to come after the loss to Ole Miss and because I think people are confused and I think I look at the timing of it they played they drop a 50 burger on Mississippi State last night yeah and then this happens but after talking to you I understand that Ole Miss thing kind of felt like a final straw. Yeah, I think that stuck in the craw of a lot of people that were ultimately making the decision.

And look, you set yourself up for that with the entire history, right? And I know it's tough. Connor Wigman was looking really good. I sat here with the SEC network crew prior to that and the whole day before all we were talking about was how good Wigman looked and where does he rate in the SEC with the quarterback pecking order. And it was early for that talk, but that's how he was looking. But there's a whole body of work around it.

There's other quarterback injuries. And is that coincidence or is that slow developing plays? Is that poor blocking schemes? I don't know. But, you know, as the losses mount, as the average or below average seasons mount, then comes, you know, where your margin for error goes away. So it wasn't based on one game, but it certainly feels like we wouldn't be having this

conversation today had they won and i felt that way going in if they win in oxford they are you know they're probably going to be five and two in the sec which we saw the difference between them and mississippi state last night five and two in the sec and and they'll be on a four game you know a four game win streak heading into baton rouge in the season, and they'll be on a four-game win streak heading into Baton Rouge in the season finale. And all of that with a backup quarterback. So I don't think we'd be having this conversation. I think when they lost that game, a lot of trends and statistics

and records and road records, SEC records, they were six and 12 against Power 5 in their last 18. Those became overwhelming and undeniable, and if you tried to counter that at all, you just really couldn't because some of those numbers were just overwhelming and they just spoke louder than anything that anyone on the other side of it could say. And Ole Miss, again, I think it just, Andy, what it did is it squashed any and all momentum. And I think the way – any hope for momentum, let me say that.

And I think the way that it happened, that it happened against Ole Miss and with the stuff between Jimbo and Lane Kiffin, it's not so much about that, but it is. It's the whole concept of doing less with more. Well, I thought the way Lane – And Ole Miss is an example of the opposite kind of. So that's kind of – I think it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. I thought the way Lane framed it going into the game,

like if I were someone who made decisions at Texas A&M or someone who wrote checks at Texas A&M or someone who wrote checks at Texas A&M the way he framed it would really bother me and it was yeah when he said well their goal is to be bowl eligible and we're aiming for bigger things and that but he did that after saying they have all these great players they have all this it was like sticking the knife in and yeah it was absolutely that and and all the more reason you needed to win and i think people would have been really excited about that victory had that kick gone through and a&m won it and overtime or had the defense gotten that you know that stop there late or a&m not throwing the pick early in the

third quarter you know there's a million ways they win that football game and that's also look I don't I don't know that I don't think anybody but me has made that connection with the lane thing but I just knew how pissed off everybody was going into that game and then coming out of it um But, yeah, it was a narrow, tough, brutal loss that everyone knows they could have won. I wouldn't say should have. That was a hell of an SEC football game. So was A&M Alabama a few weeks earlier.

I wouldn't say the same about A&M Tennessee. I think both of them were just slopping around out there most of it. But those other two games were like, hey, toe-to-toe, let's go four quarters of really good football and see who wins and and it's going to come down to the wire but that's been that's been kind of the mo around here for a long time and jimbo i said this the other day and I believe this he got A&M closer than than anyone has you know in recent history RC had it there early in his tenure and they won the big 12 later in the tenure in 98 and then obviously Jackie Sherrill but I'm talking about in the last 30 years or so since their last

conference title so 25-ish years Jimbo had them the closest to getting there. And by getting there, I mean a legitimate top 10 program, an SEC title contender for a stretch, a team that was going to win 10 games consistently. It felt like, Andy, they 9-1 Orange Bowl, top four finish, right in the playoff discussion, right to the end. Then the next year they lose Haynes King.

They have a couple bad weeks. They come back, they beat Bama. They win like five in a row. They beat a number 11 Auburn team that comes in here. Their number 11 themselves going into Oxford, favored, and then favored two weeks later against a bad LSU team with Edo going out. There it was. Back-to-back, New Year's Six, maybe a 20-3 or 21-3, 20-4 record in two years,

whatever that bowl game was going to be. And they were putting together the number one recruiting class. That probably, believe it or not, could have even been better had they won. So you would have been talking about back-to-back top 10 if not top six finishes a number one class and I think more than anything Andy is you would have been talking about a culture change because coaches you've been a part of programs coaches can do all they want to try to change culture. It's never – I don't know that it's ever happened other than,

hey, we got good kids and they're graduating. But, I mean, like a culture of winning and a culture of a championship-level expectation, I don't know that it's ever happened if you can't hit that run where you're winning games and it's sustainable. Yeah. And until you do that you can only go so far before it starts to erode and i think they hit that tipping point where they could have truly let that winning winners mentality and mindset sink in and they couldn't quite get

over and then jimbo and and that locker room were never able to get it back. And then we get all the comparison to Kevin Sumlin's record, and it felt like it, like you said, eroded after that. Because you're right, if they beat Ole Miss in 21, if they beat LSU in 21, we are probably having a different conversation about Jimbo Fisher today. But now it did go downhill. They had that great recruiting class, but couldn't cash it in on the field. And I just wonder at what point did, did the folks in charge say, yes, it's an obscene

amount of money, but it's also an obscene amount of money next year. It doesn't ever stop being an obscene amount of money next year it doesn't ever stop being an obscene amount of money so we have to do it right now i think i think in the last week i really do i mean i think maybe the grumbling started after uh maybe a little bit after miami some conversations started to be had like, hey, what if we have to do this? But I don't think that was going on too much after Bama. Maybe after Tennessee people started talking seriously about it. But I think in the past week is when, like, you know, decisions were made

and people went into those meetings knowing we know what we're going to talk about here. So everybody better be prepared. And this is a very large amount of money. Obviously, the $76 million is what gets the headlines. But you have to buy out the rest of the staff. You may have to pay a buyout for the next coach. 25% of this is due within 60 days, the buyout. So that's 19-something million dollars.

Probably talking like $25 million to $30 million in cash right now. That is a huge decision for the Board of Regents, for the Athletic Department Administration. How did they come to that decision? I think there's levels here you know there's the board there's athletic director slash president uh here at a&m it's unique to the 12th man foundation because they're the fundraising arm um so i think there were probably a lot of conversations, and then maybe Thursday was that one conversation where everybody at once was brought together and involved in it. So not an easy decision to come to.

And say what you will, I said last year if it wasn't for the contract, I think I told Dennis Dodd, I think A&M would have made a change. And I think doing it a year ago might have been a little premature. But now six years in, it's how long Kevin Sumlin was here. It was hard to see it turning around, especially in today's day and age of the portal. I think people were looking at that going, man, this could get dicey in a hurry because you had a lot of whispering going on. And you don't want to do anything based on what you predict is going to happen.

I really don't like that. I don't like that form of leadership per se. But I think what was actually happening in the here and now and how it will affect the future, I think that was something that you had to really study and i do think that that statement aside i do think that portal thing was lingering in a lot of people's mind what is the profile of the next texas a&m coach is it is it a sitting head coach is it a hot coordinator is it does it matter if they've won a conference title like you know because scott woodward the former athletic director who hired Jimbo Fisher, had made it a priority to hire somebody who had won a national title.

It feels like the criteria are a little more loose this time. Dabo, let's go. No, look, that would be like one, right? Yeah. No, I don't think it's going to look like that this time around. And look, Scott Woodward, what are we talking about here? Brian Kelly, Jimbo Fisher, Kim Mulkey. You know what I mean?

We know what Woodward does. He definitely has a type. But Ross has a tight, too. It's different. You look at some of the coaches he's hired in the other sports, sometimes he'll go off the beaten path. But it's also not going to be only Ross making this hire. It's just not. I don't think there's going to be, like –

I think A&M people have learned enough that, like, it's not going to be meddling on the regents or donor level. I think it's going to be just more than just the athletic director making this hire. I don't know. I almost expect A&M to kind of get some support from a search firm on this one. I think there will be a couple other people respected,

very respected outside of even the athletic department, you know, brought in to kind of help with this search. And as is commonly the place at places, you want at least a little bit of a think tank without getting it too big where you can't keep a secret. But this is a real search, Andy. I don't think there is a type. Okay, so just pick a name of these high-end Jimbo types,

like when A&M hired Jimbo. Maybe not with a championship, but you know, the biggest names that people will sit around a table, like when you and I sat there and mentioned Jimbo, and people were like, you guys would never be able to hire Jimbo from Florida State. So if one of those guys expresses interest, A&M can pass the hat and they can go get the money and say, we can't get that guy unless you – do you want to pay his buyout? Because if you do, we'll fund the contract, but the buyout money –

so I do think one or two of those will pop up where it'll be at least intriguing those biggest of the big names kind of what i think people around the country think they're going to expect a and m to do again so i'm not saying they can't go up there but it has to be if they truly think somebody is attainable and right now i i don't see that name so you do you do have a former roommate who got into coaching yeah dan dan campbell a lot of people say get one of the dans dan campbell or dan landing one of them's got a 20 million dollar buyout the other one's got uh the detroit lions on, you know, a potential – hell, a potential Super Bowl run.

So, I know. I looked up his salary. It's only – it's $4 million. Listen, you got to try, right? You do. You do. And, look, I think they'll call – they'll reach out to – you make the list and I'll bet they'll reach out to him.

But Dan, just knowing him, I think he's so loyal. He's so loyal to – the Lions gave him a chance. And when other – he's interviewed for several jobs, and the Lions gave him a chance. And he's kind of ingrained himself in that city and they're doing special things up there. And I don't know why I'm sitting here like making a pitch for it not to be him. I'm just telling you why I think that would be, I just think it's much longer. I think it's great.

You guys have the same coffee order. So yeah, you know what? Today I need it. I did text him a picture the other day. Hatfield from Metallica. They were playing this weekend in Detroit. And I wanted to get Metallica through a connection. I wanted to get them to go to practice.

And I was like, I'm going to show up with Metallica at the Lions practice. Unannounced. I'm going to plan it through the band and through the Lions and through, you know, Holly, Dan's wife. And I'm like, I'm going to set this up, and I'm going to literally walk into his office, and then behind me is going to be, you know, the whole crew. Hatfield, Lars, Trujillo.

We're going to go in there and just show up at practice. You know how the teams have the camera. In my head, it sounded great, and then I saw the concert schedule, and it was like, okay, that's a game week at home at Kyle Field. It's going to be tough, but we could maybe do it. And then I saw the other part of it, and it was Detroit on the West Coast. And it's like, ugh. So I did send him the picture of Hatfield at his he posted a picture on his Instagram pointing at Dan's uh office door

saying he wished he was there so that pretty much made his life but yeah I think coaching the Lions right now is making his life he's very very happy with it so but, yeah, I mean, who is it? I also could see A&M looking in a completely different direction in terms of how this ends up. You look at names like Jeff Traylor at UTSA. That will come up a lot. I think, you know, well, one that's definitely going to come up and he's absolutely going to be one of the candidates and one of the people that a&m uh takes a long hard

look at is and someone else i'm familiar with as are a lot of people here and mike elko they do yeah and what he's done there in two years and you know elko to me this is the way i describe him because some because you mentioned coordinators like do you go look at you know at in athens georgia at their young defensive coordinator who's making glenn shuman making a name for himself yeah do you look that way do you you know it's you know do you look at you know high price do you go look at high price? Do you go look at what DeBoer's doing at Washington? I think that would cost you a kajillion dollars. Mike Gundy at Oak State.

People were talking about him a few days ago and then what happened yesterday. But I think that's a weird direction it feels. There's a bunch of names that come up where you go, huh. Elko's one of them, though. Elko and Traylor are a couple that I think you have to take a long look at. But I think there's also going to be some of those unexpected names. You know, like, Andy, I'm just all over the place with this. You go look at, like, I'm just thinking of somebody that's been a coach for a

while, like a Chip Kelly or somebody that's been a coach for a while, like a Chip Kelly or somebody that. When Brian Kelly took the LSU job, we didn't know he was available, but he was available. Exactly. Yeah. I could definitely see this job drawing somebody like that because it obviously can pay well. The resources are good. You're near a bunch of really good recruits. So it has all the bells and whistles.

Yeah, yeah. And let me tell you this, what I was going to say about Elko. You talk about, like, coordinators and stuff, right? I don't feel like there's more than one, maybe two, like right now, that are like, name all these really successful coordinators that have stepped up. Well, Lane Kiffin had been head coach at USC in Tennessee. Steve Sarkeesian had been a head coach at Washington in USC, and both of them had won national titles,

calling plays for Nick Saban. Bob Stoops, everyone knew. You were down there. Everyone knew Bob Stoops was a star. It's just a matter of where, not when, or where, not if. Brent Venables, we all knew, was just waiting on that right mega job. Who's another recent coordinator? Lincoln Riley was sitting there.

Freeman was sitting there at Notre Dame. There's nothing really – Kirby Smart was just biding his time for Georgia at Alabama, could have had 80 jobs in the interim. To me, Elko actually, if you're thinking of like where's that coordinator, too bad A&M doesn't have that groomed up from within. That's Mike Elko. The bonus is, oh, by the way, he got to go through the ropes of being a head coach at a Power 5 program for a couple years if you were able to get him.

So, to me, he kind of is a multi-category, to quote one of my – I don't know if you've ever seen Summer of Sam, and they've got the list of they're trying to see who the killer is. And this one guy, he said, he's a multi-category, put him on the list. Elko's a multi-category. So anyway, there's going to be a lot of candidates.

That particular connection, if you wanted to get hired, but no. It's a good movie. It's a good movie. Exactly. Well, Billy Lucci, thank you so much. And we appreciate it. And when we come back, I will give you, in honor of the 12th man,

a dozen potential candidates for the Texas A&M job. Oh, wow. I've got to listen. I've got to listen to this one. Before we talk about potential candidates for the Texas A&M job, I want to talk to you about PrizePix, the most fun daily fantasy platform out there. College football, NFL, NBA, you name it,

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and they're going to pay a lot of money. They're paying a lot of money to get rid of the old guy. It means there are going to be a lot of people potentially interested and a lot of guys that Texas A&M may be interested in that may not reciprocate, but we're going to find out. Texas A&M to part ways with Jimbo Fisher. Now, I know what you're thinking. You've agreed to a $76 million buyout, $19 million of which is due within 60 days. You are making a significant investment, so you definitely know who your next coach is gonna be.

No, they do not. That is not the case this time. When Texas A&M fired Kevin Sumlin in 2017, they knew they were hiring Jimbo Fisher. This is not that situation. Their idea was root out the dysfunction of the Jimbo Fisher era, and then they will go hire a coach. They feel like they have the money and the resources to hire just about anybody they want. That may or may not be true. We will find out. We know that a program that will guarantee a $95 million contract, 100%,

that's going to be enticing to a lot of people. I've got 12 names for you. Most jobs I would not have this many names. But Texas A&M, if they can afford Jimbo Fisher's buyout, they can afford almost anything. And so there's a lot of people who might want to listen. We will start with a name familiar to the Aggies, Mike Elko, the Duke head coach. He's working miracles in Durham.

It's Duke, guys. He won nine games last year. He's six and three this year. They lost in double overtime to North Carolina last night. He's on his third quarterback. He is doing an incredible job at Duke. He did a great job as the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M. He's on his third quarterback. He is doing an incredible job at Duke. He did a great job as the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M. He worked at Notre Dame, Wake Forest before that. This is a guy who understands what is needed there, what is wanted there,

and you've seen him be successful at a program with not anywhere near the resources. I go back to the Duke Clemson season opener this year where my friend Tom Luganville was the sideline reporter for ESPN and he said, Duke looked as athletic as Clemson. Imagine what you could do with the recruiting power of Texas A&M in terms of athletes. And oh, by the way, Texas A&M already has some pretty good athletes, most of which would probably want to play for Mike Elko or would want to play for a lot of the names I have on this list. A guy whose name is going to come up a lot is Dan Lanning because the Oregon coach, his pedigree is

perfect for this. He was the Georgia defensive coordinator when they won their first national title. Kirby Smart obviously helped train him. Nick Saban helped train him. He's also a Mike Norvell guy. He's on the Mike Norvell tree, worked for him at Memphis. Lanning has the right temperament, the right recruiting philosophy, everything. Here's what the problem is. $20 million buyout, because Oregon's not playing around. After they lost Willie Tigert and Mario Cristobal in relatively quick succession, they made sure that the next guy was locked in there. 20 million bucks if you'd like to hire Dan Lanning. And here's the other part of that.

Oregon is maybe a better job already than Texas A&M. And I know the Aggies don't want to hear this, but Oregon's going to the Big Ten. They already have an incredible roster. They're going to have a better roster now that they're going into a deeper, better conference that has a more national scope. They were already a national recruiting program. Now, is it easier to recruit in terms of local talent at Texas A&M than Oregon? Absolutely. But Oregon also has a very competent administration

that has given the football program what it needs. It also has recent proof of concept. Oregon's played for the national title twice in the past 13 years. Texas A&M can't say that. You're going into the Big Ten where you're going to play Ohio State and Michigan. And if you are the best team or the second best team or the third best team in the Big Ten, you're in the playoff every year. So, Lanning may be hard to get out of there.

And Lanning has said over and over again that he plans to stay at Oregon. And remember, this is not a going home situation. That's what Willie Tiger and Mario Cristobal both were. They were going home to their home state of Florida. Lanning's from Missouri. Like, this is not that. So I wouldn't be shocked if he winds up staying there. Now, his mentor is Mike Norvell. And I know what you're saying. Well, why would they hire a Florida State coach after they just fired the guy they hired from Florida State? Mike Norvell and Jimbo Fisher, very different places in their careers.

Mike Norvell has an undefeated team right now that he brought out of the ashes of what Jimbo Fisher left in Tallahassee and then Willie Taggart made worse. Florida State is incredible right now. The job Norvell has done in the transfer portal and then mixing that with the high school recruiting is probably the model almost everybody's going to follow as long as this is the format. Now, why would he leave? Well, the same reason Florida State wants to leave its own conference. They're stuck in the ACC. They would rather be in the Big Ten or the SEC.

So if an SEC school with tons of resources came along, if you're Mike Norvell, you have to listen. That doesn't mean you have to say yes, but you do at least have to listen because your school wants to get in the SEC. So why wouldn't you want to do that too? Another name, Kalen DeBoer, the Washington head coach. Now, Dan Lanning's a $20 million buyout. Kalen DeBoer is a $12 million buyout.

The Washington folks knew that he was going to be a valuable commodity because he is a great coach. So Jen Cohen, who is now USC's athletic director, when she did that contract, put that $12 million buyout in. But here's the thing. I know Troy Dan and their new athletic director is working on a new deal for Kalen DeBoer. This is a really good job because it's in the Big Ten now. If Washington hadn't also landed in the Big Ten with Oregon and USC and UCLA, we'd be having a very different conversation about this job. But that is a really good job right now.

So I don't know that that's one you want to leave. The other part with Kalen DeBoer, he might be getting interest from NFL teams this off season. He is regarded as one of the better offensive tacticians in the sport. So if the Chargers want him to come work with Justin Herbert, that's something he's probably got to listen to as well. That might be a better ultimate goal for him. We don't know. It depends on what you want out of life. This is a guy who came up through the NAIA.

And again, the SEC recruiting environment is a different animal. The reason Lanning is so attractive, he already knows what that's like. Norvell, same thing. He's not worked in the SEC, but when you're at Florida State, you are recruiting against all SEC schools. But Kalen DeBoer is going to win wherever he is. That's certainly one to look at. Another guy who just wins wherever he is, Lance Leipold. The most amazing turnaround at Kansas. He got the Kansas job the last day of spring practice in 2021. That's when they fired Les Miles. They were horrendous. They were the worst program in the power fight. They're a seven win team this year.

They went to a bowl game last year. Lance Leipold has done an incredible job and not entirely through the transfer portal. A lot of it is making the guys he inherited believe and play well, and then recruiting guys out of high school and also mixing in some portal guys. This is a guy who won six division three national titles at Wisconsin Whitewater. He is a winner and he was going to be a valuable commodity. We've heard rumors about him in Michigan state. Kansas is going to try to back up the truck to keep him. Texas A&M can outbid both of those if that's who they decide they want. I'll throw another name at you. Another guy who just seems to win.

Jonathan Smith at Oregon State. Now, this is the opposite of the DeBoer and Lanning situation because Jonathan Smith, even though he's at his alma mater, normally when a guy is being successful at his alma mater, you think, okay, he's gonna be much harder to get out of there. But because of what happened in conference realignment to Oregon State,

this is one where if an SEC or Big Ten school comes along, Jonathan Smith has to listen to them. He's done a great job. They were 10-3 last season. They're 8-2 right now. They were not in good shape when Gary Anderson left. Jonathan Smith has rebuilt that program, turned it into a tough line of scrimmage team.

Like that's what, what that's what you'd want at Texas A&M. You would want someone who could take all that talent that you've amassed and organize it in a way that kicks people's ass. That's what Jonathan Smith has done at Oregon State with far less raw talent than Texas A&M will have at its disposal. I know I keep going to the ones in the Pac-12, but those are the places that are the most in flux.

Now, Arizona's headed to the Big 12, but Jed Fish, their head coach, he's one that I wasn't sure what he was going to be as a head coach. He'd been a college coordinator. He'd been an NFL coordinator. You weren't sure what his guiding ethos is going to be as a head coach,

but he has been incredible. The roster turnaround is probably as drastic as what Deion Sanders has had to do at Colorado this year. What he took over after Kevin Sumlin was fired at Arizona was just a mess. And Jed Fish has reconstructed that roster through the transfer portal, but mostly through high school recruiting. Their class of 2022. I did an interview with Jed Fish on the show last week. Go watch that. Listen to him talk about that class of 2022 and imagine instead of some four stars and then some really well-evaluated three stars, imagine it's some five stars and some really well-evaluated four stars because that's

what you would get at a school like Texas A&M. Jed Fish is a really interesting name that an SEC school or a Big Ten school, I think, is going to scoop up at some point in the next year or so. Now, let's get into the Lone Star State. Jeff Traylor at UTSA, he's done a great job as the head roadrunner, but he was also a four-time class 4A Texas State high school coach of the year. This is a guy who has the Lone Star State bona fides. He would be able to recruit locally. He would be beloved by the Texas high school coaches, and he's very well respected as a college coach. He's done a great job at UTSA. That's one of those where you wonder, can he make the jump? Because it is a big jump. Now, some from outside the current head coach ranks. I got Urban Meyer on this list because I know you're going to ask about him. This is the type of job I think he

would take. The question is, would Urban Meyer be good in college football right now at a big program? Because remember, when he left Ohio State, the rules were different, the system was different. Right now, the NIL era, player empowerment era, it's gonna feel a lot more like it felt when he was the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Remember how that went? It didn't go very well.

So I'm not sure that he's designed for this era of college football unless he is really willing to adapt we've seen coaches adapt we've seen Nick Saban adapt we've seen Kirby Smart adapt could Urban Meyer do that that would be up to him but he might be more comfortable just staying at Fox if he doesn't feel like he could adapt to the new world of college football. I got one from the coordinator ranks, and this is a guy we actually saw as a head coach yesterday for Michigan. Sharon Moore, their offensive coordinator, offensive line coach, has done a phenomenal job there. He was the acting head coach when Jim Harbaugh got suspended by the Big Ten.

That's the one they turned to. If you ask people at Michigan, if Jim Harbaugh were to take an NFL job this offseason, who would you give the job to? They would want to give it to Sharon Moore. But the thing is, if Harbaugh winds up staying, and we don't know if that's going to happen. We know there's more NCAA investigation to come. We know there's potentially more NCAA penalties to come. So we don't know if Harbaugh winds up staying at Michigan. We don't know if he gets an NFL job. He's been trying. He was obviously a very good NFL coach with the 49ers. But if he's going to stay a little bit longer, Sharon Moore is ready to be a head coach right

now. And he's a great recruiter, great developer of offensive linemen. And look, the SEC is a line of scrimmage league. You need people who can move other big people. That's what Sharon Moore does. He trains large people to move other large people really well. And I think as the head coach, that would be the foundational element of his program. My guess is he would also recruit very well on the defensive line and hire the right people to develop those people as well.

And that is the only way you win in the SEC. The only way. Now, a couple pie-in-the-sky potential names that I think would say no, but I think you have to ask. One is Dan Campbell. MCDC, baby. Detroit Lions head coach. Biting kneecaps.

One of the hottest young coaches in the NFL. He's an Aggie. He played for Texas A&M. He's going to say no, probably. He's never coached in college. He also has a roster that is going to be competitive in the NFC for the next few years. If they can find a quarterback to succeed Jared Goff in the next year or two, they could be competitive for a long time. Dan Campbell's good at hiring staff. I don't think he's leaving, but he's an Aggie. You have to ask. One more from the NFL. And this is just a guy that when athletic directors asked me who I think would be a great college head coach, I throw this name out there because I know he would be. Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.

Now, he was very briefly in college football with Will Muschamp at Florida as Will Muschamp's defensive coordinator. He recruited, evaluated, recruited, signed multiple first round draft picks in that brief period of time. His players loved him. He has the personality that would be incredible for a recruiter because he can talk to the players in language that they appreciate and understand, but he can also connect with their parents. He's just one of those guys who's real all the time. But here's the problem. This is a man who's been an NFL head coach before, and he's probably in line to be an NFL head coach again real soon. But I still think you go ask, because he would be a great college head coach. I know I've thrown a ton of names at you,

but that's the thing about this Texas A&M job. They don't have a candidate in mind necessarily, and they have a ton of money to spend, even though they just gave Jimbo Fisher a ton of money. So let's see who winds up getting that next pile of cash from the Aggies. So much to talk about with the big news from Texas A&M, but it is still Sunday. We got to do the resume ranking.

And yeah, I got a new number one. The question is, will the college football playoff selection committee also feel the same way? I think they might after what they saw on Saturday night. I had to move Georgia to number one after that just throttling of Ole Miss. That game was 14-14 and ended 52-17. Georgia looked incredible offensively. Brock Bauer's back and with a healthy Ladd McConkie and with a healthy Kendall Milton and a healthy right tackle Amarius Mims back in place. Holy cow.

Carson Beck had a great night. So many weapons for him. So many options for him. And this looks like a team that can beat anybody in the country. If they play the way they played last night, they will beat anybody they play. They will win a third consecutive national title. That is the team that we were talking about. We were talking about a three-peat. Is the defense as dominant as last year's? No, it's not. But the offense might be better. And it took some time, and maybe it just took everybody getting healthy to see it. But that's the team. Now,

we have seen inconsistency from Georgia this year. So can they do this again? Like, will they go to Knoxville and do this to Tennessee? We don't know. I'll be curious to see it. They'll obviously be challenged by Alabama in the SEC championship game. If they get past Alabama, that might be their toughest challenge yet. We'll see. But Georgia looks awesome. Ohio State, I got number two. I feel bad dropping the Buckeyes because all they did was exactly what we've been asking them to do.

Finally throttle an overmatched opponent. And that's, they crushed Michigan State. Marvin Harrison Jr. was the best player on the field, as usual. And this is a team that, if they round in a four-com four comma cord looked as good as we've seen him look all season. If they round into form, that's a team that I'd love to see play against Georgia. You saw them play classic in the peach bowl last year. They could play another great game, but they have to make the playoff first because we talk about maybe Georgia and Alabama both making it. We talk about Ohio State and Michigan both making it.

But the reality is, with Washington still undefeated, with Texas out there with a head-to-head win against Alabama, Florida State's still undefeated, you're going to have to keep winning. So Ohio State's going to have to beat Michigan. And that's the part I want to see. That's what we need to see from Ohio State. Prove you can beat those guys. Because if you beat those guys, there's a chance you can beat Georgia too. I've got Michigan at three. I was in Happy Valley. I watched them beat Penn State.

I watched them run the ball 32 consecutive times. J.J. McCarthy only threw eight times. It's okay. You're not going to hear any J.J. McCarthy slander from me because of that. They won the way they needed to win in a very weird situation. Remember, they got the news of Jim Harbaugh's suspension as they were landing on Friday. They thought they were going to get an injunction and Harbaugh was going to coach. They find out Saturday morning that Sharon Moore is going to have to be the coach. So how you win that game, just win it, figure it out, win it. And I actually thought it was more impressive the way they did win it

by physically dominating a very good Penn State defense, not a very good Penn State offense, but a very good Penn State defense. So I got them at three, Florida State, I've got it four. They lived a little dangerously against Miami, but they did take control in the third quarter. This is a team that should go undefeated. If you've watched them play, you see who they've got left. Louisville's gonna be the opponent

in the ACC championship game. Florida State should be 13-0 in the playoff. It's up to them to make it happen because weird things can happen. As you saw with that Miami game, it shouldn't have been that close, but it was. Speaking of shouldn't have been that close, but it was. Washington, Utah. Utah led Washington at halftime. I've got Washington number five. I'm not dropping the Huskies because, again, Utah is a pretty good team. They figured it out.

And I also think if Washington plays defense the way they played in the second half of that Utah game where they gave up zero points, pitched a shutout in the second half, there's a really good chance that Washington is a 13-0 playoff team. They've got to get past Oregon. I think Oregon will be favored if they play again in the Pac-12 championship game, but if they play D like they played in the second half on Saturday, they can win that game. I kept Texas at number six. I get it. I know. We're used to this. They took a lead. They let TCU back in the game. What are you doing? Why is this this close?

Stop doing this. I get it. But there are going to be some clunkers along the way. They've got to beat Iowa State. That's the big one. They lose to Iowa State. We're going to drop them out of here. and it would drop the Big 12 into massive chaos. So they've got Quinn Ewers back. He will have a game under his belt when they go to Ames.

That's where the Longhorns are at. And mostly I have to keep them here because I have to keep them above Alabama. They did go to Tuscaloosa and beat Alabama. The games have to matter. Now, do I have Oregon below them? Yes, I do. Alabama has better wins. Texas has better wins than Oregon. That could change too if Oregon were to go beat Washington. But right now, Alabama might be playing the best of this bunch. Might be playing the best of anybody except Georgia. They looked great against Kentucky yesterday. So, if they continue to evolve,

it may be that the SEC championship game matches the best two teams in the country. But I don't know yet. We need to see Alabama keep going. The game against Auburn at Auburn should be good. Auburn's getting better. We know how that environment at Jordan-Hare is. We've seen teams that should easily beat Auburn go into that environment and either get really scared or lose.

Oregon just shot itself in the foot a bunch of times against USC. Still came off with a nine-point win. Should have won by a ton. Oregon's a lot better team than USC. But they made mistakes down the stretch. You're going to have a sloppy game. Get it out of the way now. Be glad that's the one you had the sloppy game against.

Don't have your sloppy game against Oregon State. You don't want that at all. Washington's got to play Oregon State and Corvallis this week. Then Oregon and Oregon State in what might be the last version of the Civil War for quite some time. So get your clunkers out of the way. Oregon, you need to be hitting on all cylinders the next few weeks. I've got Louisville at number nine hanging in there Louisville really really struggle against Virginia for a while but they

did come back and win we're gonna keep them here they're gonna play for the ACC title will they make the playoff if they win the ACC I I think they're going to need chaos elsewhere. They have the worst loss of any of the teams in this bunch because they lost to Pittsburgh, but they keep winning. They got a shot. And number 10, I have Missouri. They got a couple losses. They lost to LSU in a shootout. They lost to Georgia in Athens in a game where they pushed the Bulldogs, where it was a one possession game in the fourth quarter. And they just dump truck Tennessee on Saturday. This is a good team. They're going to be heavily favored in the next two games. They got Florida and Arkansas. This is a team that probably is going to win 10 games and is probably going to a New Year's Six Bowl, which at the beginning of the season, when Eli Drinkwitz,

and he came on the show and made fun of himself about this, so I feel like I'm okay saying this. When Eli Drinkwitz thought he was coming out of a timeout and didn't send his field goal team on the field, and then Harrison Mevis had to kick a 61-yarder instead of a 56-yarder to beat Kansas State, I did not think this was going to be a 10 and two team, but there's a really good chance. This is a 10 and two team and they've done a fabulous job down the stretch. So speaking of the new year six and the college football playoff, let's do our projections for that. So I'm coming off the two big 10 teams projection. I think, I think it's going to be the winner.

The way it looks right now, barring some more chaos, like if Texas were to lose to Iowa State or something crazy, I think it's the winner of the Michigan-Ohio State game. If I had to pick who's going to win that game, I'd say Michigan. So I'm going to say Michigan, Texas, and the Rose Bowl. That's your number two, number three matchup. And your number one, number four is Georgia-Flor Texas, and the Rose Bowl. That's your number two, number three matchup. And your number one, number four is Georgia, Florida State in the Sugar Bowl. This would be a fun final college football playoff.

You get the new blood in in Texas. You get Florida State running it back for the first time since the first college football playoff. And then, of course, Georgia and Michigan, who have been in the last two versions of the college football playoff. And then of course, Georgia and Michigan who have been in the last two versions of the college football playoff together. In the Orange Bowl, remember, you got to have an ACC team. So Louisville would get that spot. I got Florida State in the playoff. Then it's the next highest ranked SEC or Big Ten team. So I'm going to put Ohio State in here. I'm going to have Ohio State losing to Michigan. They go into the Orange Bowl. Peach Bowl.

I got Tulane in there as the highest ranked group of five champ. They're living dangerously though. Barely got past East Carolina. Barely got past Tulsa this week. This should be James Madison. The Dukes should be allowed to play for the Sun Belt title, and they should be allowed to get that New Year's Six Bowl spot. The NCAA needs to get its head out of you know where and just do this. Take the easy W and let the Dukes play in the postseason. Now they're probably going to play in the postseason

anyway because there may not be enough six and six teams, but they need to be allowed to play for a Sunbelt title and they need to be allowed to play in a New Year's Six Bowl if they wind up having that kind of season, which they are having. The reason they can't do it right now, they just transitioned from FCS to FBS. This is only their second season in FBS. They get full rights and privileges next year.

They should have them already. They've earned it already. They keep asking the NCAA to make an exception. They should make an exception. In the Cotton Bowl, I've got Alabama and Washington. That would be a fun one. Remember Ryan Grubb, the Washington offensive coordinator, talked to Nick Saban about that Alabama job.

Didn't end up taking it. Tommy Reese comes down. This would be a fun game. This would be a more fun playoff game, but we don't have a 12-team playoff this year. Would have loved to seen that in a 12-team playoff. The Fiesta Bowl, Oregon and Missouri. I'd have loved to seen that in a 12-team playoff this year. Would love to see that in a 12 team playoff. The Fiesta Bowl, Oregon and Missouri. I'd love to see that in a 12 team playoff. Thank goodness there's only one more year of this

because these matchups would look great if they had bigger stakes. I mean, it's nice that you get the Sugar Bowl and the Rose Bowl with huge stakes, but I'd rather see all these games with big stakes. I'd also like to eat big stakes. That is your college football playoff and New Year's Six projection. When we come back, we'll talk to Clayton Safey from the Wolverine about Michigan's win at Penn State from Happy Valley.

Here with Clayton Safey at Beaver Stadium. We just watched Michigan beat Penn State. We haven't seen Michigan throw in a long time. No. Not since the first half. If I had told you before the game that that's how this would go down, would you believe me? No.

I thought the run game would play better than it has. I feel like they used some of the wrinkles, not specifically that I thought they would use, but I felt like they had some stuff saved based on kind of what we had heard over the last few weeks for this game. But, you know, the run game wasn't overly effective on a down to down basis, but they started to pop a couple. I would not have believed that. I was thinking coming into the game, Key's going to be JJ on third in long and how effective he's been this year at that. So no, JJ hasn't thrown a pass. Like you said, in a couple how effective he's been this year at that so no uh JJ hasn't thrown a pass like

you said in a couple hours he did have the one pass interference that you know but it didn't technically count as a pass so um not the script that I thought but you know Michigan did a good job and then they they end it with the Blake Corham touchdown nothing nothing went according to script let's let's talk about the big picture here I mean so Sharon Moore is the acting head coach yeah they find out when as they land here in State College, like a mile over there, they find out that Jim Harbaugh is suspended. Yeah. They think they're going to get an injunction.

That doesn't happen. So on Saturday morning, they find out, no, no, no, Sharon Moore is the coach. Right. And what a 24 hours. Insane. My car right here went by like that because we're working the whole time um and i'm sure it was obviously much crazier for those guys getting off the plane but even crazier so this morning they get to the stadium jim harbaugh i'm pretty sure i don't have this

confirmed but i'm pretty sure he was in the general vicinity of where we're sitting right now in the stadium outside waiting to come in if he gets that court right there was there were some people you know starting rumors that he was on the bus. I think he might have been. I mean, that's straight-up WWE style. Right. Like, he just waits outside the gate, and then, bam, they play the music. But it didn't happen, and it's not going to happen.

There'll be a hearing Friday. By the way, the day they're traveling to Maryland. Oh, my gosh. That's the craziest part about all this. Can you believe just the timing of everything that's happened? No, I can't believe that any of it's happened, let alone the timing of it. And it's insane. Jim Harbaugh, they were just talking about it at the postgame,

but he FaceTimed the team after. He gave a message to the team last night saying, play angry. Yeah. Which is something he would never say to us publicly, but sometimes you get the glimpses through the players, and I thought that was interesting, And it felt like they were they were doing. Everyone saw the Manny Diaz video kind of making fun of the signs. And the players, after all the touchdowns and everything, were doing the the time thing, you know, checking their watches. So this was a passionate team. This was a team. I was down there on the field before the game, right after the news basically hit that they weren't going to have them.

And they all kind of had that look in their eye, the same one we just saw Trevor Keegan with in the post game that it was like okay we're gonna have to do this it's Michigan against the world well I was down there at the end of the it was nasty the Penn State fans are screaming at the Michigan players Michigan players are screaming back like it was it was not pretty but that that's to be expected given the circumstances in the situation how big is this win and how big is it that they did it the way they did it yeah so now you silence some of the doubters you know and they've used a lot of this as fuel not just this stuff but the run game you haven't played anybody that sort of thing now they've played a good team a really good team now they've been able to run the ball uh effectively

and it feels like they got a little bit of confidence there. And also now you're just 10 and up for the second straight year. You're likely, unless you blow it at Maryland, they're going to get their thousandth win next week at Maryland likely. And then you go into the Ohio State game undefeated for a second straight year. Feel like the class of the Big Ten, you know, that's kind of what Michigan's been the last few years. And now they have done that again, heading into the Ohio State game. So it's massive for this program to be in this spot, and it does speak to how prepared they were for the chaos. I was just thinking about this as I was walking up here. Ben Herbert, the strength coach of this team, has these guys so dialed in.

They talk about it where they'll get a text that's like, workout 6 a.m. tomorrow, the night before. All right, they're all there. They're ready to go. Some of them have to jump in the cold tub before their workout and do the entire workout sopping wet and freezing cold, and they're fine with it. They're kind of ready for when this stuff happens. Sudden change is what they refer to, and, I mean, we just saw it today.

Well, this is, again, one of the weirdest seasons ever. It started with Michigan imposing a three-game suspension on Jim Harbaugh for the other NCAA investigation, which allowed them to practice with Mike Hart as a head coach, with Sharon Moore as a head coach. As weird as it sounds, how much did that help them today? I think it helped them. I think it helped them because you kind of had that under your belt. And then we even saw it. So Jesse Minter felt like the head coach of the defense.

Right. And Sharon Moore said that. He said Jesse could use the timeouts. Because remember, Sharon's got to call the plays. Yes. That's what I was kind of wondering is would they go Mike Hart to let the play callers be play callers, but instead they go with Sharon Moore,

who I think is probably if you asked everybody, if Jim Harbaugh were to go to the NFL, who on the staff would be the head coach, it would be Sharon Moore. Sure. For sure. But then even it was Mike Hart calling the timeouts when there were a few clunky moments right um you know a couple penalties and then those timeouts they had to take and it's a loud crowd so you got to give them credit for that too um you know but it was Mike Hart doing that so like Sharon just talked to us about um it was a team effort for them he was emotional after the game as well i think this meant a lot for him personally he's been through a lot here at michigan and uh you know it was kind

of that all coming together in this game and now they're back with jim harbaugh right now probably at the hotel yeah well they're probably on the plane i don't think they're back at the hotel the airport is a mile from here harbaugh probably had to get an extra night right like so he could stay there during the day yeah can you imagine like him going to the desk um so i need to i need to get the extra night called there's no way he did there's like seven ops guys who handle that but i just want a picture jim harvoss standing at the desk going in full garb exactly i'm gonna need i'm gonna need this extra night uh can i get something with a couple tvs in case i want to watch another game i don't know how this how this was gonna go and he has the youtube tv at home now as he calls it so he doesn't know how to use i mean could he do the four box i think

he does the four box he was amazed by that i don't know if you saw his presser a few weeks ago but he's he's starting to learn kind of how to figure all this out so well it okay is he gonna need it next week is the question is that there's a hearing on friday everybody thought that injunction would be granted sat this today it was not is it a guarantee slam dunk that it gets granted next week i'm well versed in all the various lawyerings as charlie kelly would say oh yeah it's always sunny i mean so we were we're having dinner with a lawyer who's a subscriber of the wolverine last night no a michigan grad who went to law school exactly so and also a lot of judges that are michigan grads in the area you know

people will be using stuff people write on michigan message boards in actual legal filing allegedly allegedly but everyone was confident everyone i talked to texting a couple different friends who are lawyers and whatever and they were confident they were going to get this this hit so close to the game that like i haven't been able to actually read and figure out what this hearing on friday is going to be and what happened to force that so it's anyone's guess well i think it's probably it's hundreds of pages that this judge has to go through between what michigan filed and then what what the ncaa excuse me what the big 10 yeah and the you know by 219 right that was michigan filed and then and then the Big Ten's got a bunch of PDFs that obviously this judge is going to have to go through and read as well.

So it is very interesting and probably was a lot of pressure to do in a couple hours. And if you are a judge, you probably do not want to be forced into that sort of decision that quickly. Yeah. Tim Connors was the judge. And then it was like, oh, no, it's this Carol Kunky or something like that. Both Michigan guys. Carol, by the way, was the judge in Conner Stallions versus the HOA. For a vacuum cleaner business, which is just.

Vacuum cleaner repair. In fact, I'm even saying the word vacuum. Very poor Amazon reviews. Again, none of this stuff is. And Blake Corham was on the LLC. Right. If we had written this out before the season and said, here's what's going to happen. No. No one would have believed any of this stuff is – And Blake Corham was on the LLC. Right. If we had written this out before the season and said, here's what's going to happen, no one would have believed any of this.

No. No one knew who Connor Stallions was. We did, the cover in the team. You just knew, okay, it's an analyst. I had met him a couple times. Connor Stallions is like the most well-known guy in college football. It is wild. This whole situation and the fact that they came in here

and threw the ball eight times i'm gonna look up when the last time they threw i think it was only 60 yards is that right i was on the field against people watching i don't know any of the stats but that one seven of eight i'm curious you being on the field because we were keeping track yeah i know the tv broadcast was also keeping track of how many consecutive runs. And they tried to throw a couple times. There was one play where they were going to throw a little swing pass, but then they had to call timeout because the play clock was running out. Then there was another, the PI.

So officially, I believe it was 32 consecutive runs. But on the field, did it feel that way? Kind of. I wouldn't have guessed 32 in a row. I would have thought maybe there was one sprinkled in. those times you know sometimes you forget to play here or there um but I was saying to guys down there that I was watching the game next to like okay I they're playing it really conservative here and that second to last drive that counted I think it was when they ran on that third and long JJ was a little hurt so I don't think they wanted to put

him in a tough spot maybe Maybe he makes a mistake. That was the worst thing you could have done. But I was like, okay, they're playing this very conservative. But then it kind of paid off where, as Sharon said, those three, four-yard, two-yard runs, a lot of them on first down, turned into the bigger ones. I'm not sure how conservative it was. I think it was just really Sharon Moore countering what Penn State was doing because Penn State was –

And you would have a better view of this. Right. If they had third and medium or third and long, Penn State was going to heat State was was if you would have a better right if they had third and medium or third and long Penn State was going to heat up JJ yeah and they but they were trying to bring it all up the middle and what it did is it allowed Michigan to to on the edge seal those edge players and that's they got three or four first downs just sealing edge players running to the wide side of the field right because Penn State was concentrating so much pass rush up the middle thinking it was going to be a throwing situation and it wasn't

and and there was one where it was a called pass and JJ boots out and winds up running for the first down again nine yards I think on a third and two yeah and that got him a field goal which it doesn't sound like much when you think about how the game ended. It was huge at the time. Massive. Yeah, because for the majority of the second half, it was an eight-point game. It was an eight-point game, yeah. Don't – I mean, James Franklin. It would have been a five-point game.

Yeah. If not for that field goal. Exactly. But James Franklin, a couple questionable. I thought going for two really on either because then he doesn't get the second one. They're down nine. What are your thoughts? Well, but it doesn't get the second.

The second one, you're delaying inevitability if you – Because you had to do it at some point. you're going to have to get a two point the first one was a little bit because it changed the way you call the rest of the game and i think that was it was interesting i don't know if you pick this up on the field the grumbling the audible grumbling from the penn state crowd starting in the first quarter as they disagreed with various decision-making. I wrote down a note also late in the game too, when it was the second down pass to the sideline broken up and then they don't get the third, but going into that third down completely silent.

No one in this building had any confidence in that Penn State offense credit, the Michigan defense too, for doing what they did. But it's kind of- And Drew Heller throws to no one and Drew Heller throws to no one Drew Heller throws to no that was the third down and the crowd and the crowd was already that was I was coming down to get on the field for the last five minutes we were shocked at how much of the Penn State crowd was leaving on in that it with six minutes to go yep and then once that happened they were gone they were filing out yeah and I've been doing every game this year Michigan on the road i think fourth road game every single game and they take a lot of pleasure in this they talk about it the michigan fans start coming down closer and closer the let's go blues

are going i mean they have emptied out stadiums like this over the last three years 10 straight road games now for the first time since the 1940s yeah well they started they finished this this last one with a couple of chants. They went free Jim Harbaugh. That was one of the chants. The last word of it was Ohio. It was a two-word chant, and the last word was Ohio. I'm assuming that happens every game. But, I mean, Clayton, I'm going to give you license here

because we're going to use our imaginations because anything we could have imagined would not have been as strange as what's actually happened. No. So let's imagine. What happens over the next week? What happens over the next week is, I mean, I think now that it's in the court's hands a little bit, I think it's going to be quiet, maybe. But also, I've said that, and then there's some bombshell report that comes out.

Michigan sued the big tent yesterday ward manual statement right before the game was like scorched if you've ever talked to ward manual if you ever heard ward manual speak yeah the idea of him committing that statement to writing yes like sending it out as an email to everyone on michigan's email listserv. I was surprised. It is a massive step, and it says that Michigan is just done with this. This is big picture, and it's something that we started to talk about over at the Wolverine or whatever, but the questions going into the year about Jim Harbaugh, what's he going to do?

He's under this first NCAA investigation. Weirdly, this entire situation has put everybody on the same page at Michigan, from President Santa Ono to the Regents. A couple of them I saw down on the field celebrating, going crazy. Athletic Director Ward Manuel. There's always been a little bit of tension between Manuel and Harbaugh and Harbaugh now and the rest of the staff. It's weirdly aligned, everybody.

We'll see what comes of all this NCAA stuff, but when it's said and done, would it shock me if this is kind of something that galvanized the entire university? No. Well, and Santa Ono with the bet tweet. He had to get in on it. That came from the players. Trevor Keegan, the offensive lineman, explained the whole situation, that they were joking about it at dinner.

And then Chris Jenkins, I think, was the one who broke the seal on it. And, of course, the president of the university gets in on it. He gets on all of it. I mean, he's visible. I was talking about the basketball game the other night. Chris Jenkins, thank God I still have tweet notifications on for him from when he came back from the NFL last year. I saw that, and then I saw a couple others, a couple others.

And this team, it feels like they're really together and kind of rallying behind us. He was starting a movement. And the thing is, with Michigan, the way they're handling this, I think if you've watched a lot of these cases, and this is obviously different because it's the conference involved, but if you watch the NCAA case with Kansas, if you watch North Carolina, I think these schools are looking at it and going, okay, well, nothing bad happened to them.

Fight like hell. Yeah, why not fight like hell? Why not? well nothing bad happened to them fight like hell yeah why not fight like hell why not it it's common sense at this point because you've seen it work for other people now right and i think part of it too like i don't know how michigan would have fought this if the big 10 didn't step in but now that the big 10 has come in and kind of pissed them off and been like we're not going to give you the due process that they're asking for they're going to suspend jim harbaugh right away now they're they're fighting and then i're going to suspend Jim Harbaugh right away.

Now they're fighting. And then I think once it's – like, all the attention right now is on the Big Ten. Once it's back to the actual NCAA case, they're going to continue to fight, and we'll see the results. Well, the NCAA case is a different animal. It is. It's two completely separate things. Because they have that – they have it in writing that the head coach is responsible

for everything that happens. So it doesn't even matter if he knew. True.caa case i think probably goes a little differently this is different because it's now because the big 10 the bylaws are vaguely written because it probably nobody ever thought anything like this would happen so it's going to be and you know none of us thought any of this would ever happen we thought it'd be the mascot getting in if i heard you say that well i thought back to remember when the ohio u mascot went a little nuts and brutus had to oh maybe he came out and tried to try to smash brutus buckeye and and i mean i thought brutus could have defended himself a little better but

it purdue pete would have never sparty wouldn't let that happen so but that it's funny because mascots are mentioned in those bylaws. Right, they're not mentioned for this. Yeah, this was not prepared for. So, Clayton, have a safe trip home. Thank you. Thank you so much. You too.

Yeah, thanks for having me. That Michigan situation is going to just get weirder and weirder. There are no opening lines on whether they're going to get the injunction against Maryland, but FanDuel has put out an opening line on the game on Sunday. Michigan opened as a 21.5-point favorite on the road at Maryland. Maryland's defense not great. I suspect we'll see Michigan throw quite a bit more than we saw them throw against Penn State.

Let J.J. McCarthy work his arm out and score some points. A couple other intriguing opening lines. Louisville heads to Miami, and Miami played very close against Florida State. You hate to see Emory Williams get hurt at the end of that game. He was playing very well, the true freshman quarterback, so they're back to Tyler Van Dyke. Louisville's only a two-and- and a half point favorite on the road here. Louisville has two losable games here at the end of the regular season. They survived that game against Virginia, but they got to go to Miami, and then they play Kentucky, which has been a problem for them in the last few years.

Only a two and a half point favorite at Miami, so that one bears watching. Illinois at Iowa. So Illinois went crazy with a young quarterback who threw for 500 yards and that makes this total very complicated well Vegas doesn't think it's that complicated they said it at 30 and a half they didn't go as low as Iowa Rutgers the Iowa under remember is 8-2 on the season. 30-1. Do we dare go over? I'm going to have to do some more research on this Illinois offense that just exploded against Indiana.

Could they be the ones that crack into the over against the Iowa defense? Meanwhile, Georgia, which played its best game of the season against Ole Miss, they're headed to Tennessee. They will be 10-1 favorites at Neyland Stadium. That's one of those at the game of the season against Ole Miss. They're headed to Tennessee. They will be 10.5-point favorites at Neyland Stadium. That's one of those at the beginning of the season. If you said that's going to be a double-digit spread, I think most people would have said no. But Tennessee got annihilated by Missouri on Saturday.

Where are the Vols right now? You know they'd love to beat Georgia, but where are they mentally after that beat down? Georgia flying high, 10.5 point favorite. One more really interesting one. You saw Washington clamp down on Utah in the second half, didn't allow any points. They're going to Oregon State as a 2.5 point favorite. That game in Corvallis could be really good. The Beavers, one of the hottest teams in college football right now. Guys, this week's going to be pretty incredible. Got a job opening at Texas A&M.

Got a court hearing with Jim Harbaugh. What a sport. What a sport. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye.