Andy & Ari On3 - Kirby Smart on how Georgia RULED National Signing Day | Matt Rhule lands the BIG ONE | Signing Day Recap

Episode Date: December 21, 2023

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 NSD 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/NSD(0:00-6:57) Intro(6:58-19:59) Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart Joins(20:00-32:57) Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule(32:58-45:32) Miami Head Coach Mario Cristobal(45:33-53:49) Oregon Head Coach Dan Lanning(53:50-1:06:04) Missouri Head Coach Eliah Drinkwitz(1:06:05-1:16:51) South Carolina Head Coach Shane Beamer(1:16:52-1:19:19) ConclusionEven after having a 5-star quarterback flip earlier in the week, Georgia still ruled National Signing Day. Coach Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs signed the No. 1 ranked class in the On3 Industry Rankings. Smart joins the show to discuss how Georgia continues to build through the high school ranks in the trenches and how QB signee Ryan Puglisi didn’t care who else was committed.Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, who signed former Georgia QB commit Dylan Raiola, joins the show to discuss signing the player everyone told him he HAD to get. Plus, Rhule explains how recruiting a tight end got him invited to a random wedding in Ainsworth, Neb.Miami coach Mario Cristobal joins to talk building on the defensive line.South Carolina coach Shane Beamer explains the difference in recruiting the best player in South Carolina in 2009 and the best player in South Carolina in 2023.Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz talks signing the No. 1 player in the On3 rankings.Oregon coach Dan Lanning explains why sometimes it’s OK to come in second when recruiting a player.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/J5TM5zbDBKE

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy National Signing Day. What a day it was. I hope you're watching on three's coverage all day. I hope you're watching Josh Newberg and J.D. Piquel and Chad Simmons during the day as the action was going on. The NLIs were rolling in. The flips were happening.

There were several flips. Flips at the top. Flips that took teams out of the top. It was quite a day. It was quite a day. We have a huge show for you tonight. We've got the coaches involved in a lot of these stories. Kirby Smart, who was the number one class in 2024 we've got eli drinkwits who signed the number one player

in 2024 in the on three rankings williams and wary we've got matt rule at nebraska who signed the quarterback that he absolutely had to have and got invited to a random wedding while recruiting one of the one of the tight ends they signed. We got Mario Cristobal, who was flipping them like crazy on National Signing Day to Miami. We got Dan Lanning, who explains why sometimes in recruiting, it's okay to finish second. We got Shane Beamer at South Carolina who explains the difference between

recruiting the number one player in the state in 2009 and recruiting the number one player in the state in 2023. The world has changed considerably. All of that on today's show. Let's talk about where everything wound up. So as we record this, well, we're not recording, we're live. So get in the chat, feel free to heckle.

As we talk, Georgia sits firmly at number one. And what was going to be number, remember, Georgia lost a five-star quarterback earlier in the week in Dylan Raiola. But the Bulldogs replaced him with five-star safety KJ Bolden from Buford, Georgia, who flipped away from Florida State. That was a big move. Now, when you hear Kirby Smart later in the show, he's not talking about KJ Bolden yet because when we recorded this, KJ Bolden had yet to flip.

This is one of those deals where there's a lot of moving pieces on national signing day. The coaches aren't allowed to talk about somebody until their national letter of intent is in. So Bolden hadn't sent his into Georgia yet. So we couldn't talk to Kirby about that yet, but you can tell that Kirby's in a really good mood because something good was about to happen. Meanwhile, Alabama finishes number two. It was a fairly quiet day for the Crimson Tide. They didn't need to do much. They already had a great class.

Obviously, Julian Sane, the quarterback from Carlsbad, California, the centerpiece of that class. Ohio State finishes three, and they hung on. After losing a receiver to Oregon, they hung on to Jeremiah Smith, the number one receiver in the country, and the guy who may look an awful lot like Marvin Harrison Jr. once he gets to campus because this is a dynamic guy. This is one of those that Florida State and Miami were in hot, hot, hot pursuit,

were not giving up. Florida was still trying to get him, but Ohio State held on. Great quote from Ryan Day. He was at his press conference when word came down that Jeremiah Smith had said, hey, I'm sticking to my commitment to Ohio State. I'm good. I'm coming. And Ryan Day said, yeah, the beer will taste a little bit better tonight.

So Miami, all the way up to number four, McCain's got some flips in this class. We have Mario Cristobal on the show talking about flips. There's actually a flip that happened in November that really kicked things off, but they got a Darius Hayes, the linebacker who was committed to Florida going to National Signing Day.

He signs with Miami and they were very busy on National Signing Day. He signs with Miami. And they were very busy on National Signing Day. Armando Blount, who had gone over to Florida State, came back to Miami, another defensive lineman. This is a very good D-line class for Miami. Last year was kind of centered around the offensive line. This year, the headline is the defensive line. So that's the good news. Those are the teams that had really good days.

Oregon had a good day. You're going to hear from Dan Lanning later tonight about the second place aspect of it, which works in recruiting and in the transfer portal. Jeremiah McClellan is a receiver who, well, they thought they were in second form at one point in his recruitment, but on Wednesday, they wound up signing him. McClellan was committed to Ohio State going into the day and ends up signing with Oregon. Now,

I mentioned Hayes going to Miami. Florida lost several players, but they kept the biggest two. It's very interesting. They started the week in the top five. They finished Wednesday night number 16, but they got the two guys they wanted the most, DJ Lagway, the quarterback from Willis, Texas, LJ McCray, the edge rusher from Daytona Beach. But it's kind of a bittersweet one for the Gators

because this class doesn't look all that different in terms of ranking from some of those Dan Mullen classes. It's got two very special guys at the top, but some of the meat of the class was picked off by Auburn, by Miami, and Texas A&M got one of the players that had been committed to Florida. So it's not as good of a class as Billy Napier and company had hoped. So we shall see. One mystery remaining.

Jordan Seton, the number one offensive tackle prospect, still hasn't signed. He has committed to Colorado very publicly, but not signed a letter of intent yet. And now there's talk that he may go to Maryland. So the Colorado class right now ranked 42nd in the on three industry rankings. That is including a commit from Jordan Seton. But if he doesn't actually sign that, that coach prime's class gonna, gonna drop quite a bit. So we will see what happens with that, but let us get started with the cavalcade of coaches. And, of course, we start with the guy who finished number one. Kirby Smart, the Georgia Bulldogs, building in the trenches once again.

Joined now by Georgia head coach Kirby Smart. And, Coach, double-digit offensive and defensive linemen, Chinese in this class. You guys have homegrown the big guys, even in the transfer portal era. How important is it to get those guys and develop them the way you want to develop them? Yeah, I think it's the key to success. The offensive and defensive lines of scrimmage are critical.

You can't win football games without big people, and that's proven year in and year out, the size of the teams that win national championships. It's hard to get those size guys out of the portal. When you look across the portal, it's really hard to find offensive and defensive linemen. So I think you have to grow and develop them. The key is, number one, finding them.

The next thing is keeping them because sometimes there are positions that take a while to play. So you just have to understand it takes a little bit. So you've got Nair Daniels and Marcus Harrison. They're both over 6'7". Harrison's 335. Daniels is 371. Now, I know you're not recruiting these guys unless – We hope he's 371.

Well, I know you're not recruiting these guys unless... We hope it's 371. Well, I know you're not recruiting these guys if they're not athletes. Are you amazed at how huge humans have gotten and can still move? Yeah, it's definitely been a cycle of continuous growth with these guys. You cross the NFL and

I can remember stories 10, 15 years ago where I thought there's no way a guy could play. And that guy's playing in the NFL right now that I didn't think could play because he couldn't move in high school. So you're looking at height, weight, size. It's hard to get around a big human being. It's just at the end of the day, you can't run around them. They get in the way, they move people, and they're the difference in wins and losses. So you got one QB in this class.

It's Ryan Puglisi. He committed in October of 2022. He never cared if this was going to be a two QB class or one QB class. What is it about this guy that stuck out to you that early and he stuck with you through the recruitment of a pretty high profile guy who wanted to going to Nebraska. Yeah, Ryan's a special kid. It was never about that for him. We were very honest and transparent from the time he committed, and he was open to that. He didn't care. He just felt like it would be better competition for him to get better each and every day he goes against somebody. He wanted to be coached. He wanted to be developed. He wanted to be part of the Georgia family. He's got a wonderful family that has been committed to athletics. They got tremendous siblings that are really good athletes. And when he came down here, he's got a really talented release, quick release. These guys that are former baseball players, very much like Carson,

they get it in and out of their glove really quick. And in today's age of college football, that transition could make two steps for the guy catching the ball um and and that's the difference in wins and losses on short yardage plays and rpos so speaking of carson he had a decision to make he's decided to come back but for the last month or so how much did did his decision weigh on decisions you made with regard to this recruiting class with regard to the transfer portal how much of that is all kind of mashed into one thing now? Well, I don't know that his decision had any effect or outcome on this year's signing class. I mean, you're talking about the two polar opposites, right?

The guy's coming in, the guy's going out. I think from a transfer portal standpoint, we would have had to make some decisions at quarterback. We feel really good about the quarterback we have here on campus with Gunner. I think he's going to be a good player, but we probably would have needed some guys to come in and compete. That's a really tough situation to only have one quarterback on scholarship, two counting Puglisi.

So we were open to looking around there. But as far as Carson's decision, it was on his timeline, what he felt comfortable with, what he wanted to do, and the information he got encouraged him to come back and continue to grow. I know you've been asked a bunch about the number of Georgia guys in the class, the number of guys not from the state of Georgia in the last few classes you've taken. But I'm curious, how much has recruiting changed in terms of how willing these top recruits are to go away from home because i'm thinking about when you and i were in college most schools had a roster of mostly guys from their state and it just doesn't seem like that

at the elite level anymore yeah there's very a lot of transient athletes i mean these kids are not afraid to travel they travel as part of their youth you know these kids are growing up playing in FBUs and playing all over the country. And now every kid I talk to is like, well, I go to Orlando, I go play in California. I mean, there's kids we're recruiting next year that have little brothers that are traveling and playing every weekend. So the traveling part doesn't bother them. Social media has brought them closer to other kids. They know about kids in Washington and Cali as well, so they do 30 minutes down the road because they interact with them on social media. So kids travel a lot more. You have access to see a lot more huddle tape where you see kids from all over where you should not be able to do that. So I still will argue that our state supplies the highest NFL players per capita

because we have such great football in our state. And it's one of the things that haunts me all the time of who are we missing that is going to develop into a great player from our state that we may be missing out on. And that's hard. There's no exact science to that. And that's why you send the coaches all over the state to even the tiniest little high schools. Because I've heard coaches in the state of georgia say you know georgia winning national titles doesn't have to show its face all the time but it seems like you guys do show your face everywhere in the state that's important i mean the relationships that those are the same guys who

are developing kids in our state and know the uh know the kids in their area they might say hey there's a kid over here at this place we really think is a good player. And we value their opinion. We think the best evaluators in all of recruiting are the high school coaches who interact with these kids every day. They're giving us the real truth, not the made-up truth. And so I enjoy listening to them. And I want their trust. And we want them to help get their players to our place. That's how you find a lad, McConkie. I did want to ask about one particular signing. You already have him in practice for the bowl game, Ellis Robinson,

the corner from IMG Academy. How valuable is that experience where even before spring practice, he actually gets to see and feel the speed of this thing? Yeah, I think it does a tremendous amount for their confidence. You know, I've talked to tremendous amount for their confidence. I've talked to college coaches across the country that always try to pick people's reign. Do you bring your mid-years in? Do you let them come to bowl practices? And a lot of guys, they want to focus on the team. They want to focus on the bowl game. They want to focus on the playoffs if they're in

the playoffs. I really like doing it. I think it integrates those guys into the team. They come back much more comfortable. They know what to do in spring. I mean, they're almost getting a spring practice in before spring practice. And Ellis is one of those guys, along with maybe eight or nine other guys that are out there interacting with our guys. So it wakes them up a little bit. And maybe a guy that might be a little overweight realizes, I better cut this weight quick. Yeah, and they don't get as shocked when they get in the weight room

for the first time either. That's another big one. But, all right, last question. And a little birdie told me that Mary Beth, your wife, has shows queued up to binge when you finally get a chance to breathe. So that's coming up here in a few days. What are we binging? Well, I think she might be on hold.

That might be 10 years at the rate college football is before I get the time to actually watch those shows because there's no end in sight for this drinking water through a fire hose. That is not an analogy. That is real life, and I don't see an end in sight for that. Maybe February when it goes dead, but that's the true slowdown time. That's right. We know you're waiting on a couple more guys to announce today.

Obviously, you got the portal and you got the Orange Bowl. Kirby, thank you so much for the time. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Go Dawgs. All right. I got to tell you about PrizePix right now because they are our sponsor for today's national signing day show

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So go to PrizePix, download it. The code is NSD as in National Signing Day, and they will match your first deposit up to $100. All right. We were talking about Jeremiah Smith and Ohio State, and I'm looking in the chat, and I see, first thing I see from Tyler, Jeremiah Smith to the U. Okay, that is still, as we speak, officially possible because we haven't seen Ohio State say that they've gotten Jeremiah Smith's national letter of intent yet. So that is not

a done, done, done deal. Though Jeremiah Smith has said in front of a bunch of people that he's going to Ohio State, he did an interview with rivals wearing an Ohio State hat saying, I'm going to be in Columbus January 7th. That said, still not there yet. And so, you know, you've seen these situations before. Sometimes they get interesting. So we will see by the end of the night, by the end of the show, maybe something will have changed. Maybe by the morning something will have changed. But that is still the situation. So the U fans not giving up hope.

Miami fans not giving up hope. Probably Florida State fans not giving up hope. But we shall find out. One more from Elixir says, I hope Florida State can own the transfer portal this year to make up for the losses in the class. Talk about KJ Bolden specifically. I will point out a stat, and we're going to have Mike Norvell on tomorrow's show, but I will point out a stat. Double digit top 200 players in this class for Florida State. For the first time, this first time they've done that since 2016. And I'm telling you right now,

that is a sign of a healthy program. I didn't know how long it was going to take for them to get back to that point. I remember watching the Willie Taggart years and then Norvell's first couple of years. You didn't know if they'd be able to do that. I think the success they've had in the transfer portal has actually helped them get a broader base in the high school recruiting ranks.

I think they're going to be just fine. I'm not that worried about them because they got KJ Bolden flipped. I know some of the fans I saw, obviously Travis Hunter two years ago, you don't like the highest profile guy in the class getting flipped. But I'm telling you right now, this feels like a much deeper class than florida state has been signing so i wouldn't get all that worried about it place where they're absolutely celebrating though because they got the guy that they wanted is lincoln nebraska next up on the show, Nebraska coach Matt Rule. He signed Dylan Raiola, five-star quarterback, son of Nebraska great Dominic Raiola. This is the guy that Matt Rule was told,

you need to go sign him. And well, he did it. Here's Matt Rule. Welcome, Nebraska head coach Matt Rule, the most popular man in the state of Nebraska. Well, now, you're probably the second most popular guy in the state of Nebraska. I think your new quarterback, Dylan Raiola, might be the most popular. What was it like when that – did it roll off a fax machine?

Does it come in email? How did that arrive today? You know what? I miss the days of the fax machine going off. everybody like appeasing and wanting to hear who it is um now it just kind of comes in electronically and someone stands up and yells i still make us all get in one room like the old days but uh yeah it's uh it's very electronic now it's not quite the same as like who forgot to put the paper in and you're yelling at somebody that those days so with with dylan you found out monday night that that he's definitely coming we we had heard about a week earlier that that was going to be a possibility how did that process work and when did you start to realize okay we've got a shot to land this guy yeah really it was um

it was it was last sunday uh you, kind of a week before it became official. And he just, you know, reached out and just said, hey, coach, listen, you know, my heart's there. I think I want to be there, you know. And, you know, I encouraged him to think about it. You know, I didn't want it to be, you know, anything emotional or I wanted it to be for the right reasons. And when I heard his reasons, you know, I mean,

just how much Nebraska means to him and his family and what being a part of returning us to greatness would mean to him, I recognized that it was real. So he came and visited, and he and his family felt great about it, and now he's a Husker. So I've got to ask you, I saw this tweet, because you've been pretty dark on Twitter for a while. You sent this tweet out, and this was in the process of, it looked like you guys might be getting Dylan.

And I'm not sure if this was about Dylan or this was about something else. So, we've been noodling over this one for a while. But you tweeted, can't wait until people hear what I've heard, see what I've seen, and know what I know. So, what is that?'ve seen and know what i know so what is that oh you know what um i that was you know we had just but we we had we had the guys in for the visit this weekend so you know uh uh vincent shavers who just you know miami just committed to us today and um um uh bly hill who took as a transfer portal player, Dylan. And then we went out to Ainsworth to see Carter Nelson, one of our top signees.

And so, honestly, we went to see him at the basketball game and then hung out with all the people in the town, man. And then went and ate at the Elks and then went over to the local community center and went to a wedding for people that had invited us that we didn't know and i was just like if everyone could know what i know about what makes nebraska great if everyone could know what i know about like how how how great this program is going to be and um so it was really something more like that maybe with some other little things in there. But, you know, to me, it was just about like we don't need these little edges to get ourselves to the top, man. Like we are going to get there the hard way, the right way. And usually when I do that, recruits kind of know what I'm saying.

And it's really my message to them. It makes a lot, you know, sometimes Julie looks at me like, you know, hey, what are you trying to say here, buddy? I'm like, it's just about recruiting babe so so you mentioned carter nelson this is a good transition to that question because he's from ainsworth nebraska the other side of the state was a critical recruit for you when you got a guy that good in the state of nebraska and you're nebraska you gotta get him you You had, you know, Ohio State, Notre Dame, all of those schools trying to get him. He goes to the Ohio State-Notre Dame game on a visit.

Everybody's wondering, oh, is he going to flip? Is he going to flip? How critical was that? And then tell me about the town of Ainsworth and people just randomly inviting you to weddings. Well, let me say this. You're right, Getting Carter was critical. A, because the player he is.

He's exactly the type of player we want on offense. You know, can play wide out, can play tight end, can play running back. You know, a positionless player that we can do so many things with. You know, his sky's the limit. He grew up loving, you know, University of Nebraska. And so for him to come here, I think it signals to people that like, you know what, you can achieve all your dreams here. So yeah, we just it was huge for us to get him and

really having a battle to the very end. And we sent 10 coaches there on Saturday. This is not a guy that people just gave up on and credit to him and his family that he wants to be here. But I'll tell you this, I mean this. I've been to some towns in this state, and it just humbles me to be the coach here. When you go to Ainsworth, and I've been there three times, and, you know, six-year-olds, seven-year-olds, eight-year-olds, 15-year-olds, 13-year-olds, you know, all these young kids coming up to you, man, and like, they know everything about recruiting, and they're fired

up, and they're talking about plays during the season season and coach now it's about time you call a fake punt you know and I mean she's a place to be and then you go into town you meet people and people love their Huskers but more importantly they're kind and they're decent and they're awesome and so I've loved my time there and first time ever showed up to a wedding and they they told me I was invited and great people two teachers and hopefully we uh hopefully we uh left a good impression on everyone now i'm just imagining i don't know are you vince vaughn or are you owen wilson in wedding crashers which which one are you are you you're yelling hot

route right 100 percent vince vaughn dude we lost a lot of good men out there playing for the Cornhuskers. It's, it's incredible. But that is, that's the stories you get in recruiting where I imagine you've, you've had these experiences, whether it's been at Nebraska or Baylor at Temple, where you go into some of these small towns where the town basically takes you over for, for a couple of days. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, that's the thing that I love about recruiting um you know I try to get down and see every family that I can see preferably in their

home though sometimes it doesn't work out but you know I I want to look every parent every grandparent every guardian in the eye you know my son is a senior my son still lives in Charlotte and he's coming to Nebraska to be a freshman in the fall with this class. And it's like, you know, my wife and I, we want to know where he's going to be and who he's going to be around. And so I love going and seeing the families, seeing the town, seeing all the people. And I love how much this team means to the state. And I cannot wait to bring a winner back to the people of the state who have been so loyal for so long and we didn't quite get where we needed to get to this year but we built a lot of building blocks and this class is a huge step in getting to where we want to be so now that you can actually talk about dylan

raiola so sean callahan from husker online call he calls him a grocery store recruit so basically anytime he goes to the grocery store people are asking what's up with dylan raiola uh so for you how many times a day have you heard that name since you got the job well i don't go to the grocery store i i instacart it um yeah i've heard it a ton. Obviously there was a time there where he committed to Georgia and we obviously we pivoted and we have another great quarterback in Daniel Kalin. And you need a player, a loyal guy that's local that I think has unbelievable skills and talents.

And so to me when you look at the totality of this class, we had a great class coming in. I just think that Dylan brings a national profile to it. It brings attention to it. You know, we got Grant Briggs from just over the border in Iowa, beat a lot of people on him. So when you're at Nebraska and you start winning these recruiting battles on guys that have their choice of where to go, to me, it's the way we want to do it, and I'm excited to have it happen. Well, and let's talk about Grant Briggs because this is an elite offensive lineman.

Everybody needs offensive linemen. We talked to Kirby Smart earlier today about how to build that position. He says the only way to build it is through high school guys. How important is it when there's somebody like that close by and look, you got a great offensive line producing school in his state, in your conferences, you got to deal with, how do you, how do you convince a guy like that to come? You know, it's a great question. I think, I think for Grant,

this was all about relationships and player development. He had some great opportunities to go to a lot of different schools. And I think we're special in what we do offensive line-wise. And you mentioned, you know, who does it better than Kirk Ferentz? Not many, right? But, you know, you have a lot of schools recruiting guys to come and, you know, run two or three offensive schemes, be a zone team, you know, be a no-huddle team. And that's great, and I have no issues with that.

We want guys that want to come and be be NFL players and we want them to understand that if you play for our program, if you play for Coach Riola, if you play for Marcus Satterfield, Matt Rule, man, when you get into the next level, you'll understand five man protection, six man protection, storm protections, you'll have run inside zone, outside zone, you'll put your hand in the dirt, you'll have trained. I mean, this is an offensive line generating place and so that's uh that's that's hopefully one of our differences and i think for a guy like grant big powerful he wanted to be a part of that he wanted to get in

the huddle break the huddle go up to the line and and uh one play run outside zone the next play run power next play being five man protection and really and really develop. And that was key for us. I mean, we won't win if we don't win up front. I didn't know this conversation was going to get this sexy. I can hear Andrew Whitworth and Joe Thomas just crying as you say those words. The guys who say the guys coming out of college can't block anymore. Teaching them how to block that rule.

Very nice. To me, it's what we it's what we want to be it's uh you know we want to be we want to be this unique defense uh which obviously worked this year and we want to build towards being an offense like the 49ers that you know has a bunch of positionless players who can do a bunch of different things and a great quarterback behind them and so um you know just this class alone i think we've had a lot of those things last year's class you know as you post up some of the you know some of the things that happened this past year a lot of our freshmen really helped us and so two classes in i feel really good about

where we're at i feel really good about the local area and getting players out of nebraska and and the border states and so do that man i think i think nebraska is going to be back that rule big big prediction but but a big big day on signing day too thank you so much appreciate you brother sorry about that had my mic muted but matt rule had to get dylan rile that was the guy when he got the job this time last year everyone said this is the player you have to sign if you don't sign anybody else sign this guy So he got him. And it's a big one. Mario Cristobal did not have a player like that in this class at Miami, but he did have an idea of how he wanted to continue building the program. Last year, they were headlining with offensive linemen. They got some really highly ranked offensive linemen this year, defensive linemen, but also did a lot of flipping there at the end. They got a

linebacker away from Florida. Armando Blount was probably the biggest flip of the day. He was a 2025 guy who originally committed to Miami, but then he flipped to Florida state during the process, but also reclassified in 2024. Well, on Wednesday, he became a 2024 guy who signed with Miami. It was a big one for Mario Cristobal. And now when we talked to Mario Cristobal, Jeremiah Smith had said he was going to Ohio state.

The national letter of intent was not in. We talked to Mario Cristobal as we're running this interview, it's still not in. He was seeming optimistic about some other stuff. He couldn't say what he was talking about, obviously, but he did feel like he was a little bit optimistic. So we shall see what happens on that front. Again, I will remind you, Jeremiah Smith did say he's going to Ohio State. So we'll see what happens on that front again i will remind you jeremiah smith did say he's going to ohio state so we'll see what ends up happening but we know that mario cristobal landed a very good class and a very deep class of defensive linemen for miami here's mario we are joined now by miami head coach mario cristobal and he's been flipping them. He's like a pancake maker, flipping dudes, flipping from Florida.

Well, I guess this is, Mario, this started, it feels like the fuse got lit with Justin Scott, who was committed to Ohio State. You guys flipped him about five weeks ago. He's a defensive tackle from Chicago that you'd been recruiting the whole time. What was it about that guy and him deciding to join this class that kind of lit the fire well he's such a high caliber um just popular player and people know that you know wherever he's going they're probably going to be

pretty good in that position and i think he got along really well with our guys and, you know, last year's freshman class has had great success here. And they know that the trajectory of this program is going this way. And it just, like you said, a little, it was a spark, that little fire, and it hasn't stopped. The momentum is building and, and we're, we're still going, man. You know, we're over here working. And there's a long way to go and we're still working. Yeah. As we speak, you are not done. We're recording this about 4 15 PM Eastern time on

Wednesday. You, you still have some, some lines in the water waiting to see what, what comes back. What is it? What is that like as, as you go through signing day and there's still some guys out there that you, you know, are interested and you got a shot at is it nerve-wracking is it exciting what how does that feel well i mean come on i love miami i was born and raised here and played here and the first thing we had to attend to was the roster and we knew that man it was such a drastic difference from when we were here as players to what it had gotten to and now in our second full cycle we have a chance to sign the two best classes in school history.

So, I mean, nerve wracking isn't a word. Is there some anxiety in there? Without a doubt, there's some anxiety, but it's all excitement. It's all upside and it's all opportunity to get better. So there's a lot of enthusiasm. There's a lot of energy and it's been an awesome day. So last year, the headliners were the

o-line maui noah and okanola and this year it feels like the headline is the d-line as an ex-offensive lineman how critical is it to have guys like justin scott like you know like artavius jones those guys in the middle there yeah it's it's a true iron sharpens iron mentality that now comes to fruition because now both sides have acquired some really high level talent that loves to play physical and works really really hard so these practices will be epic it'll start to look a lot like what it looked like um back when we were players here and uh certainly those guys were a lot better players than i ever was so i had a tough time trying to block them i couldn't but now uh man it is it's i i can't wait to see these guys on campus about 26 28 of these guys are going to be here in january so we're really really

excited it's funny what you just said reminds me of something uh art kehoe the longtime miami offensive line coach told me once he said we got our asses whipped five days a week but then on saturday it worked out great because he was talking about how good miami's defensive line was in those years and it's interesting justin scott a chicago d tackle who's you know big and powerful and you mentioned in your press conference today russell merrill another d tackle from chicago from your era number one pick in the draft that's right that's right was my's roommate here, a phenomenal player that didn't have much attention, right, back in the day before there was so much, you know, the Internet, right, and being able to track guys all over the place.

So, yeah, Chicago and Jared Payton, who, again, one of our esteemed, along with a great player here, man, got a chance to catch up with him. And Marquise Lightfoot, Chicago guy as well. Miles Muyung is here from Chicago we got Chicago Miami's a real thing and we intend to keep that going man I love going out there awesome football awesome coaches great place love it so in in the last few days you you have managed to get some other guys into this class of Darius Hayes the linebacker from Largo Florida was was the most recent one how does that work when when you've been working on a guy for a while

and then getting close to signing day, you start to feel like, all right, we still really have a chance to get this guy? Honestly, it's almost like a game where you don't think about getting him. You don't think about winning. You stay process-oriented because we've seen it all. I mean, Andy, we've seen guys dressed up in our gear pretending to sign and take a snapshot and then when the papers come out he's like somewhere else we've seen it all so until that stuff until that paperwork gets in the snapshot gets in we just go we just work and um and we focus on the ones that that we're able to get here you don't focus on the ones you miss.

If you do that, you'll never be happy in life, right? So just a lot of enthusiasm, energy. So many people work hard to make this happen. It's just been a great day. And so you mentioned in your press conference, you mentioned the creative team, down to the custodians. But in terms of recruiting operations how how much more elaborate is it now than when you were being recruited to miami like could you imagine like

i gotta have somebody who takes the who does the photo shirt shoot the the person who edits the video clips the person who who makes the edits it's so different i don't know if i would have done well in a photo shoot i don't know if I would have done well in a photo shoot. I don't know if I'd be comfortable with all the flash and bulbs, man, and all those extras, but it's completely different. I remember first getting,

when I started working at Alabama, and they said, hey, here's your recruiting assistant. I'm like, what are you talking about? I do my own work. I don't need an assistant. But there's so much volume. There's so much ground to cover. The world is a lot smaller now, right?

The use of private jets, transportation, helicopters, right? You could cover a lot of ground, but you still don't want to lose the grassroots mentality. You still don't want to lose the mentality of cultivating certain areas and having area coaches. That's how you build relationships. One thing I've always found interesting about Miami recruiting, because we always talk about the Howard Schnellenberger state of Miami and the Dade Broward and Palm Beach counties. And you've got quite a few guys from that area in this class, but you go back through the history. We've already talked about Russell Maryland being from Chicago. Some of those great Miami teams had Canadian offensive linemen or a quarterback from California.

How do you how do you blend those things together and make sure you still are recruiting your backyard as hard as you can? Well, Miami is the melting pot of the world. And if you come upstairs to where the coaching offices are, so are we. I mean, we're we're from American Samoa. We're from Queens, New York. We're from Havana, samoa we're from queens new york we're from havana cuba we're from everywhere and it's a direct reflection of the city and even though we want to always we want to keep our best players home but we also understand that miami is a national brand and we're going to be able to go all over the country and attract the best of the best so it makes for

a great locker room and it's also it's a little bit more realistic as to what their locker room is going to look like in the NFL when they get to that level. Speaking of that melting pot of coaches you have, Joe Salave, your D-line coach, one of the few D-line coaches who looks like he could just put on a uniform today and play. How good a job did he do during this cycle? Well, I think him and Jasonason taylor you know we kid all the time i we used to i guess upon arrival it's like man our coaches look better than the guys we're recruiting you know i mean guys are massive you know hall of famers in the polynesian community hall of famers in the nfl um and what they've done is is just they've collaborated and have formed a tremendous just regiment and structure for our players.

All of a sudden, a freshman like Reuben Bain becomes a freshman All-American. And that just it speaks volumes for development. And then you take their experience. Now you you put that on the road and you recruit. Naturally, they're just they're they're people that they have nothing to prove because of what they've done in their lives. But they live every day and work every day as if they have everything to prove so they're awesome to be around how about how much does a reuben bain or francis maui noah help recruit this class because of what they could do as freshmen well they either help it or they scare it away okay and by that i mean if you come to practice you say man i either want to play with

that guy or i want to play and practice against that guy or you say hey i want no part of it so we get as many prospects as possible to practice that's the best thing we do want to see our coaches coach want to see our players the intensity um the energy of practice the demands that come with it and our style of coaching those two guys right there they've been incredible because everything we preached about building resetting the culture and the roster they're they're walking billboards for the program so it's been great well Mario it sounds like you got more more big dudes coming in I know that makes you very very happy so uh good luck with the ones uh that those lines in the water we talked about we'll see if those come through but

uh thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate you having me. Go Kings, bro. We will find out about the lines in the water. The one big line in the water. Again, Jeremiah Smith. No letter of intent at Ohio State. He has said he's going to Ohio State.

But until that gets to Ohio State, and Ohio State says's going to Ohio State, but until that gets to Ohio State and Ohio State says, we welcome Jeremiah Smith to the class, everybody's going to be on edge. Everybody. I don't know if the beer actually tasted better for Ryan Day because, well, something always happens. One thing that you can do to blow off some steam, have a little fun,

make every sporting event just a little bit more interesting, you can download that PrizePix app. If you do that and use the code NSD as a national signing day, they will match your first deposit up to $100. And they're doing some really fun stuff these next few weeks. It is Pixicksmas. So your Picksmas gift is a Kevin Durant square. So that's how you pick squares.

You pick at least two. You can pick up to five. And you decide more than or less than on an amount of points or yards or rebounds, depending on the sport and the player and the kevin durant picksmas present is that if he scores one point in his game on christmas day you win that square so you pick that one and he scores a point you won that one and if you pick one more that wins then you are in the money uh they're also doing demon and goblin squares so in in honor of Washington making the college football playoff, let's talk about the last guy who quarterbacked Washington to a college football playoff, Jake Browning,

who will be starting for the Bengals against the Steelers this week. Well, he has a demon passing yardage stat. If he throws for more than 274. a half if you pick that square and he throws for more than 274 and a half now remember they jack up the number to make it a little bit harder to win but you can win up to a hundred times your money up to a hundred times it's pretty fun also got the guy if you want to do it a little bit easier, you go with the Goblin number. Jake Browning's Goblin number is 199.5 passing yards against the Steelers. So lots of ways to have fun with prize picks. They got college football squares.

They put them out as we get closer to each bowl game. There's already a few out there for the college football playoff games. It's a ton of fun. Great to have a little bit of a little bit of extra couple squares while you're watching the game, download price picks, use the code NSD, and they will match your first deposit up to a hundred dollars.

We'll stay in the Pacific Northwest. We're talking about Jake Browning, great Washington quarterback. We go to another new Big Ten team, and that is the Oregon Ducks. Dan Lanning, since he got to Oregon from Georgia, has been recruiting well, but also has become known for what he does in the transfer portal. You're going to hear in this interview how some of the things that have helped them in the high school recruiting also helped them in the transfer portal specifically when he talks

about finishing second in a recruitment it's it's kind of universal it's really interesting here's dan we are joined by the ceo of ducks inc dan lanning and it's been a a big signing day for you dan uh what what is this day like when you are actively working on guys that maybe weren't in your class last night that you think you're going to get? Do you sleep at all? Is that something that you kind of go to bed knowing, okay, I still got a shot? Yeah, you sleep tonight. You don't sleep last night. You know, everybody sees the product today, but they don't sleep last night um you know we it everybody sees the product today but they don't realize the time and effort that our staff and um you know our players and just everyone that's involved you know in our organization puts into bringing great talent here and um there's a

lot of late night talks that are happening and a lot of early morning talks this morning um but you see it get to come to fruition today well and like a guy like jeremiah mcclellan the receiver who committed and signed today and and was had been planning to to go to ohio state how far back does that recruitment go because i think people see the flip and assume oh organ just came on the scene how long have you been talking to that guy well i still remember the day that uh he committed somewhere else and he told me you know i him, hey, are you comfortable with me continuing to talk to you? Because I still think this is the best place for you. And ever since that moment, that communication has continued to happen with everyone on our staff.

And that's the thing, when you recognize a guy that you think can be a dynamic piece of what you're doing and what you're building, you don't throw in the towel, you keep working. And that's what we've done over the last several months as a young coach do you have to like when you were younger and you get that bad news that hey i'm gonna go somewhere else coach i think it's better for me do you have to tell yourself in the back of your head okay stay nice be nice be nice because this might come back around yeah i mean i think that's just who you really are in those moments truly shows up. You know, some guys are going to pick us. Some guys are going to pick somewhere else. You know, one of the benefits right now with the way college football set up is sometimes being

second place isn't a bad thing. You know, a couple of years later, you might get the opportunity to coach a guy again down the road and that actually paid dividends again for us this year. So I think you just have to be who you are and who you are is going to show up over time and showing up with guys like that yeah i i know we're just talking about the guys who are coming in and new and i know there are rules about who you can and can't talk about but very interesting that you'd say that uh someone you finished second for who uh who may be coming back into the fold so uh but let's let's continue with the uh the guys that are that are new uh elijah rushing one of the more aptly named people i mean you got an edge rusher named rushing hold. So, but let's, let's continue with the, the guys that are, that are new. Elijah Rushing,

one of the more aptly named people. I mean, you got an edge rusher named Rushing, but this is a guy from, from Tucson, Arizona, who looks like a difference maker, maybe from the get-go. How did you wind up getting him? Yeah. Persistency and consistency. You know, we. We stayed consistent with him over time and recognize the guy that not only has the physical attributes and the character that we want in our program, but the eagerness to learn, the excitement to get better and better each day. I think this guy's really excited about what he can become in this program. You see a talented player that has a ton of upside, is already performing performing a really high level but when

you combine that with great coaching that's where the development takes place so you are now recruiting as a big 10 coach does that feel any different does that require anything different does that change where you go you know we're still going to go try to recruit the best players in the nation i think more than anything it gives a gives a clear vision about where our program's headed and how we're going to be doing it and who we're doing it with. Players want to be a part of great programs. When you talk about great programs, great programs are often part of great conferences. That's something that we have now with some clarity going into the Big Ten.

How does December work for you? And I mean, this is a situation where you guys would be in the college football playoff if the 12 team had started this year. How can you imagine handling, maybe preparing for a playoff game, this stuff, getting the high school guys, all the stuff you guys do in the transfer portal? How is that all going to mix together? Well, it's a crazy dynamic, but it is what it is right you could sit here and complain about it and

try to figure it out or um you could go ahead and just keep chopping and that's kind of been our approach um certainly there's a lot of chaos in in december but the teams that handle that the best are going to be able to make their teams better so we've talked multiple times about how targeted you guys are in the transfer portal in terms of what you're looking for how targeted are you when you're looking for high school guys is there a certain position group more than the others that you say okay i would rather get these guys out of high school than out of the portal uh not necessarily you know ultimately i've been you know pretty steadfast in the approach that we want to build from the ground up.

You want to develop great high school talent and be able to do that. But on the same note, the portal is something there that exists that can enhance your program. And we've done a really good job in the portal of finding guys that fit us that can make an immediate impact. So we'll continue to use both. So Eli Drinkwitz told us he had a period where he had eight in-home visits in a 24-hour period. He said lots of charcuterie boards were laid out for him. I'm wondering, how many meals, mom's home-cooked meals, have you eaten in a 24, 48-hour period during these stretch runs when you're trying to close down a class? Well, I gained nine pounds last week, if that tells you.

So now it's time to get back to business. I think at one point, there was a couple days last week where I was in five states in one day. It's crazy. But that's part of the fun. That's part of the chase. And I had some really good meals. I'll say that.

We've got some talented recruits coming in, but their moms can cook too, I'll say that. I was going to say, which moms put the most pounds on you, you think? Oh, man, I don't know if I could pick because I didn't wait until the end of the week, but I ate a lot of great food, let's just say that. When you look at this roster that you have now, how close is it to what you envisioned when you got to Oregon about what you need to compete in the Big Ten now that you're there and for national championships? Yeah, I think that's to be determined a little bit. These days are exciting days because you think you're bringing in great players, but it is about evaluation.

It is about development. So we have to see what these guys become. You know, we brought guys in that we're really, really excited about. I think they're going to allow us to compete at a really high level. But, you know, part of that process is this journey right now

and what they do, you know, coming forward once they step on campus. All right. Well, now you get to work with them and a lot of them coming soon. So appreciate it, Dan, and good luck. Thank you, Andy. Have a good one. That is Dan Lanning of Oregon.

He is ready for the Big Ten, I think. I feel very confident saying that. I feel like they've got a roster that should be very competitive in the Big Ten. Now, another roster that is already competitive in the SEC because they're in a New Year's Six game this year, they would be in the college football playoff if the 12-team playoff had started this year they would be in the college football playoff at the 12 team playoff it started this year is Missouri and Eli Drinkwitz he's on a roll he's done a good job of getting

some of the best players in Missouri to stay with Missouri you've seen it with Luther Burden you see it again on Wednesday with Williams Nweri the defensive lineman who is ranked number one overall in the whole country not just his position but at all positions by on three talk to Eli about signing Williams but also really interesting conversation here toward the end about the transfer portal and not necessarily what they're taking out of the transfer portal but how he's handling the Missouri players who've gone into the transfer portal because I he's handling the missouri players who've gone into the transfer portal because i haven't heard about any other coach doing it this way here's eli joined now by missouri coach eli drinkwitz and it's been a big day in como but also other places around where you recruit eli you got billboards up. I saw Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Courtney Crutchfield and Austin Dendy,

two-year signings. They got their own billboards. Yeah, I mean, there's been a lot made by that on social media, but we've been doing that for three years. Everywhere we get a commitment in this hometown, we put up a billboard advertising the promotion of our university, which is normal and new. i think there's a lot of programs that do it but obviously with with the way uh courtney and austin's commitment went

yesterday i think it's uh brought a little bit more attention to the rivalry well and i think there's some other programs that are stealing your idea they saw it and liked it and and and so we're you guys are trendsetters i think that's the way we need to look at it. I'm sure we stole it from somebody, to be honest with you. But either way, it's good for the student athlete, especially this day and age with NIL and the opportunity they have to get started promoting themselves. So what better way for us to be proud of these young men joining our university and allowing them to have the spotlight through some billboards? It's interesting to me you you haven't shied away from the nil part of it at all i remember talking to you at sec media days about you said your your state legislature has been

helpful yeah to you guys in in terms of the the way they've structured the laws uh how did that you know help you with this class um you know really it wasn't as big a deal as maybe it could have been um but but obviously every year is going to be a little bit different on who we're recruiting and how we're recruiting um but it has been beneficial for us as far as being on the cutting edge of name image and likeness and i think that's something that um everybody recognizes with the state of missouri is that we're constantly trying to be pro student athlete and be for our student athletes, being able to maximize their potential and earnings power. And I do wonder in terms of keeping those guys. So you got Williams Noire, who's the number one overall player in our on three recruit rankings.

And how much do you have him talk to a guy like luther burton who's a guy from missouri who is achieving everything you said he was going to be able to achieve at missouri yeah we absolutely do we absolutely utilize you know i think recruiting our good recruiters are all about being able to sell what you've done in the past and what you plan on doing in the future and obviously what we sell what we've been doing in the past and what you plan on doing in the future. And obviously what we sell at what we've been doing in the past has a lot to do with Luther Burden, Cody Schrader, Brady Cook, Armand Mimbu, you know, and so we were able to tie all of those players in and not only talk about NIL, I think too many times right now, everybody just assumes that it's all NIL based.

There's also a component of brotherhood player development. I think Kevin Peoples is one of the elite D-line coaches in the country. Obviously did a really good job in this recruiting class. There's a brotherhood component. There's a proximity opponent component with being able to get your family to and from games. And that matters to a lot of people and then putting on for your home state. So, you know, when I look at it, I think we had a total package that wasn't just NIL inclusive. So with Williams, tell me about him. What caught your eye immediately? And obviously this is the guy that everybody in the country wanted.

But what is your favorite part of his game? Well, I mean, first off, he comes from a really good program. Lee Summit North, Coach Mosey does an excellent job. Obviously we have a couple of players in our program from there already, Logan Mucky and Armand Mimbu. And so we knew about Williams. We tracked him through seven-on-seven camps, team camps, a lot of different in-person evaluations.

He's got great size and length. He has pass rush ability. He can really bend. And we can't wait for him to grow into his frame for Coach Russell to really develop him, coach peoples to make sure that he's developing his fundamentals and technique. And I think the sky's really the limit. We saw that progression with Armand. You know, Armand came in early and was a contributor as a true freshman. And so, you know, we're hopeful that we can apply some of that same opportunities to Williams.

I love it when you're talking about a 270-pound, 275-pound guy growing into his frame. That's absolutely terrifying if you're an offensive lineman. But how important is it on the line of scrimmage, to have those homegrown guys, I know you guys have been active in the portal, but it feels like the best line of scrimmage players typically are ones that signed out of high school. Yeah, I mean, I think there's a development course to the line of scrimmage, and you can't constantly be in this portal cycle, and so you want to be developing the guys that have the ability.

You always, in our opinion, wanna start recruiting within a 300 mile radius of your home campus. And so that's what we really started with. I think Williams is gonna be a key component to that. But when you look at our five offensive linemen signees that we have in this class, all five of them are gonna be early enrollees. They'll all be here in January. And so that's going to be a really big addition for us to be able to have, again,

that extra six months of player development and six months of scheme development. So can you imagine if you were doing all this, getting ready for the playoffs? If there were a 12-team playoff, y'all would be in it this year. Can you imagine doing all you're doing with signing these recruits, all you're doing with signing

these recruits what you're doing in the transfer portal dealing with the guys that that are in the portal from your your team now and trying to to prepare for the playoff no you know i i uh i forgot how how crazy and hectic this time of year was from last December. But it's, you know, this December has been a constant reminder. You know, I did eight in-home visits in a 24-hour period last week. And it is, it's just a lot to handle. You know, we've been in bowl practice. We actually had bowl practice this morning. So there's a lot of different things going on.

I think we're going to have to really reconsider what our calendar looks like, specifically the month of December. There's a lot of newness coming with this college football playoff, and hopefully it's an opportunity for us to reset this calendar to make a little bit more sense so that we can give the appropriate time to these high school seniors that are signing. I think it's kind of weird right now because you got signing day, you got portal, you got transfer tracker, you got bowl games. It's taking a little bit of the spotlight off these young men achieving their dream of playing college football so eight in-home visits in a 24-hour period yeah now you can't offend mom you have to you have to eat what's put out for you how many

calories are you taking in on a day like that well based off those pictures you put up i'm getting close to adding back to that double chin that i tried so hard to get rid of so um yeah you know you try not to you ask them hey you don have to cook, but there's always got to be like a charcuterie board or something out. And I'm a sucker for a good charcuterie board, you know? Well, as one of my friends puts it, it's a lunchable for adults. It's amazing. Exactly right. Exactly right.

I mean, who can refrain from taking in some cheese and crackers? Exactly. exactly. So you're an ex-high school coach. You've talked about where signing day could wind up. And I know there's people who say, oh, just put it back in February. How would you feel about August 1st and February 1st, or first Wednesday in February? How would you feel about doing it that way? I mean, I think there's going to have to be a lot of different

options discussed, right? I don't think any of us have a crystal ball to see what's absolutely best. I know there's going to be a lot of people who don't like any of the ideas because it may not be best for their particular situation. You know, me personally, I do think with the end, you know, there's a natural separation between the summer and spring official visits and a dead period right there in July that would make maybe an August 1st opportunity so that guys could sign and then focus on their senior years. You know, so I do think that's a possibility. I'm not saying that's the end-all be-all, but I do think that's a possibility. I'm not saying that's the end-all

be-all, but I do think there's a possibility there. And then still have one in February. I think you absolutely have to still have one in February. But I do also think you're going to need some sort of early signing period because you're starting official visits so early in April that it would be really hard for somebody to do an official visit in April and still, I think, have the ability to sign that player if signing day was in February. So, you know, I think there's just going to have to be some sort of separation. Again, the month of December is just, it's really, really convoluted right now. Well, and part of it for you, I thought it was interesting. I heard

you in another interview talk about the guys who have entered the portal from your program. You've told them you're welcome to come back. You're welcome to practice with us if you want and play in the bowl game if you want. What led you to that decision? You know, our brotherhood was really strong this year and it takes every single person. We have a just-us mentality to achieve what we achieved this year. And getting an opportunity to go to the Cotton Bowl is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for these players. And I sure didn't want them to have to decide between, I really feel like I need to get in the portal to explore all my options or have a once-in-a-lifetime experience. So I just want to take stress off of them and say, hey, I understand.

There's going to be guys that want to go get more playing time or this or that or the other. You're still a valuable member of our brotherhood. We have three simple rules. Don't be a distraction. And make sure you put the team first in your decisions. And they were able to do that. You know, last weekend there were several of them that had to go to OVs,

just asked that they were back by 4 o'clock for our Sunday practice, which was our first practice for Ohio State. I think it's been really good. I think it shows our team that there's a level of compassion with our brotherhood and understanding that this is a journey that everybody's on. I'm not saying it's the right thing to do or not the right thing to do, but it does work for us, and it's going to work for us this year. We wish those guys well that chose to handle it that way. It'll be interesting. I imagine some other coaches are taking notes to see how well it works for you. Probably going to watch that bowl game, see how that works for you. Because you're the first I've heard to do it that way, but it does seem like it may work for you on both ends

as you are trying to bring in people out of the transfer portal. They watch you handling it that way, and maybe they think, okay, this is a program I'd like to play in. Yeah, I mean, maybe so. I really thought more about just us and our student-athletes. I didn't really care how anybody else took it. It was really just about what's best for our team in having compassion in

this scenario. You know, these young men are having to make tough decisions to change where they're going to go to school. And if we could help alleviate that stress, I thought it was the right thing to do. And that's why we did it. Well, Eli, thank you so much. And congratulations on the class and good luck against the Buckeyes. Yeah. Thank you very much. And, very excited about this class and feel like it's just going to continue the momentum that we've built and very appreciative to all the families that are joining our, our team and our university. We go from Columbia,

Missouri now to Columbia, South Carolina, where Shane Beamer signed two five stars, including the number one overall prospect in the state of South Carolina. I asked him, how different is it signing the number one prospect in the state of South Carolina now than when you were an assistant trying to sign the number one prospect in the state of South Carolina in 2009. We welcome Shane Beamer of South Carolina, who had probably a pretty restful night

because by 8.05 a.m. Eastern time, South Carolina's recruiting class was in. All the NILs, NILs. Coach, I can't get the letter straight anymore, but 8.05, you're done. Yeah, it was a somewhat peaceful morning, but definitely wasn't a peaceful night, that's for sure. There's a lot of work that goes into signing day over years and, you know, try to sleep a little bit, but that phone was dinging throughout the night. So not much sleep last night, but once I got in here, everything was smooth and excited about this group we put together. So what are those calls about that late?

Is it from the players themselves? Is it from your assistant saying, I'm worried about this guy? I'm worried about this guy? It was assistant coaches actually just kind of texting me and updating me on some things. You know, there were some guys that we had, a lot of guys that other teams were making a full court press on here in the last 48 or 72 hours. So a lot of those text messages were just from assistant coaches giving me an update. There were a couple of guys that, you know, were making some decisions today that could have gone either way that we were monitoring. So really, it was the text messages early this morning while everyone was sleeping were from assistant coaches, basically updates.

But, you know, I can remember when I was here as an assistant coach and we were recruiting Alshon Jeffrey. I mean, that was a middle of the night phone call with Alshon about all kinds of stuff. So last night was just coaches, though. Well, Lane Kiffin had told him he was going to be pumping gas if he went to south carolina so you guys had to had to defuse that bomb it's by the way if you're pumping gas into a bentley or a rolls-royce which is what he ended up doing uh does that does that count so you said it not me exactly exactly well okay but i did it's interesting that you brought up alshon jeffrey because you were on the staff at south carolina when you got alshon and stefan

gilmore who were great in-state recruits for south carolina josiah thompson's the number one recruit in your state he's the number two offensive tackle recruit in the country you signed him today that's i'm assuming one of those guys that the day you get this job, you're told about him and Hey, there's this guy in Dylan. He's young, he's big, but how much has recruiting changed since you were trying to lock down Alshon, Jeffrey and Stefan Gilmore, and then trying to get Josiah Thompson signed with you now? Yeah, so much. Um, I think when we were recruiting now sean i don't even think texting was legal to recruits um at that point i mean i think you had to like email and literally write handwritten letters if i'm not mistaken i mean i make out sound though but i'm pretty sure that you couldn't

text back then to recruit so it's changed so much just the attention on recruiting the technology uh probably more than anything and it's just the fact that they all, everybody knows each other, all these recruits, just because of social media, all-star games, combines, the world is a lot smaller in a lot of ways, without a doubt, but absolutely, the success that we were able to have here previously started with being able to keep the best players in South Carolina at home, and we've done that now for the most part, you know, signing, I think, four of the top five guys in South Carolina this year, last year, same thing, guys, we brought in like Marquis Anderson.

So we've really done a good job of recruiting this state first. And you're right. Josiah, Cam Pringle, Blake Franks, Mazio Bennett, all four of those guys are in-state South Carolina guys. Kelvin Hunter is another one that when I got here, got hired three years ago this month, we immediately went to work because you knew about those guys and we needed to make sure that we started developing that relationship immediately. You mentioned how well these guys know each other. Dylan Stewart is a five-star edge rusher that you got from the D.C. area. And you got Nick Harbour out of the out of the DC area last year, that seems to have been a nice fertile ground for you. But I heard you talking to, to Peter Burns and Dari Noka on SEC

radio about the fact that now some of these parents know one another from different recruiting classes, different parts of the country, and they actually help you with the recruiting process. Yeah. Um, it's huge. Um, particularly there in in dc you know and when you go back when we've been recruiting these guys for so long they're on our campus a lot whether it be for official visits unofficial visits whatever it might be so when you're doing that the families are getting to know each other so we've got a great this class that we've signed it's a great group of young men they're great people and they come from great families. And the moms have gotten to know each other already. And young men in our program already that are from the DC area, for example, those moms recruited the mom of Dylan Stewart this year. And it's pretty

cool when you've got somebody in your program that they vouch for what you're doing in your program to someone else. That's your greatest recruiting asset right there when somebody is in the middle of it. This year, for example, Jalen Kilgore. Jalen Kilgore is a true freshman on our team, was a freshman All-SEC, freshman All-American. His brother is transferring into our program from Tennessee Tech.

So that makes me feel proud that the parents of a freshman of ours feel good enough about what we're doing in this program and how we treat our players that they want their other son to be a part of it also. Well, it always feels like when you win mom, it feels like you have a shot, right? That is the first hurdle you have to clear, isn't it? Yeah, certainly. You know, we always talk about trying to develop strong relationships with everyone in their circle, if you will. And mom, dad, girlfriend, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, teacher, coach, mentor. There's a lot of people that influence these guys. But I think the key

as a recruiter or as a coach that's recruiting is to try and figure out, you know, who's helping these guys make the decision and get to know them as well. But certainly I'm mama's boy and most of these guys are. So you definitely want to make sure that mom feels good about sending her son to your program. Well, the D.C. thing, though, wasn't that – you didn't decide to take over the D.C. area and start getting five stars out of there until your dad retired, right?

Or was that more making mom happy, not trying to steal recruits from dad no it was a part of it I mean that was a big recruiting area for him Virginia Beach Richmond DC and and uh you know I'm a competitor so I wanted to uh you always want to win your share of battles but it certainly was a little bit tough not so much because you're going against your dad but because they had a you know stranglehold in a lot of the leagues on that area. And it was just going to be tough to get guys out of Virginia, D.C., if Virginia Tech wanted them. And now, you know, there's an opportunity,

and we've done a great job of not just going into the D.C. area, but being able to go into Virginia Beach. We got a great player out of Virginia Beach this year, or Tidewater area, Fred J.R. Johnson, We got a great player out of Virginia Beach this year, or Tidewater area, and Fred J.R. Johnson, who's a fantastic player. We've had players on our team from Richmond, Virginia, and we'll continue to as well. So that's an area that's easy for those kids, those young men and their families to get down here. It's an easy drive and an area that we want to continue to recruit for sure. I want you to put on your special teams coach hat.

You signed a kicker this year, Mason Love from Missouri. How different is recruiting punters and kickers? It's hard. It really is. I'll be honest, and we've got total confidence in Mason, but a lot of the places that I've been where we signed a kicker or a punter, they don't always pan out. I've been a couple places where you give a scholarship to someone at a high school and he ends up getting beat out by the guy you brought in as a walk-on. It's just – it's hard to project, you know, but we had a lot of eyes on Mason,

myself, Pete Limbaugh, Tyler Zielinski, our analyst, and we all feel really good about him. But that is a that's a tough one, you know, to to evaluate in a lot of ways. You try and get them on your campus in camp or maybe you're going to watch them kick in person. But we were very thorough on it. Pete, our special teams coach, he went and watched a lot of guys kick live and in person multiple times also, and then tried to get them on our campus also because it's a lot like a quarterback. You're only going to offer one, and you better get it right because if you don't, it can certainly set you back.

Well, you mentioned earlier you had several guys in this class that people made the last 48-hour push for, and I know you've been on in this class that that people made the the last 48 hour push for and I know you've been on both sides of that you've you've tried to flip guys in the final 48 you've had people try to flip from you what is what does that feel like when you are you're the guy trying to do the flipping and you know that person has said they're going to this other school but your job's to to try to get them to go to your school. It is. I'll be honest. A lot of those instances are when someone that is committed to another school has opened the door for you and expressed that maybe they're not real sure about going to wherever that place is. That happened. There was a couple instances of that this year and it was nobody necessarily

that we were pursuing. It was somebody that we were aware of, but somebody, they opened the door, you know, towards the end also. So it's part of it. You know, you don't like it. I focus on the guys that are committed to us and want to be here as well is, is my priority. But certainly when there's an opportunity that somebody presents you, you're going to try and put your best foot forward and try and get them here. And you know that nothing's official to the end, but proud of our guys,

the ones that we did sign because they've been committed to us for a long time. And they held strong and withstood the advances of a lot of, you know, big-time programs here across the country. Well, and the only reason it was 8.05 and not 7.05 is you had some central time, guys. Exactly. That tells you how committed they were. It took five minutes to be done. Everybody woke up and sent them in. So it sounds like they want to be Gamecocks pretty bad.

No, they were awesome. It's a competitive group. It's great young men. I'm on a group text with all of our commits or signees now. And they were all talking last night, you know, kind of competing to see who was going to be the first one to get their stuff in. So they all got it in early and drama-free. And that's what I like.

Guys that love football, guys that want to be Gamecocks, knew they wanted to be Gamecocks and put pen to paper or whatever you want to call it first thing this morning and made it official and moved on with their day. All right, Shane Beamer, thank you so much. Thanks for having me on. What a national signing. Thank you to all the coaches who came on. Got a couple more tomorrow. Mike Norvell from Florida State and Josh Heupel from Tennessee. Maybe we have a little more clarity tomorrow. Jeremiah Smith was trying to get flipped by Florida State.

Also, Miami trying hard to flip him from Ohio State. As we are talking right now at 9.17 Eastern time on Wednesday night, Jeremiah Smith's in a line not at the Ohio State University yet. Not there. So perhaps there will be some clarity overnight, or maybe some clarity on Thursday. Also, perhaps there will be some clarity on Jordan Seaton, the top-ranked offensive tackle recruit. Remember, he committed to Colorado quite a media blitz to commit to the Buffaloes. But right now, unclear whether he's going to sign with them. Maryland

is very big in the picture for Jordan Seton. We're going to find out more. Keep it tuned here to the On3 YouTube page. Also On3.com, of course. But J.D. Piquel will be along with the hard count on Thursday. Also, if you're not already following the On3 Recruits page, subscribe to the On3 Recruits YouTube stream and On3 Recruits on the various social media platforms

to get up to the second news. That's where Josh Newberg and the Inside Scoop live, and they will get you everything you need to know about all the stragglers who haven't signed just yet. Hopefully, we'll have an answer by tomorrow, but I'll tell you what tomorrow is because, remember, this is the Wednesday show, and normally we do Dear Andy on Wednesdays but we didn't get a chance because obviously it's National Signing Day so I want your questions college football questions recruiting questions you name it now that you've had a chance to digest National Signing Day see what everybody brought in ask me your questions hit me up Andy underscore Staples on Twitter Andy underscore Staples on Twitter. Andy underscore Staples on Instagram.

Andy Staples on three at gmail.com. Send your questions. Turn the camera on yourself. Send them on video. Be internet famous for a second. Andy Staples on three at gmail.com. Andy underscore Staples on your social media platforms. Love your questions.

We'll answer some of them on tomorrow's show. Plus Mike Norvell and Josh Heupel. Thanks so much for a great national signing day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.