Andy & Ari On3 - LATEST on Missouri RB Ahmad Hardy after sustaining a gunshot wound over the weekend | Will USC vs Notre Dame RETURN? Arizona State's $10M Donation

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

Over the weekend, star Missouri RB Ahmad Hardy sustained a gunshot wound in his home state of Mississippi early Sunday morning. What's the latest on the star Mizzou RB? Watch here as Andy & Ari break down the latest  news over the weekend.   (0:00) On Today's Episode (0:38) Presenting Sponsor (2:00) Intro: Ahmad Hardy news (6:15) USC vs Notre Dame: COMING BACK? (15:39) Is Nature Healing? BYU vs Notre Dame (27:20) RJ Day Commits to Northwestern (35:16) "Am I talented?" (43:18) Will Julian Sayin level up? (48:40) Arizona State & Kenny Dillingham (58:51) Conclusion: Fran Brown tomorrow   After the Ahmad Hardy news, Andy & Ari turn to some good news in college football: The Notre Dame vs USC rivalry may not be gone for too long. In a report by Ryan Kartje at the Los Angeles Times, the Trojans and Irish have began negotiations on bringing the iconic college football rivalry back to the slate. How close are we to this game being back on schedules? Watch here.   Next up, Northwestern received a notable QB commit over the weekend: Ryan Day's son, RJ Day. Andy & Ari discuss this notable commitment here while looking at it through a father's point of view.   Continuing on Ohio State, Andy & Ari turn to Julian Sayin, where On3's Chris Low has a story on how the Buckeyes QB is turning the page towards the 2026 season.   Thanks for watching! Be sure to come back tomorrow!   Our show is also presented by BetMGM!   If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works:   1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB. 2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. 3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you use bonus code CFB when you sign up!   Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary.   See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. This promotional offer is not available in DC, Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET (Available in the US) . 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only (if applicable). Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/arC9zcdXJBk   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today is Andy Narian 3, the latest on Missouri running back, Ahmad Hardy, who's in stable condition after being shot over the weekend. Also, the USC Notre Dame game, it's off this season. They said when they canceled it, they want to bring it back. The LA Times reporting USC and Notre Dame and talks to bring it back. Plus, Ryan Day's son makes a college choice, and it's a big 10 rival. Also, Kenny Dillingham at Arizona State gets his request granted. We'll talk about it all on today's Andy and Arion 3 presented by BetMGM.

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Welcome to Annie and Ari on 3. Goodby, BetMGM. I am here in lovely Amelia Island, Florida, where the ACC spring meetings are about to get cranked up. They are not started yet. But there will be a person here today, Ari, who may have some insight on one of the things that we are going to talk about on today's show.

So you probably will hear more about it tomorrow as well. USC and Notre Dame potentially rekindling their series that has been paused. But first, we've got to talk about the big news in college football Amad Hardy, the Missouri running back. You saw him on the show a few weeks ago, one of the best returning running backs in the country in stable condition after being shot in his home state of Mississippi over the weekend.

Yeah, stable condition is the good thing. Obviously, there's no time table on his return to football, but obviously when anybody goes through something like this, the number one most immediate concern is their long-term health as a human being, and that looks like that's not in jeopardy. So happy to hear that he's okay. As far as details go, I'm not sure we know much more about it. We'll just kind of let that play out.

Yeah, there's not much we can say, unfortunately, because I've been calling around, Pete Nacos has been calling around. Not a lot of concrete details right now. I'm sure more will come out about this over the next few days and weeks, but this is one of those. It's not really a great idea to speculate on anything until we have actual hard facts. But like you said, the good news is stable condition,

and he's going to make it. And that's great in a situation like this. As far as football goes, we'll figure it out. That will come and we'll learn probably, again, more about that in the next few days and weeks. I think to beat Thamel from ESPN quoted a source at Missouri saying that they were optimistic that he might be able to play this season. Again, when something like this happens, that's a really secondary thought. You're just worried, is the person going to be okay?

So Ahmad Hardy, 256 carries for 1,649 yards, 16 rushing TDs last year. You met it. If you didn't know him already, you met him on the show a couple weeks ago. A really interesting guy owns a bunch of horses, comes from Mississippi, played for Louisiana Monroe as a freshman, blew up there, goes to Missouri, where they had just lost Kiwan Lacey to Ole Miss. And he comes in and just puts together a great season, decided to come back to Missouri this year.

despite already probably, you know, just about everybody being interested in him in the portal if he had gone in. And, you know, this is one of those that, again, we'll find out what it means for football season later because that's the secondary importance right now. Yeah, I mean, obviously, like you said, being healthy and resuming normal life is the most crucial thought. And it looks like he's going to be able to do that. But we are talking about one of the probably top 10, top 15 players in the entire sport. So this is an incredibly important story for the SEC for college football in general, and we will keep you guys posted as more details come out. Yeah, and this is the nervous time for a lot of coaches around the country.

The way the calendar works, most semester system universities had their finals, first week of May, second week of May, and then everybody goes, and the players get pretty much their longest break of the year right now, those players at semester schools. So they're at home a lot of the times for a couple of weeks. And so this is the sort of time when stuff will happen. And this is one of those, you know, Eli Drinkwitz probably got the phone call at sometime early Sunday morning.

It's like, oh, no, what in the world? And so, again, glad to hear that Amad Hardy is going to get through this. And that's the important part. And then we'll figure out the rest of it as you go. So stay tuned because I, I, I, I, imagine there'll be more details about this situation. But right now, it's so spotty and it's not real responsible to speculate on anything. So we will talk about that more and we'll get you up to date as soon as we have more stuff on it as well.

Ari, let us move on to another story that broke on Monday. And that's Ryan Cartier from the LA Times. He covers USC reporting that USC and Notre Dame are back in talks to resume the series. Now, I don't know if we have a year on when it will resume, but they are back in talks, and this is great news because that series did not need to stop, and it's very frustrating that they're not playing this year, and I'm so happy to hear that both parties are back at the table,

and I'm really, really hopeful that they get this thing played as soon as humanly possible. You know, when things get canceled or when bad news comes, and, you know, it's hit with the footnote that, but we're going to continue our negotiations with the hopes of, I mean, like, I took that as, yeah, right. Or I took that as like, yeah, that was, when they canceled the series, they were like, oh, yeah, we're going to keep trying.

And, yeah, I was just like you. I was like, okay, whatever. But here's one thing I will say. USC fans, I think they deserve some credit for this because they were mad about this, probably as mad as mad as Notre Dame fans, as mad as people who just loved the history of college football. And USC fans had an out. Like they could have said, hey, the Big Ten schedule is really tough now.

We don't need necessarily this incredibly hard non-conference game that we've been playing. But they didn't say that. The USC fans that I see and the ones I interact with, they were just as mad as anybody else. They're like, we don't do this. The Trojans don't duck anybody. This is BS. And they put pressure on the school to go play this game. You know, I just, I find it interesting sometimes fan perspective, Andy, because I think that,

We both agree and it's true that a fan is usually most concerned with what's best for their team. And I think that you could make the case that USC schedule will be hard enough as it is playing this game, you know, a strain on the body and all these different things, these talking points that make me want to explode, but are probably somewhat true is, you know, I don't know if they lost as much as Notre Dame and not playing it. I think Notre Dame probably needed it more than SC given their conference affiliates. Oh, I agree with that. But, you know, the other thing that I just sometimes get stuck on, too, is that where would you rank this in terms of college football rival rivalries? Like in the top 15 of the entire sport in terms of just iconic five?

Top five, would you? Okay. The top two, however order you want to put it in. I just stumble on a new show topic. Yeah. Maybe that's our random ranking for Friday. But, yeah, Michigan, Ohio State, and Alabama, Auburn would be your top two. under any circumstances.

And then after that, USC Notre Dame might be number three. Okay. So just from that perspective alone, let's just pretend for a second that USC or Notre Dame, either of them are better off not playing it. I don't know that I agree with that.

You know where I stand on canceling tough non-conference games, but let's just say that that's true. How much does fan experience and protecting something that is an annual tradition mean to the people that are involved in it. Now, that's not just the players and the coaches and the administrators at both schools, but the people who fill into those stadiums, both in South Bend and in L.A. every year. I do think there is protecting your team, but isn't there also protecting your experience? And I think that that's like the thing that's the status about it.

It's just if you're a USC fan or Notre Dame, you have one fewer Saturday. every year and you don't get enough of them as is. College football is very quick and you only get 12 regular season games. One less interesting, less fun Saturday. Like I just don't understand anybody. And in this case, there weren't that very many people, as you pointed out, USC fans deserve credit for not being okay with it. Yeah, they were not.

I just don't know how anybody would be okay with this. So it was really good news. Now, I'm not going to prematurely celebrate because they, did cancel it. So that means that there is still sticking points and things that have to be worked through. But I do applaud both Notre Dame and USC for sticking to their word, continuing the negotiations, and maybe giving us back one of the most important properties of the college football season. Well, PIPAvacu's got to come to the meetings I'm at right now. He did because obviously Notre Dame's other sports are in the ACC. So I imagine we will hear

from him on this probably sometime in the next few days. I'd be curious to hear his his take on it because this is a little bit more fruitful, I bet. Yeah, exactly. But it's obviously breaking out of USC. But I think, you know, again, like I said, there were a lot of constituents on the USC side that did not want to see this get paused. And the sticking point when they were negotiating was USC would like this game

to be moved to the beginning of the season. And for those who don't follow these two schools that closely, the way it worked over the years was when they played in South they would play in October, and then when they play in Los Angeles, it would be the last regular season game of the year. And so the idea, and what Notre Dame does is they flip-flop at USC at Stanford for that last regular season game, depending on the year. And USC wanted that moved. And they wanted to maybe do it as a, in a more traditional non-conference place. And Notre Dame was, was resistant to that, but then Notre Dame said anytime, anywhere. But then they started

talking about playing in Mexico City and week zero. And, One of the things that was interesting in Ryan Cartier's piece in the LA Times was he said that the revelation that Notre Dame had gotten something written into the new college football playoff agreement that said if they were in the top 12, they were automatically in the field of 12, which starts this year. That that starts this year. That that was the thing when that was revealed after the regular season last year, that that was the thing that sort of pushed U.S. away from the table, which I don't know how much I buy that because, again, that was not a secret. Now, there were people who were not aware of it, but that was a case of people not reading the fine print. Like, that was known when that deal was made a couple of years ago, that that's something Notre Dame had negotiated into the deal. So I don't really think that was, I find it hard to believe that's what caused everybody to walk away from the table.

and then Notre Dame obviously not wanting to do Week Zero, you know, in another country. I think that that might have had something to do with it too. How much do you think that Notre Dame starting 0 and 2 last year had an impact on the viewpoints of this? I don't think it changed Notre Dame's opinion at all because Notre Dame didn't want to get out, didn't want to not play the game. Like, yeah, if the only option to play the game is Week Zero Mexico City, they're taking your anytime anywhere to the, absolute extreme.

Yeah, it's like the football equivalent of paying somebody off in pennies. Yeah, exactly. So I think that's part of it. You know, anytime. That would be bad ass, by the way. I would love to go back. Oh, yeah, Mexico City. Yeah, that'd be sick.

I think that stadium is at altitude. Is that a very high altitude? Yeah, we could do the Dan Rubin's playing at Wyoming or at Air Force. Legit Mexican food tour because he said Mexico City was one of the best food cities he's ever been to in the entire world. Oh, yeah. But I get, what is the number one hesitance to playing week zero on a neutral field in another country? Is it because it messes you up in terms of your flow?

You do logistics. Yeah, I pain in the ass to get their passport. I don't know. That's pretty quick. Like, for example, I was talking to somebody who works at TCU. Or no, I was talking to, I'm sorry, somebody who worked at North Carolina. And they were saying, hey, we've got to go over to Ireland. Oh, no, it's TCU.

They're saying, we've got to go over to Ireland for some logistical stuff. Like, they're playing North Carolina and Ireland. And we found out about that, I want to say over a year ago. Like, they've been planning for this for a long, long time. So I don't know that that's something you want to just do eight months out. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

I hope that you. get something there from Pete Povacua that makes you feel. I hope he comes out and says, hey, we're so grateful and we love the rivalry with USC, and we're going to make this happen because that would be awesome. And by the way, this comes on the heels of, remember last week at the end of the week, you find out Alabama and Ohio State, that series is not going anywhere. They're going to play that series. So is nature healing?

Is it possible? Actually, it's funny that you said is nature healing because I actually, as I was turning on my camera, before the show I was thinking, like, is nature healing? Well, here's the problem with that. What do you think has gone on behind the scenes in the meantime? As it pertains to what? The 2014 playoff discussion. Oh, yeah.

I was just hoping that they're doing this because I think there's going to be a 2014 playoff and you can go 8 and 4 make the playoff. I was also working under the pretences that maybe people just came to their senses and realized that the discussion was bullshit to begin. with, but yeah, that's probably the way you, that what you just said was probably what happened. I wish it's, I wish it's what you just said. I wish I'm not confident that it is. You want to know something?

Notre Dame has a really easy schedule this year. Now, I'm not going to bag on them for that because they have challenges that people in other conferences don't have. And when USC bailed, they did go get at BYU. So it's not like they just. Yeah, yeah, they tried to find. a good, hard game on the road. I am pre-exhausted as we record this on May 11th about strength of schedule discussions

about Notre Dame next fall if they somehow lose. Can we let, I want to see Wisconsin and Michigan State play a little bit before we decide what their strength of schedule is. But I would say, if Notre Dame has a schedule that consists of Clemson, and by the way, that looks sexy when they signed it. I don't know what that's going to look like in year six. Maybe it'll still be great. This is the deal they made with Clemson on the side, which does not start this year, by the way, but is going to be.

Every year, every year that it starts in the future is a scarier year because you don't know the trajectory of the program under Davo and how long he's going to be there. But it would be cool if Notre Dame lined up four permanent opponents that at least have institutions that expect to win at a high level. You can't guarantee, you can't guarantee that all those teams are going to be good when you play in 20. 233, obviously Florida State's a perfect example of what that looks like in terms of, you know, the bottom kind of hitting. Ari,

how would you feel about a Notre Dame BYU game every year? I think BYU's probably as sympathetic as anyone to Notre Dame because they played as an independent until they joined the Big 12, you know, between the West and the Big 12. So they've been through this trying to schedule this. And I also think that it would be very beneficial for BYU because, you know, I don't know if you were on Twitter this weekend.

You probably weren't because you're not mentally ill. like me and you were spending time with your wife on Mother's Day, right? I was, yes. I got a mini BYU-Y-U avalanche thrown at me this week based on clips that we had from our show because obviously they are very pro the expansion to 24 because they might have had the strongest case for being mistreated the most by the CFP committee. And they would be in, they would have been in 24 and 25 if there had been a 2014 playoff. Yeah.

You know what else would have been put them in last year? If they played Notre Dame. meet them. Yeah, like they would have been in. Like it's so like I think that there's this like main and I'm not trying to hijack the conversation and change it, but there is a main, I think fundamental misunderstanding that there is a committee bias for the fact that there is an inherent advantage by existing in a major conference because your schedule builds itself most times. And BYU, although very good the last few years, has not played in a conference that has allowed them to exist. in marquee games.

Now, Texas Tech, you certainly, last year in the regular season was one of them, but that was it. And like, I know that there are strength of record, you know, metrics that kind of showed that BYU's, you know, record last year was harder to attain than some other of the traditional powers that were in other conferences. But I still think that even with that metric, it still boils down to who you played, how you played in those games, and who you beat.

And unfortunately, for RYU last year, they didn't have anybody like, what? They also had Utah. Yeah, they didn't have a marquee win that was going to be the difference between getting in and not getting in last year. And I think if they played Notre Dame every year,

they might have a hard time in that series. If they played 10 times, they probably would lose three based on what Notre Dame is doing right now and what they are. But if they won those three in those three years, Or two? Man, that's a playoff. It's a golden ticket. If you take BYU's 2025 schedule, you replace any non-Uta

win with a win against Notre Dame. They're in the playoff. There's not even any question. Like going into the big 12 championship game, we're like, we would have been like, it doesn't matter who wins, they're both in. Yeah, they had Clemson and USC, BYU is three tent pole games that they had every single year.

And by the way, I don't know if you play into this, but I like a Mormon versus Catholicism rivalry there because there's deeper layers to that. And I think that that's been something that's charged rivalries in the past, areas of the country, you know, classes, religions, all these different things matter. I think that would be a pretty cool, like, many rivalry series that you could start up.

I don't know, man. I think that it's... This is in addition to USC and Notre Dame. Yeah. We want that to continue. And we want Notre Dame Navy. We want Notre Dame Navy to continue because that's one of the coolest rivalries in sports. The reasons behind it, the history behind it's awesome.

If they can add like one SEC team or one Big Ten team into that mix, I think that they would be all set moving forward, especially with the ACC agreement. And, you know, they have Wisconsin this year and maybe Wisconsin be better than we're giving them credit for right now. They do play SMU, which is a nice little, I mean, also it would help Notre Dame greatly if the ACC just stops stinking from top to bottom. Yeah. Well, I think based on what we know, we can be somewhat confident Miami and SMU are going to be good and her going to be a challenging opponent for them. In Florida State, depending on what happens in the next few years, should return back to being very good because I think that that's a place that the right coach can win in a big level at. And then Clemson, I don't know, we're not watching our hands of the hope of them being good again one day, right?

I'm not. Oh, no, definitely not. you know, I do think that there is, I think they ran into issues last year because the ACC was down. It feels like the ACC is going to be down going into this year in terms of number of teams that we perceive. But like, what if Louisville's awesome? What if Duke's all? I mean, like, you know, we don't know what's going to actually happen. I'm more bullish on the ACC than you are, I think, because I'm like our guy, Tosh LaPoy at Cal, I'm very interested to see what he does in year one.

Look at the ACC graphic here and tell me how many times. teams you think are legitimate playoff teams right now. Now, we might end up being wrong and miss somebody, but like right now with what we know who's a legitimate playoff team, Miami and who? Miami. And maybe SMU. And maybe SMU. And we'll see about Clemson because they do have talent. But there are interesting, I mean, C.J. Bailey comes back at NC State. Like that, that's a big retention piece right there. Georgia Tech, you know, they started off hot last year, but I think that may have been scheduled-based, and obviously they've got to replace Ains King and both coordinators.

So we'll see. Virginia brings back a lot. They bring back a lot of their offensive line. That was a good team last year that made the ACC championship game. So I'm hoping. See, I think that I think when I say bullish on the ACC, I mean I think they're a little bit better through the middle than they were. Like Syracuse fell off the table after Steve Angelly got hurt.

There's a chance that they're in a position now where I think, they've got the quarterback depth that if that happened again they'd be okay and they'd still be a tough out so i think that that that changes it where you you may not have automatic automatic wins like at the end of the last season Boston college and syracuse unless they're playing each other like you knew you knew what was going to happen so yeah and then Pittsburgh once mason heinzel took over as a starting quarterback they were they were very good so that's that's the thing that i think should get a decent amount of competition out of the ACC, but I'm with you.

Like get the USC game back and then maybe one more. Like maybe it is BYU. I think BYU Notre Dame every year would be so much fun. Yeah. And if there was ever a time for Notre Dame to be motivated to get those games, it would be after what happened last year. They could have used one more of those. Oh, yeah.

Well, okay, let's actually, we did that hypothetical from the BYU side. We said if you replace one non-U Utah win on BYU's schedule with Notre Dame in 2025, they would have been in the playoff. No questions asked. What if Notre Dame had a BYU win instead of one of their other wins, any of their 10 wins? If BYU is one of their 10 wins, they may get in. I think they might because then it would have put Notre Dame into a plane that was clearly above.

Miami in terms of strength of schedule and quality wins. The reason why, BYU would be 10 in that scenario, BYU would be 10 and 2 with losses to Texas Tech and Notre Dame, which would be very respectable, which would be a great, it would make the win for Notre Dame look great. So. Yeah, and you got to also remember, too,

that we didn't know how the big, oh, we did. The big 12 championship, they only lost to one team. So, they lost Texas Tech twice. Like the addition of a additional top 15 win in the CFP rankings might have tilted them so that they weren't compared head to head in terms of. And they, right, exactly. And, you know, BYU would have still beaten Utah in that scenario.

So that helps bolster BYU. That makes the Notre Dame win if they, if they had played BYU better. So, yeah, that actually may be. And again, BYU has its big 12 schedule. I think if those two schools could get together and do it, if that was something that the two schools would be amenable to, I do think that would be helpful for everybody. Yeah.

Follow us for more. Why scheduling good teams is important, talk. Yeah, Andy and Ari with the hypothetical schedules. Andy and Ari telling you that beating good teams is important to the committee, more at nine. Yes, yes. I realize that is not a revelation, but it does feel like it.

Not everyone is on bear's a fist. But hey, just one circle back. Thank you, USC and Notre Dame for getting back to the table. Make this happen. And we people who love college football appreciate it because that game is awesome and needs to keep getting played. I want to write about it, but you're there. So I'm going to let you do your thing.

And hopefully you get something for us. I hope Pete Mavakwa is willing to share a little bit, at least. They're really starting after our show has started, so I'll let you know. You've been around Pete. He's a warm guy. You know, I saw him at the CFP meetings a few weeks ago, and he would, he's a warm person. I think that you can get him to talk to you guys about. I also think he's going to get, I'm not the only reporter here.

He's going to get swarmed the second. Yeah. Yeah, that's not like you're asking them something out of left field, but I'm sure he'd be relieved to talk about anything that isn't the CFP expansion at this point. Exactly. Exactly, exactly, because he's getting pelted with that because obviously they have a bigger hand in that than other schools. Ari, let us move on to another piece of news. A highly touted quarterback recruit from the Columbus, Ohio area, has chosen a school. Now, normally we wouldn't do a whole segment on the show about something like this,

but it is very interesting because it is RJ Day, the son of Ryan Day, has chosen Northwest. the Big Ten rival of Ohio State. This picture that River has up on the screen, which is just Ryan Day and his wife, Nina, in the Ryan Fieldhouse, dressed in, like, Ryan Day, just like wearing non-Ohio State branded stuff. Like, he's just the dad.

Just makes me, like, so amused thinking that, like, Ryan Day is sitting in the office, like hearing Northwestern sales pitch about their lot. I don't think they give him the same sales pitch. And remember, Do you think it's a difference? Well, remember, Northwestern's OC is Chip Kelly, who two years ago was Ryan Day's OC at Ohio State.

And, oh, by the way, was Ryan Day's college coach? Men's poor college coach. Yeah. Yeah. So the fit there makes sense. I was kind of fantasizing about how the pitch would go or what Ryan Day is doing during the pitch. But I also came up with this alternate reality. what if our day day turns out to be like really really good do you just have to transfer to play for your dad

like i don't like know what it would be like the dynamics of this then i was also thinking from ryan day's perspective if they play northwestern or where they play northwestern and his son is starting like do you want to beat your son's ass like how does that work like i i don't know because i think he wants to beat his son's ass and his son wants to beat his ass and and and And people are competitive. It happens. Yeah, I know. But I think, like, the greatest thing that could happen to RJ Day during his career

is to beat Ohio State. Like, that's, like, a huge. Like, that's probably, like, one of the greatest memories of his life. I also, like, the thing about it is, I'm thinking about this from Ryan Day's perspective as a dad more than as a coach, because he's recruited quarterbacks. He's been through the quarterback recruiting process. He knows the politics of the quarterback recruiting process better than anyone. And navigating that as a parent has to be an absolute nightmare.

Now, he's helped by the fact that he helps set the quarterback recruiting boards across the country. But I think at a certain point, you're still just a dad dealing with this. And you want your kid to be in the best position possible. I'd say sending my kid to play for the guy I played for is a pretty good one. Oh, by the way, at a great school where he's going to get a very good education. Yeah, he did a really good job of being. a dad for sure, helping his son develop as a quarterback prospect. Now, it's important to remember, too, because I don't know.

How about the facilities tour, by the way? You talked about the sales pitch. The facilities tour at Northwestern is pretty sweet because you have the nicest football complex in the country and the brand new stadium. Yeah. Ohio State is going to announce next week the new renovation of the Ohio Stadium in their facilities. But Ryan Day's getting on the horn of the donors like, hey, look, the Woody. we're tearing that sucker down.

We're going to rebuild this thing. I was in Northwestern and holy crap. I guess picture Ryan Day trailing like 12 steps behind his son during a tour with his wife and like hitting his wife with his elbow and going, yeah, well, they don't have a waterfall. So, you know, I don't know.

That's because they already have a lake. They have a great lake, are you? For those who are waterfall when you have a great lake. I don't know how in the weeds, everybody who listens to the show is, but let me just, like, let people know because for those who didn't even know RJ Day existed until right now, he is in the 2027 class and he goes to St. Francis the Sales and that's a Columbus, Ohio High School. He ranks the number 1,178th overall player in the rivals industry ranking,

78th quarterback, and he has offers from Northwestern, Purdue, Cincinnati, Syracuse, Boston College, and a bunch of Mac teams. So like this is a player who, obviously isn't ranked or commensurate with what Ohio State would take as a scholarship player. But he is absolutely 100% a qualified. Yeah, he's a real dude. No matter what his last name was, who would have power for offers. You know, we were both at the athletic too when Ryan Day was hired and I was on the Ohio State beat. Like I went and drove.

No, I flew, I think. No, I might have driven. I can't remember to New Hampshire and like went to Ryan Day's high school. to try to profile him, talk to people that he grew up with and around. I hang out with his brothers. He was a really good high school player, too. I don't think people realized that, like, Ryan Day was a very good athlete and was very good at basketball as well and played at New Hampshire.

So, like, the- Or Chip Kelly. The genes are there. But I do fantasize about what would happen if RJ Day turns out to be one of the three-star players that's under-evaluated. and is it possible for a head coach of Ohio State to under-evaluate his own son? Well, and also, we have to talk to Ryan and RJ about this because it may be that he doesn't want to play for his dad or his dad doesn't want him playing for him because you don't want to, you don't want the other players to think there's special treatment going on, anything like that. Which happens all the time.

It's a delicate situation. Oh, it does, but it's a delicate situation every time. And like also do you want to forge your own path or because he's certainly worthy of a walk-on spot. Of course. Yeah. If you have other big 10 scholarship offers, you can walk on at Ohio State. I think his dad gets a discount, right? I think if you're a university employee, you get a discount on tuition. Absolutely.

So, I mean, I guess you could have gone that route. But also, kids want to play. If he goes to Ohio State, he's like, I'm not going to sit behind Julian San and Tavian San and Tavian St. Clair for three years. He wants to go play in the big. He has a big 10 offer. Like no one's doing, Northwestern's not offering this kid a scholarship to do Ryan Day a favor.

Like, this is a, like a real deal thing. So I do think that we should try to get Ryan on the show at some point and talk about this because I think it's interesting. But also, let's not forget what Ryan Day's specialty is as a coach. He grew in the coaching ranks as an offensive coordinator and quarterback's coach. He's had tremendous success with the quarterback position. And I'm sure he had to have a. real conversation about where he where his son like i don't know how you are with why i can i just

congratulate ryan day as a dad yeah so my my son is a year younger than his and so my son's going to be a freshman in college in 2028 like i'm terrified right now the whole college selection process and i'm talking about football i'm talking about just period deciding where to go to school trying to get in those schools all that stuff and then i got my daughter is a grade behind him. So we're going to deal with that for the next few years. And like to have your kid be able to come to you and go, I'm going to Northwestern. I got it taken care of. Like that's awesome. As a parent, I don't care if you make $10 million a year or $10,000 a year. That's an incredible feeling, I'm sure, for a parent. Yeah. And congratulations to RJ Day who earned this on his own merits.

So, you know, the thing, you know, Andy, I took my daughter and my wife and my mother-in-law to the Michael Jackson movie on Sunday. And we watched the Michael Jackson movie. By the way, incredible flick, really enjoyed it, was in the theater for the first time in a long time. And we got home. And in the time since all we've done is watch Michael Jackson in concert and dancing on our YouTube with our daughter. and she now knows the thriller dance. But she goes, Daddy, why is he famous?

And I just said, because he's very talented, you know, and I was trying to explain. And she goes, Daddy, am I talented? And of course, loaded question from your own kid. But this is where I'm getting at too, which is like, of course you are. But Michael Jackson, though very talented, also worked very hard of the thing that he loved and nobody gets to get me. but like it had got me thinking like what if she asks me that question when she's 13 like what if your son asks you i'm sure you've had to have hard we've had conversations and we have to like you have to go both ways with it you have to set realistic expectations but you also

don't want them setting their expectations too low like i had that conversation with my daughter the other day who makes really good grades and and uh i think is probably going to get good test scores and I'm like, listen, I want you to understand you can do literally anything on earth that you want to do career-wise. So don't ever think to limit yourself as you decide, you know, what you want to do, what kind of college you want to go to, understand the way things are tracking, you can be successful in almost anything. So be aware that anything you thought might be, you know, too high up or too hard to do, probably not going to be if you, if you want to work at it. And your son is an aspiring potential college football prospect, right?

Yeah, he's trying to decide if that's something he wants to do. And it's interesting because we'll see what happens, I think, this season. And that will probably, because he's a late grower. Like, he was, he went to some camps last year and he was, he was five foot 10 and 170 pounds. And like now he's six foot. one and 220 pounds. And so it kind of depends on position. It depends on if he's done growing.

You probably also never had to explain to your own son that he probably wouldn't be able to block Vince Wilfork. I think that like, yeah, I've kind of been there. So I kind of know. But, you know, it's interesting because he's actually, he's stronger than I was at this age. I think he's technically,

from a technical standpoint playing offensive line, he's better than I was at this age. but at this point in my high school career because I went to a very large public school in Orlando, I had not played a snap on varsity yet. This was 10th grade spring practice going into 11th grade. So I hadn't played a snap on varsity. I assumed I was going to be a backup on varsity and wound up being a starter after the first game. And so didn't have any thought of playing college football until after my junior year when a coach from Air Force showed up to try to recruit me.

I'm like, what did you get lost? Like, why are you here? he's like no no no we think you can play and so that's that's the other part of it is you know it's it's tricky this parenting stuff and and and i'm yeah that's why like when i saw the picture of ryan day in the northwestern complex i get he's ryan day i get you know he's got some advantages and and r j day had some advantages as a as a high school kid as the son of the ohio state coach but as the dad as the kid what a freaking moment and mom too. I mean, just what a moment. Like, it's awesome. I, I don't know. I, I guess I'm putting

myself in that situation. Like, if one of my kids were to come home and say, hey, I got a scholarship to this really good school, like for whatever, whether it's academic, sports, anything. I can't imagine how proud I'd be. Yeah. And I'm sure Ryan Day didn't have to say you can't play here. I'm sure the kid came to that conclusion on his own. And you know what? He might turn out to be a first round draft pick one day from Northwestern or somewhere else. I don't know. That's the other part.

Growing up in it, I'm sure he has a very clear idea of how good people are when they are in the Big Ten and how good people are. Or at that level, is probably better than anybody. Or at that level, because quarterback's not quite the same position as offensive line, but at least at that level, understanding that there are certain things that that come into play from an athleticism and God-given trait standpoint at that place like Ohio State that might not at others. So, you know, I think that, you know, Andy, I don't know if this has happened to you,

but because I've covered recruiting a lot now working on three, there have been times where people have reached out to me and said, hey, can I talk to you about my son? He's on the verge of getting recruited. What can I do? And I'll take the call. And it's just like, I think that like, the one thing that everybody kind of understands is the food chain is created at this level a lot of because of how tall you are, how much you weigh. Right. And that's what you're able to run. If my kid were to somehow become a power conference prospect,

it is not as an offensive lineman. It would be as a linebacker or something like that because that's the only, that's what he'd be the right size for. Now, if he suddenly grows four inches, which I don't think is going to happen. But if he did, then we're having a different conversation. But, like, yeah, a lot of times you are slotted in, and there are physical limitations that we talk about the stories where somebody overcomes him. Like, there was the center who played at Coastal Carolina, Willie Lampkin, and then moved to North Carolina, and he's 5'10, and he's in the NFL now. That is not most people.

Like, that is not most people. Most people are that they will be, if you're the right size, you are going to have an advantage. I was in the grocery store the other day, Ari, and this dude walks around the corner. He looks high school age to me, and he's probably 6 foot 6 and 285 pounds. And he had big broad shoulders and muscular. And I almost walked up to him and said, please tell me you play football. Like, please, but I think he does. So, yeah.

I've been to a lot of the camps in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. I've seen a lot of the freaks that have walked through there and perform there. RJ Day grew up there. There's just people who walk into there who are put on this planet to play football. And like that's just the way it is. But also really cool moment, super excited to see how this all plays out. And who knows, maybe in 2030, he'll be in the playoff or maybe he'll be transferring to Ohio State. Who knows?

Or maybe he'll be playing Ohio State for Northwestern. The question you have for you, though, is can a coach tamper with his son? No, no. No, and there have always been rules about that. Like, in case. What's the rule? I don't know the rules. He can do whatever.

He's his dad. He can talk to him as much as he wants. Okay. So, like, if it, let's just play hypothetical here. RJ Day starts as a true freshman. throws for 4,000 yards, and then goes into the offseason as somebody who will be in the Heisman conversation

as a true sophomore Ryan Day can say you're playing for me now, and then... Well, RJ Day is a legal adult at that point and can say, Dad, I am building my own legacy here at Northwestern. No, I know, but I just wanted to know if there's any possible way Northwestern

could get upset at Ohio State for tampering. I think everybody goes in there with eyes wide open. I think everyone understands. But I like the question. One more thing about Ohio State, Ari. Yes. Our guy Chris Lowe, really good story on three today about Julian Sayan. What comes next being far more interesting to Julian Sain about what than what might have been.

And that would be what might have been last year or what might have been Hedy State at Alabama. Jeremiah Smith in this story talking about how catchable the ball is from Julian Sane. I go back because we were talking about Julianne say a few weeks ago. And Arden, we were at the Ohio State Penn State game. I remember watching some of those throws and thinking, how does he thread the ball of that accurately? Yes. That is Julian Say and super.

Every quarterback has the thing that they're really good at. He is so accurate. And just from, you know, you talk to enough coaches, that is a trait that can be developed. but there's certain, there's kind of a floor to it. Well, like, and his floor is super high. Is there only like one quarterback? There's only one quarterback that I'm aware of that went from mildly inaccurate in college to like super accurate.

Josh Allen. Josh Allen. Yeah. Oh, and I think that accuracy in being able to put the, get the ball out quickly and put the ball on the money every time you throw it is one of the chief indicators for NFL draft status. Now, there are questions about his size, his mobility, his athleticism, all those things. But remember, he was also in his first year starting. So, you know, there are reasons, I think, maybe to be critical of him. But like, listen, we had NFL draft analysts on our show last week who were critical of Dante Moore.

And he would have been a top five pick in last year's draft. They were critical of Julian Sayan, too. You know, they were talking about the things he needs to do to get better, more, you know, pocket awareness, get the ball, get the ball out. as quickly as possible, but they loved his accuracy. That was the one thing. We talked to Steve Palazzolo and when we talked to Nate Tice, they both raved about his accuracy. And like, you remember how people would talk about C.J. Stroud when he was in college.

And, you know, of all the Ohio State quarterbacks who have been taken in the NFL draft, although he had a horrific playoff game this past year, has been the most successful Ohio State quarterback in the NFL. And for a while there was looking like a 10-year- A better offensive line in front of him. I think he's going to be a successful NFL quarterback for a long time. But people, I mean, me included, was like why C.J. Strauss in the game, when his first year started, I was like, maybe we'd switch this thing up a little bit

and see what someone on the bench has. And then he turned out to be a really great player. And that wasn't happening to Julie. And nobody thought he should be benched last year. But you're not the Ohio State quarterback if you don't have people at least questioning. You have to be perfect in order to, you know, supersede all that. So, you know, they are in pretty good position here. And obviously, you know, when you have a freak behind you, that's going to start conversations

as well. But, you know, he should be in a pretty good position to have a nice big sophomore, really starting season, second year season, jump. Yeah. I'm excited to see what he can do because, you know, again, he does have a lot of stuff to work with. You have the best receiver in the country on your team. You know, you also have Brandon Ennis.

you have Chris Henry Jr. joining the receiving court. So they are going to have a lot to work with. But, you know, Julian Sayan does have to level up if they want to win a national title. He has to play better than he played against Miami. He has to, like, that has to happen. So there's work to be done. And, you know, you read this story from Chris and you get the sense that this is a guy who seems very willing to put in that work. Yeah, go check it out, QR code on the screen.

Also, if River throws the Ohio State schedule back up, I know we've been talking a lot about the SEC grind, but IU, USC, Oregon, all in a row is a pretty, pretty grindy part of the schedule. The only Iowa to open Big Ten play is not any, you know, slouch either. That's a pretty tough pair to open with. This is, and we've talked about this, this is the hardest Ohio State Big Ten schedule that I can remember, are you? I think it's the hardest Ohio State schedule in general that they've had since I was a professional in this business. Yeah, I think if you go back, you know, maybe John Cooper era when the Big Ten was smaller, when teams were scheduling out of conference differently, you may be able to find some harder ones. But the fact that you play at Texas early in the season and then this draw from the Big Ten, which is one of the more difficult ones anybody got.

You know, we talked about Penn State probably got the easiest draw out of the, out of the better big 10 teams. Ohio State, USC, Oregon, they got pretty tough draws this year. And they're going to have to work their way through that league. Yeah. So, but I'm super excited about it. And obviously, Ohio State's going to need Julian San to take a step forward to navigate that schedule

and ultimately achieve whatever goals they have and whatever goals I mean win the national championship. Exactly. Exactly. All right, Ari. one more thing. And, you know, this is this, this story is giving me confidence a little bit. You ever think, because I've had people say this to me and I always kind of poo-poo it, that if you want something, just speak it into existence and maybe it'll happen.

And I was like, eh, I don't think so. I don't necessarily believe that. But Kenny Dillingham spoke something into existence. Now, I think there was a lot of work done by Kenny Dillingham behind. this needs to make this happen. But this is, so Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said this coming out of last season. When, when obviously there was some interest in Kenny Dillingham from schools that had openings, but he decides to stay at Arizona State and he says we got to activate the valley. If there's any mega donors out there, potential, you know, any millionaires who want to,

who want to throw us a few bucks. Well, I'm, I'm interested in talking to you. So Brian Sweetie, who has been a previous donor to Arizona State, with a $10 million donation to endow the head coaching position, which theoretically to keep Kenny Dillingham there as long as humanly possible, that is speaking into existence because he was talking about seven-figure donations. He got an eight-figure one. Yeah.

Asking you shall receive maybe is a better. I think what you win and you shall receive. I think Kenny Dillingham has shown the first few years at ours. Because remember how bad that you. that situation was when he took over for Herm Edwards. Remember how tough their situation was, how much he had to flip that roster? He came the same year as Dion Sanders into the league. Well, they were in the same league and then they moved to another league together.

But had to flip the roster in a similar fashion to Colorado. And the difference was in year two, they win the conference. I mean, they should have beaten Texas in the Peach Bowl. The fourth and 13 play in overtime saves Texas in the Peach Bowl. They lose their starting quarterback in the middle of last year, but they were really good. They're the only Big 12 team that beat Texas Tech last year. This is a team that should be competitive in the Big 12 for as long as Kidney

Dillingham is there. Yeah. Now, the question is, and we have a clip. Why don't we play the clip, and then we'll get into the discussion. What confidence do you have and his ability to be the leader? of this program. Well, when I discuss this with my wife, the first thing that she said, she goes, we only invest in winners. And I'm ready to invest. So much confidence in Kenny. And there's confidence across multiple dimensions. Obviously, we want a great football mind. We have that. But we also

want a great leader of men and a great leader of staff. And so, you know, we have that with Kenny. it also helps that we have somebody that loves the state and loves the university. So I think those characteristics in total, you know, suggests that we've got somebody here that's, you know, really important to the state and the program. And like I said, we're going to have success. That video from Blake Neiman, Fox 10 Phoenix. And I do love Mr. Sweetie talking about running.

the eight-figure donation by the wife. Like that conversation. Can we spend 10 million of our dollars on this? Is that cool? I'm trying to answer that conversation in my house. I guess if you go into a level of wealth where you are able to afford giving a place $10 million for their football program, you're probably not living paycheck to paycheck.

But I am kind of trying to think of right by the misses. I'm trying to think of like if I told Britt I wanted to donate. donate what was $10 million to him. I don't know what his net worth is, but I said I wanted to donate $5,000 to my favorite football team's NIL fund, how that would go. You want to do what now? Yeah. I can see it. Now, I think if both members of the couple are equally large fans, I think you're probably in good shape, especially.

And you're right. At this level of wealth, we're talking tax breaks. We're talking estate planning. And there's all manner of things going on here. Yeah. I mean, but there are a lot of, let's throw them some bills. There are a lot of couples that go to sporting events together. And, you know, I also think that there's like a ownership aspect of this, too, or it's like if Arizona State gets players or does something that being, you know,

part of the reason why that happened is a level of connection to the program that some people crave. So, you know, I'm all for it. Now, I don't know if we, we probably don't have the clip from when Kenny Dilling, announced he was staying at ASU, but you remember he stood on the edge of the practice field and said, if we can get one mega donor, one person to cut a check, you know,

we can change this place. You know, when you sell that, like it is interesting because there's always been, you know, donor donations or gifts to football program since the beginning of time. But when you make that plea and somebody answers the bell, there's a return on investment expectations.

I'm assuming now that is more quantifiable when it's being spent directly on players and maybe it used to be when it was a waterfall in the locker room. Well, and you've always said that you thought Kenny would be much harder to uproot from Arizona State than other coaches at similar type jobs. And the more I see, the more I believe you. Well, also the more money that comes in, the more we have the discussion that we've been having about all sorts of jobs, which is, is that job actually better? Like if Arizona State becomes one of the biggest financial spenders,

one of the biggest spenders in NIL and one of the biggest beneficiaries of financial gifts, then you do make the cases like is being the coach at Florida State, a place that he has coached actually better than being the head coach at Arizona State? Like I do think that like, you know, that was the reason for the donation. But I also think, too, that when you tell people you're going to win and do things that were unprecedented, you know, one of which he's already done, which is make the playoff, when somebody does write that check, there is a responsibility in your part to make good on your promise, which I think is, you know, stress that all coaches probably face, but a different

layer to it. Well, and I think he's already shown us he can do it. There's proof of concept with Kennedy Dillingham. And we'll see what happens this year. Cutter Bowley comes in, kind of in the same position. Sam Levitt was when Sam Levitt left Michigan State, Carter Bowley coming from, Kentucky. He was pretty good last year down the stretch for Kentucky. And obviously, Kentucky wasn't great. They ended up firing Mark Stoops. But Cudder Boli was not

supposed to be the starter. They went out and spent money on Zach Kowalsada in the portal. Carter Bully beat him out. And Kenny Dilleyham really seems to like Cudder Bolley. Just, you know, remember when he got Sam Levitt, Sam was leaving Michigan State. Michigan State had taken Aden Childs because Jonathan Smith was coming from Oregon State. And so it wasn't clear whether Sam was going to be that great or not, but Kenny was very confident that he was going to be. And it turned out he was quite good. And we'll see Sam at LSU this year.

But Cudder Bowley made the eye for quarterbacks. I mean, he's done it once, but say that this is the next step of that. Yeah. So I'm very intrigued to see what Cudder Bowley looks like this year at Arizona State. And like, like I said earlier, Ari keeps telling me this guy's from here. This guy doesn't want to lead in. And this is, you know, I grew up in the same area.

They went, you know, to high schools a few miles apart, that sort of thing. So you know this better than I would. But I believe you now when you say this is this is a guy who could potentially stay here for his career if all things work out. Yeah, you've been there, right? You know what it's all about. Tempe and Scottsdale are wonderful. They are a delight. So.

Yeah. And later in that interview, too. He was like talking. Everywhere, all the other times, and in the morning and the evening in the summers, it's pretty awesome. When we were growing up to Arizona State felt like a hike from where we lived. And now with the way that the city has expanded, the way that it edges up on Scottsdale, he mentioned this in the interview. If you go watch the full clip that, you know, Arizona State is kind of at the epicenter of Phoenix now. and, you know, I really do think that, you know, activate the valley, although, you know, not, I mean, it's just a nickname, but like the idea of fundraising is a major part of his job.

And I don't know what role he played in finding this donor or helping move along the decision making that this donor, you know, ultimately gave $10 million. But I think that that's a major aspect of this job that was appealing to him to from the beginning that's outside of where it's located. He knew that there was money in Phoenix and in Scottsdale of people who love Arizona State that wanted to see this place succeed. And I think that he found that ASU was a place that was actually, I mean, Arizona State's been on every sleeping giant list since the beginning of the Internet. Oh, of course. Yeah, North Carolina and Arizona State are your two quintessential sleeping giants. Size of university, location, all the things. There's a lot of stuff to like.

this is the type of thing that would probably make him go to bed easier night saying, hey, I made the right decision if he had a decision to even make back in the Michigan flirting days. Well, we're going to find out more about that as time goes on. But again, the longer this goes, the more I think they may have their guy for a good, good long time. But Ari, it's been a very busy day. He thought it was going to be slow. Admit it, tell the people you thought today was going to be slow. Every Monday in the off season, I wake up the same way.

But, yeah, things tend to happen. Now, tomorrow we'll have more from the ACC Spring meetings as we finish recording this. Coaches and ADs are arriving, so we'll be talking to those guys. Fran Brown from Syracuse will join us on tomorrow's show. Very excited about that. If you've seen him on the show before, he is a lot of fun. You will want to run through a wall. and I am very intrigued to ask him about his quarterback situation,

which I think is in a lot better place depth-wise than it was last year, because this was a good team. And then Steve Angelly got hurt, and then everything sort of fell off the table. But I think with the depth they have right now, there's a good chance that they're probably capable of being good, even if they hit a bump in the road at quarterback. So I'm excited.

And Fran Brown's also the perfect person to ask big questions. to because he is always very honest about how he feels. He's also a big thinker and big idea guy. He and Dion trying to get the spring game where they played each other going a couple years ago. Like that's a great idea, not something most coaches would just throw out there publicly. But this, Frayn Brown thinks about this stuff. And I'm curious what else he's got in the hopper because, again, he's the type of person

who thinks about this stuff all the time. So we'll have Fran Brown. A little more from ACC Media. ACC spring meetings and and who knows what else happens. Maybe some other great non-conference series will get, we'll get negotiated. That'd be awesome. Let's end the show with a mic issue. Of course.

I said something will fall out of the sky. It always does. That's exactly right. Or Ari's mic won't work. We will talk to you tomorrow.