Andy & Ari On3 - LSU or Alabama in the West? Missouri Coach Eli Drinkwitz tries not to go viral | More from SEC Media Days

Episode Date: July 18, 2023

0:00-4:47 Andy and Jesse Simonton discuss Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher’s reaction to a hot seat question at SEC Media Days.4:48-21:39 Cole Cubelic (ESPN/SEC Network/Cube Show podcast) joins to talk LSU, Alabama and Texas A&M. LSU won the West last season, but do the Tigers have the depth to truly compete for the SEC and national titles? Andy and Cole also explain how Texas A&M feels more talented than the non-Alabama/LSU West teams, but the Aggies need to win the games they’re supposed to win before they’re considered true contenders.21:40-37:00 Jesse reveals his SEC predictions, and Andy points to the Mississippi State fans flaming Jesse over his seventh-place pick as a reason why you should never do a full-conference prediction. The guys agree that the East is possibly more packed than anyone realizes under obvious division-favorite Georgia.37:00-44:50 Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz joins the show to talk about a veteran defense — and how that came back together — and his decision to give up offensive playcalling. He also promises to say nothing that will go viral.44:50-57:12 Andy and Jesse preview Georgia’s appearance at media days on Tuesday by discussing the conflict between the school and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution over a story the school has asked the paper to retract.57:13-60:00 Andy’s Extra Point welcomes you to a show that we hope will become your favorite.

Welcome to Andy Staples on 3, first edition of the show. We're already feeling the pressure. Jesse Simonton on 3, national writer. Austin Jimbo Fisher. Jimbo Fisher got hot seat questions. The man would have a $76 million buyout if he was fired after this season. He's getting hot seat questions. But, I mean, shoot.

I understand how you feel. This is show number one. If I screw this up, they may just tell me to go home. I understand how this is show number one. If I screw this up, they may just tell me to go home. I don't, I don't think they're doing that. They're not going to tell Jimbo he's going to go home if he's 10 and 0, like he said. He said, if I was 10 and 0, I'd feel the hot seat pressure.

Reminder, Jimbo Fisher's never won 10 games at Texas A&M. Bit of a sore subject, but happy to be here with you, Andy. We're excited about you joining on three. I'm happy to team up with you here. This is going to be fun. It is going to be a lot of fun. We have a lot to talk about. You have pissed everybody off with your SEC predictions. We're going to talk about that.

We're going to have Cole Kublik on the show. Always great. We're going to have Eli Drinkwitz, the Missouri coach, is going to join us. It is going to be a lot of fun, and this is what this show is going to be. We're here at SEC Media Day. It's going to be pretty SEC-heavy today, but we are going to be your destination for all things college football. No matter what the news is, no matter where the news is,

we're going to hit it. We'll talk fun, dumb, uncomfortable, everything. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, shoot, we want to go non-SEC? We'll go non-SEC for a minute before we dive into the SEC. Neil Brown, our guy at West Virginia, speaking of hot seats, he's not going to keep his job if he doesn't win a significant number of games this season.

He knows it, and he is embracing it. You've dubbed him Coach Yolo. That's right. I love it. That's what I want to see out of these coaches. I want Jimbo Fisher to say that. I want Jimbo Fisher to say if i'm if i'm going down i'm going down swinging which is hilarious because comparing these two coaches and we can get into this last week at big 12 media days neil brown came out and said you know what if i'm going down with the ship

i'm going down with the ship i'm calling plays. I'm taking over again on this offense, an offense that struggled mightily a year ago. And he then doubled down and said, and you know what? We're not going to finish last in the Big 12. Just coming out with his chest puffed. I love it. He could be completely wrong. He still gets paid either way. Not quite as much as Jimbo.

What's interesting with Neil Brown saying that, because Eli Drinkwitz, who's here at SEC Media Days today and who'll be joining us later, went the opposite tack. They had a bad year on offense. They had a very improved defense that could be very, very good this year. And he said, you know what? I'm not going to

call plays anymore. I'm going to hire Kirby Moore away from Fresno State and he's going to call plays. And he also didn't exactly puff his chest today. He basically used the entire depth chart to make up most of his time. You've got a filibuster. Will Muschamp was a master of the filibuster at Florida and at South Carolina. He would get three deep into the depth chart. Really, if you were a recruit, Nick,

and you wanted to know where that four-star who signed five years ago, who you haven't seen play, you were going to hear about him when Will Muschamp was in his opening statement. Now you see that name in the transfer portal a year later. Exactly, exactly. So this show is going to be your daily stop. Whether you're listening to it in podcast form, watching it on YouTube,

let's give you a little idea of how it works if you're coming to it in a different way. So we're going to premiere every night, 8 p.m. Eastern on YouTube. That'll be Sunday through Thursday. If you're listening in podcast form, it'll be available when you get up. In your feed. In your feed.

So go subscribe whatever your favorite podcast platform is apple google amazon pocketcast overcast every cast we're spotify we're on all of them so we will be able to find you and you will be able to find us however you want to be found so jesse we, we've got a lot to talk about. Special guest coming in right off the bat, Cole Kublik, former Auburn offensive lineman, the best sideline reporter in the business because he's the only one watching the trenches play

and explaining exactly what's going on. And they give him the space to do so. That's what's beautiful about that broadcast. Oh, it's tremendous. It's Tom Hart, Jordan Rodgers, Cole Kublik. I'm not a television programmer here. They're on the SEC network. You could put them on any game.

I'm just saying. I want the Tom, Jordan, and Cole cast on the national title game next year. Let's make that happen. Let's speak it into existence. There's enough channels. All right. There's enough channels. We'll be right back with Cole Kublik.

Welcome back from SEC Media Days. Joined now by the great Cole Kublik, former Auburn offensive lineman. You see him on the SEC Network and the best game crew in America. Oh, wow. The best. Tom Hart, Jordan Rodgers, Cole Kublikik. The best game crew in America. He's also got his own radio show with Greg McIlroy. You've got your own podcast. Cube Show. Cube Show 61 on YouTube. There you go.

Trying to catch Andy Staples and subscribers. I think, well, see, the on three thing is helping me quite a bit. I think you may have been beating my old show, but now the big guns showed up. You're clapping me. So this has been a very interesting day. You have Brian Kelly. You have Jimbo Fisher. You have Eli Drinkwitz. Now, we talked on your show about Eli Drinkwitz.

Yep. And you're going to hear him later on this show. And he will sound like a man who is confident in his defense, who feels like that side of the ball is taken care of. Yeah. But offensively, eh, not sure yet. I'm not either. And I think with what Blake Baker did last year,

it's easy to be confident in the defense. You have a big boy SEC defensive tackle. You have a real deal SEC inside linebacker. And they've been able toer. Normally, you wouldn't think Missouri would be able to plug and go at those spots. They've been able to overcome those losses recently. The back end, I think, is going to be fine. You lose one of your team leaders at safety, but the rest pretty much intact. Then the way Blake calls it, I think, is just fantastic. I'm worried about quarterback. Part of that is we're able to usually generate an opinion coming out of spring we didn't really see even what they might have to offer nor would I if I were them

want people to know at this point I you know did Brady Cook Jake Garcia we'll see what happens but yeah it's it's very different than than say Texas A&M Jimbo Fisher coming in much more confident in his offense than than he would have been this time last year they kind of know what they have in Connor Wegman he seemed to be insistent on not letting us forget that Max Johnson's there too that's cool cool story coach um Connor Wegman will be the starter yeah um you know it's just like the I don't think there's a competition they can compete all they want yeah Connor Wigman will be the starter, kind of similar to the Auburn thing where there's people that are still telling you Robbie Ashford is in it.

He'll play some. He's not going to be the starting quarterback. But Connor Wigman's a better athlete than people know about. He's an elite baseball recruit. He moves better than people think. And we had him twice kind of down the stretch last year, and the guys love him. Jimbo talked about how well he adapted to the play calling, managing things, And we had him twice kind of down the stretch last year, and the guys love him.

Jimbo talked about how well he adapted to the play calling, managing things, and they bounced a lot of offensive linemen around. Yes. There was obviously some things happening behind the scenes inside that locker room that I think distracted a lot of people, but he should have a really good offensive line in front of him. There are guys that have really good tape, and those same guys have some average tape. Most of that showed up last year, but you had to move the parts around.

If they're mostly back together, that group can be good. You have a really good group of wide receivers, led by Evan Stewart and Moose Muhammad. I think tight end, you have two different guys, like a max right that you're hard hat, you know, utility guy. And then obviously you have green that can be a little bit more of a move guy i'm not worried about running back because yeah you had spiller you had a chain but now you have a nice smith who you can do anything right and move him all around

and i think that is the most important thing that happened to them this offseason is he decided to come back well and what do they need to do offensively change the presentation he is a guy that can be tailback slot outside receiver move guy motion guy give him behind the ball line of scrimmage let him run deep that's what bobby petrino will use to get a lot of people misaligned and i think there's a little bit of a secret weapon with a and m that not a lot of people are talking about it's jim cheney yeah. Because everybody wants to get caught up in why Bobby will or won't work. Bobby is just as much, if not more, of an FU guy than Jimbo is. Right. I don't think people understand that Bobby's not going to not let it be his.

He would easily slide the playbook back over and say, okay, have fun, I'm out. Yeah, he's the one guy who, if Jimbo comes in and says, I want this back, he's going to be, okay, you're paying me anyway. And that's, I don't know if that's going to work, but I don't think there are a lot of OCs, especially younger guys, who could be put in that position and be successful. Right.

You have to kind of be an FU guy. Jim, Bobby will stand up to Jimbo. I don't mean that in a negative way. It's just like you said, a lot of younger guys would say, all right, coach, whatever you say goes. He will be very confident in his opinions, and he will not be shy about expressing it. And then I think you bring in Chaney.

The personality will be great for that room. They're going to need that. But he's also, remember, very creative in the run game, does a lot of things with the presentation pre-snap. That's what needs to change for A&M. And if it does, they're going to be really dangerous on offense. Well, and that's the thing, really dangerous, period, because the level of talent they have, they can play with anybody.

You know, they can play with an Alabama. They can play with a Georgia. If you told them you've got to, you know, play Ohio State this week and give them a game other than Alabama, Georgia, LSU, those are the ones that you think could in the SEC. So my thing with them is win the games you're supposed to win. Show us you can do that. And I'm still not convinced because I kind of feel like I put A&M,

Arkansas, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Auburn in the same bucket because A&M has yet to prove it can win those games. But once they show it, I would move A&M to another echelon there. I'm more with you where Bama LSU, let's talk about the rest. There are a lot of people that say, no, no, no, Bama LSU, A&M, then we talk about the rest. The roster lot of people that say no no no Bama LSU A&M then we talk about the rest the roster is is closer to those than it is to those right talent wise but I think you have to ask the question like what's going on behind the scenes go beat Auburn and

then we can talk about it yeah is there a culture problem I don't know I'm not accusing but when things like what happened last year happen yeah it's fair to say, do you have an issue inside the facility? Now maybe, and this is very possible, a lot of addition by subtraction. Like you can leave. We're going to be fine without you. And the leaders are able to take over a little bit, and guys want to follow, and everything can come together. But I'm with you.

There's a lot that I need to see before I just completely believe. So LSU here, Brian Kelly, I've heard him say this before, and we heard him say it again here, that it doesn't feel like their depth is quite where it needs to be to be a national title contender type team, which I don't know if that's poor mouthing or if that's him being very realistic about where they're at relative to Georgia and Alabama. I think it's very real.

I'll give you an example. The offensive lineman they took from Maryland. I go watch his tape, Andy, and I'm like, he ain't playing at LSU. But I think Brian Kelly knows they just need bodies to compete. And look at last year. You had to move chess pieces of the offensive line around. You're playing checkers with those guys. And then obviously you had taking secondary guys out of the portal two years in a row at a fairly high

volume doesn't feel like that should ever have to happen there it is kind of weird that when LSU what are your questions corner and running back we don't ever say that no it's like they just fall off trees there but I think he understands and he has been at a place where the front-line talent could be very competitive, but probably the next guy's up for a major step back, and he knows he's got to get closer. And that's why he's at LSU, because he knows that he can get the front-line talent already. It's already there, and he can build the depth, which is something you could never do at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame, I go back to there was the playoff game against Clemson in the Cotton Bowl. I'm blanking on the name of the corner who got hurt. It was a very competitive game. He got hurt. That was it. They just got out-athleted after that. Literally.

Once he was off the field, they just picked on the guy that replaced him, and it was over. It was like Montana Fouts throwing lob balls to Justin Ross. Yeah. Go get it, buddy. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. The one place, though, that I think they deserve some credit with depth that they're not getting it is quarterback.

Yes. We never talk about quarterback depth. Everybody, all these returning starters and percentage of production returning and gone and this, this next guy. Think how quarterback depth has affected this league the last three, four years. Absolutely. And they got a guy, I'm not saying better. I'm not saying would start at 12 other schools.

But you can get by with him for a while if you needed to. Listen, people reached out to Garrett Nussmeyer. Yes. Who thought he could start for their school. And he's an interesting case. I mean, the son of Doug Nussmeier, who is with the Cowboys now, but was a longtime college assistant, was the coordinator at Alabama, Florida, Michigan. He's been through all of this.

Garrett's been moved around his entire life. They do have family in Louisiana. Family in Louisiana, family in Louisiana. And so he would be the type who would make a decision that maybe wouldn't match what the other type of guys would make in that same circumstance because he's lived a different circumstance than they have. And the different portion of that, I think, Andy, is in Florida, as a great example of this, last year, those coaches were terrified to run Anthony Richardson the way that they should have because of what was next.

And you didn't get all you could get out of him. Now, LSU and Mike Dinbrock might say, oh, no, we're going to let him go. Yeah. Because that's what's going to make us best. Yeah, Jaden Daniels can do what he wants. And if you get hurt, you feel confident that we'll be okay. Yeah. And that's the thing.

There aren't many teams. And I think that's more why Jimbo was mentioning Max Johnson, that he's there just in case. Because there are not a lot of places where they feel that confident in a couple of guys. Alabama last year. Yeah. A&M had him on the ropes mainly because the backup came in

and turned the ball over he gave it back to you so it's Bo Nix and Auburn kind of had it going a couple years ago he breaks his ankle and that's it he's not the same so there's just not many people that can survive that and it's something that's very understated about LSU going into this year well the other thing about LSU is is two stud offensive tackles yep who you have for two more seasons. Yeah, that's wild to think about. You and I were talking earlier. I can't remember two freshman tackles playing at the same time.

And being so effective, too. Not being liabilities. Yeah, I remember guys being in, but it was a problem when you were in. But now you have a second-year tight end. I think the running back thing can be just fine by committee. I love the kid they got from Notre Dame, actually. He is hard-nosed. Oh, Diggs is fantastic. He is downhill.

Like, he will smash you. Yeah, go watch the Gator Bowl. He takes a little flair and just goes. And South Carolina couldn't do anything to stop him. So Josh Williams kind of a, you know, I mean, he's a little bit more of a try-hard guy. Noah Kane, great in pass protection. They don't really have – if they can keep Armani healthy,

he can take the top off and he can be that home run hitter but with that receiving core do you do you need a home run hitter at tailback I'm not sure you not really and that's the thing so let me ask you this because Kelly has mentioned this multiple times this offseason where he felt like their depth caught up to them against Texas A&M and obviously Georgia showed the difference between a team that is actually built for a national title and one that's working its way there. Let's say they do win the West. If they run into Georgia again, are they deep enough at the end of a season to hang with a team like that?

Probably not, just based on the fact that they were hit by injuries pretty hard last year. So let's look at it. Here's the problem with LSU in depth it's very different from Alabama where Alabama collectively at running back collectively at receiver collectively at tight end they're gonna be really good you take Harold Perkins off the field and how much does that change you I mean yes Wingo's great but if you take either Wingo or Mason Smith off the field I think you're very different right uh and yeah your receivers are great but I think if you take either Wingo or Mason Smith off the field, I think you're very different. Right. And, yeah, your receivers are great, but I think if you take Malik Nabors off the field, you change drastically. So that might be the reason that I would say are they built for it?

Probably not. But if they're all systems go. Yeah. How special is Harold Perkins? He's big time. He's legit. I've talked to Matt House this offseason. He's like, yeah, we're spending a lot of time with him off the ball.

And I'm just like, why? Just let him go get it. I mean, it's like I remember when Paul Malo was at Pittsburgh. I grew up a Steelers fan. I was thinking to myself, I would design a 10-man defense and just say, have at it, kid. Yeah. Like, literally see ball, get ball.

We don't care what you like. If you think it's right, blitz the A-gap. You want to play off and play coverage? Have at it, kid. Yeah. Like, literally see ball, get ball. We don't care what you – if you think it's right, blitz the A gap. You want to play off and play coverage? Have at it. I would love for Perkins to be a bigger version of what they let Tyran Matthew be in 2011. Same principle. I mean, there are not many guys that have – and you know this as well as anybody. To come up to the line of scrimmage and rush the passer at this level,

that doesn't just happen. Right. The flexibility, the twitch, the hand movement. All these guys are doing Mortal Kombat in the offseason now. They all know how to do hand-to-hand stuff. To be able to not just withstand it but thrive the way he did, it was wild to see, man. I don't think off the ball is in his future in the NFL.

I really don't. No, because it's a value proposition at that point what is the most valuable player in the nfl the quarterback what's the next most valuable the guy who sacks the quarterback it's it's not complicated that's why von miller like 36 got 108 million dollars or whatever it was like you can get there twice a game you're worth every penny. It is incredible. So, Colt, in the last few weeks, we've become weight loss buddies. I'm happy to be your support group telling you how many calories are in peanut butter, which is a shocking amount, by the way, for those who count the calories. It is an area that I have long took full advantage of and probably abused. Oh, peanut butter is healthy, but it's really not.

So how many are we down right now? Since I started this, we're down 11. Nice. But this is different. We're going slow. Like, I could have lost 11 in a weekend, you know, five or eight years ago. But this feels sustainable. It feels gradual.

I thought you put it best. We were talking, like, you're going to do this the rest of your life. I think I might be there as well. Right. And I haven't had a cheat meal yet. So I'm kind of anxious to see how that changes. It is. You start questioning things.

I can imagine. Do I really care that much if I can lose this weight? I can imagine. Here's the rule. You can cheat. But tomorrow, back on it. Well, here's the other thing I love that you told me. you cheat you still put it in that's right because you need to disgust yourself by seeing 13 000 calories for dinner or whatever it's like no put it in there so you know good and well

just how much damage you did we went on a cruise in the spring and there was a day that i entered 11 000 calories in the calorie counting app. I do not doubt it at all. At all. You've got to just be honest with yourself, but it does gross you out enough to be like, okay, I can get back to this. Yeah, so by the way, we've been to media days in Birmingham. We've been there in Atlanta.

Yep. We've not been to a media day where they're just handing out liquor. I didn't know you could do that. I didn't know you could just walk through a hotel ballroom and just hand out moonshine. But apparently that's a thing here. I'm not up on all the liquor laws in the state of Tennessee.

But we got some sour watermelon moonshine and some mango habanero whiskey. You ready? You want to give it a try? I'm not going to try it. No? I'm going to watch you try it. All right.

We're going watermelon moonshine. It smells good. Okay. Smell and taste are two totally different things. Oh, that's dangerous. It tastes too good. It tastes too good. It's too good.

I can see that. It is. Because it's, like, you think it's going to be, the smell or it's going to be gasoline-y, but it goes down a little too smooth. So, yeah, this could be bad. So I'm going to leave it with that one sip. I've got mine. I'll bring it over and give you mine too.

No, no, no, no. That's the problem is they might all get consumed. And, you know, we're going to get done with the show. There is another show tomorrow. So we can't though we can't just have one show and that'd be it like i this is a long relationship i'm gonna have with on three probably can't start it by not being able to do show number two cole kubelik thank you so much absolutely i appreciate you having me we're right back with jesse and his sec predictions that

are probably gonna tick you off. I'm going to make sure to needle him as much as humanly possible, so you don't have to get on him, but if you're a Mississippi State fan, you're going to want to. Back here at SEC Media Days, Jesse, we've got to talk about your SEC predictions. Came out at on three on Monday. Listen, there's a reason why I forget conveniently to write down all my picks.

I was forced into a video last week where I did say who I thought would win the West and the East. I said Alabama in the West. I said Georgia in the East. I think I said A&M third in the West, too, because that little block underneath Alabama and LSU is going to be a tricky one. But you went one through seven. You're just dying to piss people off. They asked me to do the same thing, but for me they said, Andy can just, you know, he's the big timer.

He can get away with just the 1-1. We want 1-7. So let's knock it out. Okay, so here we'll start with the West. I think that most of the assembled people here are going to agree with you and say that LSU wins the West. I do not think it's going to be a majority, but I think I agree. I think LSU is going to be the pick.

There's a lot of reasons to bet on Alabama. Yeah. Even though I'm picking LSU, Alabama is loaded. Nick Saban is just coming off his best recruiting class of all time. No, no, no. The 2008 recruiting class is the best recruiting class of all time. Okay. Period.

The end. End of story. Until somebody. That did start the dynasty. Right, right. That did start the dynasty. But from a historical rankings. Right.

What Alabama just did has been unprecedented. And yet, when I'm banking on their wide receiver room taking a lead their offensive line taking a lead what are we know LSU is awesome at wide receiver Lacey Thomas they got a great tight end offensive line they bring back all five guys Campbell could be an all-american this year Emery Jones might be too yeah so when I'm banking on just projections with Alabama, I think there's just more known quantities with LSU. If I'm giving you the flip side of the coin,

the fact that this game's in Tuscaloosa, I mean, that's obviously a big advantage for the Tide. But I'm going with Brian Kelly. Again, I'm bucking history here. Alabama hasn't failed to make back-to-back SEC championships since 2010 and 2011. That's crazy. What Saban's done is just unprecedented.

Yeah. The LSU thing, how much of it is that their quarterback situation is settled and Alabama's is not? Well, I think that's the coin flip. Yeah. That's when if you're given a 51-49 percentage here, Jayden Daniels beat him a year ago. Can he do it again?

I think he can. Now, he was inconsistent. LSU was quite fortunate to beat Arkansas. They shouldn't have beat Arkansas last year. Harold Perkins single-handedly won them that game. That's exactly right. And then when you're talking about their no-show against Texas A&M, it's not like this is some flawless team.

That's the thing. Listening to Brian Kelly talk about that because he was asked, I think it was Blake Totmeyer from USA Today asked him earlier this year, when do you feel like you'll be ready to compete for a national title? And Kelly, usually coaches don't answer a question like that, but Kelly actually said he felt like they're one recruiting class away, one more recruiting class. Does not like that they've had to take as much out of the portal

and said that A&M game was an example of why their depth is not where it should be. And I think the Georgia game was too. So that's where – It's a concern too. If I'm going to cast some aspersions at my own pick here and we're having a little fun, I mean, the fact that LSU, DBU, it's all in Florida or LSU, which one's DBU? They're having to –

In the portal. Do the whole secondary in the portal for the second straight year. I mean, that's just – they return Major Burns at safety, but otherwise, I mean, they're pretty much bringing in all these transfer corners. We have to – we're contractually bound to say the unfortunately named Major Burns at safety. But otherwise, I mean, they're pretty much bringing in all these transfer corners. We're contractually bound to say the unfortunately named Major Burns. Yes. That's not a DB name. No, no.

That's a receiver name. It's not a DB name. He burned out at Georgia, and now he's back home in New Orleans and Louisiana. Well, so let's talk about the West below those two because I think those five, A&M, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Auburn, Mississippi State, you had to put them in some order. And really, this is a team. You've got to have mercy on your soul if you ever go to Starkville.

It is, yeah, and they're not happy. Don't look at your Twitter mentions from Mississippi State fans. They ring that cowbell quite loudly right at you there. I mean, to me, hey, first off, somebody's got to finish last, right? Right. Somebody's got to be last. I do think this is kind of a pick-your-favorite flavor of ice cream in the SEC West.

You can, from Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Auburn, Arkansas to A&M, I think you can make a case for all five of those programs finishing somewhere third through seventh. The games with each other all feel like coin flips. Right. One of those teams from a talent standpoint is different than the others, and that's Texas A&M. And the upside.

Because you look at Texas A&M and you said if they had to go toe-to-toe with Alabama, with LSU, with Georgia, or say you had to give Ohio State a game tomorrow and you had to pick from those five, you'd pick A&M because they have the most top-end talent. But they also have a history of not being able to win the games they're supposed to win. Right. I mean, this is a team that went 2-6 a year ago in one-score games, and that's because they're constantly playing offense with one hand cuffed behind their back.

Now, we'll see what happens with Jimbo and Bobby Petrino. Does that change? Connor Wegman, does he make a leap in year two? I think the most fascinating team, we'll talk about them later this week, obviously, Ole Miss. I think you can make a strong case that Ole Miss is going to be better than they were a year ago, but maybe not record-wise because their schedule is daunting. It's tough in the first month, and then you have to play Georgia. Hugh Freeze at Auburn is a wild card too.

Go back to Hugh Freeze getting to Ole Miss. Now, that first year at Ole Miss where he's taken over for Houston Nut, they didn't have a ton of talent, but he scared some people. And then they started getting the talent, and they started beating some people. And if Jarquez Hunter is available, the offensive line's been completely remade there. I think the floor has been raised on the Plains. If Peyton Thorne can at least give them something, you know, just at least a passing game with a pulse.

Robbie Ashford, God bless him, is a hell of an athlete, but he just hasn't shown it yet with the arm. I think Auburn definitely could scare some folks. So let's move to the East, because I think most people are just locking in Tennessee as number two behind. And you want to push back on that. I do want to push back on that a little bit because I need to see it. This is like they lost a first-round tackle in Darnell Wright.

They lost Tendon Hooker, who was the secret sauce at quarterback. Best pass rusher. Right. Jeremy Banks also had a ton of we all know that i am i got on the joe milton hype train hardcore during the orange bowl i said you will have to physically restrain me from the joe milton for heisman bandwagon but we've seen that orange bowl but we've also seen the pit game when he was the starter in 2021. I'll give you one better. How about Michigan?

I'll give you one better. How about the week before the Orange game? Tennessee won that game by a bajillion points because they ran for 5,000 yards. Joe Milton still only completed like half his passes and had a couple of those. Oh, Joe Milton's got the rocket launcher going, but it turns into a potato launcher and it goes 30 yards too far to the left. Yeah, so this is why if they take even a slight step back, I think Kentucky's taking a step up.

They bring back Liam Cohen. O-line's got to be better. It does have to be better, but it was pretty good. Now, I think you can probably argue that since John Schlarman died, I mean, because he was a great offensive line coach. And Yenzer, for those who don't know, has kind of been like the heir apparent. Schlarman passed away sadly from cancer. I think the narrative coming out of Lexington seems to be

they had guys in the wrong place a year ago. So a guy was playing tackle, should have been at guard. They got Cox back at center. So I think you and I are very high on Devin Leary. Yeah, and Devin Leary was, I mean, NC State was mounting a Heisman campaign for this guy this time last year. 35-5 two years ago. Yeah, he's a very good quarterback.

He has NFL tools. So I like him. You've got South Carolina that beat Tennessee and Clemson at the end of last season. They did lose some to the portal. Offensive tackle. It's tough. When you're already thin at offensive line.

Look, I like Shane Beamer a lot. But when you're already thin at offensive line and then you lose your left tackle in the spring game, that's just a tough hit. I don't think they were that upset about losing Jaheim Bell to Florida State. No, let me get Trey Knox. Yeah. Marshawn Lloyd to USC, I think he's going to be pretty good there. Yeah.

But, you know, they can be someone that makes noise in that division. And, you know, it just depends on what version of them you get because last year, think about that, there's one week between them going to Gainesville and getting annihilated by a team that was about to lose to Vandy. Getting mollywhopped. And then destroying Tennessee the following week. And then beating Clemson.

Yeah, so I really don't know how to read them. Florida, Billy Napier seems pretty quietly confident in this team. It's interesting because they lost a top five picket quarterback. They bring in Graham Mertz from Wisconsin, who was not a great quarterback at Wisconsin. But I do think they've upgraded on the D-line. We'll find out about the offensive line. They lost Michael Tarquin and Ethan White, who were starters,

who they thought were going to come back as starters. Only Tarquin wound up at USC like they were both supposed to. And White had some sort of medical issue. Yeah, so, I mean, we'll see what happens with them. Austin Barber, I think, is going to be very good for them on the offensive line. But then how do the rest of the – because you've got some transfers that need to slot in there. The schedule's brutal.

We don't know if we're going to see him ready for the season. I mean, I think they seem to love the two defensive linemen they got in, Cam Jackson from Memphis. And Kayla Banks from Louisville. Yeah, I think they seem to really think that'll be an upgrade there. I think they also think they just have better coaching on the defensive side of the football this year. Not that, you know, several guys ended up moving on to the NFL

from the staff, from Napier's staff a year ago, but they love kind of the enthusiasm and aggressiveness that Austin Armstrong's going to bring. It's going to be a schedule thing with Florida. I do think that they're going to find a way to go bowling. Vegas has them listed at 5-7. You and I have been around this

program a long time. That is absurd to see a Florida. 6-6 or 7-5 feels pretty realistic. No, that feels realistic, but I'm saying to see a preseason win total south of a bowl game for the Florida Gators, the mighty Gators, that's not something that we're accustomed to. I just can't assume yet that Tennessee is going to roll into Gainesville and beat them. I'm not there yet just can't assume yet that Tennessee is going to roll into Gainesville and beat them. I'm not there yet.

It's sort of like last year when – They haven't in like 20 years. And then it was like, okay, they're great. And then Kentucky comes in. We just don't know where a lot of these teams are at the beginning of the season. And so – and that can change the tone of everything very quickly. Absolutely. If Tennessee comes in and rolls in that game,

it's going to be sky-high expectations again in Knoxville, and it's going to be just the pits in Gainesville. But if Florida somehow wins that game, it turns around the tone of the whole Billy Napier experience. Oh, for sure. And don't you think there should be pressure on Highpool and Tennessee to win that game? Yes, absolutely.

I mean, that's a game that if you haven't won in 20 years and you are now seen as the ascendant program, you have to take care of business. I know it's on the road and in the swamp, and there's a lot of mystique that comes with that, but you've got to win that game. I think the most pressure in the East is on Tennessee. I think if you're Kentucky, if you're South Carolina,

if you're Florida, if you're Missouri. I mean, Vandy won five games and beat Kentucky and Florida last year. Like, Clark Lee's doing a good job there. I think the East beneath Georgia is much more packed together than people realize. And Tennessee has to prove they can separate. Well, couldn't you argue that really it's almost the entire SEC

after one, two, and 3? However you want to order Georgia, Alabama, LSU, that then the rest of the pack is much closer. With Tennessee and Texas A&M potentially capable of separating. But we don't know that. We don't know that. I mean, they literally could have a – the teams basically four through the rest could have almost a Big 12 type feel.

Yeah. Any given Saturday, one of those teams would be knocking off somebody else. Which means it's going to be – there will be some incredible emotional swings in September and October. Yeah, emotional swings. And what does that mean for a team like Texas A&M if they don't live up to expectations again? What does that mean for a coach like Eli Drinkwitz in Missouri?

Check the price of oil for Texas A&M. That's what I said, Thanksgiving. Check the price of oil at Thanksgiving. They're crazy enough in College Station that if Jimbo is 6-6 or 7-5, again, if the price of oil come holiday season is good enough, those Barons will find a way

to come up with $75 million. And at the same time, if Jimbo Fisher can win 10 games for the first time there, they may give him another fake national championship like they did when he first got there. Well, and the Missouri thing is interesting too because I think you're right that there is pressure on Eli Drinkwitz even though he got that extension.

That extension was not universally beloved in Columbia, Missouri. He's still under pressure to be better this year. They're not. It's still early. Let's better this year. They're not. It's still early. Let's preface it that it is early. They are not recruiting like they probably should be. St. Louis is a hotbed.

NIL in that state is supposed to be a strength. The Missouri law is made to help them. It's supposed to be a strength. So the fact that I think they're last right now in the SEC, according to the on three rankings, that's a concern. Again, it's early. Not putting too much emphasis on that yet. A couple good weeks here and everything. The dynamics could change.

But Missouri's early season schedule is pretty fascinating, too. Kansas State comes to Missouri. Not a team I want to play. That's an old-ass offensive line coming off a Big 12 title. And I really like Treshawn Ward from Florida State. I think he's going to be a good running back. Kansas State might repeat in the Big 12 this year. Let's throw that out there.

We'll have some good debates about the Big 12. There's a legitimate chance that K-State repeats as Big 12 champ, and they are good up front. So you don't want to see them early. I agree. And then they've got a weird game, Memphis in St. Louis, so fascinating to see the Tigers. Well, email Jesse.

Tweet at Jesse. There you go. He's the one who hates your team, not me. Jesse. More cowbell. When we come back, we'll be joined by Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz. We are joined now by Eli Drinkwitz, author of one of my favorite quotes that I tell my kids very, very often.

That's right. If one reaps jackass, or one sows jackass, they reap jackass. And it is great parental advice. I'm telling you. Yeah, it's more of a biblical aspect, you reap what you sow, but you can kind of add whatever you want in there. Yeah, I've had a few viral moments in my career, and the whole point of today was to try to keep it down the fairway,

so I'm going to stick with that. But the thing is, you're good at those. Yeah, I am. But, you know, for us this year, this team, you know, keep it down the fairway so i'm gonna but the thing is you're good at those yeah i am uh but you know for us this year uh this team you know we have so many positive things on our football team and what we're trying to accomplish and there's so many great players i really don't want to be a distraction from them um and i really want to focus on those guys specifically down here in sec this is what happens when a coach knows he's got a good defense. Like, you're an offensive guy.

And when you know you've got a good offense, you come in, but you're not quite sure about your defense. You're like, ah, I can let it look. Now you're like, listen, I know nobody's going to be able to score on us. No, when you're not calling plays, you're not a Terrigan anymore, right? So that's probably more of it. You know, I'm not calling the plays anymore. But, no, we've got a really good defense. I'm very excited about Coach Baker obviously coming back.

He did an outstanding job. And we return all of our defensive staff. I think that's something that's very critical, that you have alignment. And so those guys are in year two working together. Obviously, we've got some really good players coming back. We return our top five interior D linemen. We return our top two linebackers. Both have over a career hundred tackles.

Top two corners. Top two corners. Top two safeties. We got a transfer safety from both Florida State and from Florida. And we got a guy who started half the games at the star position. So incredible depth, which I think more than anything is going to allow us to be much improved on special teams so that we can really make sure our guys, our best players are playing in those coverage units too, which caused a few issues for us last year.

Well, you could see that defense as the season went on last year getting better. How sure were you that you were going to be able to get as many people back between the draft and the portal? Yeah, I wasn't at all. You know, this new day and age of college football, the first thing you have to do is retain your roster, right? Roster retention is number one, then it's signees, then it's junior college and transfer portal. And you kind of attack each one at a time. And, you know, we had a lot of guys that had mid-round to late-round draft grades, and so having to decide, you know, were they going to come back? Were they believing in the culture that we have? Were they believing

in their player development? Did they think this was a place that they could improve, have an opportunity to win, and still chase their dream of playing in the NFL? And for those guys to choose that, I think, was a great sign for our program, what we're trying to do. Well, that's like Chris Abrams' drain, your corner. When you have a guy like that come and say, Coach, I'm coming back, does that feel like signing a great recruit? Yeah. Well, I tell you what, it wasn't quite as easy as that.

It was more like, Coach, I've got two other SEC schools trying to get me, and I've got to decide on the NFL. Well, that's what happens when you play that well. But, no, you know, KAD is a great young man. You know, he came to our program. I kid him all the time. He was once committed to every SEC school throughout his recruiting process. But he played wide receiver for us and then transitioned over to defense

and has had an outstanding career. But the thing about Chris is he's just such a great teammate, such a great competitor. He's a great father. His son, Kylan, is actually moving up with him at the end of the month. And so very proud of who he's become and what he's become. And now I look forward to him having a great year. But the thing that makes him so unique is that he's got a partner across the

field in Ennis Raekstra, who my first viral moment in college football was Ennis. And I'm so proud that that's a guy that's going into his fourth year. He's weighing 193 pounds. He's a 4.0 student, but he's an excellent competitor and corner. And so those two guys together have a chance to be really, really special. So you mentioned earlier not calling plays. So you, mentor, Gus Malzahn, also not calling plays. You hired Kirby Moore from Fresno state for folks that don't know he played receiver at Boise state, his brothers, Kellen Moore. How hard was that decision for you? Cause that has been part of

your coaching DNA. You know, we have a sign in our team room that says, embrace your role, put the team first. And it was hard for me not to look at that sign and think I was a hypocrite if I wasn't willing to embrace my role as a head coach, put the team first, knowing that we were so ineffective last year offensively, and it was predominantly my fault. And so I felt like I needed to do what was best for our team and find a way, what could I do to help us improve?

You know, with the ever landscape of changing college football and the more responsibilities, whether it's, you know, lobbying Congress for NIL or fundraising for NIL or recruiting, booster recruiting, ticket sales, all that stuff was on your plate. That wasn't going anywhere. So it felt like, hey, let's make a change, and let's go get the best that we can for us and match our philosophy. And, you know, I think the best thing about Kirby is low ego, high output.

He's still going to allow me to have my say in conversations, but it's going to be his offense. So, wait, when you were lifeguard by day, volunteering at Springdale High School in Arkansas, did you ever think you'd have to be going to the statehouse to deal with rules regarding college football? I know nobody will believe this, but I was a boys' state when I was in high school. Oh, I was a boys' state in Florida.

But, no, I never really thought that would be part of it. But I thought maybe I'd get to go. You know, 2010, we won the national championship. You get to go to the White House. I was hoping and hopeful that maybe I'll get to go do that someday, but not necessarily to change state laws. But it is what it is. And, you know, I love the game of college football.

I think it provides an unbelievable opportunity for our student athletes, but also our coaches, our coaches' families, and even the fans. And I want to preserve that in the best way possible. And if that's coaches using their platform to fight for that, then I'm all for it. So when you get to the season, what's going to be the bigger pull? It's game day, and I don't have a play sheet in my hand or it's monday through thursday and i'm not working on a script i'm gonna have a play sheet in my hand i mean that's for dang sure uh no i mean i plan on being involved in uh the offensive side of of things uh

as well as the defensive side of the ball too i mean, I have a general awareness of everything that's going on. Added, you know, Blake Baker and I are both going to be in charge of the kickoff units this year, just to add more emphasis there. So I'm sure I'll find something to keep myself busy. I think you'll be busy. Well, Coach, we appreciate it. Can you get the shoe up on the table? We've got to see this.

Yeah, so got some gold Jordans. Oh, yeah. Awkward angle this. Got some gold Jordans. Awkward angle here. Jordan 1s. Just wanted to break out something new this year. Very nice. Black and gold. Thought it would be appropriate. You've got to have a little flash. Especially if you're not going viral.

Yeah, you've got to try to create a little swag for you. Appreciate it, Coach. I appreciate you. Big thank you to Missouri Head Coach Eli Drinkwitz for joining us. When we come back, Jesse and I are going to talk about a story that has dominated the headlines in the state of Georgia for the last month. It's come to a head with Georgia asking the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to retract a story.

Even more came out over the weekend. It's one of those things that I've been waiting for the show to have a chance to have a nuanced conversation about. We now have that chance. Jess and I will be back to talk about Georgia versus the AJC. We'll be right back. Back at SEC Media Days in Georgia, headed to Nashville on Tuesday. Jesse, I think there's going to be a lot of questions about off-the-field stuff.

This has been a very eventful offseason for Georgia. You have the crash that killed a player in recruiting Stafford. Jalen Carter was charged in that. But then you have a series of stories by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about that first and then about other things that has become kind of the biggest story around this program. You've got basically a story that accused Georgia of rallying whenever their players are accused of sexual misconduct.

And they built the story around the case of Jamal Jarrett, who's a freshman defensive lineman at Georgia now, about what happened on his recruiting visit. And it's very salacious, lots of details from the police report, from the interviews with the police. But Georgia's called into question. They've asked for a retractionraction and news comes out on Sunday. It's not really news, I guess, because it's pretty old, but Alan Judd,

the reporter who wrote that story had to resign from the Louisville Courier Journal in 1988 over issues with a series of stories that he did on, on high school football in Louisville. The entire situation I think think, just is fascinating because this is a program looking to three-peat, something that hasn't happened since the 1930s, and yet every storyline around Kirby Smart in Georgia right now seems to be about something off the field,

whether it is perpetual speeding issues or now this very larger picture, which I think comes with a lot of nuance, we agree, because this is a very complicated story. What the AJC did has some issues, and then the fact that Georgia so aggressively responded in a rebuttal, nine-page basically. You don't see that very often. Saying damaging, unsupported narrative, narrative you know and then basically what was

fascinating about all this georgia actually did the report for the ajc the ajc listed 11 may or listed 11 allegations yet only actually well they didn't list them they said there were 11 there was 11 named two yeah one of whom was adam Anderson, who was immediately suspended and kicked off the team. So then the fact that Georgia actually did the investigation for them, again, you just don't normally see that. It's very strange. And people have been asking, why haven't you talked about this yet? A lot of this happened while I was between jobs. And then I wanted to wait until we had a show because we needed to have a nuanced conversation about this

because this is not something you can do in a hot take video and say this story is right, wrong, George is right, wrong. There's a lot of gray here. Now, no one is denying the traffic stuff, which Alan Judd also wrote about. Right, and you can. I mean, you've got a bunch of guys driving fast cars, clearly getting caught speeding.

And it's something that needs to stop. But Georgia has responded very aggressively to the other part. And it's interesting because I remember reading that original AJC story, and it was obviously very salacious. Purposefully written. You read the details in there, and you think, okay, this looks really bad. Jake Rowe, who works for Dogs HQ, which is the On 3 Georgia site, a few days later published all of the details that are in that police report.

And notably, there was no added context. He literally just published the police report. And it was... There was zero bias or anything involved in that. You come out with a very different impression of what happened based on reading the police report than you do based on reading that story. And you've written stories about stuff like this. I've written stories about stuff like this. I've

written stories about stuff like this. Like I go back to the Jameis Winston case. I covered that for SI. And before they released the police reports and the investigative reports, things came out in drips and drabs that were leaked by various people with agendas and both sides. And there wasn't really a complete picture of what happened and that bothered me a lot writing about that stuff because it felt like you didn't have the whole picture and so i remember the night that they gave us all the information they gave it to everybody on a flash drive and so much stuff i remember sitting there in tallallahassee, just pouring over all these things, like, how do I get all this in a story? But I did my best to get all of it into the story so that you could read as much as you could and form your own opinion of what you thought happened. Because

it was, that was very great. It was very, he said, she said, and I just don't think and it's hard because, you know, we don't usually go at other reporters very often. But in this particular case, I read the police report and thought, how in the world did you read that? And those are all the details you chose. And that's why, again, the gray area that you're talking about here, we repeat, Georgia clearly does have one particular off-field issue with the speeding. Right. And Kirby Smart says that's a problem. Kirby Smart has acknowledged this much. It's something that, again, the tragedy that happened the night of

the national championship celebration was one of many instances since January. But that can be an independent issue and then not somehow marry it with something that does not seem to be supported with enough other evidence. And I think that's what... Well, and the 11 cases thing, put it in the paper what the 11 cases are and let the reader decide.

Right. You and I covered the urban meyer teams at florida we had to do a lot of lists of cases of court cases and incident reports and that sort of thing because if you're going to write about that stuff you have to say here's what happened right and that's because you're burning your own credibility and legitimacy if you are absconding from just pure facts and instead inserting some sort of opinion in a piece that's supposed to be— It's not cast as opinion, but your choice of detail or your omission of certain details is an opinion in and of itself.

And it's tricky when you're writing stuff like that because it's tricky to figure out what to leave in, what to keep out but in this case if the story is going to paint someone as a rapist or like you have a responsibility or a program having a you know a perpetual problem you have a responsibility to the human beings in the story, the accuser and the accused, to treat them fairly. And that's the part that when I read the police report, I was like, okay, this feels very different. And then this news comes out. Again, not news because it's been around. It's been sitting there on Google for somebody to find.

And I believe it was Senator Blutarski, the Georgia blogger. Look, Senator Blutarski has been tough on me over the years. And I believe it was Senator Blutarski, the Georgia blogger. The famed Georgia blogger, yeah. Look, Senator Blutarski's been tough on me over the years, and I get it. But he's pretty thorough. And I thought that was interesting, finding that nugget. Now, Jason Butt, who works for Rivals, he covers Georgia for Rivals, reached out to Alan Judd for comment. This was another part that mystified me. Alan Judd sent him an email

and said this is off the record and then went on to say you know don't you know how dare you bring up someone's darkest period and uh this doesn't erase all of the good things that i've done in the the investigation because he's done a lot of investigative work he's nominated part of a team nominated for a pulitzer prize uh not a sports investigative reporter generally he's done a lot of investigative work. He was part of a team nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Not a sports investigative reporter generally. He's an investigative reporter, done a bunch of different things. This is unprecedented, by the way. The story that Andy is unfolding here does not happen in journalism circles,

much less someone that's been in the field for 30 or 40 years. Here's the crazy part. So Jason Butt publishes this entire email because here's how off the record and on the record works. It's a two-way street. The source and the reporter have to agree to it. If you leave a voicemail with a reporter or you send an email to a reporter and you don't have a communication about what is on or off the record before you divulge any information communication about what is on or off the record before you

divulge any information it's all on the record unless the reporter makes an agreement with you later like you can't michael scott declare bankruptcy right by yourself exactly so what's crazy about this is and i when i've dealt with people who are not you know not in our business i try to explain it very clearly explain the rules of engagement very clearly because i don't When I've dealt with people who are not in our business, I try to explain it very clearly. Explain the rules of engagement very clearly because I don't want people to think I'm doing a gotcha. I don't want people to think I'm trying to trick them into saying something. And so I will always tell them,

this can be on the record or off the record. If you say it's on the record, don't go back and tell me it's off the record. Right. So decide now what you want to tell me and what you don't or what you want to attach your name to and what you don't. The fact that a reporter didn't seem to understand the rules of on the record and off the record.

One who has worked in investigative journalism for 30 years. Right. I would never send another reporter an email with information that I did not want attributed to me without first contacting that person and figuring out what the rules of engagement were. I've never seen something like it. And I think, again, I think this is just going to be the first of many shoes to drop in this case. I think something else is going to—eventually the AJC will respond in some sort of manner. The AJC is going to have to go back and look at all his work through the years

because, and they're going to have to go back and look at the hiring process. And they're going to have, they're going to respond in some way. And I think tomorrow Kirby smart is going to, the fact that we, that they, that Georgia had this nine page investigation of their own. And so, you know, aggressively came out against the AJC's report. I think Kirby is going to take the podium tomorrow and continue to kind of double down on that. Yeah, we got a problem with speeding.

The need for speed stuff's got to stop. But this notion that, you know, we're Baylor 2.0 has somehow jumped the shark. Yeah, I think he will be aggressive about that. And he has to be. That's not something you want attached to your program. But in this case it's they have ammunition because in 1988 the courier journal had to publish a front page apology basically and and the if you read the story there was there were questions about the reporting uh alan judd was asked to bring in tapes

of his interviews he brought in tapes and there was nothing but muddled sound white noise or muddled sound in the parts where the interviews were supposed to be it's a very strange situation I've never heard of anything like this

no and you're far more experienced than I am in this field. But that is journalism 101 in terms of off the record, on the record. And, you know, it's baffling the way this has all kind of unfolded from the very first story that Alan Judd wrote to now this last big investigative punch. Not going to be the final shoe to drop.

There's going to be more conversations to be had about this. There will be more, and I imagine a lot of it will be when Kirby Smart is at the podium on Tuesday, so we'll see what he says. This is a segment we like to call the Extra Point, and you're going to get one of these every day at the end of the show. Sometimes it's going to be about the hottest topic in college football. Sometimes it's going to be about the hottest topic in college football. Sometimes it's going to be about the funniest topic in college football. But it'll be a way to end the show with something dramatic or something hilarious.

But today, I want to talk about the show itself. First of all, I want to thank you for being here. I am so grateful to everybody who's come over from the old show and to everybody who stayed and watched this new creation that we have here at On3. This is going to be an absolute blast. This is the best sport in America. I'm at a place where they do nothing but cover college football. I'm surrounded by like-minded people.

I cannot wait to show you what we can do here. If you like the old show, I guarantee you this one's gonna be as good or better. You're gonna have a lot of fun. We're gonna make sure that you can get it however you want it. It's live on the YouTube On3 channel and we didn't go live today. We're on location. There are, there will be days when we are live. You can interact with the show. You can make fun of me during the show. Trust me, I like talking to you guys on the show. I want to hear from you guys. We're going to be going live after games on Saturdays. Yes, we're still going to have a reaction podcast that you can wake up to on Sunday morning, but when we're in the moment, when it's fresh, when your team has just fumbled away the game or has won a thriller,

you can come on and gloat. You can come on and sulk. We'll be there for you. And just every day, we're going to give you something to talk about in the world of college football. We're going to laugh. We're going to do a little thinking. We've had fun, and we were serious today. And we're going to have days like that where we mix them up but the goal is to have fun as much as humanly possible

because this is the most fun sport in america and really in the world think about how many other sports have a live buffalo running down the field oh that's actually a bison where do they play neck after wins they don't do that in soccer they do that in college football this is a sport unlike any other it draws crowds of over a hundred thousand games millions more watching on TV. Every weekend feels like a college reunion. It makes people cry, makes people laugh, sometimes at the same time. So let's all enjoy it together. We're gonna be here every day and I hope you join us.