Andy & Ari On3 - LSU’s next STAR? Jabari Mack’s INSANE one-handed catch at spring practice

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

While LSU has been a hot topic this offseason, the coaches have been taking up all of the spotlight in Baton Rouge. As spring practice is underway in Lane Kiffin’s first season, Jabari Mack is a name to keep an eye out for. Making an unbelievable grab in practice, the highly rated receiver is already turning some eyes on campus. Is this LSU’s next star at wide receiver? Watch here as Andy & Ari break down this unreal highlight from LSU Tigers spring practice.   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (0:34) Presenting Sponsor (2:00) Intro: LSU - Jabari Mack’s insane catch (12:37) Lane Kiffin & Patience in Baton Rouge (29:50) Culver’s (30:50) USC Defense in 2026 (39:09) Grass greener: USC vs Oregon (40:53) Devin Sanchez locking up Jeremiah Smith at Ohio State practice? (47:44) Olivier Rioux to the transfer portal (55:58) Florida’s Stadium Debate (1:10:24) Conclusion: See you tomorrow!   Staying in Baton Rouge, Andy & Ari revisit a quote from Lane Kiffin last week. What’s the take on patience in Baton Rouge with the first year head coach? Andy & Ari discuss in detail the expectations for the LSU Tigers while incorporating Will Wade’s remarks.   As the fellas continue to over-analyze viral spring football moments, Andy & Ari head to Columbus, Ohio, where the Buckeyes may not be able to stack talent like they used to, but the talent starting for Ohio State is still just as good. Watch as Andy & Ari react to Devin Sanchez locking down Jeremiah Smith at practice.   Moving to basketball news, Florida’s 7-foot-9 center Olivier Rioux is planning to enter the transfer portal. Andy & Ari react to this news and ask questions on who the tallest guy they've interacted with.   Closing out, Andy received an email from his alma mater on stadium renovations for the University of Florida. Watch here as Andy & Ari breakdown what fans really want in a stadium in this modern era of college football.   Read Andy’s story here: https://www.on3.com/news/florida-stadium-debate-spend-on-the-swamp-or-spend-on-the-roster-ben-hill-griffin/   Thanks for watching! Be sure to join us tomorrow for Megaboard Wednesday! 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. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. 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!   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's Andy Nareon 3 presented by BetMGM, we overanalyze more spring practice footage. And there is a catch from a freshman at LSU that will blow your mind. We'll compare that to Lane Kiffin's call for patience because I don't think one's going to help the other. But that's okay because I am going to completely overreact to this video. Plus video to overreact from Ohio State and USC. We'll talk about all that. And more on Andy and Orion 3 presented by BetmGM. We are sponsored by BetMGM home of the Pick a Twin to Win free to play game.

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you will win a share of $2 million in bonus bets. Now, lots of different ways to make it legendary this week at BedMGM. See BetMGM.com for terms. 21 plus only U.S. promotional offers are not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler in the U.S. Call 8778 Hope N.Y or text Hope N.Y. 467369 in New York.

Call 1-800 next step in Arizona. Call 1-800-3-27-50-50 in Massachusetts. It's called 1-800 bets off in Iowa or 1-800-981-0023 in Puerto Rico. First bet offer for new customers only, subject to eligibility requirements, rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to Annie and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. and Ari, it is, again, that time in spring practice where we take a

blow it completely out of proportion. Yeah, I mean, we're going into April here. This is what we have to do, right? Like, this is how we get our fix. It's not even getting my fix. I am ready to fall in love here. I'm ready to have my heartbroken. I'm ready for all of this.

I have a new favorite receiver. I've seen one catch, one rep, new favorite receipts. New favorite receiver. His name is Jabari Mack. He's a freshman at LSU, Destrahan High School. This catch from LSU's spring practice started making the rounds on Monday. And oh my God, this is, this is O'Dell Beckham, Jr. That would be like a cross between O'Dell Beckham Jr. and Andy Dalton.

But O'Dell Beckham Jr. type stuff. O'Dell Beckham Ginger would be a savage. He'd be pretty big in the car. market. I think that these types of things are often blown out of proportion, but we know it's not blown out of proportion, Andy. Being able to do that. Yes, but when a freshman shows up and automatically becomes the talk of a team, like that, that usually means something, especially at a place like LSU. It does, and it's the sort of thing you used to see a lot of LSU, and it's interesting because LSU has has recruited highly rated receivers in the past few years, the Brian Kelly era,

but they have not developed in the way that, say, Brian Thomas Jr. and Malik Neighbors did, or O'Dell Beckham Jr., or Jarvis Landry, or Justin Jefferson, or Jamar Chase, or any of these LSU receivers that we now see in the NFL just lighting it up. And they have not had that the last few years. And this is not some guy that Lane Kiff and Brian Kiff and Brian. brought in from the transfer portal. This was the number one receiver prospect in the state of Louisiana. Going to LSU, this is why you take that job.

So you get somebody like that. And I realize I am, again, blowing this completely out of proportion. This could be the best catch he ever makes in his life. I don't think it will be because we know he made some of those in high school too. But this is what gets you excited about what is to come for the this college football season and specifically for LSU. Yeah, I mean, like when you think about just the types of players that are just in the New Orleans area or in the state of Louisiana in general

that are basically already signed, sealed and delivered to LSU, regardless of who the coach is, like that is the selling point, right? Who's the most famous receiver that ever came out of the state of Mississippi? Jerry Rice. He's pretty good. He's okay, yeah. I was also in middle school and that happened. Jerry Rice, you were in middle school?

When he was in high school? When Jerry Rice was in high school? When was Jerry Rice in high school? You weren't alive yet. Okay. I may not have been alive yet. Jerry Rice was still playing when I was a kid. So I couldn't have been that.

I can't be that off. But, you know, Jerry Rice was born in 1962. He was in high school in the 70s. I was trying to make a joke. But of course, you actually knew the answer. to that and then turned it into a real conversation, which is what you do.

The point is that people like that don't often come out of Mississippi or at the same rate that they do in Louisiana. And if they do, it's not a guarantee that Ole Miss is going to get them. I think that that is the draw of the LSU job. And I just, I feel like you could just like look

at this kid's profile and just like look at his face and like just picture it as an NFL player already. Like I don't know what it is, but like he just like seems to have it. And I trust me, I am following Jay Sizzleby Ballin on Instagram right now. I'm bought in. This one catch has me completely bought in.

And this is what I do. And I know a lot of you out there like me, because you see one thing in spring practice from somebody as a freshman, and it cements how you feel about them forever. For instance. For instance, sorry. Before Nick Sabins last season at Alabama, Dylan Lauderdin was a freshman quarterback at Alabama.

He gets one series. in the spring, I think a couple series in the spring game, comes in that first series in the spring game, he was just slinging it. I'm like, Dylan Lonergan's going to be a star. Well, he didn't keep the job of Boston College last year, and now he's the starter at Rutgers. I have no idea if he's actually going to be,

but my brain says Dylan Lonergan is going to be a star at some point. It's going to happen. So you're just a late, forever. You get attached to players a little bit later than I do. I do it based on recruiting profile. You do it based on spring game clips.

Like the first thing I see from them in college, yes. Which in reality is only like a five month difference. So maybe we're not so different after all. But at the same time, Andy, the degree of difficulty of that grab is a 10 out of 10 hard. Like that's like something that you aren't. I mean, you're just predisposed as a human being to be able to do that. And honestly, that was like, that catch reminds me a lot of like Jeremiah Smith's highlight real coming into college and some of the things that he did. I'll tell you who it also reminds me of it, and it's a guy we've talked about an awful lot this offseason,

it reminds me of Cam Coleman's high school highlights. Yes. The level of body control, just being able to very angrily snatch the ball out of the air. The one-handedness of this is amazing to me. Like, just being able to do it so definitively with one hand, if you're listening in podcast form, he reaches up with his right hand and just spears it out of the air. left arm is dangling. There's no help from the left side. It is purely one-handed and it is contested in the end zone and he just snatches it away from the DB. You've seen incredible.

Videos of those people who go like fishing in streams and just like pluck the fish out of the water with their fingers. That's what it looks like. Noodling. Well, you like the noodlers, like the guys in Arkansas and Texas that that shove their hand in the catfish's mouth and pull them up. Like that's mild behavior. He noodle this ball. that's what it is. But I also don't think that people have an appreciation for how much Zip is on a pass like that either. Like that's like something, that's not an easy thing to do. Right.

This is not, so it's a, it's a fade. It's not even, it's not a fade, really. It's coming hard. It's on a line. This is not really one of those that you kind of throw some touch to try to get it over the cornerback's head. This is, this is thrown very hard on a line and he just grabs it. I, I'm so excited. Just watching this.

makes me want to press fast forward and see what he looks like against Clemson. Yeah, I mean, I'm looking at his high school tape right now, and he's pretty good. So, and we're talking about a six foot. He's not as big as Cam Coleman. Crazy size like Cam Coleman, but, you know, he kind of reminds me a little bit of like body type of like Jamar Chase

at that point in Jamar's life. So that's very easy to start. You know, the thing that's fun, too. It's like LSU and all the names that you just listed off at the receiver position. It's like when you want to like look for apples to apples comparisons, like it's just very easy to picture somebody who played in the same uniform at the same place and there's a lot of people to choose from. Well, I grew up in the same area. I mean, Jamar Chase is from New Orleans and Jabari Max from near New Orleans. It is a little bit of apples to apples. And you know,

these guys have grown up emulating these players. Like these are their their heroes. Like I'm sure Jabari Mac's favorite receivers to watch for like Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and when you have that route, that blueprint of place and style and familiarity and all these things, and they happen to be some of the, like, because Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase are two of the best receivers in the NFL. They didn't just play at LSU. Like they are legitimately, would you say top three receivers? I don't even know who the top three receivers in the NFL right now. Jason, Jamar Jason and Justin Jefferson probably.

Yeah. So, you know, I feel like a lot of times you like overanalyze clips in the offseason, but there are times and maybe every time in your brain, but a lot of times where these are the first time that you start to hear someone's name and like maybe in two years on this podcast, Jamarney Mac is somebody that we speak about once a week. Like this could be the introduction of that. So maybe I'm kind of doing it too.

I'm overreacting with you. but I think there's a lot of other things outside of just holy crap look at this play that come into play, his high school rating, where he's from the skill profile that it would take from such a young age to complete a catch like that. All these different things like add up and what do the tea leaves tell you about this kid? He's probably going to be awesome. Well, and the fact that LSU has needed this.

Now, again, this could be me kind of wishcasting this based on, again, overreacting to a four second clip. But this is what LSU's needed. They have needed a dominant receiver or more than one, and they have not had that since Malik Neighbors and Brian Thomas Jr. Now, it wasn't that long ago, but the last two years, they haven't had that, and it has, it is shown. Yeah, also had interest from Alabama, Ohio State, and Texas, if it gives you any, everybody, any idea of girls wanted him. And he was, and to nail down the New Orleans point, like he committed in March of 25. So, you know, he was going to go play for Brian Kelly.

He was going to go play for whoever was coaching at LSU. Yeah, signed sealed and delivered Louisiana kid to LSU, and it's a tale as old as old as time. So congrats to you, LSU on your Bolitnikoff winner. It's going to be fun to watch him develop. And honestly speaking, if he is somebody who makes a huge difference as a true freshman, which, by the way, isn't uncommon anymore at that position, especially, this might be a nice way to bleed into the secondary topic that we're going to have on this.

Well, I was going to say, do you know who does not want us overreacting in this fashion? I do. I do. His name is Lane Kiffin. He does not want us overreacting. He does not want us predicting Bolitnikovs and national titles and whatnot, at least not yet. Because Lane Kiffin, well, I know he understands the job he took and I know He accepts this, but I think he's still going to push back against it as much as he can to at least manage expectations until he knows what he's dealing with. Because I'm sure, barely into spring practice, he doesn't know exactly what he has yet. So last week, as he was talking about the first spring practice, he did preach for patience a little bit. Now, we have a lot of work to do.

You know, said that the first day that we got here and now that we're into practice format, you know, things don't happen overnight. You know, it takes a lot of work to get a program up to an elite performing program level. And so we're making some first steps, but there's a ton of work to do. And like I said before, we've assembled a good roster, you know, but at the same time, too, you know, there's a ton of work that goes into that to get program back. And up to where everybody around here wants it to be and why the reason that we came here, you know, it was seven and six last season. So within that comes change. Within that comes a lot of work because that's a long jump to go to the level that I came here to get at and all the people around the program want to be up. So it doesn't happen overnight, but yeah, they wanted to happen overnight, Lane. like they hired you to make it happen overnight.

That's the whole point. So I'm having a hard time deciphering this because on one hand, it makes me want to scream and just be like, what the hell are you talking about? Do you just see the circus that they just went through to bring you in? They didn't bring you in for a six-year build here. But on the other hand, too, it reminds me as something that you love to say. And this is like an Andy Staples mantra,

under promise over-deliver? I think that's what this is. I'm pretty sure that's what this is. I don't, I think Lane Kippen understands completely that the expectation is that they compete for college football playoff, birth, and for a national title right away. I think he understands that. I think he also knows because he just had a team that he built up to the point where it could make the college football playoff. He understands what it looks like, what work goes into that, and probably doesn't want to promise it yet, which I don't blame him for. Yeah.

He understood. And the funniest part of all this, Ari, is there was another coach press conference at LSU, and this one happened yesterday. Will Wade, the basketball coach, introduced. Obviously, Will Wade was the basketball coach before, got caught up in the NCAA stuff, got fired, went to McNeese, went to NC State. We talked all about Will Wade coming back from NC State last week and how that was set up. We talked about it yesterday with Wilson Alexander's story.

But the key part here that I want people to understand is what way it has worked at LSU before. He understands. He's back because these are his people. He may not be from Louisiana. He said this during his press conference, but Louisiana's home. And he is culturally a great fit with these folks. And they love him and he loves them. And he understands them.

Here's what he said. And make no mistake, this is home. I wasn't born in Louisiana, but Louisiana's home for me and me and my family. And so, you know, we're coming back to make history. We're going to make history one way or the other. We're coming back like Dr. Ruse said to try to hang a banner, win a national championship, or I'm going to be the first coach fired from the same school twice. But one way or another, one way or another, we're going to make history.

We're going to hang a banner or I'm going to be the first coach fired from the same school twice. That is an understanding. of what LSU is and the job you took. Yeah. I want to go back to Kiffin though real quick and then we'll wrap. Yeah. No, we let this is, I wanted to bring that up because Will Wade has worked there before. So he's just going to say it.

Like, and at this point, he's got job security. He just signed a nice contract. But he doesn't, he doesn't care. He's just saying it. Like, they will win a national title or they will. will fire my ass. That is LSU. It strikes me as something that Ed Orgeron would say in a different accent, doesn't it? Yes, it does. Who, by the way, understood the people there better than anybody because he grew up there. Yeah. But you touched on something when we were talking about Kiffin

that kind of, you know, struck a chord in me a little bit, which was, you know, he just got done building Ole Miss into a product that could conceivably compete for or win. a national championship last year, right? And he understands the work that has to go into building a program up to that level. And I think that that's all rational and true. But when you leave Ole Miss for LSU, you're doing it because LSU offers you things from a resource standpoint, location standpoint, all those things, program stature standpoint, that make it a better job. Wide receivers who are already committed standpoint? Yes. So though he has firsthand knowledge of the amount of time, energy, and work it takes to build up a place like Ole Miss, I don't think that the construction job at LSU is nearly as intrusive, not intrusive, in depth or as hard as it probably would have been during the Ole Miss.

So from a timeline perspective, I don't think that Ole Miss and LSU are apples to apples comparisons. So you know, like, so you take the job because it's easier to win. So if it's easier to win, it should be easier to flip. And the thing that I cannot stand, and I know that he's just having a conversation, I'm not going to rip him for saying this. But it has irked me from the beginning of my career, and I'm sure it's irked you too, Andy. It's when a new coach comes in and references how bad it was before they got there. And when you reference the record from last year, it's just like, okay, but the record from last year is, in my opinion, is why you're here irrelevant.

It's why you have the opportunity to come in in the first place and your roster is completely different. So, like, in terms of that, like, I just, like, we had a long podcast about expectations of what is, you know, success and what is not reaching success at LSU. You said playoff or bust. I thought that was a little bit low. Low. Yeah. So I don't think that anybody in Baton Rouge is saying go win the national title right now or you suck. But there is a certain expectation, regardless of what he says in a news conference setting, that LSU is not okay, but they are excellent.

And, you know, I think that because he took this job in the fashion he took this job, when he took this job, where he took this job, all the things that went into a place, how expensive it was for him to hire him, there isn't a nine and three, no big deal, bud, we know it takes time. Like, this is not the way it's going to work. And I think he knows that in his heart. And I think that, you know, frankly speaking, he's probably under promising. But if this kid, what's you say his Instagram handle was, Jay Sizzle? Jay Sizzleby Ballin, I believe.

Jay Sizzle B. Ballin is a Bolitnikoff winner, okay? Like that's, you don't have an Instagram handle like that. That doesn't, you know, show it again. God, it's pretty. I can watch that catch a thousand times. It will never get old. They need to be really, really good, Andy, right away. If they are nine and three or eight and four,

like people are going to be like, what the hell do we do all this for? Oh, absolutely. 100%. I also want to take issue with something you said. It does not drive me crazy when a first year coach trashes what they inherited because I don't want to lose. those stories about what happened when they got

there. I want the behind the scenes of did you know that our receiver room was splitting 10 pounds of weed before we got here? I want the like this, I'll tell you one that actually happened somewhere. I won't, no names.

We'll protect the innocent here. But new coach comes in. Player comes to meet with him. He goes, hey coach. Who's the new guy? that we call if the cops pick us up. And the coach is like, what do you mean? And he's like, well, there was a guy we called.

And the coach is like, uh, call your parents. I don't know. Like, one, don't get picked up by the police and all your parents. So like, I want to hear those stories. So we're not going to, we're not going to ban you guys trashing what you inherited. I like how you protected that very, that very, uh, story that probably happened everywhere, by the way. But I was told it specifically in one place.

Yeah, that sounds like it probably has happened in multiple places. Yeah. Yeah. But where I will ban it. I'm going to ban it after your first season. Like the second your first season concludes and maybe I'll just say the regular season. So Thanksgiving weekend your first season, you're no longer allowed to complain about what you inherited. Is that clear Lincoln, Riley?

Yes. Is that clear Billy Napier from last year? Well, there's also two ways of doing it. When you use it, the way that Layton Kiffin just used it, it almost felt like you were using it as a crutch before you went into battle. So like, and it's just like that to me irks me. I think that you can tell the stories of how broken things were. But you know what? It's like, can you hire a plumber, Andy? Your plumbing doesn't work.

And let's just say your toilet's blocked. you call a plumber. I don't want to hear the story of how messed up my toilet is before you fix it. Like, fix it and then tell me afterward how awesome or how awful it was. Because if the, if the, if you ever had somebody, we had this thing in our shower. Okay. And I don't know what happened, but we took the shower handle like this and you turn it on and off, right? When we turned it completely off six weeks ago, you could still hear the water running a little

bit. Now, it was dripping out of the faucet very little, but the water was still running. So when we shut the handle off, it didn't close the water. And when we hired the plumber to come into the house, he was telling me about how messed up things are, how he's going to have to bust down tile and all these different things in order to try to fix this. And all you're doing is making me anxious about how intrusive. Ari, he's overpromising or he's underpromising and over delivering. That's what he's doing. He's managing your expectations. He's fired and I hired somebody that came in and shut his mouth, fixed it in five minutes, and that was it without any breakings of the tile. And I would love to hear once you've already succeeded in fixing my faucet how messed up it

was and how your expertise solved the problem. I don't want to hear about how messed up it is and why it's going to be hard for you to solve the problem. Like, does that make sense? I don't know. And I want the stories. We're journalists. We want to talk about it. I want to know. But like you're not getting a story in that news conference. You're getting an excuse. The other part of this is because you can flip your roster so quickly, you don't really get to complain. You get to make your own roster. You get to choose your own adventure in this era. It was different.

Like when Lane Kiffin took over Tennessee or USC, totally different. But in this era, you choose your own adventure. You can make the roster how you want it right off the bat. Yeah. It's like the fix. It's also, too, it's like the difference between cracking your phone screen. and buying a new phone. Like, it's like, you got to buy a new phone now.

You don't have to go, like, live with a crack screen for two years before you can afford to buy the new one or replace your upgraded. All right. We know, we know enough people who live with a crack screen every day. What I'm saying, in college football now, you know what it tells you about a person when they're, when they're rolling with the cracked. I mean, I have a little crack in mind. What I'm saying is just talking about a little crack.

I'm talking about spider cracks all over. But back in Lane Kiffin's USC day, if you bought a phone with a crack in it, you had to live with that crack for two years until your cell phone plan. Yeah, until Steve Jobs came out with a new one. Yeah. Or you got an upgrade at your cell phone plan. Now you can either go to one of those,

you fix it kiosks in the mall real quick, or get a new phone and no longer is the old crack screen on your phone really your issue anymore. And it's like, I don't care how dysfunctional the receiver room was last year. The receivers in the room aren't the same people. You don't have to live with the issues the way that old coaches had to in the past. So like, you know, also when you, how many people did they bring in? 65, is that right? If you're counting new freshmen.

Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot. I think that like 80 or 85% of their roster wasn't even on the team last year. So I think that unfortunately for you, Andy, that you're not going to get a lot of those stories, not because coaches don't want to share them, but because they're not really. They don't exist anymore. Yeah. They don't exist anymore.

So, you know, and I have great faith in LSU. Like all this aside with what we know about Lane Kiffin and his portal proficiency, what we know about LSU as an institution and the money and the resources behind the program. Like, I find it very unlikely that he doesn't succeed to a certain degree. But what I do know is that there is no talking anybody out of getting mad if you don't, hit a certain benchmark in your first year, period. Yeah, in terms of the request for patients, here's the length you will get.

You have until September. Figure it out. Has anybody ever heard a request for patients from a coach? And we're like, ah, he's right. We're being irrational. Yes. I mean, not any fan who wanted something to happen. But yes, they're impartial observers,

fans of other teams. No, no. But I don't think there's anybody. anybody who heard Lane Kiffin, whether they love LSU, hate LSU, and different LSU, there's no one who heard Lane Kiffin. I was like, yeah, yeah, we should be patient with him.

No. No. Especially when you're a heel. What about that? What are that part? If you're a heel on the sport, you get less patience. Well, people want to see you fail. So, yeah.

And your failure, even if it's not, even if it's not as great or big as some other failures get built into a huge failure, because people are desperate to make fun of you. I mean, Brian Kelly is a great example of this. Perfect example. Well, we just watched it happen. Yeah.

Ari. Saturday. Before you go, sorry. I suck. I suck. Who do you think is disliked more from day one? Brian Kelly or Lane Kiffin? From the general.

Yeah, I agree. Okay, go ahead. Because LSU fans were like, eh, LSU fans are all in on Lane Kiffin. Like the general. Arizona State fan. Who do they dislike more? Yes. Both.

They dislike them both. But no, I think I think Lane Kiffin is entertaining. To someone who has no rooting interest whatsoever and is not an Ole Miss person is, let's take it out of the SEC. So let's take it. A Minnesota fan. Yeah, Minnesota fan, Cal fan. They like Kiffin better because he entertains them.

He says funny things on Twitter. That's, I think more people disliked Brian Kelly on a cellular level and more people dislike Lane Kiffin because of action. Yes. I would agree with that. And Kiffin can win them back by being funny, whereas Kelly tried and could never win them over. So that is the key difference between those two. All right.

On Saturday, we will be in Indianapolis. Come see us at the Culver's Game Day Hub and lose. Pugar Plaza on 200, East Washington Street. Well, I know we got some Michigan fans, some Arizona fans, some Illinois fans. I mean, there's even some Yukon fans. We talked some Yukon football this fall. They were beaten ACC teams. But we're talking hoops on Saturday.

We're going to have a fun show that day plus basketball shootout challenge, interactive fan boards, a Culver's custard sampling counter. That's the part you really wanted to hear about it anyway. I cannot wait. We had so much fun with Culvers at the draft. last year, this is going to be even better. So come see us in Indianapolis on Saturday at the Game Day Hub, Lugar Plaza, 200 East Washington Street. If you can't make it, enter the Culver's swish-swish-dish-sweep steaks for your chance to win $2,500

bucks. You can enter by April 5th. Ari, let us overreact to a little more spring practice footage. I've got a couple more clips. A couple more clips. Producer River, can you throw up? up the USC defense montage from spring practice. Ari, this one took me back. This one took me back. Now, you were in college during the peak carol era at USC, right, in high school and college watching

that. Do you remember the practices? Do you remember there wasn't as much footage out there, but they would occasionally show it. And they let... When Snoop Dog came in and like returned punts like that. Yeah, or like Will Ferrell. But they let media record practice, watch practice. So there was footage of it. And the competition level at their practices was off the charts.

And watching this montage that they put up. And look, obviously they're making the defense look spectacular here because it's a defense montage. But I got to say, this got me pull. pumped up because this group, I know, they lost their defensive coordinator. Dan Lynn went to Penn State. We talked about that. But they brought in Gary Patterson, who's one of the best defensive minds in the history of

the game, one of the best evaluators in the history of the game. And I am really excited to see what he does with this group. I think that overreacting to a montage that was produced by the program is insane. I think overreacting to what the evil genius coach brings to the table is not insane. Yeah, the Gary Patterson thing, I feel like people are underestimating him. Because even I had some USC fans even when he got hired, right? I said, I think this is a really good hire. I'm very excited about this.

They said, well, you know, he was kind of losing his fastball at TCU. And yes, as a head coach in the NIL era, I did not think Gary Patterson fit very. very well. I didn't think the way he governed a team and governed a program was good for the NIL era. That said, you let somebody else handle that stuff and you let Gary Patterson evaluate recruit and call defensive plays. I am in still. It kind of reminds you of like the inverse of Chip Kelly to a certain extent, right? Oh, I think it, not the inverse. I think, yeah, if you go office to defense, yes. Very similar to Chip Kelly going from a head coach who was ill-suited for this era to a coordinator who all he does is the thing he's really good at.

And guess what he's good at still? Yeah. And I don't think that you stop being good at those things. You know, we always break this down. But like, what do you think the actual breakdown of a coach's responsibilities are percentage-wise in the modern era of college football? Yeah, X's and O's. How much is 10%? It's maybe a little more than that, but not much.

It's 15, 20%, probably. Yeah. It's so much other crap that he have to deal with as a head coach. Fundraising, roster management. Yeah. So, by the way, I think you can kind of catch him in a few glimpses. And this is Luke Waifle. There's also a video that's been floating around, and we didn't have permission to use it.

So we're not showing it here. but just a video of Luke Wafel, the number one defensive end recruit in the country that USC signed, just walking onto the practice field. Holy crap. Yeah. It looks like a freshman look like that. Yeah, a lot of, I mean, like the hardest position in my mind to evaluate at the high school level is quarterback. And maybe even in the college level.

We talk about how hard it is. Oh, we're going to be talking about the NBA, sorry, the NFL draft over the next month and that is exactly what we're going to talk about is how hard it is to project quarterbacks. Yeah, and the Ty Simpson, you know, debate that's been raging on in NFL draft world has been kind of entertaining to watch. What do you think is the easiest position to evaluate? Detackle. Detackle, right? Defensive end is not tough either. The end is not that hard. Like, is the point I'm getting. Like, you are a big, fast, physical freak who's agile can move people.

and get around people. Like, again, on the probability level of not being very good, like, very low. My anticipation was the second that they signed him, somebody that is going to be felt immediately once he gets there. And it sounds like from what they've seen in practice so far, they do believe that he is going to be making an impact on the field this year, which is exciting. I mean, Jakeem Stewart came in last year.

that speaking of de-tackles who were highly rated jakeem seward came in last year and had a good freshman season so like they they are dekeem sewer is kind of the the patient zero for this recruiting philosophy and he came in in the 25 class and then they really started rolling for the 26 class this is USC really trying to recruit differently and I don't know have you noticed some of the stuff they've been putting up on social media as they've been getting, so they got a commitment from one player, from a DB who was also considering Oregon.

And so they post the video of the grasses and all these greener and they're painting the end zone cardinal. They just flipped an offensive line recruit from Oregon. Like they are trying to take back their place as the preeminent recruiting school on the, West Coast from Oregon. Now, you and I have talked about this. And it's their state most of the time, too.

Yeah. When they play Oregon, we will learn a lot. We will learn a lot about both teams. But they are certainly trying, they're doing the things that we've said they needed to do that they weren't doing for a few years to take that back. And so part of that's the recruiting piece of it.

Part of it is Lincoln Riley hiring Gary Patterson when he loses Dan and he didn't, look, they didn't expect to lose Dan Lynn, but I'm glad Lincoln Riley did not go into his, you know, friends of Lincoln Riley group of defensive coaches that, you know, historically have not been all that great. He went outside the family. He went to somebody who he's coached against, who he clearly respects, and I'm interested to see what Gary Patterson does with his job.

Well, I was going to ask you, do you think that Lincoln Riley is at a point in his coaching tenure at USC where he could benefit greatly from somebody who overachieved at a program like TCU for that many years? And I don't even just mean fixing the defense or improving the continued ascension of their defense. But I just mean from like a leadership standpoint, a program. And I think Lincoln Riley's probably been a head coach long enough that he's comfortable with somebody who's done it before. being someone who could give advice, being a sounding board. I don't think Lincoln-Oreilly should be threatened by Gary Patterson. I think he should take what Gary Patterson can give, which is a lot. And I think you're right.

I think that could be incredibly valuable. So, yeah, I am. About this segment, Andy, is that, like, we're going to start trying to talk me into USC and, like, I can kind of, like, see, like, there are certain aspects of them. Oh, there's a video. Yeah, this is the grass isn't always greener video. And the Oregon people understandably post. hosted a whole lot of recent USC organ results.

Like I understand why they did that. So again, it's sort of like the LSU thing. You have to look at September. Yeah. USC organ is in September. We're going to learn a whole lot. Because Gary Patterson is going to have to be doing a great job by that point for USC to hang on the field with this Oregon team.

That is a good job of cutting a promo, though. I'm not going to lie to you. I hadn't seen that until right now. That was badass. Oh, it was, yeah. It was a shot across the bow for sure. And then they've had a few other skirmishes here in the last week. I think it's healthy and I think it's great for our game.

I think it's great to continue on those traditional Pac-12 rivalries, even though they're in a different conference. I think it's an important battleground state, obviously, for both. both teams, although Oregon has become more of a national recruiting outfit than maybe they were during their pack 12 days. Like if USC wants to pick on or pick a fight, I should say, with Oregon, I think that that is like a healthy thing because that makes them feel like they have to do X, Y, and Z in order to be competitive with them when that day comes on September 26. And I have to do this. Like, you can't shy away from this. I'm glad they're doing this. And it might not

work. Oregon may come beat the crap out of them. But they're trying. They're doing the things you got to do now. And they weren't doing the things you got to do for a while. They are doing those things now. And I think that's what makes this situation at USC so interesting.

And why I keep saying we will know more when that Big Ten schedule starts. When they play Oregon, I think they have Washington right after that, we will know a lot more. Yeah. be so much fun.

Maybe we bump it on more. One more to overreact to. Let's go to Columbus, Ohio. This is from the Department of, we did this before with Chris Henry. Now we're going to do it with a guy who's been on campus for a year. Devin Sanchez, the DB. This is Devin Sanchez locking up Jeremiah Smith. And I know what you're saying, oh, you guys glazed Jeremiah Smith all the time.

Now you're saying he's bad. No, no, no, no, no. This is a Ohio State is going to have. three defensive players taking in the first round, and guess what, they are still going to have first round talent on their defense. Yeah. First of all, I wanted to point out that you said the word glazed

and it makes me happy. Second of all, I have teenagers. I hear it all the time. Yeah, I mean, you probably hear it all the time in your Twitter mentions too, because people love to say that word over and over and over again whenever you compliment anyone. But, oh, you mean like the five-star second,

year corner that Ohio State sign might be pretty good. Of course. Are we overreacting or is it just like, oh, look, they've got more good players. I think we're just reacting. Yeah. I think we're just reacting to the reality of the situation, which is he's a five-star corner. Yeah. Who's going into a second year?

Yeah. It's going to work out. I'm quite confident that Ohio State will remain exceedingly talented on both sides of the ball. And it's interesting, Ari, because we were the ones who said, as Ohio State was marching toward the national title in 2024, see, you can't stack a team like this anymore. And then they stack the talent up, but it did have a fatal flaw last year, which would be probably along the offensive line. So the question is, will they be a more complete version of this this year? Yeah, I mean, we'd have to do like a breakdown of Ohio State 24 and Ohio State 25. and maybe we'll do it after the NFL draft.

Ohio State 24 was more well-rounded, but I think 25 probably had more top-end talent. The top-end, right. Now, granted, that top-end talent was also on the field in 24. Now, they weren't using Arvill Reese the same way. Yeah. Sonny Stiles was not being used in that way yet. Caleb Downs was playing the same role.

But it's going to be interesting to see what the comparison. But I think you're right. What made 24, so is you had those top-in guys that were younger, but you also had some just really high-quality kind of middle of the NFL draft, guys who are going to be NFL starters, but maybe not stars, that were just sprinkled all over. All over the place. Yeah.

And I don't know. I remember after Ohio State beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl, writing a column to Oregon fans saying, don't be too upset about what happened here. You just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. which you're not going to even in the semis this year. But maybe they were in the wrong place

of the wrong time two years in a row. But the thing I don't know, and I'd like to know what your opinion is on this, Andy, is was the notion that teams cannot stack talent disproven this year or proven by their weakness? Like, I don't know which one it is. But I think that as we go into the future, it's going to be harder and harder and harder for Ohio State

and other teams situated like them. to have this many good players on the field at the same time. Maybe I'm wrong. I think everybody's going to have a flaw. And it's how you manage those. Like Indiana wasn't a flawless team last year. They had a flawless record. But they managed their flaws better than anybody else.

Yeah. The thing that's interesting about Indiana is that we have a tendency as a community to look back at this Indiana team and like think that they were, because they went undefeated, that they were some unbeatable juggernaut that, I mean, they were 40 yards away from losing the national championship game. Like, it's not like they almost lost to Penn State.

Yeah. They almost lost to Penn State. Like, they were in a three-point game with Ohio State. Like, they were a great team and I'm not diminishing. Iowa pushed them. Yeah, they, well, they did what national champions do. They win, yeah. They won the games that were hard to win.

They found ways to win. You can't always overwhelm somebody. That's, I think, more than anything else, the days of a team that it could just overwhelm everyone is done. And it wasn't like there was a team this year, although one team was undefeated, that was head and shoulders that much better than everybody else that could not be beaten no matter how many times you played the game. Like I think if you played the Miami Indiana game, Miami might have won three. There would be some times Miami won that game. If you played the Ohio State Indiana Big Ten championship over, there would be times Ohio State won.

I don't know. Like it's just, it's not like I just don't want to remember Indiana for being 01 Miami because I feel like there's some people that. I kind of feel like that. And it's like, that's not true. And I don't think it's going to be true for anybody moving forward. No, it's not. But Ohio State is still loaded with top in talent. And I think this speaks to your point, what you were talking about yesterday

when we were comparing Duke basketball and Ohio State football. The expectations are still going to be the highest there and should be because they have the most talent. Now, they may not have the most talent over. overall this year. Like, if we go player for player, Ohio State and Oregon are going to look pretty close. Yeah. I mean, I used to say last year during the season, and people threw it back on my face when Ohio State lost, but then the NFL draft is going to vindicate me that Ohio State had an

argument for having the four or five best players in college football on their same team. It's pretty close, man. It's a pretty close thing. It wasn't an insane thing to say, but I don't know, like Ohio State is going to to be very talented and very good this year. I don't think that the talent advantage that Ohio State is going to possess over teams like Texas and even USC to a certain extent, Oregon, maybe even Indiana, is going to be so much bigger than it was two years ago in last year.

I think that the gap between those teams is diminishing. It is shrinking. And we've seen that with George and Alabama and the SEC. The teams that really stockpiled, they just can't. It's not possible when. The guy who would have been redshirting or sitting on your bench or just playing special teams for you can make more money to start somewhere else. That's, we know what human nature is.

We know how that works. 25 players in the portal this year. Yeah. So, and maybe some of them weren't going to play, but maybe some of them would have. But they're going to be playing somewhere else and be very good. On the subject of the transfer portal, let's talk about the basketball transfer portal. A guy who did not play very much this year, but is a, a curiosity, let's say, is in the portal.

Seven foot nine. Florida center, Olivier Riu, plans to enter the transfer portal on three's Joe Tipton reports. And by the way, if you are not following at Joe Tipton on Twitter, if you are not subscribed to On Three to read what Joe Tipton writes,

you will not be up to date on the basketball transfer portal. What Pete Nacos is to the football portal. Joe Tipton is the basketball portal. And oh, by the way, NACOS will help on the basketball portal too. But Olivier Rieu is

maybe the most interesting player in the basketball transfer portal because he is 7 foot 9. So who's the tallest human being you've ever stood next to? Matt Harms from Purdue was a 7 foot 3 or 7 foot 4 center. I definitely stood next to

covering some NCAA tournament stuff. Mine is a Drunus Ilgalskis. You remember him? Oh, yeah. Big Z. Yeah. The Cleveland Cavaliers were playing a preseason basketball game in the Ohio State basketball arena when I was on the beat and I went to it.

He was 7.3. This guy is six inches taller than that. Yes. I can't even imagine what standing next to somebody who is 7.9 would feel like. Is he like, who's the tallest person in the world? He was the tallest teenager in the world when he was, well, I think he's still a teen, he might be 20 now,

but he was definitely the, the tallest teenager in the world when he hit 7-9. There was a person named Robert Wadlow who lived in Illinois. Robert Waddleau was 8 foot 11. He's the all-time. He's not alive anymore. How do you know that? The Guinness Book of World Records.

You didn't look at the Guinness Book of World Records. Two fat guys on motorcycles? If there's ever been, a fact that proves that Andy is an encyclopedia of useless information. That is it. Like, the fact that you would just know that off the top of your head is mind-blowing. Robert Wadlow, the giant of... I thought I was going to tell people something interesting.

We're going to come up with a new game, Ari. We're going to have a game. This is good off-season content. We'll have a game called What Random Crap Does Andy Know? We'll brand it better than that. and you just come up with questions and see if I know anything about it. I feel like if I would have said, who's the tallest person ever,

you would have been able to recite this person's name? Robert Wadillo, yeah. I definitely knew Robert Wadillo's name off the top of my head. I did not know the current tallest person in the world. I've looked this one up. His name is Sultan Kosen. He's from Turkey and he's eight foot three. So he's six inches taller than Olivier Rieu.

That's wild. I don't even know, like, yeah, apparently Robert Wadlow, you probably do this already, but I'll tell the pot had a pituitary gland disorder that caused him to have abnormal growth. Kept growing, I believe, throughout his life. So now, Olivia Ryu is fun. And it is kind of a test for how well you know basketball. So we ran into somebody in the grocery store the other day. And obviously, we're in Gainesville.

the talk was of the Gators losing to Iowa in the round of 32. And if you remember the final play, Zavian Leather point guard drives, and he's trying to hit this wraparound pass to Thomas Howk, who is one of the kind of post-wing. He's kind of a tweener player, but he's like 6'8, 6'9, and trying to hit him so that he could lay it in or go up strong right at the rim. And we ran into somebody and like,

well, they should just put Olivier in for that. And I'm like, no, that's not how that works. Like, just because he's tall does not mean he will succeed. There's a reason he was barely playing. And they basically took him as a project thinking, okay, if we can get some agility out of this guy, then we have a rim protecting weapon you can probably use for a few minutes. Like what I want to see Olivier do is go to like a low, low major where he can play 25 minutes a game.

And I just want him, I just want him protecting the rim. River, did you get the meme that I sent you about this? Because I thought it was very funny. If you didn't, I'll describe it anyway because the podcast listeners have to hear it. But somebody used AI to superimpose Matt Painter's face on the meme from, of the dude that wears the yellow jacket standing behind the tree, licking his lips. And I thought that that was the funniest thing in the world.

You know, River, you didn't have to get that ready. I think people can picture it. Matt Painter will love seven-foot Canadians. And Olivier Rue is one of those. Zach Edie was a seven-foot Canadian. Yeah, how tall was he? 7-3, I think. He was.

Purdue almost always has a... Like, it's weird because Purdue usually has a seven-footer who plays and a seven-footer who's a freshman who's a project. Oh, there it is. Okay, look how quickly he did it. That's so funny. Zach Edie is still in the league, isn't he? Oh, Zach Edie's good, yeah.

Yeah, so. He got hurt his rookie year, but he moves. That's the thing that happens with tall people, right? They get hurt a lot. Like, they have lower money. The thing about Zach Edie was he developed, one, he was already pretty athletic. I believe he played hockey and soccer growing up. But two, he developed into a better athlete as he got farther along.

at Purdue and by the end of the college career, he was a dynamic post player. And I think that's the difference. Oscar Plus was only 611, so he didn't hit the

seven foot mark. Yeah. Got a sweet jumper too. But we'll see where he winds up, but seven foot nine is staggering. Yeah, I want to see him at a place where he can play. Because I think

probably high majors are out because I don't know that he's going to have the agility to hang with some of these athletic freaks. But in the, like, I was watching, during conference tournament week, I was watching an Idaho game. In Idaho had a dude who was like 7-4. And he did not look like he was in the greatest shape of anybody's life. but he was out there and boy it was hard to shoot over him yeah this is 7-9

if you're 7-9 what's to stop you from standing in the post and somebody just throwing the ball up as high as they can is it because people who are 6-11 can out-jump you yes that's really what it is if you have a if you're 6-11 with a 40-inch vertical and the 7-9 guy only has a 20-inch vertical yeah guess who wins so

yeah but that's i i want to see that i want to see that because he can move a little bit he can move a little i've seen him he can move a little bit so good luck to olivier rial wherever you wind up and if you want to follow the basketball transfer portal and be up to date you need to be following joe tipton that's at joe tempton on x he's also on instagram and of course get yourself subscribed on three you get that national subscription, 1999 for your first year. You can read all of Joe Tips and Pete Nacos. Me, Ari, I got a column.

I got a column out today. So I got the survey on Florida's stadium renovation. They sent a survey out to alums and I guess people who bought tickets. And so everybody they have an email address for. And they were asking your opinions on stadium renovations. And I wrote a column explaining to Florida fans how you should answer the questions if the thing you want most out of the swamp is a better team in it. And that is, I don't know that they're going to listen. How did this bit start?

This bit started with Northwestern, didn't it with you? It did. It started, which Northwestern's opening that palatial stadium this year. It was beautiful. But the best amenity you could. add to your stadium is a better team, is a better roster. That definitely improves the game day experience, right? Right.

And my point on this is if you spend on a roster now and improve, then you are more likely to get people to make capital contributions. You can hit those people up when they're happy and winning. They're like, oh, what do you need? How much money do you need? And this is what All Miss did, by the way. Kiffin and Keith Carter, the athletic director there, basically said, hey, we're going to stop these capital improvements for a minute and make sure the roster's good.

And then we're going to hit you up. I guarantee you they've been hitting people up pretty hard since they made the playoff. Yes. I do think that some of this is interesting, though, because a lot of people who listen to the show do attend games. and I read your story this morning. By the way, it was not just a tell them you want a better team. I took it seriously. Like I think there are ways that they can do this well

and ways that they can not do this well. But here's the survey. Can I just read it out to them, Andy? Yeah, go ahead. Why do you not attend more or any home Florida football games at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on an annual basis? Accessibility. Attend other Florida sporting events.

basketball during football season. Conflicts with personal work schedule, cost to attend games, game start times, limited, covered, climate controlled seating, give tickets away to family and friends, employees, lack of available child care, lack of game day atmosphere at Ben,

Benton Hill Griffin Stadium, which I don't think you need to worry about nobody's going to be clicking that box right there. Yeah, well, I mean, unless the team sucks, which goes back to your point, right? Even when it's bad, the game day atmosphere is pretty damn good. Lack of quality fan amenities, restrooms, concessions, length of games, limited interest in sports, limited interest in football,

live too far away, parking difficulties cost, quality of opponents. Funny enough, that that's on there. Maybe if you, maybe you, uh, that would have been clicked a lot. Click on that one. I don't think anymore. But, you know, click on it again anyway just to make sure that, you know, we don't mess up the non-con. Team performance, that's another one. Preferred to watch on TV, ticket availability and desired seating area, traffic, weather conditions,

and other. And it got me thinking yesterday when you brought this up, what is the thing that you, outside of a team being good? Obviously, everybody wants to go root on a winning product. But what are the things that fans that go to these games? Because we go to games. It's a pain in the ass to go. Where do I park? Where can I use the bathroom? Can I get food and drinks quickly and easily without missing much of the game? Is my seat comfortable? And do they have Wi-Fi? I think. I think Wi-Fi is a big one. Is my seat comfortable? And this is what I, I wrote this in the column because one of the big arguments in the Florida fan base, and I've seen this in other fan bases too, is they are scared that the capacity is going to go down,

which I think it probably will. It's currently officially 88,500, which is a shade over 90,000 when you count everybody in the stadium on game day. The thought is it's going to go down by about 3,000, 4,000 seats because they're going to have to add more premium seats. I think that's just dealing with reality because the reason the swamp was as loud as it was in the 90s is you had all of those people crammed in there on these little tiny metal bleachers.

You were cramming a lot of humanity into a really tight space. Like one, the stands are closer to the field than in most places. And two, the stadium itself does not take up as much space as other stadiums. Like you were fitting almost the same amount of people in a much smaller space than, say, Neeland Stadium. Like, you, it feels like you could drop the entire Ben Hill Griffin Stadium into the bowl at Neeland Stadium. And so that's partially why it's so loud and you had that advantage.

But I just don't think people are willing in the age of high-definition TV, R.E., to spend a bunch of money to go sit on a little metal bleacher. Yeah. I think that comfortability is key. But I also think that the convenience of things, and I don't really know what you can do from an update standpoint to make parking. I mean, and they're going to have to. Like, they need to update the concourses.

They need to update the bathrooms. Like that is, Scott Strickland and their athletic director is telling the truth when he says, this is, there's going to be a nine-figure renovation. It has to be done. Like Florida field, the original Florida field was built in 1930. So the guts of the stadium are almost 100 years old. And this is not just a Florida conversation, by the way. I've talked to multiple ADs about this.

They're dealing with. almost a century old or sometimes more than a century old stadiums, that certain things have to get updated. And that's not going to be cheap. Do you think that we'll ever get to a point in time in college football? And this might be a sacrilegious thing to suggest. But my uncle actually sent me a text once about an old stadium. And it kind of got me thinking,

do you think that it will ever be a point in time where these cathedral stadiums that are 100 years old that become iconic in those places are out, are antiquated and they need to build. the new one. You're having that conversation right now at North Carolina. That is with, not with the football stadium, with the Dean Smith Center, the Dean Dome. Now, the Dendom is only 40 years old, but it was built at a time when, it was probably built at the worst time for arena construction where they did, they were just at the tail end of, of just put a bunch of seats in there and see what happens. And so essentially, to rebuild it might be easier than

because they would have to knock it down and completely rebuild it. But now they're trying to figure out if they want to build it in another location on campus. If you suggested to an Alabama fan that we're going to knock down Bryant Denny and build a new dome there. Alabama fans are a little bit different because remember, if you're an older Alabama fan, all your big games were at Legion Field. Brian Denny was only where the small games were played until 20 and 30 years ago. Then I'm certain of the history. Yeah.

Because I don't know. Like I didn't know that. Penn State, Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame Stadium, which, by the way, Florida Field, the plans for Florida Field were essentially copied from the plans for Notre Dame Stadium because the Florida's coach at the time was a Newt Rockney assistant. He asked a Newt Rockney, send him the plans. That's electric.

If you told Ohio State fans are going to knock down Ohio Stadium and build a dome there, that's brand new and updated. and is like a little miniature version of Jerry World. Do you think they would go insane? They'd go insane. And I hope they never do this. I hope. Now, I still think, I don't, I'm not an expert on construction prices,

but I still think renovations are always going to be cheaper than new builds, especially when you consider when you've got the older things, you can get away with stuff that wasn't up to code now. I do think that there is something super special about playing at the same exact location as everybody who played before you. Oh, yeah. On the same, now the stadium around you might be different,

but you're playing on the same patch of land that the legends who played there 100 years ago played on. Mm-hmm. That's badass. It's one of the coolest things about the sport, and I hope it never changes. Yeah.

But if you have... With the football stadiums, I'm trying to think in our life, not lifetime, but since we've been working, I can only think of two football. stadiums that have been just totally rebuilt. One was relocated into a much better location.

That's Baylor. Because Baylor was playing off campus. And they put a beautiful stadium on campus. And then TCU put it at the same site of the old stadium, but just completely rebuilt it. And that's a beautiful. It's a beautiful stadium now. Minnesota, Minnesota built stadium because they were playing the Metrodome.

In Northwestern? and Northwestern is going to open this new one this year, which looks incredible. What do they do with the old one? I don't even know. Is it still there? No, they, I believe they rebuilt it on the site of the old one. It did?

Yeah. Oh, I don't remember Ryan Field being that close to the, maybe not. Okay, maybe I'm wrong in that. I'm probably wrong. I'm usually wrong on this sort of thing. But, you know, it is. Ryan Field was out of commission,

and that's why they had to use the lacrosse stadium. Yeah, but I don't think that the new stadium is built where Ryan Field was. Oh, no, it is. It is? Yeah. Built in 1926 originally. And they were talking about transforming it. So transforming is not moving.

Oh, I see. I was just getting in my brain unknowingly confused with the new practice. facility. Oh, okay. So you're thinking of the practice. Yeah. But the thing is like much of Northwestern's campus is very close to Lake Michigan. So it is. It is not. Now, the practice facility is right there. It's right on it. That looks really pretty. Yeah. It's going to be cool. I, I'm excited to see it even though I said, you know, maybe you should spend more on the roster. But hey, look, they are spinning on the roster. They hired Chip Kelly and David Braun's done a hell of a job since he got the job. So what do I know?

If you do have any suggestions on what could make your game day experience better, what would make you want to go to a game more or whatever? Let us know. Yeah, I'm curious because one thing, like the Florida survey had a few different questions about like what type of areas do you want. and one of the really popular new things in Oklahoma did this with their renovation. I think Jerry World was the first place I saw this, and I've seen it now, a lot of the pro stadiums have done, a lot of the college stadiums have done it, just having kind of a common area where it's standing, it's standing,

and everybody's just sort of milling around, and you can stand at a table, they have these bar tables set up, you can stand at a table, you can go get a drink, you can go get food, but then you can look down and see the field. that feels like it would be a lot of fun. That feels like something I would enjoy more than being crammed into a seat next to somebody. Like where they put the Paul Feinbaum set at AT&T Stadium

when we went, like up there on the top there where there's a huge overhang that you can look down on. And Oklahoma has a setup like that now too. Yeah. Yeah. I'm surprised Wi-Fi wasn't on the list, but maybe they just have great Wi-Fi. Theirs is not particularly great. Some stadiums are better than others.

I find that when we cover the playoff games that are in NFL stadiums, those tend to have the best. Yeah. And I know that it makes our lives easier, but if I were a fan, I would want to be able to use my phone while at the game to check other scores and to post my pictures and all that stuff. The place we went recently that I was pleasantly surprised by the Wi-Fi, not in the press box, but just in general if you're down by the field, I thought Texas A&M's was pretty good. Texas A&Ms was an absolute disaster two years ago when we went for the Texas game. Remember our Wi-Fi wasn't working in the press box? That was the press box. That's different.

I don't count that. I'm only worried about what the fan. I'm talking about the fan experiences. But I would assume that maybe those two things mirror each other. Maybe they don't at all. They don't. They're totally different. A&M's was great when we went for the playoff game.

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm with you already on that. I think the Wi-Fi thing is critically. important. But I also think it's hard. And I feel for these ADs because they have people like me pushing them from both directions where I'm saying you do have to improve your stadium, but why are you wasting all this money when you could be buying a better roster? And there's a middle there. You have to do the things that have to be done, but you don't have to be extravagant about it.

Well, right. And do what has to be done so you don't put yourself in a bigger hole that costs more later. but try to put the best roster you can on the field so that if you do catch lightning in a bottle and have a great season or two and maybe you win a national championship or maybe you're, you know, make a deep playoff run, the donors are just happier to give at that point. Mm-hmm.

And then you can do more. By the way, good news, Ari. You no longer have to put a waterfall in your training room. Doesn't matter. Be pretty cool if you did, though. No. No, that goes toward salaries. Yeah.

It goes toward the roster. I mean, if you did ask every single player on Ohio State's roster, would you rather have a waterfall or $1,000? I think all of them would take the $1,000, right? Exactly. 100%. All right. Mega board Wednesday tomorrow,

and I'm sure they're going to be popping off because we're getting closer to the final four. The college basketball coaching carousel is still spinning. And of course, every day, there are more and more spring practice clips for us to completely overreact. react to. We'll talk to you tomorrow.