Andy & Ari On3 - Michigan AD Warde Manuel STEPPING DOWN at the end of calendar year: What’s next for UM Athletics? Oklahoma GM Jim Nagy joins | Missouri HC Eli Drinkwitz makes headlines

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

As Greg Sankey took the podium in Tampa for SEC Media Days, Michigan dropped their bombshell of a news report simultaneously as the SEC took center stage: At the end of the calendar year, Michigan AD Warde Manuel will be stepping down from his role as UM’s leader in the athletic department. Following an internal investigation after the Sherrone Moore firing, Michigan will have a new athletic director when the calendar turns to 2027. What’s next for UM athletics? Andy & Ari discuss here.   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (0:59) Presenting Sponsor (2:26) Intro: Warde Manuel Stepping Down (12:39) Parting Gift: Kyle Whittingham (16:00) Preview of Oklahoma GM Jim Nagy (18:00) Jim Nagy joins the show (37:10) Previewing Oklahoma’s 2026 Season (47:32) Ahmad Hardy Latest (50:27) Drinkwitz takes his shot on the Big Ten (1:02:06) Latest in David Gabriel Georges commitment (1:07:25) Will Stein’s Curt Cignetti Moment? (1:11:11) Happy Birthday, Ari! (1:12:18) Closing Out - See you Tuesday from Day 2 of SEC Media Days   Once Andy & Ari wrap up the conversation from Michigan, the guys break down the latest from the first day of SEC Media Days. As Missouri and Oklahoma took the stage early in the morning, Andy caught up with Oklahoma’s GM in Jim Nagy. Watch as Andy discusses with the Sooners GM on building a championship roster and continuing the climb in the SEC.   Next up, Missouri Head Coach Eli Drinkwitz made some waves during his podium session, announcing the latest on RB Ahmad Hardy following his gunshot wound a few months ago back home in Mississippi. Drinkwitz also takes a shot at the Big Ten, which made headlines as well.   Later, Pete Nakos dropped his recruiting prediction on 5-star RB David Gabriel Georges. Will the high school star select Tennessee or Ohio State?   Also, did Kentucky Head coach Will Stein have his Curt Cignetti moment? Andy & Ari break it down.   Happy Birthday Ari!   Thanks for watching! See you tomorrow from day 2 of SEC Media Days! Our show is also presented by BetMGM!   If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works:   1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB. 2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. 3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you use bonus code CFB when you sign up!   Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary.   See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. This promotional offer is not available in DC, Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET (Available in the US) . 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only (if applicable). Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel   Check out Zen AI here: http://bit.ly/zenAI_bpp_itf   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/EeLYuxEaTXs   Follow Andy Staples on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andy_staples   Follow Ari Wasserman on Twitter: https://x.com/AriWasserman   Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/on3sports   Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/on3/   Like/Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/On3Sports/   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 episode of Andy and Arion 3 presented by BetMGM. I'm at SEC Media Days, but the biggest news coming out of the Big Ten, Michigan Athletic Director of Ward Manual stepping down at the end of the year. They released the results of their investigation. And shockingly, Ward Manual is not going to be the AD anymore, as we kind of figured. Also, we have a great interview with Oklahoma General Manager Jim Nagy. You've seen him a lot on this show back when he was the executive director of the state. the Senior Bowl. For the last year and change, he has been the GM at Oklahoma trying to build a team that can go back to the playoff for a second consecutive season. We'll talk to him. Plus, an update on Amad Hardy, the Missouri running back, who was shot in the offseason.

Eli Drinkwitz, the Missouri coach, with very positive news about Amad Hardy's recovery. We'll talk about it all today on Andy Narion 3, presented by BedMGM. This show is brought to you by a bed MGM. spreads, all the win totals we discuss. Come from BedmGM. We're going to talk about that Oklahoma win total today. We're probably going to talk about that Tennessee one this week, maybe that Auburn one when they come on Tuesday of this week.

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First bet offer for new customers only, if applicable, subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Welcome to Annie Aron 3, presented by Bed-MGM. And Ari, it took a few days longer than we thought it would, but it happened. Ward Manual stepping down as Michigan's athletic director. Effective end of the calendar year, but I kind of have a feeling if they get a president in place and that president happens to find an athletic director, they like that that may move faster than that. Yeah, kind of an interesting set of events, right, like inconsistent because you would think

that if the investigation that the law firm, you know, did found negligence or overt negligence, that that would probably be a situation where the athletic director could not serve through the end of the calendar year. And they said that they found no, you know, ongoing pattern or no smoking gun of malfeasance there. So then on the other hand, they said they didn't see anybody in charge who had, I believe their exact words were contemporaneous knowledge. of Sharon Moore's relationship with his assistant. But yeah, like you said, he's fired anyway. So clearly, that's what's going on.

And remember, this is what I want to point out, the timing of this. Michigan has an interim president, Domenico Grasso, who was supposed to be done by now. They selected a new president, Kent Severeut, who had been the president at Syracuse. He got diagnosed with brain cancer. So if that never happens, if Kent Severeux takes over on time, word manual would have already been gone.

That would have been taken care of. They'd have looked for new AD, probably hired one by now. And I think this is probably a, I don't want to do anything that will hamstring the new president. I want that person to be able to make this very important hire. Yeah, but at the same time, too, Andy, if there was something, like, if there was an overt piece of information that said he knew it then on this date, here's the proof. I don't know if they would have been able to keep him on through the rest of the year. So maybe it's just a. fresh start scenario. Maybe it's just too many things happened and it's time to move on.

I don't know, but I think that this is probably the conclusion that we are anticipating at the beginning of this news cycle early last week and it happened here on Monday. Yeah, it was interesting because, you know, the word started leaking out eight days ago. It was on a Sunday and that they were in negotiations to buy out Word Manual and that this was going to be done at some point. They had a Regents' meeting that had been previously scheduled on Thursday of last week. And then the region's meeting comes and goes and nothing happens. But in the middle of all that, Ward Manual did more talking than he usually did in his

decade as athletic record. He was not a very public AD, but he came out with a statement to Yahoo Sports. He did that, you know, pretty wide-ranging interview with Sam Webb with the Michigan Insider. And so it looked like he had decided, you know what? I'm going to fight for this thing. I'm going to fight for my job. and Thursday happens and you're like, okay, so maybe they're just going to wait until they hire the new president,

and then that's when it all happened, and then Monday morning just dumped out. During Greg Sanky's news conference with the media at SEC Media Days, the news broke. So probably not an accident. Yeah, Greg Sanky took the mic at 9 a.m. Eastern, I believe it was released at 9-10 Eastern. And typically when the SEC Commissioner talks at SEC Media Days,

the eyes of the sport are on that. And so that's probably what is now. I sat in on Greg Sankey's session at SEC Media Day. It was not particularly interesting. He didn't make a lot of news. He talked about the SEC still doesn't like the bill in Congress as it's written, and they still would prefer a 16-team playoff to a 24. That's pretty much it.

So nothing's really changed for that. But it's the music to my ears to hear it, by the way, as long as you're holding that line. I mean, it wasn't new, but it was at least refreshing, I thought. But in terms of distracting from the Ward Manual News, I don't think it helped. Yeah. I think that still was the biggest story in the sport. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, the Word Manual News is interesting because I don't think that most people truly care about athletic directors, but they do care about scandal. Yeah. So that this kind of is a, you know, obviously edges up against that given what happened with Sharon Moore. And I do think that it's an interesting. thing to continue to track, not only because Ward Manual's one of the more powerful people in Michigan Athletics, but because Michigan Athletics has been so successful

in both basketball and football. And they've done it in controversial ways in football multiple times now. So it's, you know, if I were a new president and I was going to be overseeing the university, given what has happened off the field, despite the success on it,

I would probably want a fresh start. Yeah, exactly. And it's interesting because, like, I've said, us throughout this process that a lot of times when an athletic department has had the kind of success that Michigan has had, where you're talking about a football national title in 2023, a basketball national title just this year, the fan base will rally around the AD or the embattled person almost no matter what. In this case, they were ready to kick him to the curb. I think part of

that is probably because of they won the football national title, Jim Harbaugh immediately left, which I don't know that Ward Manuel could have stopped, but he does get blamed for that by a lot of Michigan fans. And then the Dusty May thing, where, again, I don't know if Ward Manuel could have stopped Dusty May from going to the Dallas Mavericks, but it certainly doesn't help Ward Manuel's case that, yeah, he did make a good basketball hire and the guy won him a national title, and then he bounced immediately.

So that makes everybody mad. Then you have all these scandals. You have legitimate questions about who knew what, when with Sharon Moore and Paige Schiver, And so all of that in totality ends up with Ward Manual stepping down. Yeah. And, you know, Paige Schiver, too, was suing the University of Michigan, which is also, you know, more liability and stuff. So, you know, I don't think that there's anything overtly surprising. But if you were somebody who was waiting to see a smoking gun or here's the awful thing that Ward Manuel did and the proof that he did it, like, I don't think we're going to be getting any of that.

Well, and you had the thing leaked to the Wall Street Journal last week, which I still think is a direct response to Ward Manual deciding I'm going to fight for this thing. Somebody made sure that just to just nudge, nudge it, put the thumb on the scale just a little bit and said, hey, there was this document that they found in the investigation on Michigan letterhead where before Shimon Moore had even coached a game as Michigan's full-time head coach. He was told, don't travel with Page Shiver. And you pointed out on Friday show that a lot of Michigan folks and a lot of other folks explain that that doesn't necessarily have to be a smoking gun. There is a legitimate logical explanation you can make for that. And if that is the most damning thing you have, that's probably not going to be enough to say you've got to stop working immediately. But I think all of it together was enough to say, you know what, the new president's going to hire a new AD. Yeah. And Michigan obviously is going to do so with the hopes of continuing Ward Manual's success of and results on the field in both sports.

So, you know, I actually think that if you look back at Ward Manual's legacy, I don't know if he will be remembered for this, but I think he should be remembered for, you know, keeping Harbaugh on the fold long enough for them to turn the corner with the football program. But I don't know if you can ever look back in totality of it and not recall a lot of the things that happened. Yeah, I think you're going to think all. a lot about the, a lot about the negative stuff if you do. I do think if you wanted to say, what did he do that he did really well? I think managing the Harbaugh situation around the pandemic actually was a pretty good job by him.

Yes. Not a lot of ADs would have done where he cut Harbaugh's pay in half instead of firing him, which one little fire under Jim Harbaugh, and if you're a Michigan fan, you're probably saying, but that's why he left. I don't think that's why he left. I think he was going back to the NFL anyway. But it instead of resetting, which at that time, it's why he left.

It's why they won. You know, because they won, too. Yeah. They cut his pay in half and they also made him, they didn't make him. But part of that was he revamped his staff entirely. And that revamped staff was a huge reason why they recruited and developed better than they had before. And coached better than they had before. So, yeah, I think it's, it's, there's a lot of.

there's a lot of gray here. So it's not just he presided over a bunch of scandals. He's terrible. He's got to go. He did some things right, including that and hiring Dusty May. Yeah. Yeah. And the hiring of Dusty May was an incredible hire.

So, you know, I know it didn't last as long as they would have liked, but at least it lasted long enough for them to win the national title. So, yeah, I think that that's a good place to close the book on this. But I think that you and I both were pretty, you know, on guard and ready for this news to come at some point. Well, also, it's a really good job. And so what happens next is they'll go find somebody else. I do think, again, they probably want to identify the new president first,

and then that person can ID the new athletic director. Michigan has historically been a place where they hire from within the family. And I found it there's a message board post on the Wolverine, our what Michigan cited on three, last week. week that was really interesting to me because, you know, is the typical, hey, the AD is probably on his way out. Let's talk about who they should hire. And the first post was the usual, you know, here's a list of names of people who are affiliated with the school who, you know, you've gone to the, you know, gone on to the places and had success or they want to come back. And the post immediately

under that said, how about maybe somebody who isn't from Michigan? And it was interesting because there were a bunch of people right under that one that were like, you know what? We agree with that. Maybe it's time to look outside the family. And so I wonder, do they cast a bigger net as they go looking for the new AD? Yeah. And I think it's important. River pointed this out in the text behind the scenes here, Andy, but I think it's important to also, you know, as you talk about the success that Ward Manuel had in the hirings and the retentions of coaches or lack thereof, you know, in the scales of that, I think that in a few years, it'll be very interesting to see what kind of parting gift Kyle Whittingham turns out to be because they were in a really tough position from a

hiring cycle standpoint in football. And maybe you can make the case that part of the reason they were in that position is because of the lack of action that Ward Manual had with Sharon Moore when he knew things earlier. But it's possible that Michigan might look back at this in a few years ago. Holy crap, I can't believe we got Kyle Whittingham. So we'll see how that goes. Yeah, they also just thank the Utah brass for paying Kyle Whittingham $13 million to take

the Michigan shot. Yeah. But I'm saying of all the ways that that could have gone in terms of replacing the coach, I think Michigan somehow landed on its feet during a time that it could have been very detrimental to the football program. So, and that's the thing. So they do have Kyle Whittingham on board, and that is something that the new AD is going to inherit, which is probably going to be a good thing. That Kyle Whittingham, I would think, given what we know of him for the past 20 years as a head coach,

would probably be a nice steadying force for Michigan football and probably will coach them pretty well into a lot of wins. So there's a good situation to walk into. To piggyback off the last thing, he said he's not a Michigan man either. So we'll see how that goes. But I think at times, too, when things become, you know, this is an interesting talking point of how important is it to, you know, hire from within, within the family. If your coach has to be a native of Michigan or had gone to the school and alma mater, all that stuff, like if things go sour or you feel like there is maybe an overhaul that needs to be done within the athletic program or the team itself, I do think that it's healthy to look at people who are competent. that aren't from there that will have a steadying hand that maybe can give you a fresh star across the board

when it comes to not just only who you hired in athletics, but stabilizing the program and the administrators and even the staffers behind the scenes that you never see on TV. Yeah, and also the job of AD has just changed so much lately. When Warder Manuel was hired in 2016, he was coming from Buffalo. He'd had success at the mid-major level,

and it was just a different job. Now it's much more revenue generation. It's still fun. like it always was, but it's more figuring out revenue generation, figure out how to manage rosters that you're paying. And that's a different job. And I think you're finding people who've had experience in pro sports probably have a little better handle on some of the stuff that you've got to do now.

So I'll be interested to see if that's where they look or what direction they want to go in because I think it's going to be a fascinating search. But again, until we know who their next full-time president is, we probably won't know who the finalists are for the athletic director position. Who knows? It may be somebody that that person knows or has worked with before. So we'll wait and find out about that. But Ari, I'm at SEC Media Days. We got to talk about everything going on here.

Missouri and Oklahoma here this morning, as we're recording this, Tennessee and Kentucky are arriving. Right before we started recording, I was chatting with Taylor Wine, the edge rusher from Oklahoma, who is a great, dude, by the way, great dude. Incredible shoes. Kind of like loafers that look like they were made of a Jersey cow. If that makes sense? It doesn't make sense. I can't picture that at all in my head. So what's a jersey cow?

That's the white and the black one. Oh. White with black splotches. Yeah. Okay. Now I can picture it. I didn't know that those are. Yeah. It's very, very Oklahoma. And then obviously John Maters here as well. this is a team, if you've been watching this show, that we feel like is flying a bit under the radar. The BetMGM win total of seven and a half. When that was released, I said that one I feel comfortable telling you to hit the over on

because I just feel like this team is going to be a better version of the team that went 10 and 2 and made the playoff last year against a very difficult schedule. And Ari, I don't know if you agree with me on this, but after talking to some more people, today, I feel even more confident in that. Yeah. Well, it is cool because we are entering a new era of college football and you go to the media event for a conference. You also might get to talk to the GM of a team. That's not typically what you were doing at SEC Media Days in 2010 or 15 or 20 for that matter. But getting a good idea of the pulse of the roster of the football team that Oklahoma, you know, comes back. It looks like you had a pretty good inside look.

at that today. Exactly. So you know him, you love him because he used to come on the show weekly during the football season when he was the executive director of Senior Bowl. Now Jim Nagy is in charge of the roster at Oklahoma and it looks like he's doing a pretty great job. Here is Jim. Honored to be joined by Jim Nagy. I almost said executive director of the Senior Bowl. Used to come on the show all the time and we were like, this is the executive director Because your general manager at Oklahoma, listen, you worked in pro football for a long time. You worked in a lot of different personnel departments. Is it still weird to hear yourself referred to as a general manager of a college team?

Yeah, because I never saw myself working in college football. It's the biggest reason why, you know, forever coaches did all the evaluations and they weren't paying players. So I just didn't think my skill set fit. So yeah, it feels a little weird to say university of anything. But it feels right now, I mean, being at Oklahoma, past year. It's been incredible. Well, and this is this team that's going to be on the field that we'll see in about a month and a half is your first full cycle. You know, you got to do the spring portal

window last year, but this is, this is the roster that you've been building since you got there. And it's interesting because it's a, it's a good mix of high profile recruits at a high school, guys you got out of the portal, guys you kept. And you have some very interesting stories about guys you kept because you're, you're one of the few who's got somebody who was at the combine this year who's playing on your team and that's owen heineke yeah no it's it's going to be it's going to be a fun year man we like this team um we like the talent level of the team and we like the character of this team so um yeah it's going to be it's going to be exciting man um you know just coming off last year uh coach venable's thing right now is good to great we had a good we had a good year last

year there's a lot of things we can improve upon um and now we're we're trying to take that next step well so i want to ask you what you've learned in the last you know year And how much time do you have? We've got it. We as much as you want because this is the stuff our audience just eats up. They've been fascinated by this whole thing. And I'm so glad that we finally get a chance to really break this down. Because you and I have talked about this job and the transition into this job.

But I'm curious to know, you know, for you, what was the biggest adjustment coming from the world of pro football to to a college football world that looks more like pro football than it ever has? Yeah, I mean, my role is certainly a lot different than it was when I was scouting in the NFL. So the roles changed. But, you know, I've been inside college buildings for 20 years, but never worked inside a college building before. So it's been a lot of learning, taking a lot of notes, had to go back to summer refresh. Okay, what was I thinking in October? What happened in November? So, yeah, everything was happening for the first time.

So I'm excited to attack a calendar year or two where I've at least been through everything once. Yeah. But yeah, just the cadence of the building and learning the culture and what's valued and, you know, just big picture wise. Yeah. You know, not to get too specific. But yeah, there's constant learning. You know, and then just constantly learning the team. Yeah.

You know, players to the players to watch tape every day and be at practice every day. So, yeah, it's been a lot of times. So you know what you had. Because that's the thing. And I remember talking you early last season and you were explaining to me what you had. in Owen Heineke and what you had in Taylor Wine. And these were guys that at that point, the general public didn't know much about them yet.

Yeah, they were about to blow up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the fun part is, you know, you go through spring and you see them and then you get in a fall camp. And then you start to realize, and then they have summer.

You know, these guys are off in May, but they're back in June and they're lifting, getting stronger. And so you get to fall camp, which we're going to be here in a couple weeks. I mean, some of these guys are going to look different than they even did in the spring.

Yeah. some of the younger guys just understanding the schemes better and playing faster. So that's the most fun part is you get into fall camp and there's going to be some really good position battles and seeing guys elevate. Like I knew I knew Taylor was poised to have a big year. And then Owen just kind of took off in fall camp. So I don't know who those players are going to be. We were talking about it on the flight in yesterday. But there is, you know, a handful of guys right now that are ready to make that jump that we just don't know who they are yet.

Well, let's talk about Owen because he, he, he, he, went into last season thinking it was going to be his last season. He's got a really interesting story. Went to play lacrosse originally at Ohio State, end up coming to you guys as a walk on. And now, you know, he, you basically said, okay, you're going to have to go through the NFL process because we don't know if you're going to get the other year. But he said, you told him, we're getting your last year. Well, I'm always optimistic. You have to testify in court for this. I did. I did. Take the stand for the first time in my life and hopefully last time. But No, Owen's a key piece, man.

And we didn't know. We knew we had to appeal. So he had a senior bowl invite. You know, he had a Combine invite. So he went through that whole process. He had a great Pro Day on campus. It was crazy to watch him juggle everything he had going on. He was literally living in two different worlds.

He gets through the Combine and Pro Day. Teams are flying coaches, linebacker coaches, to work him out in Norman. He's flying to NFL teams to spend time in their buildings. At the same time, he was at our practice. is going through the script, like coaching our young linebackers. Like he did a phenomenal job. So to get him back on the team, like it's hard to put into words how big it was for us because Kip Lewis is a phenomenal player.

I mean, I haven't been around too many players in my football career that play as hard as Kip does and the passion he plays with. So usually when you have a guy like that, like you also don't want him being like the main communicator. Right. And we, to, you know, hedge our bets, we didn't know if we'd get Owen back. We'd go out in the portal, get Cole. Sullivan, great player from Michigan.

We're so fired up to get cold. That was a big one for us. But again, for him to learn Coach Venable's defense, which is probably as complex as any in college football, to put that, you know, to make him the quarterback of the defense in year one, probably would have been a lot. And he was a stats major at Michigan. And I mean, I didn't do. I took two stats classes at Michigan. I didn't do real well. So to get Owen back.

And now he's kind of, you know, runs the show on defense. So he's the green dot now. He's the green dot. And just the leadership he brings, man. Like he's so connected with his teammates. He's such an unbelievable human being that like it's, again, it's hard to put into words how big he is for this football team. I was talking to Taylor Wine about this. Taylor Wine, you're obviously a very good edge rusher who is back this year.

And I asked him how much it mattered to him to be a guy who was an Oklahoma guy, who played his whole career at Oklahoma. Because I imagine after his year last year, there were probably inquiries into what, you know, whether he might be willing to to go somewhere else. But he said it mattered to him that his kids get to go to Oklahoma and that he, you know, when he's around the state, that he's an Oklahoma guy. He's a sooner and not something else. Yeah, I think the biggest thing there, Andy, is just identifying the right guys out of high school,

which Coach Venables and the staff have done a really good job of and we're going to continue to do. I think the person is almost more important than the player. getting the person right. And people always ask me all the time going back to the NFL stuff. Like, who'd you miss on? Who's your biggest miss? I'm like, well, how long do you got? But usually when you miss, you know, going back and trying to study where I missed or the team missed in the draft,

like we usually missed on the person. And so just identifying the right guys that are about the right stuff. Yeah, I think if any player jumped in the portal, he'd probably find more money in there. But if they value the right things and they value the brotherhood and the culture and the development. I say all the time, Sunday money trumps Saturday money. Like, yes, guys are making a lot of money in college football. But if the end goal is the NFL, which it should be for all the guys who were recruiting to Oklahoma, like have that, like have your, your eyesight on that. And we're going to be competitive on the money side. Don't get me wrong. But it's a balance. You're trying to pay 100 plus

players. So, so to get Taylor back was was massive for us. Well, and also just being, you're a legend at a place like Oklahoma or even, not even a legend, but someone who is a really good. player for four or five years at a place like Oklahoma, there's value in that. Tremendous value. Beyond college. Tremendous value. So, yeah, like at our, you have, you have somewhere to come home to. Like, this is your home. For our spring game this year, we had over 250 alumni players come back for that. Like, there's a real brotherhood. That thing, I think, I think the outside world thinks that that's being lost in college football right now. And maybe it is other places. I can speak to Oklahoma. It's certainly not. Like, the brotherhood is,

is so real right now at our place. And again, this is a little, not totally topical, but because Roy Williams is a legendary player. Absolutely. But like Roy Williams, you know, goes and has best player in OU defensive history, probably, can make the case for that. It has an unbelievable career at the Dallas Cowboys.

He moves back to the state. This guy's from California originally. He was a Cali sooner. And so he moves, but he moves to Oklahoma after he's done in the NFL and has built an unbelievable business, multiple businesses in the Oklahoma just on its name recognition. And you don't have to be Roy Williams to have that kind of name recognition.

It doesn't hurt to have that over the line jump. The Superman play? Yeah. You call it the Superman play. Yeah, that was incredible. Yeah. It doesn't hurt to have that in the Cotton Bowl every once in a while. But so I'm curious about this because, you know, everything keeps evolving in your world

in terms of, you know, how much you've got to pay guys at a high school, how much you've got to pay guys in the portal. you guys are swimming in both worlds. At a place like Oklahoma, you've got to try to recruit top 100 high school players. You've also got to try to get some of the best players out of the portal. How do you balance how you spend what you've got? Well, I think the bigger challenge, Andy, and I appreciate the question. I think the bigger challenge is balancing the acquisition cost out of high school right now,

which if you're going after top 100 players is exorbitant. And again, we have to go get great play. at Oklahoma, but not at the expense of the culture in your building. And so just going back to a year ago at this time, not here at SEC media days, but Big Ten media days, one of the coaches got to the mic, and I try to watch all these interviews. I try to take something from all of them. And he openly admitted that he lost his football team the year before. And the smart follow-up question was, well, why do you say that, coach?

And he said, because my upperclassman, who had been blood, sweat and tears for the for three or four years, started to learn what the incoming freshmen were making in, I lost my team. And so Coach Venables and the coaches have done such a great job of building culture and setting a standard that I can blow that up real quickly in my chair if the books get all out of whack. So you got to find top hundred players that are about the right stuff. And again, we're going to be competitive. We want to be in the right ballpark. But they understand the big picture too. They're like, when you lay, it out to him that way like look when you're a senior a junior you don't want us paying for unproven

freshman more than you and they're like well that makes sense so yeah that to me that's the hardest balance right now of my role so working with brett venables it's interesting because these college coaches have been used to being their own general managers that they they've been the last basically the buck stops with them on personnel decisions how much of an adjustment was that for both of you guys to to come in and work together um I think you can ask Brent this too, but I mean, we had to get on the same page really quick, even on the interview day. I mean, I had 24 hours in Norman to figure out whether this was going to be the right job. And no, Brent's been unbelievable.

And it's not about, you know, his guy or my guy or, you know, coaching staff versus scouting. Like, that's been the coolest part of year one is seeing that cohesion come together in the communication. I told our scouts when we got there, I'm like, guys, put your heads down and work because this structure is very different from what the coaches are used to is to like earn their respect, earn their trust. And to see that, you know, come about over the course of the last 12 months has been awesome. But when when they get to Norman, they are our guy, you know, it's none of this. Like, you're a guy, my guy. Like, we're on the same page. Like, if we don't see it the same, there's, I said it when I took the job, there's a million high school players out there.

If he and I can't get on the same page, like, it's not, it's not going to, it's not going to happen. But that's, that's the collaboration. You're never going to say, we got to have this guy. I'm taking this guy. No, never, no, never, never do that. would never again just going way back in time to uh 1996 i actually shared this story with brent on my interview day um i'm interning for the green bay packers legendary future hall of fame gm ron wolf is on the staff and they had to drive them to

Milwaukee to the airport because not a lot of flights go right green bay austin stravel airport um so i i drive in i'm all nervous i'm 22 years old i've got this good guy i'm looking up to in the seat next to me and he's getting out of the car and i said mr wolf can ask you a question and he's like yeah what's that and i'm like you know if i'm ever fortunate enough to get an insurer like yours like you have any advice and he was like yeah don't ever force players on a coach and i was like you know i'm 22 i'm like can you expand on that a little bit and he was like he's like yeah if like the coaches aren't invested in the player like they can undermine their career they won't put as much into them like got it and so i'm like brent we'll never do that like we're going

to be in lockstep you know coaching staff same thing applies to the position coach yeah Like if the position goes doesn't like me, either what we're essentially doing college football, this new version of college football moves so fast. I don't know if other schools have kept up quick enough. I just think when the administration took a broad view of what we were doing, the time allocation for the coaches to, you know, evaluate the players, recruit the players,

develop the players, and then also throw negotiating and all that on top, when they're supposed to be like their mentors. And again, most these kids have agents nowadays, but not all of them. Right. I mean, you're still so. Even if you have any, like I've had an agent before and I've done contracts

without an agent, it can feel adversarial even when it's not, even whenever he's just trying to make a deal. And you don't want that with the head coach or the position coaches. And then the other thing we don't do, like we don't share what these guys, what our players make with our coaches. Right. Because a lot of times, you know, families and players are leery of, oh, well, my son is making less than those other guys so he might not play him like no they don't know i also wouldn't

want my coach saying i got to play this guy because we're paying him more money yeah correct correct exactly so we yeah because i've i've had people say well they're paying this in not your school but they're paying this quarterback it's in a legitimate competition but they're paying this guy more money i was like if it's my coach i just wanted to pick the best guy correct yeah so that's again i'm sharing a lot about our our how we do it but that's that's how we do yeah so i got to tell you you changed the way I look at college football talent evaluation judging. So we were at SEC Media Days three years ago. You were in your role with the senior ball.

And you and I were talking. And we were talking about different schools. And you said, hey, you really need to pay as much attention as possible to Michigan this year because there are this many NFL graded players in their senior class. And then this many guys who are probably NFL players who will be in there too deep. And I think that, you know, because I was in the mold of, you know, what did you bring in in recruiting? How many five stars did you get? And really, but it's about the guys you're going to put on the field this year.

And, you know, how much do you take from what you learned at the senior bowl about, you know, because you'd had to, you would have to evaluate these guys and figure out, is this someone the NFL people want to see, you know, making sure that you're putting as many future NFL players on the field as you can. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's just a fact right now. The street got broken last year with Indiana. But if you went back to the Joe Burrow team, whatever that was, 18 or 19. 2019, yeah. At LSU, every national champion also led the NFL draft and picks that year. Oh, wow.

So Indiana broke that streak last year. So again, there's a correlation there. And that's why I feel good about this year's team. I mean, if you include the juniors that I think could leave, Taylor Wine being one of them, I think we've got between 11, 12, and 15 draft picks. And if you have that many draft picks, we had seven last year and went to the playoff. So if you just look at it that way, like, and with great coaching, which we have,

you should have a really competitive team. How many calls do you get from your former brethren in the NFL? How do I get one of these college jobs? Not as many as you would think. Really? Not as many as you would do. Do they think it's just too much of a headache? I think that's being overblown right now.

We've got a couple of former guys on staff. It was important when I was putting their team together is having some guys of the NFL experience. So we've got, including myself over 70 years of NFL experience, Lake Dawson holding 30 of those. But no, not as much as you would think. No, I think there are some guys. I think the advantage, I'll put it this way.

Like, yes, college football has a lot of things we need to work through structurally and, you know, guidelines-wise. But if you look at the actual job of watching, and evaluating players. Like, these college jobs are great jobs now in the right system. Like at OU, these are great jobs, in my opinion, because you're doing all the same work that we did in the 20 years. I was in the NFL, but you're not away from your family 200 nights a year,

which I was, which puts a lot of strain on a family. So, I mean, and you're on the team, and you're there on game days. And you're like, there's, and you're part of the build, you're part of the recruiting. Like, the actual jobs are awesome. Yeah. But I just think the lure of the NFL is. always strong. And, you know, I was that guy too. I grew up on to work in the NFL and I was very

fortunate. I realized those dreams. But yeah, I think there's a lot of talk out there. The NFL guys are looking to come down to college, but I don't get a lot of calls. Well, they will probably following your example if they get one of these jobs because this has been pretty successful so far. And that was an experiment when you started. But it's got to feel pretty good that it's working. I will say last year, the biggest value that our staff created for the Oklahoma team, team 131 last fall was that we allowed Brent Venables to coach the defense and do what he does. Now, yes, where we met every Sunday, there was a lot of times. I had to pick my spot, but when he's in the defensive staff room right next door to my office,

I'd have to pop in, hey, Brent, I need you for 10 minutes. You got some time, five minutes here, 10 minutes there. But it really allowed him to focus on the defense. Like I said, he's the best in college football at that. So let's create a structure where he can focus. on that and be that. And this year's team, yeah, there'll be more players on the field. We went in the portal and got some, you know, good additions.

We're excited to see what it looks like. But last year, I mean, that was all on the coaches and the job they did in the players. Well, good luck. Cannot wait to see Team 132. Yeah. That's right. Thanks, Andy. Okay, all right, that's Jim Nagy.

And he seems very confident. And interesting that he talks about, you know, basically, I'll never force a player on Brent Ventibibles. We will always be able to find common ground. with players. And I think that's probably how you have to approach this because, you know, these college coaches, I realize Brent Ventbells had not been a college head coach for very long

when this arrangement was made by Oklahoma. But they are used to having firm control over personnel. And this is a different animal. This is a much more NFL-style model where basically the GM and the coach report up to the athletic director to the president. and they're kind of on parallel tracks. So, like, there's two ways of looking at it, too, because whenever I think of Jim Nagy, I also think of like Kalani Sataki and what he told us at Big 12 Media Days when we had

him on the show last week, Andy, which is I want to be a coach and I want to coach football and I want the personnel and the financial decisions to be made by our general manager or our support staff. But I think it's interesting because to a certain extent, you know, during Brent Venables rise in this business as the defensive coordinator, the longtime defensive coordinator, I should say at Clemson, you know,

how did Davosweeney do what he did? It was by controlling the roster and being a very good evaluator and recruiter, bringing in players and developing them. And I do think that there's a certain level of, well, I could understand why Brent Venables would be frustrated or annoyed by not having the power of a final say or by not being the only person who makes his decisions on his personnel. But then on the other hand, with how much the job has changed in the last few years

and how much stuff that regular coaches have to deal with that are so different and outside the scope of just coaching football, I think it also could be a relief. So I also think you have to have the right personality to work with it. But did you get a sense that things are going well with them and their relationship? Like, you know, because I can totally, I'm happy that it's going well for Oklahoma. I can totally see, and we will see in the future, when these relationships go sour with other people that don't like the situation they're in.

And I think part of it is Jim's personality fits this, and Jim understands his place in the organization and knows that it would not have been smart to come in and say, well, what I say goes in terms of personnel. And I also thought, you know, what he's told me about that he makes it a point to not tell the coaches what the players are making. I think that's smart.

It's like what Kalani Sataki told us. The coaches don't need to be thinking about this guy's making this much in salary as they're making personnel decisions, as they're deciding who plays and who doesn't play, or which running back gets more carries, or should they throw the ball or run the ball? They should not be thinking one bit about the investment they're making in the player. They should just be thinking about how do we win the game.

And I think in the NFL, that's how the best organizations work. I go back to the Seahawks in, I can't remember the year is escaping me, but they signed Matt Flynn as a free agent. Matt Flynn had played some really good games for the Packers the year before, and they signed him as a free agent and spent a good amount of money on him. And then they draft Russell Wilson and to Pete Carroll's credit, he's like, that's our guy. He's better.

And they end up winning a Super Bowl because of it. So that's the decision. have to make. You cannot let money govern your decisions when it comes to football. It's also kind of a pure way of figuring out whether your money is well allocated because if the two things are different branches, it would be very interesting too to see, you know, if Nagy and the boys decided to pay a bunch of money for a player. And then when he gets on the roster, Brent Venable separates that. Now, listen, there's no question that he has at least an understanding of who is who and who's making what, right? Like, he might not know the numbers to the T. But he knows who the most compensated

players are. I can't even remember who he was talking about today earlier in an interview. He said, oh, that guy was one of our lowest paid players last year. And so, yeah, he's aware. I mean, like, if you ask Oklahoma fans, the fans have an idea of who's getting paid the most and who isn't. Like, that's not something that he's completely naive to. But I do think that it's healthy to have a line in the sand there. And I wonder, Andy, we talked, is this going to be the new guard of college football?

It hasn't really gone that way at a lot of places yet. But in 10 years, do you think this is going to be normal? Well, and I think if Brent Venables had been a head coach for 10 years before this, it might have been a little bit different situation. I think the fact that Brent Venables had only been Oklahoma's head coach for a couple of years made it where it was much more tolerable and much easier to accept that, hey, this is how the new world is going to work. I think as we see the older generation phasing out, and it's crazy because Brent Reynolds is actually the oldest coach in the SEC. at 55, but he was an assistant for a long time before he got his shot as a head coach. He's young in his head coaching career. And I think as we see the guys who've been head coaches for a long time cycle out,

we'll see more of these arrangements. Because it is kind of amusing to think like somebody telling Kirby smart, that's how it's going to go in Athens. Like that probably wouldn't be a fun conversation. Now, do you want to hear why I'm even more confident? It's not just talking to Jim, but talking to some of these Oklahoma guys around here today, let me give you a couple reasons why again I'm more confident and it's just sort of reinforcing

some of the stuff we've been told already Ari where we we've talked to some people the draft nick type people and you heard Jim say that they they feel like there's anywhere between 11 and 15 draftable like players who would be drafted in next year's draft on this roster which is you know that that's the type of and he's not blowing smoke guys remember he's this is his entire like professional career is is grading guys and knowing what draftable players look like. I mean, that was his whole job at the senior bowl was, was which of these players are going to be drafted next year.

Like, he'd have to go through tape of every player in college football who's going to be draft eligible and say, who do I think is going to actually get drafted? Who should I put in front of the NFL, you know, NFL personnel people, the senior ball? So yes, that's, that is indeed what he's been doing. And so I thought that was interesting. and talking to people about their tight-in situation is really now.

Jason Witton's coaching tight-ins there now, which is, I mean, all-time great. You'd ever know when somebody's an all-time great player if that's going to convert. But the roster itself, tight-in-wise, is just better. Two years ago, they really were not a good blocking unit. Last year, they were not a great blocking unit. And I think part of the issues in the run game for Oklahoma were the tight ends didn't block as well as they could. And I think they're going to block better this year at that position. and then you're also going to have a little bit better offensive line than they had.

They should be able to run the ball. And what have we said? That was the biggest weakness in their offense last year. So a healthy John Mateer, and if they're somewhat capable, I'm not saying they need to turn into 1980 Georgia with Herschel Walker. I'm saying they need to run the ball enough so the defenses stay honest. I think they're going to be able to do that. And if they can, I mean, it could be a really big year for Oklahoma.

Yeah. And Andy, I think that the thing that you found interesting was the most interesting thing because we've had discussions all offseason about what is the magic number of NFL guys you have to possess on a roster to win a national championship now. And I know that there's, you know, difference between having three or four, you know, players who are drafted in the first or second round. But I think having 12 draftable players on your roster is probably around that number, right? Maybe, you know, in the past. said, Indiana was the outlier. But you go back to LSU, then Alabama, then the two Georgia titles, Michigan, and those teams dominant. And then Ohio State and 24, those teams had the most players drafted the next year. Like, they went from winning the national title to having the most players drafted. And I think that people understand, too, that a fifth round draft pick is a very good college player. I mean, like, so. Well, it's also like getting back to Brent Venable's old boss.

It's why we criticized Clemson so much for their record last year, because they did have nine players drafted, and most of them were drafted really high. So that's what was a little bit shocking about them, because we thought, okay, you should be better with those, those number of draftees. Absolutely. But I'm very curious. I think Oklahoma was a very interesting team, not just on the field this year, but as their continued journey into this new world.

I mean, you know, Nagy has been there for one year and they've made the playoff. So, so far, so good there. And, you know, maybe they'll overperform, but seven and a half, Andy, as you pointed out, all year seems low. And, you know, now it's obviously up there Venables who, you know, got some renewed energy in terms of his job security and the way people view him at Oklahoma to continue to keep his foot on the gas and get that team into a position to compete for championships and

you know obviously CFP appearances well and it may be that also they've seen that they can help him do the thing and this is what Jim said in the interview like they are going to let him do the things Brent Venables that is that he's really good at

and maybe they take off his plate the things that and Jim didn't say this but I can say it maybe they take off his plate the things he wasn't as strong at so you create a stronger organization And, you know, Roger Denny, their new athletic directors walking around here, too. He came from Illinois. You know, Ari, we on this show believe the Brett Beelma seal of approval is a very important thing.

Roger Denny was in Illinois with Brett Beelma. Beelma, I believe, said he cried when he left for Oklahoma. Yeah. So I think that's a pretty ringing endorsement. And having talked to Roger a little bit and Destin and seeing him today, they're very competently managed at Oklahoma. So this is going to be a fun year, I think. Yeah, can't wait to watch them. All right, all right, we're looking at Oklahoma's schedule.

Obviously tough. That last game, though, very interesting. The Missouri Tigers, and they made some news today. Eli Drinkwitz was here at SEC Media Days, and he had an update on Missouri running back, Amad Hardy. Mon Hardy, of course, over the offseason, unfortunately was shot while at a concert back home in Mississippi, and it was unclear whether he was going to be able to play this season,

what the timetable is going to be for his return. We have a little more clear timetable now. Eli Drinkwitz said today at SEC Media Days that Amad Hardy is cleared to return to participation, not necessarily return to play yet. But Drinkwit said that could be somewhere between five and eight weeks. And if we look at the calendar, that means there's a pretty good chance he could either be ready for the season opener or be ready. Week three is Troy. I'm guessing if it goes into week three because they play Kansas week two.

which might be a tough game guys it might but but if am iardy's not quite ready yet you don't play in there and i'd say probably hold off on the troy game and then he'd be ready potentially week four when they're at mississippi state and their cc opener yeah you know and i guess in this new world um you know even if the disaster struck and they were to lose the kansas game they're not cooked completely in this new playoff system but i do think that that's a pretty big piece of news and probably what you would have expected after the terrible news that he had been involved in that incident a few months ago. So timeline-wise, I think Missouri is probably in a pretty good position.

And of course, you know, I think he's maybe the best running back in the entire sport. And he'll be a huge cog to whatever they do, you know, in this season's, you know, schedule. So, but it is quite interesting to think that, you know, Eli Drinkwitz made news on Monday for saying something about the Big Ten and scheduling. and they might not have their star player against a team that might be pretty tough on the road in Kansas. Yeah. Yeah, one of their tougher non-conference opponents. Obviously, that's a longtime rival, the border war.

They were rivals in the Big Eight, rivals in the Big 12. But, yeah, maybe you get a Mart Hardy back. Maybe you don't. Mont Hardy last year, just to point out, 256 carries, 1,649 yards. That's a 6.4-yard per carry average, 16 rushing touchdowns. But I will point out also that Jamal Roberts, who they also have. back was a six-yard-carry guy and got 124 carries last year. So, you know, if you need him to be your number one back for a few games, he's more than capable of that. But yeah, you mentioned

that Missouri plays Kansas in the non-conference. They play Illinois next year, the non-conference, which is another reason why I found it interesting that he was talking about the Big Ten. But so what happened was Ross Delinger from Yahoo asked Eli a question about, you know, what the Big Ten has done that has probably helped them to win the last three national titles. And Eli Drinkwood said that, you know, obviously they had some good teams, but he then said this. I distinctly remember last year being the SEC meetings when we were discussing the eight to nine game scenario. And we were being told if we didn't vote to go to a nine game schedule, then the playoffs wouldn't expand. And so we made that decision.

But in hindsight, we did not recognize or I didn't recognize. I was talking about Eli Drickwitz, that they didn't play an A4 game and the autonomy for, so they're talking about they don't require a non-conference game against one of the other power four conferences, which the SEC requires, the Big 10 required, or the Big 12 requires, and the ACC also requires. So you have teams like Penn State in Indiana that are playing zero power four conference opponents. Now, obviously, Ohio State is going to Texas, so they don't belong in this conversation. Illinois, we mentioned they're going to play Missouri next year.

They played Duke last year. Rutgers is playing multiple power for opponents. So it's not everybody, but it is some of them, including the defending national champ. Yeah. I think it's important to point out that Michigan's non-conference schedule in 2023 when they won the national title was East Carolina, UNLV, and Bowling Green. so there is two schedules and I don't remember who did Ohio State play in the non-conference

the year they won the national championship. They played somebody, didn't they? Ohio State, 2024 schedule, we'll figure it out. This is good time. Hold on, let me Google it. Yeah, well, you know, you got to do.

Yeah, Ohio State when they won the national championship played Akron, Western Michigan, and Marshall. So the last three Big Ten championship. So let's give him his flowers here. The last three big national champions from the Big Ten didn't play at an out-of-conference power school and the non-conference. This is where we point. I mentioned Ohio State goes to Texas. Oklahoma will host, excuse me, Michigan will host Oklahoma this year.

So Oregon goes to Oklahoma State, which last year was not a good game. We expect it will be a much more interesting game this year. So it's not everybody, again. But, you know, it's funny because you initially poo-poo, this when we were talking off the air, are you? Well, I still do. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you think that if you added Wake Forest to Indiana schedule last year,

they wouldn't have won the title? Like, I just like, I don't understand, like, what? I don't understand. Yeah, they played, they played an SEC team in the playoff and beat him 38 to 3. So I do think, so, like, even if you would have put Georgia on Indiana's non-conference and Indiana would have lost at the beginning of the year, do we still think that that's the thing?

Like, I think that, like, here's the thing. I think that, like, here's the thing. I agree. with the notion that everybody in all these conferences, if they're going to be playing in the same system, should be forced to adhere to the same guidelines. Like, I think that the Big Ten should play a non-conference game. Everyone in the Big Ten should do exactly what the SEC is doing.

So, like, I understand the resentment that SEC coaches hold toward the Big Ten because they're not asked to do the same thing. I'm not for it from a, from a, you know, I think it's unfair to the SEC standpoint. I'm for it because it makes for better. games when they do that. Yeah. But so, but I do understand the resentment though. Like I get why you want to say it every time there's a microphone in your face, because if you're doing the same thing and playing in the same system, then you want everybody to have the same struggles as you. I get it. If you worked at a tire shop and one person got an extra hour break, you would be resentful of that.

So like, it's not, it's not, I don't, that's not where my anger comes from. My anger comes from comments like that that don't make sense. Like, it's, that's not. That's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. the reason they might have had easier paths to the playoffs certainly that i think that there's always going to be easier paths of the playoffs i think some people within the SEC have an easier path than the playoffs than the others there's no way to ever make it completely equitable like an nfl schedule musnusory was one of those teams the last two years that transitional cc schedule between the divisional schedule and this one which starts the new nine game schedule with the with the rotations and with the the three you know permanent opponents

the Missouri got a nice draw the last two years you know I think the the Oklahoma and Florida and Mississippi State would have killed for the draw that Missouri had the last two years so it is not even equal in within conferences so but I get where Eli Jurykits is coming from I would prefer it just for sort of uniformity but also again I would just like to see better games so yeah I And we told Kurt Signetti, please schedule better. Penn State schedule better. Like, that's, that sucks that you don't play anybody in the non-conference. I am open to hearing the message.

I feel like, and I don't know if it's just me, but every single time the SEC gathers around and their microphones around, I become enraged by a comment like this. And it's just because it's just maybe who I am. But it's like, it is red meat for their constituents. So you have to understand that they, they're, they don't serve you. they're serving their own fans, their own constituents, and that is red meat for that group. But can I tell you why the Big Ten has won the last three national championships, Andy?

It's because the best team in the country happened to be in the Big Ten the last three years. It's not a scheduling, it's not a scheduling, you know, conspiracy theory here. Like, so I can on one hand agree with it. And it doesn't preclude that the best team will be from the SEC this year. There's a really good chance the best team could be from the SEC this year. Yeah. And that team might lose a game that the Big Ten doesn't play. this year and still go on to win the championship.

There aren't a lot of undefeated national champions going around. I know Indiana just did it. But other than Indiana, the teams were talking about, well, maybe not Penn State, but most of the teams were talking about from the Big Ten that we think could be in this mix, do play a game like this. Yes. So, you know, I do

think that big of a deal. My prevailing takeaway, though, Andy, is I agree that everybody should play by the same rules, but I also don't think that that's the drastic reason why these are things are happening. Well, also, if you're in the SEC, and you spent the last 10 years going, well, nobody told you suckers to play nine. We're playing eight.

Like, it's the same thing. Nobody told you suckers to require it. That's what the big 10 people are saying now. Yeah. And, you know, let's be honest, too. Mizzou has been a much better program after drink than before drink. But at the same time, they're not in conference schedule. But yeah.

Well, last year, they're non-conference schedule with Central Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana. So they ended up beating Kansas And I guess if they're playing that game is the difference maker But it's not like they're out there playing You know USC on the road or something Like they're playing their rival game And they're and they were quite down last year You know they beat the crap out of Ohio State

In the Cotton Bowl a few years ago But that was before they beat Lincoln Keyhole Lincoln Keyholtz So They beat the ever-loving crap out of them at their highest level Andy did not take it away from them Also yeah if I were a Mizzou fan I would not I mean I hope that's not the peak

of Mizzou's existence under the drink era. But, you know, certainly. I don't think it is. I think I think he's done a really good job. And I also think, you know, with a healthy Amad Hardy, you look at the, you know, Caden Green was here today, their offensive tackle. My God, that guy is massive and he's such a good

athlete. And you're talking about potential first round draft pick. Like, this is a good program. This is a program in a really good place. He was. That is very good news about Amad Hardy. And Drink was a hireable or a candidate to be a hireable asset to a major big time program and he stayed. So I don't want to, this isn't just come down on him.

And again, for the fifth time, I appreciate the desire for everybody to be playing by the same rules. Well, I also appreciate that drink tells us what's on his mind when we ask him because he doesn't have to. And that is something I struggle with when we do these shows because I want to give my opinion on what somebody says, but I also don't want people to stop saying what they feel. I don't want him to feel like he just gets piled on every time he says what he's thinking. There's a reasonable conversation we had.

And look, I'm with him. I think everybody should have to play this game, but it's more because I just want to see better games. I'm not. Yeah, I also think that it's important to a sense of fairness. I think it's important to, Andy, that we at least acknowledge the reality of the situations too, which is that people's opinions are formed by what's most beneficial to them. And that's not just a football coach thing.

That's a human being thing. so if Missouri feels like it's playing rules that aren't equitable for the Big Ten, although that might not be the reason that the Big Ten won the championship. His opinion is forged solely on that fact. And if he were the head coach at Illinois, he would not have said that. Like, it's not a human level. And the head coach in Illinois has done this on both sides of the aisle. He's funny that you use that example.

Brett Bealam has been a Big Ten coach and an SEC coach, and he's done this. both places. Yeah, it doesn't matter. People who live in mansions find something to complain about. So, you know, it's, it's not like you're ever. No crying from the yacht, right? Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, listen, I just, I can't, I just don't think that as we are here on my birthday, by the way, Andy. Happy birthday. Which, uh, which, uh, is usually the final hurrah before the football season starts. I don't think I have it in me as a human being, uh, to have any more scheduling dialogue about like who is doing what or what. just like we've done it and we've we've litigated it and relitigated it and over and

you and i come down in the same place every time schedule good teams just be good just be better play good games play fun games it's you're an entertainment product i don't care what conference the team is and if a team that has willingly or knowingly removed a non-conference opponent that they think they could lose to from their schedule. I hope that a team like that gets left out of the big, out of the big dance this year because their schedule sucked. I couldn't want that more to happen because I just want this to stop. So it's just I want people to be rewarded for putting themselves out there.

It's kind of like being a young strapping lad who's what, like when this late 20s river, you know, you throw yourself out there, you ask people out. And if they say no, then, you know, you pick yourself up off the ground and you ask somebody else out. Like, you got to just keep putting yourself out there and eventually, you know, going and swipe. Which direction are you supposed to swipe? I get married

25 years ago. I don't know how the apps work. Right is yes, left is no. But, like, listen, why does iron sharpen iron only work in practice? Why doesn't that work against your opponent's your play? Like, it's the most iron sharpens iron. Tom, Tom Izzo would attest that iron

sharpens iron in November for college basketball. Yeah. They make sure they're prepared for March by really, really, playing a tough schedule in November. How many times have you guys heard iron sharpens iron from a football coach and why does it not pertain to their regular season schedule? Like I just like,

I don't get it. It's only in practice. Because it can keep them out of the playoff. I mean, you know why. You know, you know the answer to your own question. That's why. Just just keep sharpening the iron for our viewership pleasure. And that would be better for everyone. Yeah. So Ari, I am looking down the hallway here as

the afternoon crew is coming in. So there's two, you know, Missouri Oklahoma this morning, Tennessee and Kentucky this afternoon. I have not seen that particular shade of orange yet, but I have a feeling when I do, there may be a little pep in the step. Like, I'm going to tell you if Josh Heipel comes skipping through here. Josh Heppel doesn't seem like much of a skipper to me, but our guy, Pete Nicos, Ari, put in a recruiting prediction machine, RPM prediction, David Gabriel Georges.

That's right. DGG. the Baylor School of Chattanooga running back, who's originally from Montreal, the maybe can't missing us running back prospect of the last 15 years, according to the people who follow recruiting closely. Pete Nacos has put in a prediction that he will choose Tennessee when he announces his commitment on Wednesday. Is there anything that NACOS can't do?

Like we're doing recruiting predictions now? Come on. This guy's the all world. He can't dunk as far as I know. We have the, you know, we had the hoop outside the headquarters in Nashville. I've seen him shoot Jays. He's a silky jumper. I do not think he can dunk.

That's pretty much it. He does have a butter stroke, though. That guy can knock down a three. But, yeah, I mean, this is the direction that this recruitment has been trending now for, you know, it seems like the last week. My understanding is, Andy, that he will be making his final decision. sometime this week. So, you know, I think this would be good.

Wednesday is the date for the announcement. The two finalists are Tennessee and Ohio State. And Chris Lowe did a great story last week, breaking down the options. We talked about it on the show last week where Ohio State is probably not the higher of the two offers, that Tennessee is most likely the higher of the two offers, that probably close to $2 million a year.

And then Ohio State is below that. And, you know, this is a lot of money for a, running back. And we talked about the positional value, but the fact that also this guy might just be that good. And we don't know. Obviously, you never know when you're moving up a level. But enough coaches have said and have scouted him and said, this guy looks like he is going to be awesome when he gets to college. Hey, buddy, you know, desperation breeds. Oh, stop it. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Hunger, hunger, hunger. Hunger.

No, but listen, I am all for it, man. I am all for any time teams that are trying to better themselves, put themselves out there. Either it be relationships financially or both. Tennessee, I mean, when you see an RPM from On 3, you can basically put it in the bank. Now, I know things change at the 11th hour sometimes. Offers come in, you know, feelings change, all that stuff. But like, you know, you're pretty... I feel like there's a major Ohio state donor.

I would hear you say that and just write a check and be like, all right, buff it up. Listen, I'm not going to say he's committed because that's not what we do in this business, but you can take these predictions to the bank most of the time. And I think the Tennessee should be fired up that they are on the verge of getting this kid. And, you know, hopefully he can, you know, have an instant impact. You know who I would be fired up to be right now? Who? Deshawn Bishop.

that's Cinesse's number one running back. Because here's the deal. If I have a great season this season, I think Deshaun Bishop is about to have a very good season. You've got a few options. If you've a great season, I believe he's draft eligible so he could go to the draft. But also,

you know what the freshman is going to make. And you know that other teams are going to be like, hey, we know what the freshman is going to make too. We're going to make sure you get a raise. And so he's either going to the NFL, is a really high draft pick, or he's getting raised from somebody if he has a good year. It has to have a good year.

I think that there's also some pressure on that because if you don't have a good year, then you become expendable as a result of how much is being invested in the guy behind you. So it can go both ways, I think. But, you know, he's a good player, though. So he should have a good year. And, you know, I think that every time, you know, precedent is set in salary structure, that's probably a net positive for every high school running back, every running back in the country. I mean, like that. Somebody paid that guy that.

I mean, that's how it works in the NFL, right? You know, people, that's exactly right. Other teams look at the salary scale, and that's how they use their math to decipher what they should be paid. And, you know, I think we're going up and up and up. I don't know if there's going to be a tipping point, but as far as I understand, it probably won't be. So we'll see how it goes. But this is not, if you were a person that predicted that, you know, we'd get into the Wild Wild West for a few years and then all the prices would come tumbling down. We haven't gotten to that point yet.

You know, it makes me laugh every time I think about the, the, uh, the arguments back of the day that the NCAA lawyers would make or, you know, that the person arguing with you on Twitter would be like, there's no actual market for the players, you know. Yeah, there's a pretty good market for them. It's pretty good market for them. Um, you know, hey. So, all right.

So Tennessee's here. The other team here this afternoon is Kentucky. And so will Stein. Mm-hmm. is on the big stage right now. And somebody just texted me, did Will Stein just give us his version of Signetti's I win Google me? Andy, I'm really happy that you saw this because you're standing up right now.

I'm in the comfort of my office back in Texas and I saw the tweet. And I got the text message. Do you want to read it? Yes. So Willstein has asked, why do you think you can win big here? And he says, because of me, be honest because of me. That will either go down in history.

Well, it will go down in history one way or the other. But that will either be the I win Google me or that will be the decided schematic advantage. That, of course, is what Charlie Weiss said at Notre Dame. Spoiler alert, Notre Dame did not have a decided schematic advantage under Charlie Weiss. So it will be one of those two things for Will Stein. And I am here for him putting himself out there like that. I cannot wait to look back on this in two or three years and say, you know what? It was because of him.

Yeah. By the way, if I'm a Kentucky fan right now, I'm pretty fired up. You want this. Yeah, I'll take it. I will take it. Yeah. This is great. And we've had Will on the show. He's tremendous.

I'm excited of the hires. I think there were a lot of really good hires this year. I think what we saw this this offseason was a generational shift in coaches where, an older generation sort of left and a newer wave came in and Will Stein's one of those Eric Morris is one of those

John Sumrall is one of those Alex Golish is one of those and obviously that you know some of those were head coaches before but at lower levels there's a lot of guys that are coming in now with a lot of juice a lot of energy

and some of them are going to succeed some of them aren't but when you hear that if I'm a concerned hockey fan yeah i'm looking at what he did in the offseason i'm looking at the the offensive line he went out and got in the portal i'm looking at kenny menschie and i'm hoping that you know what what i've heard about him is correct but i like the confidence you uh you have to take this one last thing and then we'll get out of here into account willstein is coming from a place that is situated athletically as well as anybody in college football at oregon he he has had a firsthand look at what having the deepest, most talented rosters in college football actually looks like. He has now been on UK's campus for going on nine months, eight months. I don't think you make that comment so boldly if you don't feel confident in what you're seeing

every single day you're in your beautiful facility in Lexington. So I would be very happy to hear that if I were a Kentucky fan. I think you're exactly right. I think Willstein is not dumb enough to say that without some idea of whether he can back it up. And also, remember, this is a guy with lots of aura. We learned from our friend Ryan Beard, the head coach at Coastal Carolina, who was Will Stein's roommate when they were GAs together at Louisville. He can also play a mean version of Letter Cry by Hootie and Blowfish on the acoustic guitar.

So I'm thinking, you know, let's say they upset Alabama in Week 2, a little Letter Cry serenade in the locker room. That could be legendary. could see it happen. Andy. They got to beat Alabama first. That's one thing at a time. But yeah.

Can I impart some wisdom on some people as we close the show that has nothing to do with anything other than life? The thing I found when you get older, as my birthday is today, and I'm reflecting on the direction we're in. So close to 40. When you're in your mid-20s, your phone blows up with happy birthday, wishes from all your friends, your boys, exes, all these different, like, your phone is buzzing nonstop. And I have gotten my fair share of birthday wishes. Pete Naco's called me.

I've got some friends coming through. But it's not so, so much, you know, a lot of constant flurry of texts of happy birthday from your friends and family. You get wished happy birthday from the ear, nose, and throat doctor. So, the oterngologist, yes. Yeah. It's like, yeah, I'm getting old. But one more year of my 30s, and I'm.

super excited to spend that last year with you, Andy, and I'm really fired up to get into the season. So has your urologist texted you yet to let you know about your prostate exam? No, I don't know when you're supposed to do that, but I've never been to the urologist. So I don't know if that's a bad. You're not there yet, buddy. You're still young. Still young.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, this has been a lot of fun. Again, I'm waiting to see that particular shade of orange come bounding down the hallway because I think, I think it's going to be, they're going to be hype today. but both signs already hype in here. So we'll talk to those guys. May have a little more from them.

Auburn and Georgia tomorrow morning. It's going to be a big, big week on N8NRI on 3. We'll talk to you soon.