Andy & Ari On3 - Michigan coach Sherrone Moore SUSPENDED for two games (by Michigan) amid NCAA probe

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

(0:00-12:10) Intro: Sherrone Moore expected to be suspended two games(12:11-17:10) Continuing the Sherrone Moore discussion(17:11-19:32) What should Michigan do?(19:33-22:51) Previewing Jared Curtis commitment(22:52-31:15) Steve Wiltfong joins to discuss Jared Curtis(31:16-37:45) How different the NIL era is(37:46-40:46) Nico discussion with Steve(40:47-45:51) Closing out with Steve(45:52-48:53) Where will Jared Curtis go?(48:54-59:22) How the times have changed with recruiting(59:23-1:01:03) Conclusion: Watch Jared Curtis' commitment LIVE on MondayMichigan has self-imposed a two-game suspension for head coach Sherrone Moore ahead of its Committee on Infractions hearing with the NCAA, ESPN reports. Moore will miss the Central Michigan and Nebraska games — along with some recruiting restrictions — in a move that Michigan hopes will satisfy the NCAA with regard to Moore’s part in the Connor Stalions’ scandal. The top-rated quarterback in the class of 2026 makes his college decision today! Jared Curtis, a 6-4, 225-pounder from Nashville, is choosing between Georgia and Oregon. Steve Wiltfong, On3’s vice president of recruiting and transfer portal, joins Andy and Ari to handicap his pick and explain what it means for the rest of the recruiting cycle. Watch the show LIVE, M-F at 9:30 am et! https://youtube.com/live/W8PXw75lefo Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Want to partner with the show? E-mail [e-mail]

This morning, the biggest news this morning is. That. Sharon more Michigan head coach has been suspended two games by Michigan amid the ongoing NCAA investigation into all the Connor Stallion stuff. But I'm seeing some confusion in the chat over the games that he's been suspended for. He's been suspended for two games.

He's not suspended for the first two games. He is suspended for games three and games four because Michigan is going to make sure that Sharon Moore can coach against his alma mater, Oklahoma. And that of course creates the funniest possible outcome. The first game he suspended for is central Michigan. That's right. Central Michigan, where Connor Stallion showed up in the hat and glasses. I would suspend myself for the opener. Come back for week two and then suspend myself for week three. Andy, like, I don't know.

Like if we're picking and choosing when we were suspended, I don't think Sharon got to pick and choose. I think Michigan picked and choose picked and chose here. So yeah, that probably would have been New Mexico. And then I'll come back for Oklahoma and then and then Central Michigan. Michigan picked and chose here. So yeah, that probably would have been New Mexico. And then I'll come back for Oklahoma and then Central Michigan. Somebody said picking your own suspension

is not a suspension, it's a vacation. And I thought that was hilarious. But like, there's a lot to unpack here because we're what, two years now removed from this. And I just still think that Michigan carries a lot of animosity from general fans about what happened a few years ago. And I think that if you don't read closely

to why he's taking a suspension, you might take this as an admission of guilt that malfeasance happened a few years ago. And I'm not sure that's what that is, Andy. Why don't you take us through it? Well, let's talk about what this is, exactly what this is. So what Michigan's doing here is self-imposing the suspension with the hope that the NCAA committee on infractions is like, okay, you've done enough here.

I don't know that it will be enough for them. So you can negotiate a resolution. In fact, it's called a negotiated resolution. Some of the other coaches involved here have already done that. So Jesse Mentor, the former defensive coordinator who's with Jim Harbaugh on the chargers now, he did that. His negotiated resolution was dropped a few weeks ago. And Steve Klinkscale did that as well, another assistant from that staff. This is not a negotiated resolution. This is not the end of this thing. Basically it is Michigan self-imposing this.

And right now, Sharon Moore is still part of the case. He'd have to show up at the committee on infractions hearing, which is would be in a month or so. And then the committee on infractions would decide, is this discipline enough? Do we impose additional discipline? And it's a little bit of a risk here by Michigan because they were still trying to negotiate something to get Sharon more out of this. And maybe they still can,

but I think that the enforcement staff wanted a longer suspension than two games. So I don't know that they were gonna accept it. And now that Michigan has self-imposed the suspension, I doubt they will. So now it's sort of probably in the committee's hands, but here's the other thing. If you're Michigan, this process is so freaking long. So the ESPN story that reported on this with Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel said this would get wrapped up before the football season. The hearing will probably happen before the football season. It won't get wrapped up though. They probably wouldn't hand down the punishments till during the football season,

then Michigan would appeal. And so basically what this does is if there's any additional discipline for Terrone Moore, it pushes it into 2026. And that's the risk they're taking there. Yeah, and the thing that I think is interesting, and I don't know what your thought process is on this Andy Andy, but I feel like if you want to self impose a. Banner of a suspension bands, not the right word suspension in order to try to appease people who are going to be giving you a penalty.

Like what do you think it looks like when you choose the games like do you think that helps or do you think that hurts or do you think it's indifferent? Because like to me, it's like the thing that stands out the most about this is and I know that he played at OU and that's an important game for him. And they want him to, you know, and it's an important game on Michigan's schedule. Let's be honest, like it's. But Nebraska is arguably a more important game because it's a big 10 game and he's missing that one. No, I know. But it just seems like I would if I were a person that was punishing somebody

and that person's like, hey, look, I punished myself and then like I saw how they punish themselves was like based on what works out best for them that would annoy me. Oh, it probably does annoy them. It's not the first time this has happened. You've seen selective suspensions before with NCAA stuff, like you've seen players that did not get suspended when the season opener is a big game, and then they push it to a little game. That's what they're doing here. They're just starting to avoid that Oklahoma game. And yeah, it may

piss them off. But you know, I think if you're Michigan, you're like, well, it's two games, two games is two games. And if it pisses them off, then we'll deal with that on appeal. And we'll deal with that in 2026. And this is important to note too, that this is more severe than Jim Harbaugh's suspension. I think that the timing for Jim Harbaugh's was way worse, but Jim Harbaugh was also allowed to be a part of game planning and around the team during those games. That is because of an NCAA rule change that happened because of Jim Harbaugh. Like so yes, I'm glad you pointed that out. This is different than when Jim Harbaugh is suspension suspended for six separate games

in the 2023 season. He was around the team at practice when a coach is suspended now for a game. They're not allowed around the team the entire week. So this is a different kind of suspension and like. Michigan probably would not have been. I mean they didn't. They didn't take the final three games of that one. That the the first three were self imposed, but the final three games in 2023 weren't.

That was from the Big 10, but it might have been a different scenario. Had Harbaugh not been allowed to actually coach the team at practice. So yeah, this is a very different situation. Now this is over some text messages with Connor Stallions, I believe 52 text messages with Connor Stallions that Sharon Moore deleted when all the stuff came out. And clearly a panic move. But here's here's the deal with those from what I'm told. They're pretty boring because if they weren't boring if they

did sort of lay out what your average Ohio State fan thinks they lay out. Sure more never would have been hired as Michigan's head coach because it would have been too too obvious and they would have had to fire him anyway. What he's suspended for in this case is deleting the text messages. Now, as soon as he was told, no, you're gonna have to turn your phone,

he understood, I think, oh no, they're gonna find these because I don't know about you, Ari. Have you deleted text messages from your phone? Yeah, but before clutter but like they I know that they you can sit there for a while. They're not really gone Yeah, no, and I think that there's a record of your text messages too Like I listen to enough murder podcasts to know that if you text somebody that like in this case They were actually still on his phone and he knew they were still on his phone so when he turned the phone into the NCAA he knew the NCAA was going to get those text messages and that's that's in the notice

of allegations that he knew it when he turned it in that they were gonna get the text messages so I think and I haven't seen all the text messages I know what some of them say but I think if they all came out, we'd be like, that's pretty dull. Because I think if there were something juicy in there, he would have been fired or never hired a coach probably too. Like, cause like people who have seen those messages and there are a lot of people who have seen them, Andy, it would be very, very newsworthy to leak those. Um, if there was something in there that was worth leaking.

So like that's the thing that's interesting too, it's just like, I don't know. I think I would be terrible in a panic situation. So I try to act like I, I think that deleting them looks worse than turning them in with nothing on them. But I don't know. And Zach in the chat says,

if you knew the archive was there, why even delete them? Cause he panicked. Cause that's as Ari said. Yeah. I don't think that you think through things clearly. And again, I listen to enough murder podcasts to know that people do things that don't really, they think that they're helping themselves,

but all they're doing is hurting themselves and it's actually not a good move. And I think that's what happens when your brain's just in panic mode. And I think that he was probably afraid of just being associated with him. I don't even know that it was hiding what he was, what they were talking about hiding what he was what they were talking about. I'm certain that's what it was. So yeah you know the thing that I think is going to be interesting about

this or we've talked about this so much Andy is is that I don't think that the one thing that we have to and want to know about what Michigan did a few years ago we'll never know which is how much did what they do help them win football games? And I'm not necessarily sure there's a way to quantify that. So like as we get- Or prove it because apparently any communication

involving that was verbal. Right, so like you- There's no paper trail. So we're at a position where if you hate Michigan or you lost to Michigan or you resent their success, they cheated and if you love Michigan, it's no big deal. And like, we're just gonna be in that limbo forever. Like there's no smoking gun that it just like,

if you were hoping that Sharon Moore's text messages were just like, yeah, let's go cheat and win this way. Like that's not how it works. So like, I just, I work So like I just I feel like We're just kind of in a position where we have to acknowledge that We're gonna be left with this unknown and how you want to remember the team and how you want to view it is up To you like there's no Like I think there's Ohio State fans out there that are waiting for the hammer to come down and I want I've got news for

You guys even if he gets suspended more there's more penalty. There's no like definitive hammer coming. Well, and we don't know what they're going to do in terms of vacating wins or that sort of thing. You know how I feel about that. I don't care. I don't think that does anything. The game's on YouTube, but the Michigan people probably care about that. So we'll see what they do. But it's going to be a while before we find out because they have they'll have the hearing and then the committee talks about it for several months before they reveal what their penalties will be. So I would say that probably pushes into the football season and maybe deep into the football season. I

think that this will be impactful because whenever your head coach misses games, it's important. But at the same time, Andy, I found myself completely and utterly bored with what's going on with this because the one thing that I crave is the thing that we'll never have, which is an answer to the question I just posed. Like I'm like, I'm like thinking about this now because it's just like, it's over, it happened, you think what you think and there's nothing, there's no new information that's going to come to light. Like watching the, there's not going to be some 60 minutes thing. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. Maybe some 60 minutes thing where Connor Stallion starts crying and says, well, here's what, how it all worked. Yeah. It's like, I hate to keep doing the murder documentary comparisons, but it's like, you watch a murder mystery and there's a four part series. And then at the end of it, they're like, well,

we don't know what happened. It's such a dissatisfying feeling, but that's where we're going to be with this. And I don't know where I fall in the line of, I don't think that Michigan won the national title because of this. And I think that there's probably enough proof to know that they didn't since the hardest portion of their schedule came after this was already out. But at the same time, like how much Sharon Moore and these guys were a part of it like.

What do people expect? It's been two and a half years, you know, it's buried in the mystery and that's where it's gonna stay, I think. All right, if you're watching on Twitter, it's time to switch to YouTube. The link you need is just below there. Come join the chat. Listen, if you're watching this and you're having the Michigan cheating debate,

which by the way, our chat sort of explodes into about twice a week anyway, since this all happened. Just come to YouTube and engage because there's a lot of people here who want to argue with you. It is amazing because it does keep going. And I think you're right. I think I think it's going to forever. It's going to be cemented in everybody's mind of this is how it happened. This is what I believe. I feel like Michigan did this. I feel like they didn't do this. Michigan fans are going to feel like nothing was wrong. Ohio State fans are always going to feel like they cheated. Like that is never

going to change because we're never going to get the full story on this. Yeah. And like also to like comparison sake, like how much they were clearly better at the advanced sign stealing stuff, but like how much better were they? Like I don't think I've ever gotten actual context of like, here's what they were doing. Here's what other people weren't doing. And here's how it actually impacted the game. Like I don't, I don't know this. So, um, yeah, So yeah, it's just a frustrating thing because I am a person who loves answers. I love a good mystery and I love like, the scandal now looking back

and it was like one of the funniest thing that's ever happened. And there are certain things that I would do want answers to that we don't have answers to, which is what the hell the vacuums are for. Dan, exactly. Daniel says, how many players were hurt in all this? That's what's important to me,

like hurt by being embarrassed because. They were beaten on a play like. I think anybody was physically injured because of this. Yeah, I. I don't know if he means like hurt by. The way that their championship is viewed, I have no idea what that means. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if you're talking about Michigan players

or Michigan's opponents to be honest with you. So this is, but this is, you're gonna believe what you wanna believe. But this is gonna have a real effect on this season. Now, can we please once again appreciate how funny it is that Central Michigan is the game that he suspended for first. Show that Connor Stallion's picture again.

Let's see Connor on the Michigan on the Central Michigan sideline. There is that Michigan State game. Man. Of all the teams, they could have been playing. I knew it. And I knew this when so. We've been trying to figure out what was going to happen with this for several months. Peek behind the curtain and I remember looking at Michigan schedule

like in January going well if they have to suspend and they're not going to suspend him for the Oklahoma game. Oh my God, they play Central Michigan game three. You know what is interesting about that central Michigan thing and I was thinking about this and I don't know if this is something that's been talked about a lot but they were playing Michigan State in that game right? Yes. Is it possible that he was just helping central Michigan steal their signs? Oh that's the story that is that has been floated out there. Yeah. Yeah.

That he was helping a friend on the Central Michigan staff that it wasn't necessary. But look, like you've we've seen the documentary on Connor. Connor sat down with JD Piquel. Connor can do two things at once. Yes. Well, he had the glasses with the record thing on them. Because allegedly the thing that I think is the most brazen about this was just the the lengths of which he went. Like, I don't even know how much Michigan was helped on the field in their games, but like the fact that he was on another sideline as a staffer at a place wearing their stuff is just so obscene.

But not their shoes. And that's how that's how they noticed it first. You got to wear that you got to wear the shoe the right shoes. I think he was wearing on's. I think Central Michigan is an Adidas team. Oh, wow. If I'm not mistaken. You hate to see it.

But anyway, I hope that we could just get a resolution to it because I'm frankly just tired of talking about it. Like unless we get more information, we just keep going around the same circle over and over again, which is. I break this to you, buddy. Yeah. There's gonna be a lot more loops around that circle before, especially now, because I don't think there's gonna be a at this point. This is this feels like Michigan saying we're gonna take our chances with the hearing. We're not gonna try to get

your own more out of this before the hearing. He's gonna he's gonna be what they call a contested party in the hearing. So it's gonna keep happening and it's gonna go for a while. And I like, pardon me, is like, if you're Michigan, do you just attempt to run the clock out on the NCAA as an organization at this point? Keep kicking it down the road by appealing and doing things that cause six-month breaks in between. Yeah, I mean, I'm looking forward to analyzing if he should be suspended any more games in 2029. It's going to be great. Yeah. It's just, you keep getting stretched and stretched, but yeah, especially if you're being suspended. I mean,

I guess the Nebraska thing is interesting, but like the suspension against central Michigan's like, Oh, okay. Well, the brassica thing is very interesting because it is the, it's the first big 10 game. We think Nebraska is going to be pretty good this year. Like there's some intrigue there. Yeah, I'm afraid to talk about Nebraska. They're mad at me, Andy.

They're mad at me too. I don't know. It's okay. If Dillon and Riella turns out great, then we're wrong and awesome. So possibly turns out great. I don't know. I think they're going to be.

I think they're going to be pretty good this year. Yeah, they will think it's going to be tough for Michigan to have to play them in their Big 10 opener when their head coach can't because again, and I'm glad you pointed this out earlier. This is not like when Jim Harbaugh was suspended a few years ago that the rule has changed on this. Like Nebraska week start so. Michigan returns from Norman after playing Oklahoma. Sharon Moore is out.

Like he's not practicing. He's not he's not at practice. He's not in meetings. He's out. For that entire week against Central Michigan and that entire week against Nebraska. So he doesn't come back until after the Nebraska game and they begin preparing for the Wisconsin game. So this is a little bit different situation, but they did pick and choose. And like you said, Ari, that might piss somebody off on the committee. I can see where that would go. It would annoy me. It would annoy me. I can see where that would go. It would annoy me. We'll find out. Suspension games chosen, not dictated. But some more could be dictated. I guess we'll find out what happens over the next few months. But that is the situation with Sharon Moore

and Michigan missing the Central Michigan game, missing the Nebraska game, plus some recruiting the central mission game missing the Nebraska game. Plus some recruiting. Restrictions as well. Quite a Monday morning news dump. Alright, alright, let's let's it used to show you so thank you for doing it when you did. I know I was going to come on with some

Brero just do a whole sink out of my other thing like drink a margarita. I was going to tell you about recruiting stuff. Talk about my wife and I went to a head spa yesterday and I it was pretty great. I don't know if you know it. Do you know what that is? I I'm not sure I want to. That sounds highly legal. It was maybe the best hour of my life. It sounds terrible. Yeah, but

it's actually for your physical head. Okay. And it's just a scalp. They focus on your scalp and they just like do a bunch of things to your scalp and like now my She said I had the best scalp if she's ever seen Well, look at the hair. Of course you do. Yeah But the reason why it's not done this morning is because I'm not supposed to shampoo it for 24 hours because of all the vitamins They put in there. Oh, well, you can't let you can't wash out those vitamins Rufus in the chest is Ari Can we please get a gambling episode favorite win total over under favorite conference championship odds

and national championship odds. I love it Rufus. Hey Ari, you want to do that this week? Yeah, I see if we can call in a ringer though to help me. Okay, I like it. I think that I've got a, can I bring on the dude? Can I just take a phone a friend? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. 100%. Yes, I would love the dude that I just pay a phone a friend? Yeah, yes. Yeah, 100%.

Yes, I would love to do that, especially because. I mean, there are certain games like there have been certain lines like in the off season where you and I latch on to that seem to hit most often. So like we could really take a look at like over under win totals and say, well, this team's probably gonna be better than that and go through the schedules. Um, but I'm very fascinated too, with like, you know, what's good value mathematically. And there are people that work in the industry that are really, really good at that we can try to have on, you know, who's good. You know, Tyler Shoemaker is one that comes to mind. Colin from the Action Network is absolute sharp. Maybe we can try to get one of these guys on, and they can take us through their process. Because when I do it, I do it like a degenerate loser.

When these guys do it, it's like high level math. It's science. Yeah. And I want to give you guys the best action. Like our prize picks last year, I guess we were just terrible at it. I don't want to be terrible at it. I want to be good at it.

Well, I think we can have some fun with that. We'll do that this week. Also, big recruiting day, big day in the world recruiting. So if you're not already subscribed to the On3Recruits YouTube channel, get yourself subscribed. There is a big, big announcement coming today. Jared Curtis, the number one quarterback in the class of 2026 at 5.30 PM Eastern time will be announcing his college choice. He's got it down to Oregon and Georgia. So he's from Nashville, 64225, the prototypical, I mean, they're talking about this guy, like he favors Matthew Stafford as a recruit

when Matthew Stafford was coming out of Dallas. So this will be a fun one to watch. Oregon, Georgia, you've got Kirby, you've got his former defensive coordinator, Dan Lanning. This is the old school, old line recruiting versus the new kid on the block. A lot going on here. Ari, we brought on the

most knowledgeable person in the world to talk about this. Steve Wiltfong joins us now. We are honored to be joined by Mr. Vice President Steve Wiltfong, on three's vice president of recruiting and the transfer portal. Fresh off a Colorado recruiting update and coaching three travel baseball games in the rain in the cold, but he's got to get to Nashville because there is a big doings happening in Nashville Vegas tomorrow. Jared Curtis, the number one quarterback in the class 2026 is deciding on Cinco

de Mayo between Georgia and Oregon. Steve, how you handicapped this one? Talking to sources on my way home from travel baseball tonight, I would still give the edge to Georgia going into this announcement, but we never sleep on the Oregon Ducks. His relationship with Will Stein, the offense that the Ducks have, how prolific the quarterback position has been and and how explosive the offense has been and I think he feels really comfortable in Eugene and could

see himself being uber successful at Oregon but Georgia the program looking to bring this recruitment back full circle. He was obviously committed to the dogs decommitted in the fall and it's kind of been a back and forth with Oregon but the Intel has favored Georgia down the stretch. They just kind of need to hold off Oregon from what I understand here. So we'll see what it is tomorrow officially, but I would give Georgia the edge or the I would deem Georgia the favorite with Oregon still having pretty good odds going into the announcement. He made two videos. You know, I talked to his agent on Friday, talked to his mom on Friday. He had an in-home visit with Coach Bobo, an in-home visit with Coach Stein.

They were all supposed to come back tonight, but he canceled those trips to have a clear mind and be able to do what he's got to do. But two videos were filmed, so that's how close this recruitment is. That's how back and forth it's been. But my intel could change in 20 minutes. But right now, I would give Georgia the, I would make them the favorite. Steve, when you say hold off in the last minute, we obviously know that late flips and late surprises happen in recruiting all the time.

But like, what does that look like in the background? What is Oregon doing in the next 12 hours? Right. So oftentimes people just go and assume that someone upped their offer and that moves the needle and that's what gets it done. That does happen sometimes, but sometimes, man, it's just who gets to have the last conversation you know when it's a recruitment that's that close at a place where you could really see yourself at both places that last conversation that last in home that last visit can sometimes be the

difference so it's not always like a financial offer that gets it done at the end sometimes it's not always like a financial offer that gets it done at the end. Sometimes it's just that last opportunity to speak to a prospect and remind them of all the reasons why they love that program. And it's the last thing on their mind before they go and make the announcement or sign the papers or whatever it may be. You know, he talked to Dan landing today. So, uh, but again, with all that being said, My Intel makes Georgia the favorite going into it tomorrow, but we'll see what it is and how it comes out.

I was reading an interview with his agent, Peter Webb, and I thought it was interesting what he said, because he said basically he had told Jared to imagine that the financial offers are the same and then do your pros and cons list as if that's not a factor. And then also, you know, it just that these two weren't the highest offers anyway, in terms of biggest bag. So if it had been biggest bag, it would have been somebody other than these two.

Yeah, and I think and we talked about this the last time I was on your show, I mean Georgia getting more competitive with some of their coveted targets of what it could look like financially is certainly help them be in these at the end. Now, we'll see if they get them over the top, right? What's the the timing of this Steve? So because we're in May now, but I would imagine that if you're the number one quarterback recruit, you're obviously the linchpin of a class. There are probably other players waiting for you to decide, decide if they want to come play with you or not. Why,

why this date Cinco de Mayo and not say right before the season starts? Well, obviously when you're a player of the magnitude of Jared Curtis, you can help this class come together after you jump in the fold. So I think in a perfect world, whether you're the quarterback and the school, you want to get in the fold and help build your class and peer recruit and get guys around you. And I would imagine that whoever Jared lands with on Monday, he'll be one of the, he'll spearhead the recruiting efforts from a peer standpoint on the trail. And if you're Georgia, it's not hard to get to Athens for all the big recruiting weekends. And if it's Oregon, you

know, he's already been out there ample time. So I would imagine he would get back for some of their big recruiting weekends, whether it's Saturday Night Live or what have you on their recruiting calendar coming up. Steve, the thing that I think is really interesting is, is that Oregon has become a power, right, the last few years in recruiting. And I'm wondering, you know, with a national five star quarterback prospect, the way it is like, is Oregon already arrived as one of the big hitters in this sport in terms of like talent accumulation? Or do you think there's like symbolism or national recruits or things like this that could put them over the top? Like when you think about the Ohio States, the Georgias, the Alabamas, the legendary recruiting outfits that are finishing the top three, four, top one every year before

NIL, like is Oregon at that level in your mind now already? Well, I mean, they had a top five class last year. Their program that has certainly showed that they have the chops. They can go into Alabama and beat Auburn at the last minute, flipping one of the top corners in the country from Ohio State in the process, and Naeem Offord, they kill it in the transfer portal. They have a lot of infrastructure and support. You know, Marshall Mauchow, their general manager, is one of the most organized, experienced people in the game. I mean, before working with Dan Lanning, he was with Chris Peterson, he was with Nick Saban, and he was with Kirby Smart. So to work under those three head coaches and then work for Dan Lanning, I don't know if there's anyone that does what he does that can

boast the type of head coaches that he has worked under outside of Mark Pantone, who worked for Urban Meyer and Ryan Day. So he's got a lot of experience. They're a well organized machine from a recruiting standpoint. And then Oregon's had a lot of success on the field. Now, certainly there's a few schools that have had more success, but we've seen Oregon play in the title game. We've seen them in college football playoffs and and uh compete and win conference championships and this is a program that's

going to be on the short list of schools you point to and say they have a chance to win the national title this year and how did it not been a twelve team playoff. They certainly would have been in the final four and even before that they

would have played in the national title game in the old BCS era with the season that they had. So they had a great year. They're trying to win that last game, which us three know as well as anybody, it's hard to win the last game. I mean, they're shooting 66 on the golf course and they're trying to figure out how to shoot 65. It's hard to shave those strokes.

It's easy to go from 90 to 80, 80 to 70. They're trying to shave a stroke or two and and and and with that, you need to stay healthy. There's just you need to have some luck go along with building a talented roster along the way and and and they just, you know, they they got smashed in the Rose Bowl obviously and and and ended a

dream season but they had one of the best seasons in college football last year and that should mean something and they're a dream season, but they had one of the best seasons in college football last year, and that should mean something. They're in there. They're in the right conversation, and they're trying to win the last game. You mentioned that you get a quarterback like Jerry Curtis in the fall, whether it's Georgia

or Oregon, and he can peer recruit. It's not lost on me that the number one recruit in the class of 2026 Jackson Cantwell, the offensive lineman from Missouri, also has Georgia and Oregon in his final group here. I think about this Steve, it's interesting to me because for the 15 years or so before NIL started, that's those guys would get together, form a super team, you know,

and then they would all kind of coalesce. Is that happening as much in the NIL era or does one of the guys taking one spot mean, oh, there's bigger budget to get this other guy? I think that sometimes we have seen, if you have some extra capital from a recruitment that you lost it can be used elsewhere. So I don't know how that works with these particular recruitments because I think with Jared Curtis and Jackson Cantwell. A lot of the heavy lifting has been done in those discussions of what off the field opportunities look like at your respective programs. He's just dotting I's and crossing T's with his family and representation and Jackson Cantwell has one more visit to

Georgia before he announces his college plans. Steve, I noticed when you said this and it's just for me even it's weird because you know covering recruiting for so many years you don't hear people say this but I talked to his agent like Andy I don't know if that struck you as odd but like I talked to his agent. I'm getting used to it now. Yeah, I know but like usually in NIL like or like Transfer Portal not so much I know that it's a thing and it's not weird, but for me, it still hits me weird.

What's it been like in terms of you and your sources and covering recruiting and having intel and all this stuff? How much have you had to change the way you would go about things and getting into this agent world? And has it made your job more difficult? Well, it's made my difficult in the sense of like predicting where a young man's

gonna go because sometimes things can pivot late based on those conversations and and sometimes the prospects so important to a school. They just say, well, we're gonna get this done or or we're gonna do all we can and and if we come

up short, we did all we could. So there's a little of that, but just from still covering Prospect and their final decision and their journey through the process of learning who they are, why they're terrific, why they should be known nationally to their early offers, to their visits, to leading up to their decision. Not much has changed other than the final hour. You are always, you're even more cautious than ever that a kid could change his mind. I love the two videos thing. It's like an M. Night Shyamalan movie, like they film two endings, and they're not going to tell the actors even what

the endings are, so it's still a surprise. But so is it, it's still fun though, right? Like this feels a little old school, even though you're talking to his agent all that like. I think the feeling's awesome, you know, people are, it's supposed to be fun. And that's what, like the predictions are supposed to be fun.

I mean, people take them so serious and with such finality. it's supposed to be fun and that's what like the predictions are supposed to be fun. I mean people take them so serious and with such finality and that's you know, that's a good thing for how well we do a good job covering these kids but you know what following along with recruiting and the

heckling from the fans and the rival fan bases telling you what a bad decision you made and all of that is just part of what makes college football so great, the passion. And with recruiting, these prospects have become more mainstream nationally, as our networks have grown in popularity, right, from Scout.com to 24-7 to Rivals and now on three King of the Mountain already had the the the market share from a viewer standpoint. Now the purchase of Rivals. We have the market share from a subscription standpoint now too. Uh but the you know our lane our little niche lane is becoming more

mainstream by the day and it's making these athletes more known, which is obviously helping their popularity on social media and things that then help drive revenue their way. And so along the way, you get talked about. that you're going to hear your name more on podcasts and written more in articles because there's more consumers that are yearning for information on you. But on the flip side, you're also capitalizing like never before in popularity and a chance to make money. And these college athletes, these incoming players are being, are getting salaries without any return on investment yet. It's it's it's it's we think you're going to be really good. So here's what we're willing to pay you. I got something funny for you guys says, we got to go off the rails at least once, you know, there's like an, they, we give them what we give them to come here.

And then after their freshman year, their representation or whatever, we'll ask for more. We could barely run this dude out on special teams. Like, you know, we're not, there's no more. Like, we need an ROI here before there's more,

right? It's, it's, but but there's always someone that's representing the kid that's calling the other finalists and, and like, Hey, what would you pay for Andy Staples if he went in the portal? And then that's kind of a speculative conversation that then the agent would take back to the current school and say, Well, I have this offer. So I need a razor. I'm going in the portal, then you start playing with fire. Do you really go in the portal? Are you just trying to get a raise? Sounds kind of familiar.

There's a lot of play. We've heard this story, Steve. It is very similar to something weird. But it's's interesting because when the NECO stuff happened and I we haven't got a chance to talk to you since since all this happened but when NECO stuff happened, everybody's like this is the first time a school's stood up and said we don't think you're worth what you're asking. No, it's not. It's just the first time you've heard

about it right and it's the first time it was one of the highest paid people in the sport already. Yeah. And Tennessee, look, I don't know if there's more to the story or not but just from my vantage point, Tennessee paid him 2 million dollars to not play. The freshman. Yeah. Yeah. And I

assume that he didn't, I assume there was a bonus to just come. Right? Right. And then and then you have the two you have the $2 million a year, whatever it was, you didn't play so there's no ROI. You're the backup. Then you did play and you played fine. I mean, like you are a good first year starter. I salute it. But the strengths of that team was certainly on the defense, right? Tennessee was finally about to get to the point where they were the defense side of it but the strengths of that team was certainly on the defense, right? Tennessee was finally

about to get to the point where they were maybe gonna get an ROI in their in the Heisman Trophy is really like that would go in that'd be six for six million dollars over three years. I think the Heisman Trophy and making a deep run in the

college football playoffs. I think that's what I think that's fair compensation. Oh yeah. But uh uh you know he wanted more and that's fine too. It's America baby but uh Tennessee you know they already I thought they're I thought the wage was fair you know and and and I thought so

did I thought they still hadn't gotten the return yet fully on their investment. I mean it's not maybe they're about to as a second year starter and he was going to be on a good football team. Now gotten the return yet fully on their investment. I mean, maybe they were about to as a second year starter, and he was going to be on a good football team. Now he's a first year starter in a new scheme with less talented players and a less talented team. Now, they get a chance to go write their own

story. So we'll see what happens with that. And I think I get myself in trouble as a coach. Because when when the agent came in to me for the guy who I could barely get out on special teams as a freshman and demanded the raise, I was like, get out of here. Just go. I don't think I would negotiate with terrorists. Well, I think what I think happens is you got Ari Wasserman here. We've just played his

freshman year at Ohio State and his agent has called his other finalists of Penn State in Notre Dame or whatever. Yeah. And it said if you know what and I'm just throwing out random schools obviously but it's like what would it look

like if he was in the portal? Could he make this much money? And they're going off of, cause if they didn't play Ohio State, they're going off, oh, we love Dari as a prospect. And it's an initial conversation they didn't even know was coming and there's no promises made, but they could come back and say,

well, this kid didn't really play. Are we sure that we think he's this good too? You know, so it's, I don't think the players have jobs like like we've all been in situations where we were negotiating with our employer. And like, if you tell your employer, and I realized, they're not employees yet, but they will be. If you tell your employer, hey, I got this other offer. You damn well be better to take ready to take it and it better be real or you can begin deep

deep trouble. Well, a lot of times, you know, these kids are represented by a new wave of agents too. They're not like guys that have worked in the profession for a long time. Like Peter Webb actually represents NFL players and like he's very well established. Well, like Peter Webb actually represents NFL players and and like he's very well established stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. So,

Peter Webb's a legit agent. Jackson Cantwell is with Rosenhouse obviously. Then there's you know, there's people with guys like Steve, Andy, and Ari that have been agents for 18 months but all of a sudden, they're NIL experts because

they said so, right? You gotta get the schools are barely NIL. We're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're

not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're

saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're not saying that they're saying that they're not saying that they're not saying always have the NFL agents that they'd have the agency polos that drew Rosen house never wears the Drew Rosen house polo but but you'd have that now it's everybody's got the agency polo because they're all in a allegiance and they all marketing agents. So it's yeah,

it's a dangerous world out there and be careful if somebody who represents you tells your coach you got an offer when you don't really got an offer. That might not go well. Yeah, it's I do think players like Jackson Cantwell and Jared Curtis need representation because of the opportunities that they have off the field. But I also think that a lot of these young men could probably do it themselves and just get an attorney to come in at the end and read the stuff. Yeah, yep, yep. It's so funny how this just mimics real life

because I've actually done it both ways too. I've had an agent and I've just had the attorney read it and it works both ways. It's just a matter of what you're comfortable with. So Steve, I imagine 20 years ago, you never imagined we'd be having this kind of conversation on a recruiting segment. I mean 20 years ago I remember I was, well, it's been over 20 years ago,

but I was at the Southman Tribune working in a part-time role. And when I told them I was leaving for scout.com, they were, they, people referred to it as a dot com. The internet was still new and people questioned the maneuver. But anyone that caught the internet era in anything that they do is very happy that they rode those waves. Yeah, for sure. I have a former coworker named Ryan Hunt Hunt who we were at the college paper together.

He gets a job out of college covering high schools for the St. Petersburg Times. This is a coveted job. If you're a recent graduate in Florida, coveted job. He leaves to go work at cnnsi.com. I remember seeing he came back to Gainesville to visit when I was still in school and I said, what are you doing? You're going to go back to theainesville to visit when I was still in school and I said, what are you doing? You're gonna go back to the newspaper at some point?

Like, are you insane? This is gonna go out of business. And when I got hired at Sports Illustrated, he was my boss's boss's boss's boss. So you caught it early and now you're in good shape. But you guys are doing good on your waves too, man. It's awesome to see all the success you're having here at On3.

We obviously work for one of the best platforms I'm excited too, man. It's awesome to see all the success you're having here at on three. We obviously work for one of the best platforms in college sports already and and certainly just got a lot bigger in the past week. That's right. So, Steve Wolf on three VP of recruiting and transfer portal

that title likely to get some new words added to it as as rivals becomes our brand. I'll it's likely to get some new fortunate to work in those roles because they were great on the on the web right away. Um before that, I just answered the phone for a few months. It looks like it worked out I was visiting friends somewhere and I canceled that to get my first my first byline because I was before that I just answered the phone for a few months. It looked like it worked out well for you, Steve. That's

right. He's the vice president Steve Wiltong. He's also coach Steve Wiltong. He's warming up after coaching all those travel ball games. Steve, we will be watching with bated breath as Jared Curse makes his decision on Cinco de Mayo. Thank you so much.

No, thanks guys for having me on. Always fun. You guys take care and we'll be back soon. All right. Thanks. I love that he filmed two videos. Yeah. Now I want to see like whatever video we get.

I want to see the other one too. Andy, I don't know if when you were on sports illustrated, you had really, really tight deadlines, right? Yes. Magazine. Yes. Yes. Like when you were covering a game that was on, on Monday, it was Monday.

Cause the magazine closed on Monday night. Yeah. Well, when I was at cleveland.com, my story was due when the clock hit zero. Like I had to have like a column ready. Cause as you know, in the internet being first is really important. Oh yeah. So there were times and thankfully I covered Ohio state where 80% of their games were decided by 27 points or more.

But like in the games where they were playing equal opponents, I would have two running files. I would be writing a story to the left on what it was like if it didn't happen. And to the right, I would be writing a win. And I think I have somewhere like on my external hard drive, like all the columns that I wrote of games that were in question that Ohio State

ended up winning or losing. And it would be fun to like publish a book of like all those columns, like later in life of like, here's what stories would have said had they lost these games. So at SI, when you're writing the magazine story off the national championship game, the magazine closes Monday night, they would extend the deadline so that you could get that story in. But it had, most of the story had to be locked down. Like they only gave you a little bit to play with.

So basically the way it worked was. Difficult as hell. Was, yeah it's a 3,000 word story. You write two stories, and it's basically the story of each team's season. And you get 800 words to play with. You can put 400 on the top, 400 on the bottom. However you want to play with it, and you get to work with the top and the bottom.

And however you wanna play, you can go 600, 200, however you wanna do it. And so that's how I would do it. And I actually did wind up repurposing a few of the losing stories. Like when Auburn lost to Florida State after the 2013 season, I had enough good stuff to just kind of write the story of Auburn season.

I just recrafted it and ended up putting it on the web. And then when Oregon lost to Ohio state in the first college football playoff national championship, I ended up reworking that Oregon story into an Oregon branding story that ran the following summer. Because it was a story like the middle part of the story that the top of the bottom would have been about the game. But the middle part of the story was about how Oregon became a program that was kind of an afterthought and then became a national, you know,

national team. So maybe 10 years down the line if he's an NFL Pro Bowl or I'd love to watch the video Yeah, send out the video I actually publish I published one when I was with the newspaper because I like when I wrote for newspaper you had to do that for every night game and Back when I covered Florida for the Tampa Tribune I had a I had a blog where you kind of put the leftover stuff And so when Florida beat Georgetown in the sweet 16 in 2006 in Minneapolis, that was it was a really great game.

A tight game. Jeff Green was on that Georgetown team and it was the Joe Kim Noah Al Horford that group for Florida and Cory Brewer for Florida hits a baseline shot from his back essentially to win the game and so obviously that story goes in the newspaper and the next morning on the blog I said Hey, you guys want to see what the story would have read if you'd missed the shot Here it is and yeah, so That's it. It's nice little peek behind the curtain But yeah basketball is really tricky because at least in football there's like breaks in between plays and stuff for you to kind of prepare Like oh, yeah yeah it's something yeah because you could whipsaw between two like in football you can kind of fall asleep writing the two stories because one you

can kind of just shove to the side if you think the game's going a certain way right basketball if the games within ten points you have to keep them both going right because it can just happen really quickly I don't like covering basketball by the way that was my low point in my career. Yep. WTF craps. Is there a live selection stream today for Jared Curtis? Yes, on three recruits, the YouTube channel subscribe to that

and it'll push you a live message saying, hey, he's going live 530 p.m. Eastern time is the time that he is making that announcement at his school in Nashville. But yeah, we'll have that on the On3Recruits channel and obviously we'll have analysis of that from Josh Newberg and Steve Wiltfong and the crew. And if you're not subscribed to the On3Recruits channel, get yourself there because it is the best recruiting

coverage in America, about to get even better as this R rivals deal closes and Rivals becomes the brand for recruiting on three becomes the brand for the guys who are already in college But you still get not only the great coverage you've come to expect even more when they come so Yeah, Steve Wolf on Gonna be a rivals guy now. Like that was funny. I had forgotten that Steve's first job in the recruiting world was at scout.com. And you want to talk about bitter

rivalries like the rivals.com scout.com rivalry back in the day was nasty. Yeah. When you go to scout.com, I don't even know where it takes you anymore. But it is funny because that means that he's worked at all of them now, right? Oh, yeah. He has completed the set. Yes. Because he's worked at Rivals. Or well, he will have worked at Rivals when that starts. And

then Scout 24 seven and on three. So, yeah, I'm excited about the Rivals thing. It's gonna be the rebirth of a classic brand. And we still kind of look at rivals as kind of like the, the OG of this. And you know, I know how much it means to Shannon Terry who helped found it. What is that in the chat? What is scout? I feel so old now.

We're old scout was like, uh, the original, one of the original on threes, man. Like it was one of the, it was rivals and scout back in the day were the two big uh recruiting services yeah it was and they and they competed and it was this this was in early 2000s is when then scout got bought by fox i believe cbs has bought scout now so 24 seven and oh they have 24 just sort of consumed Scout. Scout.com doesn't exist anymore. Yeah, yeah, but it was it was fantastic. It was a hell of a rivalry. I mean the rivalry still exists now with us and the other guys. I feel so... oh, Zach's joking. Okay, you're killing me. Killing us Zach Zach. That's why he was joking, okay. Well, I mean, there are people in this

that watch this that are 21 who would have sort of, Right, wouldn't know. You know, that wouldn't have known, so. But, yeah. It is amazing to me, Ari, that that stuff is so old now, because when I was in high school, there were no star rankings. Like, there were, you had Tom Liming had a magazine,

and then Super Prep had a magazine and then super prep had a magazine. I think it was Alan Wallace. And this part didn't exist. Like the first sites were just starting and like Florida and you would call, right? You'd call like you pay 99, you call it. Yeah. And then, and then like at Florida and this site still exists, it's called Gator country, but Gator country was the first one of those at Florida. And they had a message word called swamp gas. Swamp and you get like, some guy who just some guy who got into practice and watch practice would file a practice report.

And we're like, Oh, wow. This is, this is good information. So I feel like it was the dawn of all that. You call a one nine hundred number like the reaction on the other side of the phone is the same. It's like, you know, it's a swamp gas. Well, and that's the 21 year olds have no clue what a one nine hundred number is anyway. Like, yeah, we should probably tell. OK, so one nine hundred numbers were a number you would call and you get charged per minute

for whoever you were talking to. There were two reasons to call a one nine hundred number. So 1-900 numbers were a number you would call and you get charged per minute for whoever you were talking to. There were two reasons to call a 1-900 number. One reason was to find out which recruits are going to your school. The other reason was phone sex. Yeah, and both of them have a dopamine release that is killer, you know, a dollar a minute, but like that it's it's crazy to think of that like in 1975, if you were a huge Michigan fan fan like you would just not know who was coming

Like right you'd read it in the paper on February 3rd Yeah, of like here are the 25 people we brought in with no context of like who they are, you know, like It's it's just like could the NFL exist if there was no draft coverage like I just don't understand and it it took, and to Steve's point, it took newspapers a decade too long, even longer to get up to this. Like I still think there's a lot of newspapers who still don't cover it properly.

Yeah, the Atlanta Journal Constitution was really the first big newspaper that actually covered recruiting effectively. But I think part of it is companies like rivals and scout did it so well so early. The newspapers like well, we can't compete with that. You know, why I'm sitting here with you, right? So my first job was at rivals. Buckeye Grove dot com. And then I went from the Buckeye Grove site to a independent newspaper in Columbus that still exists called Buckeye Sports Bulletin and they were affiliated with Scout. But as a result, because I never was a recruiting person in college and high school, I didn't know anything about it.

And then my first internship, I was calling recruits and doing recruiting updates for them, kind of like as a journalist, I never was a recruiting person. But my the first part of my career was an exposure to the recruiting services, even though I was never a recruiting person, I worked at places that offered it. And it gave me a very important insight to how important and how obsessed people are with this. So when I got hired to leave the fan site circuit and go to Cleveland plane dealer as a newspaper reporter, like I brought the recruiting acumen

that I learned that I wouldn't have. Like my first job was at, and it's something that people really wanted, like readers and I guarantee you sort of write those stories and and they were going crazy and like the newspaper was like oh my god like people care about this it's like uh yeah they care about it. My first job at SI was covering recruiting it was to cover football and basketball recruiting so I like I was like going to the peach jam and stuff and but I it was interesting because I had to do it differently because I was the only one doing it at SI Because I remember one of my bosses coming to me and said, you know, what would it take for you to do a top 100?

recruits list I'm like a staff of ten Yeah, right. He's like nevermind. So we ran athletic to there like should we make our own rankings? I'm like, yeah, if you want to hire 25 people sure, let's do it like because I didn't like if you half-ass it It's very apparent. Yes. But I loved the recruiting coverage when I was a beat writer, when I covered Tennessee, when I covered Florida, because I had been through it in the stone ages as a player. And so had some kind of, you know, idea of how it worked a little bit and remember learning, you know, like not knowing how it worked when we went through as a player. My mom had to read books that she got at the library on what to do

and so it always fascinated me. But yeah, that first year at SI and then they kind of moved me to just covering college football after that just because we realized it's too popular a sport to have only one person on the website covering it. But when I was a beat writer, Andy, I would cover recruiting just as much as the team stuff because in Ohio state, the access was difficult. They have great access. Jerry Emig, their, their SID is really good. They've got good access for a program, but there's not a lot of exclusive access, which is difficult when you work with things like that.

You can get a ton of it with the recruiting stuff. What do you do if you want exclusive, different stuff that people can't get anywhere else? You go to high schools. And that's how I spent my entire time as a beat writer at the athletic. I skipped games at times. They played Rutgers and it was a 48 point spread.

And I flew to Tucson to do a high school recruiting profile on Bijon Robinson. And that stuff did better than any game story would have done. And that's kind of how I leaned into and was promoted to national recruiting guy over at athletic because it was like the athletic was discovering it in real time the same way newspapers did five years earlier. And now it's an important piece of their coverage. So like, I think that being able to be in our position, like of all the like the mainstream media dudes who didn't grow up as recruiting dudes, like you and I are two of the national people that have kind of embraced and understood

recruiting and its importance. Yeah, and Bruce Feldman is the other one. He was the OG of that. Bruce Feldman at the Athletic, when he was at ESPN, he did tons of recruiting stuff and he understood it better. He's one of those people that I kind of modeled my career after. And so when I got a job at SI and saw how he did it, I just tried to do it the way he did

it. And yeah, it works. I'm telling you. So but yeah, this is I this feels old school like this Jared Kurtz announcement feels like back in the day like I remember driving Denise high school to cover Tim Tebow's announcement. And I knew he was gonna pick Florida, but I was for beat writer. So obviously we still had to do the story on him picking Florida.

But I just remember like the buzz, like, oh, what's Tim Tebow gonna pick Alabama or Florida? And behind the scenes, like yesterday, you're like, we're having Steve on tonight, reminder. I was like, yeah, where's Curtis going? Just assuming that we knew. And like eight times out of 10, just you guys know behind the scenes, like Andy and I, where's where's Curtis going? Just assuming that we knew and like eight times out of 10 just you guys know behind the scenes like Andy and I know where the

recruits are going before it hits the internet. And we don't know. We don't know. We don't know. So it's gonna be fun. Stay tuned. And just so you know, too, I'm sure you guys are able to pick up on this. We recorded the Steve Wildfong interview on Sunday evening. So what he kept saying today and tonight, that was Intel from from last night. So what he kept saying today and tonight, um, that was Intel from, from last night. So, um, we'll see if anything changes and, um, yeah, like it looks like George is the leader, but we do not know. So stay tuned and it's going to be a,

an important, uh, announcement for either team. 5.30 PM Eastern time subscribe now to the on three recruits channel. So you'll get that push notification when it comes out and you can watch Jared Curtis commit live to either Oregon or Georgia. Ari, we did not get a chance to have our debate about what the best college football job is now because we've stripped Kentucky of the title. So let's do that tomorrow unless there's more crazy breaking

news. You know what's awesome about our show? It's every day, guys. So if we, if we don't, if we run out of time, we'll catch you tomorrow. All right. We'll talk to you tomorrow, 930 AM Eastern time right here on the on three sports YouTube channel.