Andy & Ari On3 - Michigan coach Sherrone Moore vs. the NCAA | How long will Florida lose Montrell Johnson?

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

Thank you to Gametime for sponsoring today's episode! Planning your college football travel for this season? Gametime has tickets to every game. (And every concert and comedy show.) Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed.It’s a training camp whiparound, but first some Michigan-NCAA news.(0:00-2:50) Intro: Is Michigan in trouble?(2:51-16:10) Clayton Sayfie Joins to talk Michigan, Sherrone Moore(16:10-17:58) Gametime AD(17:59-21:27) Furthering Michigan Discussion with Connor Stalions(21:28-30:10) Michigan's QB1?(30:11-34:35) Gators Online Zach Abolverdi joins to discuss Montrell Johnson Injury(34:36-38:32) DJ Lagway's Role in Gators Offense(38:33-45:56) Position Battles, Revamped Secondary in Gainesville(45:57-48:29) Better People Make Better Football Players, Wrapping up with Zach(48:30-52:27) Derek Young Joins to talk Kansas State Offense around Avery Johnson(52:28-54:07) Running Back Depth(54:08-1:01:16) Talented Defense, Looking Ahead to Season(1:01:17-1:02:04) Conclusion - See you tomorrow!Clayton Sayfie of On3’s The Wolverine joins Andy to discuss the draft copy of the NCAA Notice of Allegations from the Connor Stalions case that ESPN obtained. Michigan coach Sherrone Moore is implicated along with Jim Harbaugh and several since-departed assistants. What does that mean for Moore and the Wolverines?Michigan also will be playing football this season, so Andy and Clayton discuss who might play quarterback and what the offensive line might look like following a lot of talent leaving for the NFL.Next, Zach Abolverdi of On3’s Gators Online discusses the knee injury to Florida starting tailback Montrell Johnson. Johnson has had arthroscopic surgery and should return this season. The question is how early? Will he miss the opener?Also, how much of a role will freshman QB D.J. Lagway play for Florida?Later, Derek Young of On3’s K-State Online talks the Kansas State offense with sophomore QB Avery Johnson at the helm. Who will the playmayers be? And just how talented is the defense playing opposite Johnson and company?Want to watch the show instead? Join us LIVE, Monday-Friday, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/3jNfl_kIdG0Host: Andy StaplesGuests (in order of appearance): Clayton Sayfie, Zach Abolverdi, and Derek YoungProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Monday. Today was going to be a day just about football. We're going to whip around to various camps, talk about some big time programs and what they're doing to get ready for this season. And we are going to do that. But one of the programs we're going to talk about is Michigan we were just going to bring Clayton safety from the Wolverine on and ask him hey what's Michigan going to do at quarterback which seems to be a fairly burning question and a a question that needs to be answered at some point between now and when the Texas Longhorns show up in week two. But now more pressing questions. ESPN attained a draft copy of the NCAA notice of allegations for the Connor Stallions portion of the NCAA investigation and

Sharon Moore is mentioned is named as a potential violator. He is accused of deleting some text messages and then re showing them to the NCAA at after they were recovered off his phone or at some point. We're not exactly sure, but they were recovered off his phone, but he then turned them over to the NCAA as well. He's accused of a level two violation. Jim Harbaugh accused of level one violation, several assistants who are no longer with the program accused of level one violations. What does this mean for Sharon Moore? Well, we don't know. We'll find out. Remember, it's a draft copy, so it could have changed. That might not be the final version that Michigan got from the NCAA. We've got the Connor Stallions documentary

coming out August 27th, so maybe that'll shed some light on this, but we do have some mysteries solved that Connor Stallions apparently was the guy at Central Michigan, which, yeah, we knew that. But the Sharon Moore piece of this is the most interesting because obviously Michigan elevated Sharon Moore to head coach. Probably knew something was up with this case at that point. Because remember, a lot of this stuff had already taken place at the end of last season. But this is going to probably drag on. Will it affect this season? We don't know. This is one of those things where if Michigan wants it to go fast, they can probably make it go fast.

If Michigan wants to fight everything, they can fight everything and make it go very slowly. The NCAA wheels of justice as we know can turn very very slowly. But there is a season to be had too. So, let's talk Clayton about the notice of allegations, what it means for Sharon Moore and also what is Michigan gonna look like this season? Here's Clayton. It's Andy Pool versus the Wolverine or with the Wolverine. Yeah, Andy Pool and Wolverine. That's what it is. Clayton Safety from the

Wolverine joins us. We have a lot to talk about Clayton. We were just gonna get together and talk about Michigan practice. Who's going to play quarterback? Not now. Not anymore. Yeah, every time this seems to happen when we have real football to talk about, good football to talk about, something with the NCAA comes up. So throw it at me.

I know you got all sorts of ideas and questions, so let's do this. I have many thoughts, many, many thoughts. So Dan Murphy and Pete Thamel from ESPN got a draft copy of the notice of allegations involving the Connor Stallion stuff at Michigan, which Chris Ballas, your colleague at the Wolverine, reported last week was coming and was going to be soon. And so here's what we know from what ESPN has reported, that they have some deleted text messages by Sharon Moore that were deleted, but they were recovered using phone imaging. And also turned them over so he's accused of a level two violation and and the espn story very quick to point out this is a draft copy so it may have changed between now and when this was drafted uh but so that i mean because everything before we were wondering about jim harbaugh and all that jim harbaugh's gone like sharon moore

is there has just been promoted to head coach and he is caught up in this thing. So what does that mean for Michigan right now? Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, Andy, where when I'm reading this, and like you said, we kind of knew this was coming, but the big key all the way, and Jim Harbaugh released a statement like a day or two after it comes out that the NCAA is investigating Michigan, Big Ten's looking into it obviously they end up suspending Jim Harbaugh the whole thing was did Jim Harbaugh know and in here it says you know they don't have any evidence that he did but like you said that's way less relevant than it was back in October and November

last year now all eyes are on Sharon Moore because he's the head coach of this program and obviously rightfully so that that you know people are looking at what his potential involvement with the counterstallings stuff, as you said, or the investigation. So the way it read to me is, you know, the same as kind of what you said, the 52 deleted text messages between Sharon Moore and counterstallings. Which was one string, by the way, which is quite a conversation. Yeah. So I don't know how that exact. Does that mean they were in a certain period of time or is that could that be over months? I don't know. But I think it was one string of Ted. I think it was a conversation that that that was going on, you know, kind of in real time but it doesn't really matter because the the fact that it's a level two violation and not a level one tells you the contents of said text messages probably

weren't all that bad had now he deleted them in a way that they could have never recovered them that's where you maybe get slapped with an unethical conduct, which is a level one. Like, so that's the part I'm curious about because Sharon Moore in that draft notice was not accused of a level one violation. Jim Harbaugh was multiple other coaches were Charlie Partridge who got fired last year in the middle of all this. He got accused of him, too. But that's that's the part i was curious about but level two suggests okay maybe not as bad of an outcome but again it's still the head coach that's caught up in it well i think it's important to go over the timeline here too because uh they said that the texts were deleted the day that media reports came out that conor Stallions was kind of the centerpiece of this investigation, which to my knowledge is at least a day or a day and a half after that Tuesday night

before the Michigan State game, when it came out that the NCAA informed the Big Ten that Michigan was under investigation for this. Then Michigan obviously gets notified at the same time, hey, you're under investigation for alleged off-campus scouting. So at that time, I assume Sharon Moore, other staff members are probably told, hey, don't do anything. Like, we're probably going to have to turn over devices. Again, this is an assumption by me. So I think that's why it's important that the texts were deleted and he could receive a level two violation for it as you said if you know Sharon Moore was directly involved with whatever Connor Stallions was doing I would assume that would have been a

level one violation and as you also kind of alluded to it might have been a blessing that they were able to recover these text messages through the device imaging because otherwise he could never prove even if they were innocuous that they were innocuous, that they were innocuous, right? So that's kind of an interesting part of it. Yeah. And he turned him over too, which also like that implies some level of cooperation. So, whereas, you know, Jim Harbaugh did not turn anything over and yeah, we've heard from Jim Harbaugh's lawyer, Tom Mars about all the stuff they actually asked for. They wanted, they wanted phone communication from the lawyers, stuff like that. It's a lot, but this will all be really interesting to see it play out because this is the notice of allegations. Michigan, when it has the actual notice of allegations, not a draft copy,

they then get a period of time before they have to respond. They'll send a response. The NCAA will then set a hearing date. I'm looking at this and just marking the time on this, Clayton. They can get through the season without really having to deal with any fallout from this yet. And because I'm just thinking of the Sharon Moore piece of it. Well, we can get to any postseason ban, all that stuff, because Chris Ballas reported that the NCAA might seek one of those. But let's talk about the Jerome Moore part of it.

So I have an idea. I have a thought. And you let me know if this is crazy or not. Let's go. Let's go. We have precedent because, remember, there's another NCAA case involving Michigan, and that's the one, the recruiting stuff, Jim Harbaugh, that he served a three-game suspension for at the beginning of last season. And not at the end of last season, which was for this thing, but at the beginning of last season, he served a three-game suspension. And the hope

was that that would be enough if Jim Harbaugh remained employed by Michigan, that he wouldn't get suspended anymore. And so that's how a lot of these things happen. You do the preemptive one and you hope that the Committee on Infractions is cool with that and they don't suspend you anymore. Now, I have no idea what this stuff would merit in terms of the suspension. We'll go with the three games because that's what Michigan did for the Harbaugh thing. So I'm looking at the 2025 schedule. Now we do not have an order of games from the Big Ten yet, but we can assume the Ohio State games at the end of the year. That it's not at the beginning of the Big Ten schedule.

And also it doesn't apparently matter if Michigan's coach is suspended for the Ohio State game. But they open with New Mexico and I'd say suspend him for that one preemptively but week two for Michigan in 2025 is at Oklahoma Sharon Moore's alma mater yes huge game you can't suspend him for that if it's your choice like the NCAA says you're suspended for this there's nothing you do about it but if you're doing the preemptive one, so here's what I say. You let him coach those two games, and then you suspend him for the next three,

beginning with, drum roll please, the most perfect game to possibly be suspended for, in this case, Central Michigan. I didn't even think of that as you were like i i'm have looking at the schedule right now i didn't even make the connection i'm an idiot but that's fantastic and how many coaches it's poetic how many head coaches replaced their own more three or four for those three games what would it be i mean you're gonna have two big 10 games in there so we really don't know okay we know who the big 10 opponents are we do not know the order they will be placed in so we i mean we know where ohio state's gonna fall but they they do play

washington wisconsin nebraska usc obviously they play michigan i would assume michigan state will be in the in the usual spot calendar wise so like you're probably not going to miss the Michigan State game you're not you're definitely not going to miss the Ohio State game so I mean you can kind of roll the dice and hope that he's not suspended for for Wisconsin or USC but you know if he is again we watched Michigan win a national championship with the head coach suspended for six games including Penn State and Ohio State. We did. And maybe it was just an incredible thing. And maybe that's Sharon Moore in part of how special of a coach he could end up being.

And that was a special team, too, obviously, with a ton of veterans. Guys like Trevor Keegan and Zach Zinter and Blake Corum don't need their head coach. I mean, no one knew really. It was kind of unprecedented, right? In the biggest games of the year, do you need your head coach? What's the value on game day of your head coach? And maybe it would have given them seven more points or, you know,

more poise or confidence and things that you can't measure. But you're right. The new precedent has been set as, you know, you texted me earlier. I did not delete those texts, by the way. So I still have them. Good. Very good. In case someone asks. Yeah. So it's it's kind of crazy to think about in next year, you know, in really every year going forward, you're going to have these tough schedules. So you would hope that if you're Michigan, you don't have to suspend your head coach. But but like you said, I think it would easily be if there's a penalty like this, 2025, 26, something like that, because as you know, these things obviously drag on quite a bit.

Yeah, and that's why I would do it in that way where you do it ahead of any. You say we're suspending him for these three games or whatever it is. You announce it and you do it ahead of a committee on infractions meeting. And that way in the hearing, you can go, Hey, we've already suspended him for three games. You guys don't need to do any more than this, which is what a lot of schools try to do. We'll see what happens. I, I much more interested in, in a potential post game ban.

I think that's much, you know, farther reaching and a much bigger consequence than anything else. Chris Ballas reported no potential vacation of wins or vacating the title or anything like that. I don't think that matters. There's probably some Michigan fans who would be very upset

if they had to vacate the national title. I don't think that matters. They won it. They've gotten think that matters. They want it. They've gotten all the financial benefits from winning it. Everyone knows they want it. Everyone saw they want it. It's on YouTube if you'd like to watch them win it. Whether you can hang a banner or not is completely irrelevant.

But them banning them from the postseason in a future year is relevant. It would be a problem. So I would assume, Clayton, given what we saw in terms of Michigan's resistance last year, that they would fight pretty hard against that. Yeah, I think so. And Chris also reported that, that even if the NCAA did seek something like a postseason ban, Michigan would not expect that to end up happening or, you know, they certainly wouldn't let it happen without a fight. So, you know, I think that's that's really important to note. And, you know, I tend to agree, you know, it seems like the postseason bans aren't necessarily the way the NCAA is going as of late.

And in terms of vacated title, you know, I would see that as unlikely, too. I do think Michigan fans would care. Um, but you know, like we, like you said, we saw with our own two eyes, you know, what happened on the field last year, we saw what happened when Michigan was at their own disadvantage at a certain point without Jim Harbaugh. I mean, you know, without Connor Stallions, I guess you could say as well. And, you know, with Sharon Moore having to step in as head coach and all that. So, yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, the penalties will come at some point down the road. A big fine, I think, is something Michigan fans and the school would be willing to accept as well.

And does that seem the most likely to you, you know, in terms of. Well, a fine is going to happen, but they're going to want the ncaa is going to want something that makes it hurt and that's why i would think that they go after them you know for the postseason ban but here's the thing if michigan really doesn't want a postseason ban they can go scorched earth on the ncaa we've seen that uh you saw tennessee do it recently where the ncaa is, we're going to look into NICO's NIL deal. And Tennessee's like, we're going to have our attorney general sue you, and you're going to have to completely give up your NIL rules. And so the NCAA has to be somewhat

careful with these big name brand powerful schools because they don't want to go to court with them. They really don't want to go to court with them they really don't want to go to court with them so yeah it'll be very interesting now we'll be right back with more Michigan taught with Clayton safety the Wolverine and we'll talk about the Wolverines on the field and guess who they play on the field at the big house Texas in week two and you can be there with GameTime. That's right, GameTime, the best place to get all of your tickets, whether they're for sporting events, concerts, comedy shows, you name it. They've got it on the GameTime app.

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the central michigan thing which by the way this did say they determined it was him at central at Central Michigan. Great detective work there. But what I want to know, the part in the ESPN report, the draft copy, the NOA that I found fascinating is that Connor Stallions had like a team of interns working for him and he had convinced them that what they were doing was not against NCAA rules. And like, now i want to know like i want a a like office style mockumentary on connor stallion's crack commando team of interns yeah it's like um what did they call it the annex in the real office where it was kind of that separate part of yes tv show and it's like so he was running that with the Kelly and Ryan it was chaos back there so I feel like that's kind of what you know could have been going

on there and you know I will say this like I do believe this from obviously following this story and covering it very closely last fall and and since then you know I do think that Connor Stallions believed you know throughout and it wasn't just interns that went to some of these games. It was also, I believe it came out, that it was friends. I mean, was there a report? Maybe I'm just thinking of someone's theory because you get it all mixed up in your head, but maybe his mom went to a game.

I think that. I would love that. Mom, here's how you hold the phone when they're on offense. Just make sure you look at the guys in the weird colored hats. Yeah, go to Iowa Northwestern. How much do you really love me? Will you go to Iowa Northwestern for me? But I do have – I'm under the belief that Connor Stallions does believe

that he was exposing a loophole. I do believe that from kind of what we've heard. So whether or not Unfortunately, it was a pretty clearly written rule. Right. So the notice of allegations is now out, right? And clearly, it was the bylaw 1161 that was in question here. They're obviously going to, you know, charge or accuse Michigan. I mean, it's not final stages yet of you know committing this this violation so but i think it's worth noting too that you know when he did get other people

involved they believed they were following ncaa rules and i think to an extent he thought that there was some sort of loophole there at least uh from the way i understand it well unfortunately we will not get much more connor stallion's content you know beyond the netflix documentary i think i think that's probably it i don't know that he's gonna get to work for another team maybe the chargers like what if the chargers hired him how awesome would that be special attache to the head coach? Director of advanced scouting? There was a graphic out there when Harbaugh interviewed. They have to announce, like, we've conducted an interview with Jim Harbaugh.

Someone made a fake one that we've conducted an interview with Connor Stallions for special scout. But I don't think that's going to happen. I mean, they actually have advanced scouting departments in the NFL. There are people who do that. So the man has a gift. We know, but we'll, we'll find out. We'll find out, but now let's move on to the actual field because I am fascinated, not about Michigan's defense. Cause I think Michigan's defense is probably going to be awesome. Uh, when you look at what they bring back, especially up front, uh, there's a nice picture of Mason Graham right there,

Kenneth Grant, my favorite football player in college football this year probably. You've got the two edges that blew up the last play of the Alabama game. You've got Will Johnson, your number one ranked overall player in NCAA. Not called NCAA football anymore, EA College Football, EA Sports College Football 25 25 so great defense let's talk offense who's quarterback going to be andy i think it's it's so weird to say but i think it's as wide open as it really could get with three contenders alex orgy redshirt sophomore, Davis Warren, redshirt junior, and seventh year senior self-proclaimed grandpa of the team, Jack Tuttle, who started his career back in 2018 at Utah,

spent several years at Indiana, and now has been at Michigan for about a year and a half. I think it's so wide open that Kirk Campbell said before fall camp last week that they were going to, you know, divvy up the reps or at least order the reps on day one, oldest to youngest, right? And they're only a finite amount of reps. I know you have a full month, but that tells me it's wide open. Jack Tuttle was hurt in the spring. So he's certainly going to get, have his shot. But I also don't think that the answer to your question is necessarily going

to be one name because as Kirk Campbell campbell came on our podcast a couple weeks ago and and he said that alex orgy who's you know a freak athlete he was you know number 47 freak in the country last year according to bruce feldman or whatever it was um is one of the best 11 players on the michigan offense and they're going to have a role for him no matter what that led a lot of people on the outside to believe that it's going to be Jack Tuttle or Davis Warren, two guys that passed the ball a little bit better, at least have more of a track record doing so, with Alex Orji playing a role as well. It's kind of what I've thought all along, but I also think Alex Orji is going to have a chance

to win the job himself outright. So I know that's meging but i just think that it is it's that open um it's going to be important for them to find out who that guy is soon or soon ish because you do have a tough schedule right away you want to be able to find your identity and each guy has a different skill set that you have to build around it sounds a lot like the alabama competition last year with with maybe a little more experience because of Jack Tuttle. But Tyler Buckner had some experience in that. But that was Jalen Milrow, Tyler Buckner, Ty Simpson, all of whom brought kind of a different skill set to the table. And then they went with Milrow.

They had the little experimental game against USF where they let the other two play. And they're like, yeah, see, Milrow's the guy it's almost like what what kind of offense do you want to play when you pick between these three it is and it's you know Kirk Campbell described it as hey we have this this pot of plays as an offensive formations and different things we want to do that all of them can do right they have to be able to do these things if you're going to be the Michigan quarterback but then if it's Alex or, we're going to enhance this little corner of the offense as well and kind of build it out from there. If it's Davis Warren, you do it with a different set of plays or things that you want to do. And same thing with Jack

Tuttle, who's kind of mobile, but also has a bit of an arm, is is unproven he started five games in the big 10 at indiana against tough teams i think like four of them were against top 15 teams he's one in four as a starter but that was with the talent at indiana against you know in a tough situation filling in for injured players like michael pennix jr so um it's going to be really interesting to see what they want to do offensively if you know none oftle or Davis Warren is head and shoulders better as a passer than Alex Orji, then probably you go with him because you know that he's going to have dynamic ability as a runner. But those calculations are going to be tough to make, and Michigan's going to have to make them here in the next couple weeks yeah and the question is how do you replace all that you lost in the offensive line and know what you because I think if you knew more what that offensive line was going to be I think they'd have an idea of what it's going to look like but if you knew how well they were

going to play or could kind of predict how well they were going to play it might help you decide on a quarterback but it's interesting because they lost their top six offensive linemen to the nfl last year they've still got two guys that have over 20 collegiate starts like that's that's how deep they were last year yeah and and i was doing the math the other day i wrote about it and i don't have it in front of me but there are about 10 players on this offense that have started a game in college. So it's not like, you know, these guys don't have experience. It's not like they, they didn't contribute like Tyler Morris, who's going to be their lead receiver, most likely was a starter last year. If Michigan was an 11 personnel,

the thing is they were in 12 personnel quite a bit with two tight ends. And so he technically wasn't out there for the first snap in most games. I think it was four or five games he was. So it's the same thing on the offensive line. Miles Hinton, the guy that one of the guys you're mentioning at left tackle, he played a bunch and started nearly a couple dozen games at Stanford. He started the year as Michigan starter at right tackle last season. So at one point, Michigan thought that he was better than some of the other guys that ended up going to the NFL last year. I think that's encouraging. Josh Preeb at left guard started a bunch and was a captain at Northwestern. And then there

are a bunch of guys too at center and the right side of the line that have been at Michigan waiting their turn for a while. And if Trevor Keegan or Zach Zinter went to the NFL before last season, they would have been starting. So it's important to know. And they're old. You know, Andrew Gentry is a junior projected starter at right tackle. He's I was just looking it up and I didn't finish my research before we went on here. I think he's 24, 25 years old because he took a twoyear mission in Utah coming out of high school. So they have guys that have been around that are old, that are physically developed and mature, then in the

weight program that I think can step in. But how good are they going to be and how good are they going to be? How quick is a huge question because again, the schedule is tough right away. Yeah. Yeah. The Texas game changes the math on a lot of this because last year we saw them you know or two years ago we saw them have a quarterback competition between J.J. McCarthy and Cade McNamara that you know we kind of knew it felt like it was rigged to just show everybody that J.J. was the guy because you can't just replace the guy who led you to a big 10 title like that. But they had a kind of ease into the situation, you know, ease into the season situation where they could do that. They also had the same thing last year where they could suspend Jim Harbaugh for three games and do the same thing. Texas comes to Ann Arbor week two.

You can't really be experimenting at that point. So yeah, I so yeah I I'm fascinated to see how this shakes out Clayton me too and you know like you said you could do the Alabama thing where you do pick a quarterback if he struggles you know you possibly do some more experimenting but I don't think they want to do that and you certainly once you pick a guy for Fresno State on August 31st that's got to be the guy barring injury that you roll out there the next week. And again, they might play multiple guys with Alex Orji kind of factoring in. Then you experiment if things don't go well, but they got to figure out what exactly their plan is. Stick with that at least for the first couple of games, and then you kind of go from there.

Yeah, it's going to be a very different kind of season because of that Texas game. And it's very, very different than what we've seen the last couple of years for Michigan. But, you know, yeah, after that Texas game, you get Arkansas State, but then USC and then Minnesota, which is not going to be easy. And then you're at Washington. So it's like, I don't know, it's, it's a much more difficult schedule than what we've seen the past couple of years for Michigan. And it's certainly not nearly as backloaded. It's kind of balanced all the way through. And yeah, I'm excited.

I'm excited. I'm sure it's not much fun for those folks dealing with the NCAA stuff, but hey, they do have a national championship that they can dry their tears with if it's that bad. So I think they'll be all right. Clayton Safey, thank you so much. Appreciate it. That's Clayton Safey, the Wolverine. We will find out more.

Maybe when the documentary comes out. Maybe. We'll see. Let us move to Gainesville, Florida. A very key injury in camp for the Gators. Not a season-ending injury, though. Zach Albaverde from Gators Online joins us to talk about what happens now that Montreal Johnson has had knee surgery,

and also about some position battles that we don't know exactly what Florida will look like when they take the field against Miami but that is a huge season opener and the Montreal Johnson news certainly not encouraging but there are some things that are happening in Florida camp that are fairly encouraging let's talk Gators with Zach. Hi, Zach Albaverde of Gators Online. And it has been a newsy weekend in Gainesville and not in all the good ways. It's one of those you hate to see it kind of preseason camp situations where you got an injury before anybody plays a game. And in this case, it's Montreal Johnson, Florida's starting running back.

Yeah, it's unfortunate to see this news. They haven't even really started tackling yet like that. And this guy that came back for his senior season has led Florida in rushing the past two years, is now going to miss fall camp. Now, the bright side is that it's not a major injury, and he's going to be able to play for the Gators this season and maybe early on in the season but he's going to miss fall camp at least for the staff now they go into these next set of practices knowing that they got to figure out what they have at the running back spot behind

him well and that's the interesting thing so it's a it's a knee he had an arthroscopic operation to clean it up so they're they're not expecting lose in first season, but they don't exactly know whether they're going to have him for the Miami game. So if, let's say, Montrell can't go in the Miami game, who would you suspect winds up getting those reps in the Miami game? Well, I think the next guy up is Treyon Webb. You know, he's the true freshman that played last year as a freshman, now back as a sophomore. A guy that was already

expected to have a larger role this season because of the departure of Trevor Etienne to Georgia. Now I think that they go through fall camp now. He's going to be the guy going through the starting reps with the first team offense. Now, will they get some other guys in there to get some experience? Yes, including the true freshman um but but honestly i think one guy that's going to be in that rotation andy that a lot of people maybe aren't talking about or don't expect is jacoby jackson the juco transfer who redshirted last year uh was a guy that i wasn't really expecting much from in the spring and ended up surprising the staff i think surprising a lot of us with how productive he was in the scrimmages

and then in the spring game. So he might be, you know, second or third in that rotation. But the guy next up is Trayon Webb out of Dufault. Well, so the people who watch the spring game, because everybody's going to ask this, because Jaden Ball had a big spring game, the freshman. What would he have to do to get on the field at this point? Is it a pass pro thing for those young guys?

Yeah, and I think it's obviously learning the playbook. I think for him, getting the weight that he needs to be at, that's something that he's been working on. Not that it's an issue or anything, but just to be consistently where he wants to be. But with any true freshman or young guy at that position, to ask them to pass protect, to pick up all the different responsibilities that come with pass protection,

to know the playbook, that's a lot to put on a young guy's plate. Now, the good thing for Jaden Baugh, as well as KD Daniels, is both of those guys enrolled early. But Jaden Baugh is a guy who is going to play as a freshman and make an impact I mean he he's going to be that probably that first guy off the bench it's just you know how much can they put on his plate that first game against Miami if Montreal Johnson can't play I think because of Trayon Webb having a year under his belt kind of getting the starting reps I at least I expect in fall camp,

he's going to be the guy that they key in on. But as the season goes on, you're going to see number 13 carry the ball and carry the ball more often. So another true freshman in the offense that I'm curious about, because Billy Napier addressed this at SEC Media Days, and it was interesting hearing him talk about DJ Lagway because obviously he's getting tons of questions. This was the star signee in last year's class.

No one is expecting DJ Lagway to start over Graham Mertz. Everybody knows that Graham Mertz is QB1 at Florida. But the way Billy Napier described that situation and wanting to make sure that DJ Lagway does get some snaps and you have your backup ready, it almost sounded a little like the Chris Leak-Tim Tebow dynamic back in 2006, where there was definitely a role for the freshman when he got in there. Yeah, you know, there's going to be a role. I think one thing that we've got to be honest about, Andy, which is different now in this day and age, in the NIL era, is just the amount of money that is being paid to DJ Lagway.

Just to be honest with you, like that much that he's been brought here for to have him sit on the bench, being the type of weapon that he is it doesn't do Florida any good and I think that just for that reason alone as well as for his future development setting the Gators up for success in 2025 as well as having them making an impact this season I think there's so many reasons why you want to play DJ Lagway here's another reason why when recruits come to the swamp and see all these games that they got on their slate, they want to meet with DJ Lagway. And that's no disrespect to Graham Mertz,

but DJ Lagway is going to be the guy that they would be playing with. Right, Graham Mertz will be there. Yeah. So there's so many reasons why you want to get DJ in the game, for his experience, for the amount of money that you're paying him. Fans want to see him. Recruits want to see him. And most importantly, number one on that list,

if he can make the Gators better and make an impact, they're going to put him in the game. And I think they will. They've got packages planned for him. It's going to be something that keeps defensive coordinators on their toes. It's not going to – and one thing that won't be like the Tebow dynamic is it's not like he's just going to come in there and run. At least when Tebow was a true freshman, you knew what he was going to do.

You don't know what DJ Magritte is going to do. So they threw it within the national title game, and Ohio State is like, what? Yeah. What is this sorcery? In the jump pass, that was, you know, not a pretty jump pass. But Tate Casey caught it. He did.

Shout out to take. But DJ is going to throw a lot of pretty balls and he's a dual threat guy that is going to be something that Graham can't provide. So all those reasons I just went into is why you're going to see him on the field. It's interesting because I hadn't thought about it this way but it kind of reminds me of before the NFL instituted the rookie salary scale because you know now if you pick a quarterback even in the you know early first round there are still players on your team that make more than that quarterback but back in the day if you picked a quarterback number one like he walked in the building as the highest paid player on the team and you had no choice like if you sat him it was just constant

questions of course and you're right because that's DJ lagway on this team 100 now are there rookie quarterbacks that get drafted uh top five and they're getting paid a lot of money and don't play their first year yes yeah yeah the dynamic is a little bit different now. But just again, they they there's so much riding on DJ Lagway. He is the most hyper crew for Florida since Tim Tebow. And you're going to see him on the field now. Again, if he's not earning it and he's not somebody that can make a difference, they're not just going to throw him out there and they're not going to force it. Because every time you take him off, you put him in, you're taking Graham Mertz off the field.

So it's got to make sense. But I think it will for Florida and for DJ. So you and Nick Del Toro have been covering this for the past couple of weeks. What positions are still kind of up for grabs in preseason camp? Man, that's a good question because they actually have a lot. Yeah. I think that if you go to let's start on defense because that's the most important side of the ball.

I think at Mike linebacker where you lost Scooby Williams, you got Pup Howard and Derek Wingo that are going to be competing. So they could go from a Scooby to a Pup, which is just perfect. I love it. I think it's destined.

He was scrappy even better. And that's another guy that they brought in from the portal that, you know, they need help tackling Andy. And Pup Howard, I've said this stat before, which I think is a big deal, he led South Carolina in tackling as a true freshman per PFF. And he played in all 13 games. So it wasn't like these were just a few snaps that got him an 88 overall grade, according to Pro Football Focus.

So he's a guy that should make a difference. But again, he's still got to beat out a guy. And Derek Wingo has been there a long time, knows that defense. You know, I think along the defensive line, that F spot is really salty. That's going to be a four-man rotation between Justice Boone, Tyreek Sapp, LJ McCray, and Cameron James. All four of those guys are going to play. You know, I think Boone or Sapp will start.

But, like like how that rotation looks and who plays on what downs and what packages that could change over the course of camp and over the course of the season I think at end with Joey Slackman and Caleb Banks that's a that's a really um you know stiff competition and then you move over to the offense, Andy, and on that right side of the line, both of those spots to me are up for grabs. Like Damian George is the likely most candidate to start at right guard who moved there in the spring from right tackle. But we've now got Cam Waits back at right guard repping there,

seeing if he can give him some competition because Damian George basically just got that spot without anybody challenging him in the spring. So now you've got weights there to kind of compete with him. And then at right tackle, where I think everybody just assumed that Brennan Crenshaw-Dixon, the transfer from San Diego State, would win that job, he's getting some competition from Caden Jones a guy who's never played a college game and redshirted last year but he's made that much progress at the offensive tackle position I mean the guy looks impressive when you see him in person so I don't

think anybody saw that coming but that is a that's a that's a heated battle from what I've been told well and also possible functional depth on the offensive line for florida which is not something they've had in a while like that's been the thing like they've had their starting five and if somebody went down it was bad news it might be a situation where they actually could withstand some some bumps and bruises along the way no doubt and and one thing we also saw this week is Rod Kearney, their backup center, is getting cross-trained at guard. And that's something that they've done in the past. Didn't know if they would continue to do it because of weights being there,

because of Bryce Lovett's progress at guard. He's another guy that they really like. But now they also got Rod Kearney repping there because you added Jason Zandamela, the USC transfer, and now he's playing center, so now you've got more depth there. I mean, they're in a much better spot. I mean, over at left tackle, you've got Devin Manuel with Austin Barber. So they're just – they've got more bodies. And if somebody's not getting the job done,

they don't have to just sit there and eat it anymore. They can put somebody else in the game. Well, that's something that they've needed for quite a while in that position group especially what another position group that was an issue last year uh the secondary and you had a story at gators online this week about jason marshall who had a great freshman sophomore year yeah people project him as a potential first round draft pick you know going leaving early and he just has a bad junior year. And so he's back. You said he seems completely different now than last year.

And then tell me a little bit about some of the guys they brought in at safety to kind of help out with that. Yeah, well, first of all, I think with Jason, I haven't covered that guy since he was a recruit. I remember him coming in as a freshman. He's done media availability every year at Florida. He's been a regular. It's not like he doesn't like doing media. Something was different about him this past week when he took the podium.

The guy was just exuding confidence. He was telling great stories on the mic. He was smiling. He was different. And you could just tell that something was different about him. And he said during his presser that he's got his confidence back and that he lost it last year. He couldn't really pinpoint when, but he was like, it's obvious. You could see it on tape. And I think early on in the year, he had some things just not go his way and some plays that he gave up i still remember the one against utah the first play of the game and the

and the guy got tripped it was just like bad luck uh that he you know gets tripped and can't make a touchdown save and tackle and then he had like three or four more plays like that he did close out the season on a strong note against fsu against fsu he had a great game and it was like that's the guy that everybody expected as a junior so now he comes back i think one thing that he uh had to worry about which i didn't really consider until i've seen the guys that they brought in at safety is he knew last year if he gave up a busted coverage or get let a guy get behind him uh it could go for six because Florida had two true freshman safeties back there starting and that was just where they were at as a secondary now one of those guys Jordan Castell

is back as a sophomore much more experience he. He earned ESPN All-American honors last year, led the team in tackles, but now you got Asa Turner that is probably going to start next to him from Washington. Florida is so lucky to have this guy on the roster, Andy. He should be out of eligibility, but only played in four regular season games, didn't play toward the whole back half of the regular season, and then played in four regular season games, didn't play toward the whole back half of the regular season, and then played in the conference title game and in both college football playoff games for Washington. Those three didn't count against his eligibility.

So he was able to go redshirt last year, have a redshirt year, transfer to Florida, and now he's starting as a six-year senior. And he is making a huge difference. I mean, his tackle grade last year at Washington was 72, I think, something in that range, which is way higher than every other Florida safety not named Jordan Castile. And in one of those only in 2024 situations, you'll have Asa Turner,

who started the national championship game for Washington in the secondary, playing against Mish Powell, who's at Miami now, who started in the secondary for Washington in the national title game. So, yeah, it is it is crazy. One more thing I want to talk to you about, because I saw this last week. I saw it, you know, buzzing on the internet after the press conference. Billy Napier saying better people make better football players. And obviously he got made fun of a lot for that. Oh, yeah. And it goes back. I've been saying this all off.

I don't know how you feel about this, Zach. There's nothing Billy Napier can say at this point. He just has to win games. Because what he said, the better people make better football player, is a Nick Sabanism through and through. Saban didn't say it quite that way, but all the time he would say something to the tune of, like, if you take care of all of the little things in your life for all the things in your life, you tend to be a better football player.

Like, that's the meaning behind that statement. But it's one of those things where, like, if they win a – let's say they have a good season, they win, like, seven, eight games, it's an excitementism. If they win three or four games, that's his champions of life right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's – you give folks ammunition with stuff like that, given where he's at right now with public perception.

It's unfortunate because that came from a really, really great comment from Billy and story that he told about basically what was the biggest compliment that he could give his team right now, which is what everybody that's not associated with the football program is saying about his players, the academic, academic tutors, the trainers, the janitors, the cleaning staff, all these people that interact with them that say, hey, this locker room has been spotless and has never looked like this since the building opened. These players are engaging with us like never before

and showing up on time. And he just gave this great description of all the stuff that they've done this offseason that kind of changed themselves and right there at the end threw in that quote that he loves and lives by and it just like took all it took away from from what was really a great comment but um that's where he's at right now, and that's where Florida's at, and people just pounce on that stuff. But, look, he says that he thinks that his team is going to prove him right in that. So if they do, then that comment will hold true. Well, we will find out very soon.

Miami, Florida, pitch for some torches game. May or may not include Montreal Johnson. We'll find out. But, Zach, thank you so much. Absolutely. Looking forward to it. force and torches game may or may not include montreal johnson we'll find out but zach thank you so much absolutely looking forward to it that's zach albaverde from gators online joined now by derrick young of k-state online that's on three's kansas state site and we gotta talk about avery johnson you you know how this podcast has been an Avery Johnson bandwagon show. And I can't wait to see this guy as the full-time starter.

We saw him in the bowl game. We know he's really, really fast. We've seen a couple of nice throws. We have not seen him. Really, I don't think we've seen him fully unleashed yet. Because the bowl game was a situation where Will Howard has decided to transfer. You're trying to get through the season. You're dealing with a very tough NC State defense.

You're not changing the offense. Remember, Colin Kline, the OC, has left for Texas A&M. He'll be working with Connor Wegman getting ready for Notre Dame right now. So what will the K state offense look like with Avery Johnson at the helm, who were his weapons and also how good will the defense be on the other side? Let's talk wildcats with Derek. We welcome Derek young of on threes K state online. And Derek, I'm very excited for the rest of the world to get to know Avery Johnson.

It's something that we've talked about a ton on this show, but I'm curious now that you're getting to see a little bit of camp with Avery Johnson as QB1 for K-State, what do you think this offense is going to look like with him running it, with Colin Klein no longer running it yeah that's the interesting part because you assume that the legs are going to play a pretty large role in what they do just

because he's probably the fastest player on the team one of the fastest players in college football but they are very insistent on wanting to highlight his arm and proving that he's just as good of a passer and part of that's because that's what he wants to do. He wants to kind of defeat some of those stereotypes that say he's just a runner and not a passer. And he's certainly canceling it. But a lot of what we've seen in training camp thus far is obviously less of the running just because he's not live. But even more so, just play more of a distributor role because they are a lot more improved at the skill positions this year. Well, and that's what I was going to ask is Dylan Edwards was the big name pickup because he's from Kansas.

We saw him, you know, had the big breakout at Colorado as a true freshman against TCU. But they bring in Dante Cephas, who was a big name transfer last year from Kent State to Penn State, but he didn't really do much at Penn State. So he comes to K-State. And then who are some of the other pass catchers? I say pass catchers because, like, Ben Sinnott was one of their better receivers last year at tight end. They've got to replace him too. Yeah.

Now, a lot of these guys – well, I think all of these guys you would consider not to be proven commodities at this point, but all high upside players. Garrett Oakley will replace Ben Sennett at tight end. And obviously, Ben Sennett was just an NFL second round pick. But people around the program will tell you that Garrett Oakley probably has more upside than Ben Sennett. The difference being that he's not done it yet, so he still has to prove himself. You mentioned Dante Cephas. He was a big name transfer at some point.

You hope that the lack of production at Penn State might have been the product of the Penn State offense not necessarily being all that explosive in years past, certainly before adding Andy Kotelnicki now as their offensive coordinator. Keegan Johnson was another player that was known to be kind of an explosive weapon in his short glimpses as a true freshman at Iowa. He was the best wide receiver at training camp last year, and then he got hurt and just never could put it together for Kansas State. And their best returning receiver, it could be Johnson, but if not, it's Jace Brown, who as a true freshman last season, probably became the best wide receiver by

season's finish and had a big game against Texas. So Avery Johnson has some people to throw to. The other question is, who's he in the mesh with? Because I think that's the part that's going to scare some defenses. When you got DJ Giddens coming back, it was a thousand yard back last year. And then you add Dylan Edwards to the mix is kind of that third down back dude who can catch the ball out of the backfield that's where i think every johnson's legs become more dangerous yeah the i think his legs will be kind of more of a threat to open up space for everybody else like

the tight end garrett oakley i think he could be someone that is the recipient of a lot of attention being paid to avery Johnson's legs or to Dylan Edwards because you put Dylan Edwards in motion, you're going to get a lot of false steps from a defense. And so I think those guys can, just as much as they can be used with the ball in their hands, will be great decoys as well and open up things for, like you said, DJ Gittin, who probably is the most probably forgotten

player on this kansas state team because of how easily it is to address the avery dance and to address the dylan edwards maybe the most forgotten player in the big 12 because rightfully so it's a pretty good running back league this year yeah it's a great running back league ollie gordon's probably head and shoulders above everybody else and one of my favorites is also devin neal from kansas but because of those two i think it's easily easy to forget about dj giddens yeah it's it really is a loaded running back league and because you talk about getting rj harvey at ucf uh the jaheem white cj donaldson one two punch at west virginia like you better come with a a pretty stout d line and some linebackers who can fill their gaps in the Big 12. Speaking of which, I thought it was interesting that Joe Clarem in the D.C. at Kansas State the other day said he thought this is the most talented K-State defense under Chris Kleiman.

And I think about the one two years ago that had Felix Anaduke-Azama, Juju Brents. Like, that was a pretty talented bunch. How does this one really stack up yeah I kind of quibble with him a little bit because I think it's hard to be as talented when you're not going to have at least proven guys like you went into 2022 knowing who Felix Andy Dike Uzama was knowing who Julius Brents was I think you may have guys with similar upsides at best, but they're not as proven going in. They think that they have some future stars at defensive end, but those guys haven't done it yet. And Jordan Allen and GDOV Isor, whose brother was a star linebacker, still is a star linebacker at

TCU. More proven in the secondary, I think even without a Juju Brents, I think this has a chance to be the deepest and best secondary under Chris Kleiman at Kansas State because I think Marquis Siegel is all Big 12 caliber at safety. Vijay Payne might be all Big 12 caliber at safety, and they brought in one of the best defensive back transfers in the Big 12, and Jordan Riley, and bring back both of your starting corners. So I think the strength of this defense is probably the back end.

The most upside is probably a defensive end, but those just aren't the guys that have done it yet. So I've been going back and forth on this. I'm trying to figure this out and maybe you can help me. Is it an advantage to be playing Arizona in a non-conference game or a dis, like, cause for those who don't know, Kansas state and Arizona were going to play anyway this year. And then they wound up in the same conference and the big 12 just said, keep the game. We'll call it a non-conference game.

But so K state in week three on a Friday night gets one of the most talented teams in the league in a game that doesn't count in the league standings. Is that like good practice, Derek, or is that you're really kicking yourself if you win that and it doesn't count in the league standings is that like good practice derek or is that you're really kicking yourself if you win that and it doesn't count yeah i i'm probably somewhere in the middle because if you get that win you probably wish that it would count because arizona could be a factor in the big 12 race so it makes sense from that standpoint on the other side of it i believe what the the four picked at the bottom of the big 12 kansas state's the only team that gets to play all four so uh you do get take that one yeah so if by dodging arizona maybe it's why you get the arizona states the cincinnati the houstons and the byu all on your schedule

where i don't think anyone else has that luxury what here's something i have kind of went back and forth on is i think this kansas state team is actually it's got the upside it's good enough to win the big 12 this year no doubt about it but it's probably more built for 2025 when all these stars that they're going to count on this year have that first year under their belt but you go back and forth with that because this this year's schedule is probably the most conducive to winning the big 12 because they do get all of arizona oklahoma state nku at home and don't have to play utah yeah yeah at west virginia is the one that feels a little tricky there because

they're going to be pretty good this year and i think people i don't think enough people are talking about that but i mean the big 12 is just going to be a a knife fight every week it feels like yeah that west virginia game is tricky now i it's funny because the the mountaineers could be better this year and have a far worse record because if you get their schedule it's probably the most complicated one in the big 12 i mean you could find six or seven losses on their schedule pretty easily despite being better but the location in the spot of when kansas state plays them is probably the most difficult part because you play colorado in the mountain time zone the week before a game that even if colorado isn't any good every player wants to play colorado right now so you get up for that one so maybe you get in a letdown

situation when you're playing two time zones over six or seven days later and then right after West Virginia you kind of get into that look ahead uh spot too because the Sunflower Showdown is the following week and the Sunflower Showdown may be a very big game in the Big 12 this year how much is it like obviously Chris Kleiman carried on what Bill Snyder was doing and kept Kansas State good but how much does Lance Leipold and what he's done at Kansas enhance that rivalry and and I mean it is a real rivalry again it's actually you actually think about who might win and who might lose now yeah it's kind of that way in both sports right Kansas State has elevated their playing basketball to kind of drone tang yeah absolutely to give K ku something to worry about in basketball but now ku and lance lipo are giving kent state something to worry about in

football it's a live rivalry in football where you know for years it wasn't i mean they well still technically you know your fans probably say it still isn't i think they've won 16 or 17 straight over kansas but as long as lance lipo is there, that streak is eventually going to finish. Now, I wouldn't call it this year just because Kansas State's still really good and they are the home team, but this is the one that KU will want really, really badly because they're losing a lot of their core after this season. So they feel like they have to get Kansas State this year because it'll be much tougher to do so next year. We talked about this a little in a game time at earlier in the show but uh early season week two k-state at two lane how purple is that

stadium gonna be that i imagine that's a pretty sought after road trip for the k-state fans yeah if they didn't go to the sugar bowl a couple years ago probably more so because they were just in new orleans but there's no alabama there this time yeah that's true what i will say and there's another thing too kind of implied the last time they played to lane they lost uh that's true willie fritz is no longer the willie fritz is at houston so they're gonna see willie fritz just in a different color but the but the last time they did lose the to lane that was the year they won the Big 12. And played Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. And it's all coming full circle. So, well, if you need

to know what to order at Giacomo's, just call me. Let me know. We'll get you right. Because it's one of those places that you will regret everything you didn't order. So, I envy you getting that trip. But it's going to be a fun year for K-State. I can't wait. And it's interesting because you mentioned maybe it is more built for 2025. Like every player you were mentioning to me, like sophomores, redshirt sophomores, it is a young team, but it does seem like it's set to compete now.

Yeah, they have the defense definitely to win the big 12 and it'll have to carry them i think early because that offense you you would anticipate some growing pains a new offensive coordinator a lot of new pieces on the offensive line so those are things to take into consideration maybe some things that bite you eventually we'll see but you know i've seen a few practices to this point what i will say is they're a lot longer and a lot deeper on defense and they are a lot faster on offense it'll be fun to watch derrick young thank you so much absolutely that's derrick young from k-state. Thank you so much for joining us. We are going to do this as we get toward camps where we just whip around to various camps.

I don't know the giant NCAA news is going to break most of those days. So most of those shows will be more football focused than this one was. But listen, never a dull moment in college football, never a dull moment. We'll talk to you tomorrow.