Andy & Ari On3 - Michigan State coach Mel Tucker Suspended (and probably done) | What went wrong for Alabama?

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

Michigan State coach Mel Tucker Suspended (and probably done) | What went wrong for Alabama?Today's show is brought to you by PrizePicks, the easiest way to play daily fantasy. All first time users that deposit and use the promo code ANDY will receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. If you deposit $100, PrizePicks will give you $100. If you deposit $50, PrizePicks will give you $50.Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/ANDYSubscribe to On3! ⬇️   / on3sports  Welcome to On3 | The best of college football and recruiting https://www.on3.com/Follow Andy Staples on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Andy_StaplesFollow Andy Staples on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andy_staplesFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/on3sportsFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/on3/?hl=en Like/Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/On3Sports/ Shop On3 https://shop.outsider.com/After USA Today dropped a bombshell story early Sunday morning, Michigan State suspended head coach Mel Tucker without pay pending the outcome of a hearing related to a sexual harassment complaint filed in December. Andy explains why Tucker probably won't be back. (0:00-15:48)Art Briles was on Oklahoma's sideline after their game against SMU, and Andy discusses. (15:49-17:08)Andy also breaks down the latest polls. (17:09-23:16)Tim Watts of Bama Online joins to break down what went wrong for the Crimson Tide against Texas and evaluate what will happen when Alabama hits SEC play. (23:17-41:51)Next, Andy combs through the postgame press conferences from Saturday to help determine why some things happened and what to expect going forward. (41:52-43:00)Including quotes from:Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders (43:01-44:45)Nebraska coach Matt Rhule (44:46-48:25)Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher (48:26-51:01)A fan replies to some Mel Tucker news, and Andy addresses it live. (51:02-52:05)Miami coach Mario Cristobal (52:06-55:45)Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman (55:46-59:05)Houston coach Dana Holgorsen (59:06-01:01:46)For the Extra Point, Andy heads back to Colorado where Shedeur has presented his own rendition of the "Prime Time Shuffle" (01:01:47-01:05:01)

Hey, it's Andy. Before we get started, I want to talk about some of the stuff you're going to hear in the beginning part of the show. That's the section where I'm talking about Mel Tucker and his situation at Michigan State. When we recorded the show live on Sunday night, it was a few hours after the Michigan State press conference involving the athletic director and the president. And at the time, neither one of them said that they had not learned the specifics of this case until Sunday, basically when USA Today dropped the story. Now, in a lot of places, when you have a Title IX situation, the specifics are kept from the superiors of the person accused because you don't want anybody kind of meddling in the investigation. So I can understand if that's the case, but given the opportunity, Alan Haller and Teresa Woodruff never said that. And Alan Haller was specifically asked, why did you suspend him a day? What changed between this situation and when the full investigative report was delivered in July,

which Haller acknowledged early in the press conference that happened. He acknowledged knowing that there was a complaint lodged in December. So he could have said, what changed is I did not know the specifics of this investigation. He did not say that. That was said later by a university spokeswoman to various media outlets. So this could be butt covering. This could be them trying to make things look better when they looked bad. Or it could be they legitimately messed this messaging up and the president and the AD didn't know the full extent of what was going on until Sunday when the USA Today story came out. All of this stuff can be true. Doesn't really

change the basics of what's going on that Mel Tucker's probably not going to be back as Michigan State's coach. I'll explain why that's probably the case as we get into the body of the show. Here's the show. Welcome to Andy Staples on three. We knew what this show was going to be about midnight Sunday night when USA Today dropped a bombshell of a story about Mel Tucker, the Michigan State head coach, and it was a sexual harassment complaint filed by Brenda Tracy, who is an advocate for victims' rights, who speaks to college football teams across the country, including Michigan State. The details of it, pretty nasty. And if you got youngsters in the car or watching on the YouTube stream, so you may tell them

earmuffs or maybe you just skip past this part right now, but it's bad. And basically she accuses Mel Tucker of masturbating on the phone while talking to her, trying to start a relationship with her. And Mel Tucker responds with, no, it was a mutual consensual thing, but admits to doing the really gross thing that she accuses him of, which that alone probably is enough to have Michigan State take action. Because this is a contractor that the university is bringing in for a service. This is someone, you know, there's a power dynamic here. Absolutely, probably enough to make a case for firing Mel Tucker for cause. So this investigation has been going on since December when she filed the complaint.

He was interviewed in March. Kenny Jacoby wrote the story on USA Today, had all of the documents basically from the investigation. And it was a thorough, thorough accounting of everything that's happened. And what's most interesting about it is, it is a he said, she said. But the facts that they agree upon probably are enough to make it where Mel Tucker can never recruit again, can never go into a recruit's house, talk to recruit's parents without them thinking of this. And Tim D brings up if it was the 90s, they had all those sex line infomercials. Yes, they had those in the 90s, whereas like $1.99 or $2.99 a minute. This one may have cost $80 million. It may have been the most expensive phone sex of all time because Mel Tucker had a 10-year $95 million guaranteed

contract. And after Michigan State went five and seven last year, I imagine there were quite a few people trying to figure out how to get out of that. Because unless he was going to be bringing in Ohio State-level recruiting classes, they weren't going to be getting what they were paying for. So the cynics out there are going, oh, okay, they're just trying to get out of the contract. It can be both. It can be an incredibly stupid decision and an incredibly callous act. I mean, he's married at the time this is going on, by the way. Let's not gloss over that.

It also could be that Michigan State is using this opportunity to get rid of Mel Tucker and get out of that contract. Now, he has been suspended without pay as of Monday afternoon, or as of Sunday afternoon. Why suspended without pay now is a very interesting question. But first, let's hear Alan Haller, the AD at Michigan State, discussing what he's done on Sunday with Mel Tucker. I'm here to provide an update on an active and ongoing investigation. Before I share that update, it's important to know that I'm limited in the information I can share

and the questions I can answer because this is an investigation that's still ongoing. Upon receiving the reports from the claimant regarding Mel Tucker, MSU's Office of Civil Rights immediately commenced a review of subsequent and subsequent investigation per University protocol using an outside third-party investigator. I was aware of the report in late December. The external investigator concluded their review and submitted their investigative report on July 25th with the recommendation for a formal hearing which will occur the week of October 5th.

The university's objective has been and remains focused on conducting a fair, thorough, and unbiased investigation and allowing the processes to play out. This includes protecting confidentiality of the claimant and putting in place interim measures. The University's formal conclusion of the investigation will occur once the hearing and final decision processes are complete. I want to emphasize again, this investigation is not complete. Interim measures are something that are constantly evaluated throughout the process based on

developments that may have a potential impact on the ongoing investigation. As there have been new developments before the hearing and with the best interests of everyone, including student athletes and the university community in mind, I have suspended Mel Tucker without pay as an additional interim measure. While the investigation continues, I made this decision with the support of university leadership. So that's Alan Haller explaining that he is suspended from Mel Tucker without pay. He was asked later in that press conference, why now?

Why did you do this now? Why didn't you do this in July when the report was given to you? There's a hearing that's scheduled for October. Why didn't you do this in December? Why didn't you do this in March after Mel Tucker was interviewed and admitted to what he was accused of? And so Alan Haller said this. Interim measures were in place, and those interim measures have been updated. Initially, there was no contact with the complainant, and then increased oversight for me of the program, but then also the coach.

So it's an ongoing process and we update those interim measures as we receive information. The information was USA Today dropped a bomb story on you and everybody knew what was going on. Now, Teresa Woodruff, the interim president at Michigan State, got up at that same press conference and said, in the NMSU of today, when any report comes into the university is appropriately and rigorously reviewed. In the MSU of today, our investigative processes are fair and thorough. Later on, she said, so this morning's news might sound like the MSU of old. Basically, what she's saying there is, remember Larry Nassar, the doctor who was sexually abusing his patients for years and years and years and years, and no one at Michigan State

would do anything about it despite people reporting it? They didn't do anything until it appeared in the newspaper. The Indianapolis Star broke all that stuff. So what happened today? They didn't do anything until it appeared in the newspaper. That USA Today story was what lit the fuse on all this. I don't know if these guys sit around and say, we think they're stupid and they won't realize that we're only doing this because everybody found out, or they know how dumb they sound. Because this is what happened.

USA Today released a story and you guys look like a bunch of clowns. That's why you suspended him now. You could have suspended him much earlier and it probably would have been better off for everybody because remember this team, we don't know what's going to happen now, but Harlan Barnett, the longtime defensive assistant, he was a longtime assistant under Mark D'Antonio as well. He'll be the interim head coach.

Mark D'Antonio, the former head coach, coming back to be associate head coach and just kind of be a guiding force and a hand on the till. I mean, this is what you could have done in July. And that might've been a better outcome. Michigan State plays Washington this week. It's going to be a very tough game. Washington is one of the better teams in the Pac-12 and one of the better passing offenses in the country. So we'll see what happens. But the Mel Tucker part of it, I don't get it because I am sure there were a bunch of people at Michigan State

after last season who thought, okay, we might have made a mistake. We might have acted a little too hastily when we gave him a fully guaranteed contract after the 2021 season. They had this in their hands. They could have been doing this all along. I don't know why it took the world finding out. I mean, they could have done this and then the world would have found out. You could have suspended him in July when you got the full report. The world would have found out about it. This story probably would have come out still. And you would have looked like you were doing the right thing. Now you look like a bunch of idiots covering your butts. I don't understand that. And if they're worried about litigation, if they're worried

about Mel Tucker suing them for firing him unjustly, they're not firing him. They're suspending him. They could have done that firing him. They're suspending him. They could have done that all along. You could have suspended him with pay, pinning the outcome of the hearing. You could have just suspended him in July, pinning the outcome of the hearing, and said, we'll talk about it in October

after we fire you for cause. Because that's what they're going to do. And maybe they'll end up having to pay him something. We'll see. But that's what they're going to do. Mel Tucker's not coaching Michigan State again. Mitch, who's a Michigan State fan, says, I don't think this is completely fair.

Suspending him prior to the story coming out would have compromised the complainant's confidentiality. No, it would have. She's the one who agreed to reveal herself. No one would have had to reveal her identity. It still would have been a complaint. And rumors about this were going around already. So they could have done this.

The reason they did this is because it came out in the newspaper. But make no mistake, Mel Tucker is not coaching Michigan State again. That's not going to happen. And this is, I was talking to people Sunday morning and there were a few folks who said, well, you know, do they have enough to fire him for cause? It doesn't matter. If they can't fire him for cause, they're going to have to find a way to pay him something to get rid of him because he can never recruit again after this. Hugh Freeze, maybe he did. He had the situation where he got fired at Ole Miss.

He was calling hookers with his university cell phone. He was fired for cause, costing millions of dollars. He went back, was the head coach at Liberty. Now he's the head coach at Auburn. He did it. Maybe Mel Tucker can come back from this. I don't think he can. Because think about who Brenda Tracy is,

what her role is when she goes and speaks to college football teams, what happened to her in her life. So for those who don't know, Brenda's story is terrible. She was gang raped when she was younger by a group of college football players. And she never really got justice for that. But as part of her healing process, she started telling her story to people. And she's been going around to various college football programs across the country for years now telling that story. And that's how they came to meet is she spoke to the Michigan State football team. So when you're another coach and you're recruiting against Mel Tucker at this point, which again, you're not going to have to because he's not going to be

coaching. But if you were, you're just bringing that up to every recruit's mother. Every single one. You're saying, see this? And it's not, again, it's not even he said, she said. He's admitted to it. To the thing that is going to cause the most problems, he's already admitted to it. So there's no hope for Mel Tucker to keep coaching. And given everything that's happened, we'll see what happens with the hearing, but I would imagine

they'll be able to fire him for cause. One thing that I find interesting, and it's very sad, is Brenda Tracy's assistant was going to be one of her witnesses in this hearing. She passed away because of a car accident in between when she was interviewed by the investigator and now. And so it really was going to be a purely he said, she said hearing. So I do wonder if somebody got worried that he was going to get out of the hearing okay, and then they have to allow him to keep his job. So perhaps that's why this came out. But we'll see. Backyard Engineer, he said it was consensual. Yes, we've been over that.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that it was consensual. If you're a recruits mom and I'm an opposing coach and I tell you that story and say, are you going to send your son to play for that guy? Consensual or not, it's going to be a problem. So that's where they're at. He's not coming back. And it is truly amazing how... I can't understand why that happened in the first place. It doesn't make any sense. But to think about the money at stake and just throwing it all away. Millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars. Just gone. Poof.

It's amazing. It is one of the all-time bag fumbles. And for Michigan State, they're getting out of what might have been one of the all-time worst contracts so it's it's not what i thought the the coaching carousel would open up with this year we'll talk a little later in the show about other potential coaching carousel type openings but this is the first one the michigan state job and we'll talk more about what it means in the future later we don't have to worry about that right now

but harlan barnett mark d'antonio will try to to right the ship here and and deal with it now they're two and oh but we'll see what happens their first challenge first real test was coming against washington but this is this has just been a strange, strange story. It was one of the weirdest things that I have ever seen covering this sport. And think about it. It's college football. And I've been covering this thing for, what, 23 years professionally now? This is one of the weirdest ones I have ever seen.

I cannot believe this happened. And I think most people feel the same way. Speaking of stuff like this, the other news Saturday night, and this is, this kind of got blown off the front page by the Mel Tucker stuff is, uh, Art Bryles was visiting Oklahoma, wearing his Oklahoma gear. He's on the field. Now, anybody who knows Oklahoma's assistant coaching situation probably figured this was going to happen at some point. Jeff Levy is Oklahoma's offensive coordinator. Jeff Levy is Art Bryles' son-in-law. Jeff Levy was on the staff at Baylor when Art

Bryles was fired. And that was after an investigation. And they said that Art Bryles did not handle sexual assault complaints properly and Baylorlor fired him. Now he's been considered fairly toxic at most schools that he's appeared at. Well, he appears on the field at Oklahoma wearing Oklahoma gear. Jeff Levy says, look, he's my children's grandfather. What do you want? Joe Castiglione, the athletic director says, no, no, that's not supposed to happen. Brent Venable says it'll be dealt with. So we'll see. But you hired Jeff Levy. You didn't think his wife's dad was going to show up eventually? That was going to happen. So I don't get Oklahoma acting all shocked and weirded out by this. You knew this was going to happen. But again,

that Mel Tucker news just completely blew it off the page. All right. Onto football type stuff. We got new polls after Saturday's action. And that's the question we were asking last night with Jesse Simonson as he was doing the predict the poll, where will Texas wind up? Number four in the AP poll, two first place votes for the Longhorns. And my guess is the two first place voters are people who vote in a way that only what has happened this season counts. I did that when I was an AP voter. Week, you know, preseason, we just kind of guess week one, week two, you just kind of go with what's happened and it all sort of shakes out. You can vote the other way and just say, well, we think this will happen. And then you all end up in the same place week 12 and week 13. So it doesn't really matter, but it's interesting that they did get two first place votes, which is two

people saying, we think that's the best win of the year. Texas has won in Alabama. Florida State, they're at number three with three first place votes. Georgia, Michigan won two. Where is Colorado number 18? I said, listen, just throw them up there. Put them in the top 10. Who cares? You're just guessing anyway.

If they lose to Oregon and USC, you can knock them back out. But Colorado is the most fun story of the year so far. They've been fun to watch. They played one bad half. That was the first half of that game against Nebraska. And they still wound up winning 13 to nothing at the end of said half. So I don't know.

Why 18? Just put them in the top 10 for now. Again, who cares? Washington State coming in at number 23 after that win against Wisconsin. And that was just a great scene in Pullman. So happy for those people to get to show off how much they care,

how great a football environment they have. It's just a horrible situation for Washington State and for Oregon State. And oh, by the way, they both happen to be good this year. So it's frustrating. But again, you guys run the Pac-12 now, changing the name of the two-pack, two-team conference. I think you can do it for like a year or two provisionally.

Have your game against one another. Be in Las Vegas. Put the championship logos on the field. Just have fun with it. If everybody's going to screw you, just enjoy it. Take their NCAA tournament money and spend it on yourselves. Like who cares? This is a situation where two schools have been completely wronged and they have a chance to at least have a little fun with the situation. Let them do it. And then go to the Mountain West,

say, hey, we'd like you to join the two-pack and we'll call it the pack 14. And then there you go. You got a conference. This is not that complicated, but I do want to see the two-pack exist. And I really, really want to see a one game season, one game conference schedule where the one game is the championship game. That is all I need. That would make me happy in 2024. Before we go on and talk to Tim Watts from Bama Online about what went wrong for Alabama against Tennessee, we got to talk about prize picks. Now I had a tough, tough go of it with prize picks this weekend. So I had a situation where I played four squares and I did the flex play option, which is basically if three of the four hit, you get five times what you bet. So I

had Bo Nix more than 24 and a half rushing yards. He had 46 against Texas Tech in Oregon's win. I had Evan Stewart more than 69 and a half receiving yards. He had a great day for Texas A&M, 114 receiving yards. And it wasn't the Texas A&M offense. And that's something we'll talk about later in the show as well. But Jimmy Horn for Colorado. With Colorado receivers, you're going to be playing guess who's going to blow up today. Because that's the deal.

They've got so many options out there. And it's going to be hard to figure out from week to week, day to day, who the best player is going to be. Who's going to be the best in that particular matchup. It was Xavier Weaver against Nebraska. Travis Hunter, he didn't catch as many passes, but he had, he had a decent per catch average. And then Jimmy Horn, they fed him. I had more than 68 and a half receiving yards. He had 64. So I basically was five yards short of winning this bet. The other one, I had Kyle Ferry, the kicker for Mississippi state more than one and a

half field goals. I was thinking, okay, they're playing Arizona. Arizona's going to maybe make a couple red zone stops for some field goals. There was only one. And as they went to overtime, I thought, okay, maybe Arizona stuffs them. Mississippi State can kick a field goal and move on in overtime. Nope. Mississippi State scored a touchdown in overtime. Good for Mississippi State. It won them the game, but not so great for my prize picks play, but that's okay. I can try again. I was just, I was this, this close. So prize picks is your best way to play daily fantasy. You can play it in 31 states, including Florida, Texas, and California. And if you use the referral code, Andy, they will match your first deposit up to a hundred bucks. So if you deposit a hundred bucks, they'll match a hundred bucks. If you deposit 50 bucks, they'll match 50 bucks.

So referral code Andy, and they'll match you up to a hundred bucks. It is so much fun playing prize fixes. One of my favorite things is on, it's kind of, it starts Tuesday, Wednesday, where they start loading in the college football stuff. And then Thursday, it starts coming hot and heavy by Thursday night. There's all kinds of different options for the weekend. And then Friday, you just kind of go through, like I was watching the Kansas Illinois game

and just going through all of the different picks and all the things I could play. And it was a lot of fun. So next week I'm going to do better, but that's all right. Go to prize picks, download the app referral code Andy, and they'll match you up to a hundred bucks. Next up, we saw how Texas dominated Alabama. What went wrong for the Crimson Tide? Tim Watts from Bama online joins us to explain we are joined now by tim watts of bama online and i told tim before we started recording it was a coin flip him or bobby burton but i was going to only ask bobby burton how's it how's it feel to have an awesome team right now uh tim there's a lot more questions to ask about alabama and the first was probably you know

one of the first questions that nick saban got last night which was are you sure jalen milrose your guy i like it noted for the record that at any other moment in my life how you let off a coin flip between you and bobby would offend me so. I'd hang up and be driving on my way to your house. So, for the record, I'm just kidding. I get it. Yeah. I mean, you look at the checklist of things Bama couldn't do and win, and if you look at the checklist of what Texas needed to not do to win,

they both checked it off. I mean, Bama with the turnovers, Bama with the penalties. It's not as simple as that, though Obviously there's more to it, but you know, two bad turnovers penalties that took two touchdowns off the board, even though they got field goals. So a test of where you're at, I mean, is what we saw. And I think we know where Alabama is at. And I think we have a better understanding. I think Texas is a good football team.

I thought they were a good football team coming in. And certainly, you know, left thinking that was a, that's a, that's a pretty good football team. Were you surprised that Alabama's offensive line struggled as much with Texas's front? Yeah, I thought Texas, well, I thought they had a good defensive front. I think Bo Davis is a good coach. I think they've got good talent over there. I wasn't super surprised Alabama didn't get a great push the week before either. I thought maybe they went a little vanilla and we're going to see a little bit more, you know, you know, you had Proctor over there struggling as a true freshman against a pretty, you know, pretty smart defensive attack. You didn't see a lot of help over there, guys chipping and, you know, trying to help him out. He was kind of on an island. So I wasn't completely caught off guard.

I didn't expect him to dominate the Texas defensive line. I expected him to be more competitive, though. Yeah, although part of it, I will say, and I was watching the offensive linemen and their body language on some plays, some of it is the way Milrow plays as well. Oh, absolutely. Because it does feel like he's walking into some things that maybe a more pure pocket passer doesn't yeah and sometimes those holds are simply you're pushing a guy left and

then all of a sudden he's cutting back and you're having to reach out and grab him that's a lot of that's dictated you see that at any level on the reaction of the quarterback so I totally agree with that I think it was a little bit of everything there. I think they made it almost one-dimensional at some point. I mean, Alabama did a fine job throwing the ball deep, but they didn't really decide to do that until mid-second, maybe late second. They had some success there. But anything in the middle was a battle. I thought Alabama's wide receivers did a good job.

And that was one of the questions we had. Was Alabama's wide receivers going to have a lot of drops, which they didn't. They made some great plays a couple of times, ended up on their head. And so they stood up there and also felt the Alabama defense was a better tackling team. In fact, I had some former Bama staffers in the NFL texting me that same thing. They felt they were more fundamentally sound, but I mean, that's a lot, you know, without any quarterback pressure, that's a lot of time to try to any quarterback pressure, that's a lot of time to try to card a couple of really fast wide receiver. And they got that freaky tight end to boot.

Yeah. J.C. Sanders had a great game. And that's the thing I wanted to talk to you about because I found it fascinating. And we put a graphic out last week at On3 that I thought was really interesting. And it was Texas versus Bama rosters as recruits. And Bama had twice as many five stars 16 to 8 they had 50 top 100 prospects to texas is 18 their blue chip ratio was 89 in texas is 61 their number one position players this is where it was close where the person was the number one position player in their class was six to five but it looked to me like Texas had the better counterpart at most positions.

Like if we're talking about JT Sanders, certainly the best tight end, uh, worthy or, or AD Mitchell was the best receiver on the field. Uh, yours was the better quarterback on the field. Kelvin Banks was the better left tackle on the field. Tom Andre sweat was the better defensive tackle on the field. Like that was, that was the part that was shocking to me because, you know, Alabama has always taken this raw material and developed it really well too. We haven't seen that as much with Texas, but I mean, Texas's players looked as good or better in terms of like, if you were an NFL scout trying to figure out who you want to pick as Alabama's. Yeah, I think offensively, I think Sark went heavy there. You know, they've been they've been active in the NIO.

That's why that offensive line is so good. There's been a lot of discussion about that. Very good offensive line. Great. You know, he's obviously a good offensive line in his own. So you put an offensive line there. I think Quinn Ewers was the number one quarterback in his class. Xavier Worthy, I don't know if he's a five-star,

but I remember knowing how talented he was following his recruitment. And he reminded me a lot of Devonta, you know, Devonta Smith, Smitty at Alabama. And I think that was kind of Alabama recruited him too. Remember he was committed to Michigan, got out of that, ended up at Texas, Alabama, recruited both times. Obviously, the other wide receiver would have been better at Georgia, not really a wide receiver passing the tack the last couple of years.

Talent, for sure, was on offense they had. Sound like Yoda there, Donna. They definitely had offense on the Texas side. They definitely had offense on the Texas side of the ball. I never had any doubts about that coming in. And you knew Quinn Ewers is a good quarterback. You don't get any pressure on a good quarterback. You're going to obviously have a chance to make him great. And I think that's what they did last night. You just didn't see Alabama win any one-on-one battles on the defensive line. And you didn't

see a lot of scheming to try to get guys near him. And part of that was, again, the skill set. You've got running backs that can catch the ball, they're fast, wide receivers that can beat you deep, you've got tight ends. So it's hard to, like, bring a, you know, cheated defender in there and not have to worry about getting beat. So this makes me wonder, you know, because LSU has a pretty talented roster, Texas A&M has a pretty talented roster. Looking down the schedule, Tennessee has a pretty talented roster. Texas A&M has a pretty talented roster. Looking down the schedule, Tennessee has a very talented roster.

Is it possible that Alabama is going to have other games where they won't be the more talented team? On paper, I mean, that's one thing. I still think Alabama's got a lot of talent on the field. Not being the best wide receiver of that duo last night. You've got a guy that's probably a first-round pick and probably a second-day pick at worst for Texas. You've got a tight end that's going to get first-round consideration. You've got a quarterback that's going to go in the first three rounds.

I think it's still to be determined exactly where he goes. There's a lot of talent out there. I mean, Nye Black was no joke either. He had some plays for Alabama, did some nice things. And Alabama's wide receivers made some big plays themselves. So not being as good as Texas on that short end for Alabama doesn't mean they lack talent. They've still got a lot of talent.

They've just got to get it out there, figure out – you know, to me the first question is, what is Milrow? We know what he – we think he is. How are you going to use him? You can't really put in an A.J. McCarron game plan for him or a bright shun game plan. You almost got to use them more like a Blake Sims. He's going to throw the ball deep, let him power run. I mean, again, he's built like Herschel Walker's a big muscular weightlifting guy back there.

If you're going to run and run him, have a meaning to him. And one of the things I thought Texas did the best job of that nobody's mentioned really is they had a spy on him a big athletic kid that can run with him kind of contained him he got loose a few times did some nice things with his legs but for the most part with all that pressure coming up front I would have expected more bigger runs yeah that's what I figured he just kind of get out the back door but they did a good job spying him and and they had I mean they just had some good athletes running after him too like anthony hill we all knew he was a good player he was

another one of those number one in his class kind of kind of people but i thought they did a good job using him it kind of felt similar what lsu did with harold perkins last year where yeah we put him in a fairly simple situation schematically and say, go get this guy. And he did a good job of that. Yeah. As far as Alabama is concerned, they definitely have games to circle Texas A&M. I know they got throttled, took a pretty big loss to Miami. There's still going to be a handful of college station. That game has been very competitive every year, whether, no matter what the other team was ranked. LSU is obviously a big game. Auburn, I know Auburn isn't the team we're used to, but you've seen that several times.

Auburn is not easy for Alabama or anybody. We've seen a less talented Auburn team be very competitive. I wouldn't expect anything less this year, but Alabama should have the most talent as they go through the rest of the schedule. I can't think of anybody off the top of my head where they don't match up well yeah there's nobody obvious and but it was it's weird because I I try to remember the last time even the game they lost 44 to 44 to 18 to Clemson in the in the national title game it didn't feel like Clemson had a vastly superior roster to them. They had Alabama's offense that year with two, you know, 15 NFL starters right there. They definitely, Alabama had the roster.

They just, you know, had their number out, schemed them in that game. But, yeah, when I look at Alabama's schedule, of course, I didn't think coming into this, Alabama was like a heavy national champion. I know that caught buzz for three weeks. I haven't seen a great team overall. Michigan's been really good. Georgia's been really good. Haven't had super competition.

But I've seen teams struggle. You've already got Texas A&M, LSU with losses, obviously. I think Texas is going to end up being one of the best teams Alabama plays this year. So, Tim, you cover the recruiting piece of this. And I'm curious, how, at what point did Alabama just, did they stop getting everybody they wanted and it started getting more competitive for them? Well, they had the, maybe the number one class ever on paper last year. I know it seems like it's a lot further off, but I mean, you look at everybody they got, they got impact guys at every position on the,

on the football field and especially, you know, probably the weakest would be your favorite was the quarterback position. We know how you love Dylan and still hearing great things about Dylan. So if you're weak area and recruiting class is signing two top 100 quarterbacks, it's probably been a good class this year. I think they've ran into having to recruit against that class. I mean, it's not just them that happens to. I mean, when you have guys that heavy in a class,

I think it affects the next class that you're running up on. Georgia's faced that a little bit too, and it's hard to go back-to-back-to-back with number one classes anymore. Factor in the NIL, we see kids going all over. You know, it's just a different ballgame. But Alabama, with that said, Alabama has a top five class. I think they have the number one 2025 class. So they're still getting plenty enough talent to be competitive year in and year out.

That's what I'm wondering about is just it feels like they don't have the prohibitive talent advantage that they used to have where their backups could beat most teams starters it feels like and you see this you know because i you know i put alabama georgia ohio state in the same bucket and you're seeing guys who would have gone to those places that are now going to tennessee or to missouri or and that's where i'm wondering where that starts to show with some of these superpower teams. Like Texas is a little bit different because Texas has always recruited highly ranked recruits. They're just, I think they're developing them better now, but,

but I do wonder if that, if that does catch up to the, to the superpowers at some point. Well, I think, you know, Missouri got, you know, one of the, maybe the best defensive tackle in the country, but I mean, he's going to be an impact guy from statistics, but I mean, how many extra games will one player win? You obviously got to string classes together, which is what Georgia is going to do. I mean, you have five top three classes that say Alabama, Georgia, Ohio state, you know, Missouri can handpick one guy in each class. And that's just a hard obstacle to overcome. But, I mean, those are big names that you see.

Auburn's got a bunch of guys. Auburn's got several guys that Georgia recruited, Alabama recruited, Tennessee recruited. They did a good job, you know, getting guys down there that you wouldn't normally expect, especially coming off the Harzen era. So you've got to factor all that in now. I mean, you've got the NIL, you've got the portal, you've got instant playing time, you've got to factor all that in now. I mean, you got, you got the NIL, you got the portal, you got instant playing time, you've got everything going on,

but I don't think that's an excuse for the top tier programs. I mean, Alabama is going to have talent to compete Georgia, Ohio state, you know, USC is up there and there's other schools. I'm probably forgetting to mention they're always going to have that top 10 talent. I just think it makes things more interesting. But one of things that that we thought made the the preseason more interesting and we were joking about this before we started is the the Nick Saban relaxed I mean he's smiling more he apologized to a reporter for the way he answered a question I mean you're just not

not used to seeing that from Nick Saban and and I joked oh they're gonna you know they're gonna destroy everybody but I was joking like I didn't actually think because Nick Saban, and I joked, oh, they're going to destroy everybody. But I was joking. Like, I didn't actually think, because Nick Saban was smiling, that that made them appreciably better. But where do you think that came? Like, the college game day guys all picking Alabama as their SEC champion, and you've said it multiple times,

you didn't necessarily see that when you looked at the roster. Where do you think that came from I didn't see like to me I think it was a lot was to be determined I felt Bama is a good team I still think they're a good football team and have a lot of potential including winning the SEC or going to the SEC championship and making the college football playoffs obviously um you know they got you got things to clean up but I I still feel that way. But to me, it was odd that it was like a lot of people were down on Alabama. You know, you saw a lot of people picking three or four losses. And then all of a sudden you had a bunch of people picking them as national champions and

beating Georgia and SEC champions. I was just curious, like, what are they basing that on when they didn't even know who the quarterback was when they were making those predictions? I just thought, don't you want to, like, see who's taking, you know, snaps and, you know, figure that whole thing out, you know, before you make that prediction, though? But I know the media can have that snowball effect. You get somebody to throw it out there, sounds like a good idea, and we all begin to spitball it and add on it and, you know,

get that thing rolling down the hill. But, you know, again, there's a lot of football to be played. We look back six weeks from now, maybe Texas number one team in the country. And that loss, you're like, shoot, Bama did a pretty good job to hang with them. Or Texas has two of those losses that they seem to have, you know, in their past. And you're like, boy, Bama, you know, really, you know, it really is a bad loss. So college football to me this year was that way. Last year, so much left to be determined.

Yeah. And, and I'm, I'm happy about that. I like that because I, I, you know, I've watched Georgia a few times and granted they don't, they're not playing anybody yet, but they don't look perfect right now. So it does feel like everybody has a chance. And I think that's, that's a little bit different but you're right we may look back on all of it like I may look back at some of these questions I've been asking you 10 weeks from now and be like well that was stupid because Alabama's just fine so but I don't know I think it's I think it's legitimate to question and I mean we're in week

two we've got a Clemson Alabama and LSU LSU with a loss. I mean, there's three top ten teams, basically, that have a loss already. I mean, of course, they could finish 14-1 in national champion. I don't think Clemson could. But, you know, the other guys, you know, all have stuff to clean up right now. But, yeah, I mean, some of these teams that we think are great maybe have a couple losses. I still don't know what to make of Michigan. They've looked really good to me, but Ohio state's looked bad,

but you know how that goes. Yeah. You know, got a lot of good players. It's just like Alabama. Like if they turn on the jets and all of a sudden everybody clicks, there's nobody in the country that can beat them. So that's, I mean, a lot of, yeah, a lot of things left to play. Georgia looks good. Doesn't have a tough schedule, have to get into the sec and see who are they. You know, they could be playing a really good SEC team in the West

or they could be, you know, playing the easier opponent and then go to the playoffs. But they're going to be good. You know, Kirby Smart's a terrific coach and plenty of defensive talent, very aggressive. So I love it. I mean, you know, as an Alabama guy, I'm not happy Alabama has a loss, but I do love the college football. Like, I looked at the Slater game this weekend. I mean, you know, as an Alabama guy, I'm not happy Alabama has a loss,

but I do love the college football. Like, I looked at the Slated game this weekend. I'm very disappointed. I cut my grass for the first time in 22 – since I had a child, you know, on a Saturday. You know what I mean? Like, gosh, it's bad. So, I'm glad there's good games and we get to watch them and, you know, everything that goes on.

But I think Alabama at the end of the day will be fine. Maybe not by Alabama standards. That's such a high bar to set. And, you know, fans still want the 11 – you know, the 2011 defense and, you know, those guys that were just monsters that, you know. There's a reason they were so – we thought so much of those teams. We never really had seen them, you know, except for the – Miami had some teams, USC had some teams defensively and it's just hard to put those groups

together. Yeah. And, and like the 2017 recruiting class, I never see anything like that again. It's that good. So, well, Tim, I appreciate it. A little dose of common sense and reality for the folks. How's your, how's your message board holding up? Everybody okay? It's kind of like they knew.

They were wondering about the quarterback position the whole year, and, you know, you saw a mixture of Milrow and penalties and no defensive pressure, untimely turnovers, and, you know, it's kind of their worst nightmare. I mean, you know, you flip the penalties and the two turnovers, and Bama probably wins that game. But that's a lot of games when you've got I mean, you know, you flip the penalties and the two turnovers and Bama probably wins that game, but that's a lot of games when you got two teams, you know, the guys in the field turnovers were really bad. I mean,

those were bad picks obviously. And, you know, the defense did good just to keep one to a field goal, but I think the message board's all right. I mean, you get, you know, Bama fans aren't used to losing, but they'll bounce back. Well, Paul Feinbaum, we'll get a few phone calls tomorrow that's that's all it really matters Tim thank you so much thank you so much Tim all right man appreciate it what did I say last week two possible reactions after Nick Saban apologized to a reporter if the Alabama, all the think pieces on how he's a new coach for a new generation.

Alabama loses? Paul, he's gone soft! You will hear those. You're going to hear those tomorrow on the Feinbaum Show. I guarantee you that. You're going to hear? You're going to hear a lot of Colorado press conferences because they're really interesting. The post-game press conferences at Colorado are fascinating. Now, maybe they won't be if they don't win,

but so far, after two victories, they've been really, really interesting. Shador Sanders was the one who stole the show this time. He had an incredible game against Nebraska. He didn't throw for as many yards as he did against TCU, but I almost feel like he had a better game. Because he was willing to stand in, get pummeled, and he's just, he's really accurate. He's decisive, and he's a lot of fun. But he's about as good as his dad on the mic as well.

And that's maybe even more impressive. So every Sunday this year, we're going to take you through a bunch of postgame press conferences and try to kind of dissect what happened over the weekend. We will start with Shadurah Sanders talking about the respect or maybe lack of respect for Nebraska and from Nebraska it was extremely personal we go out there warm up you got the head coach for the team trying to stand in the middle of the buff like it's okay like a couple players do it it's fine you know like just enjoy scenery. But when you got the whole team trying to disrespect it, then I'm not, you know, I'm not going for that at all.

So I went in there and disrupted it. So they knew off rip, like, nah, the Buffaloes mean a lot to me. And personally, that's what I was saying pregame, and that's when I knew it was just extreme disrespect. And that's why it was – the coach said a lot of things about my pops, about the program. But now that he won't act nice, I don't I don't I don't respect that because you ain't on another man. You shouldn't do that. So it was just all respect was gone for them in their program. Now, I like playing against their D.C. I like playing against them. But respect

level, it ain't it ain't there because you disrespected us first so if you're looking what did matt rule say about dion i think they're inferring that that rule was talking about dion and there's a good chance he was in some pre-season comments about uh rule got up and at one point and said you'll hear other coaches saying wait till i get my guys in the portal or, you know, I'm bringing my guys. That seems like a pretty clear reference to Deion Sanders. And, you know, Rule is working more with what he inherited at Nebraska than Deion is at Colorado. But the job is to win games. And, well, they played and Deion won.

But the other part of it is one of the transfers that Matt Rule brought is the subject of a lot of the biggest questions because Jeff Sims, who was a quarterback at Georgia Tech before he came to Nebraska, has committed a lot of turnovers. And a couple crucial ones in the loss to Minnesota and multiple crucial ones in the loss to Colorado when Nebraska was in the game and playing very well in the first half. And basically they had their quarterback handing Colorado points.

Here's rule after the game, talking about those turnovers. You know, as I was walking off the field, one of their longtime coaches who I've coached against many times, you know, he said, Hey coach, you know, uncharacteristic of your teams, you know, you have that many turnovers and give the, you that many turnovers and give so many plays away. I think 17 points off turnovers.

And that's the same thing as last week. So, you know, I'll be honest, I really think we're better than we're showing. But what does that mean? It's just words. So, you know, I told the team, you know, we're going to get this right. You know, I'm going to get this right. We'll get the offense right. We'll get the turnovers right.

I thought the defense played really hard and well for long stretches and then eventually just kind of wore out. But I thought we were able to control the line of scrimmage some with some power running game in the first half, but had the ball in the red zone twice and yet again came away with no points. So really the same tale as last week, just versus probably a little bit more explosive offense that the game got away from us.

Aruel got a good question after the game about whether he thought about pulling Jeff Sims in favor of Heinrich Harburg, and it was a pretty definitive answer. Yeah, there was never a thought of putting Heinrich in. We have some plays for him that we were going to potentially utilize, so he might have been getting ready for one of those things. I think for me, I won't be able to really comment truly because it's such a big deal to comment on the quarterback. So we know globally it's too many turnovers,

but in terms of what exactly went wrong, was the center late with the snap? Was the motion? I have to go back and look at those things. And then we had some good drives. We had a penalty all of a sudden. It had nothing to do with the quarterback. So for us, I think if you look at the year so far, those things. You know, and then we had some good drives. You had a penalty all of a sudden, you know, and it had nothing to do with the quarterback. So for us, you know, I think if you look at the year so far, I think we're probably, we've taken one ball away, right?

And we've, we're two now right at the end of that game. But, you know, so we're minus six. And, you know, that's, that is sort of the story that we've been trying to fix. And so we haven't gotten it fixed yet. And I'm going to keep doing it until, keep working on it until we get it fixed. So Rule's just going to have to figure that out.

He's going to have to go in there, watch the film, determine how much of this is on his quarterback, and then decide, is it worth trying something else? And my guess, if you are that sure that you never thought of putting the backup quarterback in, that means you had quite a bit of separation between number one and number two in the off season. And you feel like there's a significant amount of separation now and that it

doesn't help you to change. If this keeps happening there, they may have no choice but to change because they're in games that, you know, they should have beaten Minnesota they were very much in the game against against Colorado they probably based on what we saw should have been zero zero at halftime that defense has played really well and it probably feels a little like we said this on Saturday but it feels a little like Iowa's defense did last year where the defense is

playing great. The offense is just kind of not ever getting it together. The opposite problem happening at Texas A&M last year, it was when's the offense going to work? What are you going to do? Hire a play caller, Jimbo Fisher. Well, he did that. He hired Bobby Petrino and the offense running smoothly. Connor Wegman looks fantastic at quarterback, but the defense was the problem in the loss to Miami. Tyler Van Dyke felt like he could sit back there forever. And then once the Hurricanes receivers did catch the ball, they weren't getting tackled. Jimbo Fisher talked about a couple of things involving his, this is a, this is a mashup of two different answers. Jimbo Fisher talked about a couple of things involving this. This is a mashup of two different answers.

He answers a question about tackling, and then he gets a question about pressure. We didn't tackle well. We had guys that we could have tackled, and we tackled poor in space. That's one thing we did. Oh, Jimbo Fisher not working for somebody. We didn't tackle well. We had guys that we could have tackled, and we tackled poor in space. That's one thing we did last week.

They had yards after catch, and we had some guys with arms around them, and we just didn't make the plays and get them on the ground. They did a really good job running with the football, and we didn't tackle well in space afterwards. There's been a lack of pressure both the first two games. We need more pressure. We've got to pressure, find some different blitzes, or get some guys on the edge to create some matchups in there

and get some rush. We said that we've got to affect the quarterback a little more so not Jimbo Fisher's specialty not his side of the ball DJ Durkin the defensive coordinator gonna have to figure that out but but that's it's so interesting because Texas A&M not a great run stopping team last year but it did feel like they could get pressure when they needed to and that was not there against Miami and maybe it's just because Miami's offensive line is vastly improved. You know, they went, went and got transfer from UCF transfer from Alabama, five-star freshman, Francis Malino is starting at right tackle. Maybe that's it. Maybe they're just significantly better on the offensive line. And when Texas A&M

gets into sec play and they're, they Ole Misses and your Mississippi States and your Arkansas's, that they are going to be able to get pressure or perhaps this was a sign of things to come. So we'll see. But the tackling piece of it also needs to be cleaned up. The yards after catch that Miami was able to rack up were significant. And teams are going to see that and just try to scheme guys open in space give the quarterback a high confidence high probability throw and and then hope they break some tackles

so that's the part that Texas A&M needs to get fixed Jimbo Fisher we talked about Mel Tucker Jimbo Fisher also on a huge contract you know 76, $76 million they would owe after this season. So what are they going to do about that? We got some responses, by the way, to the Mel Tucker stuff. Todd Johnson asked, do you have to prove allegations or no? Todd, he admitted it. I don't know how else to explain this to you guys. The part that is going to be the thing that gets him fired or the thing that keeps him from ever coaching Michigan State again, he admitted to it. So we're not dealing with unknowns here. I get that people mistrust the media or feel like everybody needs a fair shake and everybody should get a fair shake.

But he admitted it. The thing that's going to be the biggest problem, he admitted it. So you can say whatever you want, but all you're saying is you don't believe Mel Tucker? Because he admitted it. So now Jimbo Fisher is a different story because there is no scandal there. That's just a football issue. And they got to get it fixed because if this season winds up being like last season, and we don't know that it will, because it could be that Miami is really good. That's the hardest part right now is figuring out, is Miami good? Or did Texas A&M give up a lot of points to an OK ACC team? My suspicion is Miami is going to be a lot better than they were last year.

Why? Because they can block. And there's certain things that just travel. One of those things is a thing that Texas A&M is trying to recapture, and that's pass rush. If you're four defensive linemen or you're three defensive linemen and whatever linebacker you choose to bring, if they can beat the opposing offense's five offensive linemen regularly, you're going to win the game. If your offensive line is physically manhandling the other team's defensive line, you're probably going to win the game. So that's where Miami is

at with the offensive line. They look considerably better. We know Texas A&M has really good athletes on that defensive line. We have seen that defensive line and those people get after quarterbacks in the past. That's what makes this so impressive. We have some evidence that maybe Miami is significantly improved in that position group, which I think makes the ACC race quite a bit more interesting, especially given what we saw from Clemson against Duke, given what we saw from Florida State and how good they looked against LSU, and how good they looked against Southern Miss.

I mean, Florida State did what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to win a game. And, I mean, they put the hammer down. So, but Miami is getting there. When you can block, you get there faster. Mario Cristobal talked about the culture change that he is trying to affect at Miami, and how it was pretty hard last year,

but feels like it's starting to work. Well, I think it's credit to the players, because that's always been the goal. It's always, you know, when you change regiments and you change cultures, you have a choice to make, and you could stick with what you believe in, and sometimes, you know, it's ugly, you know, as last year was. But if you believe in and sometimes you know it's ugly you know as last year was but if you believe in it you make sure that the right people continue to grow and

stay and you bring in people that are like-minded and hard-working and that's a nice combination and that leads to better culture better better atmosphere, better environment, better programs, better businesses, better organizations. So that's where we feel that we're heading now. Today was a big step in that direction. So we'll see what happens with Miami going forward. But again, the better offensive line part of it, that stuff travels. If you can do that against Texas A&M, I feel like you can do that against most A&M, I feel like you can do that

against most of the defensive fronts on Miami schedule. Maybe not Florida state, maybe not Florida state. And look, we saw how bad that game was for Miami last year. We saw how good Florida state's pass rush was against LSU, but can you block North Carolina? You know, North Carolina looked unblockable when they played South Carolina, but they didn't get all that much pressure against Appalachian State. They did not look as tough to block. Clemson, well, based on what we've seen so far, I'm not that worried about it. NC State, now maybe they can get some pressure. They do have a pretty good front seven. But let's talk about the team that played NC State yesterday. That is Notre Dame. So Notre Dame comes down to Raleigh. They knew the weather was going to be bad. They knew there

might be a significant delay. And boy, was there ever. They get about a quarter and a couple of plays in. And then the dam breaks. And it's almost three hours before they're playing again. But they were buying bratwurst and hot dogs from the concession stands to keep the guys fed and keep their energy up. And they came out just like a ball of fire, 80-yard Audra Kestame run, pretty much right off the bat. And then they're forcing turnovers,

they're capitalizing on those turnovers. And Marcus Freeman talked about the difference between this time this year and this time last year when Notre Dame was losing to Marshall and not being able to handle any adversity. You know, I just got done telling the team. It's great to be able to have some of those bumps that we talked about last year that cost us wins, victories, right? And you had some today, and we're still able to come out with a victory. And you can see what type of team we have, right?

There's a lot of different elements today that really occurred with the rain to start the game, then the two-hour delay. Then we go back out there, still raining, and good things and bad things are happening, but the guys just continue to stay in the moment. That's been our message all week, just stay in the moment, man. Do not worry about outcomes, do not worry about last week, do not worry about what happened in the first quarter, just stay in the moment, and it was really good to see. So, Notre Dame plays Ohio State week after this one. We're going to probably make all the judgments we want to make about Notre Dame after that game.

They also have USC coming up. Notre Dame has a schedule that, you know, usually with Notre Dame, with the 14 playoff, which I know is not even a discussion after next year, but they have to go 12-0 to make it. I do think they have the schedule to make it at 11 and 1 this year. They've got Ohio State. At Duke is suddenly looking quite a bit better. We'll see what Duke does going forward, but that looks quite a bit tougher. USC, we know what they are. If they can beat one of USC or Ohio State and be competitive against the other one,

11-1 might get it done. It might. 12-0 absolutely, obviously gets it done. There's no question about it. But 11-1 in that situation, depending on what happens in the conferences, might get it done. So I am very, very excited for that Notre Dame-Ohio State game

because you've wondered what Notre Dame would look like with a little bit better quarterback than what they've had over the past few years. Sam Hartman is that little bit better quarterback. And Sam Hartman, I think you have a pretty good idea of how different he is with Notre Dame's talent around him. He was a guy who went one and two against NC state at wake forest, where the, the games were all fairly close, but he threw, you know, quite a few interceptions in the last two meetings. And he looked much more confident poised. You know, when you've got that line in front of you, it makes a big difference.

So we'll see what happens. One more press conference clip before we get to the extra point. And that is from Houston coach Dana Holgerson. Now, Houston played its crosstown former Southwest Conference rival Rice on Saturday. It was at Rice. And Rice jumped all over the Cougars, ended up hanging on for dear life and winning in overtime. It was a bad loss for Houston,

as bad a loss as the UTSA win in the first week was good because UTSA was favored in that game. We didn't expect Houston to win it, but that's a really bad loss. But Dana Holgerson, as Dana is wont to do, did not really mince any words after the game. Dana, why do you think the guys during the week did? We had a good Tuesday, JD. We had a good Tuesday. You know, Wednesday, you know, the luncheon, I wasn't happy.

We didn't practice good. I warned them. I don't know. Maybe we practiced too hard on Tuesday. I can't explain it. Maybe it's a trap game. Maybe it's a trophy game. Maybe it's a rivalry game.

Maybe we were looking forward to Big 12 TCU. I don't know. Maybe we didn't respect our opponent and they whipped our tail. At the end of the day, it's on me. That first quarter, did it just snowball on each other? It did. It did. Bad things happened.

Momentum. It happens in football. I'm glad we squashed it towards the end of the second quarter, which gave us a chance. It gave us hope. You know, I talked about starting fast all week. We couldn't have started slower. I mean, I explained the importance of starting fast all week. They did. We didn't. You know, everything I'm saying, I'm responsible for it. And I will assume responsibility. They did. We didn't. Everything I'm saying, I'm responsible for it. I will assume responsibility.

And he has to. And he knows he has to. And Dana Hogerson also knows who he works for. And that's, well, you could say Athletic Director Chris Pesman. You could say President Reno Couture. But the fact of the matter is when you work at Houston, you work for Tillman Fertitta. Tillman Fertitta is very demanding. And if he doesn't feel like the job's getting done, he will take decisive action and spend money to take decisive action. So Dana understands that.

Going into the Big 12, they open Big 12 play against TCU. I think it's a really important stretch for Dana Holgerson. They're going to have to have a decent showing in their first year in the Big 12 if he would like to make a second year in the Big 12 with Houston. Now we get to our extra point. I remember I said that Shador Sanders might be as good on the mic as his dad. The other question is, is he as good of a dancer as his dad? We all remember when Deion was playing in the NFL. I remember when he played for the Falcons and he debuted the primetime shuffle, which I might've tried to do in high school and failed miserably. But Shador Sanders did his own

impression of the primetime shuffle. So here he is talking about one, he's talking about the crowd at that Colorado game, but then also his evaluation of his own primetime shuffle. So here he is talking about one, he's talking about the crowd at that Colorado game, but then also his evaluation of his own primetime shuffle. What was it like to play in front of this crowd? It felt like it was at the spring game again. So yeah, it was a little red. You see, I seen a picture when the stands was full of red a couple of years ago. I don't know when that was, but I seen that.

This year looked totally different. So our fans came out in support. Oh, and the dance, you know, it's in my blood. So I give it 10 out of 10. I really think I did better than him, honestly. 10 out of 10. Deion came in. He got asked about 10 out of 10.

He disagreed. Hey, Coach, I asked Shador to grade his primetime shuffle after he scored that rushing touchdown. He said it's in his blood, and he gave it a 10 out of 10. No, it was horrible. He don't kick the feet up. He don't want it. Excuse me?

No, no, he don't want it. He don't have... Shador is not a dancer. I can't dance. The only dancer in our family is Bossy, my daughter. She's the only one that really has rhythm. The rest of us, we didn't get that. The Lord passed us when it came to dancing. How are you not having fun with this team?

This team is the most fun team in America. If they keep winning, they'll keep being fun. We'll see how it looks if they do eventually lose a game. But Colorado has Colorado State this weekend. College game day will be there. It's going to be spectacular. This whole thing has been fun to watch and fun to talk about and fun to debate. And I think I'm probably going to win this one. Then you get that Oregon-USC stretch. And then we find out how good Colorado really is, how good Oregon really is, how good USC really is.

Boy, the Pac-12, it may be going out, but it is going out with a bang. Guys, we got a Dear Andy show tomorrow. You know how to find me. Just like Dion, I ain't hard to find. Andy underscore Staples on Twitter X, whatever we're calling it these days. You can ask me there. You can also email your question to andystapleson3 at gmail.com.

You can send it in words, send it in video. I will tell you, I got a question on Sunday morning. Popped in right when I was getting out of bed Sunday morning. Spectacular question. It's definitely getting answered. So try to beat that one and you're definitely getting on the show. Thanks so much. We'll talk to you tomorrow.