Andy & Ari On3 - Michigan's Sign-Stealing Scandal Unraveling | Updates on Georgia & Florida | Longhorns QB Situation

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

As the week continues to move forward, the sign-stealing scandal at Michigan continues to get crazier. Ralph Russo from the Associated Press joins later in the show to break it all down and head into a deep dive of the case. Before that, we hear from Georgia's Center Sedrick Van Pran. We also head down to Gainesville to get an update on the Florida Gators. Later, we head out west and hear from Bobby Burton to give an update on the Longhorns, as they will have a new quarterback with the injury of Quinn Ewers.(0:00-7:15) Bonus Part, Michigan Breaking News(07:16-14:52) Intro, Michigan Sign-Stealing(14:53-24:19) Georgia's Center Sedrick Van Pran Joins(24:20-41:00) GatorsOnline - Nick De La Torre Joins to talk Florida(41:01-1:07:51) Ralph Russo from the Associated Press Deep Dive on Michigan(1:07:52-1:23:48) Bobby Burton on Texas QB Situation(1:23:49-1:25:29) Conclusion, Dear Andy Tomorrow!Today's show is sponsored by Gametime. Want to see your favorite team play this weekend? How about your favorite artist coming to town for a show? Look no further than Gametime for all your last minute deals. Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed.This show is also sponsored by Rhoback, maker of the most comfortable hoodies, polos and quarter-zips known to man. Visit https://rhoback.com and use the promo code STAPLES to get 20 percent off your first order. The BEST gear, hands down.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube, and don't forget to subscribe!https://youtu.be/hPIdj9Bertg

Hey, it's Andy. Got a little addendum to the show. We talk a bunch about the Michigan sign stealing accusations during the show, but news never stops. Once the show had already been put out, more news came out about Connor Stallions, the now suspended Michigan staffer, buying tickets to games involving Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia,

and Clemson during the 2022 season. So we're going to talk about that too. So we're going to talk about that a little bit, and then we'll get into the show. More schools have confirmed that Connor Stallions bought tickets to games there. Who is Connor Stallions? That is the now suspended Michigan staffer who was accused of running a sign stealing operation where he bought tickets to games, sent people to those games to video the sideline or somehow steal the signals that the teams were signaling in so

that when Michigan played those teams, Michigan would have the offensive and defensive signals coming in from the sidelines, would know what they were and could decipher them. These are accusations right now, but it keeps getting deeper and deeper. On Tuesday night, Larry Williams of Tiger Illustrated reported that Stallions bought a ticket to a Clemson game. Ross Dellinger of Yahoo reported that he got tickets to games involving Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. Pete Thamel of ESPN reported that there is a 12th Big Ten school that has now confirmed that he bought tickets there. So that's 12 out of the 13 that aren't Michigan. It just keeps going and going and going.

And the Michigan folks, of course, they're saying he went rogue. They're saying that the coaching staff had no knowledge of this. And it's interesting because we make fun of message board guys sometimes, but message board guys sometimes hear some things. Look at this post. On3's VolQuest, the Tennessee site for On3. This comes from 2022, December 1st, 2022. So remember, Tennessee was a college football playoff contender up until the loss. Well, the

loss to Georgia, but really the loss to South Carolina was what, what ended that. But a VolQuest poster named Arnie Palmy alert said, Oh, do I have a story on that? One of my little brothers, quote unquote friends is a quote unquote scout for them, referring to Michigan. They paid for him to travel to the UT Vandy game, had planned on it before the loss, obviously, to try to steal our signs. He's from Nashville originally, so he just went anyway, even after our loss since it was Thanksgiving. Says he and the others are never allowed to talk to Harbaugh directly about it. Now, here's a January post from that same poster. No clue if related, but I posted on here a couple of months ago about a mutual friend of mine that was working for Michigan, going to other schools games, stealing plays.

They'd pay his flights, lodging food and seats right behind that team's bench for him to get video notes, etc. Michigan is pulling out all the stops, it seems. I'm telling you, sometimes message board guy has it down cold, scoop the world on this one. This just keeps going and going and going. What does it all mean? I'm not sure we're going to have an answer to that. As we keep saying, the NCAA does not move quickly on these things. And there's not really a mechanism to do any sort of punishment in season. So if it was found that Michigan was doing this in season, this season, I don't know that that means the NCAA or the big 10 can do anything about it. You know, if you're Michigan, you're going to lawyer up to make sure that you can finish out this season and you can play in this postseason. I'm just not sure there's any way

that the NCAA or the Big Ten can issue any discipline. Remember, the last time the NCAA went outside its normal disciplinary process to punish a school was Penn State after all the Jerry Sandusky stuff. The NCAA ended up getting taken to court and ended up having to walk those sanctions back. So I don't think you're going to see that. And there's a level of frustration when you talk to people from these schools because there's not much right now that can be done. But I'm just fascinated by this whole thing. I want to know how it all worked. I want a movie made about it. This is just incredible.

Even Kirby Smart got asked about it. Because remember, Georgia played Michigan in the Orange Bowl following the 2021 season. I guess the necessary follow-up, that's obviously calling about Michigan. You played Michigan. You aware, in retrospect, or at the time, of anything unusual?

No, I didn't notice anything or know anything. Nobody we talked to warned us or any of that. I mean, I think everybody we play, they say, they steal your signals. I mean, we play somebody, they're great at stealing your signals, but what they're referencing is different than stealing them. I mean, they're talking about people coming to film them.

That's completely different. But we've tried to hide the signals, hold the calls, put signs up, do all that. But there's nothing I remember about the Michigan game that makes me think that. First of all, that last line was completely savage because he's referencing that they beat Michigan 34 to 11 in that game and it was never close. So if Michigan had signs, it didn't help. But what Kirby is saying is similar

to what other coaches around the country are saying. And so for all of you who are saying everybody does this, no, everybody does try to steal signs when they are in game and they're watching the other team signals. They are trying to decipher what's going on. They've probably got somebody in the press box with binoculars watching the sideline, trying to decipher what's going on. They're probably watching when they get the coach's film to see if there's anything that shows up that they can take. That's every school doing that.

And that is not against the rules. Sending someone to a game that is not your own. And especially having someone videotape that. That is a different story. Thamel from ESPN reported that the NCAA has an hour of video showing someone sitting in a seat bought by Connor Stallions videoing the sideline of one of the teams. That's not within the rules. So that's the situation.

The most interesting thing about this, we've yet to find out whether anybody got to a TCU game last year. In case you have forgotten, TCU beat Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl 51-45. Maybe they didn't make it there. Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Big show for you tonight. We go deep into the world's largest outdoor cocktail party in lovely Jacksonville, Florida.

Georgia center Cedric Van Praan is our very special guest. He is one of the best interviews in college football. One of the best centers in college football. Maybe the number one interior offensive lineman in the NFL draft next year. He is a big dude and he is a big deal. We'll be talking to him. We'll also be talking to Nick Del Torre of Gators Online about the Florida side of things in that rivalry matchup. And then of course, we're going to talk some Texas because they've got a quarterback situation. Bobby Burton from inside Texas will join us. No Quinn Ewers for a few weeks. What happens with Malik Murphy

and with Arch Manning going forward? We're also going to talk a ton about the Michigan thing. Of course, we're going to talk about the Michigan thing. Ralph Russo from the Associated Press will join us for a deep dive into the whole situation at Michigan. We need to have a little more nuanced conversation about it anyway. It's one of those deals. Everybody's yelling at each other online about it. There's a lot going on there. And even more stuff coming out day by day by day.

On Tuesday, you had screenshots of Connor Stallion's Venmo account. By the way, kiddies, make your Venmo accounts private. Nobody needs to see what you're paying for. But he was apparently paying a Michigan recruiting analyst something the day before the Peach Bowl with the description GA as in Georgia. Could have been GA as in graduate assistant who knows but obviously internet detectives are on the case and you also had video released by a columbus tv station remember that the tv stations get to film video on the sidelines and use limited highlights from the games with they've shot themselves, not necessarily the TV broadcast copy. And so this was video from the first drive of last year's Michigan, Ohio state game.

And it shows CJ Stroud doing a check with me. So he comes to the line of scrimmage. He looks over the defense. He stops for a second. He looks to the sideline. All the Ohio state players look at the sideline. They receive a signal just the way the camera is set up. You can see past CJ Stroud and onto the Michigan sideline. Well, you can see Connor Stallion standing next to Michigan defensive coordinator, Jesse mentor, and everybody on the Michigan sideline turns to watch the signal being given. As soon as the signal is given, Connor Stallion says something to Jesse Mentor. And then all of a sudden, many of the hands on the Michigan sideline go up to signal the defensive players on the field. This is very interesting. Does not prove anything in the

science ceiling case, by the way, because if you want to defend that, you say, well, he had just gotten that from watching the other sideline when we played last year or watching the other sideline or watching TV copies. That doesn't actually prove anything. What would prove wrongdoing in this case is what came out on Monday, the Pete Thamel ESPN story, where he said there's potentially surveillance video of someone sitting in a seat purchased by Connor Stallions at a game involving future Michigan opponent where that person is videoing the sideline the entire time. That would be the kind of proof that you would need. But there's so much to this case, so much to unpack. What happens to Jim Harbaugh? You've got the head coach responsibility

aspect of things, which the NCAA changed the rules a few years ago. Basically, you don't even have to prove anymore that the head coach knew he just is responsible for everything in the organization and you can stick him with everything. Also, what can be done and when? That's the big question is, could some disciplinary action come down this year? And I tend to believe it can't because the NCAA has a pretty slow process for discipline. So those are the factors that you've got to weigh in. And Ralph Russo and I are going to go very deep into that a little bit later in the show, because this case is absolutely fascinating. I know the Michigan fans don't want to hear it. They think there's a metadata.

They think the NCAA is out to get Jim Harbaugh. Maybe they are, but we're going to talk about it because it's very interesting. I hadn't seen anything like this before. You know, back in the eighties, Florida was sending people out to, to spy on other teams practices.

Charlie Pell got fired over that, but I don't remember a case in major college football like this since then. And that was back when you could scout other teams' games in person, but you've never been allowed to spy on other teams' practices. So this is kind of uncharted territory. And there's a lot of interesting stuff and a lot of interesting facets of this case. So it is going to be something we're going to talk about quite a bit over the next few days, weeks, and months. I promise you that. Plus it's just wild. Like whether Connor Stallions was acting alone as Michigan will tell you he was, or as part of a bigger operation. I mean,

I'm not sure which is more interesting. If he's acting alone, that's wild. So we'll see what happens, but we're definitely going to talk about it because there is so much meat on that bone. There's so much to discuss. One thing I definitely want to discuss in regards to this case, again, I know I mentioned it yesterday, but if you're going to buy tickets on both sidelines of a game because you want to videotape the opposing sideline, you should be using GameTime, our partners. Now, maybe you don't want to steal signals. Maybe you just want to go watch the game and you only need a ticket on one side of the field.

You can still use GameTime. They have every ticket you could possibly want. Sporting events, comedy shows, concerts, you name it. So you want to see the world's largest outdoor cocktail party in Jacksonville. They got tickets for that. The get-in price as of Monday was under $100. A little tougher ticket in Salt Lake City at Rice-Eccles Stadium for Oregon and Utah, but it's a much smaller venue.

But they got tickets all around that stadium. And the beauty of game time, and again, if you are trying to steal signals, this would be important for you. You click the seat number. It brings up a photo of what it'll look like when you're actually in the stadium. There's no mystery to it. You don't have to go find a stadium map and figure it out. No, you see a picture of the field and that is what it looks like from your seat. And then two more taps. The ticket is yours. If you want to transfer those tickets on game day via text, you can do it. So game time, download the app, use the code staples and you get $20 off your first purchase. So game time, easy download on that app,

find the game you want, use the code Staples, 20 bucks off your first purchase. Let us talk about one of those games that a lot of people will want tickets to. In Jacksonville, Florida and Georgia, one of the great rivalries, Cedric Van Praan, the Georgia center has been through a bunch of these. He's a new Orleans guy though. This was a new thing to him when he got to Georgia, but Oh, he understands the rivalry very well. Now here's Cedric Van Praan. Here with Georgia center, Cedric Van Praan, happy birthday, by the way. So, okay. What do, what does the rest of the offensive line do for you on your birthday? Are there any special privileges?

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. It's a work day. So we'll be here watching film after practice, same usual stuff. Now, does mom, anybody do something for you? I actually give a shout-out to my mom. It's actually my mom's birthday as well. Whoa!

Yeah, I was born on my mom's birthday. So I reached out to her today, told's actually my mom's birthday as well. I was born on my mom's birthday. I reached out to her and they told her happy birthday before she went to work. That'd be fun growing up. Not for her. Maybe for me. She had to do all the work. That's right. She kind of forgot about her birthday. No matter how much I told her that it's her birthday as well, she just wasn't

going for it. Going forward, hers becomes the biggest birthday. Absolutely. That's the way birthday. Absolutely. That's the way to do it. So you've got a big game this week. You guys play in Florida. I always wonder, you're from Louisiana, so you didn't grow up in Georgia, a Georgia fan.

When you get to UGA, do they tell you, okay, this is who we hate and how we hate them? How does that work where you develop that sense of the rivalry? So I think that it's a few things. Like you said, you're told about the rivalry and you're told about just the history of what's happened. But I think you have to take, I guess, some ownership and finding out for yourself. So going back and watching some games and finding out, you know, the tradition of what's happened. And then, to be honest, it grows even more when you're playing it,

when you're playing it for yourself. And, you know,, it grows even more when you play in it, when you're playing it for yourself and, you know, you kind of seeing some of the competitive things that are happening on the field and it kind of grows for you as well. So I think that that's just the biggest thing is understanding what's being presented to you from the people when you get here, but also growing your own level of, I guess, disdain. So now you have the proper level of disdain for the Gators. Yes, sir. So a few weeks ago, we talked to some people from Texas and Oklahoma who played in that game, and they talked about running into the Cotton Bowl and it's split 50-50.

I've talked to a lot of people who played in this game, too. What's it like when you come over the bridge and you see that's it, and there's all the orange and blue and all the red and black what's that like so it's pretty cool uh i think that's the biggest thing i think it's pretty cool that it's that split it's more of a it's i can't even really describe what it's like because it's so different and so unique um that you try to see uh if you can find as much red as possible for sure um especially around our end zone there'll be a lot of red. So the crazy thing is that when you go out there for warm-ups,

there's usually not so many people. And then by the time you come out there for the game, the stadium's packed. So it's definitely interesting. And then no matter what happens, somebody's cheering. So it's not like when you guys are on the road and you do well, you make it quiet. You can never make it quiet here. That's true. That is, that is very true. But I do think that there are ways that you can control the game on both sides. I think that ultimately if you're doing well, I think the other fan base is controlled a bit, but at the same

time, I think with that 50 50 split, it does kind of, I guess, minimize the maximum capacity of each side. So for you guys, you've had different kind of games. You've had games where you started a little slowly offensively. Kentucky, you guys came out guns blazing. Can you tell the week of practice if it's going to be like that? Or is that just something that happens within the flow of the game? it kind of happens in the flow of the game because there have been some weeks where i feel like we've had really great um weeks of practice and we maybe didn't start the way that we wanted to so it just kind of depends i think the biggest thing is it's not getting caught up in it it's finding ways to win and that's the bottom line it may not always be

pretty it may not uh be ideal, but the best thing about it is if you can find a way to win, it leaves you somewhere to grow, somewhere to look forward to improving the next week of practice. So we all saw that video from the South Carolina game at halftime, and I think everybody was surprised that there's nobody was yelling at each other. Nobody's screaming. Everybody seemed very calm. is that how it always is for you guys that's tough because i think it's it's scenario based depends on the situation yeah it depends on the situation um there are some times where you have to light a spark and you have to make sure that everybody gets going and i think that's usually when maybe um the morale is a bit down that's when you kind of have to do that.

But I think in South Carolina's game, I don't think our morale was down. I think we definitely didn't play the way that we wanted to. But I think the guys were in good spirits to understand that if we went on and did what we had to, we would be able to win the game. Yeah, Carson was winking at the camera. Is that Carson? He was actually winking at me. Was he?

Okay. He was winking at me, but I guess the camera was right there. What was the message there? Hey, we got this? I forgot what happened. I think Coach Bobo said something that maybe was directed towards him, and he kind of looked over to me and winked at him. It was just that kind of thing.

It was good, though. It was good that he was able to do that just because it kind of brought a sense of relief to the rest of the guys that were around. It kind of like, okay, we're good. How do you guys develop that bond? Because you snapped to Stetson for a couple of years, and now you're snapping to Carson. How does that work with the quarterback center?

Is there a dinner that comes before him, like when he gets named, sort of like, all right, here's how it's going to work? No, sir. I think it's meticulous in the way that Coach Smart runs his program. So I think that there is a certain level that he runs his program to help guys to cultivate relationships and connections. So a lot of people don't know when we moved into our new facility, Carson's Lock is right across from mine. And it's been that way for the past two and a half, three years, considering that this is a guy that I came in with this. He's in the same class as me. We kind of came in together. He gave my first haircut for my first day with my girlfriend.

What? Yeah. You trusted him for that? Yes, I did. I did trust Carson. Wow. He's actually a great barber. He does a tremendous job with cutting hair. Who knew?

Yeah. So that's always been my guy. We may not have played together, but that was definitely a person that I was talking to every day. Well, I mean, shoot. If I had known the trust levels, I would have never even gone down this line of questioning. Good Lord. Put your hair in another man's hands. That's first date too. Really? Yeah. Yes, sir. And the date went okay and everything? The date went perfect. We're still together to this day. So I guess he worked some magic for me. Man, this is incredible. I didn't know he had this level of

alternate talent besides throwing the ball. So this is – speaking of alternate talents, by the way, when we had you at SEC Media Days, we talked about your days as a peewee quarterback. We were trying to figure out a trick play where, you know, how do you snap the ball and then they get it back to you so you can throw a forward pass. But you have actually carried the ball since then. Yes, sir.

You got a carry against Vanderbilt, picking up a fumble. You broke a tackle. You converted. I did. Take us through the ball since then. Yes, sir. You got a carry against Vanderbilt, picking up a fumble. You broke a tackle. You converted. I did. Take us through the play, please. So it's kind of tough just because I think that there was some type of – something went wrong in that center quarterback exchange, and I'll take the blame for that.

It was on me. Something went wrong. It was just out of the usual um just rhythm of what happened it was just odd um and i realized what had happened and the only thing i was thinking about is that it's maybe it was third and four or five something like that and i knew that we were down and like we had to get this third down so my biggest thing was just trying to find the ball and go. It was less thinking. It was just I messed up.

I got to figure out a way to make this right for the team because I don't want to be responsible for letting the team down. So do you look down and you see it at your feet? I remember I was just looking for it, and for whatever reason, it was like it was golden or something. Like a golden snitch in Harry Potter. Yeah, it was like lighting up at me. So I just tried to grab it and get as much as I could.

And thank the Lord it ended up working out. Now, because I've always wondered this. Like, I know the backs and the receivers are aware of where they are on the field, aware of where the first down marker is. As you are carrying that ball, who are not used to carrying the ball, were you aware of where the down marker was? I think a little bit. The biggest thing for myself was is that i think that i had to try and get over the ball of the alignment

first um so the ball was a little bit loose at first and then after that it was trying to figure out how far i was and then after that i started to try to tuck the ball or something just so that the play didn't go disastrous you know after that it was it was kind of get the first down and then after that just protect it so ball security's job security very nice yes but now that you've done it i would imagine you probably don't want to carry the ball at all against florida just good clean yeah no i don't want to carry the ball against florida um maybe my last game um let the lowest say the same maybe maybe we'll be up in that game or something and maybe i can do something but i have no desire to

want to do anything. Got it out of your system, Ced. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, sir. That was awesome. Thank you to Cedric Van Praan trusting the quarterback with the haircut on the night of the first date. That tells you

those two have a very, very tight relationship. It's a lot of trust there, a lot of trust. The guy who I trust to tell me everything I need to know about the Florida Gators is Nick Delatore. He joins us now to talk about the Florida side of this rivalry. We welcome Nick Delatore of Gators Online, the world's largest outdoor cocktail party happening in Jacksonville this weekend. This is a potential season maker for the Gators, Nick. They're coming off a bye week. They had what appears to be an offensive renaissance against South Carolina. We'll get to the defense later. But how are the Gators coaches and players feeling heading into this one?

Yeah, I think there's always going to be confidence, whether there's stats or real things to back it up. But no football team goes into a Saturday thinking they're going to lose. I think Georgia not having Brock Bowers is significant. Now, listen, Brock Bowers doesn't play defense and Florida's going to still have to figure out how to move the football and score points. But there's definitely confidence with Florida. I think the bye week came at a great time just in terms of getting guys healthy. And then certainly

listen, Florida didn't just start looking at Georgia film. This is stuff you watch in the summer, in the fall, during fall camp. So Florida's been getting ready for this game probably for 364 days. Kirby Smart said something interesting in his press conference on Monday. He said he feels like Florida's played its best football in the last two games. And it's interesting because you look at, at what Florida did, especially offensively against South Carolina,

it feels like they've discovered some new things or kind of just like, I'll give you an example. Trey Wilson, freshman receiver got hurt against Tennessee. Clearly it was a big part of that game plan, but got hurt, missed a little bit more time. It feels like he's kind of back in the flow of the offense now and becomes a more legitimate weapon georgia has had some struggles uh setting the edge and listen

whenever you talk about georgia having struggles it's in the prism of georgia has won uh you know 30 something straight sec games hasn't lost a regular season game since 2020 so it's a different prism than a lot of other teams are looking at struggle is where we're using air quotes right yeah yeah so they've had some trouble setting the edge and when i look at that i think well trey wilson's run an actual ultra marathon in pre-snap motion he's a guy who when kirby smart was asked about graham mertz made a point to talk about trey Wilson because he's a guy who gets skinny, misses tackles. They will run the ball with him. They'll put him in the backfield

and run counters with him. And the biggest thing for Trey is Florida doesn't have a ton of playmakers. You've got two good running backs, Ricky Pearsall, and that was it. And teams could then just focus on stopping the run and and take ricky out of the game now with arliss boardingham um coming into his own and him emerging and trey wilson being back and healthy florida has other options so that helps create for ricky pierce law you go back to 2020 andy when kyle pitts was knocked out of the georgia game cadarious tony didn't look like cadarious toney those next couple of games because you were able to focus on him if you're a defensive coordinator.

So it's not just Eugene Wilson or just Ricky Pearsall. I think it's the totality of those three players that really gives Florida an advantage offensively. We'll get right back into the midst of the world's largest outdoor cocktail party. But first, I want to talk about some gear you can wear to any outdoor cocktail party. And that's Roback. Made for performance. Made for this time of year. The performance hoodie is the best fall garment.

It's really the best spring garment too. Depending on how breezy it is. The best fall garment. It's really the best spring garment too. Depending on how breezy it is, the best summer garment. It is absolutely the most comfortable thing I own. And now I own five different colors and I'm hoping to just complete the set. But Roebuck makes performance Q-Zips, hoodies, polos, shorts, joggers, and now the performance crew, which is also great for the fall you want to

look a little more polished but you also want to have some cocktails r-h-o-b-a-c-k.com use the promo code staples and you get 20 off your first order so that's roback.com use the promo code staples 20 off your first order. That's what it was interesting because somebody had asked Kirby a question about Ricky Pearsall and why he's been so good. And at first I thought Kirby was throwing shade because he's like availability. He's been healthy. He's been playing the whole time.

But what he was saying is they haven't been at full strength. They are more dangerous at full strength and he's legitimately worried about that which i you know and the other piece of this is graham mertz they turned him loose against south carolina it feels like he kind of had to because flores defense was not stopping south carolina's offense but did they also discover something in the process i I think potentially, and it probably goes to having those three guys healthy and involved. But I think you and I were talking last week and it might be how Florida has to play to win games.

When you look at Arkansas and Florida state at LSU, good luck in that track marathon or that track meet. I think you did discover something. Listen, I didn't think a big question. If I was a highly paid defensive coordinator, not trying to get fired to collect my buyout, I would have gone into a game against Florida saying, if Graham Mertz beats us with his arm, that's fine. We're going to stop the running game. We're going to limit Ricky Pearsall.

And if Graham Mertz wins a game on his arm, we can live with that. But now he's showing you that he can. Florida's down 10 on the road at South Carolina, and he leads to scoring drives. So Graham Mertz has now shown, put on film, I can lead a team with my arm. So yeah, I think Florida has discovered something. Do I think that they're the LSU offense? No. Yeah.

Let's flip it around. Florida's defense against this Georgia offense minus Brock Bowers. Now the question I think probably is what is Georgia's offense minus Brock Bowers? Do they, do they play the freshman loss and lucky more and just make Oscar Delp the number one tight end? So it looks somewhat similar with a lot of 12 personnel, or do they say we're going to go with Delp because he's older and just have another receiver on the field? Which, you know, they got some pretty good receivers too.

You mean they've recruited well in Athens? They've portaled and recruited well. I'd say Ladd-McConkie is a great recruiting victory and Rah-Rah Thomas and Dominic Levick are great portal victories. Yeah, this, I mean, it seems like every week we're going to have, uh, Austin Armstrong's biggest test when you start looking at the rest of the schedule. Um, but it's, it's kind of a great unknown. What is Georgia without Brock Barrett?

It's going to affect their running game. It's going to affect their passing game. Uh, Carson Beck had a nice, warm, uh, heavy safety blanket yeah uh to wrap himself up in at night um so that's gone who who's your outlet guy now who's your go-to guy now so there's gonna be a ton of questions i listen florida's not gonna florida's and wish brock bowers was playing this game but now i think there's more unknowns of, okay, well, how is Georgia going to attack us? So Austin Armstrong is probably sitting here having the same discussion that we are, Andy. Like, hey, what do they do?

Who do we need to be ready for now? Yeah, that's the tricky part. Is it just more Dominic Lovett and Rah-Rah Thomas? And McConkie had been hurt, so he's just now getting back into the flow of things too. So, yeah, I can imagine Georgia running those guys on drag routes, trying to make Florida chase, trying to make Florida tackle, because that has been an issue for Florida of late. They tackle really well at home. Really well at home.

This is only half home. It's 70 miles away, but it's half Georgia fans in the crowd. Yeah, so they'll have a half bad tackling game, a half good tackling game, depending on how you want to view the glass. But that is going to be a thing. I think for Florida to win this game, for Florida to be competitive in this game, they're going to have to play near perfect.

You can't have penalties. You can't turn the ball over. If you've got on third down a tackle behind the sticks, you can't miss that and let Georgia get a first down. You have to play a sound game of football. And then something Florida hasn't really been good at, you're going to probably have to create turnovers. You might have to have a game-changing play from your game changers. So there's so many facets of this game that florida

has to play their a plus game at to have a chance uh and they haven't really played their a plus game away from ben hill griffin stadium yeah and that's that's the interesting thing because this georgia team doesn't feel like the last two like the last two florida goes into that game there's no shot this one. Like if they get the Georgia that played Auburn, there's a chance. And I think that that feels like the biggest difference this year. It's interesting because Florida fans and our message board have been pointing at, well, they were losing to South Carolina Vanderbilt score 20.

Look at the Auburn game. And I can talk away South Carolina and Vanderbilt by saying, listen, Georgia just is like, hey, roll the ball out where Georgia will win. But the Auburn game, that's the South's oldest rivalry. Like that's a rivalry game just like Florida Georgia is. So I always say there's so many Georgia, ex-Georgia players on that coaching staff. This game is intensely personal

for many on that staff probably a former Florida head coach fired former head Florida head coach who was a Georgia player yeah and a lot of those guys did not have success as players against Florida so they revel in beating Florida even more now and I don't know that you know Florida has another coach staff or that you necessarily need that to be a great coach. They brought it in. They brought in a guy who has a player had very little success against Georgia.

And then he became the coach. He had a lot of success against Georgia. They brought in Steve Spurrier to kind of educate the guys on the rivalry, which there's probably not a better person for it. Yeah. Yeah. I think he probably told them, ah,

well guys, you know, we hung half a hundred up there in Athens. But yeah, I think he probably told them, oh, well, guys, you know, we have a hundred up there in Athens. But yeah, I think it's intensely personal. So I told Florida fans like, hey, if you think you're going to get sleepy Georgia at 330 that you saw against South Carolina, that I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. That's not going to be the Georgia that you're going to get. Georgia will be ready for any time Florida's on the other sideline. Yeah. And that's, that's the part I'm curious about because if they get the

full strength version of Georgia, the version that played against Kentucky, that's a bad sign for Florida, but the, how Florida performs in this game, you know, again, we've talked, you know, I've talked about this a bunch. I went on your podcast, Dave and Gail last week, and we were talking about Florida's young and and what they're doing in terms of volume how many of them are playing how big of an impact they're making it does feel like they're trending in the right direction yeah on that front but it's the difference between rebuilding uh which you took it down to the the concrete foundation versus reloading um right so yes well i don't think yeah well i don't think florida is ready to beat georgia this year

i'm super encouraged by eugene wilson jordan castell tj cersei uh kelby collins uh eugene wilson like there's a long list of freshmen and for Florida, looking at 2024, you're bringing all these guys back. This is going to be the first taste for those guys. Uh, those freshmen, redshirt freshmen who will be a huge part of your team next year, their first taste of Florida,

Georgia. Hey, this is what this rivalry feels like. And, and it's going to be, it's not different, you know, like a Tennessee rivalry,

you're going back and forth home and home. This is going to be the exact same environment you'll have next year as well. So this is a huge grow-up moment and learning moment for those Florida freshmen who are being asked to do a lot right now, but will be asked to do even more in the following season. Yeah, and I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you about L.J. McRae and what his commitment means. He's Daytona Beach Mainland High School, committed to Florida over the weekend. Top 100 player, one of the best defensive linemen in the recruiting class. How big is that?

On which front? One, it's huge because he's 6'6", 275, an edge player, a guy who Florida is already playing two freshman defensive linemen this year. There's no problem. Billy Napier and his staff have no problem playing guys young. And I think LJ McCray is a guy who can come in and play as a freshman. At that size, do you stay on the edge where they're recruiting him right now? Does he develop into a three technique?

Who cares as long as he's in orange and blue. But the bigger thing to me even more so than him as a player is you beat georgia you beat florida state and if you're rebuilding and you want to be where georgia is where the school out west is right number four right now these are the teams you have to beat and the players you have to beat those teams for yeah and that's like you look at flor Florida's defense now, who did they beat Georgia for who plays for them now? Shamar James, for sure.

Kelby Collins, I believe, was one that Georgia wanted. But it's not a long list, and you have to increase that list. It's the same reason, like, Georgia got good because they beat out Alabama and Clemson for players. And this is the difference, I think, between Florida now and Florida under Dan Mullen was they are winning some of those. But the problem is those don't pay immediate dividends. That has to marinate for a little while. Yeah, you'd have to take Mike Norvell's portal strategy to have those immediate dividends. But like, I look at Florida in the portal and fans didn't like,

I think more specifically the spring portal, but Ricky Pierce was in the portal. You're starting right tackle. You're starting right guard, your quarterback, you're starting running back. You've got two linebackers from the portal. Like Florida has had success in the portal.

Maybe just not a Keon Coleman type. Right. They haven't gotten a Keon Coleman or Jared verse. And that's, that's kind of the next step. And it is, it's interesting. And we can definitely talk about that as,

as they go forward, because they do need to make a big splash or two from the portal to add to the people they're bringing in from high school well when you look at the recruiting class florida needs offensive line help um there's not a great offensive tackle market in the portal when those big five stars who end up being first round picks get to a school they typically just stay there for three very loyal it's hard to make the big men move like they don't they don't like packing up their stuff yeah that's a lot of stuff yeah that's a double xl t-shirt those take up a lot of room in a suitcase and they don't want

to keep moving those yep exactly so well i i'm fascinated to see where this goes from here but i'm fascinated in in this game because again florida seems to be getting a little bit better and we just don't know what version of Georgia shows up from week to week. So we'll see you in Jacksonville, Nick. See you at the world's largest outdoor cocktail party. That's right. Thank you to Nick Delatore. Florida, Georgia. Feels like it could be a little more competitive than it has been the last two years,

but we shall see. It all depends on which Georgia shows up. If the Georgia that played Kentucky shows up, that game might not be very competitive. But if we see the Georgia we've seen most of this season, or if they struggle to adapt to not having Brock Bowers, that game could be very, very interesting. But nothing right now in college football is more interesting than the Michigan situation. The sign- accusations, the low level staffer who is now suspended named Connor Stallions. What a name who allegedly bought tickets to 30 games involving

big 10 teams that were opponents of Michigan over three seasons at 11 different Big Ten venues. This thing's nuts. And it just keeps getting bigger. Ralph Russo from the Associated Press, one of the smartest people I know, joins now. And we are going to take a deep dive into all the facets of this case, what's happening now,

and what could happen in the future. Here's Ralph. Joined by Ralph Russo of the Associated Press. It's a home and home. You can hear me on Ralph's podcast as well. We had a very interesting discussion about what constitutes success and basically how you need to feel about James Franklin if you're a Penn State fan. It was a great discussion, but Ralph, we got to go elsewhere in the Big Ten because we got a classic code breaker scenario. This Michigan thing is getting wild.

So as we record this on Tuesday early afternoon, we have seen somebody screenshotting Connor Stallion's Venmo. We have seen video from a Columbus TV station of the first drive of the Ohio State-Michigan game last year where C.J. Stroud stops pre-play, looks to the side. The whole Ohio State offense looks to the sideline for a signal. And the camera can show beyond C.J. Stroud and you see the Michigan sideline for a signal and the camera can show beyond cj stroud and you see the michigan sideline and you see connor stallions walk up to jesse mentor look at the signal that ohio state is giving across the field and then all of a sudden everybody's hands go up on the Michigan sideline. Pass. Yeah.

At the very least, it was pass. Right, right. Exactly. And they put up a poster board, too, that may have obviously sent a different signal. But it is amazing how sophisticated this was. And the Michigan folks are going to say that Connor Stallions went rogue, that all of the tickets purchased were his and his doing alone. He had his buddies going, and he was presenting himself as this master code cracker, but he was doing it because, remember, you can steal signs

as long as you're just watching the other team or it's something you get from the TV copy. That's legal. What's not legal is sending somebody to the game to videotape a sideline, which there may be video of someone doing that. So this is a wild situation, Ralph. It's one of those only in college football ones. It really is. I feel like Michigan in particular has been involved in just like the weirdest scandals over the last over the last year or so. Right. I mean, Michigan football, they've had some serious stuff on their campus. But this is like for this, it seems like one stupid scandal after another.

Like, why are you? I keep I keep posting the meme of like the why can't you just be normal meme about Michigan football? Like, that's where I feel we are with Michigan these days. The sophistication of the operation is interesting to me. I will go back to this because we talked about how which a lot of offenses do these days, that clip that you showed me that we shared on Twitter, is what you see is very common with offenses nowadays. And it's become very common with offenses over the last five or six years. It's called a check with me.

Yeah. You're playing tempo, you rush to the line, but then you stop and you look to the sidelines. The funny thing about being able to steal signs defensively in that situation is Pat Narduzzi, the pit coach, who of course is not shy, right? Pat is not shy. He was the first coach who told me, you know the reason why they rushed to the line and then pause well i'm they're trying to get your look right they want to see what you're going to do yeah yeah but he's no no they're trying to get our signals that's what they're

doing they're pausing to see our signals so they it's one thing to show a look. It's another thing. So I find it funny now that now the tables were turned because he was the first coach I realized said, oh, yeah, of course. Right. The offense is trying to do the signal stealing. So, of course, the defense flips it around and now it has an opportunity to do signal stealing. You know, Andy, this is intriguing. I know what Michigan's going to do. Again, they're going to basically say, okay, prove it, right? Prove that we know, that we knew more than just this guy. Prove that we knew not that we were stealing signs, but that he was sending people to games. Right, which I think if they've got what the Pete Thamel story said,

they're going to prove that. Well, they can prove that he was sending people to games. But again, the thing that Michigan's going to stand on is Harbaugh didn't know, Minter didn't know that it was this person doing these things away from. Yeah. And like four years ago, that would have been enough. But unfortunately, in today's version of ncaa land the head coach is responsible for everything that happens in the program so they're going to stick him with it anyway so this is this is the part the mental

gymnastics going on among the michigan people yeah saying that harbaugh didn't know doesn't matter like that's the point does not matter and here. And here, let's pull this back a little bit. Because the people who listen to your show, the people who listen to my show, they all understand why this is a big deal, why this is going on, what's happening. It's amazing to me because this story has reached exit velocity and has moved out into like your get ups and, and those types of shows, they don't know how to talk about it because they can't wrap their brains around why it's even illegal. True. Right. Because, well, listen, I mean, sign stealing, this is similar to the way that what the Patriots did. Right. Right.

You're doing something that is that according to your governing body is across the line. Like what the Patriots were doing was videotaping in a way that the NFL forbids. And but in that situation, though, the Patriots, if I remember correctly, not being an NFL guy, make it the details a little a little jungle walkthroughs and stuff right but they also but no the second half of spy gate that sort of like you're talking about some of the stuff that they were accused of in the early version of right there was another version where you're allowed to advance scout in the nfl correct but you can't have your advanced scout record the sidelines and your advanced scout has to be able has to be in certain places and you can't record teams in your own stadium. So that's what they were doing. They were doing some things with recording and advanced scouting and recording that was over the line for the NFL. Again, ultimately, the problem here is I can't emphasize this enough just for people

who are trying to follow along. It's the advanced scouting and the electronic equipment. That's the places where the rules are broken. Yeah. And, and, and we'll go back even further. This was banned in 1994. Used to be able to advance scout in college football. And in 1994, there are no smartphones. Like you'd have to have a camcorder with you. Nobody would be bringing a camcorder, like a shoulder-mounted camcorder into the stadium. So this rule was made.

None of this stuff exists. The technology didn't even exist to do this. And basically, because the attitude in college sports is always, it's never, if you can't afford to do it, just don't do it. It's always, if Akron can't do it, then Alabama can't do it. Like, and that's what- Trying to level the playing field. Right. Which is- Trying to level what can be imbalances, competitive balances that are afforded to

teams by simply being wealthy. Right. Which never works and actually made it less competitive, but that's neither here nor there. That's why it's against the rules. And so if they have video of someone sitting in a seat purchased by Connor Stallions recording another sideline, that will be enough. They will punish Michigan and Jim Harbaugh based on that. I'm not saying this is what I want to happen. I'm not saying this is what should happen. I'm saying this is what will happen because this is not a court of law. You do not have to drag that person and get them to admit what they were

doing. It's preponderance of the evidence. They clearly want to get Jim Harbaugh. They're going to get Jim Harbaugh on this. If they have video of that, even at one stadium, they're going to get them on this. So, and again, this is just a one stadium, they're going to get them on this. So, and again, this is just to balance out, because I don't disagree with you. What Michigan, I think, is going to try to do, because they're actively part of this investigation, right? This is Michigan saying, hey, we're cooperating here. We want to get to the bottom of this too. That's the way Michigan's going to stand. Again, I'm not trying to think I'm naive here, but I'm just presenting Michigan's side here. We are going to be actively part of this investigation. What Michigan is going to try to do is they're going to try to find that video, whether it's on Connor Stallion's work computer, if they can get into it, if they can get his home computer.

Connor's smart. He wiped that before anybody asked about it. You would like to think, but he also bought all the tickets in his own name. So you never know, right? I mean, who am I to say? This guy went to the Naval Academy. Clearly, he's smarter than me because I couldn't have been able to do it. I'm not calling him dumb.

I'm just saying, like, he's got some, there's some judgment issues here. Right. So, but what I'm saying is like, if the other thing that I think Michigan's going to lead into is cooperation, right. Cause that's the whole thing with the NCAA, right? Like we want your cooperation. You've got to be part of this. And in Michigan is going to say, Hey, we'll get the video for you. Oh, my gosh. Look, I can't believe this. This is shocking. Look at how this happened under our in our building. This is appalling. You must punish this person. Oh, we'll punish him. Don't worry about it. We'll punish him.

So and you know what they're going to say about that? That's the head coach is still on the hook for it. But that's the interesting gray area here, right, that we're going to say about that? That's the interesting- The head coach is still on the hook for it. But that's the interesting gray area here, right? That we're going to get into what the punishment is. But here's the big, here's the, forget $64,000. Here's the $64 million question. Can they do anything this year? That is it. That is the question.

And the answer is no. I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think so. It would be completely antithetical to anything that happens with NCAA enforcement. Yes. And remember the last time they went outside their usual process to punish somebody in a timely fashion. It was Penn State after the Sandusky thing. They went they got sued and they had to walk it back. If I am Michigan and they try to do anything to me right now,

I lawyer the hell up and I say, we will sue you into oblivion. And if I'm Michigan, I just play this season out, put my head down, try to win the national title. And if I win the national title and they come back and try to strip it from me, I lawyer the hell up then too. And who cares if they strip it? I mean, I know Michigan will care.

And if I'm a Michigan, because there's a principle of the thing. So if I'm a Notre Dame, if you remember a few years back, had that situation with a tutor and they did all the cooperating and they had a bunch of wins stripped. And you know, if you're Notre Dame, like that mean, that kind of means something, right? I mean, you just, nobody else cares. We know who won. No, nobody else cares, but internally you care because you want banners and things like that.

And you want the record books to show certain things. But that's my point. Like if you're not getting this thing adjudicated this year, we can talk about tarnishing the legacy. Listen, that's already done. As far as Ohio State fans are concerned, it's already tarnished. You're not convincing them. But if it doesn't impact this year, 20 of those players are going to be in the NFL next year. Maybe Harbaugh will be in the NFL next year. Like it's all symbolic, the punishment, if it's not done this year. And I don't know if it could or even should be done next year because there's another point of it of like,

it's the quantification. And again, I understand they're not being punished for stealing signs, but again, but you have to do the competitive balance pieces. As you've rightly pointed out, the difference with this is this- This moves the line. This is not the cheeseburger thing.

This is very different. But is not the cheeseburger thing. This is very different. But even that becomes hard to quantify. You deserve to forfeit a game because you stole signs? I'm just saying, like, I don't know. That seems a bit much when we know this stuff happens all the time. Well, we don't, though. We know sign stealing happens all the time well we don't though we know sign stealing happens all the time well that's what i'm saying perfectly legal version of science stealing sign

stealing happens all we don't know that that schools are sending people to videotape no i don't think other sidelines because there are certain stadiums cough cough in the sec where if they see you holding a camera on a sideline for the entire game somebody's going to come ask you some questions now that could be to protect their broadcast partners or it could be to or what are you trying to pull here but that is not something that happens all the time that That's the difference here. But ultimately, you still need to boil it down to what is the – can we quantify the competitive impact on this team? Yes, and I do think –

That's different. That's just ambiguous. Again, I'm not saying it has no impact. If I know your plays, that's probably going to help me out. Also, the just change your signs. You've never been in a football program that runs with a tempo offense if you believe you can just change your signs. It's essentially like saying stop speaking English on Sunday

and be speaking Spanish by Saturday. Yeah, Yeah. With all, you know, with all of your, all 22 of your players on the field. Yeah. Yeah.

That's again, there is a, there is a bit of a, everybody knows this is going on or is attempting to go on sign stealing, not the other stuff, but sign stealing. So most coaches are already have some mechanisms, right?

They understand that, Hey, this team, we see them a lot. They're probably onto something. Um, this other team, maybe not listen, this is going to spawn a million as it already has online detectives and reporters, uh, grabbing little shards of the tips that have come in on this thing are hilarious. If even 1% of them are true, it's unbelievable. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, little, little, little pieces of shrapnel of evidence all over the place. Again, I didn't know people could look at your Venmo account. That's an interesting thing. You haven't set your venmo to private i don't want people to know who i'm paying for pizza i assume that mine's on i don't use venmo very much i'm still public if you didn't if you didn't make it private it's public yeah i think

i would have made it private but i just i don't know if i ever got to go look at what ralph's paying for i mean feel feel free i think there's like there's a couple of payments most of my transactions have to do with my fantasy baseball league. So all you'll find out is I'm good at fantasy baseball, right? But that was an interesting little note, a little learning moment for me, a little lesson for me that, hey, go set your Venmo on private. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Now, you can explain that one away. Because it just says, so for the circumstances, he is Venmoing a Michigan recruiting intern. And it just says GA. And it's the day before the Peach Bowl. So the day before Ohio State and Georgia play in the Peach Bowl, which had Michigan won the Fiesta Bowl, which they didn't, they would have played one of those teams for the national title. You could just say, hey, I was paying for something for a GA,

for a graduate assistant. Easy, done, out of there. But the preponderance, again, this is a preponderance of the evidence situation. And I don't know that any of it matters because like you said, Jim Harbaugh could be off to the NFL. Now, there's another question about would this particular thing hurt him getting an NFL job? Because this is something they would actually care about as opposed to Cheeseburger Gate, which they won't care about at all. I don't think they would care about this either.

I mean, the NFL is a. They cared about it when it's bill belichick you know i understand that but i'm sure bill wasn't the one who set up the videos either but but by the way building get fired yeah bill's still there nobody nobody gave them return those championship trophies so i don't think so. Listen, we talk about this all the time with the Harbaugh situation in the NFL. It takes two to tango here. Harbaugh may already be in the NFL if the Vikings really wanted him to be their head coach. Right, exactly.

If Miami didn't have that debacle with Flores and everything that went wrong there. And if they hadn't hired a really good coach. Stephen Ross may have hired. I mean, it worked out okay for Miami, but Stephen Ross may have hired Harbaugh a couple of years ago. Like he may, somebody needs to want him to be their NFL coach. Now that might happen. I would be interested to see what San Diego has to say.

I'd be interested to see what the Bears have to say. They have a previous franchise. The Manders are going to open. So there's I was assuming that stuff was going to happen again. And now. But still, he has to be wanted. So the bigger issue becomes if he is not wanted, that's where the story has a longer tail. Well, right. If you're Michigan at that point, you got to decide what you want to do. And my guess is be handle it the way North Carolina has handled some of this stuff and just go hard at the NCAA, which sounds like a very un-Michigan thing to do. But in this climate, I don't think that's a bad idea. I also think it may hasten whatever comes next.

Because I don't think it's a question of if. It's a question of when major college football is no longer governed by the NCAA. There is that. I mean, that's a bigger issue. I thought you were going to go to the idea that we're going to have this helmet communication. Oh, well, okay. We are. And that's going to happen. They already had a pilot program in place to try it out this bowl season. Yeah. So they're going to be trying it. People are going to decide, okay, we like it this way. We don't want to do this. I would bet by next year they have helmet

communication and this becomes less of an issue at that point. Oh, much less of an issue. The interesting part about that. I would actually, I would actually change the rule, Ralph. If I had helmet communication, I would say stealing signs and how, whatever way you want to do it is not legal because if you're too stupid to use the helmet communication, that's your own fault. What's interesting about the way they're going to do it too, with the player to coach communication,

is it not, it's not necessarily going to be an NFL style. And we talk about trying to level the playing field. You have to have exactly what your brother's having, right? We each get four fish sticks, right? It's not going to be that.

What they're going to basically, because the technology has become so pervasive and in some ways cheap, what they're going to tell teams is you can do whatever you want. If you want to use earpieces in every play or if you want a helmet, if you think the helmets are too expensive,

like you do whatever you want as long as you agree with and this is for the bowl season as long as both teams agree to do it you can do it however you want now i think what will end up coming about is the ncaa will lift the lid and say okay you can do whatever you want figure it out what works best for you or don't use it at all if you don't want it yeah exactly then i think what will happen is the conferences, especially the big conferences. They'll have their own standard, yes. The big 10 will come in and say,

here's going to be our standard because we know you can all afford this. We know what the TV costs. And I imagine that all the FBS conferences who do meet regularly as part of the CFP probably will just agree on something. I would think, and you can take some CFP money, frankly, if the Big Ten, I know nobody likes their money touched, but listen, the CFP is going to be making enough

so that if Sunbelt needs a little extra. This is not much. This is not a super expensive thing. But what people have told me is their bigger issue is getting the helmet certified, which you can solve that problem pretty easily too by going to the helmet manufacturers and saying, would you like to be used in major college football? Find a way that we can do this where it's certified. Somebody brought up an interesting point. Actually, it was Steve Shaw, who is the coordinator of officials. He had said an interesting point of in the NFL,

which you don't really think about that much. There's actually a lot more substituting in college football with packages. And well, first of all, they have more players. And on the defensive side, especially, you're not really subbing your quarterback out much, but go talk to Kansas state about that. Right. There was this talk about like, well, you're only allowed to have one or two helmets and it like,

and this idea of like, well, do they have to start? Like, cause they tried this in a game last year, I think in the celebration bowl and the teams were, were like literally swapping helmets. Yeah. You don't want that. They had two helmets that had the communication in it. Yeah. I would think three helmets or something like that in college football, you would think... Three helmets or something like that. In college football, you would want three different levels

at the very minimum. You'd want the line of scrimmage guys, so like your center and maybe one defensive lineman, and then your quarterback, obviously, and then a receiver who could then signal the other receivers, and then defensively, somebody on the line of scrimmage,

a linebacker and somebody in the secondary, you could do it like that. You could put them in all of them. I mean, it's the, the technology is not that expensive. So I do, I do wonder this, Andy, like, and you played at a much higher level than I ever played. I only played high school ball and this stuff wasn't available then anyway, but I do think back to some of the coaches I've talked to, is there too much communication? Like, do you have guys who are like, the last thing I want is all of, is to talk to all of my players.

Well, no. Yeah. Like you'd want somebody telling the O-line the protection. Yeah. And you'd want someone telling the receivers, the routes and the quarterback. You just tell the whole play too yeah yeah you can imagine like i remember like you know rest in peace joely dunn um when i covered mississippi state he uh just this is this is only semi-related but it's a funny story so they were having a really they were struggling uh in a year where they weren't supposed to be struggling and uh joely they had um like lucy and richie and all those calls were were left and right yeah right lucky and ringo yeah yeah so at a certain point he was like i at a certain point, I just changed it to left and right. I just said, this is ridiculous.

They were even getting confused by Lucy and Richie. So I just started. Oh, they're players. It wasn't that the other teams knew it. Right. It was their own players. I told them from now on, we're just going left and right. And they still screwed it up.

So, you know know there's only so much we can do to help the guys on the field well there's only so much we can do right now to discuss this michigan case but it is utterly fascinating and i appreciate you coming on ralph to help unpack it because there's so many different tentacles to it. Yeah. And I, like, I know the Michigan fans are like, why do you keep bothering us? Because it's funny. Like, at the core of it, it's hilarious that this is all happening. Again, why can't you just be normal, Michigan? Michigan, why can't you just be normal?

Yeah. Even if none of the other coaches knew. Like, it's objectively funnier if what Michigan is arguing is true. It is funnier. It is funnier. Like, it's – and I'm not casting judgment here. Like, I get it. I understand why you're going, why is this even a rule?

But it is – it affects the game. It affects the program going forward, clearly. So we're going to talk about it. Ralph, thank you so much. Andy, thank you. And again, appreciate the home and home. Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure. Go, go listen to Ralph's podcast. Very intriguing Penn State discussion. I could go three hours talking about this case. I really could. It is so interesting and there's so many different weird little facets of it to dive into, but we got to talk about Texas. We've not talked about it yet on the show. We need to talk about the Texas quarterback situation. What happens with the Longhorns going forward? Quinn Ewers, AC joint sprain. He's going to be out for a little while.

Malik Murphy, potentially the starter going forward. But Arch Manning is getting ready as well. He's getting some first team reps, according to Steve Sarkeesian, in case they need him. No one knows Texas better than Bobby Burton of Inside Texas, and he joins us now to explain how the Longhorns move forward in a pretty tough part of the schedule with a backup quarterback. We welcome Bobby Burton from Inside Texas. This is a strange time for the Longhorns. Quinn Ewers out for a little while. Malik Murphy is the guy at the moment. Arch Manning taking the first team reps too in case they need him. How is the mood around Austin now that Quinn Ewers is out? Well, I think they're cautiously

optimistic. I mean, Malik Murphy had a great spring game, as most people know that follow college football and Texas Longhorn football in particular. He had a great spring game. The question that we have right now with Malik Murphy is not so much, can he do it, Andy? It's what's going on behind the scenes. Murphy missed a practice last week for a non-disclosed illness injury, something. Arch Manning's going to have to be ready as well. But all in all, if you get past that, there's the idea that his teammates really liked Malik Murphy. He came in against Houston, and he didn't look like the moment was too big for him. When he came in, it was 24-24 in the fourth quarter. Malik had a three and out, but then let him on the game-winning scoring drive.

Longhorns win. He's well-liked by teammates. I think it's going to be interesting to see exactly how much of Steve Sarkeesian's offense gets dialed back and fine-tuned with either Murphy or Arch Manning being the guy. So with Malik, he did have such a great spring game. And that was one where it felt like people were all over him, that he had maybe some transfer portal opportunities to maybe go start somewhere else. And he stayed at Texas. What was it that kept him in the folder?

I think he liked Steve Sarkeesian. And I think he, you know, not a lot of people know this, but Malik's entire throwing motion has been revamped in a year. And Sark did that with him. Malik used to have this very long release. And so the reason Malik signed with Sark in the first place is because he's a little bit of a QB whisperer, right? And so he had some faith there. It wasn't that he was going to necessarily unseat Quinn Ewers this year. But given what Sark has done at USC, at Washington, and then at Alabama, it seems to be if you wait in line and bide your time at quarterback under Steve Sarkeesian,

you're going to end up cashing a pretty big paycheck. I would say the other thing is this. He has been oft injured. He's had an ankle problem, a foot problem, and he never really got a ton of time overall. Even last spring, he missed a week of practice, Andy. So we'll see how it goes. But like I said, the players like him. I think that's clear.

He's one of the guys. It'll be interesting to see where Steve Sarkeesian takes his team with Malik Murphy at quarterback. Well, and so you mentioned this, and, I see the kind of butt and butt and butt and potential, you know, for injury potential for, for him being out as well. So let's talk Arch Manning, because that's obviously the guy that everybody followed his recruitment. He gets to Texas. Everybody was like, okay, when's he going to play? When's he going to play? It felt like the thought was to redshirt Arch, but it seems like this is a break glass in case of emergency situation.

It is. That's a great way to put it. You know, it's like, and for Sark, it may be, you know, it may be that he's breaking the glass of the cigarette so he can take a drag because he's going to be that kind of concerned right now because the season kind of hangs in the balance. Texas is 6-1, Andy. This is high cotton for Texas in the last decade

where they have a real chance at a Big 12 title, potential rematch with the Sooners. With Arch, it's very interesting. Three weeks ago, Sark, just out of the middle of nowhere in the middle of a press conference, said, oh, and by the way, Arch Manning had his best week of practice ever. And that was a little nod that, okay, this guy may be getting ready. And behind the scenes, he's been taking reps with the ones and twos this entire offseason or this entire season, not just Malik Murphy. Malik Murphy is next in line,

but I get a strong sense that we're going to see Arch Manning at some point during BYU and maybe for the rest of the season, depending on Quinn Ewers and his injury. Well, and that's the thing, the AC joint sprain. I know the NFL fans learned a lot about that with Anthony Richardson, who has shut it down for the season. Talking to people who've had that injury, it is incredibly painful. And so do we really know how long Quinn Ewers is going to be out? No, Sark described him as week to week from behind the scenes.

What we're hearing, three to four weeks maybe. Quinn Ewer is going to be out? No, Sark described him as week to week from behind the scenes. What we're hearing three to four weeks, maybe that's what they're hopeful for, what he's, Quinn and himself and his family are hopeful for. But we don't know. I mean, it could linger. It's a injury to your point that is nonspecific in its length of time for recovery. It's not a torn meniscus and he's out for two weeks, right? It's more questionable. It's going to be a lot about pain tolerance and perhaps about how much Texas really needs him too. We'll see if that comes into play, but you don't want to risk the golden arm, right? This is a guy that has a lot of football ahead of him in his career, not just at Texas. Well, and when Texas lost Oklahoma, I think the assumption from all of us on the outside was these two are going to finish out the Big 12.

Not going to lose another game. They're going to play each other again in the Big 12 championship game. And I think now, after watching Oklahoma UCF last weekend, after watching Texas and Houston, it's a different story. And Texas in the more precarious situation because they have the loss and, and, and have more margin or less margin for error. How, how much concern is there with, with BYU coming in? Well, BYU is,

BYU is interesting because they're 5-2, but they've had a bad loss at Kansas. TCU. Yeah, I feel like BYU is interesting because they have a better defense than they do offense, and they turn people over, and Texas is starting a rookie quarterback essentially, right? Yeah. That's like tailor-made for a defensive coordinator's dream.

Okay, I turned the Texas Tech freshman quarterback over five times on Saturday. I'm going to do that to the Texas freshman quarterback this week. That being said, it's not so much about BYU as it is the whole. I want to say this, and this is, you know, you grew up, you went to Florida. You play big games, right? Like Florida-Georgia, Florida-Florida State. Those take a lot out of teams, okay? Texas and OU came off this bye week.

They took a bye week after their game, and that was a bloodletting of sorts, right? Texas did not play well in that game, and it took a toll on them. OU, meanwhile, played well, and it took a toll on them. Those mid-year rivalry games, if you win or lose, sometimes you just need to get back up on the horse and play right away the next week to kind of get the cobwebs off. Waiting this week after that game may not have been what was best for either of those teams. They need to get going. And so I don't know if what you saw is necessarily indicative of the Texas team or the OU team that you'll see the rest of the year.

They're better than what they played on Saturday, both of them. Well, the one that concerns me more than anything is not necessarily this weekend's BYU, but K-State next week. Because you look at the way K-State's played the last couple weeks since they've started sprinkling more Avery Johnson. They look dangerous. And because one of their losses is to Missouri, they're still in the Big 12 title hunt. That's where I would be very afraid.

And you and I have the benefit of not being on the Texas team. So we don't have to not think about them yet. We can think about them right now. And that looks like the scariest game left on the schedule for Texas. I don't disagree at all, Andy. In fact, that's what we've been talking about on Inside Texas for almost, you know, probably two weeks ago, whenever Texas first lost. And they implemented Avery Johnson against Texas Tech more frequently.

K-State did, the young quarterback. Here's the issue with that. K-State focuses heavily on the run game, right? That's actually the Texas defensive strength, okay? That is the one thing that Texas can do is stop the run. I think they gave up 19 yards on the ground to Houston on Saturday. Houston moved the ball exclusively through the air. Texas didn't give up much rushing yardage to Alabama. These are teams that run the ball. Teams that run the ball don't necessarily run

the ball well on Texas because they have a pretty stout defensive front where Texas has been weak on defense. Andy is in the secondary, particularly at safety. And so Texas in some ways lines up well with Kansas State from that standpoint. I do think Avery Johnson gives them a different element that could push them to becoming the best offense or overall team in the Big 12 at K-State. I am a little concerned about K-State's defense. I think they're improving, but I don't know that they're proven. It may be that game, first one to 30 wins. At that point, Malik will have had a start under his belt or or if Arch comes in and and plays well he'll have some seasoning so I would imagine you will have a better idea what

the Texas offense will look like but uh you know how how has Steve Sarkeesian handled all this uh you know you mentioned that maybe closing down the offense a little bit for Malik how he is the quarterback whisperer. How has he handled getting these two guys ready? So it's interesting. That's a great discussion, Andy. What he said yesterday is that each and every week during season, he asks his backup quarterbacks what plays they like that week.

And then he tracks it each and every week so that when he's now eight, they're going to be, this is the eighth game of the year. He's now had eight weeks of Arch and Malik telling them the three or four plays each week they like. And so he has a little bit of a reference book. Yeah. Or almanac to go back to and say, okay, you like this, let's incorporate things off of this.

Pretty bright. I would not say that he was, in his Monday press conference, I wouldn't say he was down. I think he was forthright. Sark tends to be pretty even keeled and has been that way since he's been at Texas even when they've been losing right um but uh they they are doing fairly well right now and I feel like he's got some confidence but he needs he knows he needs to go out and play they're gonna have to they'll have to win this game against BYU somehow K-State will be an absolute test for them, in my opinion.

I love that, having the menu of what the backup's like, because that does seem to be one of the issues when a backup quarterback gets in the game is you're not entirely sure what he's good at, what he prefers. So at least you can, you can have a base menu of plays, no matter who is in there, whether it's Malik or, or Arch. I agree. That's when, when he started talking about that at Monday's presser, a little light bulb went off in my head. You know, you've, you've been around football a long time. It's rare that you get a peek into the true madness behind the whole thing. And I felt like that was very revelatory. It's interesting that they think that far ahead in case of, you know, break the case of emergency.

Right. Like you just talked about. I felt like that was pretty smart. There is no doubt that they're going to have to lean heavily on the run game for the next several weeks while Quinn's out. They've been buoyed by not only Jonathan Brooks, Andy, he's had a tremendous year, fell one yard short of 100 yards again this past week, went 20 for 99. But I tell you what, a young running back out of Florida, out of Orlando, Cedric Baxter, for the first time all year, he looked healthy and he looked legit, like big time legit against Houston. He hit the game winning touchdown from about 16 yards out. And when he hit the hole, he exploded through it like a rare guy. I'll just put it that way. He looked like a, okay,

this guy's going to be a dude. And so I, I think Texas will lean on that, those two running backs. I think Sark does something that's a little different than most people. He runs a lot of six offensive linemen. He actually puts an offensive guard at tight end right times in what they call a big 11 personnel package which is one tight end that's the big guy and one running back yeah and then four wides and by doing that he presents the defense a real question mark if i put put more in the box, then all of a sudden Xavier Worthy

and A.D. Mitchell may be manned up outside. Yeah. And he's done some nice things. That is one of the things I think they will try to do, not only against BYU, Andy, but K-State, Iowa State, et cetera. Well, and that's what a great incentive to go play offensive line for him because you may get that eligible number thrown on you and get to to do some things so that's a that's a recruiting tool too bobby he's just he's yet to catch a pass but we'll see well bobby i appreciate it gonna be fun

to watch this weekend yeah i i i'm hope i'm i'm hopeful that uh the longhorns and BYU give us a good game. Keaton Slovis, you know, these guys that have been to so many different programs have seen so many different things. They've got a little head on their shoulders. It's a little bit different than everybody else. I mean, Keaton Slovis, JT Daniels, those guys. I mean, it's different. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

They played together at one time, and now they've been to like 94 different schools. Yeah, exactly. Thank you, Bobby. All right, yeah. Yeah. They played together at one time, and now they've been to like 94 different schools. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Thank you, Bobby. All right, buddy. Thank you to Bobby Burton. Texas is going to be really interesting to watch these next few weeks because we don't know how that offense is going to look.

And I thought that was great. The stuff about Sarkeesian and what he does with the backup quarterbacks. If, if that works, if, if you see kind of a seamless transition into Malik Murphy, that's a good, it's good advice for the young coaches out there.

Take what Steve Sarkeesian does and import it to your program because he's trying to make sure that he's ready when he's got to put a backup in the game. And it's one of the tougher situations in sports when you've got a guy that is coming in and he hasn't been training to be the guy. And now all of a sudden he's thrust into this very high pressure, high profile position. So we will see what happens with Texas, but great show. So much fun. Thanks to all our guests. Tomorrow, Wednesday is the new night for Dear Andy. We will answer your questions. They become the star. Find me on social media, andy__staples on X, formerly known as Twitter, or on Instagram, or you can email your question to andystapleson3 at gmail.com.

It's a lot more fun when you do the question on video because then you get to be marginally internet famous as well when we answer your question. But you know how much I love your questions because you are the smartest, best looking viewers slash listeners in the universe. And I love the way you think about college football and how much you love college football. So bring those questions and we'll do our best to answer them tomorrow night. We'll talk to you soon. Bye.