Andy & Ari On3 - Mike Gundy: 'This portal class from January is the first class that we ever bought.'

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy joins the show, and he’s not holding back.(0:00-2:33) Intro: Previewing Mike Gundy(2:34-17:43) Mike Gundy joins the show(17:44-18:52) Mike Gundy's rules for life(18:53-30:20) Discussion on Oklahoma State, Big 12(30:21-35:44) Do you lock your door?(35:45-50:39) New QBs you have most confidence/questions in(50:40-54:50) Sleeper G5 CFP teams(54:51-1:02:46) Baylor's Outlook with Dave Aranda(1:02:47-1:05:06) Emo Accent Deep Dive(1:05:07-1:31:38) Random Ranking: Songs You're Embarrassed That You Love(1:31:39-1:34:37) Conclusion: THANK YOU! Gundy explains why he thinks college football needs a collective bargaining agreement. He also makes some recommendations for a commissioner of the sport. He also offers a shocking — or maybe not-so-shocking — reason for Oklahoma State’s fall from 10 wins in 2023 to three wins in 2024. The Cowboys didn’t spend any money on transfer players before last season. Gundy said that has changed this season and Oklahoma State is operating more like the other teams in the Big 12. It’s also a Dear Andy/Dear Ari day, and you’ve asked some excellent questions. Which new starting QB are you most confident in? Who are some sleeper Group of 5 playoff contenders? Plus, The Random Ranking is in honor of Utah Spencer Fano’s rendition of Secondhand Serenade’s Fall For You at Big 12 media days. What are the five songs you’re most embarrassed to love?  Watch our show LIVE on YouTube, M-F at 9:30 am et! https://youtube.com/live/fzvIb7_i05YHosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Want to partner with the show? E-mail [e-mail]

Welcome to Annie and Ariane. Happy Friday. Still drafting off Big 12 media days Ari because we had an incredible interview with Mike Gundy. And I cannot wait for everybody to see this because he says some stuff in here that I don't know if you can see the look on my face at times when we were doing the interview. know if you could see the look on my face at times when we were doing the interview but when he you guys will watch all of this but when he's talking about what his attitude was toward NIL and and the transfer portal up until about 18 months ago I was legitimately shocked it's so funny because like I think that like a lot of fans like felt that way or hoped that way too.

I don't know that if I were a coach I would have approached it that way. I feel like we need to play the cliff in order to you know, yeah, we have a lot to unpack. Yeah, but but let me let me set set the scene for everybody Oklahoma State went into last season with major expectations. They were bringing Ollie Gordon back. Everybody thought they were going to be able to compete for the big 12 title. They did not. It was a terrible year. They went three and nine.

It was like, it was the worst season Mike Gundy has their head coach by far, because he's been consistently good. And this was what made that so shocking. So changing coordinators, Doug Meacham comes in to run the offense. Remember Doug Meacham, uh, the coordinator, the, the really good TCU offense in 2014 with Trevon Boykin, uh, Todd Grantham formerly of, of Georgia and Florida. And, uh, he's going to be the defensive coordinator and I know the the folks in Athens and gains will have their opinions on that

But I actually enjoy Todd Grantham and especially in the big 12 where things get a little wacky Anyway, the idea of Todd Grantham who likes to send the house on blitzes very frequently in the big 12 makes me happy so on Blitz's very frequently in the Big 12 makes me happy. So you got that, you got all of these new players that Oklahoma State's brought in. The roster has been completely revamped and Mike Gundy's gotta deal with that. So Ari, let's talk to Mike Gundy about an entirely new world

and he's gonna say some things that you guys are gonna just be like, wow. he is my guy went there. He went there. After all, that's exactly right. Here is my gutty. All right, we are joined by Oklahoma State coach, Mike Gundy. So you were talking to us earlier about how many new players you have? How many is it right now and how many have never practiced for you? Well there's 65 from the middle of December until now. 35 of those have never practiced for us and only around 14 are high school players. So there's whatever those numbers are 18 or 19 that are on our team now that didn't get here until June that should be factoring in the first game. And that's where people ask how how's the team how you doing?

I don't really know. Just because you have potentially half of the two deep that have never practiced for us yet. Yeah, that's the part that amazes me is you can't even go in with a plan really until you see some of these guys. Yeah, so right. We have concepts in on both sides of the ball through spring and then off season is a little different. Now We have OTAs for lack of a better term. So that's helped a little bit, but it's not the same as actual practice. It's not the same as being out there

and coaching them on the run with shoulder pads on. In our opinion, it's not. So this August will be much different in the fact that we're gonna learn a lot about our team, hopefully over the first 15 practices. And then we have to make quick decisions and then try to get ready to play in a game because you know, once the season gets started, you only practice twice a week. So it's a, it's a unusual year, but I think moving forward, 65, 35, you would like to get it to, to 40 and

15. Will that happen? I don't know, but I don't think it's going to be any less than 40 and 15 moving forward. Could you mention that you usually take a little vacation in July and when you go on that vacation, you go traditionally knowing who you have or who you are and now you're not Just in general being a human being Have you found it hard at times to enjoy what you're doing as much as you might have in the past? I've always enjoyed it, but there's been Stages over the last 18 months that have been frustrating

because I want to be able to control everything and I want to know what direction it's going and I want to know that this is the plan in place or I need to fix the plan and we haven't had that ability and I don't think that anybody in the country has had that ability over the last couple of years. So there's some uncertainty more so than not enjoying it, but it is been more challenging. Yeah. And when you are putting these positions, you know, going into unknown positions, what's the best medicine advice you'd give yourself of like, Hey, everybody's doing this.

So I'm doing it. Or how do you, you know, internally give yourself a pep talk of how to, how to handle that? We, we go back, I go back to our core values. You know, we've established a pretty good product over 20 years and it's been very consistent and very successful. So we have to go back to that and force feed the new system into those core values and find a way to make it work. So one of the challenges we've had this summer is earlier we talked about 35 new players, 18 of them are transfers. So they're older and can almost be a little bit more set in their

ways and it's very difficult to function in our system if you're not structured and organized and reliable and accountable. So we've had more issues in June than we have ever before but it's only because it's a numbers game. We have in the past had 10 or 12 new players that would come in and they were young high school players. And so they jump right in real quick. So we've had to like kind of get everybody in line in a short period of time. That's been an adjustment. I heard you say earlier today that you've you stopped worrying about

what you can't control. That's been an adjustment. I heard you say earlier today that you stop worrying about what you can't control. That's right. And at what point do you make that decision? And does it make things easier or does it just change the... It doesn't make them any easier because you still have the uncertainty, in my opinion. So three years ago when this started, I almost refused to believe it was ever going to happen and I, I just thought it would go away. It's almost like getting an argument with your wife and then you just hope it goes away.

Right. Well, I thought when you were saying that, and then you ever go away by all the way you think it does. You think it does. And then three weeks later it was like, well, that's like what you said the other day, I thought you forgot about that. Oh, I didn't forget about that. Yeah. I needed a time to pounce. So I almost was just, I thought this will go away. Surely this can't last. And then it just kept building momentum. And then after a point about 18 months ago, I said, this is not

going away. We're going to have to make some real adjustments here. So the truth be known, this portal class from January is the first class that we ever bought. We had not bought portal goods. That hurt us. It hurt us the last year or so from a depth standpoint. And then that was nobody's fault that's not the administration's fault not the donors that was really kind of my fault because what I had done was taken money that had been raised through donations

and spread it amongst the troops somewhat evenly to the current players we didn't go out and solicit for players and pay them to come to our team. We did that starting in December, which I think we all would agree. If you don't do that, you're not going to survive. So that's different for us now. The thing that I can't detach myself from coach is the volume of players in totality that you're bringing in, other teams are bringing in and you guys are all evaluating, you know, many of the same kids. And a lot of times who you get and who you don't get comes down to financial factors

that you can't control. And then based on the players that you do bring in, um, it almost feels like you're spinning a roulette wheel to me with how many players are coming in, how many hits are you going to get? And there's a lot of truth to that. So I'm wondering like in 2015, it was very easy to differentiate who's a good evaluator, who's a good recruiter and you know, who ran a program now. It's kind of like, who's lucky enough to hit the double zero on the wheel this year and get the five guys in the portal that everybody wanted at a bargain.

And they hit, you know, like, I don't know, is it, is there some randomness to this? There's a lot of truth to that. Now there's going to be a group of portal players, 30 of them that would be similar to when the NFL drafts players on the first day, the first round, it's going to be a really, really high percentage of those players are going to be successful. So you let's say 30 players a year on the portal that now just becomes who can outbid each other. Then there's going to be about 200 of them in the next group that fall in your

category that it's going to be based on evaluation. They're going to get similar money upfront and contracted very similar to each other. Can you persuade them to come? The money is not that different and then can you make the good decisions? And then there's another hundred of them behind that that could potentially be sleepers that you have to try to find. Like we took the young man from out there in the Northwest part of the country, George Fox University, he ended up being a really good receiver for us. Well, we got him for free because nobody else really wanted him. That's where you got to try to make your money and you know, at Oklahoma state, because we're not going to be in a position to just outbid for

the top 30, 40 or 50 players. That's we haven't been in that. Now, how does revenue sharing affect that? I don't know. That's supposed to put some, some sort of equality on it, but we'll see. Coaches always find loopholes. We tried the NIL three years ago. We saw what happened.

There's schools paying what? Whatever was an aisle to begin with. Yeah. There's a 30, 40 million for roster paying for, you know, and really what, what, what, uh, coach, uh, prime said in the roundtable today. To a certain extent he's he's accurate I mean the percentage is is that if we don't create a system Similar to the NFL if you win the Super Bowl you pick last if you if you finish last you get to pick first

So we balance our rosters and then the money is very similar right with the exception to what free agent can be but for the Most part it's similar. College needs to instigate and to build that type of system. So we don't have the same four or five or six schools that pay the most money in the, at the end of the season in the playoffs. How does that manifest in like actuality? Like how, how would you do that? Well, you, you got to restructure the system and you got to admit

that the players are employees. And then you can build a, a collective bargaining. We've all talked about it. But you have to admit their employees. You could actually have a salary cap. And you need that. And then you need an entry salary cap. You need an entry level for a high school player coming in because it's not sustainable. So it's not be richer programs and everybody's spending equity. And that's what we've been talking about. Like how, when you're trying to decide how much you're going to spend on a

freshman offensive lineman, I mean, you could be some sinking money that, cause that kid may not play. Right. There's a value that they have that most schools will come up with. It'll be very similar, But then somebody might just say, well, forget it, he's worth a million dollars. We're gonna pay him a million dollars. Well, they're gonna get him.

And right now that's in place. And that's what we wanna try to eliminate as we move forward. Because the long- In some spending. Yeah, in the long haul, what we need is we need the viewers who pay the bills to want to watch college football and if we for not careful and we create a lot of discrepancy with 10 or 12 teams and then you have another 30 or 40 that are

really 18-point underdogs on, then people change channel and now we got real problems. That's my opinion. You've said it probably a lot more plainly than most coaches would, but I'll be interested to see if anybody listens. It's a common sense, you know, right? So we don't use a lot of common sense. In the world, people don't use common sense.

So like education's awesome, but common sense can take you a lot farther. If you just think things through and give a little, and then realize, Cali, that's not going to work. The reality of it is, and I've had to accept this, and I think you agree with me on this, Andy, is that the administrators and the suits of college football are placing a fat wager that there's nothing they can do to get people to throw the chin. That's what they're doing. They've already messed up the conference alignment, they've already they've got a wet coach team in every year, the postseason,

everything that they have done. Can I ask you a question? And you probably don't even think about this stuff because you're too busy building a team and a program but name one of the seismic shifts or evolutionary changes that have happened in our sport the last four years that a fan would have wanted. You think people are happy there's no Pac-12 or that they're happy that the Stanford's and the ACC like all this stuff is just nonsense and it's it's because the people in charge don't care what we

want. They don't care what the people who pay the bills want and there's nothing that they can do to those people to make them stop watching. So if what you said comes true, the whole Jenga tower is going to fall over but I don't know that that's going to happen. The one thing that can really factor in this is that for coaches, athletic directors, administrators, donors, in my opinion, it's not sustainable what's happening. There's too much money involved. And so at some point, something's gotta give,

whether that's a year from now two years from now it's got to give and I'm gonna circle right back to what I said two years ago one year ago six months ago and I'll say it again we need a college football commissioner okay who would your choice be it's the coach Saban, it's coach Mack Brown, it's Peterson from out at Washington. That person can then get with your power for conference commissioners and then a representative from whatever other level and then they start to build a structure and a plan that is sustainable, build a structure and a plan that is sustainable that has boundaries and once that's accomplished then you have to have very serious punishment for people that break the rules right because it coaches are going to break rules if they

think it's worth it well and but in the in what you've outlined you actually could have that if you have a collective bargaining agreement all that stuff You're not gonna get sued over that and so It's like it's like going to a concert year ago going to a concert the buddy of mine and we parked and he was illegal parking and One of the ladies in the car said well, this is an illegal not a space You'll get a ticket and he said I'll pay the 35 bucks to walk five minutes. I don't want to walk 20 minutes.

Yeah. Cause the ticket was the same. Exactly. And I was in it. I thought that's pretty good idea. It's like, it was like tampering in college football. What I'm saying is, is if, if it's worth it, then they're going to do it. Coach, we've made this mistake.

Uh, once today, we're not making it again. Oh yeah. And you were the perfect candidate to ask this question. And sorry if I'm blindsided to you because it's nothing to do with football. Do you have a rule for life or a lesson or something that you just stand by like Andy's is? My three rules never complain about free food, never complain about free beer, never skip like that. But like you do those three things, you're going to have a happy life. Never order, never eat at a place

that specializes in multiple types of cuisine. It's good one. Yeah. I don't know if there's something off off center. Well, that one is that those are good. And that was good. It's you specialize in seafood steaks and Mexican food probably not a good challenge. Yeah, nobody's good at pizza and tacos. And the chef's really talented. So here's what, uh, Kristen and I have raised three boys and, um, we've been fortunate. They've all been very athletic and so on and so forth. And then of course, with my lifestyle. So what she put by the back door where they all go out to get in their cars to leave is,

I need you to humble yourself before you walk out of this door. Or when you get out there, life's gonna humble you real quick. And I've always thought that's pretty good. Oh yeah. And I hear her telling the boys that still to this day. And she'll tell them why that too.

So anyway, good best with us. Tell my wife about that. Yeah. Thank you so much. Alright guys, you bet. It was a pleasure to talk to you. Okay. That is Mike Gundy. Sign may or may not be on the way. So, where do you want to start with that? I want to start with the portal and the notion that he thought NIL was going to go away and they didn't need to do the stuff that everybody else was doing in the portal.

And he said he realized that 18 months ago, which to me, if we do the math on that means basically when he got his team together for spring practice, he realized this is not going to be a deep enough team to be competitive. Yeah. So I think fans kind of hoped it would go away in the sense that it would not completely alter the paradigm of the sport. But like as a coach, I don't know what he hoped, like what would going away look like or consist of. Like that's the thing I'm kind of confused with. Did he think that people were gonna stop

wanting to get paid money? Like, or did he think that rules would be put in place to stop people from getting paid money? Like, it's just like to me, the most important thing about being a college football coach is the ability to adapt, recognize imminent change, and be prepared for it. And I think Oklahoma State ultimately paid the price for not adapting last year. Now if the consequence of that is one bad year for a coach that's been as consistent as anybody in college football during his long tenure. I guess you can like

overcome that but I'm just kind of surprised because like NIL isn't just a bad storm that you can just lock yourself in your room and hope that you know it'll be sunny tomorrow type of a deal you know like I didn't know what that really meant to be honest. And I also wonder if he thought I didn't know what that really meant, to be honest. And I also wonder if he thought, I don't know if I can compete in this environment. And that's why his initial response was what it was. Is I don't, I don't know if we're capable of competing in this environment. And I think they are. I think if they were Cape, the thing is, you know, Oklahoma state, obviously

they had the T-Bootoon Pickens money, but you look at the history of Oklahoma State, it's not what some of these powerhouse programs have been, but from 2005 on, like Mike Gundy was really competitive in a Big 12 that had Texas and Oklahoma in it. Like I don't, I think he may be not giving himself enough credit there where they weren't exactly in the best position to win then and they still won. So why not? Figure out how to win now. Yeah, and the thing that's interesting

though, Andy, is that like there's not a lot of teams in his conference that are in much more advantageous positions to begin There's not a lot of teams in his conference that are in much more advantageous positions to begin with. We know Texas Tech is kind of leading the way right now. I don't know that if you're Oklahoma State, you go well, Kansas State, Iowa State, Houston. Yeah, you're not fundamentally different

from Kansas State, Iowa State, Kansas. Yeah. I mean, if you go down the list, is Oklahoma State that much different from Baylor? Like, I don't know. Maybe they are. Maybe they're... I think, yeah, Oklahoma State's got more alums. I think Baylor probably has richer alums. Yeah. But, you know, BYU probably is the only team in the entire country, or especially in this conference, that faces a unique challenge that no one else is facing. And the funniest part

about it is they might be the wealthiest like that's, you know, you know, outside of Texas Tech, but even more, you know, BYU is Mormon churches worth billions of dollars. So but like, Oklahoma State shouldn't feel like it can't compete with Utah, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Houston, Colorado, and Cincinnati, right? I mean, it's, it's right there. So. Well, and so here's, here's my question now. Now that they are playing the same game,

does hit because his superpower was evaluation and development. The development part, okay, you can't do that in this environment. Like you can't bring somebody in and have them go into Rob Glass' strength program for two or three years and emerge as a starter, you know, as a two or three year starter for your program that way very often. You'll still be able to do that with some people, but not that often.

But the evaluation part of it, which I think most coaches would admit, Mike Gundy is much better than most coaches at evaluating players. Can he use that superpower in the portal to build a competitive team? I am fascinated by the number of players on his team in July that he hasn't it's crazy. To me, what he said about hoping it would go away is probably the most what did he just say comment of the interview. But I think the thing that about that is like we kind of knew it based on what they

did. Like it's not like we learned anything. We saw that Oklahoma State was kind of behind the party on that. But the evaluation piece is so interesting because you better be good at it because if you bring in a bunch of players 35, he said that haven't practiced yet and you're wrong, your team is going to stink. I mean, that's half roster. I mean, like, you know, and they have to be ready to play in game one and

they have to figure out a way to mesh those guys and get them to gel in a three week period, um, especially considering the fact you don't really practice that much, you know, in the, in the, and you see who they got week, week, week two. Like, yeah, I two, like, yeah. I mean, on the road, yeah. Yeah, they got to go to Oregon. So this is this is going to be really interesting. And also, I think this team could change a bit as the season goes on because what you think you have coming out of camp

might not be what you actually have. And you kind of figure it out as the season goes on. Or you have an injury or two and you have to make changes and you end up finding what you really are. But you're right, Ari, if they didn't evaluate well, this is going to be very bad. It's funny because we are trying to decide who's going to win the Big 12, but if Gundy and his staff knocked evaluations out of the park, they can also be really good again.

Like, you know, so like, there's a high ceiling but a low floor here. And part of the fun, I guess, of Oklahoma State this year is, you know, how can we act like we know what they're going to be when the head coach is on the record, I guess, of Oklahoma State this year is, you know, how can we act like we know what they're going to be when the head coach is on the record saying, I have no idea what I have, you know, like that. I really appreciated that because I'm so used to coaches sandbagging at media days when they do know things about their team and they just won't tell you anything. Or you get like the old Will Muschamp when he coached at Florida, you get up at SEC media

days and just filibuster by going down the debt chart. Like Mike Gunney can't do that. He just can't. He's like, I don't know. I'll let you know in about three weeks. Yeah, but also like comfortable enough to acknowledge that. But I also think too that by acknowledging he doesn't know much about his team at this point

is more of a referendum of the system than it is about admission of doing something wrong. But like, yeah, that's I don't know how many teams are out there, Andy, that have that many players who haven't practiced yet heading into fall camp. Like, is that a normal thing or is that a no? That's not normal. Yeah. So even when you have a lot of transfer portal additions. They happen to be. You tend to do that in December, January, and they're in spring practice. I'd say like Colorado's first year under Dion, I think they, cause they did a lot more post spring. So I think they might've been in that boat that first year.

As producer River points out in our group chat, North Carolina, maybe fairly similar to that this year. Although I don't know that they did that much after the spring. I think Stanford is dealing with that in a bad way because they fired their head coach in the spring and they lost some players. But it's not normal.

Even in transfer portal era, it's not normal. And like the fact that you've got guys that have never practiced, now they do have these walkthroughs that they can do now. So it's not like they're going in completely cold, but everything changes when you put pads on, as Mike Gundy knows very well. And I think they're gonna have to just

do some gut instinct guesses and hope they're right. Yeah, but I think that going into the portal, acknowledging and telling your coaches that whoever you take in the portal has to be ready to play. My hope would be that the standard of athlete that they're recruiting by and large has experience and has played at a high level or has at least been productive.

Well, yeah. And if you look at where they got like, they aren't going to George Fox University anymore. Like the guys that are bringing in are coming from Miami and Arkansas and places like that. Scott with a real interesting question in the chat. What is Texas Tech doing differently with its oil money that Oklahoma State is not because Teeboon Pickens was donating long before a land man at tech was a college player. Well, here's why.

When Teeboon, remember Teeboon Pickens is no longer alive. Okay. When Teeboon Pickens was donating at the height of his donations, you couldn't pay players, at least not legally. And Cody Campbell is doing his donating at a time when you can pay players. So Oklahoma State does not have that sugar daddy anymore. It's not the same.

You know, T-Boon did give them a lot of money, but it was at a time where you express that money by building a really nice facility. And I will tell you, I will, I lost my keys to a rental car in one of the seats in Oklahoma state's meeting room. This is after they played Georgia in 2009. Cause they did the press conference in the meeting room. The leather on those seats is perhaps the nicest leather I have ever felt in my life. And you probably had your hand in there, huh? I mean, how long...

I had to feel a lot of that leather to figure out where my rental car keys were because I wasn't exactly sure what seat I'd been sitting in. Shout out to Gavin Lang at Oklahoma State, by the way, who saved my ass that day because that could have been a disaster. Isn't it great that like car keys are just not your cell phone now. And a lot of where you don't need that anymore. There are all the new cars.

You just like, well, this was a rental car so that I didn't need the keys. I know what I'm saying. Like I've like one time I lost keys to my car in my car, but it was a push start. So like Bob is in the car. It would work. Yeah, and I drove around for three weeks. They were in the car somewhere but couldn't find the fob and then like, so like anytime so anybody could have stolen your car if they know that in the car and driven away if they wanted to. Like, here's the

thing. Nobody like there are people who are very neurotic about like locking their front door and like locking their car. And it's like, how many times do you think somebody just tries to open a random door and start a car? Like the odds of that happening are so low. Oh, no, no, no. There are car thieves that that's what they do.

In my neighborhood, we have this running gag on our next door because people get stuff robbed out of their cars occasionally. And it's not because somebody smashed a window with a brick and took something. It's because some dumbass left their car unlocked in front of their house with stuff that's valuable visible like and they'll post on next door I don't know what this world's coming to this happened and everybody's like you're a dumbass take your stuff out of your car

and lock it but how many cars on an annual basis do you think are stolen because somebody left their fob in with no valuables in it and someone just got in and drove it away do you think that's like a regular thing? I think it's a higher percentage than you think. Okay. How many times do you think somebody breaks into someone's home by opening their front door because it was unlocked?

Also a higher percentage than you think. Oh, I would think it's like 0%. Oh, no, higher percentage than you think. Like criminals, I think the movies have sort of jaded us. criminals, I think the movies have sort of jaded us. We think every criminal is is Kaiser Soze. Most criminals are stupid. Like they became criminals because they're stupid. Andy, and they're gonna they're gonna take the easiest route to they also became criminals because they're gonna take the easiest

route to anything. If I like went out of town and I forgot to lock the front door and I was gone for four days I don't even think I would be anxious about it. We got a swanky neighborhood. Now I will say the ring cameras and everything I don't think the ring cameras and all that help. Yeah but like think about it like we have a ring camera and like who is entering somebody's house in the middle of the day if they don't know anyone is home through the front door like that's just an insane. Well, you also live in Texas and I live in Florida and there is a certain element of danger to just walking into somebody's house. I mean one time I like accidentally walk into the wrong apartment and it was humiliating. Like I can't imagine. Yeah, but like, like if you walk into my house, if you walk into my house in the middle of the day because the doors unlock and take stuff like you deserve it. Like you, you are like, you know, we make it shot.

That's the, that's the thing. Like where we live, if you walk into somebody's house, You may get shot, so that's what I'm saying. Just the threat of of intruding into somebody's home. Even if there's no forced entry, the threat of that is so high and so stupid that people wouldn't you would think that the car thing is much easier because you know there's nobody there. They're not going to shoot you because they're not there on cars though. And I don't know how Grand Theft Auto works. Do your penalties in car theft range based on the value of the car you stole

or is stealing a car, stealing a car? Well, I don't know what the thresholds are in every state, but I know like in Florida, the threshold for grand theft, for felony theft is very low dollar mark. But what I'm saying in Florida- Any car that works is probably gonna qualify. You're misunderstanding what I'm asking.

What I'm asking is if I stole a Honda Accord in Florida, or I stole a Bentley Continental. Same crime. I don't see the penalty the same. So for me, it's like, if you're gonna steal a car, you might as well steal one that, you know, would be either fun to drive or worth more, right? Like, I like no one's gonna steal my 2020 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which is the

most boring car ever created. Like, yeah, they are. The most commonly stolen car was like a Toyota Camry for the longest time. And why? Because it was the most common car. Yeah, I don't understand why you would do that if the penalty is the same. Because you're not a criminal. You're not stupid. I know, but like I'd steal the $400,000. Also the $400,000 car probably more secure. Yeah, then the Honda Accord.

No, I know, but like would you rather steal like a Porsche Cayenne or a Jeep Grand Cherokee if it's the same penalty like I would steal the faster nicer. Which ones more available to you? Which one's more likely to have the dumb ass owner who didn't lock it? That I disagree with. I don't think how much money you have

has any bearing on how stupid you are. But I'm saying it's a numbers game. We're doing the math here. What are you more likely to come across? I bet you would come across 10 of those Jeep Grand Cherokees before you see one of those Porsche Cayenne's. Sure, it depends on where you are, but also too, how many people are walking through Target's parking lot,

like yanking on people's doors. Like, is that like a normal thing? That's not where you do it because you get caught. You do it in the neighborhood. Oh no, I have a garage. I just meant like I was parking in public. But you're, again, you're smart. Okay.

Most people are stupid. Thumbus podcast in the world. All right, we got to get to do your handi-dear Ari. You know who is smart? Our listeners and our viewers, because they ask great questions. And we got some really good ones this week. So, I want to start with the question from David. And I feel like this is something we've talked about

quite a bit, but I like the way David put this question because I think it allows us to distill it down. Of all the preseason top ranked teams starting new quarterbacks, whom do you have the most confidence in and whom do you think has the most questions to answer? Taking everything into account, which of these QBs is in the best position to succeed and which is in the most difficult? So I would say, do we both agree that Arch is the one we have the most confident, confidence in? Arch Manning at Texas. I would say that I am all but certain he's going to be good.

I think the question with Arch is how good is he going to be? Like I like there's no floor there. I think that like him having a bad years if he does with Quinn you were did last year. The question with Arch is can he be sensational, you know, and I think that is what people are. And the thing is, if he has the same year Quinn Ubers has last year, they make it to the semi-finals.

That's fine. I think if you told me right now Quinn Ubers was Texas' quarterback again and you were going to get the same exact season you got from last year, I could still pick them to win the national title. Right, because there's no. There's no Ohio state roster out there. So that is. Definitely not work. You're talking about most confident. I would probably start with arch.

Yeah, I would start with arch. I'm trying to think the other ones. I'm very confident in. I think Carson Beck's going to do fine at Miami. What about Julian saying? That is an interesting one because we don't know anything about Julian saying, but here's what we do know. If Ohio State needs something, they go get it like last year.

They needed a quarterback after Kyle McCord left and they went and got one. They did not go get one this year. And that tells me they're confident in Julian Sain. Yeah, it seems highly unlikely that he's going to be terrible. But again, Ohio State has had a very high standard of elite level quarterback. And how good is he going to be with those weapons?

I think is a you know, I think he's somewhere in like the middle tier in terms of like yeah It's probably not gonna be terrible But I'm uncertain of how good it's gonna be because like the hype machine with him is so is nowhere to be found Right, but he gets to throw to Jeremiah Smith and Colonel Tate and that has to make a difference too I think yeah like Kate Kate. Oh, no, that's not an he's already started The let's do the ones that we have most questions, that's not an, he's already started. Let's do the ones that we have most questions about. That's more entertaining.

Well, okay, Raymond Horton says, Julian Sainz, same as CJ Carr. I feel like there are more questions about CJ Carr and I'm not really sure why, because this is the same situation. Notre Dame has gotten a quarterback rental the last two years. If they thought they needed one,

I think they would have gotten one. Yeah. He doesn't have Jeremiah Smith, which I think is part of the reason why people are less. I think it's easier to feel like see that Julian Sands going to be OK because he has Jeremiah Smith. And all the other receivers like CJ Carr has Jayden Gatehouse, so like that. and all the other receivers like CJ car has Jayden gatehouse. So like that, um, I think he's going to be really, really good this year and one of the best running backs and great offensive line, even though they lost Jagasol. Like I, it'll be fine. Like,

I actually think their receivers are, I thought Jayden great house kind of blossomed in the playoff. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. And then, and some of their other receivers, I think we're going to're gonna get see them be a little more dynamic. And a lot of it may be that they're more dynamic or look more dynamic because CJ Carr has a better arm than Riley Leonard. I don't think he's the athlete Riley Leonard was. And I don't know that they should expect to run the ball like that. But I think Jordan phase on, you'd probably expect to have a little bit better year. They're getting Will Pauling from Wisconsin.

Will Pauling, before he got hurt, was Wisconsin's most confident receiver. Like I think they're gonna be fine. Here's one from Steven San Antonio, Dante Moore. Yeah, like if we wanna go to the least confident, Dante Moore would probably be, I don't wanna say least confident. Dante Moore would probably be. I don't want to say least confident. I would say most questions OK,

but again, organs in the position if they needed something that had gone and gotten it. Yeah, but Dante Moore is not my least. Well, I mean, my least is probably whoever starts at Tennessee. Yeah, but we're only focusing on like the top 10 teams right now, right? Well, no, he said preseason top 25.

So yeah, we had Tennessee in our preseason 25. Let me let me throw a curveball at you, Ty Simpson. Well, that's a that's a good one because. I keep running into the same thing. I get all these Alabama fans telling me that Jalen Milrow was the problem, but Ty Simpson couldn't beat out Jalen Milrow. So why all of a sudden is he, is he doing it?

Now, there are, I think there are reasons why we can say that. Ryan Grubb is back together with Kailin DeBoer, that makes a difference. It's not a new offense. You're not throwing a guy who hasn't started in with a new offense. The rest of the offense knows the offense. So I get the reasons, but I also get the reasons why there'd be a lot of questions. Okay, I'll play a game with you. You want to play a game within the game?

Yeah. How many other returning or first year starting quarterbacks in the SEC if you insert on Alabama would make them the number one overall team in the poll going into the year? Oh, six. Arch DJ Lagway, Garrett Nussmeyer, Lenora Sellers. That's four already. Let me pull up SEC teams because I have no ability to recall things off the top of my head. I mean, well, that's the question. Where would you put Gunnar Stockton? Where would you put Bo Perviola? Where would Let me pull up SEC teams because I have no ability to recall things off the top of my head.

Well, that's the question. Where would you put Gunnar Stockton? Where would you put Bo Perviola? Where would you put Marcel Reed? Where would you put John Matier? I would put him number one. I'm a tear. Yeah.

Yeah. What if they had Marcel Reed? What if they had? I know that I feel any differently about if Marcel Reed was the guy. Diego Pavia. Oh, can we just pause for a moment and imagine that? I would put. I nailed it.

I'm the number one in the country if Diego Pavia was the starting quarterback. I would. If you think about the roster that Alabama has, you're high on it, right? Oh, Austin Simmons. Raymond in the chat. Austin Simmons, you put him on it, right? Oh, Austin Simmons. Raymond in the chat. Austin Simmons, you put him there and we'd be very confident, I think.

You want to talk about the actual proof and the manifestation of your question in terms of least confident in. Alabama probably ranks in between six and nine in most people's preseason polls. Imagine if they had any of the seven quarterbacks we just named, they'd be number one. So there's your answer for who you're least confident in. Wow. There are teams ahead of them like Ohio State and in some cases Oregon and in places that have first year starting quarterbacks that are unknown that are ranked higher that have less talented rosters. That's true because outside of the quarterback, we don't have a lot of doubts about Alabama's roster.

Like I would say I'm probably more confident in, if we take the quarterback position out of the equation, I'd probably be more confident in Alabama's roster than anybody's. Yeah, if you took the quarterback position out of the equation, would you say that Alabama has the best overall roster in college football?

Yes. Okay, that's like the definitive answer. That's not even an opinion. Now, Producer River wants us to stay in the state because it's a really interesting question. Yeah. How do we feel about Jackson Arnold? Because I think the prevailing opinion

is that Jackson Arnold is not that good. And you saw it at Oklahoma last year, and that's why Oklahoma didn't keep him. And that's why they went and got my tear. He goes to Auburn where quarterback was the problem and has been the problem for the last two years. How confident are we that, that he can solve the problem? And I think it's possible he can solve the problem. And I think it's possible he can, because I think he was in a very terrible

situation at Oklahoma last year. That was not all of his doing. I think the thing with him that isn't quite the same as some of the other guys were talking about is that people assume he sucks. So his like, level of competence or what he needs to do in order to be a passable quarterback is much lower than some of these other guys. Like if Ty Simpson plays like Jackson Arnold played last year, like he'll cook the entire thing. Like if yes, Arnold plays like he played last year, then

they'll go to somebody else or that's what you do. They took a risk in the portal on a speculative asset and that speculative asset didn't pan out. So in terms of like, but that I guess that's not the question. The question is, do you have questions? Yeah, I have a lot of questions. I have tons of questions. Very good, but plenty of questions.

Yeah. I so nerf in the chat brings up something interesting and I want to I want to chew on this one for a second. So Gunner Stock is at Georgia is in the same position as Ty Simpson in Alabama. If Gunner Stockton was better than Carson Beck, he would have started last year. Okay, but here's the thing. Carson Beck could have come back. I guess Jalen Milro could have come back to but Jalen

Milro was not coming back. It was very clear at the end of the season that Jalen Milro wasn't coming back. In this particular case, Carson Beck probably could have come back to Georgia, right? And they were like, no, no, it's cool. Move on. They made the decision afterward. But I think the interesting question is, is if they felt that way, why was he playing to begin with? Yeah. Unless you, unless you can make that decision at a, at a intersection in the office. And remember what Jake Rowe told us last week.

Georgia did pursue Fernando Mendoza. Yeah. I mean, listen, Andy. You think Quinn Ubers was welcome back at Texas? He started all year. Was he welcome back? No. I mean, that's an interesting thought process.

It's like, well, if you're not welcome back, does that mean that the coaches are projecting that by the time next year starts, he will be better than you? Or is it that he's already? Well, I mean, you could say that about Alabama, too. I don't know. I don't know if the Milro wasn't welcome back, or if Miller had already made the decision that he was definitely moving on. Like it was interesting, because it was very clear after the bowl game, like when Milro was talking that it was over at Alabama. We didn't know if he was going pro or going into the portal, but it was over at Alabama. So maybe maybe that is the same situation. Yeah, but you know, all I know

is that when we didn't know whether Quinn was entering the draft or we knew one thing when they walked off the field at the at the Cotton Bowl that that was his last Texas game, but we didn't know. Yes. So, but I also feel like too if Quinn Ubers would have gone and stayed in college somewhere else, which might have been a better financial decision for him, then maybe I would feel more confident about his ability like if he were the starting quarterback at Miami this year than maybe Carson Beck. Like I actually think that Quinn Ubers is better maybe Carson Beck. Like I actually think that Quinn yours is better than Carson Beck. Interesting.

Which I guess if it's weird. He's in Miami, he's just with the Dolphins. Yeah, they're both in the same city, but one's in the NFL. Yeah, but I think I've just been overly down on Carson Beck and I don't know if it's just my, I don't know if I'm just wrong about that. No, I understand it cuz I remember, I can't know if I'm just wrong about that. No, I understand it because I remember I can't remember who I was talking to but they said you know well now we'll get to see Carson Beck with an elite offensive line. I'm like we

already have like he played at Georgia. Yeah, Miami's got a good offensive line, but so does Georgia. Carson Beck and Quinn Ubers are very good comparisons because they're both really good trailers. good comparisons because they're both really good trailers. But we're talking trucks here. Yeah, who we miss? Do we miss anybody? I feel like we hit a lot of the big ones. You know, we didn't talk about DJ Lagway. We always have to talk about that. You have producer river. This is this is why we pay him

the big bucks. Nico Nico Iamaleava is a new starting quarterback at UCLA outside of the confines of the top 25. That's why I didn't that's what it is. That's right. It's not. Yeah. And his his entry to UCLA did not push them into the top 25 either. So one more though, by the way, very fascinating. Can't wait to watch it. In terms of questions, I don't know whether he answers them or not is gonna matter in terms of UCLA being a main fixture

of the discussion this year. We'll talk about them because his situation is fascinating. I don't know if I'm in a position to think that UCLA is gonna factor any into like on the field discussions other than did Nico make the right decision or did he screw him? So all that stuff we'll talk about, but I'm not anticipating UCLA is gonna be making a run

in the Big 10. Here's one that we're both high on, but I think should have a lot of questions. John Matier. I would agree with that. Loved what he did at Washington State, but the competition level certainly rises here. And I don't think it's just about his ability.

I think ability alone, if John Mateer were the starting quarterback at Alabama, they'd be number one preseason. Right. My question is, do they have an offensive line that can protect him? Do they have receivers that can be dynamic? And they did have to go and get a bunch.

They have a new offensive coordinator, so maybe he'll make it more functional. But their offensive, you know, I've And it's also John Mateer's offensive coordinator from so maybe he'll make it more functional, but their offensive, you know, I bet it's and it's also John Mateers offensive coordinator from Washington State, Ben Arvill. So their their offensive play calling last year was head scratching at times. So as you as you you you taught me that don't get me started. But yeah, so I also hope for Oklahoma's sake that they can avoid the injury bug in general and just actually

like put their best foot forward we can see what they can build there but like John Matier I think has a chance to be a Heisman finalist. I also am terrified that it won't work for some reason and I don't know why. Well if the line's not very good in the league they play in with the teams they have to play. With their schedule, it might be average and average will look bad. So correct. It has to be really, really good for them to survive this year. Next question on video from our friend Nathan. Love this.

We got no audio from Nathan. Let's do the next question. We'll get back to Nathan. All right. Next question. Nathan's question will come to all right. We will. We will.

Oh, he's in Prague right now. Like that's that's a hell of a vacation. All right. This question from Dan. I have two sleeper playoff contenders from the Mountain West. These are two teams. I would put some spare shekels on to make it. San Diego State and San Jose State both have a path to that 12th spot in the playoff this

year. San Diego State has Cal as this Power Four team, and they play Boise and San Jose in conference. San Jose has Texas, but they avoid Boise and UNLV in their conference play. Since the teams play each other, I believe the winner has a chance to make it with some chaos around them and some consistency in the program. Do you have any other sleeper G5 teams for the playoff? I'll throw one out there.

Yeah, USF. So they've done a pretty good job since Alex Golis has been there. Byron Brown getting hurt at the beginning of last year hurt them and they weren't as consistent hurt at the beginning of last year hurt them and they weren't as consistent as they could have been last year. But USF opens with Boise State in Tampa. You beat Boise State right off the rip and you got a good shot.

Now they also have to play Miami. So I don't think you have to beat Miami though. I think if you beat Boise State, play competitively against Miami and win the American, I think you'd have a very good chance of being that playoff team. Yeah. You know which one that I'm really interested in

and we have spent zero time talking about? Oh, I'm sorry. USF also has Florida. That's right. They're they're Florida's second opponent. Yeah. Now you I don't think you have to win either of those games. I think you need to be competitive in those games. What about Dan Mullin out in Vegas? Oh well, listen, I'm excited to see what he does. Got Anthony Calandria, the Virginia transfer and Alex

Orgy the Michigan transfer as your quarterbacks elite last name. Uhm? It seems like you and LV had a really good team last year and I'm not 100% certain of how much they like or they lost their best player to the NFL Ricky White. But.

This is Dan Mullins like bread and butter man. Yeah. Scheming it up. I think at this level he has a chance to do really well. Producer River asked if Tulane is going to get any love. Tulane is being picked to win the American so I think they don't count as a sleeper. Unless every G5 is a sleeper team. What about James Madison? James Madison plays Louisville and Liberty in the non-competitive. I think James Madison is a really interesting one because, and I had them in my projected playoff that we did, because if they can win the Sun Belt, and remember last year was tough because look at all of that

Kurt Signetti took with him to Indiana. And then Bob Chesney still won nine games in year one, so. They could consider they could definitely be the best team in the Sun Belt. That's certainly possible, yeah, and then. If they could beat Louisville, I think you have to beat Louisville, but that's that's probably doable. They beat Liberty and they play competitive game against Louisville. I think you have to beat Louisville. You do I I do. By the group of five team that made it last year lost their only.

That's true. But it was, but it was a one, you know, one touchdown game against Oregon. How many other, yeah. How many other power fights or power four teams would they have lost to playing that way? Three. Yeah. Yeah. They would have won that game and it's almost anybody else. That's for the first month of the season too, if you remember. Yeah. But yeah, they would have won that game and it's almost anybody else. That's for the first month of the season, too, if you remember. Yeah, but yeah, the. Yeah, I mean, I guess like we could reformulate.

The question is, do you have to beat a power conference team from the G5 to get there? See, that's where I think you have steps interesting, because I think if they beat Boise State, then they don't have to beat Florida and Miami. Now, they can't get blown out by Florida and Miami. Yeah. But they don't have to beat them if they beat Boise State. I think that's what what makes that situation different. Yeah. But all Raven Horton asked, who's JMUQB? You know who it is. You know who it is. You sluka. Sluka Donchich, baby. That's right, reunited with Bob Chesney, where they played together at Holy Cross.

So they played together. Bob Chesney was his coach at Holy Cross. All right, we have Nathan's question ready. Is it working? I'm in Prague on vacation, and I have an important big 12 question. Go back a couple of years ago, and everyone was talking about David Randolph,

like he was some kind of savant coach who was going to take Baylor to the national championship but they've kind of been middling the last couple years and I have a very serious question have we come back down to earth on Dave Aranda do we still think he's incredible or have we realized that he's just an okay coach? Ari, we spent a good 20 minutes with Dave Aranda the other day and I, I am definitely not out on Dave Aranda. I think he's a very good coach and I think Baylor is going to be one of the better teams in the big 12 this year. Yeah. I mean, like he was on the hot seat at some point last year, wasn't he? The beginning of last year. He started last season on the hot seat, basically coached his way off. Dave Aranda is interesting because he is

one of the more unique personalities in the entire sport and I was joking. No one else like him. And I said this to his face, Andy, Andy was my witness. I said, Dave, if coaching, uh, you know, it turns out to be something that you don't want to do anymore, whatever, uh, on the football field, you would be a tremendous life coach because like, I find you to be a very soothing free thinker. And he thought, which soothing is not the word you use to describe a football coach typically, but I agree. I agree

with you. And I also, I was thinking about that after we, uh, we, we got done talking to Dave, if he would be down for it next off season, I would love to have a segment once a month where a listener or viewer asks a general life advice question, not a football question, but a general life advice question. And we bring it to Dave Aranda. Cause I think his answers would be fascinating. I feel like if I got into a lot of trouble, or I was in a tough spot, that Dave Aranda would be somebody I would want to tell about and like hear him and like have him in my corner. I think that's a good quality. I don't know if it's great for football, but it is funny. People criticize him for not being loud enough,

but then if you're too loud, you get criticized. Like it's interesting that he's an individual. And also too, can we just like acknowledge the fact that I don't know anything about Europe, but we got a big 12 question with a man standing in front of a church or like an ancient cathedral. Like he's thinking big football. Kragah here is fantastic.

So that's- If you wanna talk about the reach of college football, like I don't like he's thinking. Prague here is fantastic. So that's. If you wanna talk about the reach of college football, like I don't know where he was. Nathan, well Nathan lives in Israel and he's a Nebraska fan. Okay. So he is, yeah he's in Prague there. He lives in Israel and is in Prague

and is a Nebraska fan asking about Dave Aranda in front of that cathedral. God bless America and the Czech Republic. And you name it. So, yeah, that's cool. I think that they're gonna be very good and I like him. And there are coaches in this sport that are easy to root for.

And I think that part of the reason why people thought he was a genius is that is the case with him. He has a lot to prove, I think think this year and he knows it too. Yeah I think so too and I think they know a lot more this year. Now interestingly enough we started this show with the discussion of Mike Gundy saying hey we're buying Portal players for the first time. It was Dave Aranda who made those headlines last year at big 12 media days, where he basically said, we weren't paying players at all.

And that's why the offensive line was, was bad. Yeah. Cause it's kind of funny that like a few people in the big 12, like after round and found out what not doing that meant. And I think one of them two years ago, Oklahoma, Oklahoma state last year, but like both of these coaches have invested in their roster. And the one thing that you can say about Baylor that you can't say about Oklahoma State is they feel really good about the quarterback going into the year.

Yeah. Sawyer Robertson was awesome through the end of last year. And the, and the difference this year and last year is that this time last year you were starting with a new OC in Jake's Babatol. So you didn't know exactly how the offense was going to gel together. They brought in Daquan Finn from Toledo as a transfer. The idea was he would be the starter. Sawyer Robertson had been, you know, at Mississippi State. He

went there to play for Mike Leach. Mike Leach passed away. But the thought was Finn was going to be the starter. That's not how it worked out. Finn played, but Robertson took over, and Robertson never let it go. And Robertson, I think, now enters as one of the better quarterbacks in the Big 12, if not the country. That's right.

So we have a lot to watch. And of course, I love it. Calvin Simpson Hunt, too. Yeah, I'm excited to watch that Auburn game because we're going to find out a lot about two really interesting teams going into the year. Oh, it's that that Baylor Auburn game is. Low key the most interesting game in week one.

Sneaky sneaky sneaky sneaky good game as on Friday night before the game starts, so it's going to be good. Yeah, so as far as a random goes, I still think because he's unconventional and does not sound like your typical football coach, everybody wants him to fail. It's like this can't, this can't possibly work. So I guess it goes one of two ways.

You either want him to succeed because you want somebody different to be able to handle this or it's like, Oh, you just don't get it. You're, you're not really a football coach you should have gone into a different profession blah blah blah listen Dave Miranda is going to be a great defensive coordinator no matter what like that his bona fides are established there that's never going to change can he be a consistently good head coach is the question I do think this can work. I think there's a place for different management styles in the same sport.

Yeah. I mean, Mike Leach was the, I don't know. Like we talked about this about Mike Leach being a hard ass. Like if a player gets in trouble at Baylor or messes up in practice, like is he, is Dave Aranda like tough? in his own way Well, I okay you talked to Dave this week. You were in his presence Can you imagine that man doing the I'm not mad at you. I'm disappointed. Yeah, I'm saying like he would be like I'd be devastated

I would I would rather I think somebody yell at me than him be like, you know, well, Here's, here's the other part of that. He has assistant coaches who are more conventional Yeah. personalities and they do yell. Like it's not like you go to Baylor and it's like, Oh, it's okay. You dropped the ball.

You, you know, you blocked the wrong guy. It was the right, it'll be okay. Next time. That's not how it works. You do get yelled at. Also my understanding too with Baylor's, they've got pretty stringent rules on like a tire in the football building and like trying really, really hard to, you know, make men out of these guys.

So it's not met with force, but it's met with a different avenue. But I'm not angry, I'm disappointed, it's worse than anger to me. So, and more effective. I've learned that as a parent. I had no idea the power of, I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.

Like that is so much more effective than yelling. Yeah. Good question, and amazing place to be at. I'm happy that he has football in the mind wherever that was. Ah, it's it's fantastic. And by the way, if you're asking dear Andy, dear Ari questions, videos are great. Yeah, throw the turn.

Turn the phone on yourself like I love. I love being able to see you guys We got a random ranking and it's in honor of our pal Spencer Faneau the Right tackle at Utah who's gonna be a first-round draft pick singing secondhand serenades fall for you. Do we have a little little piece of the Spencer singing river. Tonight will be the night that I will fall for you over again. Okay, we're not going to subject you to that too much longer. Spencer says he's going to take requests and he did follow me back on Twitter last

night Ari, so I may fire him some requests for the next few weeks. You have been high on Spencer for no for a long time. So he you deserve that follow. This isn't just about singing. This is this is about I have another email we got and I didn't get a chance to send this to river before the show. So I'm just going to read it to you. It's from Lori, who's a big fan of the show. Lock Hesse in the chat. She's a stylist.

So she's not always able to do the show live, because sometimes she has clients coming in, and so she's dealing with work. But she sent me an article from Atlas Obscura where they had a linguistics professor analyze the Blink 182 accent because you asked about the emo accent. Yes. On the show. I have been reading through this article. It's amazing. Like I, it's, I'll, I'll tweet it out later today. Uh, but it is, it's spectacular because there's so much thought that goes into this and it has to do, like he gets into Led Zeppelin, how Robert Plant trying to sing in an American,

British or British people trying to sing in an American accent, and then how Californians tend to speak and how people say caught. It's fascinating, but it does maybe explain that a little. Because I think that the emo accent is a branch of the pop punk accent. The pop punk accent is what you get from Blink-182, from Billy Joe Armstrong, from Green Day. Yeah. The emo accent is a little more elaborate version of that.

Yeah. Yeah. The emo is a little more elaborate version of that. Yeah. Yeah. So in honor of that and Spencer Fennot dragging the last dying gasp of emo back into the mainstream, we have to do our top five songs that we are embarrassed that we love. These are songs,

Brian Bishop, who's a podcast in California, ball, Brian, he calls them tool tunes. They're songs you love and you would blast them in your car, but you would ever blast them with the windows down because you wouldn't want anyone to know that you love them. And so producer river has done his list. I've done my list And so producer River has done his list. I've done my list. Sorry. He's done his list. Before we start this though, I'm going to tell you, I have no shame at all about it.

I know, I know. I'm not embarrassed at all. Yeah, this is tough. You're the one that I think I should be embarrassed by. I'm not embarrassed by what I like. I'm terribly embarrassed by this. Okay. Because I have very embarrassing choices is my problem.

All right. I will start with number five. Lips of an Angel by Hinder. I love this song. This is the problem. I'll sing this at the top of my lungs. This is the problem with what, I already know what's gonna happen here.

I have no idea what song that is. It's really good to hear your voice saying my name it sounds so sweet coming from the lips of an angel here it is okay it's early 2000s cock rock it's a an objectively horrendous song musically speaking it is about a guy I don't know if he's having phone sex or just talking to his ex with his girlfriend in the next room but they are definitely having a conversation over the phone with the guy's girlfriend in the next room and the guy is wishing that he was not near his girlfriend in order for us to not break copyright, uh, I'm going to mute us and then you guys talk

and I'll listen to these songs as we go because I want to hear if I've heard this. He's definitely heard this. Yeah, he's had to have. He couldn't go in a mall for from 2000 2005 without hearing it. But yeah, that that one was, you know, sit like Nickelback was getting huge in that era. You'll never find anybody who admits that they like it, but they love that song. But it's interesting because like my son and his friends, because their strength coach plays it in the weight room, now unironically love it. And it's sort of like the Creed thing. Like people my age will blast Creed while they lift because they are ironically squatting

to Creed. The younger generation thinks the most manly thing you can do is squat while Scott Stapp sings higher. Yeah, I can attest. I mean, my generation thinks the same thing too. Yeah, you think we actually like Creed. This is the best group of people to do these because it's three generations of people. So okay, River, you do your number five.

All right, my number five is Glamorous by Fergie and Ludacris. Oh, that's a good song. If you've got no money. Take your broke ass home. I actually could picture you like being like really skinny and getting out of the shower and wrapping your towel around your standing in front of the mirror and just singing that song. Are we in the trust tree here? Yeah. So the first year that River and I were together, on signing day, I was actually in New York

because we had scheduled a family vacation to New York. I didn't work at this company and we didn't cancel the vacation. I was like, oh, it's signing day. I work for On3 now. I have to work. So I'm going to work and you guys go do whatever. We had a thing where we were connected on StreamYard. River and I were waiting on a coach to pop in for an interview and I had to go do something in

another room and River starts singing at the top of his lungs. The genre I believe just be called white girl pop. My son walks into the room and he walks in and listens for a few seconds, comes back over to the other room. He's like, Dad, I think River's singing White Girl Pop It. So this is a thing that he does in his own time. But I mean, I guess we could go to my number five, which falls under the same category. Mine's Bed Chem by Sabrina Carpenter. This is this is the best yacht rock song of the last 20. First of all, this is not a bad song. This is a great song. For some for a 40 year old man 38 year old man. Yeah. Oh, yeah. If you get caught singing this out loud, you're in you're

in trouble with the white jacket in the thick accent. You know, like I'm into that. The line with camaraderie. Yeah, no, she's very lyrically clever. Let's just say that. The reason why I started listening to Sabrina Carpenter was because I was trying to find non rap music songs to play with my daughter. And I didn't realize they're dirtier than the rap. So I thought these are just as like, you know, and it's funny because I didn't even realize And I didn't realize they're dirtier than the reps. I saw this room. These are just as worse. They're filthy. And it's funny because I didn't even

realize like I didn't put what bed cam like I really like I should have known just by the name of the song. And then she goes camaraderie. And then the next thing and I'm like, my daughter's in the back like bopping. Yeah, there's a there's another song where she goes. I think so. Yeah, there's another song where she goes, yeah, I'm so heavy morning. You know what I'm talking about. So she does the, she's a genre hopper and you can tell that,

cause like the new song she has out, clearly she was listening to a lot of Dolly Parton when she made it. Like Bed Kim is yacht rock, which is awesome to me as an old person. Like she clearly listened to a lot of Yacht Rock before she made this song. And by the way, Yacht Rock is my second favorite category or genre music. Nothing wrong with that.

Steal Away by Robbie Dupree. That actually probably could have made this list, but I think it's too good of a song. So, yeah. Okay, Andy, you're song. So. Yeah. Okay, Andy, you're four. My number four. So we all remember Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. It's actually not her catchiest song.

Her catchiest song is called Cut to the Feeling. And it is the, like, it is designed for seven-year-old girls. I heard it in, there's a, I can't even remember the name of the movie but it's about ballet. It's a cartoon with a dancing mouse I think and my daughter watched it when she was young and they play this song in the in the climactic final scene and I want to run through the crowds break the ceiling. It is so it is catchier than call me maybe. I cannot get out of my head if I hear it.

Ari singing like it. But it is so cheesy. That's a good song. I'm listening to it. It's a good song. So cheesy. Yeah, the only car that Carly Rae I know is call me maybe. So right. It's catchier than that. Why did it not? What's your number four?

Why didn't it get like, was it a hit? Like it like call me maybe it was it's catchier than that why did it not your number four why didn't it get like was it a hit like it like call me maybe it was everywhere well this one didn't uh you know it never took off yeah okay river go ahead my number four is from the summer i graduated college and it has made its way into a taco bell commercial and it's bad idea right see that's a good song like olivia rodrigo songs are just good songs. But you can't sing it. That's like the song that, like, Will would hear me singing in the background. Yeah, but this is a song about hooking up with an ex.

So it's kind of like Lips of an Angel on that front. It is. It is. I'm trying to play these songs because I haven't even heard this. The last two songs I've never heard. This is a good one. Okay. It's fun. Put up my list, River. I don't remember what number.

Karma Chameleon, My Culture Club. Karma, Karma, Karma, Karma, Karma, Chameleon. Such a good song. Become and go. And it's funny because I've listened to the song 29 million times because my daughter likes it for some reason. So like we listen to it in the car all the time and I just think it's super super catchy. And like again embarrassed that you love not embarrassed by it but you might not think I would love to see I wouldn't put this is just too good of a song. Like the quality of the song.

It's got a great harmonica in it. Yeah, I know. But the boy George thing, you know, I don't know. Like people might be like, wow, I can't believe you like that. So I really want to hurt me. Do you really want to? I mean, it's a banger. That's all. I mean, to be clear,

I'm not embarrassed by my anything on my list. So like I I'm not embarrassed by anything on my list. So like I'm not embarrassed at all. I just don't think you get exposed to the level of cheese that we do and I don't know why but that's okay. So I mean like my number problem when I'm in my car and I don't know about you two, maybe you more than River because he wasn't in the generation. But even dating back to 2003 and four, when I first got my driver's license, I've never been a radio person.

Speaking of Olivia Rodrigo songs. Yeah, I've never been a radio guy. I always want to be in control of what I'm listening to. That's why, yes, that explains it. And I have my phone plugged in at all times, and now I'm either listening to songs that I like or that I know. I'm not really exposed to other,

the only time I've ever really been exposed to other people's music is when I met my wife and we listened to her music when we're in the car together and she likes country. So like that, but like these kinds of songs I never would hear. Well, I am glad you brought up your spouse and their musical tastes,

because that feeds into my number three. My number three is Ghetto Cowboy by the Mo Thugs family. I don't know that many people know this song. I'm sure everybody remembers Bone Thugs in Harmony, the Crossroads, First of the Month, you know. So Mo Thugs family is the extended Bone Thugs in Harmony universe. So this song, Ghetto Cowboy, Crazy Bone,

who is one of the core members of Bone Thugs and Harmony, he starts it off, but then he hands off to basically the Bone Thugs, JV, for the rest of the song. And it is a fantasy about being cowboys in the Wild West, except your rappers. And there's also a noise thatboys in the Wild West, except your rappers. And there's also a noise that appears in the song multiple times of a horse going, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom.

Stop the horse, whoa, Nellie, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. Yes, and then there's a line that says, why the hell was you hiding in bushes, goodness. All right, so I thought I was the only person in the world who bought the Ghetto Cowboy CD single. This was a very famous song. And then the first weekend I was hanging out with my now wife, the thing you used to do

is you'd go through their CD wallet to see if you matched up. And I was very impressed that she had the greatest hits of Van Halen in there. But I found out she was the only other person in the world who bought the Ghetto Cowboy CD single and I knew that we were meant to be together right then. Remember when they used to charge $4.99 for a single song on a CD? I remember. You had to get instrumental on there.

So they paid a target for Ghetto Cowboy. Man, you missed a hell of a time River. Burning CDs was like my my biggest joy when I was in high school. I was very young whenever my dad used to do the limewire CDs and then I got to the point in high school to where I didn't care what was in my car as long as it had an aux cord or Bluetooth. And I was just set, so. You can buy the cassette tape for this song on eBay for 9.99 if you want the single cassette. So you could have bought it for 2.99 back then.

The cassette was cheaper. Well, when I got the old car, I had to go buy a bunch of CDs before I had it switched over to Bluetooth. And I went to half-price books and bought a bunch of random CDs that are now in the car. And it brought me back to my childhood for a little bit. River, what is your number three?

All right. My number three was my mom's favorite song. I used to ride in the car with her and it's bubbly by Colby Calais. Okay. Yeah. You get caught singing that you are. Yeah. It was a, do you remember back in the day you had the ring back tones? We would play a song when you call him. That was hers. That was my mom's starts in my toes and it's Twinkle my nose. Whatever it's show. I was going to go listen to what I've heard that song. That is, that is that song. Hey boo. Ari now a huge Colby Calais fan.

She's fine. I love this very tall. River star in concert. She was at CMA Fest last month. It was a free concert of losers. Very I am. I am so unaware of anyone's name. If you would have told me I've never heard the name Colby Calais

before, but I've heard that song. It's great song. Okay. I've never heard the name Colby Kelly before but I've heard that song. It's a great song. Okay My number three is Seal kiss from a rose that song is an absolute banger and just like you River my mother really liked it growing up and That wait I used to like remember when we were it was not the least bit offended by the seal commercial in the Super Bowl Where the seal with seals faces singing kiss from a rose yeah very mad about that that is a great song

that's the Batman forever soundtrack yeah which is an incredible soundtrack the genre of that song easy listening I you know I don't know what seal what like what you consider to be seal cuz like his his first hit was crazy the no one ever gonna survive unless we get a little crazy and beautiful too I love him yeah so I don't I don't know it's it's pop but I don't know where you would slot it in yeah and he's British. Steve, where are the hard rock or the metal songs, fellas? Well, most of those aren't embarrassing. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, like I like- I had lips of an angel, for God's sake. Just so you know, I've been listening to like a lot of Black Sabbath this week because I saw that concert- Oh yeah, the concert. Yeah. Where Ozzy did his last show and my dad's a huge Ozzy Osbourne fan. So like I grew up like

listening to like Ozzy and Black Sabbath and stuff. And if you didn't see that like farewell concert where they had other artists singing all their songs and then like Black Sabbath did War Pig at the end like Ozzy was sitting down because he's too old. That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Like, just objectively, I'm not a rock guy. I never have been but that was cool and Black Sabbath and Ozzy. My dad he still you know played the I'm a loser. I'm a secret loser. No like I I could get down with that but it's not embarrassing. People like not at all. Andy probably like loved Black Sabbath growing up no? Not Not. It was not one of the

things that was played in my house, but obviously, you know, you crazy training and war pigs and all that and and I grew to like it. So it is kind of crazy that Black Sabbath is Black Sabbath. Anybody's like college football music like tunnel music. I'm sure somebody uses crazy train, right? Yeah, is Black Sabbath anybody's like college football music, like tunnel music? Dun-a-dun-a-dun-a-dun-a-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun Number two, The Touch by Stan Bush. Now, before the late 90s, the only place you heard this song and knew this song from was the Transformers movie. Not the Michael Bay Transformers movie, the cartoon Transformers movie that came out in like 1987.

That's the one, this song plays while Optimus Prime battles Megatron and spoiler alert, which is fine because it's the first 20 minutes of the movie, Optimus Prime dies. My mom was so mad at the people who made this movie. They're like, she's like, I brought my son to a freaking cartoon and he's crying. Like he's devastated. They killed Optimus Prime in the first 20 minutes. But

this song is a banger. You got the touch. You got the power. By like old trans am and just drive around playing that song. Oh yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Clearly somebody, one of the people who made Boogie Nights also was affected in the same way. Because there's a scene in Boogie Nights where they're doing a drug deal and the guy is singing. And they're, oh no, I think Dirk Diggler actually tries to sing this song in Boogie Nights. So it is the cheesiest 80s song possibly ever except for my number one,

the synthesizers, all of it. The soaring chorus. It's a terrible song that I love. You've got the touch. Yeah I've heard that song a hundred times. Alright River, your number two. Alright my number two is definitely shows where I'm from and it's she thanks my tractor sexy by Kenny Chesney. This is the song. This is the kind of song that we are talking about here. Yeah. First of all, this song sucks. Second of all, Kenny Chesney owes the Jimmy Buffett estate 50 cents on every dollar he's made because this is the kind of crap Kenny Chesney was making before he realized that he should be dime store Jimmy Buffett. She thinks my tractors. Yeah. Yeah. And first of all, the cars are I know, I know Kenny Chesney is from Quariton, Tennessee, but do

we actually believe Kenny Chesney has ever beenariton, Tennessee, but do we actually believe Kenny Chesney has ever been on a tractor in his life ever once? Just for the music video. River, have you ever been on a tractor? Yes. I grew up in a very rural area. It's a hard word to say. What were you doing on it?

Were you like partying on it or did you actually use it? No, like- It was like the Kenny Chesney video. My grandfather had a friend that lived on a farm that we would go fishing at. And he just said, you want to come on the tractor? I was like, yeah, sure. Yeah, I've never been on a tractor before. Believe it or not. No way. Not you.

Yes, she ain't in the cars or pickup trucks but if it runs like a deer her eyes light up. This one, my number two, great song. I think everyone likes it. Rick Astley, Never Gonna Give You Up. Oh, the original song this never gonna give you up never gonna let you down Never gonna run around and desert you Everybody likes a song right? Hey to come back here. Everybody loves this song and if you've The song Betty by young gravy that samples this song is Tremendous. Yeah

again Not embarrassed. I'm shouldn't be embarrassed. Yeah, I Maybe a little embarrassed. Yeah, I mean, I don't know like if you were we've known each other I do know how I tried to do it This is how I envisioned this If I were sitting at a stoplight with my window down If I were sitting at a stoplight with my window down, and I was alone in the car, and a beautiful woman pulled up next to me,

looked over and heard what I was listening to, what would I be like, oh God, this is a very, Oh, you'd roll your window up very quickly with this one. Yeah, right, which songs would make you wanna roll your window up? Yeah, and that's what I was saying, ball-brying the tool-tune concept. That's exactly what this is.

All right, my number one, perhaps the most embarrassing song to sing out loud in front of other people in the history of the world. But only people from a certain age will remember this one. Waiting for a Star to Fall by Boy Meets Girl. This song came out in the late 80s. It was on pop and kind of adult contemporary radio constantly. So what my mom listened to in 1988, this song was playing every five minutes. And it is awful. It is synthesizer and sax.

It's got a sax solo right off the bat. And then it's, waiting for a star to fall, carry your heart into my arms. That's the- This song slaps, dude. I like the song. I like that.

It's like, I love it. Cars listen to the sax solo right now. Yeah, no, I get that. And when I get to my number one, like this, these songs are all like very catchy and very good. Yeah. But again, like, if you're listening to it at a red light, this red blooded American dude, I guess the thing that would be embarrassing, I did get like, seal kissed by a Rose, he's

a Brit, like that's embarrassing, right? Like we're better than everybody else that's not from America, right? Can I say that? I don't, I mean Seal's awesome. He married Heidi Klum too. I have no notes for Seal. He's done fine. Yeah, but like Seal isn't from here.

People from Boy Meets Girl are from here. That's better. So Kenny Chesney seems more red blooded American than seal. That's all. He's capitalist for sure. All right. My number one is pocketful of sunshine Natasha beddingfield. I was I figured somebody was going to have this or unwritten. Well, unwritten is too good of a song to put on.

It's actually a great like I'm not embarrassed by unwritten. This one I'm a little more embarrassed. I got a pocketful of sunshine. Yeah. Yes. Now, you because you have to do the head movements when you sing. There's no way you're singing that Nick in your car by yourself. And then somebody pulls up the stoplights like, Oh God, it's like it's got to get into it. Nope. So I know you guys eliminated songs from your list for being just amazing songs.

My number one is one of my top five favorite songs ever. Like, this is one of my favorite songs ever, and I think it's legitimately just an amazing song. And I had two songs from this artist because I am a Phil Collins fan. But my number one is Phil Collins. This is Against All Odds. You did not understand the assignment

because Against All Odds is an amazing song. Phillip Collins and Phillip Bailey, Easy Lover. Oh, Easy Lover? Yes! This is one of my favorite songs I've ever heard. Like, I mean, it's like, I like- This is a legitimately great song, Ari. See, that's, I think that's the problem.

I think you are, you're, you've got to, it's gotta be a song you like I think that's the problem. I think you are... It's got to be a song you like that is of objectively poor quality. This is a great song musically. But if I was at a stoplight and was listening to the song by myself... I would be belting this out. Songs by Phil Collins... You should understand this, Andy, because you grew up in the same general area as me. And like people who are listening to this, yes, it's a great song. Could you imagine if I pulled into high school

playing this song? Like this is not, this is not the music that I- I pulled into high school in 1995 playing this song, because at that point it would only be like eight years old it you get some weird looks but now oh okay i'm just thinking about phil collin's songs that i have no problem belting out in the car at a stoplight easy lover against all odds in the air tonight it's got a great brother bear sound track. And who we're becoming to love. River.

Yeah. I will tell you because I removed one. I had Susudio on my top five too. Okay, Susudio might have made it. Maybe you could put Susudio as my number one. I didn't know which one. I just didn't want to have two Phil Collins, but Susudio is in a great, great song. Susudio probably belongs on one of these lists. Susudio! You don't think, wait, you don't think that's a legitimately good song too? It's actually not one of my favorite Phil Collins songs. Okay, I mean, Phil did not miss though. Like- Oh, Phil's amazing.

Yeah, but like, listen, like if you like, I grew up in like the hip hop era. So like listening to 80s Phil Collins music was embarrassing when I was in high school. Okay, so Cotton asked in the chat, just a friend by Biz Marquis. I don't think so, because I think Biz is singing it ironically. So if you sing along with him, you're in on the joke.

Yeah. Biz knew he couldn't sing. It's a classic one. Yeah, I'm just saying he's just a friend. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just he's just a friend. Yeah. Yeah. Like, so what I need songs that I have on my playlists that are kind of like I like that. Maybe I maybe I did mess up. I don't know. I'm terrible at these random rankings, I guess. But

like, me and River have some downright embarrassing songs on our list. Yeah we do. I don't know but like the song that I was playing, like the bubbly song in the pocketful of sunshine, those were all hit singles weren't they? They were but- And like he thinks my tractor is sexy is like funny because he's like a skinny guy from Tennessee but like everybody likes that song. It's played in bars all the time.

You know? I hate that song. Yeah. I don't listen to it much these days. I used to. All right, what a week. Next week, SEC media day. So we were big 12 heavy this week, we'll leave SEC heavy next week. On Monday, my top 10 list of SEC quarterbacks. Select will drop and we can we can preview SEC media days by

talking SEC quarterbacks. What a week guys. Can I say one thing before we go? Absolutely. Got an hour and a half in what's an hour and 32 minutes. If you would if you're still here, that means you like us. This is why I waited. Leave a review for us on wherever you listen

to your podcasts, or even on subscribing to the YouTube. The people got mad when Ari criticized Nebraska. We got kind of review bombed by the Huskers. I actually don't know. You may need your help with some good five star reviews if y'all don't mind. I actually have been reading about this. I actually think they don't realize that they helped

because it's not about the type of review. It's about how many you have. Oh, okay. Thank you, Huskers. Like Nebraska actually I think helped us unintentionally, but anything that you can do to prop up the show's relevance, if you could leave a five star review, that would be great. We appreciate you. We're still trying to grow this thing and we want to be together and provide this for you for a long

time. I don't want any Andy and I aren't doing this. Oh, Laurie in the chat is asking, how do you do it on YouTube? If you're, if you're watching on YouTube, yes, comment, you can thumbs up YouTube videos and you can comment. And YouTube does appreciate the comments because when you're commenting on a YouTube video, YouTube says, oh, you're engaged. You're so interested in this

that you are leaving comments on this video. So yeah, and that's why we love when the chat gets really spicy because that tells YouTube, hey, I should push this into more people's algorithm. They're engaged in this content. Yeah, people are very engaged. So the little peek behind the curtain,

but thank you so much. And thanks for all the great questions for dear Andy and dear Ari. And thanks for helping us get through the off season. It's a hard time year when you're doing college football stuff to get through the off season. At that, it's a hard time year when you're doing college football stuff to get through the off season, but we made it. And this week was awesome getting to go out

and see some people. The SEC will always bring a lot of drama. Even if media days is kind of contrived and people are trying not to say anything, trust me, there will be some stuff that pops. And River popped up the graphic of week one games that we're pumped about. And if you just wanna get excited, look at this list.

Ready? Texas, Ohio State, Alabama, Florida State, LSU Clemson, Notre Dame, Miami, Tennessee, Syracuse, Auburn, Baylor, Georgia Tech Colorado, sneaky good, Virginia Tech South Carolina, it's all coming, all coming. So we'll keep getting you ready. We'll talk to you next week.