Andy & Ari On3 - Multiple Investigations at Michigan | Eliah Drinkwitz Joins | PAC-12 Check-In | Ohio St vs Wisconsin

Episode Date: October 27, 2023

Week 9 is inching closer and closer, and we are here to get you prepared for the start of another great College Football Weekend. But first, we've got some more news out of Ann Arbor regarding Michigan. Meanwhile, Missouri is enjoying their off week at 7-1, and Head Coach Eliah Drinkwitz took some time to join us before the Tigers start to prepare for their battle next week on the road in Athens. The PAC-12 is having an outstanding 2023 season as a whole, and we have Pac-12 Network Analyst Yogi Roth joining to break down a great weekend ahead. We also check on another Big Ten school in Ohio State with Lettermen Row's Spencer Holbrook.Today's show is brought to you by PrizePicks, the easiest way to play daily fantasy. All first time users that deposit and use the promo code ANDY will receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. If you deposit $100, PrizePicks will give you $100. If you deposit $50, PrizePicks will give you $50.0:00 Intro with Michigan Update4:03 Missouri Head Coach Eliah Drinkwitz Joins25:31 Pac-12 Analyst Yogi Roth Joins47:26 Lettermen Row's Spencer Holbrook1:04:00 Conclusion, Wrapping UpWant to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and don't forget to subscribe!https://youtu.be/5l9flE6irNY

Welcome to Andy Staples on three big show for you tonight. We got Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz. We're going to talk a huge weekend in the Pac-12 with Yogi Roth of the Pac-12 Network and check in on Ohio State with Spencer Holbrook of Letterman Row. But first, we're going to talk about the stories that everybody's talking about. I say stories, plural, because Michigan feels like there's more things going on here than one. You got the signal-stealing accusations, and the Wolverine, our Michigan-sided on three,

reported on Thursday that the NCAA was in town asking questions about that case. Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Detroit Free Press reports that the FBI was in town asking questions about that case. Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Detroit Free Press reports that the FBI has been working for months with the University of Michigan Police Department investigating the alleged computer crimes committed by former Michigan offensive coordinator Matt Weiss. Remember, he got fired a while back. We never saw any real details other than it was something involving computer crimes. But we don't exactly know what he's accused of. But apparently, according to the Detroit Free Press, it involves multiple people across state lines.

So that is yet another thing. It doesn't seem like those cases are related. I have a hard time imagining how they could be, but it's just one more thing on top of another for Michigan in a week where it seems like it's just one thing after the other. What's going to happen? Again, we don't know. The NCAA is investigating. We've talked about this multiple times, but I'll remind you that the regular NCAA enforcement process involves an investigation. A school receives a notice of allegations. They have 90 days to respond to that. The NCAA has 30 days to respond to the response. So it's not a fast process. It's not a process

that would be handled within the confines of this season. The Big Ten has more latitude to do stuff, but it's kind of uncharted territory. We've not seen anything like this, so we don't know how that would work. Tony Petitti, the Big Ten commissioner, is new. This is his first year on the job. There's just a lot going on here, and unfortunately, there's not a lot of hard answers yet.

We've been able to speculate quite a bit. The evidence has come out in drips and drabs, and you've got stories of people going to different games all over the country. You've got Connor Stallions, the now suspended Michigan staffer, found buying tickets at all these different schools. But again, we really don't know how far this goes or what exactly the NCAA is going to be looking for. What do they already have? And I think that's one thing that Michigan probably is trying to figure out too. With the investigators in town asking questions, I think Michigan probably gets a better chance to ascertain what they're dealing with and they've got to figure out how to move forward from here as well. So probably a lot of strategizing going on in Ann Arbor right now.

What's going to happen? We're going to have to see. Michigan not playing this week. Remember, they're off. They play Purdue next week. I imagine coaches go on the road and recruit this weekend, and then somebody's going to have to say something because they usually have press conferences the weeks of games.

So at some point, Michigan's going to have to say something. Do they do the old Friday news dump press release where they tell us some stuff about this? Or do they keep us in suspense until the beginning of next week? We will find out. But it never seems to stop. The FBI thing with Matt Weiss, it's like, okay, wow. This is a lot of stuff happening all at once. We'll find out more about Michigan as we go. We'll keep you updated as best we can. But now we got to talk about teams that are on and off week, not having such an eventful off week and probably grateful for that.

Missouri is seven and one getting ready to play Georgia in Athens. Huge game for the Tigers and Bulldogs. Obviously, the Bulldogs have to play in the world's largest outdoor cocktail party against Florida on Saturday, so they're a little busy right now, but Eli Drinkwitz making the rounds because he's had a really good year. His team has had a really good year. Interestingly enough, he traces it back to a moment where he didn't make his best decision, but then his kicker came in, boomed one, and then all of a sudden, things started to really propel forward with great momentum, and Missouri is sitting here on the verge of a special season with some very, very good players.

Here is Eli Drinkwitz. We welcome Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz. He was drinking a diet Coke earlier. It was not out of the mayor's cup, which goes to the town. Oh, here it is. Here it is.

Are you, are you talking about, look at this. are you talking about, look at this. Are you talking about this diet? That diet goes in there. Very nice. Beautiful. That's not exactly the, uh, Stanley cup, but it is the mayor's cup. You get a trophy for a day. Yeah, but it is the Mayor's Cup. You get it for a day. That's a hell of a trophy. Yeah, you get it for a day. Yeah, that's right.

That's right. So it denotes who gets to be the real Columbia for a year. Yeah. I think the Travel Bureau really advertises it on the community service or whatever. What is that? Chamber of Commerce. Oh, definitely. Chamber of Commerce has it across.

Like, Mizzou's got the real Columbia this year. Exactly. Well, and you just got to keep winning it and earning the title. That's the motivation. Yeah, no doubt. So this season has been just a wild ride. You've got Harrison Mevis kicking 61 yarders to win games. You've got shootouts.

You've got, you know, I think, did I hear you say that Cody Schrader had to have like 30 cc's of blood drained from his quad after this game? Yeah, he had about 60 cc's of hemoglobin taken out on Sunday. You know, he's been battling a bruised quad, and then that developed into a strained quad and it's just unbelievable so you know with going into the bi-week we really wanted to get in there and get it cleaned up and do everything we can so um you know obviously we've given him some prp and done some of that

this week but in order to do that we needed to take out some of the the hemoglobin that had been built up there and uh there was 60 cc's. He's been such an important player for you, Cody, as you're running back. And he came to you from Truman State last year, walked on, had played D2. How does that process work? Does he reach out to you guys and say, hey, I've been pretty good here. I'd like to come try to play for you? Yeah. So if you want the real story,

here's how it goes. There's a booster that wants, I'm in the middle of going and recruiting in December and I'm going to be in St. Louis and there's a booster who wants to have a quick bite with me. And so absolutely, I'm going to, before I go to in-home visit, I'm going to stop by and see him. And while we're there, he says, Hey man, there's a young man who I've known who is transferring from Truman state. He's actually the division two leader in rushing. Would you let him walk on? And I was really a lot more interested in the booster than I was in the running back. Okay. And so I was like, yeah, yeah, just send it to me and we'll see. Well, about three days later, he follows up and I'll be honest, I hadn't really watched the tape. So I'm like, all right, let me watch it real quick. I watched it like, yeah, he definitely could walk on.

I'm thinking he'll be, you know, you can never have enough show team running backs and all that sort of thing. He shows up and he's like ninth on the depth chart the first day of spring. And then he just keeps showing up. He keeps keeps showing up keeps doing all the right stuff keeps making plays keeps understanding assignments and next thing you know last year he's playing and uh and then this year he's voted captain and it's just it's just remarkable it's it's an unbelievable story of grit determination and mindset over talent And that's not to take anything away from Cody Schrader. He's got a ton of talent. But his work ethic and mindset is unbelievable. And it's a story of epic proportion, in my opinion.

I mean, the dude is the leading rusher in the SEC. That's a cool story. Week four, we're week eight. We're through eight weeks in this league. It's only the toughest league in all of college football. And he's the leading rusher. And so that's pretty special and remarkable. So the one thing you guys never know when you're putting a team together is how the chemistry will work. So what makes this one special? What makes this one different than some of the other teams you've coached?

So there's two different things, right? You've got to have buy-in, right? You've got to have buy-in. And we've had a lot of buy-in, but you've got to have a little bit of belief, too. And really, belief happens when Harrison Meebus makes the kick in a really tight game. We've had buy-in. And then, you know, last year we had a lot of heartbreaking losses, a lot of gut-wrenchers.

And that just, you know, it kind of keeps you on the fringe. Well, this year when we make that kick, I think the buy-in turned into belief. And now all of a sudden it's like there's a stubborn refusal to allow anything other than success in this locker room. And even after the LSU loss, I think there was a lot of confidence in our process. Like, hey, guys, when we look at that tape, yes, Jaden Daniels is an unbelievable player, but there's things that we control that cost us an opportunity to win that game in the fourth quarter. So let's go fix it.

You're down 14-0 at Kentucky. That may have turned into a boat race. And instead our team just said, Hey, let's just counter punch right here. We went on a 38, seven run. So there, I think again, I can trace it back to making that kick and just the belief kicking in to the buy-in of the core values and all that stuff. And so I think that's what it's really been. And I think you just keep riding that momentum as long as you can. Which is amazing because you had to take a penalty before that kick. I didn't have to.

I screwed that up. I didn't have to. I was trying to frame it nicely. Probably not the finest moment of coaching. Right. But sometimes your players bail you out, man. Sometimes your players bail you out. And that's really what happened.

You know, honestly, he probably would have felt a lot of pressure on a 56-yarder. But you take a five-yard penalty, a 61-yarder, there's not really a whole lot of pressure on that one. Easy. Exactly. See, you were thinking ahead, playing chess while we were playing checkers. Yeah, exactly right. Well, let us talk about one of your, one of your finer moments in special teams coaching, because you mentioned that the

38-7 run against Kentucky, which was touched off by a fake punt where your punter throws a dime. Yeah. How, when did you realize he had that kind of arm and then how does the thought process work when you're down 14 and you call that play? So, yeah, one, Luke's actually a heck of an athlete. He's one of the best dunkers on our team. We do a dunk contest every year during fall camp, and that dude, he can fly slam a jammer. So he's a pretty good athlete. We've seen him throw the football around. Everybody dorks around before practice, and he can sling the rock.

So our special teams coordinator, Coach Link, had seen that in their specific look right here, you know, they turned the guy loose. So it wasn't necessarily as dramatic as, man, we're down 14-0, we need this call. It was Saturday morning I told the team, if we get into this scenario of punting the ball from the 36 to the 50 and we think they're going to be in safe defense,

this is automatically what we're going to call the first time. And so, you know, I'll say this. I've said that several times, and then, all right, we're not doing that. But we got in that situation, and it was actually a bad snap on third down, and it's 37-yard line. And Coach Lincoln and I had already talked about it on third down. We said, hey – I told him, I said, hey, if we punt here, let's go ahead and fake it.

And he said, yep, it's up. So that's what happened. Now, I'll be honest, the corner played it a lot better than we thought. He actually turned and ran with him. We were kind of thinking he'd just drop him. It'd be wide open. But Marquise Johnson, who's a true freshman, who's done an outstanding job, goes up and makes the the play and Luke delivered a great throw and worked out great it reminds me of uh the out

the first Alabama Clemson national title game when they they had the onside kick Alabama did because they had to steal that possession back and I remember asking Nick Saban about it after the game and he said we were going to do that if we got into a situation where we needed a possession because we'd seen how they played it all year yep and when they played it that way the first couple kickoffs of the game we knew if we needed an onside kick we had it so it's interesting because I don't think we realize how many of these like special team situations are almost automatic calls that you put in prior to the game yeah you. You know, one of the things that, so I got to know coach Joe Gibbs a little bit when I was coaching his grandsons at App State 2019. And one of the things that he talked about was you never really want to,

uh, you never want to run a play that can cause a change of momentum if you have the momentum, right? So like if you're up 21, you know, you go on a big scoring run, you don't want to do something that could potentially give the other team momentum. But when you're in a scenario when the momentum's away from you, he calls them momentum changers, you want to be ready to try to steal the momentum back. And so, you know, we try to call them momentum changers going into the game. Hey, what are the things we have that could change momentum?

You know, if we're up in a game, we had a couple of things that we had up for South Carolina, but we were in a situation where we're up and we really didn't want to give them anything. And so we were like, hey, let's just put that on the shelf. Well, and that's got to be nice to have given the stretch you have coming up where you've got to play Georgia next week, Tennessee's down the road, to have some stuff in your back pocket? Yeah, I mean, yeah. I don't know if we've got anything in our back pocket.

All those teams are really good football. You're going to have to execute at a high level, and you're not going to trick anybody to winning the games late. I mean, the fake punt was good, and it gave us a shot in the arm, but we still had to overcome a lead. You know, we were down to start the fourth quarter 21-20, or 20 to – yeah, 21-20. Yeah. And had to score and end up scoring 18 straight right there.

So, you know, I don't think it's ever going to be any one particular play. It's going to be consistent execution over the course of four quarters to give us a chance in this stretch run. Going back to that K-State game, I believe that was the one where you said that you kind of heard a smattering of boos when Brady Cook got announced quarterback. And you came out and defended him, and he's just been incredible this year. What has his growth been like for you? Well, I mean, I think that's as good a story as Brady Cook is and as good a story as Luther Burden is and Cody Schrader. I think what Brady Cook has done in the face of

all kinds of noise has been pretty incredible, including for me. I mean, I made him compete for his job again all fall camp. I made him compete in the first game for the job. And all he's done is ignore the noise and have a belief in himself, a self-confidence and a belief and said, OK, I'm open to you coaching me. I'm open to saying, OK, these are the things that you say you need to see out of me. I'm going to go attack him. And one of the biggest criticisms I had was vertical throws down the field like we just weren't accurate enough down the field last year. And man, he's accepted that challenge and throws the deep ball with so much confidence now. He's always been extremely tough. He's a great leader. You know, you can go back to

sound bites from SEC media days when people were asking about the quarterback. Every one of those guys down there defended Brady Cook. They believe in him. And that's not to say anything. I mean, Sam Horn is a heck of a quarterback. And part of that competition is Brady doesn't want to come off the field because he knows Sam goes on, he may not come off. But Brady Cook has been outstanding, not only as a leader, but as a player who's trying to consistently develop and get better. And our team has responded to those players' work ethic.

You know, Michael Jordan used to talk about it all the time, you've got to match by intensity. Well, I think our team's kind of adopted that with Brady Cook and D-Rob and Cody Schrader. Like, man, we've got to match those guys' work ethic because it's second to none. Well, you mentioned Darius Robinson. That's an interesting one, too, because I was talking to Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl last week,

and he said Darius actually came up to him at SEC Media Days and said, what do I need to do to be invited to the Senior Bowl? How do I do this? Which I think is a very mature way of handling that. Yeah. Well, Darius is very serious and a mature young man. Now he's only been playing football since he was in 11th grade. And so every year he just takes another step in the process. And that was part of the R cell to him and come back for another year.

You still got so much room to grow. And then we've asked him to change positions and develop some position flexibility, which he's done. And really his best four games have been these last four games. He's really developing into a dominant player at this level. But he's always had a maturity to him and he always wants to get better. And so it doesn't surprise me at all that he sought out Jim Nagy to say, hey, you know, because one of his goals is he wanted to go to the senior bowl and that was important to him. And so, you know, obviously we still got a lot of football left and he's got to continue to play well, but he's definitely put himself in that conversation again,

because of his work ethic and determination. So also at SEC media days, we visit with you and, and you were talking about the change in role. You hire Kirby Moore, you give up the play calling. How has that worked for you? Obviously, we see the results on the field, but behind the scenes, how has your life changed with that? Yeah, it's been good. It allows me to do things like this, the offensive staff's meeting. I'm normally in there, but when I have other duties that I need to attend to, I'll step out and then I'll get caught up later. It allows me the freedom to meet with our players, to take time for myself,

to think about, OK, what do we need to do to motivate our guys this week? What is the consistent messaging to our team? And I think so much, you know, when you're so consumed with calling the offense or third downs or fourth downs, you forget about the overall sense of your team and what you need to get done. And I'm sure there's other people that can do it. I wasn't good enough to do that whole thing with all the other responsibilities that I have at the University of Missouri. At App State, I was able to do it and do it at a really high level, I thought. But different levels, different things are pulling at you all the time. I think

in 20, when we had COVID, it gave me a false sense that I could do it because you didn't have outside recruiting. You couldn't go out and see people on Friday night. You didn't have interactions with boosters. And then all of a sudden that next year, it started accumulating it. And I just wasn't doing what was best for our football team. So I know you can't talk about individual recruits, but you are recruiting at a very high level right now. That was my next thought was how much now can you kind of pour into the recruiting process with that extra time? Yeah. I mean, I think I spend probably spend probably not as much as, as all the other heads, SEC head coaches, but I do my fair share. I don't,

I don't have a basis for comparison, but I, I spent a lot of time, you know, every Friday night home game, I'm out on the road recruiting high school players. I'll be out Thursday and Friday this week. You know, we, we got call nights, text messages and letters, all kinds of stuff that we try to do. The best way to win a championship is to have great players. I mean, that's what it starts with. And so we got to continue to recruit at a higher level if we want to continue to rise.

I mean, that's obviously what you got to do. Coach, appreciate it. I know you got to do. Coach, appreciate it. I know you got to hit the road. What are our gas station snacks of choice when we're bouncing from one high school football game to another? Well, you know, I kind of have a run throughout the day. You know, I really like the midday Hostess apple pie with a Diet Dr. Pepper. I think that's probably my go-to. In the evenings at the game, I like to get a nachos and a Diet Coke.

I really love some chili on it, but you've got to be careful. You've got to kind of peek at the chili to see, is that really going to be something that's going to sit with you all night or do you think it's going to be okay? And then you've got to have some sort of snack in the third or fourth quarter and so you know i tend to go with the snickers bar okay and so yeah that that's kind of my day uh on the road recruiting i stay away from popcorn you know that stuff gets in your teeth so i try to stay away from popcorn you're talking talking to a guy who was about to buy some middle school football

concession stand boiled peanuts last night and thought better of it. Yeah. I'm not into boiled peanuts. I've tried them several times, but I can't get into that craze. Well, that's why you're in that Columbia and not the other Columbia. Fair enough. Eli Drinkwood, thank you so much. Yep.

M I C. Thank you to Eli Drinkwits for that dining guide for high school concession stands. He's right about the chili. Always a bit of a risk. The nachos, not so much of a risk. Those always feel kind of safe.

Before we talk PAC 12 with Yogi Roth of the Pac-12 Network, I want to tell you about PrizePix. It is the most fun daily fantasy available in most of the country, including Florida, Texas, and California. Lots of fun. You download it. Use the code ANDY. They will match your first deposit up to $100.

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Some interesting choices this week. Max Johnson, Texas A&M quarterback, coming off a tough game against Tennessee. They're playing South Carolina. Last time we saw South Carolina, Brady Cook was having a pretty good game against them. Graham Mertz the week before had a very good game against that South Carolina defense. Probably the best game since he's been at Florida. So Max Johnson's number is 247 and a half yards. That's a lot considering what Texas A&M's offense has been of late, but not necessarily when you look at it through the prism of what South Carolina's defense has been giving up. So that is an intriguing one. Meanwhile, Spencer Rattler in that same game, 244 and a half yards. And again, that is very, very big for Jimbo Fisher. It could be big

for you if you take those squares. Carson Beck in the world's largest outdoor cocktail party, 267 and a half yards. Meanwhile, Grant Mertz, who we just talked about, he had that career game against South Carolina, has not played since, playing a much better defense in Georgia. And the square reflects that. 194 and a half. Do you think he's going to go more than or less than that one? And then we had talked a ton about Nebraska, but the Cornhuskers having a pretty good last few weeks. And Heinrich Harburg, their quarterback, he gets around pretty well. But will he rush for 63. a half yards against Purdue?

That's a big ask, but that's the number. Meanwhile, you got Jalen Wright and Jabari Small. Which one of those goes off against Kentucky? That's a tough one. You got the two Tennessee backs, and in offense like that, they sort of feed the hot hand. So do you go Jalen Wright and his 54 and a half? Do you go Jabari Small, his 34 and a half?

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Andy. They will match your first deposit up to $100. That is prize picks. Code is Andy. Next up, we are talking Pac-12. There's some big, big games, none bigger than Utah against Oregon and Salt Lake City. It feels like a college football playoff elimination game. It may be an elimination game for the Pac-12 title game. We don't know yet because there's a lot of good teams that could beat one another. And there's a lot of big games to come. In fact, there's one probably at this level every week for the rest of the season in this league. But the other part of the Pac-12 is it's not just this one game. You've got all the drama at USC. They're playing Cal. You've got Oregon State going to Arizona.

Oregon State's not out of it either. You've got Coach Prime going to the Rose Bowl to play UCLA. So much action. Nobody better to discuss it than Yogi Roth of the Pac-12 Networks. He joins us now. We welcome Yogi Roth of the Pac-12 Network. And, Yogi, you've got a bunch of really dramatic weeks coming up. They've been dramatic.

Last weekend was dramatic, but this feels like it's just week after week after week. You've got Oregon-Utah. It feels like every USC game is now must-see. It's crazy. It's beautiful, to be honest with you you know as long as you don't you know take a take a look or a lens at what's coming after the season because you're like if you can stay connected in the moment I've been saying this to my colleagues or uh you know even my family and definitely myself of just compete to stay connected in the

moment because the season is going to be a beautiful one when you just look at the context of college football. And I think when you look at the last couple of years, what the league had tried to do is make sure scheduling-wise, like there's a must-see marquee top 25, one, two, three games a week when it matters. And here we are entering the CFP dialogue. Like I'm going to present to the CFP later this afternoon

along with George Kleofkoff and Martin Hanks and Jim Thornby and our team. And, and away we go. And I think when you're in the center of it, uh, it obviously is beneficial. You know, who knows if they'll, everybody will kind of beat each other, but it is going to be fun. And what I love the most, Andy, is that, you know, I've, you know, I've kind of had to been the stump speech guy for years.

What was the third time game days coming out West this weekend? Yeah. And with all the games you, you alluded to, it might be a fourth and a fifth and a sixth time they may come out to this part of the country, which you just haven't seen ever. Uh, so it's, it's exciting to at least to be recognized and try to stay connected to that this fall. Well, so somebody sent me a potential five-way tie at the top and it, it makes sense. It's, it's possible. I have no idea how they break the ties.

I was trying to figure it out and my brain just broke, but I mean, the, the, just the, the sheer drama at the top and, and like Oregon, Utah this week i gotta i gotta tell you yogi when when utah went to oregon state and lost and when you looked at the idea okay cam rising is not going to be back what does that mean but it feels like they they've found so many different ways to win now yeah yeah it's it's really been remarkable You start thinking about who would you vote for coach of the year? And there's like a lot of coaches out here that you can make a case for. And Kyle Whittingham would be right at the top. Talk Jonathan Smith. You could talk Jed fish. There's a lot you could talk about. Caitlin DeBoer, who knows what happens with Oregon here,

but you got to talk about Kyle Whittingham. And he has this quote within the facility, which is, you become us, we don't become you. And, you know, you work at a place that is all over recruiting. We know what recruiting can be. And it's really true. You know, Nate Johnson was the fourth string quarterback after spring ball and in training camp, he won the Baylor game, you know, and then played, you know, pretty good for a couple weeks and then here comes Bryson Barnes who threw a touchdown the first pass of the game against the team that you know you know as well as anybody in Florida and then hadn't thrown a touchdown pass until he threw for three against the Trojans and and I as a former walk-on turn scholarship player like he's my favorite guy uh but to watch these guys not only meet the moment but know that Kyle Whittingham, Andy Ludwig, Morgan Scali they're breathing the confidence into them and I think that's a huge role of a coach is to see the potential someone has and get them to the place where they could actualize it utah has done that whether that's sioni vaki doing what he did in high school or bryson barnes doing what he did in high school

which is playing with confidence and that's so much of the game and that's what we've seen and they got the best defense i think in this league it might be the best in the country they premiere nfl players at every layer of that defense so they will make life challenging if they can run the ball milk the clock in a bunch of different ways which we saw against usc they will be in position to win every game and i think we need to start talking about them as a cfp contender and not just wow they're doing it without Cam Rising and Brent Keithy those guys haven't been there since the Rose Bowl yeah since the Rose Bowl they haven't been in offseason workouts like it's not their it's not their team

you know they're still leaders on that team but I think we need to start talking about Utah as a contender and not just a great story well this week is basically an elimination game for the CFP between Oregon and Utah. One of these teams is probably not going to be in contention come the end of Saturday. So, you know, if you're Oregon, how tight are you coming in to Rice-Eccles Stadium, which is a very tough place to play?

Yeah, I don't think they'll be tight at all. You've been around Dan Lanning a bunch. He's allowed me tremendous access since he's gotten out to Oregon. And this is a team, and they've got these DNA traits that are all over the facility, and the number one is connection. And every coach says we need to be a connected team, but it's hard to do it with the roster turnover. Oregon had a lot of roster turnover that doesn't get a lot of dialogue.

A lot of guys left, a bunch of new guys came in, and they have become a really connected group. And how is it showcasing itself on the field? Well, I go to the offensive line, and I've seen every meaningful snap of play in the Pac-12 this season and really the last 20. But Oregon's offensive front is the most improved group this season among any position group in the Pac-12 and on the West Coast. And you look at the Texas Tech game, they had 14 penalties, four false starts. On the road at UW, they had five penalties and one false start.

Like they have just grown as the season has progressed. This defensive front is full of vets. Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh year player in Popol Amavai. Like I just think that they've been in enough of these, whether it's this season, previous years, it won't be easy by any stretch in Salt Lake City that place is incredible 80 some straight sellouts but I don't

think they're going to be tight I think he's got this team cutting it loose playing confident playing free the challenge will be you know execution and that's what all the challenges are in these tight games well and back to Utah you know at the beginning of the season who'd have thought that that maybe Travis Hunter is going to be one of the most impressive two-way players in the conference the only Vocky's been amazing and you know Kyle Whittingham saying he sees probably him contributing even more on offense going forward yeah well you look at Utah and and it's funny whenever a new coach comes into this league you know you do an interview with them I do an interview with them and they've all said a version of the same thing, which is Utah's kind of the blueprint, especially in recruiting.

And you could look at Chase Hansen, quarterback turned safety, turned NFL linebacker. You can look at Nate Orchard, formerly Nate Faka-Fahua, who was a wide receiver, turned safety, turned edge rusher, just retired earlier this week from the NFL. You could look at Makai Bernard, who started at corner in the Rose Bowl against Ohio State, was also like a slot tailback type of player. They recruit guys that are just really good at the sport. And it's overused and cliche, but it's the old football player line. And it's true. Guys that have a nose for the football, understand spacing and timing,

understand the acumen necessary to take a couple plays and understand the conceptual side of it and also the executional element of it. And that's what he did. You look at his wheel routes, it might seem like it's an easy route to run, but watch how he's grown as a route runner over the course of his time playing offense with Sione Vakia. The little things is what stand out. Catching the ball, getting north and south.

If you look at that play against Taka Curtis, a critical play in that game where he runs that little angle route, catches it, puts his foot in the ground, doesn't try to dance like most high school players do when they get the ball. And I go back to coaching. There's all these little things that are allowing these really dynamic football players to become exceptional at their craft, and uniquely in Sione Vacchia, both sides of the ball. Yeah, it's so much fun to watch.

And, you know, you wondered, like, when you realize Keith, he's not coming back, okay, who is going to be their primary weapon? And they figured out he was playing safety. Who knew? I mean, it's just, it is amazing to watch. But that matchup looks like so much fun. I want to talk to you a little bit about USC and Cal because it's been a weird week at USC.

Lincoln Riley misses. I don't think people understand how sick you have to be as a college football head coach to miss practice. It doesn't happen, and Lincoln had to miss a couple. Meanwhile, it feels like the walls are closing in. Everybody's criticizing. What does USC do to bounce back? Yeah, well, I get to call this one on Saturday

afternoon with my partner Ted Robinson on the Pac-12 networks and can't wait to get there for a bunch of reasons um one it's the last time and I think 110 times they've played together which is just sad but we're going to celebrate it when you look at SC and I was there earlier this week in advance of this game while on the outside and you know this well enough this is la man everything is hyper dramatic everything is a lot of expectations which se has put on themselves but every coach pretty much puts on themselves like how are you supposed to generate excitement if you don't say our goal is to win and win big but within the walls of that thing the players the units the sides of the ball the staff like it's dialed in like they are not fragmenting it is not

I'm going to sit out the season like some of those comments are lunacy to me when you're looking at where we sit and I get why like I can have the conversation rationally around the why behind it but knowing Caleb Williams the way that I've gotten to know him since he was in high school knowing this program and covering it every single year like we have, this team's going to be fine. It's also in a rebuild. And I say that because we talked about UW and Oregon, and this gets no play, but we'll talk about it Saturday,

is their defensive fronts specifically. 90% of the impact players have been there. They were recruited out of high school. They've stayed and developed. Braylon Trice, Zion Tupeloa Fatui, Edafuan Ulofashio. That's at UW. Look at May Sfuna, Brandon Dorlis.

You look at Popo Amavai is in his seventh year for the Ducks. They have been there and developed. For SC, every player is in their first or second year in the program. And most of the people in the front seven are in their first year because of the transfer portal. And none of them are Cedric Ellis walking through the door or Leonard Williams walking through the door. Like there is still a developmental thing in college

football, especially on defensive front. So I know people want to tear apart the staff and Alex Grinch's defense. And I get all that. Like it's, it's what you kind of sign up for in this era with the amount of money the coaches are being paid and the expectations and the media. I get all that. But when you look at the football side of it, I do not see a program falling apart in shambles. I see a program who played poorly at Notre Dame, didn't play great against Utah, but played against a team that we just talked about as being a sleeper, or at least in the conversation conversation with his BFP and who's beat him the two previous times. Like, you know, I just think that some of those unknowns, and you look at the offensive line, they haven't been able to play complimentary football in the run game to set up some of the RPO stuff that they have a lot of success doing in Lincoln Riley's past.

And that's where we sit. And that's why coming into the season, I didn't pick him to go to the title game because I just felt like those other teams had more veteran elements to them that you knew you could count on right now for SC they've got to they got to come together in the last four weeks not as a team but just as a as an executioner in terms of 11 guys it's cliche but being in their proper gap it's a one gap defense offensively can you protect they've struggled in those areas too consistently to put themselves in position to be a top four team in the country and the the thing is the expectations are what they are and they are to at least make the pac-12 championship game but to do

that you probably have to beat oregon and washington does this feel like a team that's capable of doing that oh yeah they're capable, they've got the best player in America. Do I think they will today? No, I wouldn't feel confident saying that. And I know UW's coming off a performance where they struggled. But I think creatively, Washington is one of the most creative offenses I've seen in my life in terms of how they stretch you.

And they're motioning the sixth most in the country, the way they shift and move guys. Oregon, the way they just stress you with bo nicks's legs like he still hasn't carried the ball a ton in a game but it'll happen when they need it to happen so no man i i don't i don't think so i think tier one in this league right now is the two teams we just talked about tier two is really fun though because there's a bunch of teams sitting right there in SC, Utah, Utah, probably at the top, Oregon State at the top. It's really fun to talk about those two. And then SC, Arizona, UCLA, Washington State has shown they can compete in some of those games. They played great last week against Oregon, just gave them everything they could handle.

But that's kind of how I see this thing right now. But they could beat them for sure. They got the best player in the country. They got skilled players that have not been what we thought they would be this year but they have all the potential they flashed but they haven't put it together and they will they'll get one of them i think over the course of the last month another team still in the mix that that has to play a lot of these teams that we're talking about the beavers they got to go to arizona this weekend i ari finally broke through. It felt like Jed Fish's team was playing really well, but just couldn't get over that hump.

And they finally do against Washington State. And then they have a bye week to get ready for Oregon State. And they get Oregon State at home. It feels like the Wildcats are kind of in a good spot right now too. Yeah, well, it's been a beautiful rebuild. You look at year one, they played five quarterbacks. They were in eight games. They were within a score entering the fourth quarter.

Think about that in year one. Here we are in year three, and it's a totally different deal. They just beat a top 20 team in Washington State, one score game against UW at home. Every opportunity to beat SC in triple overtime didn't get it done. And you're right. It's a turning the corner opportunity for them. They haven't done it at home. I've called all the big games they've had at home, Oregon, UW, SC over the last two years, not able to get over the hump.

This is a huge opportunity. It's going to be raucous. And Jed Fish has created meaningful buzz in Tucson since he got there and definitely around big home games. This is as big as it gets. The challenge is they're playing a team that is really an anomaly when you look at college in Tucson since he got there and definitely around big home games. This is as big as it gets. The challenge is they're playing a team that is really an anomaly when you look at college football and how they play, what they do, and even how they're peaking with DJ Uyunglele and Aiden Childs giving you a little one-two punch at quarterback. I think Damian Martinez is the best back on the West Coast. His offensive line, they might have Jordan Morgan and Talisi Fulonga

might be the two best tackles on the West Coast if not in the conversation among the country when you look at the NFL draft next year let alone Jonah Savanai like this game has all the things to it uh I I think I give Oregon State the edge they've been in some of these environments before I think their style of play lends to themselves and we don't know who's going to play quarterback for Arizona and I wonder what that is going to do, but make no mistake. Arizona is coming. I messaged one of their guys on their staff after they beat Washington state. Cause we had that game and I said, man,

you got a chance to go win the big 12 next year. You guys got so much coming back. And immediately it was, we're trying to win the pack 12 right now. So you're right. They're in the conversation. They could be in that five team tie. I wouldn't be shocked if they got involved. Yeah.

And they're real. I think that's the other thing. Like I think in college football, we get accustomed, we get lazy. Arizona, uh, S he didn't play well or Wazoo didn't play well,

or UW didn't play well. How about Arizona's good? That's right. That's when you saw the way they beat Washington state. That's the only conclusion I could draw because it wasn't like they snuck by him. Like they beat the heck out of him, and Washington State has been good. Amen, man. 6-0 Washington State.

First drive of the game, they go down and score. They go for two, don't get it, and then 40-some unanswered points. And Jonah Coleman, right? He was a backup to Michael Wiley. Noah Fafita. You take away the first quarter against UW, and he's playing at a ridiculously high level. Yeah. Tyrell McMillan, Jacob Cowing, Tanner McLaughlin.

They're going to move the ball. That's why this game is going to be so fun, because the Beavs have been a little banged up. I'd imagine they got right in the bye week. We'll see come Saturday who's playing at corner. And in the second, they had some injuries there, because they need to be at full strength, because this offense can jump on you. And I don't know if Oregon State, like Utah, is built to come from behind and throw

it all over the yard. They can do it, but they want to run the football, play action pass. They want to control the game. And we'll see. I would imagine Arizona wants to get off to a pretty quick start and see if they could put a little pressure on the Beavs passing game. I cannot let you go. I'm contractually obligated to ask about Coach Prime because I do feel like the wider world may have said, okay, we've seen the Colorado stuff this year. Now let's wait until next year and see who they get. But I am fascinated to see if these guys can get bowl eligible

because I've said all along, if with this schedule they can get bowl eligible, I've said all along if with this schedule they can get bowl eligible it is one of the better coaching jobs you'll ever see they've got a pretty rough stretch starting with a game in the Rose Bowl against UCLA another team that is not out of anything by any stretch I mean how do you think this one goes I think this is going to be another fascinating one right we talked about Arizonarizona's quarterback situation ucla's quarterback situation i my gut says they go ethan garbers but i don't know him dante moore a little bit of colin schley uh who knows uh but they're going to run the football and carson steel is a proven legitimate power five back and it's the best garbers ran it well that's right his own read game it's it's it game, it's a part of what Chip Kelly wants to do.

He loves repeating calls. If you can find a weakness, he'll exploit it. What did Stanford do? They ran the same play, it seemed like seven times in the fourth quarter to beat Colorado in that comeback. They just kept running the same slant route. So I look at UCLA as the advantage here. The challenge, what I'll be wanting to watch in this game,

is how does the offensive line of Colorado and Shador Sanders handle this defensive UCLA? Because it's statistically on pace to be the best for the Bruins since 1988. Danton Lynn is their new defensive coordinator, son of Anthony Lynn, and they are an NFL defense. And by that, I mean, they're not just going to go play what they've played every game. They are going to give the opponent something new to deal with. So an example for the first four or five games of the season, they were playing five down front. That's what they were doing. They were covering everybody up on the offensive line and making it one-on-one. Then they played Cameron Ward, called that game best passing offense, number two offense in the

country at the time. And they went with a three-man front and let Liatu Latu roam all over that defensive front. And he was a game wrecker the whole game. So I want to see how does this offensive front of Colorado, which has struggled, especially when they don't get that first first down and get into tempo mode. If they have to just execute, how do they do it against one of the better defenses in the country, not just out West? I go with UCLA in this game, but I'm with you. I mean, you have to give Coach Prime and Deion Sanders,

his program, a ton of credit. You got this team to believe. What did he do in the bye week? He made him practice. I know that. So I'm excited to see how they come out. It's going to be crazy, though, because here in LA, you got these two teams, Colorado not playing, you know,

like they did in the first couple weeks of the season it's sold out the tarps are tarps are off at the rose bowl tarps off tarps are up tarps weren't off for sc last year so like the buzz from dion and in recruiting you better believe this is a huge opportunity for both teams in this ball game and at the rose bowl little game within a game too what can colin Colin Schley tell UCLA's defensive staff about Sean Lewis, the Colorado offensive coordinator? Because Sean Lewis was Colin Schley's head coach at Kent State.

I love it. Yeah, Sean's great, too. I'm happy for him and his offense and what he can do. He's a hell of a coach. So it's still year one for them, and I think that's the biggest challenge for them is the league's so good. And then they went and lost to Stanford, and it's seemingly like the bandwagon.

You thought people got off it, but again, here comes Herbie and Fowler to the Rose Bowl to call this game. If the Tarps are off at the Rose Bowl, that means it's a big deal. It's a big deal, man. I just love that. It's great for the West Coast. It's great for LA. I can't wait. It's going to be a really fun last month, month and a half of the season.

Well, Yogi, I can't wait to watch and we will be watching along and enjoy USC Cal for the last time, except for bowl games. Yeah, it's a bummer, but we're going to lean into it. We got all off season to be sad about it. Thank you, Yogi. Thanks so much to Yogi Roth, who is one of the great ones. And yes, we know what's happening with the Pac-12. Yogi's going to land on his feet.

We know that because that guy is awesome. And I understand his sadness because he loves that league and he loves these teams. And to see it all kind of coming to fruition now when all of it's falling apart in the boardroom it's just incredibly frustrating but Yogi's right they're going to celebrate it while they still can and they're doing a great job he is fantastic and I cannot wait to see who's lucky enough to scoop him up after all this. When we come back though,

I'm going to check in on Ohio State. Remember last week, this huge game, Ohio State, Penn State, felt like the biggest game in the country. Okay, maybe it wasn't the most interesting game, but Ohio State emerges victorious. They now have a level of control in the Big Ten. They should be able to win the rest of their games,

but they've got to go on the road. And historically, it's not always been easy after a big win where they've had to go on the road in the west side of the conference. They are going to Wisconsin, coming off a big, come from behind win against Illinois. We'll check in with Spencer Holbrook of Letterman Row. He is going to explain how the Buckeyes are faring coming out of that one against Penn state headed to Wisconsin. We are joined now by Spencer Holbrook of Letterman row. And no, we did not forget about Ohio state

just because the team on the other side of the rivalry is making all the news this week. The Buckeyes have a game like Spencer a couple years ago can you imagine Ohio State Wisconsin being this overshadowed by anything no and that's the craziest thing is like these two teams have played in big ten championship games they've there's been their share of upsets in Madison there's been the uh one score games I think the 2016 Ohio State team that went to the playoff played an overtime game in Madison and yet here we are are because Jim Harbaugh, I guess, has to have the spotlight at all times, apparently, because these two teams just aren't getting any love this week. This is a top three team on the road, and we're just not really talking about it. Well, and I think a lot of

that is Wisconsin playing with a backup quarterback and things not going as well for them this season as they had hoped. But I am curious with Ohio State, you know, coming off such a huge win against Penn State, is there any concern that, hey, that's a lot of eggs to put in that basket? Can they be ready again to go on the road and play? Oh, sure. And that's the thing. You know, I asked Ryan Day about it specifically on Wednesday night at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. He does like a 10-minute lightning round on Wednesday nights where a couple people get to pepper him with some questions, final updates.

And I said, Ryan, how do you know that a team is ready after an emotional win? How do you know that a team is okay with going on the road and competing in a game? Because this is a program that's had its struggles on the road in the Big Ten West after big games. It's a very niche market, but that's one that Ohio State had cornered there for two years under Urban Meyer. So, you know, he said you could see the look in their eye. You could see the way their energy of practice is.

He said they've had a great week of practice. He doesn't feel that the letdown is coming. Some weeks he could feel that. Even after Notre Dame, they had the off week. But you could still sense it a little bit during that week of the Maryland game. They were still kind of resting on that Notre Dame game a little bit. They know that the calendar is about to turn in November, and you cannot do anything as far as get complacent.

You have to be full go at all times because, you know, not only is this trip to Wisconsin coming up very quickly and it's going to be here on Saturday, but after Wisconsin you're four weeks from Ann Arbor. We know what they're building toward. It's not winning at Wisconsin. It's they're building toward winning at Michigan and building with each win along the way. Speaking of full go, Ryan Day said on his radio show that Travion Henderson is full go. How big of a difference does that make

for the running game having him back? Yeah, there were a couple runs against Penn State where you could see, you know, 32 probably hits that hole. 32 probably makes that play. And, you know, that's not a slight to Chip Traynham or to Mayan Williams or even to Dallin Hayden who ran pretty well, 76 yards, had a touchdown on just 11 carries in that win over Purdue a couple weeks ago. But Travion Henderson was a five-star prospect,

and he's a five-star player for a reason. He broke a freshman rushing record in his freshman year for a reason. So he's a special type of player. He's a special type of back when he's healthy. And I think he's going to make a huge difference for this running game. It's going to be a game that's won up front. Some of these Ohio State games, you can't really fall back on the old cliche because you kind of say press the mark button and go from there.

But in this game specifically, I think you've got to be able to run the ball a little bit with Travion, control the clock a little bit, or else Wisconsin's going to do that to you and keep your defense out on the field for 45 minutes of game clock. So I think Travion's going to make a huge difference in this game. And all accounts say that he's going to play. And we've heard that the last couple of weeks, Brian Day said, yeah, he's good. He's had a great week of practice. He's good. He's good.

But this week, Brian Day was pretty definitive and saying he's full go. He's had a good week of practice. So I don't, I think we're going to see 32 back on the field. Well, and it says something that they can go beat Penn state without him, but what did they feel like coming out of that game has to get better between now and when they play Michigan? Yeah, I think it's Kyle McCord just being more consistent. He started 5-5, then went one of his next seven, and then finished 60% passing. That's pretty good. 63% passing against Penn State. You're going to take that. 22-35, 286 with a

touchdown. You're going to take that, And you'll probably take it against Michigan knowing that your defense is pretty good and knowing that maybe your signs are different against Michigan. So you're going to have a good feeling going into that game with Kyle McCourt to be over 60%. But it's that consistency. He knows he needs to be better. He said he's his own biggest critic.

I've got that story out, lettermanroad.com right now. He knows the consistency needs to be there more. But if you're saying at the end of the day you're 60%, that's great. But you can't be 54% in the first half if it's 78% in the second. You've got to be consistent. And that's where it comes in. The offensive line gave him time by and large in this Penn State. They actually played their best game on the offensive line.

They look like they're starting to come together. They gave him time to get the ball to Marvin Harrison Jr. He's just got to do it a little bit more consistently for them to feel like, hey, we know that we can go in Ann Arbor and get a win. I'm glad you brought up the line because it did seem like that was the best they played all season. Everybody's big concern is how much will Kyle McCord be in distress in the pocket, and it certainly seemed like he wasn't.

Does that feel like it's repeatable? Does that feel like that was a one-off or what do you think has happened there? Yeah, they've taken small steps in the right direction, but it seemed like one step forward, one step back at all times with this line, you know, the penalties go away, but it was inconsistent up front. And then you were good up front, except the penalties were there. And you're not, not do out of a couple of drives.

It seemed like they started to put some things together. They've really, really simplified the running game with Justin Fry. Kind of pared everything down and given these guys a chance to not think so much, but just go and play. It's looked like it's working so far, and I asked Josh Fryer, the starting left tackle or right tackle, on

Wednesday night, you know, did it feel like you guys had more than 79 rushing yards? He said, absolutely. We felt like we were coming off the ball better. We felt like we were more aggressive. We felt like we were playing with more confidence. That's a big deal for this line. It wasn't playing with a lot of confidence, you know,

the first few weeks of the season. Notre Dame was a good step for them, but I think Penn State could prove to be a turning point for this line. I don't want to say that definitively just because you're never really sure when you have a line that struggles from time to time. And Wisconsin presents some unique challenges just in the way they play defense. But I thought this line took a really good step forward, and you could see them start to hit a stride potentially after Wisconsin

and Rutgers, two of the better fronts they're going to see on the way to the Michigan game. I think that things are looking up for that one. So we talked after this happened, but I'm curious now that several weeks have gone by, kind of what the cumulative effect of this was. We talked about Ryan Day going after Lou Holtz, which it didn't matter who it was. It was somebody calling Ohio State soft and Ryan Day coming back very hard. How much did that kind of galvanize this team and how much did it help him kind of gain their

trust and belief? Yeah, I think it had a pretty good effect on this team. It made them believe even more in Ryan Day. Every team is going to say they believe in their head coach, unless you see a team that's completely on quick watch when it comes to their head coach. Every team says they believe in the head coach. When he goes out and does something like that, I think you really have to latch on to those kind of things. You have to really see that's the guy that you want leading the charge for you. It's galvanized the leadership in this group with Tommy Eikenberg, a linebacker, and Kate Stover at tight end

and Kyle McCord growing into leadership role. And Ryan Day kind of took that on a little bit, I think, and that night, just like, hey, we've got some good leaders on this team, but I'll be the guy to lead us into war every time. And I think that there's something to be said about that. And now there's a lot out there about Ryan Day still. There's a lot out there about Ohio State still, especially with this week with the story that's come out. But the Buckeyes have remained focused. I think that's a big deal. After this Penn State game, they feel like they were more

physical than Penn State, which is a huge deal considering what we think of Penn State. Right. And so you think you're more physical than Penn State. You think your leadership is starting to come around. And it's all on the back of that Notre Dame win which obviously we're all going to remember for how Ryan Day reacted which I think has kind of rejuvenated this entire team and they've kind of kind of ran with that with that uh you know Ohio against the world mentality that he brought up there that night I feel like another takeaway from that Penn State game is how important Cade Stover is to this offense and the passing game specifically, because even without Emeka Bukit, it felt

like he gave them another dynamic target that, you know, maybe in past years, Ohio State didn't have a tight end. Yeah, it's interesting because my good friend and Leonard Monroe staff writer, Tim Mayway, says the tight end is always open. Ohio State's never utilized it correctly, I guess, because we've seen really good tight ends. Jeremy Ruckert a few years ago was the number one tight end in the country coming out of high school and just had a career at Ohio State.

He was there for four years, and he did some nice things, but he never had more than 30 catches. He never had more than 500 receiving yards. And now all of a sudden you've got Cade Stover on the Politnikoff Award watch list, which is just mind-blowing for an Ohio State tight end. It's really fun to see Cade do all of this, because last year he was known as kind of a road grader and not really much else. But as the season went on,

you saw his hands get a little softer. You saw him become a little bit better of a pass catcher. And Keenan Bailey, the tight ends coach, deserves a lot of credit for that because he's worked with him as a receiver from when Keenan was a wide receiver's assistant for Brian Hartline. He's kind of infused that into him. But now you see this evolution of a guy who can throw a block. He's not the greatest blocker in the world. He will even admit that.

He needs to get better there. He'll throw a block for you um i think he's not afraid to uh to fight people um just because that's who he is as a farmer you guys i mean i played i played defensive end too like he the physicality part you never worry about with him it's just for me it was can he develop into somebody who's a threat a real threat in the past game and it seems like. I mean, there was a third down conversion in that game where he made a catch. I don't think many Titans in the country could have made. Yeah, the mossing in the middle of the field. Like, if you do that on the sideline, that's one thing, you know,

you make a nice catch on the sideline as a Titan. Okay, that's fine. You make a catch like that in the middle of the field, knowing some contacts coming your way, knowing you've got to go over a guy who is in all likelihood much more athletic than you, that's probably the most impressive thing I've seen Cade do. Because, you know, even a guy who's around him a lot, I didn't know he had that in him.

And when you see that, you're like, oh, okay, this is a guy who can really, really help them. And, you know, if Kyle's ball might not be in the best placement, he can still go get it. You know that touchdown catch against Purdue where he reached back for it. Now Ryan Day is operating in a capacity where everyone's got a cue on Marvin. Everyone's got a cue on Emeka Buka when he comes back. And now you have the ability to sneak Cade Stover up the seam like he did

against Indiana in game one or, you know, leak out on the other side of the rollout like he did against Purdue in game one, or, you know, leak out on the other side of the rollout, like he did against Purdue a couple weeks ago, you're starting to see Ryan Day realize in real time that he has a tight end he can rely on deep in the passing game. And it is bringing in like a new layer, a new infusion to this offense that we haven't seen. Even when Kevin Wilson was there, he was like a tight end guru. We didn't really see that.

And so we're seeing that now. And it's really cool to see, especially with Cade being the beneficiary of it, because he's just so fun to talk to. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we had him on the show last week. I mean, that dude, that's the guy you want on your team, like as a teammate, because you know he's given everything he's got at any given moment and, shoot, knows how to work hard when all you do is work on the farm in your spare time.

You mentioned Emeka Buka. He's been out. Ryan Day has said he thinks that he should be back for Wisconsin. How much do they kind of bring him back slowly to make sure he's fully ready to go by the end of the season? Yeah, it's something they're going to have to be careful with, Andy, because we saw him on the field pregame in the Penn State game. He really tried. He wanted to be, he lived in the training room last week trying to get back to that Penn State game. And he warmed up with the team,

and then he gave Brian Hartline a big hug, and they had a nice conversation on the field before they went in for the final dress and then come out for the game. And when I saw that conversation, I was like, yeah, I think Brian Hartland's talking to him potentially about not playing in this game, just, you know, we need you for the stretch run. And I think that's the biggest message here is they need him for that stretch run. Marvin Harrison Jr. is amazing. He really is.

He can get the ball no matter how many times you know it's going to him, he can get it. However, having Emeka Boog in there adds just another guy that you probably have to bracket. You probably have to double-team because if you don't, he will make a one-on-one, you know, his matchup. And I think that's so important for this offense. We've seen special receivers time and time again in this offense. Paris Campbell had Chris Olave in that 2018 game. It ended up freeing up, the 2018 Michigan game, ends up freeing up Olave for two touchdowns,

then Campbell for two touchdowns. We saw it in 2019 and 20 with Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave, how the two of them being on the field was simply better because it's harder to defend two with two guys than it is one with two guys. It just makes such a difference. And time and time again, we've seen pairs of Ohio State receivers. Well, Marvin Harrison Jr. is good enough to be on his own, but he's even better when he's got Emeka and Buka out there

occupying some of that mental capacity for these C-Cups coordinators as well. He makes a huge difference. And I think they're much better served having him for the Michigan game than they are having him for Wisconsin and Rutgers. So I'm anxious to see how they bring him back. I'm not sure if it'll be in full capacity this week. Where does Colonel Tate fit into that? Is he sort of the Marvin of 2021?

Is that where he is right now? Yeah, I mean, if you told me that this team somehow didn't make the college football playoff, and we could talk about that in a different conversation, I guess, and Marvin Harrison Jr. was like, you know what? I'm okay not playing the Cotton Bowl. I'm going to go study for the NFL draft. I can see Carnell Tate having three touchdowns in a bowl game, just like Marvin Harrison Jr. did because he's that kind of talent.

Marvin actually said that freshman year Carnell Tate this year is in a better place than 2022 Marvin Harrison Jr. was when Marvin Harrison Jr. became the best receiver in the country. And maybe that's Marvin hyping up his guy who he really trains with and likes. But Marvin Harrison Jr. knows his microphone. He knows that people don't take what he says lightly. And when he said that, everybody's jaw dropped because it was just one of those things where like, are you serious?

Are you meaning that he's better as a freshman than you were? He says, no, he's better as a freshman than I was as a sophomore. So they know the talent they have with Carnell Tate. They know the talent that is in the room, waiting in the wings to be next up. And he was targeted, the guy with the second most targets, a receiver last week, in a top-ten matchup was Carnell Tate. They're getting him more involved. He's becoming more of a weapon for them.

I wouldn't be surprised if you don't even have to have an opt-out in a bowl game to see Cardinal Tate this year. You could see him have that 2018 Chris Olave game like he had against Michigan. You could see that from Cardinal Tate in any of these next five games, and I would not be surprised at all. He's that kind of talent, and Kyle McCord obviously is willing to look for him in big-time moments. It's going to be fun the rest of the way to figure out how they spread it around as he, as a book comes back and Tate develops and a lot to lot to figure out as

Ohio state hurdles toward a, a big one in Ann Arbor less than a month from now, Spencer, thank you so much. Thank you so much for watching. It is going to be an incredible week of college football. There should be some sneaky ones in there. I'm telling you right now,

all eyes will be on that Texas A&M-South Carolina game in the early window. If the Gamecocks pull off the upset, we'll be talking a lot about the Aggies next week. I can tell you that right now. World's largest outdoor cocktail party, of course. Oregon-Utah, going to be a fantastic game

elimination game for the college football playoff and oh by the way after these games this week next week for cfp rankings it's all coming together enjoy the games and we will talk to you on saturday night and we will talk to you on Saturday night.