Andy & Ari On3 - New Kentucky coach Will Stein explains why the Wildcats can compete in the SEC NOW | Gus Malzahn Retires | Ohio State's TOUGH 2026 Schedule

Episode Date: February 2, 2026

Happy Groundhog Day! While Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow to indicate six more weeks of winter, Kentucky Head Coach Will Stein joins the show to explain why Kentucky can WIN NOW in the SEC. Watch here as Coach Stein discusses his journey to the Bluegrass state, returning home, and bringing in experienced talent to Kroger Field. (0:00) On Today’s Episode(1:55) Presenting Sponsor(3:18) Intro: Previewing Will Stein Interview(5:02) Kentucky HC Will Stein Joins(27:01) Florida State OC Gus Malzahn Retires(42:50) Ohio State’s 2026 Schedule(1:02:05) USC Trojans 2026 Schedule(1:06:07) Matt Campbell’s 1st Schedule at Penn State(1:08:56) Groundhog Day 2026(1:11:49) Andy & Ari’s Weekend Recap(1:14:50) Best Weekends for a medical procedure(1:19:34) Ari as a cowboy?(1:20:50) College Basketball Recap(1:23:10) Thanks for Watching! After Coach Stein’s interview, we go from one coach who mentored Bo Nix in college to another. Florida State OC Gus Malzahn announced on Monday morning he would be retiring from coaching. Making notable stops along his career at Arkansas, Tulsa, Auburn, UCF, and Florida State, the offensive guru is hanging it up. Andy & Ari discuss his impressive career here. Looking ahead to next season, the Big Ten released its conference schedules for the 2026 season. Watch here as Andy & Ari dive deep into the schedules of Ohio State, USC, and Penn State. Will Ohio State actually struggle in the regular season? To close, the fellas recap this past weekend in College Basketball as Kentucky grabbed a big win in Fayetteville and Todd Golden kept his promise for when the Gators would play Alabama. Thanks for watching! See you tomorrow! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM, we are joined by new Kentucky coach Will Stein, former Oregon offensive coordinator, one of the hot young coaches. He was a coordinator who actually got hired this cycle, which tells you how big time this guy could be. And once you hear his vision for Kentucky, you may start to believe as well. Plus, Gus Malzon retires from Florida State as the offensive coordinator. We talk about an incredible career. in college football for a guy who started off as a high school coach and then went to the highest of highs at the college level.

Plus, Ari and I break down the new Big Ten schedule, especially what it means for Ohio State because the Buckeyes have a tough, tough schedule next year, but it should be a lot more fun for Buckeyes fans to watch. We'll break it down. All on today's Annie on Ari on 3, presented by BEDMGM. We are presented by BEDMGM all the line. lines and totals come from Bed-MGM and is a big week in the sport of football, big week for

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See bedmgm.com for terms 21 plus only. U.S. promotional offers are not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler in the U.S. Call 8778 Hope N. N.Y or text Hope N. 4-67369 in New York. Call 1-800 next step in Arizona.

call 1-800-327-50-50-0 in Massachusetts, call 1-800-off in Iowa or 1-800-1-801-0-200 in Puerto Rico. First-Bet offer for new customers only, subject to eligibility requirements, rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for bed at MGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to Annie Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM and Ari. I am so excited to get to this interview. Will Stein, the new Kentucky coach, is joining us.

I think he may be the guy that I'm most excited to see of this entire new wave of new head coaches. Anybody who listened to the show knows where I stood on hot shot young coordinators who come from big time programs. It was driving you nuts that they weren't getting looks for jobs. And this is one, and I said this too. We had well on the show when he was the Oregon offensive coordinator, I think it was June 24.

And it was like, oh, my God, this guy is destined to be a head coach. I bet he's going to be a good one when he is one. And now he has a chance at Kentucky, which, you know, we would jokingly call the best job in America when Mark Stoops was there. I don't know that we can call it that anymore because I think the fact that they fired Mark Stoops for not performing up to snuff, the pressure's on there. You're supposed to go win, but that's not something I think that Will Stein is going to shy away from. No, I think that the fact that their expectations are there also leads to the upped investment in the program and all the things that are around it.

So I think he's going to win there. I love the hire when they made it. And I also love that that hot shot coordinator that comes from Oregon also is from Kentucky. Like, it's a good fit too. So I'm super excited to have him on the show here today, Andy. and I think he's going to do really well there. Well, let us break it all down with Will Stein himself, because, again, you can tell just from talking to him

that he has a definitive plan. He knows what he wants to do. We'll see if he can pull it off. Here is Will Stein. We're joined now by Will Stein, the new coach at Kentucky, in an office that looks very well decorated, but like I remember hearing you talk about

when you were trying to do double duty as Oregon's OC and Kentucky's head coach. Like somebody else decorated that for you, right? You were coming in and placing helmets and shelves. That's correct. Yes. Yes. I actually showed up back from the Peach Bowl,

which is a really fun day for me. And my office looked like this. I was like, wow, this is pretty good. You guys did good. I think they got pictures from my wife's like Instagram and like put them in frames. I'm like, wow, this is great. Can they come over and do my house now?

I know. I know. I need the same. Coach, I know that you're from there, you know all about it. But when you got to Kentucky and you walked through the facility for the first time, were you surprised by how nice it was? Because I was, I went there and did a story a few years ago about the recruiting strategy. And I walked in.

I was like, this is one of the nice facilities in college football. Like, did you know that before you got there? And obviously you were coming from Oregon. So it wasn't like, you know, yeah, I remember the old like nutter for you. facility is when I was a kid growing up and coming to games and going to like the K house of my dad, like the Letterman's Club. I remember that facility. I had never stepped foot into this facility, obviously. But no, I mean, the craft center is, it's elite. You know, it's got everything that you want. We're in the works to make some even more improvements to this for our players, which is really cool. But no, it is definitely a top of the line place for recruits and for our own players and staff. How strange is this? So you grew up, you know, obviously following Kentucky. Dad played there.

You went to Tubby Smith basketball camp and won the free throw award. That's right. But you end up playing quarterback at Louisville at the rival school. So like, I'm sure when you walk into the job, you have all this background knowledge on Kentucky. And people are like, oh, you're the Louisville guy. There's a little bit of that. I think people are calling us like Louisville East. You know, that's the whole rival.

It's saying all that. I'm like, okay, that's cool. Yeah, I did. I had obviously my entire childhood until about two months before I enrolled at Louisville was Kentucky. I mean, I was, I remember the first time I put on a Louisville sweatshirt. I went to the indoor facility there watching their spring practice. I was like, God, this is just different. You know, it's different for me.

Different colors. I was never a red guy or a black guy. But, you know, it's one of those things, man. Everything works out for a reason. I'm a true believer in that. I went there, had an unbelievable time, I was able to stay in my home city. I met my wife there. I met Charlie Strong there who got me to Texas where I met Jeff Trailer.

That helped me, you know, improve my coaching resume and obviously taught me a ton, big mentor of mine. And then I got to Oregon and then I'm back at Kentucky. So I'm a firm believer. You treat people the right way. You do a great job where you're at. And good things can happen to you. So it all has worked out. and I'm back in the colors that I wore up until I was about 18 and a half years old.

And then I wore different colors for seven years. And now I'm back in blue. So it's all good. Well, you know, this past coaching carousel, there were a lot of coaching candidates who did really good things at their alma mater. And when we're trying to discuss who might go where or who might be persuaded to leave, we always run into this dead end or this roadblock of, well, that's that person's on the mater, or that's where that person's from,

or that's where this person's past is from. Since you're in a different exact opposite situation, I was wondering from your perspective, what personal ties, where you played, where you're from, how much does that impact the coach when making a decision about their future and how did it impact you specifically? I think it definitely pulls at your heart

strengths. You know, I'm not going to sit here and say that it doesn't. Ultimately, you want to go to a place where you can win and where you can sustain success and where you can recruit and develop the best players in the country. And I always looked at Kentucky as a place as a, you know, why can't this be a premier place? I mean, you have everything as you want facility-wise. You have backing from administration. You have elite fans. You can recruit north, south, you can go east. There's no reason in hell this place can't be a destination job for a coach or a player. So that's what really drew me to Kentucky, more than just my heart and my fandom as a kid. You know, I left a premier offensive coordinator job where I could have been for a long time. So to move here, I really felt my heart and my soul and in my brain that this is a spot that we can go in. I heard you in your press conference, you got asked about Indiana because I think it was right before the national title game. and you had just obviously played them. But I look at it, and we brought you up in a conversation the other day,

when we were talking about, okay, who else might be able to do this? And you take over a situation at Kentucky that's not as dire as the situation Kurt Signetti took over in Indiana. I mean, it feels like the opportunity is there for the right person, the right set of circumstances. And you mentioned that Kentucky is giving you the resources to do what you need to do. So, you know, you said something the other day, and I really stuck with me. You said, and everybody says the schedule is hard, but they have to play us too. How excited are you to show what this can be?

Very. And listen, like potential, I heard this a long time ago, resonates with me as potential is everything that you're not. You know, it's everything that you can be. So listen, we still have a lot of work ahead. We are in really our phase one of our offseason where our guys are working their asses off in the weight room, running. We're going to start some winter walkthroughs coming up and bleed it in the spring ball. So we're nowhere where we need to be.

I'm just excited about, listen, man, I've never called a play and I think was scored touchdown. You know, I'm that type of guy. I'm a glass half full guy. I'm excited to see where our team's going to be. But yeah, I want an edge, man. Like, why not us? You know, let's go, let's go cut it loose. And let's make sure that we're in a position where we can go, you know, disrupt this league.

and to make it, make it interesting and not just make an interesting, but go win. And that's what's really excited for me and this team. And, yeah, I mean, I want our guys to feel that energy, that enthusiasm, that passion that, when done the correct way, with the right work ethic and, you know, the right scheme and coaching, that really anything's possible. Coach, in this sport five years ago saying that you could win a national championship at Kentucky would have sounded like a pipe dream. This sport has been done a certain way for such a long period of time, and it was reserved, the highest glory was reserved for programs like the one you just left.

And then Indiana just won the national title. And it seems like it's opened up this whole new world of reality or potential or just possibility for places that it didn't frankly exist at before. How has that changed your perspective as a coach? And does it change recruiting? Has it changed the way people show up every day? Like this can actually be done. We just saw it be done. Yeah.

Does it change the way you are now? I mean, I think you just see like what we're able to do in the portal. We got starting left tackle from Tennessee's playing for us, left guard from Ohio State, center from Baylor, a swing player from Alabama. Like we're getting guys not just because of money. We built relationships with these guys during the time we were able to. And we showed them the plan and the vision for what this place will be. which that's what's really exciting.

You don't see rosters that are, you know, top to bottom as much anymore with all first-round picks. You know, I remember watching some of the teams of old where the four-string running back is still a first-round pick. It's a little bit more spread out now. But it still comes down to, it does come down to players and the coaches and the scheme. And you look at Indiana what they were able to do. They had an older roster. They were coached as good as any team I've ever gone against. and they had elite players.

Their quarterback is going to be the first pick in the draft. So let's not confuse it. They have elite players and elite scheme, and they're coached extremely well. That's what everybody's striving for. That was the top of the spear this year. And I was a part of two games where they whip my ass, just to be frank. And they played better than everybody that they played against. So it's a credit to them and their staff, their players,

they're buying from their administration, their fans. You know, I've seen, you guys have probably seen it on Twitter or X, whatever it's called. You know, Kirk Cignetti's like first game. It's like not even that full, you know, and then he just goes in there and wins. And so they're definitely the standard of college football as of now. And it's exciting for all of us to fight to get to that place. I'm very interested that you went where you went when you talked about your transfer class, because that was my next question because you did go out against Lance Heard,

who was the starting left tackle at 10th. to see the past two years. Colton Price, three-year starter at Senator Baylor. I don't have your spreadsheet in front of me with what you spent on portal players, but I would guess that a hefty investment was made in the offensive line, especially with guys who've played a lot. Like Tiger Shraboli, you mentioned him from Ohio State. How critical was it to get guys who have played snaps and quality snaps at quality places that can play for you right now? It's big. You know, I got the job December 1st, I believe December 2nd was signing day.

So yeah, we end up with, I think, 10 high school players that we signed, but you just don't have the time spent to go. You have actually zero time to go recruit, retain, all that stuff. So we kept that class intact as much as we could. And then it was our job, our duty, to go get the best players possible for us to go play winning football on Saturdays. And I believe we did that, especially at vital spots. This league, this game is won in the trenches, especially November and December.

If you can't run the ball or stop the run, you got no chance. So we had to make an investment at O-line D-line with older veteran guys that have played high-level ball at this level, and some of them in this league or in the Big Ten. So that was a major investment for us. But more than anything, I really believe we got the right people. These guys are football junkies. They love it. And those are the type of guys that we wanted to bring in this program.

are workers and guys that really love ball. You know, I remember Dan Lannings' first game as Oregon's head coach. They played Georgia in Atlanta, I believe. Andy was at Atlanta? It was a dog. I remember that. And they lost, I think, almost 50. And then I saw the build of to what Oregon became, you know, ultimately the last few years.

Obviously, his past that Georgia helped him visualize, understand, and strive for what a championship level roster looks like. What do you think you can take away from your experience at Oregon? And do you feel like you have a better command as a result of your time at Oregon in understanding what the roster at Kentucky has to look like to win at that level? Yeah, 100%. It's kind of funny. Dan and I's paths were somewhat similar, different sides of the ball.

But, you know, he was a high school coach at one time. So was I. He was a GA at a big school, like Alabama. I was at Texas. He went to, I guess it was the American, maybe he was conference USA when he was at Memphis. I was at UTSA. Then he gets on at a big school like Georgia. I went to Oregon.

So there's a lot of similarities in our paths and how we got to where we are now. So to answer your question, yes, I feel like I have learned the blueprint of what it means and how to be successful at this level. But the blueprint is just a blueprint. you still have to go work and execute it. There has to be action steps to creating a team that is physical, that is tough, that, you know, stands the test of time. And that's what has really been built now at Oregon, which is really cool to see and really cool that I was a part of that.

So there's a lot of things that go into having a successful program. Players are won, coaching, but then just how to run a practice. You know, what does an all-season look like? what does walkthroughs look like what does summer look like there's a lot of things that are involved that Dan really grew me on and

and really grew me as a coach which I mean I got all the credit in the world to Dan and get me to the spot well that's what I love both you guys it's so interesting because you're not really from one tree like Dan's worked with Kirby Smart he's work with Mike Norvell with Todd Graham

you work with Charlie Strong you work with Jeff Traylor you work with Dan And it's such a different set of influences. As a person like Charlie Strong made me do pushups in high school at football camp when he was a position coach at Florida. So I've known him a long time. And he seems like a great mentor. But what do you take from those different sources?

Yeah, I'm a product of great coaches. Seriously, like my middle school coaches were great. My high school coach is the winningest coach in Kentucky high school history. I won three state titles with him. Then I had Steve Crackdor, God rest his soul, was an amazing person that allowed me to walk on at Louisville. Then Charlie. Then I was with Bobby Petrino, then Tom Herman for a little bit.

And then Charlie again, then Tom Herman, then Hank Carter at Lake Travis, Jeff, Dan. So I am. I'm truly am blessed. And you don't try to be anything that you're not. That's the thing that I've tried to stay true with is that I'm going to be my authentic self, every single day.

And when you can be yourself and you can grab from experiences and learning lessons from these phenomenal coaches, it gives you a chance to be successful. It doesn't guarantee anything. Just because you work for somebody doesn't mean you're going to be

the next Dan Lanning or the next Charlie Strong, but it does give you the ability to use what you've learned and to go apply it. Well, this last coaching carousel was kind of the Lane Kiffin Show a little bit, but other programs it felt like there was an emphasis put on acting or sitting head coaches were the only candidates. What's it like going through it as somebody who is like an up-and-coming coordinator and coaching candidate?

And is it easy or did you become resentful at the time of the sentiment of like you need to have already been a head coach to be considered? And what do you think it is about you and your resume that helps you, you know, transcend that and become the next head coach of Kentucky? Yeah, I mean, there's no resentment, you know, at all. I mean, I understand guys have jobs to do, and you just try to put yourself in a place that gives you the opportunity. You know, nothing's guaranteed at all. I knew I had a phenomenal job at Oregon, regardless of what happens, I'm the offense coordinator of Oregon. I'm coaching Dante Moore. Like, that's okay with me, okay?

But when this came about, it just sparked me in a different way than maybe some other spot. that I had the opportunity to at least interview for. And I knew that if I get this opportunity, I'm going balls to the wall, full throttle to get it. And that's, I think, what was different about Kentucky than some of the others is my, really just the joy that overcame me with being able to be the head coach here. So, no, it's got to be the right fit. So 80s have, I mean, it's like a coach, man. You get one shot at this. There's not a lot of shots.

So when you get it, you want to make the best fit for your school. So there was definitely no resentment in that. I just was very happy that I got the job here and was able to get the opportunity. How much of that is an understanding of what Kentucky can be? Because it seems like you have a very clear vision of what it's going to look like. It was in 2021. I mean, Liam's calling the offense here. And they have Will Levis.

Yeah. We've actually been good on defense. It's about really like scoring points, you know. And so, and obviously stopping guys on defense. There's three phases of football. We all know that. But what was it? 2021, they were like seventh in the country.

That sparks my joy and sparks me as a coach. Like, all right, let's call some freaking football plays on offense and let's get a quarterback and go run the show and let's stop people on defense. Like, it's already kind of happened here. I mean, they were like fourth and inches from beating Texas last year. I mean, I look up, it's Ole Miss versus Kentucky at home. It's 30 to 20.

It's not like it was, you know, that's kind of what gets me going. I'm like, God, it's like it's right there. Let's change some things where we need to and reinvest in this program and get coaches that are bought in and recruit our ever-living assail every single day and do that. And you give yourself a chance. You don't guarantee anything, but you give yourself a really good chance. Hey, one last one for me here, coach. In my past, I covered a bunch of Big Ten football and I went down to Lexington a few times to visit with Coach Stoops there. and they had a very clear plan when they were there before the sport change,

which was go up into Ohio a ton with their past and recruit some of the players that were very good, but Ohio State didn't have room for and took some of the seconds from Ohio that should have been firsts for the rest of the Big Ten. And it worked, and they got better. And they did some things there that weren't done there in a long time. Obviously, with NIL and the way things have changed, old blueprints, old past, the success of Kentucky might not be relevant now. how much do you take from some of the things that Coach Stoops did in the past there? And how is being a head coach in 2026 in terms of formulating your own blueprint different than maybe it would be taking over out of place that had a blueprint 10 years ago?

Yeah, I mean, Coach Stoops is one of the best coaches. I mean, he's the winningest coach in Kentucky football history. So what he did for his 13 years here was, you know, obviously exceptional. So I think there's a lot of things that you can take from those years. here in terms of recruiting areas and what's worked but it's a new age as well in terms of NIL rev share who we can go get where we go recruit the social media presence that a school has might resonate a kid in let's just say Oklahoma and just using a random state more than maybe prior when you didn't have

everything is visible now so we're gonna go recruit wherever we have to go recruit. I love it because we are in the south but we're in the Midwest like we got a little bit of everything. We're like the northernmost I would think SEC schools. You can go north of Ohio like you mentioned, East Coast DMV but then there's a lot of ties in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, the Carolinas. So you want to make sure you're taking care of that and ultimately recruiting the state of Kentucky. Like you got to win the state like I got coach Brom down the down the road another Trinity alum like myself, that he's going to try to get the best players from the state as well. So got to make sure we're taking our home first, farming our own land, but then going wherever it

takes to go get the best players for us. And I said in my press conference the other day, I'll go to Alaska. We can go wherever we need to to get the best players. You didn't have to go far to get a quarterback. Kenny Mitchie's from Nashville. He was playing it up at Notre Dame. What was it about him that made you decide this is the guy I want to build around? Well, when I talked to him, I love just as personality, infectious personality, somebody that enjoy talking with, communicating with. Great family. Obviously, playing at Notre Dame was big for me because I got a lot of respect for Coach Denbrock, a lot of respect for Gino Goduli and what they do with quarterbacks and just an offensive structure. So I know he's been coached extremely well. And they felt, too, I mean,

that if Kenny would have been the starter last year, they felt like they really could have done very similar in terms of their season that they did this year. And that's no, it's not bashing anybody else. It's just they really felt like it was a toss-up of who it would be. I think it was really difficult for them to decide. And obviously, one with the other kid. So I love that about Kenny. I love that he's competed.

Like, he has nothing's been given to him, which is cool. And then when you watch the tape, again, has he started a bunch of games? No. But there's critical factors when you put on the tape. Accuracy, throwing on time, movements. skills. He's running a modern pro style offense, very similar to us, where he has checks at the line of scrimmage. So that's what was really cool to me to have a guy at a program like Notre Dame come here and to be able to play, which is something we're looking forward to. We can't wait to see. You've been pretty good with the quarterbacks you've had so far.

I mean, you know, Frank Harris. We got Bow Knicks. We got Dan Gabriel, got Dante. It's a pretty good list. I've been very blessed, to be honest. We're only as good as our players, but all those guys are extremely coachable and football junkies. And, yeah, definitely changed my life for sure. Will Stein, thank you so much and good luck. Andy, I appreciate you. Yep.

Thanks, bring here. See you. We go from a guy who coached Bo Nix at Oregon and Will Stein to the guy who signed Bo Nix out of high school. Gus Malzahn, former Auburn coach, former Florida State offensive coordinator, now former, because he has retired from Florida State. And Ari, I got to say,

Gus Malzon might be the nicest human being in the history of college football. Do you know why? Why? Because he has saved his last two schools so much money. So much money. So for those of don't remember, Gus Malzon was the head coach at UCF

after he got fired at Auburn. So he gets fired at Auburn, collects a $20.5 million buyout, which at the time was the highest buyout ever paid. Jimbo Fisher's then eclips that. Gets hired immediately at UCF and was doing pretty well there, but it felt like it was going downhill a little bit

there at the end of 2024. And UCF wasn't really in the financial position to fire him. I believe the buyout would have been $12 million as of December 1st, 2004. So Gus does not make them fire him. He doesn't sit there and go, okay, I'm going to keep coaching or you're going to fire me. No, he takes the Florida State offensive coordinator job and goes there, which allows UCF to hire Scott Frost, doesn't have to pay a buyout. He then in this case, retires when I believe Florida State would owe to him $4 million if they had fired him

after last season. And I don't know that Mike Norvell wanted to fire him after last season, but I think there were plenty of Florida State fans who were not happy with the way the offense was going. So Gus Malzon has saved his last two schools $16 million in dead money. That's a prince of a human being. Plus, I just got to say, R. He'll have a football coach. You say what you want about at the end, maybe it wasn't working the way it should have been. Gus Malzon was so innovative and did so much offensively early in his career, whether it was being the OC at Tulsa, the OC at Auburn, then coming back as a head coach at Auburn, he absolutely changed offensive football. When he was a high school coach in Arkansas, he had NFL coaches and college

coaches coming to see him to figure out how he ran his offense. So, I mean, this guy's a genius and a trailblazer in football. So I want to celebrate him properly, but I also want to say, just a great dude who saved his last two schools $16 million in dead money. It's going to say, like saving all that money for your schools from being a high school guy is a pretty good career arc. And I think it kind of shows you how far he came, right? You know, he also was a part of some of the biggest games ever. You know, he was a part of the kick six at Auburn.

He coached maybe the best college football player of all time. A very decorated career, Andy. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he was the OC at Auburn when Cam Newton was the quarterback when they won the national title in 2010. And Gene Chiswick was the head coach of that team, but I think Gus gets a lot of credit. And obviously, Cam gets the bulk of the credit because he deserves it. But Gus did an amazing job with Cam creating an offense that was perfect for him.

I would say Gus's best coaching job was the 2013 Auburn team. That was his first year's Auburn's head coach. And remember, the year before Chisick had been fired, Auburn had gone 0 and 8 in SEC play, Gus gets the head coaching job, and they win the SEC and go play for the national title in year one. That was the year with the kick six. That was the year with the prayer at Jordan Hare, which is the throw that bounces through two Georgia defenders' hands into Ricardo Lewis's hands. So they had the miracles in consecutive SEC games with Georgia and Alabama. And it doesn't matter because taking a team from 0 and 8 in the league to winning the league,

playing for the national championship. And remember, that was a very tight game between Auburn and Florida State. It was a great leaping Kelvin Benjamin catch in the end zone that won it for Florida State near the end of that game. And that game feels like... Gus Malzon had a hell of a run. I cannot believe it's been more than 10 years since that game.

I mean, like, I can still picture that Benjamin catch in my head. Can't you? Doesn't that feel like it was way more recent than that? So that was one of my first Sports Illustrated covers. And that picture was so beautiful. I always tell people they don't call it sports words and there's a reason for that

because the photographers are so talented that they are the stars and that picture was just amazing and do you know what DB was covering Kelvin Benjamin on that play? I don't. Who was it?

It was Chris Davis who had run back to Kix. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I didn't know that. Yeah. I mean, anytime I just, I think about Davis, I just like that behind the body shot of him just,

scampering down the sideline is the only thing I think about. But yeah, I mean, there was also a huge size advantage there, right, Andy? Oh, yeah. Kelvin Benjamin was massive. I mean, I think he's listed at 660. He might have actually been taller than that. And it was like 240 pounds. I'm looking at the, I'm looking at the cover right now.

The Florida statement is the headline on it. And I wrote the story from the Rose Bowl. But this is just such a beautiful picture. I love it so much. You should get a frame to put it in your house. I have it framed. Okay. I can't remember which ones you have.

But if I don't have them all hung up right now. There's, I have to, I kind of rotate them. I always call Andy. There's so many cool ones. S.I. the way that he did and had cover stories like I would have every single one of them framed,

like down a long hallway in my house. So everybody who comes by has to walk by them like a personal hall of fame. But I'm also like a press box at Alabama. Yeah. Right. Every time we walk by the press box at Alabama, like I just get goosebumps because I get to work with that guy every day. Robert Beck.

is the name of the photographer, lived in San Diego, and I worked with him on a few different things, but he was usually the one who got sent to do the championship game. And his action shots are just incredible. How much did you collaborate with photographers then? For something like that, I didn't. But he's down there shooting the game. I'm working on my story,

and the editors are deciding what photos they want to use. You can't plan a moment like that. I just mean, like, did you actually have, like, There were sometimes when we were doing a feature story and, you know, somebody's going to sit for the photo, you talk to the photographer and say, here's what I'm thinking about. Here's what I'm writing the story. Here's the theme of the story. And they kind of go from there. But they were geniuses.

I was more than happy to just go, you guys do your thing. And I'm going to go write a story and it's not going to be as good as the photos that you're going to take. But, you know, it's interesting, though, because that's sort of the collaboration you have. like, you know, Gene Chisick got a lot of credit for that national title in 2010 in Auburn, but Gus Malzon deserved a lot of that credit as well. I'm trying to think about other coaches that had a similar career arc. Like, how many guys, like, did it that way, like, from the high school level? Like, I know there have been, like, I mean, I know that their Texas Tech coach, Joe McGuire.

Joe McGuire. High school. Riles came from the high school ranks and then won in college, but not to the level of Gus Malzon. Nobody ever did it to the level that Gus Malzahn did. And he had a book, I believe it was called, The Hurry Up No Huddle Offense. And it was kind of almost like a sacred text among coaches. And a lot of high school coaches obviously bought it and copied his offense.

But a lot of college coaches wanted a piece of it. A lot of NFL guy, I think Bill Parcells and he had a big relationship. If I'm not mistaken, he got hired directly from the high school. From Springdale High School. So that was a soap opera. So remember Gus is at Springdale High School. He's got five players who are all big D1 prospects. Mitch Mustaine, the quarterback, was the headliner of the group.

And so Gus gets hired as the OC at Arkansas. All of those players then go to Arkansas. And so this is 2006. So that turned into an absolute debacle because Gus and Houston Nut didn't get along. And they actually end up winning the SEC West that year. but it was not because everything was harmonious. It was because they had Darren McFadden and Felix Jones. Yes.

And when you have Darren McFadden and Felix Jones, things tend to go, well, Casey Dick winds up being the starting quarterback on that team. Yeah, he brought all of his players with him during a time before that was normal, you know. Yeah. So then he goes to Tulsa where he's working with, you know, G.J. Kinney, who's now a head coach at Texas State and Brennan-Marie. was one of the receivers that he inherited at Tulsa and Brennan is the offensive coordinator of Colorado.

Gus's tree is really interesting. There's a lot of people who played for Gus who took a lot from Gus. Yeah. And it would have been cool, you know, had they won a national title with him as a head coach. But then I don't know if Jimbo Fisher would be this rich. That's exactly right.

Yeah, Jimbo Fisher probably doesn't get the Texas A&M job if Auburn closes out that game. And so remember, there was a whole thing during that game where Damien Craig had been working at Florida State and then was back at Auburn at his alma mater and they said, oh, he knows the signals. And so I guess Florida State changed their signals at halftime. And suddenly it became a lot easier for Florida State to move the ball. Time is a flat circle, Andy.

It's truly amazing. So what this means, so Tim Harris Jr. takes over as the OC at Florida State. Tim worked with Gus at UCF. he's the son of a legendary Florida high school coach. He himself started out of the high school coach in Florida, one of state title at Booker T. Washington in 2014. But it seems to me like this move, Ari,

means that Mike Norvell is calling plays at Florida State this year. Yeah, and I feel like, you know, this is like a nonstop discussion all the time every offseason about whether it's healthy or advantageous for a head coach to call their own plays. And, you know, we talk about like if you are the person that is in the position that Mike Norvel is in, you might want it this way. We talked a lot about it with Florida last year, right? Billy Napier in his like must win season, probably wanted to go down with the, with his hands on the wheel.

Like, I don't know if, you know, what Mike Norville's situation is or if they have another awful season. I'm assuming that he's not going to be around for the following one. So you might as well go down with your best foot forward and, you know, having the play sheet in your hand. I don't know. But I, yeah, I mean, here's the thing. Norvel's buyout is is obscenely expensive, but it's also extremely obscenely expensive next year and the year after that and the year after that. So if it's another terrible year, they are going to have to do something. And so I don't blame him if this is a way of taking control. You know, I got the sense at the end of the season that Gus either wouldn't be back or would be back in a different role.

And I was a little surprise of the timing of this because, you know, it sort of had settled. in and you're like, okay, is Gus going to do the OC thing again? But he's retiring. I think, yeah, I think this means Norville is firmly gripping the wheel. Like, hey, I'm going to take Ashton Daniels. We're going to try to make this work. And Ari, Gus, you know, will always identify him with Auburn. How fitting is it that the highlight of his last year as a coach he's beating Alabama again. Yeah. And he got his tweet off too, so that's important.

Exactly. He didn't he tweet like just like old times or something? Yes, he did. Yeah. Yeah. Now, Gus is a good dude and I'm happy for him. I hope he enjoys retirement. I hope that we get to see him a little bit, maybe doing some commentary.

I just love hearing him tell stories. He's so funny telling stories about the old days in high school and like his crew that he coached with. I remember talking to his old O-line coach. They had a guy quit the team to join the rodeo back in Arkansas. Like that's what they were dealing with. And then he becomes a college head coach. And so it's an incredible journey.

I actually, you know what I would love? Maybe I pitch this to him. Maybe Gus needs a ghostwriter. I'd love to read a book about Gus's life. Yeah. Especially because like where he's from is so interesting in the way that he's reversed. Yeah. coaching trees are interesting.

And then, of course, his offense. I mean, he's already written a bestseller, so I don't know that he needs any help. But I would really seriously, Gus, if you're out there listening, I'm happy to help. But if you have a better writer in mind, go for it. I would read that book day one.

Like, I want to read about your career from your point of view because I do think he has one of the more interesting coaching lives in the history of the sport. Yeah. And if you're looking for a better writer, I'm right here. There you go. All right.

I'm going to write a book, Andy. You know, I'm listening to the book on tape by Jeff Perlman about two-bock right now. And that guy's reporting chops. Like that, that human being is one of the most talented people that has ever been a sports writer, let now branching off. Jeff is just an incredible reporter. Just a period. Yeah. You have to limit it to sports.

He's an incredible reporter. And the, have you read the part yet? in the Tupac book where he finds Brenda. Yeah, from Brenda's Got a Baby. That is unbelievable. He found. Unbelievable.

Yeah, if you've listened to Brenda's Got a Baby, he found the baby. Sorry, he found the baby and Brenda, actually, both of them. And they both were in Las Vegas at the same time, coincidentally, and they met the night that they found each other, which is insane. So, and if you don't know anything about Brenda's Got a Baby or what that song's about, or like,

the fact that the child was reunited with the mother, go listen or read the lyrics of that song and then like think about how insane this is. Basically Tupac read a newspaper story. Yeah. And created this world of this song. And yeah, the real people got reunited by Jeff Brom

as he's working on this book. It's incredible. His Lakers book, they made a TV show out of it. The TV show is entertaining in its own way, but it's not really faithful to the book. But the book itself is awesome about the showtime Lakers too. Yeah.

Yeah, the genealogy researchers are unbelievable. Like what you can find and who you can find now from the people who submit their DNA to 23 and me and in those websites is wild. Yep. So anyway. But yeah, Gus Miles on. Congratulations on an incredible career. And, you know, I think you deserve flowers today. Absolutely.

Absolutely. And I think everybody should run Buck Sweep, which is Gus's favorite play. first play of the season next year. I mean, he's still alive. Let's let him have fun with this. I'm hoping Gus has a nice, long, happy retirement. But I do. I'd love to see, like, his former teams, like Auburn and UCF,

run the buck sweep first play in honor of him, because that's his favorite play. It also is nice when somebody can say in a statement, I'm stepping away to spend more time with my family and not be a lie. So, like, it's good. Yeah. Well, we got to talk schedule because the Big Ten schedule came out last week. I was in the Senior Bowl.

We didn't really get a chance to break this down. But you noticed something really interesting, the Big Ten schedule, and you ended up writing a column about it on Monday. Ohio State got a really tough draw from the Big Ten. They're already playing Texas on the road next year. And Ari, I got to tell you, when I saw this, one, I thought, okay, good for Ohio State fans because their home schedule seems a little more fun than usual. But two, this is going to be an interesting experience for the Ohio State team.

It's very similar to Texas's experience this year having to go to Columbus and then play a fairly tough SEC draw. That is a similar schedule. So if you look at Ohio State's 26th schedule, they're at Texas Week 2. The Big Ten schedule starts in late September, and they get Illinois at home, but they are on the road in Big Ten play against Iowa, against Indiana, against USC, and then late in the year against Nebraska. Plus they get Oregon and Michigan at home. This is going to be a fun roller coaster ride for the Buckeyes.

Yeah, and the Oregon game is the week after a road game at USC, and the Michigan game is after Nebraska. We don't know what Nebraska is going to be, but still going to Lincoln is a hard, hard trip. Going to Lincoln on November 21st is not a cakewalk under any circumstances. So there are two reasons why this is good news. One is from a competitive standpoint, and the other is from an entertainment standpoint.

Do you want to do the competitive standpoint first? Yeah, let's start there. Did you know, and I'm sure you knew this, because this is kind of a discussion point, but I'm more exposed, I think, to the Ohio State talking points than you, that Ohio State played amongst, the slowest on offense this year of anybody in college football. Did you know that? I didn't know that, but it makes sense. Their defense was so dominant. There was really no need to.

Plus, they had some megastars. They could be very efficient on offense and didn't really need to go hyper speed. Yeah. And I think part of the reason for doing this is because Ohio State played 16 games last year on the way to the championship. and they learned that being preserved is an important aspect of making that run. So I think Ryan Day thought, if we play slow, we'll play fewer plays, we'll mitigate our risk to injury, we'll save wear and tear on our players' bodies, and there's absolutely no reason to turn up the pressure or to press the gas over overmatched opponents. Now, if you go back and you look at Ohio State's schedule from this past season,

I don't know what word you would use to describe it, Andy. I would use joke. It was a joke, right? Like, they didn't play anybody. I mean, other than Texas. Yeah, they played Texas. They play Michigan at the end. They play Texas and Michigan. Now, go

read the games in the middle of it. Now, they played. Yeah, look, Penn State being bad, we can, and I was thinking about this as I was looking at the 2006 Big Ten schedules, Penn State being bad, kind of messed up a lot of Big Ten schedules last year. Wisconsin would have seemed more competitive.

Wisconsin not being very good, didn't help. Right. But they didn't have to play Oregon and they didn't have to play USC last year. They didn't have to play Indiana until the Big Ten championship game. So like they played Texas and was grambling Ohio, Washington, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Penn State, Purdue, UCLA, Rutgers, and then Michigan. They could go through the entire- They didn't play Iowa either. That's another one.

No. Yeah. So they basically could go through their entire regular season without ever trying that hard. Like they literally won every game they played without truly breaking a sweat. Now, the Washington game was close on the score, but it wasn't very close, you know. Yeah, it was close for like a quarter and a half in real life. They won 24 to 6 and they never really opened it up. And I think that the thought process was that when you get into big games,

then you play against teams that could conceivably beat you, then you'll open it up and play faster. And in November, Ryan Day himself said this quote when it was asked about it. Efficiency is what we're after. That's how you control the game. When it's time to turn up the gas, we will. Guess what they didn't do. They never turned up the gas because they really had not been put in those positions

until they had to play Indiana in the Big Ten championship game and then played Miami in the in the playoff. And how many total points did they score in those two games? I believe they scored 24. points total. 24 points. See, you've got a good memory. I can put you on the spot and you always know the answer.

When you put me on the spot, I'm like, oh. And part of the two is that they were playing really good teams. Okay, like, let's get to be honest with each other. They played against the two teams that were playing. But these were two teams that were better than anybody they had played all season. Texas was the next best team. And they got Texas right out of the shoot. I think we could all probably agree that the, the Texas that played Texas A&M at the end of

the season was quite a bit better than the one that played Ohio State. So they had not seen anything like that. They had not really been challenged. As I look at their 26 schedule, I think they're going to be challenged along the way. So I think that like next year, and I don't know if they just lost to two better teams. They probably did, right? Last year, the two teams that played for the championship beat them. And it's not like they got blown out by either one.

but Ohio State also had personnel issues up front and I don't think the running game was as explosive as it needed to be and that caused them to end up losing. Well, that's where I think like if you had a game against Iowa in there, it might have exposed a few of those things, but you still might have won and you might have been able to make some corrections so that the next time you played a team that is that good on the line of scrimmage, you were better off.

I think that playing good teams that could conceivably beat you or do beat you, help you be more prepared later on for the way you might be beaten later. So like, and they didn't have any of that. Like they were able to walk through the season with the most boring schedule on the face of the earth, play slowly intentionally because they never had to play fast. And like they were never able to get to the place that they were in the previous playoff, which is scoring 48 points against Oregon.

You know what I mean? Like they're not. Yeah. They weren't able to throw it downfield or be as explosive. And I don't know if that was partly because, partly because of their personnel weaknesses. because they didn't have Trey Henderson and Quinshaun Johnson Junkins on their team. Like, we can't ignore that their offensive tackles got absolutely destroyed by Mesedor and Bain. Like, those things happened.

And I don't know if mentality or the way that you played earlier in the season help you overcome personnel deficits. But, like, let's be honest. They didn't try really hard because they didn't have to during the regular season and they weren't able to get to where they needed to be in order to win the championship. So that's the competitive reason. Now, let's just talk about, like, the entertainment reason, which is, it sucks if you're an Ohio State fan and you're favored by multiple touchdowns

and 96% of the games that you play. Like, isn't it kind of cool? This schedule isn't going to keep you out of the playoff. It's actually probably going to prepare you better for the playoff. There may be some losses in there, but you're going to have a hell of a lot more fun during the season because you're going to feel some things. Feel some stuff.

At Texas, at Iowa, at Indiana, at USC. And then like you're at USC on Halloween. and then you turn around and have to play Oregon at home the next week. Exactly. So, and hopefully I'm in Los Angeles if I have to miss trick or treating with my daughter again. Hopefully it's in L.A. this time. It was in Columbus last time, but that'll be a fun road trip for us if we end up going on one. Andy.

That's a Modelo school USC. I think it's a good chance. Hear me out on this. And this is a controversial take, which might get clipped or might not. I don't know, River sat up in his seat. If you're an Ohio State fan and your expectation is to win the national championship, which is what, 90% of them, if not all of them. I was just saying it's more like 100.

How many days a year of pure, unmiticated, unfiltered joy do you average a year? There are some, when you win, you're excited. But you might get four total. Like if you even think about last year's run, they had four games that they'll never forget. But if you go through the four-year run where they lost to Michigan and miss the playoff half the time as a result of losing to Michigan, the entire point of being an Ohio State fan is big games and winning big games. How many big games does Ohio State play on an annual basis? And why are they all in the postseason?

It's like, what is the fan experience of showing up to Ohio Stadium for a bunch of noon games against teams that stink that you're going to beat by 40 and never getting to play in those high leverage moments that help define your team, help sharpen your team, and help expose you to the entertainment that you sign up for. And I actually went back and thought about it, like in the entire CFP era going back to 2014, Andy, how many days on average per year does an Ohio State fan truly enjoy the experience of being an Ohio State fan. And that doesn't mean like you're just happy in February because your team is good and you're amongst one of the most consistent programs. Like I understand that you're not,

like I'm not trying to make people feel bad for Ohio State fans. No, no, no, no, you need, but you need some stakes. Like there has to be some skin in the game to feel great. Like, you can feel good when your team is good and it beats an inferior opponent 62 to three. But yeah, when you have a little friction, it's just better. How many times you're really? Which is a really I mean, in life, when you have a little friction. I love friction. It's just better when you win. So that is universal.

And I think you're right. I want to ask you, how many times a year do you think an Ohio State fan feels unfiltered joy on average? Three? Well, let's do last season. When they beat Texas, when they beat Michigan, that was it. Those were the days. There was no other game that they felt. Maybe because maybe a fan got to travel to Seattle and see that beautiful environment at Washington.

Yeah. I'm not saying it's not fun to be an Ohio State fan or that you don't have, you don't enjoy it during the season. Of course, you enjoy being in the mix and watching the playoff reveal show and seeing that you were two to one to win the championship in November. I'm not saying that it's not enjoyable. But the entire point of being a fan is to play in big games, win big games and enjoy, like the joy that you felt after you beat Michigan. And now last two years ago was an unparalleled successful year because they got to do it four times in a row in the playoff and win the national championship.

Most years, even if your Ohio State are going to ultimately finish with a loss, nine out of ten years for the most part for everyone's going to finish with a loss. So if you lose to your rival, like are there, were there a three-year period in time where they just didn't feel that pure joy of winning a big game, like at all? I think you could, if you took last 24's exceptional season, season and then average them with the four straight losses to Michigan and go all the way back to 14 first. Let's go back to 2023. Let's go back to 2023 and count how many great games they had in

2023. So I think we're talking about days they felt unmitigated joy. I think they did when they beat Notre Dame when they won in South Bend 1714. I was there. I want to know where Lou Holtz is. Yeah. I want to know where Lou Holtz is or did unmitigated. of joy there and that was a really good Notre Dame team. It was a really exciting finish too. I think when they beat Penn State that year, they felt that way because that was a good Penn State team. That's it.

It's two. Twice a year. Twice a year. 2022. I'm not sure they did. I'm not sure there was a day that they felt that joy. You get two things as an Ohio state fan in most years. Notre Dame, they beat Notre Dame in week one,

but I don't think anybody realized that Notre Dame was, was going to be very good at that point. So I don't even, you get joy from beating a team like Notre Dame always. Like you're going to get an Ohio State people on Twitter saying this is bullshit. Yeah, no, I, okay. So no, I'll say two in 2022,

also. I'd say Notre Dame and Penn State also because that was the year they went to Penn State and remember it was, it was a little touch and go there into the third quarter and then they explode in the fourth quarter. Yeah. Run away with it. So I'd say, yeah,

two, Notre Dame and Penn State that year also. So, yeah, they were actually about two per year. I think there's a chance for a lot more this year because there could be some closer games in the regular season, but also because that could set them up for a deeper postseason run that includes more unadulterated joy in the postseason. Yeah, and their home schedule typically stinks. And I know that there's a gripe about what time their games typically start because they are all at noon. but the fact that they have a very brutal road schedule next year, coupled with getting Oregon and Michigan at home is just a reason to show up on Saturday.

Like, I was thinking about everybody who called us, who emailed us about the A&M playoff game. And I get that it's a playoff game. But how, you know, like these no fall weddings people, there wasn't a single game outside of Texas last year that Ohio State fans were upset to go to a wedding and miss. Like I know if you're an Ohio State fan and you want to watch the game. Remember when we were there with Medello on the day of the Penn State game, we had, we ran into a couple where they're like, yeah, we're going to a wedding.

I was like, oh, you're not going to the game. Yeah, we're going to the wedding. The schedule got released because Penn State was going to be good. And then Penn State ended up stinking. It's like there was no juice in Ohio that day. Like, and I covered the entire Urban Meyer era every single game, except one. I didn't go to Rutgers. I went and wrote about Bejan Robinson because to my point, it was not worth going to New Jersey when I could go to Tucson and write.

about a five-star prospect. I recovered every single game but won and skipped it on purpose because the spread was 44 points and I flew to Tucson instead to write a profile about Bijjan Robinson. Like how many times do you get to walk into a stadium on a fall Saturday and feel those goosebumps or those butterflies of this is today's the day that we're going to find out something? And it's like finally, Ohio State has a competitive reason to show up and an entertainment reason and hopefully their home schedule the following year will look more like their away schedule this year. But if you're an Ohio State fan and you've engaged in conversations in the past about avoiding big time non-con games

and, you know, strength of schedule stuff and all that. It's like, this is enjoyable. And I hope that if you are an Ohio state fan that you looked at this and didn't go, ah, the Big Ten screwed us. And then you actually went, holy shit, this is awesome. Like we get to actually play a bunch of meaningful, exciting games in the regular season next. Am I wrong? But if you're an Ohio State fan, you should.

still look at this and feel confident that your team can win 10 games and go to the playoff. Like I don't think, now, maybe it happens that this winds up being like Texas this year where they, they wind up nine and three. But Texas had one. But that makes it fun.

Right. And Texas had one crazy outlier result. And if you can avoid that crazy outlier result, then you're going to be fine. Yeah. So that, I think, should be way more fun.

I hope this becomes the norm in the big 10. And I will say as I look through the Big Ten schedule, I do think, and I've said this over and over, it will become more similar to the SEC in that the middle and the bottom are going to get better in this era, and they're just going to be more competitive games. We can get into the SEC Big Ten ratings conversation because everybody loves to argue about ratings. But one of the things that the SEC had going for it this year when it had higher ratings than everybody else was it had its closest season in a long time. long, long time. I believe this century in terms of margin of victory. They just played closer games than they have in a long time. And I think the Big Ten is headed there. I don't think the Big Ten is

quite there yet. There are programs that have work to do. Like, you need Wisconsin to get better. You need Michigan State to get better. You need those programs to, and nobody's going to do what Indiana did, but you need them to get consistently better. You need Penn State to bounce back, which we're going to talk about in a second. But if you have that, then you don't have the situation where there's a schedule draw where you're like, oh, my God, we're not going to be challenged at all. That's what happened last year. Yeah.

Awful schedule. And it wasn't fun and it wasn't entertaining. I don't care. And I don't know how much joy people get from beating teams. No. I think Ohio State fans want to feel something to, even if it means losing a game in the regular season. Andy, let me read the scores from last year. 70 to nothing, 37, 29, 246, 42, 3, 34, 16, 34, nothing, 38, 14, 3410, 48, 10, 429, 27, 9 is Michigan.

You skipped the Texas game, or you're doing all the big 10 games? Just, yeah, I mean, the Texas game was good, so I skipped it. I'm just reading the scores from the Texas game, which is the opener, and let's be honest, getting Arch Manning's debut at home was awesome. Like, I'm not going to try to argue that that wasn't great. Yeah, that was awesome. They got one. But they went out and got that themselves.

That wasn't the conference to give that to it. Yeah. I know like there is a longer discussion about like equity and scheduling. And like Ryan Day has actually been on the forefront of of coaches like discussing future non-conference games and maybe lightning the load a little bit because of the way scheduling it works and I can't stand when he says it. But I'm happy that they're playing Texas. It's going to be a fun, great game on the road. Hopefully we'll go. I live close by.

it's better this way. And I think that I just want everybody to realize and accept. And I know that my toxic trait as a human being is if I have an opinion and you don't agree with me, then I can't view what you're saying as like, how do you think that? I want to get to a point where everybody in college football universally agrees that entertaining schedules are positive, both coaches and fans. I think most people do. I really do.

There's a couple. The coaches are always going to be self-interested. They're always going to want the easiest path. They're always going to want a way to win as many games as they possibly can. Fans should want more entertaining games because you don't get anything else out of it. Like you're doing this for your own entertainment. You're watching for your own entertainment. So the more entertaining games you get, the better off you are.

So that's hopefully where it's going. But we'll see. But I want to talk about some of the other Big Ten schedules because you and I have multiple times mentioned USC's tough draw from the Big Ten, where we knew what the teams were, we did not know the order. And now we know the order. And I do think that's going to be interesting, too,

because USC, it's hard. Like, I'm not going to have sugarcoat it. It's going to be hard. And they're not playing Notre Dame this year. We've talked a ton about that. And part of it is this schedule is rough. And so this would have been a Notre Dame goes to USC year, so it would have been

the Saturday after Thanksgiving. So now they're going to play UCLA on that Saturday after Thanksgiving. But we'll see that they're working on the schedule. They're working on a week moving one of these games to week zero, and that's why they have two open dates. But second big 10 games, Saturday, September 26th, is Oregon.

The following week, Washington comes. The week after that, they're at Penn State. That is a rough three-week stretch right there. Yeah. And like the traditional Pact 12 games are just different. Like when the old Pact 12 teams play each other. Like I don't know if we would view Washington as the toughest game in the world for a team like Ohio State.

But it's sandwich between those two. And I think Washington is probably going to be pretty good. Like Washington won't games last year. We're not even like taking into account that like this is our perception of what they were last year and not realizing that somebody might jump out and be awesome this year. And maybe there will be teams on these schedules that aren't as good. So, you know, it's hard. It's, we don't know what's going to happen with Wisconsin.

Like, they have to play at Wisconsin the week before they play Ohio State. We're not even counting Wisconsin right now. Like, that's the thing. No. And what if Luke Fickle turns it around? Like, what if everything comes together and it works? It's rough. It's rough. Yeah.

And at Indiana November 14th, at least they have an open date. between Ohio State and Indiana. That's where, I mean, if you had to play those two back to back, that would just be brutal. Yeah. You know, and I don't know how quickly River has this,

but Northwestern has to play at Ohio State, at Oregon, and at Indiana and has Penn State at home next year. Like Northwesterns has got a brutal, brutal. Congratulations, David Braun, on your contract extension. You can eat.

One other thing about USC, though, that I want to point out, Gary Patterson, the new defensive coordinator at USC. I'm pretty excited to see that, Because when Danlin left for Penn State, we're like, uh-oh, this could be a problem. But Gary Patterson, like, you can say what you want about the way things ended at TCU. I don't think Gary Patterson as a head coach was very well designed for the NIL era.

But if Gary Patterson's calling your defense and deciding which players are going to play on your defense and helping select the players that play for your defense, I'm fine with that. I'm good with that. Because I think, I think Gary Patterson might be the best evaluator of all things. time, like in the history of the sport. He's the person that can go to a high school practice and see a sophomore running back and be like, that guy's going to be an NFL defensive end. And that guy doesn't know that yet.

That guy has no idea. Every single time I see the TCU logo, I just think about Landman now. This is what's happened to me. Well, you're going to see him with that cardinal and gold with the fight on. So this, I'm excited. What's the TCU? TCU does that. Yeah, the frog.

Yeah. It's like this, I think, and then USC is like this. We'll get the lady who plays Ainsley on the show, since she has to play a TCU cheerleader and just ask her. Sounds great. We can also ask her about getting attacked by bears in 1923. If we got her on the show, I'm not sure I'd be able to function. I don't think it was a bear.

Yeah. She got attacked by some wild animal in 1923. So another Big Ten schedule that I thought was interesting, now that I've seen the order of operations. Ari, Matt Campbell coming to Penn State. Now, we've pointed out he's under more pressure maybe than any other first year head coach because he's replacing James Franklin who I get last year was not good. But let's be real, James Franklin was fired for only winning 10 games a year

and not going deeper into the postseason than they wanted him to. And Matt Campbell is going to be expected to start out. outwinning double digit games right away. I'm here to tell you, looking at this schedule for Penn State. And if you're not watching on the YouTube, I'll read off the big 10 teams in order. Wisconsin at Northwestern USC at Michigan,

Purdue at Washington, Minnesota, Rutgers, at Maryland. If they can split USC and at Michigan, which is October 10th and October 17th, if they can split those two, Ari, hey, Matt Campbell brings Penn State back in a big, big way. Yeah. It's just a matter of how good are they actually going to be in year one.

And I think that like, you know, if you apply the same knowledge or the same expectations from previous Penn State teams like the Franklin teams, that looking at the schedule, it's like, of course you're going to win 10 or 11. Yeah, that's 11 and 1 right there. Like, if that's a Franklin team for the majority of James Franklin's tenure, you're going, that's 11 and 1. So, and that might be 12 and 0 because Matt Campbell's a very good coach.

Now, I don't know if we have a good grasp of how great the roster is at this point. You know, it's still again early February. We're going to get a better sense of this as spring goes on. And, you know, we talk to more coaches and have more people on the show. But, you know, the expectation, I think right out of the gate is, you know, competing for or making the playoff. So, and I think he has a chance. And you should. I mean, when you look at this, you feel like you should.

At Washington is a tricky spot there in early, no, November. But I just, you know, and look, we don't know who's going to pop up. Like, is Luke Fickle going to get Wisconsin turned around? Does PJ Fleck have Minnesota roaring? Because there are years when Minnesota is a really tough team to play, especially November because they'll just beat the crap out of you. So I do think there's potential for this to be harder than it looks right now. But just looking at it right now, you've got that USC Michigan in the middle. If you can split that, you are in very, very good shape. Yeah, and Penn State is kind of near Pung Satani,

and I think we should talk about that for a minute. All right, yeah. So I want a little background for the folks. Every February 2nd, I get a series of texts from Ari. How come nobody talks about there being a clairvoyant rodent? And I'm like, Ari, we talk about it every freaking year. One of the most beloved comedies of all time is based on the clairvoyant. rodents in Pennsylvania.

I mean, you think about it. We talked a lot about aliens and ancient aliens. Like there is a rodent. Phil Connors? There's a. It's me, Ned. Ned Ryerson, Ned to head. Come on.

I got to tell you, I looked at hotels in Punksitani for last night, and a fairfield was like $680. So like this is a deal. Think of the psychopaths who are booking the fairfield for $680. So here we can go watch a rodent. see its shadow or not, but who really knows,

because it's just the guy in the top at, decides what he's going to say. Andy, permission to curse. Permission granted. The last things Brittany said to me on the way out of the door this morning is, I got to go.

I don't give a fuck about the groundhog. That's the last thing he's done. I feel like I should have said that to you too. Because, like, I'm into it. And I got to be honest with you, I think I would pay the $700 just I want to go to this one year. You're a psycho. I will go with you.

I will split. We'll get a two bet, you know, two, two queens fairfield room for $700. I'll split it with you. Do you think it would be fun to go there? Only if I can dress as Bill Murray and you dress as Annie McDowell.

That's fine. I'll dress however you want me to dress. I got dressed up like a cowboy this weekend. You can dress up as Chris Elliott even as their camera. What a just. murders row that movie was. Andy, do you think it would be fun? Do you think it would be fun to go? No. It's, it was five degrees this morning there. I know, but if you wake up at four in the morning and get hammered and just go and take it super seriously and then like go to like one of those

cozy diners from the movie and get pancakes, that'd be, that'd be sick. What not pictured in the movie is the, the line outside the diner. Yeah. He had a pretty, he took some liberties there where, oh, we're going to have, we're going to have Bill Murray and Ann McDell have a conversation here. Yeah. So we just need the table. But like, that's not how it really works. What other reason on earth would you ever have to go to Punksitani, Pennsylvania?

There would be no reason. I'm into going to place. Why do you? This is why they're doing it. Yeah. I want to go. I want to go. And I don't know.

I've got to like mark my calendar like in December next year of like, hey, check punksy dates. I already had my winter wonderland this weekend. River, get that photo already. I was in Charlotte for a wedding. It was a beautiful wedding. Beautiful wedding. My wife's boss's daughter got married, both the husband, the bride and the groom, both doctors, young doctors, very cool, hanging out with a bunch of ultra successful people because it was basically their med school classmates and all of their doctor parents.

And it was awesome. So much fun. But if you hadn't watched the news, Charlotte got hit by a record snowstorm over the weekend. and they are not prepared for that level of snow in the Piedmont region. Do they show the whole study down in it in Dallas last week? Yes, everything was shut down. Now, I will say the hotel I was in was awesome. Like they brought their staff in, let them stay in the hotel.

So they kept the whole thing open and the bar was going. Oh, yeah. All those second attention from hotel workers. Yeah, I can feel it. There's a wedding too. Like everybody from the wedding staying there too. I get it. So if you're watching on the YouTube video, you're seeing, my wife took this out of the windshield.

I was driving. This was our view as we got on I-77 in Charlotte to try to drive home because every flight was canceled. Now, pro tip, and this is, you know, I lived my life in Marriott's for years and years. So I had a lot of travel experience. I have 18 consistency plans every time I travel. And my thing to my wife was we are never giving this rental car. back if there's a chance our flight might get canceled because I knew all the rental cars were gone. So if we could keep the rental car, we had a chance.

And so we had two different flights get canceled and we're like, all right, we're going to do it when day breaks were driving. And fortunately had the wagon ear from national rental car. Did you get hit with the transfer fee for 500 bucks? No. Two free days that I use because I rent a lot. I turned the car in in Gainesville, Florida, after two days, and was charged $14.87.

Wow, good for you. National rental car, no free ads, but you guys are awesome. Awesome. Yeah. National runner car is my favorite because you don't have to wait in line. Yes, and you get to pick your car. Like, we got there, and we're looking at the cars in the Emerald Isle, and the guy said, if there's nothing you like, we got a couple more back here,

and there were three wagoners, and we knew. they had the snow mode on them so we're like let's go snow mode um and we were show the picture from the wedding do you have the picture from the wedding river you can show the picture there's me and my wife at the wedding we uh we got married 25 years ago our our 25th anniversary is this year so uh what is the days we're still doing it what is the day still doing great july 14th 2001 nice we can do like a joint anniversary birthday party for me if you want beautiful yeah so we we we we we're We survived. We made it through. And thanks to the folks, the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the South Carolina Department of Transportation for getting the interstates mostly clear.

Not completely clear, but mostly clear. It sounds like me, you, and producer River all were drunk at the same time on Saturday night. Oh, by the way, I did wake up. I did not chime into this text threat. Yeah. So I did wake up Sunday morning and Ari and River had been drunkenly texting back and forth. and I will read you the text from Ari that I was just annoyed when I read it

so I didn't say anything. Why? I'm going to explain why I was dumb now. Why did I annoy you? Well, it just, it was a little bit silly. So you send the text. You can tell me I'm still looking for this because it's off-season topic while I'm hammered.

Don't want to forget. Let's do a draft of the best weekend for a man to get a vasectomy. It's great. No, no, you missed the whole point. So what this stems from is an argument between Ari and River, where River said correctly that the first days of the NCAA tournament, so Thursday and Friday are the best sports days of the year.

And he's right. They're the best. Like, I'm a football guy through and through, but those are the best two days of the sports year. That is when you get the first. You get the vasectomy that Wednesday, and you sit there with the frozen peas on your crotch watching basketball Thursday and Friday. You don't get the vasectomy going into the weekend because you have to go back to work on Monday

because the vasectomy only keeps you out two days. So if you get the vasectomy on Friday, you are a sucker because you're not going to miss any work. This got brought up because I was talking to a man who's getting a vasectomy on Friday. He's a moron. He did it because he wanted to be left alone during the super. Super Bowl and I thought he was a genius. But you don't need to have pain in your crotchal region to enjoy the Super Bowl. We were talking about the reason you, the reason you do it the Wednesday before the NCAA

tournament is so that you don't have to go to work Thursday and Friday. There's another, there's another weekend that we didn't consider that might be a great weekend depending on what your interests are to get a vasectomy on Wednesday. Mm-hmm. The Masters. Okay. I'll accept that. I will accept that.

If you just want to sit and watch the Masters in Peace with some frozen peas on your crotch, I will accept that. That's the only other one. It's the most elite nap of the year. And if you're just laying in bed, I will tell you,

I think I'm the only person who's had of asectomy on this show, right? I haven't had of asectomy. River, have you had one? Are you working news? No, I have not. I have one. That's the only person on this show

who's had of aectomy. Now, we don't have a real job. Like, I could have worked the next day. It wouldn't have bothered me. Also, shout out to my doctor who performed the procedure, River. He's a ball for life. Let's go. He was asking me Tennessee football questions while his hands were inside my chrome.

Can you feel that? No, there's this stuff called anesthetic. I didn't know what they could do like a little, yeah. I don't know if the anesthesia. He had lots of questions. I'm trying to remember. So this would have been, you know, this is the mid-teens. So Tennessee's wandering through the wilderness at this point.

Yeah, we're in the woods. I was worried because he's a little down about it. And I'm like, Doc, let's focus here. You don't want to be upset about Tennessee football while handling. But he did a wonderful job. He did a wonderful job. And it's not a terrible recovery. it's really not.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So you do it during a time where you can watch a sporting event that you enjoy. But not where you do it so you can miss some work at the same time. Because I'm like, oh, no, I just had a, I just had a surgery. And I can't possibly do anything. And I took two days off, which you guys know I don't do that. Yeah. It was amazing.

I watched so many shows. Yeah, the best week of my life was when I had COVID. It was awesome. Like, I just got to, like, it was in the middle of football season. I was at the athletic and I was quarantined. And it was during that time of year where they had football every night of the week. Like, it was like every game. Every day there was a game.

And I was asymptomatic for the second half of it. So I was just like laying in a bed and Brittany was bringing up food to my bed and like leaving the room. And I was just there in a bed with a master bathroom just watching football for seven days straight. I did a podcast with you while having COVID because I played her. but that's that's beautiful uh yeah and then i was a cowboy this weekend a montana rancher let's see the picture so this was me would never buy a horse from this man do you think i did i for this is the first time in my entire life i've ever worn cowboy boots how to how to go blisters uh they were somebody else's so they were broken in and i got to say was very surprised by

how comfortable cowboy boots are oh yeah once you break them in you're in good shape yeah so i yeah i I think I might go leather jacket here, but you're going, you're going for the rip from Yellowstone look. I'm going for the, there's two types of cowboys to me. There are people who actually work with their hands. And there are people who shop at expensive cowboy stores and like own properties and like have never worked with their hands in their life, but still exist there. That's what I'm going for. You know, you're going for the own the property. Yeah.

The expenses. I'm not true. Yeah. There were some people in there that were wearing, like, actual work clothes, you know, like, and I, I just, like, don't have those. You don't. You don't believe in actual work. I wanted to look like the poser cowboy, not the actual cowboy.

What a weekend. This is, hey, we have weekends off now. This is what you get. It was a Saturday night. There were no games. He gets stories from the week. It was a very sad work weekend. Well, listen.

Senior Bowl. Saturday night, because we talked about Kentucky basketball last week with Jeff Goodman. Kentucky kicked Arkansas. They didn't kick their ass. But great win for Kentucky. Otega Owe was awesome. Denzel Aberdeen was awesome. They were winning through the first half.

It looked like Arkansas might be able to come back in the second half, but then Kentucky puts on the afterburners toward the end. So this is kind of like when Arkansas went to be Kentucky last year. So maybe this sets up a run. We'll talk about hoops a little more as we go. Also, Florida and Alabama played the Charles Betty Echo watch continues. Florida dominated in the paint. And by the way,

Nate Oates and Todd Golden, Ari, we may get into this because those two going back and forth at each other could be one of the more entertaining subplots as college basketball season moves forward. Because I think, you know, Florida and Alabama are both really good. They're going to see each other more times,

either in the SEC tournament, potentially in the NCAA tournament. And so you had Nate Oates before they went down to Gainesville saying, yeah, they're a good team. but I think they stay in the paint for like 10 seconds at a time. And, you know, that's not really within the rules. And so afterward, Florida dominated in paint scoring. And Todd Golden was like, yeah, I think, well, we kind of went to paint for one second, two seconds.

Then we scored. They were back in the paint for one second, two. And it scored again. And just digging the knife in. Like, so I want these two just at each other. But these two people actually like each other, though, don't think? I think they respect one another. I'm not sure they like each other very much right now.

Yeah. So. Yeah, if I were a coach, I would just, I would be, I feel like I would be like Lane Kiffin a little bit. But I think I would do it more verbally through the microphone. Yeah. And that's the thing with these two, with Nate Oates and with Todd Golden, they both have a little bit of Lane Kiffin in them. They're not going to full Lane Kiffin, but they both have enough in them that they are going to snipe at each other a little bit. So I'm for that.

Any other college basketball rivalries when we want to snipe at each other, I'm for that too. So let's go. Yeah. Like Dusty May and Tom iso not there yet. Not doing it. Yeah, there's two types of sniping. There's tweets and then going off into the abyss and then there's a microphone. I'd be the microphone sniper.

Yeah, and that's what these two are right now. So we'll have some fun with that as we go forward. Thank you to Will Stein. I got a confirmation. We got some more coaches coming on the show soon. I had a really fun interview that I want you guys to hear tomorrow with Jeffrey Embba. who played nose tackle. Well, he actually played every defensive line position for SMU this past season.

But it's one of the more interesting interviews I've done with the football player. I don't think we've ever had a native French speaker on the show, Ari. No. His accent is tremendous. But he's had an incredible journey from Africa to France to everywhere in the United States practically playing football. And just really cool to hear somebody who has a very different perspective than the rest of us on you try to explain SMU to somebody who's only ever lived in Africa? He could do it.

Well, Jeffrey could explain anything to anybody in multiple languages, by the way. Trying to explain to Jeffrey when he was 16 what SMU is. Well, and remember, Jeffrey also played for Purdue and Auburn and played Najuko in Kansas. So he saw the whole gamut, the whole gamut. But we'll talk about that tomorrow because it's a fantastic interview, but not because of me, but because Jeffrey. And I cannot wait for you to hear it. We'll talk to you tomorrow.