Andy & Ari On3 - Notre Dame wins a ROCK FIGHT at Texas A&M | Miami CRUSHES Florida | Georgia COOKS Clemson

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

Welcome to Andy & Ari On3, presented by Wendy’s! This show is also sponsored by PrizePicks, America’s most fun daily fantasy game. Use the code STAPLES to play $5 and get $50 instantly. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/STAPLES (0:00-2:52) Intro - Welcome to Andy & Ari On3!(2:53-14:48) Notre Dame's BIG road win at Texas A&M(14:49-16:48) PrizePicks Ad(16:49-34:13) Miami's MASSIVE Victory over Gators(34:14-54:28) Georgia's Dominance over Clemson; assessing Clemson(54:29-58:45) Penn State at West Virginia - Nittany Lions for real?(58:46-1:00:57) Overtime thriller between Virginia Tech and Vanderbilt(1:00:58-1:02:28) Tennessee and Nico Iamaleava(1:02:29-1:03:57) Dylan Raiola's first collegiate start vs UTEP(1:03:58-1:05:19) Illinois St at Iowa(1:05:20-1:06:39) Kalen DeBoer's Debut as Alabama Head Coach(1:06:40-1:09:11) Michigan's QB Room after Fresno State Victory(1:09:12-1:14:21) Schedule of the show, Conclusion with Ari It was an incredible first full Saturday of college football, and we break it all down.Notre Dame went into College Station and won a slobberknocker against Texas A&M…Miami annihilated Florida in The Swamp…Georgia threw Clemson in a Crock Pot…Penn State’s offense looked kind of fun against West Virginia…Is Michigan OK on offense?Vanderbilt shocked Virginia Tech in Diego Pavia’s Commodores debut.  Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, Monday-Thursday at 9:30 am ET! Saturday's Instant Reaction at 11:30 pm et! https://youtube.com/live/dJdnlkOZRXo Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy and Ari on three presented by Wendy's. We're back. We did it. We made it. We're back. We're back. It's been a rough six weeks, Andy, not being able to. You had so many takes bottled up. Yeah, it's just it's all bubbling up. But I got to tell you, man, to be in Gainesville, to be at that game today, to be in your living room and what I believe is going to be one of the most exciting, unpredictable college football seasons we've seen in this era, maybe. There's no place I'd rather be right now. It was incredible.

It was incredible. So we've talked about this for a long time, obviously. For those who don't know Ari Wasserman, if you just got into the show since I came to On3, this is Ari. We used to work together at The Athletic. We used to do a show together at The Athletic. It was the most fun show in college football. We occasionally got into arguments about fast food, about gas stations, about other things. But mostly we just yelled at each other about college football.

And now we get to do it again every single freaking day. There's been a lot of speculation on Twitter. There's one guy out there that was like at 12.01 a.m. One guy was like that dude in Minnesota who knew what the Big Ten was going to do. Everybody else was just grasping at straws. Yeah, yeah. So it was really, really hard, if you know me, to keep my mouth shut. I've got a pretty big mouth.

I'm very reactionary. i've got a pretty big mouth i'm very reactionary i you got a big mouth you know i i have some some personal flaws that i've been trying to work on this summer but um right now after the day that we had in college football uh being here with you one of my my closest friends in the business somebody that i'm super excited to work with i can't tell you how excited i am to not only be on this show right now with you, but, but the future that we're going to have together doing this. So, um, super, super excited and just kind of flattered that people are here, flattered that people care. And, uh, I think the sky's the limit for what we can do together. Oh, they care. They care. We have a lot to talk about. We we've got Notre Dame going into college station and beating Texas A&M in a rock fight.

We've got Miami crushing Florida in the swamp. We've got Georgia doing to Clemson what I think a lot of people thought would happen. But once it was actually on their screens, then it was real. And it's like, oh, that's right. This Dabo transfer portal thing. Yeah. Yeah, something's going to have to change. We got that.

We got Diego Pavia leading Vandy to an overtime win against Virginia Tech. I mean, Texas Tech holding off Abilene Christian in overtime. It was a great, great first Saturday of college football. It's still going on, by the way. You got New Mexico up on Arizona in the second quarter right now. So this has just been a really great plunge into it. And let's start in College Station, because that game had all the spectacle you'd want. You had College Game Day with Pat McAfee shirtless

hugging Nick Saban. And then you get to the game, and it is the defensive struggle we kind of all thought it would be gotta tell you Andy it's been really really hard for six weeks I've been wanting to scream I think Notre Dame is going undefeated from the mountaintop I don't believe you I think you just made that up tonight I've been I really do um you know what I thought was really nice about watching that game um for the first time in my recent memory, it looked like Notre Dame had the superior athletes across the field from an SEC team.

I can't remember the last time you could say that. And Texas A&M is not a team with not good athletes. They have some very good athletes. I'd say Mike Elko would tell you they're not where he wants them to be, but I think they feel pretty good about it. Yeah. Well, I do think that there's been a lot made about how much talent left, um, when the previous regime came to a close, but I don't think that people really grasp or still understand how much talent is still in the building and for Notre Dame to go on the road. And what I think might be one of the loudest stadiums in the

country during a time where morale is high. People are excited. The defensive line is really nasty. They've got some pieces. Conor Wegman, there's a lot of excitement. There was a lot of excitement in Aggieland for what this team could potentially be this year. We didn't really know what they were going to be. And for Notre Dame to not only go out there and win,

but win it in the fourth quarter by running the ball down their throat, they did it in a way that was like, you're looking at a team now that has a very reasonably easy schedule they're going to be favored in every single game for the rest of the year like we could be looking directly at the five seed in the college football playoff and i know it's crazy on september one to be saying yeah but like they got a really great route if they get to that point to really do some damage on the postseason well and okay think about Notre Dame Riley Leonard goes 18 to 30 158 yards Jeremiah Love 91 yards on 14 carries and really where they established the run game was in the second half that's when they they sort

of took over on the ground it's kind of like a diet version of Michigan last year okay first of all I love diet soda. Now it's a new me. Okay. All right. Yeah. Well, the folks in the chat have been mentioning you,

you, you're looking slender. So the thing that, Oh, thank you guys. Been trying, been working at it. The thing that really struck me about Michigan last year.

And like, I think I was part of the problem, Andy, in the sense of like, Oh, they're old they had five star dudes at very crucial positions to go along with their and like you cannot say the same about notre dame so i still feel a little that's why i said diet yeah so the diet it's more

stylistic than personnel yes uh but like also too in this era, veteran teams with very good secondaries. They had some really important pieces come back in their secondary. If Riley Leonard stays healthy, they stay together. I mean, they could potentially be on the same field as a team that does recruit like the traditional way that I thought you had to win a national championship. Well, because Marcus Freeman does recruit like that. Yeah, well, you know, it's also like a new me, too, because if anything taught me— Mr Mr. Stars matter 12 months ago, I'd be like, we're not talking about Notre Dame winning a national title. And like, we're not trying to get too far down the line here because I'm not necessarily sure that I believe that. But when you look at what they did tonight against a team in Texas A&M that we really don't know how good they're, they could not to be really good still it's not over for them um but to go into a southern stadium and do it the way that they did it i thought was very impressive and when

you look at the rest of the schedule they have a lot of time in my opinion to figure some stuff out and really you know there are a few games on the acc you know agenda there that might get in their way but i don't know what what game do you pick out of this schedule here that you're looking at that they lose now louisville and georg. Now, Louisville comes to South Bend. Georgia Tech, that's a Mercedes-Benz Stadium game. So actually two miles from Georgia Tech's campus, but a neutral site. And it probably will be half and half. It'll probably be 50% Notre Dame fans in there.

So that's about it. I'm really not worried about them against anybody else. And I was the one saying, look, you probably got to go 11-1 if you're them to get an at-large bid because of the schedule. But you're right. They're going to be favored in all these games. Even if you drop one to Louisville or to Georgia Tech, you're still going to go 11 and one. And then, I mean, if you're Notre Dame, you're just becoming a giant Texas A&M fan. You want Texas A&M to run through the SEC.

We don't know exactly what they're going to be. They've got a pretty hard schedule. We're going to see them in Gainesville in two weeks going against a team that we saw on Saturday. We'll see what A&M becomes. This version of Notre Dame playing against those teams on that schedule, I really like that. Florida State's another one that could possibly beat Notre Dame. So I don't want to throw that out. But that's another one in South Bend.

We do have to kind of like reorganize our brains too of like a year ago, losing some of the games that some of these teams have lost was kind of just like the end of the road in a lot of senses. And now it's like Florida State and teams that are on Notre Dame's schedule still have a lot of senses. And now it's like Florida state and teams that are on Notre Dame schedule still have a lot to play for. And, you know, week one losses feel super deflating and drastic.

But if you rattle off five or six wins after that loss, it becomes more of a distant memory as the season goes on. And by the time they play Florida state could be humming at that point. So, yeah. Again, like I, I don't want to,

you know, I'm Mr. Hyperbole and I like get, I get carried away. I don't want to get, well, I say, let, and I get carried away. I don't want to get – Well, let's talk about Riley Leonard. How do we feel about Riley Leonard against the other teams on this schedule? I think A&M is going to give – A&M will have a better pass rush

than almost anybody else they're going to play. Well, can I ask you a question in response to that? Where would you rank Riley Leonard as a runner at the quarterback position in college because I think very high higher than people think very high and it's like actually kind of funny because I think Riley Leonard the healthy version the effective version the Duke who we hadn't seen since the Duke Notre Dame game last year yeah like is who Connor Wegman I think the ceiling or like or like the type of player that he could be because if you followed Connor Wegman's recruitment the athleticism is off the charts.

So like for Notre Dame to do the portal thing, get somebody in here who is as effective as he is and give Notre Dame a team that has struggled at the skill positions recently, an extra element to get out of weird, long third down plays and like move the chains. Like Notre Dame has needed desperately a spark plug that wasn't just a big bodied running back or a tight end to make a play I don't know about you or are you that post-game interview he's kind of swaggy like I I don't Sam Hartman was was devastatingly

handsome but I don't follow somebody that pretty I don't know that Notre Dame's had a quarterback this swaggy in a long, long time. Yeah. I think that a lot of the pieces that you would expect and hope for if you're a Notre Dame fan are in place. Oh, interesting. AJ in the chat. Haynes King greater than Riley Leonard. I actually think we may be talking about similar guys. We can have that.

I don't know if he's great. I feel like they're very similar. Yeah. I mean, honestly, like the Haynes King experience in the past has been very up and down. Like you, you know, there's some turnover issues and things like that. Riley Leonard's had health issues,

but I think when both are at peak versions of themselves, like that's a comparison that I think I'd be willing to make. Yeah. Yeah. I, and the thing is like, I know some people call Haynes, Texas A&M fans probably,

but Haynes King at Georgia tech has been a very good quarterback. Yeah. And, and you take what he's given to Georgia tech at Notre Dame at the quarterback position, because you saw how they can run the ball. And Oh, by the way,

this is a completely revamped Notre Dame offensive line in a deafening environment, pushing around a bunch of former five-star defensive linemen when, and one three-star defensive lineman who became the best one in the Big Ten last year, Nick Skorton, who's now at Texas A&M. So the demise of the Notre Dame offensive line has been greatly exaggerated

because it sure as hell looked like they were opening up holes in the fourth quarter. When you're looking at the spread of this game before the game starts, it's like, oh my God, Skorton's on Texas A&M. Their defensive line was the deepest position that they signed in that monster recruiting class a few years ago. A lot of remnants from that.

Yeah, there's still guys there. Walter Nolan's at Ole Miss, but that's scary. Yeah. That's a scary proposition. If you wanted to take points today thinking, like, if Notre Dame has offensive line issues, their best offensive lineman gets injured or the person that we thought was going to be their best offensive lineman gets injured, and then they're going into Kyle field with this offensive line against that

D line and then coming out and winning in the fourth quarter by running the ball down the opponent's throat. Like that's like, you know, I wouldn't be a liar if I said I wasn't concerned about whether or not they have that guy at receiver that can go up and make a play in a game where their runs being stopped. But like Chris Mitchell,

the transfer that they brought in, like has some potential. They've got guys on there. Like, I think there's a stopped. But Chris Mitchell, the transfer that they brought in, has some potential. They've got guys on their – I think there's a lot of pieces in play. Yeah, you saw Jordan Faison make a nice catch tonight. Garrett in the chat says, Aggie here, I've never had such high expectations of a QB to be so underwhelmed. Our defense was rocking for the most part,

and offense was so poor. Now, here's the thing. I want to maybe try to make you feel a little bit better because what did we say all offseason was going to be Notre Dame's strength? That defense. Their defense is nasty. Their secondary is nasty. Their secondary is incredible.

Two All-Americans on their defense or one? Well, Morrison for sure, but it is a really good top-to-bottom defense. So the fact that A&M struggled against this defense, I don't know that there are a lot of offenses that would play well against this defense. Yeah. Also, too, how many games has Conor Wegman played so far? Not many.

Is it like seven? Yeah. So, I mean, I understand when you have a five-star guy who's from the Houston area who was a star baseball player and the apple of your eye comes in you want those immediate expectations to to be you know seen but I do think too that it's still a little early from somebody who's suffered from some injuries and stuff to really yeah I'm not I'm not gonna I'm not ready to throw out Connor Wegman just yet

either no I think he's got a shot that was. That was a tough game against a really, really good defense. So we will put it like I don't have a lot of hot takes on this other than and I don't think the possibility of Notre Dame going undefeated is that hot of a take. I feel like that's a pretty reasonable take given their schedule. 11-1 is a reasonable take. It's extremely reasonable right now to say that Notre Dame will be an at large team.

Andy. Yeah. Complaining in your living room earlier today about how I was not able to get this takeoff. Like I legitimately, it's so much easier to say Notre Dame's going to go undefeated after they win this game. It was super impressive to say it,

uh, before it. And I said it to myself in the mirror a lot when I was not podcasting. I really, really, really like this team. And I really do think that if Michigan taught us anything last year, too, that having, you know, veteran guys in the second. Oh, yeah. Stop are huge. Having an effective defensive line and those linebackers will knock the crap out of you at Notre Dame.

So Michigan's good. Yeah. Diet Michigan, which I mean, the full strength Michigan this year might be diet Michigan too. So no, Michigan, Notre Dame,

Notre Dame might be the better diet Michigan than Michigan. So Notre Dame is Notre Dame zero and Michigan zero and Michigan is diet. Right. Right. Cause zero is way better than diet. Cause they, they, you know,

had diet for 30 years and diet because they they you know had diet for 30 years and they're like you know what would be better if we put more fake sugar in it and made it taste like the actual thing if you think that diet coke tastes better than coke zero i'll fight you over that you're insane yes like that's just it's it's not it's insane all right so we can't have too hot of a take on that i I can have a hot take, though, that you guys should be playing Prize Picks, the best daily fantasy game in America. I had a good day. I had a good day.

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So I had a good day, though. Again, when I saw that Arch Manning was coming in, I know the rest of you were like, wow, Arch Manning. And I'm like, no, you got to let Quinn throw for like 20 more yards, but that's okay. That's okay. That's, that's how the cookie crumbles. So go to prize picks, download, use code Staples, play five, get 50 instantly. All right, Ari, let us talk about the game we attended at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday. Miami 41, Florida 17. I didn't think it would be like this. I did pick Miami to win the game.

I picked Miami to cover, but obviously it was a two and a half point spread. So it wasn't like I was going out on a limb there. I thought Miami might win because they had more talent than Florida. I did not think it would be this overwhelming. Yeah. I mean, because when you go into the game, you're trying to talk yourself into, we don't know much about Cam Ward in this new system. Mario Cristobal has been ridiculed for the last 11 months for not taking a knee against Georgia Tech last year.

You're going into the swamp. People at Florida have been expecting an improved team despite the fact they lost some pieces after last year. It's just hard to pick a Miami team who has, by and large, let us down a lot of the last few years to go in there and actually beat an SEC team the way that they did so like to me I thought that uh you know that game went in a way where we and you wrote this in your column on on three before we and then I thought it was the perfect way to put it we came into this game viewing the florida and miami programs as equals

right moment right and one which which is not what florida wants to be because even if miami's the best team in the acc it doesn't necessarily mean they're a national title contender and we'll see what they wind up being but florida wants to be competitive with georgia with alabama with old miss this year i they're not to be if this is the team. And that's – I know I've already done a rant on video about this, but I feel like it deserves saying again, what have they been doing? I'm assuming Billy Napier knows that he didn't have that good of a team and he was just blowing smoke all offseason.

Which backfires back. Because it's actually worse if he really believed it like if he really believed that he had put together a competitive team and didn't know that he hadn't that's what that's a lot worse yeah well i mean you're only setting yourself up to for uh disappointment because when people are expecting something i mean and then you don't deliver or come close to being delivered yeah here's the thing too it's like we talked all off season andy about how this game was interesting because no matter who lost the fan base would right and if florida had won in the same way we would be saying exactly the same thing about

mario cristobal but losing by three or seven or ten is so much different than not being competitive. At all. And they got dominated on both lines of scrimmage. Like Miami's offensive line was way better than. Like Cam Ward had. Can't name one single position group that Florida played that has Florida did better at. No. Miami was better at every single position group.

But Cam Ward had so much time to throw. Like I think he was getting bored back there at times. Florida had no pass rush, and that's my thing because I live here, obviously, and so I'm dealing with Florida fans on a daily basis, and they would always come up and say, but isn't the roster better? Because that's what they're telling us. And I was like, this is is what i said all off season i've said it on the show a bunch of times how can it be better when you didn't replace what you lost like you lose prince liam manny ellen your best edge rusher did you go out in the portal and get a good edge rusher

yeah no you lose trevor etn did you go out and get a good running back? No. So how could you possibly be better? Yeah, here's the thing about college football too, Andy, that is so funny. It's like there's so much off-season excitement and hype, and you hope the transfer portal and you have diamonds in the rough and all these things can make a difference. But really, until last year, and even still to a certain extent last year, college football was a very simple game to analyze. You look at rosters.

Yep. And you just. How many five stars, four stars, three stars they bring in. Four proven entities at this point. Yeah. I think we can replace that with. Right. Do you have?

And like, here's the thing I want to know from you. How many proven dudes does Florida have on its team coming into the year? Like how. Jamar James. You you think of maybe two or three if you're even Montreal Johnson if you want to be generous you could even say Graham Mertz was a pretty effective quarterback he was last year yeah like I'm not trying to dump on them but when you look across the sideline you see a team that won battle after battle after battle for improvements at great positions of need well in the off season and of course they got better and my players but miami hasn't just done it through the portal yeah yes cam ward's important yes damian martinez is important uh yes sam brown had a i mean sam brown had a great block that sprung a touchdown today. He's a receiver, but that was an important play.

Their lines have been through high school. Exactly. Reuben Bain, they got out of high school. Francis Maui Noah, they got out of high school. That's how they've done it for the most part on the line of scrimmage. And that's how you have to. That's how Georgia does it. That's how Ohio State does it.

That's how Michigan has done it. You have to do that on the line of scrimmage. And we should have known. I mean,io cristobal did this at oregon where he built them at the line of scrimmage to be better he won a pac-12 title with the blueprint it is exactly the same and now he's in the acc which i would argue probably is weaker on the lines than than that version of the pac-12 that mar Cristobal was building Oregon teams in. So I think they're in great shape. You know what you didn't say? I was not a believer in Miami until today.

Now I am. I definitely feel like they're the best team in the ACC right now. Reuben Bain left the game in the first series, and they did that without him. He's one of their best pass rushers. Now, Akeem Esidor is a guy that got through the portal, but he's in his third year there now. Yeah.

So, yeah. It is going to be just an incredible season for Miami. Look, they're going to be favored in every game unless Florida State really bounces back. At Louisville, Florida State, which is back-to-back, by the way, that feels like their toughest challenge. They do go to Georgia Tech. But, you know, even if they drop one, like, you just got to win the ACC.

And you're in the playoff. Yeah. So, to me, this was a program-legitimizing win. And here's the thing. I think that a lot of people are probably going to have the urge to say, we don't know anything about Miami. Florida stinks. Don't overreact to it.

Okay. But here's the one thing I'm going to beg you guys to do with me. Because I did this last year with Texas. And I'm not saying that Miami is the same as Texas. I think that Texas team was probably better on paper than that this Miami team is but I think that in college football we have a tendency as consumers of the sport to get so bogged down by all the things that have always happened or happened recently that we dismiss right Miami hasn't been good since 2001 and 2002

so it could absolutely nothing when you get good players. It doesn't mean they can't ever be good again. Do you know how many times before last season when I wrote that column that Texas will make the playoff before last year, people said Sark has never won 10 games in his career? It's the same record over and over. Georgia hasn't won the national title since 1980. And then they went two in a row. Like a smart friend named Michael, who likes to say this all the time, something doesn't happen for the first time until it happens.

You know what I mean? Right. Just like, that's just kind of how it is. And like, I look at Miami schedule, very manageable. I don't know if the old Miami teams are going to show up where they,

they have a clunker too, but to go out and, and not only just win this game, because I think that my column, my thought process of who Miami is would be much different right now. Had they won 24 to 20. Yeah. Like it wasn't just a win, Andy.

It was a class separation between. Yes, it was. Yeah, it was a dominating performance by Miami. And that looks like a team that can because they they did it in a way that travels like good offensive and line line play and good defensive line play travel like you can have bad games but when you have good o-lines and good d-lines you don't typically have a lot of clunkers because you can just overcome you You can always retake control. Either your offensive line allows you to grind out a long drive and suck out the clock or take away the momentum,

or your defensive line forces an interception or gets a sack and gets you the ball back. They always work. It's not something that is fluky. You know what else travels? What's that? Damian Martinezz i think he has like airline tickets to the team too yeah he's pretty good does he have private jet time

hopefully cam ward has private jet time after throwing for almost 400 yards so yeah i guess the last question is and what we'll probably be breaking this down uh you know week by week as we go on but is that performance from cam ward a sustainable performance? We saw one throw that reminded us of Washington State Cam Ward where sometimes he'd get a little fidgety in the pocket and just chuck it up there. And he did that, and Sharmar James intercepted it. But for the most part, Cam Ward was very careful with the ball. He would make some throws that might be considered dangerous,

but he would put them in places where only his receivers could get him they didn't always catch him but i thought he played a really good game and i also thought he did a good job of understanding when florida was in man and they had their backs turned and you could just take off and run yeah yeah so i am past the point and i am guilty of this myself andy it was very fun to make they did not take any jokes for the last right months. But I wrote a column on three.com right now. If you want to go read it, I would love it if you did. If you're going to ridicule Miami, take an E on that.

I think they earned some respect tonight. I don't know if they get to keep it. No, you have to. The rent is due every week. But they definitely. Okay, let's before we move on to the next game, which is another one where we're going to have some blazing takes off of it, but let's talk about Billy Napier because it's a $26 million buyout, $13 million out front.

It's a number that we've talked about all off season. It's actually more than that right now because it's just a percentage of his remaining salary and it's one game but it's a very discouraging game what would you have set the over under uh coming into this podcast before the word buyout was uttered because we got to 27 minutes i think actually well in the chat they were already asking me like like, is he getting fired? And no, he's not getting fired after one game. But if they look like this against Texas A&M. Well, here's the I don't think there's any hope at that point.

The problem here is we came when I woke up this morning and we went to a Cuban restaurant for breakfast. It was my understanding that we were going to a game between two fairly evenly matched teams athletically. And whoever won or lost. Mario Cristobal would be very pleased that i was drinking that quarter dito yeah and eating that media noche i uh and having those maduros i love the way you just pronounced that that was impressive yeah i don't think that's what we saw so it's not so much like i think we a lot of times get bogged down with wins and losses. The thing with Billy Napier for me, Andy, has always been this. When he got here or to Florida, he hired a million people to do the recruiting stuff.

And they wasted their money because they'd not gotten better players. But I think that early on in a rebuild, it's about what fans can hold on to. Yeah. And last year, in October, you had a class that looked like it was going to finish in the top three. Yeah. You had DJ Lagway committed, and then all of a sudden, basically everybody. I think they lost five or six. Six top 200 guys flipped. Flipped. Yeah.

And that already sets you up for really bad juju going into the offseason so then you go into the offseason the portal losses outweighed the portal gains and that's the second branch of how you accumulate a roster now so failed on signing day yep failed in the portal in the portal and then you fail on the field what do you grab on to right there's there's nothing left reprieve if you go look at their schedule where yeah even if they beat a and m like well because because you look at that performance against miami and it's so similar to other performances you've seen from florida in the billy napier era except worse that you're going okay even if they improve somewhat from that they're still going to lose six or seven more games yeah did

you scope that uh dan mullen retweet oh yeah oh yeah forget about that i think producer river has that tweet i believe is matt berry who is dan mullen's broadcast partner at espn and he he was tweeting about how florida fired dan mullen and dan mullen threw threw a little retweet in there because dan mullen obviously was going to new Year's six bowl games early in his career. And Billy Napier is not gone over 500. He's gone to a bowl game. They went to a Las Vegas bowl where they got smoked by Oregon State. So this has been a pretty frustrating thing.

You know what I'm going to say? Can I hop in here? Yeah. Oh, here it is. Yeah. Matt Berry said the Florida coach that got fired went to three consecutive New Year's six games in his first three years and was let go in his fourth season. And you know what?

He had basically become a different person post 2020. Was not recruiting the way he should. And they fired him. That was not the wrong decision. But it has become abundantly clear that hiring billy napier to replace him was also the wrong decision i'm going to cook right now go for it go for it yeah yeah i thought as a unbiased just onlooker for florida that the dan mullen arrow was far more frustrating because i get aggravated when people who make that much money don't seem to get it right that bothers me but

that is also going on now but i actually think that billy napier understands what needs to be done just can't do it he's just not doing well i don't know if he understands it because if i'm going to take his words at face value he clearly doesn't because he thought he had put together a competitive roster and he clearly hasn't so perhaps he's just blowing smoke again yeah and he knows what he's supposed to do and he just can't it doesn't matter either way that's what the money's for you're supposed to win yeah well that's the thing about it's like i actually like billy napier i like the things that he says it's easy to buy into when When he first got hired, I'm like, this is going to work. I've got a guy. He might've come from the Sunbelt. I know people call him Sunbelt Billy, but he came in with a SEC recruiting mind, understanding how- But for 2011, not for 2022 when he got there.

Well, I mean, the portal stuff is concerning. Well, right. He also got there and he didn't flip the roster right away, which was a poor choice. Yeah. And every other coach who got into their job flipped the roster. So they've been perpetually behind, whether it's with NIL, with recruiting, you name it. The Jaden Rashada thing.

The Jaden Rashada thing. Like, all of it adds up, and now you have a situation where you don't have a single position group that's better than Miami's. Will they have, okay, who are they better at or where are they better than Texas A&M? Where are they better than Georgia? Where are they better than LSU? Where are they better than Ole Miss?

Where are they better than Tennessee? Did you just rattle off their like October schedule? Yeah, yeah. Because that's what it looks like. Here's one, here's one. Ready, Ari? Where are they better than Tennessee? Did you just rattle off their October schedule? Yeah, yeah. It looks like so. Here's one. Ready, Ari? Where are they better than Kentucky,

which plays the style Billy Napier wants to play, but when Mark Stoops and Billy Napier get together, Mark Stoops plays it better. We're there right now with the Kentucky stuff? I mean, I don't know. We'll see, but it wasn't a particularly great kentucky team last year that that thumped florida so my my whole thing too was just like florida last year was in a position to where it's like oh god we stink and they did kind of have the dead cat bounce they've beaten i think they're gonna be they beat tennessee last year people this year i don't think

they're gonna just get their ass kicked every week. But what I do think is that what you got done doing was promising people a better team all offseason, and you proved that you were unable as early as the second quarter for people in your own house to be competitive with a team that has been more dysfunctional in different ways than even you have in your own state. So what does beating A&M or beating Kentucky or finishing four and seven even do to change what we've learned today? It's like that, the wins and losses. And that's the thing that bothers me so much about college football analysis in general. It's always, what's your record? And it's like, Andy, you know this, everybody, it's so much deeper than that it's what are you doing to inspire hope what are you doing to change your program and I don't know

what I grab on to with Billy Napier and what he's changing and that's the scariest part and like we're going to talk about Clemson and Georgia I think you're right now yeah perfect segue because it bothers me that Davo Sweeney does not get it. Okay. And I don't think it's the same thing with Colin Avery. Should we tell everybody what happened when we were driving to the stadium? So we got to the swamp three hours early so we could watch Georgia Clemson. So we're driving to the stadium, and Ari's telling me, hey, I think Clemson might cover. And I'm like, I don't think Clemson's going to cover, Ari.

And he starts going into reasons. And I just grabbed my phone and I played this room should be cautious. Ain't nobody in this room should be nervous about it. Go out here. Don't think about scoreboard. Don't think about. You think about knocking. Did you hear what box said on Monday? I sat there. I wanted it right then. Two years ago. I had pride and joy. Tell me, you guys up. You're going to play the right way. You play the right way. You knock.

You stay out. You tackle the ball. It's easy. Look at the right. Putter in the offense and kick special teams, guys. It's about who we are. I believe in you let's go that's curvy smart from a few years ago that's a pre-game speech

we didn't have the beeps in the one that i played for ari say andy i think the beeps make it better in the chat he said is he sending a message in morse code so like but we all i also played the halftime speech from the the 2021 georgia florida game where kirby's like that he's cussing just as much he's freaking out just as much and i asked ari after that's over i go ari do you know what the score was when he said those words yeah what was what was the score? 24 to nothing, Georgia. That is what Dabo Sweeney, who refuses to use the transfer portal, was walking into. And so that first quarter goes by, the second quarter goes by, and Georgia's offense is still struggling

a little bit with Clemson's defense. And I kept looking at you with the Grinch face. It was the Alex Grinch face. Yeah. Which, which it was the Alice Grinch face though. So, which we, we knew now, but it really wanted to put a 225 pound defensive tackle in the game. That's that, that was the problem.

But we knew, we knew that Clemson's defense was going to be good. We knew that they were going to give Georgia a little bit of trouble, but eventually Georgia wears you down. Our friends, Dan Rubenstein and Ty Hildebrandt, you heard them on the show the other day. They do the Solid Verbal Podcast. They have a type of game they call a crockpot game. And this was a crockpot game.

If you've ever cooked with a crockpot, you know how it works. You put all your ingredients for your stew in there and you turn the dial and it feels like nothing is happening for like six hours. But then you get to like our number seven or our number eight. And you're like, oh, damn, this house smells good. And you go look into the little thing and you look through the bubbles in the glass. You're like, oh, my God, we got a proper stew here. And that is exactly what it looked like midway through the third quarter in this game as Georgia started to move the ball.

And you're like. Clemson ain't ever going to score again. Yeah, the line movement before the game was kind of bizarre to me. Because people want to believe in Clemson. I listened to so many different preview shows last week. So many different people are like, well, I think Clemson could beat Georgia. I think Clemson is going to be competitive in the ACC and maybe Clemson will be competitive in the ACC. But are they ever going to be a national title contender not using the transfer portal in the year of our Lord 2024?

No, they will not. I'm going to say something right now. That's going to it's just like we're going to. Yeah, I just we're going to roll with it. OK. Georgia is very good. Georgia is probably one of the top five teams in college football. Not probably is. Is.

Yeah. Their lack of explosive playmaking ability scares the shit out of me. And like coming in. Well, now we'll see Trevor Etienne next week. So maybe that changes that a little bit. But like, yeah, I do think that when you came into this game, the offseason discussion of how Georgia is the number one team up in a way and just run through everybody I had Ohio State number one so you're talking to the wrong person here uh

yeah I think that there is a they were number one in the AP poll and the coaches thought the process is is that they're back to what they were and when you look at the team in terms of proven playmaking ability it's not what it was that doesn't mean it can't get there it's georgia they recruit like crazy they've got a lot of good players but i did are they as good as the 2021 georgia team or the 2022 georgia team maybe they're not but i but i came into the season wondering who are going to be those guys on offense that you can really know like hey this person is going to produce every single quarter of every single game and i don't know if georgia has that guy this year.

And for two quarters today, I was like, they're having a hard time moving the football here. And maybe, like you said, when Trevor comes back next week, that'll be a lot different. But I thought that it was possible. They're also not playing Clemson's defense every time. Clemson is a very good defense. So I'm just trying to tell you the thought process of like,

I thought that Clemson could make this a game. And for two quarters, it looked like they could. And then the damn bro. Can we, can we answer Jordan's question in the chat? Ari, why does Georgia lack a big play of potential scary, but not Notre Dame's because we're not talking about Notre Dame winning the national title. Yeah. I mean, I kind of implied that they could be in a position to win a game.

Like if, if Notre Dame and Georgia played each other, I would pick Georgia to win the game. I still think that because Notre Dame doesn't have that over-the-top, bust-the-game-open weapon that's proven at the receiver, I'm not going to sit here with a straight face with 7,200 people in here and be like, they're winning the national title this year. That's not my point. So I still think Georgia can win the national title. So something can scare me without right you know like i'm scared because i mean i don't think they're good but i do think that when you

get accustomed to all of these big playoff games that we've watched over the course of the past eight years like when you know the best skill position players like the justin ross performance right the davante smith performance is like georgia does not have that dude so they're gonna that we know of yet we know of yet so that we and he didn't really come out here's evan and and so my friend holly anderson said this during the game because she knows how to twist the knife on on clemson fans but evan says if you think bobo and kir Kirby are going to open up the playbook this early before Bama and Texas, you're crazy, Ari. And that is a damning indictment of Clemson that I actually believe. Well, I mean, like the thing about it is, is that Kirby was so unconcerned that Clemson would score any points that they just kept it vanilla.

If that actually is true, and I think there's a chance it could be kirby smart is the most cold-blooded killer that did we not did we not explain that in the truck on the way over we're playing clemson in the first uh week of the season with the entire country right well we don't want to give away too much for the big games coming up like that's crazy but you know you know i don't want this to be sound clipped and you'll be like, Ari thinks Georgia sucks. I hope you're following what I'm saying. I was concerned coming into the game in the season opener. Here's a little proven playmaker.

If Clemson could give them trouble, and they did for two quarters. But like I said, the damn living around a lot of Georgia fans in my life. Let me let me just let you know a little something, Ari. If you don't suggest they're going to win every game by 100, they think, well, you hate the dogs. So it's clear. It's clear you hate the dogs. And that's passion. It's clear you hate the dogs, and that's fine. We'll just, you know, Ari's a dog hater.

Yeah. Ohio State, Homer. You know how it is. Yeah, I mean, let's go through all of them. I don't know how many teams I hate. I actually have grown to admire Georgia quite a bit, obviously. Yeah. I mean, like what they've done, the way that they run that program, like they're a machine

and Kirby Smart is the one coach in college football I'd want to go to battle for in one game right now. So like I've got plenty of nice things to say about Georgia. I'm just trying to take you into my preseason mindset of like, what could go wrong here? You're six weeks of playing the college football video game and not working. Yeah, you got to play that game in your head a little bit. So I'm going to give you two statements from the chat. I believe both could possibly be true.

Josh Clemson can win the ACC title. That's true. Single T Clemson needs to learn to live with not being one of the big boys anymore. Also potentially true. Like this Clemson team. Nope. Not going to be a national title contender. And here's my question to you though. to live with not being one of the big boys anymore. Also potentially true. This Clemson team, nope, not going to be a national title contender. Here's my question to you, though.

Was this enough to make Dabo Sweeney understand that he needs to construct his roster the way everybody else does? Was this enough? Now, I'll throw more at you. The revenue sharing is coming. I think that's really been the problem because if you listen to what Dabo said over the summer, what he said was there are three types of transfers. The ones who are not good enough to play at Clemson, which is most of them. The ones who have already set up the deal with where they're going before they enter the portal. So Clemson's not going to be in the mix for them. The ones who have already set up the deal with where they're going before they enter the portal. So Clemson's not going to be in the mix for them. Also true that there's a lot of deals that are set up ahead of time. And then the ones Clemson can't afford. I think Clemson has stretched

its NIL as much as it can to retain the good players it has. And they don't have a lot of money to spend on bringing in people because it's the people who are good enough to help Clemson are very expensive. Now, when you have the revenue sharing, we're talking $22 million per school. Most of that is going to go to football, so you're talking about at least $15, $16 million to give to football players. Suddenly, you can afford some people. I think they're going to do it next year

that is a lot to unpack that's like an entire episode I think um because I do wonder like if you go back in time and revisit the 2016 and 18 national titles like what do you think Clemson's edges were during those runs I think one it was obviously elite quarterback play which doesn't exist for them right now it doesn't mean it can't it just doesn't um and the other thing too is that they were incredibly gifted both uh dabbo brent venables and the rest of the staff at finding the three stars yeah the isaiah simmons exactly but they also got the christian wilkins they also got the and like cleland farrell was not a anvalued recruit. Like lots of people wanted him. But Clemson got to be on the college football pantheon where Georgia currently sits without ever recruiting like Georgia currently recruits.

No, they never consistently did, especially not on the offensive line. So the question you have to ask yourself, Andy, is a even if they get even footing from a revenue share standpoint and are more able to battle for players financially can you in this era build a team the way clemson was built six and eight years ago i'm not good at math what is that 18 2018 to 2024 at six oh we're back to being a terrible at math show we were just about a math show now we being a terrible at mass show. We were just about a mass show. Now we're a terrible at mass show again. I was just going to let you do math. It's like,

go. That's so crazy to me. Is that like, it's so easy to get frustrated with Davo because I have a conflicted relationship, like in my brain of him on one hand, I think he is a genius and the one coach in the entire era since 2000 to accomplish what he did. Every single athletic director, when they make a hire, thinks they're hiring Dabo.

Wishing that they could hire Dabo Sweeney and do what he did. Then on the other hand, we all know Nick Saban's superpower was the ability to adapt. And not only adapt, Andy, but lead the way when he was adapting. He didn't just change. When he changed, he changed he blazed trail right and everybody would follow him again yes so it's been incredibly frustrating to watch dabbo so reluctant to um to engage in the game the way that you need to engage in it in order to make your team competitive in these games and whether he likes it or not if he thinks clemson fans are ungrateful like we got on that peep uh uh radio show last year we got a peep at it tyler he didn't like that tyler everybody's entitled okay that might be the

case you should appreciate what you what he did i appreciate what he did and i also think it's admirable but he wants to recruit kids out of high school and give those kids who put in the work an opportunity i think on paper everything that dabbo stands for is admirable and i like that like but at the same time he's also doing those same players that he cares so much about a disservice by not putting out the best roster around them so they can accomplish great right also i'm gonna run into this i'm gonna just put out there. He's paid by Clemson to win games. That is his job. I don't want to hear about it. He may think it's to mold men,

but ultimately every football coach's job is to win games. I got a few mold men tweets today. Yeah. If you're tweeting about the graduation rate. Again, it's not that it's. Well, that's like the Clemson radio. The Clemson radio guy was bashing Georgia's graduation. Well, you ain't playing in a graduation game today.

You were playing in a football game. Can I ask you a question? Who's on three's graduation feed writer? Do we have one? Oh, we don't. Oh, we don't? Okay. Yeah, we have about 300 people who cover recruiting in college football. Part of the cross that you have to bear when you do what Dabo did,

which was, again, incredible, built a juggernaut, is you live up to the expectations that being a juggernaut creates. Yes. And he doesn't seem to want to do that. I think he resents that people in college... Right, how dare you expect me to do what I did all those years?

You think Kirby Smart resents Georgia fans because they expect them to be great? He expects them to be great. Pressure is a privilege, Ari. That's what he says. So, like, to to me it's like dabbo was a genius but i think that he is you know clemson still has top five talent composite no it no it doesn't i don't think it does yeah is that true no it's not true yeah i mean they had one good class the last three years like that was in the top five i think but like other than that and like i was telling you this in the car today on the way to the florida game but i remember when you first had me on your first show the andy staple show at the athletic and i don't even know if i was a

national writer yet i made the comment that dabbo's talks and behaviorals were concerning to me because the longevity of accomplishing what they did i felt and that was pre-nil pre-change the transfer so and i know that he has come along and said some things and has grown from an nil acceptance standpoint because i think he even understands that there's nothing he can say or do to get in the way of the money pit that's already been opened but until he gives up the obsession of running the program, the way that he thinks it ought to be run, right. Instead of how it actually should be run.

Like, this is what you're going to get. It's interesting. They were having the same conversation about Dabo and about a guy. Dabo fires as his office coordinator at the 2010 season. It's the same. Like Dabo and Billy Napier are the same problem. Dabo is just accomplished more like both of them. an idea of i agree with that so you don't you you think

billy napier knows what he has to do but just can't do it i think dabble is i don't not willing i'm not sure billy knows i'm not sure billy knows i i think what did he do the first thing he did in florida he put he built a giant staff but did not flip the roster even though the rules would allow him to do it but I think that the yeah I mean that that's difficult because to me it's is it every other coach did it why didn't he do it I got nothing for you exactly so like that that's the thing it it goes back to do you remember you were covering Ohioio state when this happened i when urban meyer got to ohio state i remember covering the michigan state game his first year

and i wrote a column after the big game no no the michigan state regular season game in in 2012 when they couldn't go to a bowl game and they end up going undefeated that year oh okay after that game because michigan state had been one of the best programs in the big 10 for the previous couple of years and after that game i wrote dear big rest of the big 10 you are screwed because not one of you knows how to create a national championship roster and this man does he's going to dominate you yeah and it's it's billy napier is now in with a bunch of sharks who know how to build national championship rosters and he doesn't and also building a staff even though it shows good faith like because he you know billy napier is keenly aware of what went wrong with dan mullen

he didn't take this job right knowing what right so like he knew what he had to say and knew what he had to do because you can't follow dan mullen and then say we don't care about stars. Like it just doesn't. Yeah, we'll talk about recruiting when it's time to talk about recruiting. But I do think that just the action alone of hiring a staff and putting that much of an emphasis on that aspect of the of the game at least shows an understanding of what in theory needs to be done. Dabo Sweeney gets up there and talks and riddles and never really just acknowledges head on like theory needs to be done. Dabo Sweeney gets up there and talks and riddles and never really just acknowledges head on like what needs to be done.

And then you get- But I believe more that Dabo knows what needs to be done. He's just too stubborn to do it. I think that's worse. I don't think either one's good, but you know what? Dabo's got a couple of rings.

Dabo's got a hell of a lot of uh above 500 seasons at the power five level which is not something Billy Napier can say yet you know I haven't really been on the Clemson message boards and Clemson Twitter today like where are Clemson fans at with Davo right now I think they're like they're off off they respect what he's done they love him but they're they're done they're love him. But they're done. They're out on this. They're like, take some freaking transfers. They're out on this, but not out on him.

No. No. Okay. Because it's like the thing that is interesting to me is like what he said at ACC Media Days makes sense. Like you either can't afford the thing that you just went through. He took zero. Zero. Right. The other schools that took

zero army navy air force you have to have a member of congress recommend you to go there you do not need a member of congress to recommend you to go to clemson yeah no i mean that's like i could i could buy like oh we got outbid for a few guys but like zero is just i think that's not you're not participating, but again, I'll, I'll bring it back to Billy Napier. They participated in the portal, but they're not competing with the Miami's and the Oregon's and the

Tennessee's and the Texas's and the Texas A&M's for the really sought after players in the portal. They're not competing for those guys. Yeah. It's a, it's a, it's like a dumpster fire our friend chris venini our former co-worker at the athletic wow he thinks georgia sucks yeah thank you chris i appreciate that run with glad you got my back here yeah that's that's funny all right so we've probably beaten that to death it's this is the thing we've said about dabbo all off season but now we have the point that drives it home in well the reason why

it feels like it's being beaten to death is because it's the same conversation that we've had for the past two years also true and correct but i'm not saying that but the thing is he had a chance to shut us up and all he did was prove our point again this we didn't arrive here because he had one off season where he wasn't into it this was a slow and gradual journey to this point that we have been calling is coming for three years and the thing that is so interesting is is like you saw that you saw that tweet or that post that you put up there that was just they could still win the ACC. It's like, yeah, but does Clemson want to be Penn State of the ACC? I am glad you brought that up.

But it's like the same. It's like, oh, win 10 games while simultaneously not scaring literally anybody that would win a national. Okay, well, I'm glad you brought up Penn State and not scaring anybody because I'd be a little scared after watching them against west virginia and there i go again talking about the past when we should be talking about the present penn state 34 west virginia 12 drew aller 11 of 17 216 yards three touchdowns that my friend is efficiency and explosiveness from drew aller yeah i mean we we got off to kind of a slow start there with the zeros in the first quarter, and we were like,

oh, boy, here we go. Yeah. And then, you know, you're talking about a guy that, you know, came to Penn State with the promise of potentially being the first legitimate NFL quarterback. They've had a lot of really good, spunky quarterbacks for the college level, but the first NFL guy that did it past his freshman year since Christian Hackenberg.

And he wasn't really an NFL guy. And he wasn't an NFL guy that did it past his freshman year since Christian Hackenberg. And he wasn't really an NFL guy. And he wasn't an NFL guy. So like who was Penn State's last legitimate NFL? Was it Kerry Collins? Probably because Michael Robinson was a good quarter. It was a quarterback, but it wound up becoming a good NFL player to another position. So you have somebody who's coming out.

And like, here's the thing. We coming into this game, like I thought West Virginia was going to give them a game. I did too. I know there was a long delay and it was just kind of like a seven hour. But the thing is there's a long delay and it was essentially the same game after the delay too. Exactly. Penn State looked great and the offense looked good. I'm willing to be cautiously optimistic here about Andy Kotelnicki in this offense because we were like, who's going to catch the ball?

Well, Harrison Wallace caught five passes for 117 yards and two touchdowns. With a long of 50. That's important. Yeah, and they hit a 20-yard pass to Katron Allen. That was for a touchdown. And then you had Allen and Singleton running the ball, but it really wasn't. Singleton had a really big day.

Aller is very good with his legs too. And remember, Kota Nicky's coming off at Jalen Daniels and Jason Bean. He's used to quarterbacks who can run. And so if Aller can make some stuff happen with his legs, and not necessarily design stuff with his legs, but scrambling, great. More power to him. Penn State is the program that would have made the 12 team playoff the most who had never made the 14 field during the seven years

it existed right yeah they would have been there six times since 2016 so this team lives in the 8 to 12 range um and if you add a legitimate NFL-type caliber quarterback and one offensive... The thing is, Penn State's always had good receivers for the last few years, too. They've always had one. They've had one really good receiver. I feel like if they had one really good receiver last year,

they might have been able to win one of the Ohio State or Michigan. Is that crazy? No, the Michigan game was closer than people realize, and you just look at the way Michigan ran the ball over and over again. Because Michigan, the reason Michigan ran the ball over and over again was because they couldn't pass protect in that game. So yes, if Penn State had been a little more dynamic on offense, then absolutely they could win that game.

If you're talking about a team, though, that might be much better offensively, has a really smart up-and-coming offensive coordinator who might be a head coach in a few years they've got one of the best pass rushers in college football yep um they have pieces there and the cool thing about it is is that they could go oh and two against ohio state and michigan and still potentially make the playoff but i do think that this team well they don't play michigan so they don't have to you know but i say ohio state michigan i don't just mean those yeah they always lose the biggest two games right schedule so i don't know what the like let's click on this here like who are their actual schedule it's ohio here we go it's up here yeah

okay so you got ohio state maybe usc depending on how good usc is we'll see like penn state even if they lose to ohio state i think certainly matches up with wisconsin i think they can beat washington there's no i don't see USC on there. USC's right there. Oh. They can't lose to Ohio State and USC. Yeah. They got to win one.

Right. Split them. And we don't know how good USC's going to be. We're going to see a little bit of that on Sunday night, LSU versus USC in Vegas, which I'm very, very excited about. What other games caught your eye, Ari? One for me, Vanderbilt. They were clobbering Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech comes back. Vanderbilt then wins the game in overtime. Diego Pavia coming from New Mexico

State. This is Clark Lee's biggest win at Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt's biggest win since I don't even know. And the Virginia Tech hype, well, it's over. I'm happy you brought up Vandy because Vandy, when they hired Clark Lee and Barton Simmons, like I could, you know, like sometimes when you interview people or you get to know people, how you can start to buy into them. Well, Barton used to work in our business. Yeah.

Yeah. Barton is like, didn't he go to Harvard or something? Yale played football for Yale. Yeah. And he's a good looking dude, too. So that helps with the slick back hair. But like when he explained their plan, when Clark Lee explained their plan, you got a feeling that you were like, you know what? This might take five years, but if they hit it right and they do this right,

they keep guys in the program. Well, when they made that plan, they didn't know what the rule changes were going to rock. That's what I was just going to get to. And they've dealt with that because basically they're the farm team for the rest of the SEC. Well, that's what I was going to get to. It's really nice to see them actually win a game because their plan does not work in the portal era because all they're doing is picking out the good players for the bullies yeah like London Humphrey scored a touchdown for Georgia today you're able to keep guys on your team

develop them and then you get the fruits of the labor all if Vanderbilt proves to be the best evaluating staff in America all they're doing is giving everyone else a blueprint of who do they can come steal. So like to have their quarterback come out and play really well and their quarterback be an incoming transfer, I think actually feels good because I felt bad for two really sharp individuals who had a plan and their plan exploded after they got hired and then still beat a Virginia tech team that I think a lot of people thought could maybe win the ACC this year. Yeah. I don't know about eight,

when the ACC, but they were going to be, yeah, potentially like a nine win team. And I don't know if they are, but maybe they are in bandage, just beat them. So we'll,

we'll find out also a couple of, of, of big debuts as QB ones, obviously Nico Yamali, Ava had started the bowl game for Tennessee, but he goes 22 of 28 for 314 yards, three TDs. Tennessee went 69 to three against Chattanooga. Nice. They're playing NC State next week. Yeah, that'll be a good one. That one, we get to see

Nico against a pretty good competition. I'm really excited to see him play against another good defense. He played against a good defense against Iowa, but Iowa's offense was so bad that there really wasn't any competition in that game. This is going to be different, though. 22-28 for 314 yards and three touchdowns is efficient. I understand they're playing Chattanooga, but we came into the season with the notion that Nico is going to be the ultimate lab rat for whether or not you can go purchase an NIL guy at the quarterback position and change your program.

His ability to move around his live arm, just the enthusiasm that he brings to their roster starting off the season in a situation where you're putting up almost 70 and you're that efficient. Like, like, I think this might be where the next part of this podcast goes but the new face quarterbacks or the quarterbacks who are in year two who take a big jump like there's a lot of we should be watching tennessee more we should be watching nebraska more we should be watching kansas state more kansas state there's a lot of first year like second year guys at a lot of places that have a chance to be not just like pretty good, like really good.

Yeah. Well, Dylan Ryola, he, he was making his first collegiate start and obviously he's going to be playing Colorado next week. So he's going to be dueling against a very good quarterback and should do our Sanders.

Dylan Ryola, 19 of 27 or 238 yards, two touchdowns against UTEP looked comfortable out there for the most part. Now, you consider the competition, it's not that great, but we are going to see him against Colorado next week. Colorado did not feel to me like they generated much of a pass rush against North Dakota State, and then when they did cover well enough, they were in man, and they would turn their back,

and Cam Miller would just run. That game's appointment television. I can't wait. Yeah, I can't wait. You got Michigan, Texas next week, but that's the night game that is going to be. Everybody's going to be talking about it, even if those two teams don't really factor into the playoff discussion at any point. Like it's Deion Sanders is Dylan Raiola.

Nebraska people are pumped right now. They feel like they've got their quarterback. We don't know because it's Deion Sanders it's Dylan Raiola Nebraska people are pumped right now they feel like they've got their quarterback we don't know because it's one game but yeah I had a few deep shots Andy who's the last quarterback I hit a few deep shot like when's the last time Nebraska had a quarterback that was a consistent deep shot taker and maker I it's mostly been guys who like adrian martinez could run and yeah but like taylor martinez could run i can't remember i legitimately don't know it's like it's been a while eric crouch maybe but he also was more of a runner so yeah it's it's it's gonna be fun oh how about iowa so we got to talk about when we pick the games, the total on the Iowa game was 41 and a half that moved. So it went down below 40.

And so some people hit the over on Iowa today. Yes, I hit the under. I had to sweat it, though, because I had 42 and a half. And it looked like they were going to be well under. And then three Iowa receivers caught touchdown passes. Ari, Andy, we have to take into account or we have to acknowledge that. I think Iowa had 147 yards of offense in the first half. I know they were terrible. It looked like it's Illinois State down that it's Illinois State.

I know, but I can finish the game with Caleb Johnson, the Ohio State transfer, to get receivers in the mix, the fact that they have receivers. They had three touchdowns from receivers. And also two tight ends. Reese Van Der Zee. And tight end. Two TDs. Luke Lachey's it.

Luke Lachey's really good. So, like, they do have some. I'm not going to. I know it's fun. I'm not going to join the Iowa's offense is awesome campaign right now, but if they could be semi-functional, then you have an Iowa team that might be in the Big Ten mix. Semi-functional against that schedule is quite doable.

Yep. All right. Two big-time coaching debuts that we do need to talk about. Kalen DeBoer leads Alabamaama to 63 to nothing win against western kentucky uh they don't look like they've lost a step at all yeah it uh didn't you say somebody tweeted that saban was holding them back last year they were joking but not really yeah yeah uh jalen milrow uh threw nine passes uh for 200 yards and i think you rushed for about yeah 10 10 carries for 79 yards and two scores um you put up 42 in the first half and just kind of i mean listen tj finley by the

way becomes the second quarterback in college football history to lose to the same program with three different teams yeah you know what i don't know tj finley has lost to Alabama as LSU starter, as Auburn starter. He did not play against Alabama with Texas State last year, but then he loses to Western Kentucky. JT Daniels was your first. He lost to Texas with USC, West Virginia, and Rice. He played for like 12 programs. He got a little bit more exposure there.

Yeah, Alabama playing at Wisconsin in a few weeks is their first big, quasi-big game of the year, but I do think that if your analysis of Alabama's situation was Nick Saban's not the coach anymore, they're toast, you're probably off the mark there a little bit. No, I think Alabama's going to be just fine. Meanwhile, Sharon Moore takes over at Michigan. They start Davis Warren, but then Alex Orgy comes in,

throws a touchdown pass. The offense is not that efficient. The defense was good as usual. Will Johnson had a pick six that closed out the game. Davis Warren, 15 of 25 for 118 yards TD a a pick what do we think of michigan um they are definitely a team that is going to be a team that i feel like i have to watch every week until i get a better feel yeah like they they we're gonna watch them next week against texas for sure and i know that oh yeah we are gonna be there So I'm excited about that. Maybe hit the Zingerman's and get ourselves a little corned beef.

We could do a little Zingerman's. Heck yeah. A little corned beef is good for the soul. But we didn't know anything about the quarterbacks coming into the day. We didn't know who was going to win the battle. I'm not sure how much we know. I don't know how much we know about them now. So when they're playing a very good team uh the way they will next weekend i

think that we're going to learn a lot about what michigan is you take also do you think they were trying to like we like we were joking about with kirby and dabbo do you think they were trying to be as vanilla as possible so as not to give Texas much to cue on? I don't know. Sharon Moore comes out in his first game ever as their actual head coach. I mean, he's done it a few times already. Yeah, we're going to play it. This really wasn't the first time for him.

Yeah, like, I don't know. If you have two quarterbacks that you're not that sure of yet in terms of, like, the game action, I think Alex Orji threw one trick pass last year from what I remember. And then you have Davis Warren who, you know, I, people don't relatively know anything about like that would be a pretty bold

strategy there cotton, but you know, we'll see how it plays out next week. Yeah. The truth in the chat is a Michigan fan. The offensive line scares me. The pass catchers not named Colston Loveland scare me. I think that's probably a pretty accurate description.

The offensive line is all new. And you saw at Notre Dame, an all new offensive line that managed to take over at the end of the game with Michigan. It's hard to tell because they were winning the game. It wasn't like that was, I didn't feel like it was in doubt even when it was somewhat close there at the end.

It was a six point game in the fourth quarter. It was. Yeah. But I didn't feel like it was in doubt. So we will see what happens. But Ari, we're back. We're back. We're back.

So let's talk about how this is all working now. So Ari is here at On3. We are together again. This is now Andy and Ari On3. It's going to be us every day. And this is how it's going to work. So your regular weekday shows, Monday through Thursday, will start at 9.30 a.m. Eastern time. We'll have this show.

And we started at midnight tonight because that's when Ari started working for on three. But in the future, we're going to go 1130 PM, Saturday nights, 1130 PM Eastern on Saturday nights. So Monday through Thursday, 930 AM Eastern time, Saturday nights, 1130 PM Eastern time. And then on Sundays, we're going to get together and we're going to do some team specific videos that make sure you're subscribed to the on three sports YouTube channel because we'll be we'll be talking about your team and you'll get a push notification andy and ari breakdown michigan andy and ari breakdown miami and we're going to do quite a few of those tomorrow also we will be live after the lsu usc game assuming ari's flight lands on time but i think

it will i think we're gonna be good yeah yeah so this is gonna be so much fun yeah i mean listen cannot be happier to be back about the first show uh you know there's no like rejelling i felt like we just write like a glove we're gonna be going every single day uh which is who doesn't want to hear me scream into a microphone every single day well and i didn't think you had any incredibly blazing takes. Like you didn't do anything that made my head want to explode today. So I actually think you're out of practice, but I have a feeling by the time the week is out,

I will have at least screamed at you once. Yeah. Yeah. I'll cook something up for you. Okay. I don't want to leave you hanging, but like I listened to, we're going to have videos on teams,

maybe even sometimes teams that we didn't spend a lot of time on, on the podcast. Exactly. Special video for you, uh, talking directly to you as the fans. We're also going to be writing quite a bit this fall. Yes.

Three.com. Yeah. Ari has two columns out already. He has one on Miami and one on Clemson. I have one on Florida and obviously we will be writing. I've got to do bracketology probably after LSU USC yeah I guess I I guess I'll do it again if Boston College beats Florida State doing weekly top tens we're going to be doing playoff first in well first four in first four out we got a lot

coming we've got a lot of plans oh uh and I'm super excited what about food takes I dragged Ari to a Cuban restaurant for breakfast today. There will be food takes. Don't you worry about that. I've got plenty. I tossed a little Coke Zero, just a little bit of a splash for you guys in there. But I do have... In honor of Ari being here, I did order Domino's cheesy bread for dinner tonight. And by the way, don't forget, we are now presented by Wendy's,

and specifically Wendy's Saucy Nuggets. So we are going to have some saucy material. And also, I do think we need to do like a blind taste test on the nuggets, figure out which flavor we think is the best. I think I think I already know for me. I think it's the spicy honey barbecue. I it might be the spicy buffalo. Those parm garlic, the garlic parm ones are good.

It's a few of those so i may i i don't know i we may have to have a little taste test on the air but i am so happy you're back thanks buddy i'm happy to be here uh and i had a really good time with you today i'm happy to be out in the open now we can just already can work again that's right all the welfare jokes and all the jokes or you just retired to play ncw i i do love that that everybody thinks you got like it was the same with me last year like why'd you get fired i'm like i didn't get fired it would have been you you'd have seen a little different tone for me if that had happened yeah so trust me if i ever get fired and don't have

a place to work i will not be tweeting so uh i got i promise you that but hopefully that doesn't happen i think we got a pretty bright future here and the one thing i'll say andy is that to work, I will not be tweeting. So I promise you that. But hopefully that doesn't happen. I think we've got a pretty bright future here. And the one thing I'll say, Andy, is that I think the best podcasts in general, at least the ones that I consume, not just about college football, but in general, have had the blessing of being together for a long time. And I know today's our first day back together. But the history that we share, I think a lot of people in this chat watching this have been along for that ride too.

So I hope that some continuity and some longevity together can help. I hope our guy Vaughn, the Iowa fan. He's there. He's on Twitter. I see him. Okay. All right.

Just, just making sure, making sure he likes to listen to us in his tracker, but it's too dark to be in the tractor right now. So, but yeah, we remember a lot of people that we've met on the road but i'm hoping that that longevity carries over to this and that we can have a

run of years to make the show what we think it can be because i i really do think that we are onto something here so um super excited to be here very thankful to on three for bringing me into the family and letting me be a part of this team and i'm gonna work my ass off for you so and i'd say we'll talk to you tomorrow, but we'll actually talk to you later tonight. So let's get ready for Vegas, baby. USC LSU.

Yet another hot take bowl.