Andy & Ari On3 - Oklahoma beats Texas for a HUGE transfer portal commit | Can Texas A&M surprise in the fall?

Episode Date: May 3, 2024

The spring transfer portal window is closed, but there’s still drama. Oklahoma landed one of the most sought-after players in the spring window on Thursday when TCU transfer Damonic Williams committed. Williams started every game in his two seasons at TCU and was an honorable mention All-Big 12 player in 2023. Few defensive linemen with this resume had entered the portal this spring, and a lot of schools wanted Williams. It came down to Oklahoma and Texas.(0:00-9:09) Intro - Transfer Portal News(9:10-23:13) Pete Nakos Joins to Break down Transfer Portal(23:14-29:57) NCAA Antitrust Settlement Case, Future of CFB(29:58-32:56) Texas A&M Introduction(32:57-1:05:12) Billy Liucci from Tex Ags joins(1:05:13-1:06:47) Conclusion - Have a great weekend!On3’s Pete Nakos breaks down that decision as well as the ongoing recruitment of Michigan State transfer defensive lineman Simeon Barrow, who told Pete on Thursday that he might decide Friday from a group that includes LSU, Missouri and Miami.Plus, Oklahoma backup QB General Booty is the highest ranking player to ever enter the transfer portal.Next, Billy Liucci of TexAgs.com joins the show to talk about a quiet spring in College Station as new coach Mike Elko works to shape a roster that probably isn’t as loaded as we’d think given Texas A&M’s recruiting rankings of the past few years.In fact, the situation Elko finds himself in now is eerily reminiscent of the one Steve Sarkisian took over at Texas in 2021.But with QB Conner Weigman working his way back toward 100 percent, transfer Nic Scourton coming off the edge and an SEC schedule that isn’t as tough as the one some other teams got, the Aggies might be a surprise come fall.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/f28nBlZ_710

Andy Staples on three. Happy Friday. Booty, booty, booty, booty, rocking in the transfer portal is what we would have said and what the title of this thing wouldn't have been or would have been had there not been some big transfer portal news last night. Also involving Oklahoma.

We will get to the general booty of it all a little bit later. But the big news, TCU defensive tackle transfer Dominic Williams, one of the biggest prizes in the spring transfer portal window. He's going to Oklahoma, pick the Sooners. Other finalists was Texas. So your first Oklahoma, Texas SEC recruiting battle and the one that made this so interesting and what made Dominic Williams such an intriguing prospect in the transfer portal is he was coming from a Big 12 school in TCU. He'd started two consecutive years at TCU. And because of that SEC rule that says you can't transfer between SEC schools in the spring window and play immediately, there were no available defensive tackles from the SEC, which meant when somebody popped in who had played at

a very high level and been successful, he was a all big 12 guy last year, then it made them very attractive to the SEC schools. And obviously lots of SEC schools were in on Dominic Williams trying to get him. It came down to Texas and Oklahoma. He goes to Oklahoma. We'll talk to Pete Nacos from On3 about that. Pete's also got some updates on some other big transfer portal folks who have not made decisions yet. And of course, yes, we will talk about General Booty entering the transfer portal. That's General Axel Booty.

By the way, I'd forgotten his middle name is Axel. If you are slightly confused, that's Oklahoma's backup quarterback who just entered the transfer portal, who has one of the greatest names in college football history, also had an underwear NIL deal, which was tremendous. And I don't know, if he winds up in a place where he can start, maybe they sell some boxer briefs or some boxers or some briefs we can only hope goat dog booty on the move yes that booty's going back and forth back and forth trying to figure out what to do and eventually it's going to land somewhere oh I hope he stays I hope he doesn't make a decision for like three weeks and we just stretch this out every single day for the next three weeks. It is funny because the transfer portal is now closed. We might see a few grad students who submitted their paperwork Wednesday

and their compliance office took their time. We might see a few more pop in on Friday, but that's really about it for the spring window. And yeah, if general booty would, would do us the favor of having a very drawn out, very public recruitment in the transfer portal, we would appreciate that. That would make us very happy here at the show. We,

it would give us, I don't know. It'd give us something to get us through the long offseason. Andrew, we need a booty tracker. You're damn right we do. We absolutely do. Kowalski Sports says, Boomer! And I think that's probably more because Dominic Williams has committed to Oklahoma.

I'm really enjoying Oklahoma-T, Texas as an SEC rivalry. I feel like that does ratchet things up because you do have the drop-ins from LSU and now from Texas A&M. Now I realize Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Texas were all in the same conference in the Big 12, but you also have Alabama, you have Auburn. These guys will get involved in all of these recruitments when these two schools are going after somebody. And they were involved in a lot of the recruitments before, but they would say, well, we're in the SEC. Those guys were in the Big 12. Not anymore.

Now it is, they're all in the SEC and they're all fighting for the same people. And it's going to be very interesting to see how that works going forward. But in this particular one where Texas and Oklahoma both needed interior defensive line depth, and let's be honest, everybody needs interior defensive line depth except maybe Georgia. Oklahoma's the one that wound up getting the guy that everybody wanted. Another thing we're going to talk about with Pete Nacos, remember I talked about the potential settlement in the house versus the NCAA case. And I realized we don't normally get into this stuff in the show because I know it bores people sometimes. This one shouldn't bore you though.

This one will affect kind of everything going forward. And that's why we keep talking about it. Story from Pete Thamel and Dan Murphy at ESPN on Thursday night. And then Ross Dellinger Yahoo followed up with a few more details. Basically the plaintiffs in this case are putting the old squeeze on the NCAA and the schools and the conferences because they know they're going to win and they know it can't go to trial. That's basically, if you're the NCAA, you cannot let this case go to trial

because it will be so expensive if you lose. So now the number that's being floated around, and basically it sounds like the plaintiffs have put a deadline on this thing. So this has to happen within the next month or so. The number being floated around as a settlement with the people who sued saying, hey, we should have been able to get NIL. You were colluding to stop us from that. The number is $2.7 billion. Billion dollars with a B. And the NCAA probably has to put the bill for that. It's an absurd amount of money. And part of the settlement will be a new revenue sharing plan from the schools. That would be the school's contribution to that. And then you figure out what happens next. They're going to, they're going to beg Congress for an antitrust exemption.

We'll talk about that with Pete. I can explain how that probably doesn't help them achieve the goal they want based on what we know of other antitrust exemptions and that it probably winds up being collective bargaining with the players. We kind of all know where this is heading. When the guy in charge of bowl season, Nick Carparelli, when he tells Ross Dellinger the other day that collective bargaining with the players and employment contracts will probably help cut down on bowl opt-outs, that's telling you. Reality is hitting these guys at this point.

This is happening. And the reason it's interesting and important is because once they do set that revenue sharing model where they're sharing with the players, you're going to see the collectives go in-house. They'll be run through the schools. So there will not be this weird, this group outside is doing the paying, which makes a lot more sense. And it also takes away some potential pitfalls because I was wondering as long as the collective system lasted. Now, I don't necessarily know how long it's going to last at this point, but if it had continued for years and years, would you have a person who headed a collective that got sideways with the coach and then basically forced the coach out? I was like, I'm going to take these players. I don't care what you say.

I don't think that's going to happen now. I think that probably eliminates this. This makes it more streamlined. And then also the other part of it, and this is the part that it sucks to even speculate about, is what does that mean in terms of further consolidation of the leagues? What does that mean in terms of the sport seems to be headed toward a super league of some, some sort. This is why I said when they started tweaking the playoff again for 2026, I was like, don't get too tied up in that because by 2026, it might look completely different.

That's what I was talking about. I was talking about this coming down the pipe and then what happens, the dominoes that fall after this. This is happening a lot quicker than these guys I think were prepared for, even though there have been people like Greg Sankey and the SEC who've been warning everybody, hey, this is coming. It's happening. So watch out. Watch out. Goat Dog talking about my A&M, Oklahoma, Texas, all the above comments in the rivalry. It's funny because Missouri and A&M weren't big rivals on their merge. Oklahoma and Texas coming in swinging early, like the two cousins who hate each other at the family room. Yeah, they've always been rivals. Like they were rivals when they were not in the same conference.

So of course they were going to be in the SEC where everything gets ratcheted up. They're going to fight really hard. Let's bring on Pete Nacos to talk about the first big Oklahoma, Texas recruiting battle of the SEC era and how Dominic Williams ended up in Norman. Well, good morning. Happy Friday. Hey, how are you? You know, this was an interesting one. And I was talking to Josh Newberg yesterday and I said, this feels so much like a high school recruitment.

Like, I know I cover the transfer portal, and I know I'm not the Steve Wolfong and Chad Simmons. Like, I haven't done recruiting like that, but it felt like that. And the reason why is, like, even late in the last night, like after 7 p.m. Eastern time, there was really no sense in either camp of which way Dominic Williams was really going to go. And obviously Oklahoma stepped up and they got the job done and the points have been made. And I totally agree. I think that this is the point now that, yes, Oklahoma can play in the SEC,

get Oklahoma as the NIL dollars to make it happen. Well, and I'm throwing some comments up in the chat, and it's some Oklahoma fans having fun with the notion of broke-lahoma, which is what some of the Texas fans were throwing at them. And we talked about this going back years even before nil it's like who's gonna possibly win a bidding war with texas it's not like oklahoma doesn't have a rich storied college football history it's not like oklahoma didn't have a history of you know back in the old days like barry switzer i don't think he followed every NCAA rule to the

letter like Oklahoma's been in this game a while too yeah yeah and uh you know like they needed this to happen too Andy you talked to you talked to the football folks and everything and I mean there was a real need to add another guy on the defensive tackle position in this portal and they probably get the best guy available at this point so it was a huge win for oklahoma well the other part of it is and i was talking about this earlier that the sec rule that says you can't move from one sec school to another play immediately that limited the amount of people we were going to see yeah in this portal it limited the amount of because how because how many, how many D tackles, DNs who hit the portal are really capable of starting on a higher level SEC team? There's

not many. And so Dominic Williams, who was a starter as a true freshman on a team that went to the national title game, like he's a, he's a unicorn in this situation. Yeah. And you know, it's had some conversations yesterday and obviously NIL weighed big and there was definitely some negotiations late into the day yesterday. And I know that there are some people who were like, you know, like darn it, but we're going to have to like move on. Like we cannot reset our locker room right now with this deal um so that was that was a conversation for some programs yesterday i know for a fact well and that is something that that everybody talked about with nil and it is a real thing and i think schools are understanding

of that and i think you've seen that more at at the schools that have been good and have stayed good like they understand you don't want to drop a a guy who maybe others perceive as being overpaid into the locker room because players since like players more than anybody else have a sense of who should be getting what yeah and as long as they feel like it's appropriate you're good it's it's where you you know when you have somebody like in this case where the price for dominic williams is going to be high because of the situation i just described yeah yeah but you like you said you've got to be careful when you make these deals because you do not want to upset everybody else and have them saying well okay i need to redo mine now.

Yeah. And like the portal was closed, obviously, yesterday. But at the same time, I mean, you can't afford for your defensive tackle room to be a mess entering fall camp. Right. In terms of like the chemistry and everything like that just can't happen. So I think that that definitely weighed in. But I mean, kudos to Oklahoma, man. They probably get one of the top four guys that have gone in the spring portal cycle.

And, I mean, Utah's people are at Norman. And going into the 15-day spring portal, it was evident that the priority was going to be on the defensive line. And then the offensive line. And they've done both now. They picked up Branson Hickman, the SMU offensive lineman and now they go get dominic williams yeah so they have filled the needs and and brent venables let's see let's see brent venables in that 52 jersey producer river we let's see that photo it's it's coming but there's brent venables wearing dominic williams jersey yeah that's good on Venables.

Venables looks good in a 50 number. He played linebacker, so it makes sense. But this is a – you're right. This is them filling needs. Texas needed defensive tackles too, probably not as badly as Oklahoma. But when you lose a first-rounder in Byron Murphy, the second-rounder in Trevandre Sweat, you're always looking for more talent.

Yes. So they got the Arizona de-tackled Bill Norton. I have a feeling that they're going to get involved with Derek Harmon, the Michigan State de-tackle. So we'll have to keep an eye on that one. Speaking of guys who transferred from Michigan State who play on the defensive line, Simeon Barrow, you talked to him last night. He has got it narrowed down to two SEC schools and an ACC school. Yeah, and he told me he wants to announce his commitment today. He's pretty sure.

So he's down to LSU, Missouri, and Miami, and he's gone on visits to each school. And that's exact order. You know, I'm going to put in a prediction in this morning andy i think he will be a miami hurricane i'm pretty confident in that interesting yeah another it would be another huge pickup for the hurricanes in this spring portal window um and you know my other instant reaction is it might leave lsu scrambling if he does become a hurricane like I anticipate yeah because LSU's tried to get almost all of these D-line guys and has not been able to get one yet uh the Miami situation you know they got Damian Martinez from Oregon State they got Sam Brown the receiver from

Houston uh that that now potentially Simeon Barrow they've done a good job finding the guys who are potential impact players because this is we we talked about all through the spring portal this is not a ton of impact players at higher level schools no this is this is miami does feel a lot deeper that maybe than when they started yeah and and and someone asked me the other day, is Miami the biggest winner of the spring portal window? And I think the answer is obviously yes, because not only because of the, the number of pickups they've had,

but it's so evident that with the addition of cam ward, right, obviously flipping from the NFL back to Miami that, that there's some confidence right now in Coral Gables that this year's team on paper has everything it needs to make a real run. And I know we've talked about the schedule before, but I think the Cam Ward commitment and then what they've done this spring really has them feeling good. And when I talked to Simeon Barrow last night, he was pretty emphatic. I was like, hey, do you feel like Miami,

does that really give you a chance to like win a national title and compete he's like well they got their head straight man like we're gonna do this i was like okay like what he feels like they have all the tools they need to compete well it's also not pure transfer portal like we're talking about what what miami is going to be we've mentioned the guys they got out of the transfer portal, but they've also got, you know, Samson Okunola moves up to a starting job after he was a five-star freshman signee on the offensive line last year.

Francis Maunoa started all last year at right tackle as a freshman. Reuben Bain on the defensive side of the ball was outstanding as a young player. So it's not like they don't have players that they've been signing this is this is what we talk about the combination of signing the good players out of high school and developing them and then filling the holes in the roster through the portal yeah now you still got to call timeout or you know or kneel on the ball against Georgia Tech, but the roster feels good. Yeah, no, it feels good.

Common section, when should we expect Derek Harmon to commit? I expect some sort of decision to be made in the near future. I've been told that Derek Harmon is well aware that there's a lot of schools who want to obviously win his services, and he's not trying to hold up every, every program on that five man list that includes Ohio state, Oregon, um,

Michigan state, and then Colorado and USC. That's, that's a big list for, for a D tackle. So, I mean, if you're a D tackle who can play spring might be the time to move.

Yeah. And, and you know, um tackle who can play, spring might be the time to move. Yeah, and you know, we weren't together last spring, but I know you knew this, and I felt like you wrote about it and talked about it with Ari Wasserman. But like offensive linemen was the big thing last spring, right? Like everybody wanted an offensive tackle. And the reality is the offensive tackle market this year really hasn't been that strong. But it's moved over to the defensive tackle position well that's what i i feel like if you are a first team all-american conference offensive tackle it it actually might behoove you

if you were thinking of moving to wait out the winter window do the spring window and go where you're you're going to be in high demand and supply is very low i mean it's it's more purely a supply curve demand curve situation right there now if you're a quarterback though get in oh no go go go yeah don't wait don't wait yeah it's now we do have more oklahoma related transfer portal news we did talk about dominic williams that's the big news so we talked about that but general booty is in the transfer portal the greatest name in college football the highest ranking player in college football, the highest ranking player in college football. David in the chat says, when we're tracking General Booty's potential schools,

we need to call it the Booty list-ish. Where might General Booty wind up with his underwear NIL deal? So you see me looking at my phone, General Booty sent me a list of schools who he's been in contact with. Come on. Right. Tulsa, Samford, UTSA, and Louisiana and Monroe. Those are the first four or five that reached out immediately. Look at that.

General Booty. Listen, we need this man to have a chance to start. I have never yelled at a television as much as during that 2022 Oklahoma-Texas game. Remember, Dylan Gabriel was out with a concussion, and Oklahoma was struggling to get their offense going. But they would not put General Booty in the game. It drove me insane. I have never yelled at the TV as much as I did that day.

I'm like, guys, he's right there. Just put him in. Booty of the Warhawks. War booty. Oh, man. We got Sanford fans in the chat. Listen, this might be the most highly anticipated transfer portal recruitment of all time it sure is i mean and as he he's an nil star too he has his own

underwear collection he came out with the generals crimson cream like two years ago i mean the guy's born oh i i'm so excited because he just needs a chance to play. Like once he's a starting, he's QB one somewhere like the NIL market on that team just goes through the roof. So whether he's a ULM Warhawk, a Sanford Bulldog, uh, if he's Tulsa hurricane, whatever it is, that will be a boon to that particular program. And the other play, like imagine being the center snapping to General Booty. Like there has to be some NIL dollars in that. Yeah, no, you're right.

I mean, the fun thing about General Booty is he was like, he's a baller. Like he threw for like 3,000 yards at Tyler Junior College before he got to Oklahoma. I think he was a starting quarterback at Allen, which is the one with the giant stadium where Kyler Murray played. Yeah. I mean, this guy's a baller now. Now I guess we're going to have a battle over Sanford and Louisiana.

Monroe Louisiana. I actually had someone reach out. He's like, Hey, do you know anyone who would be a good starting quarterback for Louisiana? Monroe? I'm like, I don't know. And then general booty won in the portal so reporting for

doody come on willie t i found you mizzou booty that is that is beautiful that is beautiful milt which school will make the booty call? Oh, my. Yeah, I really hope he stretches this out for a month. And we'll have you come on for like two minutes every day. General booty update. Yes. Yes. The booty list-ish. He was in Eastern Michigan yesterday.

He still hasn't decided. Still looking around. I think I need to get a whiteboard in here, Josh Neuberg to just break it down. Just a quick breakdown. Oh yeah. Oh, it's tremendous. All right. Now we have to talk about the boring court stuff that is not boring at all. When you really dig down deep into it, ESPN reported on Thursday that potential settlement in that house for seeing a cell blade case 2.7 billion dollars like people at schools were thinking it was going to be around 1 billion as a settlement 2.7 billion I'm bad at math that's a lot more than 1 billion you know uh biggest takeaways from this reporting from espn and yahoo um andy you and i were talking

about this before the show uh ross ellinger put out a note on it too how uh there wouldn't be a scholarship count anymore hello will there be a roster limit but not a scholarship like you you could go up to the roster limit so whatever that is yeah which is crazy um 20 million dollars in revenue sharing i which is we could chop up another day but i'd be really surprised that they end up putting a salary cap on college sports um that would i think that's going to be hard well and i was so it's interesting because this this caused me to go down a Major League Baseball antitrust exemption rabbit hole because that's what the schools want. They want Congress to pass an antitrust exemption so they're not getting sued over and over again. And I was thinking about this because I had read something the other day from one of the Ken Rosenthal or one of the big time Major League Baseball writers where they were explaining, hey, look, they're not going to just impose a salary cap in major league baseball they couldn't get away with that and i'm like wait they

have an anti-stress exemption so i was reading more about it it it does limit some of the things that that players can sue for and and major league baseball is the only one that has this the nfl doesn't the nba doesn't but after the strike in 1994 congress passed what was called the kirk flood act that basically allows players to sue for labor-related reasons which would be compensation yeah so like even if there was some sort of limited antitrust exemption that congress gave i don't think they're going to go as far as allowing them to impose a salary cap without negotiating it with the players so and that's there's a reason why they should collect the bargaining deals and the nfl and the nba and i think the mlb even has one too

yeah yeah exactly they do and they don't have a salary cap because they have a very strong players union uh i won't point out I've been saying this for years, the college sports or college football players union, depending on how they decided to break it up would be the weakest of those unions. So the schools, if you want to, you're probably going to get a decent deal if you do it.

So we'll see what happens, but I'm also more interested in once that happens, because, you know, we talked about what, what Charlie Baker, the NCAA president had proposed with this idea of a kind of a higher division where everybody kind of says we're in to, to pay this amount of money to the players. Project D1. Yeah, this will cause that to happen one way or another. This, this will basically, you'll have to, you'll decide if you want to be part of that division that does this or not.

Because if, if you don't want to pay that much or you can't pay that much, you're not going to. Yeah. And, and you know what I'll just add on to Andy to maybe try to go macro with it. Like we talk about the settlement negotiations. We talk about the 20 million

possibly in revenue sharing we talk about uh the no roster limit we talk about um ross dellinger said there's like a 40-day deadline on getting this done this house person cwa lawsuit is not supposed to be slated to start until early january 2025 but beyond that i think the point i'm trying to make is either congress which really feels unlikely as we were just talking about or collective bargaining is going to have to come in for any of these settlement like items to actually go into place like you can like now like quick yes so like you can agree on all this but there's going to be a lot that needs to happen for it to actually be enacted and put into place.

And I feel like that is something that maybe needs to talk through some more. Yeah. And that's the thing. And I think at the highest levels, they've been talking about this. Yeah. I think there's, there's people in within the school,

athletic director types, some that have accepted this, that have been trying to work on this. There there's been people with heads in the sand that are now just like oh god what do we do now but all of this is going to change really quickly and i have a feeling that's a lot of what we're going to be talking about here over the next year or so pete is these these schools with the schools that say hey we're in for this and the ones that say that we can't do this and then it then it when that happens right because it seems like it's just a matter of time then then we start having conversations of like okay

what does the structure of college football look like moving forward like are there 40 or 50 teams that can actually pay the 20 million dollars annually which is about 300 million over 10 years per school well we're also like the one little nugget in the Ross Dellinger story that I love because it's going to expose the people who've been lying about not being able to afford stuff. That whole scholarship roster limit thing, essentially what it would do is let's say college baseball, where you are limited to 11.7 scholarships. You have 32 roster spots. If this went through, you could have 32 full scholarship players.

I'm telling you right now, every SEC baseball team, and most of them don't make money, every SEC baseball team would have 32 full scholarship players. Like the next day. And then they'd be like we can't afford it we're off the cut sports no you won't i bet you won't i dare you so yeah that that's gonna be

fun and remember just because you're allowed to do it doesn't mean you have to right you you have to decide if you want to spend that money or not so but pete it's it's going to be really fascinating to watch and uh i'm sure you and i are going to have to do a lot of uh phone calling and talking about this over the next month and then the following probably year as it all gets sorted out yep it's going to be a very interesting i'd say 18 months in college sports pete nakosacos, we'll talk to you again very soon with the next General Booty update. We'll update the booty list. You get it. I'll see you.

Pete Nacos reporting for duty, just like General Booty. Man, that's not going to get old. It's really not. Thank you, booty family of Shreveport, Louisiana. Abram, dad, who played receiver at LSU. John David, uncle, who played quarterback at USC. Josh, uncle, who played receiver at LSU. Abram, thank you for naming your son General Axel Booty.

Because it's a long offseason. And knowing he's out there in the transfer portal looking for a new home well you're gonna fill some time on this show so we appreciate that william says shake your booty yeah shake it all over the country till you decide where you want to be qb1 willie t where does this two billion dollar figure come from? If athletes weren't able to get paid prior to now, how do you make that estimation? Well, the demand is for $4 billion if they win the case, if the plaintiffs win the case. And basically, the price is going up every day. And they know they're going to lose if it goes to trial. So this is where the plaintiffs are pegging it right now.

Where does it come from? The NCAA has got a war chest. They've been putting money aside in the event of something like this. Also, they probably would withhold revenue distribution from the NCAA basketball tournament to schools to help pay for it in the future because they're not sitting on that pile right now. They're going to have to move some stuff around. But yeah, to make sure it gets paid off, they're going to have to probably reduce the amount they give to the schools. But yeah, that's where it comes from. That's where it comes from. All righty. On to the football field we talked about oklahoma we talked about texas there's another school in the sec that recruits in the same footprint that was recruiting very very well

for a while under jimbo fisher but then jimbo fisher was not doing much with those recruits so he got fired got paid $77 million to not work. And Mike Elko comes in at Texas A&M. And now his job is to get the Aggies where they've always wanted to be. And I say always wanted to be because at least in most of our lifetimes, they've never gotten there. 1939, the last national championship for Texas A&M, but they have all of the resources, the location, everything you think you need to be competitive for national titles, yet it just never seems to quite work out for them. Now it's Mike Elko's turn to try to make that work and takes over a roster that has some really nice players, but also had a lot of holes.

Let us join Billy Lucci from Tex-Ags and talk about Texas A&M coming out of spring, heading into that 2024 season. We are joined by the great Billy Lucci of Tex-Ags.com. And Billy, I wanted to talk to you because I feel like it has been very quiet in College Station. And I feel like recent off seasons have been more loud in College Station. So like, what is it about Mike Elko's first off season

that has caused, I don't know, a lack of drama versus what we saw under Jimbo Fisher the last few years? Well, I think the stuff under Jimbo, I think, well, first of all, there was the whole Saban-Kiffin-Jimbo feud. So that was about the loudest of offseason that you could have. Then there was, maybe it was last offseason, was a lot of portal stuff. This time around, and I think that's going to happen

to a pretty large degree when you have a head coaching. The end of a tenure, and it also happens to be the end of a tenure at an SEC school, right? Like, those become loud. There's a lot of drama in the offseason. There's a lot of, you know, negativity swirling around a program as it starts to, you know, as the tenure starts to swirl and spiral, right? So kind of expected with the exception of the real theatrics

a couple of years ago over NIL. As far as Elko, it kind of fits with how he does things, Andy. It kind of fits in that he's very much in control of every aspect of the program. And I mean that in a good way, not a I'm the only one. In a micromanager way? Yeah, not in a micromanager, but more of a, hey, this is how it needs to be. And he's got people that he trusts that do it. It's just very, very organized, very in control, an entire staff on the same page. And it just, I think when you have that,

and I think a noticeable level of discipline change, not just when you watch practices, but in the day-to-day operation of the program, and I think even within the staff kind of, hey, Andy Staples, you got a job, do your job. And we don't function if you don't do your job.

And Billy Lucci, same thing. And that's kind of how he runs it. And I think the players from them coming in here and just me talking to him. And then, like you said, the lack of storylines in the off season, it's actually a sign of a good thing.

You know, like, I mean, there's obviously a long way to go. He'll be the first one to tell you that. But it's certainly a good sign that things have been so quiet, particularly in the portal. You know, this spring portal came and went. And, Andy, there is a massive culture change, a 180-degree difference in day-to-day expectation. And you bring in a guy like Tommy Moffitt that doesn't go easy on them day-to-day in that weight room. And I think you lost like three guys that came in at the midterm and just quite frankly, you know, the realization was they're not going to play.

And, you know, a veteran that hadn't got on the field yet in Bobby Taylor is looking for a couple of guys like that. The only player you lost that was likely to, you know, have a chance to play for you this year was Bryce Foster. And I think if Bryce could be in maroon and white, and he probably would, I just think he realized that it wasn't, I think both sides realized it wasn't a fit. It'd be best if it was going in a different direction. And I think- Yeah, Bryce is the center. Mark Nabu

is the guy who would take over at that point yeah and you know it's interesting to me because we talk about this this is what we heard about the the tail end of the Jimbo Fisher Administration I realized look everybody comes out of the woodwork when a guy gets fired and says well this was happening this was happening but it does seem like some of the the issues that were plaguing texas a m over the last year or so were guys could do kind of what they wanted and there weren't a lot of repercussions and and like you just mentioned with with the employees you know they're being told hey do your job The players now getting told that too.

How does that change things? How different does that make it within the locker room, within the offseason program even? I just think when you see certain guys that stayed on with a new head coach and a new scheme and they had a real opportunity to just cut and run right when the season ended. They had a real opportunity to cut and run at the end of spring. Like guys that, A, the starting caliber guys that were coming back, the big names, and believe me, there are still some big names

and there's some NFL-bound guys on this team. They were getting offered real money to go play elsewhere, particularly in this, in this very league. And the fact that they didn't, and then on the second time around, now you're talking more about the guys that went through spring and realized, Hey, I don't have a job locked down. I'm not guaranteed to start here. I need to compete. And they didn't leave either. That tells me they like the way they're being coached.

They like where the culture's at, and they believe that they'll have a fair shake to play if they do what the coach says. And they like kind of the feel and the vibe of the program because otherwise you would have seen that exodus that people talk about. When we had Mike Elko on the show i was a little surprised he he was fairly critical of the talent level and i know there's some things that he probably isn't going to say publicly but when we spent so much time talking about that 2022 class

and what they brought in and i look at the projected depth chart for this season and it's there's not a lot of that. In fact, the best player on the team might be a guy who should have been in that class, who's a hometown guy, who went to Purdue. Yeah, and he might be the best. And look, they've got an impact guy coming in, I think, on the O-line from Kansas.

Purdue and Kansas are coming in, and they've been turning heads from day one. So, yeah, that 2022 class getting gutted took a lot of raw talent off the roster. There weren't a lot of guys that you're going to see starting at other places from that class. Several have already tried and failed. A couple of them, a couple of the biggest name guys at multiple schools already. But that was a lot of raw talent or a lot of hoped-for talent

that was out the door. But there was also a lot of undeveloped talent still on the roster. And, look, I'm not going to sit there and just, you know, like you said, it's real easy to pick at the carcass of a coach that left. But one thing that's just a fair criticism and assessment is when you look back, there's just been a lack of development. And these numbers are from 2020 to 2024, Andy. First-round draft picks, Georgia 13, Bama 18, LSU 10, on and on.

You include Texas and OU with three and four. Texas A&M, one. One first-round pick in that five-year stretch. And second round, Texas A&M won. So two first or second rounders from 2020 to 2024. Bama, 21. I mean, Georgia, 21. Bama, 28.

LSU, 16. Florida, 10. I mean, where do you want me to go? Auburn, 5. A&M, 2. South Carolina, 4. A&M, two. South Carolina, four. A&M, two. So we've sat here, you and I, and I think fairly, you know, this is fair.

They recruited multiple top six classes, including, you know, that one class, the highest rated class of all time. That wasn't me ranking the class. People that want to say, oh, look, he's a tech zag. No, I didn't rank those classes. The national ranking systems, they were bringing in talent that everyone in college football from Nick Saban to Kirby Smart to Sark or Lincoln Riley or, you know, Brian Kelly. Everybody thought they were bringing in a lot of talent

because all those guys had offers to those places. The rankings, everybody that does them, whether it's on three or wherever, everybody thought that. They didn't develop. And so even just draft picks in general, 49, that's at the top right the teams that we were saying a m was recruiting along with them a m's at 17. billy this sounds very similar to another university in the state of texas i mean this this was texas i know where you're going three years ago but it's true this was te Texas in the Charlie Strong and the Tom

Herman eras. They would bring in highly rated talent. They were not putting out draft picks. Now you see what happens when those guys start developing. They make the college football playoff. They had 11 guys drafted this year. They multiple first round draft picks like it. That seems to be it's almost like what stars c sarkeesian has done is kind of mike elko's mandate there yeah it's kind of it's it's fascinating to say that right but there's a lot of truth to it when you i i haven't really studied every uh

texas draft pick like their fans think i do but i look i. But I give credit where it's due, though. But Jonathan Brooks was committed to Herman. See, this is what the Texas fans won't do, though. They won't let you, like Kevin Sumlin, claim Mike Evans and Johnny Manziel. You know, every snap they took was on him. That had to be Mike Sherman because Sherman was gone. But you can't do that with Herman and Sark. Sark has to get all the credit.

But he really shouldn't. Some of these guys, like Jonathan Brooks, was looking to flip to A&M and Jimbo. The Aggies were chasing five-star in L.J. Johnson, who ended up going to SMU after a year. Jonathan Brooks was sitting there at Howlettsville, Texas, in the middle of a coaching change. There's a miss. The Aggies did look at Tavondre Sweat.

They took his five-star team, Byron Murphy's five-star teammate from DeSoto, Shamar Turner, who, by the way, is having a great career at A&M, came back and is looking to follow suit as a high-round pick. That wasn't a mistake with Shamar by any stretch, but Byron Murphy, they didn't get involved in so but those are the guys that a lot of those guys sark and company either inherited as recruits or they they were on campus so that's up to elko like you said to kind of do the same thing here because they make make them draft because i don't know that that a lot of people would have looked at Tavondre Sweat when Sark came in and Bo Davis came in to be the position coach

there and said, that's a second-round NFL guy. He's like a 360-pound D tackle. Yeah. And then look what he turned into. And that's the thing with this group at A&M. There is talent on the roster. For sure. It's not like it's bare.

It's just a matter of getting more out of it, it feels like. Now, there's a lot of talent, too, that just transferred in. And so a lot of those guys are going to be – they're going to play key roles if A&M is going to have a really successful this year and certainly moving forward. But, I mean, you look at some of the guys that they've brought in via the portal in Nick Skorton and, you know, Des Ricks.

And from Bama, they've brought in – I mentioned Armage Reed-Adams from Kansas who looks really good up front. Cyrus Allen, the receiver from Louisiana Tech, I think you'll see play a lot, and if not, start. And there's some others that I'm just right off the top of my head. But, look, the issue is what he's walking into, if we're being real honest and say – and this can change during the season because there are options. Like I happen to think Shamar Stewart at the end of last year,

by all accounts, was doing this. He comes in. He's a guy that everyone in the country tried to get to go in the portal. He stayed. He had a great spring getting after the quarterback. He looks like a first round pick he was playing like a guy bound for the NFL at the end of last year when there wasn't a lot to play for it seemed like so he's really encouraging there's a lot of guys like that

but if you were to tell me today who are the first or second round who are going to be the first or second team all SEC picks to start the season? Whose names might we see on there? Realistically, it's Shamar Turner. It's Torian York, and it's probably Nick Skorton. And I may be leaving somebody. That's probably it if we're saying first second team preseason I'm not saying no one can get there but those are three two of them one of them is a transfer and then

if you said what and I talk to these scouts all the time who are the top three round picks this year not on campus but like this year you could probably say that with the potential, it's probably Turner, Stewart, who we talked about, and they would tell you maybe in Skorton. Again, one of the three wasn't even on campus. So they inherited plenty enough to compete very quickly, but this is not a roster loaded with NFL bound, like talent in terms of the immediate future, you know, highest.

And they're going to have to develop it if they're going to. Well, there is one guy who I think if he lives up to his potential, has an NFL future. And that's, that's Connor Wegman, the quarterback. And we haven't seen him since he got hurt last year. Obviously, he was there in the spring. He's still recovering.

I heard Elko say the other day that he feels like he'll be fully ready for camp. But how different can this offense be with a healthy Connor Wigman? Slash solid offensive line play. I'm just saying solid. I'm not saying great. With that combination, I think people have forgotten what Connor Wigman was putting on tape before he got hurt against Auburn last year. I think people forget that SEC Nation came in that weekend,

and if you'd have heard the things, that group, which includes a couple of guys that really put a lot into studying the quarterback position, what they thought of Wigman and his trajectory and his arc already four games into that season, the way he ended his freshman year in that game against LSU, the way he played in his first career start that season the year before against Ole Miss, and then to carry it through even in that loss to Miami.

People are looking at that tape that I respect that have nothing to do with A&M going, go look at some of those throws and where he placed the ball and the pressure he was under and how many hits he took and the guts he had standing in there. So there's a ton to work with. The key is, yeah, he has to be healthy. I think what Mike Elko and Colin Klein did this spring

was really significant in that Connor wasn't 100%. A lot of times in college football, you go, not 100%, just sit him. We always think that, right? No reason to risk making it worse. Well, they determined that there wasn't the risk of making it worse. It just was he was not yet full speed. Those muscles around that injury, he had not been able to, you know, fully strengthen them. And that's kind of, from talking to Connor,

what happened while practicing. He wasn't going to get hit, but I watched him in the first spring practice and I watched him in the last, and it was night and day how far he came in terms of his agility, mobility. And he still, like, people that came to the spring game went, uh-oh. And I'm going, no, no, no. If you had seen him 15 practices ago, you'd have said, uh-oh.

I thought that was really good. And more importantly, Andy, for the mental side, for Connor to practice with the ones, with this football team, with his teammates, and also to learn the offense while actually executing the offense and not watching from the sidelines. I thought that if he has that breakout season this year, and if that line can protect him where he can stay healthy and he has one of those breakout years, I think you can look back on that decision to kind of force the issue

and say, no, you need to the issue and say no you need to practice you can and you need to and he was all about it he was ready to get back out there but they also could have aired on the side of caution and i'm i'm looking at it right now going i think it was pretty smart that they didn't well and the other thing is that they need to have him ready week one i mean notre dame's coming in that's going to be a huge game. Notre Dame is essentially making that game. It's not it's season, but they feel like if they win that game, they're in a very good place because their schedule is not exceedingly hard

this year for A&M, you know, it's, it's Notre Dame. Then they're at Florida, you know, they it's notre dame then they're at florida you know they've got to they've got to jump in pretty quick it's like it's an opportunity a m hasn't been hit with like the and i say that and they went five and seven two years ago right and seven and five but they haven't the sec hasn't handed them any type of, like, brutal, unmanable, you-can't-survive-it schedule like the one Florida probably has this year. Yeah. I would say Texas got an absolute cake schedule.

You know, they do have to play Georgia. Michigan doesn't count. We're talking about conference here. Right. They got handed a cake schedule by the SEC in year one and they do have georgia but they also get them at home but outside of that man it was silver platter for year one but i'm i say that as someone that's watched a and m in the last few years get handed some very manageable and and by sec standards they they've had a of cake schedules that they were not equipped to take advantage of.

Yeah. And that's unfortunate because they should have been, and it looked like they were trending towards that. But this is not the toughest schedule ever. Look, you get Notre Dame, Missouri, LSU, and Texas at home. There's a world where those are your four toughest games. Now, Auburn might crack that party, and it's on the road. Florida, early in the year, who knows what you're going to get

from either of these teams. Trips to South Carolina and Starkville, I get it. But no one – But, yeah, at Florida, at Mississippi State, at South Carolina, if you had to say, who do you want to play on the road? Right. Vanderbilt's the only other person, only other team you're adding to that list. And there's no Ole Miss, no Tennessee, no Georgia, no Bama.

I mean, it's not easy at all, but at least they didn't get handed like what Florida's looking at in year one under Elko. And again, like you said, if Connor can be the player that he's flashed and that he's shown in some SEC action, mind you, and where I think Elko's pretty excited, Andy, to be honest with you, is you can kind of tell he's not going to be the sunshine and roses guy at the pressers every week. He's going to keep it pretty honest.

He's not going to throw guys under the bus or units, but you'll be able to tell. And you can already tell that coming out of spring versus entering spring, I think they're a lot more optimistic about what this defense can be. You know, and they got the transfer linebacker from Pitt that, you know, he should absolutely push to start there alongside York. And then they've got a few guys that didn't practice this spring coming back. I mentioned Shamar Turner.

I mentioned Ricks. You know, Trey Jones from Central Michigan, who is getting a lot of high-end SEC interest, and I think he's like a several-year starter there and was a team captain. Safety. So they're having some guys come in that weren't even there in the spring that'll be there in fall. So I think, oh, and let's not forget five-star Terry Bussey, weren't even there in the spring that'll you know that'll be there in fall so i think that you know

and and not let's not forget five-star terry bussey who could compete to start at corner or wide receiver so that defense could look even better once they start practicing in fall camp but i think they came out of spring feeling pretty good about where where it had a chance to be well and it does feel like they have the opportunity to to kind of under promise and over deliver yeah you know there's not the hype because of what you just said and also you talk about elko i think elko's managed expectations fairly well by not allowing a lot of hype to creep in like when he comes on this show and says that's how it's not what you think it is like that's him managing our expectations so that if they were to go eight and four,

we're like, ah, that's, that's not bad for a first year. And, but I think they can be better than that. If everything falls into place. Yeah.

I saw something the other day where they had their floor, their ceiling at eight, eight or nine and three in their floor at 6 and 6. I don't really disagree with that when you say floor, but I do think this is a team that you might could set that ceiling at a 10 and 2. I'm not expecting that, but you're talking about ceiling, right? We're not saying what I think will happen.

You're talking ceiling. I do think maybe their ceiling might be a little bit higher if they're able to win close games. The position where I think you saw them go hard after Lambert Smith, who went to Auburn. There was a time where it looked like he was heading to A&M. Sam Brown from U of H ended up at Miami. Looked looked like he was heading to A&M. Sam Brown from U of H ended up at Miami. Looked like he might be heading to A&M. Those were tough losses and it tells you that they need to continue to push the envelope at receiver and get better.

They lost Aniah Smith, who was a really good SEC player for a long time, and they lost Evan Stewart, who was a very high potential guy. And I will not be surprised if he went and did some great things at Oregon. They're very happy with him at Oregon right now. They feel like he's going to have a special year. Well, I would say a lot there. I think if Evan can stay committed to being great, he can be great.

I don't know if it was going to happen for him here. I just think it's one of those deals where you come in and there was just a bad taste in his mouth, some that I think was his own doing, some that was understandable, that he came into an offense that just was, you know, but also could he have done more certainly. Some of those guys do need a fresh start, and they can start to. So the question is to me with Evan is can he play through things?

Can he sustain it? Because right now it's all fresh and new. And I have a feeling he will, though. I think he will. I think he's one of those guys that's smart enough to know this is it for me. This is my shot. I can play football for a long time or I can't. I think that'll work out for him. With that said, the Evan Oregon's getting and Aniyah Smith, that's a lot to lose in a receiving core.

And they got guys right now that Moose needs to be more consistent. We know he can play at an elite level. Noah Thomas will make some of the best catches you've seen. He made an incredible one in the spring game, had two short touchdowns. He's got to avoid the injury bug that's kind of hit him for the last. So he's got to stay on the field. And then Jadae Walker had a nice first year, especially a nice finish. Practice is hard. He's great in that room and stuff. But you look at the teams that

have won in this league at the highest of levels and most of them have multiple high round nfl receivers i'm yeah especially now and if you want to say well georgia didn't that's well they had pickings and and you know we're not i mean lad mcconkey was brock bowers and oneConkie. One of the first picks of the second round and Brock Bowers first rounder. So, yes, they did have elite receivers. Yeah, they were late to the party, but they got there. But then everybody else, you know, LSU, Alabama, just not even in the conference,

but I watched A&M play a home-and-home with Clemson during the Trevor Lillard. Oh, yeah. I mean, like – T. Higgins. You're not winning at that highest level without that. And that's a position where I'm going to have to see those guys really rise up and, and be players. I know they were pretty bummed when, and when Jabri Barber from Troy hurt his foot, cause he was doing some really nice things in the slot.

And he'll be out for a while. I think that's a longer-term thing. Cyrus Allen will be a big deal. Freshman Isaiah Williams, who they took late from your Gators down there in Florida. But those guys are going to have to be contributors. And then Terry Bussey, like does everything I just said mean that maybe he gets a little more of a look than expected on offense or are they continuing to hammer the portal here? Oh, you just go Travis Hunter and play him 110 snaps.

That's that's all I need to do. I don't even, I don't even want to hear your opinion on everything going on in Boulder these last few days. Well, that was yesterday's show. That was all of yesterday's show. I had to go back and watch because I was busy. But that one, oh, man.

Well, you've been through this. You've seen it where there's coaching. There's a high-profile coach. Everybody's interested in what's going on and you can see what they're doing and it doesn't quite jibe with what you know works. And that's, you know, you saw that for the last couple of years with Jimbo Fisher, which he did know what worked before, but was not doing what was working. And I feel like that's the same way with Dion's's roster construction we'll see maybe i'm wrong but the the the jimbo thing like you guys you guys saw it kind of devolve and you know you told me going into last season hey this this could this could be it because even with that big number,

you just can't go on like this. And so they made the change. Elko's there now. We watched him work a miracle. Like that first year at Duke, he worked a miracle. He did. Jedi mind tricked them into thinking they were really, really good. So that's the part I'm curious to see if he can do that at Texas A&M.

What I'll be really interested in, Andy, is – and they're going to really – I think the Colin Klein hire was massive, and I think they're going to do some really nice things offensively. One of the positions that no one's really talking about, and I've been trying to say this. Reuben Owens, Le'Veon Moss, and Amari Daniels quietly had a really nice spring, too. But that running back position and those first two guys like there, they can be special backs.

I mean, like Reuben was a five-star. They flipped Le'Veon from Bama and LSU, tried to get him late, and they both flashed it at times last year. Le'Veon from Bama and LSU, tried to get him late, and they both flashed it at times last year. Le'Veon's flashed it for two years. Those guys, and Moss looks like a different guy, like the way he's muscled up in the weight room. That running back position could be really strong. So if they can get that O-line,

and the way Klein attacked the running game at K-State, I thought, I mean, they rode that. Oh, yeah. DJ Giddens. Yeah. They rode that to a Big 12 title a couple years ago. If they can run it and play defense, and you know Elko's MO is stopping the run.

He did it here. They led the SEC, I think, a couple years of his four in run defense. If they could do those two things, and if Connor Wigman can be that dude that we saw him flash, you know, he's only had eight starts. If those things happen, yeah, you go back to what he did in year one at Duke with the belief and you go back to even what he did in year two at Duke and what he did with this defense in year one under Jimbo, uh, with, I think less talent. I know less, I don't think less talent. I know less talent. They had some, they had a couple of nice

underrated linebackers and they had players, but not like they do upfront now. And I think quietly they're, they're excited about the potential, the way things can shake out in that secondary. So that's kind of like when you say, well, A&M hit that higher end of that range. I think it's if those things happen. And that running game is something no one's really going to talk about because it's Mike Elko and it's a defensive coach. And there's excitement around your quarterback. then there's and then there's uh you know Colin Klein but that running name

could be could be pivotal for them quiet excitement in College Station good voice a lot better than loud disappointment yeah Billy look loud consternation sucks let me tell you yes wow you had a few years of that so billy enjoy the silence all right buddy appreciate it i like the is that a depeche mode reference yes it is sorry that's our first depeche mode reference on this show so i'm glad i could i'm glad i can be a part of it we'll be be back to your usual OutKast references on Monday. But thank you, Billy. Thanks, Andy. The great Billy Lucha talking Texas A&M.

By the way, while Billy's talking A&M in the chat, we have our friend Sandman23, who's a Texas fan, frequent commenter. It's so far up in the comments. I'm just going to let you read the whole stream if you're watching on the YouTube channel. If you're not, well, subscribe to the On3Sports YouTube channel so you can watch those. If you're watching on the YouTube channel, but you want to make sure you can take the show with you wherever you go, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. But here's what Sandman23 basically said. We were talking about Dominic Williams at the top of the show with you, wherever you go subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. But I'll,

here's what Sandman 23 basically said. We were talking about Dominic Williams at the top of the show, Oklahoma beats Texas for his commitment. Uh, the spin from Texas now is that, well, Oklahoma was, was desperate and they were willing to pay more. Uh, but Texas didn't really actually want him that bad. And that's why they weren't willing to go as high as Oklahoma was because Oklahoma's more desperate. And of course the Oklahoma fans jumped in and like, that sounds a little like sour grapes. Probably is. And Sandman's like, well, who just lost to Kansas?

Well, guess what guys? You have both recently lost to Kansas. Welcome to the SEC. I'm sure the Bama fans are having a field day with this. It's going to be so much fun. It's been fun this week. Transfer portal's closed. The world didn't end.

Shocking. Should have listened to us in the first place. We will talk to you on Monday.