Andy & Ari On3 - Ole Miss DE Jared Ivey schools us on The Ivey League | FAU coach Tom Herman joins from paradise

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

Ole Miss defensive end Jared Ivey joins the show to talk about the great expectations for the Rebels in 2024. Ivey, who hosts his own (excellent) show called The Ivey League, explains how even though Ole Miss has thrived using the transfer portal, players like himself — Ivey came from Georgia Tech prior to the 2022 season — and others have put down roots in Oxford and created a winning culture. A group of those older players decided this past offseason to wait on the NFL and run it back following an 11-win season.(0:00-1:33) Intro(1:34-2:35) New NCAA Tickets Punched(2:36-8:00) Nick Saban on Capitol Hill(8:01-32:16) Ole Miss DE Jared Ivey Joins the Show(32:17-56:36) FAU Head Coach Tom Herman joins(56:37-57:59) Conclusion - Dear Andy tomorrow!Next, Florida Atlantic coach Tom Herman visits to discuss year two with the Owls. Herman, the former Texas and Houston head coach, returned to college football last season at FAU and immediately had to deal with jumping up to the American Athletic Conference. Following a 4-8 first season, Herman and the Owls grabbed QB Cam Fancher — a multi-year starter at Marshall — from the transfer portal.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/tOPZU_iHFUE

Welcome to Andy Staples on three big show for you today. We got Jared Ivey, Ole Miss defensive end host of the Ivy League, which is a great show right here on these same YouTubes as this show. And I got to tell you, I do enjoy when the players have their own shows, have their own platforms, their own voices, because it is a lot of fun. I've learned quite a bit about the Ole Miss football team in 2024 by watching the episodes of the Ivy League that are out. And we'll talk to Jared about the show. And we'll also talk to Jared about why so many of Ole Miss's veterans decided to come back and run this thing back after an 11-win season because obviously Ole Miss probably dealing with bigger expectations than it has in the history of its football program. This is a team that we expect to make the college football playoff. This is a team that we expect to compete for the SEC

title. And that's something that just has not happened in the past at Ole Miss. And they've done a great job in the transfer portal getting new talent but also still having decent chemistry and that's that's the hard part and that's we'll talk to Jared about that but one of the bigger reasons is some of the guys that came in the transfer portal like Jared Ivy who came from Georgia Tech got there a while ago you know Jared's in year three he's got a bunch of other players and he cites them as leaders who came the same year he did, but came from somewhere else. Very interesting interview with Jared Ivey. We've also got some new teams in the NCAA basketball tournaments. Congratulations to

Oakland, your Horizon League champs, College of Charleston, your CAA champs Wagner, your Northeast conference champs, South Dakota state go Jack rabbits in the summit league. St. Mary's the Gales win the West coast conference. That means Gonzaga did not win the West coast conference, but as James Fletcher, the third, our resident on three bracketologist has told us multiple times in the last few weeks, Gonzaga is probably still going to make the NCAA tournament. There was a moment in mid-season where things looked somewhat bleak, but the net rankings have been there. The advanced metrics have been there.

It seems like Gonzaga is going to be fine in terms of an at-large. So it looks like Gonzaga will be okay. And as James told us, it also looks like Indiana State and our guy, Robbie Avila, Larry Nerd, aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, will also be okay. So hooray for two bid mid-major leagues. Other news, in college football on Tuesday, Nick Saban was on Capitol Hill. He appeared before a Senate subcommittee talking about college sports, another subcommittee that will go nowhere. These meetings have been happening

over the last couple of years, and leaders of college athletics keep going. They keep begging Congress to save them from themselves, and they keep not actually having any effect on anything. So what Nick Saban said is partially he retired because players keep asking for money. He said, Miss Terry, his wife said, all these guys care about his money. Why are you still doing this? He said it wasn't like this years ago. And yeah, I'm sure it was pretty awesome when you had 100% control over the players. I'm sure that was much easier

than what it is now, but this is how it is. And this is how it's going to be. It's interesting because Nick Saban and Greg Byrne, the athletic director at Alabama and Jim Phillips, the ACC commissioner all said there, there needs to be a way for schools to share revenue with athletes, which is something that would have never said five years ago. But now they're big advocates for that, but they don't want them to be employees. God forbid they become employees because then they're going to have to cut non-revenue sports that you don't watch. Now they're not going to cut non-revenue sports. They're going to keep funding them like they always have. Because even before all this money started coming in from football, they funded

all these sports. I'll give you a fun fact. Notre Dame, big athletic department, tons of money. Made a lot more money in the last 20 years on football. Tons more money. You know how many sports they've added? Zero. The last sport Notre Dame added was in 1996. And that's how it is at most places. They're not adding tons of sports because they got a bunch of extra money. They've added a few here and there. You've seen a beach volleyball come in. You've seen a lacrosse team come in every once in a while, but they haven't added tons of sports. They've just added to the salaries of the coaching staff. They've torn down and rebuilt facilities. They've done all these things that you have to do to spend all the money you're making because you're not giving it

to the players. So don't believe these guys when they tell you they're going to have to cut all their non-revenue sports. Non-revenue sports exist in the FCS, Division II, Division III. They fund them because schools want to fund them. And they will continue to want to fund them because people find value in them. Now, you may not find value in them because you don't watch them. You watch football. That's why you're here. And that's okay too. But it'll just have to be done differently. The athletic departments will have to be a little bit less wasteful in their spending because they're going to have to give the money to some players. Now, I'm interested in any ideas they have about how to share the money with the players without making them employees. I'm not

sure they can get away with it because if you're paying them directly from the athletic department, yeah, you're probably going to have to make them employees because they're going to have all the same characteristics of employees everywhere else. So I'm the one who said, I wrote this in 2011. I said, okay, make a system where anybody who wants to pay the players can pay them except for the schools. And you know what? That's what happened. That's exactly what happened, and guess what? I was wrong. Ralph Russo says I never admit when I'm wrong. I was wrong on this one because the reason that doesn't work, and this is what I didn't think about in 2011, is because you end up double charging your donors and your fans to pay the players, and that's what's going on now, and that's not sustainable. You have all this new TV money coming

in. The college football playoff is about to start making 3X what it made before. And in the SEC and the Big Ten, that's even more coming in because they're going to take a bigger share. So yeah, you are going to have to figure this out. Are they going to get deemed employees? There's a real good chance of that. And I don't think Congress is going to save them because one, the Senate and the House have other things to worry about. Two, there are factions in the Senate and the House who want to change college sports or who want to create some rules around college sports, but they want, depending on what party they're in, they want different rules and different ways to change college sports. So I don't know that they're going to come to any consensus anytime soon. Again, as I've said over

and over again, these guys are just going to have to figure it out themselves. I think they can because they make lots of money to do it. If they don't want to make lots of money, like Nick Saban had made a bunch of money. He's a little bit older. He retired. You heard Brent Venables the other day. Brent Venables didn't retire anytime soon. He would like to continue making lots of money into the future. And you know what he's got to do? He's got to figure it out. One guy who has it figured out, at least on the college level, is Jared Ivey. Talked about him a little earlier. Now you get to hear from him. Ole Miss defensive end, started his career at Georgia Tech,

but has become one of the leaders on the Rebels since arriving there before the 2022 season. And right now, they are headed into what they think is going to be a very special season. Here's Jared Ivey on how that came together. Honored to be joined now by a fellow show host in fact i think his show is better than this one he's only a few episodes in but jared ivy old miss defensive end host of the ivy league which you can find on these here youtubes welcome jared how we doing doing good doing good uh and i got to do a shameless plug that That's with the Ole Miss Spirit.

Please. Land roofing. I got to, you know what I mean, shout my guys out. But I'm doing good. I'm doing good. How are you? Great. Ole Miss Spirit, by the way, one of On3's websites.

It is our Ole Miss site. But I have loved watching. You guys debuted in February. And you bring on a teammate. And you guys kind of go through how you know that person's journey to Ole Miss and uh is that you've done T.J. Dudley, J.J. Pegues and Chris Paul is it all transfers so far it's it's not like only transfers but those are the guys that I've had on I just want to get you know let those guys get to know the fans and let the fans get to know them.

And and just because, you know, they're new. So getting those guys kind of out the way and then, you know, there is no balance on who it could be. So it's interesting because you're you are in year three at Ole Miss. You started your career at Georgia Tech, but it's probably got to feel like you've had a full college career at Ole Miss by this point right yeah I've been here longer than I I ever was at Tech so um it honestly feels like I came here out of high school I've been here so long so um but yeah no I love it it's been great and uh yeah you know the last dance so let's that's right that's right how much did you guys talk because you were one of the ones who who could have gone to the NFL and decided to come back

so how much did you and some of the other older guys talk about let's run this back we talked a lot about it uh I think I think a lot of people put um too much stake in the NIL stuff I know they stayed for this and that and these wrong reasons um we talked a lot about how the season ended last year and how we kind of wanted to just ride that high going into the off season and and then come back and really content for a national championship so that was uh that was one of the main things that brought a lot of us back well i think it's interesting because in this era of the transfer portal you know you guys have done better as a program by taking quite a few transfers

but it feels like you bring back almost as much as anybody this year we bring back pretty much everybody um there's some there's some great players that we lost in the back end. But besides that, offensively and defensively, we bring back the meat of both sides, plus all the new guys that are coming in that are already gelling right away. So I'm very excited about just the depth and and yeah, just what we got everywhere. When did it start gelling together? So you get to Ole Miss from Georgia Tech in 2022. When did it feel like you were at home and part of that team? It was pretty quick.

After all the winter workouts and stuff and we did the fourth quarter, you know, savage has some crazy workouts and and when you really bleed and sweat like that and really grind with with your teammates it happens uh pretty quick uh just when you're going through the mud like that um so yeah it wasn't like it wasn't like i came and it just took forever and i got to get to know all these guys like they they were they're very welcoming, and they had already had a successful season that last year with Matt Corral and had a culture that was being built and the foundations of one.

So I kind of just had to find how I fit in, and it brought me to where I am now. So for those who don't know, Savage is not a nickname for the Ole Miss strength coach because he's so mean. Nick Savage is his name and he's one of the best. I remember he was at Florida before Ole Miss and those players swore by him, loved him. What's the toughest workout drill that he's put you through during some of the usually February or the the truly hellish ones but what's the what's the one that just makes you stay awake at night yeah it's it's uh it's curves

we we do like it's almost like 200s back to back with a curve at the top so we'll start like on one end of the field and then run all the way up and around and then finish in the zone yeah it's awful and we'll do like eight the first day then the next week 10 and the next week 12 then the next week 14. so yeah it's it's rough that that that'll that'll definitely take the cake and i'm assuming that's after you've already done a bunch of stuff yeah that's after a full lift and then um a whole bunch of other stuff stations and all that we were doing a a bunch of stations and stuff last year now we've been a lot more football specific but that's after you know the skill guys do their seven on seven and indie and this and that and and a lift as well so it's

definitely tough curves i was thinking like the the the gym like curves that is is more for the ladies and then no that that sounds ridiculous because a hundred yard sprint is bad enough a hundred yard like suicide is bad enough but having to run the back of the end zone and then come back is like extra nasty yeah on a football field it's no joke it's it's literally it's it's it's pretty much a 200 yard drill 200 and then some maybe oh no we're bad at mass show so we're not even going to try to add that up but you are a little different cat when it comes to that stuff the nerdy stuff so i read your mom used to make you do book reports in the summer before you could do any of the fun stuff so what are some of the books that you had

to do book reports on growing up? Uh, I read, I remember reading to kill a mockingbird in like fourth or fifth grade or something like that. And then I really liked, I would spring for the easier options. And I really liked there was, there was, Friend Blank, and it'd be like a historical figure. So it'd be like MLK, My Friend Babe Ruth. So I really was like, oh, let me do these ones, these ones, these ones, especially after reading To Kill a Mockingberry because that was a lot for me as a kid. But, yeah, no, I'm still very thankful for doing stuff like that and just expanding my mind and vocabulary that early on has just helped me tenfold now. So yeah, shouts out to shots out to TI. Yeah. I was gonna say that now my friend Boo Radley would have been a little easier than the, the actual book, but man, that is, uh, that's advanced that age, but I mean, how, how important

was your mom to, to getting you to where you are? Cause I know you lost your dad when you were in second grade. How, how, how big of an influence on you and your brother was your mom? Yeah. As, as big as you could possibly think, she was for the most part, the only influence, the main influence. So, you know, just seeing her work as hard as she did to keep us in the place we were at with the resources that we had, it was truly humbling and truly inspiring. So yeah, I'd be absolutely nothing without the person she is today and the person even going back, my grandmother is, as an immigrant from Jamaica.

So just without this line of strong women, I wouldn't be here. So I give all the thanks and props to them. There is no Ivy League. There is no Landshark defense. There is no Ole Miss Rebel without Tracy Ivey. So, yeah. And so I imagine that school was always very important. And I know that's part of the reason you picked Georgia Tech

coming out of high school is, I've heard you on your show say you went there because you felt like you could play pretty quick, but also a very good school and it's close to home. But you graduated high school as COVID'sitz hitting like what was that like how much how much did kovid and everything that changed around school and and and football how much did that alter how your football career went you think uh thankfully it didn't uh really do anything to my football career um and i was able to finish out playing basketball right before COVID hit.

We actually lost in the Elite Eight in overtime to Sharif Cooper and that McEachern team. And like a week, week and a half later is when we shut everything down. So, you know, my recruitment and, you know, my high school career really wasn't affected by COVID. The only thing was prom and graduation and things like that. We didn't get to do that stuff. But besides that, you know, I think the 2021 class got really the worst of it. I heard you talk about your graduation. Like basically, if you knew somebody with a pickup truck, everybody get in the bed of the pickup truck and you had like a parade through town and waited everybody. So they did like a online like diploma situation where they like put up a picture of everybody's face.

And then they had the music playing in the back. And and then the next day we did like like a parade throughout it's just i'm from a small town so like just a parade throughout like the town square and things like that and around some other neighborhoods and yeah basically you just poke your head out of a sunroof or a window or sit in the bed of a trunk and people would wave and maybe throw some candy at you or something and that was pretty much our entire experience. That's, that's crazy.

Yeah. One of the, one of my favorite parts of your JJ Pegues episode was him talking about like, he'd just gotten his suit for prom his junior year and like COVID hits. And what do you do with the suit? Like we do. Yeah.

It was even worse for the girls. Cause you know, they're getting, we're going to K and G and just buying suits off the rack. Yeah, exactly. Getting these $500 dresses and doing $500 more to make them only fit them.

So, yeah, that's super unfortunate for all the ladies who pre-owned their dresses. Really rough. Let's talk about the show a little bit because it is uh it is great to hear you talk to the your teammates because everybody's comfortable now I'm not joking when I say that Jared is a better interviewer than me so out there in viewer land trust me on this and you're gonna I guarantee you're going to watch this show afterward anyway, but had you done anything like this before? No, I just, uh, I just, I asked questions. I grew up a very curious kid. And I remember when I was, when I was really young, like preschool and early elementary school,

my mom like put like a question limit of the day for me. I'm only allowed to ask a certain amount of questions on the hour. I just have always been comfortable asking questions. I like to get to know people, and I don't really do too well with small talk and stuff like that, so I like to ask questions. I like to open into questions and really pick people's brains. So I kind of just, you know, it kind of just fit. Well, and that's the thing you so naturally, like in journalism school, they teach you the, it's called the 10-90 rule. You talk 10% and the person you're interviewing talks 90%.

Like listening is the key key and you're you're a great listener i'm gonna play a clip from your jj piggies episode and it's about jj running the wildcat when he was at auburn jj the 300 pound defensive tackle now but he did he went to auburn as an offensive player so here here's jj explaining the first time he ran a wildcat in the game so it was raining real bad against arkansas and all i know is it was like fourth and one miles and looked at me he said wildcat so you know my heart just boom boom boom boom boom bo nicks come up you better get the fur down so now that's me coming in as a freshman you got bo nicks in your ear you better get the further okay i bet so i snapped the ball i mean they snapped the ball i figured the swords i see an opening but you figured the Schwartz Schwartz like it was like he was motioning and I'm like just carrying

it okay and I see the uh defensive end coming down so I'm like okay it was a read and all like yeah so I'm like okay I know he's gonna call Tottenham so I said I'm gonna just I'm in my, I'm gonna just in my head. I'm gonna run straight. Stop. Let him die. I ran straight spent off of him. Make it look good. You know, I saw the glue. I was like, seeing the guy come still for him. Then I'm like, okay, I know he's gonna chop me. It's raining. And it was, um, this is the corner. This is the safety that's coming. This is safety. This is the safety that's coming now. Okay. So you got a little head of steam on your head i'm a big guy don't nobody want to hit me up i hate when people hit me up you know what i mean right so i don't say i'm gonna jump we're gonna leave you hanging there because i want you to watch the whole jj piggies episode but i love how you you help him paint the picture there, but other than that, you just let him cook. Hey, it's his story, you know?

So I'm just, all I'm there for is to just provide a little detail for the audience, man. Just give a little insight and let him, you know, speak his piece. So who's the dream guest for the Ivy League? Who do you want the most? That's a great question man i have not thought about that the dream guest for the ivy league probably my mom i'll say my mom oh i would watch the hell out of that episode

does she have to suspend the question limit? I don't know. We'll get that written down on paper, maybe write up a contract or something. I don't know. What was the question limit? Cause I'm seriously considering using that with my kids now. Like you have exceeded your number of questions for today. I'm not answering anymore.

Like what was was there an actual number it was uh i i think the only one i remember is i could only ask like one or two questions in the car so like while in the corner i could only ask because then like i'd be talking the entire car right you can listen to no music you can she can listen to her book she can do what she wanted to do so it was definitely in the car was the the most restricted place like yeah I only have one or two so do you do do you do this now like with position coaches with teammates do uh do what in terms of asking questions or is it more as far as like a chill as far as the game goes like i'm always curious to learn more and more and become you know

a smarter player and learn more and more about defensive scheme and and and things of that nature but yeah i mean i ask you know i just i'm a conversationalist i just you know so speaking of that speaking of scheme year two with pete golding running your defense how much easier is it now you just started spring practice having been in it yeah we were the boys were just talking about this the other day um a couple of the guys from from last year training for the pro day i was talking to uh to stephon winn about this uh just about us like having we're deep i think we're a deeper room this year like we're a deeper d-line room this year but just our knowledge of our own scheme like our comfortability in our own scheme like uh and being able to get the newer guys up to speed quicker because we already know it like it's it's nothing is fresh. Nothing is new.

Um, I think it's going to make us just so much better, uh, as a group. Uh, so yeah, I mean, just, you know, we're, we're taking it day by day and, and everybody's putting in, in the time to stay in their playbooks and, and PG has made it super simple. Uh, so yeah, everybody everybody's everybody's really getting getting a grasp of it and you get guys coming in like walter nolan from texas a m prince prince liam mail and from florida are those guys as good as advertised that you got to see him on the field a little bit yeah y'all will see come fall those are those are some studs right there and how much like you said you guys understand it better is it easier for

them because you guys can can kind of help them along oh for sure yeah yeah you know because any any questions they have we have the answer you know so it takes stress off coaches back coach only has one mouth and um you know he can't coach everybody individually all the time you know as stuff goes but out there on the field the you know we're able't coach everybody individually all the time, you know, as stuff goes. But out there on the field, you know, we're able to communicate and I'm able to help people get lined up, help people, you know, with their responsibility and things like that, you know, just until they can, you know, get it on their own. And they'll end up, you know, being just as vocal as I am. So when you all decided to come back, you know, we, we said, okay, Ole Miss can be great. They're going to be preseason top, whatever expected to make the college football playoff.

How much talk about that part of it? The expectations goes on among the players now, or is it not something you guys talk about? Um, there are times where it comes up, but I feel like for us, the whole, the whole vibe in, in, in the facility is that that is, that is just known, you know, that, that, that, that's the, that's the mission. And, um, everybody, everybody's accepted that. And, and that's just kind of our way of thinking so uh it's not something that i feel like you have to talk about a lot it's something that you know we just do and is that is that because you've played together so long because you've like who are the who are the strongest leaders of this group like who who emerged as as the people who will lead the the 20-20-14 i'll say uh guys like dart jj me uh ulysses um trey washington like john saunders like trey harris like that jordan watkins i could go i could go on like we're such a a team-led group and i feel like you know so many so many guys that could have these big egos check that

you go at the door and um they're able to lead when they're supposed to lead and follow when they're supposed to follow so um yeah you know I feel like we got a team full of leaders it's a bunch of old guys too like all those names you rattled off as fourth and fifth year guys like is it part of being older you know being someone who's been through a lot you know got a bunch of college graduates on this team like does that change priorities a little bit or change the way you look at how you make decisions well it's a maturity thing um it's a maturity thing and and it's also a confidence thing everybody knows they have what

it takes to play at this level um and everybody knows everybody knows the plan everybody has gone through that first two years where they're just getting their feet wet and am i gonna go 100% every single day even though i'm tired and i'm young and i want to do this on the side or this and that like everybody you know i feel like when they come into the building, puts everything aside and has that pro mindset and that different level of focus. Well, I can't wait to see what it winds up looking like this season. But also, I'm waiting for these episodes of the Ivy League to drop.

The Tracy Ivy one, I'm telling you, Tracy Ivy is the dream guest. I want to see that episode. So Thursday's the next one and you can find it on YouTube. Anywhere else you need to look for it? Yeah, it's on YouTube. This past week they posted the entire vibe on Twitter. I believe it's on Snapchat as well. So yeah, a bunch of different spots on the old miss spirit as well where you can leave comments if you're uh if you have an account

and and a subscription so if you want to chop it up maybe get your question answered you know you know we got to get you posted on instagram too i i heard you talking about that with with one of your teammates and i'm the same way like i can't imagine taking a picture of myself and then putting it out there and be like hey look at me but i have friends and acquaintances who do it all the time like professionally and it's like it's working for them but i just i don't know it feels too weird well thankfully uh over at riverland roofing uh i have a great uh uh assistant who uh my not my assistant the assistant of on a big bill over there uh the uh instagram page uh at ivy league uh i've noticed so there there is an instagram page and uh she's posting clips and graphics and things like that so yeah she's really you know taking charge of that that front on social media i

think she's working on doing some stuff with tick tock too so yeah we're hitting on all horizons right now already a media bogle just wait it's only going to get bigger just trying to learn i gotta i gotta ask you so obviously football is gonna go for a while for you but when football's done what what was what is your dream but when football is done what what was what is your dream now when football is done what was your dream maybe when you were a kid for when football was done yeah when I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut I'm not gonna lie yeah that'd be awesome yeah but uh yeah I don't know I I you know I I I did a short mentorship shadow kind of thing with, excuse me, a commercial real estate firm in Atlanta, T Dallas. And I really enjoyed that. And I thought, you know, maybe that could be, you know, what I do when this is all said and done.

And now with the with the Ivy League, you know, who knows about becoming an analyst or this and that and doing that route, you know. So I don't know, man. I just try to think about tomorrow, man, and tomorrow I'm still a Reb. So that's where my mind is. Well, enjoy that time being a Reb because it is short now, but it seems like it could be a pretty special year. Jared, thank you so much. Thank you for having me, Andy. This was a pleasure. Maybe I'll have to

get you on Ivy League, man. I would be honored. I would be honored. That is Jared Ivy. Zach in the chat asked me to call him a nerd on the show uh what you didn't see we actually discussed before we recorded that interview uh he's rereading the harry potter books he's almost done with prisoner of azkaban and he's about to get back to goblet of fire which he has read before but that is that's my favorite harry Potter book. So we actually did nerd out before the show. So yeah, don't worry. We called each other nerds. It's okay. One man who is not a nerd.

We've seen this man with a grill. He's beloved by rappers everywhere. We'll explain that later. Tom Herman, the head coach at Florida Atlantic University. What's up, Tom? How are we doing? It's going great, Andy. How are you, man? You look great. What are you weighing these days, man? Well, I would not put me in to block anyone unless it was at fullback. So you guys are gonna have to bring back the fullback position. I'm like 220 right now. You look great. Appreciate it. So you are in in paradise i am also in paradise right now slightly south of you in paradise uh but what is what is it like coaching football in boca we we talked we've talked to lane about it when he was there and and fau and and and their ad have really embraced this

football in paradise thing but what what is it like every day when you wake up and you're at Boca? Well, yeah, it's so much so that Coach Kiffin called me on his spring break earlier in the week and let me know he was in town. So, yeah, it's unbelievable. I had to – before my wife and kids got here, you know, I'm eating out every night and staying in hotels and whatnot. And, you know, I think I gained 15 pounds. You know, every restaurant you go to is on the beach. You kind of condition yourself. It feels like you're on vacation.

And I had to remind myself, hey, you live here now and get used to it being 75 degrees and sunny in January and taking your jet ski out during the dead period in February. You know, and those are things I've never been able to do. And now that my family's here and we're in our house, my wife and kids are here and settled, it's been a really enjoyable offseason thus far, for sure. So I got to ask you, I've talked to Matt Rule about this, and you guys kind of matched up time-wise.

You finished at Texas after the 2020 season. You go work in the NFL. You come back last year into college football, into a very, very different kind of college football. What was that adjustment like to a world that you knew before that you had thrived in and been head coach at a couple of different schools and been the OC at Ohio State. And then you come back and it is a completely different system. Yeah. I mean, you kind of know what it is getting into it. I'm just getting back into it. It's not like I, you know, left any of my contacts or following anything for two years. And so, but man, you really don't know until you're in it and living

it. And, you know, as much as the word untenable has been thrown out here the last six months or so, that truly what it is truly what it is, you know, and until we figure out a way, you know, you've got the analogy I use is you have 31 billionaires that own NFL teams with the Packers being publicly owned. And if you went to those owners, those billionaires, and you said, hey, we've got a league, we want to start a league and everybody is going to have 85 players. They're all but they're all going to be on one year contracts. Oh, excuse me. No six month contracts with player options every six months. And there is no salary cap. They would laugh at you. They would laugh at you.

They would laugh at you and say that that model is ridiculous. And yet here we are. And that's what college division one college football has become. And we can either complain and do nothing and get left in the dust, or we can figure out a way to do business the way the current model is and be successful while still pushing for some kind of change and regulation. So in your case, you've got it flowing in, flowing out now, just like coaches at every other school.

But your best receiver from last year, he's at Auburn now. Your offensive line, some of those guys got picked off by, by power conference schools. And then meanwhile, uh, Cam Fancher goes into the portal at Marshall, you wind up getting him and now you have a multi-year starter at quarterback, but his multi-years were at a different school. Yeah, it is unique.

You know, I never thought I'd see the day where schools were paying $75,000 to $100,000 for backup players, and yet here we are, and that's what's happening. And, you know, other than LeJonte, the guys that chose to leave here, a lot of them were asked. Some of them we probably won't feel a negative impact. But certainly that one hurts with a year of eligibility left. And, you know, until we figure out a way, because we believe now certainly with the 12-team playoffs and we're in the American Conference,

the odds will tell you the winner of the American Conference is going to be the highest ranked group of five champion. So if you win the American Conference, you're going to the playoffs. And so we have an opportunity to sell that fact, to sell Boca Raton, to sell Palm Beach County, to sell the fact that you can compete to go play for the playoffs every year by staying at home in this such fertile recruiting ground. But and you can get the Ed Olivers of the world who said he was so smart coming out of high school. Ed's a smart, smart man.

And he said, coach, it doesn't matter where I go to college. If I don't get hurt, I'm going to go play in the NFL. And he did. He was the ninth pick after three years. And he said, I want to stay home. I want to represent my community. I want to play with my brother. I want to do all these things for the city of Houston. And he did. That wouldn't happen today. And five-star Ed Oliver is not going to Houston because Houston or an AAC team, because monetarily that makes zero sense for him. When our collective is paying X, their collective is paying Y, we don't ever have that opportunity anymore to get that guy. And so that's okay. We still feel like we can get players that are talented enough to win this conference

and know that, like I said, if you do, you're probably going to go to the playoffs. So we're excited about it. We feel like we used all of the new ways of doing business. We used it to our advantage this season. And so, or this off season, I should say, we were one in five in one score games last year. That is very unlike other teams I've been around, but it does give you hope. And that hope should be that we had talent requisite enough to be in those one score games in the fourth quarter with an Illinois in the

big 10, you know, and some really good football teams, but not the talent to get us over the top, to overcome some other deficiencies. And we had the culture to be in those games, but not quite enough to carry us. And so we feel like we've upgraded the talent. We've upgraded the culture. And it really does feel like year two at Texas. You know,

we took over for three straight losing seasons when we took over at Texas and we straight by with six wins in year one. But we really got the thing going the way we wanted it in year two. And that's when we won 10 games and beat Oklahoma, beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. And so this wasn't going to be like Houston. That was an eight-win team the year prior. Tony and his staff did a really good job, and they weren't far away. And so this feels a lot like when we took over in Texas, where three straight losing seasons coming into this, and we feel like now after 14 months,

we've really kind of started to mold things the way we really want. Well, and I talked to Gus Malzahn about this a few weeks ago because they were experiencing a conference switch last year. And he said they ran into the situation where they could feel that their depth wasn't quite where it needed to be for the new conference. You were in the first year in a new conference last year. Now, you obviously weren't there the year before, but I imagine, you know, all of those years recruiting at one level,

and now you're thrown into a different conference where teams are a little bit deeper. That probably does make a difference in those one score games. Well, and I called a bunch of conference USA games the year prior to, uh, and Mountain West, Mountain West games as well.

And so I got a feel for what fuel for what the the competition looks like and it is different I'm not gonna lie you know I mean Tulane had some really good players and I think you're right I think the depth and the lines really show up you know you know we have a little John T West we're gonna have good players here and there uh that can match up and play with anybody but uh it's really like you said developing the depth and recruiting that depth and continuing to recruit that depth so they stick around um you know and and don't leave at the the first sight oh, I'm on the second row of the depth chart, I'm out. Speaking of depth, let's talk about your coaching staff

because you've got several former head coaches on this staff. You've got Chad Lunsford was Georgia Southern's head coach. David Beatty was obviously Kansas' head coach. And then you've got some South Florida legends there. Chris Perkins there, Brandon Harris, the son of a legendary Dade County high school coach. Brandon played at the U, played in the NFL. That brings me to what I said earlier about how you are beloved by rappers. So it was Paul Wall when you were in

Houston, but I know you're my age, Tom. So I imagine when you saw this, I'm assuming you saw this, that this really hit hard. Uncle Luke, Tom Herman has more Dade County coaches on his staff than any college staff in the state of Florida. Thank you, coach, for all you do. That is the legendary Luther Campbell. Now, he's coach Luke now. He's a high school coach, so he knows the world better than just about anybody. But as someone

who grew up listening to this stuff when uncle luke shouts you out what's that feel like that hey from a guy that uh sneaked around to get a two live crew cassette and and you know it was like trying to buy contraband uh you know when when you were- Band in the USA, baby. Yeah, absolutely. Explicit lyrics. Remember when that tag first had to be put on everything. So yeah, this is what I grew up. And think of it what you will. It doesn't really bother me.

I know what I like in music. And I know that today's version of hip hop is a little bit different than what I grew up on. I feel like it, you know, the stuff I grew up on was poetry set to a beat. And now it feels like if you have auto tune and a good hook, you can get yourself a hit. But anytime, you know, we go to an area, you know,

Kodak Black is a Broward County legend. And obviously being down here with Uncle Luke and Trick Daddy and I mean the list goes on and on of the the great Miami uh hip-hop guys Mr. Worldwide from I mean Flow Ride uh don't get me started so uh well that's what I was asking is is there a like you're in Palm Beach County I I was trying to think if there was a big Palm Beach County rapper, but you mentioned Kodak Black from Broward, Ace Hoods from Broward. He ran out of the road in Pompano. I mean, I could get to his house in 15 minutes.

Close enough. Yeah, but Palm Beach County, I don't think they're growing rappers in Mar-a-Lago or in Jupiter. You know what I mean? Yeah, well, and they're too busy playing good football in the muck so that's that's the other problem but yeah that part but it's interesting because i don't think people understand the dynamic with with uncle luke in south florida football like he's my guy that i call about a player if i hear about a high player, he'll tell me the truth because he's

seen all these guys. And I did a story on him years ago. He was trying to coach for the first time. And some guy was trying to keep him from coaching because of his lyrics. And I remember calling the guy and interviewing him. I'm like, okay, what's your problem with him coaching and all that? And then I asked the guy at one point, I was like, how many kids have you tried to get scholarships for? And the guy had no answer for that. But it's very interesting because you've got this community where it is very important. And I'm curious, you being in this area, because I know you've recruited the area before, but they, Broward, Palm Beach County, you guys talk about the tri-county takeover.

What is it like recruiting in the most talent-rich environment in the country? FBS signees out of the state of Florida, it's like 85% come from these three counties. And we're proud to represent. I'm not sure where you're at right now, Andy, but we're proud to be the public school that represents the Tri-County area individual in football. And we take a lot of pride in that. And it's something that, you know, we signed the second most high school signees of any team in our conference this year. And we know we're going to have to pay them on the front end or the back end. And right now, you know, instead of going and paying overpaying for a bunch of transfers, we feel like we're going to we're going to sign some really, really good

high school football players. We're going to develop them. We're going to build relationships with them. And hopefully when we develop them into the nation's leading receiver, if you will, then there's motivation for them to stick around when greener pastures come falling. Well, and that's the interesting thing because it sounds like you're willing to accept if you develop them and they wind up becoming great players and they leave that that might happen. But I imagine if you had them for two, three years, then you got a chance. Yeah.

Maybe there's an Ed Oliver in the group. And we did. And I don't want to make it bigger than it is, Andy. You know, of everybody that left that one guy we we yeah yeah feel the effect of and and so um you know you know would we love to have that guy certainly i think any team in the country uh would be silly not to so i don't know if okay is the right word i think you have to have plans for it and you have to not be surprised by it. I still think I can still be not okay with it in terms of the six month contract thing. And guys basically looking over their shoulder every six months for something better. That doesn't sit

well with me. And I'm not gonna lie about that. But, you know, if at that point, you know, if a guy started for us for three years and we developed them into a really good football player, if our relationship can't offset the difference in money and hopefully by that point, we'll be at the point where we can at least be competitive. Our collective can be competitive if that model still exists in three years. And hopefully that delta between the two salaries will be matched with relationship and opportunity. So you talked about what the opportunity is in the American. If you win, you're probably in that 12 team playoff. You think back to when you were at Houston and you won the American and you went and you played Florida State in a playoff. You think back to when you were at Houston and you won the American, and you went

and you played Florida State in a Peach Bowl. I'm trying to think. Greg Ward at quarterback, that would have been a fun team to watch in the playoff. That team could have made some noise. It's a shame. Coach Fickle and his crew did what you had

to do. They went undefeated two years in a row. Right. Andy, unfortunately, you know, we, we lost our one game that year at the, at the wrong time. You know, we, we Greg got hurt in that great comeback against Memphis and we didn't have a whole lot, a lot left in the tank going up to Yukon. So we lost. And, uh, when you lose late in the season, you're the way the model existed, then you, you had no shot with a one loss of going to the playoffs as a group of five team. But now, as long as you're that highest ranked team, which we would have been anyways that year, we finished in the top 10, I believe top five, something like that.

We would have been in the playoffs regardless of that hiccup in Storrs, Connecticut. So where you are now, that's Lamar Jackson country. Are they still mad at you guys for that Thursday night game during Lamar's Heisman season where you almost took him out of the Heisman race? That was phenomenal. What was it, 38-10? I think it was 35-3. It was unbelievable.

We sacked him like six times. They were number three in the country, and it wasn't close. And that was – and Oliver, if he hadn't – if chasing Baker Mayfield around in game one that year wasn't his coming out party, that Thursday night certainly was. We had great players. Andy, Greg played in the NFL. Tyus Bowser was a second-rounder.

Willow, William Jackson was a first-rounder at corner. Obviously, Ed was a second rounder. Willow, William Jackson was a first rounder at corner. Obviously, Ed was a first rounder. I mean, those two years, two first rounders were on that team. And Landon Roberts started at Mike Linebacker for the Super Bowl champion in New England Patriots as a rookie. So, I mean, the list goes on and on. And so you got to have good players and right now that's our our biggest biggest challenge is if we can recruit at the level that the two lanes and the utsa can recruit and we all know what we're talking about if we can afford if our collective can afford the same kind of recruits that are that what we're expected to be every Saturday. This is going to be a fun, fun ride here in Boca Raton.

And we're working tirelessly to make sure that we can and stay competitive, at least in our conference. And it's going to be a hell of a ride. So having been at Houston, because I think Houston's probably the best analog for this because Houston is one of the most talented areas in the country, maybe the most concentrated area of talent in the country. Does it, did that help you kind of hone your evaluation skills? Because I mean, guys get missed in Houston, guys get missed in South Florida, but also

they're guys who come back to Houston. They're guys who will come back to South Florida. Yeah. And you, for a guy that knows so much holistically in the sport, Andy, you do a great job of staying up to date in recruiting as well. And yeah, you're right. It is, you know, a boon for us to be in this area. Like I said, you know, if we can be competitive uh in the collective market we feel like when we took this job when we decided as a family to get back into college football we knew

it was going to be different we didn't know it was going to be to this level but we did make a promise to each other me and my wife that it would be at a place that our family is happy living and it would be at a place where we could win championships. And those two boxes are very difficult to check in college football. And this is a place that we felt like had the infrastructure, if you will, the necessary pieces. Look at those palm trees in the background. I mean, that's every day here, man.

And it doesn't get better than that. And we're thrilled to death and we're excited to develop these guys into what we feel like is a championship roster. So you mentioned briefly that you were calling games before you wound up taking the job last year. I know it was a dream of yours back in the day to become a DJ or a host of some kind. Did that whet your appetite? Or you got back into coaching pretty quick. Was it like, ah, I found my calling?

I think both. I certainly didn't find my calling. It was a fun challenge. Being a color guy, if you've ever done it, the play-by-play guy has got the easy part, right? Smith takes the snap. He hands off to Jones. Jones up the middle for four, tackled by Johnson, right?

And then you've got to know that, well, Mike Johnson's, you know, coming off two straight years of ACL reconstruction. He comes from a family of 10 10 and you're drawing circles around. I mean, you've got to get to the three sides of the ball of two different teams in less than a week. And so that's hard. And it was a fun challenge. I just, I missed the players, the day-to-day interaction, to have any impact on guys the way we did with Carvel Jones and the list goes

on. And I was And I wasn't ready. I still had enough in me to be around those guys and affect those changes. As it becomes more difficult, it has. And did I take to – I think I got better at broadcasting. I think it's something I could maybe do to kill time. I'm going do hang up the whistle but um one thing that stood out i think your your listeners and viewers should know like the one thing that stood out to me as a coach my very first game we we were in the the

pre-production meeting in the truck and it's this is smu versus north texas right but there's still this big truck and it amazed me that even a game like that would warrant this cost, right, of all these people and these trucks and equipment. And then so we had the pre-production meeting with the producer, and to break us down, you know, whatever, hey, all right, everybody, let's go to our spots. Let's get ready.

He says, have a great show. I was like, that's what this this is this is a reality television show you know for millions and millions of people and that's what our lives are and that not to get too hokey or kind of deep thoughts by jack handy here but you know it it uh it it sunk in like when he said have a good show, I was like, no, these guys are going out there bleeding, sweating, crying, putting their bodies on the line, and we're making a show. And it was interesting to hear or see that side of it, for sure.

Well, and that's exactly what it is. And I think that's probably the disconnect you see sometimes between us out here and you guys who are in there because you you know these players you when when somebody comes off or somebody goes down on the field like you know his mom you know his sister you know exactly how everybody's feeling and meanwhile the show is cutting the commercial so yeah it's it's crazy how it works, but you're exactly right. You mentioned Cardell Jones. Before I let you go, I do want to ask you this. Cardell's worked with one of the collectives at Ohio State. Did you call him to get any NIL advice when you got back in the game?

Believe it or not, the answer to that question is yes. Cardell has actually flown to Boca, has consulted, if you will, with our collective. And we talk regularly and bounce ideas off of each other. So he's got a lot of irons in the fire. Michelle and I are invested in some of those still in Columbus. And shout out to Plus Two Training out there in Columbus, Ohio. But no, Cardell's doing great up there in Columbus and is really thinking outside the box too

when it comes to collectives as well. Well, and that's it. You got to have all those good ideas around you because you're in a new conference. You're trying to get that edge. And then this is maybe a way to help find it. And the palm trees are a nice edge too though. Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. Yeah, if you're going to do it, this is a pretty good to help find it. And the palm trees are a nice edge too, though. Yeah, no doubt.

No doubt. Yeah, if you're going to do it, this is a pretty good place to do it. Tom Herman, thank you so much. And good luck with the rest of spring practice. Thanks, Andy. Appreciate you having me. Go Owls. That is Tom Herman, the head coach at Florida Atlantic.

That's a man who is enjoying coaching football. And Boca. All right. I know what I'm going to enjoy. Your questions, because tomorrow is a Dear Andy show. You know how to find me, Andy underscore Staples on Twitter, on Instagram. Also, you can email andystapleson3atgmail.com. We've already got a couple of questions in. I've seen a video question or two trickle in, but do not be afraid to turn your phone on yourself, shoot a video and send it to me with your questions. We love your questions. They drive the show. It's the most fun I have all week. We had Ralph Russo help and answer. I admitted I was wrong in this very episode. So you get the, there you go, Ralph.

So I'm going to go back to just solo this week. We may have a guest answering next week, but I'm going back to solo because I just, I got a tone. I've admitted I was wrong and now I've got a tone and be right on a few things. So give me those questions. Andy underscore Staples on X on Instagram. Also, you can email to andystapleson3 at gmail.com. We love your questions and we will talk to you tomorrow.