Andy & Ari On3 - Oregon and Georgia are BATTLING for the Nation’s Top 2026 QB

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

Bring home the W with the ultimate tailgate package. The Burger Box from Whataburger is perfect for every occasion. It comes with 10 single or double burgers (with or without cheese), your pick of sauces and all the fixings (which you can customize — did someonesay grilled jalapeños?). Keep it basic or go wild, it’ll be a slam dunk. Order online from April 4-7 and earn double reward points. (0:00-1:59) Intro(2:00-7:41) Steve Wiltong joins(7:42-9:29) Jared Curtis: Oregon or Georgia?(9:30-13:42) Steve discusses Georgia(13:43-18:06) Where will Curtis go?(18:07-22:48) Other QBs in 2026(22:49-30:49) Jackson Cantwell Recruitment(30:50-32:00) Whataburger(32:01-35:49) USC on the recruiting trail(35:50-40:12) Retooling usoing the Portal, Payroll(40:13-44:59) Has recruiting changed?(45:00-48:29) Turnaround of Texas(48:30-52:35) Teams making a jump in the New Era(52:36-55:19) Steve's Rules for life(55:20-56:30) Conclusion; Dear Andy & Ari tomorrow Happy Sweet 16 Day! As we previewed the Sweet 16 on yesterday's show with Seth Davis, we turn our focus to football recruiting, and we bring on the best person in the nation for it: On3's VP of Recruiting and Transfer Portal, Steve Wiltfong. Andy & Ari pick Steve's brain on where Georgia and Oregon are at with the nation's top QB in Jared Curtis, how USC stacks up on the recruiting trail, and where the turnaround of the Texas Longhorns came from. We also discuss with Steve the teams that could make the jump in this new era of college football. Tomorrow's show is a Dear Andy & Ari show, send in your questions to [e-mail] Watch us on YouTube, LIVE M-F at 9:30 am et: https://youtube.com/live/74GnXLuzwVY Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Annie and Ari on three. Happy Thursday. We gave you your big sweet 16 preview yesterday with Seth Davis. Hopefully you have absorbed all of that and you're ready for the action that is coming tonight. But now we're going to turn the page to the thing that On3 really does well. The people who work here, grew up in this world, revolutionized this world, and one of the people that you're going to see today is the guy who pretty much taught everybody how to do it. Steve Wiltfong, On3's director of recruiting and transfer portal, joins us to talk about the class of 2026 about recruiting in 2025 and how that works. Now, we have a great conversation about Jared Curtis, who's the number one quarterback in the class of 26, who's deciding between Oregon and Georgia, what that means for both those programs, what Georgia is doing

differently in recruiting that they have not been doing previously in the NIL era. It's a fascinating conversation. Steve is the best. He does this so well, and he's so plugged in that when you hear him discuss some of these programs and what they're doing now. It is really a good barometer for what they're going to be like in the future because he has this finger on the pulse of high school recruiting and portal recruiting and understands where all the pieces fit. So we're going to talk to Steve about a bunch of different things, including

Jared Curtis, like I said, the number one QB recruit in the class of 2026. We're talking about Jackson Cantwell, who's an offensive line recruit, who's the number one player in the class of 2026. And we're talking about what you got to do to win national championships now in football. Here's Steve. We're joined now by the greatest recruiting reporter alive. He's actually the greatest recruiting reporter of all time. Steve Wiltfong.

How we doing? Well, good morning, boys. That was a hell of an introduction, man. If I die tomorrow, I'll put you right on the eulogy. Well, listen, it's not often we get to talk to a pioneer. I mean, you essentially invented how this stuff works, and now you've had to evolve as the world has evolved with it.

So it's pretty fascinating to watch. Yeah, I've been covering recruiting for over 20 years, which is just wild, because I'm only 42 years old. But the true pioneers, as you guys know, you guys have been die-hard football fans for so long. Guys like Tom Lemming, Alan Wallace, those guys don't exist.

I don't know if it, the product morphed several times, obviously Shannon Terry creating rivals and then 24 seven and now on three, just how much evolution we've had in the business. But Tom Lemming was a mailman that was doing recruiting on the side. And the 900-number days, people would call a 900-number to get the most up-to-date information on their favorite team. And the nuance of recruiting coverage since then is wild, but it's awesome how many people are interested in it, awesome how many people interested in it. Just how

many people are following roster construction and talent acquisition and everything that that embodies. It's made these players popular before they've even stepped on a college football campus. It used to be a very small niche

community would follow recruiting. It would know, hey, we signed a five star, but the the general public of fans at Notre Dame there or Michigan, all these graphics are showing they wouldn't know who you were till you made a play on the field. Sure, a Tyrone Wheatley pick up or something like that would be exciting in the newspapers, but now, you know, a lot of these guys are well known before they even step on the field. And it's really, Shannon Terry creating rivals, scouting, or rivals on three and two, four, seven, and all three of those networks are still existing and providing great coverage

of these kids and making them more known names to the diehard fans that are following these teams. Andy, what do you think we could charge for a 1-900 number to Steve's phone right now? Oh my god, it would be so much. Because back in the day, it was like a $1.99 a minute. Inflation, I mean, and- You like the- It's Steve. So I'm thinking at least 20 bucks a minute.

Be a conflict of interest Obviously no Shannon's gonna take a cut Steve. Let's see really. Oh, yeah. No, it'll be on Like you think about like the whole 1-900 number thing like what people used to call it for there are other things people used to call 1-900 numbers for to it like the internet has ruined For people that don't know what that existed like in the recruiting space, maybe they use those 900 numbers for other things, was you would call and you would get like a Georgia scoop, right? So it'd be just a one minute message or two minute message of George is doing well with these three

guys for these reasons. Thanks for calling. Well, like Bill Buckhalter, who was the longtime preps writer at the Orlando Sentinel, had one back in the day. And he'd tell you, like, these guys are committed to Florida and Florida State and Miami. And he'd keep it going so they'd keep the meter running for a minute. But it was amazing. So Bobby Sablehouse, who he'll tell you, he's considered the greatest recruiting bust of all time. He was a quarterback who signed with Florida in the 1995 class. He was telling me a story years ago about

when he was in high school and he went to high school in Maryland. They are looking through, I want to say it was super prep magazine and Wallace. Yeah. They get to the mid Atlantic region and Bobby's a good quarterback. He's one of the best quarterbacks in the region and they can't, he's like looking at it and he had a copy and a teammate had another copy and Bobby's looking at it. He's like, wait what they didn't put me on the list. Like, what the hell? What? How do they not put me on the list? And one of his teammates goes, Hey, Bobby, you're number one in the country. And he's like, what? That's how this went back.

I really do think though, that like if we did a call Steve thing, and you just recorded like here's the scoops of the week, or even have a chance to talk to you, like you can make call Steve thing and you just recorded like here's the scoops of the week or even have a chance to talk to you. like you can make some money in that and then it's twice the charge per minute

when you're on vacation because I know that that's what you want to do when you're on the yeah. Speaking of the story, Andy just told Julius Peppers, I think recently told the story or no, it was Ronald Curry. Oh yeah. It was with Julius Peppers at a camp,

I think, and they were just asking him some questions about his recruitment and things of that nature, and they didn't really know who he was, and he was just saying that he was, you know, who he was basically. They went and got a magazine, and they didn't find him on any list, until they went to the National List

and he was at the top of that. That's amazing. Well, let's start at the went to the National List and you're at the top of that. That's amazing. Well, let's start at the top of the National List right now because the biggest news in recruiting this week, this has been a huge couple of weeks because as the high school students go on spring break, some of these top class of 26 and 27 recruits are fanning out across the country going on visits to schools.

But the big news is in on threes hometown in Nashville, Jared Curtis, who is the number one quarterback in the class of 26. He made an announcement that he's gonna make an announcement. He will announce where he's going to school on Cinco de Mayo. So get your margaritas ready either Georgia fans or Oregon fans. But Steve, tell us how this recruitment is going and then we'll talk about the dominoes after that. Well, one school will be cheering,

cheersing some top shelf worm in the tequila drinks and the other is gonna be drinking some plastic bottle pop off. Georgia and Oregon battling for Jared Curtis. This has been a slobber knockerer on the trail, a back-and-forth, because Jared really loves both programs. You could see himself succeeding at each school, has love for each of them for various reasons. I think he's really hit it off with Will Stein, Oregon's offensive coordinator. Dan Lanning and that coaching staff, he feels comfortable around that young group, sees the success they're having on the field, sees the way

quarterbacks like Bo Nix and then Dylan Gabriel lit it up. And then just the success that the team is having. And then the way Bo Nix came into the NFL and had a terrific rookie year. He's been out there three times, has really enjoyed his time around Oregon. When he decommitted from Georgia in the fall, Oregon was the leader. Now, there's been times since where Georgia has moved back in the front, then Oregon again, and now I think it's Georgia right now that may have the slight edge, but these programs have over a month to continue recruiting him, continue to have conversations with him, having conversations with his representation, having conversations with his family. And it's a recruiting game of inches and for Curtis, it's coming down to the inches

because it is so close here. But getting back to Georgia was an awesome experience. Proximity to home really fits in from a culture standpoint with that program and that staff loves Mike Bobo and his history at the position. The way Georgia's historically recruited the offensive line the way that they've started to stockpile that receiver room again they had an excellent recruiting class at the receiver position last year I think that's attractive to him again just proximity to family there's some factors for Georgia here that are going

their way and then I think this is truly the recruiting cycle where we see Kirby Smart and Georgia kind of let it rip a little bit more on the NIL front. I think when he talked to some people, I think he was a little, I think that to a certain degree, I think he thought that people were full of shit at how much they were actually getting. And that Georgia, Georgia was winning with the way that they were recruiting and developing players internally. But to have some misses on the recruiting trail and know that those misses were purely because of

NIL, I think we're seeing Georgia arming up in that arena more than ever in 2026 as well. in that arena more than ever in 2026 as well. Yeah, it's kind of hard to see because you look at like historically good or I mean, recently good programs who have had to change the way that they've done it and they've been reluctant to change with the times. And I've never thought that maybe Georgia took a step back last year because they were reluctant in a lighter version of the way that Clemson was in the sense of not wanting to,

to, you know, back up the brain structure for a high schooler. But it wouldn't show its head until the next two seasons anyway, because because it's all what they already have on the roster was what they already had. And if Carson Beck doesn't get hurt, I think we both all three of us probably think they're playing for the national title again this past year. So you're in the title game, hell, they were in the final, you know, they were in the playoff anyway, and won the SEC. So it was another really good season for Georgia. But would they have taken a step back from those expectations if they weren't stepping up on the NIL front? Absolutely.

And so, but that's also stepping up on the NIL front. Absolutely. But that's also stepping up in the portal. There's a lot of different ways to construct your roster. And Georgia's always going to be a place when a big time guy goes in the portal that they're going to have a puncher's chance to land them because of the way that they develop NFL talent, the way they get guys ready to play on Sundays.

And now if they are indeed what I think they are, which is being more competitive in the NIL space, they, you know, they have as much to sell as any program on the trail for a portal target and then certainly a high school recruit. Well, and that's what I wonder is, is they have been so successful developing players for the NFL. Do you think they maybe thought there's a discount for that? And there is. Yeah. I think that's, I for that? Because there is money on the back end. Yeah, I think that's still true.

I think people will go to Georgia for a little less than going somewhere else, betting on themselves to get a really good first payday in the NFL and then be prepared to earn a second one when you see how many players from Georgia are doing so well in the NFL, not just getting drafted high, but they're prepared and ready to play at that level and be among the best in their profession. So I, you know, I think that Georgia could get one of these elite players that we're talking about for a little less than what other programs are offering, but they got to be competitive. Because over a three or four year span, that could be a difference of five, six million dollars, right? If you're not competitive with your offer. So if you're, if you're less

than what they do it for less than 1.5 less over that span. Now you're talking about maybe a competitive discount, but if you're $5 million less over a three year span, that's, that's a shitload of money. Yeah Steve I was wondering this and I know that this is probably Maybe you only need two years of precedent because everything that happened three years ago and beyond is probably not as relevant with the NIL Immersions, but when it comes to Curtis, I know people are really excited about him just in your mind How many times does a player? decommitted from a place

and had that place still in his final two at the end and then picked the other team again? I always feel like they end up going back to where they started, don't you? Like, I don't know how often that happens where they go to a different direction after decommitting and still keeping the team they decommitted from in the fold. Right. You know, my recall on those things just struggles. I got so many names. Yeah. Bobbin in my heads and new recruitments and new things

I'm tracking. You know, I felt like oftentimes if you decommit from a school, it's hard to get them back in today's landscape. But for Jared Curtis, this in particular, Georgia was a program. He decommitted because he was wanted to go out and explore more schools and continue having dialogue with coaches and, and not have to call Mike Bobo every time out of respect and say, Hey, I'm going to

be somewhere else this weekend. He didn't want them to ever find out about it on social media, not from him, right? So, this kind of became a thing where it's like, I'm calling this dude every other week to say, Hey, I'm gonna go check out a game here. I'm doing this. It's like, and they would be like, great, man, do your thing. But remember, you're always a dog, right? So it was like the same conversation over and over. And it's so Jared always had love for Georgia. He just wanted to go through his process because he did commit early. And I don't think, you know, you and I, you and us, we've been around recruiting for so many years that like, we for granted that it's their first time going through it, right? So it's easy to get caught up in, all right, I'm talking to Kirby Smart, I'm talking to Ryan Day, and I've taken all these visits. I've been recruited since the end of my freshman year,

and I'm ready to make a commitment here. I don't think they take in, they don't know that that means that that just puts the bullseye on the school you're committed to and these schools aren't going to stop recruiting you. And it's hard to not pick up the phone, well, hey, Mike Norvell wants to talk to you today, or Shane Beamer, or Kirby Smart, like what are we not going to talk to you today or or uh Shane Beamer or Kirby Smart. Like what are we not going to take you know, it's a lot to say no, I'm literally not talking to anyone anymore.

And so with that, Jared wanted to go through his process again and and and respectfully told Georgia that they were still involved, but he was going to reopen and and he did that. And then he visited Georgia shortly after that. And then he visited Georgia earlier this month alongside Oregon, and he's slated to be back at Georgia for G-Day this spring. And, you know, Georgia, I've seen, I've seen coaches blow the whole thing up when a kid or their family says something they don't like, because they forget it's the kid's first time going through the process too. And they've recruited hundreds and hundreds of kids. And yes, these coaches get burned every cycle,

but they're well compensated to recruit. But I've seen coaches get pretty pissed at a kid in their family. And look, we're all humans here. I mean, this morning, I got a little snippy over something that probably I didn't get snippy over, right? I need to know what that is after you're done answering the question. This is what it is, right? So these coaches, you know, they'll, they'll blow a whole recruitment that they've led or been near the top for five months because a kid says, Look, I'm decommitting right now. And it's like, you know, Georgia just, hey, you want to reopen your process, you're still our top guy, you know? And, and Coach Bobo,

Montgomery Van Gorder at the time, before he moved on to the NFL, stayed, stayed on him. And, and the family loves being around Coach Smart. You know, Coach Smart isn't the same kind of recruiter and Dan Lanning that he's, he's not going to call you as much as Dan Lanning's going to call you. But when you're around him, he's fantastic. It's obvious that he's a player's coach. I think that shows up when they're losing games as much as anytime, the way he's hugging up his players on the sideline when they're coming off and not, you know, he's real poised.

When George is not playing real well, he's pretty poised. And I think, you know, families and their kids get on campus, they love being around Kirby, just as much as any coach in the country. So George is doing a good job. They got to dot some Is and cross some Ts in that recruitment and get it to the finish line. And Oregon's going to battle all the way. Yeah. And, and, and I would imagine that they'll keep communication going even after he commits again. But, you know, they'll have to pivot to some other quarterbacks themselves. I was gonna say, how many other class of 26 quarterbacks are just sitting here going, now, OK, May 5th, the world's gonna look different because either Oregon or Georgia's going for their next person in line, who may be committed to some other school right now, how would that domino

effect work? Well, those are two programs that can get in on a guy at any point in my opinion, no matter how long they've been committed somewhere else. So if you're, if you got a long time quarterback commit, that's a good player. You're probably like, well, I hope Georgia doesn't call or I hope Oregon doesn't call and it makes this thing interesting, right? Georgia, we've seen them host several other quarterbacks, just, you know, like, look, Jared's the guy, that's who they're waiting on. But they've had Bo Bentley on campus.

He's on three's number five ranked quarterback out of Selena, Texas. And he loved watching Georgia practice. In fact, when, when any prospect comes to Georgia, I think the real reason why George is good every year is with how physical they practice and how competitive their practices are. They get after it. They're probably as close to the Junction boys as you can be in today's era of sport. I mean, they hit, they tackle, they play hard, and you fight for your spot on the depth chart at Georgia as much as any place. And so when kids come to practice, they see the paint flying and it probably turns some kids off

that are just like, look, man, I'm not gonna be able to compete at that level. And that's what Kirby Smart and Company want. They don't want any powder puffs, soft, highly ranked entitled kids. They want hungry, competitive, hard asses that wanna bet on themselves to come in and earn a spot on their depth chart. and they're not going to be highly ranked entitled kids. They want hungry, competitive, hard asses that want to bet on

themselves to come in and earn a spot on their depth chart and they get a chance to see firsthand what that's like in their program and those guys play hard and that's why Georgia's players for the most part don't check out of bowl

games either because they fought their asses off to play and and and so they want to go out as strong as they possibly can. George has hosted some quarterbacks, Landon, Landon Duckler is a quarterback they're in on, Jaden O'Neill committed to Oklahoma, Bo Bentley is a target for them. And then Oregon, we know they're recruiting Ryder Lyons, who's a sought after guy from Folsom, California. He's a 2027 right now, planning to take an LDS mission following his senior year. I haven't heard of any changes on that. But we've seen Manti Teyon not choose to take the LDS mission, you know, before. And, you know, so we'll see what happens with, with Ryder Lines. But Oregon's at the top or near the top of his list and with what they've done offensively, with who

they are as a coaching staff, with how exciting their program is right now, Oregon can call anyone, committed or not, and I think have a more than a puncher's chance to get that kid on campus and get them to take a look no matter how long they've been committed elsewhere. they'd be committed elsewhere. Steve, I know that we have so many other players individually that we could talk about. But like, and Andy, you could cut me off here if you're not ready for us to go this direction. But like, I am just so fascinated by you personally

and how you've done this job for so many years. You know, at the athletic, when Andy and I were working there, you know, we wrote about recruiting, but we had to do it in a different way. We couldn't be like, here are the 29,000 people out there and here's their all their top fives. Well, you're like, come up with trends and all those. Somebody else did that better than us. So yeah, but we knew that we couldn't compete with you on that. How do you do it?

Spill your secrets for even the competition. I don't know. I'm serious. Like, like, what, what goes into it? Spill your secrets for even the competition. I don't know. I'm serious. Like, like, what, what goes into it? Well, I've always been on great teams and worked with great people that are plugged in in their areas or with their team sites. And so that's the best part of it. I mean, like you guys, the camaraderie you two have. It's that's why Andy's doing shows on spring break, because he likes hanging out with you talking sports, right? So if you have good people you work with, it's fun to get up and

go to work and share intel and share stories and grind away, right? So we had that at 24-7. We have that at on three right now. It's a great culture and exciting time for us at on three right now. But I mean my secret sauce is just, I guess always working. Just having the motor and consistency every day to make the phone calls and send the messages. One guy I think you're going to take messages or calls from if you hear from him on spring break next week is Jackson

Cantwell, who is the number one player in the class 26 in the on three industry ranking. He's an offensive lineman for Missouri. He might be the perfect offensive line prospect. Steve just reading 67305. Incredible shot putter discus thrower, son of a world champion shot put thrower and his mom was an NCAA champion shot put thrower. And oh, by the way, as a freshman in high school, he scored a 33 on the ACT.

Like has there been a more perfect offensive line prospect than this person? Well, he knows how to work. Both his parents are Hall of Famers at their respective colleges that did their thing and aren't living through their kid right now, right? They're just giving him the information he needs to be the best version of himself,

and then they're supporting him in that regard. But Jackson's hungry. He works as hard as anybody in the class, and he's reaping the rewards of that. Certainly he has some God-given ability with his size and explosiveness and ability to bend and move. But he's super smart, super cerebral and instinctive and just still got a lot of runway from a development standpoint. He is not a finished product on the football side, but just the right mentality, how to compete. He's someone that obviously has a value from an NIL standpoint, And so it's a factor in his college decision. But he narrowed his schools to places where he could be successful as a football player first. And now his representation from Rosen House is getting involved from just a number standpoint of giving him and his family the information of what it would look like currently. And we know that those numbers are going to change as it gets

closer to decision time and official visits and hearing what another school may be doing and offering. And then it's up to him to decide, you know, because there's going to be some big offers. They're already up there and I think we're still in the early stages there for him. And schools didn't have to be aggressive with the NIL with him because the early stages was like, hey, this is the football side of it. If you didn't check those boxes, you're not even going to get a chance to talk money. There's some recruits that, you know, are taking the biggest offer and don't really care if your receiver's coach is average or your corner's coach is mediocre or your track record of development is average. But for Jackson Cantwell, he wants to be a football player for as long as possible. And now those conversations are starting to happen from an NIL standpoint. And he'll take his officials.

He wanted to take these spring officials and eliminate some schools. But Miami did a great job for a few days. Michigan did a great job for a few days. He did not take spring break visits to Georgia or Oregon because he knew he was taking those officials. Those guys are firmly in the race. Missouri's been there a ton, also visited Ohio State, but unless they get an official visit,

you know, we can't consider them on the same level as the others. Missouri's been really good at keeping its in-state guys of late. We've talked on the show a lot about what Eli Drinkwitz did, even just lobbying the state legislature to adjust the laws to help them from an NIL standpoint with their in-state guys. Obviously, Derek Wingo going to Texas, probably the notable one they missed.

Yeah, Ryan Wingo. Yeah. Ryan Wingo, excuse me. Ryan Wingo, sorry. Derek Wingo played a porter. Yes, but Ryan Wingo going to Texas, but you had Luther Burden staying home and kind of that's Missouri's proof of concept of,

hey, you can do this here. But Miami, you mentioned, like Miami's shown that you can come in as a true freshman offensive lineman in play, and you're gonna be developed by Alex Mirabal there. Michigan, the head coach is the O-line coach or was an O-line coach. Like it seems like he's got a lot of good options here.

Yeah, no, I mean, when you look at the programs that he narrowed it down to, it's programs that have track records of playing smash mouth football. That's what he wants to play. With offensive line track records, Coach Searles at Georgia, the standard of that offensive line play, just how massive they normally are up front, the culture around the program, loves that about Georgia. I think if, I think

if Jackson Cantwell was a recruit 10 years ago, he'd be a bulldog. But right now, he's going through his process because there's other things, right? And so you got Miami, Mario Cristobal and Alex Mirabell collabing on offensive line every day, Mario Cristobal being able to point towards a lot of first-year true freshman starters over the course of his career, not just at Miami, but at Oregon and Alabama, and the impact he's had on some great players at that position. The, the renaissance of the program, as they have gotten better each

season under this coaching staff, is, is exciting. Michigan, the two Joe Moore Awards, the way they play, just the culture, Michigan, the two Joe Moore awards, the way they play, just the culture, how tough they are. They didn't quit playing last year, you know. They had, I think they would obviously say that they regret not going in the transfer portal for their quarterback. But those guys, we see programs all the time throwing the tile on November, and so they end up going 4-8. Michigan did the op. Michigan played hard every Saturday and they were able to finish on a high note. Now there's some excitement coming into the season here because their culture is as sound as any culture in college football. They just didn't have the guns that they needed at some key positions to play 13 weeks of football they

wanted to play over the course of the season. And then Oregon's culture is awesome. It's fun place to be around. Lanning is maybe the best head coach recruiter in the country right now with the way he's building relationships with prospects and just his personality and how much he cares, you know. He wants everybody in his program to be successful for them. And I think that that resonates, and it's genuine. And so people feel that. With Oregon, I know people are always like, Well, Oregon's got big bags. Well, they're not recruiting against themselves, I can tell you that. And, and they are, their staff forms these meaningful relationships with top targets, as any in the country. And it's Dan Lanning is involved as a head coach in that just, just authentic conversations. So, and then Mizzou, they do, you know, they do good work. And we

talked about their receiver and winning, winning Luther Bird. Jacob Peeler is one of the best assistant coaches in the country that Noel talks about. I know we're getting off the rails here, but he does a fantastic job over there. We're never off the rails when we're talking offensive line play, ever. That's what we want. We want to steer toward offensive line play. We gotta get this good on the show.

This is like Andy's dream scenario right here. Just to... Oh, well, yeah, I'm calling Drew Rosenhouse now and just being like, when does he want to come on the show? Let's go. Not Drew, Jackson. It'll be a great interview.

I mean, Cantwell's got all the leadership traits you're looking for. A guy to be the face of your program and communicate with fans, media. I mean really, there's not a box he doesn't check. Talent, athleticism, the want to, the toughness, and then the personality to be a leader

within your locker room and then within your community. We'll be right back with more from C. Wiltfong. But if you want to bring home the W this weekend, the best way to do it the ultimate tailgate package, the burger box from Water Burger.

Perfect for every occasion, but especially when you're certain around watching some high level hoops. The burger box comes with 10 single or double burgers with or without cheese, your pick of sauces and all of Fixon's spicy ketchup. You can go grilled jalapenos. You can keep it basic or you can go grilled jalapenos, you can keep it basic or you can go wild.

Either way, it's gonna be a slam dunk. Also, next weekend, order online April 4th through the 7th and earn double reward points from the Whataburger app. And don't forget, get that burger box which you could also get the Whatta Wings Party Pack. 72 boneless tender bites, a family fry box and your choice of sauce. That is how you bring home the W do it with water burger and order online April 4 through the seventh double

reward points. Bring home the W with water burger. Steve USC is a very interesting program to me because when Lincoln took the job there, I thought they were going to be Alabama West and uh I think they've become Alabama State West. I don't know what's going on out there but it looks like um that they are off to obviously a great start again in recruiting, but at the same time too, their number one commit is a French five star player from Georgia. And we know how that has turned out for them in the past. What's your take on how USC has been recruiting and what their program outlook has been from a talent accumulation standpoint? Well, I think that they've, I've had them trajectory up since Lincoln Riley's gotten there. I know that people want them to win at a faster clip. But his first season if Caleb Williams doesn't get hurt, they make the four team playoff. I understand that if my aunt had balls, she would be my uncle. But they were in the conversation in year one. And he like Steve

Sarkeesian, had to go to a program and change an entire culture that was pretty soft. They were not very good around the line of scrimmage. They did not make a lot of things happen on defense. Yes, Texas and USC would have some quarterbacks and some cool perimeter players and a running back here and there. But to win football games consistently, they were soft in the trenches on both sides of the ball, not enough length and athleticism on defense. And I think with Lincoln-Riley,

similar to Michigan, they played hard all year, had some tough, tough losses, led in virtually every game except for the Notre Dame game if I'm right. And I see the players kind of rallying around that staff and playing hard. So I like foundationally where they're at there. I think that they've done a good job of elevating the talent through high school recruiting and the transfer portal. They finally know who their starting quarterback is after Caleb Williams right now. And then they have the

guy of the future in the fold and Hussam Longstreet, who they flipped from Texas A&M at the end of the last cycle. They put together a hellacious defensive coaching staff. They only had Coach Entz for one year, which sucks for USC because he is a great football coach that's now the head coach at Fresno State. But they really did a good job of getting difference makers on the defensive side of the ball. Obviously their D coordinator, getting coach Belt, coach Henny and some of those guys. Rex Ryan's now their new linebackers coach replacing coach Enns. Those are big shoes?

Rod Ryan, we were, this press conference was electric. Yeah. Well, there's no doubt he can party and there's no doubt he's coached for a long time. He's got huge shoes to fill. Because not only did Coach N coach the linebackers, but he was just a great voice to have in the room to make sure that stuff was going right. But they have one of the best defensive coordinators in the country right now, I think.

And they got to go out there and play better this year than they did last year, and their expectations are high. They're recruiting at a high level. They're in on the right guys. They got their NIL infrastructure. It's a well-oiled machine. I don't think they're gonna lose too many battles on that front, at least right now. We'll see. NIL, I view it as fluid, man. You might be the mountain this month, but someone else might figure some stuff out next month that's better than what you got going on.

Well, and that's what we've talked about. We had Joey Maguire on, and that's exactly what happened at Texas Tech with the transfer portal this year is that they're I mean sugar daddy's maybe the wrong words, but they have two former players who are billionaires and then they decided hey We're gonna kick in now. We want to do this and we want to do it this way and we want to go big right now and want to do this and we want to do it this way. And we want to go big right now. And it changed dramatically what they were able

to get out of the transfer portal. So how many different schools could just on a dime, say, you know, we're in because we're talking about it was Stanford yesterday when they fired the coach, it could happen anywhere again. Now the question is, what is your appetite for return on investment? I mean, how much did the Indiana basketball roster cost? Right? They share is how the question is, what is your the you're going to be in the NIT or whatever like yeah, we're paying you for it. Let's go. We can we can we're going to

get a home game. We can sell some parking. We can sell some hot dogs and try and make up for whatever loss we had for paying you a lot of money. We're not getting us to the tournament. You gotta you gotta play in the NIT man because

we're going to get two home games unless you guys screw up and don't win the first one which is very possible. Well it's interesting because I how much are we gonna see this in football we're seeing it in basketball right now where you look at Kevin Willard the head coach at Maryland who is just openly saying because he knows Villanova wants him he just openly saying Maryland if they want to keep me, is gonna have to in writing guarantee me a certain amount of money payroll wise. And you've got the rev share piece of it and like Bill Belichick's got in his term sheet

that North Carolina football gets 13 million of the rev share. Like that's already budgeted. With football coaches, do you think we're gonna have those guys saying, no, I'm not as worried about my salary, what's the payroll you're going to give me? Well, I think it's assumed if you're coaching at a place that's serious about

winning the national championship that you're going to make sure that your best players are well compensated. It's just what is the ideology. The programs that are going to do the best are going to be the ones that make sure that well compensated. It's just what is the ideology? How the programs are going to do the best are going to be the ones that make sure that their best players are the ones making the most money. Or the ones that they invest in from the high school ranks are the guys that are going to come in and have

the best chance of hitting their ceiling and still be hungry to compete. Because it's kind of like look, the first round draft pick gets paid a lot and he might start second on the depth chart in the NFL for a little bit but you're trying to get them in there. You're trying to get them in the play. It's going to be the same thing in college. So knowing when to bail on a guy that you've invested a lot of time in because you know he's not worth that money for various reasons, the programs that are able to do that and

invest in the right people are going to be the ones that are going to be the most successful. Steve, can I ask you, because I know that NIL obviously is a huge part of this, how have you found your job has changed in covering this as a result of it becoming more of a financial-based decision than it ever has been in the past? It really hasn't changed my job. I'm still writing about, you know, the kids, their interest in the top schools for whatever reason those are, and telling the story from that angle. It's changed for the coaches as far as like the importance of like what a young man's looking for in a school. And so for them, it's up to them to figure out

where NIL fits and then is that something they have the appetite for if they think NIL is the driving force for them and that's the end all be all and the, but the young man will still meet his potential in spite of it, you know. Yeah, well, I think it's interesting, Andy, sorry not to cut you off. Oh, go ahead. But I had a comment. We've seen some recruitments change, though, on a dime at the last second now. But we've seen that anyway. It was just smaller,

smaller bags or small or one last conversation or whatever. Like recruitments have been changing the week of the final moment flips. Nothing's changed. That's just what it's been. And yeah, there's more coverage of it now. And so it's just out there a lot more thankful, you know, but, but there's a reluctance from these recruits to actually open up about finances a lot of times. And I wonder like how simple we had. Yeah, Ari talked to Ryder Lyons about that. And Ryder Lyons is really interesting talking about that. Like, if a player is going through an interview and they don't, and NIL is not important,

but it actually is really important. Like how do you decipher, you know, I mean, that's got to be obviously reporting behind the scenes too, but that's got to be aggravating. That's human nature, though. It's not like you guys walk into your respective country clubs and tell who you're drinking a beer with at the pool how much you're making it on three. It's no one's business really. Look at Steve thinking, we're a country club would have either one of us.

Would you live on a country club for near one year? Me? No. Yeah. But in all seriousness, look, I mean, like, in the NFL, obviously, there's a salary cap. And so it's public knowledge what people get paid. Or if you work for a public college, you can look up what they get paid,

because it's state tax dollars. And I know it's exciting to say that Bryce Underwood got this much money. And it's part of the story of why he flipped from LSU to Michigan. I mean, it is the story of why he flipped from LSU to Michigan. But I mean, to expect them to just tell the world what their wages is asinine to think that they would do that, because we wouldn't do that.

Right. Yeah. So I thought it was interesting because I've said this a lot over the last few years because fans seem obsessed with the idea that if you have basically a blank check for players that you're just going to buy a national title. And I always say, well, no, not if you're not good at evaluating the players. And you've hit upon that a bunch of times

in this conversation today, Steve. So I wanna put you on the spot, but who are some of the coaches that you've seen over the last few years that are among the best evaluators of talent? But I think obviously it starts with Nick Saban. I mean, people would always say it's easy to recruit at Alabama.

Look, there's a lot of people standing outside the Roxbury trying to get in the club nodding their heads like I want to come to Alabama. And they got to choose which 24 guys that they're going to let inside the rope every year that maintains the standard of winning the national championship. And it's not just about talent. It's about guys that want to come in and be coached and can be smart and understand what we're trying to accomplish and add to your culture, in addition to being good players. And, and sometimes that means that Nick Saban didn't let a guy like Tyron Matthew in and then you got to play against him at LSU. It's not like he didn't, you know, it's not like there weren't great players that didn't get in, but the right ones got in for them to win seven national titles, or however many it was, and compete for several others.

And so I think when you look at Georgia and the way they evaluate and who they take and how they, the thing about Alabama and Georgia is you can get an offer from them early, and it really is just like, A, a we like you but you still can't commit You got to come to camp. We got to see you work out or you can even be committed Even be committed. You got to still camp got to make sure you're good like you're committed But it's under that it's under the agreement that you continue to get better

Also, if you're not getting better, we're not committed to you anymore continue to get better also. If you're not getting better, we're not committed to you anymore. Right? So, so like those are, those are things that stand out to me about this. Obviously, Ohio State, they take the right guys year in and year out because their culture. To win, you can't just buy a championship. You have to have the right people in the ultimate team sport. It's the ultimate team sport. Maybe you can buy a championship in basketball. But in football, you got offense, defense, special teams. Then you have to have a great coaching staff that schemes you up competitively every week to be competitive against other good coaches. And you got to be someone that gets the best out of your people, your players, your staff, and so, but money helps you. It's gonna be hard to do it without money because there's a lot, there are people, it's not like there's only one coach capable of winning every year, you know,

there's guys that are good at it, but there's, you're not gonna- But is that why Texas is so different than it was the previous 10 years? Cause one, they are spending the money, but I gotta think that Steve Sarkeesian and his staff have a lot to do with it too. Like they're suddenly producing NFL players. They were soft.

How many years they go without a draft pick on the O line? They were just, they were soft at the positions where you needed to be the toughest. And if you look at the way Texas recruited under Sarkeesian, that first recruiting class, best offensive line class in the country. They were, and maybe they recruit offensive linemen that aren't ranked as high as others in different years,

but they all are big ass jokers that will kick your ass up front. Like, so they have a type that they're looking for, length on defense, speed in the second, like they came in there with a plan and are executing it. Texas was always gonna have money. They were, nothing has changed off the field for Texas and the attitude around the program and the investment that was poured into it. It was just the coaching staffs

beforehand were not able to invoke a level of toughness and organization that was needed to win at a high level. Now they're still trying to win the last game. It's hard as hell to do that. They are shooting 67 on the course. They're trying to get to 66, 65 to shave those last two strokes ain't easy. But they're in the game. They're in the match. And it's because they changed. They're tough. They're hard nose. They went into SEC country and won a lot of recruiting battles on the defensive side of the ball. They went and beat teams on the trail that they're trying to beat in games on Saturday. And you're not going to outsmart these great coaches with 24 evaluation wins. So you got to go out and win the blue chip recruiting battles. They've done that. They've done a fantastic job recruiting on defense and on the offensive line. Texas has always had quarterbacks running backs and receivers. I know to certain degrees, uh, you know, Sam Ellinger, uh, you know, maybe Arch

Manning will be a lot better than Sam Elinger, but they've had good players at those positions. They just didn't surround them with with, you know, tough guys on the point of attacking on defense. And now you got a guy like Colin Simmons, who is as aggressive and ferocious a player on the edges we're going to have in college football the next two years. It's just they've changed the mentality of that team. Now, how do these guys deal with fate? Every year, it's a new thing. Like, how do you deal with your press clippings? So Colin Simmons, you're popular in college now. Are you going to build on that?

I think you will. I'm just saying like you have to go out there again. Texas A&M, when they had the Kellen Mond team under Jimbo and they won the whole game and they finished top five. I think they all thought that they were just gonna roll their way to the title game the next year cuz they had a good season. No, man, you gotta show up again. You got to have a great offseason. You got to continue to evolve. They didn't do that.

They took a step backwards and now Mike Elko's in there. Steve, just one last one here and then Andy's gonna ask you the trademark question that we ask everybody on the show, but the thing that I'm interested in is obviously teams who are capable of winning recruiting battles at the highest level has probably changed a little bit in terms of more teams are at the table now with NIL. And I was just wondering through your phone calls, you're reporting just your vibe check on the situation. Is there a team or two that stick out in terms of they've really upped their game the last few years in terms of their roster

talent accumulation, and they might be dangerous in a way that they might not have been able to be dangerous in the past? Yeah. And I forgot about Michigan in the, in the culture, the culture standpoint there. They obviously had it rolling. So you're asking me what team? Maybe names of teams that pop up in conversations they wouldn't have popped up in the past. Is Nebraska showing up now? Because I'm assuming they have very big NILs. I still think they have to prove it. So that's one where it's like they're investing. So that's one where like they need to prove that they're, they're investing in players that they're landing.

Are they going to get the ROI that they improved last year? They finally made a bowl game for the first time in seven years. But what they're investing, what they're going to do, the amount of support that they're getting off the field, I think they still have to prove it. Matt Ruhl is certainly a proven coach over the course of his college career with what he did at Temple and Baylor. And he's an exciting guy. And I believe in Nebraska, and I think they'll get there, but they still have to prove it.

Pro, you know, I think they're an interesting one. South Carolina is one where they've had some really good years under coach Beamer. Can they take another step moving forward? Because they've won some NIL battles on the trail, and those are guys. And then they won an NIL, I think that their quarterback had a chance to go out and be the highest paid player in college football if he wanted to be. If he would have went in the portal. So they've had to do some things to keep their roster together. And I think that they've had people step up and their infrastructure is getting them to a place where they can take a swing at the college football playoff. So I think it's exciting around South Carolina. You're asking me for schools that

aren't in the normal conversation, right? Tennis is I would assume Tennessee. Tennessee, right? Yeah, they're in the same they're in the same conversation with Texas. For me, like you can say, the things we were saying about Texas, Tennessee, USC, it was changing cultures and getting your team in a place to compete with the true Alphas. Tennessee on defense, they couldn't stop anybody in the SEC for a while. Now they have an aggressive, hard-nosed defense with guys that are hearing their names called in the NFL draft with prospects and Tim Banks is arguably I mean, he's on the short list of conversation of best coordinators in college football. So Tennessee, I think they've changed their

they've changed who they are. And they're certainly in the discussion to win the national championship, they have, you know, they have a quarterback that they invested in. and they're getting a return on it. He's their starter, and they're playing in big games. And you would hope he takes another step forward in his career this year and plays at a higher level and is a Heisman candidate for really what they're paying him, right? But Tennessee made the college football playoff last year

and lost to the champs on the road. So who knows how far they go if they get a better draw, right? They had a night game in Columbus, and we've all been to night games in Columbus. I mean, it is a pressure chamber. I mean, and when Ohio State's playing well, it doesn't get any easier how loud they get in the noise there. So I like what Tennessee's done, how they've recruited on defense, similar to Texas. They won recruiting battles for guys that they weren't winning under previous staffs, beating Georgia, beating Alabama

for guys that they coveted. And that's how you're gonna win on Saturday. All right, Steve, we asked this of all of our guests. I don't think we've done with a coworker yet. So we'll have to add a coworker tab to the list here. But what are your rules for life? Or if you have one general rule for life that you just live by.

And I'll give you some examples. Like Joel Clatt, when we had him on, he said never fight a guy with a giant belt buckle. We just had Seth Davis. His rule is just always be kind. My personal rules never complain about free food never complain about free beer never skip leg day. Those are just everything works easily.

Never or eat at a restaurant that specializes in multiple types of cuisine. As a great rule. What you got? What are your rules? Man, that's such a loaded question because you could go philosophical like what's your real code or you can say something funny, right? Or you could do both.

Or what you think is funny is actually my philosophical code. Exactly. And I mean, I think obviously the rule for life is you wanna treat people how you want to be treated. You know, I mean, I think, I think if you do that, you're gonna it's a it's a better place. Now. We're all human. But if you treat people the way you want to be treated, generally, you can lay your head down at night and feel good about yourself in the day, right? Yeah and then as far as I would say at our age, we're in our forties. So, my rule now is you gotta mix in water and and you make sure you got a multivitamin at the end of the day. Multivitamin. Multivitamin. Mixing in water is

a critical rule. Critical rule. I think the 20 somethings need to learn that too, but in your 40s you gotta mix in two waters. Those rules apply if you're in your 20s too, as well. You'd be allowed. They can survive. If we don't mix them, the water works dead.

Multi-vitamin's kinda been my secret weapon for a long time. I like telling people to get a multivitamin in you at the end of the day because you just you eliminated all the nutrients in your body. So just restore them real quick. I love it. I love it. Steve Wolfong, you're the best. Appreciate you so much. Thanks for having me, man. Anthony's the best. Everything's going well. You guys have a good one. Enjoy the Sweet 16s Spring Football. the the sweet sixteen spring football. Enjoy your guys' coverage and look forward to

circling back with you guys down the road. Thank you. Happy spring break. I know you're going to take Jackson Cantwell's call but you're not going to take mine and I'm proud of you for that. Yeah. Looking forward to a little

spring break with the the Fongs. See you guys. See you. That was a fantastic conversation with Steve Wiltfong. Catch him on the Wiltfong Whiparound on the On3Recruits channel. If you're not subscribed to that, subscribe there. Also subscribe to the On3 Sports channel if you're not already subscribed to that. And that way you get every episode of this show pushed to your phone. And you might want to do that because as these sweet 16 games go, if there's something crazy happens, Ari and I might just pop on live. Like I know we have our regular time, but we may just pop up in the middle of your

phone like, Hey, we got to talk about this stuff right now. I hope that's what happens because I love these games. I love these matchups. So excited for Thursday night for Friday night. We'll be back on Friday morning, 9 30 AM Eastern time to talk about everything that happened on Thursday night. We'll also have dear Andy, dear Ari. It's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah.

Let's go enjoy those games everybody. Talk to you tomorrow.