Andy & Ari On3 - Oregon's Dan Lanning and Washington's Kalen DeBoer Join to Talk about their MASSIVE matchup Saturday

Episode Date: October 13, 2023

The biggest game of the week will happen on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle. No. 8 Oregon visits No. 7 Washington in a game that could help determine the who plays for Pac-12 title and in the College Football Playoff.Today's show is brought to you by PrizePicks, the easiest way to play daily fantasy. All first time users that deposit and use the promo code ANDY will receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. If you deposit $100, PrizePicks will give you $100. If you deposit $50, PrizePicks will give you $50.Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/ANDYWant to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and don't forget to subscribe!https://youtu.be/l35yBarmkBgIntro (0:00-8:09)Oregon coach Dan Lanning kicks it off by explaining how some sliding doors moments — including taking a job with Kirby Smart before Nick Saban could offer him one — led him to Eugene. Lanning also explains how he uses a clip from a Kevin Costner baseball rom-com (and not the one you’re probably thinking of) to help himself and his players mentally reset when they’re in a big moment. And there will be plenty of big moments Saturday. (8:10-23:54)Next, Washington coach Kalen DeBoer discusses how winning three NAIA national titles at the University of Sioux Falls (his alma mater) helped prepare him for running the multimillion-dollar corporation that is Washington football. DeBoer also explains how the connection between quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb helps produce all those beautiful passes. (23:55-40:21)Finally, On3 national writer Jesse Simonton joins to discuss his Midseason All-Transfer Portal Team. That team includes a couple of Ducks as well as some key players in Saturday’s USC-Notre Dame clash. Plus, Andy and Jesse update everyone on how their Quarterback Draft selections are doing. (Spoiler alert: Thanks to LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Andy is killing it.) (40:22-1:05:00)Conclusion, Wrapping Up (1:05:00-1:06:25)

Welcome to Andy Staples on three and we have a big, big show for you today. The game of the week happening in Seattle, Oregon against Washington. Basically, the winner in pole position in the Pac-12. And then there's a gauntlet for both teams coming up where they both have to play USC. They both have to play Utah. They both have to play Oregon State and they both have to play Washington State. This is the best we've ever seen in the Pac-12. The deepest we've ever seen it. The quarterbacks are incredible and we are going to get a great matchup on Saturday. Think of the quarterback matchup alone. Michael Penix Jr. at Washington,

throwing to those three NFL receivers. Bo Nix at Oregon, completing 80% of his passes. It's hard to complete 80% of your passes against air. We're going to have both coaches in this matchup on the show today. Oregon's Dan Lanning and Washington's Kalen DeBoer, two guys who come at this from a different place. Dan Lanning, assistant coach for a long time at the Power Five level, was Georgia's defensive coordinator as they won their first national title since 1980. He came to Oregon last year. He was in his first year as a head coach when he's

playing against Washington. Kalen DeBoer was in his first year as a head coach when he's playing against Washington. Kalen DeBoer was in his first year at Washington, but he'd been the head coach at Fresno State. He'd been the head coach at the University of Sioux Falls and won three NAIA national titles there. And if you don't think that matters, listen to this interview with Kalen DeBoer. You will find out why it matters, why that experience matters. And you saw it in the game last year.

Dan Lanning will admit he was very much a work in progress as a head coach last year in his first year. Now he knows a lot more. If you watch that Texas-Oklahoma game, you saw the difference in Brent Venables from year one to year two. Dan Lanning is in a very similar place. Might have a better team this year than he had last year, but Washington is also better than they were last year. This game is going to be so much fun. It's a shame that the Pac-12 is disintegrating before our eyes because this is what they were aiming toward. This is what they wanted everybody to be able to see what football can be like on the West Coast. Now this rivalry is not going anywhere. It is moving to the Big Ten

and that in itself will be exciting too to have these teams playing as your Michigan's and your Ohio State's and your Penn State's and your Wisconsin's. But this is what West Coast football can be. All you people who think people on the West Coast don't care. These two fan bases care deeply. You will see on the shores of Lake Washington, you will see the purple and the gold, and they will be getting after it at that game. If you see a game in Oregon, if you've ever been to Austin Stadium, same thing. That fan base, they are deeply passionate, and these two programs hate one another. It is going to be so much fun. I cannot wait.

And we're going to dive into it with both head coaches. And then later in the show, Jesse Simonson on three national writer will join us to talk about his all transfer portal team. And oh yeah, a few players who are playing in this game on that team, plus a few players playing in some of the other big games this weekend, including USC Notre Dame. That's another one that I cannot wait to see because we just don't know exactly what's going to happen when these two teams face each other because Notre Dame's been playing a bunch of really good defenses. Now they're going to play a USC team that does not play particularly great defense,

but USC's offense is better than probably anything they've seen so far. So can Notre Dame's defense slow USC's offense? Or does Notre Dame's offense look very explosive against USC's defense where it hasn't against, say, Ohio State or Duke or Louisville? We're going to find out. It is going to be a great weekend of college football. Cannot wait to get into it. And of course, one way to kick it off is to find your PrizePix squares, because PrizePix is the easiest way to

play daily fantasy. download the prize picks app you use the code andy and they are going to match your first deposit up to 100 bucks so if you deposit 100 they'll match you 100 if you deposit 50 they'll match you 50. how it works you pick squares you decide is somebody going to be more than or less than this number i'm looking at the quarterbacks this week. There's some crazy quarterback matchups. Let's talk about the one in the biggest game, Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix. So they've set some very high numbers for these guys. Michael Penix Jr.'s number is 359 and a half passing yards. Bo Nix, 291 and a half. That's a lot. If that comes to fruition,

if both of those guys hit those numbers, we are going to be highly entertained in this game. Let's go the opposite direction. You got squares for that Iowa-Wisconsin game too. Oh yeah, that's a true sickos game. By the way, could decide the Big Ten West. Prize picks has Deacon hill the iowa quarterback 125 and a half yards tanner mordecai the wisconsin quarterback the dairy raid at only 180 and a half

against that iowa defense there's also some great qb combos that's one of the things i love that prize picks does is they'll combine a couple qbss and say, are they going to go over this particular number in passing yards or in touchdowns? And it's not always two guys playing against one another. Sometimes it's guys that are just on teams in big games or teams that everybody's going to be watching. So here's one. This is a Friday, Saturday combo. Shador Sanders and Kyle McCord. So Colorado's Shador Sanders, Ohio State's Kyle McCord. Will they have more or fewer than 618 and a half passing yards?

That's a lot. Carson Beck and JJ McCarthy, Georgia and Michigan. That could be the QB matchup in the national title game, for goodness sakes. Five, ten and a half. You saw Carson Beck really come alive against Kentucky last weekend. Meanwhile, JJ McCarthy has been chucking it very well all season. So PrizePix is going to give you a ton of fun ways to enhance your college football viewing. So PrizePix, download that app, use the code Andy. They'll match your first deposit up to a hundred bucks.

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will match your first deposit up to a hundred bucks. All right, now it is time to dig deep into that game on the shores of Lake Washington. We will start with Oregon coach Dan Lanning. Second year coach. One of the games he dropped in year one was against Washington. Oregon was playing well. Bo Nix got dinged up. Washington came back and won. Can Dan Lanning and the Ducks finish this time?

They've talked all offseason about finishing in the fourth quarter. Can they finish this one? Because I think it's probably going to be one of those that goes into the fourth quarter. I don't think either one of these teams is significantly better than the other. This is going to be an absolute classic. Here's Dan Lanning. We are joined now by Dan Lanning, head coach of the Oregon Ducks. Huge game on Saturday against Washington.

But, Coach, you made some news without actually making some news today. I don't even know if you were aware because you had practice and everything. But Nick Saban was talking about the missed opportunity to hire you, that he missed you by two days. You were going to Georgia, and he was going to call you and offer you a job at Alabama. How did that work? Like, did you know that he was calling you to offer you a job?

And you already had said yes to Kirby? Or did he call you and to offer you a job or did you and you already had said yes to Kirby or did he call you and be like and say it was a it was a little after the fact so I had accepted the job it was actually driving to Georgia while Georgia was playing Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl and uh we ended up seeing coach Saban there because I got there for the Rose Bowl I saw him in the national championship game but you know it was after I'd already accepted the job at Georgia and certainly couldn't go back on my commitment there. So got a lot of respect for Coach Saban. I probably learned more in football than any other year in my career than that year working

for Coach. And obviously was fortunate to get to go and work for Kirby and learn a ton from him. When you think about these sliding doors moments of how your life could have changed, how much does that affect your decision making? Because it seems like you've been a pretty decisive person. You've told the story a bunch of times about you sent out all these emails and somebody from Pittsburgh said, hey, come talk to us. And you drove from Missouri to Pittsburgh and waited a whole day for them to get back. You've always made these really quick decisions, took that job, sold your house, cleared out your 401k. Have you always been that person that

this is the decision I'm making, this is the goal I'm chasing? Yeah, I think so. My wife probably doesn't like it you know yeah i've always i've always made every decision for me and you know our family based on okay am i going to live with regret if i don't make this decision if i don't make this choice and i've certainly had hard times deciding what to do at times you know throughout my career um but you know prayer usually helps that out so you have this this game that is looming. It is the highest, these two teams have ever been ranked when they played in a very storied rivalry, but you've, you've played in some games like this before when you were DC at Georgia, where you're playing

again, you know, with two top five teams playing, what is that like and how do you keep it from becoming overwhelming to your team? Yeah, it's exciting. And any coach that tells you it doesn't feel different playing one of these games is lying. It absolutely feels different. There's excitement. You feel it driving home. You feel it when you wake up in the morning.

Every moment of the day, you're really thinking about it. And I think what you have to focus back in on is what is it going to actually take to be successful in the game. We've talked to our players a lot about being in the eye of the storm, right? That's the calmest part of the storm. But there's going to be chaos everywhere that exists within this game, and it's going to be the team that can execute the best on the field that's going to win. And last year's game is a perfect example of that. You have chaos in the game.

You have Bo getting hurt on a key play in the fourth quarter, and you've got to figure out what to do. What kind of things do you do to simulate that level of chaos at practice on a day-to-day basis? Yeah, there's a ton. I mean, we went back at the very beginning of this week and we watched every game changing play in the, in the game last year. And we watched it with the team. We said, if this moment's different, if this play's different, you know,

what's the result of the game and really trying to, you know, maintain the focus of the players and saying, you know, know every single play matters but the most important play is the next play and how you can make an impact and create a moment so within practice i mean we we got the music cranked up the crowd noise cranked up we're you know getting a shove in or two with our players after after the whistle to see how they react um we try to do a lot of different things you know speed up the tempo, tons of shifts and motions, all the things that we think could create some chaos for our team and make it harder in practice than it is in the game.

I've never thought about that, shoving a player after the whistle just to see what he does. Because I've seen so many games where the guy who retaliates gets flagged and the guy who did the thing first gets nothing. You're actually practicing that scenario it's always the second guy right i get a little nervous some of these guys are big so when i go and push them after the whistle i'm a little nervous what the reaction is going to be but uh no our guys have fun with it you know i think just understanding the reality of these games you don't

want your emotions to play the game right we talk about mind over feelings this is a game where your mind has to be stronger than your feelings and uh it's a passionate game. It's a game that means a lot to a lot of the players on our team, our fan base, but you know, what's actually going to affect the game, the way you play, the way you execute. So that's what we focus on. And you, you've teach them, you know, everybody says one play at a time, but I always thought, you know, in that, that Saban Kirby smart architecture, it's always just dominate this moment, forget the past, forget architecture, it's always just dominate this moment. Forget the past. Forget the future. And just stay in this moment. How do you stay present in that? Yeah, I hit the reset button for myself a lot.

You know, you know, there's been times where I see myself losing focus and I just have to continually remind myself of the focus that I need to maintain. It's really no different for our players. Trying to remind them of the focus that's required to be successful and execute at a high level. It might be some intentional breathing throughout the game. It might be just taking a second to pause and think about exactly where you're at in that moment so you can be dialed in. So in the game you do this.

Is there something you focus on? Do you look up at the scoreboard or the clock or is there something you that that re-centers you i just think after every single play you're gonna hit the reset button you know i really think that that's really important to try to find your um you know we showed a clip of our players um the the movie the love of the game for the love of the game i think you remember on the mound right there you know uh what's he say clear clear the mechanism right and right you can kind of go into the zone and I think you remember on the mound right there, you know, what's he say? Clear the mechanism, right? And you can kind of go into the zone. And it's really the same thing for me as a coach

and for our players. You got to clear the mechanism. It doesn't matter really what happened in the last play. It's about focusing on that play and being in the moment. Look at you with a Kevin Costner baseball rom-coms. I guarantee you none of your players had ever heard of that movie before you chose it. They certainly hadn't.

You know, what's the best Kevin Costner movie? What's your favorite? I'm going to go Bull Durham. Okay. I'm more of a Dances with Wolves guy. Oh, very nice. Bull Durham's good. Well, every time I see one of you guys arguing with a ref, it's less in football because they don't usually –

you can say a lot more in football before they pull a flag out. But every time I see one of you guys arguing with a ref and a flag comes out i just think you know dan called him a you know what so right exactly so with boat he's been in big games like this his whole career but it seems like he's a you you keep, I've heard you refer to him multiple times over the past few weeks as a pro. What is it like when you have a quarterback who is now, you know, five years into his college career has played in big moments in every single one of those years? Yeah. Instead of getting, you know, four hours of sleep at night, you get at least six, right? You know, you have 10 coaches on your staff.

With Bo, I feel like we got our 11th coach, you know, a guy out there that sees the game like we see it, really in tune with what we're trying to accomplish offensively. Obviously an extremely talented player and a competitive edge that I haven't been around before. What is, you know, the difference in the dynamic between him and Will Stein and him and Kenny Dillingham? Both of those guys are younger coaches, but, I mean, we think of Kenny as a young guy,

but Will's a lot younger than Kenny. Yeah, you know, ultimately, I think Bo getting to serve under so many offensive coordinators has been such a benefit to him. He's seen the game from so many different lenses. He understands what he really likes, what he feels good about,

and he really understands what the coaches are trying to accomplish. I think Will's done a phenomenal job of getting on the same page of Bo I think it's hard when a coach comes in and they don't realize how much Bo can really handle right you can give Bo all the checks you can give Bo all the indicators and Bo will get you into the right play and when you have that as a coach it makes you feel real comfortable saying hey we're gonna do this it's a little bit funky I don't know if most players can handle it but if the look's not there Bo can get us out of it and he's done a great job of that we talked in the spring you

were talking about when you upgraded the talent on defense through the transfer portal that it was a lot of guys that you'd you'd been involved in their recruitments originally like Jordan Birch like Kyrie Jackson how much did that help you when you got them to develop the relationship and then to put them into the right spots on the field? Yeah, I think it's huge. And you didn't know it four years ago. But now that the portal exists, sometimes falling second place in a recruiting battle isn't a bad thing because you might see that guy

a couple years later. And I think part of them knowing where I've been in the past and what we've been able to accomplish in the past, I think that gave them a clear vision about where we're headed so you you guys studied good to great this offseason have you guys mastered the hedgehog mentality the the find the the thing you're really good at and and be really good at that yeah the hedgehog was one that I had a hard time uh you know figuring out when we first went really through the book I'm like really this is what we're going to talk about you know our strengths really like shriveling up and protecting

ourselves. But in reality, yeah, I think we've done a good job of figuring out what our strengths are. And then really this last week, we called it work week. It wasn't bi-week. And it was about finding our 1% that we can escalate and we can grow and find those marginal gains that equal big gains for our team. That's what Kirby used to always talk about, the aggregate of marginal gains. How much do you feel like you've changed as a coach and Oregon has changed as a program since these two teams last met? Yeah, a ton. I think we're a completely different team.

I think they're a completely different team. You watch them play. They're playing with a lot of juice and enthusiasm. I think their defense has really improved. I think ours has too. And you're really going to figure out which defense has improved going into this next game because these are two really high powered offenses. How important is it for guys like Jordan Burch or Brandon Dorlis to be able to affect Michael Penix Jr.? Yeah, it's hard. I mean, the guy hasn't gotten hit much. And I think the key is you can't go into this game

thinking every play is a play where I'm going to hit the quarterback. It's really about every play is a play where I got to do my job. And if the opportunity comes where we're able to get some pops on him, it's certainly going to help us out. But more importantly, execute my job for the team.

When you look at it, I know it's hard to look past this game, but obviously this is the deepest the Pac-12 has been in a long time. This is the deepest group of quarterbacks you've seen. How critical is it to have this game, this win, to get to where you want to be? Well, I think, I mean, every game, the next game is always the most important game. You know, every one of our goals are going to be in front of us regardless of the result, but we want to go up here and we want to win.

We feel a certain way about how we didn't take care of business last year game. You know, every one of our goals are going to be in front of us regardless of the result, but we want to go up here and we want to win. We, you know, we feel a certain way about how we, you know, didn't take care of business last year and you want to go out of here and put your best foot forward and perform, but we know it's going to be a great environment. We know that they're a great team. So really just focus on again, the next play, the next moment, what can we do best and the rest will take care of itself.

Your pregame speech against Colorado got a lot of attention. I'm curious because I love the Redwood part. Redwoods don't stand alone. They stand together, and the roots are all interconnected. Was that in your back pocket for a while? Had you been planning to do that one, or is that something you read a couple days before the game? You're like, ooh, that'll work.

Yeah, no. We work with a group. Corey Schaefer's like oh that'll work yeah no um you know we work with a group um you know corey schaefer's a guy that i meet with every single week and you know as part of it was part of our messaging going into the game you know we talked about this game's going to be about being connected this game's going to be about being selfless and you know uh we found that analogy and thought it really fit you know i i had never thought about it before like that you never see a redwood by itself and then when you actually study a redwood, you know, each time we kind of pick a theme of where we're headed each week, you find an analogy that really fits. And the strength in

the redwood is its roots. And the fact that not really their roots alone, because they're not very deep, it's really the fact that their roots are tied together with the trees around them. So they give you, you guys agree on this messaging going into the week and do you deliver that to the players, something like that to the players pretty much every day of the week and then it all ties together on Saturday? Somewhat. I mean, we start the week off on Monday and kind of try to paint a picture for our players of what we think is going to be important to win this game. You know, we really plan a lot of that stuff out in the summer and then we adapt as the season goes. Like, hey, this is something important we really need to attack. We need to adjust.

Maybe it's something that's going to matter specific to us. Maybe it's more important or more specific to the team that we're playing. So what are we going to say after we see the behind the scenes of this one, this pregame speech? I could care less. You know, I'm really focused on the result, right? All I'm really worried about is the result. And that starts with the process, right?

If your result's oriented, you're probably going to be disappointed about you know how you got there we want to focus on the process in between you've always been super competitive and it feels like those naturally competitive people are better at being process oriented because they kind of they can move on to the next moment but how do you do that with a whole team of people because everybody's got different personalities how do you keep people from looking at the scoreboard and just looking at the next play yeah you have to be the thermostat not the thermometer right you can't um you know adapt to the weather changes around you you have to be the one that sets the temperature and i think that starts with me starts with our coaching staff right if they see me with the ebbs and flows throughout the game

then they're gonna they're gonna match that but if they see somebody that the ebbs and flows throughout the game, then they're going to, they're going to match that. But if they see somebody that's centered and focused on what's next, then I think they can replicate that. Which Kevin Costner movie are you showing them before the game? I know like Saban always has the, like the movie choice is very important. There are actual debates that happen as they pick the movie, which, which Kevin Costner movie are you showing these guys? I mean, I told you mine was, was the Wolves, but that's a long movie, especially if you go director's cut. So one thing that's important when you pick movies is you're hoping that it's a little bit less than two hours.

You don't want your guys sitting around very long. I can't think of a Kevin Costner movie that I would put in that category right now. You can't throw Field of Dreams, Postman's out, Waterworld's out. Definitely not Waterworld, yeah. Well, no, that's it. I don't think that's a good pick i i co-authored a couple books with

trevor moad who worked with with nick saban back in the day and he was involved in that movie selection process so they they would actually cut those movies down because saban said they have to fit into this window so uh as as one of the staffers on one of those Alabama teams told me, I don't think our team knows why they were saving Private Ryan. Exactly. We don't do that very often. I normally just make sure we pick a movie that's under two hours. Our players actually help us pick. I give it to our guys as we pick that out.

But we don't normally do that on games that are around noon. So we won't be watching one this week. That's right. Go to sleep. Don't watch Colorado Stanford. Get to bed. That's right. Go to sleep. Don't watch Colorado Stanford. Get to bed. I like it. This is good. Find a nice, boring documentary on Netflix and just go to sleep. That's right. Wake up, eat eggs, and go take care of business. All right, Dan Lanning, good luck. Andy, thank you. Appreciate it, bro.

Thank you. That's Dan Lanning with a shockingly deep well of Kevin Costner movie knowledge. Didn't see For Love of the Game coming. I'm sure his players didn't either. That was a new one for most of them. Let's move from him to his opponent on Saturday, Kalen DeBoer in his second season at Washington has been a revelation in Seattle. He's got the Huskies playing as well as any team in the country.

There's a good reason for that. Man knows what he's doing. Here's Kalen DeBoer. Joined now by Kalen DeBoer, Washington head coach. And coach, I'm curious about this because you're from South Dakota. So you get this job. Do they tell you, here's who we really hate, here's who we mildly dislike? So, like, this week you know we're supposed to really hate Oregon.

How does that happen? Yeah, that's funny. You put it that way. You know, you're around college football, So you understand what rivalries are. Right. And then, you know, work on the West Coast for four years at Fresno State and get an idea of what the West Coast rivalries are. So that that helped kind of slowly kind of move me in this direction. And then you get here, you know, and you quickly through the donors and the alumni and all those different groups you're speaking with, you find out what it truly is all about, and then you play the game and it goes to another level. So the week before and the week after, it's a lot of fun for the fans.

So it's an awesome rivalry. It's what college football, college athletics is all about, having these type of, you know, high-end teams competing, passionate about their universities. We're looking forward to Saturday. How quickly did it go from thanks for beating Oregon after you beat them last year to you better not lose to Oregon this year? Yeah, I think there's probably some of that out there. But you just keep the main thing,

the main thing. And for us, it's about, you know, preparation and doing everything we can. Our players and our coaches, every single game is extremely important. And we've made this a big game because of that mindset, you know, each week bringing, you know, our best. And we definitely, you know, are doing that again this week. We know we're going to get their best as well. And so that's what great teams do. And, you know, just happens to be number seven versus number eight on top of the rivalry. So add some added elements from the national picture as well.

So the last time you played, it was very different from the other games you'd played this season. Those had all gone pretty smoothly. Arizona challenged you guys a little bit. What do you think you learned about your team in that game? In last year's game against Oregon? No, no, no. In the game against Arizona that you just had. Oh, this last week um you know you can tell where the focus is at right oh yeah absolutely you know i i think um you know it's uh it was good for us to kind of be pushed a little bit to the end with a couple just game management things and stuff like that and um there are some new faces in our program so you know those guys you know feeling it and being around the guys who have been through a few tests uh last year in particular at the end of the year, whether it be bowl game or our month of November, you know, which had a few pretty hyped and close games.

So it was it was good for us. I think, you know, that there was only something that we can take from being a positive. So let us talk about that that game last year, because that was a very tight game. You had a kick with 51 seconds to go that wins it. When you're sending your kicker out in that moment, what do you say to him? Do you have anything you say, or you just kind of let him be him? If I say anything, it's, it's, it's going to be something really short and really positive. And, you know,

maybe a fist pump and a slap on the back as he heads out. And, you know, in that case, it was a Peyton Henry, you know, and been here many years and had had a good season going for us. And had had some history too.

He had missed, missed some kicks in the past or missed a kick. And, you know, it was really cool to see his growth through the season. And I think there was just a lot of confidence when he went out last year that the opportunity, you know, wasn't too big for him because of all his past and that, you know, he'd been preparing for this moment. And so I don't really think I said too much to him at all and I think that's the best just keep it simple so speaking of being prepared for this moment you you've played in such big games as a head coach that I imagine most people don't realize because

you you were the head coach at your alma mater the University of Sioux Falls from 2005 to 2009 you're playing in playoff games you won won NAIA national championships, three of them. You had games that were win or go home. You had situations where you had to go pretty much 100 yards to win a playoff game. How much does that experience help you when you get in big – like last year against Oregon, you're down a touchdown. You got a score.

How does that help? I think it's – I draw on it a lot. And I can remember specifically in 2006 and the 2007 years being some big, great growth moments. Some of those big drives that you're talking about where, you know, just the, it seems like it's coming to an end, but you just keep fighting, you keep swinging and, you know, you make the, you take advantage of every opportunity. If there's one opportunity left you know, you, you lift your team up and those guys want it bad and they want to go execute. And if you can have that mindset,

it isn't just something all of a sudden that's for the moment you decide this is what we're going to do. To me, it's something that is just part of who you are, your DNA as a program. And it's built through the offseason. It's built, you know, in common, just constant, like, talking about if we get in this moment, this is how it's going to go. This is how we're going to think. This is, you know, what we're going to rely and count on when it comes to, you know, each other. And, you know, those games, I know they weren't in front of crowds even close to what's going to be here Saturday.

But when it's do or die, you know, win or go home and you're in the playoffs and you love your kids and you love your coaching staff and you want to do it for the fans and you want this experience to be special. And you're pouring everything into it. And there's this investment that's above and beyond what most people realize. There is a lot. And so a lot of those moments in those years, you know, the championship, you know, runs, I think really are relatable and things I draw on whether I know it or not. Well, and that's what the thing about it. It feels like winning translates regardless of the level and that experience matters.

I was talking to Marcus Freeman two days after Notre Dame, Ohio state, and they'd had 10 guys on the field on the final play. And he said, you know, if we ever have that situation again, we may never see it again in our lives, but if we ever do, we're gonna have a signal for it now. And that, and I'm thinking it's his second year as a head coach. It's not happened before, but like in your situation, even when you were an assistant coach at the FCS and FBS levels, you'd already been a head coach. You already experienced a lot of those situations.

Yeah. I mean, there's and again, smaller, smaller schools, maybe not the national recognition as far as just what you know just how it gets exposed when you make a mistake, but maybe my fair mistakes too. Not as many people are aware of it. In the early 2000s, as a head coach in those five years there at Sioux Falls, and like you said, moving on and going through the ranks, there's a lot of those moments. Just like anything, the more you do it, the better you get. Play callers become better. I mean, take another sport.

You know, you're a golfer. The more reps, the better you get. The more times you're in those situations, the more times you've thought through not just that situation, but the other possibilities that exist. And so, you know, to me, experience is a big part of it and doesn't make you perfect. Doesn't mean you're going to make the right decision every time, but you, you do rely on some of those experiences to, to help you through and make the best judgments possible. I also heard you talk about how, how the specific experience of being at that level helped with the transfer portal because you were in a situation where people would be transferring down and you'd be kind of using that to fill gaps in your roster and then

you get to Fresno State in 2020 you get to Washington 2022 everybody else is trying to figure out how do we do this you've done it before yeah it feels very similar once the portal kind of took effect just like like you said, plugging in a guy here and there, understand the makeup and dynamic and having your team have this culture around it that is inviting to other people. And when they come in and say, not just high school guys, but transfers, when they come in, they're probably transferring for reasons because they want to see an opportunity that exists. They want to feel a sense of belonging in a locker room and value. And, you know, been through that, was through that a lot, like you said, at the smaller level with the before the portal became a thing.

You know, like you had those opportunities for guys to come down. And, you know, we had Division One, you know come down and you know we had division one you know even fbs players a lot of fcs players um you know coming to us maybe a junior college guy here and there but uh it does there is a piece of that now you know so far in two years so we haven't been full-fledged portal but a lot of those little holes uh you know and some big ones too right right? Michael Penix. Yeah, exactly. Have been, been results of, you know, kind of solidifying and making our team come together and being at another level.

How important was that though, that you had so many guys who were at Washington when you got the job who wanted to be at Washington and wanted to stay at Washington? Yeah. And there was a lot of guys that had been here, like, not just for a year or two, but for three, you know, and even four. Um, so, um, you know, those guys had been through some big years before and saw what it looked like and knew what it was supposed to feel like and, and the work that it took. And so, you know, once we had those guys all in,

we got really into the winter workouts. Um, you know, they were just those guys all in, we got really into the winter workouts. You know, they were just they just never flinched. I say that every time. I couldn't be more appreciative of the way that they just saw, hey, this is, you know, it's about work. It's about good people. It's about, you know, organization and just, you know, everyone heading in the same direction. And I think once we proved to the guys that were here in the roster, you know, which with, there was a lot of talent and still is, you know, on this team, a lot of those guys, you know, really brought it all together and got us to where we're at last year. And even today,

you mentioned your quarterback, Michael Penix Jr. And I saw Tom Allen at the coaches convention right after Mike had transferred to you guys. And Tom said, he's a great guy. He just, he needs a new situation. He's been through so much with the three season ending injuries. What was it like for him going into this off season, having gone through a year healthy where you could see exactly what the potential could be? Yeah, no, I mean, yeah, I think that's really what it was.

Mike Steed had a fresh start just even for himself. When he came here, not just this year having an offseason, he had an injury in the middle to the end of his final year at Indiana in 2021. He had really an offseason last year too, which I think lends itself to a great season a year ago and again building on that and stacking two years on top of each other makes him even stronger um you know just everything he does from even a skill level is just uh on point even more so um i think those off seasons have been have been huge for him how does does he work with Brian Grubb? How, how does that combination?

Yeah, it's really cool. You know, a new Mike was capable of that having sat in the room with him myself. And then just knowing the qualities and just, you know, the way coach Grubb works it's just really awesome. You know, I just got so much trust in each of them individually and then collectively you bring them together. And the competitiveness, just the intelligence both of them have. You know, there's just so many things.

And it's cool, you know, knowing and seeing on game day just the fruits of their labor, just, I mean, the work they're putting in. Because I think a lot of people don't even know. They just think, see talent. They see, you know, cool system and offense. think, see talent, and they see, you know, cool system and offense and, you know, got some receivers, you know. I mean, there's so much work and just details that are just being ironed out. You know, I think most coaches probably get that, but, man, it's really cool. I have a lot of confidence in those guys each and every week.

How much fun is it in a week like this? You're an offensive guy. You've helped design this incredible machine that Michael runs on the field. But when you turn on the tape and you see the kind of athletes that Oregon puts out on defense, how much fun is the idea of the chess match against those dudes? Yeah, they're very impressive on defense as a whole team, in fact, but just it's, it pushes you, right? You know, it's pushed, it pushes you. And this is how you get to these points is by being pushed. And we can go back again, 20 years

and just those, those close games and those, those details that you had to focus on and the learning moments, just helping you to refine things and teach better, you know, make the game plan simpler, you know, just all those things are part of this and you, but you're in the end, you're being pushed to be your best. And that's what this game brings out. So it's, it is, it's awesome atmosphere. I'm happy for our fans. I'm happy for college football just to, you know, the excitement that leads up to it,

the moment in Husky Stadium, the game in Husky Stadium. Just got a lot of energy surrounding it. It's a lot of fun. So the one game at a time, you guys all have to have that mentality. When you have that open week before a game like this, do you have to kind of rein it in with your guys to make sure they're at the right kind of pitch once the game starts? I think naturally we just our schedule and knowing how we wanted our schedule to be you know they needed a break because it's five weeks of football

that we've played when it comes to Saturdays but it's also another three to four of fall camp and so you know we're a strong eight weeks in. You know, there's seven weeks left of the season. And so it was a good time for us to have our bye week. And we gave those guys, you know, once we wrapped up Arizona, we gave them a few days off. So the schedule lended itself to being able to just like, you know, temper it down a little bit. And then, you know, once we got later into last week, into the weekend,

you know, the energy just picking back up. You know, you don't want to peak with your energy too quickly because, you know, in a game like this, that can happen. You know, so now you're not really at your best come game day. So guys are doing a great job. Again, it's the mature group that we have here. So the week, you know, just methodically moving along and taking care of, you know, like what everyone says, the process that we have in place, doing it to our standard. That's where the focus is at.

Coach. Thank you so much. Good luck on Saturday. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate you having me on. Thank you to Dan Lanning and Kalen DeBoer for their time. I feel like we're a lot more educated going into the biggest game of the weekend. Now let's talk about some of these other guys that we play in these other big games. Well, and a couple who will be in that Oregon-Washington game. Jesse Simonton on 3's National Writer has published an all-transfer portal team for 2023. There's a bunch of guys in big games this weekend

and let's face it. They're a big reason why their teams are playing big games, why their teams are playing as well as they are in our in position to do special things this season. The transfer portal has changed how college football works. It has changed how you develop your roster and it has made it where some teams have really improved their fortunes very quickly. We'll talk to Jesse about how you do that and how some of these guys have made a huge impact. We are joined by Jesse Simonton on three national writer, currently behind me in our quarterback draft competition, but that's not the news that, that we want to get out there.

The news we want to get out there is that Jesse has released the all portal team at mid season on, on three and Jesse, this is, it's amazing how much this feels like it's changed the sport and especially when we look at some of these teams and who's got multiple players on there you could really one revamp a roster change a program's fortunes, or two, take something that's pretty good and make it really good? Yeah, I mean, on this list alone, Andy, you know, Michigan, they're going to win

the Joe Moore Award again, and they have two transfers, you know, they just plug and play, plug and play. And it's, you know, you lose a couple guys to the NFL, and suddenly Drake Nugent steps in, and he's the best center in the Big Ten. You get Henderson over here and he's locking down the left tackle spot. And Michigan is certainly not an outlier on this list in terms of teams that have restocked their roster with instant impact players. I wrote this spring what Jeff Braun was doing at Louisville was quietly as impressive as what Deion and Kenny Dillingham and Hugh Freeze and all these other guys that were getting more notoriety. Well, lo and behold, the Cardinals have two guys on this list, too.

Yeah. And what's their record? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Six and oh. And where do they play? They play key spots. Louisville needed a receiver. Jamari Thrash has come in and been one of the most productive receivers, not just as a transfer, but just in the country. It's tied with Keon Coleman, who's also on this list at Florida State

for the ACC lead in touchdowns. And then Neal, we watched what he did against Sam Hartman just this past weekend. He had two interceptions in that game and just completely befuddled Notre Dame's offense there. So what this list, I think, kind of encapsulates as a whole is that if you can identify the right players, you can have some guys that can be studs. Because some of these guys had done next to nothing earlier in their careers. And six games into this season, they're on our all-Portal team.

Well, and another pair that we're going to see this weekend in a huge game, that Oregon-Washington game, which it may as well be called the Portal Bowl because, now, not this year's portal, but last year's put Michael Pennix at Washington, put Bo Nix at Oregon. But Oregon's got two guys on this year's team. You got a Johnny Cornelius who came from Rhode Island, who's now the right tackle. He's sort of the there's there's different kinds of portal stories. You have the dude who doesn't do much at his previous school

and goes Power 5 to Power 5, but you also have the guy like a Johnny Cornelius who blows up at FCS and is like, okay, I want to try the Power 5. So that would be him, Jared Vers at Florida State. I was going to say, he's the Jared Vers corollary of 2023. Yep, yep. And then Kyrie Jackson in the secondary at Oregon,

which was a place where they lost Christian Gonzalez, who was another transfer, but he was a first-round draft pick, and they needed to shore up that secondary and make it more athletic. And here's Kyrie Jackson from Alabama playing really well. And Oregon had a couple different candidates, Andy, from the secondary that could have made this list. I mean, this is, you know, I think defensive back and offensive line were maybe two of the harder positions to really hammer down. But Evan Williams for the Ducks has been very good as well.

You know, he was kind of a late cut. So, you know, Ole Miss too. Ole Miss, I think, just ended up with one player on this team as a whole, but Jared Ivey at defensive line, the Georgia Tech transfer, he absolutely merited consideration. Saunders who did make the cut has been a really good safety there for Pete Golding. So it's, I think, you know, there are some names that people are going to say, ah, well, yeah, they made it, but I mean, Barry Alexander has been good.

You know, he, yeah, he, he got as much shine as any transfer probably during the spring, but the five-star, uh, from Georgia has been the most effective interior pass rusher in the pack. 12, uh, per PFF Shador Sanders has been one of the best five quarterbacks, probably just in the sport, independent of being a transfer. And this is a guy who, again, made the jump from the FCS to the Power Five. Well, and Shador Sanders and Travis Hunter are two really good examples. You know, they obviously came with Deion. They are the Louis luggage to which Deion referred, and they have been spectacular.

Now, the thing is, they were playing at the FCS level, but both of them would have been Power 5 players had Deion Sanders not been at Jackson State. Yeah, and that's probably, you know, that's probably why his son Shiloh, who did make this list as well, probably deserves a little bit more publicity than maybe some of the other guys just because he wasn't a top-flight recruit.

He didn't have the four stars next to his name, and yet he's been solid. Missed the USC game, but he hasn't allowed a touchdown this season. Tied for the team lead in tackles, that big 80-yard pick six to beat Colorado State. That was a huge play in that game that kind of helped spur that comeback. So Colorado's got three people on this list. I don't know who else kind of jumps out that maybe you want to touch on. I'll tell you one that jumps out. It was a package deal situation where one came through the transfer portal

and another was signed as a high school guy. So Francisco Maunoa, the Miami linebacker who came from Washington State, he's at Miami because his brother's at Miami, Francis Maunoa, who is now the starting right tackle. He was a five-star guy starting as a true freshman. But that has been great. I realize we're not allowed to talk about Miami in a good way this week after Mario didn't kneel.

But the fact of the matter is those two brothers showing up at Miami and they were very much a package deal is a big deal. Well, you and I had fun with the Mario all-time blunder on Saturday night, but one of the guys he let down because he did steal a victory from his own players was Francisco Maliogo, who had two takeaways in that game. He had a forced fumble and an interception against Haynes King. So he's fit in well.

Lance Guidry's got that Hurricanes defense kind of playing with its hair on fire. You know, that's kind of his style, his brand, uh, just kind of hyper aggressive and, and Maui Oga seems to have fit in quite well there. Nick Jackson, the other linebacker on this list who made the, took the other linebacker spot, you know, you know, he was asked to play the Jack Campbell role for Phil Parker uh for the Hawkeyes this year comes over from Virginia that's been just kind of almost a

seamless transition he leads the lead the Hawkeyes and tackles TFLs PBUs has forced a couple fumbles so stuff in the stat sheet there as well Ray Davis is another good example of a guy who was very good at his previous school and then sort of took it up another level. He was a good running back at Vanderbilt. He was notching 100-yard games in the SEC last year, but then you put him in Kentucky with more talent around him, a better offensive line in front of him, and you really get to see what he can do. Yeah. I mean, he was kind of bottled up a little bit against Georgia, but he leads the country in touchdowns, has a dozen touchdowns this season. He's been highly effective as both a rusher and a receiver.

I mean, he's a really good player. And his physicality and vision has worked well playing behind a Kentucky offensive line that's been much better. One name I think that's interesting on this list that I think, you know, when you kind of look at where they came from, where they're at now, Trajan Jeffcoat seems to have gotten a little bit of a fresh start at Arkansas. He's been like really their only pass rusher outside, inside. They do not have a lot of pressure on that defense,

but he's been good. And yet you kind of wonder, Andy, on this Missouri team, that's pretty good, pretty salty defense. What if they still had Trajan Jeff? Yeah. You know, there's kind of some what-ifs with some of these guys. I think he, specifically on the the defense kind of qualifies there because that's a defensive line that I think could use another impact body.

We know interior pressure, that's one of the most important things for defenses, especially in college. When I was putting this list together, it was like, man, kind of thinking of what would it look like if he was actually back in Columbia. So just kind of thinking of, you know, kind of what would it look like if he was actually back in Columbia? So just kind of interesting. Who would you say is the most impactful transfer thus far this season? I mean, it's absolutely Shadur Sanders, right? I think it's Shadur or Travis Hunter.

Even though Travis Hunter's been hurt, once he comes back he's going to be incredibly impactful in those games because remember they need to win two more to get bowl eligible a really good chance they can beat Stanford on Friday night and get to win number five and then the schedule gets harder again but if Travis Hunter's playing I feel pretty pretty confident they're going to get that sixth win. But yeah, Shador is probably the most impactful. They kind of have to separate it into Colorado division and non-Colorado division. After that, I would probably go Ray Davis.

See, I'd go Keon Coleman. Yeah, so I had – the problem is – so I do the weekly transfer player rankings too, and Coleman has been, in terms of Florida State's most important games, he has shown up and kind of shined the brightest. He's just had very quiet days otherwise. But, I mean, hey, when they've needed him, the dude has delivered, and he absolutely is going to be a first-round NFL draft pick this year.

So, no quibbles there. Yeah, I can't. I can't believe how impactful he's been in their biggest games because he was unstoppable against LSU. And then quiet for most of Clemson, though, he did have a touchdown right before the half. And then the huge touchdown catch in overtime that won them the game. And I do wonder, like, if you take him off of Florida State, are they undefeated right now? And I think that's where you can, with these Michigan guys, like, you could take one of them away, they're still going to be undefeated. The question is, do they help raise the level of the Wolverines to a level where they can win the national title, which they look like a team that can.

Yeah, another name we haven't mentioned on here that Michigan that made it was Josiah Stewart, you know, was a pass rusher at Coastal Carolina. Comes in and, you know, he's just a cog kind of in the system. But in that system, he's worked out quite well, leads the Wolverines in sacks and TFLs. So Coleman, I love. I think that his physicality on the perimeter is just so impressive. I mean, the way he just completely mossed Clemson's corner to win that game in overtime.

Um, and when you think about the fact that Johnny Wilson kind of has the, the, the oopsies with the drops, you know, sometimes it's, I think it's been really beneficial for Jordan Travis to say, Hey, if I need, you know, to get a first down or touchdown here, just, just chuck it up to Keon. And you mentioned Drake Nugent before, but there's another Stanford grad who's doing very well, and that's Walter Rouse at Oklahoma. That Oklahoma offensive line was outstanding against Texas on Saturday. Blocking two guys with one hand. It was incredible.

That might be my favorite clip from the weekend. If you haven't seen it, there's a clip out there of Walter Rouse, and he is getting – basically, there's a miscommunication, and he ends up with two guys on him. The left guard completely screws up. Yeah, and so Walter Rouse, who's the left tackle, is blocking both guys. He's blocking one guy with his left hand and one guy with his right hand, and it works.

And it was the game-winning play. I mean, it was the play that Dylan Gabriel threw the touchdown inside the final 20 seconds. Yeah, that clip alone almost made me put him on the team. And he's been good. He's been good. Javon Cohen, the transfer from Alabama who's at Miami, has been good. Miami did make Matt Lee was one of the five offensive linemen.

So Miami's got multiple representatives on this list as well. And that was obviously a big emphasis for Mario this offseason too. We're going to reload in the portal, and he seems to have hit on more than one of these new guys. Yeah, and that's also a reason why I don't think the season's over because they had the horrible decision by Mario like they can go to North Carolina and be very competitive this week and they might even win this game and they now Miami gets everybody hard in the ACC but when you have a better offensive line that travels and and the transfer portal helped them do that. Yeah. And I mean, you know who doesn't care about what Mario did or didn't do last Saturday is, you know, those that set the gambling lines.

Because, you know, otherwise Miami would be a much bigger underdog than just kind of like a coin flip going to Chapel Hill. Exactly. Interesting that there are two USC defenders on this list. And because I agree with you completely, the bear Alexander and Mason Cobb have been tremendous additions to the USC defense. Being a final cut. Oh,

I'm sorry. Yeah. He was considered for it. Yes. Let's consider we, we just went to two linebackers. So he, he didn't quite make it. He has been solid, though.

And Bear, again, he's provided the pass rush. USC still, I think their biggest weakness is in the secondary. But they are allowing almost a yard less per carry this year on the ground. So Bear's provided a little extra run support there as well. We'll get to see them against the best offensive line they played against Notre Dame this weekend. That'll be an interesting one because Bear has been considerably better than all of their other interior linemen. Now they've got some good edge rushers on that team, but that defense has been a little bit of a sieve the last few weeks,

so we'll see if Notre Dame can take advantage of that. But Jesse, we've also got to talk about our quarterback draft that we did in the preseason. This thing is not going the way I thought it would, and by that I mean I'm winning. But our guy Jamie has developed a scoring system and a scorecard that he puts out each week. He's at CornWit on Twitter. And it is amazing how much Jaden Daniels is carrying me. That was – I picked Jaden Daniels thinking he's going to have an okay year. He's got some good receivers.

But him having to keep pace with how bad LSU's defense is has forced him to just put up stratospheric numbers. Yeah. I mean, it's rather remarkable, Andy, that I have two of maybe the top three or four Heisman contenders, and I'm just getting mollywhopped in this race because I've got some total duds at the back end of my draft. I mean, you got Gabriel, who's also been phenomenal for you. Yeah, that was my number nine. That was my ninth round pick. With your ninth pick, the two SEC guys are just killing me. Yeah. I mean, KJ, he's just been a shell of himself, nothing like he was the last couple of seasons.

And Devin Leary, I don't know if he's still hurt or what's going on there, but that is just, well, Ray Davis has been phenomenal via the transfer for the wildcat. That has not been the case with Devin Leary at quarterback. So my big 10 guys, we'll see. I will say I was dinged a little bit because Michael Pratt missed so many games and that hurt, that, that hurt me here. I think Kyle McCord is going to give you a lot down the stretch. I also think J.J. McCarthy's going to open it up more

as they get to face tougher competition. But here's your problem. I think Mike Bobo's figured out how to use Carson Beck. And unfortunately for you and for George's opponents, the way it seems like Carson Beck gets comfortable is going deep early, taking shots early, and that's just going to give me more stats. Well, the other issue I'm going to run into is I think, you know, Drake May got off to a slow start.

Oh, yeah. He's going to have a – this stretch run for Drake May, I have a feeling is going to be very productive. He's about to start heating up, yeah, he's going to have a – this stretch run for Drake May, I have a feeling is going to be very productive. He's about to start heating up, yeah. So I need Quinn to kind of pick it up a little bit. We'll see what – you know, Jordan Travis, it's been a little quiet there after kind of the rolling start that he got off to. So there are games to be played.

Drew Allard is going to have to do more for you and i think he well he can and will have to if they want to beat ohio state and michigan so but not if you ask james franklin though well all right let's talk let's talk about that we may throw the clip we'll throw the clip in here too from the press conference so hey good afternoon j Hey, Corey. A follow-up to what you were just asked there about Drew. Is there a balance, though, between, hey, we need you to throw the ball deep no matter what. Just take a shot. Don't overthink it.

Take a shot. We need to see it. We're going to call it, and we need you to get some confidence in doing this as opposed to even giving a young quarterback a chance to say, hey, just check it down if it's not there. I don't really understand what you're saying because we would never. Like, my skin is curling when you say just drop back and chuck it deep no matter what. Like, that is like, I don't even know what you're saying.

It's like you're speaking from Mars. Just send a guy on a post pattern, take the shot, throw it. No matter what. Give your receiver a chance to make a play on a ball. Even if he might be covered 30 yards down the field, maybe you think he'll be open 45 yards down the field and like Godwin did or with Jahan or KJ like like I still don't like you're speaking Japanese like like we have never done that just throw the ball up and maybe he'll be open and maybe he'll catch

like my skin is like like my like you're making me uncomfortable. Like I don't know what you're talking about. So yeah, we would not do that. We would never do that. We've never thought about doing that as a head coach as an offensive coordinator as a receivers coach, I coached the receivers. I didn't want them to do that. So no, no.

Strong no. Like, yeah, no. What this guy is asking essentially is why do you, James Franklin, not use the strategy that I use when I play my 14-year-old in Madden where I just run four verts every play? Like, he's saying,

why have you not given Drew Aller a situation where there is no check down option? And James Franklin, who is a competent football coach, is like, we have no passing plays where there is no check down option. That is not in the playbook and will never be in the playbook. You're making my skin crawl. I mean, that was an all-time presser uh moment right there because franklin just you can see in real time his eyes just being like what in the world

is this am i being asked right here and then just and you see the gears turning and said like what is he saying oh that's what he's saying i and and it's like at that point you're like i don't even know if i can explain this to you accurately because you're not going to understand it it's it was one what's the the billy madison we're now all you know dumber for having mercy on. God have mercy on your soul. Yeah, I mean, you felt bad for the guy. The guy's been a longtime Penn State reporter. But how do you watch football for that long without understanding that every passing play has a check down for a reason?

To circle it back to Drew Allard, they will need to have him do more because that running rushing attack has not been as good as I think they thought because the offensive line hasn't been quite as good. So can, uh, the former five-star shoulder more of the load kind of create more explosive plays, you know, Dante Cephas transfer, circling it back hasn't really been kind of the home run guy. They, maybe they thought right. Second half of the home run guy they maybe they thought right second half of the season if they're gonna beat Michigan and Ohio State they need those receivers

specifically imagine if if the second half of the season is just defined by Kent State transfers blowing up like Dante Seacrest and then Tez Walker who's now eligible at North Carolina and he had a phenomenal catch uh in his first game back just last weekend. I think he and Drake May are going to, you know, Nate McCollum, another guy that just missed the cut for the wide receivers, the Georgia Tech transfer that's hooking up with Drake there at UNC. He's kind of fit in seamlessly as that Josh Downs role. Well, they're going to be fun to watch because here's the thing about Tez Walker. They didn't find out till Thursday that Tez was eligible to play.

So he'd been playing scout team all week. Now he's playing with the ones all week at practice. So we're going to get to see what he really can do here in these next few weeks. And I think that's pretty exciting. And if you're Drake may, or you're someone who took Drake may in the quarterback draft, you feel pretty good about that.

Yeah, I think, I think maybe Hartman will start throwing some more picks, so that'll ding you a little bit, but no. I think you're looking pretty good. I think Hartman blows up this weekend against USC's defense. Well, if he doesn't, then he never is. So Jaden Greathouse didn't play against Duke. He played against Louisville, but it was very limited. He was kind of a decoy.

If he's feeling better, then Sam can throw to someone other than the tight end. And I think that will be very helpful. And USC will let you throw. Noah Fafita can attest to that. They will. They will. And I need Caleb to keep that Superman cape on for as long as he can.

He's going to have to. The problem is the only Power 5 defense worse than USC's might be LSU's and Jaden Daniels is having to keep pace with that defense. We had T-Bob Abare picking

the games on Wednesday's show. And that was our question that we could not find an answer to is, will LSU's defense be bad enough to make Auburn's passing offense look competent? And we came up with no, and that LSU would cover. And I'll let everybody behind the curtain. T-Bob text me on Thursday morning he's like I just watched the Georgia Auburn all 22 I don't think LSU's gonna cover changed his mind like can I take my pick back I'm like yeah you're the guest you can do

whatever you want but I'm stuck with it so wow wow what. I haven't seen the total. I know what the spread is. What's the total on that one? It is, I want to say it's around 70. Or no, it's mid to low 60s. I'm sorry. But yeah, given what we've seen from Auburn, it's very tough to imagine how they are dynamic looking on offense, even right in LSU secondary. So we'll find out, but Jesse, it's been a pleasure. Would you like to run this

back after some games on Saturday? Absolutely, man. Can't wait. All right. Beautiful. Well, that is your show. That is your week. We got lots going on. There's games, big games. Got West Virginia and Houston playing right now. Got Stanford and Colorado on Friday night. And then the usual buffet of college football on Saturday. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for telling your friends. Thank you for liking, subscribing, leaving very nice reviews. We'll talk to you after the end of Saturday.