Andy & Ari On3 - Penn State GRINDS OUT a win against Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl

Episode Date: January 1, 2025

You’ve had Wendy’s Nuggs dipped in sauce. But have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy’s New Saucy Nuggs take the Crispy and Spicy Nuggs you love and turn them up to 11. Choose between flavors like Buffalo. Honey BBQ. Garlic Parm. Or, if you’re a real heat seeker, try Spicy Ghost Pepper, only on Wendy’s signature Spicy Nuggs. Andy and Ari discuss Penn State’s 31-14 win against Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. Was it a blowout? Maybe. But the Broncos did have their chances in the third quarter.   Now that Penn State has made the College Football Playoff semifinals, has James Franklin won a big game? The Nittany Lions will face the Georgia-Notre Dame winner next week in the Orange Bowl.  Watch us on YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/NsD-jAF646o Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy and Ari's New Year's Blockin' Eve! I always wanted to host a New Year's show, Ari. It's been my dream. On a key network. Yeah. We just need a giant, yeah. I need like a giant garlic bulb dropping behind me. Yeah, well we're going live at 6.30 in the morning.

Pacific time. On New Year's Day, Pacific time. Yeah, well that's the time zone I'm'm in so that's the one that affects me It's 815 now quit your whining No, what I'm saying is this I'm gonna write and then I'm gonna go to bed because like I don't have the emotional ability to To go out downstairs to the media room and start drinking and all this and then wake up at 630 and then cover the game So nobody wants to kiss another sports writer anyway, so yeah Well, the truth is is is that like, I guess

it is a sad state of affairs when you're like, New Year's plans are just being alone in a hotel room without your family. But here we are. This is the, I mean, that's been our existence for the, I know entirety of our career. So like, it's not really anything new. So, yeah, we did get room service burgers sent up here. So that, that, that's a good way to ring in the day. We put we put the pinky up a week, sip our tea. All right. So I think we should start out with a question in the chat from Ferris because I think it it totally sums up the Penn State win against Boise State. James Franklin won a big game yet? So like the question is, does this count? Is that what he's getting at? Yeah, Eileen,

yes. Eileen, yes. And look, it was a 17-point game. You were sweating the back door cover just now. It was, the back door was open and Boise State, I mean look That touchdown that was erased by the hands to the face penalty. That's that's where it fell apart Yeah, if that touchdown happens, I think we're sweating a one score game in the fourth quarter Yeah, like the thing about that game was that it was like close on the scoreboard, but it didn't feel close in actuality to me. I don't know. It felt like to me that Penn State was destined to win that game 38 to seven and like weird play calling and penalties and mistakes kind of helped Boise stay in it.

But the type of performance that their defensive line put up in like the physicality that Penn State brought to the table, Andy, is kind of what I was anticipating. And, you know, I think that we have some big picture discussions that we're gonna have hopefully tomorrow morning on the show, I don't think we should get into it here, but I do wonder if as we're getting through this playoff and these games are coming,

the results of these games are coming through, if just the sport isn't quite as flat as we thought it was, or if it's flat in a different way. And I think we should explore that tomorrow. But like, this is the thing that I said on the show when we were previewing the game, and like you hold over my losers over my head all the time. So I'm gonna do it to you.

It's like, what did you think was gonna happen here? Like to me, like this is exactly what we should have in this game. What almost happened Ari, if that hands to the face penalty does not happen, a three-point game in the third quarter and oh by the way on the next defense or the next possession for Penn State Which is after the interception of course like Boise State Held him three and out like yeah Penn State got very lucky that happened

Yeah, it is interesting because I feel like Penn State now. First of all, let's go back to the beginning. Has he won a big game? Penn State is in the semi-final of the tournament. So big enough. Shut up about that. I mean, I know they haven't beaten Georgia and like honestly speaking, I don't know if they're going to be playing

Georgia or Notre Dame in the next round. Like I think that symbolically would probably mean be playing Georgia or Notre Dame in the next round. Like I think that symbolically would probably mean more in the sense of like winning the game. And I do think there are some questions about the way that that James Franklin and Andy Kodelnick, he called that offensively at times. Just running the damn ball. It's like, it's like, my thing was pretty simple to me of like, what's the what's the pathway to win here? And the pathway to win was just beat the crap out of them physically, because I just don't think that if you watch that game and I know that like it was kind of close there quasi close

there in the third quarter, but like there was one team that was heads and shoulders better than the other and this one and like it's what it is. Oh, that had some aliens like Tyler Warren's an alien that touchdown catch he made like the DB could not have covered that anymore perfectly. Yeah, and you know breaking the the Penn State single season receptions record, the only human on the field who could have caught that pass caught that pass. Yeah, and like listen Penn State has definitely been the beneficiary of a more advantageous route than some of the other teams. But like also too,

that's the system and like you don't penalize teams for that any more than you penalize teams that got good draws in the regular season. Like I'm not going to sit here and be like, they don't get any credit because they had to only beat Boise. It's like, okay, well, you know, if they want to get where they're going, they're going to have to win a game. And if they don't win a game, you know, in the semis, and I guess we can revisit it. But like that's these are big games. He won those games. So, you know, I do think that there were times in this game that you can kind of see the blueprint to me of how they're going to get beat. Right? Like if they get a little cute offensively, try to, you know, do some things that are a little bit more outside of the box and just running the ball

and taking advantages of your mismatches. And like, I don't know that I was really all that impressed with Penn States receiver ability to create space. Here's the thing Ari, whether it's, whether it's Georgia or Notre Dame next week, there are no more mismatches. Other than whoever you put Warren on, but there are no like they there was a point where that Penn States running receivers at one particular Boise State DB because he could not handle it and they were getting flags

drawn on him or they were catching the ball and eventually Boise State had to pull him and that isn't going to happen against Notre Dame or Georgia. Like Notre Dame or Georgia can put an extra guy in the box and be perfectly fine playing man against Penn State's receivers. Yeah, yeah. And they'll be playing teams that might not have the ability to get separation much either too, but like I feel like some

of the ailments that Penn State has had this year, you can kind of feel them, even though they, they aren't going to cause them to lose against the teams that they were playing. That's all. So, you know, I think it's a great win. And like, listen, from a program perspective, like Penn State has constantly been in this, like weird, um, what's the word, um, that's like not heaven or hell purgurgatory. Purgatory, yeah. Where it's like they're 10 and two,

they're constantly being compared to Michigan and Ohio State. They're in a division with two of the premier programs in college football and they can't get over the hump. And it's like, I don't know if they're gonna go out and win the national championship this year, but with the team that they have coming back and Drew Aller coming back

and like breaking through to the semifinals, like I think this is the most important like moment for Penn State football and maybe what 20 years like this seems like this would be like if you're a fan of the expanded playoff what the expanded playoff does is gives teams like Penn State who would otherwise be sitting at home right now in the four team era an opportunity to create memories and momentum in a way that they couldn't do in the past. And they're now one of the four teams now you you can thank this, the weird focaccia seating that they're not going to do anymore after this year probably. But, but they're there. They're in the final four. If they win the next game, they're in the national championship.

They certainly are talented enough to play either of the two teams that they could possibly face in the Orange Bowl. They're certainly talented enough to beat either one of those teams on the right day. And that's not something you would have said about Penn State football three years ago. If they end up playing Georgia, it's not just, oh, they have no chance to win that game. That's not the way it is. So from that standpoint, I don't know what they're going to do at receiver, but I think that they need to do something in the off season. They're in a pretty good spot. So like I think that they should feel good about themselves and Boise played that game

with every single ounce of energy that it had. Right. Like you can create that was that Boise. They made they made some mistakes, but they were playing against a vastly superior, more talented team, which speaks to your point about the sports not as flat as we've been saying. Yeah. And, you know, too, like Penn State is kind of a Cinderella in its own right and not in the same way that Boise is, but it's like Penn State in the semifinals for the first time in the playoff era is a really awesome thing. And if they get matched up with Georgia, because there's a really good chance that that's what happens,

it'll be very interesting to see them line up across the way from Georgia and how that works. By the way, in case you're wondering what game Penn State would have been playing in, had it just been seeded straight as the committee ranked the teams, they would have been the number four seed. They would have been in the Peach Bowl playing the Notre Dame Clemson winner. So probably Notre Dame. So would they be in the final four if they had to play Notre Dame out of the gate? I don't know, but so possibly work out the same way. Notre Dame would have anyway. So yeah, that's like, listen, if you don't like, I cannot possibly have another discussion about whether or not we should be, you know, the right teams got in or what the seating should look like. We're going to have an entire office.

We don't have to have that discussion and we're going to have the big Alabama discussion on the show in the morning, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. And we will. But like at the same time, Boise and SMU do not suck. Okay. They might not be athletically up to par with some of the teams that are competing for

the national championship still, but we knew that. Okay. And beating the crap out of SMU and Boise and back to back games, though, is not the same thing as beating a, uh, Georgia and a Notre Dame or a Texas and an Oregon or whatever, like. It's not easy to beat the crap out of teams that good and back to back games, right? Like it's not like they just like got to play southeastern Louisiana State University or something like they're playing good teams

with great and they beat SMU easily. And other than the moments we were talking about where they're sweating in the third quarter. And yes, that penalty happened. But Penn State also turned that into an interception and gave up zero points on that drive, which effectively ended the game. So a lot of this like, like Genti got humbled stuff. It's like, what did you think Penn State was going to do? They sold out their entire defense to stop him. I actually thought that boys move the ball really well. Before we get to those spicy and saucy takes about Ash and Gentie, I got to tell everybody about Wendy's saucy nugs.

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He didn't save me any. Now I gotta have some nugs. So Wendy's saucy nugs at participating US Wendy's. Andy, I need you to help me workshop something. Let's not get the genty yet. Can we do genty after what I'm gonna ask you? Yes, yes, yes. So I'm going to write after this, okay?

And I'm kicking through a few things here. But I think I want to write about Drew Aller, okay? We were texting about this earlier and we saw Dame Bruegler's tweet and we were talking about it before he tweeted that out. What did you think of Drew Aller's performance in this game? He finished 13 of 25 for 171 yards, three touchdowns, no picks. And you look across the way in Maddox Madsen, Maddox Madsen was 23 of 35 for 304 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions. Like did you, like, what are you, what are you seeing out of

Aller? Because like to me, I feel like he has illustrated like certain traits that make me super excited about him as a NFL quarterback prospect, but at the same time, don't think he's playing his best football. Like, I don't know how to judge him right now. The second touchdown pass, the one touchdown pass that was not to Tyler Warren

is one of the best throws you'll see in college football all season. There's, you know, I think Chidor can make that throw. I think Cam Ward can make that throw. Like all the of the guys who are going to be in this year's draft class, they might be it in terms of the people who can make that throw. And you just saw the throw on a screen. So that is what we're talking about here. You're talking about the one that was caught by Omari Evans. Oh, the one that's playing here. Yeah. Okay. Yes. It was about here. You're talking about the one that was caught by Omari Evans? Oh, the one that's playing here. Yeah, okay.

Yes, it was absolutely beautiful. You could not have placed it any better than that. And you know, you look at some of the, he's a little off on some of those. Like there was one to Tyler Warren where Tyler Warren's wide open. Boise State basically forgot to cover him and he sailed it a little bit.

So there's a little bit of that that he's got to clean up. But the thing about Drew Aller that I find interesting, and this is to your point, because you brought this up on social media during the game, because Drew Aller has said he's coming back to Penn State next year. I'm not entirely certain Drew Aller isn't one of the top three quarterbacks

in the 2025 quarterback draft class if he decided to go. Basically, he already said he is. Yeah, like the thing is like you get a lot of he's trash during the game. And like part of that is a he's super young and part of that also is or the calculus of whether or not he's a top three is who else is in the draft.

Here's here's the other thing I will point. Here's the other thing I will point out that is different and kind of unique to Drew Aller compared to most top NFL QB draft prospects. When Drew Aller gets to the NFL, his receivers will be better relative to the DBs they're playing than his Penn State receivers this year are relative to the DBs they're playing. Then his Penn

State receivers this year are relative to the DBs they're playing when they play good teams. Does that does that make sense? Like, yes, but I also think that in the NFL players get less open. Usually, they do get less open. But yeah, but I do think he's going to be dealing with better receivers than he is now. Even even relative to NFL talent, because obviously the NFL DBs are going to be better than most of the DBS they play. But that's not normal. Like should or his receivers are really good.

Are you reading this chat? Yeah. Like I'm trying, I'm trying not to let the chat derail me here. Okay. I'm just saying like, I think, Are you reading this? The chat? The chat, yeah. People think he's fucked. I'm trying not to let the chat derail me here. Okay, I'm just saying, but I just think that it's a really interesting viewpoint because I do think that the chat a lot of times echoes public sentiment because the people who are here are smart. And I think that a lot of people just don't,

first of all, even if you think he stinks, like there's two conversations here. Here's one from Eric. Aller will be lucky to make the NFL, he sucks under pressure. Eric, I guarantee you Aller will make an NFL roster. He'll probably draft it in the top two rounds, whether he comes out this year or next.

Well, here's the thing. He's gonna make the NFL. There are two separate discussions here. It's not just is he gonna to be good in the NFL? The question is is the timing of it is almost like weird that he's not going because he's never going to have a Easier path to being a top three Drafted quarterback, but here's the thing Let's say they do improve

the receiving core a little bit. And he does clean up some of those because his accuracy issues are not huge. They're slight. Let's say he cleans that up in the off season and balls out next year. He's potentially the first guy off the board because they love like he's everything they love. He's six foot four. He's 240 pounds. Like he's durable enough and he's fast enough. If he gets flushed, he can get you some yards. Like he's not Josh Allen athletic, but he's fast enough to get you some yards.

If he gets flushed like they want him to succeed the NFL people want want someone built like this to be their quarterback. Yeah. I just kind of feel like, and maybe it's just my financially driven brain, that it's like insane to me that he's not going. But we did look up today, we did look up today the difference between number one overall and number 15 overall and it's a $20 million discrepancy. So like there is money to be made by returning while, so like I don't know. You also remember you're also a year closer to your next contract and all that. So I don't know if the math completely works out either way. Yeah, because the real money in the NFL is your second contract, right?

But it also may be that he feels like he needs one more year of college because this is not a Carson Beck situation where cart like Todd McShay got on Carson Beck, but Carson Beck's been in college five years. I think true college three years. Yeah, but I think he's actually 22. Like I like 20. Yeah, he's much younger than most of these guys.

But also, like, here's the thing. Like, we're talking about this game. The best thing about winning in the playoffs is you get another game. Yes, right. And right, amazing football against Georgia. Like all, all it takes is one game of looking awesome. Like I just keep going back to the CJ Stroud Georgia game a few years ago. And like what that game told us about him as an NFL prospect, because there was a lot to not like about him going into that game. And then he played the best game of his entire life.

And then it was like, that's the game that basically told you everything that you needed to know about who he is in the NFL. And it's like, like, I feel like the fact that it's already been declared is insane. And if he changes his mind, then like Penn State could be in an interesting scenario with Bro Pribula who already left. It's like a weird thing. I think they're going to try to keep recruiting him, but I don't think he makes that declaration unless he plans to really follow through on it and stay.

Yeah. Well, I mean, also too too like life comes at you fast like if he goes out and he he's 33 of 38 for five touchdowns against the Georgia defense or Notre Dame defense, right? Which is which also puts them in the national championship game if that happens and I also question I also question too if like is it too late for him to play into QB one right now. Well, what you just described certainly would would make the

case and then and then you have to make that decision. Because if you can be QB one, then you're you know, one one, because that's probably what it is because the Patriots have the number one pick right now. That's still necessary. We don't necessarily know how that's going to land because the games have to be played this weekend. But let's say this Patriots, they'll trade it to somebody who needs a quarterback and it's going to be a quarterback. Or they'll take Travis Hunter and then the next team is going to take a quarterback. So yeah. Yeah. And it's like

also too, if you make it to the national title game, it's like, why are you returning? Like you already got to the pinnacle. But a lot of that I'm gonna try to work through that after this Well, let's let's talk about let's talk about Ashen Gentie because Obviously, he's a guy That was a massive discussion point for the entire season 30 carries 104 yards as long was 26, which was on a third and 21 when he hit that one I was like, oh, they're not dead yet 21 when he hit that when I was like, Oh, they're not dead yet.

Yeah, I love, I love all the people, by the way, these are the same people who are yelling at us because we said Travis Hunter should win the Heisman who are now telling us that genties trash like that, that all these people in the chat, like J Floyd 11 gente is not draftable early genties getting drafted in the first round like He's special special because guess what his line is not very good In the nfl his lineman will be a lot better I just feel like piling on genti tonight is like a misunderstanding of how football works Well, I think a lot of people misunderstand how football works. Like, a much better, more athletically superior team

with NFL defensive lineman sold out to stop Ashton Gentie. Maddox Madsen threw for 300 yards because Penn State was worried about Ashton Gentie. And guess what? Penn State chose correctly. Yeah. 30 carries for 104 yards is like the worst game of his year. And like, I think people were expecting

that he would rush for 200 or do something insane tonight. And there were a few moments where it was like, wow, he had a chance to break one there. But when your defensive line is just overpowering the offensive line, that's protecting him and blocking for him, it's just not fair to. Come down on him. Like he's the reason they lost the game. It's insane to me.

He's absolutely not the reason they lost it. And can, can we throw a little praise at bad expense? And I realized he threw three picks, but a lot of that was just trying to make something happen when they're down. I thought he played really well tonight. I thought he did too. I thought that they moved the ball really well, much better than I thought they would be able to

in other ways that aren't just handing it to him. The genti that is yeah, so. Also, as we talk about guys in this game, Abdul Carter went out. Had his arm wrapped. Did he play? It didn't look like he played it all in the second half. He came back in, didn't he?

No, I don't. Did he? Yes, he did. Yeah, he came back in. Okay. Okay. Well, I want him to be healthy. I mean, he needs to be healthy or healthy enough.

Wait, no, I don't know if that's, sorry.'t know if that's sorry. I don't think he came. I don't think he came back in. Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Because they can have shown him on the sideline there. Yeah. But I do think it may have been a situation. And I'm hoping it was a situation where they were thinking, OK,

this game is in hand. We don't need him to finish this one out. And maybe we can get him back. Well, that's the hope. Yeah, I mean, you don't want he's their best player overall, period, right? Yeah, I mean, he's Tyler Warren might be their best. I mean, they're both first round draft picks.

I think Abdulkar is probably higher draft pick, but they're both very very good and it like Penn State's got a lot of dudes like And that I really haven't said anything about KTron Allen or Nick Singleton. Yeah, they've ran really well tonight who were dominant KTron Allen, especially Yeah, I was Singleton hit the hit the home run to put it away. So yeah. Yep and hit the hit the home run to put it away. So yeah, yeah. And you know, that tends to happen when the team I just keep coming back to athletically speaking, like Penn State was the superior team at every position but one and then the one position that it's not they had Katerine Allen and Nick Singleton. So like great when I've got a feeling just a hunch that the first game of tomorrow is going to go like this too.

You know, like I think that the first six games of this thing are going to all be, you know, semi lopsided games, but I'm super excited to like really hash this stuff out with you in the morning and really look into the day because it's going to be a hell of a day. We got a big podcast in the morning and one at night. Oh, we have so much to talk about. So we're gonna be on tomorrow morning and tomorrow night. We got a big podcast in the morning and one at night. Oh, we have so much to talk about. So we're going to be on tomorrow morning and tomorrow night. We're going to preview the games tomorrow morning, but we also have a lot of talk about with the non playoff bulls because listen, all of you who say all we concentrated on is playoff. I think the most interesting thing that happened today was not in the playoff. Like we got to talk

about the Alabama Michigan game. We got gotta talk about Beamer versus Beelima in the South Carolina Illinois game. Like there is some stuff going on in the other bowls. So we'll talk about that. We'll talk about what happens next to Jalen Milrow. We'll talk about the Fiesta Bowl, the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, which will determine what the rest of the bracket looks like. And it will be spectacular. It will be as Ari says, electric.

Thank you to the fiesta bowl for the lovely B roll. So that when I'm talking about a perfect drew our pass, it just appears with a shot from the ends. Look at this throw. Look at this freaking throw. So thank you for that B roll. I might be the lead. That might be the lead right there, pal. What a freaking throw.

God, that was gorgeous. Okay, everybody you got if you're on the East Coast, you got 20 minutes till the ball drops. Go kiss somebody you love. Thank you for being here. I'm going to kiss my pillow. A wonderful year. Ari's gonna kiss his pillow and a random Sheridan in Los Angeles. But really, as we enter this new

year, we cannot do this without you. Thank you so much. Thank you for telling your friends about us. Thank you for liking subscribing on YouTube on Spotify on Apple Podcast. Thank you for the chat. Even though sometimes I mean to you guys and I'm sorry about that, but I love you all. And hey, let's do this again in the morning. 930 AM Eastern time, 630 AM Ari times. We'll talk to you then.