Andy & Ari On3 - PORTAL INTEL: A 5-STAR Offensive Lineman Enters while a TOP Safety Commits | Tennessee's QB in 2026?

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

As news has been heavy around quarterbacks in the transfer portal, a 5-star offensive lineman has just entered his name into the transfer portal. Colorado OL Jordan Seaton, one of Deion Sanders' top recruits out of high school, has entered the portal. What does this mean for Deion Sanders and Colorado? Conversely, where might the top offensive lineman land after entering? Watch here as Andy & Ari discuss the latest portal news here. (0:00) On Today's Episode(0:43) Presenting Sponsor(2:27) Intro: Jordan Seaton enters the portal(9:40) What's next for Deion Sanders and Colorado?(20:16) Koi Perich commits to Oregon(22:16) Modelo(24:17) Tennessee's QB in 2026(28:30) Ty Simpson, still entering the NFL Draft?(31:25) Wrapping up Tennessee(33:06) National Championship Picks: #10 Miami vs #1 Indiana(46:29) Natty Picks(52:23) Thanks for Watching! While Jordan Seaton has entered the portal, Minnesota S/WR Koi Perich has found his next destination in Oregon. How serious are the Ducks with this massive pickup? Watch here as Andy & Ari dissect this huge pickup. While Sam Leavitt has officially selected LSU as his next destination, what does that mean for Josh Heupel and Tennessee? While the Volunteers made one last effort to land the highly touted QB in the Transfer Portal, who will be taking snaps for the Big Orange in the fall? Andy & Ari discuss. And to close the show, it's time for the fellas to pick the CFP National Championship between Miami and Indiana. Kicking off in Hard Rock Stadium on Monday night, the Hoosiers are currently set as an eight and a half point favorite against the Canes. Even though Mario Cristobal's squad technically has a home-field advantage, BetMGM has set Curt Cignetti and IU as a two-possession favorite. Who wins down in Miami Gardens? This show is presented by Modelo! Some things in life are just made for each other. Peanut Butter and jelly. Macaroni and cheese. Modelo and college football. If you’re watching this, it means you live and breathe football. All season long. You know what that makes you? A Full-Time Fan. Which means you deserve a Modelo. Because football wouldn’t be the same without you. Modelo is the official beer sponsor of The College Football Playoff. Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, IL Our show is also presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/t_zVN8FJqwM Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM, there is a big, big name in the transfer portal attached to a very large human being named Jordan Seton. Colorado's left tackle has entered the portal and he will be the most sought after alignment in the portal. Does your team need a guy to protect your QB's blindside? That's the guy you want. And this is a person who somebody told our Pete Nacos, they should just give him a blank check. what does that mean for Jordan Seton, whatever team lands him, what does it mean for Colorado and Dion Sanders? Plus, Ari and I picked the national championship game, Indiana versus Miami,

all in today's episode of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. We are presented by BedMGM. We use BetMGM lines and totals. And you can join us by joining BedMGM. If you have not signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB is in college football. CFB, and you'll get up to a 1500. $100 first bet offer on your first wager with bed MGM. Here's how that works.

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Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary with BetMGM. See BetMGM.com for terms. 21 plus only U.S. promotional offers are not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler in the U.S. Call 8778 Hope N.Y or text Hope N.Y in 4-6773-69 in New York. Call 1-800 next step in Arizona.

call 1-800-327-50-50-0 in Massachusetts. Call 1-800 bets off in Iowa or 1-800-9-81-00-2-3 in Puerto Rico. First-bett offer for new customers only, subject to eligibility requirements, rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for bed at MGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to Annie and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM and the Transfer Portal is still popping.

The portal window closes Ari later this week. But we've got guys still hopping in. It is still sucking people into the portal where it will, I don't know, spit them out on another team. But a big, big name has entered the Transfer Portal. Colorado left tackle Jordan Seton. And we've talked about this through the years of the Transfer Portal era. these types of offensive linemen very rarely go in the portal. This is a big one.

Oh, yeah. You get a tackle who should be or could be a first round pick. What did the guy tell Pete Nacos? He deserves a blank check. And they were talking money. And Pete had said, you know, for a quality, starter quality offensive tackle, you're probably looking at between $400,000 and a million dollars. and according to Pete's reporting,

Jordan Seton might command $2 million. So he's looking at the numbers that mostly quarterbacks are looking at right now. Yeah, and rightfully so. I mean, especially like if you, you know, I don't know where he's going to end up, but like I wonder if the new class warfare of college football is going to be

when a player like this leaves a program like Colorado, which teams that are already built to compete for a national championship, have the luxury money in order to add them to a roster of them. They didn't even anticipate that he would be available. I wonder if that's where this is headed. I know that we are, what, six days removed from the national championship game in which all narratives

about how to build a roster are through the roof out the window and making us all look stupid. But I do think that like if a team that doesn't need a tackle or wants an upgrade at tackle who's already well situated, from a roster perspective sees, well, this could be a nice luxury item for us. Like, is this luxury shopping or is this going to go to a team or is he going to go to a team that is just in desperate need of a tackle and hit the lottery? Like, I don't know, but this is a huge addition late in the portal.

Jordan's soon to be former coach Dion Sanders called the guys he was bringing Louis luggage. This is, this is Hermes luggage. This is you. This is big time. Yeah. I know my brands. But yeah, so Pete Naco's reporting that Oregon and Texas are the two to look out for with Jordan Seton. But as Pete pointed out, this is a guy everybody would want.

So if it's Texas A&M, if it's LSU, if it's Ohio State, if it's any of these programs, they're going to at least inquire because, again, this is not the type of person who comes available in the portal very often. It's interesting that he's coming available now rather than when the portal opened. And I do wonder, are we going to see a little bit more of this over the next few days where people realize, oh, I can really leverage this situation because the supply is now dwindling. Now, I think with a lot of schools, the amount of money they have to spend is probably dwindled too because they've taken most of the people they expect to take. But someone of Jordan Seton's caliber, you figure it out because while the people running college sports wants you to believe there's a cap, there's not a cap. this is uncapped. You can add NIL money on top,

and if you can find legitimate deals or you at least find ways to get the deals through the NIL go system, you can pay up to as much as you want. I mean, I was thinking about this since I saw the news, Andy, and I'm trying to figure out from a player perspective

what the most advantageous time is to enter the portal. And I think for Jordan Seton, he was going to command a huge market regardless because he's a rare talent at a position of scarcity. But like if you are a middle tier cornerback, like does it make most sense to go in early to give yourself more options? Or does it make more sense to go in late once all the options have been exhausted

and teams are desperate? Like I don't know the answer to that. But in this specific circumstance, I think that he is such a rare talent at a position that doesn't pop into the portal very often. And I think he would have commanded a fat check regardless, which makes the timing to me even more confusing because it makes, makes me wonder if Colorado was trying to circle the wagons in order to try to keep him financially and just aren't in a place to do it. It might not be.

Yeah, and we do need to have the bigger discussion about Dion Sanders in Colorado, which we can. But again, because this is so rare that we see an offensive lineman of this caliber hit the portal. And I know people think, oh, Colorado, there were three and nine. How good could he be? He was really good. In October, he had the highest pass block grade on PFF of any offensive linemen in the country. So this is a guy who can play. He's a plus athlete.

He's the best high school recruit that Dion Sanders ever signed out of Colorado. Remember in the class where Jordan Seton signed, which is class of 2022. He was the number one offensive lineman. He's what we call a five star plus in the rivals industry rankings, which means every single ranking service had him as a five star, which is pretty hard to do. Like there's not many people who fit that profile. And I know that we're in the era of stars mattering less. but when it comes to individual talent breakdowns,

you don't earn the five-star plus distinction without having certain physical traits that put you a leg up and being a really good player. It's no shock to me that he was an effective player and who's involved? Oh, the richest programs that are buying the most right now? Okay, got it. You know, it's like, well, but you think about it,

Texas being involved is interesting because what did we say about Texas last year, which turned out to be wrong? I said on this show, oh, Texas is not spending a lot of money on offensive linemen in the transfer portal. They must be very confident in the players that they've signed out of high school

that they've been developing for all these years. They must feel really good about it. And then the season starts, and you realize that group was actually the issue. And if you go through the season, they got better. And that happens when you're playing younger players who haven't been in that role before.

But what if they'd plugged somebody in of this level would they have beaten Ohio State? Would they have not lost to Florida? Would they have been in the playoff? That's the sort of thing that probably keeps coaches like Steve Sarkesian up at night. So if you can go get this guy, go get him. Yeah, I mean, I do wonder, you know,

what would it have been like if Kelvin Banks ran out of the tunnel with them last year? Would they have been in the playoff? Would he be, he might have been the difference in one game, which would have put him in the playoff. And now they get to go potentially involve themselves in the courtship of a prospect that deserves to be in the same.

sentence in terms of what Kelvin Banks was as a prospect. I know Kelvin Banks was really good. I don't think I'm over exaggerating this. Like Seton, I think, is kind of viewed the same way that Banks was in his final year or going into his final year. Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah. Yeah, no, this is huge. All right, let's transition, Andy, to the Colorado of this. You know, we haven't, you know, when Dion Sanders was first the coach for the first, you know, 18 months after it, it was a lightning rod. Every episode, he said something or did something that made a 20-minute segment and people were interested in it. Obviously, that interest

has waned. We don't know the reason for Jordan Seton entering the portal, but here's what I find the most interesting about this. Jordan Seton was, and I'd have to go back and look up the quotes, on the forefront of discussing loyalty and commitment to Colorado and not flipping,

and he was like... This was last year. Yeah, last year, when they had, one of their starting offensive line, I think entered the portal in the spring. And Seton had a quote like, hey, what about loyalty? And look, he was pretty loyal, but they were three and nine last year. I would imagine he wants to win on top of wanting to get some money.

It's hard enough to bring really good players into the program. And the fact that Colorado signed multiple five-star prospects, including Seton during Deon Sanders leadership, is probably something that could only have been done. under Deon Sanders leadership, but keeping them is also part of it too. You know, and maybe the difference for Colorado with or without Seton this year isn't, you know, making the playoff or missing it, right? Like, I don't think that's where they are as a program.

But losing him when he was one of the more outspoken people about program buy-in and Dion buy-in and loyalty and all the things that you want to hear from your best player, it's just like optically not a great look for where Colorado is as a program. Now, I know that they lost like 30 players and added 30 players like they have done. I don't know what Colorado was going to be, but I'm like at the point right now with Colorado where they are maybe a 500 team in my mind and like that might just be okay there. Like I don't know. Well, it's okay compared to what Dion took over.

You know, he took over a program that was one and 11. And if you're consistently six and six, then you're better than that. But they weren't six and six last year. There were three and nine. And so you've got to deal with that. Now, we talked about this before the season started when Dion Sanders announced what he was dealing with medically. I was, you know, given what he went through last summer, like, I was surprised he was still coaching. Like, I don't know that many people who would keep coaching through what he was dealing with.

So it might have been that just that was weighing on the whole season. And, you know, they've made a lot of staff changes. Brennan, who you've seen on this show a few times. He's the new offensive coordinator there. Lots of experience as an offensive coordinator at different levels. And the go-go offense is a lot of fun. And now, it's interesting because Brennan and Marion built the go-go offense when he was at the FCS level

to be effective without supremely good offensive linemen. And it was out of necessity because he was at schools that didn't necessarily have great. offensive lines. He was at Howard. He was at William and Mary. And now he's got to do that again. Because he was going into a season where, or a job where he had a premium left tackle, and now he doesn't. So we will see what Colorado looks like. They went and got Boo Carter out of the transfer portal late of Tennessee. But remember, Boo Carter was the one who left the team during the season last year. So there's a little bit of distressed asset going on there. So,

this is not what it was when Dion Sanders took the job and it was just a force of nature and everybody's, you know, hanging on every word wanting to know what Dion's going to do next. We forget pretty quickly when you stop winning and it feels like the world's just kind of moved on. Yeah. Well, I think that the most interesting byproduct of this whole thing, Andy, is Dion Sanders was a lightning rod because he was famous because he said interesting things. because he was going to attack building a program differently. And the entire country at the time which he was hired was on the edge of their seat to see if Colorado could actually be good. And the funny thing that we lose sight of as the grim Reaper Kurt Signetti steps into the picture again, is that it can be done at a place that you wouldn't think.

And it is currently being done at a place that you wouldn't think as Indiana is an eight and a half point favorite to win the national. Louis luggage was better. This is a really interesting question. Whose Louis Luggage was better? Dionne Sanders or Kurt Signettys? Kurt Signettys. Lee Luggage was better. Now, one of them won the Heisman trophy for Deon,

but Kurt Signettys got him to the playoff the first year and got him in the national title game. The second year might win him a national title. Yeah, I think that I would say that Kurt Signetti had multiple bellboys helping him with his luggage. There's a lot more luggage, yeah. I have a hard time, you know, in fairness to Colorado, thinking that anybody or any individual player in Indiana was better than Travis Hunter, just because Travis Hunter was so special.

Well, he was better than everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he was better than everybody on anything. But like I, here's the thing that I find interesting. The roster building strategy we criticized Dion Sanders for, lots of teams employ that now. Lots of coaches employ. Almost every new coach employs that.

It was new when he was doing it. And everybody was like, I don't know. about this. But like we've talked about it. Kenny Dillingham was doing the same thing at the same time at Arizona State. He's just doing it with less publicity because he's not Dion Sanders. I just don't know. And maybe this is the answer. Maybe in some years if you're flipping 30 players, it's going to go really, really well and you're going to win 10 games and maybe be in the CFP hunt. And then other years you're just going to stink. And it's kind of like you roll the dice every year. Every offseason you're rolling the dice, are these players going to hit?

is Boo Carter going to come in and be one of the best players at his position in the country, or is it not going to work? And if you do that 25 times, you're just like at the craps table and you might get a hot run. They got a hot run two years ago, right? But I don't know if that's something that's sustainable if you're looking for long success. Now, Andy, I'm at the coaches convention right now, and the head coaches are meeting as we speak. And I just said hello to Mike Norvell. And as you were saying what you were just saying, like, that's whose name popped into my head. is Mike Norvell.

That's what he's basically done at Florida State. And it worked once and then it really didn't work. Yeah. And the thing that I have a hard time with is understanding Colorado's tenor. Because at the beginning of this whole thing, it was big picture, do you believe, are you going to win a national title? You're going to make the playoff? And now I'm wondering, is Dion Sanders' existence at Colorado going to constantly be

viewed in the light of what preceded him? or is there going to be a time and place where, hey, we don't want to be five and seven anymore. Just because we were three and nine or whatever their terrible record was the year before he lined up, like is six and six good for the long term? Could he be the coach there for seven more years going six and six? Ari, he's got to get to six and six.

They were three and nine last year. So I'm saying because it feels like this is not, this is not what he took over. This is your four. So like, Dion doesn't. get judged or graded on a curve either. I think you still have to win. And so three and nine won't be good enough. And it's like hard to that's not what they're paying for. Like I've been critical and I've been

complimentary of him at different junctures of his tenure. And I couldn't tell you how much respect I have personally for the man that he is to continue to coach through what he's going through. Like that like is, you want to talk about just like badass? That's badass. And that's the thing. Like all all the stuff we we talked about with was he really in it for you know because he wants to coach or does he just want to coach should or like he wants to coach he's made that abundantly clear like right his actions have told us that and he really wants to do this and through those actions i mean i even wrote a column last year saying don't ever criticize or question whether dion wants to do this anymore but the question goes from does he want to do it to can he do it like and i and i feel really that's how

that's how fast it goes because two years ago we were like is this going to be the greatest thing ever But the hardest part about it is that can he do it isn't necessarily predicated on his ability. It's predicated on his health. And that's just kind of a reality of it. I always think about this, Andy, because of my personal experience. But, you know, I had a brief stint for a few years covering college basketball at Ohio State. And Thad Mata had such severe back pain that, like, it was hard for him to get up from the podium after press conferences and walk off the stage. and he couldn't get on planes and he couldn't do the things that he needed to do.

And I think part of the reason why things went sour there is because he wasn't at a place from a health standpoint to continue to execute the job. He took a national title game one here. Like, yeah, he was awesome. And I don't know this. I haven't kept up with it because I know he's the head coach at Butler now. But my hope is that he is in more comfort on his day to day life because I don't think fans appreciated. Like he was just he was uncomfortable 90% of the day. And like that was like a really tough thing to do.

do and it's a very hard job. And like the part the number one criticism that I've had of Dion Sanders from the beginning has always been if you use your star power to recruit old school way and use the portal, you could legitimately put together a like what is happening at Indiana felt possible in Colorado two years ago. And like right now it just doesn't feel possible. So like that's the difference. And I think I'm going to write about this today, but it's like, How do you properly view Colorado now? Like, what's success there? We had a hard time to finding it when he took over.

I'm having a harder time to finding it now. If he wins eight games, is he a hero? Or is that it would be pretty good, yeah. Yeah. Well, and the other thing is we talked about, you know, if he could recruit great players out of high school and combine that with portal players. Well, he did recruit Jordan Seton out of high school. But the problem is now at Colorado's level, if they recruited Jordan Seton,

they might not be able to keep him. And that's the other aspect of this. Yeah, we're watching that happen in real time. And I don't think that's just Colorado. You know, we can, let's talk about some other stuff in the portal. Like, Coy Perich, he just committed to Oregon. That's the safety from Minnesota who, he can play receiver too, by the way. Coy Perich is a stud athlete and can do pretty much anything you want on a football field.

And with Oregon, I think the assumption is he replaces Dylan Thineman, if Thineman goes to the NFL. If he doesn't, they just find a place for both of them on the field and have an awesome secondary. But this is the type of guy that it's hard for a school like Minnesota to keep. Yeah. It's this day. We probably have to have another discussion about Oregon too because they're, well, the thing is Minnesota is in the big 10. Like Minnesota was above where Indiana was two years ago. So you can't, it's, you can't feel as bad for PJ Fleck as you're feeling maybe for be on Sanders right now because if Indiana can pull this off you should be able to pull it off at Minnesota too so but Oregon isn't going to stop and we talked about that after the game

we talked about that when we talked about Dan landing the other day they're not going to stop they're going to keep doing this over and over and over again until they break through I mean if they add parritchin seaton like you're going into next year potentially with Dante more again like and you're loaded Is Dylan Theanman coming out? I need to look that up. I don't even know. We're waiting on a decision from him. The NFL deadline is tomorrow.

So we'll find out about Dante more, about Dylan Thineman, and we'll know. But yeah, I mean, there's a chance he comes back, and those guys are both in the secondary. But, you know, I think the thought is if he goes pro. Yeah. So. Yeah. It is a, and it's just, it's crazy how this all works and how fast this goes. but with Jordan Seaton,

I'll be fascinated to see where he lands. It might be a quite parrits, his teammate, for all we know. Ari, let's talk about the other side of the portal a little bit. Let's talk about the schools that maybe don't get into the portal what they want, or don't get out of the portal what they want. But before we do that, we're going to talk Madelo. Saturday, we will be with our friends from Medello at the Medello activation at the fan fest in Miami.

We're going to have a show. We put on a show there. We'll have talked to everybody at Media Day by that point, so we'll have all kinds of fun interviews that we can play. We will be doing our thing, previewing the game, talking Miami, Indiana, talking college football playoff, what happens next in the college football playoff. There will be Modelo there, all manner of Medello.

So kickoff means this time for Madelo. pregame means it's time for Medello. It's always time for Madelo. So come join us in Miami and have a medella with us. We'll toast. Yeah. If it's that fan, we did

the show before the Ohio State-Penstay game at the Medello activation. It was so cool. They put on a hell of a show. Like the Medello people know what they're doing. They know how to throw a party, as you would expect. Our our obligations for work are before it, right? So we can actually like let loose and enjoy it.

We don't have to walk into the state. We can definitely, we can definitely toast some medello. Yeah, because it's going to be Saturday afternoon. We will have interviewed people at Media Day. And yeah, we can we can definitely toast, you know, when you guys come say hi to us, we will raise a toast with Medello to you for being with us all year. And hey, look, just because the national championship game is on Monday

doesn't mean any of this stops because, We are here year-round and college football, as we're learning, never, ever, ever stops. So as we talk about the portal and who's getting one, so the big news yesterday was Sam Levitt going to LSU. Tennessee tried and tried and tried to get Sam Levitt to come. They made a last-ditch effort, still couldn't get him to come. He decided on LSU. And Producer River texting me this morning. The vols are screwed.

And I'm like, River, what happened to these guys you signed out of high school that everybody loves? It was George McIntyre last year. It's Faison Brandon coming in now. Like, what happened to those guys? Don't, aren't we? When did we enter the world, Ari, where we're not excited about young quarterbacks anymore?

Like, where it has to be some guy that you've seen from the portal. Yeah. And the second name you just mentioned is a freak of name. nature. Razum Brandon is a great, great athlete, huge arm, yes.

It's not just like some like three star guy they got from East Tennessee. Like that's a like literal, literal. I mean, he's more, he's more ready to play, I think,

at the high level than Nico was. Is he not? Well, Nico waited a year. So it's so interesting to me. And especially with Josh Heiple, you look at his history. You know,

the best quarterback Josh Heifle's had at Tennessee was the one he accidentally got. Because remember, they get the job. They would go out and get Joe Milton as a transfer. Hennon Hooker was on the roster because he had transferred from Virginia Tech, but had transferred into Tennessee when Jeremy Pruitt was still the coach. It was like a few days before Jeremy Pruitt got fired. And so they just inherited Henn and Hooker, and it turned out he was the guy and wound

up being very good for them for two years. So, what can I? I don't think anybody knows. is what I'm trying to say with these quarterbacks. Andy, do you know how tall Faison Brandon is? Is he 6.5? 6.6. He's 6.4 and a half. Do you know how much

he weighs? I believe 230? Not 2.30. He was 210, I think. Oh, he's 2.10. Okay. Well, look at us flips. He could be 230 by the time the season starts if he gets into that weightlifting program. Now, the question I have for you,

and I think it's a philosophical question, not just about Tennessee, but just anybody who spends this much money on a high school five-star is the multiple year cost exposure that you have to these guys when they're not playing. Right. For Tennessee, they had to pay Nico for an entire year before he ever contributed to the team. Right. If you are in the market for a freak like Brandon, and you want him to come in, is it better for that player to collect checks while marinating behind the scenes from your program? Or is it better for

that player to collect checks while playing, even if it doesn't go great the first year, so that he's more equipped to compete at a high level when he finally starts in year two? Like, how do you properly employ the funds? This isn't 2009 anymore. If you're paying somebody, what do you do? Well, I think it depends on the situation. Like, if you're Josh Hypo right now, you need to win right now. Eight and four is not good enough. You have to be better than eight and four because you took them to the playoff.

They got a little taste of that. They got some blood on their fangs at Tennessee, and they want more. So you have to win right now, which is probably where they're thinking and why they went so hard into the portal for quarterback. And they don't end up in the Sam Levitt. Bo Perbula lands at Virginia.

So the quarterback market is pretty quiet now. There's still the possibility that somebody throws a bag large enough enough to make Ty Simpson decide to play one more year in college. That's not a done, done deal yet. But Ty Simpson, if he just says, hey, I'm going to play in the NFL, stop asking me, then that's how it's going to go. So you may have to roll with somebody you signed out of high school,

and it may be that the quarterback competition is George McIntyre versus Faison Brandon, which, look, in the old days, that's what it would have been. And it would have been exciting. Yeah. Andy, I wanted to say something about Ty Simpson. I don't know if you saw our emails, but we got an email from a listener about this. Oh, I didn't see that.

I'm just going to read this. His name's Matt. Thank you for listening, Matt. Hey, guys, love the show. But one thing that's been coming up on the show recently and talked about a lot is the college versus NFL for money reasons for quoting the salary scale. The issue with the figures are that cap hits are not cash payments, where signing bonuses are cash are cash paid up front,

but spread over four years for cap hit accounting purposes. I know it seems nitpicky, but there's a big difference when it comes to comparing how much a player would actually take home in the bank in 2026. For example, Jackson Dart was true. The time value of money is different. Yes, okay. For example, Jackson Dart was selected 25th overall last year on paper

and has a cap hit of only $3 million, but he was paid $9 million in a signing bonus plus $840K in salary, so just short of $10 million. Tyler Shook was drafted number 40, took home 4.5 million between signing bonus and salary. Just wanted to point out in case Ty Simpson does come back. If he's really being offered $6.5 million by a college, it's still probably less than the first round draft pick would take home and shouldn't be compared only to a top seven pick, which I think is an interesting distinction to make. Right, it is because now your average salary is going to be less than that.

And that's what the caput is the average is they just they average out what you've been paid out in signing bonus and salary. So if you take home more, I'm glad that email, you might actually make more sense to go. Yes. Yes. Because especially if you invest that money well, because you could make that work for you. But then there's also something to be getting a smaller amount. There's something else to be said, though, about making six and a half million college and then getting that signing bonus next year, too. You still would get it.

True. True. Because that's the thing with Taya Simpson. I mean, we're looking at it's because the emailer mentioned Tyler Shook, who was very old when he got to the NFL. Yeah. And he's, but he's going to, he's the Saints quarterback of the future. Like they've decided he's going to be their starter going to next year. Bo Nix is the starting quarterback on the number one seat in the AFC playoff.

And he was super old when he got to college or when he got to the pros. So you don't have to, because that was, that was an issue too, is people would, would wonder, oh, should I leave now? Because they might not want me if I'm 24, 25 years old, 23, 24. Well, I don't think they care about that anymore. I think they look at it as can we get can we get one good contract out of you in the NFL if we can we succeeded yeah and 24 to 32 would be a great career

yes exactly and that's that's two contracts for you that's that's your rookie contract and then a second really big contract so yeah that's a that's a pretty good run I mean I think the Falcons proved that when they drafted Michael Pennix isn't he up there in age like Bo Nix is 25 now yeah he's been in college five years yeah

um so but But it'll be interesting to see what happens with Tennessee. I would assume they'll get another arm to come in and compete for the job. And it probably isn't going to be somebody that we're super familiar with. But there has to be a time when these freshmen develop and become the start. Like Notre Dame has done it with C.J. Carr. But I feel like when we're talking about playoff teams, we talk about it less and less.

Ohio State, it's interesting because like even Julian saying, who went to Ohio State out of high school. He did have the brief pit stop Alabama first. So he actually did enter the transfer portal. So there's not many quarterbacks who just signed out of high school and then they develop and then they're on a good team. Yeah. And it's like funny because like Ty Simpson is kind of what you're hoping for, right? At some level, a quarterback who comes in and plays for a few years and plays it is really good.

And now what's good enough in fact to compend a six and a half million. million dollar offer. Well, and we'll see with Alabama because now Austin Mac obviously started his career at Washington, but he came to Alabama. He's been there two years. Keelan Russell was a high school signy who's been at Alabama for a year now. So it's going to be one of those two guys. So there's, you know, a little more development situation going on there at Alabama. Gunner Stockton at Georgia is an example of the old school mentality. But we've talked a bunch about Georgia tried to get Fernando Mendoza. So it wasn't necessarily going to go that way.

It makes more sense now, doesn't it? Yeah. It's a lot more sense. Actually, I'm glad you said that because we need to pick the national championship game, Ari. Yes. We've danced around it. We've let the line move a little bit. So it opened at Indiana minus seven and a half when the matchup was set on Friday night.

It is now Indiana minus eight and a half. and I don't know about you. Like when I go on other shows, all the questions I get are how does Miami avoid getting blown out? And am I the only person who's not looking at this game that way? No, I was going to ask you. I mean, everybody thinks that Miami is just going to lose by 100. I don't get that.

I do. I get it because every time Indiana plays, they do that for the most part. Now, the only time they haven't done it. When they played Ohio State, they beat them by three. And the only two times they haven't blown out their opponent is when their opponent had a really good front seven on defense. So, like, I don't know. Here's what I know about sports.

When the entire public thinks one thing is going to happen, a lot of times that thing does not happen. So, like, from that standpoint, like, I think that we are under appreciating as a college football community, how good Miami is. Okay. And when you think about the path that Miami took to get to this point, I think you could make the case that it was easier for Indiana to get here in terms of the path than it was for Miami, especially considering the fact that Miami played an extra game.

Now, it was easier for Indiana because they kicked the crap out of both teams they played. But Miami's path, A&M, Ohio State, Ole Miss, is a hell of a problem. path. Like, that's battle. And you had to win a couple different ways because the way they played A&M in Ohio State was not the way they had to beat Ole Miss. Now, I would argue that if Miami had played a clean game against Ole Miss, that that game is not even close.

Like, if Miami is not committing penalties, if they're not dropping interceptions, they probably win that game by two touchdowns, like pretty comfortably. But I think they have a chance to play with Indiana. They have a chance to win this game if they can make this game. look and feel like the Texas A&M Miami game and like the Ohio State Miami game, which by the way also look like the Ohio State Indiana game. Right. I'm with you.

I'm with you. I don't know if this is like a curse. I don't want to do this because Indiana fans have been waiting so long. But I've been thinking a lot about the undefeated Patriots this week. Oh, the one that lost to the Giants, the helmet catch, David Tyree game. Yeah. And they're undefeated. Yep.

They've had to sweat a few times. But for the most part, I think have some of the most, like if you go read some of the stats about Mendoza and Signetti, like the win differential and the amount of times that Mendoza has, you know, had more touchdown passes than incompletions in game. Like, they're setting records that have not happened in hundreds of,

in a hundred years. So like they are playing out of, and maybe it's just like, they are a machine and they are going to win mechanically and just go in there and win the game. Now, I wonder if Oregon didn't donate Indiana 14 points the way that they did, if that game would have looked different. I still think Indiana would have won and probably comfortably. But I wonder if Oregon ushered in the blowout by helping them a little bit in ways. Well, Oregon certainly contributed to the blowout, but here's the thing.

And this is where this is interesting, because I've laid out a path for a very competitive game between these two teams. there is a path for an Indiana blowout win. And that is Miami does some of the things they did against Ole Miss where either they don't capitalize when Ole Miss is trying to make a mistake or Miami just makes mistakes like some of the late, that one late hit in the second half, the false start penalties, things that can be avoided easily. You cannot make those mistakes against Indiana

because they will bury you when you make mistakes like that. Well, here's the deal. Can we just call it like it is? The general public still thinks that this is a major coaching mismatch. Mario Cristobal, fair or not, has been given a stigma that he is going to blow the game in-game. Now, I think that he's done more than enough in this playoff alone to put that shit to bed, but that's still his stigma. Now, the truth, though, is that Indiana feels like they've been using sorcery because of their roster building and we've spent so much time talking about how did they get players at Indiana

that are so good. But the thing that has lost, has been lost in the shuffle a little bit with Indiana is when they play the game, they don't make mistakes. And they play like, it's the final play of the game on every game. And they're a very well-coached team. And like the thing that is hard for me in this game more than anything, because I think the way that Miami's personnel matches up is actually quite good is that Miami coming off of the goal miss game is more prone to make mistakes than Indiana. And if Miami makes mistakes, they're going to lose. Like, can Mario Cristobal get them to play a game where they're not jumping off sides

or fall starting on offense four times in the first half? Right. And that's not anything to do with the scheme. That's that just happens. Or how good the players are. Yeah, yeah, you have to avoid that. I think we're looking at a more risk-averse offensive game plan for Miami like we saw against Texas A&M like we saw against Ohio State.

at least at first, because if they're able to run the ball against Indiana, which hardly anybody's been able to do, I think Old Dominion was the only team that really ran it on them this year. If they could run the ball against Indiana and control clock, then you suck them into a game that looks just like the Big Ten championship game, which if Ohio State had made a chip shot field goal, that game's going to overtime. So that's the kind of game I think you want to play and you have the personnel to play. Now, the other question is,

we just watched Miami's past rush get basically neutralized by an Ole Miss game plan plus a quarterback who was capable of moving around. Trinidad Chamblis is great at moving in the pocket, but also Ole Miss's game plan was he's not going to hold the ball for very long. He's going to catch it and throw it. My guess is Mike Shanahan, the Indian offensive coordinator, is smart enough to do that with Fernando Mendoza. And Fernando Mendoza is a supercomputer in his head processes really quickly. He'll be able to get the ball out. But the other part of Fernando Mendoza, and you saw it in the Oregon game. he can get out and run a little bit.

He's not a statue. So if you're Miami, you're not probably sitting there thinking, we're going to get six sacks in this game. It's can we affect Fernando Mendoza enough times to maybe make him make a mistake? But I think putting your opponent into a place where their entire game plan is to get the ball out as quickly as possible is altering the game with their pass rush. It is. It is. It takes away deep shots. It takes away deep shots.

So that is one thing. Miami can do that a lot of these other teams can't. The other thing that Miami can do that a lot of these other teams can't is something Indiana can also do. Both these teams have incredible offensive lines. Both teams can mall you up front and both these teams will keep running the ball, even if it's not necessarily quote unquote working. Indiana is a great example of this in the Oregon game. They ran 31 plays in the first half, 20 of them runs. They were only averaging three and a half yards of carry, but they kept doing it. They kept going on and I asked Carter Smith their left tackle about it. I said, you know, how do you feel when, when maybe the run isn't working the way you want,

but the calls keep coming in and they keep wanting you to run the ball? He's like, we love it because you are imposing your will on another human being and eventually they're going to break. And I think Miami feels that way with their offensive line and Indiana feels that way with their offensive line. And it's going to be an incredible test of wills with those defensive lines to see who can avoid breaking. The difference, too, I think here, Andy, is that, like, I don't, which, what side of the ball is better for Indiana? Like, I don't even know.

Like, is there offense or defense better? They're both really good. They're both really good. Like, with Miami, I think it's very clear which one's better. Like, I think that, like, if you were to rank the units, Miami's offense would be last. I don't think it's that clear. You don't? Oh, you think, you think Miami's offense would be fourth of four in this.

Yeah, okay. Okay. I can go with that. And I just say you could make the case that Miami's defense might be won. I just think when Miami can run the ball, they're very tough to stop. And I think they may be able to run. Like, they may be better at running the ball than anybody that Indiana has played all year. Like, have we considered that?

Because Indiana has played good offensive lines. Like, they played against Iowa. And Iowa made them struggle. and Iowa Joe Moore award winning offensive line. They played against Penn State. Penn State has really good players up front. Indiana needed two miracle throws and catches to win that game.

So it's not like Indiana has not been pushed. They have not crushed everybody in their path. There is a way to do this. But we haven't gotten to the part that we've got to get to. Which quarterback do you trust more? That was going to be my next point. It's like I think that Carson Beck at times is a liability. So.

Grenada Meadows is the one everybody trusts more. And I think that's why everybody believes Indiana is overwhelmingly going to win this game. Carson Beck, they have game planned around Carson Beck in ways to keep him from making big mistakes. And if you look at even when they've taken deep shots, like in the Ole Miss game, we were criticizing Carson Beck for missing those deep shots. But he missed them in ways that made sure the ball was never going to get intercepted. only interception that he threw was a tip pass. They are trying very hard to avoid a situation like the Louisville game. They don't want enforcing balls into windows.

We think some of those droves were put in places that couldn't be intercepted rather than just on target? Well, I think they were being very risk-averse. Like, they're usually throwing at single coverage deep down the field, and if it doesn't get caught, it just falls. That's what they've been doing. like four or five passes in that game where it was like 85% of college quarterbacks would make that throw.

And that wasn't even like within 10 yards of where it was supposed to be. And I don't know how that happened. And listen, he's, he's very good, I think, in the intermediate game. I don't know how great he is in the deep shot game. But if they are able to the one deep ball he hit was a huge coverage bust where the guy was wide open. And they could have ended the game. Or maybe it actually worked out better for Miami because on the first play of,

the final drive they had a one-on-one inside leverage there that was just missed like by a mile but but here's here here's the other flip side of that fernando mendoza is not missing those right if that's open for fernando mendoza he's hitting it so right you have to if you're miami like carson beck is going to have to make some of those throws and i think that's why indiana is favored by more than a touchdown because everyone is confident that fernando mendoza can make those throws and Carson Beck sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn't and you saw a situation against Ole Miss where he missed most of those and so Miami has baby Jesus on their team who can make something happen you do not have to hit deep down the field right you you like if you

want malachi tony to score a long touchdown it does not require necessarily 35 air yards for that to happen now throw a pass that has five air yards and he can turn it into a touchdown Malachi Tony also needs to hold on to the ball when he catches it because he has had a fumbling thing in the in the playoffs. He can't turn it over. And the other side of the point, though, too, is that Indiana's receivers are so good. Yes. Like Omar Cooper does not get talked about a lot. He is awesome.

And Elijah Serrat, everyone knows. And Charlie Becker. Don't forget Charlie Becker, who's had a couple huge catches in the playoffs. And they run the ball really well. Like, Indiana is really balanced. So the over under here is 48.5, which I think would... I see, I'd feel more confident in the under than I would in the point spread. I like the under here.

But the thing is, is that you're going to lose the under if Indiana gets going and it happens again. So you have to take that risk of like Indiana could score 42 points and you lose. Yeah. So if you're taking Miami to cover or the Miami money line, you should probably take the under two because you'll win them all if you win. Yeah. Or you'll lose them all. But that gives it like I don't see a path where Miami wins this game outright where the overhits.

Yeah. Yeah. So Andy, I think it's crunch time here. All right. I'm going to let you go first. I already know what I'm doing. Are you confused? Give me the points, baby.

Give me the canes and the points. It's a lot of points. I think it's just for less than a touchdown. I'd be taking Indiana. The fact that the people pushed it from seven and a half to eight and a half just says fade the public. Give me Miami and the points. I want the points too. This makes me feel better because you are undefeated since the quarterfinals.

Yeah, I want the points. Two possessions in a championship game I'll take. Now, it's college football. Sometimes championship games do go. off the rails. But Miami you could make the case, got away with a

pass interference in the end zone and the final play of the game in the semifinals. This entire season they are exercising old demons. Miami was a heavy favorite in the 2002 National Championship game. Nobody thought

that Ohio State was going to win. Literally nobody. And then when the game was played, Ohio State won in the trenches and with like really tough football on both lines of scrimmage. Who does that sound like? It sounds like Miami, but it also sounds like Indiana in this game. I'm going with the exercising the demons thought process here. I'm going with I want to see a great national championship game.

And I feel really good about this being a potentially classic national championship game. And so that would, you know, if it's within eight and a half points, if the margin of victory is within eight and a half points, then we watched a really interesting game. That's what I'm hoping for. We both have gone on record saying that we're not going to pick against Kurtzignati, and we just did. And by the way, we didn't say he's going to lose.

I think Miami can win. I do too. I think Miami can win outright. But I'm happy to have a more than one touchdown cushion if they can't. We haven't talked about this on the show, and I'm very curious. Do you think Kurt Signetti is intentionally clocking the camera with his eye contact? No. I don't even think he knows the camera's there.

That's what I'm saying. There's cameras flying all over the place on trip wires. I don't know, but it is so funny to me that he locks eye contact with the audience five times a game. You say Kurtzignetti's breaking the fourth wall? I love it. And I think that he is telling the audience. See this? See this guy?

I don't know if I'm just like, this is a conspiracy theory. I think he's doing it on purpose. I think he is finding camera and looking directly into the lens. Like, yeah, bitch. Like, I think that's what's happening. So let's ask him at Media Day. Let's ask you. I'm going to.

I'm sure he'll respond very well to that question. I'm sure he'll think that's a very good, serious question that should be asked two days before the national championship game. The worst thing about Indiana success is that getting Kurtz, like that he on our show is going to become inherently more difficult. It's so hard. He was so willing to come on before. And we're not going to probably get him one-on-one for the show at the national championship

game. So, I mean, we can maybe try for 10 minutes, five minutes. I don't know. I just want to run back our interview with Pat Coogan that we did before the national title game last year. So we will make it happen. Yeah, I might write about him because I think he's really interesting in that. it probably was the hardest thing he's ever had to do to leave Notre Dame and stay in state.

And now, like, with what happened to Notre Dame this year, probably at the hands of the team that he's playing, there's a lot of, like, interesting cross sections there between, like, his career arc and, like, what's going on. So, like, yeah, really excited for the game. And I think that the way that people are talking about it is wrong. I think just the general assumption that Indiana is going to score first and then never, never trail. And I just think it's amazing to me that in two and a half weeks we've gone from, oh, Indiana can't beat Alabama to nobody can beat Indiana. I think we may have swung too far the other way. I mean, I'm not the only person who's a prisoner of the moment.

Like people watch it on TV. They get mesmerized and they think that's what's going to happen. And like everyone's like, well, maybe Oregon was a fraud. I don't think Oregon was a fraud. I think they just beat the crap out of a very talented team. Well, I also think I also think crap started rolling downhill pretty quick for Oregon. Yeah. And that can happen to even good teams. But Indiana is awesome.

They will bury you for mistakes. If Miami plays the way they played against Ole Miss, Indiana will win this game. They're going to win. I agree. But if Miami plays the way they played against Texas A&M and against Ohio State, this is going to be a really tight game in the fourth quarter.

And it's going to be a lot of fun for all of us. If the score in the fourth quarter is 16 to 13. That's the game I'm envisioning. And I don't know who's winning. Yeah. That's what I'm envisioning and I sincerely hope that's the game we get. Yeah. Anyway, I'm excited to get out to South Florida.

Annie, I'm going to take you to a place to get some food. I'm going to actually pick it this time. I'm not going to tell you what it is. Oh. There's a restaurant in South Florida that is fire and it might be a cuisine that you're not familiar with and I want to take you down that road. A cuisine in Florida that I'm not familiar with. Yeah. There are a lot of people like me in Florida.

Think about it. Oh, we're going to Delhi. No, it's not deli. Oh, it's not a deli. You'll see. Interesting. Okay. Okay.

All right. Well, stay tuned to us on social media. That's at Andy Staples on X, at Ari Wasserman on X. At Andy underscore Staples on Instagram at Ari Wasserman on Instagram. So you can follow our adventures in South Florida. We'll be there with Medello on Saturday. Come see us. Guys, this is going to be so much fun.

I cannot wait for this game. I'm so excited. And we've got a big show tomorrow. Mega board Wednesday. We take the temperature of all these programs as the portal is about to close, as the NFL draft deadline is about to hit. Where is everybody at? Spoiler alert. There are some programs where the people are teetering on the ledge.

We'll talk about it tomorrow. We'll see you then.