Andy & Ari On3 - Predicting the TOP Quarterback competitions: QB1 Battles for Alabama, Tennessee, Iowa, & Clemson

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

As fall camp begins all across the country, there are a plethora of quarterback battles that need to be decided. Watch here as On3 insider Pete Nakos joins Andy & Ari from the On3 HQ in Nashville to predict the most notable QB battles across the country.   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (0:53) Polymarket (2:39) Intro: Pete Nakos Joins (6:36) Alabama QB battle (13:07) Tennessee QB battle (20:07) Florida QB battle (24:00) Iowa QB battle (27:56) North Carolina QB battle (29:50) Clemson QB Battle (33:46) Closing with Pete (34:04) Previewing Senator Eric Schmitt (34:39) Senator Eric Schmitt Joins (48:06) Recapping Eric Schmitt’s interview (52:45) Conclusion - Thanks for watching!   Pete breaks down the following QB battles here:   Alabama: Keelon Russell vs Austin Mack   Tennessee: George MacIntyre or Faizon Brandon   Florida: Aaron Philo or Tramell Jones Jr Iowa: Hank Brown or Jeremy Hecklinski   North Carolina: Billy Edwards Jr or Miles O’Neill   Clemson: Christopher Vizzina or Tait Reynolds   After the quarterback battles, Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt joins the show to recap what happened last week with the Protect College Sports Act. As the bill seemed to be dead at the end of Thursday, Schmitt recaps what happened on Friday to get the wheels spinning.   Thanks for watching!   Send your questions to: [e-mail] [e-mail]     Our show is presented by Polymarket!   New User Offer: Deposit $10, get $20 upon sign up   https://app.polymarket.us/S8ac/ON3   Trade on College Football games every week on Polymarket. Download the Polymarket App with code ON3 for a $20 bonus upon sign up.   18+ only. Restrictions and eligibility requirement apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur.   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/sWvZF7xCsC8   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: 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 Arion 3 presented by Polly Market, our friend Pete Naco sits down to share the latest intel from the quarterback battles that will begin in earnest as training camps across the country open. We're talking Tennessee. We're talking Alabama. We're talking Florida. We're talking Iowa. We're talking Clemson, maybe.

We'll talk about it all with Pete. Plus, Missouri Senator Eric Schmidt joins to discuss the protect College Sports Act, which may or may not come up for a vote in the Senate this week. He'll explain the 11th hour negotiations that got the Big Ten of the SEC on board and answer some questions about what happens next and if this bill can actually pass. Talk about it all today on Annie and Ari on 3 presented by Polymarket. We got a new sponsor alert Ari. We are now brought to you by Polymarket.

That's right. available in all 50 states, download that polymarket app, and now we're taking positions. It's what we're always doing. It feels great. Yeah, we're market movers, guys. Exactly. So we're going to talk about win totals today, but this works very much like what you're used to. The difference is, well, if you've traded soybean futures or pork bellies, you're really going to know what's going on.

But basically, you're taking a position saying something to the tune of, I don't know, I don't know. I think Auburn will win more than seven and a half games. And based on how many other people take the position either with you or against you, that changes your payout. And it also changes as the season goes on. So you've got that. You've also got positions you can take on games that are going on right now, like Major League Baseball. Or once college football gets kicked off, there will be positions on games that are going on. There will be spreads.

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We're here. We're in the studio. We're in Nashville together in the flesh. And there's nothing better than my two favorite things in the entire world, Andy, college football and trading. That's right. So let's start trading with Polymarket. Download that app, use the code On 3.

When you deposit $10, you get $20 right off the bat. Ari, let's have a show. Let's have a show. Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by Polymarket and Ari. This week, practices began across the country. We are joined by our friend Pete Nacos from On 3 because we got good old-fashioned quarterback competition. We got them in the hot seat today. We got them on the hot seat.

Pete Nacos. is one of my favorite people on the face of the earth. And, you know, he's out there breaking news constantly, always on top of everything. And I think we need to make his beautiful face more forward fan facing. Absolutely. So, like, yeah, Pete, we got Pete in the chair. I feel like Johnny Carson.

Pete, you know, you've done your stand-up and now I've invited you to sit. And, but we, we got to talk QBs because this is a, this feels like throwback year. Because I think in the early in the NIL era, like, okay, we paid for the quarterback. We have to start this guy. And that's still the case at most schools. But the ones we're going to talk about today, it is legitimate.

They don't know who they're going to start yet. Yeah. No, it's a real thing right now across the country. Look across the board. Alabama, Tennessee, Clemson, Iowa. There's legitimate quarterback battles this year. And there was a lot last year, too, right? Alabama and Ohio State last year, Alabama again this year.

And it really feels like, you know, With schools now meshing transfer talent with high, you know, highly ranked high school recruits, it feels like more and more quarterback battles than ever. Before we get into the actual teams that Andy listed there, and I'm super excited to do. So I wanted to ask you this just based on your perspective of, you know, how much these guys are being compensated, you know, age range. How much do you think factors outside of football come into play when decisions are being made in this regard? Yeah. I think when we look at the battles that we're going to talk about,

I think that a lot of these guys are highly paid. I don't know if the amount of money they're being paid, though, is really going to make the decision who they roll out their week one. And we'll get into it. But I think across the board, there's now like a baseline of what you are supposed to pay, a starting quarterback and what the expectation is of what a backup is going to make when they come in and push a guy. I would say that in the quarterback battles we're talking about specifically.

I don't think anyone is making more than the other and that they're definitely going to start or anything like that. I don't know if you can do this way, Andy, I think that my way of looking at it if I were a GM, we went to the symposium in Nashville yesterday and I feel like I can build a team now. But I would view it as X number of dollars

dedicated to quarterback room, whoever's the best place. I think it has to be whoever's the best place. I can't, I don't think you can put the dollar figure into play here. I think you have to decide. And we, I bring this up, from the NFL years ago, but I think it's important to understand.

Remember Matt Flynn replaced Aaron Rogers for the Packers for a few games, played really well, signs a big free agent deal with the Seahawks. That same offseason they draft Russell Wilson. And I'm sure there were some pretty high-level conversations between Pete Carroll and his GM about what are we going to do here? Because it looks like the rookies better. And they end up going with Russell Wilson, who is the cheaper option? and guess what? It worked. I think you have to, that has to be your decision-making process.

Yeah, ultimately getting to the win threshold that you're paying for is the goal. And it doesn't really matter if the person you're paying puts up the stats. The only stat that matters at the end of the year is production and wins. How much did you pay? How much do you think that what you paid will amount to in wins? And whether the third string quarterback or the first string quarterback throws a touchdown doesn't really matter. So, but I'm super excited because a lot of these battles, Andy, aren't just like transfer portal battles.

They're like freshman five-star battles. Yeah. That gets my engine. Let's start with one that is a mix. So Alabama's an interesting case. Yeah. Austin Mack signs with Kailen DeBore at Washington years ago. Follows Kailen Daboard to Alabama,

has waited his turn behind Jalen Milro, and now he gets a chance. But probably Kailen Daboard's biggest signy since he's been at Alabama is Kielan Ruff. Russell from Texas, how do you decide if you're Kailin and Boer between these two guys? Yeah, it's a really interesting situation you have where you have Austin Mac, who has been with DeBoar, who's been with offense coordinator, Ryan Grubb. He knows the system.

He knows what, you know, this offense is supposed to look like when it's functioning at a high level. He comes in off the bench last year in the Rose Bowl against Indiana. But then you have Q on Russell, who is everything I've heard is freak talent athlete-wise physically, has really impressed about how he's matured and grown since he got to Alabama. You know, he sat behind Ty and in behind. Ty Simpson. I said Jalen Milro. Yeah.

Well, Austin Mack sat behind Jaylen Milro too. But he sat behind Ty and Austin last year. I think he learned a lot. And then you see the spring he really takes a jump. He has a heck of an A day when Austin Mack is dealing with an injury. And I think where we sit right now, it feels very 50-50. People have called it a dog fight. I'm not going to be surprised, though, at all if we see Keelon Russell start week one against CCU.

Yeah, I think the interesting thing with Bama is that the head coach went to the national championship game with a 39-year-old quarterback. And I wonder, you know, Michael Pennix wasn't 39, but he was an older player. He was. And I wonder if you have an experience of traversing that deep into the playoff and having a good year with an experienced guy that you can trust and has been in your system for a while, how much past expectations or past experiences play into how you're going to make the future decisions. I would just throw in too, though. I think the one thing Keel on Russell does better than Austin Mack is the way when a play breaks down, when he can escape the pocket, when he can do something with his feet,

that's something I continue to hear about that I think that Alabama is really attractive to the idea of having someone a quarterback who can, if the pocket breaks down, if the run game's not working, he could really open up the field. Well, and the schedule plays into this too because we'll talk about some other teams and everybody's got a different level of runway. So the way Alabama's schedule breaks down is they have East Carolina first, which is not going to be an easy game. Like they were good last year.

They lost their OC, but they still should be fairly good. They went got Emery Williams from Miami to play quarterback because they lost Kate and Houser to Illinois. But they should be well-coached. And a team that you should be worried about if you have coming into your stadium, even if you're a really good team and a potential playoff team, like you're not going to take that team lightly. And then after that, Alabama goes to Kentucky Week 2.

Yeah. I think they more than some of these other teams probably need to know who their guy is coming out of camp versus we're going to play both the first two games and see what happens. They named Ty Simpson the starter like midway through camp last year. I don't think it'll be as early this year, but they're going to have to make some kind of decision before the end of camp. You know, the other interesting thing that Chris Lowe and I have heard, too, is I don't think it's going to surprise anyone in the building if Keyon and Austin both play week one.

Yeah, I mean, you would at least try them there. That's another, but that's one of those games, like I said, they're going to be well coached. Yeah. They could be good. If you're in a competitive game, you're probably not going to do much experimenting with the quarterback. No, that's why not. Yeah, yeah. The thing that I just cannot get past is,

how much Keelan Russell was viewed as like the future of the program when they got him. And I also don't know if there's any calculus involved of whatever decision we make right now also might have some ramifications on what happens to us in December

in terms of the portal and stuff. Do you think that any of that comes into play or do you think it's kind of like people have resigned themselves to understanding they might have to rebuild their whole room in December? I mean, Alabama specifically is definitely going to have an interesting scenario because if you start Austin Mac, then does he, you know, what's that mean for Keylon? Does he still come back because he thinks he can be the starter? I think that that

the tough thing, Ari is like it feels like two years ago when we had this discussion. I would have said it definitely impacts things in December and January. But now with so much money being invested in a roster, as coaches have so much pressure to win now or get fired. Yeah. Stuff that I think just playing the guy that makes the most sense. And you can also mend hurt feelings a lot with a raise too. But the other piece of it is, let's say you picked Austin Mack. Keel & Russell is not going to jump in the transfer portal at the end of camp. Like that doesn't work that way.

He's on the roster this year. And so he may wind up the starter if Austin Mac somehow got, like if Austin Mac got hurt, which you don't want anything like that to happen. But let's be real, that happens. Right. So I don't think you have to worry about that that much if you're the head coach, if you're Ryan Gregg, the offensive coordinator. I think you just make the best choice you can.

Pete, I want to ask you. At SEC Media Days, it felt like Kaelan Dabour went out of his way to mention Austin Mac as a runner. And I thought that was interesting. Yeah, that was an interesting tactic on Kailen Dabor's part. And I'll just tell you that behind the scenes, nothing against Austin Mac the athlete. It's just so clear that Keelon Russell is the better athlete. But Austin Mack might, you know, he has more experience in the system. And, you know, this is a personal opinion here, but I thought he did fairly well.

coming off the bench against Indiana. You know, Alabama's faced this kind of situation now under Kalynne DeBoer, and it clearly made the right decision the last time. Right. Does that like make you feel better, Pete, or Andy even about if a coach or? Has Kalin de Boar made a wrong quarterback decision as a head coach? I would say no. It doesn't seem like it.

So if I'm an Alabama fan. Jay Caner, Michael Pennix Jr. Yeah, Ty Simpson. Jalen Milrow, Ty Simpson. I think all of them were effective. Jay Caner, I haven't heard that name. But all of them were very effective quarterback. Yeah. Remember that Fresno State

USC game that was a 12 after dark that every single person in the entire country was like, who the hell is that? It was at UCLA. Yeah. And he like was like getting absolutely clobbered and just stepped up in the pocket and just kept delivering strikes. It was sick. Yeah. So I would say I trust

Kailen DeBore and Ryan Grubb. Definitely. As a tandem making these judgments. For sure. Let us move elsewhere in the SEC to one of Alabama's rivals. This is a classic old school. we may as well be back in 1991.

Tennessee has, well, we can't call him a redshirt freshman anymore because there's no such thing. No. sophomore George McIntyre against freshman. I can't call him a true freshman anymore because that doesn't. You call him second year freshman? No, George McIntyre's a sophomore. No, no, super freshman. He's a sophomore. Okay, whatever.

I don't know what you're talking about. He may be a fifth. They don't have red shirts anymore. Yeah, so he might be a fifth year senior, but we can't start calling him a super freshman. No, no. But I love that you're just attaching super to everything. But Faison and Brandon, who we would have called a true freshman this time last year. Now we just call him a freshman.

This is a fun one. And the Valls, how that offense looks probably depends on this choice because it's probably two different looks. Yeah. It's an interesting one because going into a spring and I was like, okay, you got Faison Brandon, the five-star recruit, he's got so much talent. What's that going to look like? And then you have George McIntyre coming back who knows the system, had a year. And from everything I've heard, George had a good summer, but I wouldn't say the spring was exactly what they thought it was going to be.

And it's definitely cracked open the door to real possibility that Faison Brandon starts right away off the snap for Tennessee. You know, the talent level, physically, mentally, everything I've heard about Faison Brandon in the last six to ten weeks has really kind of been off the charts. I think they think that they have like a physical specimen at quarterback, super athletic, also like getting the playbook pretty quickly, which has been impressive. So yeah, this thing is like wide open and it really is not going to surprise anyone in Knoxville, Phazon Brandt starts week one. Talk about guy who's been on the team versus newcomer. But the thing that I'm most amused by this and River just popped up in his chair, I think he snapped the neck muscle. We're talking about the balls, baby. It's like physically they're just one's kind of small.

and stature and one's just the biggest freak you've ever seen. George McIntyre, since he got on campus, every question has been, what are you weigh now? What are you weigh now? And he has put on weight. Derek Oings is a new strength coach. They hired him from Indiana. It sounds like he's done a very good job with both these guys.

So they're both physically superior to where they were when they showed up on campus. The Brandon thing's interesting, Pete, because I was talked to Charles Power, our National Scout. And he was explaining the offense Brandon played in in high school in North Carolina. where he's incredibly accurate, was not asked to throw downfield a ton, but that was the offense. It doesn't mean he couldn't do it. It just meant that his offense didn't ask him to do it.

Tennessee's offense, when it's working really well, will take those downfield shots. Needs to take them. Yeah, you know, the other interesting thing, too, is just like it is an open competition, but, like, I continue to lean more and more towards Faison Brannon at this point from what I've heard,

just because I think that, like, they're thinking through. we have this guy in the program who has so much talent. Think how good he could be in year two and year three if we let him actually play a lot of football. Which, by the way, is a bit of a different deal from Josh Heipel previously. He's ever started a freshman at Tennessee. Right. Because remember when Nico was redshirting, when Joe Milton was starting, there was a drumbeat of,

well, why don't you just start Nico? Because Joe Milton's obviously not a long-term answer anywhere. and he was almost out of eligibility. Yeah. But perhaps Josh Heppel has learned from this. Now, he has started a freshman once. Yeah. But it was Dylan Gabriel.

Yes. And it took him a minute to get there. Now, I think the other interesting thing, though, you bring up with Joe Milton and Nico, though, is, like, the age gap was there, right? Right. The George McIntyre phase on brand and age gap isn't a lot. So when you're making this quarterback decision for the start of the year, you're also making a very big decision on what the future quarterback room probably you don't look like. Yeah, I remember the worst take or one of the worst takes I've ever

had on the show, Andy, back when Penn State had Sean Clifford and Drew Aller, yeah. And I was like, why is Sean Clifford playing? And then Penn State ended up winning the Rose Bowl. Because Sean Clifford was actually a better quarterback than Drew Aller. And that just proved it time and time again. It clearly did not age well. Yeah. And I

said it was a bad take, but I do find this to be interesting because in the previous battle, we're talking about future implications. But also, if you're Tennessee, and I don't think that coaches think this way, but I do, which is, of course, we're probably not going to win the national championship this year. We want to do the best that we can to put our best foot forward so that when he's coming into a second year, he's ready to go for our title run. Like, do you think about what year

two, year three looks like? Because when you have a freshman that's in there, you're in a position that most coaches aren't in with their quarterbacks. I'm not thinking that far ahead. Here's what I will say. They open with Furman. They open with an FCS opponent. You can get a look at both of them. Yes. for a sustained number of series to have a better idea of what's going on before you go play Georgia Tech Week 2. That's going to be a tough Georgia Tech game too. It is.

Not to cut you off. I think that there's going to be a lot of pressure on making the quarterback decision because I think Week 2 is going to be super challenging. You're not going to have Aaron Carter yet. Justice Saints is going to run the ball like, you know, he's going to get fed. Yeah, he's going to get fed the ball.

So there's going to be a ton of pressure on whoever starts that quarterback to deliver. Pete. So they got Kennesaw State after that. Kennesaw State did win Conference USA last year. They're not a joke. Yeah. Jerry Max got to go. They can play well. But I'm not worried about Tennessee in that game. Here's where I would like to know who my QB1 really is. Get ready for this stretch. Texas, Auburn, at Arkansas, Alabama, at South Carolina, Kentucky at Texas A&M, LSU at Vanderbilt. It is on for Tennessee after week three. So you got to, you got. to get that figured out.

Yeah, and you know, you can play both guys against Furman, and then I think you've got to start one guy and stick with them against Georgia Tech. And then if for some reason that really doesn't work out, then you're going to have one last week to really try to figure it out. From everything I've heard, like, I don't think they want this to go in a week three, but you're also dealing with two young guys. Yeah. Yeah.

Both of these battles we've talked so far have really highly rated high school physical free quarterbacks, and I'm excited to see how it plays out. Ari can't help but lean toward the five-star. Yeah. Like, it can't. Well, actually, I mean, I think that Heipel's done a pretty good job of

of picking the right guy. So if it's McIntyre, it's McIntyre. I don't know. Has he? He picked Joe Milton over Hinden Hooker at first. That's true. I'm not going to let that one go. Yeah.

But we actually also, I mean, we got to Hendon eventually, and it turned out, okay, right? But yeah. We did. But, okay. one more in the SEC before we move on to another league. And this does not involve a five-star.

I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back. This is what I was wondering, because this is, how does Ari handicap this one since he's not dealing with a five-star? What you are dealing with is a quarterback who followed the coordinator to the new school. Yep. And a quarterback who was already at the new school, who maybe didn't have a level of expectation.

And everybody showed up and was like, whoa, wait a lot. second. This guy is really interesting. I'm talking, of course, about Florida. So Aaron Philo comes from Georgia Tech with offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner. Philo was supposed to succeed Haynes King at Georgia Tech, actually started several games for him in 2024 when Haynes King was injured, played extensive. Like, remember the Miami game when Mario didn't kneel? Aaron Philo played some significant downs in that game. He did. And so he's played in some big moments. thought when we find out he's transferring to Florida, following Buster Faulkner's, oh, that's the guy. But Tremel Jones Jr., who was a freshman at Florida last year, was DJ Lagway's backup, took all the number one reps in the offseason last year because Lagway was hurt, beloved by the Florida roster.

And very intriguing to the Florida coaching staff once they met him. Yeah. Tremel Jones was someone that the Florida coaching staff didn't know a lot about before they did exit meetings. And he's someone that John Summerall just, like, assimilated to really quickly. He's like, we got to keep this guy. Someone that we want part of the future of this program. And Tremel Jones pitched, pitch pushed Aaron Fylo and spring ball. Yeah. You know, the interesting thing is the experience in Buster Falkner's offense is a real thing from everything I've heard.

Despite Tremelo Jones having a solid spring from everything Andy and I heard, I think Aaron Filo definitely has the leg up. It's still an open competition. We'll see how August goes. But yeah, I'd give Aaron Fylo at the edge right now. When you think about how Fylo arrived at Florida with the offensive coordinator that he had a previous year in tandem, like the familiarity there. How much better do you think that Tremel Jones actually has to be to win the job? I think that they just want him to be consistent. I think Tremel Jones had some practices this spring where they said, oh, my gosh, this guy's like raw talent and what he can do, a quarterback is crazy.

But the way that Aaron Filo answered if he had a bad practice and, came back and had a super strong performance, I think really jumped out. I also think that there's some, you know, this Florida roster is going to take some time. I don't think John Summerall will tell you it's like exactly where he wants it right now. It's going to take some time to rebuild Florida. I think that giving Buster Faulkner, someone that quarterback that he knows is going to know, you know, every part of the offense that he wants. I think that's something that's really comforting that they're going to look for, especially at the start of the year. So we'll see how it kind of plays out.

But yeah, I definitely give Aaron Filed that edge right now. I do think we're going to see them both the first two weeks. Yeah. Because they play Florida Atlantic. Yeah. Which, you know, Zach Kittley is a good coach. Yeah. They bring back their quarterback.

Yeah. Kitt in Vel-Kamp. Yeah, Vel-Kamp's good. So that not quite the same as the East Carolina, Alabama thing, but also because they're not going on the road in the SEC the next week. Yeah. Florida has Campbell Week 2, which is the FCS team, fighting camels. Then Florida goes to Auburn.

So you do have a little more runway to figure some things out. But yeah, I'm going to be watching that one. But I'm with you. Yeah. You didn't bring Philo in to not give him every opportunity to start. Yeah. Yeah. They're going to give him every shot the first two weeks.

And, you know, if for any reason he doesn't deliver, there's a lot of confidence, Tremel Jones will be there too. Let's head to the Big Ten. Okay. So this is an interesting, I'm trying to remember a, a situation like this where two guys transferred in and then waited behind a guy. Yeah. And then duked it out at the same school instead of transferring somewhere else.

Yeah. So this is Iowa. Iowa has Hank Brown, who transferred from Auburn, and Jeremy Hecklenski, who transferred from Wake Forest. They both sat behind Mark Grinowski last year. Yep. And look, we great Iowa's offense on a curve, but Grinnelly. did make it a better offense than it had been.

One of these guys will inherit the keys and a really, really tough schedule, but they'll be playing opposite of great defense. They'll obviously have great special teams. It's an opportunity. How do you handicap this one? Yeah, this is an interesting one. And from my conversation with Kirk Farrants, I tell you that my current expectation is they're both going to play well into the season.

I don't think we're going to know who the true starter is until, week one and even at that point it seems like i was pretty confident that they're going to play both of them you know Hank brand was the first off the bench last year behind mark roniski then he got hurt then jeremy huklinski really flashed when he came in um you know i heard ho klinsky had like maybe a better spring but then hank brand had a better spring game it's really neck and neck they're two like kind of different quarterbacks you got hank brown is more of like a pocket passer you get jeremy huklinski who there's a lot of excitement of about what he can do and opening up the field.

That sounds more like Grinowski. Yeah. Sounds like what they're used to. Yeah, it's what they're used to, but at the same time, you know, like, it's just so Kirk Ferrence isn't going to show his cards. It's going to go into the same. Well, and here's the thing. They have Mountain West Power Northern Illinois to open.

Yeah, they're in the Mountain West now. I don't know how many people remember that. Have you ever gone hiking in Northern Illinois? No. Really nice mountains up there. Incredible mountains. Iowa State, which is obviously a rivalry, but Matt Campbell goes to Penn State,

takes a lot of the roster. Jimmy Rogers is doing a complete rebuild at Iowa State. So I don't know that that's going to be as difficult as it has been for Iowa the last few years. And then you've got Northern Iowa. Then Michigan, Ohio State, Washington, and consecutive weeks. So you have three weeks. It comes quickly. Yeah, you have three weeks to get it figured out. Tim Lester's a great offense of mine, too.

I'm sure he was going to come up with some kind of crazy package. I won't be surprised if we, like, see both quarterbacks on the field at once. It'll be interesting. know, maybe Iowa can teach a seminar, though, to other college programs on how you can get two quarterbacks to come transfer in, sit for a year behind a starter, and then come back to have a pure competition. I don't know how it's going to play out, but they didn't have a project. That has never happened before and probably will never happen again.

Good for them. But I'm excited. And it's like you made a comment too. This is what I was used to. What are they actually used to? One year of going to. Yeah, that's going to say that's. I don't even know what they're used to.

Part of me is like, guys, don't you. remember Brad Banks? Like, why don't you just try to find a quarterback like that again? You've played really well with that guy. Yeah. But, yeah, it is, but and Grinowski was sort of the closest thing to that since, I, C.J. Bethard and Ricky Stansy were both pretty good athletes, too. Yeah, they were pretty good athletes, but putting them in the same sentences, Brad Bank. No, not the same. Not the same thing. I think that I would be very curious to see if they could somehow figure out a way to get like a really fast twitchy guy that come in there and just run all over the place. But yeah, I'm not sure that Hank Brown or Heklinsky is going to be that guy either.

So we'll see, we'll see how it goes. But good for you, Iowa, having some guys in the cupboard ready to battle it out. That's pure old school college football. And I guess if it was going to happen anywhere, it's probably going to be Iowa. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, let's talk about another program that's been in the news, and that is North Carolina. Now, they've been in the news because their GM has been placed on leave, but this is the guy Michael Lombardi who brought in the two quarterbacks who are now duking it out for the job, Billy Edwards Jr. who was at Wisconsin last year who got hurt in game one, non-contract injury. It basically costs the rest of the season.

Miles O'Neill comes from Texas A&M. Bobby Petrino, no offensive coordinator in North Carolina, worked with Miles O'Neill at Texas A&M. So does that give Miles an advantage? Or Billy would be the higher, remember Billy Edwards was an effective quarterback at Maryland in 2024? Does Billy Edwards, who has more experience, have the advantage? Yeah, it's 50-50 right now.

They're splitting reps. They started camp last week, so that's everything I've heard is they're splitting reps. Here's the deal. Miles and Neil is someone that I think Bobby Petrino really believes in and has the talent. But when it comes to the end of the day, Billy Edwards has all the talent, not the talent, all the experience. And I think that that has really, you know, I don't think anyone has like the lead yet. But I think that the experience definitely tilts towards Billy Edwards. The other thing I'll mention here is there's a true.

freshman there right now named Travis Burgess. They're really excited about. He might end up being the best quarterback of the room in four years, but he's not ready to start. Well, the question is, could he be the best quarterback in the room this season because they may be coaching for their jobs. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think he'll be a starter this year, but I'm not going to rule anything out at North Carolina. Yeah, it's going to be crazy. And they've been practicing for a week now because they're a week zero team. They play TCU in Dublin. you need to know who your guy is going into week zero yeah and i think all that you know kind of taken into account that's why i lean billy edwards at this point just because of the starting

experience and stuff like that um but yeah it it's 50 50 right now all right one more i'm a stay in the acc for you all right this is one where the head coach said before spring that this guy's way to his turn it's time for him to ascend and then a freshman came in in the spring and everybody goes, huh, maybe we didn't see that quite coming so fast. And I speak, of course, of Clemson. Christopher Vizina has been waiting behind Cave Clubnick. He was a blue chip recruit out of the state of Alabama, has been on Clemson's roster. This is how things are supposed to work at Clemson.

But if you remember your history at Clemson, Cole Stout waited his turn, and then Deshaun Watson wound up starting. Kelly Bryant started for a year and three games, and then Trevor Lawrence took over. So I think this is. What the answer is asking is how close is Tate Reynolds to Trevor Lawrence? That's not what I was asking. But Tate Reynolds, the freshman from Arizona, did wow them in the spring. Yes.

Otherwise, we wouldn't be talking about him right now because Dabo does not want to not start Christopher Vizina because he's, that's part of how this program works. But the history's program also tells you that when the true freshman says, I am clearly better. he does play. Yeah. So here's the thing. So they hired Chad Morris this off. He's a new offense coordinator was obviously there at the beginning of the Davo era at Clemson. Christopher Razina is the starter right now. Like Davos come out and said that he's going to, you know, he's the starter,

but they're going to continue to evaluate things during camp. I think this is a situation where if Chris Visina goes into LSU and they lose by a touchdown or they win or something like that, he's going to be the starter. If they go into LSU though, And it's a lopsided game. People are asking questions about what Stabbo's future look like. I think that's when we see Tate Reynolds really enter the picture.

It's fascinating because he's not, the difference here is that Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence were viewed as no doubt. Yep. Were viewed instantly. The second they walked on campus, you're like, this is the future. This is a quarterback who made lead us to a national championship. Tate Reynolds was not viewed that way as a recruit. No. But then when he got there, it's like, oh my, this guy can play.

Do you guys think that any of the regard in which, like, T. Law and Deshaun Watson came into the picture made it easier to explain to the fan base that those things happened? Or do you think that? There was nothing to explain. Like, the fan base, everybody was mad at Davo for not starting Deshaun sooner. Because Deshaun comes in against Georgia first game. Yeah. Now, he was banged up, and that's part of the reason why he didn't see. start until a little bit later.

But he comes against Georgia the first game and you're like, oh my God, this is different. But that season, I covered their game at Florida State that Cole Stout was Cole Stout's final start. It was the one that James was suspended for. And Clemson should have won the game. If Clemson had started to Sean Watson, they would have won that game and they would have won the ACC. And I think that happening informed what happened four years later when he made the decision

to pull Kelly Bryant and start Trevor. Lawrence. Yeah. Yeah. It's just interesting to me that it doesn't matter. I'm always play the best guy. And if the person, if the best guy is the freshman that just got on campus, it doesn't matter whether he's a five star or two star, you do it. But I do think like optically speaking, like people wanted that, expected those two things to happen because Deshawn Watson and Trevor Lawrence actually turned out to be some of the best quarterbacks in the last 20 years. So the difference is, Tate Reynolds is, was, was, was not the no doubt about it, recruit. Exactly. come in with that same fanfare.

But sometimes you find stuff. You don't know until you get a guy on the field. And they got him on the field. They're like, oh, this might be different. Yeah, no, for sure. We'll see. I'm excited. Pete, we're going to have you back because we got other things to talk about.

We sure did. We're going to have like hot seat conversation. We're going to have the assistant coaches and the group of six coaches who are due to to make big moves up. We got a lot to talk to you about Pete Nacos. Thank you so much. much for joining us. You bet. Thanks, guys. Are we moved from quarterback competitions to the halls of Congress?

We talked yesterday about the Protect College Sports Act, what happened Friday night with the Big Ten and the SEC jumping on board. Yesterday, as we recorded in the morning, there was optimism that the bill would reach the Senate floor this week. That is not as optimistic as we talk on Tuesday. Now, we're about to have somebody on who can explain how all that works because he's been involved with this bill since its inception. So let us now speak to Missouri Senator Eric Schmidt. We are joined now by Missouri Senator Eric Schmidt, who has had a very, very busy week and we'll get into partly why it's so busy. But Senator, can I take you back to Friday night? Because you were the guy who tweeted the Undertaker GIF when it came

to the Protect College Sports Act, which was very appropriate because this bill, which you co-sponsored felt like it was all but dead without Big Ten and SEC approval. And you guys managed to secure that on Friday night. What were those negotiations like over the last week? Well, I was holding on to that. I was hoping I could post that and I got a chance to do it. Well, Thursday, you guys have been covering this, Thursday was kind of disappointing because we kind of got into a place where, well, to back up, the bill comes out of committee.

we knew there was still work to do. I wanted to make sure that we did everything we could to build as broad a coalition as possible to get this out of the Senate with a big, you know, and then over to the House, which I think would help the momentum. And we made a lot of progress in that regard. And then on Thursday, you know, the SEC and Big Ten had their president's meetings. And I'd just gotten back home to St. Louis and Greg Sanky called and, you know, and said, hey, we just, we didn't get there. And that was, you know, that was disappointing on Thursday. And we knew the clock was ticking. But, you know, I woke up Friday morning and I had a text from Tony Petiti and, you know, with the big 10. And we just got to work. And, you know, basically just said, okay, let's narrow this thing down. What is what is really the key? What is it the heart of your concern here? And really, honestly, we had covered a lot of things and we can talk about those things.

But we had arrived at this. And you've got the house settlement number, the rev share cap, which is now. about 21.3 million it was a 20.5. We had gotten to a place where there's a 22 and a half million dollar retention pool number to keep your own players along with the one-time transfer provides a lot of stability I think in the market and then a five million dollar number for women's sports that wouldn't count against your retention pool cap right. So that gets you to a certain number but the key concern which was legitimate was how do we avoid the workarounds right like because right now there's a you know there's a point and a half million dollar cap, but there's football rosters that are probably double that.

So how is that happening? It's, you know, it's redirection and what can we do to control that? And so we arrived at some language that was kind of central to getting the deal done. Like, for example, if Nike's got a deal with, you know, Mizzou, but they like the quarterback and they want to do a deal. There's now an attestation that that's an independent deal. That's not a redirection. The college sports commission has to prove that that's for legitimate business purpose. And that really kind of solve the final piece of the puzzle. And so the Big Ten met in the afternoon.

Greg Sankey asked me to be on the SEC President's call, which was at 7.30 Central Time. And, you know, kind of answered a bunch of questions there. And then Greg called, you know, about a half hour after that. And we got to, got to the right place. And I cracked open a couple of bushlights and then sent out the Undertaker, me. You are St. Louis through and through, buddy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know.

But it was a lot of ups and downs throughout that day. because, you know, throughout this process, you know, there was a lot of alignment on, on shared goals. How can we protect student athletes? What does this thing look like? But, you know, when you put pen to paper, there's going to be a lot of discussion about that. And so ultimately we're able to land that plane and get the SEC Big Ten support along with keeping

the support of the other conferences, the smaller conferences that were really, you know, asking for this for a very, very long time, too. So anyway, so we're at a place now where now it's about educators who maybe weren't as involved in those negotiations and getting, you know, vote and moving this thing along. How is working with Greg and Tony been? Obviously, they've got a lot on their plate. This is a highly complex, you know, issue and a lot of, you know, fires to put out. I mean, what's it been like working with them? I've developed a good relationship. I never threw bombs, any, you know, in any direction there.

I had met Tony at the White House, you know, a few months ago when there was that meeting that the president convened. He and I sat next few. each other and started talking. And then Greg, you know, Missouri's an SEC school. So I've known Greg a little bit. We've gotten to know each other a lot better throughout this process. I certainly talk to those two people over the last week or so more than anybody else in my life. But it was respectful. And I really think they were trying to get there. And they also understand, you know, not getting this done really isn't an option. I mean, the trajectory of all of this, as you guys know, is just not sustainable.

Even the schools that are willing to spend those monies on a football roster, it's just, it's not really sustainable. And you're going to get to a place pretty soon. And it'll affect some places more than others sooner rather than later, which is if football has been the, you know, the moneymaker that you subsidize all the non-revenue sports, women's sports, Olympic sports, even sports like baseball. Most schools don't, unless you're LSU or Ole Miss maybe, right? That you're not going to be able to subsidize those sports.

schools are going to have to start making decisions. They're going to drop their tennis program. They're going to drop some of these sports that have been part of the offering where you have 500,000 student athletes participating in. We don't want to lose that. College sports is uniquely American and they understood that. So we all, I think, worked in good faith. Now, I'm going to be a little cynical here because I've covered college sports my entire career and I know how these people operate. I read what you guys added to the bill in terms of closing the loophole quote unquote. So basically

the MMR has to wink and say it's real. The school has to wink and say it's real and the brand has to wink and say it's real and then it's real. I don't think that's going to stop anybody. Well, listen, you're right to be and look, that was every, well, I'll just speak for myself.

I agree with you that water finds its own level, right? And the key was here in addition to those attestations that you mentioned, part of the antitrust exemption status that now is in play for the NCAA to have rules like one-time transfer and five years of eligibility is the college sports commission to have real teeth. Like, they have to sign off on it. And I think the next domino that would have fallen through the course of all this litigation is recently as Friday, right, even on the class of

2022 eligibility issue. Right. The CSC was going to come under that same kind of fire and scrutiny in court. And so what we've been able to do is to have an entity now that has real teeth and can enforce these things. And so some people might try, but if they're not, if they're not successful, that's going to count against their cap. So, you know, you're just creating as many guardrails as possible to create a system that is this much more stable. And I would also point out what's interesting about this after the Commerce Committee hearing, you know, I talked to the Notre Dame Athletic Director and said, okay, if you got rid of all the collectives, which have been, you know, the genesis of a lot of things you're talking about. and you just had a cap that was reflective of the market, what would that be? And his answer was, as he went back and kind of crunched numbers, about 50 million. And that's really where we landed.

We really landed at a place now where that's kind of where you're at. And so some schools might have to come down a little bit. Some schools may have to come up a little bit. I think, you know, if we can maintain it, it creates a lot more parity for the fans. That's what we, and what we've been saying on the show is if it wasn't regularly, There eventually would be an upper limit where people are just out of money and can't spend more. So the market would finance level that way. But it does seem like you've hit kind of that sweet spot there.

But I want to ask you about schedule because when the news came down Friday, obviously the hope was that you get it on the calendar for a vote this week. I know you guys are very busy. You have an attorney general nominee that he's got a confirmation hearing. There's a crypto bill. There's all these things that you have to deal with that are not. not this. What are the odds that you can get this on the floor before you go to recess? So I'm still really hopeful. One of the things that is hard to kind of explain and walk through

because there's some variables that the old line is the Senate operates by unanimous consent or exhaustion, meaning like everybody, 100 centers agree to a time agreement or we're out there and it takes a very long time and then people are like, okay, let's, let's arrive at some conclusion here. And so it's hard to predict. I would say the earliest if if cloture, whatever, I'm making into the procedure, but we're going to be filed today. The earliest would be Friday. The latest could be in the next week. Now, having said that, that time frame also exists for a few other things. And so the hope is that because there's broad support for this, that you could maybe even get to a time agreement that would collapse the time. So it wouldn't be the full Monty of

all the procedural. If one senator raises their hand, and says, I don't, I object to that, then that doesn't, doesn't happen, correct? Yes, but then other senators have the ability to say, oh, that's interesting. Let's see what's important to you. Maybe I will object to that. And so it's kind of mutually assured destruction when you get into that game. So that is possible. But, you know, I think we're at a place, you know, bills that typically have, you know,

maybe 60 to 80 votes that are bipartisan, that's less likely. It could happen, but that's less like a more kind of partisan bill that, you know, people normally see. One other thing I wanted to ask you about with Friday night, we've heard that there was a, there may have been a truth social post in the drafts folder from the president that didn't go out because the Big Ten and the SEC got on board. I know you speak to the president pretty frequently. Is that something that might have happened if the conference? hadn't had come around. I can either confirm nor deny that.

I will say that the president was very engaged. And Randy Levine, who's been sort of his hand, the president of the Yankees and working with the president's in working with the president's commission on this, Randy was great to work with and very interested in this. And I think it was made clear that we just don't want to fail here. And, you know, the president, I'm not going to speak for what the president may have wanted to say at one particular point or not,

but he's very happy right now. I talked to him Friday night after that call from Greg Sanky. He's thrilled. And he's actually leaning in this week. He's engaged talking to members. I know he's talking to Senator Thune about timing. So that's good. That means that,

I mean, look, if you, the recipe here is if you have a pretty broad level of support now, a bipartisan bill with big numbers, the president aligned with, you know, the Senate, that's, again, it doesn't guarantee everything. but it means that we're in a pretty good spot. Have you guys had any thought about the Lane Kiffin Rule and how it actually is going to be applied with the college football calendar? I mean, I think it's an interesting provision in this and that people are excited about the potential of that.

We get that question a ton. All we talk. Yeah. It's like how does a timeline work with the way that the college football calendar is set up? Yeah. The way that it's currently set up in the bill is that it's to really prevent, you know, that scenario from playing out the way it did last year, meaning that you know,

you have to really, really think twice about whether or not, I mean, you know, you're not going to be able to be able to participate in the postseason if that happens. And so I think, look,

it wasn't my provision. I'm fine with it. I think what happened last year with Lane Kiffin, the old miss and LSU thing was, you know, a disaster, right? Like, it's just like,

I think it's an acknowledgement that what we're trying to create, which what the conferences are begging for also is a more predictable schedule, right? Like at ending date, there's also a recruiting window. There's a time in which, you know, by way of the Lane Kiffin rule, like the hiring decisions should be made kind of like with the NFL to sort of create something that's more like the NFL. I will say it's not the same thing because, you know, they're operating on an academic calendar still in some ways. So, you know, I just think it's this balance between trying to micromanage but have some guard rules to protect against the worst abuses. And that's kind of where we got it. Yeah, it'll be interesting because there is a penalty in there, a year suspension. If, but it, I'd be curious to see how that actually worked in practice. But I know, listen, I know, Senator, you are very busy and a lot going on. Good luck to you with this. I know it's, this has been really important to you and good luck this week.

Well, I appreciate your guys' coverage of it. I know that. Like, you know, when I'm home, I go back and forth every week. This is such a culturally relevant thing to people. And Congress, I would have been skeptical of involvement a few years ago. But the truth is, given the litigation, Congress is the only entity on the planet that can give the kind of antitrust exemption status to have these rules and be enforced. So I do think it's important. We get it done. So appreciate you guys.

We'll be following along. Thank you so much, Senator. Yeah, thanks for being here. Appreciate you. Sure thing. Yep. That is Missouri Senator Eric Schmidt. and it didn't sound like he was all that keen on the Lane Kiffin rule.

Yeah. There's a lot of cooks in one of these things. Yeah, yeah. I still don't know if I have an actual answer of how it is going to be. So I read it very closely in the old version of the bill and the new version of the bill. What I interpret, which is not a literal reading of the words, what I interpret is if you do what John Sumerall did at Tulane, going to Florida, or Bob Chesney did at James Madison going to UCLA, or even Tosh LaPoy and Will Stein, who were coordinators at Oregon,

who pulled double duty while being head coaches at new schools, that that would probably be allowed to slide because everybody's okay with it. And that, but what Lane Kiffin did would not be, which... Well, again, those two things also happened last year because the circumstances of where people were going and where they were headed to, like... I also think, yeah, right. And I also think the Lane Kiffin thing is, probably not going to happen very often.

Yeah. I don't think you're going to have one, a coach moving from a school that, to a school that considers, it considers a peer and a rival. You know, the one thing that I do wish that I could have asked, and we just didn't have time,

but I wanted to ask you is, if you're talking about non-revenue sports and maintaining a lot of the cultural impacts and things that, you know, college sports means to the United States of America, and Congress's involvement in all this. We should ask him how many tennis matches they've watched. No, it's not just that.

It's just if those things are actually important, then why don't you think the people who run this entity can figure out how to fix it themselves? Well, I'd say the people who run the entity have not been great at that. And they're the ones begging for help. Yeah. So should the people who run it care about it the way that?

No, should they fix it themselves? Yes, they should. Yeah. So, I mean, we'll see how this all pans out. But. And as far as the other sports go, I've said this. I've had this argument on that athletic.

directors a ton. I'm like, if you care about something, you won't cut it. If you don't care, you'll cut it. But they don't want to get blamed for it. Right. They don't want to be the ones who made that decision to get to blame. But the fact- It's a lot of pretending to care, honestly. It is a lot of pretending to care because, and this is what I, you know, had you asked that question, I probably would have been asked. So how many college track meets you go to this year? How many college tennis matches? None of you actually watch any of this stuff, you don't really care unless you got a kid playing. Yeah. And I think that it's a nice thing to say that, like, if my daughter were a track and field star that she would have a college program to go to.

I also understand the importance of the Olympic training. And some of these have big fan base. Like Nebraska volleyball has a huge fan base. The SEC gymnastics programs have massive fan base. But I also think the others wouldn't be the things that they cut because they have massive fan base. Exactly. But I do think in theory, though, that even the sports that no one watches, there is a benefit to sports in college that have nothing to do with television and viewership.

And like, I think that it's wholesome when somebody. is a cross-country runner at the University of Idaho. It's great. And I think that it's important. But those are always existed before people were making huge money in football and basketball. If they are important to people, they will exist afterward. Yeah.

And I guarantee you they will because they will be important to people. Yeah. So anyway, I thought that that was, I mean, the hardest part, too, is just like, you don't want to get into like an arm wrestling match with someone. I think, I think you got to remember, though, like someone who's in the U.S. Senate Probably does it all day. They're used to it. This is not, this is like breathing to them. Yeah. But, you know, I think that as we see this continue to progress,

we'll probably have, you know, more insight into the actual practicality of the way that things will work. But obviously, we are in a much different place with this bill now that we were. Yeah, I've, I've gotten out of the, the prognostication business on the bill because I was sure it was dead. I was sure it was dead as of, as a Thursday night, going into Friday morning. I didn't think the SEC and the Big Ten would come around and they did. And I think his answer to my question about the Donald Trump drafts folder answered the question, yeah. Tells you what the answer to that is. So there was a significant pressure applied. But hey, that's politics. They asked the SEC, the Big Ten, all the conferences,

asked Congress to help them. They wanted to be in this world. They chose this. So yeah, you might get your thumb. Or you might find yourself under the president of the United States's thumb. That happens sometimes. Yep. If you asked to be in that world. So, yeah, well, that was a, uh, certainly a show. We had, uh, 35 minutes of quarterback battles and 25 minutes of US, uh, government. But, uh, I think that, you know, we're inching along and it still felt like a football. I'm a bill on Capitol Hill. No, all right. More football. Tomorrow. So you put out your playoff prediction last week.

Yes. I put mine out this week. Yes. We differ slightly. but I think the difference is make all the difference because I took a chance or two and you didn't. Yes. And I think we got to talk about that. But then we also have to talk about two other chances that we feel like we could have taken but didn't. Yeah, I could have gone ham on this thing.

I'm going to save that for McMurphy or Lowe to do. We should do like optimistic Andy and pessimistic Andy brackets, which would have been hilarious. Oh, well. You know, I do think that like having a bracket with Kentucky and UCLA and it was But we can talk about teams that could surprise, and I think that's kind of the fun of, if you are wrong on your bracket,

why will you be wrong? It's a good discussion. Exactly. Exactly. So we will talk mock brackets. Tomorrow.