Andy & Ari On3 - Quinshon Judkins is GONE | Going DEEP on Washington with Brock Huard | Title Game Picks

Episode Date: January 5, 2024

The National Championship Game between Washington and Michigan inches closer and closer, and of course, we have our picks for the title game. But FIRST, we have some news out of the never-ending transfer portal. We also have former Washington QB and current Fox Sports Anchor Brock Huard join us to break down the championship game.(0:00-1:47) Intro(1:48-18:17) Pete Nakos Joins to evaluate the Portal(18:18-41:56) Fox Sports' and Former Washington QB Brock Huard Joins(41:57-59:18) Title Game Picks with JD Pickell(59:18-1:00:06) ConclusionToday's show is sponsored by PrizePicks, the easiest way to play daily fantasy. All first time users that deposit and use the promo code ANDY will receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. If you deposit $100, PrizePicks will give you $100. If you deposit $50, PrizePicks will give you $50.Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/ANDYWant to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/RatyMohp1vY

Hi, it's Andy. And well, sometimes stuff happens. We record a show. We talk about something that might be about to happen. And then that thing happens right as the show starts. That's kind of what happened on Thursday night with the case of Will Howard. Now we'd been talking about Will Howard potentially going to Ohio State. We talked about it with Pete Nacos when we recorded the show, but Will was very close to making a decision, and he made that decision just as the show started. So we decided to add a little bit to the back of the show to talk to Spencer Holbrook from Letterman Row, our Ohio State Sighted on 3, about Will Howard going from Kansas State to Ohio State. The Buckeyes apparently have their QB1 now.

Very interesting story. So we will add that at the back of the show. So if you want to hear that, you keep on listening all the way through, or you can scrub all the way to the spot after J.D. Pickell and I pick the national championship game. And you can hear me and Spencer talking about Will Howard going to Ohio State. But first, we got to talk about Quinchon Judkins, who's going anywhere but Ole Miss. Welcome to Andy Staples on 3, and it would not be a Thursday without some Transfer Portal drama.

We will get into the entire Ole Miss Quinch on Judkins situation all those Lane Kiffin tweets that seem to narrate the whole situation while Lane Kiffin was apparently fishing this is college football in 2024 ladies and gentlemen it's a lot of fun but we also will go deep into the national championship game we've got Brock Huard from Fox Sports former Washington starting quarterback we'll talk some Huskies with him. We'll also talk some Michigan. Brock covers both these teams, has dealt with them a lot, and knows the Huskies intimately, obviously.

And he will explain why we are sleeping on Michael Pinnock still after seeing all this stuff. And J.D. Piquel and I are picking the national championship game. We both had a pretty good run there in the New Year's Six in the semifinals. So we'll see who comes out on top here because I think we're going to be on opposite sides of this thing. So interested to hear what JD says about his choice. I know how I feel about my choice and it was not an easy choice. So we'll get to that later in the show. But first we have got to talk about this Quinshawn Judkins situation. He is leaving Ole Miss, headed to parts unknown. What's Ole Miss going to do now? There's a lot

bigger picture to this than just Quinshawn Judkins, a very good running back that Ole Miss recruited out of high school, going to a different school. This says a lot about where NIL is, where the transfer portal is in microcosm. So of course, we're bringing our friend Pete Nacos to talk about all of it. Here's Pete. You knew we were going to let a weekend without talking to Pete Nacos one more time because the transfer portal never sleeps and we had quite a bit of drama on Thursday as Quinshawn Judkins Ole Miss running back a guy Lane Kiffin sat in the cold in the rain while he recruited got him out of high school 31 rushing touchdowns over the past two seasons has has entered the transfer portal, and has made an announcement,

and it certainly sounds like there's no going back from this one that he is out of Ole Miss. He is certainly out of the ship, which has definitely kind of thrown a wrench into some plans, I think, at Ole Miss right now. Definitely a situation that did not just develop in the last 24 hours. Definitely something that has maybe even playing out for a couple of months

now. And definitely at least the last 10 days. Well, Pete, I remember when the Grove collective did their deal with Quinn Sean Judkins last year, because everybody thought, Oh,

he blew up as a freshman window, Alabama or whoever come in and try to pluck him away. And it was the first time I remembered ever seeing a collective announce that it had a deal with somebody. And now you see it happen all the time. But it seemed like a big keep for Ole Miss. We've seen Ole Miss very active in this transfer portal. They got Juice Wells. They got Walter Nolan.

They have definitely upgraded talent but the door does swing both ways and i i'm curious people because we keep talking about how all of this nil and transfer portal stuff feels like nfl free agency can a running back expect to get paid yeah i think that's the question a lot of people are dealing with today i'll tell you uh just from talking to people that um i mean the growth collective has has really uh put together some great packages i think in this transfer portal cycle that has made things very attractive to some athletes. I also, though, think it's fair to say I don't know if a running back is worth seven figures in college football right now. I think if you look at the NFL and what running backs are making at the moment, and it's hard

to compare, but my point is running backs are on the low pay scale in the nfl and i think that you're going to continue to see that running backs around the way low pay scale in in a college football the the highest deal i've heard this offseason pete i don't know about you but the biggest one i've heard was in the 350 000 a year range and i heard that same one for a running back and yeah that's about it like i haven't heard anything bigger than that not even not even people asking for bigger than that because it feels like people understand that it's just not the the same position of need as offensive line and defensive tackle quarterback that sort of thing but this is a really good player pete he's

been very productive over the years a lot of carries actually you know kind of an old school feel with with 20 plus carries a game both years yeah i mean i scored uh over 30 touchdowns in the last two seasons combined um i mean what quinchon jenkins can do to an offense should not be undervalued i know we're just talking about dollars i think that uh the Collective took care of him maybe more than your average scholarship ball linebacker. And I know there's a little frustration today at Ole Miss how it all went down.

But, yeah, you said it, right, the production, what he can do on the field, how he can help open up the passing game for Jackson Dart. But if you really want to get nitty-gritty with nil here i think it's important to mention like maybe not allocating as much funds to a running back but going in on like two great offensive tackles like those are decisions collectives have to make and arguably it might be the smarter decision to spend on the offensive line yeah and it's it's interesting because like the nfl there's a salary cap they've got to manage it that way in nil there's no salary cap but there there is a finite amount of money in any sort of situation there's not a tree that

somebody can go on and pluck a few more bucks off so they do have to make these decisions at some point so i i very much enjoyed watching lean Kiffin tweet in real time through this thing. Now he apparently was fishing with his kids, but the tweets were awfully specific, including one where they catch a shark and he's happens, captures it catch and release at essentially, I don't know. This was like 30 minutes before quinch on judkins i'm leaving graphic came out i've lane kiffin uh continues to be the best follow on uh twitter

uh formerly twitter now x it's like it's like the pac-12 but anyways um But anyways, yes, Lane Kiffin remains one of the best followers on social media. And then today's events, I don't think anyone could have subtweeted it better. No. Well, okay. Here's another one. And this is, again, sometimes reading Lane is a fool's errand because we don't know what's going on in his life at the moment but it always feels like there's an ulterior motive so it might be that they got off the boat they got back to del boca vista phase three and just happened to see this auburn golf cart but

he happens to tweet out a picture of a golf cart with an auburn logo on it and i don't know what this is supposed to mean does this mean you know you know, Quinch on Jenkins is from Montgomery, which is very close to Auburn. You know, does that mean he thinks that Quinch on gut Jenkins is going to go to Auburn or does it mean that Ole Miss wants somebody who plays at Auburn to come to them? Like, I don't know what it even means.

I'm not sure I'm going to connect the dots or either at the moment, but the one thing I do want to bring up is, can we just talk about time and place with lane kiffin andy right like he was on a boat when this happened and then framed it perfectly like like completely perfectly um to the point where you wonder and like he caught the biggest fish that like you've seen on social media in like a week and and then i mean ridiculous unbelievable and yeah he was talking to pete go he's tweeting at pete golding defense coordinator about did we land like i said you know got people coming to campus and visiting and yeah this is going to be a a

fascinating situation to see how it plays out where does quinshawn judkins end up does old miss go into the portal for another running back if If you subscribe to OM Spirit, our Ole Miss site at On3, Zach Berry's got a good breakdown of who Ole Miss already has coming back, who they have coming in. Needless to say, they do feel pretty good about the backs that they already have. So I don't know that they just need to go grab somebody from the portal, but I do think people will look at the amount of touches Quinshawn judkins got in

that offense and go hmm i might enjoy that i do think the one really interesting thing to monitor with quinshawn right is like alabama does not really need a running back no we saw justice hayes get a bigger role in the rose bowl like justice hayes looks like the future at that position for alabama justice hayes is like the future at that position for Alabama. Justice Hayes is definitely the future. You look at Georgia, they picked up Trevor Etienne. You look at a couple – I mean, Florida could use a running back, arguably. Florida State definitely needs a running back.

I mean, those could be two schools to watch early on. But, yeah, I mean, Auburn also has a really good back in Jarcos Hunter. So, like, what's it all mean? We'll find out. But yeah, definitely not major openings right now where you're like, okay, Quintan's definitely going to go there. So elsewhere in the SEC, Georgia picks up a wide receiver, Michael Jackson from USC, who looked good in the bowl game,

probably was kind of like third or fourth on their receiver depth this year. He had like five touch-ins over the last, I think, two seasons it is and like 500 yards. But definitely with someone like the other guy, like Jordan Singer is out now, a few other guys, I think the point is Michael Jackson was the future, and USC has obviously been linked to Evan's store but nothing is like official or closely done there um so losing someone like michael jackson and losing him to someone like georgia even i mean that that's a huge loss for lincoln riley so another usc player in the portal is malachi nelson the the quarterback who was

you know a massive recruit in the class of 2023. It became clear USC was moving in a different direction in terms of QB1 for 2024. I think we knew that during the season. Malachi Nelson in the portal, his recruitment has not looked like the one the first time around. So Pete Thamel from ESPN reported he's taking a visit to Boise State and there's a good chance he might land there. Yeah, a friend of the podcast, Ari Wasserman, made a point right after Malachi went in about like, why wouldn't a Power Five team like take a waiver on Malachi?

And I think what we're seeing playing out right now is that maybe some Power Five schools just don't want to do that. Malachi's obviously going to Boise this weekend. Like you mentioned, Pete Thamel said that Boise is the favorite. Malachi's been dealing with injury for most of this year. I've been told he's still not 100% healthy, but he's definitely very close. Maybe Boise State's the best place to kind of get his feet back under him.

But I think it is also a sign of maybe what the rest of the college football world thinks of him, that Boise State is going to be the first visit. Yeah, it's very interesting. And that's one of those that everybody saw him go in. And we've got to remember, sometimes you have to divorce how you feel about the initial recruiting ranking from how you feel after the person's been in college for a little while and kind of vice versa. That's one thing Ari and I talked about, Pete, when Ari came on the show, is we've got to figure out how to better rank these teams and evaluate their team talent. Once these guys come from the portal and go to another team, because I don't like i don't know that we properly evaluated how

much josiah stewart was going to add to michigan where he came from coastal carolina but he clearly has been a great addition yeah and i think that speaks to obviously how maybe an athlete really isn't ready to be at a u.s here in oklahoma just theoretically coming right out of high school and that's why someone from coastal car Carolina ends up being the star in the Rose bowl. It also goes to show the development that can happen, right? If maybe a Cooper five guy goes to a really big program like a Michigan and they can be developed by some, some really good coaches there. Yeah. It's so interesting how all the dynamics are changing here. And you know,

lots of, lots of names like the one you reported today i thought was really interesting so i don't know that a lot of people in college football know who ken seals is but i think fans in sec country probably know him pretty well because he was at vanderbilt for the last few years he started as a true freshman at vanderbilt and actually dealt with you know multiple other people being named starter over him. He got the job back. It sort of went back and forth, but he's headed to TCU now. Yeah, I think it's a great get for TCU.

I don't know if Ken can necessarily earn the starting job right away, but he's definitely going to be a great option to fight for the starting job. And yeah, I mean, you mentioned like vanderbilt uh with aj swan and everything like ken stuck around and he really fought out uh to get playing time and now right too yeah mike right and now colorado yeah i mean definitely very interesting quarterback room that we can analyze and maybe a year and see how it all played out but yeah uh can can seals off ccu can he be a big 12 starting quarterback is the question. Yeah, that'll be a fun one.

So who are we looking at, who are we waiting on? I have not mentioned Will Howard yet. You talked the other day about potential smoke between him and Ohio State. What is the latest on that one? So talk to someone in the Will Howard camp in the last 24 hours, and the way it was described to me is the NFL remains a viable option. It's very similar to Cam Ward. I think that maybe college might be a little bit more viable than it was with

Cam, but definitely he's on the Ohio state visit as we speak. I definitely think that Ohio state is the college to be in this now. He obviously took visits to Miami and USC. And yeah, I mean, Ohio State and the NFL are the two options I'm hearing and looking at. It's interesting because, you know, Ohio State might be one of the only places in the country where when they introduce you to the people you get to throw to,

probably feels about the same as if you got drafted onto an NFL team. I mean, yeah. And obviously Julian Fleming announced yesterday he's off to Penn state, but now you got Cornell Tate, you got Bryn Anderson. Oh yeah. Jeremiah Smith.

Jeremiah Smith. Exactly. And Trevion Henderson might be right behind you in the backfield too. Oh boy. It's going to be really interesting to see what he does. We'll, we'll wait and see if we get an answer there. But, Pete, never a dull moment. We'll keep deciphering Lane Kiffin tweets and try to figure out what the next one means.

Can't wait. Thank you to Pete Nacos. And who knows? Maybe there's a little Will Howard Nacosification coming up in the near future. We'll find out if Will Howard is going to be an Ohio State Buckeye or if he's going to go to the NFL. I imagine that's going to be pretty soon. Coming up Monday, we got an epic national title game coming. And want to make it more epic?

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now let us dive deep into that game Brock Huard former Washington quarterback all-time great husky also calls games for Fox Sports he's seen both these teams up close knows all about him and after talking to him you'll get even more excited for the national title game. Here's Brock. We welcome perhaps the only man who has ever out-eaten me. And, well, it's a long story. We'll get to it eventually. But Brock Huard, we have more important things to talk about.

You see him on Fox. You hear him on Brock and Salk in Seattle. You have a podcast with your brother Damon, like all Huard all the time. And oh, by the way, your alma mater is the national title game. And my girls are playing hoops together. That's right. University of Montana. Yes.

Go Grizzlies. It's crazy times, Andy, but it's good times. Like I would not have it any other way. These last few weeks have been wild. Kind of reminds me, to be honest, you know, back to 2005. My last year with the Seahawks, 04. I spent four years with them. Two with the Colts, 05.

I'm still trying to kind of play, figure out whether I can fool them for one more year. And then they're like, nope, you're a fraud. You can't play in the NFL. So go figure out something else with your life. It was doing media and a lot of real estate, actually commercial real estate development. And then just so happens in 05, those Seahawks were pretty good. Yeah. And ESPN had a lot of money back then and paid to just have people go into a studio

around the country and, and the Seahawks just kept winning and they just kept winning and they just kept winning. And oh my gosh, look at all these cool opportunities that I'm getting on the hot list. And, and that was kind of a big break for me, to be honest with you. Without that, I don't know as geographically isolated as Seattle is where the media thing would have gone when I look back on it now. So that was a huge, huge break, huge opportunity in the sea and this Husky run this year kind of feels a little bit like that like oh my gosh look what these guys are doing oh my gosh look at this offense oh my gosh i love these guys oh my gosh what a bunch of great dudes and this caitlin deborah is as genuine as the day is

long and they're making this happen and are they going to get all the way they are getting all the way there and houston's going to be something kind of special monday night well you're in such an interesting position because obviously you're close to it. You talk to people in the program. You watch the program closely. But you also go cover these games every week where you're seeing some of the best in college football. You called Michigan-Nebraska. So, like, you saw the best throw J.J. McCarthy made all season in person.

Like, it is – you got that. And I'm curious because I still think there's a bit of an education gap when it comes to washington and the rest of the country obviously so many people watch the sugar bowl and they saw that but i i got so much wow have you seen that washington quarterback like yeah he's been doing that for two years now you know what it reminds me of andy and honestly and i think i tweeted this the other day it reminds me of the denver, and I think I tweeted this the other day. It reminds me of the Denver Nuggets and Jokic. Yeah. I think even Lisa Salter said it on the air.

It's like, wow, I've never watched these guys. What are you talking about? He's been the two-time MVP. You've never watched them actually play and see what they do and how they share the ball and how Coach Malone has built the program and how these dudes love each other and care about each other. And Jokic is like the most incredible, impeccable, unselfish leader there is. And you've never watched him?

Don't say that out loud. You know, Mark, and bless Mark, who's no longer there, employed there and everything else. He's like, oh, yeah, I didn't even vote Jokic in my top five of the MVP ballot. Mark Jackson, like, what? And that's Penix right there. Yes, it is. And Penix is the same kind of unselfish, Mark Jackson. Like, what? And that's Penix right there. Yes, it is. And Penix is the same kind of unselfish, the same kind of,

I don't need the spotlight. And you know what? DeBoer and Malone, very different. They communicate differently. A lot more swearing from the former. I don't think DeBoer does swear. I've certainly not heard him. But they built the same thing.

It's about the guys. It's about the players. It's about the locker room. It's about everybody else. And, yeah, there's quite a parallel between what the Nuggets did and and nobody thought the Nuggets could ever do this right come on how the Nuggets gonna win a world champ they can be good Washington won 11 games last year they can be good but they're not that good they're not actually gonna lift the trophy you know the Nuggets did it and now the Huskies are 60 minutes away

from doing it Monday as well. Well, and watching Washington do it against Texas' defense, it didn't look any different than it's looked against all the other defenses they did it against. The one that's really given them problems was Arizona State. Everybody else has kind of been in the same boat, like we can't cover these receivers. Pennix, it's amazing to me because I've heard you guys talking this week on your show

about how different he is than everybody in college football. Caleb Williams is the only other person who I've seen in college football this year who can make throws like Pennix can. But Pennix feels more surgically accurate than anyone. Yes. Yeah, the only time he misses, Andy, is when he's a little juiced and he misses high. And that was going to be like, okay,

I'm going to watch the first couple series of this game against Texas because called the Apple Cup and, you know, he was just more inaccurate in that game. And I think it was the weight of everything and the pressure of everything and the Heisman-Lumann and all of this targets getting so big on him that that was about the one game that on tape you really watched. You're like, man, there were three, four, five throws.

And then people started to wonder, is he injured? Is he hurt? You know, he's not been quite as accurate. And then he just shut all of it up in Vegas and put on an absolute show. And then even more so in New Orleans. What was it, 16 times Klatt was on my show this morning, Andy. He was pressured 16 times, he was on my show this morning Andy he was pressured 16 times he being Penix in that game he was taken to the ground once

Jalen Milrow was pressured 12 times by Michigan he was sacked 6 times the difference of understanding of pocket awareness of movement of creating extending plays I mean it's just night and day I mean it's JV and varsity and appendix is doing it at a level that nobody

else in college football has. Well, and that's, I've heard you talk about that. And as someone who's done it at the NFL level, how important is that just being able to move around to, to slide up in the pocket, to know where you need to be so that your linemen can continue blocking the way they've been instructed to block, and you can get that throwaway.

That's the game, man. I mean, that's the game at the next level. And I love Russell. And you know what? Without Russell Wilson, again, I guess this time today is you and me reflecting on my past and knowing that I would have not have been even in media without 2005 Seahawks. I don't know if I'd have a radio show today without 2012 Russell Wilson, because our show went from like this to won a Super Bowl and took off and he was unbelievable. But you see how sustainable that's not. And over the course of

time here, ran out in Seattle, Sean Payton ran out after about five weeks, I think he was done with that situation. And like, that's not sustainable versus, okay, run when you need to run. And I love this about Grubb and Penix too, Andy, is that's always been there. I mean, Michael Penix is going to run, I think in the four sixes at the combine and people are going to be like, what, how can he do that? I had no idea. Well, actually he's a tremendous athlete. He does have two ACLs and he chooses not to use that until he has to. And I thought they played that perfectly last week.

I think that will be a key Monday as well. Maybe some design QB run at times. Hey, man, there's nothing now. It gets all on the table. And if we got to run you five or six times, he's still a great athlete and is capable of doing it. It's just that he knows to sustain and to protect himself, playing in that pocket and getting rid of the ball. What, 16 sacks in 27 games?

11 this year, five the previous year. I mean, it is just pretty darn special stuff. Yeah, it is. And I noticed that there were a few more design runs there at the end of the Texas game. Yep. And I noticed that there were a few more design runs there at the end of the Texas game. Because it's very hard to just line up and run conventionally into those monsters that Texas has on the D-line. Because we saw Washington do it against Oregon late, where they were just handing off and solving the game away. Couldn't do it against Texas, but could move a little bit with Pennix. But I think you're right about that.

You pull out all the stops in this game you know give yourself the entire playbook which you know against michigan they've not seen this level of explosion in an offense because kyle mccord isn't cj stroud so some of those older guys who played the cj stroud buckeyes and marvin harrison jr and ameka they'll probably remember this but the guys who didn't play much last year probably won't have seen anything like this. No, no, no, no. I know that's going to be more and more of the conversation leading up to kickoff is, hey, the Huskies have not seen a Michigan. They have not seen an unapologetic bully like Michigan that will run it 35 straight times or 16 to 17 times. And I get that, and they have not. But this is a Michigan team that's without a couple of their linemen

and the losses entry is still a huge one. And you know what? I'm not going to make a case that Washington has seen that. Utah is not that. The Utah that they got to face with no Cam Rising, that was not this Michigan. That probably would have been the closest equivalent, but it still wasn't the same. Saying all of that, Michigan's seen nothing. And I mean nothing like they're going to see with Washington's offense they face two top 50 offenses all year right Ohio State and Bama and neither of those have the quarterback play the weaponry the artillery that Washington has

Washington is faced with Texas and with Oregon twice they have faced defenses who, to a man, bigger, stronger, faster, longer, mixed schemes, show different things, well-coached. They have seen it. They have seen it with both Texas, who had five weeks to get ready for them, and with Oregon in their own conference, right, three times in a calendar year and could not handle them. And I don't expect Michigan to shut down Kalen DeBoer's crew. There's just too much weapons.

There's run, there's pass, there's slot receivers, there's tight ends, there's a QB run game, there's outside one-on-one weapons that you can't cover in one-on-one. They're going to move the ball. It's just how many times they get that ball and how many possessions to make that kind of difference. Let's talk about Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb, the prides of Sioux Falls. Did you know when Kalen got hired?

Because obviously Kalen was well-respected in the field. He'd been good at Fresno State. Everybody who dealt with him in Indiana loved him. But did you realize how big of a step the program could take under him? No, and give a lot of credit. And her name has not been mentioned, and she's no longer there, and she's at USC. But Jen Cohen deserves a shout-out or 100 because she had to make that move. And Jimmy Lake's shove of that player, you know,

as Salk was saying this morning on our show, like that whole like sliding doors, what if Jimmy Lake had never shoved that player and not had that public of a moment with Jen Cohen and the board and the, and the boosters been able to just say, Hey, and fail fast. This isn't working. This isn't our guy. We got to fail fast and old Amazon ideology up in the Northwest, right? Like this isn't our guy. And I don't know if she would have been able to do that, but that did happen. They were able to move on from Jimmy. And then she made a hard hire from it, from a name standpoint, the coaching community knew it, Andy, like you talked to all of these coaches. Um, I remember Brian Pullian on the field. We had Stanford,

uh, Notre Dame final game of that year, right before Brian Kelly left and Brian Pullian on the field. We had Stanford, Notre Dame, final game of that year, right before Brian Kelly left. And Brian Pullian, who I had background with, with his dad Bill in Indy and played for, and Brian pulled me aside and said, your program better do the right thing. You know, Jimmy had been fired. He's like, they better hire Kalen DeBoer.

He is the best coach for that job. I'm like, really? You know, I hadn't done a kalen game i hadn't had him at fresno or indiana and bumped or you know cross pass him he's like unbelievable coach and then andy that that move gets made and he gets hired and my phone goes ping ping ping ping you know different coaches are like that's a great hire that is a great hire that guy's a football guy that guy is a great hire and man jen co Cohen knew it then had the guts and the resolve to not have to just get a familiar name and settle for a name, settle for a great coach. And no, I would not have imagined after a four and eight season in a loss

to Montana a few years ago, that they would win 21 in a row, 14 and 0, be at a place they have never been in the history of the program and staring down a national title here on Monday. Yeah, it is pretty incredible. And it does feel like DeBoer almost always makes the right decision. We've been going back and forth on the show this week about, you know, maybe they should have taken knees instead of risking Dylan getting hurt. They should have run it on third and ten. They should have done that. They should not have thrown the ball away.

That's the only time I can think of in washington games i watched over the last two years where i have not said that's the right call even even where they're going for it on fourth down on their own territory in the first half of the sugar bowl i'm like yeah sure well what what was that i mean like he would say to you like we don't think about the negative of that and if we went for it on fourth down in the apple cup at our own 27 and ran and ran an end around reverse flip if we did that what's anything else now like andy of all of my years in a booth there's been a few moments the uh hypnotode in a hurry yeah and eddie's great call on the tcu walk off right i thought you guys were gonna have a heart attack in that game that was the tcu baylor

game in 2022 yeah i was shaking i was literally as that game. That was the TCU-Baylor game in 2022. Yeah, I was shaking. I was literally, as that was happening, I was on it. I think I said that. I'm shaking right now because I was shaking right now, what I just saw. And second to that moment was that fourth down. You don't get that. You lose the game. I mean, you lose the Apple Cup, and you lose a playoff,

and you don't even – you and I are not doing this today. So they make that call, and not just a playoff. And you don't even, we're not, you and I are not doing this today. So they make that call. And not just a conventional call. Let's run a, end around to Rome on a reverse and, you know, flip it where, you know, 100 things could go wrong. And so, man, once you've done that, what's left? What was left for the Sugar Bowl? What's going to be left in the national title game to just show the kind of stones, the kind of confidence, the kind of belief that emanates from him and his team carries on well i do feel like this is a case of two teams that do mirror their head coach's belief in them and you've had

michigan as well you know what have you seen from michigan in terms of you know they're because this is very different than three years ago we thought jim harbaugh was getting fired it feels like and i've said this to a few different people it feels feels like the Kansas City Chiefs versus the Baltimore Ravens. And that's not just because John coaches there, but that's what it kind of feels like. And I know that the host city would have probably preferred Tuscaloosa and Austin and two towns, their driving distance and college towns and the ticket prices and everything else.

And instead, they kind of get two northern NFL cities, you know, I mean, Ann Arbor's college town, no question about it. And the witness program ever, but you know, it's Detroit and it's Seattle. And, uh, and when I look at this, this has a pro style field, pro style players, pro style schemes. I think Jim Harbaugh will be a pro coach next year again. And it is the Ravens who are unapologetic bullies who build the team that way. Obviously, Jim plucked from the Ravens defensive coaching staff and has continued that and

continue that on with new staff, new coordinator, everything, employing those principles. And yeah, they believe in one another wholeheartedly and in the culture of their program. And Kalen on the flip side, it's the same way. And he reminds me a lot of Andy Reid and the confidence that he carries. And they do it offensively. And in Mahomes, you've got a difference maker and a generational player. And at the collegiate level, Michael's been pretty darn generational and does it with a whole bunch of weapons.

And, yeah, I think we're kind of watching the Chiefs and the Ravens in a playoff game just down there in Houston with more than playoff implications, national title implications. Before I let you go, I do want to ask about this because you had a segment on your show on Wednesday about this. And I thought it was really interesting because what Michael Pennix will be in the draft. If you watch college football at all this year, you're like, oh my God, this is the best thrower of the football in college right now. The best draft eligible thrower of the football coming out. But it seems like it's all been tempered by the injuries he suffered at Indiana, the two ACLs. He had a couple of shoulder injuries.

Where do you think he winds up in the draft? Yeah, it's going to be fascinating. You know, our buddy Bruce Feldman is putting a piece together and he and I have some background on this. I was in Indiana a few years ago, Andy, and it was not just injuries. It was shut down. Yeah. And he said in the article with Bruce, like, I was scared to play. And you could see that.

Like, he was legitimately, after all of those injuries, after the battering that he took, after a supporting cast that was so limited around him, and he had to elevate everybody and do everything. And, man, they beat Penn State and they beat Michigan and toe-to-toe with Ohio State. It was all on him. But you know what? The tank was empty. And if you would have told me then, as I sat in those meetings with Tom Alleth and their staff and some of the people, like, this is who we're talking about?

I mean, this was humpty dumpty and he was broken and to think that he could be rebuilt in this way and put all back together and playing at this level i honestly would have never imagined that three years ago um nfl scouts now there's gonna be some teams that say yeah no thanks nope if he gets that broken and that beat up and he's that low and, and he's doubting himself, I don't want any part of that. He's out, take them off the board. And then there's going to be other wiser programs that go, hold on a second.

Isn't this exactly what we want? Don't we want this stress test? Isn't this why we put people on a treadmill and, and you know, we don't just keep them walking, but we speed it up and we ramp up the incline. And I think of my daughter who had to do that one time. And she said to the UW doctor, like, what's the record? He's like, no, that's not what she's like. Yeah. No, Macy, you understand there's cross country runners. Like, you know, you're, but no, what is the time? Well, how steep did they run? Like, you know? And this was the ultimate stress test. And Pennix has been through it and got through it.

And now he's on the other side of it. And there will be programs in the NFL that love that and love that experience. So he won't be on everybody's board. He won't be a first-rounder for everybody. But there is no way in the world, after this body of work the last two seasons, that arm that when they see it in person at the Senior Bowl, they see it at the Combine, they see the ball come off his hands like this is just different there

will be a team or two that will take him in the top 10 it's gonna be really interesting i saw tom allen the indiana coach at the coaches convention right after pennix announced he was going to washington and tom said we love him but he needs to get a fresh start he needs to to try something else and it's night and day just night and day it's it's unbelievable to watch and yes may end up i'm trying to thank andy like how many other quarterbacks like the joe burrow story is a great one right and he had to leave ohio state and there were some like oh well you couldn't on them you couldn't beat out so and so like and then he got my first round draft pick draft pick. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. But he had to kind of start over and rebuild,

and there's been plenty of those stories. But give me the story of totally broken, scared to play, and then on the other end of it came out of it and handled all of this, handled all of the success, handled all of this target, handled all of this being the – like how many guys come into the NFL with that full spectrum that teeter-totter on both sides because there's a lot of question right can this guy handle success and is it going to handle be in the face and is he going to handle well

you know what when he opened his jacket up at the heisman ceremony pretty cool pretty big moment that that sticks in everybody's mind right it's It's not about me. It's about everybody else, and it's real and genuine. So he's handled that, and then he's handled this abyss and this darkness and this failure and this, like, oh, my gosh, I may never play again, and I'm scared to play. So to handle both of those, I don't know how many prospects have been in that kind of mode over the years. Not many come to my mind. I'm sure there is, but not very many.

And it will be, as I said, appealing to someone, certainly at the nfl level and he might have a national championship ring coming his way by that point so we'll find out brock thank you so much always a blast andy keep eating man okay whatever you do keep eating the next time i see you at a dinner table we'll go toe-to-toe again okay so i promised i would tell you the story about brock heward out eating me and here's what happened so this is gosh this is probably about 10 years ago now joe tessitore the espn announcer invites me he knew i was in new york uh visiting the offices at sports illustrated and joe knew that i was up in new york and joe said, we're having a dinner with some people at my brother-in-law's restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut. And it's an Italian restaurant. The food's supposed to be delicious. And it's Joe Tessitore, one of the all-time great

storytellers and just gourmands. So I'm like, absolutely, I'm in. So I hop on the train and go. And Joe's wife picks me up at the train station, takes me to Joe's house. This is when Brock's still at ESPN. So Joe and Brock are on the couch watching that day's edition of College Football Live. And Joe's like backing it up like he's a football coach, like explaining, okay, now here's what we said here. Here's what we should have said here. It was fascinating to watch,

but Brock was still somewhat new to that level of media. And so Joe was working with him and trying to polish him up. Now, if you watch Brock on these games on Fox, you know he's very much a finished product now. He is awesome at this stuff. But that apparently worked up an appetite in Brock. Because as you know, if you've watched slash listened to this show for a while, I am a man of large appetites. And so we go to Joe's brother-in-law's restaurant, and it is as spectacular as you can imagine. The sauce that he started making in the morning that they put on the arancini, oh, I still have just dreams about the arancini and that sauce. They keep bringing food. It's just

plate after plate after plate after plate. The thing that was the best in this meal, and there were a lot of great courses, braised short rib over polenta. It was amazing. And so Brock and I could not get enough of this, but at a certain point I had had enough and I had probably consumed 7,000 calories at this point. Brock is still going. Now, if you've ever seen Brock, he looks like he could step onto the field in the NFL and play quarterback today. And I always tell people it's not the 300-pound guys that can eat the most. It is the hollow-legged quarterbacks, the big, raw-bone quarterbacks. Sometimes they're the rangy defensive end types. Those are the people that can pack it down the best.

That is Brock Huard. That man put me to shame that night. I just remember they hand me another bowl of these short ribs with polenta. And with a tear in my eye, I'm pushing it toward the middle of the table. And Brock is reaching over and grabbing it to devour it. The man's a marvel, an absolute marvel. So that's why when I see Brock, I don't think about all the games he won at Washington or how many years he played in the NFL. I just remember the shame of letting those short ribs go to him.

But he deserved them. He earned them. He won them fair and square. That's all right. Speaking of winning fair and square, it's time to find out whether me or J.D. Piquel is going to pick this national championship game correctly. And we did not say, hey, let's get on opposite sides of this thing. We both did our research, did our homework, and it just turned out that way.

Let us break it down and get to our picks for the national title game. All right, it is time to pick the national title game. JD Piquel and I, we're pretty darn good picking those New Year's Six games. JD, I was 5-1 against the spread and straight up. Ooh. Okay, that's solid. What was the one? Because I know we differed on Missouri-Ohio State, and straight up. Ooh. Okay, that's solid. What was the one? Because I know we differed on Missouri, Ohio State,

and you got that one. I missed the Rose Bowl. I picked Alabama in the Rose Bowl. I did too. So you did better than me in that sense. But yeah, that's a five and one. I mean, you go five for six in anything. You're a Hall of Famer, you know?

I still got that 0-8 hanging around my neck like an albatross from week three so i can't really say much but yes this is this is going to be a fun one i've gone back and forth on who i want to pick in this game i went on gin rome and i was like i i was all in on washington and i realized i haven't made an official pick here it It certainly sounds like I'm picking Washington here. Perhaps I need to study this a little more and get a little more in depth and make sure this is exactly what I want to do here. But, J.D., this is such a fun matchup because Michigan has not seen an offense like Washington's, and Washington has not seen an offense like Michigan's.

No, I mean, I think that the thing that's interesting too is when I started breaking this thing down, I kind of looked at, you know, on paper, okay, what are the edges for Michigan? What are the edges for Washington? And the glaring edge is the line of scrimmage, what they don't have up front defensively for the Huskies. I mean, they're averaging, giving up right around four,

four and a half yards of carry, whereas Michigan's like a 60% of the time run the football team. And so at first I was saying, OK, well, hey, Michigan's going to kind of pound the rock. And I sort of caught myself saying, OK, JD, you've said this before a few times. You said the same thing about Texas. You said about Oregon twice. They were going to run the line of scrimmage in both times. You were right in the sense that the opposition did on the line of scrimmage. I think Oregon ran for almost 200 yards that first day they had.

And then Texas ran for six yards a carry, but they just had those monsters on the outside of the Washington offense, and that was kind of the end of the deal there. So it's a tricky one to break down, but like you said, I think we're in for a box office kind of affair here this upcoming Monday night. Well, and this is the problem if you're a team that runs the ball well and is used to controlling games that way, is Washington can jump all over you so fast.

They can score so quickly that it takes you out of what you do. I think the question here is, can Michigan mix in a few things through the air, and will Michigan's receiving core look a little more dynamic against Washington than it did against Alabama? Because nobody looked like they were able to get open down the field against Alabama, and that was to be expected. There's a bunch of high draft picks that you're playing against

when you're playing Alabama. Washington not quite as good on the back end, but Washington very good at getting after your quarterback. So the question is, is J.J. McCarthy even have time to go find out if those guys are open yeah and I think it was interesting too on the flip side of that Michigan's defense they're one of the best teams against the pass but you had Nick Saban saying hey we didn't have enough time to get our guys open downfield but going into it like that was a big factor in the game for us. We wanted to attack that Michigan secondary.

On paper, I don't know if I'm lining up with what Nick Saban is saying, but if Nick Saban is saying, we like Isaiah Bond, we like Jermaine Burton on our guys over their guys, and I'm looking at what Washington has, I'm saying, okay, no disrespect to Bama, but that's three NFL dudes in that wide receiver room along with a good tight end. Yeah, Washington's receivers are so much better than Alabama's. And Ohio State's receivers are probably the only group that's even comparable to Washington in the country.

And I don't know that Ohio State has three that good. Now, we know Ohio State's best one is better than everybody. But the question is, does anybody have three that good? And I don't think anybody does. And I was thinking about this today, J.D. We were talking about it with Brock Huard. The Michigan defense has not had to play anything like this all season. Some players on the Michigan defense will remember playing against the Buckeyes

when C.J. Stroud was the quarterback. Now, C.J. Stroud throwing to Marvin Harrison and Emeka Ibuka, that's somewhat similar. That's actually a pretty good prep for this, but it hasn't happened in more than a year. None of the Michigan defenders have seen anything like that this season. And Josh Walls has never seen it ever the transfer cornerback from UMass that it sounded like during that broadcast Alabama was gonna try and pick on a little bit now Will Johnson versus Roma Dunzey is just gonna be like an NFL draft review for all of us I cannot wait to watch that one up close but whoever Will Johnson doesn't cover it is gonna have a chance

to get theirs and we talked about it on our show a little bit. Like you alluded to it already. Whenever Washington gets that deep pass game kind of dialed in, to me it's a lot like Steph Curry hitting the three. Like you're probably bigger than Steph Curry, more athletic, better perimeter defense. But when he crosses half court and he's just feeling it that night, like that might kind of just be the story of the game. So pack a lunchbox, you know.

So that's kind of what I'm watching this one. And it's going to be a lot of fun. I cannot wait to watch that matchup. Yeah, I was trying to figure out what did Arizona State do to really limit Washington? And they were, you know, they're dropping eight quite a bit. I do wonder, can Michigan drop seven or eight and still have people get home? I don't know that that's necessarily going to happen. We've gone over and over again about how good Michigan's defensive line is. You look at

what Mason Graham can do up the middle, Brayden McGregor, Josiah Stewart. We sang his praises after that last play against Alabama, but nobody seems to be able to get to Pennix quickly enough to stop him. Like Jalen Milrow was having to look down, find the snap, then put his head up and then figure like, that's why they had six sacks. Now I do want to point out something that Nick Saban said on Pat McAfee on Thursday that I thought was really interesting. He said, Michigan wasn't clapping. Cause that's, that's a penalty, but somebody was making some kind of sound that sounded like a clap, and Saban said that distracted Alabama's center.

Now, I'm not accusing anybody of anything because we've seen Alabama's center struggle with getting the ball back there during the season at various points. But I will say I have had coaches tell me, and this is not talking about this Michigan team, but about just in general, if you can find a D lineman who can make a noise with his mouth, that sounds like a very loud clap. That is an incredible skill for that person to have because they'll never call it because they can't see you doing it. Wow.

All the kids watching at home, all you guys trying to add an extra star to your rating. Just saying, maybe put an extra star. I can just do this. Whatever you got to do, man. You want to get on the field? One thing maybe you can do to add to make it a little more dangerous. Yeah, I don't know that that affects this game or not.

That may be just Nick Saban sour-graping it. I don't know. But if, if Michigan has something like that, that's pretty awesome. But I will say this, what worries me in this game for Washington and I, I was all on board. I was ready to pick Washington. So I saw this tweet from Bill Connolly, the ESPN. Bill's one of my favorite statistical nerds out there, and he appreciates being called a nerd. So he talked about how great it was that Michael Penix Jr. has thrown 21 passes to Roma Dunze when Washington's in-game win probability was under 50%. He's a ridiculous 19 for 21 for 333 yards. So like when they get in trouble, he throws to Roma doomsday, it works. They get down the field. But here's the part that Bill said that, that really caught my eye. Washington is currently 44th in the country in defensive SP

plus. So what defensive SP plus is, uh, SP plus is a ranking that uses offensive or well, offensive and defensive success rates, explosive plays, turnovers, combines all that, and it is opponent and tempo adjusted. So if you played good teams, it knows you played good teams. If you played bad teams, it knows you played bad teams, and it adjusts for that. So the last national champion to rank outside the top 30 in S&P Plus on defense was Oklahoma in 1950. Like that 2010 Auburn defense bill points out, it wasn't very good. It was 27th. That's not 44th. So what I'm worried about is there's a non-zero chance that Michigan just comes in and runs for something like nine, 10 yards a carry. And then even if you are scoring quickly, if you're Washington, eventually you just get worn down and you can't stop that.

That's the part I worry about there. This is the type of defense that Michigan scores 50 on. And so while I don't think that means Michigan is going to win 65 to seven, like Georgia did at TCU. It worries me that, that you might see a Michigan win. That's like 44 to 38 or something like that. That's where I get worried. Now, for those of us who are looking at this from a viewership standpoint and not from a gambling standpoint,

like hell yeah, let's go give, give us the shootout, but it makes it very tricky with a four and a half point spread. Yeah, it's good. Give us the shootout. But it makes it very tricky with a four-and-a-half point spread. Yeah, I mean, if we have a game where Michigan's scoring in the 50s, I have a really hard time believing they're not winning because that means they've just had their way, not just running the football,

but also probably through the air at that point. And something I'm watching here closely, Andy, is in the fourth quarter, if Michigan has anything that resembles a lead, let's say they're up by a field goal. point and something i'm watching here closely andy is at in the fourth quarter if michigan has anything that resembles a lead let's say they're they'll say they're up by a field goal you and i both know like at that point michigan's got you they got you in a little sleeper hole and they can just apply pressure and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and lean on you to where you probably already dog tired going three rounds with michigan but that fourth round where they can just run the

football and kind of take time off the clock. I mean, we we've seen that's, that's where they're at their best. So where we are going into that fourth quarter, I'm a hundred percent with you. That defense makes me very, very nervous.

I mean, honestly, the more I talk it out statistically, I lean Michigan, but I'm at this point where I'm just like, I don't trust myself against Washington. Like I've seen it too many times. I don't trust myself big against the dog.

So that's, I'm not making our pitch right now or not, problem but it's curious that's my problem too is i flipped to washington for this for the sugar bowl because they had proven me wrong so many times that it was like okay you can't keep betting against these guys like they and here's something that that with washington i think is important. I believe they've won their last nine consecutive games by 10 or fewer points. So they are good in close games. They are well coached.

Kalen DeBoer we've talked about a lot. They make the right decisions most of the time. They go for it. Both these teams are really good at knowing when to go for it on fourth down. Yeah, like you said, the fact that they just have a steady hand all of the time whenever they're playing those one score games, they're 8-0 in one score games to this point in the season. They don't get nervous. The comp for me here is like, Andy, you ever seen Alex Honnold, the free solo climber? You ever seen that documentary? That is Washington to me.

They did a study on his brain where apparently he doesn't process pressure correctly, and thank goodness when you're thousands feet up in the air with no ropes, that's Washington. Washington is the Alex Honnold of this college football playoff to me, and they've been that way this entire season. So I don't know what to think. I don't know what to think. And I'm glad. I'm glad we're not going – because last year I couldn't even pretend it was going to be a competitive national championship game. Like people would – I know ESPN, they tried to trump it up. They had their college game day, and people actually picked TCU. And I landed in Los Angeles last year, and people were asking,

like, no, this is not going to be close. Like this is a horrific historic mismatch. I'm not saying that at all about this game. I have, I don't know what's going to happen here. I'm going to make a pick here in a minute, but I don't have supreme confidence in it just because I think both these teams, because we haven't seen them against the antecedent, we don't know what's going to happen.

We just haven't seen, we don't have physical evidence of what happens when this team plays this type of team. Yeah, Washington is not TCU. They might have given you the same feelings as a viewer throughout the course of this season like a TCU, kind of like the Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad. They can't keep getting away with it feeling when they win by one score in Corvallis and they win by one score against Oregon for the second time but just because they wear purple and they win close games throughout the course of the year they're much better at quarterback they are

much more dangerous at the skill positions they're much more physical up front like that that line is what it is for a reason whereas it was double digits a year ago this time in the tcu georgia game yeah there's nfl players on both lines of scrimmage for washington that can compete with the nfl players on both lines of scrimmage for michigan i think this is going to be an epically fun game if it's as fun as the two we saw on monday night then we got the best 14 playoff yet. The last one will be the best one because we've never had one where the two semis were good and the title game was good. I think we're,

we're due for it. I think we're getting it. So JD, the floor is yours. Who you got? So I find it. I can get a Hayes Fawcett graphic or something for this to make my decision respect my decision is kind of what they're saying these days I'd said it earlier I have picked against

Washington many times this year I have been wrong many times this year I look at the logic I look at the numbers says Michigan I look at the line of scrimmage it says Michigan look at the personnel up front with the big boys it says Michigan now. Now, with that being said, I think if they have their fastball, which is that deep shot to Roman Dunzator, Jalen Polk, Jalen McMillan, I think they will get enough of that going to put the pressure on Michigan's offense. I think it's close. Andy, I think that Michigan actually controls the ball enough

when they have the football to keep it lower scoring. I like Washington, 27-24, instant classic, sent us out in style in the last of the four-team playoff. This is going to be fun because I was all set to agree with you. I was Washington all the way until that nerd Bill Connolly threw those numbers in my face. And I thought, uh-oh, what am I missing here? What am I missing? And I'll be honest, I've picked against Michigan a few times this year.

I picked against Michigan when they played, let's see, did I pick against them when they played Penn State? No, I picked them when they played Penn State. But I definitely picked against them when they played Alabama. And I don't feel that bad about it. It was a one and a half point spread that got pushed to two and a half and they ended regulation tied. So I feel, feel okay about that one, but just watching that offensive line from Michigan get after the monsters that Alabama puts up on, on their defensive front and watching those guys get pushed back and watching at the end of the game where Michigan runs at a pretty slow pace.

So it's not like they're trying to wear defenses out. And we asked Trevor Keegan, the Michigan offensive lineman, after the game, we said, did you think Alabama's defense was tired? He's like, nah. I'm telling you, I was at field level when they marched down the field the fourth quarter to tie the game and force overtime. Alabama's defense was exhausted when they threw that pass to Roman Wilson for that. The touchdown that tied it. It looked like Alabama's front seven was just done. It looked like they were cooked at that point. And so that's the part that scares me if I'm talking about a defense that hasn't been particularly great all season playing against Michigan. Because if we get that feeling from them in the second quarter, it's over.

And so it's kind of up to Michael Penix and company to get this going fast, jump on them quick, and then force Michigan to play catch up. But I just think that there's a chance that Michigan can maybe apply that sleeper hold. So I am going to take the Wolverines. It kills me giving up four and a half points. I love those four and a half points that Washington gets. But no, give me Michigan to cover and lift the national title trophy I feel good knowing that at the end of the day when the confetti falls in Houston one of us will be right like we're not going over here when it comes to

the on three attendance in Houston we will have one right national title picks we got our bases covered and it makes a ton of sense makes a ton of sense picking Michigan. I don't hate the pick by any stretch of the imagination. Like you said, it should be a phenomenal, phenomenal, entertaining game. We'll be together. The one who wins can say, I told you so, or at least force the one who loses to buy dinner. We'll get it figured out. We got lots of options. You will get tons of coverage from me and J.D. in Houston. A little get tons of coverage from me and JD in Houston. A little bonus action on Saturday from Media Day.

We're going to have a pregame show on Monday in your time slot. You're going a little different day, but your time slot. So this is going to be a fun weekend. I think it's going to be an incredible game, and I cannot wait to see it. J.D., I will see you in Houston. Everybody else, we will talk on Saturday. As promised, here is that discussion with Spencer Holbrook of Letterman Row on Will Howard committing to Ohio State. We are joined now by Spencer Holbrook of Letterman Row on Will Howard committing to Ohio State. We are joined now by Spencer Holbrook of Letterman Row.

That is on 3's Ohio State site. And the Buckeyes have a new quarterback. And it's a guy that folks who have been watching college football for a while will be very familiar with. Will Howard from Kansas State. Yeah, Will Howard from Kansas State. 6'4", 6'5", depending on where you look. 240 pounds. Much bigger than the quarterbacks we've seen from Ryan Day,

but a welcomed addition for the Buckeyes considering the way the Cotton Bowl looked and the way that the last month in change has gone from losing Kyle McCord to the injury with Devin Brown in the Cotton Bowl to a freshman not really looking quite ready for that stage yet. Good news for the Buckeyes to get Will Howard in the fold. Yeah, so he was visiting and apparently liked what he saw. There's been communication. It's interesting because Will Howard went to the transfer portal fairly early

from Kansas State. They had this decision to make because they had every Johnson who was a five-star quarterback from the state of Kansas who was a freshman this year and had actually split a little time with Will Howard. So they decided Avery's the QB of the future. Will had to decide between the NFL and going to another college, and he picks the Buckeyes. So what does he have to look forward to? Yeah, he's got a lot to look forward to because the weapons around him are going to be much better than they were at kansas state and that's no offense to the wildcats at all they do a really good job there and chris kleiman's developed him pretty well uh but uh you know when your best

weapon is a five foot nine five ten running back wide receiver combo there uh induced von a lot for a couple years uh now to go to carnell Tate and Brandon Innes and Jeremiah Smith and potentially Emeka Ibuka, potentially Travion Henderson, depending on how NFL decisions shake out. It will definitely be an upgrade for Will Howard as far as the talent level and probably as far as the quarterback development, just because of how good Ryan Day is with quarterbacks. So there's a lot to like if you're Will Howard,

competing for a national championship, obviously. Um, so a lot for Will Howard to look forward to, but I think just as much for Ohio state to look forward to getting him in there and getting, you know, to see exactly what you have now. Well, he's obviously a different kind of quarterback than Kyle McCord. Will Howard's a much better runner than McCord was. Uh, he's much bigger, as you mentioned, than, than most of the Ohio state quarterbacks we've seen in the Ryan day era. How do you expect them to use him? Yeah, it's kind of weird because

you might have saw a preview of how to use him had Devin Brown not gotten hurt in the Cotton Bowl. Ryan Day said the only reason they went to Lincoln Keenholes in the Cotton Bowl and not Tristan Jebbia, the sixth-year senior, was the fact that they had a lot of QB run in the game plan and Lincoln fit the game plan better. That could have been a preview for what we may have seen or we may see in the future with Will Howard. But I do think Ryan Day will use Will Howard's mobility. I don't think that it's going to be a featured part of the offense. Ryan Day still wants that pocket passer. He wants a CJ Stroud. He wants a Justin Fields. And even when he had Justin Fields, he didn't let him run that much. And so I think that you'll see Will Howard in the improvised settings, use his feet and be

really good at it. And I think Ryan Day is going to have a little bit of trouble accepting that at first, but I think he'll acclimate well once he sees how good Will Howard is in that setting. But you still want that pocket passer. You look at the second half, Will Howard against Texas this year and that comeback, just so poised in the pocket, able to move around, evade pressure against the best defensive tackles in the country, and find players downfield. That's exactly what Ohio State has to look forward to with Will Howard. He's a dynamic player when he has to be,

and I think that excited Ryan Day enough to pull the trigger here. And I imagine when they show him some film of Cornell Tate and Jeremiah Smith, he probably gets pretty excited too. So that's a, it's a good combination. It feels like the Buckeyes needed some good news after the cotton bowl. What has the mood been like in Columbus these last few days? Yeah. Everybody's a little on edge, right? Because not only did you not perform well in the cotton bowl, you waited until after the cotton bowl to make a coaching moves. Those moves still have not happened. I would expect a couple of them, maybe even three or four, but they haven't happened yet.

The coaches convention is this weekend. Everybody knows that that's kind of when the assistant carousel really starts to spin and find its footing. So I wouldn't be surprised if those things happen here in the next week or so. So that's kind of the mood is on edge because there's a faction of the fan base that wanted to see those done directly after the Michigan game. You know you're not making the playoff. It's 2024 time. Who cares about the Cotton Bowl? There's a faction of the fan base who cared enough about the Cotton Bowl

to give Ryan Day some time. And then even when they gave him time, they looked bad in the Cotton Bowl. And so I think it's just time for Ohio State to, like you said, stack some good news here. And the quarterback's the first domino. Maybe a couple different shakeups to the coaching staff, get some fresh faces in there, and then you'll start to see the ball rolling. People get excited because what should be a top five, top ten team here in 2024.

So what does this mean for Devin Brown? Because this is a guy who had waited. He kind of got his shot in the Cotton Bowl, gets hurt early and didn't really get a chance to show what he could do. I would imagine Will Howard's probably, I don't think maybe they'll promise him a starting job, but it seems to be probably implied that he's the guy in 2024. So if you're, if you're Devin Brown and Aaron Nolan's coming in now, Lincoln Keenholz is still there, what do you do? Yeah, that's the golden question here because the transfer portal is closed for Ohio State. Devin Brown, to my understanding, had conversations with Ohio State prior to the transfer portal closing.

This was not a blindsided move where Ohio State waited for Devin Brown to not be able to go in the portal and then take Will Howard. This was something that was talked about. So I think that's important to note. You know, this isn't a cold-blooded assassin move that just locks in Devin Brown. But at the same time, you know, Devin's the kind of kid that wants to compete. You know, he tweeted the burning boats picture saying that he was all in. There was no turning back. He did that last month.

And he's not the kind of guy that's going to go back on his word. You know, when he committed to Ohio State, decommits from USC, comes to Ohio State, and when he committed to Ohio State, there was Quinn Ewers and Kyle McCord in the room, and C.J. Stroud was the starter. He's not afraid to come in knowing what's in front of him. And so he's never backed down from competition. He will take this competition into the spring,

and I think he's going to have a really good mindset about it. But, again, you don't bring in Will Howard unless you're pretty set on, you know, we need an upgrade at quarterback. And that's not quite an indictment on the room, but it's also kind of a, hey, look in the mirror, you know, where are you in this battle? And I think at the end of the spring, that will kind of shake out a little bit better. But right now, I think the focus for Devin Brown turns to keeping the locker room, believing in you as the leader of the team like they did for the month of the Cotton Bowl, and then going into spring practice and proving to yourself that you can beat out Will Howard. And if you do, maybe Will Howard's the one in the transfer portal after the

spring window, and Devin Brown has made a great leap. And if not, then there's a spring window for Devin Brown, or he can stick around and try his hand again in 2025 after will howard's out of eligibility will howard led led his team to a big 12 championship in 2022 maybe he leads a team to a big 10 championship in 2024 we shall see spencer holbrook thank you so much thanks ad