Andy & Ari On3 - Remembering Purdue star Rondale Moore | Tennessee's Upcoming QB Battle | Kansas basketball & Darryn Peterson

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Over the weekend, former Purdue wide receiver and NFL player Rondale Moore was found dead. Andy & Ari remember the electrifying college football player and recall his famous game against Ohio State in 2018. For anyone struggling, Andy & Ari urge everyone to dial 988 in an event where you feel like you may harm yourself.   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (1:39) Presenting Sponsor (3:22) Intro: Remembering Rondale Moore (12:20) Tennessee’s QB Battle (35:50) Juiciest games of the 2026 college football schedule (39:44) Darryn Peterson with Kansas (56:51) Conclusion: USA-Canada recap   After discussing Rondale Moore, Andy & Ari divert to Knoxville, Tennessee, where Joey Aguilar was denied an injunction over the weekend. With Aguilar officially ineligible to return to the Vols, who will be the starting QB on Rocky Top? Andy & Ari discuss the potential of George MacIntyre and Faizon Brandon as Josh Heupel has a big decision to make this fall.   Moving over to college basketball, the Kansas Jayhawks must quickly turn its focus to the Houston Cougars as Kelvin Sampson’s squad travels to Allen Fieldhouse this evening in Big Monday. With an embarrassing loss to Cincinnati on Saturday, Andy & Ari ask: Is there anything to be done in the Darryn Peterson situation? How can the Jayhawks get back on track before March? Andy & Ari discuss.   To close, Andy & Ari recap the United States’ thrilling win over Canada in hockey.   For Dear Andy & Ari, send in your questions here: [e-mail] [e-mail]   Our show is also presented by BetMGM!   If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code ON3 and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works:   1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code ON3. 2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. 3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you use bonus code ON3 when you sign up!   Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary.   See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel.   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/zWhP-0eztDU   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey 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 Nari on three presented by BetMGM. We start with a very sad topic. We mourn the passing of former Purdue star Rondell Moore, who passed away over the weekend. And we're just going to talk about what he was as a player and how there are certain players that you will always remember if you're a fan of a team. And Rondell Moore is one of those guys.

And we'll also talk about what happened with him and if things are going badly with you, some things you can do about that. So it's a sad conversation. It's a tough conversation. It's one that needs to be had, and Ronnell Moore needs to be celebrated. Plus,

Joey Aguilar's request for an injunction was denied on Friday, which means Tennessee is going to have an old-fashioned quarterback competition. We don't see these much anymore in the NIL Transfer Portal era, but this is an old-fashioned quarterback competition between two high-profile recruits

that the school signed out of high school. George McIntyre versus Faison Brandon, who you got. Oh, by the way, there is a transfer. Ryan Stobb in the mix. We'll talk about that too. Plus the Darren Peterson situation at Kansas, as the Jayhawks get ready for Big Monday against Houston, it gets weirder and weirder it feels like with each passing game.

Ari and I will break down all the elements of this because this is an NBA story. This is a college basketball story. This is an NIL story. This is something that could translate to football. there's a lot going on here. We'll talk about it all. On today's Andy Naurion 3, presented by Bed MGM.

This show is presented by BetMGM, and there's no better place to be during March matchups than Las Vegas. This year, college basketball fans can win a VIP trip to the Court of Legends event featuring the Cavender Twins. Simply place sports bets, and your position on the leaderboard will determine if you win one of the 25 grand prize packages. Just sign into your BetMGM account, opt into the promotion,

and start placing sports bets of a leaderboard. at least $10 to climb the leaderboard. Make this March 1 to remember, join the Court of Legends leaderboard and make it legendary. If you haven't signed up for BedmGM yet, don't forget to use code CFB, that CFB is in college football, to claim your new player offer worth up to $1,500 off your first wager with BadmGM. So come see us on the Court of Legends and make it legendary with BetMGM. Betmgm.com for terms, 21 plus only U.S. promotional offers are not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler in the U.S.

Call 8778 Hope N.Y or text Hope N.Y. 467369 in New York. Call 1-800 next step in Arizona. Call 1-800-327-50-5-0-0-0 in Massachusetts. Call 1-800-off in Iowa or 1-800-981-0-0-2-3 in Puerto Rico. First bet offer for new customers only, subject to eligibility requirements, rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM and Ari, we got to start with a very sad topic. and that is the passing of Ron Dale Moore, who we watch play at Purdue,

we try and play in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals season, the Vikings roster passed away this weekend. The police in New Albany, Indiana, have said it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and just terrible news, and a sad day for everybody who love Rondell Moore and college football in general, because he's one of those guys that,

you were at the Ohio State Purdue game in 2018. But he's one of those guys that everybody who saw that game kind of remembers where they were when they watched it. Purdue fans especially. I mean, Purdue fans, this is one of the legendary games in the school's history. But everybody knows where they were. Because this guy was unstoppable in that game.

And actually for most of that season. Yeah. You know, in this sport, you know, in this position, I think that there are times where we get to know people and there are times that we don't. And you're just obviously generally aware of everybody and their abilities on the field. But, you know, I had interviewed Rondale a few times back in 2018. I believe once at a Big Ten Media Day and, of course, you know, after that game. And I didn't know him well.

I don't really know him at all. But for whatever reason, when that notification popped up on my phone on Saturday night, I was saddened. Just because of, one, and he was responsible for so many people's happiness, especially on one October evening. But two, a guy who went to the NFL, a guy that, you know, had his whole life in front of him. And it just, it's just awful. And there's no other way to say it.

So that one really hit me. And I thought it was important, Andy, that you and I got on here today and at least remembered him as a player and read his message of what we can learn. from this and of course, you know, publicly, you know, acknowledge and mourned his loss. Yeah. It's one of those things that it's so, at 25 years old, and this is one of those that as I get further along in age, you realize how young that is, how much you have ahead of you, how many things you miss. And it's just the saddest to know that this is how this ended. and this is a guy who, you know, went to Purdue. He believed in Jeff Brom.

He could have gone to some other bigger places. Was a big star as a freshman. We actually probably never got to see a fully realized Rondell Moore as a football player. Because remember he got hurt his sophomore year. He had a pulled hamstring and didn't really get to play all that much as sophomore year. 2020 is the COVID year where the Big Ten goes to. to cancel the season and they played a very short in season. He had injury issues during that season as well. His best NFL season was probably his rookieer with the Cardinals. And then I think

there were more injury issues that popped up. But we may have never really actually seen how good he could have been. But it's one of those things where because of the way college football works, because of the lore of college football, because of the way we remember as fans, he's immortal. because of that night against Ohio State. If he never played another game after that, he was immortal. Yeah. I mean, that night in general, Andy, I don't know how much you remember it.

I remember it vividly having been there was the Tyler Trent game. And, you know, it was heavy just in and of itself because of the sadness of that story. Tyler Trent was the young man who had cancer who Purdue's football team had basically adopted him. Yeah, and I think that, you know, if I remember correctly, he had wished that Purdue would win that game against Ohio State. And they not only won, they won 49 to 20. And Ron Dale Moore had 170 yards receiving on 12 receptions and two touchdowns, one of which was like an emphatic throwing defensive backs off of him as he ran into the end zone to steal the game shot. And I think what was so remarkable about that, too, was that Ron Dale Moore in stature wasn't a very big person. You know, I think he was five, eight and a half, if I remember correctly.

And when he was on the field that day against, you know, and that was the epitome and the peak of the talent accumulation era, like he was the largest man on the field. And, you know, it was just kind of like a shocking result for obvious reasons. Ohio State didn't typically lose those games. But the way that they did it, the atmosphere that was in that building that night, like I have a hard time believing that Purdue, based on on what Rondale did on that field that night, wouldn't have beaten anybody in the country. They were unbelievable. And I also, you know, I'm not an NFL reporter and I haven't been to a ton of NFL games, have gone to a few as a fan.

Like that was the type of environment that could only be cultivated in college football. And part of the reason why I love the sport so much. And, you know, that's a night that I'll remember for the rest of my life and Ron Dale Moore has a large part of the reason for that. So, yeah, terrible, terrible sadness on my end. And, you know, I can't imagine what it's like to be a part of the Purdue community, his family, people who coached him. He was, from what I remember, a really great guy and, of course, a tremendous football player.

Yeah. So he was a player rep for the NFL Players Association as well, and the NFLPA put out a statement, which kind of gives you a little, maybe a little peek behind the curtain of what was going on. And it says, in part, in moments like this, we're reminded how much our players carry on and off the field to our members. please know that support is always within reach, check in your teammates and prioritize your mental health. If you or someone you know is struggling, we encourage you to take advantage of the many competence of resources available to you through the NFLPA. And to extend that more, I want people to understand this,

because our show, we know what demographic we're reaching here. We realize this is a mostly male audience here. And I think things have gotten better in terms of not feeling like you have to have hold everything inside, that you can't go ask for help. But I want people understand that you can always ask for help, that you don't need to feel like there's anything unmanly or wrong about asking for help or saying, I'm not okay right now. And I saw, Ari, I saw a flyer on a light post the other day when I was at the grocery store. And it hit me again when I saw the news about Ronell Moore. There's a number now. It's 9-88. And I, like, I remember when I was a, when I was a kid,

and they were trying to train all of us to use 911 in an emergency. And it was still a fairly new thing. I was not aware of 9-8-8 until I saw this flyer the other day. But that is, it is the number you call if you are feeling like you might harm yourself. And so I just, if I didn't know about it, I'm sure there's other people who didn't know about it too. So 9-88 is the number. I just want you to, everybody just kind of put that. in the back of your mind in case you or somebody you know gets into one of these situations.

And I just, I want to make sure everybody understands it is okay to not be okay. It is okay to ask for help. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that, Andy. And I think, too, that, you know, this show, college football in general is so filled with levity and, you know, humor and it is just a game at the end of the day. And, you know, every now and then you get hit with like really heavy stuff. from people who are involved in the sport or people who used to be in the sport.

And it reminds you that, you know, as fun as college football is, like, there are bigger things. Your mental health, your relationships with your family, you know, your health, all those things that are bigger than college football. And, you know, I just thought it was important. And Andy did, too, to at least just kind of get that message out there of just like, take care of yourself, be good to yourself. and there's nothing that you could be going through that's worth doing harm to yourself. So anyway, I wanted to thank Rondale Moore and remember him for one of the coolest nights

on the job I've ever had. And hopefully the Purdue community and his family are okay. Yeah, just prayers to his family and his loved ones because I can't even imagine what you're going through right now. So we now turn to the actual business of college football. and we're going to turn back the clock a little bit because on Friday we had the modern thing happened. We had a court, you know, a court decision involving college football. So Joey Aguilar started a quarterback of Tennessee last year, was trying to get an extra year of eligibility. He

had sued in state court. The judge had said, hey, I'm going to take this information and I'm going to think about it for a while and I'll make a decision. So a week after they're hearing, the judge releases his decision on Friday afternoon. Joey Aguilar denied an injunction. So he's going to the NFL Combine this week. He's going to head to the pros. He's not playing for Tennessee next year, which leads to a genuine old-school quarterback battle.

Now, there is a transfer involved here, a third guy. But the two favorites in this quarterback battle at Tennessee, George McIntyre, Faison, Brandon, and George McIntyre signed with Tennessee in the class of 2025. He was a four-star guy. Faison Brandon, I believe rivals had him at a four-star, but kind of like 40th in the country. So right on the cusp of being a five-star

and was a five-star by some recruiting services. So two very highly recruited guys who signed at high school, this is how every one of these used to be at premium schools. Yeah. We don't see this anymore. you know, I don't know, River can help us out here, but I really don't think it doesn't feel like Tennessee is devastated by the news. Now, of course, I think they would have liked to have Joey Aguilar back. But the fact that they have three players on their team, two of which are high school guys, one of which is a five-star freak of nature.

I mean, like, it doesn't seem like things are overly dire in their room. Between those three guys, they should be able to find a pretty high-level quarterback. And, you know, before we get into the two high school guys, Andy, you remember last season, the transfer, I don't know, college football head should remember. Ryan, Robb. Colorado was like a story for three weeks when he came in. And I think he lit it up in the second half of one of the games that he got put in. Yeah, it was the Delaware game. So he comes in against Delaware, lights it up.

Dion decides to start him the next week against Houston. It does not go particularly well. they lose. He throws a couple of picks there in the second half. He doesn't play again until mop-up duty in Utah game five weeks later. So yeah, he was a story for a minute. So he's in this competition as well, Ryan Stobb. But you've also got George McIntyre and Faison, Brandon, who, you know, both of those guys committed to Tennessee fairly early. So George McIntyre committed to Tennessee in January 2024. So it's, it's, it's, Interesting to look back at what was actually going on at the time.

So George McIntyre commits in January 2024. Faison Brandon commits in August 2024. So that's a year and a half, essentially, ahead of when Faison Brandon arrived on campus. In January 2024, when George McIntyre committed, Niko Iamaliava had made one start for Tennessee. He'd started the bowl game against Iowa. And it was Niko Mania. Everybody was pumped. The idea that they went out, they signed this guy to this big and I.

deal. We're finally going to get to see him as the full-time starter. This is the dawn of a new era of Tennessee football. And by the way, they made the playoff that year. And then George McIntyre's on campus in spring practice when Nico decides, I'm out. Yeah. And like last year, George McIntyre was like the, well, what if we have to roll with him guy? And we thought, well, maybe that would work, but if you get another year of development, if they go find somebody to plug and play, keep him in the system for another year, he will be unquestionably ready from an experience standpoint to at least compete for a job. And here we are, Andy, a year later, and he's right in the thick of thing. So, you know, and I know that you have this, this view, and I think, I tend to

agree with you. But whenever you have people who commit to places that seem to be spoken for, or if they don't shy away from signing with the team when there's another player in that class with them, that's more, you know, lauded publicly, that those tend to be the guys who quietly turn out to be awesome. But who's that in this case? Because George McIntyre signed with the idea of succeeding Nico.

Yeah, but he was only a year before him, wasn't he? So he still signed. No, he's two years. Oh, he was two years? Oh, I thought that he was. Nico's class of 23, McIntyre's class of 20. Okay. All right.

Let's just cut that whole thing out because I sound like an idiot. I thought they were a year apart from each other. Phazon fits that. Phazon probably fits that category. Yeah. So we can see. We don't need to cut this out. Because I think Phazon fits exactly what you're talking about.

Phazon Brandon committed in August 2024. Nico is the starting quarterback in August 2024. when he committed. George McIntyre is committed, hoping to be the successor to Nico I Amaliava. Faison Brandon says, I don't care who's there. I'm going to be the one who succeeds Nico I amaliava.

Yeah, that was the plan. Make the same case I was making in reverse, too, because usually if you're the guy in the middle who isn't a five star and your sandwich between two five stars, that usually is a one-way bus ticket out of town. So, you know, you're just staying. So exactly.

You're right on this. think you've got the two guys right, which probably has a little bit to do with why the majority of Tennessee fans are not broken up about not getting Aglar back. Yeah. And I also think that this is kind of vintage college football in the sense of like we had our guys. They played their time. And now we're moving on to the homegrown guys that, you know, Hypo plucked out of high school. Now, I don't know.

If you would have asked me three years ago, Andy. Do you still feel like in order to be a functional program, you have to eventually get back to recruiting guys out of high school and developing your own guy and kind of doing what like Notre Dame did with CJ Carr, where you play the transfer game, you know, two or three years, and then you finally go to a guy you developed yourself, and that's when your program becomes whole? I don't know if I believe that anymore,

because there's so much success now on a year-to-year basis of guys just like going to new places and having great years. But I do really think that there is a benefit to signing with a place out of high school, staying on campus for a year or two and then competing for the job. And I don't know if George McIntyre is going to win it because, you know, frankly speaking, I just don't know if he has the physical traits

that Faison Brandon has, but it's going to be a hell of a competition. And you've got to feel like between those two and Stobb that whoever they land on, and like, Stob kind of reminded me in like his big game against Delaware of like the way that Joey Aguilar plays a little bit. He was chucking it downfield, kind of throwing it all over the place. And, you know, I know it didn't last for the rest of the year

and he ended up going back to the bench. Didn't last for the rest of the week. Yeah. So they called Martin Luther. I don't know if you remember that because he stayed on campus, could have transferred out. Do you remember like Dion? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, he committed to Carl Derell's staff and decided to sign with Dion, which means the Dion staff looked at him and thought, okay, we'll take this guy. And then stayed with, yeah, backed up Shador Sanders for two years, could have left after that. when they brought in Caden Salter and Julian Lewis and decided not to. So it was a big deal not only because the way that he played,

but because he went in before Juju, if I remember correctly. Or he came in for Juju or something. Well, no, they'd put Lewis in, I believe, and it didn't look good. Right. And then he came in and threw for like 300 yards in the second half. And I get it they were playing Delaware, but it was a big moment of like, oh my God. So who knows? Who knows how it's going to play out? But I do know this. Josh Heiple has...

in my opinion, done a very good job as Tennessee's coach. And if you think about where they were at this time, maybe a little bit a month later, but this time last year with the Nico situation, what we thought Tennessee was going to be. I mean, I remember Urban Meyer said that Tennessee was screwed on his podcast, and that went viral. It's like Tennessee was far as crude.

I'm saying Urban Meyer's right. You did or I did? I can't remember. I did. I reread it the other day. And I thought they were. But Joey Agler was the medicine they needed at the time. Now, it's going to be interesting watching this.

George McIntyre is 6-6 Tennessee lists him at 195 right now. We don't have an updated roster. Our guy Austin Price for Ballquest interviewed him about a month ago, and he asked McIntyre about his weight and workouts and the new strength staff. And McIntyre did not mention a number, which I thought was telling. But that's been the thing with him is can he get some. volume on can he can he get a little bit bigger and stronger because he's got a really good arm he's a good pocket operator the the thing with phazon brandon who's a really good athlete dual threat

just from talking to charles power who's our director scouting is that phazon brandon's high school offense did not really ask him to throw the ball down and feel very much and so it's unknown how good he is at that you've seen it against air in camps but you haven't necessarily seen it in the games and i think that's going to be something that they'll have to evaluate come spring practice. That was a big element of Tennessee's offense last year. That's the thing that you can make the case that Joey did the best. He was the one that was connecting with these deep shots to their really good receivers a year ago. And then when Nico was on the team the year before, he seemed to miss all those.

So I know Tennessee wants to make sure that whoever's playing quarterback next year still dialed in with those shots because it's a big part of Tennessee's offense. Yeah. So that's where it's going to come down to. And I think that's where Stobb, who comes into this thing as the Dark Horse, is interesting because he's pretty fearless, maybe a little too fearless, which is exactly what we said about Joey Aguilar coming in last season. But, you know, at the very least,

I don't know if Stob's going to be the starter. I might probably be surprised if he were, but getting somebody who has been in a program for multiple years, stayed with it, you know, kind of the same ilk. I mean, it's probably a good position room guy. Well, yeah, it's definitely what you want in a backup. For sure. So it gives you some comfort there.

And let's not forget Tennessee gets to Sean Bishop back at running back. He averaged 5.9 yards to carry 16 TDs. They're going to run the ball pretty well. Probably they'd revamp their offensive line. So this quarterback does not have to come in and be Superman for them to be okay. We're going to find out defensively because remember defensively was they had bigger defensive problems, I think, last year. Yeah. And people realize that's why they part waves with Tim.

banks. That's why they go out and get Jim Knowles. So I think if they're better defensively, if they can still run the ball, this quarterback is not going to have to do anything amazing. And if one of these quarterbacks happens to be amazing, then you can start getting very excited. Now, I will point out, as producer Rivers throws up a schedule, Texas and Auburn coming to Neeland Stadium to open the SEC schedule in September and early October, they, then are dealing with Alabama. They've got to go to A&M. They've got to play LSU.

Vandy, obviously, probably still going to be a problem. This is going to be a tough schedule. Yeah. They play at Georgia Tech early. Georgia Tech's radically revamped. Their O.C.'s gone.

Quarterback's gone. But Brent Key is going to mash you up front. That's what he does. Yeah. Does it kind of feel like, and I don't know if this is right or wrong, but that like the benchmark for Tennessee this season is yet again, another, you know, nine and three type year.

Like, is that what you're hoping for? Like, what are Tennessee's rational expectations for this year? And, you know, the question that I do have is, is that, like, it's funny to me because I feel like Josh Hyple has done such a really good job as Tennessee's coach. And I don't even know if last year, like, if they had a bad year last year, I'm not even sure I would have counted it against him. But does he get credit for how good they were in spite of the situation?

that they were in last year. And if they go, uh, that's so that goes, that's the problem. So the thing that I'm kind of sensing. Demanding place. It's a demanding place.

Here's the thing I'm sensing. I'm sensing. If Tennessee goes eight and four or nine and three this year, are people going to start becoming frustrated with him? Yes. Yes. It was just like, don't you dare hire our coach away like six months ago, you know,

whenever the coaching carousel was three months ago. Oh, I thought, was more, we're getting this out here. So you guys, you ungrateful people start appreciating what you've got a little bit. Yeah. I think that's what that was. That may have been coming from Heipels camp or, or so, because I didn't get that sense from the schools that were looking.

That's not where I got that sense from. So I think that was more of a, hey, why don't you guys look at what this guy is actually done and try to appreciate them a little bit? I almost wondered, did Josh Hyple get Tennessee out of hell too early? It's like almost too fast, yeah. But I mean, you want to be fast. The situation he inherited was horrific. Now, remember, this is early in the NIL transfer. Actually, well, the NIL era hadn't even started when he got the job.

It starts six months into him having the job. The transfer rules hadn't really, hadn't all the way changed yet. What he inherited looked awful. And then he's winning 10 games in year two. and it's like, oh, oh, okay, we're ahead of schedule now. Then they make the playoff in year four. Tennessee was an absolute dumpster fire for like the first 12 years of my professional career and I don't even remember that.

Like that's like I'm like past that. Like Tennessee was kind of like no man's land in my head. And now Tennessee is like consistently at least solid. And I think that that's obviously much better than what they were. Like, I mean, just to think about to where Tennessee's program was when all the, they were bad when Jeremy Pruitt coached them. That's what I'm saying.

And, uh, you know, uh, it was just like a nightmare. They kept hiring coaches. They were firing them prematurely. Like they weren't winning any games.

They were getting their ass kicked on the biggest stage. Yeah. But Jones had a good year and a half essentially. That, that, that between, between Lane Kiffin taking the job and, and being,

I guess, okay for a year. You know, they weren't even that good that year. but they had a plan clearly. And then he leaves. So between then post-2009 season and Hypo getting there,

they had a good year and a half. That was it. It was a long time. And I was like kind of in the, not in the center, but like at least kind of in the atmosphere, like when the Greg Shiano stuff was happening. And like I remember like,

oh my God, that place is such a dumpster fire. Like I remember thinking like there's not like that. It's two things. I think two things can be true. I think it was highly. dysfunctional what happened with Greg Shiano. I also don't think Greg Shiano was the right fit for Tennessee. That's great. Yeah, no, I don't disagree with that. I just like what happened there and why it

happened and when it happened and how it happened. It was just kind of like, why would he even want that job? And then Hypo goes in there and turns it into a place that feels like it's on the verge of being excellent or at least elite. And like, and I think he's accomplished that without ever really breaking through. Now, they didn't make the playoff one year. And obviously the way that the playoff run ended was kind of rough for them. But they did make the playoff one year. And it feels like they are just consistently going to be solid. Now Tennessee fans are left wanting more for obvious reasons and they should. And I just don't know if this is a year they're going to get it.

And how long of being consistently solid do you get before you start getting choked out by your own standard that you created? Exactly. And now, how do you ascend to another level with a great quarterback? How do you get a great quarterback? You either go buy one or you develop one. Now, they did try to buy one. They had Sam Levin on campus. Let's not forget, Lane Kiffin going to the McGee Tyson Airport and Lovely Alcoa, Tennessee

to go find Sam Levitt because Tennessee was working on him. It had to post that picture to his Twitter, didn't he? He just had to. Of course he did. Now, you can argue whether Tennessee was just sort of messing with LSU and driving up the price. But the fact of the matter is they had one of the most sought after transfer QBs in the market on their campus. I think they would have been fine and very happy to sign him, which would have been crazy because you've paid a bunch of money to these highly touted recruits.

And at what point do you want a little ROI on that? Because here's the thing. I can tell you just mathematically, one of the people you paid for, be it George McIntyre or Faison Brandon, you will get no ROI out of, most likely. That's the nature of the position. It's not like two offensive tackles

where one can play left and one can play right. Well, I think, yeah, like when you, I think that you need to look at it as we made an investment in the quarterback room and did we get our money's worth. Exactly. And the thing is, if they wind up with a quote unquote franchise Hube, who they're going to get at least two good years as a starter out of, then yes, you invest your money well. Exactly.

So we'll see. But I do wonder, and I have had these thoughts, they're dark thoughts. But like if Tennessee goes eight and four, like do we start next August talking about Heipel as like seat being? Oh, we'll be talking about it in November. Okay. We'll go to Mega Board Wednesday and we'll pull up ValQuest the General's quarters and it will be just Rivers

of Fire. You had to say Rivers, didn't you? Producer Rivers just silently I like look at whenever we're talking about scenes on this topic. I can see him but you can't audience. I can't look at him while we're talking about it. And I don't know.

I don't know how he feels, but I think that like River is, you know, he's been in this. Why don't we call him up? He's a very famous person on this show. Hi, producer, River. What I think that he's, like, at least been in this, in a professional setting long enough to, like, be a more rational fan than most people.

So I don't know if he's a good reflectant of Baltimore or my family. I know what was going on Saturday night when Tennessee was winning a basketball. I know. He's not that rational. No, it's fun. River, if Tennessee goes seven and five or eight and four this year, where are you with Josh Hyder? Oh, well, definitely.

I mean, it depends on who you lose to and how you lose them. But, I mean, look at the SEC schedule. You start off the SEC schedule. Those first four games, Texas, Auburn, Arkansas, Alabama. You need to go at least three in one of those. And you can't lose your old OC, right? Like if Alex Golish brings Byron Brown into Neeland Stadium and win, Oh, boy.

Now, what's going to be telling is when Kiffin comes back to town on November 21st. That's going to be, that's going to be either nail in the coffin or we're back, you know. Ari, I know we can't make travel plans for November this early. We got to go to that game. See, I want to go to, like, I don't know, again, River's probably more offended by this than I am. but like Tennessee does not hate Lane Kiffin as much as Ole Miss does right now, do they? Like is the pain still there?

They don't hate them, but they just hate if he's the one sticking the knife in the side of you. They don't want him to do it to him. Like they could just let him be in Baton Rouge, but I mean now. Yeah. Well, I think the goalish thing's worse because I do think after Byron Brown had his first good year at USF,

it's like, why doesn't Tennessee just go get back? Byron Brown. We know he can run that offense. I lost my Instagram for three weeks, right? Welcome back. And this is going to make sense, Andy. I know you always go, oh, God, what the hell is this going to be? But I promise you, I'm going to land the plane.

But when I, so I lost hope because it was like so hard to get back in. I was like, I'm never getting it back. So I created another one. And there's a mechanism that you can sink. your contacts with to help find people to follow faster. And I did that. And I ended up following accidentally some women in the past that I would have no interest in ever talking to again. And if you would have, I didn't even know where this is going, but I'm happy.

But if that would have happened to me in 2020, like, that would have been like, it would have ruined my week. But now because I'm secure in my own life and I'm happy and I've got a beautiful wife and child. Like I have stopped worrying about other girls that I may have had problems with in the past. So my point is, is that Josh Hypole is Tennessee's Britt. Like you have a good coach. You're in a healthy place. You're not dysfunctional anymore.

For those who don't know, Britt is Ari's beautiful, saintly wife. He puts up with him all the time. and I don't know how she does it. But actually, this is a great analogy. The deeper we go, the better it gets. Yeah, but like, you don't have to worry about Lane Kiffin. You're a crazy ex-girlfriend, and she might be smoking hot, and she might be the apple of somebody else's eye,

but you have your stable, beautiful wife with you. On the other hand, like, at Ole Miss, like, your wife was, like, banging your neighbor. Like, and she's like, and now she moved in with him. And now she's coming back to your. your house for like a Christmas party like the first week of the year. Like that is so much worse. So like I like right like it's so much worse. Tennessee. That's just a girl that you hook Ari. I have I have an idea. This is a you know, we're always looking for for good segments in the

off season. Let us scour the schedule. This is homework for this week. And and I want all of you listening to do this too. So this is next Monday's show. unless there's crazy news. But next Monday show. So I want everybody to write in. You know how to find us. Andy Stapleson3 at gmail.com, ari.wasterman and on3.com.

Social media at Andy Staples at Ari Wasserman. Hit us up. What games this college football season have the juiciest storylines? LSU at Ole Miss, I think, is going to be number one. Pretty sure. But there will be a lot of. other ones. I want to know what you think are the juiciest games of the 2026 season because we are going to go into that. I cannot wait to dive into that list.

I am excited to even think about it. Like the idea of Lane Kiffin coming back to Ole Miss, the idea of Lane Kiffin going to Knoxville, the idea of Alex Golish going to Knoxville, these all seem very intriguing to me. It's like a scorned lovers list or just It doesn't even have to be that, though. It could be a quarterback left somewhere and then they go back to play them. There's all manner of this. Yeah. It's everywhere.

But I had, and I don't know, we talked about it and joked about it through text, but like I had September 26th, Texas at home circled on my list for a big Rogersville, like banger weekend. I bring the starter log. We like the fire in the Walmart parking lot. We just get, we just like roll. They don't have the bonfire in the Walmart parking lot. That is just where everything starts.

That's where the night begins. I thought that there was like a big metal can that they put. Do you think the Walmart corporation would be down with that? Come on now. Not that crazy. Oh, I don't know. We just, that's the, that's the local gathering place.

It's like you start there and then. But drinks are consumed in the parking lot, I assume, right? In the car, in the car. You keep them in the car. It's not legal in the car either. Yeah. Is it illegal?

Are you in a dry county? River? We used to be. Oh, are you moist now? All right. Is it illegal to consume beer in a car if your keys are in it? It's illegal to consume beer in a car, period, in a lot of states. Like, if you had your keys for a safety measure on the hood of the car and you were just sitting in the seats, I would have to read the individual state law. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. chance it. I wouldn't invite the cops over to check out your, your cup holders in that scenario. Yeah. Well, I mean, Uber is, I don't know, Uber has been the biggest godsend in that regard. I don't recommend drinking and driving. I think that's a terrible thing to do,

not condoning it. I just was, I'm just also trying to figure out. Like when in Rome. Public service announcement on this show, like, Ryan sharing services exist now. There's no excuse to get a DUI. Yeah. But when in Rome, you do as the Roman do and I want to party in the Walmart parking lot before we go to the bonfire. And like I want River to turn this into

like a homecoming Rogersville to me. So is this our Friday night or our Thursday night? You can decide that. I just want it to be one of the nights. I mean, it's going to be a high school football Friday night. So it's probably going to be Rogersville. Yeah. We bring

former slot receiver River Bailey. We've shown his highlight tape before. River was a beast. Yeah. But I've never been to a game in Knoxville, and I really want to rectify that. It's so close to the office, too. It's like it makes no sense that I've never been to one. We're going to fix it.

We're going to Texas, Texas, Tennessee sounds amazing. I think we can pencil that in probably, but, you know, we can't make any promises. I could speak to Ohio State, too. Like, that would be huge in that. So, yeah, but the looking forward to the juiciest storylines, let's do that Monday next week. Yes. So send us your favorite games, the games that you are thinking, this is the, from a soap hopper standpoint, this excites me more than anything. Send us those. All right,

all right. We got to get into a topic that is a basketball one, but I feel like it's universal. The Darren Peterson thing at Kansas, we talked about this with the Arizona game, with the guy texting from the sideline saying he's out. Bill Self told him, don't play if you're going to give it 100%, all that. It gets weirder and weirder and weirder. So since, since Atty blew out Kansas on Saturday. Darren Peterson played 32 minutes. I believe that most minutes he played all season. That came after he pulled himself out of the Oklahoma State game

while having a great game. And they just sort of shut it down for most of the second half. Kansas plays Houston tonight on Big Monday. So 9 p.m. Eastern time. The current line is Houston is a one and a half point favorite on the road, which, by the way, that's come down in the last hour. or so. Yeah, because didn't

Kansas to meet Arizona at home like a week ago? That was two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, running Bill Self's Big Monday Fog Allen Fieldhouse record to 40 and O. Like Bill Self is 40 and oh. And remember, Big Monday always means you're playing somebody good in Big 12 play. So it's insane that his record is what it is.

Insane. That's pretty wild. Yeah. And maybe that's why. But Houston is a top 10 team. Houston was number two last week. They lost Arizona on Saturday at home. They are still very good.

They lost to Iowa State before that. So they basically lost two other top five teams last week. This is going to be crazy, but this Darren Peterson thing is wild because he's supposed to be the number one pick of the NBA draft. He might not be now. his nickname among the college basketball fans is D&P. He trademarked that, I think. I hope so.

Hopefully he can make some money off of it. But it's the strangest situation because there's an ESPN story out today by Myron Medcaf where he talked to Peterson between the Oklahoma State game and the Cincinnati game. So clearly Peterson's camp is now trying to get his story out. It's not a case of Kansas. Like, Kansas isn't hiding him or protecting him or anything like that. If anything, it feels like Bill Self just kind of said, all right, enough of this. But it's very interesting because I don't know what to say.

How do you handle this situation if you're Bill Self and you're Kansas? Because that Cincinnati game, he plays 32 minutes. He scores 17 points. One is seven from three. This is a guy who can do everything offensively, just kind of float around the perimeter for a lot of the game. Is it possible they're better without him? I mean, I saw some basketball cover saying that like Kansas didn't flow as normal

or court offensively. And this Myron Medcaf story, which was very interesting, like he talks to some of the other Kansas players. It sounds like they're a pretty tight-knit team independent of Darren Peterson. And I'm just wondering if you're Bill Sell. me. How do you handle this? Because obviously, he's incredibly skilled. We can get into the draft part of this in a second, but that's another discussion. I'm more interested in Kansas right now as they go to play Houston and try to prepare for the NCAA tournament. If you're both self,

if he can't play the way he's supposed to play, or if the way he's supposed to play takes the rest of your team out of its chemistry, are you better off just saying, you know what? Maybe this didn't work. And we're going to ride with the guys who've been playing all season. Well, the thing with basketball is, and we didn't mention this, but like, go USA winning the gold

medal on Sunday morning. I woke up early to even watch that. I don't know if you did. We watched the whole thing. I had three minutes to go in regulation. My wife throws her phone down and says, I can't watch it. It's too tense. Yeah. My wife was getting coffee. But the thing that I always marvel with when it comes

to hockey and like watching events like that, too, is that, you know, these guys all play hockey, but it probably takes quite a bit of time and effort to get on the same page with people in a game that flows the way that those games do. And I don't know if it's Darren Peterson's, the amount of time that he's missed that has. He has been injured.

Like he's had a hamstring injury. It's not, they're not making that up. No, right. But regardless of the reason he's been out, basketball is a very flowy game that's relying on chemistry and if some major piece of your offense

no matter how skilled he is is in and out of the thing all year I can see why when he's in it becomes harder to operate as a five man you know yeah and it changes your substitution it changes your substitution

patterns it changes how like how much each player gets used because Darren Peterson's usage rate, which is a term that measures, like how often you are the guy initiating the offense or taking the shots or, you know, doing the things with the ball, essentially.

I mean, doesn't this happen in the NBA off the charts when he plays? This happens in the NBA all the time, like when there's major blockbuster trades or offseason acquisitions and stuff, like you have a lot of really good players who just don't play well together, and it doesn't work.

So, like, here's the, you know, the question you have to ask Andy is, one, Bill Self's job is to put the best best team on the floor, not the best players in the floor. Yeah. So can you sink as much money as you do from a financial perspective into an individual player and a five, when there's only five players on the court and then not play that person? Or are you okay with eating that investment in a player that could be a top five or maybe will be a top five pick in the NBA draft and then fielding a better team?

Like, I don't know from a financial perspective, what's even. This is where this bleeds into football and any other sport, really. Any pro sport, because college sports is now pro sports. If you had a college football team and you paid all this money for a quarterback, and when he's on the field, your team struggles and when the backup comes in, your offense moves, what are you supposed to do? What are you supposed to think? Well, like you just said about Bill Self, the coach's job is to win games.

The coach's job is not to satisfy whoever has the biggest paycheck. And so you may have to vote the checks. Because that's the other aspect of this, too. That is the other aspect of why did it do and write the check? To win. For that player or to win games? To win games. So I would say you view it as a sunk cost.

If you are worse with him on the floor, then do the thing that makes you better. Or go to him and say, listen, this is how we need you to play. And if you don't like that, you don't have to be here. It's funny. I say all this because the guy's probably going to drop 25 tonight. They're going to beat Houston. 10. Is the situation tonight, though, that he is expected to play and be in the game, the entire

game? Like, there's no weirdness happening right now. The Kansas fans who seem to grow more cynical with each passing day, I was cruising Jayhawkslant, our Kansas site. And on their message boards, some of the fans are like, well, it's a good defensive team, so he's probably not going to play. Like, that's where they're at, right? They've reached that point already.

I want to walk. I think after the Oklahoma State game, when he pulled himself out and Stephen A. Smith got on first take the next morning and said, there's no way in hell I'd take him with the first pick. I think they're in Peterson's team at that point. It was like, uh-oh. Now we screwed up. Because like right now,

AJ DeBonsa at BYU, who is probably the highest paid player in college basketball. Like, he's full, full board pedal of the metal all the time. Like he he ain't playing around. He's carrying that team. Cameron Boozer at Duke.

You saw him against Michigan on Saturday night. He scored a bunch of points right there at the end. He took over the game. Who would you rather have playing for you in the NBA? Because one thing I think is interesting about NIL in football and basketball. Like we, okay, the combines this week, the NFL combine. What are they going to ask all these players? Do you love football?

And it used to be, you'd have to, you would ask that because you want to know when this guy gets some money, is he still going to treat it the same way? Is he still going to play like you would play it for free? Well, now you actually have the answer to it before he even gets to the combine or ditto for Darren Peterson before he gets to the draft. You already know what he's going to be like when he has money. They have money now. Well, I think that is interesting because it's very easy to be nonchalant with your. college team because you're all looking forward to the NBA. And it's like, well, regardless what happens to Kansas this year, I'm going to the NBA. I'm going to be the first pick. But if your conduct or your production or a combination of those two things hurt you from being that number one overall pick, and I know Stephen A. Smith says a lot of things. But my understanding of Stephen A. Smith is that he knows the most about the NBA, right?

Like, that's kind of like his specialty. That's his area of expertise, yes. So if he is saying that publicly in casting, doubt on your draft stock, like that is the, that signal to me to be like, get your shit together and play. You know what I mean? That's the thing. Like, if I'm, if I'm picking number one in the NBA draft, I want the guy who plays his

balls off every, every game, no matter what the circumstances are. You want your Cooper flag. You want that guy. Or Ant Man. Right. Ant Man played on a bad Georgia team or not a great Georgia team. I know that it was during the pandemic. He plays his ass off.

Yes, yes. All the time. All the time. Like, Ben Simmons, when you saw him at LSU, and guess what? Ben Simmons took a lot of money to not play basketball in the NBA. Yeah. So you've got to figure that out. I'll give you to you mentioned the hockey game.

Here's a good example of this. Did you see after the game when they gave out the me? game when they gave out the medals and the and they stuffed animals. The most painful part of watching that was watching the Canadian players get the stuffed animals. Yeah, right. So Connor McDavid and Nathan McKinnon. Connor McDavid is the best hockey player in the world. Nathan McKinnon is one of the best hockey players in the world.

Like watching them get the stuffed animal and the look of disgust on their face because they had just played. That's the hockey equivalent of the Pop-Tart Bowl, by the way. Right. They had just played as hard as possible. Like, they get paid to play in the NHL. They're not getting paid to play for Team Canada. They had just played as hard as they could, given everything. They were gutted by that loss. Like, those are the types of players that you want to pick first.

Connor McDavid was picked first. But those are the kind of players you want on your team. You don't want someone who, despite a wealth of talent, either can't mix in with your team, like can't get into the team chemistry, or isn't willing to play through some stuff every once in a while because he just wants to get on the court and win,

or the ice and win, or the field and win. That's what's interesting to me about this whole situation. And a lot of it, like our friend Jeff Goodman at Field of 68, points out that some of this is out of Darren Peterson's control. There's some, I talked to an NBA GM today, who I talked to three weeks. ago same guy in three weeks ago he said hey i'm not worried at all and now he said you know what

i'm starting to get a little bit worried obviously we got we got to see what checks out with medical but again i think you know part of the issue here you know is again i got to be very careful i have be very careful you do need to be careful again he's not always making his own decisions also in this process he's got a lot else going on right right now and he's trying to navigate it. And Bill Self is trying to navigate it. It looked like today they had never played with Darren Peterson before. I don't know if you guys agree, but it looked like literally they brought in a new player.

It looked like they brought in, you know, Charles Betty Akko or somebody like that. They had no idea how to play with him. And I think we've covered enough high level college sports football and basketball to know what that means. Like that means somebody's camp is like, no, you do it this way, do it this way. Don't listen to your coach. don't listen to these people, do it this one. Yeah, but Bill self is also like accomplished enough to be like,

that stuff's not flying here. Exactly, exactly. Why did you go, like, that's my question. Why did you go play for a Hall of Fame coach? If you want to call the shots, you're not going to be able to do that for him. Yeah, well, maybe this will be the thing that propels him to an awesome game on Monday night.

Because I feel like if he does go out there and score 20 points and leads Kansas to a win at home against Houston, and then that kind of like rewrites the narrative a little bit, right? Because you not, it's... And that's what Bill Self said last week. So after the Oklahoma's taking, this is before they lose to Cincinnati, Bill Self said if he wants to fix this,

and by the way, Bill Self has been very diplomatic about all this. Yeah, he has. Publicly. Very diplomatic. But he said, he said, finish games. Change the narrative. Finish the game, play well, and people will stop talking about this.

He's right. He's right. the Stephen A's of the world will move on to the next thing and the NBA GMs will be calmed if Darren Peterson hops in there tonight and it'll remember the games are hard

from now on because you're only a couple weeks from conference tournament play then you got the NCAA tournament. You only got a little bit left here. So you can change it. This is the entire point of playing college basketball too. This is the time of year where if you love basketball, this is when you

want to show up the most. And don't let AJ DeBanza and Cam Booser take your spot because they don't seem to be slowing down. They don't seem to care about their draft position. They're trying to help their teams win, but in the process, are looking like much more valuable draft picks than you.

Yeah. Dogs again at home. We'll see what happens tonight. But I'm going to watch it. I'm going to make a point to watch it. It's great. There's so many Kansas-related street. Now their big 12 title streak ended a few years.

years ago, but the dominance they've had, especially at Fogg Allen Fieldhouse, is incredible. So, and remember, they got blown out at Fog Allen on Saturday by Cincinnati. So, but I am always fascinated by the dynamics of these big Monday games because you always have some kind of crazy thing that happened on Saturday, and then you turn around 54 hours later and play on Monday night, and the vibe can be completely different. But Bill Self showed up at the lottery where the students figure out where they're going to be for the game and kind of apologize for Saturday's result and said, hey, savor this, want different energy. So I guarantee you it's going to be crazy. I guarantee you.

I can't wait to see it. Yeah. Talking about a team that went to the Final Four last year and has one of the better coaches in college basketball on the other sideline, too. So it'll be cool. I can't wait to watch it. All right, we will maybe talk about it on tomorrow show because it's, I mean, it's drama. It could be one of the more interesting results of the season. Andy, you know me.

I like feelings more than sports. This is an ultimate feelings game. Such a feelings. And feelings drive ratings. So, yeah, we'll check back in the, you know, at least maybe we'll talk about it for a few minutes on tomorrow's show to see how it went. Yeah, check bed MGM right now. Houston is a one and a half point favorite. Like I said, that line has moved within the last couple hours.

So as we're recording this at noon Eastern, they're one and a half point favorite. I'll be very curious to see where that line is. Will we get any text messages from somebody courtside? I don't know. Before the game starts. Yeah. I don't know.

We will find out, but we'll probably talk about that a little bit on Tuesday's show. That MGM, I wanted to ask you something that's kind of quasi-related to what we were talking about. Oh, yeah, go for it. I'm just asking for a friend, just was wondering, Like if an American bet on Canada in the in the Olympic final, are they a bad person? Yes.

Okay. You should have to move to Canada. I was just wondering. I just was, I mean, that American theoretically, hypothetically, that guy should have to move to Canada. Okay. Do you want to live in Toronto? Do you want to live in Montreal where they invented Poutine? Maybe Moose jar medicine hat if you want a little more open space.

but you shouldn't live here. Okay. Because you know what? That eagle swooped down on that juice. You free bird. They stole their game. No, that was awesome. Our game.

The women, the men, it's our game now. Look at, look. We're the captains of hockey now. We'll talk to you tomorrow.