Andy & Ari On3 - RETRAIN YOUR BRAIN for the 12-team College Football Playoff | The top transfer QB in 2024 will be...

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

Thank you to Gametime for sponsoring today's episode! Gametime is the best place to buy last-minute tickets to sporting events, concerts and comedy shows. Making plans to follow your team on the road this college football season? Gametime has tickets to every game. Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed.(0:00-10:46) Intro - Post Spring Rankings(10:47-30:44) CFP Rankings(30:45-38:34) All-Portal Teams for Jesse(38:35-1:09:12) Jim Nagy joins to break down new era of CFB(1:09:13-1:10:50) Conclusion/Wrapping UpAndy unveils his projected 12-team College Football Playoff, which is more of a look at how the new CFP will actually work than a prediction of which teams will get into the CFP. Of course, Jesse Simonton and Andy will have opinions about which teams might make the field. But what we know for sure is that some power-conference fanbase is going to be righteously furious when its team gets bumped for the highest ranked Group of 5 champ — or possibly a lower ranked power conference champ.Jesse also unveils his All-Transfer Portal team. He’s also been examining win totals in every conference, and he and Andy discuss which ones feel too high and which ones feel too low.Later, Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy joins to discuss some of the best transfer players that he’s studied. The Senior Bowl staff had to evaluate new Miami QB Cam Ward, new Ohio State QB Will Howard and new Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel in case they decided to leave for the NFL after last season. So Jim explains from a scout’s point of view what the new teams can expect from their new QBs.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/yxIeLEC7bIgHost: Andy StaplesGuests: Jesse Simonton, Jim NagyProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to anti staples on three. Welcome to the retraining of your brain. That's right. As we head toward the 2024 season, we have a few shows like this. As we get closer and closer to the various media days and all the stuff that will then start the cavalcade of content that gets you to actual games. But right now, we got to talk about some of the things that are changing, some of the things that are different. And I did a column for on three that, excuse me, that you can read right now. And what I did is I broke down the top 12 in my post-spring rankings and then put them into the playoff bracket. And I was thinking, okay, we all kind of know how this works. We've talked about this ad infinitum, but guess what? When you look at it written down, it's wild. It's crazy. It is going to take

getting used to. And so let's work on the retraining of the brain. First, we're going to do a little practice. So before the four-team playoff started, a bunch of us got invited to Dallas to participate in a mock selection. And they've done this mock selection over the years, and I'm sure they'll do it again with the 12 team but it was the first time that a bunch of us had figured out how the selection process really works and actually the at the time Jeff Long who was the AD at Arkansas then was going to be the chair of the actual CFP selection committees this is 2014 going into that season and he's sitting next to me because i was the fake chair of our fake selection committee like taking notes about what's going to happen because

they haven't actually done it yet and i was talking to ben howell miller who is the principal game designer behind ea sports college football 25 and he was pointing out that if you play dynasty mode in the video game you'll actually experience the 12 team playoff before anybody else does and he's right about that and i was thinking like before the committee will have to make the decisions before anybody actually has to do this and i was like all right let's let's put these teams into the bracket just to see what this looks like and then we've got more information now. Like we know what TV stations the games are going to be on. We know what time slots they are. So let's actually look at this. And for that, we bring in on threes, Jesse Simonton. Jesse's helping us retrain our

brain too. He's got his all transfer portal team out today. We're talking about that a little bit later, but Jesse, let's, let's just talk about this playoff bracket and i mean we've talked about it for three years now because we we got our first look at what things would look like three years ago but now it's real and right what we have on the screen right now is what the 12 team would look like based on the final rankings last year, which would have been completely different. You would have had a Penn state, Ohio state rematch in round one that fed into a game against Washington, probably in the Rose bowl.

But Jesse, when you look at how this works, like, does your brain just say, I don't recognize this? Well, I don't, you know, when you revealed your top 25 your post spring

top post portal post spring top 25 you and i had this conversation in real time yeah broke down yours then we broke down mine and it was like whoa no remember because oh it's not who's going to be ranked 12th because they may not actually make it you know and oh who's the group of five team gonna be i'm just imagining based on your intro there about you make it, you know? And, oh, who's the group of five team going to be? I'm just imagining based on your intro there about, you know, this all, you know, being sprung from EA Sports dynasty, but you think Ward, you think Ward Manuel is going to be playing this game?

I hope so. In August, in preparation for September, October and November meetings, because that will be quite the hoot. Well, and Ben from EA Sports, who's a Florida State grad, when Florida State got left out of the playoff last year, he was on the Slack channel with his designers saying, hey, we need to take this.

Now, I think there were probably more cuss words in these Slack messages because of what had just happened. But he's basically saying, hey, we need to adjust the decision engine in dynasty mode to take into account how they view the conferences. And he's not wrong. And that's something that we can talk about this with my top 12, like what that actually means and and what what happens next because everybody knows that the highest ranked group of five team gets in everybody knows that there have

to be four conference champs with buys and five conference champs have to get into the playoff but i don't i'm not sure people are ready for their team getting knocked out by one of those teams. And that's what's going to happen. So let's take a look at the top 12 I had in my post-spring, post-portal ranking. So if you don't like these rankings, I get you. Like I said in the column, I don't live on a private island financed by a bunch of really accurate futures bets. So don't worry. I'm probably going to be wrong if your team's not in here. But for this exercise, this is a good group and will probably give us a lot to chew on.

So I had number one, Ohio State, number two, Georgia, number three, Alabama, number four, Oregon, number five, Texas, number six, Michigan, seven, Florida State, eight, Notre Dame, nine, Ole Miss, 10, Kansas State, 11, Tennessee, and 12, Penn State. Jesse, 12, Penn State is where we should start because if this happens in real life, the anger from Penn State fans at the system and at James Franklin will be absolutely volcanic. And it's going to be something that, whether they play dynasty mode or don't have an experience, say Penn State's sitting in that 12 spot for three or four weeks,

it's going to take some time for, I think, the Nittany Lion fans to really marinate on the fact that, oh, we're actually on the outside looking in right now. We're ranked 12. There's a 12-team playoff. It seems like we're about to get in. Oh, no, we actually don't have a spot. And yes, the vitriol would be insane, specifically because so many folks, myself included, have kind of opined that this 12-team playoff was made for a team like Penn State. It's been squeezed out. It's been running third in the Big Ten East.

Now there's no division, so it seems like they have a better chance. Michigan coming off the national championship. Are they going to be down a little bit? Have they done enough in the portal? And this is also the year, Andy, that Penn State specifically, if this happens, if they're the 12th team, if they're right there but end up being on the outside looking in, you know, not everyone is talked about, us included, you, me, a lot of folks, Missouri, Ole Miss, some of these schools that kind of have their chips to the middle the middle of the table so to speak I think Penn State's in the same situation you know this is their this is their Ballyhoo junior class with Singleton and Allen Drew Drew Aller Abdul Carter

all these guys who were four and five star recruits are now juniors you know on the cusp of going to the NFL if they don't get it done this year um good luck, good luck to James. Yeah. And that's, that's the thing. And he's not going anywhere, but it will just, it will D it would deepen the on we, if, if that makes sense, like, and cause Penn state fandom, I don't think anybody like they're not mad anymore. They're just kind of bored right now. And I think they need to make the playoff to snap out of the boredom. And so this can't happen. So here's the thing, Jesse, in this situation, I do have an ACC champ and a big 12 champ that are ranked within the top 12. So that's good. There are going to be years where there's not. So a few years ago

when Pittsburgh won the ACC, they were number 12 in the final CFP ranking. So they would be in, that would be fine. But what happens if let's say the ACC champ or the big 12 champ is ranked 15th? Well, guess what? That team's getting in as well as the top ranked group of five champ. And don't you think that there's a, there's a pretty plausible, you know, outcome this season. If the big 12 is kind of the meat grinder that we think it's going to be where it's such a grab bag of, you know, all I think I, because I did the wind totals.

I think there's like seven teams that have win totals of seven and a half, you know, just seven and a half. And then you got Utah, Kansas State, and Kansas that are all in that, you know, eight, eight to nine range, nine and a half range. So it's absolutely plausible that a nine and three Kansas State team is going up against a nine and three Oklahoma State team. And whoever wins that game is the Big 12 champ, and maybe they're ranked 13th or 17th or something like that

in the final polls, and suddenly Tennessee's getting squeezed out. Yeah, yeah. Well, at least the Tennessee fan base is known for its reasonable, rational reactions to different things. Absolutely. I don't think there would – oh, wait. No, no, that would would be can you even imagine like that would be 10 times what florida state was last year in terms of negative reaction because it's the tennessee fan base yeah vault vault quest would be the flames

emanating out of vault quest would just be, that's your on we right there. Well, that's, that's not on we on we is boredom. That is, that's just pure, just lava coming from the Tennessee. And that's what it would be.

So Tennessee's 11 and they're booted out because the number 15, big 12 champ has to get in. That's exactly what it's going to be like. All right. Okay. So let's talk about who would you, we'll go with the teams we got though. So we'll say Florida States, I've got four states, seven, I got Kansas state at 10. So they're in ACC big 12 are in, but remember seven and 10 are not what they seem. We'll get to that in a second, but we got to put somebody at number 12, not the 12th ranking, but the 12th seed. So the 12th seed in this case has to be the top ranked group of five champ. I don't know how to handicap that this year. That's very hard.

You've got SMU, the outgoing American or the reigning American champ. They're leaving for the ACC, uh, Tulane's under new management. You know, Memphis is kind of the establishment now in the ACE, the AAC, the Sunbelt's probably the deepest league, but it's, it's got that big 12 situation where they all might just beat each other up. Uh, so I, I went with a classic choice, Jesse, uh, Boise state would have been in this spot multiple times had this been in effect going back years. They won the Mountain West last year despite firing Andy Avalos midseason. Spencer Danielson comes in, wins the Mountain West. He takes over as the permanent coach.

So we put the Broncos in here. So congratulations. That doesn't mean you're playing on the blue, though. It means you've got to face that five seed that's right you know what's funny you know what's funny is that you picked whether it was out of the hat or you know you just kind of you went with past history boise state being the the g5 representation here you know i did i did a breakdown last week of you know espn released their their latest fbi and there's plenty of controversy and all that and i i went through some of that but there's can still be some notable takeaways and kind of some interesting uh insights into their rankings and analytics and they have uh based on their metrics boise state as the most likely g5 champ to get to make the playoff

which i thought was interesting liberty has easily the most cupcake schedule and if they beat app state uh in late september it's hard not seeing jamie chadwell's team going 12 and 0 but do they get penalized this year because they they got just completely waxed last season versus Oregon? And does the committee say, we don't want that as our first 12 seed if Boise State's also undefeated or a one loss? So we'll see. But I think, you know, that's going to be an interesting, however that plays out. I think UTSA is maybe another one to watch there. Yeah. However that plays out, I think UTSA is maybe another one to watch there. Yeah, and the thing is, like, so Boise State got Ashton Gentee back,

one of the best retention jobs in the group of five. Malachi Nelson. Yeah, yeah, they get Malachi Nelson coming from USC. Liberty, remember, undefeated last year was ranked number 23, undefeated in the final because their schedule was so easy. Christopher in the chat, going with Liberty, Tulane or Boise State those are those are good choices I can see John Summerall in year one at Tulane being good enough to to win the American so we'll find out what happens there but that's the team we're putting in and so before we talk about these matchups if you'd like to see these matchups, any of these matchups, GameTime has tickets.

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All right. We've worked that in there, which is true. You can get tickets to all of these games on game time. And there's a couple of these that you're going to have to go to game time if you want tickets because they're going to be such big games. But here's what that would look like. If we took my top 12, we made Boise State the Mountain West champ and the highest ranked group of five champ.

Here's what the first round of games would look like. Number 12, Boise State at number five, Alabama. That's your noon game on December 21st, noon Eastern time on December 21st, because it's the worst of the four games. That's where they're going to dump it. It's going to be on TNT. It's going to be up against the Chiefs Texans game on NBC because the NFL is trying to scare the college football playoff off this day, Jesse. And we still don't know who the TNT announcers are, right? No, it's ESPN.

Like ESPN is producing the game. So it's going to look like ESPN, but it will be on TNT. Okay. Okay. Okay. So that's just sub-licensing. Because I was going to say this, you know, if TNT loses the NBA rights, just, you know, Charles needs to do some work.

Make him go cover an Alabama game. Oh, I said that. Like, have them be the pregame show. Now, we all know Charles is not going to be there if they don't have the NBA. But Charles may get hired by ESPN anyway. So knowing how ESPN works, where they'll put Stephen A in front of anything, like if you hire Charles Barkley, you're going to use him in every potential situation. So of course you're going to send him like,

and of course you need to send all regret Charles to Tuscaloosa for this game. That would be incredible. I mean, that that's, that's, you got to use your resources, right?

You use your talents. Yep. Now, it, this, this would be, and we'll talk about number five right now. Cause number five is the catbird seat.

So in this situation, we're, we're, we're not sure how everything actually works during the season. We're trying to predict that final ranking. The question is, did Alabama lose the sec championship game or was it, did Alabama miss the sec championship game?

And like Ole miss or Texas lost the sec championship game and was it, or did Alabama miss the sec championship game and like Ole Miss or Texas lost the sec championship game and fell behind Alabama. If, if Alabama didn't play in the sec championship game and wound up at five, or if you had like Oregon, not playing in the big, the big 10 championship game and winding up at five, like five is the ultimate spot. Especially if you did not have to go lose your conference championship game. Five is the best spot because here's why. It has to do with the mechanics of the bracket.

They're not receding like the NFL. It doesn't recede at the end of a round to make sure that you go and play the toughest team available. So 5-12, the winner of that game is going to play the four seed. The thing is, the four seed is not really number four. Like in our ranking, we had Big 12 champ Kansas State at 10. Well, that's the fourth highest seeded conference champ or fourth highest ranked conference champ.

So they're the fourth seed. So the winner of this 5-12 game plays the fourth seed. There's two things here. You can have a number five team that is probably the second or third best team in the country that just dump trucks, the 12 seed, and then dump trucks, the four seed and walks into the semis with an easier path than the one seed had. Or if the 12 does upset the five, which is much harder because the five's not really ever going to be the five, the 12 could beat the four. And then you got a Cinderella.

Yeah. I mean, the machinations of all this are pretty fun, which is why we're doing this exact exercise. What does stink is that you know for that four seed and why i think a lot of folks have you know started to discuss the benefit the benefits of being the five seed is that you know that four seed didn't get they're not they're not getting to host a home game that game's being played in the fiesta bowl you know that's it it's not in k State. You're not playing in Manhattan. So that stinks for them, but that's why, you know, I don't think,

and this is going to be something we'll probably discuss throughout the fall, Andy, I don't think you're going to see teams, you know, kind of take the foot off the gas like what happens in the NFL late in the year where they start resting players and they don't care if they lose that 16th or week 16 or week 17. I don't think you're going to see that, at least in the first couple years of the playoff, in terms of teams kind of jockeying for certain seeds because, oh, we really want that five seed

so that we don't play in the SEC championship game. Because I do think teams are still going to value the buys. The buys are yes so you know as valuable as the fifth seed is those four buys are still the ultimate carrot because even if you even if this game for Alabama most Alabama fans would say oh that's a layup we get Boise State at home in Tuscaloosa we're going to win that game well yeah you probably will but that doesn't mean your team isn't you know still or you might get somebody hurt yeah that's what i'm saying and so like i mean a year ago florida

state yeah of course they were always going to beat you know whoever it was that um out north alabama or whoever that jordan travis got hurt against but they had to play that game jordan travis gets hurt their season you know changes. And so the fifth seed, while valuable, isn't more valuable than one through four, but it does present an interesting scenario if the 12 is able to upset, or if the fifth seed is really maybe the third or fourth best team in the country, then they get to play, let's say Kansas State is 17 or 14 or whatever. There's a pretty big gap there. So my next first-round game, Tennessee at Oregon,

that's going to be your Friday night game in Eugene on ESPN and ABC. That's the other thing. They're going to cycle cast like they do Monday night football. So these games are going to be on ABC. That's probably where most of the people are going to be watching it. It will look like an ESPN broadcast and everything. Same thing. But this would be in Eugene, and this is a case of where one win,

one loss probably makes a big difference. The difference between Tennessee having to go on the road here and Oregon hosting is probably going to be one game in the record. I mean, that's the two Hawaiians, dueling Hawaiians right there. You got Dylan Gabriel. Well, Nico's from California. He's from Long Beach, baby. Okay.

I thought he had a little Hawaiian in him. Maybe not. Okay. But that would be one heck of a game right there. Tennessee-Oregon would be a juicy, juicy matchup. I mean, you're talking about all the track speed that Oregon has recruited at wide receiver. You bring in Evan Stewart. They bring back Tez Johnson.

You know, what Dan Landy's done with that program has been, you know, really impressive just from a talent acquisition perspective. And then Josh Heupel. I mean, Tennessee has just kind of slowly put this thing back together. I think there's a lot of folks in Knoxville that believe this team, this 2024 team, is even more talented 1-85 than the 22 team that beat Alabama and was kind of a fringe playoff team that year. So if Banks' defense can continue to kind of come together,

this would be a heck of a game. Oh, it'd be tremendous. Now, here's another one. Number 10 Ole Miss at number seven, Texas. This is not a rematch because remember, they don't play in the regular season in the SEC. Now, potentially you could see these two in the SEC championship game together against each other. But if that were the case, they're not playing in a 10-7 game in the playoff because one of them is going to be the one or the each other. But if that were the case, they're not playing in a 10-7 game in the playoff because one of them is going to be the one or the two seed. But this would be fantastic too. This would be your afternoon game on Saturday on TNT. TNT lucking out with this one. The only reason is that 8- game is is one that that espn is definitely

taking so but that would be a tremendous matchup because you know this is you know new it's actually sec new money versus sec new money it is and you know this is this is the old miss i mean that they're going all in but this would be a game that, you know, Rebel fans have been waiting 60 years for because they have just not been on a national scale competitive to where they can say, hey, we're in the mix for an SEC championship game or, oh, we actually have a legitimate shot at winning the national championship. Lane's done wonders for that program.

11-1 season school record a year ago. But if he gets him to the playoff, they may build him a statue over there. What does the Lane Kiffin statue look like, by the way? He's throwing up the play sheet, right? Throwing up the play sheet, yeah. That would be great. That would be great. With his back kind of turned a little bit, you know, away from the field.

His hoodie's flying up in the air. Or it's him with his hands, with the play sheet in his hands, already throwing up like the, you know, we got it touchdown, the touchdown celebration when the ball's still, you know, whizzing through the air. Probably easier to do in bronze if he's holding it still in his hand. As we go to the 9-8 game, the 8-9 game, I want to point out something in the chat.

Ozzie and Willie have been talking this out in the chat, and they've got it straightened out. We'll go back to Ozzie's first comment. The fifth seed could be the second best team in the country but would have to play the number one team in the quarterfinals. No, the fifth seed plays the number four team in the quarterfinals that they win. The one seed plays the winner of the eight, nine game and Ozzie's got this figured out in the chat, but for everybody else, let's explain. So your eight, nine game in this situation is the one that ESPN will want.

It will be the one that will cost you the most if you're trying to buy tickets on game time. Number 9, Notre Dame at number 8, Michigan. The first Notre Dame-Michigan game at the Big House is 2019. It would be for a lot of stakes. And the winner would play Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Because I've got Ohio State as the number one seed. Can you even imagine, Jesse? Can you even imagine?

What if Michigan beat Ohio State in the regular season? Or maybe Michigan lost in controversial fashion to Ohio State in the regular season. And now they've got to beat Notre Dame to get a rematch in the Rose Bowl. The amount of conspiracy theories that'll be spawned if this matchup happens because so many folks will think the committee did it on purpose because it's two of the biggest brands in the sport. You know, ESPN, the machinations with that. I mean, you talk about a helmet game.

Michigan, Notre Dame, for the chance to play the one seed in the inaugural college, you know, 12-team playoff would be nuts, and I'm high on Notre Dame this year. I think this is, you know, this is year three's famous. It's famous for Notre Dame coaches, Andy. It's a sink or swim season. I wrote a column on it about Marcus Freeman about a week ago. Go check that out on three. I mean, the history is rich from Lou Holtz to a couple other guys there. Even Brian Kelly played for a national championship in his third season. And then you got the likes of Charlie Weiss and Ty William and, you know,

they basically face planted in year three. So Marcus Freeman, he brings back a hell of a team this year. They Notre Dame in my on three unit rankings, the Notre Dame beat writers actually pointed this out. I didn't even recognize this. They were the only team other than Georgia that was represented in every single category that had a top 10 unit in every single category. So that's what that's the sort of roster that Marcus Freeman's dealing with right now. This would be one heck of a game if that's the way it played out. Well, that's the thing.

And Notre Dame's another one of these. Now, we've seen Notre Dame in the playoff a few times, and they've lost in the semis. Notre Dame is the type of program I feel like that can win some games, especially getting into this situation. And Jack Swarbrick, the former Notre Dame athletic director, was part of the group

that created this playoff format. You saw with the five seed what he was going at. Like why? I thought it was hilarious when earlier this year they came out with, OK, this is how it's going to be. We already knew that because we've been covering it for three years. That was hilarious when earlier this year they came out with, okay,

this is how it's going to be. We already knew that because we've been covering it for three years. It was interesting to me how many folks who don't follow this day to day were like, doesn't Notre Dame know that can never have a buy. Like Jack Swarbrick knew that all along. He understands they don't have to play in a conference championship game. So they don't have to worry about that extra game.

It basically puts them in the same boat as a team in a power conference that had to play in its championship game. But if they can get the five or the six seed, they're in good shape. And I think in most years, because this year Notre Dame actually plays all things considered a probably easier schedule than they typically do. Yeah, they typically don't have an FCS team. They typically aren't playing Army and Navy in the same year. So let's say this year notwithstanding, but I think against most schedules,

if Notre Dame goes 9-3 in most years, they're probably in. This year they probably got to go at least 10-2 because, again, there's some extra patsies on there they don't typically play. But you still have USC, Florida State, the opener against Texas A&M. I mean, game day is going to be there. You know, that's Elko going up against his former compadres there. So I'm excited. I think it's going to be quite interesting to just see how Notre Dame's season kind of materializes

because there is kind of all these expectations with the fact that, yeah, they can't get a bye, but they have a pretty strong chance of making the dance. Yeah, it's going to be fascinating to see how this all works uh go vols not 393 tennessee will be in they make it 40 of the time according to fpi mizzou only 30 yes a 10 difference in fpi in june will guarantee everything but i love that everybody's arguing about this now well did you see i see? I don't know if you saw it. I don't know if you saw my column on this. I do think what's interesting, just because that Tennessee fan brought this up, last year in the 14 playoff in ESPN's FPI rankings,

eight teams had at least a 20% chance of making the field. Now that that field has ballooned to 12, the 20% threshold is now 18 teams. So it does kind of, you know, put in real numbers, real perspective, just how many more opportunities there are for the Missouris and for the Tennessees to even be in the mix this year compared to the last, you know, several seasons. Well, and i think because of the competitiveness of the big 12 especially i think the real number of teams that can start this season with a you know somewhat realistic playoff hope is closer to 30 yeah yeah and you get five teams like all of that right all. All of that matters. Yep. Jesse, let's talk about your all portal team, because you did come out with that today.

And on three, you can you can check out Jesse's column. You can read my playoff column or, you know, a lot of the stuff we've been talking about here, kind of in the abstract. You can see written down, which I think helps. But Jesse's Jesse's all portal team. Jesse, I'm looking at your your names on this thing and the thing that jumps out to me that I think we didn't see that but also linemen like linemen hit the portal this year good quality linemen hit the portal where we we said well that's going to be harder yeah no i mean

one of them is is is particularly unique and that caden proctor is probably you know our ultimate boomerang transfer because uh the guy somehow iowa got penalized you know got a couple of violations even though the kid never even suited up for a single spring practice for him. You talk about the ultimate tease there. He was committed to you for all that time, flipped to Alabama on signing day, plays for the Tide, then ends up transferring to Iowa and still never even puts on a Hawkeyes uniform, even for a single practice. He is my starting left tackle, but he's not the only one. I mean, with all the movement, um, you know, with, with Washington, several of their offensive linemen were certainly eligible for this team. I think Browsford is probably the best center. Um, you know,

he's one of the best centers in the country, not even just a transfer. So he certainly, I think, uh, is going to be a shoe in plug and play replacement for Seth McLaughlin there, you know, um, heard, you know, now at Tennessee. Yeah, Lance Hurd. He's a guy that was a former, you know, five-star blue-chip guy. He's a quality player. He just simply got squeezed out because LSU has two first-round

or, you know, two NFL draft picks at tackle right now, and he wanted to see the field immediately. He'll now get to play, you um and protect nico uh for at least two seasons so that that's a big deal um caden green another blue chip guy uh that was kind of a unique situation oklahoma was pretty stunned i think when he transferred that was not someone that brent venable yeah he's and and mizzou needed mizzou needed somebody like him they needed somebody like him and he goes home you know and that's kind of mizzou needed somebody like him. They needed somebody like him, and he goes home. That's kind of Mizzou's benefit.

They were able to benefit from their nice NIL laws at State, and so he takes advantage there. So lots of offensive line. Ole Miss has several guys who I think could have qualified, didn't quite make the cut. But that's a quality you know starting five right there well and you do have Ole Miss represented twice on the on the defense yes on the defensive line with Walter Nolan and Prince Prince Liam and Miellon they get them both from other SEC schools

and this was again we keep talking about Ole Miss what was the difference when Ole Miss lost Alabama last year when Ole Miss got dismantled by Georgia last year, it was on the line of scrimmage. This is how they handle that. Yeah, and with Ole Miss, it's not an either-or situation. I think what Lane deserves credit for, he has recruited kind of a mercenary defense, but they also bring back some of their better players off last year's squad. And so, like, J.J. Pagui is still there.

Oh, that's a quality SEC defensive lineman. Cedric Johnson's still there. Another quality guy who's played. J.J. Pagui's also a quality Wildcat quarterback. Yeah. It's in the playbook. He did it when he was at Auburn. It's possible.

Yeah. We've seen him play tight end too. He's done a little bit of everything. But you, you supplement those guys with a five-star and Walter Nolan who had seven sacks last year, you know, for Texas A&M. You bring in Princely who was one of the most, you know, productive pass rushers in the SEC a year ago, high win rate per PFF. You know, he's kind of a twitchy guy off the edge, bendy. So, yeah, with Ole Miss, it's going to be just putting everything together. How do these – does the puzzle fit? I think that's probably Lane's biggest concern, you know,

from a chemistry and, you know, bringing everything together. Because individually, you're like, man, that's a really nice-looking piece right there. Oh, that's a really nice – that's a really nice looking piece right there. Oh, that's a really nice, that's a really nice looking square, you know, edge right there. Does it come together? That's what we're going to find out. Well, and, and interesting. So you have Dylan Gabriel going from Oklahoma to Oregon as your quarterback. This probably wasn't the easiest choice. Why him over Kim Ward, who goes from Washington state to Miami, Will Howard going from Kansas State to Ohio State?

Why Dylan Gabriel at that spot? For me, I just think Cam Ward is certainly an extremely productive quarterback, and the excitement there out of Coral Gables and the optimism, everything you've heard from a leadership, from a playmaking perspective, I think Cam Ward, the ceiling's pretty high there. And that's why a lot of folks think the Canes could win possibly the ACC this year. But Gabriel's just, he's stuffed the stat sheet no matter where he's been. Whether it was at UCF, whether it was at Oklahoma a year ago, he leads the Pac-12 or leads the Big 12 in passing, you know,

completion percentage, touchdowns. I think he's going to be, you know, dynamite in Will Stein's, you know, RPO offense, throw into Evan Stewart, who is also one of my wide receivers on this team, Tez Johnson. So I just, the upside there, you know, is probably 50-50. But if I'm going to base it a little bit on past performance and projecting how these guys are going to fit into individual schemes, I've seen Will Stein work wonders with a guy who can kind of do the RPO thing a year ago with Bo Nix. I think another lefty right there with a little Hawaiian southpaw

is going to be my QB1. Well, yeah, and we know Will Stein works well with lefties because he worked with Frank Harris at UTSA. So he does like the lefties. But, well, Jesse, it has been a pleasure. We're going to talk a little more about transfer quarterbacks with Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl up next. But, Jesse, thank you so much for helping us digest the playoff.

That gets – the more we talk about it one the more excited i get for the on-campus games but two the more i realize this is gonna be a learning curve for all of us yeah and those are gonna be some those gonna be some fun-filled december saturdays for sure cannot wait j Jesse Simonson from On3, thank you so much. Thank you, Andy. All right, so I mentioned we're going to talk transfer quarterbacks. Cam Ward, Will Howard, Dylan Gabriel. These guys going into positions where, like,

Will Howard is playing on a team that is expected to win the Big Ten and probably is going to be most people's odds-on favorite to win the national title. Dylan Gabriel playing for the other team that's expected to be in the Big Ten title game. Cam Ward playing for a Miami team with massive expectations. What's interesting about these guys is, especially with Cam Ward and Will Howard, but also a little bit Dylan Gabriel, they had to make a choice of do they go to another school this year or do they go to the nfl and that's where our friend jim nagy the executive director of the senior bowl comes in because he had to study these guys to decide okay would they get an invite this past offseason if

they decided to come out and so he's got a lot of good intel on these guys and you can kind of figure out how excited you should be about each of them as they move to their new schools so here is Jim Nagy we are honored to be joined now by our friend Jim Nagy the executive director of the Risa Senior Bowl and And Jim, this has been fun. I was looking at your Twitter feed the other day, and you're starting to tweet out these profiles of guys who came out of the transfer portal who will be playing for other schools. And I realized, wait, they've done so much scouting on a lot of these guys who are going to be in college football next year because you guys didn't know if some of these guys were going to be in college or going on to the nfl after last season yeah and

it's it's been it's been kind of crazy with some of these guys like you probably saw the post with with cam ward uh yeah we we started watching cam warren when he was at incarnate word you know three years ago or whatever now he's in his third school but it's happened a lot um you know we we really had day three uh a good chunk of day three grades wiped off our board this year of guys that that went back to school so when we were scrambling in january had a couple guys get injured um you know that were going to be in last year's game we're trying to replace them you know you're circling back to like fill in roster holes and you look up and you've got you're running back for Mississippi State is now at USC well we can't go get him you know you've got you've got you so you've got all these guys in moving parts and and the good news is we've we've done a bunch of work we don't have to do a ton of

work on those guys in the spring but uh yeah so it's obviously a whole new landscape. Well, we'll, we'll have to ask about Woody Marks a little bit later, but you mentioned Cam Ward and that that's a guy who I feel like that's, that's who everybody asked me about because the expectations for Miami this year are pretty high. They obviously did a lot of work in the transfer portal beyond Cam Ward, but he's kind of the linchpin of that, their transfer class. Plus he's behind some pretty highly, you know, highly recruited offensive linemen. What did you think of Cam Ward coming out of Washington state and how do you think he fits at Miami? Yeah, it was, you know, it was a

little bit of a tough eval to be honest with, you know, just with the apples to oranges nature of, of the offense and not asking him to do a lot of things he's going to have to do at the NFL level. So I think it made sense. You know, I hate it for Washington State. We've had, you know, Gardner Minshew and a couple other good quarterbacks come out of that school. But for Cam, it did make for a tough eval. The thing that you did see and you immediately like is his ability to extend plays.

I mean, he's got a little magic to him. I mean, he's a fun guy to watch run around. And then connected with Shannon Dawson, the OC down at Miami. I hit up he and Mario Cristobal the other day and just asked how that transition's going with him. First of all, they love coaching the guy, but his ability to see windows on the move and throw accurately on the move, that's the most important thing, right? Guys that can move around and extend plays. A lot of times those guys are looking to run. I mean, this guy can see things downfield and put the ball where he needs to put it. So I'm excited to see him.

They've got a big time running back transferring from Oregon State as well. So that should be a fun offense. Well, and guy that was was kind of trying to decide going to the nfl stay in college transfer what was will howard who winds up at ohio state you know there may not be a more talented roster in college football than ohio state i feel like you know you're i'm looking at what we were talking about about michigan this time last year in terms of guys who very easily could be in the n who came back how does Will Howard fit and and what did you see from him when you studied him at Kansas State yeah I like Will a lot you know I was on campus there in Manhattan last November giving an invite out to his best

buddy Ben Sennett who ended up going in the you know early second round to uh the commanders and uh so I got to I got a chance to talk to Will that day. It was really a weird dynamic how it worked out for Will. Unfortunately, you know, like, you know, we ended up with Michael Penix in the senior bowl and Bo Nix in the senior bowl. But, you know, we were waiting on Jaden Daniels at that time to see what Jaden was going to do. And it just was it was kind of dragging along. We didn't get an answer from from Jaden's camp for a long time. So when I did circle back to Will Howard to invite him, this literally happened. I called Will one morning in, in late December. And I said, Will, we've, we've got a spot, man. And

he really wanted to play in the game. He's like, Jim, I'm literally on a plane to Columbus, Ohio today. Um, so at that point I'm like, okay, I'm not going to call Ryan Day and try to make an issue out of this thing. But no, we do. We like Will a lot. We've watched him for a couple of years. I think he's got a good arm. I like the accuracy. He does a lot of NFL transferable things from that Kansas State tape, you know, watching him operate from under center and the play action game. So and we've seen a lot of quarterbacks put up big numbers for the Buckeyes. And I think Will's going to do that.

And like you said, if you just look at transfer portal in this off season, I think there's really four teams that stick out that really went out and spent money are going for this thing. And to me, it's Ohio state, Ole Miss, Miami and Louisville. I'm sure there's plenty of other programs that spent money and, and went out and are trying to upgrade. But to me, those four stand out. It's funny you said that because we just had a game show on the show called Whose Team Is It Anyway? Where a couple of us, basically,

our transfer portal expert throws out a name and a couple of us have to name what their new school is, what their old school was. And our kind of rule of thumb was if you if you don't know who it is just guess miami or louisville and you'll probably be right so it's it's true though that's that is basically what happened well will's an interesting one because he's going to that chip kelly offense and like i'm trying to imagine will doing a lot of things that that dorian thompson robinson didn't because will's a you know will's a bigger version of but but athletic like dtr was and has a pretty good arm and so i i'm kind of excited about that yeah that's a good point i mean obviously it i mentioned the ohio state offense it's going to be different with chip there um but yeah he's and that's the other part i didn't say

about will howard he's athletic man the guy can, man. The young guy they had behind him there at Kansas State is super athletic and he's a smaller guy. But for his size, Will's a really good athlete with good mobility. So as a Michigan alum, it's going to be a different year watching those Buckeyes. But I think they're going to be really good. I think Ohio State's going to be a really good football team. Well, so another one of those schools you mentioned where they definitely did a lot in the transfer portal is Ole Miss. And one of the things we've talked about on the show over and over again is they seem to have actually improved themselves in the trenches through the portal, which a lot of the higher end teams can't do because those

guys aren't typically available. But Prince William Manmey-Ellen's lot of the higher end teams can't do because you just those guys aren't typically available but uh princely amand me ellen's one of the guys that they got and and he was florida's best edge rusher last year and now he goes to old miss he'll he'll work alongside walter nolan there what did you see out of princely in gainesville yeah i mean i love the body type for an edge player i mean he's got length and he knows how to use it. He's a guy that he can set the edge because he's a big, stout guy. He can run from the backside, and he's got pass rush. He's really an all-around edge player. Some guys can play on first and second. Some guys are just sub-down rushers.

I think he's got a pretty good skill set there. He's another guy. When you bring up Prinsley's name, I just go back to last December, and I think he was thinking about going in the transfer portal, and Billy Napier asked if I would get on the phone with him. I mean, we spoke for like an hour, man. Like this – and what that phone conversation showed me is just the decisions that some of these guys are having to make right now

and how difficult it is on some of these players. Sure, there's people out there, fans out there saying, wow, I'd love to make those kind of decisions. You know, go go go to the NFL or transfer to Florida, you know, transfer Ole Miss or make this kind of money. But it really was hard on them. You know, I mean, Florida's cranked out a lot of good edge players, a lot of guys at that position over the years. But it's it's that opened my eyes. You know, I haven't talked to a lot of players directly. That was one of the first guys that really a coach included me in the conversation on. But yeah, it's a really good ad for Ole Miss. I mean, this guy's going to add pressure up front. It's such an interesting new wrinkle to it, too, because before it was,

do you stay at this school or do you go pro? And if you go pro too early, you might cost yourself some money in terms of the guarantee in the first contract if you could have moved up a couple rounds. But if you don't go pro when you can and something happens, then you're out some money. But now you add that extra layer of there's potentially some good NIL money and going to another school.

And then you also may be able to help your draft stock. There's so many variables now. There really are. And again, I feel like this this generation of player is a little bit in the guinea pig phase because for years, I mean, these guys used to draw on the experiences of their teammates, right? They could call the guys they were in the locker room with a couple years before, like, hey, how did you handle this? Like, do you feel good about the path that you went down? Do you have any regrets? Like, right now, these guys are kind of uncharted waters. They have no one really to bounce this stuff off.

So it is certainly an interesting time with the decisions these guys are having to make. And you think about, like, what an extra year does for some of these players i'll just bring it back to to one guy in this year's draft class and that's darius robinson from missouri you know when you and i were at sec media days last july but we talked about him yeah you said you said he asked you how do i get in your game next year yeah he, he's like, why didn't you invite me last year? And quite frankly, I was honest with all these guys that said, Darius, we had you in like the fourth or fifth round. Like that was right around where the cut line was. There wasn't a huge push from the 32 teams, you know, to bring you to the game. And here's what I'd probably be looking for

from my perspective. And he goes out and he gets a first round draft pick, you know, crushes senior bowl week. He's our practice player of the week week and he goes in the first round of the arizona cardinals so you know him going back he made millions and millions of dollars going from being a fourth or fifth round draft pick to a to a first round pick so it's just just a lot man like you said or he could have gone back to school and gotten hurt you know so it's it's just it's it's really hard on all these guys it's it's I know a lot of fans don't don't sympathize with with the players um and they're upset when their players leave the school and transfer to another school but um I always tell people like look look

look at it through the lens if they were your brother or your or your nephew or your cousin like and they've got opportunities to help themselves financially and it's just it's hard it's hard and these guys are trying to to really you know go through this thing without it without a lot of help and it's amazing what's happened with the quarterbacks especially because like Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr. if they had left college after four years of college they would have never sniffed anything close to the first round. I mean one of them may not even have been drafted and Pennix might not have even been drafted had he left college after four years. So it's such a strange situation

and I like like Dylan Gabriel who has done some interviews lately where he said basically the the word he got back the feedback he got back was sixth round seventh round maybe undrafted and that's why he went to Oregon instead of trying to go pro or you know Oklahoma obviously has Jackson Arnold now but that was the the process is so strange because like could could Dylan Gabriel play himself into a much better spot like Bo Nix did? It'll be interesting to see. I think where people have to understand is there's a difference between being,

and I'm not saying this, that it's Dylan Gabriel. There is a difference between being a really good college quarterback, which obviously Dylan is, and being a great pro prospect. So, you know, a lot of times fans scratch their head, like, why would Dylan Gabriel go back to school? I think what he said is where the league had him, because we have those conversations with teams. That's part of our process, is we have those, you know, we try to gauge where the league is at. And so, you know, for Dylan, he's going into an offense, you know, very smart of him. He's going to a school where a guy just came from being a first round draft pick. So we'll see,

you know, I mean, Dylan, obviously a little undersized guy. And, you know, he made comments when he didn't get a senior bowl invite that that was part of his decision-making process. So I'm excited to see him, man. He's, I really like, you know, we talked about on the show last year, I think the two of comparison is real. Those guys both being, you know, basically the fifth round for, you know, Spencer Rattler and some of these guys to start coming off. But no, it'll be interesting to see Dylan and Eugene. We're excited to see them.

Well, another guy, and we were talking about Ohio State earlier, Quinshawn Judkins from Ole Miss, who had a really good career at Ole Miss, decides to go to Ohio State, decided to get into the portal. And this is a situation where you guys normally weren't – you guys weren't looking at guys like this before who could be a three-and-done kind of guy. But how much has that changed in terms of how much you've got to scout?

Yeah, now we are. Now he's a true junior, and he's on our radar. We can bring him to Mobile. How much has that changed in terms of how much you've got to scout? Yeah, now we are. Now he's a true junior and he's on our radar. We can bring him to Mobile. So, yeah, it's changed it. Again, we're not looking at every junior, Andy. I mean, we're trying to be efficient here. We've got enough seniors to evaluate on tape right now.

I'm overwhelmed with all the seniors I need to watch this summer. But we do need to look at the high profile juniors. If you just use this year's class as a frame of reference, we talked about, I want to say, 59, 58, 59 juniors came out. So right now on the board, I think we have somewhere between 75 and 100. So it certainly created more work for our game. I mean, some of these guys are easy, right? Like you watch some of these early out junior guys and they're no brainers for an all-star game. So I don't have to spend a whole ton of time, you know, watching some of these guys, but we did, we watched. Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham at Michigan, not really much to watch there, right? They're

pretty darn good. Those guys were pretty easy um those guys are good players and it's like when Aiden Hutchinson came out like I don't even know if I put on Aiden Hutchinson tape you know the fall of his senior year because you know I knew what I felt about him from the previous year so uh we're just trying to get our guys drafted anyway we don't need to zero in on where we would draft him but uh so we we watch we watch Judkins uh we watch Judkins we had our scout school him but uh so we we watched we watched judkins uh we watched judkins we had our scout school this week uh that we do for former nfl players and we put judkins was one of the players we watch as a group and i mean we had two good running backs in the room

um clinton portis and chris johnson were part of this year's scout school so it's cool yeah it's cool to hear their feedback on judkins you know like what i like about him he played against my high school my son my high school, my son's high school team. So I've seen this guy play when he was a high school player, which is kind of fun. But I just love the power he runs with. He's got nice feet to get downhill.

He can condense his pads and drop his pads on you. He runs physical. And he's got the feet. He's got some, you know, nice shiftiness between the tackles where he can get in a crease. So he's a good player. Like he and Travion Henderson man um that is a that is a heck of a one-two punch when they get into like November and the weather starts getting cold up there um and I think they're gonna be playing into the playoffs so they might have a home playoff game

um that is gonna be uh they're they're gonna be hard they're gonna be running downhill at you with those two dudes yeah I I just don't know how you tackle. You may be able to bring one down, but then he gets a little gas after he gains 20 yards on you, and they bring the next one. But another program that's just loaded like that, and I'm fascinated by this guy. We've talked about him a little bit on the show already, but I wanted to talk to you about him because you've studied him a lot more. Is Ben Urosik the tight end from Stanford who's going to Georgia? Because between

injuries and then Stanford, you know, being, you know, changing coaches, changing everything. I don't know that we've gotten to see exactly what this guy can be, but it seems like from a skill set perspective, we're talking about someone who looks somewhat similar to Brock Bowers. I don't want to throw that comparison on him because it's a lot, but it does seem like Georgia is trying to keep a lot of the Brock Bowers stuff by adding him. Yeah, we started watching Ben last summer. And again, he was a pretty easy study in the past game. This guy's fun. This guy's fun to watch. I think Georgia fans are going to be excited once they really get to see him because he didn't participate in the spring. So I was at the spring game. I got a chance to briefly meet Ben on the field there. So they haven't seen him. And again,

so he was trying to finish out and get that Stanford degree I don't blame him but uh really a fun guy in the past game almost like a big wide receiver they not only do they detach him and play him in the slot like Stanford you can play this guy out wide and throw him the ball down the field and he can go up and make plays down the field uh when when he is closer to the alignment he can't you know he's a he's totally a threat to stretch the same um so he's gonna you know with him and Oscar's totally a threat to stretch the same um so he's gonna you know with him and oscar delp and i know they've got a couple other young guys they like um that room todd hartley has at georgia is is pretty ridiculous as it's been for a couple years now going back when donald washington and those guys were there too so yeah i was gonna say it

it's it's been stacked pretty much forever but it seems like now at this point, if they feel like they're missing something, they can just go into the portal and get it. Yeah, and with the tight end position, a lot of college teams don't use it well. That's why you don't see a lot of highly productive college tight ends. I think there's some things the college coaches

do much better job of than the NFL guys, but I do think the NFL does a much better job of using the tight end position. But Georgia is going to be able to create mismatches at that position. And with Carson Beck, as quick as he can get the ball out of his hand and watching him throw it live, his trigger, his release is unbelievable. So to get those guys involved in the pass game, Delp and, and, uh, you're all sick. I mean, that's, it's going to be, it's going to be, it's going to be dangerous.

Well, that's what I say. Carson Beck might be one of those guys that you are trying to get into the game to, to get up to one, one, if, if that's possible. Cause that, you've had that situation happen before where somebody has come to your game and it was, they're definitely a first rounder, but then they pop themselves up even more yeah yeah no he's uh people ask me people ask you know who's the first quarterback right now i would say it is carson had he come out and i know he was kind of waffling there at the end uh to come out last year he would have been in senior bowl we we thought he was you know we had him like second

round like but it was trending in the right direction. I mean, the guy got consistently better over the course of last year's tape. So had he had a good process, he had a good senior bowl and combine and the whole workout circuit. Maybe he would have been the seventh first-round quarterback had he come up. But now I think it's smart. Now he's positioned himself to be the number one guy in this year's class. And, yeah, we've had guys like that. I mean, going back to like when Carson Wentz got all the way up to number two

from being a second-round pick. And, you know, I think most teams had Baker. I was still in the league at this point. I mean, most teams had Baker in the teens. He goes number one. Just in my time here, we've had guys like Daniel Jones and Justin Herbert have made, you know, big-time jumps from, you know, probably the Justin Herbert have made, you know, big time jumps from, you know, probably the teens up to the, you know, the number six spot. So, um, yeah, Carson,

Carson right now is, is probably the number one guy, but you know, there's Quinn yours and Shador Sanders and some other guys it's, it's pretty unsettled. So it'll, it'll, it'll be fun to go through the fall and kind of see how it all shakes out. Well, speaking of that, you had Bo Nixon and Michael Pennix jr. This year, were you surprised that they went as high as they did because I'm sitting there watching the draft like I didn't I didn't see this well I think I think the Atlanta thing with with Penix surprised everybody not that I I don't think Mike's a number starting quarterback in the league I certainly think he is and we had him up there all year we had Knicks too and that's you know I again I'm sitting in like a biased seat right now but but we did we really like those guys um I thought that you know so it's a little bit of a surprise I

thought Pennix would go in the first round but eight to Atlanta after they signed Kirk Cousins yeah that that caught me a little off guard but I I didn't think I mean the word in the league coming through is that he wasn't going to get past the Raiders. Wherever they were at was like 13. Unless the Raiders were putting out a crazy smoke screen, the whole league, regardless of who I spoke to at the team level leading up to the draft, everybody thought that was going to be the floor for him. And then Bo Nix. I mean, we talked about it before the draft.

I just felt like that Broncos thing was going to happen from the get-go. It was just too good of a marriage with Sean Payton and what Sean wants out of his quarterback. And I hope Bo proves people wrong. I mean, there was a lot of naysayers out there on draft time, a lot of snark on social media, you know, about Bo's arm and, you know, the accuracy, just, you know, the dink and dunk offensive, Oregon's offense. and and again I talking to the Denver Broncos guys they they tore this guy

apart and you know looked at all the downfield throws and and the the analytic stuff they came up with was that he was one of the best deep ball passers in the in the in the draft so uh yeah it was good to have two quarterbacks go on the top 12 for us. It was it was a fun year. Well, good luck as you prepare for for next year. I know there's a lot of senior tape to watch over this summer, but we will have to catch back up because one of my favorite things. This is so behind the curtain, like is me texting Jim over the summer. Who are the small school guys I need to know who who are the guys that haven't started yet that that may be one-year starters and then they are

big-time draft prospects like it is it is fascinating to watch that process it's fun that's that's really the fun of it I mean again right now we we know we want some of these guys in the game it's they're no-brainers You mentioned a few of them. And hopefully they saw a year where we had 10 first-round picks and guys benefit. I mean, the cool part about this year's Senior Bowl for me was guys like Leatu Latu and Telly Esa-Puaga. Those guys coming to Mobile, even though they knew they were going to be first-round picks, right? They wanted to be a part of it they wanted to help their draft stock i mean lot to be in the first defensive player taking it 15. yeah that that the reason that's a big deal is that he was in the mix with jared verse and dallas turner two players that opted not to come to

mobile and and he's the one that ended up on top so i love that for for a lot too because he came down here and competed but but to me the fun part back to your original thing the fun part is finding the small school gems and finding the finding the one-year wonders the guys that you know because like xavier leggett you know like yeah i mean that guy was completely off our radar last year until week one and he goes off against north carolina and ends up being a first round draft pick so to me those are the really cool stories. And I love getting your texts, Andy. Well, I can't really. Dylan Laub with the Raiders.

Cannot wait to see him. Cannot wait till the NFL preseason to see Dylan Laub, who I was introduced through you guys getting him on your radar. And now, because his quarterback at New Hampshire is now Minnesota Minnesota starting quarterback. So I've already watched a bunch of that offense because I was watching Dylan Love. Yeah, Max Brosner. So that's another cool prospect.

We like Max. So I'm excited to see him outside of that offense. But yeah, I know. And you loved watching our guy from Shepard, Tyson Bajan, a couple of years ago. Tyson Bajan was a fun one. Yeah, those are always fun for me. I think my favorite so far, though, well, there's a couple. Your Wisconsin Whitewater offensive lineman from a few years ago

who taught himself to snap during COVID because he'd been a guard. And then, obviously, oh, why am I blanking on his name redheaded guy played for North Dakota State plays for the Rockinghears now yes yeah his helmet's right behind me that's right that's right he's he's tremendous I was learning about him and I you know because you guys put me on to him I'm calling his family I'm'm learning about he's driving a semi truck at age 12. Like it's just awesome. So yeah, the small school thing, again, not to go off on a tangent, but what the portal is doing right now. I mean, it's great for some of these players.

One thing that was always been great about the senior bowl. And then I always loved, you know, as a guy that worked for a team before I took this role was the small school element of it. And having guys like Cody Malkin, Quinn Miners, and like you said, from Whitewater, some of those guys and see those guys make the climb. It's even in two years, man, just in two years, the portal has severely affected the small school element of our game. I mean, two to three years ago, I want to say that offensive line, just the offensive line group had helmets from Tennessee, Chattanooga and Fordham and North Dakota, North Dakota State, Northern Iowa, Southern. I mean, there was, there was as many small school helmets in the O-line room that year as there was, you know, power fives. And here

we are two or three years later and i don't think we had there wasn't a small school helmet in the offensive line group out of 25 guys this year so and cole strange the the chattanooga player you mentioned went in the first round yeah like went in the in the first round to the patriots and so let me ask you this though this a couple years later like what would What would happen with a Cole Strange now? Would he just, you know, Tennessee or Kentucky or somebody like that would just be like, hey, come on, we need you to play now? I would absolutely think that, yeah. And ironically, that was the game that got Cole in the senior bowl.

The first game we watched was him against Kentucky. It was their one playoff. There was their one playoff opportunity opportunity and Cole played his butt off. I mean, he was, he was just mauling dudes. I didn't even have to watch any SoCon tape after that. Like it was a, it was a done deal, but yeah, I would think he would be in Knoxville or Lexington just two years later. So, I mean, the guys that there aren't there,

there are a handful of guys that are being, being loyal to their school. Even like, I mean, the guys that there aren't there, there are a handful of guys that are being being loyal to their school. Even like unfortunately now, like our small school guys this year kind of felt like the group of five guys. Like Quinion Mitchell felt like a small school player in our game this year. And I think we all famously heard Nick Saban on the draft coverage talking about they were trying to get Alabama was trying to get Quin Young to go in the portal because they wanted him. And then they're there to call it. There are three corners would have been Terry on Arnold Quinn Young, Mitchell and Kool-Aid in the slot. Oh, my Lord. But isn't that. But Toledo is not a small school. You know, I'm saying like like historically, you and I have grown up small schools as D2 guys and, you know, one double A guy. Yes. Yeah, exactly. And now like conference usa and sunbelt and mac like those are small schools i so we we got to change it but i i don't love i don't love

it i used to love having all the small school guys in the in the game and we do small school saturday every every we're going to start that up this week uh for the first edition of it this year we've done that for six years, highlighting these small school guys. And it's harder to do that. Frankly, we used to run that through June and July. And I post five, six, seven, eight guys every week of small school guys that legitimately had a chance to play in the senior bowl. And it's just, it's not in two years,

it's a different landscape. Yeah, I was gonna say that the scouting at the college level has gotten so much more sophisticated now they're they're working like the the nfl scouting departments used to work in well and that's uh it's a positive thing in the sense like talking to our scout school guys this week some of the some of the you know advice i had to them was go back to the school you played at right like there's only 32 teams in the NFL. So the job opportunities in the NFL aren't great. Not to say you can't get there, especially being a former NFL player. You've got a nice network to start with, but now these schools are having

to do it. You've got a high school department and you've got a college department. So a lot of these NFL guys that, you know, guys that have been in the league a long time are getting squeezed out of the league because of their age. Guys in their 50s, they're getting squeezed out. They're getting replaced by younger guys in their 20s. But now at least there's an opportunity for them to – because who's done work in their 50s? Who can retire? Not many people can retire in their 50s if they work in football.

So, no, yeah's there's there's full departments now in a lot of them are former nfl guys one of our guys um there's work for us the last couple years of the senior bowl is it is with your gators right now uh working working the working the portal guys for the gators so um yeah it's it's changed for that for that part for the good uh more jobs in football more jobs in. That's a good thing. Yeah, it's tough though because you're right. It does take a toll on the small schools. They become kind of the farm system where by

the time the guys get to your game, they've played at the small school, but then they've done a year or so at the power conference level as well. Well, Jim, I cannot wait to see who you turn me on to this summer. It's always a lot of fun, and this is going to be another one.

All right, Andy. Have a great summer, man. Thanks for squeezing me on here to talk about the portal stuff. It's fun, but have a great summer, man. I know we'll get connected in Dallas there at SEC Media Days, and it's going to feel like tomorrow, but enjoy the next five or six weeks before I see you in dallas oh i'm sure we'll find ways to bug you between now and then so thank you jim the great jim naggy from the senior bowl we do appreciate him and yeah he's he's got a nice

head start on things so uh we will definitely be picking his brain in terms of who to be watching this season. He's a great resource because I love getting that list of guys that, that, okay. Because that conversation we had about Darius Robinson last year at SEC media days, I was like, okay, let's watch Darius Robinson. Let's watch this Missouri defense. And guess what? Pretty awesome. Both of them. So we'll see what Jim comes up with. We'll see what, what, who he's looking at. And yeah, it's, it's good intel and it helps all of us become more informed college football watchers. So by the way, if you're watching right now, please like, and subscribe at the on three sports YouTube page. We're here every day,

Monday through Friday, 8 AM.m. Eastern time. Tomorrow, Max Olson from The Athletic will join us. A little more of the Retraining Your Brain series, but a little bit different way. We're just going to be talking about the things we are really excited about for the 2024 season. Some of the new things, some of the old things that are coming back. Like, I don't know, Texas and Texas A&M are going to play football again. It's going to be wild and crazy. It's going to be so much fun. I cannot wait till we get to the real games, but until we do, we can dream about them.

So we'll talk to Max tomorrow about all of the things that we are pumped about for the 2024 season. Talk to you then.