Andy & Ari On3 - Ryan Silverfield is ready to CALL THE HOGS: Can he make Arkansas win again?

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

Over in northwest Arkansas, the Razorbacks are looking for a much better 2026 campaign than last season. Replacing Sam Pittman, Ryan Silverfield comes in from Memphis to take over the Razorbacks football program. With plenty of support from the local community in Fayetteville, will Silverfield return the Razorbacks to its winning ways? Watch here as the first year head coach joins Andy & Ari to discuss on today's episode.   (0:00) On Today's Episode (0:40) Presenting Sponsor (2:32) Intro: Previewing Ryan Silverfield (4:05) Ryan Silverfield joins (16:06) Building a roster in Fayetteville (22:46) The state of Arkansas Football (28:45) Calling the Hogs - Closing out (32:00) Jim Tressel to be enshrined at OSU (47:02) Championship window open (50:30) Notre Dame & Oregon (53:28) Miami (56:00) Texas (1:00:01) What about Georgia? (1:02:47) Pyramid of CFB (1:09:19) Thanks for watching!   After Ryan Silverfield, the fellas go from a new coach to an older coach: Jim Tressel. Leading the Ohio State Buckeyes through one of its more successful era, Tressel's breakup with the Buckeyes have left a sour taste in the fans of OSU for quite some time. Now, the former Buckeyes head coach is set to be enshrined forever in Ohio Stadium. Andy & Ari break down this move out of Columbus.   As the guys talked about first year head coaches yesterday, today's discussion revolves around the teams who have their championship window open right now. Which teams are we missing? Is this the right list? Andy & Ari debate   Our show is also presented by BetMGM!   If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works:   1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB. 2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. 3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you use bonus code CFB when you sign up!   Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary.   See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. This promotional offer is not available in DC, Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET (Available in the US) . 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only (if applicable). 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/o-eY0eD7h9s   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail]     Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today is Andy Nareon 3 presented by BetMGM, new Arkansas head coach Ryan Silverfield joins us. What's it like when you go to the Dallas Cowboys Owners Office and he's the captain of your last national championship team. And he tells you what needs to be done at your school. Ryan Silverfield will tell us about his first meeting with Jerry Jones. Plus Jim Tressel entering the Ohio State Ring of Honor. Also, Ohio State is one of these teams. What are the other teams whose national championship window is open in 2006? We'll talk about it all on today's Andy and Ari on 3, presented by BedMGM.

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Welcome to Annie and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. Got a great interview for you today. Ryan Silverfield, the new Arkansas head coach Ari, and we talked to him when he was the Memphis head coach. Very smart guy. Front of the program. Memphis. He inherits one of the tougher jobs in America. Yeah.

And the cool thing about it is is that when you take that job, it might be tough. You might know that the recent past hasn't gone well, but I think you take it eyes wide open of what they expect. And I think that's what makes the SEC so difficult. You have so many teams, if not all of them, who want to win national championships, make playoffs and do all those things.

And frankly speaking, Andy, all of them have had blips where they were successful. Like Arkansas, we're talking about Jim Tressel today. Like Arkansas was very good during the end of his tenure there. with a pretty really good backfield. So it can be done. And going in understanding and accepting the challenge is part of the battle. And I think that he understands that people want to win there.

I definitely think he understands that. Even if he didn't understand it when he took the job, he certainly understands it now. And you're right. They haven't had the success they want. But it's not like they're not putting the resources in. It's not like they are not caring. They're filling that stadium every week.

So he knows exactly what he needs to do and what's going to make those folks happy. This is a matter of pulling it off. Let's talk to Ryan Silverfield. We are joined by a new Arkansas head coach, Ryan Silverfield, the last time he was on the show, he was the Memphis coach, and he was basically building a romantic getaway weekend

for Ari and his wife at the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid. So Ari, do you need Northwest Arkansas travel tips? What's the move there? We're a drive away. I mean, we were a drive from Dallas to Memphis was a drive, but I think it's kind of the same distance, right? To Fayetteville, I'm not very good at geography. Yeah, you're about, we can get you.

If you're speeding, we'll get you here in four hours, and we'll have the perfect romantic getaway. We'll start you off with a scenic sunset on Mount Sequoia, about 10 minutes from campus. I'll take you downtown Fayetteville to the square, and then maybe we'll go to downtown Bentonville and see some Walmart headquarters and let you walk around at the lights coming up.

We've got it all planned for you. Come on. I'm a big Walmart guy. I don't know this about me. I love him. Listen, I didn't hear the catfish hole in there once, and I'm very disappointed. I've made hush puppies at the catfish hole before coach. So if now here's my question.

Like, when you get hired as the Arkansas head coach, does someone hand you a paper with the hush puppy recipe? Because they wouldn't, they wouldn't give it to me. It's, yeah, it's the secret sauce, right? Like, hey, this has been passed on. from Croix-Broyal's on and you've now carried this legacy with you. And that was the very first thing. And then taught me how to call the hogs and they said, good luck. You know what I find interesting is like when I first moved to Texas,

I like drove around to a lot of places I had never been and tried to eat at places that people. Like, what's it like when you go to a new community and you are the face of that community? And how do you get your bearings about selling what's special about that place by experiencing it yourself? Like what's that process look like for a new coach in a new place? Well, I think the unique thing, right? It's you sit there and talk about the work itself. But let's talk about outside of that, right? The macro level view is you do want to immerse yourself in the community.

You want to be around all the things that make this area so special, right? I mean, there's so many great towns. But, you know, Northwest Arkansas, Fayetteville in particular, right? I think it's been voted the number one SEC town by U.S. News World Report for 11 straight years. So you can, man, I love food. drive around seeing all the different food, meeting so many new people. That's all part of it.

And then guess what? You turn back around and you talk about summer official visits and recruiting. Now you can talk about the industry up in Northwestern. It's all the home of Walmart and all the things that come along with that. And right, Tyson's chicken. And then, you know, all the good food places. So you all quickly turn a salesman, right? I was at Memphis for 10 years.

I knew as much as I could about that entire area. Now you get up here, but to experience it all has been a lot of fun. that's what I love when you were you were creating the romantic getaway weekend for Ari and his wife it sounded an awful light like an official visit you're like we're going to to Walmart headquarters and see you know where you might actually wind up being an executive someday and it's it's a pretty good pretty good pull i i got to ask you i was told you you met with jerry jones recently and you know it's we think of jerry jones larger than life dallas cowboys owner but he's also the captain of the night

1964 national title team at Arkansas. How big is it for him for Arkansas to be good? Yeah, you know, so I walked into his office, obviously, at the star, and I had a speaking engagement there that night, and Jerry and Stephen greeted me in their office, and just so welcoming. And, you know, obviously I was giddy and excited because of who he is and what they are and what they stand for.

And, you know, and I coached against him. I never met him and shook his hand and then sit down with him. And it was unique. Obviously, he could have as much memorabilia around his office as he could possibly imagine with his history. And he had one helmet in his entire office. It was an Arkansas Razorback, silver helmet that was the, that they made for him when they played in AT&T Stadium with kind of the Cowboys color. But with the Hogg logo on it, he's like, listen, he goes, the Razorbacks mean everything to me. He goes, I love the Dallas Cowboys.

But, man, I love, and I dream about the Razorbacks having success in football. And so that was surreal to hear that. And we talked about different strategies, you talked about marketing. And just to listen to him speak and tell stories. I almost missed my speaking engagement, actually, because I was up in his office, like just taking it all in. And obviously, you know, when you're talking to recruits, like, oh, yeah, you're from Dallas. You're a Cowboysman, huh? Oh, yeah.

Well, let me tell you about this. And it's quite a huge deal. And obviously, we want to keep him involved within this program. You know, when you are going to a new place, we talked about learning the place. And I don't know why Andy didn't follow up on what your favorite new dish was there. We'll have to come back to that. But you obviously want to learn about the place as much as you can. And the best way to learn about that is to talk to people who have even lived it or close to them.

Like what did Jerry tell you about Arkansas? Did you learn something from him about the place that you're now leading? Well, you know, the one thing I've taken from so many former raisebacks. So let's not even consider him, you know, obviously who he is and what he's about as the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. and obviously the biggest marketing franchise in the country. You know, he told me, he's like, understand this, everybody in the entire state loves the Razorbacks, right? And understand who you represent.

And our largest alumni base is actually in Dallas. And so that's really cool that, you know, to have that and to have those conversations. And then, you know, just his unique marketing background too, right, with what he's been able to do there. He was sharing some ideas of things that we could possibly do up here. Obviously, it's a different day in college football. when he played. And so we've got to be resourceful. And he even talked about Coach Burles

was one of the few that talked about C licensing that talked to him about that. And I was like, man, all the way back in the 60s, that was something that Coach Burles, obviously the legendary coach of the Razorbacks and who Coach Jones played for, Jerry Jones played for, quite unique. So just some of those stories, you know,

and to hear the history and things that we can do moving forward was great. It's such a different time than the last time you took over a program. And you think we took over Memphis, Mike Norvella just left for Florida State going into the 2020 season, basically. What was different about the job taken over now than when you're basically getting promoted, inheriting the players that were there? Like, this is not that.

No. Let's start, Andy, first and foremost, the entire industry has changed, right? Like 2020 was when this thing, obviously, the start of COVID, it. And then we were slowly starting to see that, yeah, right, people talking about this transfer portal thing and then NIL and then RevShare. So like what has occurred in college football over the last six years has been so different. So you talk about, I think there's like maybe 25 head coaches that got their new head coaching jobs in 2020. And I think there's only a handful of us left that are, you know, have been able to survive all the different things have gone on. And it's so

unique, but then you do talk about taking over a program that you were in, you know, four years as an assistant. And then, you know, being somewhere for 10 years, you got great understanding, obviously, institutional knowledge. And then you come and you take over a program that may have not been in the best standing. And that's why we're here. And again, like why I told everybody when I got here is we're not here to complain about the past and what we don't have. We're going to go get what we need. We're going to work our tails off to get our insult back to where it needs to be. And, And it's obviously there's certain challenges, but I look at them as opportunities because this is a great place with a lot of work to be done ahead of us. Coach, what's it like now you haven't coached the game there yet, but being in a conference where every single team in the conference's expectation is to win the national title.

Yeah, that's a little bit different in the place I came from. Obviously, the goal is to win and win a lot of the games to compete for championships. But listen, I think that's what makes this thing so special. that's one of the reasons why I wanted this job, right, because the expectations are high. And everybody in this conference does expect to play at the absolute highest level. I mean, every week is a bloodbath. Every week is a 12-round fight. And I like those.

Let's go. You know, you want to play at the absolute and coach at the highest level. You know, done it at the NFL, but certainly the SEC in college football. We understand what that means. And every week is going to have its opportunities to go out there and have a slug fest. What did you find out about this job that you might maybe didn't know until you got into it? Well, I think, you know, everybody, you hear about things, obviously coaching in Memphis on the edge of Arkansas. And, you know, it was important.

But you get here and it goes back to what you said, like, this is it in this state, you know, at the beginning, right? You get here, obviously, in an SEC town, but, man, it doesn't matter, right? You're in Little Rock. And it's so important for people to see this place do well, right? They talk about the moods of people and even West Memphis. right all dictated on how we do on a Saturday. And I love that. I love the passion of the fans, you know, obviously even in recent history,

maybe not been as successful as they have wanted. The fans still show up, right? 92% capacity, you know, taking over a program that had one powerful win at home in three years. I mean, there's been some struggles. But I think within those, the fans still show up and they still support and they want to see it. The Razorbacks do well. And I think that's what that's what's interesting about this because, you know, from the outside, I think maybe people who are fans of an SEC team understand it.

But fans of schools in different leagues, they probably look at the SEC and they think, oh, Georgia, Alabama, maybe LSU. When you get into to northwest Arkansas, when you're on Arkansas campus, there is no difference in the expectation for the for the Razorbacks than for the Crimson Tide or the Bulldogs or the volunteers or the Gators or the Gators. it doesn't really matter. Like it is that pressure doesn't change. No, there's no doubt. I mean, I've met with donors who literally will sit back and say, well,

you know, Coach Burles did it like this and, and coach nut, you know, when he won, you know, we just got to get you doing that. And,

you know, you'll be well liked. I'm like, oh, that's good. Yeah, I appreciate those expectations. But that's what you want.

You want everybody to have these high expectations for what we're capable of doing. And given time, right? the goal is to win right now. But in given time, I believe we'll get this program back to where it needs to be. And then the rest of the people around the central make note and say, well, Arkansas is a force to be reckoned with them in the SEC. How much of your job is fundraising and how much of your job is coaching?

Yeah, I'll soon as you get off this, Zoom I'll be going forward. I think what's happened is you've got to be smart with how you do your time. Right. So spring football, I want to focus on being in meetings, being around the play. players, obviously at practice, watching the film with the coaches, as much as that as you can, right? And then, okay, well, if you have a free night for dinner, guess what? You're probably not doing with your family. You're trying to meet up with a donor, trying to find different ways.

So a lot of the off season, right, you know, May when the assistant coaches are on the road, recruiting high schools is a great time for us to get out, you know, see people in the state, get down to Dallas, engage with our great fans. So a lot of the fundraising is very, very, very. important. It's really what's needed around here right now. So I'd say currently in the offseason, 80% of my time is spent fundraising, 20% is on football, obviously. When football requires it, it's going to have my full attention, whether it's summer access, anytime we get on the chance to be in the field with the guys, send on as many meetings as we can, going through

Playbook. And then obviously, you know, come August, if that 100% focus, just with what occurs in between the white lines. I was watching an interview, I think it was with Adam Brennam, and you were talking about your first few days on the job and you had, you were meeting with players and you have players kind of drop a dollar figure on you. Here's what I might need to stay. How tough are those conversations when you haven't even really gotten a chance to see film on them to see if they, if you want them to play for you? Yeah. I think that's what's so unique, right? Like these, and you want players that think highly of themselves to have confidence. And there's certain guys you sit there and say, okay, all right, you meet with a player like Quincy Rhodes Jr., a guy that I've

known for a long time. I have a relationship with him since he was, you know, really 16 years old. And you sit down with him and those are the conversations. Hey, here's what we're thinking. Great. Well, I know you're good and I've watched your film. Obviously, coached against Arkansas this past season. So I had a little bit of an understanding. But what you ultimately, you know, already end up doing was just, hey, how quickly can I sit down, watch film? And a lot of it's, hey, I'm watching practice film from October, right? Here's a kid that was a red shirt this year that's asking for more money. Let me watch his practice. practice film. Okay. This is what you think your value is. Okay, let me catch my breath,

figure this thing out. So you're watching a lot of film, going back, watching game film, and seeing ultimately what fits. And there's some people we said, hey, we wish you the best. And there's others, you know, as we were putting pieces in place, finding a general manager, try to do it on our own and figure out what ultimately was the best fit for us to establish a roster for the 2026 football season. And you mentioned like Quincy Rhodes, the very good edge player. how many of these guys did you know had you come across and recruit? Because like you mentioned, at Memphis, the overlap with Arkansas is probably pretty big. And you may run into guys that when you're the Memphis coach, you may not be in on,

but you're seeing them early and you may see them again. Yeah, I think recruiting regionally for so long was a huge part of it. So a lot of these guys had been on our campus at Memphis, who I'd sat down with in my office and recruited and seen film one. And even it was, you know, years prior, right? You know, we'll give you a perfect example. Miguel Mitchell, I went and watched him play a high school game. I felt we were going to give him to commit to us.

I think he ended up committing to Vanderbilt, still thought we were in the recruiting process. Florida offers a Florida. He goes in the portal, and he official visited Memphis. And I thought we were getting him then. He goes Arkansas. And then when I finally, when I got this job, I sat down with him. I said, you got to stay? He goes, well, I think I'm going to test the portal.

guy said, man, you really don't want to be coached by me. After a few weeks in the portal, we came to a mutual agreement that it's time. All right, man, I've been chasing you, you know, like a long girlfriend. Well, let's you settle down here and come back. So I think a lot of it, right, those relationships and having those authentic conversations with guys that I've known that I've recruited come across past with. There's a couple guys on this roster and said, man, you didn't even recruit me at Memphis. I said, well, you know, maybe I made a mistake.

and that's what led us both to be in here. Yeah, that's got to be so challenging. I think about like our budget at my house and like trying to balance like how we spend and all these things. And I know that you're a brilliant football mind, but like coming into these meetings and assigning value and putting it together

and having to be able to balance that checkbook and who's worth what? Like that's a completely different skill than coaching football. Like how do you learn that on the fly and how challenging do you think that is? Not only for you, but for people all over the sport that are putting that in that position i know people help but you still have to you know have an opinion about those things for sure well are you i mean i know your household budget's probably

about 20 million a year which yes so i know you're just blowing up the air condition buying new cars and all those things but that's that's his uh his football card budget yeah uh is if my wife would work just a little harder we should we could have a little more but uh you know that's uh that's our inside joke that i always say with her but like yeah but i i i still i I don't know people are asked to do things that aren't in their purview now. Sure. And you have to be good at those things. Yeah, right.

Like, I mean, the job duties, okay, so this is my 28th year coaching, right? When I started coaching Division III football, there are things that are asked to me as a D-line coach at Division III that you would say, okay, that's normal, you know, asks of a college football coach, even at a small level. And then, you know, obviously as you move up, there's certain things, certain requirements. But as we talked about, really since 2021, probably, the seat as a head coach has totally changed. And everybody's always always had to fundraise. You've always had to do these things. You've always had, sure. But the amount of attention and focus to detail on those things is so different.

I think what made this Arkansas job so unique is you can't just be a good ex as an oath coach, right? There's some jobs out there that have stockpiles of money where they're probably not fundraising every day. Well, this job requires fundraising every single day. This job requires being able to get out in the public and be able to speak well enough. I'm not saying that. I got a face for radio. But getting out and shaking hands and being around those people. Oh, by the way, you know, being able to retain a roster.

So developing those relationships with certain people. So you're exactly right. Like there were things, you know, I was an economics major. I thought I was done with an Excel spreadsheet, you know, for a long time. You get to put it away for 25 years. And then it's not so fast, my friend. right now you've got an Excel spreadsheet and you're crunching numbers and trying to figure out the best way to manage a roster and then still evaluating talent, still motivating, all those things that come in. You just wearing a lot more hats these days.

So you were the one guy who said he was proficient in Excel who actually was proficient in Excel. Like you didn't lie on your resume. That's good to know. I mean, like, you guys laugh about that. But my freshman year of college, there was an Excel class where it was just learning Excel and I dropped it. It was too difficult. It was like, I thought like,

this is the least surprising fact I've learned all day. You laugh, you laugh if you've never done it before or like you aren't proficient in Excel. It is overwhelming. The TI-83 calculator, let it figure it out for you. There you go.

I'm going to take you deep into those spreadsheets, Ryan. Because this is the topic actually last summer was when all this was happening. And, you know, Sam was still the head coach. Hunter, your check took a lot of heat. for saying, hey, I don't know that financially the football program is where it needs to be yet. How do you feel like it is now?

And obviously, you're working on this as well. Are you guys where you want to be? I'm sure everybody wants more money, but do you feel like you're in a good spot right now? I'll say this. Everybody is all hands on deck. Everybody understands the importance of having the success of a football program winning football games, you know, week in and week out is huge to what we want to do as a university for this region. So there's certainly from the administration to the donors, everybody understands that.

We are fighting every single day to get us to where we need to be. Any head coach that sits there and tells you that are where they need to be from a financial standpoint. Probably ain't telling it, right? Even these schools with, you know, 40 plus million dollar rosters. We got a ways to go, but we're working very, very hard. And I think everybody understands where we need to get to and work every single day, right? I wake up every morning. Obviously, how can I make this program better?

And I think there's a lot of people that feel the exact same. What do we need to do to get football back to where it needs to be? Obviously, my focus is on the current players, but ultimately getting the resources in place, right? You don't want to go take a knife to a gunfight week and week out. So, you know, how do we continue to allow ourselves to put ourselves at a higher level? Are we there yet? No, sir. But we're going to work diligently every single day maybe to give ourselves the opportunity

to compete at a high, high level. Yeah, I mean, I'm assuming, too, that taking over a program is also like a diagnostic, right, of where things weren't wrong and stuff. And you alluded to this earlier in the show. But Arkansas hasn't been very successful before you arrived. Do you have to, you know, get a shovel and start digging into the reasons why? And, you know, how successful do you believe you were in doing that and finding maybe the holes in the fence there to try to patch up? Yeah, you're exactly right.

I think, right. Anybody takes over a job, right? Very few are taking it over, their place, you know, unless they inherited, you know, heard some coach say, hey, I actually took over a program with a good culture with a, and again, no knock on the past. I've got a lot of respect for everybody that came before me and the players. But ultimately, yeah, there were some efficiencies. And so the first two months on the job, you put your head down and you're just working your ass off,

trying to establish a roster, put together a staff, right? Make sure you're all the pieces of place. Then you say, okay, let's peel back the onion. And it was really when I said, okay, going back to that, and I hate to harp on the stack because it's certainly not something to sell recruiting, but one power for when at home in three years, that can't just be lack of certain areas, right?

Like, okay, what are we doing academically? What are we doing from a strength training? What are we doing from nutrition? What are we doing from an academic stamp piece of class schedule? What does that look like? Compliance, how can we coach better? All those things come into place. when it's been that kind of down.

And so the diagnostic analysis of the entire thing saying, okay, we can tweak this, we can find ways to do this and getting with the players and really, you know, unturning every stone. I think I've met with most people on the entire campus about finding ways to get better. If that makes us 1% better in certain areas, we're certainly going to attack them.

And we'll continue to figure out the best ways to put us the right foot forward. What are some of the first things you did to attack? any deficiencies you found. Because I go back to like when Clark Lee took over at Vanderb. We kind of made fun of him for spending hours and hours teaching them how to stretch. But it was a whole attention to detail thing that when you see him winning 10 games, you're like, ooh, maybe he was on to see him. Maybe that shoveling snow, Andy.

Remember, he was out there with a, you know, Clark Lee. They didn't have the staff to shovel the snow near the football building and he went out with the staff and did it himself. So. Yeah. And that's a great question. I think, you know, a couple of things that are. actually told the joke in the press conference.

When I got here, the day I arrived to meet with the team, I go down the stairs to the team room. And before I get introduced to the team, before I even walk in there, I turned to our chief of staff. And I said, hey, let's turn on the lights. Let's make it brighter in here. He said, what are you talking about? And I said, the lights need to be brighter in this.

You know, let's turn them on. He said, there are a full go. I said, there's no way. And I said, listen, maybe me and you tonight are going to Walmart, we're changing out all the light bulbs in this building. because this is a dreary feeling. The players are supposed to meet down here. The players are supposed to spend the majority of the time.

This dark dungeon, now we're not doing that. Let's get this. I want the things repainted, right? We were in a building where the weights were 20 years old, right? Where the paint had been freshened up in many years. And so just a new set of eyes saying, hey, these are some of these basic things. Let the players come and at least feel like we care about this place. They're coming to work out.

They're coming to do these things. And it hadn't been touched in many years. No, that is. in it. And so those things. And then, you know, as we got them back in January, we actually, you know, it's interesting. He said coach Lee taught him how to stretch. Well, we taught our guys how to take steps efficient movement. You go back and watch the film of some of these things that have occurred, right, where a guy may have gotten beat on a go ball or was, you know, half second late getting to the quarterback or a blocked punt. Guys were stepping underneath themselves.

Guys were not taking a fission steps. So we literally said, okay, here's how you walk. Here's how you move. And it seems so silly. But a lot of the coaches that have been with me in the past said, man, this is everything. You know, and then you get players buying in like, oh, this is going to make me better, not only during practice, but on game weeks. And so those kind of details and everything. I think that's as important. Meeting with, you know, academics talking about the number of steps it takes from the players parking lot to where they eat their meals and how do we make it more efficient for them not putting extra 200 miles on their legs. You know, just figuring out those things.

And I think that was ever-important every day. The devil's and the details, you ultimately hope it shows up on the winds. The important question now, the truly important question for the person who took this job. How is the process of learning to call the hogs? Is that done on the plane on the way? Oh, I thought you were going to ask him about food. Yeah. No, no, no.

It's very important. But yeah, calling the hogs day actually in my house, Coler Parkinson actually was teaching me, you know, my wife and I, how to do it. And then, you know, on the plane and then multiple times. And yeah, I think I've got it now, right, being here over a half a year. But it's nerve wracking. The first time you do it from everybody, like, all right, let's hope my midriff shirt doesn't show my stomach as I'm raising the arms above the head, you know, am I wiggling the fingers enough?

Do I look like a spirit fingers or? Yeah. That's our first bringing on reference on the show. I truly appreciate that. These are spirit figures. These are spirit. That's right. I mean, it's all those things.

And you want to be in sync with everybody else. And it's, listen, I love it. You know, at first time I saw it was like, what hell is going on around here? But it's cool. But there's some things you got to make sure, right? The arm's getting high enough. I'm stretched out. You know, you talk about that.

You don't want to, you know, pull something going up too high. just make sure it's that right balance and enthusiasm to do it but it's cool there's nothing like it so one of my favorite teachers growing up my calculus teacher my senior year high school patsy davis she's about four foot 11 uh redhead spitfire she's a razor back i love it if we were particularly good in class for a week she would stand on a desk and call the hogs i love it this is in Orlando, Florida. She's doing well. Listen, I bet she's still with us.

She's listening right now. I hope so. But I will never forget the first time I heard somebody call the hogs. I was like, that place must be cool. Well, Andy, here's what we're going to do, right? We're going to get you to come to a game. We're going to get Patsy to come to a game. I know she's 410 back in the day.

Maybe she's 4.8 now. But you and Spitfire, Patsy, the red hair. We're going to get up on your shoulders. that you guys are going to call the hogs at the 50 for one of our games this year. And I think the crowd is going to go nuts. I would love it. I would love it. Ryan, thank you so much and good luck.

And, yeah, I'll see you at the catfish hole. We'll have some hush puppies. The steaks there are surprisingly good for fried gas fish. What's the best meal you've had? We didn't get to. I'm sorry, but I want to know. This interview has been bought to you by Tyson's chicken. He knows what he's doing.

Yeah, absolutely. That's all I eat. That's the only thing. Now, there's been so many good food places. You know, a good friend of mine is the owner of Wright's Barbecue. That's been fantastic. But there's been so many good spots. And that's kind of a cool thing, right?

Not a whole lot of change. You just go to all these neat little places. And I'll continue to discover them, hopefully, for many, many years. I love how you hit the icons, though. Wright's Barbecue, Tyson Chicken. He knows those. You mentioned Walmart multiple times unbidden. You got it down.

I always sled my Walmart cup into the... Well, that's it. You're talking about brightening the team room. The first thing, we're going to go to Walmart. You know what you're doing. Absolutely. All part of it, guys. Ryan, thank you so much.

Appreciate you, as always. Go hogs. Are we moved from a first year coach to a longtime coach, one that you actually covered as a beat writer, who is now, well, he's been a university president. He's been a lieutenant governor. And now he is going into the ring of honor. Jim Tressel is going to be enshrined in Ohio State's Ring of Honor.

And Ari, this is something that probably should have been a long time ago that didn't happen because there used to be a lot of stupid rules in college football. Is that the best way to sum it up? Yeah, I don't know. Andy, you tell me, because I just was reading about this this morning. But did this take longer? Like, did they keep them out because of the Tatgate stuff? I mean, Troy Smith's already been inducted.

Yeah. And Troy Smith won the Heisman Trophy in 2006. Tressel was run out in May of 2011. Yeah. And we can talk about why, and you know why. It was the Tatoo Gate thing. It was he lied to NCAA investigators. having covered that story, I know why he told a lie to the NCAA investigators,

trying to protect his players from getting in trouble. And you can say what you want, but the fact of the matter is if that had happened now, one, it wouldn't even be a penalty. None of that, none of the selling of the memorabilia, none of that would be against the rules anyway. Andy, if Charlie Becker put his national championship ring on eBay, we would be laughing about it on the show the next day. Like we,

that would be, like, could you imagine like laughing? I'd be wondering why and, and all, no, I know, but like it would be a bit.

Like, we would have a listing on the show. We'd be talking about it. Like, and it would be lighthearted. So, like, and I still am like,

not quite clear on why that was a rule to begin with, like why you can't sell your own stuff. I guess maybe. They used to have a ton of stupid rules that basically was preventing athletes from making money. off being good athletes. Yeah.

Like, I know there are going to be some people, Andy, you covered this, you said he should be fired. I never said he should be fired. I said he was going to be fired because that's what happened back then to people who got caught lying to NCAA investigators. But the column I wrote for SI, the day after all this stuff came out was Terrell prior DeVier Posey, all the guys that got caught up in it.

Like, GoPro now. Stop feeding this stupid system. Because, yeah. the rules were stupid. We can all agree on that now. I know Andy. And I know that I don't know if I've been frank about this on air, but I know you and I've had discussions.

I used to have a relationship with Terrell Pryor having covered it. And like I've been trying to get him on shows for four or five years now. And he just got into a little bit of trouble. So now it's probably not the time to do it. But like the way the Terrell Pryor was treated in recent. received by Ohio State fans in the years after that happened wasn't healthy. He didn't come back to the events. He didn't, you know, wasn't on the sideline for games, the way that former players come back.

Like, I think that like for a while there, there was a severed relationship between Ohio State, its fans, and Terrell Pryor. And if you go back and look at, you know, you covered it intimately so you know, a lot of the things that he has made fun of for now he didn't even do. Like the tattoo, I don't even think that Terrell Pryor got a tattoo. The place was a way to get money. Or if you wanted a tattoo, you could get a tattoo. But yeah, it's just, it's silly.

And the trestle piece of it, if it had happened 15 years later, Ohio State would not have fired Jim Tressel or run him off. However semantically, you want to couch it, they fired him. They wouldn't have done that. Like you saw Michigan get behind Jim Harbaugh. with the sign stealing stuff Ohio State would have had Jim Trussle's back. It's just at the time,

that's not what anybody did. And it's crazy because it's gone the other way. It used to be like the school's like, well, the rule's broken. I guess we're going to do this. And now it's like, what rule? Where can we find a judge? You know, the thing that I think is so fascinating

about this, Andy, is that I was on the beat. And I was like a very young reporter. Like, it was my second year on the beat and second year in this profession when this happened in 2010. And I will tell you, and I don't know if it was partly my anxiety because I'd never covered something so big or so, like, so important to the sport. The fact that I had boots on the ground in Columbus living there trying to, you know, but like I remember vividly how heavy this was. I remember how heavy it was in the community. I remember them trotting, you know, Torell Pryor, Mike Adams, boom heron into a room. like they were on like a mugshot tour or something like you know it was just people who got caught

breaking NCAA rules were treated like criminals back then they were treated like criminals and they felt like criminals and Jim Tressel um was kind of viewed that way but the thing that I found interesting about the way that things ended there was that Jim Tressel has been was and always will be one of the most iconic and most beloved Ohio State football personalities, leaders, affiliations of all time. Like when Tressel was fired, people weren't like, wow, he broke the rule. Like people were devastated. Oh, yeah.

And you got to remember, there was just a year before they got Urban Meyer. So it was a massive punishment. Like, yeah, I remember I wrote this column because I went to, I covered his committee on infractions hearing. Yeah. He was in Indianapolis at the Marriott in Indianapolis. And I remember watching him come out of that room and get into his pickup truck at the ballet stand and drive away, knowing that he was never going to be Ohio State's coach again. And it was just, it was so sad to watch.

And it was just, it's crazy because you talk to people who played for Jim Trestle, like Ben Hartsock, great dude. Yeah. He's tight end to Ohio State, played the NFL. Like, he'll tell you, like, Jim. Jim Tressel treated those guys like men. Like they loved him. They felt like he taught them things. They felt like he was what you were supposed to be as a coach.

Yeah. He was not, they cared about them genuinely as human beings. And I think ultimately that is what got him in trouble is he probably didn't want those guys to be paraded in like mugshots. He knew what was going to happen. And so he did what he did. And then the thing that has to also be acknowledged, too, is that the NCAA was hypocritical in the punishment in allowing them to play in the bowl game because they didn't want to take ratings. Yeah, the Big Ten of the NCAA cooked up a deal. If you don't remember this.

The Big Ten of the NCAA cooked up a deal so that those guys' suspension didn't start immediately. They could play in the Sugar Bowl because the Big Ten had been getting its ass kicked in BCS bowl games. Yeah. And so they played against Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl, which Ohio State won. And then their suspension. And then their suspensions began. And it was just like, come on, guys. Like, what are we doing here?

It's like, okay, you did something wrong, but we're only going to punish you once that punishment doesn't bleed into our pockets. You know, and everyone, everybody, even back then I remember caught onto it. But, you know, I don't know. There are coaches who have left places in scandal. And they're remembered for it. Like, for instance, like, I don't think that Jim Harbaugh,

when he goes back to Michigan, will be remembered for SpyGate. I think at Michigan, he will be remembered for SpyGate. I think at Michigan, he will be remembered for being a national champion. Yeah. And like, I do not believe. And maybe I'm off on this. If you're an Ohio State fan, you tell me if I'm wrong. But I never got the under the understanding or the perception that when Trussell was fired,

which by the way, the day he was fired was Memorial Day. And I was on the beat. And I was 22 at the time and had a good time that. And I slept through the, when he resigned for five hours. And it's still one of my biggest professional blunders. People were devastated and people love him and love him still. They carry him off the field when he returns. He is a beloved figure in Ohio State football history.

And I don't believe that that's the way that he is remembered by Ohio State. And in fact, when you said that we were. And look at how his life has gone since. Like, nothing. This is not a guy who is followed by scandal. He became the president of Youngstown State, which was the school he coached before he came to Ohio State. Which, by the way, is objectively hilarious.

because if you get fired for being a coach because you can't be trusted to be the leader of men because of this infraction, now you're the president of a university. Those two things don't jive real well. But like I said, everybody who knows Jim Tressel knows he can, he's the right person to be the president of university.

And now he's currently the lieutenant governor of Ohio. Like, so I just, it's a great example of how much the world has changed. It probably didn't need to take this long. you know and and again like i remember when he when the NCAA handed down the punishment for this for trestle and people like oh that's not that's not much the oh oh ohio state got off light ohio state got off light because they hired correctly in hiring urban mire next having to hire jim tressel was a massive punishment well the thing that is yeah it was a massive

punishment and one that became uh that you know became something that was like a huge uncertainty because you remember guys, Luke Fickle was the interim the following year. And if I remember correctly, a lot of the players that were involved in this actually ended up not playing. And then they went six and seven. I think it was their only losing season since 2000. And it was just like, wow, what's going to happen? And I remember, who do you hire? Do you go get an Ohio guide?

And then Urban Meyer fell out of the sky. And I do think that Ohio State is a very indestructible program in the sense that the resources and location like prompt up, like, anybody who has the job to be successful. But I actually think that, oh, Jim Trussell, and this is what I'm probably going to write about. Unless you think that the Tattgate stuff's more important, maybe it's all part of it. But Jim Trussell was the perfect coach, literally the perfect coach to replace John Cooper. Because if you remember where Ohio State was in the 90s, they had loaded mega teams who recruited nationally, but a lot of the players that were on the team and were really good.

of them weren't from Ohio. And I think that like the misunderstanding of what the rivalry meant and the coach not being able to get over the hump, you know, part of that was just like the culture was not bought into what that rivalry meant. Then they go out and get this guy from Youngstown State who comes in at halftime of the basketball game before. And I have the clip here. I know Ohio State fans remember this. But like this moment kind of was like, okay, this Michigan problem is going to, you know, fix itself. River play this clip. I think it's only like 20 seconds. We're proud of our young people in the classroom, in the community, and most especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan on the football field. Yeah, they never had a Michigan

problem again until Harbaugh showed up. Yeah. And the Michigan problem was two head coaches later. So, you know, he was excellent. I think he only lost once or twice against Michigan. I don't remember the record off the top of my head, but in the 11-year period, he dominated them. They won the national championship in year two. But he recruited Ohio and Florida, but like mostly, you know, kept the Ohio.

And he was the perfect coach for that decade, that period. Yeah. And then Ohio State lucked out. because then when they were forced to fire him wrongly, they ended up getting the perfect coach for the following decade and what you would need to compete in the playoff era. And I think that Urban Meyer ushered Ohio State into the new realm. And I'm not sure.

I think that it's possible that if Tressel would have stayed that his style and his roster building management and all those things would have become played out. Because people don't remember this, but like, 06 happened. We were four or five years removed from the Florida game that you covered, the BCS National Championship game. And the biggest thing that Ohio State fans and people in Columbus were fixated on is why is Ohio State not good enough to stay on the field with SEC teams? And like for a while there, they probably weren't, right? Because they weren't they were staying more regional.

They weren't recruiting as nationally as Urban Meyer wound up recruiting later on. I did a story of like four years into the Meyer tenure comparing his first four recruiting classes to Tressel's last four. And I think there was like seven or eight more national recruits per class. So, like, he ushered him into the new era. And I think that people might have soured on Jim Trussell. And I think in a funny way that this happened actually preserved his legacy, rather than it going four or five more years and then him getting ousted for not being the right guy in the next era. Orvin Meyer showing up elsewhere in the Big Ten, which could have been a problem.

I think that if Urban Meyer would have taken the Penn State job and Jim Trussell would have kept building Ohio State the way that he was building them then. And then Urban Meyer turned Penn State into what Ohio State wound up being and then beat the crap out of him, his legacy would be different. I think that it was terrible at the time. Obviously, it was unjust given what the rules look like now. But I think that it was actually a blessing in disguise because he went out at the right time and then remained a legend for Ohio State. And he's not remembered for not being able to beat SEC teams at the end of his tenure. He's remembered for his national championship and ushering Ohio State into the new era.

So it was all kind of perfect when it all became said and done. So he will be enshrined in the Ring of Honor. And Ohio State will, as they did pretty much every year, that Jim Russell coach them, attempt to win a national title, which brings us to our next topic, Ari. One last thing before the next topic that I wanted to make sure I said. Okay.

The sweater vest swag that he had is amongst the coolest swag that any coach has ever sold. Like everybody wearing sweater vests. We made a sweater vest cool. Do you know how hard that is? That's all I wanted to say. I know that I annoyed you there. But like it's, we cannot get past.

You could have drawn that in there before I hit the segue. I never know when it's changing. It's pretty obvious. I wait a beat. I start talking about the next thing. We'll get there one day. We're still one day. One day.

Thank you, by the time I realized you. You know where I was going. Okay. Well, all right. As I said before, pretty much every year that Jim Tressel coached Ohio State, they were competing for a national title,

they will once again be trying to compete for a national title. this year. Ari, we had a conversation yesterday about which first year coaches would be the most successful. And one of the problems with contextualizing that conversation was it's sort of a sliding scale of what success is for those programs. We're going to talk about programs today where success is winning a national title. These are people whose championship windows are open right now. So we're going to make the list. Let's make the definitive list if we can, our friends at Bed-MGM are helping us here. Ohio State is your current national title favorite plus 600,

but Notre Dame plus 700, Indiana plus 750, Texas plus 750, Oregon plus 800, Georgia plus 900, Miami plus 1,200. Translation, there's no real favorite. And it's kind of anybody's ball game.

God, Texas is such a good play. That's seven and a half to one. But the problem is, what if they run into Ohio State, well, they play Ohio State Week 2. But what are they run into Notre Dame at the wrong time in the playoff?

Or what if they run into Oregon or Georgia? Like that's, they haven't beaten Georgia since they've joined the SEC. They don't play them in the regular season. What if they see them in the quarterfinals of the playoff? Yeah. Obviously, it's much more difficult to win one now because you have to win extra games in the posting that didn't exist a few years ago, for sure. Yeah. All these teams are probably going to have to play each other.

But when you think about championship window, I want to remove teams that have won them recently. Like, I don't think that Ohio State's, part of this conversation or Georgia. Or Indiana. But Notre Dame, Texas, Oregon, and Miami, those four.

Sure. Are all... Who are we missing in that list? Who are we missing in that list? Let me look up, because I always do this. I have a terrible memory when it comes to...

Like, would you put LSU in that list right now? Or if they want it to recently, or are you saying you know, this is Lane Kiffin's first year. We're going to have high expectations, but they don't have to be that high. We're missing USC because their head coach literally said the window is open. Oh, okay, perfect. That's perfect.

Yes. That's one that we're missing. I think you could maybe, I don't know, Texas Tech maybe is on the outside looking in because I don't know if it's a rational expectation. Yeah, I need to see them score in the playoff. Yeah. But maybe Oklahoma would be a good one. That's a good one.

you know, in A&M, maybe. I don't know how good they're going to be. But I'm talking about teams that are in this mix or would be on this graphic if it extended seven more teams down that haven't won one in the recent past that their fans are kind of questions. I just called up on that list. I just called up on Ben & Jam since we're at plus 1,200 for Miami.

I'm going to read you the other ones that are in the teens. Okay. Plus 1,500 for Alabama, plus 1,500 for L.A. you plus 1,500 for Texas A&M. Then you get a Texas Tech at plus 220. It's a big long list after that. Yeah. But I think that there are certain

teams that are in expectation windows right now. And I don't think that there's any team that I mean, there's three teams that exemplify it the most. One is Notre Dame. Obviously, they made it to the national championship game two years ago. They missed the playoff and all the drama that ensued as a result

of that last year. They return a ton of talent. I think that they are probably viewed is the number one team in the country by a lot of people and their schedule is super easy. Like I think Notre Dame fans are like, this is the year. They're coming into this year with the viewpoint of this is the year we finally break through.

Like in terms of expectation and ability, I don't think that there's a team. Maybe Oregon is another one that I would put in Texas and Texas, those three. Those are the ones that have the windows wide open. Now USC's window is open because when Lincoln Riley said it, I don't know, they're nowhere on this graphic. So, you know, and I also think,

two that, you know, it's narrative buster season. I wrote a column last week. I don't know if you saw it, Andy, called narrative buster because whenever you bring up Oregon in a conversation, like the on three main account tweeted, is this the year that Oregon finally breaks through in the CFP and all the responses? And I don't know how accurate this is about the normal fan, but certainly on social media. Oregon's a paper tiger. They'll be good in the regular season and they'll fold in the playoffs.

Like everybody views Oregon as this team that is ill-equipped to compete at the highest level and I don't think that's true. I just, I think that they've had a rough go of it the last few years and obviously getting pummeled by the eventual national champion two years in a row. This is what you should expect as the result of it. But in terms of whether that's reality or not, I don't think it is. I don't think that's the case for Notre Dame. I mean, two years ago, when they made the playoff for the first time, everyone's like,

they haven't won a major bowl game in 25 years or are going to get smoked and then they beat Georgia and went to the national championship game. Like, things don't happen for the first time. And it's funny because we were at the, the, the, Indian, and the Notre Dame game, and that was, the response to that was, oh, well, Indiana didn't belong. Yeah. I think looking back on that now, the way Notre Dame handled in that Indiana team was a way more impressive win than we gave them credit for. Andy, do you remember the debate we were having in the press box before and after the game with like Pete Samson and them?

We're like, if Notre Dame wins today, does this count as ending the bowl streak? And if people were like debating whether it would count or not because they were playing Indiana, how stupid was that conversation? know. We just assumed they were supposed to win that game. Looking back, that was a hell of a win. Like that was probably a better win than the Georgia win that followed it. But it is funny because they only had to live in that one week purgatory period because once they beat Georgia, that went away. People are like, okay, Notre Dame is finally good. Whether, whether Indiana or Georgia were similar that year, I guess it doesn't matter. They ended up beating both. But I do think that Notre Dame, their fans have been starved for national relevance for a long time.

I think Marcus Freeman has a, like, all three of these teams have done this. And I think that like the same thing goes for Steve Sarkesian at Texas. Texas was a paper tiger for 20 years. He shows up and now they're legitimate. I think that that Notre Dame, Texas, and Oregon are all legitimate national. I can give you another, I can give you another team like that. Who? Miami.

Yes. Yeah. Miami makes a national title game last year. Interestingly enough, in a year when they still had the two race. random ACC in-conference losses. What if they fix that? You know, I like, that's the thing, too, that I think about with Miami. And it's like, when you say, what if they fix that?

Yeah, certainly. And I think that they won't the year. They probably don't even need to fix it. They were 40 yards away from winning the national championship in a year where that happened. So, but I think that Miami has gotten to a place now because even last year, Miami, during the debate with Notre Dame, Isn't it so funny how narrative change year over year? Because the year before Notre Dame was the paper tiger. And then Miami beat Notre Dame.

And then everyone was like, well, Notre Dame is better than them all year. That was the discussion point. Notre Dame all of a sudden Notre Dame gets the benefit of the doubt because they beat Georgia on a national scale. But then I think Miami hopefully coming into this year will get the respect that it deserves in terms of this is a legitimate team. Yeah. I mean, beating Ohio State was the one for them. Like what the Notre Dame winning against Georgia did in the 24th, playoffs, that was Miami beating Ohio State in the 25 playoffs.

It is completely legitimizing everything you're doing. And that's one like hidden plus too, Andy, of the 12 team playoff that, you know, I got wrong when I was against the expansion because I just assumed that every time teams like Miami made it, they would just get their heads beaten by Ohio State eventually. But the playoff gives us more opportunity to see newcomers or programs that are being built face off against the blue bloods that every. everybody just assumes is better because of their helmet and their uniform and their history. So like the fact that we got to see Ohio State lose to Miami and what that meant for the hurricanes,

I think is a huge program bolster of how we perceive them moving forward. And that's part of the reason why I'm so impressed by Texas. They didn't even beat Ohio State. And I rewatched the game the other day while I was writing that they played Ohio State two years ago in Texas. And, you know, the Jack Sawyer Strip game that we were at. It's like they were two yards away from beating one of the best. playoff runs that we've ever seen and people forget that. So, you know, I have a lot, you know, you see a lot of this too, like right now especially. We haven't done this

collectively yet, but we're doing this. We had on three last week, we ranked the coaches. We all did the conferences, right? Yeah. And I see some, some coaches that are either misranked or ranked in places that I wouldn't rank them on other Josh Pate put out a list. And it's like, Steve Sarkesian doesn't get enough credit for building back Texas. I think people view like them losing in the playoff as like a legitimizing thing to their argument that he stinks. And it's like, well, can you remember what they were and what they are? Right. I don't think Dan Lannick gets enough credit for building Oregon back up into a real contender.

Mario Cristobal, hopefully, certainly this year deserves it, but we'll get that credit. Like programs have to, it's like you don't just go from a trailer park to the nicest place to live. You have to like build it. And I think that it's being built. I guess you can win the lottery, right? and maybe that's what Indiana did. But, like, I don't know. First of all he did it so it's possible to do it, but he may just be.

But don't you think that Notre Dame, Oregon, and Miami and Texas have all had natural, healthy growth that leads to eventually winning one? Texas is an interesting one because obviously Mac Brown was amazing for a time at Texas, but then it fell off under him. So you had latter era Mac Brown, Charlie Strong, and Tom Herman, all of whom could not do what Steve Sarkesian is doing. Earlier, a Mac Brown did. But it had fallen off to the point where they couldn't develop draft picks anymore.

Like, I don't know what the problem was. And we examined it over and over during those years. We could never quite put our finger on it. But Steve Sarkisian figured it out. They are creating NFL players. They are the most, if not the most talented, one of the most talented teams in the country. country. They're in the mix every year. You can say, oh, they shouldn't, they didn't make the

playoff last year. Okay. They shouldn't have lost to Florida. True. But they're doing the things you need to do on an annual basis. And we say this with Oregon. I'll say it with Texas. They're going to break through if they keep doing it. Andy, when I think about Texas this year, and I just like, I am, maybe it's a drug and I need to go go see somebody about it. Texas has perhaps at least one of the top three receiver duos in the country, right, with Cam Coleman and Ryan Wingo. Is that a fact? Yeah.

I think they're running back tandem. I think the running back tandem, you can make an argument that Hollywood Smothers and Relique Brown are both top 10 running backs in college football. They're both on the same team. Arch Manning is going into year two. Trevor Goosby is one of the best tackles in the country. Like when you start going through Colin Simmons on defense, a lot of the player like at every level like I think it's possible and I

get in trouble with this with these these vast big grand proclamations in June but like I think we might wake up in November in Texas it might be Texas and everybody else this year like I think that this might be their year to do it and I feel bad I mean we found out eventually it it took a while because it probably wasn't not until after the Big Ten championship game that we realized it was Indiana and everybody else yeah but maybe it maybe it'll take longer. But I do feel like eventually,

because a Notre Dame fan might feel like this year, it's going to be Notre Dame and everybody else. And an Oregon fan wants to believe that it's going to be Oregon versus everybody else. And maybe it's just going to be harder to get to that point. And if we is, as people who aren't fans of these teams and maybe don't have a team that's going to be in the national title hunt and just want to watch a fun season,

I hope it's none of these teams and everybody else. I hope they're all just as good as the other and they just slug it out at the end of the season. Well, I think there's a high possibility that maybe all four of them are right and that there's just going to have to be a winner and loser at the end of the year. Well, and the thing is,

we're ignoring the teams that have won national titles recently. Like, Ohio State's going to have it say in this. Indiana is going to have it say in this. Georgia's going to have it say in this. Like, Ohio State's the favorite right now. Like, look at the list. They're number one. But I do envision a world where every single team

on this graphic is in the playoff. Oh, absolutely. Let's talk Georgia because it's strange. We don't talk about them much in conversations like this because they've won the SEC the past two years, but then they've gone out in the quarterfinals the past two years. And so we've had this conversation of, oh, is Kirby smart slipping? I don't think he's necessarily slipping. I think it's just not going to be possible to have the level.

of team that they had when they won two in a row. You're just not going to be able to stack that kind of talent anymore. So that's the question. Are they going to be good enough to advance past the quarters? And I'm sure it's frustrating for them because you win the SEC two years in a row. You feel like you've really accomplished a lot. You've beaten some really good teams. And it's like you play that one playoff game and it's over.

Can I be honest with you? Yep. I have a really hard time analyzing Georgia, period. Because on one hand, you know, I got in trouble two weeks ago because of this. So I'm going to be opening on this. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. When I view Texas, when I view Oregon, when I view Miami, when I view the teams that we were just discussing, I view them as on the ascension. Okay.

Georgia has had the results, right? They've won the SEC the last two years. They have maybe, if not, absolutely the best coach in college football. They are the big, bad, dominant wolf that develops and has good players and overpowers you. Like, nobody has to convince me that Georgia is good. But when I evaluate them in the off season, as I look at, you know, listing, all the players are just listed for Texas. When I look at what Notre Dame brings back, Ohio State, even Miami, I think Miami might have

the best offense in college football this year. And that's after what I said about Texas five seconds ago. When I view Georgia, they have good players. Nate Frazier is one of the best running backs of college football. Gunner Stockton is underrated. Like they have guys. Their lines are always overpowering. Ari, let me throw a stat at you.

Because, please help you. Again, Georgia had eight players drafted last year, six of those in the first three rounds. Right. And we should not assume that means the cupboard's empty because they do this every freaking year. Like, yeah, that hasn't changed. But do you view them as on the, do you view them as on the ascension or already arrived at the top? Like, where do you put them if there's a pyramid? It doesn't matter. They're one of the best teams in college football. I don't care what direction they're headed. I care where they are right now. And I think their fans care very deeply about

what direction they're headed in. But there, like, there's only one way to go for them. Yeah, but do you, do you put Georgia at the top? Like, there's a. pantheon here. And just bear with me because I like feelings and I know you're not always as amped up about this as I am. But at the top of the pyramid right now, let's do this, this, the shape with me. We have Ohio State and we have Indiana probably. Ohio State lost the quarters last year too. What's the difference? Well, they have a more recent national title. By two years. Yeah. Yeah. So, but that, but also that if you put Georgia at the top,

that's what I want to get to. Like, I'm not saying they're not there. I want to know where you put them there. Because I put, like Notre Dame, Oregon, Miami. Oh, I put Georgia right there with those teams. Texas can't beat Georgia since they've joined the SEC. Yeah. But I have Texas in the second tier of like right up. Like there's the top of the pyramid and then there's that second tier.

The top of the pyramid is who, Notre Dame? No, I think Ohio State, Indiana and maybe Georgia are in that top tier. Okay. Okay. I just don't know where to put Georgia to. Do I put Georgia at the top point or in that second sliver with all the teams that might win one again. I don't think there's a top point right now. I don't think there's one

that just stands above all the others. Yeah. But the tiering is what got me in trouble because I tiered Texas in the same tier as Georgia last week and people were very upset about that. I think it's fair. I just don't think you should tier them above Georgia. That would be my argument is don't put them above Georgia.

They belong in the same tier. Yeah. I think I just view my perception and this might be wrong. And you're here to guard me because as my friend and co-host, you've got to protect me sometimes, is that Georgia is undeniably the more successful program looking backward 10 years. My intention is that Texas is more talented than Georgia right now, seems to be spending more money than Georgia in the portal, and now might be ascending in a way that Georgia is not for the next five. So, like, that's what I would,

I would not think of it that way. I would think of it as they will probably be along the same tier for the next five. Yeah. I think it's an important thing that if Texas comes up into the top tier, that Georgia has to drop out, and that's just not the case. But Georgia also has gone a long time without winning a postseason game. And I know they've had buys. Okay.

Yeah. So, you know, but I think that this is an important year for them to win a postseason game. Yeah. No, they, listen, as good as they've been, as successful as they've been, as consistent as they've been, they should advance past the quarterfinals. I'm not saying they need to win the national championship. I'm saying the level they aspire to be at, they need to advance past the quarterfinals every once in a while.

And they get it. And anybody in the SEC that you think belongs in that tier with those two? Because even Alabama now is at the center of the period. No, I wouldn't put Alabama there right now. And we don't know about LSU yet. LSU maybe. Like what happens with Ole Miss? Because Ole Miss made the semis last year.

but that feels like I kind of need to see that happen again. Doesn't it suck that it's June right now? I just want to watch. It does, but we're getting close. Yeah, we're getting closer. Texas A&M is another one. Like,

three points different from the Miami team that played for the national title. I do think that's one that we need to watch as well. So the beauty of this, Ari, the thing that makes me happy as we talk about this, is we've not identified one team or two teams

or three teams that just they're going to kick everybody's ass. No. We don't know. And that's great. That is great that we can go into a season saying, I mean, we could probably make a list of 10 that we feel very comfortable

explaining a path to the national time. And if we made that list of 10, there's also the realistic possibility that there's a team in between 15 and 20 that doesn't. Right. Which also was never the case. Back in 2015, you had a list of five teams and they were all the same five every year. And everybody else had no shot.

I'm trying to remember. I don't want to be revisionist here. How did we feel about Miami this time last year? We felt like they were good, but we didn't feel like they were. We thought they would be a step worse than they were the previous year, which was on the brink of the playoff. Right, because they were losing Camber. I thought they were going to be like a nine-ish win team last year. Right.

We thought they could win the ACC if it broke right, but they didn't know they were going to be national title. And you also have to remember, too, that their defense was historically bad two years ago. Right, right. So the fact that they were able to turn their defense into historically bad to the strength of their team and the reason they went to the national championship game and won off season is pretty remarkable. So like that, it was hard because you were losing Cam Moore, Jacoby, George, Xavier Restrepo. I'm forgetting people. And their offense was so awesome, but they could not stop anybody, which is, why they lost the Syracuse two years ago.

And I remember specifically we had a conversation at this time last year about whether we should expect a USC type improvement. Because remember when USC hired Danton Lin and they improved a little bit in their defense and they got better, but they still weren't great. Meanwhile, Miami hires Corey Heatherman and they turned into 85 bears overnight. Like, you know, like it's crazy. But that's also the excitement of the season. Like what team right now has a unit that was bad last year that's going to turn out to be awesome this year?

And it's harder to gauge. Like we didn't know that the DBs they got in the portal last year were going to be draft picks. Right. And this is why we keep talking about the Texas running back room reinvention. Because if you really go back through the detritus of last season, and it's not just like Texas losing to Florida, it's having to go to overtime to beat Kentucky,

having to go to overtime to beat Mississippi State. You have better running back play? Are they dealing with any of that? Yeah. So we'll find out if those moves really did help. But I think that's the fun of this. You're right. There are going to be some surprises.

There's going to be a team that we did not mention. And we probably named, I think we ended up naming about 12 or 13 teams in this segment. There will be a team we didn't mention that makes the playoff wins games in the playoff. And I think that's awesome. Hurry up June, turn in July, please. It's coming, Ari. It's coming. Media days. Less than two weeks from today, Ari, we will be at Big 12 Media Days. Is that true? Is that real? Okay.

Two weeks from today. I didn't realize that. Will your guest room be ready for me? Buddy, yeah, I don't know about the garage door. We're working on it, but we'll have the guest room ready for you. All right. We're getting close, guys. We're getting close. Tomorrow, scheduled to be joined by NC State coach Dave Doran Thursday. Very special interview with a current college football coach who's been everywhere. And let's say we think he might be invited to a certain wedding. And we'll leave it at that. We'll talk to you tomorrow.