Andy & Ari On3 - Signing Day EXTRAVAGANZA with Sherrone Moore, Billy Napier, Curt Cignetti, Mike Elko and MORE!

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

You’ve had Wendy’s Nuggs dipped in sauce. But have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy’s New Saucy Nuggs take the Crispy and Spicy Nuggs you love and turn them up to 11.Choose between flavors like Buffalo. Honey BBQ. Garlic Parm. Or, if you’re a real heat seeker, try Spicy Ghost Pepper, only on Wendy’s signature Spicy Nuggs. This show is brought to you by Panini America, makers of the most collectible sports cards on the planet. The Luminance football card series features NIL autographed cards from players including Arch Manning, Quinn Ewers, Cam Ward, Jalen Milroe, Dylan Raiola, DJ Lagway, and Luther Burden. To start collecting, visit PaniniAmerica.net. This show is also sponsored by PrizePicks, America’s most fun daily fantasy game. Use the code STAPLES to play $5 and get $50 instantly. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/STAPLES A host of coaches dropped by to talk about their recruiting classes and a bevy of other topics on National Signing Day, but first, there’s some big news for the transfer portal. Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold plans to enter the portal. So does Purdue safety Dillon Thieneman, who was the 2022 Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Andy and Ari visit with six coaches whose programs are trending up on signing day. Michigan’s Sherrone Moore signed the No. 1 player in America, QB Bryce Underwood. SMU’s Rhett Lashlee’s team will play for the ACC title Saturday. Indiana’s Curt Cignetti has his team in the College Football Playoff in year one and is trying to build on that. South Carolina’s Shane Beamer is stacking talent atop an already loaded roster. Florida’s Billy Napier flipped multiple blue-chippers thanks to a late-season surge. Texas A&M’s Mike Elko is adding those extra pieces the Aggies need. (0:00-1:05) PaniniAmerica.net(1:06-8:32) Transfer Portal Update(8:33-13:43) SMU vs Clemson Preview, presented by PrizePicks(13:44-25:02) Michigan Head Coach Sherrone Moore Joins(25:03-36:18) SMU Head Coach Rhett Lashlee joins(36:19-46:12) Indiana Head Coach Curt Cignetti Joins(46:13-1:04:11) South Carolina Head Coach Shane Beamer Joins(1:04:12-1:14:25) Florida Head Coach Billy Napier Joins(1:14:26-1:27:50) Texas A&M Head Coach Mike Elko Joins(1:27:50-1:29:37) Conclusion; See you Saturday  Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

This show is brought to you by Panini America, makers of the most collectible sports cards on the planet. The Luminance football card series features NIL autographed cards from players including Archman and Quinn Ures, Cam Ward, Jalen Milro, Dylan Raiola, DJ Lagway, and Luther Burden. To start collecting, visit PaniniAmerica.net and hey, Tavi and St. Clair, new Ohio State quarterback sigine. The most recent addition to the Panini family. So Ari, you can be looking in the next few months for a Tavian St.

Claire autograph card, possibly along with your, your arch manning or your DJ lagway. Yeah. I got two back from PSA the other day. We got a silver Tua. Uh nice. Rated rookie. Rookie holograph. Uh that's a that's a PSA ten and a XRC uh out of select for Jamar Chase. So, we're we're uh we're coming over here. The hunt is the best part. Uh go to Panini to start the hunt. The hunt is on for

players too and we're gonna talk about that right now Welcome to Andy and Ariane three presented by Wendy's Here we talk to a bunch of coaches coming off national signing day Talking about their classes Sharon Moore who signed the number one player in the country and Bryce Underwood Billy Napier Florida coach flipping everybody Mike Elko adding pieces of Texas A&M Shane Beamer in South Carolina Rhett Lashley at SMU Kurt Signetti who took in the end of the playoff year one will have them on the show today. But

first are a little bit of news. Because the transfer portal hasn't opened yet. It opens Monday, but it's popping Jackson Arnold Oklahoma quarterback. In the transfer portal, Purdue safety Dylan Thienman, the 2022 Big 10 freshman of the year who is also really good as a sophomore also in the transfer portal. Ari, there are going to be some big names. Oh yeah. I love the intent to enter stuff.

Yes. You're in, all right, you're in. And it's gonna be wild, man. It's gonna be wild. And I think that it's just an interesting trend because not so much with Jackson Arnold in Oklahoma because they're already an elite program, but we thought that the portal would even the playing field and it

has right like the players who aren't playing at big places go to smaller places. But it also bothers me when the best player on a lower level team moves up. So we're going to have players moving in both directions and we're going to break it all down here starting Monday. So I'm super excited to get into that and I love that that NFL free agency for college football happens in the middle of the playoffs, but hey, here we are. I'm here for it. Yeah, exactly exactly. Now the the name we haven't seen yet with one of these

announcements that I'm curious about is John mature, the Washington State quarterback because with Jackson Arnold entering the, that would signal to me that Oklahoma's moving to a different starting quarterback. They just hired Ben Arbuckle, the offensive coordinator from Washington State. So we'll see what happened there. But that was an interesting situation this year, because remember, Jackson Arnold was supposed to be the future. He was committed to Oklahoma. You know, basically right after Brent Benable's got hired, Jeff Levy was the offensive coordinator. He commits to run that offense. He ends up running a different offense his second year in the program. He gets benched. He gets made the starter again. I think he's going to have a lot of options. Yeah, so this is kind of what we were talking about

with Connor Wegman, but supercharged, right? Like, when it comes to NIL suitors and transfer value, where do you put a person like Jackson Arnold, a person who is very early in their college career, but someone who is one of the most highly sought after quarterbacks in the entire country with a tremendous upside. In comparison to somebody like Mattier who has more production

at the college level. How valuable do we think that Jackson Arnold is and will teams try to get him even if they don't need him to start immediately to put him in the system, develop him, and then him be the quarterback of the future somewhere else? Or is somebody going to try to nab him and is he going to want to be nabbed to start somewhere else? Or is somebody gonna try to nab him and is he gonna want to be nabbed to start next year? Like this is all very interesting stuff and it's like,

who would you rather have Andy? Would you rather have somebody with proven production or somebody who has a ton of upside who has had a tough go of it so far in college? Well, and Jackson Arnold's a hard one to evaluate because if you just go based on what you saw this season, all the receivers were hurt and the offensive line was as bad as it's probably going to get at Oklahoma. So you didn't get a full picture. I don't think so.

I think you you kind of have to fall back on your high school eval of Jackson Arnold and try to extrapolate based on what you've seen in a really tough situation because I don't think what we saw this year is is the ceiling of Jackson Arnold by any stretch because he didn't have didn't have the weapons yeah well the thing too is that I you see the speculation it's even happening here in the chat that Mizzou or a place like Mizzou is gonna be a likely transfer destination for Jackson but like are we sure that he would have to

transfer quote-unquote down like why why wouldn't he end up at a place like Bama or a place like Georgia or Georgia or a but like why if you imagine Jimmy Carson backs leaving Georgia probably needs somebody so like I don't know if like I'd be quick to assume that Jackson Arnold stinks and that he won't have a chance to play somewhere that is akin to Oklahoma on the legacy chart. Um, maybe it won't happen. I don't know where it's going to happen to, but like, I think that I'm guaranteeing this right now and I don't know if you think this is nuts.

Like there will be a Jackson Arnold redemption arc of some sort. I don't know how big it's going to be, but there will be stories and we will be talking about him in two years about the tough start that he had at Oklahoma and how great it is to be having the success that he has. Cause I don't think that I'm out on him at all. And that was part of the reason why I got into with Oklahoma fans at the beginning of the year Andy.

Cause I was like, I don't think that we saw enough or he was put in the right position to prove what he is or what he can be. So, you know, that's, people say that portal evaluating is easier than high school evaluating, but what about in situations like this? Is it really? Like, I think you got to take a leap of faith, take a chance, you got to try something different or take a stab at it. And if you are a Mizzou or Arizona or, you know, a team that needs a quarterback now that Noah Fafita is also you know reportedly going in the portal.

Another good one in there. Good list. How big of a swing do you take if you are a team that needs a quarterback immediately and would somebody like Jackson Arnold be willing to go to a place where he's not guaranteed to be the starter? These are all very fascinating storylines. Very fascinating and there's a lot of great storylines. A lot of them. I wrote a column that should be up on on three shortly about the discussion we had yesterday about Arch

Manning as as 2006 Tim Teepo like just wild. This would be the biggest story in the sport if it wasn't this week. Say what you want about me and the crap you have to put up with behind the scenes. But isn't it great when just normal discussion on a podcast turns into a column that's going to go to the moon? It just didn't even, yesterday morning it didn't even occur to you. And then we're just talking it through and here we are. Gold, you made gold, you made fire. By the way, not... That report was... Not true.

Oh, it was not true. Okay. Your alma mater is okay with the theater right now. Okay. You know what the problem is? Is that there are so many going into the portal graphics and the people who make up fake ones rip off our design.

They rip off our design. So it's kind of like I'm even fooled by looking. It's like, oh, this looks like on three made it. And sometimes we didn't. So I apologize. We need like a secret watermark. We need something that just says this is like we hide it in there. I guess the lesson here is that only get your transfer

portal information from Pete Nacos. That's exactly right. Because he just texted me. If Pete Nacos didn't say it, it didn't happen. So all right. We also have Rhett Lashley coming up on the show. He's coaching SMU in the ACC Championship game this week, signing a class, getting ready for the portal next week. That game though is kind of the key to everything in terms of the college football playoffs. So it's time to take a deeper look into that game through the lens of our friends at prize picks. So prize picks best daily fantasy game in America, download the app, use the code staples, play $5 get $50

instantly. Let's see what these numbers tell us about what we think this game's gonna look like. Because remember, here's the deal. SMU wins, they're in the playoff, they've probably got a buy, great. Clemson wins, they're in the playoff, maybe have a buy, maybe don't. Maybe push the Big 12 championship,

Big 12 champion up to a buy. And then SMU, do they get in or not? Huge question. We'll talk to red Lashley about that later, but Kevin Jennings, the quarterback for SMU, 247 and a half passing yards. This guy has been awesome. Now for the last five games, he's hit that number barely under it against Cal, where they didn't, I didn't think they needed to the way the game went. But I, I'm excited to see Kevin Jennings against this Clemson

defense. Cause this is, is this the best defense he's played all year? I would, I would think so. Yeah. I would think so. Most NFL players on a defense he's played all year. I would say BYU when they played them has a very good defense, but Yeah, this is this is gonna be so much fun. So you've got Kevin Jennings with 247 and a half You've got Kate club Nick Crazy legs club Nick He's got the demon square point five rushing or receiving TDs and are you it seems like whenever Clemson

needs something. Kate club Nick scores a touchdown on the ground like two against South Carolina that incredible run against pit at the end of the game. His legs and his arm are going to matter here. Yeah, I gotta say I thought it was really bizarre what SMU was doing with the quarterback position at the first. juncture of the season. Like why is Preston Stone just not playing at all? And then they brought in Kevin Jennings and then every single week in the times since he's gotten better and better so it just goes to show you why Brett

Lashley is making the big bucks and I'm sitting over here but I'm anticipating a big game from him Andy because that's that's what they need on this stage. In this moment, they have their quarterback to perform. The other guy I'm looking at in this game, I feel like if Clemson's going to win, if they're going to control it, if they're going to kind of dictate tempo, Phil Maffa's got to have a big game and price picks expecting a lot out of him. Eighty three and a half rush yards for Phil Maffa is gotta have a big game and yeah, prize picks expecting a lot out of him. 83 and a half rush yards for Phil Moffa is your is your square.

So you pick more or less than that. If you think more than I think you're probably expecting the Tigers to win this game, but he's a big key to this too. And I feel like when when Phil Moffa is converting third downs for Clemson, like that is when they are at their best. Yeah, there's no question and you know, he's came into the season and we thought that this would be one of the best running backs in college football.

I think that he has been consistent. I don't know if he has hit his ceiling yet as a player. So, you know much like SMU. I feel like the players that they are counting on have to show up with their season potentially on the line with the big with the ACC title on the line and with a big ticket to the the playoff potentially here on the line. 83 and a half is asking a lot you think? I think so. I think so. It's not it's he's had some very good games, but lately he's had some some games where he has not rushed for many yards I mean, so he had 66 against South Carolina

Citadel didn't matter what he did only 17 against Pitt and You know 128 against Virginia Tech 171 in the loss to Louisville. So now maybe. Guess right now where SMU ranks in rushing defense nationally. Oh man. 20.

Fourth. Oh, I knew they were good. I didn't realize they were that good. Yeah. Woo! Guess who's number one? Clemson, Indiana. Oh, there we go. No, but uh SMU does have a really good running defense is why I added that. So, go ahead. That is that is a very good thing. So, as you decide whether you're gonna take that film off the square or go more than or less than on it, consider those facts.

Are you this game is going to be a lot of fun? I cannot wait to see it. We'll be talking. To Rhett Lashley about this game very shortly, but download that price fix app using code staples play $5 get $50 instantly now are it is time to talk to the coach who signed the number one player in America. Bryce Underwood is going to be a Michigan Wolverine.

Sharon Moore just beat Ohio State in a pretty good last few days. Let's talk to Sharon more. We are joined by a very very happy man. Mission coach Sharon Moore one kind of a big game on Saturday. Yeah, and then something. the game. We're joined by a very very happy man. Mission coach Sherone Moore won kind of a big game on Saturday. Yeah.

And then the number one quarterback in the country. I mean, what's it like to be on a heater like that? You win the game. You signed Bryce Underwood. Like what's next? When the next one recruit more recruit more guys and bring in the best players we can possible for the culture and for this team. But just excited of,

you know, the game was awesome. Obviously, you know, very spirited, something we prepare for for 3 65 and something we were, you know, ready, ready for mentally, physically, emotionally, and we're excited about. So excited to win that game and then excited to sign this class. You know what I thought was interesting and a man in your position probably is just programmed like this, but you am very fascinated by the position that you're in right now because Michigan has recruited at a certain clip for so many years and has done it in a certain way. And I was wondering if you are going to change anything about that. Like, are you going to try to go after bigger fish? Are you going to try to sign mega classes?

All right. They got the number one player in the country today. No, no, no, no. I understand that but I mean you have to acknowledge that Michigan recruited a certain way in Ohio State in Alabama and Georgia recruited their way and I'm asking the coach

who's taken the number one player in the country if there is a philosophical shift in how Michigan is going to approach things in that regard. Is that a fair question? Yeah, it's fair. I mean, my way of recruiting is just different and there's no wrong or right. And I think coach did an unbelievable job

building this team. Cause obviously, you look last year and we won a national title. So there's no, I just, how I'm going to recruit, just really different. We're still gonna bring in the right type of guys and they still gotta be the right fit. They still gotta love Michigan.

You know, I necessarily don't look at the ratings and the star rankings, but I'm obsessed with bringing in the right players and the right fits and the best ones we can. So, yeah, we're going to take a stab at the best ones in the country, whoever we can fit our program and continue to swing the bat as hard as we can to go get the best ones that we can. I heard you talking earlier today about Bryce in specific because obviously he's the number one quarterback in the country and everybody wants him and he's got the arm and the leadership skills and all that. But you also mentioned it's also very important because he's from Michigan. How much does that matter? And to kind of project it,

how much does it matter in games like the one Saturday to guy to have guys from Michigan playing for Michigan? I mean, when you grow up in the state, you you're bred and born to dislike that team heavily, you know, and I think when you're from the state, there's a little bit more, you know, emotion investment in that game. And then guys that have been in the program for longer have an investment to that game to, you know, to want to go win that more than anything. And when you come in this program, that's the first thing you see. You're you're taught about that game, the history of that game, what it means.

And we build it practices, workouts, lifts, to win that game. So, you know, everything we've done in this process to build this team and continue to build a team is for that game and to compete for championships, and that's what we're going to continue to do. You know, over the years, you know, back when we were ki always been a very emotio rivalry and some coaches some haven't on both sid of times you can trace it approach the game? How ho

moment? Is the moment too you have been in two reall as the head coach of mich you have game in both. Um, and I'm wond get your confidence, your to uh coach so well in th the thing that stood out than anything coach about

you made Ohio State play terms. And I think that important thing for a coach who is, you know, new to this, but also already been very successful. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of factors in that game. You know, I always talk about the emotion of the game, because there is emotion in the game. But when the game starts, it's not about emotion. It's about the execution. It's about the discipline.

It's about the little things that you've worked since the spring to think about. So when we prepare for that game, when the coach is coaching that game, you're preparing for that in the spring. You're preparing for that in the winter. You're preparing for that shooting bowl prep. How you're going to prepare yourself mentally, physically, emotionally for that game. And for me, really, I've been on the other side of it. You know, I was here as the tight end coach in 19 and 18 when we didn't win that game.

So I've seen it, I've been a part of it, and I just don't want to ever be a part of that again. So there's a lot of things that we do throughout the year to prepare us for that game, coaches and players and physically and mentally to make sure we're ready for that game. I was trying to come up with the right analogy for the past 10 months for you since you became the head coach. And the only thing I can think of is getting dropped on a treadmill that's going 15 miles an hour and you can't slow it down. Cuz even you came in, the coaching carousel was done,

the first transfer portal window was done. And you had to just figure it all out. Do you feel like it's slowing down a little bit for you in terms of now you've had a full cycle with the guys you're signing to recruit them. Now you've got, I know you have an opening for a coordinator on your staff now, but you get a chance to sit back and figure out what that is.

And then you get to have a full transfer portal cycle in December to see if you can fill any holes. Yeah, I mean, I think when you first get the head coaching job anywhere, especially this place, I think of it as third and 10 on the minus 2, and it's zero pressure. And as you start to get your feels and fingers in the ground and I've had a lot of conversations with a lot of people I respect. Obviously, Coach Harbaugh, John Harbaugh, Jack Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin, Bob

Stoops, you know, Lloyd Carr, you know, I've reached out to a lot of guys that have done it either in this chair or at a high level and the common thing is that yeah, like it, it never stops, but it'll slow down a little bit and you just have to do it your way. And there's no right way. The right way is the way that you do it. Just make sure you do it your way and you have a firm plan of how you wanna do it.

And that plan started to be put in place. I feel like I've gotten the bearings of it. And I think there's always things as a head coach you're gonna figure out that you didn't know would come. And starting to figure those things out and have the support system around me to do that has been huge. And for me, you want to have fun too, man.

You got to have fun with this thing. This is a crucial opportunity and a great opportunity to be in this seat and take advantage of it. And I'm assuming that one of the more difficult things about being a coach who takes over for somebody who is now a legend is finding your own way. How do you find that, and how do you balance trying to be yourself

while also doing the things that your predecessor did very well at the same time? Yeah, I think you find it while you're doing it. Like, there's no, I wish you could say, like, yeah, you just know, and I think guys that have been head coaches before understand it takes a little time to do that, even when you don't want it to, you want instant gratification, but nothing in life is like that.

So you got to work for it. You got to figure it out. You got to make mistakes. And this year has been great for me, great learning, but ultimately found a process that of how I want to do things and what what I want to do, and what I want it to look like. And one thing I knew I wanted to do is create a great recruiting base. In my first class, I wanted to have a great foundation

of what we're going to do and what we're going to be. And I feel like we've done that from a staff standpoint. We've built a great class and built a great foundation. So super excited where we're going, and want to continue to build that. I know Ari's going to ask you about Bryce Underwood, but I wanna ask you about one other player that you signed today and that is Eli Owens.

Yeah. Because he's quoted on our website saying, they see me as a combination of Colston Loveland and Max Bredesen. Max Bredesen is your fullback for those who don't know. And like most guys would be like, oh, they think I'm Colston Loveland. All right. But how much is he one of your guys because he wants to do the fullback stuff

too? Oh, it's the best. I mean, you talk about a mentality of want to smash people's faces and like that's who he is. Like he is, he's the ultimate like meathead, but he can catch the football. He can, he can be finessed, but he's physical guy. So he's a, he's a great, first of all, he's a great kid. Infectious kid, infectious attitude, but a great human being and love being around the kid, but he's been a really good player for us.

Well, I guess Andy kind of told you what I'm probably gonna have to ask now, right? Can you contextualize just for us how good in your eyes Bryce Underwood is at football? I know there's a lot to you know, discuss about you know how we arrived there and his interesting recruitment. But how good is he as a player in football? What do you envision his plan is in terms of bringing him on the program? quarterback that I've seen play football from a throwing aspect, throwing out of the pocket, dropping back. He hasn't done much under center but wants to and can. From a running aspect, he can run it, he can do everything you want. But he's super smart, he's super intuitive, he's got great touch,

he's got great arm strength and everything you want. But he's as good as they come. And, uh, you know, obviously it's going to be, it's going to take time for him to learn and, you know, we'll have a process in place to get him prepared to play whenever he's ready. I saw that he asked you, uh, how long, how like the indoor is open every year. Are you just making him his own keys right now? Yeah. I mean, everything in here is fingerprints. So we'll just have to turn the access on for them all night. There you go. It's easy.

I've got a I've got a call in a favor here. My wife's grandmother is is a huge Michigan fan and went to Michigan and grew up in Detroit and I think like in the 30s. I don't know how old she is. She's she's old but in the most beautiful way. She just wants me to tell you that she loves you. That's all. So I just wanted to do that for her. I love her too.

That's awesome. Coach, thank you so much and congratulations on an epic past four days. Yeah, appreciate it. Yeah, it's been awesome. Go Blue! Awesome. Go blue. That is Michigan head coach Sharon Moore just signed the number one quarterback in the country just beat Ohio State. Now he's looking for an offensive coordinator.

Not quite as busy as this next guy, Rhett Lashley. Doing the signing day thing preparing for the transfer portal and his team is playing in the ACC Championship game against Clemson on Saturday night. And this one is a big one because it's kind of the key to everything and red lashley has a lot of thoughts because SMU

if they win there in. If they lose. We're not entirely sure. And that could be a big problem for everybody. We were joined by one of the busiest people in college football, Rhett Lashley, right now signing a class and also getting ready for an ACC Championship game.

What has the past 36 hours been for you, Rhett? Chaotic, but for good reasons. So obviously an exciting day, national signing day, and we feel like, you know, we're probably signing the best football class in SMU history, probably around the top 30 class or so somewhere in there. And then, you know, we're getting ready to go compete against Clemson for an ACC championship. So a lot going on, but we're blessed. Red, it's a good problem to have, right? Like a deciding day and it coming during a week where you're preparing for a championship games gotta be terrifying, but at the same time, like the fact that you're able to do that

might even feel like a privilege at this point. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. At the end of the day, the best thing you can do for recruiting is win. And there's only a handful of teams playing this week on Championship Week, and we get to be one of them. So those schools that are not having to stress about a

championship game and were able to just sit around today and call recruits and celebrate their signings would probably trade places with us in a heartbeat. So not just these guys that are signing today but also the guys that you're starting to talk to for the class of 2026 and 2027. I realize being in the ACC probably helped recruiting somewhat. What is being able to compete and win in the ACC immediately done for that message? Yeah I mean I think we'll find out over the next six to nine months, but I think it's going to be even a bigger boost.

You know, we got a boost when we started recruiting the 25 class because everybody knew we were going into the ACC. That was a fact, and they saw the building, the new end zone complex that I'm sitting in now that we were building. But it still wasn't really tangible and totally real until you saw us play Florida State, you know? And then to your point, now we played a full ACC schedule. We proved we belong. We could compete and in the best way know how we're playing Clemson for the ACC Championship game. So now the 26 and the 27 class get to really see what it looks like

in our new reality. And so now we're selling less of a dream or a vision and more of reality and I think that'll help us. And Rhett, when I came to your office about a year ago, after the ACC move became apparent or done, we talked about your long-term vision for your program, the plan, kind of making Dallas your your stomping grounds in terms of like the SMU being the Miami of Dallas or of the Miami of Texas in terms of the counties and regions that you are recruiting. But I think that, you know, you probably had a expectation that it might take a few years of being in the ACC, competing in the ACC,

all the things that it takes in terms of progression. Are you surprised at all at how quickly SMU not only took to the ACC, but now making it through the first year without losing? Did it supercharge your build in terms of the timeline you might have had a year ago? We felt like we would compete, but we had to go do it and and prove that we would belong. And you know, history tells you that we would have had a losing conference record

because everyone else who's ever done this did and so you know, we weren't sure. I mean, hey, it's six wins. A good year or whatnot. I don't know, but we really didn't focus on that. We just focused on competing and

being the best we could be and. our guys deserve a lot of credit. And so, yeah, maybe in some areas, we are a little bit ahead of schedule in year one. But then it's going to come down to sustained success. I mean, this year's not done yet, but we've proven in a big way we belong on this stage and in this league and can compete. But we're going to have to prove it year in, year out.

But that's a problem for February. So I'm seeing a lot of coaches politicking and trying to get their teams in the best position for the college football playoff. You don't have to do that. You can stand in front of your team and just say, win this game and you're in. How nice does that feel?

It doesn't feel as good as it should because I don't know if me politicking would matter, but I kind of do have to because we don't know what the committee's thinking, right? And I'm going to choose to believe that they're going to honor the full body of work and what our guys have done, you know, being one of only two teams in a power three conference, but definitely in a power four conference that went undefeated in their conference and won it outright. That's us in Oregon. I'm going to choose to believe that we're in, if we win for sure, with a buy and we're in no matter what because that's what's right and what we've earned. But it is tough when the actions and things you see

don't necessarily totally make you feel comfortable with that. And so I'm not going to politic, but it is tough when you feel like you're in a position where based on what we've been told, we have two choices. One not playing the conference championship game and we're in like we're in. We've been told that we would be in right now if we didn't have another game to play or go compete for a championship, which we've earned the right to over other teams that haven't and maybe risk falling out depending on what happens. That's not a position you ever want to be in as a coach, but it's an easy decision. We're gonna choose to compete.

We're gonna go to Charlotte and we're gonna do everything we can to try to win an ACC conference championship and then choose to believe that no matter what happens on Sunday, we'll be in the field. no matter what happens on Sunday, we'll be in the field. Rhett, SMU has been dying for years to be in a power conference position for discussions, talks like this, right? But when you finally get into the ACC, you're supposed to be above this,

especially now that there are 12 teams in the field, right? Like you thought that this would be a G5 situation that you're in. I was wondering for you, how frustrating has it been this year? Because I personally have believed and have written that SMU has been the most unfairly ranked team of the year. Like why do you think that's the case and how frustrating has it been to watch? I mean, at times, it's frustrating when you sit and think about it, but then you don't.

Because we've chosen to try to just focus on what we can control, which has been winning week after week after week. And we have, and you know, you don't know, is it ever enough or not? Again, I don't pretend to know what the committee's doing. They may be sitting there right now going, no SME is going to be in no matter what, but they surely haven't said that. And like I said, just the other things make it feel like that's not necessarily like we're gonna be judged like all the other teams are that are playing in their conference

championships but are also currently in the field. It's one thing if you're out of the field right now and you're playing in a championship game. But once you're in the field and playing, what I heard is if we don't play, we would not ever drop below Indiana because they're one behind us. But if we play, we could. That just doesn't seem right. So I hope that's not the case. I'm gonna choose to believe that it's not the case. Um, so if you sit and think about it, yeah, there's some frustrating moments. Um, you know, we've beaten really good

teams. We've beaten a lot of teams with winning records. We've beaten ranked teams. They're just not ranked anymore teams with winning records. We've beaten ranked teams. They're just not ranked anymore because we beat them and we don't have any control over the rankings. So I don't think that's a good barometer. And so like I said, I do, I rank the coaches poll every week and it is hard when you get to those final 12 to 15. So I do not envy the committee at all.

And so I'm gonna choose to believe that they're gonna do the right thing regardless of the outcome Saturday night. But to Andy's point, we can do what we've done the last six to eight weeks and just go win and not have to worry about it. Regardless of what happens Saturday and Sunday, does there need to be a conversation between you coaches, ADs and the commissioners about conference championship games and how they're there because that's a discussion. I've had a bunch over the last few days of you

know, should should you be punished for playing a game you earned your way into or should or should loss differently in those games, right? If you're already in the field. Yeah, like I don't think Georgia or Texas should be out if they lose.

They're not going to be either. I don't think Oregon or Penn State should be out if they lose. they're not gonna be either. I don't think Oregon or Penn State should be out if they lose, they're not gonna be because they're in the field. That same logic should apply to us. You know, and now the big 12 championship game's a different deal because right now, neither one of those teams are in the field. You know, and so, and if you want to use the same factors,

they've said Boise's in. Why does Boise have to play another game? What's to stop Boise from saying we're not gonna play? And you guys said we can't go backwards if we don't lose. So again, I think if somebody like in our situation, if that happens where there's this year, any year, that happens, yeah, you're gonna have a pretty big uproar that's gonna keep people from playing in championship games because, you know, I believe Indiana should be in the field without question, but they finished fourth in the Big Ten and they're in and they

don't have to play this weekend. Right, I know that they're third in the Big Ten. As podcasters, Andy and I like to go off the deep end a little bit and we'll, you know, do scenarios like what Lane Kiffin said a few weeks ago of like, well, if we don't play then you know, the things that you're outlining. If the worst happens this year, do you think coaches will start to consider doing crazy things like not play or benching players or doing things? If our team all got COVID today and didn't play, we're in. We're in, right? We don't have another data point

to drop us below anybody that's behind us. Based on what happened in 2020, that's how we go, yeah. I think if you open up that door, you're gonna see a lot of people do a lot of crazy things. Yes, we're not going to, we're gonna go play in Charlotte. And we're gonna try to compete for our championship because that's the right thing to do. That's what competitors do. We value an opportunity to share the

field with someone like Clemson, a fantastic team and and try to do something special. And so I just like I said, I'm going to choose to believe that on Sunday that the right thing will be done as well on the other end. Well, Rhett, thank you so much. I know you got a game prepared for guys to recruit, transfer portal to deal with, so good luck. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you having me on. Thanks for being here. Always a pleasure to talk to you, Rhett.

Thank you. That's SMU coach Rhett Lashley, and that will be a very interesting situation if SMU winds up losing the ACC championship game, does the committee keep them in the field or would they drop them in favor of? I would think it would be Alabama. I imagine a lot of coaches would wonder about playing in conference championship games if that happened, but that's the situation coach who

does not face that situation because his team is in, but he is not playing in a conference championship game is Indiana's Kurt Signetti year one. The Hoosiers are headed to the college football playoff. How's that help on the recruiting trail? Here's Kurt Signetti. We are joined now by the reigning Big 10 Coach of the Year. Indiana's Kurt Signetti on National Signing Day and coach, I would imagine different experience from last year when you were drinking through a fire hose

trying to assemble a roster. What is it like dealing now with players that you've had a year to show, here's what we do here? Still drinking through a fire hose, it's not that big anymore, cuz you got the signing date, the portal retention, and then a game coming up. So December, but every coach has gone through this. So yeah, no, I mean, we made it happen and I felt confident going in. We could be a good football team and we got on a roll and to

be honest with you, we were pretty dominant. And I mean, even if you just look at our P4 games, I mean, we outscored our opposition 40 to 17 on average, just the P4 games. When you got there, it was, we're going to do this, we're going to do that, you know, Google me, all the stuff. But Kurt, you guys did it. I mean, have you had a moment to just, you know, take a step back and go, you know, we made the playoff and enjoy it, or is it still just too many players assigned, too many players to keep, uh, too many goals still ahead? I mean, what, what's it been like to actually achieve something that people might have

rolled their eyes at, six months ago? Well, there was a lot of fun in the process, particularly in the locker room after the games. And then you get to go home and enjoy it a little bit. And Sunday you back up and you got another challenge ahead of you. And we've had a little bit more time to maybe sleep in an hour here since our last game and maybe reflect some. But just making the playoffs, I mean, we're not satisfied.

We got things we want to accomplish. And but we got a lot done between white lines and got a lot of crowd support that was over the top people in this state and all the Indiana alums and second most alum. Largest alumni base in the country is really just over the top. In terms of their support and they got who's your fever and it's been great to see. When you've been able to bring recruits in for some of these big games like the Nebraska game or the Michigan game, what has their response been?

It's been unbelievable and because the stadium is packed and there's thousands outside that can't get in tailgating and most of those guys are 26s know, 26s because, you know, the 25 class has been signed. And, but, you know, it's opened a lot of doors. There's no doubt about it. Kurt, when you got there, I'm assuming that there was a, I'm not assuming, you guys did have to, you know, take a lot of new players.

You brought some people with you. You got portal players. You mentioned this just in passing, but I think it's important. It's like Indiana with the success that they have now also have to focus on retention. What's it been like, you know, with your current team and the portal opening and you know, when you accomplish something, people want the players that help you accomplish that, right? I mean, it's probably a little bit of a different feeling, you know, at this

time of year than it was when you took the job. Well, you're definitely juggling a lot of balls. But I want our team to stay focused on the main thing right now. We have three practices this week and then next week will be a little bit more like a game week once we find out who we're playing. It won't be exactly like a game week. And so I've had a couple conversations with guys, but not many. You know, I don't want that to be a distraction in the locker room. There's time for that. And, you know, I think really my biggest

challenge right now is keep everybody focused on the main thing, which we've done a great job of this year. great job of this year. And you've coached at the D2 level, at the FCS level, where there is a kind of bigger expanded playoff, you've been through this process before. You're waiting to find out who you play and where you play. What is, what is that like? And since you've actually done it before, what advice would you give for, for some of the other coaches in your seat who haven't done it yet? Well, I don't think they need any advice from me.

You know, they're all, they're all there for a reason. But I mean, I look at it like this. You know, we played our last game and three weeks later we're gonna play another one. So, you know, this week, you know, our players will get two days of waits and we'll have a light practice today and two short practices the next two days and then find out who we play and then start preparing. But we're still going to have to balance, you know, portal evaluation, official visits and that kind of stuff with our preparation. That's what's going to be different than last year. Coach, you guys are in the playoff. There's no debate about it. I know, you guys are in the

there's no debate about it. I know you know in the time since the Ohio State game, you guys have probably had the politic or answer questions about whether you should be in or not that cleared itself up but after getting firmly in, do you

still pay attention to discourse about who should be in who should be out people say Indiana hasn't played anybody all this stuff or do you just, you know, keep your head above water and just worry about your team? No, I don't pay any attention to that right now. There was maybe going into the high state game, I've seen some of that stuff. You know, I think everybody, we've proved that we should be in and we're in and we just got to figure out who we're

going to play. Now, I know we keep bouncing back and forth, but I feel like that's kind of probably what you have to do all day these days with practice, recruiting portal, but I'm curious, you had such success taking from the transfer portal for this team. Does it change how you wanted to balance your high school versus portal as you go forward? Well, I think you always want to sign 15 to 22 high school guys a year. That's the foundation of the house. But you're always going to have immediate needs also that need to be addressed.

We just had such an extreme need last year because when I took the job, we had so many guys in the portal. I think our numbers were down to about 40 at one point. So we couldn't have filled it a team. We had to hit the portal hard and we did. So we're gonna have needs again. We probably won't need quite as many, but it'll still be significant. Because bottom line is, you gotta win every year in this business.

There's no years off. And my job is put the best team together I can. So all about recruiting development and it's a big part of it. This has been an amazing year for Indiana and still games to be played. But if there's one thing I've probably learned about you here in the last six months is that this isn't gonna, fill up the accomplishment tank for you, that you're gonna want more, you're gonna want bigger,

stronger, better consistency. And I'm wondering, because you might have had success at a level that maybe was faster than most people or even yourself would have anticipated, if this has changed your route, your roster strategy, or anything as it pertains to, you know, maintaining the success that you've had? Like, is how you are going to go about this offseason different than you might have thought it would be two months ago? No, I really know is the answer to that question, cuz I think every coach in the country is trying to get the best players available for them, right?

We all do that, and it's just a matter of who you can get. But they have to fit your program too. Now there's a profile that coaches look for, and it's probably a little different from program to program. I mean, I put a lot of value in guys character and habits and past production when we're talking about the portal. Look, I was recruiting coordinator for about 20 years also in my career as well as a coach.

So the high school recruiting is really important. But those guys are young, they come in, they take time to develop. And we're a team because of the situation, the roster situation I inherited that's gonna have some immediate needs next year that need to be addressed. Now, I've got a good core group of players returning, they're good players. But to make us the best we're gonna be,, you know, we're going to have to be in the portal some. Well, coach, good luck with the recruits, the 26 recruits, portal guys,

and this next huge game that you're going to find out where and who on Sunday. And I appreciate it, guys. Always a pleasure. Thanks so much for being here. We know you've got a lot on your plate and it's been a pleasure to watch you guys and looking forward to doing so into the playoff. Thanks. We'll talk again. On Sunday, Kurt Zanetti and the Hoosiers will find out who they are playing

in the college football playoff. I don't think there will be a watch party in Columbia, South Carolina, because it seems like the College Football Playoff Selection Committee has told us that South Carolina is probably out, even though at nine and three, winners of six in a row, they are one of the hottest teams in the country. They're probably the team that nobody would want to play right now, but unfortunately for them it looks like the committee is gonna leave

them out. Undeterred though, coach Shane Beamer, he is trying to grab more talent for next year. He's got a lot of guys coming back. Remember Dylan Stewart was only a freshman this season. Lenora Sellers was a redshirt freshman. This is going to be a loaded team next year, especially. If Shane Beamer gets busy in the portal and who knows some of these freshmen that they're bringing in on signing day

might play immediately like the ones who played immediately this year. Here is South Carolina Gamecocks coach, Shane Beamer. We are joined by South Carolina coach, Shane Beamer, signing another big club. Shane, we were here a year ago and I was asking you about signing Dylan Stewart and Josiah, your left tackle.

Well, he's now your left tackle. He was your five-star recruit at the time. When we were talking then, did you envision those two having the kind of season that they had making that instant impact? I knew they'd have an opportunity. First of all, thanks for having me on. I knew they would have an opportunity to make an impact,

to come in and do what they did and do it. I don't want to say easily because it's not easy playing in the SEC, but to adjust to SEC football as seamlessly as they did. That maybe surprised me a little bit, but it just goes back to the kind as seamlessly as they did. That maybe surprised me a little bit, but it just goes back to the kind of young men they are and their development and what they did when they got here. And then the other thing too is like a lot of kids do nowadays, they were here in January, they went through spring practice with us.

Whereas the year before we started five true freshmen back in 2023 and three of those guys didn't even get here until June before the season. So that really aided their development also. But credit to them. They've been fantastic. Shane, also to one of the best young quarterbacks in college football, you guys really found your stride here at the second half of the season. What clicked for Lenores? What clicked for your team? And how did you guys make the run that you did? Yeah, I think he just continued to get better. I wish I had a big great answer for you, but I really think it's as simple as he just continued to get more experience and get better each week and gaining confidence.

And then our team did as well as each week went. People don't realize or maybe they do and they just forgot. He didn't play a lot of football the first five games of the season, if you will. He played game one against Old Dominion. He played against Kentucky, but he missed time in the Kentucky game with an injury where he got knocked out for part of the second quarter, I believe. Third game was LSU. He didn't play the whole second half, I believe. Third game was LSU.

He didn't play the whole second half because of injury. Fourth game was Akron. He didn't play at all because of an injury. And then really his first SEC game that he played from start to finish was the fifth game of the season against Ole Miss. And you look at what he did from that game on through the rest of the season, he just continued to improve. And we played cleaner football as a team, but he along with the other true freshmen that we started, I mean,

we started, you just alluded to Josiah and Dylan. They started as true freshmen. We started Maisie O'Bannon, a wide receiver as a true freshman. We started Mike Smith, a tight end from Savannah as a true freshman. So a lot of these freshmen just got experience and and I said at the beginning of the season that we would be playing our best football At the end of the year and that we'd be a different team at the end of the season than we were at the beginning And that absolutely

manifested itself When you're recruiting this this class that you signed today you know when you're talking to Xavieravian Hardy or to Malik Clark or Jaquevious Dodd, is that what you're selling them on? Look at what you can do when you get here because these guys can do it. Yeah, absolutely. You're talking about the opportunity to come in and play as freshmen. And I tell guys all the time, Andy, I realized my job, it's to win football games.

And if I don't win football games, I won't be here. So I'm gonna get the best guys on the field, whether they're a senior, freshman, walk on scholarship from South Carolina, from Florida. The best guys that give us the best opportunity to win football games are the ones that are gonna be out there. And they see that we mean that. And so certainly they know they'll have the opportunity if they come in and earn it.

Two, let's be real, there's a lot of excitement and energy about South Carolina football right now. This is a place that a lot of people want to be at. And there were a lot of kids, young men that signed elsewhere today that reached out to us in the last week about wanting to come here and we just didn't have a spot. So I think as we go into the portal, this is gonna be a popular destination. I know it will be, it is right now.

So that and then obviously, like I said, the fact that guys know they'll get the opportunity to play early here makes us a place that a lot of people wanna be a part of right now. Shannon, I'm sure you know there's some disappointment in the building based on the rankings that came out in the CFP on Tuesday night, but the question I have for you is you know things like that are out of your control when you list all these young core players that are on your team who are playing well who develop to you know help your team reach its stride when it did.

I mean how encouraging is it for you as a program builder to know that a main piece or the main piece of the team will be back next year to try to do this again? Yeah. First of all, some of those pictures y'all keep showing are awesome. Like, I haven't seen some. So keep them coming, man. Wherever you get that, I like it. haven't seen so keep them coming man wherever you get that I like it. We love the cocky pictures, all the 2000 for people who've never been to Williams Rice Stadium. The 2001 intro is one of the best in college football and when they play sandstorm, no, it's like that's another thing that aided our development this year or aided our success that we're having today is all the, you know, recruits that were at our home games this season.

I mean, we sold out every home game and whether we were playing a Sunbelt team or a Mac team or a Southern Conference team, we sold it out and that went a long way. But yes, absolutely. And when you look, I hate it for our seniors that won't be back next year, that they don't get the opportunity appears to go playing the playoff based on what we heard last night, which is disappointment is a understatement on that one. But when you look at who we return, the core guys come back, the freshmen we have coming in, I've said it all along that the best days

of South Carolina football are in front of us and about to happen. And that wasn't like coach speak that sounded cool at a booster club. I mean, I mean it that the way that we're recruiting the people we have in our program, the way we're developing the young men in our program that we're just getting started. And we've done some great things in three years, four years now and excited about the future and yeah, we got a lot of great pieces that are returning in 25. So you mentioned the portal earlier and that you guys are gonna be aggressive in the portal as well.

How do you balance playing the defense in the portal? Because you obviously have a lot of really good players that people might want to swipe. So how do you keep them and then add to that? Yeah, for one, it's totally different for us now, Andy. I mean, last year at this time, we were five and seven and our season was over. And the excitement, energy level,

whatever wasn't what it is right now. I mean, there were a lot of guys, a lot of the success that we've had this season is because so many of our older guys decided to return and believed in what we were doing and knew we weren't far off. The players that are seniors right now. And then this year it's different in that, guys know what we have coming back and they know what's in front of us potentially in 25.

So there have been some guys that have left our program because they have the opportunity to go somewhere else and play. And I told them, I want every player in our program to have a good college experience. And if they get the opportunity to go somewhere else and play a little bit more than they're playing here, I'll help them wish them well. And I've had some of those happen already. And I'm sure there'll be some more before the end of the month. But at the same time, we got a lot of guys that want to be here and

it's a different feeling. This year we got players on other college teams reaching out to our current players about wanting to come here and play, be a part of what we're doing as well. And that's a little bit different than what it was last year, there's no question about it. But as far as our own roster, I mean, we just, we don't try and have to like feel like we have to re recruit them or anything. It's more just, do what we say that we're going to do in the recruiting process, treat them right

when we get here, not change once they sign and make this a program that guys want to be a part of because they can accomplish all their goals on and off the field. As the construction of the South Carolina program continues under your leadership coach was wondering the rules during your time to have been changing the way that that teams have to assemble their roster has been changing the whole idea of having to play defense for players on your team is new. How much has your thought process on talent accumulation, whether it be balance of high school portal kids or how many takes you need or how aggressively you need to play defense. Have you seen a evolution in your thought process on how to build your roster in the last few years? Yeah, great question.

It certainly changed. When I took over, you were in the height of COVID, so you're dealing with the ramifications of that when it comes to scholarship numbers and what class a guy is and COVID years and not being able to go out and recruit when I got hired. And then it gets into NIL and there's transfer portal becomes more prevalent. So there's so much that's changed just in the four years since I became the head coach. It's crazy.

Yeah, in a lot of ways it has. I mean, it starts with there's so many other factors now at play. So for me, it's making sure that we still continue to bring in players into our program that are choosing this program for the right reasons. And they love football and they love to compete. And if you get guys in your program that love football love to compete, I think the rest of it takes care of itself and they're good people, which we've really worked hard at making sure we do that.

Bring those kind of young men into our program, but it's different. I mean, I'm not naive. We got some really talented guys on our team and there's a lot of schools that are throwing a lot of money at them to try and get them to come play for their programs. I'm well aware of that. But like I said, we wanna make sure that we just bring in people into our program that love football and are here for the right reasons and then make this a place

that they wanna be a part of because they can accomplish so much when they're off the field. How much does it help you sell either to guys who are in high school or that you're maybe recruiting out of the portal, like a person like Nick Emmanuari. And I realized that COVID probably kept him a little under the radar during his recruitment. But a local guy who comes to you blossoms into a superstar. He's got a choice to make after the season of being, you know, maybe a first rounder

or coming back. But how much can you hold that up as an example of this is what you can do here? Yeah, a lot. You talk about both of our starting safeties, Nicky Manwari and DQ Smith, they're both Columbia guys. I think we had to beat Wake Forest out for Nick, maybe Wake Forest in North Carolina and DQ. We had to beat out Georgia Southern and both of those guys are starting safeties. They're gonna have a chance to play at the next level when their time at

Carolina is done. So it's a lot of things I've said all along any since I got the job here that when I was here before with Coach Spurrier, we did it with players from the state of South Carolina primarily, and that's where it's always going to start. So that's what we've done. Those two guys and then other guys, obviously, that we've talked about that are from South Carolina. And then being able to develop guys, it says a lot about one, the young men that we brought in,

but two, the strength and conditioning program, the nutrition program, all that stuff that we have here at Carolina in place to develop guys. And those two guys are great examples. Obviously, God blessed them both with a lot of ability naturally when they came here, but to be able to come in here and accomplish everything. And Nick's a guy that he wasn't a senior last season, but he was a talented player that had opportunities to go other places. And he came back and said, no, I'm not going out like that. I believe in what this place can be.

And we want to come back in 2024 and do what we know we can do. So really happy for him, DQ, all those guys that choose to come to South Carolina are able to accomplish the things they want to accomplish. Shane, for the past 20 years, the SEC has been viewed and it's probably a fact that's the deepest and most talented conference in college football. There's a notion right now, and I think we're still trying to figure

this whole thing out in terms of the portal and the way that rosters are constructed that, people view the sport as more flat, more balanced in terms of who can pop up and win games. There aren't the super teams that there used to be where, you know, a 2D pad, eight first round picks just sitting on the bench. On a week to week basis,

from the start of your tenure at South Carolina to now, does it feel different at all in terms of the level of competition? Does it feel like there's more parody to you? Why do you think that the results of the games have been what they've been and is the talent discrepancy gone that used to exist between teams in that conference? Yeah, I don't know if it's a great question and you're absolutely right. I don't think the talent discrepancy is necessarily gone. When I got in the league, Georgia was really, really good and really,

really talented and Alabama was really, really good and really, really talented. And they still are really, really good and really, really talented. But I do believe you've seen everyone now has an op more, maybe more of an opportunity than maybe what they had in previous years to win those games. And because of, you know, the portal and teams can get better quicker and teams can get older quicker as well by being able to, you know, put together their roster and get a little bit more experience on it through the portal. So I think that's certainly something that has made a difference. There's no question about it. I mean, the good teams are still really, really good, but I think the teams that year to year maybe have more of a chance in the fact that you're sitting there looking at those standings right now

and what are we tied for third or fourth or however you figure it out in the SEC and it's because we've been able to one recruit really, really well. We were an older team this year because we've got a lot of older guys on our team, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. And I think those teams that are able to keep their core intact like we were able to do have a leg up in a lot of ways because every team's roster year to year is just so different year to year because of the portal. So the team that has a lot of continuity like we had this year, but then they're able to

finalize the roster, put the final pieces together with some talented freshmen and some portal guys, they have a chance to do some special things. And you've seen that with us this year. You know, I just want you to know before we let you go here Shane that like you won my heart forever when you went on that post game. Well, I've got 905 stars on that team. Like that to me was like one of the greatest post game rants of our generation. I don't know how you feel about that.

But I'm team Beamer for the rest of my life because of that. What do you want me to say, guys? They have 27 five stars playing. And I think I said they have a 350-pound defensive tackle that runs better than anybody on this Zoom call. On my feet. Yeah, that one will definitely live in infamy. And I've come a long way in my post-game press conferences,

but I certainly was wearing my emotions on my sleeve in that one after I just watched that 2021 Georgia defense. It's like basically a starting defense in the NFL right now on multiple teams. No, they weren't doing your- And then having to answer questions about what went wrong. Like, what do you what went wrong. Like, what do you think went wrong

pal? Can we be real here? That particular Georgia D line. Oh my god. Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter. Uh they they had the number one pick in the draft and he's he's probably wasn't the best player on it. like that was like a salty defense. the sure. Yeah, you build one in South Carolina. We know that's the next step. So appreciate it, Shane. Nah, thanks for paying

for all you do. Thanks. The vibes are good in Columbia, even if they're not going to be in the playoff, even if they are disappointed about what happened with the college football playoff selection committee, you can tell their trajectory pointing up very excited about what they can be next year. Another place where they're excited about what they can be next year is Gainesville, Florida, which two months ago, you wouldn't have thought that you would have thought there will be a coaching change. Everything's going to change what happens now. happens now and Florida's team just rallied, rallied around Billy Napier and his staff,

rallied around each other, rallied around a freshman quarterback named DJ Lague and ended the season on a very good note with three consecutive wins against LSU, Ole Miss and Florida State. Now, Florida's getting ready for a bowl game, Billy Napier busy flipping a bunch of players on national signing day,

getting ready for a transfer portal season where I imagine There's a few people who want to go play with DJ lagway Billy Napier in a really different place than he was a couple months ago And you can tell he's pretty happy about it here. It's my conversation with Florida coach Billy Napier I'm here in the office of Billy Napier who this is a very interesting last month or so for you. And I imagine the class you signed today, it reflects that. I'm thinking about like a guy named Hilton Stubbs who you just signed today. I know as a guy that you guys

were on the entirety of this recruiting cycle. He flips to you recently, but how much were you talking to him through the off season, the downs of the beginning of the season, and then as you guys got better? Well, I mean, I think the majority of the recruitment is done throughout the winter, the spring, and the summer, and then you kind of get in the submarine for the season

and work your way through that. So, look, with a lot of families, we had to prove it on the field. You know, I mean, I felt like that was one of the biggest holdups with this last class. And I think, obviously, the vote of confidence and then how we competed and played, had some big wins.

I think that contributed to a lot of these players. Drake Stubbs would be in that group of players that kind of, you know, hey all they wanted to see was us have some stability, improve our own the field product could be effective for them. Well and that for you I'm sure was gratifying as the season went on because you were the one who kept saying I see it it's there and then it didn't express itself on the field and then you saw it starting to shift a little bit and then by the end of the season it looked like a completely different team. When you were talking to recruits did their tone change towards you as that changed?

Yeah. I mean, I think ultimately we, we just finished second on a lot of guys, you know, that ultimately probably if we had stability, if we had played really well, the brand of football, the quality of the football looked like a competitive contender. I think they would already been Gators, you know? So, um, obviously we anticipated playing really well. So we stayed in touch with all those guys that we felt like we were close on. And we were able to go back in there in the final month or so. Uh, and a lot of those guys joined our team.

You got a quarterback that people seem to enjoy playing with who do play with them now, but I'm curious when you talk to class of 26 guys, when you, uh, you're going to probably be talking next week to guys who are in the transfer portal. How excited are people to play with DJ Lagway? Well, number one, I think nowadays you're recruiting about four groups of people, right? So player retention is a big piece of the puzzle, right? So the first thing you got to do is we got to go secure all these good players that we have on our team that are coming back. And I do think the DJ and the way he showed promise this year and the way he

competed in the production and his leadership and the way he's connected with his teammates, I think that's going to help us retain players and there's no doubt this 25 group, they're excited about him and want to be a part of what we're doing here for sure. How much role does he play in talking to guys or starting next week talking to guys who might want to come into the portal? Yeah, no, I think we try to include as many players as possible, you know, with portal recruitment. You know, we not only want to find out, we know the physical part, we've done all the evaluations, but do they fit? Will they get along with the

guys? Yeah. That's an area where last year I thought we did really good work, not only a lot of productive players, But guys that brought more than just the talent to the team So you look at the way this team evolved as the season went on clearly it enjoyed playing together they liked playing for you guys because a lot of teams would have just quit at a certain point and Instead of quitting they improved dramatically how much and instead of quitting, they improved dramatically. How much does going through that help the guys that are coming back, that are talking to these future players?

Yeah, I think it's huge. I mean, I think just the confidence, the belief, you work extremely hard, you wanna feel like it's working. I think ultimately, we've talked a lot about how I think belief is probably one of the more powerful things you can experience. So we got a ton of confidence because I think they've worked hard, they feel as if it worked, it paid off.

And now they're playing the way they wanted to play in the very beginning. So, you know, look, I think the, it's a, I couldn't be more complimentary of our players relative to how they handled that. I think what you're saying is true. And, you know, I think that it gives us, it gives us a ton of confidence heading into next year. Because that's what I feel like that locker room

after the Ole Miss game or after the LSU game, that would be probably where if someone's trying to decide if they want to join up with you, that would be where they go, okay, maybe this is who I want to hitch my wagon to. Yeah, we've worked hard on the player experience here. And every one of these guys that we've recruited, we've pitched the, hey, you got to be up for the challenge.

We have work to do to get Florida back to where it's been before. This is how we're going to do it. We're in the middle of that journey. You can be a part of that. And so I think that they came here understanding it would be a challenge or would be good days and bad days. And I think they got, they're tough minded and they came here with a vision of doing what we're trying to do. So when you talk to these guys that are coming back, when you talk to these guys that are coming in, what do you tell them about taking the next step? Cause obviously it was very promising the way the season ended, but you would probably like to do that the whole season next year.

Yeah. No, I think we, again, I think it starts with accountability at the player level, right? Their approach to how they prepare. There's an element to learning how to win. I think that we understand what winning football looks like, and then we learn how to go do that. It's one thing to prepare all week,

and then once the ball gets spotted, then it becomes about doing it in the moment. And I think that they learned as competitors, how to be in the moment. And obviously, they learned how to win. So you signed this class today, Monday, the portal opens as another different kind of recruiting. Has your philosophy toward that changed during your time here at Florida? and has your philosophy toward that changed during your time here at Florida? I mean, I think what we've learned is that you got multiple opportunities to add players to your team.

When we initially got here, it was all very new. And maybe we lacked resources to be competitive or be aggressive. And I think as we built our system and we've acquired the resources now, you know, it's just really about, okay, what do we need? I think we never compromise the evaluation. You know, they got to pass that part.

They've got to fit from a cultural standpoint. And then, you know, we may have some attrition and we may miss out on a couple of high school players. And then we see where we're at today. We see how many of these guys we can retain. And then we have the resources and the ability to go recruit and plug in the needs that we have. So we'll be very strategic about that.

And we're fortunate that we have the resources to go get it done. And that's probably frees you up, imagine, when you decide, okay, let's go get this guy. Well, one of the things it does, if you got resources to replace, then people say, I'm an old school guy, but I mean, I think nowadays,

we should have high expectations. We should be very demanding. There should be a high level of accountability. And I think- Oh, that's his boss. Yeah. And I think- Scott Strickland just joining us.

Part of the equation is, you know, now you can focus on culture. You can focus on the football part and really develop these guys at a high level. So I think that, you know, these guys are basically employees now to some degree. So it's their first job. And while they're playing football,

we want to create an environment here where we teach values, they get their education. And ultimately they're using football and they're well-rounded, they get their education. And ultimately they're using football and they're, they're well-rounded, they're equipped and they're, um, educated for the future. My first job was at a furniture store, working in the back, smashing boxes for a guy who had an eye patch. So, uh, the first job working for you is a lot better.

Uh, Billy, your boss is here. I think you probably got to give a signing day report. So, uh, so thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. As you saw, I got Billy Napier in person. So I was driving home as quickly as possible to make our interview with Mike Elko. I was not entirely in time because Mike Elko, the tech, say, and coach, listen, he runs a tight ship and he was right on time. So Ari

kicked the interview off. I joined a little bit later, but this is a guy who he was there in 2022 when Texas A&M signed that amazing on paper class that did not really amount to a whole lot of success on the field. After year one, which I think is definitely definitely an improvement over what Texas A&M was doing. Mike Elko has a very good idea of what he wants that roster to look like, what he wants Texas A&M's culture to look like. They were in a game on Saturday where if they won, they would make the SEC Championship game. A couple more steps they want to take. What's Mike Elko doing to assemble a roster to take those steps? What's Mike Elko doing to assemble a roster to take those steps?

And now, joining Andy and Ari on three is Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko. Coach, how are you doing today? It's a pretty hectic day, so I appreciate you being here. Yeah, I'm relaxed now. Everything's in, the papers are in, and so it's a much, much better time of the day right now than it was 24 hours ago. What is that feeling like when the papers are in and so it's a much much better time of the day right now than it was 24 hours ago. What is that feeling like when the papers are in? It's probably the biggest feeling of relief you can have. You know you put 12 plus months into recruiting a class you know everybody knows the final 72 hours are always insane and you know when the paper finally comes through and you know he's officially an Aggie, it's just a tremendous amount of relief. You know, the, the first year, uh, at Texas A and M for you, I would say was a resounding success.

Obviously, uh, the way things went in college station last week, you probably would have liked to change a little bit, but being one went away from the SEC championship game, um, kind of normalizing and, and stabilizing a program that was kind of tumizing and stabilizing a program that was kind of tumultuous at times before you got there. How would you say you did in your first year and are you happy with it? Yeah, I think big picture CEO of Texas A&M football thrilled. I think we put this program back on a course aiming for where it's supposed to be, which I believe is the premier program

in the country. I think we've righted the ship. I think we've established the foundation and the culture for what Texas a and football should be. Um, obviously the football coach and me is still disappointed that, you know, we didn't finish. You know, we had an opportunity to put ourselves in a position to go to Atlanta. Unfortunately unfortunately we didn't do it. But I think when you see the young men that were able to get in board today, the excitement in and around the program,

in future classes, I think people understand the trajectory of this program and where it's headed, it's headed in a phenomenal direction. You know, Coach, the one thing that you could say or was true about A&M in the previous regimes and you were a part of signing the greatest recruiting class on paper in the history of recruiting is that, you know, A&M acquires really good talent at a very high clip and that's the reason why they should be and are considered a national championship

contender year in and year out. To go out in your first full cycle there at A&M and to pick up eight players ranked in the top 150 in the on three rankings, how do you feel you did as a talent accumulator and how much percentage of the jobs even done now with the portal opening next week? Yeah, I think, you know, first of all,

there's a couple of things on that. One, you know, we're blessed. You know, we have a couple of things on that one. Yeah, we're blessed. You know, we have a phenomenal university. We have great support. We have a great fan base. We have great facilities. And so we have a natural draw to Texas A&M for elite level recruits. We're in a hotbed of talent here in the state of Texas.

And we've got access to a lot of different states across the country. And so from that perspective, we have the ability and the access to bring in really talented players. I think the challenge we have and the thing that I've challenged our staff with is making sure that we're bringing in the right players. And I think it's easy to find, you know, sometimes talented players that maybe don't project to be future NFL players. And I think that's the biggest challenge we have is, you know, we've got to find kids that want to develop and want to become really good NFL football players. And I think that's our path to success here at Texas A&M and making this a program that doesn't get talked about, being able to compete for championships,

but actually goes out there and does it. You know, that seems to be the biggest, you know, flip, right? Like it goes from being a team that gets enough good players and a team that, you team that spends enough money in NIL and has the resource and all those things to actually doing it. And you guys came close to actually doing it this year, but from your perspective, what do you think is the biggest change or the biggest maturation point that needs to occur within your program to go from the potential to do it to actually doing it? Yeah, I think, and this is what I told our guys, you know, we had to lay such a strong foundation of what college football culture should look like, what it should look like from an accountability standpoint, from doing things the right way standpoint, from a commitment to got to do is we've got to go out and become really good football players. And second year in the system, second year in the schemes, having an opportunity to really fine tune the details of what we're doing and how we're doing it, I think is going to be really critical. And so we're excited to move this thing forward and get into year two and kind of finish the deal on what we started this year. I'm sorry to drop in late coach, but I'm curious. How do you balance the culture aspect with the talent aspect?

Because obviously you want players who fit what you do, who fit in with your team, but they've got to be badasses on the field. How do you handle that as you're learning about these guys through the process? I just think I want guys that are driven again. I keep saying this. I don't mean to be repetitive, think, I want guys that are driven, again, I keep saying this, I don't mean to be repetitive, but I want guys that are driven to be great at football. And then that to me is the character I'm looking for. And sometimes that's not necessarily a choir boy, right?

Sometimes that's a kid who's got an edge and he don't always feel great about the decisions he's gonna make, but he's committed to being really good at football. And I think that's the difference. And I think that's one of the things that you really have to sort through in this day and age, which is who wants to come to your school to be a great football player versus who wants to come to your school to collect NIL checks and maybe not challenge themselves

to become what they're capable of becoming. You know, coach, when you look at the place that Texas A&M is, and my wife went there, and I saw my first game on Saturday in Kyle Field, and it is really the only place like it, right? And you talk about culture and fitting into the culture. Do the players that you're going after have to illustrate or have to be a certain way to fit into that culture before you take them? Or do you have to mold them into that culture? Like that always seems to be like the push and pull with recruiting, right? It's like, do you take a kid who's super talented, but might not fit into that and fix that fit? Or do you need to have that fit from the beginning? Yeah, I guess I would flip it to you and maybe just make an analogy, right? If you had a young intern who had talent and was really committed to being great at studying recruiting and studying the market and becoming a real reporter versus a kid who had talent and, you know, really just wanted to work it on three but didn't really care about how good he ever became at it, right?

Like, that's the difference. I think you're just trying to sort through, like, what motivates kids, what drives kids, and what are they trying to get accomplished in their process in college. And I think that's more than anything, that's what we talk about when we talk about culture. I don't think it's this like cookie cutter kid who fits Aggie lore. I think all of that just kind of grows over time. I think it's who is committed to becoming really good in life, right? And in some way, and that shows itself differently for 17-year-olds, right? Not all of them are completely ready, but I do think you can see the ones who aren't. But that's gotta be really frustrating, right Andy?

Like to think about like, what if there was an intern at On3 who was the best writer you've ever seen? Yeah. Or the best column writer you've ever seen. I've worked with those people though, I think Mike's exactly right about this. Like I go back to when I worked at Sports Illustrated

and some of the people who came through, who who showed flashes but couldn't bring it every day. And I imagine, Mike, that's how you feel when you see a guy who has a great practice one day and then has four straight terrible practices. Yeah. And that's just, I just think that's ultimately what you're looking for. You're looking for really talented people who are also really motivated and have some sense of a growth mindset and understand what this challenge is in front of them of being a great college football player

that'll lead them to become a great NFL player. So I have a question because you signed a quarterback named Brady Hart from Cocoa, Florida today. And up until recently, he was committed to Michigan, which is not unusual to flip a player, but he was committed to Michigan for 2026. How does the conversation go when there's a player considering reclassifying down a year and I'm coming to college now?

Yeah, I think the conversation always starts with them. You know, I don't think we sought a kid out and asked him to reclassify. I think, I feel the same way with mid-years. Like, if you try to move a kid's timeline, sometimes the kid's very uncomfortable, even if you get it done and you get him. He's not quite convinced it's the right thing for him. So I think, you know, the Hart family kind of had decided that they were ready to try to reclass. They had done all of the process and procedures for them. I think there were a set of circumstances that got created that made it a really, really good fit for both parties. We had evaluated Brady early on looking at him as a 26 quarterback. We always felt that he was a really talented player. He was a kid that we really liked. And,

you know, I think it just all lined up in the right time with, you know, obviously what happened with Husson, what happened with Bryce Underwood. I think it all kind of came together the right way. Mike, from a roster standpoint, you know, back in maybe five years ago, if you had two really talented quarterbacks that you liked, you just picked the one that you think is going to help you win the game, you know, in the moment or week by week, right? But now when players can leave, you know, fairly easily, you also have to juggle the future of your roster, the numbers in the quarterback room, and maybe not just quarterback

position, any position. How much are you considering future roster numbers or things that you might have to do in the portal as a result of the decisions that you're making in season while you're making them? Yeah, you know, you don't want to. You know, I think I owe it to the seniors in our program to make the decisions that are in the best interest of Texas A&M footballs, 2020-14, winning as many games as possible. And there are times obviously where those decisions, we know there's gonna have an impact on those for the future. But I don't think I could look our kids in the eye if I wasn't doing what I felt was the absolute right thing

to do for them to have the best year they could. And so that's kind of how we look at it. That's kind of how we focus on it. And again, sometimes that puts you in a situation where you got to figure things out down the road, but then you got to figure things out down the road. Well, Mike, thank you so much. I know it's a busy day today and you get this class signed

and you're just probably moving right onto the portal come Monday. So good luck with that. And we'll talk to you again soon. Yeah, I appreciate you. Thanks for getting your mic on. And I appreciate all you do. And Ari, I can't believe it took you this long

to get to your white psalm of moderate game. So what? Yeah, no, she was actually kind of making fun of me about that coach. Like she's like, we've been living, cause I had moved to Dallas three, four years ago now. And for whatever reason, the first year was COVID. And then all the big games,

I was off in Tuscaloosa or somewhere else and it just never happened. Now I understand. You're gonna call the big games in Calhoun now. Andy's interviewing Napier. I see where we stand. Hey, did you see, did you see what I, you gotta see, I don't know if you're a big social media guy, but I tweeted this.

I think that the, and I'm making my way around. I spent 10 years of my career in the Big Ten. Andy took me on a little SEC swing a few years ago. I will say this right now. We taught him to be a yell leader. We did, yeah. We taught him about to be a yell leader. I wrote a story for the front page of the New York Times about Sam Sal's a walk on you. I'm an I I love Kyle Field. Good. Like it's my favorite stadium that I've seen so far. Now.

I've got some places I've got to go still. Yeah. So I'm not going to give you the crown just yet, but that was insane. I'm working hard to convert a few more media members to become Aggies. So you might be the you might be the give him a whoop. What? the media members to become Aggies. So, you might be the you might be the give him a whoop. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate

it, Mike. Thank you. That was an incredibly fun day. Thank you to Sharon Moore, Rhett Lashley, Kurt Signe, Shane Beamer, Billy Napier, Mike Elko for joining us for giving us some time. This is a very, very busy time for all these guys. So we appreciate their time

and the great sports information staffs for helping make those interviews happen. That was a lot of fun. We're gonna have a lot more interviews like that as the off season comes. We've been dealing with so much news, so much stuff during the season, but we'll have a lot more interviews like that

in the off season. We'll get a chance to have some fun with these coaches. But I think there's a few guys that we talked to that they are they are in really good shape going into next season as they sign a class on Wednesday as they get ready for the transfer portal to open. But these these coaches we talked to today, The arrows pointing up on all their programs and they're pretty excited so. Arrows pointing up for all of us though, because we get one more beautiful weekend of college football before the postseason begins. This is a guest officially the postseason now with the championship games,

but we will determine who plays in the college football player. Will find that out on Sunday. We got games Friday and Saturday, the Mountain West Championship game Boise State and you on a Leon Friday that will help determine the field. Then you got the big 12 championship game, SEC, Big 10 and the ACC championship game, which we learned from

Brett Lashley. He knew it all. It's going to be so much fun. Of course, I'll be here to break it down for you. We will talk to you after the games on Saturday.