Andy & Ari On3 - Talking season INTENSIFIES: Wrapping up Big 12 media days and looking ahead to the SEC

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

We wrap the first week of talking season with a look back at Big 12 media days and a look ahead at SEC media days.(0:00-0:59) Intro(1:00-4:36) Remembering Monte Kiffin(4:37-7:11) New Twist in NCAA Court Case(7:12-15:09) Continuing the Blueblood or Newblood Discussion(15:10-17:59) Phillip Dukes joins(18:00-24:19) Discussing Colorado(24:20-41:34) Excitement Swirling UCF(41:35-44:53) Looking Ahead to SEC Media Days(44:54-46:10) 2 Georgia Players arrested for Reckless Driving(46:11-51:33) Harold Perkins from LSU(51:34-58:23) Auburn QB Payton Thorne(58:24-1:04:26) Alabama QB Jalen Milroe(1:04:27-1:04:41) Conclusion, See you Monday!On3’s Phillip Dukes joins Andy to recap his trip to Las Vegas for the Big 12 event. Dukes talked one-on-one with Deion Sanders and rubbed shoulders with the stars and coaches from a league where double-digit programs can compete for a conference title in 2024.Which players impressed Dukes the most? And why did he skip the Pac-12’s open bar media day?Next up, Andy and Dukes preview the SEC’s extravaganza next week. What questions would the guys ask of the following attendees:Georgia coach Kirby SmartLSU LB Harold PerkinsAuburn QB Payton ThorneAlabama QB Jalen MilroeWant to watch the show instead? Join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/LULtq8R5yEM

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Friday. We've got a big show for you today. Philip Dukes, the host of the five-star flex will join us. He's got a big interview coming out later today. Big interview, big interview. If you're not already subscribed to the on three recruits YouTube channel, as soon as you finish the show, get yourself subscribed to it because there is a big interview

and we will talk about it when Philip Dukes joins us. But make sure you are subscribed to that channel because, well, also, you just need to know what's going on with your team's roster building strategy. So not only would you be getting the five star flex with Dukes, you'd be getting Josh Newberg, Steve Wiltfong. A lot of brainpower, a lot of knowledge. It would help you, especially in this crucial time as your team is loading up on commits for the class of 2025. Start with a couple pieces of news. One sad, sad news out of Oxford. Monty Kiffin, former defensive coordinator, former head coach of NC State, father of Lane Kiffin, father of Chris Kiffin, passed away at 84.

And this guy is an absolute legend. Monty Kiffin, one of the greatest defensive coaches of all time, a trailblazer. He and Tony Dungy, I know they kind of downplay how big of an innovation the Tampa 2 defense was to the sport of football. But really, it changed a lot of things. And Monty Kiffin was kind of ahead of the curve on a lot of things schematically for a long time but monty kiffin also had a big career in college you know he was a nebraska played at nebraska he was a nebraska assistant he was tom osborne's defensive coordinator at nebraska then went on to become the head coach at nc state interestingly kind of figured out that the head coaching thing wasn't for him. At NC State, he was basically a 500 coach and then went on to just become a great defensive coordinator essentially everywhere he went. And what he did in Tampa especially is just phenomenal.

I was in Oxford a few years ago and I was with Ari Wasserman, we're at the athletic and we, we, they, we'd come to interview Lane Kiffin. And so we interview Lane Kiffin in his office and we get done and we're walking out and we're in the room that's kind of off the, the office he was in at the time they were doing some construction and Monty Kiffin walks in and I'm just, I'm starstruck at this point. And he just comes over and he starts talking to it like, like he's noticed forever. And of course I worked in Tampa when he was the defensive coordinator with the buck. So I'm just asking tons of questions.

I'm like asking about how do you game plan for, for Mike Vick when he's the opposing quarterback? And I told him about a game I covered when I was down working for the Tampa Tribune where the Bucs had beaten the Falcons with Vick. And remember Warren Sapp in his locker after the game calling Derek Brooks the highway patrol. And basically, like, Kiffin had figured out how to neutralize Vick's speed because of how fast Derek Brooks could run. And it was,

it was so cool to hear him talk about he was laughing and, and he talked to us for so long that lane pops out of the office. He's like, dad, we got to get these guys out of here. And it just, it was, it was really cool to meet someone who in the world of football,

Monty Kiffin is a giant, an absolute giant. And, of course, he is Lane's dad. And you saw Lane tweet last night that he's his hero. So rest in peace, Monty Kiffin, and just an absolute pioneer in terms of defensive football. So really honored that I got to got to meet him and you know it's one of those things that saw that in the tweet where ole miss announced his passing uh that

they basically quoted his grandson knox saying that he's smiling down and that's i mean that's a life well lived you know when you multiple generations, you got to do pretty much everything you wanted. That's a life well-lived. So rest in peace, Monty Kiffin. One other piece of news that I found interesting, and it's a court case situation, so it's a little dry, but it was just fascinating to see. So Johnson versus the NCAA, which is yet another case involving the NCAA. This one involves whether athletes are employees or not. And this is kind of one of the things that will help shape what the future looks like, because we talk a lot about that house settlement, what that means, but it doesn't necessarily cover everything.

The fact of the matter is all this talk about whether athletes are employees isn't resolved and the house settlement doesn't necessarily work if football players are employees or it just, it changes the dynamics of it. So the schools and the NCAA do not want athletes to be called employees. A district court ruled that they should be. The NCAA appealed. And so the appeals court actually sent this case

back down to the district court. Now, they didn't say, we don't think athletes are employees. They said the judge ruled too broadly and needs to make a more specific ruling. Now, what was interesting about it is the appeals court judges seem to note a distinction between revenue sport athletes and non-revenue sport athletes. That's been one of the things I've been wondering about as these cases go along, because let's be real here. A swimmer isn't making any money for the school. In fact, the school is paying for the swimmer to be there. And it's more of a charity situation. A football player is making money for the school at the highest levels. And that person is a revenue generator. So these people are different.

And it seems like the appeals court noticed that distinction. So they sent it back, and it does sort of set something up where you may see a more common sense ruling on this going forward, which that'd be great. It would be great if they could use common sense and say, well, these sports, they are employees because this is clearly a, it's not a, it's not a for-profit enterprise because they're, they're not, they're not paying the taxes like it is, but it acts like a for-profit

enterprise. And in this one, it doesn't, it acts more like a charity. So I think a little common sense would be good. We'll, we'll see if it happens. We'll see like a charity. So I think a little common sense would be good. We'll see if it happens. We'll see if it happens. I'm not expecting too much. Not expecting too much. One more thing that's been going on all week now. So remember we had the discussion at the beginning of the week about blue bloods. We had Justin Hopkins from Scoop Duck and we talked about what is Oregon? Could Oregon be a blue blood? Jay Hopp and I agreed they're not yet. They would need to win a national title. They're getting there because they have multiple generations of success, but you've got to like bare minimum, you got to win one national title.

I made a list of the blue bloods currently in college football and the ones that are kind of on the cusp. I did not include Nebraska on the list of blue bloods. I put them on the list of schools on the cusp. And boy, did that make Nebraska fans mad. They don't have a lot of recent success to cling to. So they need to cling to the past. And they're very mad that I left them off. And they say, you can't lose blue blood status. And I'm like, it's a subjective term. I can decide if you lose it or not. You can decide if you didn't lose it. But on my list, you lost it because you've not been very good for a sustained period of time. And the other schools that I have as blue bloods

do not have that where they've just been straight up bad for an extended period of time. And I realize that for most of Nebraska's college football history, it has been very good. But like Zach in the chat, hey, Andy, Nebraska fan here, WTF, man, Nebraska isn't a blue blood. You're smoking some bad stuff, man. Second most nine win seasons in CFB history, five natties. I mean, come on, dude. Literally nine poop years. Yeah. The bad years have all happened in the most recent years. Nebraska has not been to a bowl game since 2016. You only have to go six and six to make a bowl game. If Notre Dame was that bad right now, they wouldn't be on the list. If Penn State was that bad right now, they wouldn't be on the list.

If Texas was that bad right now, they wouldn't be on the list. Nebraska is kind of the opposite of LSU for me. Like LSU, I have on the cusp. I don't have them as a blue blood because the main success for them is too recent. They need to prove it's not just this one era that they're having all this. And I said, if LSU wins another national title under Brian Kelly, that would be four national titles under four coaches since 2003. You got to put them on at that point because they also have a Paul Dietzel national title back in the day. But the Nebraska fans seem most mad

that Georgia's on the list. Thinking that Georgia is just some sort of recent flash in the pan. They had a 40-year drought. No, they had a 40-year national title drought. They weren't bad during those 40 years. They never had a sustained period of bad. Georgia was good for all of the Mark Richter era, except for that one season. But they weren't bad.

They just weren't winning national titles. They were right there. I mean, if Chris Connolly doesn't catch that ball, they get one more play in the 2012 SEC championship game, and they beat Alabama, they would have won the 2012 national title too. So Georgia is a weird one to argue with me about if you're Nebraska fans, but my thing on this, and again, my definition of blue blood might not be your definition of blue blood and that's okay. We all can have a different definition. You can put out your own column or do your own show about it.

But mine is you can't just be straight up bad and stay there unless you can get back. For Nebraska, I predicted that Nebraska is going to start seven and oh this year. So Nebraska, I'm predicting Nebraska's bowl drought ends this year. Does that make them a blue blood again? No. But if Nebraska makes the playoff this year and wins a couple of games, then I'm like, yeah, let's put them right back up there. Because the thing with Nebraska is I need to see that they can compete at an elite level again, because right now it's a legitimate question as to whether they can ever do that again. We need to see it. If we don't see it, then we can't put them back. Because there have been programs that would have been considered bluebloods that fell out because you've got the Ivies de-emphasizing big-time football,

the service academies, which were very important for decades, understandably de-emphasizing football compared to the big time football factories. You've got schools like Georgia Tech that were really, really successful for a long time. They changed conferences. They had not been as successful. So it does evolve. But if Nebraska can get back to an elite level, then you very quickly put them back because their history says, yeah, you should be there.

The problem is they're just not relevant right now. And Matt Rule's job is to make them relevant again. And like I said, I predict they're going to start the season 7-0 this year. 7-0 this year. 7-0. So I think if they do that, that's a good indication that they're headed back to relevance. That they're headed back to being able to compete at that level. So we will find out what happens. But the Nebraska fans are big mad at me. They've been

yelling at me on the internet all week. This blue blood thing really pisses people off. Not just Nebraska fans, but LSU fans didn't like it. Florida state fans didn't like it. Florida fans were like, yeah, yeah, it's not so great right now. Uh, but it's nothing personal guys. And again, my definition of blue blood and your definition of blue blood may be different. It's funny because I got people arguing with me about, like I had Nebraska fans arguing with me about the definition of like the old real definition of blue blood. Like it's the, the, the tone of the skin of the Royals. I'm like, no, it's not. It's because they had hemophilia because they had a history of inbreeding that's what blue blood means so let's not get too bent out of shape about this but

yeah it's a very subjective term highly subjective but i find it interesting that most people do generally agree with that list that we put out. You know, the Nebraska fans would like to see Nebraska on it. A lot of objection to Penn State being on it, which I can understand that. The truth says, for me, Blue Bloods are programs that self-recruit. So my list isn't too shabby either. So, see, I will push back against that because I'm not sure any program recruits itself anymore. Like Kalen DeBoer goes to Alabama

and he's got to work to recruit. Jerome Moore gets the job at Michigan. He's still got to work to recruit. It's not exactly like that. But I understand what you're saying. They've become such an iconic brand that they can't. It feels like they'll never fall off. And that's the thing with Nebraska, is they have fallen off to a level that none of those other programs have had that sustained of a drop before.

Now, they've had, like, you've had Alabama down spells, but not for that long. So we'll see. We'll see. We are now joined by the great Philip Dukes. Dukes the Scoop. He's been in Las Vegas. He's back home now. How we doing?

And I'm great. Just coming back from Vegas. Got some new shades. I thought I'd try them out. Today is primetime day for Dukes in the five-star flicks. flex so i thought why not dress for the occasion andy what's going on i am very glad you mentioned that because i teased this earlier but you have a very big interview with deon sanders coming out on the five star flex 11 a.m eastern time today, Friday. So if you are listening to this in podcast form, if you are watching this on demand later,

it may be after 11 a.m. on Friday. So you just go to the On3Recruits channel and watch that Dion interview right now. But if you're watching live, you still got a little while to wait, but we'll just throw a little taste. What did you say to make dion laugh so hard it's it's really what he said um i asked him a question about um we were talking about the success of his new shoe a retro of his old shoes the air dt max 96 which is an awesome

shoe and uh i he was saying he basically broke down the tiers of who on Colorado will get what colorway of what shoe based on their play. And so I stopped and I'm like, Coach, what does the media get? And he says, a hug. I mean, in only Dion's fashion, that was the answer that only he could have given. And we just cracked up about it. I do love that there are tiers of players. How are you in the S colorway tier? And what is the S colorway?

So basically you got the basic deal, the black and white ones, the black, white, and gold ones. So according to Deion, if you're a baller, you get to wear those. This is Travis Hunter, Shador. No, no, no, no, no. That's just a baller. Now, if you're a dog, then you may get the white and gold ones. Oh.

So what does Charlie Offerdahl get, the former walk-on who Dion loves? I think he's going to give him the black and gold ones, which is the top tier, because that's how much he loves him. The black and gold one is the top tier. Now, that's the Shadur. That's the Travis. That's, you know, maybe the Colton Hood, if he has the year. I think he's going to have.

So those are the top guys that you see. The black and gold DT96s are almost like the number seven at lsu they automatically identify who are who are the guys well let me let me ask you about this because you and and i dion mentioned this a little bit in his press conference on the stage at big 12 media days but then shadur said it off stage and i thought it was very interesting where shadur talked about how they're everyone's Super Bowl and I talked about it on the show yesterday where I said yes they are but that's not necessarily a great thing for them because like Ohio State is everyone's Super Bowl Georgia's

everyone's Super Bowl Alabama's everyone's Super Bowl but they have the advantage of having better players than almost everybody Colorado has some players better at some positions but they're going to have a lot of games where they're they don't have the most best player at every position. And I don't know that you want to motivate everybody. Like, you kind of want to come in on the radar sometimes when you play teams like that, but they're never going to be able to do that. No, they aren't. And I think it's a testament to what they feel like they are. So because we don't see it on paper doesn't necessarily doesn't mean they

don't feel that way now. So with them having that type of confidence, if they can execute, then it ends up being a big thing. And I think a lot of times in football, we have to find reasons to put chips on our shoulder, especially if we may not be the most talented team on paper, we got to find a way to fight.

We got to find a way to win. Well, they're not hunting anybody they're to hunt it so sometimes what's the most dangerous animal in the forest the guy who's scared or the guy who's being attacked so if that's who the the buffaloes are saying that they are that we're the guys being attacked then maybe the defense mechanism is to win so you asked dion a recruiting when he was up on the stage that I thought was really interesting, where you asked him about what's it like having been in the parent chair and now the coach chair. How does he feel about that? Because he has seen this from a bunch of different ways. And we've talked on the show about his recruiting and his strategy what is it what did it change like going through his own

kids recruitment because i heard him talking about like gus valzahn recruiting shadur and you remember oh wait he he was just the dad for that process right i think uh what it gave him was a sense of knowing that he has to be genuine. When you're a good talker, a lot of times people write you off as sort of a salesman type of guy, or even worse, sometimes a used car salesman, which has a negative connotation. So I think that understanding that it took for coaches, for him to release his children to a program, it took a coach that was genuine with him that he trusted. And I think that by him understanding what it took as a parent, and what he also said was he understands

the mind frame of a parent. So now he's thinking, okay, how do I get this parent to trust me? How do I get this parent to think or to know or to realize that I'm going to take care of their child? And I think that's the most important thing is that he had the experience of needing to have the trust of a parent for him to get a kid. I mean, for him to release his kids. And I think he now is the inverse. He has to gain the trust of a parent. Yeah.

So let's talk about their recruiting because they don't have a lot of commits for the class of 2025, but they've had some big official visit weekends. You and I have talked about their pursuit of Julian Lewis, the quarterback from Carrollton, Georgia, who's currently committed to USC. How much are recruits waiting to see what Colorado does on the field? Or could they have more commits between now and the season? I think a lot of commits are kind of taking a wait-and-see approach

because the experience in Colorado is like no other. So when you have guys that are going to come and actually experience the game, we've seen Colorado have all of the glitz and the glamour around, but last year they didn't get the wins. If you can combine some wins with the culture that they have in Boulder when it comes to game day, then I think you're going to see something special during the season. I think you may not see as many guys commit before the season.

I think you can get to maybe one or two, but I think the big influx of talent is going to come once they start to put it together on the field. And they start out in a really big way against North Dakota State, which is a lot of people are saying the casual football fan doesn't know how much of a well-disciplined team that North Dakota State is and how well they play football as a whole. So I think after you get that home game, you get the experience, then you go to a rivalry game in Nebraska, and this rivalry isn't just a Deion Sanders rivalry.

Nebraska and Colorado are like the Hatfields and the McCoys. They've always not liked each other. So I think in a really big situation, you got number one quarterback, possibly the number one quarterback in the draft this year going against last year's number one quarterback in high school, Dillard Rayola. I think that second game is going to be a really telltale sign of how recruiting is going to go for them. Yeah, I think that's going to be a telltale sign for both of those programs because we

know Nebraska's defense is going to be good. We don't know what their offense is going to be. So we'll be able to tell a lot more after we see that game. The North Dakota State game is amazing to me. How Colorado scheduled North Dakota State and Oklahoma State scheduled South Dakota State to open? You're putting your team in an absolute no-win situation there. Yeah, absolutely. Deion actually mentioned that on the press conference. Another journalist asked him about how to... We played. Yeah, absolutely. And Dion actually mentioned that on the press conference, another journalist asked him about how we played it yesterday.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he was just like, Rick, speaking of the 80 Rick George, he's like, why would you schedule a team like this?

And I thought that was a really good answer from Dion to not every time that we hear Dion talk, it always exudes a 1000% confidence. But I think in that moment, we saw a little bit of vulnerability, which I think is humanizes him at a level where it's like, hey, we know who this team is. We're not talking about playoffs when we're talking about North Dakota State. We're talking about getting a win. And I thought that was really important.

Yeah. And he understands like if they lose that game, everybody's just going to pile onto them, even though I'm looking at the chat, like everybody knows North Dakota. Yeah. You guys know North Dakota state's good. You guys are college football diehards. Like you watch, you watch this stuff every day. The, the other, you know, 5 million extra people that are tuning into that game might not, might not quite understand it.

So, and, and they are going to go crazy if North Dakota State beats Colorado which will be very interesting I you know again like like Duke like Duke said like like Dion said you have to be good to beat them because they don't beat themselves but uh Duke what else who else impressed you at Big 12 Mini Days who else you talked to who who'd you come away going oh i think they may have a good year ucf i think ucf was really really impressive that was my first time seeing ucf rj harvey in person he is oh yeah he is built like the thing from the uh from the fantastic four one thousand percent rocked up i i i they got him listed at 205. I think that's 15 pounds shy of what he really is. He is a load.

And the way they talk about not being talked about, that's what I heard more than anything. I talked to Lee Hunter, the defensive tackle who was transferred from Auburn, definitely a Sunday player. He was also a really funny guy, came dressed to the tee. They came for a business trip. If you saw some of the players who had hoodies on and they had sweats on, not UCF.

UCF, it was a business trip. They didn't go to announce themselves. They went just to let people know that, hey, we're a business-oriented team. We have work to do, and they're going to be a good team. Thinking about Gus Malzahn, what I really – saying that K.JJ Jefferson was the closest thing that he's had to Cam Newton is something that we've all been thinking. And I think when you think about Gus Malzahn in the past, there may have been obvious things there that he may not

have said he would always go around and dance around it. This is the first time I've seen in a long time that Gus Malzahn is hitting everything head on. The comparison, we finally see a quarterback that is 1,000% built for his offense, even though he may not be running it on, you know, as far as what people say. But you know that Gus Malzahn is going to have a big hand in that offense. And I just can't wait to see KJ Jefferson in those games where you talk about quarterback power and being able to step back. And he has a cannon for an arm. And oh, yeah, his cashier receivers aren't bad.

His cashier receivers aren't bad either. Thinking about Kobe Hudson, who's been productive everywhere he's been, including the SEC. He's there. He's so motivated. He's a really funny guy. But he was all business when it came to being at Big 12 media days. And they definitely have a chip on their shoulder about how much coverage that Colorado is getting and how much coverage they're getting as far as who can be a contender in the Big 12. And especially since they proved last year that they can win a big game in the Big 12. So, yeah, I think UCF is ready and they really impressed me colorado goes to orlando in week five which you know the bounce house is gonna be hopping for that one and and ucf could be three and oh going to that game because they've got new hampshire sam houston state and tcu before that uh you mentioned rj harvey we had him on the show this guy was 1400

yard back last year they were worried about keeping him. You know, they were worried because he was one that a lot of people in the transfer portal thought would be an interesting addition. UCF stepped up to make sure they kept him. And I go back, Dukes, to KJ Jefferson and Rocket Sanders when Kendall Bryles was running the Arkansas offense. Now, Kendall's offense and Gus's offense are different, but what it did was it used the read option to set up the pass game. That's a very simplistic, rudimentary way of describing both of these offenses,

but that is the base of both of these offenses. And I just think KJ Jefferson and RJ Harvey together is a pretty devastating combo. Yeah, absolutely. Like, think about the decision that the defensive coordinator has to make when you put somebody that when you have a lot of times when you want to stop the run, you have to bring down that last safety. So you want to go eight in the box.

Well, you have to think twice when you have these guys because once they get rolling kj jefferson can absolutely throw the ball has he been the most accurate in the past no does he have a cannon yes if they be in the ucf receivers have proven that if they get man-to-man coverage they're going to win their ones so i think that by having such a a really good battery in the backfield when you have a KJ Jefferson, who literally was dragging Alabama players last year for four and five yards down the field, we're not talking about sisters of the poor. He did this against Alabama and almost wheeled Arkansas to a win last year. When you think about him, then you matching them up with a guy like RJ Harvey, and then you still got Penny Boone, who had a great season at Louisville, right?

So I'm really excited to see what UCF can do, and I think it's going to be an electric atmosphere game four against Colorado and Orlando. Is it bad that my litmus test for Gus Malzahn, quarterback, like how's the passing offense going to look? Do I just go, is he a better thrower than Nick Marshall? He is. It's going to look if I do, I, do I just go, is he a better thrower than Nick Marshall? That's not a bad litmus test. When you look at what Nick Marshall was able to do in their offense, he's playing defensive

back still today. I mean, then that just goes to show you what it takes. All you need is the perfect blend of being able to run the ball speed, being tough and having a cannon for an arm. Because how many times did we see a guy going 50 yards down the field and Nick Marshall just letting a rocket go? Yeah. We haven't seen that in so long in an offense.

And it's not to say – and no disrespect to John Rhys Plumlee because I think he did a great job with that offense. But he's no – I don't think he's on the same level as athlete as a K.J. Jefferson is. And I think KJ Jefferson definitely has a chip on his shoulder. Coming into last year, there were some people who even thought he had a chance to be a dark horse Heisman candidate. Now the odds were really high, but a lot of people were expecting KJ Jefferson to have a big year, especially in Arkansas and

Rocket Sanders. Neither one of them had the year that they were expected to have. So now KJ Jefferson has the picture of Shadur in his locker room saying, hey, this is what you guys think of me. You think this is the best guy in the conference? Well, hey, I'm not chopped liver. So I think seeing a guy that motivated is going to pay dividends for Gus Malzahn in that offense. Yeah, it's funny when you say it like that because you know this podcast is a

big Avery Johnson bandwagon podcast. You got Cam Rising at Utah who's already won two power conference titles as a starting quarterback. Like, there's a lot. Noah Fafita at Arizona. There's a lot of good quarterbacks in the Big 12. Yeah, there is. And I think when you look at the NFL, it's so easy to go look at the NFL mock drafts to see who's number one, to see who will be the best quarterback in the conference.

But NFL success doesn't always – college football success and NFL success are different. So there may be guys who are more prototypical for the NFL that may not have as good of a season on the college level as some other guys will. Some guys are great college quarterbacks. We talk about Jason White at Oklahoma. He was an amazing

quarterback, but was he an amazing pro quarterback? So if you do yourself a disservice to just look at mock drafts and say, this is going to be the best quarterback in the conference, you're really hurting yourself and you're cheating yourself of seeing some of the better quarterbacks who are really playing at a high level at this level. Yeah. And I think, you know, you think about mock drafts right now. If you look at mock drafts right now versus who actually gets drafted in the first round, half the dudes you see that are named right now will not be there. They're going to be drafted somewhere else. I mean, there were guys that were in first-round mock drafts this time last year

who got drafted in the sixth or seventh round this year. There were guys who didn't get drafted. Leonard Taylor, yes he was a first round pick on a lot of people's boards at going into the season and he went undrafted free agent so that's just another cautionary tale of hey hey hold your horses a little bit when you base your uh projections solely off of mock drafts people people really love mock drafts though so, so they ain't stopping. I've done five fantasy football drafts already. Exactly. Exactly.

So one more before we move on, because we're going to do a little preview of SEC media days as well. But you watched Gus Malzahn for a long time. I want to get your take on this, because when I visited UCF in the spring, I came away thinking very differently about Gus Malzahn and where he's at right now. What was the Gus you saw from UCF like compared to the Gus you saw all those years at Auburn? Totally different. I got a real funny story. first started spewing out information about what was going on at Auburn and their recruiting and all this insider info that I was getting while I was making a name for myself on Twitter, there was a 14-page report that was passed around the staff about my tweets. How does he know this?

He was looking for the mole. Totally different now. Gus Malzahn wants the coverage now. He wants people to know how the UCF is recruiting. He wants people to know that we're getting all of these guys on campus. I wouldn't be surprised if you saw more UCF, a team site to pop up for UCF. The relaxation that I see on Gus Malzahn not dealing with the pressures of the SEC, quote-unquote, yellow wood pressure is what they call it. Like, he's not having to deal with that at all. And I think he's relaxed.

I like the gray hair. Uncle Gus, that's what I see, man. Like, he went from Gus Malzahn, you know, kind of the straight leg, hey, man, only Waffle House. You may see Gus Malzahn snack on a river too these days. Who knows? I mean, I just think that Gus Malzahn is in a much more relaxed situation, and I think that it's showing.

And you're going to see – and one of the knocks on Gus Malzahn in the past has been he's been a really good guy when it comes to selecting talent, but a lot of times he wouldn't listen to the talent. I think Gus Malzahn, when it comes to his coaching staff, I think right now Gus Malzahn has his ears open and he's way less rigid when it comes to the way that he wants to do things. And he's open to suggestions. And I think that's going to open up UCF to be a much more fluid and cohesive team. Yeah.

And I was trying not to lead you with that question, but you said exactly what I got out of seeing him again too is he's he's chill like man a chill gust like you never saw that at auburn at auburn he was so tight and he's so chill now now he's not it's not like he doesn't care because one thing he was very clear about when i talked to him in the spring was he's really mad that they had a losing season last year. They were six and seven last year. He had never had a losing season as a head coach. He's like, that is never going to happen again. And so it's not like he's stopped caring. It's like he stopped caring about the wrong things.

And everything else he's sort of letting letting fall and he's worried about the big picture which i'm fascinated to see what this team does you know they had three transfer guys come with them in the media days and he was telling me when i was down there and i know this is this is a pitch they're making so this is what he wanted you know wanted me to get out there but talking about how good of an environment they've been for transfers through the years, even before he got there, even when Josh Heupel or Scott Frost was the head coach, he's like, UCF's just been a great place for transfers to come and be successful.

And you understand what he's doing there. He's saying, hey, all you really great players from the state of Florida who went somewhere else and now are not thrilled with how things went. Come to UCF. And can you blame him when you think about the amount of talent that Florida has and guys go everywhere? They go to Rutgers. They go to Nebraska. I mean, the state of Florida has its fingerprints all over college football. So when you get guys from Orlando who previously weren't staying home

and they want to get away for a while, you can always come home. And I think that's what Gus Malzahn is saying. And when you look at how successful UCF can be in this conference, last year you go 6-7. You go 6-6 to end the conference, you lose a bowl game. But that's including Texas and Oklahoma. And it was a little bit of a different conference. Well, the Big 12, I'm not going to call it watered down,

but it's not the same Big 12. And now UCF moves to the upper echelon where they're going to be the favorite in multiple games because of the talent that they brought in. So I think that Gus Malzahn has a really good idea. And this is the other thing. UCF's collective is coming to the table and they're not shying away from saying, hey, we're going to compete. And I think that's been the most important thing is they're able to compete with all of the other Power Force schools, maybe not on the level of a Miami, but they can compete, be competitive, and they can provide

and they can really foster a good environment for a transfer guy. And so I mentioned that game where Colorado comes to them, which will be a big game. I almost wonder how that's going to affect the following week, because the following week they're at Florida, which is not a conference game, but within the state of Florida is a massive thing. For UCF, it's a huge opportunity. And for Florida, it's a,

it's a must, must, must, must, must win. And so that's gonna be a night game in the swamp. But I almost wonder if having the Colorado circus coming to town the week before keeps them from,

from worrying too much about that. Like they'll, they'll play Colorado and then they can treat Florida basically as just another game week because they'll have just dealt with the circus. Yeah, and also, I'm not sure that Florida, in many other years, I always venture to say that Florida's roster was much better than UCF's. I'm not sure how much better Florida's roster is UCF's than UCF's. And I think that with that attitude, see, they have a really special place in that game.

They can put the chip on their shoulder. They can still get the little brother chip on their shoulder and go out and play and treat it like the Super Bowl. But they can also go out and know that, hey, we're the little brother because we've got players now. So now that game becomes so important when it comes to recruiting in Florida because I did a piece on why would you go to certain schools in Florida. And right now there are a lot of reasons that UCF is winning against Florida for certain players when you look at what they were able to do the last couple of years. But even this year, recruit, I'm not 1000% sure, but I, there,

there is definitely a world, a reality where I feel like UCF would finish higher than Florida in the recruiting rankings. So this game could be the linchpin for UCF to become the third school in Florida. I mean, if they beat Florida at home, how do you – if you're going at UCF for a four-star, you lose to UCF and you think about the resources that UCF has, the success that they've been able to do, the proof of concept that they're proving now, and you can stay home at a program that has a trajectory on the way up, not down, and the stability that Gus Malzahn has on paper because, yes, everybody says that Gus Malzahn is probably just waiting on the Arkansas job.

But when you think of, I'm not so sure that that's the first job. I'm not so sure that Gus Malzahn isn't happy. I'm glad you brought that up, Dukes, because one thing when I was visiting down there and seeing how chill Gus Malzahn was, my first thought is if Arkansas opens, please don't take it. Cause it's going to, you'll, you'll turn back into the Auburn guy. don't take it because it's going to you'll you'll turn back into the Auburn guy. Don't do it. Just just stay here. Like what? Stay here and do this. Yeah, I love what Orlando has done for him. And now now you got Grandpa Gus, right? There's a

lot more to him. And I think that the family aspect is going to be super important. And why would you want to move from where everyone vacations? You've got a great situation. I just think that it's almost – You realize that was Steve Spurrier's recruiting pitch when he was Florida's coach. I didn't know that. Yeah. Like, James Bates, the linebacker, he's from Sevierville, Tennessee.

And Spurrier comes up and says, you know, everybody's trying to get to Florida. We're asking you to come. So – but back to that UCF Florida game, I think it's interesting that you mentioned that and the recruiting aspect of it. Let's be real here. If UCF wins that game, they're probably recruiting against a new Florida coach after that.

Yeah. Yeah. So. 1000%. Yeah. That's going to be a fast, like you, I think the Florida people keep looking at that game. But the fact that they play Coach Prime in Colorado and then Florida in consecutive weeks is really interesting.

That's going to be quite a stretch for UCF football. Because, look, if you go 0-2 in that stretch, that may be all the world's going to watch of you. Even if you're good the rest of the way. But if you go 2-0 in that stretch, everybody's following you the rest of the way. You go 2-0 in that stretch, now you become one of the 12 teams that we're talking about at the end of the season.

It's going to be fascinating. Chill, Gus. Even if you win the Big 12 this year, be careful because people will come after you. Right. And I know you've wanted to be the Arkansas coach forever, but just, just think about it. Just think about it.

All right. Let's, let's talk SEC. Let's talk Gus Miles on his old stomping grounds because SEC media day starts in Dallas on Monday. You and I will be there. The way I figure we'll do this is let's just say you have one question for these particular guys I'm going to name. I want to know what your question is. I'll give you my question. So let's start. One question for Kirby Smart.

One question for Kirby Smart is my question to him is going to be, how are you getting these guys to leave NIL money on the table and come to Georgia? Every time I talk to a recruit, they always mention NIL last when they talk about Georgia. I've had recruits come on my show and talk about other schools, and they say, oh, man, they've got a great collective. I never hear about the collective when I hear about Georgia. I've had recruits come on my show and talk about other schools and they say, oh, man, they've got a great collective. I never hear about the collective when I hear about Georgia and I'm privy to conversations off of the record. They're they're leaving hundreds of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table to go to Georgia. And I'm just going to ask him how he's doing. What is he telling these guys that makes them want to leave a hundred to, and sometimes there was a particular guy last year that I am very familiar

with that left over $300,000 on the table and NIL money to go to Georgia. How are you doing this coach? That's exactly what I'm going to ask him. If I had to guess, he's going to point to the draft and he's going to say, you're going to, you make it back up because we develop people who get drafted higher. That's the only thing I like that. And that's really the only argument you can make that would convince someone to leave that level of money on the table.

And I think there aren't many schools that can, that can make that sort of, it's not even a promise because it's, it's not promised, but at least can have those recruits say, you know what? I have faith that if I do this, I will make more money in the long run. I think Ohio State can say that.

I think Georgia can say that. I think Alabama can say that. At Clemson, at least on defense, can say that. But there's not a lot. There really aren't. But the thing is with me, what makes that question important for me is that when you talk to five-star athletes, they have supreme confidence in their ability. They're not. Yes, they think they're going to make it anyway. Yeah, they're going to make it anyway.

It doesn't matter where they go to school. A five star is a five star. And we know that the rankings are based on what we project as the first round of the NFL draft being that there are 32 slots for a five-star. So how do you get these guys to tell the rest of the – to not listen to the rest of the world who's telling them, you don't have to go to Georgia because you can go anywhere and go to the NFL. All you have to do is show up, play, and you can play 10 games, and with your attributes and the way you project physically, you're going to be an NFL draft draft pick because you're six six 300 pounds and running four five forty i mean that's that's that's the case of the matter but for whatever

reason kirby has been able to figure it out to say how do i get these guys to block out that noise and to believe and to trust in me and because you've got difference and even if he's recruiting against an ohio state if he's recruiting against the Alabama, how am I getting these guys? Because they can offer the same thing. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. What was your question? I think so.

My question to Kirby would be like, okay, are you going to start a mass transit system in Athens? Because Kirby's got a lot of stroke. Like Kirby can get laws changed. Kirby, he's the most powerful man in the state of Georgia. Two more Georgia players arrested for racing, you know, on charges of reckless driving and racing. I realize people do stupid things, especially when they're young and have a car.

I certainly was one of those people. They seem to keep doing this and I know it bothers him and I know he tells them not to do it. So why does it keep happening and i'm just thinking at this point kirby smart is the most powerful man in the state of georgia he could probably get a subway dug in athens georgia if he really wanted to so can is there going to be a new mass transit system in athens just to make sure this doesn't happen because that is the sort of thing that feels like a Kirby smart type solution

to that problem. Because telling them don't do it isn't working. So we've got to figure that out. But no, I do think you're right. Your question is really interesting to him because they are recruiting against the same schools that can say, hey, look, we've made this many first rounders too. Yep, absolutely. And they're still picking Georgia for the most part all right next question next gentleman that we're going to ask a question of LSU linebacker Harold Perkins what do you want

to ask him do you prefer standing up or putting your hand in the dirt? Where do you feel like you're the best? Because there is no way I would have that guy wasted any time on third downs doing anything but rushing the passer. We saw how good he was early on. Yes, you can do a lot of different things with him, but I just think that he's so good getting around the corner. That's my opinion. And I just want to hear him say, what are you –

I may tap him on the shoulder and just take him around the corner and ask him. I know he's going to give the, hey, yeah, I want to do whatever helps the team. But what do you want to do? And I think that would be my question for him. And it was interesting hearing the coaching staff talk about it last year, where the reason he did that as a freshman is because they he was such a great athlete they wanted to get him on the field even if he didn't quite you know have the whole defense down but what he did as a freshman was more impactful than

what he did as a sophomore when he knew the defense right so i'm with you and i i would love to hear like i think your question michael is very similar like i'd love to hear, like, I think your question, my question is very similar. Like, I'd love to hear the honest answer from Harold Perkins because now what's interesting about this is for Harold Perkins, the guy playing, standing up on the line of scrimmage may not be the best thing for him in the future. And he's 6-1-2-20 like I I've talked about how to best use people and like I've praised Penn State because they're going to have Abdul Carter coming off the line of scrimmage almost every play

Abdul Carter is much bigger than Harold Perkins like Abdul Carter has the body to be an NFL edge rusher every down. Harold Perkins is 6'1", 220. So he's leaner than that. And in the NFL, you probably can't put him on the line of scrimmage every play. You've got to play him a little bit differently. So how much does that matter to him to be able to develop that part of his game? Or does he just want to wreck opposing offenses and say, look, NFL teams figure out how to use me, but this is what I do really well. Yeah, I agree. I still remember Dwight Freeney against Auburn,

and I believe it was 2001 when he has four sacks. Matter of fact, he's still running around the edge right now. Just seeing him at that size, there was nobody on the field that could stop him. And at the time, we had a 6'5", 340-pound offensive tackle, and he whooped him all game long. So I really think that when you got special guys like Bryce Young. Bryce Young didn't have the measurables,

but he was still able to be successful because of everything that he provided and intangibles and maximizing on the things that he did well. He has a very specific skill set. He can do a lot of things, but he is really, really good naturally at getting to the passer. And those are the guys who get paid. If you can find a way to use him and maybe develop him in a way where he can be a little more stout at the point of attack when it comes to setting the edge against the run. I think that you've got a very special player who can do a lot of things. But I also know that he wasn't bad as a stand-up linebacker. We just didn't call his name as much. Right, exactly. It's not that. It's just he wasn't

wrecking opposing. LSU doesn't beat Arkansas in 2022. If Harold Perkins doesn't wreck Arkansas's offense a couple of times, just purely by himself. And we weren't talking about that at all last year. And the thing is LSU's defense was so bad last year. It was, there's no reason to sugarcoat it. They were awful last year. So they do need to figure

something out. And you know, I, my, my thing with, with Brian Kelly, you know, Blake Baker comes in to run the defense. I would just say, Hey, look, you know, our job's to win games. Let's have him do what he does well. Now, if, if somebody, if some team is just running straight at him and having success then you're gonna have to you're gonna make some adjustments but i don't know that like his freshman year we didn't really see that yeah i mean it's not like he's not strong as a knox like they're like nfl yeah i understand but at the college level different there but that's not their job to figure out what he's going to do in the nfl

yeah he's an absolute missile and there are a lot out what he's going to do in the NFL. Yeah, he's an absolute missile. And there are a lot of guys that are going to play in the SEC. They're against the teams that don't have these all star offensive lines like a UGA or Alabama. You absolutely just got to let him go wreck the game. He's going to make the plays. He's going to flash. He has the measurables. He's going to test well at the combine. Go ahead and let him make plays now and then let somebody else figure out what to do on the next level. He's going to go regardless. Nobody's going to look at 13 sacks and say, oh, yeah, but can he stop the run?

Who cares? He got 13 sacks in the SEC. So that's my mentality for him. And if I talk to him, that's definitely what I'm going to ask him. I want to know what he says. I may grab him first. We'll see. We'll see.

We'll have to race to him. All right, here's one. This is a guy you watched closely last year. And I just really interested because it seemed like his coaches were all in on him. And then they played a bowl game and it's like, oh boy. But now they coaches were all in on him, and then they played a bowl game, and it's like, oh, boy. But now they're back all in. Auburn quarterback Peyton Thorne. If I had to ask Peyton Thorne one question, how did you get better in the offseason?

What do you think that you'll do better this year versus what you did last year? And reason being because there has to be something, a switch, or some type of safety net, a safe word, that's something that Hugh Freeze is going to tell him that's going to allow him to perform better in pressure situations. Last year, we saw so many games where if Auburn just had competent quarterback play, they'd come out on top.

But there were some times that Peyton Thorne looked like he had never played quarterback before. I like the reference when they said the New York Jets quarterback, I forgot which one, where they said he was seeing ghosts. Oh, that was Zach. That was Zach Wilson, right? Was that Zach Wilson? Yep, I believe so.

No, it was Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold. Okay. One of them. And that's what I saw from Peyton Thorne last year. It looked like he held on to the ball really long at times.

Sometimes when it looked like he should have given the ball away on the read, obviously he kept it. There are just a lot of disjointed plays at the quarterback position, but we saw flashes. Now, there weren't as many flashes as a lot of Auburn fans would have liked, but we did see flashes of excellence from Peyton Thorne. So I just want to know what's going to be different about this year than last year. Is it the new receivers that he's got that says, you know, I don't have to be spot on with every throw, which takes pressure off of me for having to set my feet

every time and holding on to the ball if I can get the perfect throwing stance. I think maybe that kind of allows him to play a little faster because he knows that he's throwing it to a freak of an athlete in Cam Coleman, and he didn't have anybody on the roster that could do the things that he did, that he can do last year. So I just want to know, how do you feel like you're going to improve? How do you feel? Because there are a lot of people in Auburn right now that are saying hugh freeze hitching his wagon to payton thorne could be that could be one of the uh almost career suicide but there are other people who feel like maybe hugh freeze if he is calling it

and if he's actually telling payton thorne where to go the use of the headset that he'll be able to have in his helmet now maybe those things impact Peyton Thorne and we see more of the guy that we saw with Kenneth Walker at Michigan State. So that's what I'm interested in asking him. What is bigger to you? That Hugh Freeze is calling your plays now or that you have Cam Coleman, who is a resource that you did not have. You simply did not have a human being like that on the field with you who could change the way defenses have to play you guys. I think that's a great question. Cam Coleman does things right now.

I mean, there were guys, as soon as he stepped on campus, I was talking to some of the defensive backs at Auburn. They would say, no, he's everything they said he was. And then now they said the exact same thing about Perry Thompson, the four-star wide receiver who's built like Julio Jones that got there in the summertime. So he's got two options of guys who make phenomenal catches look routine. So I think I'm really excited to see how that does impact

Peyton Thorne this year. So Rocky talked Tom in the chat with a very interesting comment here. Very curious to see how Auburn does this year. Their first four games are absolutely winnable. And then they have Oklahoma coming to Jordan here. And so we talked about this. So they got Alabama A&M, Cal, New Mexico, Arkansas. They can definitely go 4-0 in that stretch.

Then Oklahoma comes to Jordan here on September 28th. I've said that is a big swing game for both of those programs because Oklahoma's schedule gets gnarly after that. Auburn's schedule gets gnarly after that. Auburn is at Georgia, at Missouri, at Kentucky the next three games after that. I almost feel like both of those teams are in a must win in that game. It feels like one of the bigger swing games of the year in college football. But the thing is, if you've got those first four, now Cal with Jade Knott is not a gimme. That's not an easy win.

But if you can win those first four, how confident are they going into that Oklahoma game? Because I do think Auburn never really had a chance to get rolling, develop any confidence last year because it felt like they're just so up and down. Yeah, momentum is a real thing. There are a lot of sports pundits who say momentum is fake and, you know, momentum is intangible. Give me stats, Give me wins. But momentum is something. There's something special about Auburn when they get on the roll. No one can explain it. No one has ever been able to explain it, but it's a real thing. When Auburn gets rolling, there's something, the spirit of Jordan here,

maybe it's in the eagle, who knows? Whatever it is, it's real. And so I think that Auburn going into a game four no having every and and not just games against the you know the the lower tiers in college football but I think that Cal game is really important yes let's not forget New Mexico State dumped Auburn we are not forgetting that how could I I wish that is burned into my core memories. Trust me. But when we talk about Auburn being successful as far as winning multiple games and believing

in Peyton Thorne, if Auburn, if Peyton Thorne can go out and have a 300 yard passing game, those type of things, if we can see that, hey, we're different than we were last year when it comes to an Auburn fan, You start to get the fans behind you, and then that play, Jordan here becomes an absolutely insane place to play. Going into Georgia, you're playing with house money because that's the game that you're supposed to lose. Then you get Missouri, which I feel like is a winnable game. Then you get Kentucky, who is going to be really good this year, in my opinion.

You win those games, then you have one of those years that makes college football really fun, Auburn is is being talked about in October November which they haven't been in probably six years well your your momentum conversation makes me think of that my favorite SEC shorts episode ever is the Auburn roller coaster and it's what it is like being an Auburn fan is like riding a roller coaster. And what a roller coaster to operate on? Gravity and momentum. That's how they work. Like once they get going, they go fast.

And that really is Auburn in a nutshell. So I can't wait. All right. One more question for our friends at SEC Media Days. Let's see. I'm looking through my list of people who are going to be there. All right, here we go, Dukes. All right.

What's the one question you would ask Alabama quarterback Jalen Milrow? How much do you laugh when you see people other than black people say link? How funny is it to you? How funny? We had, we had Terry on Arnold on last year. Say what? Say it again.

We had Terry on Arnold on last year. Cause he's, he's Jalen Miller, his partner in the, in the Lank universe. And you could tell he's, he, he cannot stop laughing internally when he sees it.

Oh, man. The first time they let it go, it was hilarious. With Pat McAfee there and what was the other guy on College Game Day? But when it comes out and it's like everybody just takes this really collective pause, like Reese Davis, my man. They had this really collective pause where it's like, is he going to say it? And he says naysayer. Naysayers!

Naysayer. I'm like, oh my. It becomes a viral moment. And they chose naysayer. Let on. That's not the word. I don't think that's what you're trying to replace what that word usually would be. Right. That's not the one you

think of but they made a hell of a brand out of it man what was it not perfect so i think uh i just want to know tongue-in-cheek like as far like how much do you really laugh internally but if i had to ask a really a real football question I would ask what do you think the Alabama office looks like in comparison to last year and how would you how do you feel like it really amplifies your game because when you think about the office that Kaelin DeBoer is bringing as far as at versus Jalen Milrow's skill set a lot of people may not feel like he's the prototypical quarterback for that system. But we haven't seen somebody as athletic as him in a system like that.

And maybe there's some talent there that we just haven't seen. There are a lot of times that we saw Jalen Milrow kind of get in the groove and start throwing dimes. So in this offense, how scary could that be if Jalen Milrow has all the options that he's had previously or that Kalen DeBoer has had previously with their passing concepts, with his ability to tuck it and go. Michael Penix was an absolutely good athlete. He was a good runner, but he's nowhere near the physical athlete

that Jalen Milrow is who's built like a linebacker. So I'm really interested to see and to see what he thinks in specifics how that offense helps him yeah and i think you know don't look at michael pennix and try to figure out what that offense is gonna look like go back and look at what caitlin deborah did i think there's only one year where they were together with him and jake hainer at fresno state because jake hainer was a good athlete not the not the greatest thrower of the football but one year where they were together with him and Jake Hainer at Fresno State because Jake Hainer was a good athlete not the not the greatest thrower of the football but just a complete dog and now supercharge the athleticism with Jalen Milrow and see what they what they do together

that's that's what I think is interesting and I also think you know who are your favorite receivers gonna be because you know Isaiah Bond's gone Amari and I Black is is gone And I also think, you know, who are your favorite receivers going to be? Because, you know, Isaiah Bond's gone. Amari and I black is, is gone. They're both in Texas, but you get Jeremy Bernard comes from Washington. I think he's one that he's going to have fun with. When I was in Tuscaloosa, I talked to Jay LaMuro for a minute and he was pumping up Caleb Odom, the freshman saying he's going to be awesome. So like who, who will be the favorite targets? But that said, that line is really good. Justice Haynes is going to be a star. We don't talk about Jim Miller at all, but he's really good. They're going to, they're going to run the ball down people's throats more than people realize.

They may be the best backfield in college football they have guys after guys so when you think about all the guys that we haven't seen you still got a guy like richard young there who hasn't really touched the ball yeah so like they've got guys who would be at any they can provide starters to at least four other powerful schools with that with what they have in that running back room so it's not one guy you can key on. They have all different styles, but they all run like a ball of knives. So, yeah, I mean, Alabama is loaded again. And, yeah, Florida State, the Riverside Florida State took their whole second string.

Right. Yeah. They did take their whole second string and actually could be pretty good with their whole second string because that was the thing is is seeing Alabama in the spring it was like oh this hasn't changed that much even though look you can't discount what Nick Saban meant but that roster is still amazing and Kalen DeBoer has been very successful as a head coach like he doesn't lose much yeah Kalen DeBoer has been very successful as a head coach. Like, he doesn't lose much. Yeah, and shout out to Kalen DeBoer for the job that he's doing recruiting.

He answers every question that everybody's had, and right now Alabama, they're on track to be the number one team in the country when it's all done. Landing the number one recruiting class is like what nobody thought he could do, and he's really close to doing it. All he has to do is finish strong. Now, if they go out here and go eight and four, then I don't think their recruiting class sticks. But, I mean, if they go out there and they get nine or ten wins,

which they should be able to do with that roster, I think they could possibly end up with the number one recruiting class. So, shout out to him because right now they are on a recruiting heater. Well, we're going to find out. We'll hear some of his recruiting pitch next week in Dallas too because, listen, they're talking in front of a microphone. They ain't talking to us. They're talking to everybody else.

Right, right. We'll see that from Caleb DeBoer, from Lane Kiffin, from Sam Pittman, from Billy Napier, from Steve Sarkeesian, from Brent Venable, all of them. Right. Dukes, I will see you in Dallas. Man, I can't wait, man. See you soon, Andy. We'll be here from SEC Media Days on Monday.

We'll talk to you then. We'll be right back.