Andy & Ari On3 - Texas Tech's Joey McGuire is DETERMINED to get the Red Raiders over the hump

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

This show is brought to you by Panini America, makers of the most collectible sports cards on the planet. The Prism football card series a vibrantly paralleled base and insert roster featuring college football’s brightest former and current superstars. Panini sets include 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. State and Liberty makes modern athletic fit clothing for men who want to look great and be comfortable at the same time. Whether you’re looking for an athletic fit suit or your new favorite hoodie, State and Liberty has what you need. New customers get 10 percent off when they use the code ANDYARI, or you can visit this link: https://tidd.ly/4gVLuUE(0:00-4:49) PaniniAmerica.net(4:50-11:15) Intro: Previewing Texas Tech(11:16-38:46) Texas Tech's Joey McGuire joins(38:47-41:30) Joey McGuire's rules for life(41:31-47:18) Discussing Texas Tech, Ari's Lens Flare(47:19-1:03:58) EA Sports College Football Cover Leak?(1:03:59-1:07:26) Story time with Ari(1:07:27-1:10:49) Wrapping Up EA Sports Discussion(1:10:50-1:16:32) The Greatest Sports Quote Ever?(1:16:33-1:17:41) Conclusion - Dear Andy & Ari tomorrow! [e-mail] Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire joins the show to talk about the Red Raiders’ historic transfer portal haul and huge expectations for 2025. He also gives Andy and Ari a great rule for life. Later, Andy and Ari break down the EA Sports College Football 26 cover leak. Watch us on YouTube instead! https://youtube.com/live/SnQVT441BIY Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

This show is sponsored by Panini America. Ari's hair is sponsored by Panini America, the greatest maker of the most collectible sports cards on the planet and in honor of the NCAA tournament starting next week. I got a pack of Prism draft picks here, basketball edition. Ari, you think we can pull Caitlin Clark? You think you think we can? They would just be unbelievable if you did it on a pre roll here. Those are the insane. Alright, I'm waiting for the day. We're working on it.

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That might be something. Yeah, heck yeah. but kind of Steph Curry numbered to 249. That might be something. Yeah. Heck yeah. People love collecting Steph. He's pretty good, right? The assistant GM of the Davidson Wildcats, he also still has a day job with the Golden State Warriors. So that's, we're gonna hang on to that one.

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for Butler there against Duke. It did not go in and I will never forget watching the Duke player. I was I covered the game and I'll never forget watching the Duke players. I covered the game, and I'll never forget watching the Duke players as they stood on the stage and watched One Shining Moment, and that replay came on, and none of them noticed during the game

how close that shot went to going in, because it hits, and it hits the front of the rim and kind of rattles around, and the look on their faces, they're just all like, ooh so Gordon Hayward almost the biggest shot in NCAA tournament history. But hey, oh, Steph Curry action in our prison pack. Andy, I don't know.

I don't know a lot about soccer or anything, but I can't think of a national championship being decided by something like that in any sport. I can. Well, second and 26 to Devontae Smith. Do you think second and 26 as is, I was a blown cup. I don't know if it would be as remarkable as somebody hitting a half for full court shot. Was that both of them? Yeah.

I'm pretty sure it's close. Like pretty sure. No, I know. Like second and 26 means it's third and 26 and fourth and well, I mean, sure it's close. Like pretty sure I know what my second and 26 means. It's third and 26 and fourth and well, I mean, like it wasn't like Butler over Duke versus Alabama over Georgia. It was the whole would have been the bigger piece of it. Yes, it was just like, yeah, but you know, I'm not. I don't want to sit here and yeah, second and 26. It's unbelievable.

We're hanging. We're hanging on to Steph Curry who had his own great NCAA tournament run in 2008. So Paniniamerica.net is where you need to go to start your collection. Your favorite college pro NFL NBA. College. What you got Ari? I want to show some of my hits. You know you you open the pack. These are these are hits see Andy. These are cards that I have hit in breaks and boxes that I've purchased in my own time. This is a Rome Odunze rookie auto out of spectra to 60 not an offensive line now. He

may be he may be I was always very high on him. Here's a buck uh Brock Bowers x-vision number to ten neon splatter. That's a pretty big card. Number to ten. Um here's a dual uh rookie patch auto of Keon Coleman and Ray Davis for the Bills on the same card. Pretty cool. And then here's your guy uh Ricky Pearsall rookie patch auto out of spectra. That's another really. Oh yeah. That's out for Panini right now. That's a lot of fun. One hand catch. Yeah, Ricky Pearsall's stocks going up Andy. I got news for you. Well, you know they got Samuel out of the picture. Some moron shot him last year and he had to he had to work back from that. So

Rolex. Ricky Pearsall is a dog a dog Panini America.net to start your collection. And today we're talking about guy who's got quite a collection of transfers. Welcome to N8 Big show today, big show. We got Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire talking about the number one transfer class in the nation. We got leaked photos of the EA Sports College Football 26. I don't think that's the actual cover, but I definitely think there's a photos of the cover shoot. Plus EA has leaked some actual footage. We gotta talk about that.

We gotta talk about one of the greatest quotes in sports history. But Ari, first, let's get to our guests because Joey Maguire is one of the most interesting coaches in college football this year. They just landed a massive transfer class. They spent a bunch of money on this class. They were beating out teams that they don't normally beat out at Texas Tech.

Quinton Joyner was projected to be USC's starting tailback next year. If you go to his transfer page, we still have the RPM projections up. I believe it was 98% to Ohio State and 2% to Texas Tech and he went to Texas Tech. Yeah. I thought this was a really, really good conversation with a guy who is in an interesting position and honestly I know that we say nice things about everybody who comes on the show but I think Joey Maguire might be one of the most well-liked people in the state of Texas. Oh yeah. You know, in like-

And in the coaching fraternity, other coaches really love Joey Maguire. I think of the most well liked people in the state of Texas. Oh yeah. And in the coaching fraternity, other coaches really love Joey Maguire. I think a lot of it is- You ever heard anybody say, I don't like that guy? No, no. And I think a lot of it is he paid his dues as a high school coach for a long, long time before he got into college coaching.

And basically was coaching his son through high school and then decided to jump to college after he had finished coaching his son in high school. So it's, and his son's now on his staff, by the way. So it's been quite a journey for him. And this is, this is really interesting because they're in a unique situation where they've got a couple of former Texas Tech teammates who happen to be billionaires, and they are helping them quite a bit with the NIL and they need something to get over. Like Texas Tech feels like almost perpetually right there,

whether it was with Mike Leach, you had the period with Patrick Mahomes there where they still could not quite get over the hump. This is going to be an interesting, I don't wanna say a make or break year, because I think Joey McGuire has been fairly successful there, but if you listen to him, he makes it sound like a make or break year. Yeah, I mean, I think that that's a make or break year for different reasons, and you wrote a story that's up on On3 right now. I wrote a story that was somewhat similar, but different

in the sense of like, it's big for different reasons, right? Like it's big, this year people want returns on investment. People want tech to get over the hump, but I also think it's big because if they do well on the field, it might actually help them carry out their original recruiting plan, which was to identify kids in Texas early,

be their first offer, recruit the hell out of them, and then keep them in the long run. That hasn't been easy when teams like Texas and Ohio State and Florida and all these other teams come in at the last second and take players But when they win it's harder to do that. So like this year, you know You make the cake I don't remember if you you talked about this in the in the interview But like the weight the sport is changing with revenue share and the potential attempt at policing NIL deals and stuff, this might be an interesting window for teams that go all in.

So- Because Texas Tech, and I address this, I asked him about it in the year, but if you want a little context before you hear it in the interview, Texas Tech is using a period that may not exist in the future. Because we're between the NIL era and the revenue share era.

And yes, I don't think this attempt to police NIL where they've got Deloitte, the accounting firm, basically saying, well, this is a market value deal and this isn't, I don't think that's gonna actually work. I think that's gonna get sued into oblivion. But let's say it does, or at least somewhat works, or the more logical thing, the donors who've been funding NIL are sick of doing that

and are like, I'm just gonna give you the athletic department, you can give them up to, however much a year, so you do that. And I think that's the more likely way that the money comes down on that end. But there was a window here where you could front load with NIL for the first half of this year, then hit them with rev share in the second half of this year.

And so it allowed them to offer quite a bit more than other schools were offering because other schools weren't thinking that way. So that's why Texas Tech got so many good transfers. Yeah, and they worked. They did a really good job of bolstering the lines. I don't want to like the entire interview, but the one thing I will say is, you know, at times Andy and I get a little squirrely when it comes to like how long should coaches interviews be if

you're not a Texas Tech fan, you might not care about what Joey McGuire has to say and blop But I really do think that listening to this interviewance in in general here Helps you maybe get a broader understanding of how teams that aren't just the typical teams that we talk about on the show a lot Can do to compete and I think a lot of times there's context that can be taken that is relevant for your team. And, you know, that to me I think is interesting is like as we listen to the show, we've never been a one team show. So you have listeners, you know, learning about all sorts of different things. But I think that from this specific interview, like you can come away thinking like, you know, after we were done,

I was driving on the highway and I like went down like nine rabbit holes in my brain of like, well, if this means this, then what does that mean? And I think we'll get into that a little bit after the interview, but try to try to listen to it with open ears and really learn something because I think it was also revelatory interview. rules for life question. He gives us a rule for life. But first of all, I'm adding to my personal life rule list. And I intend to follow it every single time. It's embarrassing that I wasn't there for you already. That's right. Here's Joe McGuire. We welcome Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire already dressed up for the occasion. Joey, Joey, you're a fashion icon,

like you're a fashion magnate though. Like your daughter designed a dress that Taylor Swift wore on the Eris tour. So you know all this stuff. Yeah, I don't know. I'm kind of like my man. I want to put a cowboy hat on, boots and jeans and a sports coat.

And that's, you know, that's a West Texas tuxedo. Yeah. I mean, I feel like I'm ready to go to Bob's steakhouse right now. Cause that's the, that is like, you know, you wear the jeans that, you know, hug the cowboy boots. I live in Dallas, Joey. So like I, I see a lot of these people out there and, uh, I'm a Jewish guy who grew up in Phoenix.

I don't know that I can pull that off, but you know, this is my wife's hat and I'm doing the best that I can, you know, listen, me and Andy, we watched land man. We know what goes on out there. Like we were caught in the patch. Did you, did you watch land man, Joey? Oh yeah. A hundred percent, man. I love it.

My wife and I watched it. Uh, I'm ready for season two. All right. Were you mad as a, you know a representative of Texas Tech of how much airtime TC you got on that show? Well, it's kind of interesting. It probably has monies probably a lot like Cody Campbell and John Sellers. They both live in Fort Worth, but they fly out here every weekend for the game.

But I did like that my guy wore a Texas Tech baseball hat. And then one of the engineers had a double T tattoo on his shoulder. So that, that, that West Texas, my guy, the quarterbacks committed to Texas tech. Um, young ladies going to Texas tech. So we're getting plenty of air time, you know, for, for the double T. ladies going to Texas Tech. So we're getting plenty of airtime, you know, for, for the double T. Campbell has like insane pool parties at his place in Fort Worth. And do you think we could come?

Um, that's a great question. I think, I think he's a little bit more calm. You might have John Sellers with the crazy pool parties. I don't know. Those, those two together, probably, they probably merge those two together to, to make up money. I Well, I could mess up a pool party guys. Let me tell you I won time

Just the cowboy hat on yeah, we got With my friends in my 20s. We went to a pool party in Vegas Dre's nightclub during the day and Joey we're gonna become best friends. But yeah, I drank a little bit too much and it was 110 degrees outside. And we racked up a like $5,000 tab, which sounds impressive, but it's not in Vegas. And I passed out and fell face first into the table and spilled everything. And they threw me out. And the best thing about it was I never had to pay the tab. So, uh, that's one of the best, uh, one of the best stories I have. And I would love to do it in, in for Texas tech football.

Yeah. There you go. You mentioned Cody Campbell and former player just sold his company for multiple billions of dollars and has, has been helping you guys with your NIL. I guess we could we we start the story because what I told the folks on the show is we had Dabo Sweeney on yesterday and obviously Dabo not huge into the transfer portal. You guys this year when is big into the transfer portal as you ever have uh end up ranked number one in on

three's transfer portal rankings you ever have, ended up ranked number one in On3's transfer portal rankings and reshaped your roster. And it's interesting reading about how you and Cody decided to do this because it seems like you identified something that's unique to this year before you did it. Yeah, you know, Cody and John, I bring both of them up. Cody is really involved. John's kind of behind the scenes. It's a great story with those guys. They both were high school teammates. They were college teammates. Their company is called Double Eagle. The eagle comes from their high school mascot, the Canyon Eagles. And those two guys, man, like you said, they sold that company for, I think it's $4 billion.

I think that's the fourth time, and that's one of the smaller sales of that company. And so they've been hitting home runs for a long time. But the thing that Cody, he saw really early, it was about mid-July. And we're in a meeting with him. It's me, him, Kirby Holcutt, Jonathan Boutros and James Blanchard, my general manager. And he said, man, there's a time right now in college football where you're fixed to operate in two different worlds. If everything works out in April with the settlement and it's the NIO

world that we're operating in the last couple of years and then the revenue sharing world and we've got to take, we've got an opportunity to take advantage of that world. And that's what we did. Whenever it came to the transfer portal in January, we identified great players. It did help that we just opened up a $250 million football facility. Um, and so the combination of, uh, NIL revenue sharing and the best

facilities in the country helped us go after some of the best players in the country. Joey, uh, you know, when you took over there, um, you had a very clear and identifiable strategy in terms of your roster assembly, right? Like you, in your history of being a Texas high school football coach with the relationships that you had, you guys were gonna go and find sneaky athletes that were maybe underrated or, you know,

your connections in the state would bring you to when you were gonna, you know, increase with Blanchard there in the personnel office, the baseline level of talent, right? I'm wondering, as the sport has continued to evolve, when you have landmen on your side, does your philosophy in terms of what you need to do in order to assemble a team that's competitive enough to win big, changed at all? Or is this just an addition to the original philosophy? I would say it's more the latter. I think it's probably more the addition to, I mean, our young guys are starting to become redshirt sophomores, redshirt freshmen, really growing. But I'm going to tell you guys, I'm proud of what we did last year, but I've never been more frustrated in my 30, that was 30 years.

So going on 31 years, I mean, I'm watching Iowa State and Arizona State playing the big 12 championship and we beat both of them. We're centering the ball to kick a field goal against TCU and we fumble. And what I hate saying, man, we were really close. But what gets you over the top is big people. We went heavy in the O line and in the defensive line. We were terrible in the secondary last year. Both we had to get better personnel but schematically.

And so one thing we did is we we went and got some DBS and we changed, you know, coordinators. And so I think being that close and being frustrated, really kind of pushed the need or pushed us to really go and be really aggressive in the transfer portal. And you look at what you guys brought in, it's kind of just in terms of if there's a comparison point, maybe Ole Miss last year, in terms of the level of quality, the type of players, amount of starters, you probably get out of it. And, you know, it did help them. But I would imagine you put that level of talent into the Big 12, it's going to make a pretty big impact. Yeah, man, that's a great comparison because that's one thing. We follow all of this and they did make a huge upgrade, especially in their D line, and how many guys they had at the combine. And you look like even when TCU like if you think about TCU when they played

in the final four, ended up beating Michigan. They had I think 12 guys, at least 10 guys at the combine. And so, the guys that are playing in the playoffs, they, it's, you know, good players, you know, make you better coaches, and they have a lot of guys at the combine. And one thing, I think you add that, and this is no knock whatsoever, I'm not talking really about Ole Miss, but the increase of talent, and then my job right now, my primary job,

the coach's jobs are installing the new offense, the new defense, getting the guys to understand football. My job right now is to build this culture and build this team chemistry. We talk about it every single day, finding ways to bring this group together, make them closer and really create a team. Because you've got a lot of new guys that have one year left in their career. You know, how do you get them as close as possible?

So they'll play hard together. Well, and I saw you have a PS five in your office. Any of those new guys ever come in and just grab the sticks? Oh yeah, man. Now I'm, I'm not any good. I used to be when I was younger, but I'm not any good, but I got a couple of guys on staff that they'll play. Brian Nance or DPP, you know, he he's pretty good at it. So they'll get in there and go at it.

And then we have a two story players lounge and our second floor of our players lounge is all, you know, all the gaming and everything. So there's a bunch of guys up there that do it, do it in there also. and everything. So there's a bunch of guys up there that do it, do it in there also. Are you seeing that those guys are fitting in together, fitting in with the guy? Because that's got to be the hard part. We talked to Dabo and that was one of his biggest concerns was, I feel like there's good culture here and I am scared if I bring in a whole bunch of new people that that might change that. How do you make sure it doesn't change what you've been trying to establish for the last three years?

I think you have to do your research and we did, we did a lot of research on these guys, talked to as many people as we could, the new guys, I mean, like Big Lee Hunter, man, I mean, the guy, you saw some pictures, He's always smiling. You know, I talked to Gus Malzahn. I knew Gus, I've known Gus for a really long time. And man, he just couldn't, he kept singing his praises about what kind of person he is.

And so, you know, whenever you're doing that, and then the one thing we talked about a little bit off air, when you're at a place like Texas Tech to where the town really is built around this university. There's so many great people in Lubbock, Texas. And I just keep hearing the guys over and over just what a great place this is. And, and, and they're really happy. And so I think it's making a big effect on them. I feel like we're going in a really good direction culturally. We just gotta keep building it.

Joey, I'm wondering from your perspective, when you start bringing in transfers and then the appearance of money comes into the picture and you're getting guys that maybe Texas Tech wouldn't have been able to get 10 years ago, how does that change the pressures of the job for you in terms of the expectations that come along with, okay, well, you got the players now, go do it. Is that make the off season, are you more excited? Are you more focused? I mean, how does it change your day to day being in that situation?

I'm really excited. I'm really excited. I'm always excited. The one thing that I think our guys, any kid that I've coached, I never change. I'm always fired up. I'm like the Energizer Bunny, and they're the guys that are like the Duracell battery. They give me all the charge and the juice to be who I am. And then the expectations, I learned a long time ago,

if you wanna keep your job, you gotta win games. And like I said, we're in year three, we go eight and five. That's the first eight win season, regular season win, eight win season since Mike Leach's last year. And honestly, man, I felt like a complete failure because we were knocking on the door and we just couldn't get to where we want to be. And so we've been so close when I see a picture I love Dan landing. I think he's a stud.

I think he's doing a great job in Oregon and man, we're up nine and can't finish that game off. And so hopefully bringing these guys in. But going into year four, just keep building that culture to get over the hump. Cuz I think once you get over the hump, you fight like crazy to stay over it. But it's almost like until you break the door down, that door is always there. It was the same way whenever I was at Cedar Hill. Um, you know, they had never want to play off game in the history of their,

of the school until 2006 started playing football in 1932. I mean, you think about that and then we go 16 and over in 2006. So it's the same thing when you're at a place, you know, that's just been right there and for whatever reason, can't get over the hump. You got to get over the hump. This is the year to do it. Andy, I got one more form real quick. Go for it. And it's just something that occurred to me.

So I don't know if you know this about me, Joey, but before I got into this national position, I was on the Ohio State beat. And you guys were recruiting a gentleman named Calvin Simpson Hunt a few years ago. And you were one of the first programs to identify that kid who was a freak athlete and a huge important target for you. And then a big blue blood came in in the last moment and swooped him away. And I was wondering, A, how frustrating is the aspect of that plan for you in terms

of being able to identify guys in your state that you have connections with, and then not being able to close it at the end because a logo came in and had something to offer. But two, do you think that the increase in the influx of funds into your program and the potential to win more will help you hold on to guys like that more often into the future? Like, is this a transcendent? You're not just both on the field, but how Texas Tech goes about their business and high school recruiting? Man, you, you, uh, we're, we're on the same wavelength as far as like, I think this is a huge one and a half year and I need one, I got a black one, man.

I, um, but I do, I think this is a huge pivotal year in Texas Tech football. Like there is not only what we wanna do on the field, but to continue doing that on the field at the recruiting level. We need to win at a really high level to show the improvement of the facilities, what we're doing revenue share wise, to be able to hold on to a guy like that. It's funny you're talking about that young man. If you look in the region over the last three years, we're either the first offer of these kids that are going four and five star before they've ever been rated.

What before any of the industry rivals 247 or on three have even watched them on film over their first power for offer. I bet You could probably in the region talking about Texas, Oklahoma Arkansas Maybe a little bit of Louisiana I bet there's probably 80 to 90 percent of those kids that don't even they haven't even looked at yet That were their first offer their first power for offer yet that were their first offer, their first Power 4 offer.

Now though, I mean, if you do have the proof of concept, if you win this year, you've shown that from an NIL rev share standpoint that you're going to be competitive there. How does that change the conversations with those guys in the class of 26 and 27 and 28? Well, you know what we have to do we did it at the with the transfers, you know, the guys that we were battling for You know Quinton Jordan or the guys we were battling for Lee Hunter the guys that we were battling for Howard Samson and and Romero height they're all the same guys that Ari just talked about it,

that we're losing to some of these guys at the high school level. I think with putting that all together and putting a great year together, now we're not gonna lose those battles. Or a lot of times we're in the mix right at the end. And like you said, maybe some come somebody comes in and takes that that top guy. I think you put all this together 26, 27, 28. You've got a chance to really hit some home runs whenever it comes to the high school recruiting. The one thing, though, I always believe and I'll continue is we're not going out there.

And if you see we're usually the first offer or one of the first offers, we're not going out there and chasing guys that are stars. Those stars usually come after we've offered the kid and some of these other guys are offered. We don't really look, I never look at like who's offered a kid and that's what makes me offer the kid. We have a model that we wanna recruit recruit to we're gonna continue doing that. It just so happens that We're usually ahead of the curve whenever it comes to getting in and offering these guys first

And you have a even a typical model Andy I mean, I don't know, you know if you want to tell them because podcast listeners don't know but like you have like certain Physical tests that the kid has to like certain heights, certain speeds, certain jump, right? That a kid has to pass before you even consider it just from an athletic standpoint. Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah, we're, we're, we're recruiting. We want guys that have NFL traits. We want guys, you know, we had a talk this

morning about an offensive tackle that we really like, you know, and, and, uh, we want to get a couple of tackles to three tackles in this 2026 class. And that's what we talked about. I mean, the first thing I said, I was like, okay, we've got his measurables. Here's his arm link that tells us that he could play tackle when he's not a tackle guard type guy, you know, um, we want to go after this kid as a tackle. And so it is, man, we, we want verified measurables. We want guys that play multiple sports.

We love track guys, whether it's a shot disc. We've got a kid coming in from South Dakota that should win the state track meeting shot again, he threw 60 plus feet last year as a junior. And so we're looking for those traits. I know a lot of people are, but those traits just for us mean just as much as the film does. Well, that's what I remember talking to Nick Saban about that. And I said, well, what, you know, what happens with if a guy

isn't quite tall enough, he's like, listen, I'm not stupid. I can see if they can play football too, but this helps a lot. It's to narrow everything down. Yeah. And you know, there's times that my son, now he's on staff. I remember the first year I won't bring up the kid. He's not with us anymore, but he was like, Dad, you went outside of your rules, you know, and made an exception. And I'll never forget my first time sitting in a meeting with Phil Snow. He was a defense coordinator at Baylor with us.

And I said something about a kid and he said, Joey, that kid's probably an exception. But if you recruit that way, you're gonna have a lot of exceptions on your roster, and those exceptions get you fired. I spent the weekend with Wes Welker, and I'm telling you, there's only one Wes Welker You know and if you start saying hey, this is the next Wes Welker There's still a lot of people looking for the next Wes Welker. There's only one of them

I was gonna ask you earlier on the show about this two-story player lounge What's the snack situation in there? Oh, man Well, it starts with a snack. My snack situation outside my office is better. We're powered by hot Cheetos and honey buns. And our head dietitian, That's hiring?

Yeah. That's, you're all about that, aren't you? I mean, I blacked out. What'd you just say? Yeah, the guys love it, man. You know, and I can hear the rappers wrestling and as soon as I hear somebody out. What'd you just say? Guys love it, man. You know, and I can hear, I can hear the, the rappers rustling. And as soon as I hear somebody out there, I jump up and say who my old office, I could see who was out there.

This, this I can hear it and get them in there. We could do the podcast there in the second story. We've got a recording studio, um, on the second floor in the players lounge where all the gaming is and on the first floor we have pool and pop a shot and you know ping-pong and all that stuff but the second story has the all the gaming and has the recording studio. Sounded like an invitation Andy. I think you did. We've got to get ourselves to love it. Yeah. Yes. Hey, I can beat Bob's steak at Shop House. I love Bob's. It's absolutely incredible. But come out here. We'll take you to Las Brises. It'd be the best steak you've ever had. I'm going to go to Bob's today

for lunch. Happy hour if it's open with this hat on and I'm going to get a big belt buckle. You got to earn a big belt buckle in Texas. You can't just get anything. So you were all over Texas as a high school coach and spent most of your career as a high school coach. And I was talking to somebody about this the other day. How much does having been a high school coach and dealing with all of those situations, whether it's the players, their parents, prepare

you for dealing with the the NIL era in college because you mentioned Gus Malzahn earlier. Gus told me once when he was a high school coach in Arkansas, like he lost a starting offensive lineman to the rodeo. Like coach, I got to devote myself to the rodeo on out. Like how many of those situations did you face as a high school coach that got you ready for this? Yeah, you know, in this world that we're living in right now,

it kind of takes me back to high school where, you know, I was talking to the seventh grade parents a lot more and while we were snapping in the shotgun in seventh grade, you know, and you're dealing with a lot more and, and why we were snapping in the shotgun in seventh grade, you know, and, and you're dealing with a lot more of, uh, whether it be parents, uncles, and aunts and, and agents, uh, but it does, it's, it's kind of, you're back in that world that, that, uh, I lived in, um, you know, whenever I was there and Crowley and, and Cedar Hill, so it, it prepared me a lot, prepared me a lot. I do think, I always think that at the high

school, in my interview, I told Kirby, I asked him, I said, well, how many athletes are you in charge of at Texas Tech? And he gave me the number and I said, Kirby, in Cedar Hill, Texas, I had more football players from seventh grade to 12th grade than what you do, total athletes in your program. So I'm used to dealing with a volume that you have to deal with and what I have to deal with. And I think that really prepared me for this job. I wanted to ask you, Joey, about James Blanchard. You know, as the world of personnel people expand and the GM thing is happening now and all these certain things. I think that as you know quite well that James is one of the most respected people in that path. What's he meant to your program and how important is it to have somebody who views talent accumulation,

but just the way that they analyze these kids and see whether they're the types of kids that will develop and have the measurables that you're looking for. Like, what does he meant to your program and just upping the just baseline athletic ability of the roster? Man, I told him the other day, he said something, he said, coach man,

thank you so much for letting me do my job. And I said, man, I trust you in my life. Like I do, he and I see so many times eye to eye. Now we've got into it some too. And I think that's one of the deals whenever your family, you're gonna fight a little bit and we fall over a couple of things whenever it comes to players. But us seeing eye to eye and me trusting him and the thing that makes James so special that's a little bit different.

There's probably only right now there's probably only four or five guys that can do what he does is he wears so many hats. Like he can evaluate talent at such a high level. He can recruit at such a high level. But on the other side, he understands roster management. He has such great connections with agents and different people that are gonna be dealing with these players.

And so you got a lot of guys that like you might over here be an evaluator and they can't manage roster. And there's only probably right now, I would say four to five guys more coming into the industry. It's, it's, uh, you know, I think we've been ahead of the curve. We've been more like the NFL since we got here. That was our plan. Uh, James and I talked about it a lot. It'd tell you, uh, my wife and James Blanchard were the ones that are on the plane with me flying out here for my press conference. Those, Debbie and James, those were the two guys.

We got great picture of he and I walking off the plane together and it was huge to keep him. We'll keep battling that and people will keep coming after him. I think us winning at a high level too also gets him to understand what he's done here and what we can do here. Well, and you mentioned keeping him. Notre Dame came after him. How do you handle that conversation? How do you make sure he knows he's valued and make sure he stays with you?

Well, it didn't help. He's a really good dad. And his oldest daughter, she's in fourth or fifth grade, I believe, she cried all day. So I was a big fan that, you know, she didn't want to leave Lubbock, Texas. You know, he and I talked about that a lot. You know, I understood, I totally understood.

We had great conversations about this. The two things that I said to him, I think it's really important the world we live in, you have an opportunity to be a great dad. We have a very open policy here, parents, I mean, the wives and the kids are welcome. We'll have a bunch today after practice, and so I want him to understand that his family know, his family comes first and then the other part is I'm going to allow him to do

his job at the highest level. A lot of people could talk about it, but if you don't believe in it, you're going to keep stepping on his toes. And I think he realizes what he has here and you're taking a chance walking away from what you've helped create. And then the last thing I told him, I said, look, if you're taking a chance, walking away from what you've helped create. And then the last thing I told him, I said, look, if you're going to leave, leave in a year, man, don't walk away from a roster that you really helped create. And we have such a good roster. Don't walk away now. Um, you know, don't have any regrets whenever you

turn around and you're like, man, I wish I would have stayed that one more year because it was so special So we close our interviews with the same question coach so and I Apologize I didn't prep you for this before we started, but I sometimes I like it off the rip a little better What are your rules for life or if it's one rule it could be multiple rules But what are Joey Maguire's rules for life or if it's one rule, it could be multiple rules. But what are Joey Maguire's rules for life? And I always interrupt Andy before you answer, just to give you an example,

because some coaches just do the tendency of like, you know, football stuff. One of our guests said, never mess with somebody or pick a fight with somebody with a big belt buckle. Like it can be anything. Like, so if there's like for me, never order or eat at a restaurant

that specializes in multiple types of cuisine. That's my rule. Like, so like it could be anything. Yeah, I love it. Well, this is number one. If they have biscuits and gravy on the menu, I'm ordering it. I don't care what time of day it is.

If a restaurant has biscuits and gravy on the menu, I'm gonna order biscuits and gravy. And then on the football side, man, I really believe, and we talk about it all the time, like people miss the mark, man. When my feet hit the floor, I have a choice. You know, I might take a deep breath

before my feet hit the floor, cause I might be tired. But man, when my feet hit the floor, I have a choice to have a great day. I'm going to have some bad moments in that day, but I'm not going to have a bad day. And so I really think that's a choice and I want my guys to see the same guy every day. So, you know, there's a couple of different rules I live by. I try to wear flip flops every day during the summer. Uh, if I can, um, we talked about the basket, about the biscuits and gravy.

But the other part is, man, I'm going to be fired up. These dudes are going to get the same guy every single day. Every single day, they're going to get the same guy and they deserve that. And so those are just some of the things I live by. I think we're going to get biscuits and gravy now. Yeah, that's a freaking rule. That came out of your mouth. I knew you wanted any of them. I can't believe it. I had it that day. That's tremendous. I'm not going to break a rule.

I can't believe it. first. That's I had dinner the other day. biscuits and gravy man. This there's never a bad time for biscuits and gravy. I gotta tell you, you gotta you gotta help me out with this Andy because like I don't think I've

ever ordered that ever. Oh my god. See you come out here. I've got a place to go cast iron skillet man. they, it's a little hole in the wall. I'll take you there for breakfast, then we'll go to Las Prices for dinner. Oh my God. I got biscuits and gravy spots in every part of the country. I don't have one in Lubbock, but I think it's high time I learned. I'll come out there just to hang out as friends.

I'm not even going to do my job out there. I'll just come for a long weekend. That was tremendous, Joey. Really appreciate that was, that was tremendous, Joey. Really appreciate you being here. Thank you, Joey. You bet, man. Enjoy it. It still just baffles me

that you've never ordered biscuits and gravy. We're going to fix that. Yeah, I mean, like, first of all, like 80% of my life was spent in restaurants that don't offer that. So like that I get kind of get a pass biscuits and gravy in Scottsdale. I'm not saying that you have no excuse.

I don't know if that's a new thing. It's not new where I'm from. I know, but I'm saying like. It's cool to serve Southern cuisine in other areas of the country now. Yeah, cuz it's better food than their food. What did I say? I didn't like it. I'm just saying I'm unfamiliar with the game.

I have really been better about the biscuit world with you. I tried the biscuits everywhere we go when I go with you. So you should always try the biscuits. Now bad biscuits are terrible. And that's, we do have to accept that, but that's okay. That's a good ranking foods with incredibly high ceilings and very low floors. Yes, yes. High risk, high reward. The biscuits on that list, you know, that's a chicken parm, I think is on that list.

Yeah, yeah. Barbecues on that list, pulled porks on that list. I've had great pulled pork and I've gotten food poisoning from it, so and like the inverse of that would be like foods with very high ceilings and very high floors, which would be like pizza and fried chicken. Correct, correct, exactly, exactly.

So do we think that Texas Tech is a high ceiling high floor? team this year I Think that they're a high ceiling team, and I think that they're also a low floor team. Oh interesting I Don't think they're gonna stink, but I think that their floor with the expectations I Think a season that would have been otherwise passable in the past becomes a pretty Right seven and five in the regular season would actually be one of the better Texas Tech seasons of the past 15 years but would not be acceptable in this case

Yeah I mean I look at the schedule Andy and I don't know with the way that that roster is constructed right now. If I look at any game and go, they cannot win. That that is Arkansas Pine Bluff. That first logo. Didn't we have that the other day? Yeah, because the Golden Lions. But I won. So I got it right because I just wrote you a PB on there. I didn't know what the school was. Their best player is at Oklahoma this year, Javonnie Gibson, wide receiver. So I think I think Texas Tech's got that one in the bag. So but it's it's not it's certainly not a

challenging out of conference schedule. UAPB Kent State, Oregon State. Don't lose any though like they lost to Washington State last year. They got John matured last year. And you know that Utah is going to be a good team this year because it's like that every other like they're never down for multiple years. They have some bad injury and you're and you're getting Utah early. So even if they had a situation like they had the past couple years with quarterback injuries and like I don't want to get Utah that early. I don't like Utah get you taught that early. Like you talking my first conference game,

not a fan. Hopefully the game is at noon and not at 7 but they. They have they have a chance, but what I think is interesting more so even than just like breaking down the schedule right now is like whether or not you think that Texas Tex program philosophy can have it rise out of the ashes like a Phoenix in a

conference that lost its two big brands, but Texas and Oklahoma left. Like, is Texas Tech one of the top three or four teams in the Big 12 as it stands now that has a chance to be something big annually? to be something big annually? Yeah, and the ones I would say that, well, here's the thing. Kansas State can always be consistently good. We've seen that over the years, but TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech, they've got the money. I think Utah has proven that it can stand the test of time, but like TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech feel like the ones Utah has proven that it can stand the test of time, but.

Like TCU Baylor Texas Tech feel like the ones that if they if they really wanted to. They could have in the era of NIL and paying players. They could have a very different roster than everybody else. Yeah, like a Fonty from land man really existed and was a TCU guy that maybe he might want to do that right? But Texas Tech actually has a couple of they have two Montes so and they played football there. You know the.

Thing for me, if you put the big 12 logos up so I don't forget me like. Like is UCF one being in Orlando and in Florida from a recruit? Because like I feel like I look at Texas tech and I see money, I see new facility. UCF does not have that level of donor base. It's a young school.

The, they're generations behind all these other, these old line schools. So I look like I'm in like, I'm like in like a scene from True Detective right now. I don't know if this counts as a technical difficulty, but the sun is creeping in through this window and hitting the lens. So I'm gonna go put a book up here to block it.

Does that count? Like, does that count? Yes, it did count. Because you know where the sun is every, I realized the time changed last Sunday, but you've done three shows already. The time did change. That's like, that's not Sunday, but you've done three shows already. The time did change. That's like that's that's not on me. You've done three shows already.

You knew. I love it. We cannot do we can't go through one show. Look how good this looks now. I mean, the Vaseline lens. Actually, this is a great, great way to segue to our next segment. With the Vaseline lens to the very low resolution leak shot of the EA Sports. Book down. Maybe very low resolution leak shot of the EA Sports College Football 26 cover shoot. Now, I've seen people on the internet say, oh, that's the cover. No dummies, that's not the cover.

They're going to Photoshop it a little bit. It's going to come out in higher resolution than that, but are those the people who might be on the cover? Well, that's different. It's two different things. Do you think that's going to be the picture?

No, well, not that picture. No, I'm saying, do you think that the that's something somebody snapped with an iPhone and all those people were standing there? OK, so you don't even think that's going to be the picture. Even if it's it might be the picture, but the high resolution version of

it with a lot more going on a lot. A lot of extra color is going to look like it's pixelated. You're fixating on the wrong thing. Yes, the picture looks like crap. Is it going to be those people? Yes. Is it going to be that picture of those people but nicer looking? I don't that's not a very good picture. I don't think you're going to go with that. You should fixate on the quality of the picture is irrelevant. Of course, they're

not going to put a pixelated iPhone video picture on but more importantly image. So for the podcast listeners, we can explain this leaked image. If you haven't seen already, it's got a bunch of people in it. Jeremiah Smith, Ryan Williams, Kirby smart, James Franklin, DJ lagway, uh, Harry dog, the Georgia mascot. Who else we got in there? There's so many Pete Naco's had a story where he lists them all. Yeah. Um, Jeremiah loves Notre Dame. Jeremiah loves in it.

Yeah, there's a lot of people in it and you have some mascots in there. It looks like Brent Venables, the son is in there. It does look like Tyler Venables, which I don't I might have gone Peter Woods if we're going Clemson defenders here. Yeah, so like the question to me is. the woods if we're going Clemson defenders here. Yeah.

So like the the question to me is like I don't know before we get into this. Oh god. It's happening again. Look, I'm going to keep it because it's good for the. Oh, it fits the segment perfectly. The question that I have this isn't the real

show by the way. It's just a leak. Did you grow up in the era? I think you did, but like you played this game growing up, right? I was an adult. Okay, but did you ever have the nights where you went to EB games at 1150 the night before the game came out, stood in line and got the hard copy and then went home and played all night? Like, did you live through that era of it? No, I had a job at that point, so I couldn't do that. So that was my childhood. And so I think that if you lived those days,

you have a different connection to who is on the cover than you do. Because last night, you're like, I don't care who's on the cover. I'm going to play the game. Well, no, what I thought was funny is, you're the one acting like a grandpa here. Usually I'm the, the, the old onk in this situation,

but you're the one acting like a grandpa, like the cover matters. It's Reggie Bush was an iconic. I don't care. I'm not going to buy a physical disc. I'm not going to, I'm not going to GameStop to be like, can I get the CD ROM of this? Like, no, it's going to show up on my PS5. I'm going to hit start and off we go.

I really don't care who's on the cover. But it's not just who's on the cover. It's the menu too. It's not, you know what I mean? Like it's like- Right, and they have multiple menu screens and multiple load screens and they'll figure it out. I know it doesn't matter.

They could put a picture of my back hair on there and I would still play the game. It doesn't matter. Like I'm just saying from a. You made it worse. So we actually, by the way, and we can go on an Ari rant after this. But we did quote blinds for upstairs and let me tell you, that's another thing of like, holy'm not going to buy it. But we did quote blinds for upstairs and let me tell you, that's another thing of like,

holy crap, how expensive is that? Like I had no idea like how expensive putting blinds up in but like Scott Aldrich says put the pixelated picture on the cover. He's not going to buy it because that Ari's not no, I am saying like you don't

think it's a special thing like that. I don't care. I don't know. Like I disagree. Vance in the chat says physical media is always great. Vance is an unc. Physical media is cool. And also too like the cover of the game is something that helps promote it. So when people get excited, it's the best selling game of all time.

They don't need promotion. Ari, we are here right now. Like this pixelated photo getting leaked, which they probably leaked themselves. We are providing them free promotion right now. And you know why we're doing that? Because we know that if we talk about this game, our audience is going to eat it up. And I will agree. Half of our audience is sitting there

wholeheartedly agreeing with you going, listen, I think I just think it should be Jeremiah Smith. Don't worry about anybody else. He's the face of college football this year. Go with him. And then half of them were like with me, like it'll it'll show up on my console in July, and I could care less who's on the cover. Put General Booty on the cover. My PS4 doesn't even have a CD-ROM in it. I can't even buy the disc if I want to. But the point that I'm making is that there is something special and nostalgic about it to

the people who grew up in that era. So like I don't know if that's the reason why you don't care or like if the if the art is ugly there's just something off about it. Like I don't think I don't I just don't think it's a good picture. It's a video game why do I care about a still photo? I think that it's a badge of honor. Dude here's you want to hear a hot take if we want to have a sound clip, let me tell you something. You know what I don't care about? And I've never cared about it. The Heisman Trophy winner.

Okay? What is that? What was that? It's the Heisman pose. What's wrong with you? Okay, it looked like something completely different. Maybe it's just... You know... What is wrong with you? I just... like we talk about it incessantly non-stop.

People are insanely obsessed with it. We write stories about it. We talk about it eight times a year. We write off-season Heisman firmware. And it's like, when you think about that, the reason why people are so interested in that one award is because it is a it's a signifier of who the face of the sport who the best player of the sport is right it's a thing that that programs put as a feather in their cap and it's an important bragging right it's something that we track year round you're with me on this so far, right? I am. To a certain extent, to people my age, and we're not even that different in age gap, but the people who

grew, I think that that's a seven or eight year gap that was like different and crucial in the video game world, that who was on the cover of the game kind of had similar weight to it. Like you would go into football facilities and you would see blown up pictures of the game kind of had similar weight to it. Like you would go into football facilities and you would see blown up pictures of the game in the facilities. And like to me, it's like if you want to spend eight hours a month during the entire calendar year discussing who's going to win the Heisman that I don't think that you can just be like, I don't care who's on the cover of the game when it's kind of

the same thing. actually counterpoint. I can. It's the same thing. It's just a different. Okay. Is who's on the cover going to stop you if it's a poor cover? Will it stop you from buying the game? If my back hair won the Heisman Trophy, would you stop watching the game? I don't the game.

Me watching the game has nothing to do with the Heisman Trophy. Will you buy the game if it has what you deem to be a bad cover? Answer the question. Of course, then it doesn't matter to you. But I don't care about the Heisman either. Then don't buy the Heisman. Did you buy the Heisman this year? I would buy OJ's Heisman if it was for sale.

That'd be for sale. Wasn't it? So you don't actually care either somewhere by the way, you will buy the game no matter what. Ari Listen, they could put people are interested in it. And like, yeah, they could put a picture of somebody driving a needle through someone's eyeball on the cover. And you'd buy the game. So it doesn't matter. You have given me crap about this for the show in the past,

and I'm gonna give you crap about it. Your stupid reason for voting for Heisman, the story of the season? No, no, no, no, no, no. Why you left Jayden Daniels off your ballot? Yeah, no. But you say, if everybody cares about something, even if you don't, don't come onto the show and say you don't care about it. Everybody cares about it. It's a big deal to people. Everybody cares about the game.

Not everybody cares about the cover, difference. Yeah, I mean, it would be interesting. Maybe River can put a poll up. But to me, my thing with it is that I thought last year's cover was beautiful. River, you have the cover, put it up. They did a really good job. I know that there were some people

who were a little upset about who was on it. But actually, when it turns out, the person who's in the centerpiece of it was the least impactful player of the three. I think the way they did it was cool because it was telling you return. They're walking through the tunnel back into that world. Like I loved the imagery of it. And we have the it is we have the players. It's them saying we have the players. Lily T pointing out the reason the leak photo is important is because it shows the coaches will be in this game and that's absolutely true. Because Kirby smarts in

the photo James Franklin in the photo. I believe Lane Kiffin is in it, but Lane Kiffin's in the game if nothing else and Lane Kiffin said it last year. I I interviewed Lane Kiffin last year and he said he would do the game for free like he would do it for no money, which I'm sure Jimmy Sexton was like no, no, no, he he wants the money for free. Like he would do it for no money, which I'm sure Jimmy Sexton was like, no, no, no. He, he wants the money. Yeah, you'll probably do it for money.

Yeah. But Lane and correctly, and I think a lot of coaches felt this way, felt like it is a major recruiting advantage to be in the game. Like it is very helpful. And like the commentary and stuff. And like, I understand too,

like in the point that you actually made last night was a good one. You said the picture may not be great, but it's an illustration that the game has at all, which is kind of a little bit. What is EA Sports slogan? It's in the game. It's in the game.

So this is telling you this photo, and I don't think this is the photo, but for those who are listening to podcast form, there's a lot of people in this photo. Like it's so pixelated, we can't actually identify all of them. It looks like the photo that people take at a graduation pictures ceremony before people are posing.

Like they're just on bleachers and like they haven't been organized yet. And then the picture before the picture. So assuming that they were all there wearing that stuff, that there are nine million pictures that they're going to get to choose from and they'll land on the one that looks the best. But your point stands of like the illustration that you have coaches in the game, you've got the biggest stars in the game, you even have players that aren't big stars in the picture. You have fans in the picture, you have flags in the picture. You have the yard markers. You have everything. And I think that that made sense. But for me personally, like I thought it was the best when every single year they chose a cover athlete, much like they do with Madden.

So who is it this year? Ari? Who's your athlete? You have three options for who's on the cover this year, because in the past, it used to just be the best player who's leaving school. Now it's a little bit harder because it's all the players who are still in school. And like to me, if I were the CEO of EA, there's only one choice of who I would put on there, both for marketing standpoint and look standpoint, that would be Arch Manning. Like I think that he would be the perfect cover boy for this. So I would choose Jeremiah Smith. But Jeremiah Smith and Ryan Williams are the other two that you could make a case for. What about DJ Lagway?

DJ Lagway also, but like, see, the thing that we're doing right now is part of the charm of it. Like that's what I'm trying to get through to you. That's like, who do you think should be on it? Why should they be on it? Like that is like, it's not as important as the Heisman. Like that's what I'm trying to get through to you. It's like, who do you think should be on it? Why should they be on it? Like that is like, it's not as important as the Heisman. I just use that as an example,

because it's like kind of the same thing to me, of like who is the person who deserves to be represented on the biggest piece of pop culture in the game? And like that to me is important. Like is that, am I making good points here? Or do you think I'm a psycho? No, I understand the argument. And look, cause I think it I think you'd be crazy to put

arch-manning on the cover. I understand why you would do it from a marketing standpoint. If you're going to choose the current college football player who best represents the sport right now, it is Jeremiah Smith. And if you put Jeremiah Smith on the cover with him doing a one-handed catch over the logo, that would look amazing.

I just mean like Joe with an interesting question in the chat. Does having more than one person on the cover avoid the curse controversy? Listen, did the curse controversy happen with college players too or no, it was maddening. I think that was maddening but I'll say as somebody who wrote for Sports Illustrated for a long time who had at least one cover that was a massive curse. Like what was it? I had a cover story about Virginia basketball before they lost to a 16 seed in the NCAA tournament. Yeah, at least you didn't write how deep it went. That's good. But like the.

He rigged a raffle Ari. Listen, in this business, if what you wrote makes sense the day you wrote it, that's all I care about. Yeah, but the curse thing, like maybe I'm extra sensitive to it because I wrote for Sports Illustrated, like the curse thing makes sense to me. But yeah, there wasn't really a college football curse because it, like you said before, it was the outgoing best player or the most interesting player outgoing. Like when Denard Robinson was on the cover, Denard Robinson was changing positions in the NFL.

Like he wasn't gonna be the most exciting player in the NFL. Think about that. Like we didn't know how important that game cover was going to be at the time, but that was the only game cover that we had for 10 years. You want to think that like, Michigan people weren't proud of that, that he earned that?

To me, it's important. So we don't have to quibble about it, but we both agree that it's the worst picture ever. We agree that they can't possibly go with that picture. They're not going with that picture. I am firmly, because like you think about the last cover, there's so much more going on. My guess is they're Photoshopping what looks like something different around that.

And you're gonna see, it's not gonna look like an empty Rose bowl behind them, which is what it is. But I mean, do I think they probably leak this themselves? Yeah, yeah. Because here we are in minute 10 talking about this. And I'm excited, like, like, okay, now that we know Lane kiffin's in the game. Is there a lane kiffin animation? Like you let's say you throw a touchdown pass with Ole Miss.

When they go to the replay of your touchdown pass, will they show Lane Kiffin on the sideline throwing his play sheet up in the air before you throw the ball? Like, can they make that? If they can pull that off and look, we know that some of the guys at EA, like they're awesome. If they can pull that off. So that's the thing about EA who make the game is that they're college football nerds who

listen to our shows. Yeah, like that's the thing. It's like if you I feel like being a college football fan to a certain extent is almost like being in a fraternity of like, we are the people who understand this sport. Like have you ever tried to explain college? I'm sure your wife knows more about it than mine, but have you ever tried to explain it to her? Like I've tried to tell you when the Connor Stallions documentary came out and I watched it the morning it came out so that I could talk about it on the show.

She's getting ready for work, watching it with me and asking me all these questions about why is this a big deal? What is this? What is this? And I realized it is like explaining an entirely foreign culture to someone from another country. Do you want to hear something?

Story time, real quick. Do you watch The Voice? Not anymore. I watched it before. There's a person on The Voice. My wife loves The Voice and always watched it, but there's a person on The Voice that I know this year. So I've become particularly interested in watching it because his name is Hayden Grove. Oh, contestant. Okay, not one of the celebrity. No, no, he's a contestant on the show and his name is Hayden Grove and he is a sports, he works at Cleveland.com and he's a sports producer and reporter there, but he also sings like Frank Sinatra covers and Michael Blu-Ble covers like nightclubs

on the weekend and has an amazing voice. I even have a video on my phone of him singing to Bill Landis, one day I'll show it to you, but he's on the weekend and has an amazing voice. I even have a video on my phone of him singing to Bill Landis. One day I'll show it to you. But he's on the show. And he got moved into the first round. He's from Cleveland, he works at cleveland.com. And he he got picked to be one of the contestants on the show. His team is he on? I think he's on the country singer's team. Michael Buble is a judge, and I thought he should have picked him, but they kind of,

he goes to all of his concerts and stuff and they like, he's seen him on TikTok, so he didn't pick him because they have a relationship, I think. But the reason why I bring this up is because I don't understand the rules of the voice. We're watching it and Britt watches it all the time. And I'm like, so what happens now that these guy, these judges have teams? And she goes, well, what they do is that they compete against each other. And then the judges pick the best player on the team and then the final four make it. And then when the final four go, America votes to see who wins the competition. And I said, okay, so you just described the

college football playoff. And she was like, oh, okay. I'm like, yeah, each coach or each coach up there on the TV is a conference. And the best one from that conference will most likely get an opportunity to compete against the other conferences later on in the big stage. And I think that got through to her. But in terms of like the pop culture part of it, right? Like that's the thing, college football is football.

College football is games. But college football is when you're writing a story about how a Texas assistant coach had a pet. Was it rodent? What was it? A monkey that monkey somebody like no, no, no, no, no. His his ex stripper fiance. Yeah, right. What I had. Yes. But I'm on key. Did you write about that?

We wrote about that. What happened? Who didn't write about that? I remember the day I you write about that? We wrote about that. Who didn't write about that? I remember the day I was writing about that and Britt came home and she said, what did you work on today? And I explained it to her and she was like, what the hell are you talking about? Because people think when you're a sports writer that you write about football and like you do sometimes, but a lot of times you don't and like to me I think that of all the pop culture things that happen in college football this game is the

biggest equivalent of that right there's no other thing in pop culture that that rings true to more people more general fans than this game the NFL has commercials the NFL has fantasy football there's a lot of things going on in the NFL but But for college, for as quirky and weird as it is, either you get it or you don't. And this is the closest thing that bridges the people who don't get it and the people who get it together, because casual fans play the game and diehards play the game. And I think the game does a pretty good job of encapsulating

what the spirit of the game. I think what Ari is saying is we're talking directly to Ben Howe Miller now who is our guy who runs a sports college football. Yes, Florida State grad Lake Howell High School grad in the Orlando area. Great dude. I didn't we apparently played against each other in high school football. He was on the offensive line at Lake Hal. He was that was on the offensive line at Lake Mary, but he is just incredible and a huge fan of the game like just like everybody listening to the show. Everybody watching this show.

He's right there with you guys. And so I think this is me and Ari asking you been Ben. It's probably too late for college football 26. For college football 27, can we have Pole Assassin and the Monkey in the game? Well, last year, Pole Assassin. My God, what a world. He invited me to EA Sports a few months before the game came out last year.

Because the game will be hyped this year, but it's not going to be anything like it was last year because it was a 10. It was a 10 year layoff. And people were just excited of like, what was it going to be like? You know, the thing with EA sports is that it's really hard to reinvent the game every year. And it's kind of, you know, very similar to the year before a lot of times they make changes. But like, you know what you're getting now.

And the amount of pride, effort, understanding, knowledge, all of the things that you need about college football in order to make the game he possesses. And he listens to our show. And is like the nicest guy in the world. He let me play it for a little bit when I don't think he was supposed to. Like he's the guy. So like I trust him to get it right. I don't know what his creative, you know, how much weight he throws around creatively in terms of the cover and stuff. But even then I was like giving him crap because if you play online, which I do by the way, last night Britt had to wake up at 4 a.m. this morning to fly to LA. Oh so she went a bit early so you had extra time on the sticks. She went to bed at like 9 or 8 30 last night, so I went out into the loft area and I'm like,

I'm going to play NCAA until I lose and I will go to bed when I lose. One o'clock came around and I was on a nine game winning streak and I had to hang it up. I'm not going to say that I'm great at the game, but I'm pretty great at the game. I'm pretty good at it. Like I found a few plays that people can't stop and I just like kill them. Oh my goodness. What are you talking about?

Yeah, so we played the game, but like I remember when the game first came out, they changed the online mechanism from five quarters to three minute quarters. And I was like, what the hell are you doing? And he's like, yeah, it'll make the games faster. Trust me. It's going to work out.

And I was like giving him crap over text. I'm like, you, you should have like given us the option. What are we doing here? And like, now that I'm into it, it's like, yeah, dude, you were right. This is awesome. So like you trust him. He doesn't smoke at 10 year olds so you can smoke more 10 year olds. There are very few children.

Three minute quarters. I don't know. I don't know if it's like, there's a lot. I think there's a lot more children scary enough like playing like Call of Duty and violent games. I haven't encountered very many children, but I am a menace on the headset. I don't say anything that will get me fired, but I certainly say things that will get you fired up. And that is a great transition to our final segment. We come here today Ari to celebrate

one of the greatest quotes in sports history. Toby Lawal, Virginia Tech basketball player, transfer from VCU, had a really good season this year. Virginia Tech season ended with a loss to Cal in the ACC tournament on Tuesday night. And so he got asked by, I think Sam Mostow is the name of the reporter. He's a student reporter from Virginia Tech. And I believe this is in the locker room

because I think if this had been on camera, this would have been everywhere, all over the world. So I believe this was in the locker room, because I think if this had been on camera, this would have been everywhere, all over the world. So I believe this was in the locker room after the game. I watched the entire press conference that was on video, and Toby Lawal didn't say this in the press conference. But Sam posted a transcript of the interview, I think, again, like I said, from the locker room. And so the question was asked,

what are you proud of when reflecting on yourself and reflecting on your team? And Toby Law said, my team, I'm proud of how far we came. What do they have us in the preseason, maybe 14th or 15th? They thought we were going to be ass. I mean, we were still ass. But you know, we weren't that bad. You know what I'm saying? We beat expectations. Ari, we always say we want people to be honest. This is the most honest quote in the history of sports. Do you know what one

of the greatest quotes in the history of sports and you know what? After subpar shows because we do a show every day, they're not always going to be award winners. You know what I'm gonna say to you? Ari. They thought we were going to be ass. And you know what? We were still ass. But it wasn't a bad show, Andy. In order reminds me of that tweet that went viral a few years ago that says

the haters said I couldn't do it. I couldn't honestly great call by the haters. That is exactly what I thought of too. It is perfect, but please I just I hope Toby Lawal does not get too much crap for this. He's being celebrated on the Internet. I will tell you that right now. He's being celebrated all over the Internet, but. Because you need more quotes like this.

Hear how he probably said it in the tone he said it and you know what he means. The way you read it out loud it sounds funnier than I'm assuming that he meant for the sound. But like it is true. It's like yeah, you know, they said we were gonna be ass. I mean we were ass but not not top ass, you know like that. That's what I meant. It is, it is tremendous. And I just, I just want to make sure Toby little all understands we got you. We understand and

you're going into pantheon of all time great sports. It's like this is up there with the offense sucked the defense sucked special teams sucked. We didn't do diddly-poo. Jim Morris, senior, who also known for his playoffs quote. I, I just wish maybe in another life, I could be somebody they ask questions like that, too. I would I would light up. Can I think we should start a new company? I think we should start a new company called like,

you remember successories, they had the, there'd be the inspiring picture with the inspiring quote. And I feel like we need the reverse of that. Like the reverse successories, defeataries, or something like that. And like we, we get Toby Law in an IELT deal and he gets most of the money, but we get, we get a cut. How many people would buy this poster?

It's a wonderful graphic. They did a good job. It's funny. How many people would buy the poster of Toby Law saying they thought we're going to be asked? I mean, we were still asked, but you know, we weren't that bad. Like, is he coming back next year? Unclear. OK, I hope he does believe he is. He could make some money with this, I think.

But you could see a Virginia Tech t-shirt that says they thought we were going to be asked on. I don't know that Virginia Tech would license the logo to be used on said t-shirt, but. Hey, Toby Lawal does have another year of eligibility. He's a pretty good year. Thank you, yes. Yes, I think he had a really good year,

so he might go pro. But yeah, I think this is, there's some money in this. Like when we start our t-shirt business I think that should be an offshoot of it like playoffs question mark and we just throw some cash Jim or seniors way yeah the thing I feederies workshopping the name what did what should our reverse successories company be called yeah that's that's funny. If you're just somebody who wants to to to mangle in

your own misery then you can buy our product. The thing I'm kind of hoping happens as a result of this is that top ass becomes a thing because I think that that's a really funny term that no one ever uses. You try to make bets happen, aren't you? Yeah, yeah. I mean I think Landis said that once and I thought it was the funniest thing. that no one ever uses. Like being the best at that. You try to make best happen, aren't you? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think Landis said that once and I thought it was the funniest thing.

But yeah, thank you so much, Toby, for laying the groundwork for something so great. Well, and look, this could be a multi-billion dollar company someday. And Toby's gonna be the first recipient of an NLDL. Willie T says quotables. I think that's a little too generic. We're targeting a certain marketplace here.

Yeah. Yep. Defeaterease is the leader in the clubhouse. If you have better names, send them our way. More importantly, tomorrow, dear Andy, dear Ari episode, your questions answered. Let's make it a whole day. A mailbag whole day because your questions are awesome. Let you guide the show. You know where to find us at Ari Wasserman on social

media at Andy and score staples on social media. Andy staples on three at gmail.com Ari.wasseman on three.com. Send us those questions. College football questions EA sports college football questions. You name it. Send them our way. We will attempt to answer them. And if you have a name for a new company where we put the greatest sports quotes of all time, negative edition on posters and plaques.

Yeah. We'll take it. Any of you who are a good laser back hair removal person let me know too, thanks. I mean, I know some people. You do. Can your wife get my back hair removed?