Andy & Ari On3 - The 2024 Ultimate College Football Team Draft

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Thanks to Rhoback — the makers of the world’s most comfortable hoodies, polos and shorts — for sponsoring this episode. Use the code “ANDY” on Rhoback.com for a generous 20 percent off for all new customers through the end of this week. That’s 20 percent off all Performance hoodies, polos, and shorts with code “ANDY”.On3 national scout Cody Bellaire joins Andy for the 2024 Ultimate College Football Team draft.(0:00-2:21) Intro(2:22-14:50) Cody Bellaire Joins to Introduce the Draft(14:51-18:13) Round 1(18:14-21:32) Round 2(21:33-24:15) Round 3(24:16-28:28) Round 4(28:29-31:21) Round 5(31:22-34:45) Round 6(34:46-37:51) Round 7(37:52-41:09) Round 8(41:10-43:49) Round 9(43:50-48:07) Round 10(48:08-50:32) Round 11(50:33-53:00) Round 12(53:01-55:26) Round 13(55:27-57:43) Round 14(57:44-1:00:22) Round 15(1:00:23-1:02:15) Round 16(1:02:16-1:03:42) Round 17(1:03:43-1:06:03) Round 18(1:06:04-1:08:44) Round 19(1:08:45-1:10:38) Round 20(1:10:39-1:13:09) Round 21(1:13:10-1:16:59) Round 22 - Final Picks(1:17:00-1:21:58) Wrapping Up - Dear Andy tomorrow! [e-mail] and Cody each will declare their offensive and defensive schemes. Then they’ll draft the best possible teams to carry out those schemes on the field.Perhaps they’re looking for different quarterbacks, but everyone needs great offensive tackles, edge rushers, defensive backs and receivers. Who will get LSU offensive tackle Will Campbell? Who will get Ohio State’s Caleb Downs? Which general manager/coach will pick the best players for his chosen schemes?Feel free to heckle each pick in the chat.Want to watch the draft instead? Head on over to YouTube, and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/JCeEJI-kEMc

Welcome to a very special edition of Andy Staples on three. We are picking the ultimate college football teams for 2024. It is me. It is Cody Blair, our national scout here at on three. We are picking the best players who will be playing in college football in 2024 in a draft to determine who is the superior GM. Me, some idiot who's been writing stories and doing shows, or Cody, who has actually worked in college football personnel offices. I'd say I feel pretty good about my list. I feel good about my board. Here was the assignment.

You are creating a team from scratch using players that are going to be in college football in 2024. You have to decide what offense are you going to run, what defense are you going to run, and build around your own schemes. You could also decide what your university does, what kind of majors you have. That's fine. You know, Staples, A&M, we've got 12-ounce fluid dynamics. That's our most popular major. We're not the most academically rigorous school in the country. We pretty much take anybody with a pulse.

But what that means is we can order from the entire menu when we're recruiting football players. This time we're not recruiting, though. We are drafting. We are choosing the best players for our scheme who will be playing college football in 2024. And remember, like our friend Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl has pointed out multiple times, this is about to be the deepest season of college football talent because of a confluence of events. You have the COVID year. This is really the last of the COVID year, guys.

The oldest people will be COVID year guys in this situation. And then you also have NIL where people are saying, you know what? I may be a sixth round pick, a seventh round pick. I'm going to stay in college and be a starter and a big shot on campus for another year, going to make some money, and then I'll go to the NFL. So we've got a lot to choose from. And it's one of those things where you don't feel terribly bad if you miss on a pick here, because you're going to get somebody good. But I got a very specific strategy with mine. I will be heartbroken, crestfallen, you name it, if Cody takes some of these guys that I really want. Let us bring on Cody Belair,

the president of Cody Belair University and athletic director and head coach and GM. How are we doing? Man, Andy, I got to be honest with you. When you first pitched this idea to me, the juices started flowing again. You know what I mean? You got back in the driver's seat a little bit. You start looking at players. You start scheming things up. And I was like, oh my God, I am going to crush him when this happens. So I am fired up for today, Andy. Fired up.

So John in the chat has already suggested four Barry Smith, four Michigan players for us. And here's the thing. So he suggested Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant as DT1, DT2. He suggested Colston Loveland as the tight end, Will Johnson as CB1. These are all guys that are in the mix. Absolutely. I was going to say, these guys are definitely in the 2D.

So we might get to all four of them, at least half. I feel good about half, but we might touch all four. I feel very good because I will admit they're all on the board somewhere. So it really just depends on who you take and who's available, but they're all on the board. And that tells you, that should tell you something. We don't know what Michigan's quarterback situation is going to be. It looks like right now they're rolling with somebody who's on campus, so I'm thinking Alex Orji, but they are going to be so good defensively that it is going to be very tough to beat them no matter how many or few points they score.

No question. No question. Honestly, maybe that fits to Alex Orji's strength. That dude wants to run the rock. That defense is only going to give up, what, 10, 15 points a game? Yeah. Just go ahead and run the clock out, guys. Like, you got it. Easy. Easy money.

Yeah, and Michigan running the ball down your throat while playing tough defense, well, we've seen that works. There's proof of concept there. I've heard this song before. I don't know how this one goes. So, all right. So let's talk about the schemes because I think that's important.

You know, people, people look at this and a lot of times they do it and they just pick, okay, these are the best players. These are the guys that are going to go highest in the NFL draft next year. This is not an NFL draft exercise, though. A lot of the guys we're picking are going to be

first rounders in the NFL draft in coming years, but this is a college football exercise. We are trying to create the best college football team, which means who you pick, especially a quarterback is very dependent on your offense. So Cody, what offense are we running? Yeah, we're running what I like to call the smash mouth air raid offense. Right. So think about those offenses with Lincoln Riley right at Oklahoma. You know, this isn't your old school Mike Leach. Throw it all over the yard air raid. This is an offense that wants to run the football. You'll see a lot of counter runs in this offense, a healthy amount of both zone and power, but we can win vertically in the passing game

with some play action, some RPOs sprinkled in. You know, we'll do a little bit of pistol. We'll have some standard shotgun sets, but no matter how we line up on offense, we are going to paper cut you to death when we have the football. It's all about moving the chains consistently and hitting the occasional home run ball in explosive play.

Now, defensively, Andy, we've got a different ball game going. We are aggressive. We got what I call the Grim Reaper 335, baby. This is essentially the Tony White scheme that he was running right now as the defensive coordinator at Nebraska and what he was running at Syracuse before that, it's a very aggressive style of 3-3-5 compared to what John Hecox constantly kill, you like that Andy? Kill offensive drives by sacking the quarterback, create negative plays. The ability to scheme up these ultra-talented hybrid football players is essentially screaming for me to have the 3-3-5. With this scheme, it's in this absurdly loaded roster, right? We can do all sorts of things to suffocate offenses.

We have limitless blitz combinations. We have versatility. We can drop eight defenders in base to prevent the pass, or we can stack six defenders in the box and play cover zero. You can't double team us in the run game because our offensive line, or excuse me, because the offensive line has to manage our run fits and our gap discipline. It's caked into the scheme, Andy.

That's the beauty of it. You're running the triple option of defenses is what you're doing. Exactly. It's that week where none of your run fits work and you have to learn new run fits. Yeah, yeah. 100%. Yep. I got you.

We're having one-on-one matchups everywhere, man. And I'm going to wish you luck in scoring against it well so i will start with my defense and i went with a 425 that we're calling the best 11 because i'm basically looking at the talent here and this is a year where there's elite d-line talent elite secondary talent linebackers they're good but it's not as deep like i can get game-changing dudes all over the d-line and so you know and i always tell people if you want to run an even front defense a primary even front defense you better have a perfect defensive line i can do that i can have and and the is, especially with some of the better tackles,

the versatility is so great that, that if you want to drop somebody back and I will choose at least one edge rusher who I'm comfortable with in coverage and I can go odd front if I want to, because I I'll have the tackles that I'm comfortable playing at a five technique outside when I'm in an odd front. And so I'm good with that. So I like the versatility that that gives me. And I don't, you know, like, like you said, the three, three, five, you're practicing a lot more. You're thinking a lot more. You're causing the offensive line to think, I'm going to overwhelm you with my talent more than anything else. That's how I'm going to roll here. It's sort of like you talk to people who played Alabama defensively,

and they're like, well, they weren't that exotic. They didn't have terribly exotic blitzes. Yeah, because they had better players than you. It's not rocket science, guys. It's not. That's where I'm like, because they had better players than you. It's not rocket science, guys. It's not. That's where I'm going with that. And also, look, the way most offenses are, not my offense, but most offenses, yours is one of them.

Yeah. I need five DBs on the field and base. Sure. Now I'm going to have, and I'm not even gonna do like the the hybrid there will be a hybrid kind of safety linebacker ish nickel-ish guy but he still may only be a 210 pound guy that was recruited originally as a corner i need coverage coverage is more important than almost anything else a little bit there andy i like it yeah i look i'm not gonna lie here i i'm this is what works unless you're playing me and i'll tell you why so my offense is going to be

called the go-go gadget offense i'm stealing liberally from brendan marion at unlv he's got the go-go offense so brendan marion at unlv uh think jamie chadwell at liberty shotgun most of the time our run game is based on the triple option lots of triple option principles we're a two back one tight end team and i know what you're saying two backs what do we okay the way the way running backs work these days you've got guys who can be your best slot receiver who can play play running back too. Like there are so many different things you can do with this. You can take one of those backs out of the backfield, line them up in the slot, move your tight end over, and essentially line him up as a fullback

and run your same triple option principles. There's so many ways to run this offense. But the thing I like about it is it forces the defense to handle the three triple option things every play, but also cover vertical shots down the field. And that's brutally hard. Your linebackers are just going to be confused all the time. And for those who don't, what are the three triple option things? You have the dive, you have the keep, you have the pitch. Dive, hand off to the first guy through.

Keep, obvious, the quarterback keeps. Pitch, you're pitching to a guy who's running kind of parallel to the quarterback. So, and also the things you can do off this, you can have your standard inside zone outside zone and the thing about like the brendan marion offense he'll tell you for the offensive linemen they're blocking it is not like service academy offensive line play like you're not cutting and scrambling like you do in a normal triple option you're you're blocking inside zone outside zone because of the talent of the offensive line and we have we're gonna have some gap scheme stuff. We're going to run counter.

Like we're, we're, we'll, we'll be pinning and pulling too, because we're going to have three athletes, right? You're going to dress up 21 personnel, a lot of different ways. And that does scare me a little bit.

To be honest. Exactly. And that's the thing. Yeah. And you'll see, we'll see if you, how deep on the board you go, how you feel about your tight.

Cause I, you're going to draft a tight end in your offense. So I've got to, I've got to deal with that and hope you don't pick the person I want. Right. But I have hand selected somebody who I think was a mismatch nightmare because that's a person like I'm going to move him all over the place. He's going to be lined up on linebackers on some plays and he's going to

destroy people. Like, think Isaiah Likely when he was playing at Coastal Carolina. Interesting. Interesting. Could it be a guy in maize and blue? Who knows? We're going to find out. Could be.

We've had that suggestion. We've had that suggestion. All right, before we get to the picks, I do want to give a big thank you to Roback for sponsoring this episode. See it right here. Got my Roback performance hoodie on. The most comfortable hoodies, polos, shorts, you name it. I love my Roback hoodies.

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20% off your first order. All right, let us get to the draft picks. Roback is obviously my number one draft pick. The performance hoodie is, is one, one on my board, but Cody,

we got to get going. You are the guest. So I am going to let you pick first and I will say another place where this differs from the NFL draft like I do think positional preference like when the NFL it goes quarterback it goes offensive tackle interior D line lockdown corner receiver like those are your key positions I think most of those apply here. I don't know if quarterback applies as much because we are so scheme specific. Agreed.

And I think it's going to go to the, to your point that we talked about earlier. It's going to be very scheme specific. So there's a multitude of players that are sort of key factors for each of our offenses and defenses. So I think it's going to vary on how much we value certain players, especially among certain position groups. So I'm really nervous and very excited. With your first pick, you got to take somebody you think I definitely want.

Correct. And with that, so maybe this isn't the case, right? Which makes me kind of on my heels a little bit, but I'm so confident in what this person does for our team. I'm not going to tease it. It's Caleb Downs from the Ohio State Buckeyes. The origin of the rover role for this defense was Brian Urlacher at New Mexico in the late 90s. And it was essentially a free safety linebacker hybrid. They had Brian Urlacher standing there at the top in center field, flying downhill. This guy was asked to patrol the middle of the field. He had free ran over the top

of the defense to run the alley, fly downhill to stop the run, or back off and play as a single high center fielder in zone. Andy, this is the guy that fills up the stat sheet. They're going to lead the team in tackles. They'll constantly be around the football, but they also have to have the athletic ability to play zone and man coverage and make plays on the football in the air. This position was made for Caleb Downs, who, by the way, tallied 100-plus tackles last season as a true freshman at Alabama, which led the team, by the way.

And he also picked off two passes and had four PBUs. He is going to be a menace in year two, and this player is the one who makes our defense move, and it fits Caleb Down down's game perfectly take number one that's that's the thing you got you're getting the unique guys that yeah that that you can't get somewhere else i'm gonna get one of those guys okay because what did i just say? I just said I'm going to run a triple option based offense

where the offensive linemen are going to block much more like conventional offensive linemen. I need them to be able to do everything. I can't waste time not having a great offensive line. It's interesting because this offense was designed so that you could run it effectively without a good offensive line. Sure. If you have a great offensive line, no one can stop you.

Fair, fair. So my first pick, Will Campbell, left tackle from LSU. Hitting me in the heart immediately. That's exactly right. This guy's got sewing machine feet. He was plug and play at left tackle from the moment he set foot on campus. He's going into his junior year. He's going to be a very high draft pick in 2025. You think about what LSU has to replace. You lose a Heisman Trophy winner in Jayden Daniels. You lose two first round

receivers in Malik Nabors and Brian Thomas, but you have Will Campbell and Emory Jones at your tackles, and you feel very good about Garrett Nussmeier taking over as a starting quarterback because you know he's protected by those guys. So Will Campbell, my number one pick. That's strong. I see you pulling at the heartstrings early, which is an interesting choice, throwing me off my game early. I knew you wanted him too

that's the other thing i mean is he tackle one for me possibly um but we're gonna go ahead we're gonna pick an offensive player ourself as well okay oh don't you do it interesting you're probably thinking oh man well well andy just took a tackle i guess he's got to take the other one that's not what i'm thinking that's not what i'm thinking i'm very worried about a skill position player here we're going skill but we're going to wide receiver we're going to take a guy named luther burden from okazoo all right i wanted him but there was another guy i was worried you were gonna pick interesting Yeah. Not much to explain here really, but Luther Burden is simply the most complete receiver in the country. He's dynamic with the ball in his hands, finishing top five in the FBS and yards after catch. He has ridiculously strong hands at the

catch point, only dropping four of his 94 catchable targets last season. He can run every route on the route tree. Plus he has the ability to get vertical downfield with his 4-4 speed. I can line him up at X. I can line him up at Z. I can line him up in the slot. He can win at every level of the field. And he's the clear number one pass catcher

in college football next season. But most importantly, he's the clear number one pass catcher for Cody Baylor University and number one choice on the offensive side of the ball so now I think I'm altering my strategy a little bit because I was going I was going to go in the trenches again but here's here's my issue I have two receivers at the top of my board. Luther burden was one of them.

Yeah. That I feel like our game changing ultra dynamic. Everything changes when they're on the field. Every defense has to, has to know exactly what they're doing every play. And if I don't have one of those, if like, if I don't take one now those if like if i don't take

one now you might take that other guy and i i know you know who that is i'm and so i'm gonna do it so there there will be people who say this is a reach because i'm taking a guy who actually has not played a snap in a college football game right now. I knew it was going to go this way. Cause I got to have him. I got to have this receiver. Hey man, he was the number one player in the country for a reason. Jeremiah Smith, wide receiver from Ohio state. He has yet to play a snap in college football. But if you talk to anybody who has seen an Ohio State practice in the spring, who has seen this man play, he's going to be spectacular. He might be the best of this bunch of receivers that Ohio State has had over the last few years. We're talking about Marvin Harrison,

Jr., Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, all of these guys, he might wind up being the best one of this whole bunch because he has the size. He has the speed. He has the agility, the body control. Like he came in and they will tell you he came in more ready to go than Marvin Harrison Jr. did. And that is high, high praise. So yes, Jeremiah Smith, my wide receiver one. Andy, could you tell me who lost their black stripe the fastest in Ohio State history? That would be Jeremiah Smith. That would be Jeremiah Smith.

It was like two days into practice. Yeah, I think it was quite literally four, which is insane. That kid is a freak show. you know that's a good choice he's really good um here's the deal andy i don't think i could just throw it to luther burden all day long what did i say to preface this right we're gonna be a team that runs the damn football that's right and if you're gonna run the damn football you got to have a guy to hand it to and for me that is going to be oklahoma state's very own ollie gordon like i mentioned about my scheme at the top of the show

we're running the ball and this is exactly what we plan on doing with the 2023 Doak Walker Award winner, unanimous All-American from Oklahoma State. Ollie Gordon's lining up in the backfield for us, and he truly is elite. I mean, he's NFL-ready size at 6'2", 220. He's such a patient, deliberate runner that his unbelievable vision combined with the rare burst and footwork for a back for his size is simply not normal. And most importantly for us, he can tote the rock all day long. He got nearly 300 carries last year. He's a legit workhorse back that can carry the load for this offense. And he was a no brainer for me, Andy, no brainer. And he was the giant reach at this spot. What are we doing here?

Lord, look, I got my number one option in the passing game. Number one option in the running game. We're golden. We're golden. There's plenty of fish in the sea down here to fill out the rest of this group. We're good. That's all right. I am going to take a guy that will probably be.

Well, depending on the quarterback situation this guy might be the number one player off the board in the nfl draft in 2025 you know you're gonna pick a quarterback a little later to throw to luther burden except you can't throw to luther burden if you're on your back because james pierce jr just sacked you yeah don't james pierce from tennessee let's go coming off the edge i am going to have lots of ways to sack you on this team that is my goal you know it's it's not just my traditional edge rushers i'm going to have interior pressure i'm i'm bringing line i'm getting linebackers that can come get you. But this guy is a perfect just go beat the offensive tackle

or whoever they send to chip you and go destroy the quarterback. Cannot win. I don't love that, especially since I don't have a tackle currently. So I do not know who's going to be getting their butt kicked every day. So that'll be interesting for us. But you talk about sack and the quarterback, Andy. And it's funny in this 3-3-5, there's this little position floating around out there. You see one of these little linebacker spots that River's showing us here?

Yeah, what are you calling this? Are you calling it Viper? Are you calling it Cobra? Are you calling it Lion? I'm going to call it the Joker because he's going to be laughing every time he puts your quarterback on the ground. And that's going to be Harold Perkins from the Louisiana State University. The Joker role in this defense is is for lack of a better term,

the biggest pain in the ass for opposing offenses. And I believe Harold Perkins in this role would thrive because it's all about applying pressure and forcing offenses to identify you before every snap. The Joker's this hybrid linebacker, edge defender that can basically rush the passer from literally anywhere on the field, but also drop into space, defend against the pass as a flat or a hook defender. But this guy makes his money because they have a dominant pass rush skill set

in the body and athleticism of a prototypical stand-up linebacker. I mean, Perkins is 6'1", 220, but ran a 4'4 laser coming out of high school. And this is a guy that totaled nearly 150 tackles and 13 sacks in his two seasons at LSU. So if he's not protected from correctly, this is a guy that's going to end up raking havoc for an opposing offense for all four quarters. He played for one of the worst defenses ever last year because they didn't know how to use him correct but the problem is like this guy you well when he lines up on the line of scrimmage he's scary as hell but you're you're playing a 3-3-5 you're not a lot

you're bringing him down occasionally but i'm gonna know and i already got one really good offensive tackle do i take another really good offensive tackle right now? Do I do that? Do I take an edge rusher? Do I go for some interior pressure? I am going to, I am going to go into the middle of my defense, but this is not a guy who can just play in the middle.

This is a man who at well over 300 pounds can come off the edge. Okay, before you start. And does. There's two options here. And if you pick one, you're screwing me completely. Okay, well, I think I am screwing you. Because this is a person who, in terms of versatility of front, like if you want to shift between even and odd fronts.

Now, Grant, we're just picking our starters. Obviously, we're going to have sub packages, but this guy allows you to mask your real front because he can do so many things. Kentucky defensive tackle Deion. Oh, Andy. Love it. Oh, Andy. can do so many things kentucky defensive tackle dion andy love it andy let's go man that hurts me so violently it makes me sad dion we had him on the show last year we love dion walker so much i i will tell you i i covered a game involving Kentucky a couple of years ago when he was a

freshman. He's 6'6", 348 pounds. He can play any spot on the defensive line. You can line him up at nose. You can line him up at three technique. You can line him up at four eye or five technique in an odd front. You can line him up at nine. You can line him up outside the tight end if you want to, and he will be just fine. But covered a game. One of the offensive players from the other team said, we'd love to have you here next year. And I'm sure Kentucky's collective just puckered up, but they're like, nope, we're keeping him. This guy's amazing. Dion Walker is one of my favorite players in the whole country. Yeah. Um, gotta be honest. That was a bit of a gut punch. I'm a little upset there. I think that was maybe my next pick, but I am going to stay along the defensive line, Andy. I'm going to take a player

that some people, you know, I see a lot of James Pierce, number one, I see that. I've seen this guy's name floated around a couple of times too. And now this is one that I'm extremely excited about because the way this defense operates, it allows a versatile defensive lineman to use every move in their arsenal. You can use every tool in the bag however you want to phrase it but you could argue that the guy with the most tools in the bag is Mikel Williams out of Georgia yeah he's going to be my starting defensive end 6'5 270 he has quite literally lined up in every technique along the defensive front for Georgia throughout his career. He's got tremendous physical and athletic tools for the position. I'll take my guy at 350 that I can put at nose.

Sure, sure. Yeah, I mean. You go ahead. Michael Williams actually may be the number one pick in the draft next year. He could be. According to Dane Brugler, that is in fact the case. And, you know, he's got such dominant hand usage. He can win with power.

He can win with speed. He can kick inside, stuff the run. He can stand up, rush off the edge, and hell, he can even drop into coverage if you need him to. There's a reason he was the number one defensive player in the country by all in three when he was coming out of high school, and those reasons will be on

full display in this defense as my starting defensive end. So the amateur GMs are screaming at us right now. No way. We've ignored a position that is absolutely critical. Sure. Now you've taken one DB, but you took a safety.

I did. Neither one of us has taken a corner yet. We've already taken what we think are the two most dynamic receivers in the country. Somebody's got to stop these guys. Somebody's got to cover these guys. What if I told you there was a guy that is guaranteed to be able to cover these guys? Also, if you wanted to, he could be your wide receiver too. Please do it. Perfect. Do it. Go ahead, Andy. Take them. Travis Hunter from Coloradoado let's go

perfect thank you so much for doing that i'm so wow okay go ahead you're happy about this go ahead and explain it for me andy give me the read me the tape on uh travis here go ahead i i listen i gotta i gotta shut down boundary corner happy to have him line up against anybody now i'm not to play him every snap at receiver on offense because I think that probably hurts what he can do as a cornerback probably wears him out don't need him playing 110 snaps a game but I am going to throw him in there occasionally on offense I am going to going to maybe have him return some kicks I feel pretty good about that and listen we've said all we say about Dion on the show.

We've said, you know, we don't think Colorado is going to be a whole lot better than they were last year, but Travis Hunter is legit. And I will take Travis Hunter all day, every day. Yeah. I mean, he's a great player. He's a great player, but you know what, Andy? And it's good. I'm glad you went Travis Hunter. I'm so excited because if you hurt my heart twice, I mean, he's a great player. He's a great player. But you know what, Andy? And it's good. I'm glad you went Travis Hunter. I'm so excited. Because if you hurt my heart twice, I was going to be really upset. But fortunately, you didn't because you left CB1 on the board. And that is Will Johnson from Michigan.

So, you know, we got the center fielder locked up, right? No issues. But we got to have somebody on the outside to help him out. Which is why I'm taking arguably the top corner in college football in Will Johnson right here. I mean, the guy essentially takes away an entire side of the field by himself wherever he goes. Targeted 44 times last year, secured more interceptions than he had allowed touchdowns. He is a walking blanket with Caleb Downs patrolling the middle of the field. With this guy on the outside, I genuinely don't know how your defense,

or excuse me, how your offense is going to complete a pass. Oh, see, we don't have to complete passes, Cody, because we're going to run the ball down your freaking throat because you still haven't taken an offensive tackle. Yeah now i'm gonna take kelvin banks yeah yeah i don't love that one yeah that was your that was after i took will campbell that was the number one tackle on your board yeah and you were like well that's okay i still have kelvin banks and i'm gonna make andy take emory jones the lsu right tackle and just have those but no no if you're gonna leave kelvin banks hanging out there for me i will take him another plug and play the moment he walked on campus and he's only gotten better he's he's a

freak athlete just his his body control is amazing he's he's powerful he'll help you in the run game but he can protect the passer and the thing is like my i need to protect my quarterback we are going to take vertical shots we've got to we've got to give him time we cannot have you know it's yes the the run game action is going to freeze the defense somewhat but we get in third long you know what's coming too but the thing is kelvin banks can protect but he can also move people in the run game and that's i i'm telling you love it i am i am so happy that this like it's interesting so our producer river we have a google doc where we've got our draft boards. So he's putting in green who we've taken and in purple who we missed out on,

who the other person has taken. I've only got one purple on my board. Well, that's brutal. That hurts my heart a little bit. But we're going to be okay. Because like you said, right? I mean, your goal is to run the football. I get it.

That's great. We're going to go ahead and take a guy. Not a traditional nose tackle here. But that's the beauty of the 3-3-5 front, right? You can put players up there that don't necessarily fit your traditional big hefty nose tackle right like i mentioned at the top of the show we're not going to be seeing many combos along the defensive front due to our technique and gap discipline built into the scheme therefore i could take a more nimble athletic disruptor as my nose tackle someone that's arguably

the top defensive tackle in the sport and that's going to be mason graham and i'm okay with that i look i think it's a wonderful pick mason graham is a fine defensive lineman seems like a really nice guy i'm i'm good please tell the people about mason graham well he's he's just beyond advanced with his hand usage right and his ability to shed blocks he plays with his hair on fire on every And his ability to shed blocks. He plays with his hair on fire on every single snap. He's someone that can rush the passer from the interior, but also sink his weight, hold the point of attack in the run game. He is a complete player that we can fortunately utilize in this position. Thanks to our schema defensive philosophy,

Mason Graham, I might have, honestly, I might have the two first defensive linemen going off the board in the draft here soon. So I'm going to have them sitting right next to each other. Or I might, because that's the beauty of it. Mason Graham, while wonderful.

Yeah. Isn't the only good defensive tackle at Michigan. And guess what? I've already taken one defensive tackle who's about 350 pounds, but moves like someone who weighs 100 pounds less. Put two of them in there. Why not? Kenneth Grant is 348 pounds. And if you didn't see him outrun, like run down K-Tron Allen

in the Penn State game last year, go look up that clip. Kenneth Grant is a force of nature. As he has advanced as his teammate Mason Graham in terms of hand usage, no. Can he get interior pressure with sheer power and speed? Absolutely. Can he get interior pressure with sheer power and speed? Absolutely. And he is working like when we had him on the show, he was talking about all the balance stuff he's doing that, you know,

the Michigan strength staff has worked with him on like, this is a guy who is a, an athlete at 350 pounds. And I just, I feel like I, I know he, they don't move him around. Like Kentucky moves Dion Walker around, but I do feel like I, I, now he, they don't move him around. Like Kentucky moves Dion Walker around, but I do feel like there's some,

like I have no problem going between nose and three with him. And again, if we want to switch it, like if I want him to two gap as a, as a true nose in an odd front, I would feel comfortable with that. I feel like he's strong enough to do that. Or I could take my 360 pound guy and do that. John, that's pretty good. If Andy doesn't take his boy, Kenneth Grant for DT2, I'll be disappointed, but there you go. Wish fulfilled. Congratulations. Also, I'm so happy. How many Michigan guys have we checked off so far at this point? Is that three? That's three.

That is three. I think they may. So when I was going through the board and trying to guess who you're going to pick. Yeah. Michigan, Ohio state and Georgia were the ones that I felt like were going to be the leaders of, in terms of players taken that,

that, that way. And, and it was, I didn't really see anybody else that was close. Yeah. You know, it's funny that you say that because there was a team.

I think I happened to have two players from this university and specifically at the wide receiver position, we're going West coast here, Andy, and we're going to the state of Arizona because not only do I have wide receiver one on my team, I have wide receiver two. And we got Tetiroa McMillan

who's going to be playing out wide for us at our X. And he is an absolute tank on the outside, right? Six foot five, 215 pounds, and he is a jump ball demon. Second in the FBS last season in contested catches with 17. Behind some guy named Roma Dunze. I think he just went top 10 in the draft last week, if I'm not mistaken. Speaking of the draft, some folks might say that Teta Roa might actually be the best prospect coming out next year.

You know, he's got a I think it's safe to say he's a special talent, right? Combination of size, speed, ball skills. He's the textbook example of a dominant X receiver for my ultimate team. And he's going to compliment Luther Burden perfectly on the other side of the field. Now, I feel like I got to get another receiver now. Oh, you got to play defense now. Interesting. Well, that was my next pick.

You grabbed the guy I was about to take with my next pick. So this is now you're going to say I'm reaching again. Oh, man. Because I took a true freshman. Okay. As my wide receiver one sure i'm gonna take another true freshman oh dude i'm going for the upside here the potential ceiling here boom bust whoo baby go ahead pam coleman freak is one albert freshman this guy everything i said about Jeremiah Smith now

they're different receivers but right this guy could be the biggest impact receiver in the class of 2024 there's not been a receiver prospect like this at Auburn in a long long time like I don't question I'm old and I don't remember one like this at Auburn. So I now look, I don't know how effectively Peyton Thorne is going to get him the ball. Right. But I know in my offense that he's going to be fine. He's going to he's going to be awesome. So I am just look, I'm over the moon with the potential of my receiving core.

I do. I knew that River was going to run this B-roll of this one-handed catch at one of the all-star practices. I was standing right there. I saw it with my own eyeballs. He is that guy. The problem is, Andy, that cat's not even 18 years old yet. He's a young pup.

He's got so much room and so much time to develop. I got two guys that are certified, bona fide dudes out wide. You got some puppies out there. That's all right. Because again, we're running the ball down your throat. And I know what you're saying. Andy, you haven't even taken a running back yet. And I'm not going to yet because I feel very confident in what I can get at the running back position.

I would like wait i'm sorry it is your turn i almost stole a pick almost snake drafted this thing well i like it because maybe you could have given me a little bit of a hint so i'm not mad at that um but i'm gonna go ahead and solidify i'm gonna add a piece to the offensive line okay andy and i hear what you're thinking you're probably gonna be like oh So he's going to finally grab a tackle. No, we're going interior. We're going with the head coach of the offensive line. We're picking center. We're going Parker Brailsford, recent Washington transfer to the university of Alabama. Andy, I've talked about building up the middle so much on defense that I think I got to start doing it on the offensive side of the ball.

And it's one of those things where you can't sniff a center that touches the talent level of Brailsford at this point. He's the tip of the spear for the Joe Moore award, a winning offensive line unit last year for Washington. And he's going to have another dominant season this year at Alabama. There's a reason they got him in the board. And that's because they know he is the best center in America, adding to the offensive line. I think that is an excellent choice. Thank you, sir. Mostly because I had another center on my board, but I, Parker Brailsford was, was the second one one if you pick the guy i had so my my guy's a little bit more interesting and obviously you're not going to pick another center so i can wait as long as i want on him and we can we can we can make him a little bit of a surprise

later in the draft but i'm gonna go with the guy you went safety right off the bat and i'm realizing i do need to make sure i take this guy since you have caleb downs i need to take this guy so you don't have both of these guys because that would be a complete failure on my part you know exactly what i'm talking about george malachi starks yeah that wasn't a game plan yeah a lot of the things you said about Caleb Downs apply to Malachi Starks this is this is a very versatile safety ball hawk great ball skills just a defensive playmaker I think is the the terminology you would use for him and and we like his coverage skills. He can, I don't, I don't have a problem if he's, if he gets matched up against tight end.

Like, I really feel like he gives me a lot of positional versatility here. Maybe not as much as Caleb Downs would, but it's close. And I think, you know, like an NFL team would agree with me. Like if they can't get Caleb down, they'd be really happy if they get Malachi Starks. No question. I mean, absolutely no question. And you know, you're going to need them,

especially for the receivers that I have. So you're going to need them. You're going to have to need, you're going to need somebody over the top that can hang with my guys. And like you mentioned, you're going to run the rock. So I got to get my third piece of the puzzle here along the defensive line, but I love the way things are coming together at this point, right? I got a big time nose tackle takes away the attention of my defensive end, right? And Michael Williams, I have my eye in the sky and Caleb downs patrolling the secondary. I got my chest piece and

Harold Perkins hovering around the second level of the defense, but I need someone who can help take some eyes away from him as well. I'm going to be taking the most sought after defensive end, probably this entire transfer portal cycle, and that's going to be Nick Scowerton, who is now at Texas A&M as my second defensive end. That's right. Michael Williams won. Nick was at Purdue. Yeah, correct.

Coming home because he's from Brian, Texas. Right? Yes. And he played off ball linebacker for that high school. He was 6'4", 240 pounds, added 30, 35 pounds at the college level. He's 6'4", 280 now. He can truly do it all from the defensive end petition he can shock blockers with his power at the point of attack he's a magician when it comes to rushing the path

rushing the passer the athleticism combined with his size and power is a perfect fit as do you get the sense cody that that mike elko when he was the DC and Nick was in high school, that Mike Elko might have lost an argument at a certain point. Yeah. I want to say I was there, Andy, so I can possibly confirm that. That's one you just don't really let get away. So I'm choosing to not have that happen to me for another time. I'm going to go ahead and take them now. Very good. Very good. So I, I also need to solidify my edge and I'm so happy. Oh, I know where you're going. This is a guy that we had a similar discussion with Harold Perkins, right? And we've had that discussion with this guy. And, and so he's got a new defensive coordinator this year. And one of the, one of the things they said

right off the bat is no, we're going to let him do the thing he does really well. And that's, I'm not, I am not an NFL GM. Like I'm not drafting this for an NFL team. I'm drafting this to be the best college team. I think this guy's going to be a dynamite NFL player too, but Abdul Carter, Penn state, like Tom Allen comes in as the DC at Penn state. And he's like, we's going to be a dynamite NFL player too. Sure. But Abdul Carter, Penn State. Like Tom Allen comes in as the DC at Penn State. He's like, we're going to have Abdul Carter rushing off the edge. Like no more of this moving him around stuff. Like he's going to be on the edge. You're going to have to deal with him.

He wears number 11. Some guy who played at Penn State who rushes the quarterback used to wear number 11. There are favorable comparisons between the two. James Franklin told us on the show last year that Abdel Carter may be even a little more twitched up than Micah Parsons, which I find very difficult to believe. Yeah, that's some praise. I'll take it. If it's true, I will happily take it on this team because this is a guy like when they put him on the edge, he's a problem every single time.

I remember watching him against Michigan last year and it felt like, you know, and Michigan was having some struggles in that game. And that's why they ran the ball so many times at the, at the, in the second half of that game, they were struggling to protect. They had an injury to the layer, the Darius Henderson. So they were shuffling people around but like when abdul carter lined up on the edge everything like you could see everybody just kind of pucker on the offensive line because it's like oh no like do we have somebody on that side who can who can help out or or is the quarterback just gonna have to bail on this play like that's that's what i want people thinking when they line up against this dude fair enough and i mean we're feeling it right now we don't have any tackles currently so we're still in a little bit of a pickle still some real you have some really good

ones out there though exactly so i can weigh a little bit on that i'm assuming you're not going to take another tackle so we got time and just and just shove him into guard maybe like the nfl team all inside screw it you know yeah just see what happens but i'm gonna go ahead and solidify the secondary here i'm going to form the most beautiful triangle possible here in the secondary and i'm gonna go corner number two here and i am i love what we have in the secondary at this point, right? And I'm going to love it even more with the addition of Benjamin Morrison from Notre Dame. No! This is a guy.

It sounds like you're familiar. This is a guy that put the best receiver in college football last year in an absolute blender. In two seasons, playing against Marvin Harrison Jr., Morrison was thrown at seven times. He had three PBUs and only gave up two catches to Marvin Harrison Jr. This defense is going to be phenomenal in the back half with Caleb Downs patrolling the middle of the field, cornerback one in Will Johnson, and Morrison on the outside. I genuinely do not think you will have complete a pass, which I understand you're running the ball.

You're running the ball. You're going to have to throw it at some point and it's going to be a whoopsie. He's a good player. Good player. Well, we both have five DB spots on the field. So we, we,

I'm, I gotta be careful and make sure I'm not going to lose everybody I want. So I'm going to go Denzel Burke from Ohio state to solidify my, my corner spot. Uh, I can play him at nickel if I want, but there's another guy that's on the board now that I've lost Benjamin Morrison that, that I might move to nickel in this case, but I'm happy with Denzel Burke. He is back for another year. Does not need to be back in college football, by the way. Denzel Burke could very easily be in the NFL right now, but he's part of that group of Ohio State defenders that decided to come back for one more run. And I like the length. I like the speed.

I'm very happy here. I'm hurt. I had Benjamin Morrison right there. I was going to grab him. And then I'm like, Denzel Burke's my nickel. But that's okay. That's okay. We can fix that.

We've got some other options there. It's strong, man. I mean, Denzel Burke's a great player. He would have been potentially the corner I took as well. He's such a good zone corner. And that's the name of the game in this three, three, five,

especially on the outside. So totally understand that there. So what I'm going to do is kick it back to the offense. And everyone I'm sure is saying like, finally, he's going to take a tackle. Nope, we're not,

we're going tight in. In fact, we're taking the, the next Michigan player off the board. Like I mentioned at the top of the show, the tight end position has to be able to do it all for us. And that's why I'm taking the most complete tight end option in Colston Loveland at Michigan.

He's a total athletic freak. 6'5", 250, three-sport athlete coming out of the state of Idaho. He ran the 100-meter. He ran the 4x1. He did the high jump. He threw shot put and he threw discus and the kid could yam it on the hardwood. And you see all of those skills translate for him on the football field. Not to mention he's only given up two pressures in pass protection the last two seasons as a blocking inline wide tight end. He can do everything we would possibly ask him to do in this offense, and he's going to slide in seamlessly into this scheme. Just to recap here, Andy, my skill guys are Ollie Gordon,

Teti Roa McMillan, Luther Burden, and Colston Loveland. Do you have an answer for any of those guys? Yeah, I'm going to block some more. I'm going to open holes some more because now we're getting some guards. I love it. The question is, who am I going to get first? Because I think both these guys might be on your board that I want sure sure so I'm gonna go with the dude that I know can move people in the run game that's been doing it for years and he's also the best podcaster on this list if you've never listened to the real talk podcast absolutely what are you even doing Tate Ratledge Georgia guard guard, host of the Real Talk. He's with an Australian punter this year, which is not even fair.

He's been doing it with D lineman. He did it with Zion Logue last year. He did it with Rylan Goatee, who was a tight end the year before that. But on the field, Tate Ratledge is just nails. He has been the most reliable offensive lineman George has had the last few years, and he's just going to bulldoze people in the run game. And I am so happy to have him on my team, and our player podcast is going to be amazing. No question. The clicks will be going through the roof. And the thing I like about your pick, it does sort of force my hand, right?

I will admit it does force my hand a little bit here. You took the guy that, in my opinion, is the best pass protector along the interior. Give me the nasty. Give me the guy that's a road grader. Give me Tyler Booker. This is my other guy. I knew it.

Give me Tyler Booker from Alabama. I mean,. I knew it. Give me Tyler Booker from Alabama. I mean, like I said, the goal with this offense too is to still run the football. And we're going to do that behind one of the best run blockers in the league as an interior lineman from Alabama. If he latches on, it's game over. He's a consistent barrier of human beings in the run game. And he's actually one of the cleaner pass protectors in the sec. So I truly do feel like he's someone that excels in both the run and passing game, which is perfect for our offense. But if we need to run behind somebody, we're going to go right behind Tyler Booker and Parker Brailsford, and we're going to move the,

move the chains. I love that we have a run on guards before we take our quarterbacks but that's just because neither of us is taking the same quarterback and we know that so yeah no question no question i'm going to continue to run on guards oh my goodness we're going because because i i want my own i want a road grader at the other guard spot and so i'm going to choose i'm going to go to columbus and get donovan jackson from ohio state yeah he will be he will be opening holes for travion henderson and quinshawn jedkins this year and this is a a 320 pound dude who will just mash you up front yeah he'll be perfect in this offense but the thing is like all of the guys i've taken, I feel like are very athletic. And so I have no problem. Like if I'm doing, if I'm doing a swim, like a, like a GT

counter, like I have no problem going to either side with the guard and the tackle pulling. I'm happy with this. I like it. I like it. It's a good choice. I respect it. You know what? I'm going to keep the offensive line train rolling. Andy, are you good with that? I'm going to keep it going because I need a tackle. And like I mentioned previously, and I believe you threw this name out there earlier, we're running the football. That's what we're going to do. There's a world though, Andy, in which the first LSU Tiger off the board though, in the 2025 NFL draft, it's not Will Campbell. It's not Harold Perkins.

Because it might be Baton Rouge's very own Emory Jones. That's very true. With his nastiness in the run game and his footwork at 330 plus pounds, he's someone that's an enforcer along the offensive line. He's improved so much as a pass protector as well. Starting as a freshman, he had some growing pains. But I think he's going to turn into an even better pro than he is a college player. But he's going to see his stock skyrocket this year.

And if he's playing at Cody Bel Air University, he's paired up right next to Tyler Booker. We're going to run on the left side of this line all day long. And we feel good it's pretty pretty nasty when you have ollie gordon running behind that right that is that is that is pretty box on us andy what are you gonna do leave tetairoa and luther burden singled up so here's here's my question do i we got to finish out the secondary yeah neat none of us you took harold perkins right none of us is taking a more traditional linebacker correct yet so i'm not sure but i i will i don't even know if this guy's on your board. I need him for the defense I'm running. I just need a captain of the defense,

a big burly dude in that can play inside linebacker. Cause you know, I, I just, that there's only gonna be one guy like that in my defense and I, I cannot not have him. So I'm going to take Danny Stutzman from Oklahoma to be that guy that my defense just revolves around.

I like it. That's a true old school bringing down ball carriers type of guy, man. Like that's, I'll be honest. I was looking at weights as I was going through this. There were a few options. I like this,

but this person has to be two 40 or heavier. Like it's right. I just need that guy totally get it totally get it and so i hear you i hear you on that front i don't want to get scooped up here on a linebacker that i like so i'm a little worried i was a little worried right when you When you went Danny, I felt good. I felt much better. I got some relief. We exhaled a little bit. Now I'm nervous. I'm going to take the guy that some thought would declare for the draft last year, but decided to come back and prove that he deserves to be in the linebacker one conversation. And that's Clemson's Barrett Carter this is a guy that has some serious range and covers grass in a hurry right the thing I like most about him though especially in this

3-3-5 defense is that Harold Perkins isn't the only linebacker that has to rush the passer I can use him as a pass rusher and he's one of the few pass rushers that had according to pff over an 80 grade in run defense and in pass rush success which is perfect for what we're going to ask of him in this defense as our starting will linebacker perfect for us so remember i only got two linebackers true so it'd be helpful if i could have a big linebacker yeah who can also play off ball who can also rush the passer and i thought that's where you might go and i'm so glad you didn't and i'm gonna go ahead and take him now so i don't lose him anthony hill of texas it's a great. Who has worked some at Mike linebacker,

but played off ball. And you saw what he could do when they brought him down to the line of scrimmage to rush the passer last year. That was a, uh, that, that one, I,

cause I didn't know if I'd be able to get everything I wanted. Uh, when you took Harold Perkins so soon, I, cause I kinda, I had Harold Perkins out there as a flyer if you let him let him drop a little bit but with him not available I needed somebody who kind of fit this mold with Anthony Hill I'm actually more comfortable with him playing that role at

linebacker but I love that I can bring him down if I need to and rush the pass right yeah for sure I mean that makes a ton of sense we both picked the same type of guy so that completely checks out i agree with that thought process let's go ahead let me maneuver around here i'm trying to see which guy makes the most sense and i'm doing it who i we may be in the in the mold of of everybody left on the board is somebody that only the other guy wants. Right. Yeah. Because of scheme.

Definitely possible. So what I'm going to do here, let me maneuver where I'm at here. So what I'm going to do here, Andy is I'm just going to go ahead and complete that receiver trio. Okay. How does that sound? You know,

it sounds good you know i don't i only have two receiver spots i'm in 21 personnel so fair fair enough and so what i'm going to do is i'm going to go ahead and use this slot no pun intended for our f position and that's going to go to none other than ohio state's ameka egbuka. And yes, I know, Jeremiah Smith's there. Marvin Harrison was the number one guy for them last year. That's all fine and good. It's Ohio State. There's always money in that banana stand.

This is a guy, phenomenal reference, this is a guy that knows his role and he owns it. There's not a better receiving option in the intermediate and underneath levels of the field in college football than Emeka Ibuka. And he has elite route running ability paired with the phenomenal body control and strong hands. He's going to be such an excellent complement to this passing game, especially on the inside, because I'll have Luther on the outside. I have Teti Rowe on the outside.

He's going to be a consistent chain mover for us in this offense. So John in the chat says, Andy needs to pick another true freshman for his wide receiver three. My wide receiver three Travis Hunter, buddy. Like I'm in 21 personnel. I'm starting to tie it in. I only have two receivers on the field,

so I've already got those guys. All right. Good. I am going to work on my secondary again. I need another safety. This is one that, that, you know,

I imagine he's, he's somewhere on your board as well. Xavier Watts from Notre Dame, uh, all American last year, definitely a play with guy, a guy who could be the NFL right now. I wanted to run it back one more time.

So we'll take Xavier and I'm, I'm feeling pretty good. I got one more secondary spot to fill. I, I realized that I have not touched my quarterback and running backs, but I feel okay about that too. Right. I'm right there with you.

I feel good about the guys that I have left on the board. I'm excited about who your quarterback is. I know, me too. I'm actually really nervous. But you've chosen Xavier, and when you said Xavier, I got a little nervous because I'm going to take the other Xavier at Iowa and Xavier Nwankpa. You know, both non-Rover safety positions in this defense,

they're asked to do a lot of the same things. So they need to have range. They have to have the ability to play man and in zone coverage as well as being a strong tackler. And I think we take Xavier Nwankpa out of Iowa. He's got awesome range, very productive player. I love the fluidity. I love the burst.

He's an effective tackler as well. This is somebody that I can trust to take away the deep half of the field and still feel very comfortable being a force in the run game. I really like what we have there. Well, now we've got to run on Iowa DBs because I'm taking Sebastian Castro as my nickel. I like that's a great call. It's a great call. This is a guy who can, I think he could play, he could play pretty much anywhere in the secondary. I feel very good about him. Very smart. And he's going to, he's going to be able to lock down a

variety of different kind of receivers. If you match him up at the tight end, you're feeling okay there too. So I am happy with this. I like it. I mean, it's strong. It's strong. And I feel good about it. Let me go ahead and get my last pick here on this. Or excuse me, how many defensive?

I have two guys left on defense so i'm gonna go ahead and get that locked in here with another iowa linebacker we got three three in a row from iowa player i'm taking jay higgins yeah this guy is a true a true mike he does everything you could ask for i have a mike Landbacher. He can come downhill, stop the run. He can take on blocks. He can drop into coverage. He played more defensive snaps than any defensive player in the FBS last year. The only thing this guy's asked not to do is rush the passer. But that's why we took Barrett Carter, because we're not going to ask him to do that. We need somebody that can get a hat on a hat,

bring down ball carriers, and I think our pairing at linebacker is perfection. Feel really good about it. I love it. I love it. So now I've got to fill out my offense here. I've got my full defense. I have four spots left on offense.

I don't think we're going to have a lot of, a lot of overlap here, but you took a running back very early. Ollie Gordon was, was somebody I really wanted. He's a violent runner. I thought he would be great in this offense, but I want backs that are true home run threats, but also can run between the tackles because with those triple option principles, somebody has got to be the dive guy. Now, it's not the traditional dive. It's not Corey Schlesinger coming through it at 250 pounds. That's not what we're talking about here. This also needs to be somebody who would be RB1 in another kind of scheme. So I'm going with treyvion henderson i i i just when if he's the

first guy through with those monsters i have blocking for him there's a very good chance he's taking it to the house and if you have to worry about him with the guy who's gonna be playing quarterback for me and the other guy who's gonna be playing running back for me you're you're gonna be scared shitless. Let's be perfectly honest. You're just not going to know what to do with yourself. That's when we're going to throw over the top. So Travion Henderson for me right there.

I like it. And speaking of offensive side of the ball, I have the left side of my line anchored, down pat, good to go. I got to get a right tackle. And I'm going to go i gotta get a right tackle and i'm gonna go to the west coast and i'm gonna take the guy out of oregon josh connerly there you go and i love it so you're wait you're flipping emory jones and josh conner why don't you just play josh at the left and emory at the right i could do that because i could do the same thing with tyler booker i could move him to right guard it's whatever the preference is we feel good good about it. Emory can do both.

Josh can do both. But the thing I love so much about Josh is the way his feet move. He's super light. He's got great footwork. Does such an awesome job of understanding leverage and using angles to his advantage and pass pro. He's got such a strong punch and is a people mover in the run game. I think he's one of the more balanced tackles in the run game. I think he's one of

the more balanced tackles in the country. And I think he's a perfect fit at tackle for us, especially in this offense, since we are heavy run, but we do need to protect our quarterback and give him time for those play action passes. Feel good about Josh. All right. It's time. It's time to take my quarterback. Remember I'm running, I'm running the go-go gadget offense. There's really not much gadget to it. I'm stealing the go-go offense from UNLV and a lot of principles that you see in Liberty's offense. So you need a quarterback who can throw a pretty deep ball,

but who also is a run threat. I chose the quarterback who is the ultimate run threat among quarterbacks this year. There's a reason he was a five-star recruit in the class of 2023. We have not seen a quarterback who has a good arm, who has an NFL caliber arm, who is this fast in college football since, dare I say, do I even mention the name?

No. Lamar Jackson. Don't do that to him. Oh, I'm ready to do that to him. I am fully on board, and I think he and his glorious mane of hair can handle all of this. I respect the game. I respect it completely, respect avery johnson

freak kansas state is my quarterback he's gonna run for 1200 yards he's gonna throw for 4 000 yards we are going to destroy everyone with this offense? I respect the flow. I mean, how can you not? You know what I mean? How can you not? And, you know, I picked Josh Connerly, last picker, right tackle. I'm going to go ahead and just solidify that offensive line. I'm going to go ahead and take Michael Ford out of Kansas. And this is a guy, not necessarily a household name, right? Not a lot of people got University of Kansas notifications on. So this is a guy in Michael Ford that's kind of played all over the board for Kansas. He's taken reps at right tackle, he's taken reps at right guard, he's taken a couple reps at center, but he's going to stay at right guard for me.

This is the definition of a balanced player. According to PFF, this is a guy that ranked in the top 20 in both run blocking and pass blocking. That is exactly what we need. So we have our road graders on the left side and we have our elite pass protectors on the right side. You're going to have to scheme us up pretty pretty strongly here andy i just i get

worried that we're gonna bull like bully you in the run game and we're still gonna be able to throw it over the top of you but you know we'll see how it plays out go ahead and finish your uh you got two picks left andy three i have i we have three i have i have a back a tight end and a center that i need to fill uh for my center i'm choosing a guy who has not yet started a game in college. Bold. But who also may be a very high draft pick next year. He's a fourth-year college player. He's been playing.

He just has not been starting. And that is Jared Wilson at Georgia, who is replacing Cedric Van Praan. Jared Wilson can outrun DBs, and he's a center. Not normal. Now granted, he was behind a really good player. That's the only reason he wasn't starting, but he's mature. He's patient. He's a freak athlete. I, the, the, the NFL people are already excited about him and he has not started a game yet. So I cannot wait to see what Jared Wilson does at Georgia. Yeah, I like that one. That's a strong pick.

I remember when Cedric was coming out of Warren Easton at LSU. We let that one slide. So that was a mistake, and I'm sure his replacement is going to be a dog as well. No pun intended there. And so we're going to go ahead and we're going to round up our defensive side of the ball i'm going to save the quarterback for last here andy all right we're going to go final safety spot dylan the enemy from purdue

yes again he was on my board as well non-rover safety right they're going to be asked to do a lot of the same thing strong tack tackler, man and zone coverage. Dylan was one of the most productive safeties in all of college football last year. Again, as a true freshman. Absolutely. So fluid. Great burst. Very instinctive.

He knows when to trigger. So fast closing to the football. If Nwankwo is going to give me all the picks, the enemy is going to blow up the most receivers underneath. That's what's going to happen. So having that fire and ice at the safety position feels really good. And two big 10 guys duking it out back. Yeah. Excuse me.

So technically with the safeties, all three of my safeties are big 10 guys. So I picked Travion Henderson and I think he's going to be, it's interesting because it's not like we're not running the triple I. So it's not like there's a fullback in front of the tailback kind of thing, defined roles. I want two guys who I feel comfortable with, can run between the tackles, and be the home run threat if they can get some space.

Sure. So I'm going with Jay Knott from cal as my next bag this is a guy who if he gets some grass in front of him gone gone but he's six feet tall like he's it's it's weird he's a big you know six foot 210 is it is a different dimension kind of a fred taylor looking dude yeah and right so that's i i'm i'm very excited about my backs because whichever one of it like ott is the guy i imagine in most cases is the pitch man in that in that triple option and so you have avery johnson and that defensive end or or whoever they're you know linebacker if it's a linebacker that we've been playing when we play in your team whoever crashes down on him he's pitching out to ott god bless whatever safety your corner has to

try to tackle him out there yeah i mean he's a load but he can really go i really like that choice especially as the you know the pitch guy i think that's really smart you're a smart guy andy that's very smart um you know i'm gonna wrap this thing up on my team we saved quarterback for last you know i i figured we didn't have the same guy our offenses were completely different but you know our offense is designed in which the quarterback can be the facilitator get the ball out don't turn the ball over make necessary runs right sure the name of the game is to keep the ball and make good decisions and there is no better qb in the game at doing that than dylan gabriel who's at oregon now one of dylan gabriel by the way would have been awesome

in my offense too this is a man who was once committed to Army. Right. He's one of the most experienced signal callers in the country with 50 total games played. He's someone that has played in multiple offenses with all sorts of supporting casts and has still been one of the most productive QBs in the country. Plus, the kicker to all this, he's one of the lowest turnover- worthy play rates in all of college football.

He doesn't put the team in harm's way. If there's any QB who can manage a game and still deliver without turning the ball over, it's Dylan Gabriel. That's it. That is a tremendous pick. And this is where I remind everybody, this is a college football draft.

We are creating college football teams. If this was an NFL draft, I don't know that either one of us takes the quarterback we take. Right. Because we're looking for specific traits. And as Stetson Bennett showed us, you can be a really good college QB. And if the talent is around you, you can have a really dominant team. You don't necessarily have to have an nfl first rounder now i would say i would argue that if avery johnson lives up to everything he's supposed to be he could be an nfl first rounder no question like

dylan gabriel's probably not going to be and but as a college quarterback he's spectacular and he's perfect for what you want and in fact we're going to see it because remember, Dylan Gabriel has been in the Viren shoot at UCF and at Oklahoma. He moves into a little more air raid based offense now that Will Stein runs at Oregon. So that'll be very interesting. My last pick is another guy that I'm not sure is a household name, but if he does what his new team thinks he's going to do,

we'll know him very quickly. That is Benjamin Urosik, tight end from Georgia. He transferred from Stanford. And essentially they said, who in college football has been the closest thing to Brock Bowers? And that is this guy. So he's six, four to 40 extremely fast.

You're happy to hand him the ball on an end around, but you also can move him around in the past game. He was hurt a little bit of last year. So you don't haven't necessarily gotten to see him at full capacity. Also, he's not been surrounded by the kind of talent he'll be surrounded by at Georgia, but they're very excited about what he can be. And if look, nobody's going to replace Brock Bowers.

He was special. That person doesn't come along very often, but in my offense where I know that tight end needs to be a mismatch nightmare needs to be capable of moving around and this guy's a willing blocker as well so i'm happy with that but i need to be able to move him around and confuse defenses this is the this is the ultimate in terms of who i can put in different places to really mess with a defensive coordinator no question man andy i i mean just eyeballing these rosters i feel like we went two completely different directions but i love it like absolutely a game between these two teams would be so much fun 100 like i was worried that when I clicked back over to this,

I was going to be like, Oh, I'm smoked or like vice versa. Right? No, I don't know who wins this game. Yeah. Yeah.

I love it. And I think, you know, part of the reason we do this exercise now on May 1st is, you know, we want to get everybody's juices flowing for college football season we want to talk about the actual sport instead of talking about right you know how it's going to be organized and and how the players are going to get paid and all that stuff but more than anything else is to

highlight how good and how deep it is this season like if we'd had three or four more people doing this exercise, if we'd have done like the all day show, I still think we'd have had like five teams of guys where everybody's like, well, there are no weaknesses on this. Exactly. I was going to say, I don't think anybody would be a reach.

And I even feel that way looking at our team now, maybe there's one or two guys where you go, okay, like maybe I'm not as familiar with this game. Freshman receivers is probably a little bit of a reach but the potential is through the roof yeah if i hit on both of them like my offense can't be stopped sure i wouldn't disagree i mean it's this was a really fun exercise i'm really andrew says cody's team wins nothing. I look as good as our defenses are. I don't, ain't nobody getting shut out. I was going to say, I think the issue is that no one's

going to stop anyone. Like look at our team. Like your offensive front is so dominant. My skill guys are ridiculous. I don't think there's a way either of us get stopped. The only thing I think you might do to me is you might suffocate me on the ground, and I may only get the ball sub six times. See, that's the problem is my offense is designed when it's rolling that I never have to throw. Right. And I will do that. I will do that to you.

But then the thing is, if you are, like, you're so athletic defensively, you would be able to, especially, like, because the triple is designed to not have negative plays. Right. But I might have some zeros against that group you have. That's where Cam Coleman over the top is a problem for you yep and i would say if if i were to get a lead early i worry about your team being able to come back because you'll

have to rely on some of that passing game but if you get ahead you may never lose it no i'm never throwing the ball again i'm just running out the clock so this is this is tremendous cody this was so much fun we're gonna have to do it again i actually have an idea for you uh okay for for a couple weeks from now uh we may have a game show have you ever been a game show contestant before i haven't but boy i would be so thrilled to be one that sounds so i was actually contestant on idiot savants on mtv in 1997. What the hell is that? Yeah, I finished number three of three contestants. What year was that, 97?

97, yeah, freshman year of college. I was four years old, cranking it out. Yeah, I don't want to talk about it. But we played this game a few months ago. We played it before the 23 23 season we called it whose team is it anyway and we throw out a transfer and you have to say where they came from and who they're playing for now uh i called pete nakos yesterday i said have you ever wanted to be a game show host so pete nakos will be our will be our steve harvey our alex trebek our peter tamarkin if you will because

if i was going against pete i was like i'm gonna phone it in now i'm not gonna show up to the event that's game over but him as a host oh yeah no that was initially i was like we could do pete i could i'll be the host and it's pete versus cody but that's not fair i'm smoked i'm smoked look no he's gonna be like trebek where even if he doesn't know the answer it's gonna sound like he does for sure and he's gonna the contempt with which he will regard us when we don't get it right correct is going to be profound disappointed dad you know i'm gonna feel that the whole time. Exactly. Cody, this has been spectacular. Folks, tomorrow is a Dear Andy episode.

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