Andy & Ari On3 - The AP Poll tells us which eight teams can WIN the National Championship

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

On Monday, the Associated Press dropped its preseason college football rankings, and Andy breaks it all down here. In the top half of the rankings, Andy believes there are eight clear contenders for the title. Do you think he's right on this? (0:00-13:07) Intro: The Preseason AP Top 25 Poll(13:08-14:34) Introducing Pete Nakos(14:35-16:29) Pete Nakos Joins: Top Non-QBs(16:30-20:49) Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State(20:50-30:30) Retaining the Top Talent in CFB(30:31-35:43) Dylan Stewart, South Carolina(35:44-38:21) Caleb Downs, Ohio State(38:22-39:06) Colin Simmons, Texas(39:07-42:05) Ryan Williams, Alabama(42:06-45:59) Spencer Fano, Utah(46:00-50:33) Other Names: Dallas Wilson, Florida(50:34-51:24) Harold Perkins, LSU(51:25-55:42) Trebor Pena, Penn State(55:43-57:11) Andy & Ari’s bet on Penn State receivers(57:12-1:02:44) Ari’s Trip to a Rangers game(1:02:45-1:08:08) Caleb Downs Interview(1:08:09-1:09:18) Conclusion Next, Pete Nakos joins the show to reveal his top college football players that are not quarterbacks. Do you agree with his list? What names did he leave off? Full article here: https://www.on3.com/news/10-most-valuable-non-quarterbacks-in-college-football/ Later, Ohio State's Caleb Downs joins the show, and he shows why he is a true star in college football. Listen here as the anchor on the Buckeyes' defense talks with Andy & Ari from Las Vegas.Watch our show on YouTube instead! https://youtu.be/QuBBKGcH6dsHosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail]

Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3. Happy Monday. Or he's on a mountain somewhere, but you're going to see him later in the show. We've got to talk about the AP poll. It is out released late Monday morning. And it jibes with something that we noticed in the coaches poll. And I'm looking at the actual individual AP poll ballots here. And it's not every single one of them has the same top eight. But all, every single one of them has the same top eight.

Just like Ari and I in ours had the same top eight, Brett Mitt Murphy when he did his AP poll ballot, same top eight. Coaches poll, the amalgamated version, same top eight. AP poll, same top eight. So that's, if you're in listening in podcast form. This is the top eight in order in the AP poll. Texas, Penn State, Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oregon, Alabama. I've said this multiple times.

You can make a very compelling case to me for any of those eight teams to win the national title. And I will buy it right now. Whatever you want a scenario you want to contrive that has one of those eight teams finishing the season as the national champ, I will take it. I also had Texas number one. But, you know, looking at the AP poll, you had quite a distribution between, you know, know, first place votes. You had Texas getting first place votes, Ohio State getting first place votes, Penn State getting first place votes. We talked to Brett Mc Murphy about his Georgia first place vote, which he was the only one. But it seems to be concentrated mostly between

Texas, Ohio State, Penn State, and Clemson. And I get it. The Texas thing, we're all thinking Arch Manning is going to come in and be very good. We know. know that they do have to replace some key offensive linemen, some really good players, but also that they have a loaded roster still, and they've recruited well, and that they're developing well. So I think that's why everybody's got them in number one. Penn State and Clemson, there's two things that they have in common that's different from everybody else in this six. They will not be breaking in a new starting quarterback. Penn State has Drew Aller, Clemson has Kay Clubnick. They know exactly what they have in those guys.

For better or for worse, but they know exactly what they have. And we're sitting here now, and I had this discussion last week. And I do wonder if our minds are going to change. I think my mind is certainly changing because we said with Ohio State and with Notre Dame that the idea of a quarterback controversy, not controversy, competition, like a true quarterback competition, we weren't sure how realistic that was. But it certainly sounds realistic at Notre Dame. It certainly sounds like they've got a scrimmage this Saturday and Kenny Menci and C.J. Car will both be performing in it and they've been splitting reps with the ones.

And I don't know, maybe Marcus Freeman will be ready after that scrimmage to announce a starter or maybe he won't. But it certainly seems like Kenny Minchie is very much in the mix to be the starting quarterback in Notre Dame. We've heard the same kind of rumblings about Lincoln Keyholes at Ohio State. You know, he's the first quarterback to make an iron bucky in the Ryan Day era. And what that means is there's certain benchmarks you have to hit in the weight room to be an iron bucky. And no quarterback in the Ryan Day era has done it until Lincoln Keenholz did it this offseason. So it's him against Julian Sayan. Now, if you look at Letterman Roe, read what their reporters have been hearing.

it still feels like it's leaning Julian Say in. But that one is not a contrived quarterback competition. But Penn State, Clemson, those guys know what they have. They know what they're going to deal with. They know what their quarterback's limitations are. They know what their strengths are. If Penn State hit in the receiver portion of the transfer portal, or they got what they hope is a new,

top three receivers, then Drew Aller probably gets better. Because Drew Aller had Tyler Warren to throw to last year, and that was pretty much it. Kate Klovenick has a bunch of guys to throw to. And then where these other guys wind up depends on these quarterbacks who we have not seen, for the most part, play. We've seen Arch Manning start a couple of games. We saw Gunner Stockton come in in the SEC championship game for Georgia. We saw him start the Sugar Bowl against Notre Dame.

We've seen Dante Moore start some games at UCLA as a freshman. Ty Simpson has played in spot duty, but we haven't really gotten to see him yet. It is going to be fascinating. Now, beyond that top eight, it's pretty similar to the coaches poll. You've got LSU 9, Miami 10, Arizona State, 11, Illinois, 12, South Carolina, 13, Michigan, 14, Florida 15. And the Florida one's interesting to me, and I've mentioned this a few times. I kind of feel like you need to have Florida in the top 10 or unranked because it feels like that's the true potential ways the season can go. The kind of muddled middle where if Florida's

15, they're probably 8 and 4 but have beaten at least one playoff team, if that makes sense. Because they're 9 and 3 against the schedule they have. There's a chance they're ranked higher than that. But it's also more likely, I think, that they're good, they're 10 and too good. If they're not, that schedule will choose them up, and you're talking about 6 and 6 and 6 or 7 and 5, and they're not going to have them ranked. They're an interesting one. I'm looking at the AP poll ballots. You can go to college poll tracker.com, and they got all, everybody's AP poll ballot in a grid form. And Michigan is the one that is all over the map. Now, I don't see anybody with Michigan above number 10.

I think number 10 is the highest that they're ranked in any of the, oh, excuse me, number nine. Number nine is the highest Michigan's ranked in any of these polls. But then you also see them as far back as number 23. And I think that's a really interesting team because, again, we do not know how much better the offense will be, if at all. We assume that Bryce Under will make the offense better, but he's a true freshman.

He's a true freshman. He'll have a good running game. He should have a good offensive line. We don't know about their receivers. Usually they can throw out of the tight end at Michigan. I don't see that changing. But again, their receivers are unproven. So what is Michigan going to be?

Because defensively, I think they're going to be fine. I think if you look at Michigan last year, Wink Martindale's defense, early on, it's a guy who came from the NFL adjusting to the college game. By the end of the season, he was very much adjusted to the college game. Wink Martindale was calling a great scheme by the end of the season. And even in the bowl game in Alabama, when they had most of their starters at Alabama and Wink Martindale's playing with a lot of his backups from last year, they look awesome.

So I think Michigan's defense is going to probably float them into the top 20. But then it's really what the offense does. And I think it's probably a good spot. Like 14 is probably a good spot. But then if Rice Underwood's really good, then it'll be too low. But it's very interesting to see how all over the map they are. Because they're a tough one to peg. Another one that we've been talking about a lot in the offseason, Texas Tech.

I'm looking here. The highest I see Texas Tech is John Wilner, our friend from the Bay Area, News Group was Mr. Pact 12 before there was no more Pact 12. John has Texas Tech at number 10. That's the highest I see Texas Tech. Given the money Texas Tech is spent, given how the Big 12 works talent-wise, this is where they want to be. This is where they expect to be.

They expect to win the Big 12, be ranked in the top 10. near the top 10. But not everybody's got them there. They're kind of all over the map as well. You see them as far back as number 23. I'm trying I see a number 24. Yeah, they go as far back as number 25. So huge range of opinions about Texas Tech, which we have no idea what they're going to look like. We know what they did in the transfer portal. We know that their roster has been upgraded on paper, but the question is, how good will they be on the field? So this will be a fascinating year because there will be teams that are in the top 10 here that wind up unranked. There will be teams that are unranked that probably wind up in the college football

playoff. Now, you're looking for this year's Indiana. I think the this year's Indiana thing's been a little bit overplayed because Illinois is sitting at 12 in the AP poll. They won 10 games last year. Indiana isn't far off. Indiana is sitting at 20. I think we may be sleeping on Indiana here. And I had those way too early polls. I haven't done one since the spring.

I'm probably going to have to do one again here in the next few weeks. I think I've missed read Indiana. I actually think the next time I do it, I may have Indiana near the top 10 or maybe even in the top 10 because I think they're going to be about what they were last year. And I do realize they play itself for schedule, but they beat the crap out of the teams they beat last year. I'm not sure that's going to change. So that Indiana Illinois game on September 28th, excuse me, September 20th, is a huge one.

They have a stretch, though, that will define their season. Illinois comes to Bloomington. The following week, Indiana goes to Iowa. Two weeks later, Indiana goes to Eugene. If they're two and one in that stretch, I think Indiana is in the playoff again. I do. And I think you'll see them ranked in the top ten.

That's the stretch right there. Miami we're going to learn a lot about them early they have Notre Dame right out of the gate they have Florida in week four and again this is another team we don't know much about new quarterback and Carson Beck coming off a pretty catastrophic elbow injury basically new defense the the defensive linemen that were really good you're Rubin Bain and you're Akeemessador they're still there but second level third level they made a lot of change especially in the secondary they bring a new coordinator and Corey Heatherman so a lot a lot going on we have a poll we have a lot to argue about but what I find

interesting at top eight doesn't seem to vary very much for everybody so I think if you want to draw a dividing line it's that group of eight is where we get the national champion from. So I'll read the list again. Texas, Penn State, Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oregon, Alabama. Put them in any order you want. That's where the national title is going to land.

Somewhere in there. Someone from that group is winning the national title. Maybe I'm wrong, but that feels like a pretty safe group right there. And it's a much bigger group, I'd say, than the last 10 years. The last 10 years, that would have been some of years three teams, some years 14, some of years five teams, maybe six. But I don't think we would have gone all the way to eight.

I definitely think the net is wider. And who knows? Maybe I'm completely wrong. And it's somebody from outside that group, but we will find out. When we come back, Ari's back. Also, on three's Pete Nacos joins us. And we will go. over the most important non-quarterbacks in the country right now.

So we're going to make a concerted effort to not talk about quarterbacks because we've talked about quarterbacks all offseason over and over again, all practically not all, but most of the preseason national title contenders breaking in new QBs. So clearly we were fascinated with the subject, but there's a lot of really important players who do not throw the ball. Ari, we got to talk about some of these guys. Yeah, I mean, the thing that is interesting about this college football season, we set it time and time again,

is that there are a million quarterbacks everywhere that are super interesting or very good or both. So it's really hard to get through this off season without fixating on those guys. But our guy, Pete Naco, wrote a story in the last few days that caught my attention. I don't know if you've noticed this thing with me and Pete, but I'm going to start this mind-meld thing where if he writes a call, I'm going to write something that goes with it,

and then we're going to link to each other's stories because we did that a few times. And I'm going to write another one because I looked at his list and I thought it was a very good list of players that are most impactful that aren't quarterbacks. And I think there's like 50 other players that are under the radar that we're going to discuss today too. But, like, yes, I'm excited to talk about football

in a way that isn't just who's good at throwing the ball. Yeah. And now one of these guys we're going to talk about makes everybody throwing the ball better. next guy we're going to talk about crushes the people who throw the ball. So you'll see where we're going with this. But let us bring on the great Pete Nacos.

And I think that it's also kind of great, too, because I think you could make the case that Pete is our guy. Like if we had to make an on three list of players that we could need to afford to lose, I think Pete would be the choice. So, Pete, welcome to the show. It's good to see your beautiful face. Unlike Jerry Jones, Shannon Terry did lock Pete.

down. Michael Parsons may be headed toward free agency or a trade request or whatever. Pete Nacos. If I guess if a media member were to announce that he wants to trade on social media, Pete would break it. But welcome to the show. What's up, Ari? Actually, before we get started, because this is very interesting. Do you think you will get the first college football trade request story? I think you will. I mean, I hope so. I think we're closer to like holdout territory than trade request territory, but we'll see what happens.

What about hold-ins? I love the hold-ins in the NFL where they just get to kill. That's more of hold-in. You can't go anywhere. That's the one thing about college football. Like, if the school doesn't pay you, you really can't go anywhere, though, at this point in the year. Yeah. Yeah.

Holdouts are interesting. Yeah, because if there's nowhere to transfer to, James Cook just held out, but went to the practice and, like, was on the exercise. like the whole time and then was asked about it over the weekend buffalo bill's running back for those who aren't aware um he just said it's business baby it's just business uh and i feel like if i were to hold out of anything i would just be like it's business baby it's business well i i am actually glad we we veered the conversation this way because the number one guy on pete's list who's the number one guy on everybody's list if they're doing this sort of list the the most

valuable non-cubes in college football i would argue this is the most valuable player in college football I'm glad we get to talk about him now as a player because I'm worried that this time next year, the only thing we're going to talk about with Jeremiah Smith is why does he have to play college football? We're going to, it'll be the Jadavian Clowny junior year discourse times a billion. So now we get to enjoy Jeremiah Smith as a player fully formed coming off a national title. Pete, you can start. Why is he so important and what does he do? that nobody else can do.

I mean, for starters, he's probably the best player in college football going in the season, I would argue, and then on top of that, too, I mean, people don't move like him in college football. Like, it's, you know,

there's Jeremiah Smith, and then there's everyone else. And that's not to, you know, I think enough people have said a nice, nice things about Jeremiah Smith, but the reality of the situation is that he could probably go be a top five pick in the NFL,

draft if not number one overall this spring and he obviously can't and i think like you said that's going to be a huge talking point in the next like 18 months um but the fact that that's actually a thing that he could go do just makes him you know he's easily the top non-quarterback in college football i had a buddy in town this weekend uh the person that i met my wife through and we were laying on the couch and something came up on my phone together yeah well it's a really big couch and it's a big couch that's true i i guess i've laid on it with you we were both on the same blanket and like there were still like five yards between us it's not we weren't sharing a blanket and cuddling although why why can't bro is just there's anything wrong with that non-sexual

i don't know uh but anyway jeremiah smith came up on the tv or on my phone or something and i said this is going to be the greatest receiver that ever lived in 10 years and he got super mad And he's like, oh, yeah, I'm sure, like, we can just say that about a guy who's played college football one year. We're just going to, you know, put it out there and say he's to be better than Randy Moss, right? Like, and it's like, yeah, like, I get, like, the pushback on it. But, like, that's where I am in, like, my Jeremiah Smith evaluation. Like, I expect, unless he's a pro football Hall of Fame or, like, something went wrong. And I don't know if you guys think that's insane.

But, like, I feel like it was very easy to spot this coming, you know, a year ago. spoke about it on the show about how he's already one of the better players in college football a little bit earlier than everyone else. Like my expectation for him is that not only is he going to, you know, outside of injury or something bad happening, be great in college. I think he's going to be a generational receiver in the NFL too and a Hall of Famer. Like, that's who that person is to me. Pete, you cover this more thoroughly than anybody else.

What did Ohio State have to do to keep Jeremiah Smith this year? because, like, I'm sure everybody said, what the hell? Let's at least try. Yeah, I mean, so you go back, I think we were reporting in January, or late January, early February after that national title game that he had a deal on like the $4.5 million range to go in the portal. I had someone else tell me this spring that, like, they were told they had to pay $6 million to get him in the portal.

The point is that Jeremiah Smith is going to be like a top three paid player in college football this season. We'll have to see how some of the numbers shakeout with some quarterbacks when it comes to, you know, incentives or checking things off the list or things like that in terms of winning awards. But, yeah, Jeremiah Smith's going to be a top three paid player in college football. And, you know, it's, I agree with our year. I think that, you know, what he did his freshman year was, you know, nothing short of insane.

I don't really know what we should expect the standard to be this year just because what he did as a freshman is something that not a lot of wide receivers do in general in their college career. So I guess that the bar is to at least do what he did last year. And then, but yeah, he will be a top three

paid player in college football this year. Well, and we talk about comparison. I don't mean to interrupt you, but this is important. I think it's how many, players in college football in general, quarterbacks included, do you pay more or want more than Jeremiah Smith? And Pete, you cover this

stuff. Will we ever get to a point where a player will be at a place like Bama or Georgia or Ohio State or Clemson or USC or any of the big time brands who will be very successful and have the season like Jeremiah Smith have and then leave for more money? Like, is that, are we

around the corner? Because I always feel like the Jordan Addison thing is the number one most shocking or most I don't know shocking but like most ground shaking when it comes to the future of college football like are we going to see star players that made programs leave because they're not like or is that I don't think we're far off from that and I don't want to like you know I'm not trying to over hypothesize here but I think that you know like Jeremiah Smith's going to sign another deal to go back to Ohio State for a third year like there's going to have to be that negotiation process there's going to be more portal windows for

Colin Simmons, like, it's not outside the realm of possibility that in like six months we're having conversations about some of the top players moving around. And, you know, I think time will tell which guys do it and stuff. I always think of that Jordan Addison one too, Ari. Like that one, you know, that was a spring portal transfer that really shocked a lot of people. Do we get back to something like that? I don't know. The reason why that one was so important, though, is because it shocked the paradigm of middle tier program losing to elite program. The thing that I think will be really interesting is if a player

who becomes a star at a big time program, which is the epitome of where you want to be for NFL draft stuff, like Jeremiah Smith is in no, cannot improve his placement in the sport as a draft pick, but also doesn't matter because he's Jeremiah Smith.

But like we always talk about NIL is not as big of money as the NFL money. Like, well, we see players at big time programs who are surefire first round draft picks leave their spot. Like I think that would be an absolutely crucial shift in the paradigm of roster building

if that were to happen. No, 100%. I mean, I like to look at it this way. So like when you were signed a four-year, $4.3 million contract with the Dolphins, right, picked in the seventh round. You know, he got like $130,000 signing bonus and everything.

I mean, there was more money on the table for him to go on the portal. And he chose the NFL because, you know, He just won the NFL that he was kind of done with his college career after all those transfers. But I think that we're not far off from more and more players like a Quinn Uers to come back to college. I mean, we saw it with Carson back. I don't, I don't know if we're ever going to get to like a first round pick that like passing on the NFL just because of how, you know. Well, what about a first round pick changing his college? But I think this is going to be like the NFL like you never let a you never let a good quarterback hit free agency.

You never let, like, the Cowboys are probably going to sign Micah Parsons to, they're probably, they'll just reset the market. Like, eventually they'll cave. But you just don't let players like that hit free agency. And I think it's the same thing. Like, there's probably no dollar amount. And obviously, everybody has a high end of their dollars. But Ohio State has to keep Jeremiah Smith. Can't not keep him.

Yeah. I mean, Alabama didn't lose Caleb Downs, and he might be a top five pick this spring. Yeah. There are some examples. But they're saving and just retired. Yeah. that wasn't financial only was it like oh no gosh no no no you know yeah it will be interesting like if you like look at the list that you have and it's like if colin simmons is suiting up for south

carolina next year like that type of thing you know what i mean where a person or like a short moves yeah but like that even then i'm talking about like i can understand and i don't know if this is offensive to some people but it's a show and i offend people so have at it like if you leave from Texas to South Carolina, that would be unprecedented. If you leave from South Carolina to Texas, that would be a Jordan Addison like move that's already happened. Like I'm talking about like a teams that are men versus dog bites man. Yeah. Teams that have a incredibly valuable proven asset that are also competing for a national championship not paying enough to keep their best players. Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk Jeremiah Smith and because you mentioned

Randy Moss in the comparisons. So if I were to physically compare Jeremiah Smith to Randi. And Randy Moss, we didn't get the full view of Randy Moss in college because the rules were different. He got, you know, kicked out at Florida State. Notre Dame couldn't sign him. He ends up in Marshall. But Jeremiah Smith, same height, ranginess and speed, but bigger.

If you're, if you were compared. The physical comparison I would do is Larry Fitzgerald. probably, but also probably a little more athletic, which is saying something. And it's crazy to me because I was going back through this. Larry Fitzgerald redshirted his freshman year at Pitt. So we only got two years of Larry Fitzgerald in college. And year one was pretty good. He had a thousand yards receiving like 65 catches.

And then he had like 1,700 years receiving his junior year or his redshirt sophomore year. We've already seen Jeremiah Smith on a team with another first. round receiver in a mecca abuka go for 1300 yards and that's in a year where people were yelling at ohio state and chip kelly when he's the oc like why are you not throwing it to this guy more yeah it's uh you know the other interesting conversation i feel like we're going to be having about jeremiah smith come you know august 30th the the first week of september like if things don't go great against Texas for Ohio State, and there's a legit quarterback question mark still going into September. The conversation about, like, we have the best wide receiver in college

football, and we can't get him the football like that is just going to be, you guys are going to spend a lot of time talking about that if things don't go a certain way on August 30th, I think. Ari, you tell me, if you're Ryan Day, at some point have you gone to Jeremiah Smith and be like, which QB do you want? Yeah. Things would have to go really bad if they can't figure out a way to get on the ball. Yeah, but he's also, I mean, he's going to be double-teamed. We saw that in the semi-final game, right? You know, like, it's not, I mean, Jeremiah Smith is Jeremiah Smith.

He's going to be able to get past the double team here and there. But at the same time, I think there's going to be a ton of pressure on. If somebody set a line on like Jeremiah Smith's like production, And just the line was his last year's stats. Would you take the over or under this year? Over. You would? Yeah, because Emeka, Buka, like, I don't think Cardinal Tate is going to be as productive as

Emca Buka. Emeka Buka was a thousand-yard receiver, too. I think Jeremiah is going to have to do a little more. But that said, Cardinal Tate and Brandon Innes are good enough to take the heat off Jeremiah Smith, plus the run game is going to be good. Yeah, and aren't people, like, also freaking out about how good, and Graham is, Pete. Yes.

Yeah. They have, I don't know if I buy that they don't have a mecca argument. Like, they'll be fine. Maybe they do. You're right. Maybe they do have another first rounder because they, like, what are we talking about? This is the Brian Hartline era of Ohio State receivers. They've always got multiple first rounders on the roster.

It's just a matter of which years they're first rounders in. That's interesting about a me to me. And, you know, Pete, you watch Ohio State a lot too, having, you know, lived in Columbus and stuff, is that Emeka Egg Buka, I think is the highest is he holds the record for most receiving yards on Ohio State history, right? I believe so is. And he is

certainly productive and consistent. You hear Baker Mayfield and Tampa talking about how awesome he is. He's a really, really good player. A mecha egg Bucca went through his entire career at Ohio State and never had, in my opinion, sensational moments week over week that, like, receivers

like Tedkin Jr. had and San Antonio Holmes and people that went through that program. He was the model of consistency, but he wasn't sensational in the way that Jeremiah Smith is. I remember more, I remember more like Crystal Lave and Garrett Wilson games.

Yeah, Garrett-Wilts and Krzalave highlights. A Mecca's career did not mirror those careers. And I think Ohio State will have no issue finding somebody else to be consistent. My question is if defenses sell out every week to make sure they don't get torched by Jeremiah. Maybe they don't have the athletes to do it, but the main emphasis and focus of every game that Ohio State plays,

especially considering the fact they don't have their two running backs they had last year. Like, who do you sell out for if you're facing Ohio State's office? You sell out for Jeremiah. Which Texas did, which gets you burned by Trayvion Henderson. Yeah. But like I think that we might have more games this year of eight receptions for 80 yards than he's had in the past because of the emphasis to try to stop it. And that doesn't mean he's not good or great.

It just means that it's going to be really harder for him to navigate. And he'll still navigate that and have great games because he's really that good. But I don't know if like the expectation is he has to have 1,700 yards receiving to have a successful year this year. So we have to talk about another Ohio State player in a second. But I want to talk about the number two guy on Pete's list because this is this person as a true freshman like Jeremiah Smith came in, complete freak of nature, changed. his team dramatically, but also is losing a very productive guy at the same, much like Jeremiah Smith, losing a very productive guy at the same position who probably helped him take a little pressure off. So we're talking about South Carolina, edge Dylan Stewart,

came as a true freshman, 6-5-250, everything you want in edge rusher, had a great freshman season. Yeah. Now everybody knows him, everybody's worried about him, but no Kyle Conard on the side. Yeah, you know, I've talked to Dylan Stort in June, and the one thing about Dylan Stewart you learn very quickly is he's not one to talk a lot, right? But when you start to talk to him about, like, sacking people and celebrating tackles for loss, like it's like the cake comes out in him. I see Dylan Stort taking another step forward. Now, obviously, in a similar Van of Jeremiah Smith, you know, more teams are going to prep for trying to stop Dylan Stort.

He was, I believe he was just short of Jadavia and Clowney's freshman record at South Carolina, which kind of paints the picture of how impactful he was last year. But I do think losing Kyle Kinnard, they brought in a couple guys in the portal who would try to help him, but like trying to replicate what Kyle Kinnard did to let Dylan Stort get after the quarterback is going to. going to be the storyline to watch when it comes to if Dylan's story can replicate what he did as a true freshman.

I look at that picture that we always use of him and it's just like, that was that a person. That's a football player. Yeah. I think that that picture alone. Yeah. That's, that's he's a real player in a lab. I've never looked at the sports illustrated body issue, but that guy

should be in it, right? Well, that was the ESP in the magazine. We had the swimsuit issue. Yes, sorry. ESP in the magazine. If they still had the body issue, no, they don't have ESP in the magazine anymore.

The body issue is the commercial they did when they first came out. They were they making fun of the swimsuit issue. And they were like all nude tastefully done. That's what the body issue was. It was all nude tastefully done. So I, but it was fascinating to see like how different sports. how the perfect body looks different for different sports that's the perfect body to rush the quarterback like that's what you would make he's he's long but he's also he's also big like pete i

think you said he'd put on muscle he's up to like 256 when you talk to him like that's a scary scary dude because he moves really well yeah he moves really well and you know the other thing about Dylan's story I learned about him when I talked to him that I found interesting. And I know every edge rusher tells you this, but he got so animated when we talked about when people hold him. Like he's like, he's like, I never would have done the gun celebration if they weren't holding me. And the rest didn't call.

I was like, okay. Like, yeah. I think Dylan's story is already pissed off, you know, and he's one of those guys who's just getting pre-held. Yeah. He's already, like, pissed off about the holding calls that are going to come. the kind of guy who's like finding ways to get pissed off. Then you add that with what he did in the weight room.

I was told he, you know, ripped off like about 20 reps with 225 pounds on the bench. He's up to 256. I mean, he has everything he needs to be a top overall pick in a couple of years and what he can do on the field this year. You know, and we were just talking money with Jeremiah Smith. I feel like I got to bring it up. What South Carolina did and holding on to Dylan Stewart and Lenorese and Sellers is pretty remarkable. right because we don't think of South Carolina in that vein yeah but they had to if you if you want to have anywhere near the season you had last year to keep both of them now I do wonder will teams do to Dylan Stewart what they did to Jadavia and Clownie his last year because that I remember I went to the their first game was against North Carolina that year this is Clowney's junior season so he's coming off the last game he played was that outback bowl with the hit on Vincent Smith that popped his helmet off they ran away they they would line up, see what side of Judev and Clowny was on,

and if the play wasn't going away from Judevian Clowny, they'd flip it, and they would just run away from him over and over to make him sprint the length of the field before he had to actually rush the passer. And they gassed him. So Dylan Stewart, get ready to run the opposite direction because I bet a bunch of teams are going to do that.

Yeah. No, there's going to be a lot of that. it's funny to look at Pete's list because you have some you know more names from the same schools on there oh yeah oh yeah well okay well we'll talk Caleb Downs you're going to hear from Caleb Downs later in the show but Caleb Downs is the other Ohio State player on your list he's number three you know it's kind of neck and neck him and Dylan Stewart and Colin Simmons at Texas with potentially most impactful defensive player but Caleb Downs is the most veteran of these guys and you'll see when we talk to him i mean this guy sounds like

he's been in the NFL for 13 years already yeah and i think the experience of transferring from alabama being able to play for nick saving has probably matured him beyond his years um what he did as a freshman and then making an decision to leave after saving retired and then going down to georgia and i stay and picking between those two and then you know he had a great like final stretch of the 2024-25 season at Ohio State. By no means was he like bad at the start of the season, but you know, you could tell he was kind of like trying to figure it out and then he finished really strong.

So it's going to be interesting to watch what he can do in his second year now at Ohio State. Yeah, and the one play last year that he made that people forget about is the punt return for a touchdown against Indiana that just like suck the soul out of their bodies because it's like, okay, their safety is just going to just be better than everybody on the field and just gallop to the end zone. Like the difference between really, really good teams and the teams that win the national

championship are the ones that have the players on the field that just do things that everyone else can't do. And I think that he falls into that category. The other thing is, and again, you'll see when you hear from him, this guy is so smart. And when you're in the position he plays, you have to communicate really well. You have to get everybody else kind of lined up. And that's what he's capable doing. Ohio States, it's interesting because their defense doesn't return a ton of starters, but they do return two guys in Sunny Stiles and Caleb Downs at second and third levels of the defense who can communicate everything that needs to be communicated.

Obviously, it's a new defensive coordinator, Matt Patricia, but these are guys who are veterans who've seen everything, who've done everything, who can tell everybody where they need to be. So I think that's pretty critical. Caleb Downs, I mean, this is everything you want. and I'm trying to think the guys on your list I love Colin Simmons your next one the edge from Texas Pete what is it about him that makes him so special you know it's you know if Jeremiah Smith wasn't a freshman in college football last year like I think we would have talked nonstop about Dylan Stewart and Colin Simmons just because of how impactful he was right away and you know

SEC off freshman team, 14 tackles for loss. He was a five-star, and then he lived up to the hype right away. And I think the other thing that has made the difference for him early in his career is what he's done to get his body right in terms of just being able to step in right away at Texas and play right away and making an impact. And I think there's a lot of excitement about what he can do at Texas in year two. And he's going to be a big, you know, if they contend for a national title and all that, he's going to be a big reason why.

And he's a reason why there's not a lot of questions about the Texas defense right now. And there's another player on the list that also plays into effect that Dylan Stewart and Colin Sims weren't spoken about enough, and that's Ryan Williams, because he was a true freshman as well. Yeah.

Yeah, well, the thing about Ryan Williams that I find the most interesting is he just exploded on the scene. I think the Georgia game was the one that the world really took notice, but he was already putting up big numbers. he actually tailed off at the end of last season and it may have been hitting a freshman wall it may have been everybody just sort of focusing on him I'm really excited because I think he's the one

out of this bunch of sophomores that we're talking about that can make the biggest freshman a sophomore leap because if he can put up numbers for an entire season that look like the first half of last season that's like Heisman contender stuff yeah yeah I mean

you know I think what Dylan Stort did as a freshman last year was, you know, I think he kind of set the bar as a true freshman, but Colin Simmons has everything. It takes to be the past rusher. He takes the biggest jump from freshman in sophomore year. Well, I'm talking about Ryan Williams, though. I'm talking about Ryan Williams.

Can he put a whole season together like the first half of last season? Because I think if he can, it's going to get crazy. Yeah. You know, I talked to Ryan Williams in June, too, and he was telling me how him and Jeremiah Smith, had a chance to catch up this offseason. And it was, you know, there was obviously some joking around the stuff. And then they had a kind of honest conversation about how Jeremiah Smith had the better

freshman year. And Ryan was like, well, we're going to probably be back here at this EA photo shoot in a year. I'm going to have the better season. Like, so he has this mindset right now. Like, okay, like I can do this. I can put together the full season. I should be in the same exact conversation as Jeremiah Smith.

So he has that standard for himself. I think he can do it. You know, I think the big thing, too, for Ryan Williams is they built up a wide receiver room around him, right, Jeremy Bernard was next to him last year. He's back. They brought an Isaiah Horton from Miami, which I think can make a, you know, maybe take a little bit of pressure off Ryan in terms of, okay, now there's three guys that secondaries have to be worried about in the Alabama passing game.

The thing that I'm just most impressed by with Simmons and Stewart, though, is the type of dominance they displayed at a very physical and hard positions. to play like i i think receiver would you say that receiver is the easiest path from high school to football in the entire sport and and that's not to take away from jeremiah smith's physical ability but what what position the further away from the football is is what the coaches say the further away from the football you are the easier it is to pick up so receiver in corner would be the two yeah and i mean corners i would say an inherently harder position to play than receiver in general so uh you know not taking away again from ryan williams and

Jeremiah Smith, and especially Smith, who is a, you know, he physically was ready to play any position they needed him to play. But the Simmons-Stewart stuff was just insane to me. Well, while we're talking about the ones that are more developmental, that you don't, you know, usually not great right away. We see some people. But this is a guy who's in his third year and your only offensive lineman on the list, Pete. I want to talk about Spencer Fenno. And producer River, play the clip. tonight will be the night that i will fall for you over again don't make me change my mind

i won't plan to see another day i swear it's true because a girl like you's impossible to find impossible to find you're terrified now right You play Utah. You're terrified because that dude's going to run you over. Anybody who knows anything about true love knows that those lyrics are complete nonsense. Okay. Don't make me change my mind. You think Britt wouldn't change her mind if she had the ability to do that? She saw Spencer.

If Spencer Fenno was singing lulling, luclural lullabies in her ear competing with Set It Off in her right? Yeah. My actual viewpoint on that. love is that if you get married because you think that that's the right thing to do or your love is predicated on rational thought, you're probably not going to have a long marriage, but if your marriage is based on the fact that you like are physically and emotionally and, you know, your soul is attracted to that person for reasons you can articulate, like that's the real love. So don't make me change my mind. Get out of here.

Listen, I'm not questioning Spencer Fenno on anything because this is a dude. He didn't write those bum-ass lyrics. Oh, exactly, exactly. He just appreciates late stage emo. But this guy is, first of all, in the Big 12, kind of a unicorn. We don't see odds of linemen like this in the Big 12 often. but Utah has him and then low move their left tackle is also really good but I'm so excited to see him blocking for Devin Dampeer because I mean this

this guy is a just mauler of a run blocker and this team's going to run the ball down your throat yeah you know the other thing with Spencer fan of that I think is impressive he started 24 games like you just don't get that in college football a lot and offensive tackle who has this much experience and then you add in the fact that it's in the big 12 where you just don't get as much as much. any elite offense tackles the way Spencer Fano is. And then, you know, I mean, he had a 93 PFF grade last year, top returning offense tackle in the sport.

And then I think he's taking a step forward to. He's like six foot six, three hundred two pounds now. He's going to be a top pick in next year's draft. It's what he can do in terms of just giving Devin Dampe year a little bit more time to, especially as a first year, Big 12 starting quarterback. Like, he's going to be a huge piece of what you, talking to this year um part of the podcast is to promote the work there are other there are other people on his list uh pete's list that is that you should go check out and read and he i know

that we're probably getting towards the end of this but i wanted to throw some names out there go for it yeah because he wants to do a competing column here pete so yeah okay here we got and pasted your headline pete just now during the show into mine. And mine says 10 valuable and overlooked non-quarterbacks in college football. Because they might not be the most. It's kind of hard to argue with your list because a lot of the people on your list are just the best players in college football. But what about important players that are over, that could be the make or break for their team that aren't just like Dylan Stewart? And I've got a list here. We don't have to break through all of them. But let's

talk about them. And Andy, I want you to push back. And I'm going to start in your hometown right now, or you're a current town. And that's Dallas Wilson for Florida. And I know you had another idea for Florida, too. But is that a, that's a person that I think could have a Ryan Williams, Jeremiah Smith type arc this year. Yes. Yeah.

And the thing about it is I was talking to somebody, I was on the stadium and Gale show, which is a really good Florida-centric podcast. And we were talking about them getting Dallas Wilson because they flipped him from Oregon. I mean, he'd actually signed with Oregon and then flipped over, but was an early enrollee at Florida. I can't imagine in this day and age, like, because Oregon got to Corey and Moore, who was the number one receiver in last year's class, who also was on my list, by the way, of Correct.

So, like, I don't know that you could actually have these two guys show up on the same team. Like, I think this was going to have to happen where he goes somewhere else. But we were talking about, when's the last time Florida had somebody who was big and rangy and scared you on the outside? Like, they had Kyle Pitts as a tight end who was a matchup nightmare. but at receiver it's been a while since they had a big time you know receiver prospect the guys and i were talking about like percy harvard's a different species so we're going to leave him out of it but it was like we're talking about like andre caldwell and chad jackson

that's like over 20 years ago so it's been a while since florida's had somebody like this that they were that excited about yeah and i think too that like the size of a person and i i don't know if i'm like being prejudiced when i say this like ryan williams and jeremiah sman but, like, I'm far more willing. Like, I think that Ryan Williams' production, although he's sensational, would be harder to duplicate than Jeremiah Smith's because of physical traits. And there are different players,

but, like, Jeremiah Smith's physical traits are just physically unstoppable. You know what I mean? You look at Jeremiah Smith and you go, I can't cover that. You look at, say, Devante Smith, who nobody could cover, but you don't assume that right out of the gate.

My Williams could do that, because he's very fast. He runs great routes. And, like, again, not negging anybody in the great conversation. But, like, Jeremiah Smith is 6'4, 220 pounds. And, like, Dallas Wilson is 6-3-2-10 on his recruiting profile. So, like, who knows what he is now. So that's somebody else.

Let's stick with some wide receivers here, Andy. Yeah, well, and the other Florida one I have is Caleb Banks just because Florida is super deep on the edge, but their interior lines not really deep. And he, Caleb Banks is a, is a, critical piece. So, like, he's got to stay healthy and be good for them. So I'm just going to do a quick role of receivers that I have here on my list, and then we're going to move to a different position. But Decorian Moore at Oregon, Casey Concepcion at Texas A&M, I think Dionne Burks at Oklahoma,

considering what they went through injury-wise last year is somebody, I believe, is going to be very, very good, but also important because of, you know, what happened there last year. And then I have Dane Key at Kentucky also on that list. Am I forgetting anyone? No, but when you put Make or Break guys, like, Decorium Moore might have to be number one on that entire list just because of how much Oregon needs him to step up as a freshman with Evan Stewart's injury. Also, yeah, Evan Stewart. So, yeah, I'm taking notes. Everything that you say to will make my column look better than yours.

So be careful. I'm very competitive. Everything you say can be used against you in Ari's column. You had more time. You had more time. At the athletic. Because when I was at the athletic, during. the college playoff expansion

discourse. Like, anytime anybody wrote a column at the athletic that was pro it, I just took their column and, like, cut and pasted it into a word document and then picked it apart for 25 minutes. Then wrote a column for an hour and just tried my best to destroy their argument. But, like, you know, like...

The Dan Keith thing, like... Sorry, I forgot Noah Thomas. Noah Thomas and George. The day and Keith thing, like, if he blows up for Nebraska this year, like, that obviously changes things for them because you like their run game, we'll see with Dylan Raolo,

but maybe Dylan Raolo didn't have that dynamic receiver. Like, Daneke is that home run threat that changes the way defenses have to play you. So that could be a really interesting one. Yep. Okay, so let's go to some other positions. Harold Perkins is somebody that I've been up with for two years. And I don't know if he's make or break

because he has had some injuries and they've had to live without him. but LSU's defense at times, you know, gave up a lot of, you know, I can't get the Texas A&M game from last year out of my mind when they went to a running quarterback. They just, like, forgot how to play football. Like, what happened to Harold Perkins and is it possible for him to get it back? It's possible for him to get it back, yeah.

You know, what happened to him is a, that's a whole other conversation. I think they're going to put him in a position, though, to be successful this year. Yeah, and the other thing he got. hurt last year. Let's let's not forget. We don't know how good he might have been last year. He got hurt so early. One of the receiver, Ari, that you talk about a lot, and we were talking about before the show, you forgot to mention him, which kind of proves my point. You said that Trevor Pena is critically important at Penn State. I do think he's important at Penn State. People are ranted about this for like 10 minutes.

Yeah, he'd heard all of this, by the way, before we started recording. So he's my witness. I'm your witness. But what happened was I put Trevor Pena on the list, and then I just forgot to write his name in. I'm reading off of a list, the document here, so I didn't forget. But I said, Andy, I'm going to put Trevor Pena on my list. You're going to tell me that you think that he might not be as much of a difference maker as I do because I'm obsessed with him, and then we'll make a bet about it, and then I just didn't say his name.

So did I just like lose out of the gate? Because the thing about it is Penn State has three guys that they got out of the portal. They need them all to produce. But if two of the three are produced, then they'll still have a better receiving cordon they had last year. But it's Kyron Hudson who came over from USC, Devante Ross who came from Troy and Trevor Pania, who came from Syracuse. Trevor Pena is very reliable, like catches a bunch of balls. He's not going to have a huge per-catch average, or at least didn't last year working with Kyle McQuarrant. at Syracuse, but I think could be really important for them because if you could move

the chains every once in a while through the air, that just gives you more at-bats. And so, but I think Devante Ross might be the guy. Like, he was Troy's leading receiver. Like, they just, Penn State's got to have somebody dynamic at some point. I got some hashtag stats here. Go for it. Go for it. I hate stats.

I think they're stupid and can be manipulated. But there were three players, let's do some trivia, three players who had 100 receptions last year. Do you know the player? One was the tight end at Penn State. Tyler Warren. Tyler Warren. The other two, it's going to be hard to get,

but you'll know when I say it. Is that opinion? No. Harold Fanon, the tight end from Bowling Green, and Nick Nash, a receiver at San Jose State. Yeah. There were 15 other players that had at least 80 receptions. Jalen Newell, I'm that guy, Buka, Trent Walker, Tess Johnson, True Edwards, T-Mack, Giles Jackson, Jailch, Jailch, Jaden Higgins, Josh Kelly,

Brendan Presley, Jamal Pritchett, and Tanner Colsey, the tight end who has transferred. Has he transferred again? He's in Houston now. I didn't know if he went again after we started recording. But my thing here is Pena is on that list, and he had 84 receptions last year. And like the thing with you and I, I think, where we don't see eye to eye with it is like, I'm not trying to create Trevor Pena as Jeremiah Smith monologues. I'm not trying to, I don't even know if he's Dallas Wilson.

We haven't even seen him play yet. But what I do know is the man fills it up and he moves the chains. And he doesn't have to be, you know, a NFL number one receipts. in order for him to have a major impact on this team. If on third and six, they feel comfortable moving the football because they have a guy who can get open and will catch the ball when it comes to him, like, I think that that impact for Penn State is every bit as dramatic as a home run hitter would be somewhere else. And that I'm with you on that.

I'm saying if two of the three receivers, and it doesn't matter which two, if two of the three transfer receivers hit and then Luke Reynolds at tight end, obviously you're not going to replace Tyler Warren. He was a freak of nature. But Luke Reynolds is going to be good. Like, you're going to have a dynamic offense if that happens. Because the backs are very good.

The line's good. If I can just jump in here, I know you love Trevor Pena. I can respect that and understand that. A lot of people wanted Devante Ross. And that's not saying people want Trevor Penae because Miami wanted Trevor Pena. There's a lot.

I mean, but there are a lot of big 10 schools who wanted DeVonte Ross, who did not get him. What's our bet? Who has more receiving yards this season? Trevor Payne or Devante Ross? Yeah, I like that. I think that's a good bet. We've got to figure out the stakes.

Oh, Ari doesn't like that. I don't know if I want to compare him to somebody else on his own team. If he's that big of a deal, Ari. Okay, let's do it. Let's do it. Okay. I don't know what the stakes would be, but it's not going to be. The stakes are stakes.

The stakes are stakes. Yeah. Steaks with Andy is always, what do I get to eat that I like. That's good. It's not like what you used to do to me at the athletic when I was in the worst shape of my life and humiliate me with physical challenges. I'll do, I'll do. Hey, we can do a physical challenge, too. I don't mind.

Why don't we see how many push-ups you can do and stream it live? I was like, yeah, that sounds great. Yeah, that sounds good. We can do stakes again, but nice stakes. And $80. A good stakes. Yeah. It'll be a day.

And that made you buy me like a $250. dollar steak last time so yeah no $100 steak because there is no bigger what gap you want to go back to the mexican defute debate about like the not there's a huge gap in steak quality like if you and like you got mad at me for saying this but like if you order a choice are really different age is is is very different like but you got mad at me when i was like why are you ordering a steak at texas road house you're like it's good it's like okay it's still good yeah she's the different quality. Yeah, I also didn't pay $100 for it. I know, but if you're at Texas Roadhouse, you're there.

It also wasn't my money. I also had 12 rolls. One reason at Texas Roadhouse. How many ways do you have, Ari? So last night, I went to the Texas Rangers baseball game. Wow. And what I do with me, yeah, but I'm going to tell you, I usually wait till like a half hour before the game starts to buy tickets in like really nice areas because it's a perishable asset and like people start panicking. And me and my buddy went to the game last night and spent 150 bucks and we're like 15 rows up and we were in a section that gave you a wristband where you can go to the all you can eat buffet in the back of the room or the back of the you go into the concourse and you get your own area. I think I ingested

29,000 calories last night. Like, I'm not, I don't even know if I'm exaggerating. And now, I love the deflection. He can't eat more rolls than me at Texas Roadhouse. That's the answer to your question, Pete. He can't. I didn't eat as many rolls. No, and trust me, like, I've never even once purported to be able to eat more than

you. Like, that's, that's something that, but like, I, last night, I think I would have, I think I would have put you to shit. Like, you would have been like, I've never seen you eat that much. Like, I still, like, have a, stomachache right now and a headache. I feel like if you get inspired, you can put on a show. Well, the thing is, too, is like, you know I thrive in the variety environment.

And there's a lot of variety. And the lower quality environment. Like the lower, the higher the variety and the lower the quality, like the mall food court is your home turf. It was basically a cruise ship, but in a baseball stadium. And it was open the entire game until the eighth inning. So you could get up and as it was all you could drink and eat. And it was like at a baseball game.

And we paid $150 for the ticket. It's like if I ate that much of concessions, it would have been a grand. Like how much money I ate or how much money would have cost to pay for all the things I ate? Very good deal. If you're buying tickets. Pete, this is also why I got to get R.A. to Coastal Carolina for a game this year because they have the unlimited concessions. Yeah. With the ticket.

How many? Okay, let's see this real quick. How many hot dogs do you think you could eat? Me? Like just on a regular, like. At the Coastal Carolina game. Four. And then I think I would be cashed.

Four. See, he's not a volume. He's not Joey Chestnut. Ari wants the biggest selection of complete garbage food. Like, if it comes from a crappy gas station, all the better. Like, he craves fast food. Like, I've never once in my life craved a fast food item. Like, if you give me the choice, I'm always going to take the better quality option. And that's the thing I've been trying to fix. He craves fast food.

That's the worst thing about eating, too. If you eat things that are lower quality, nothing is particularly good, but the calories are terrible. I've been trying in my life to focus on, if you're going to eat something that's very caloric, make sure it's also delicious or, like, high quality and good. And I think that's kind of helped me. But at this baseball game, I had a plate with a piece of pizza, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, a Ruben slider, fried shrimp, and, like, cake. And that's, to me, is heaven. Like you can have any, you know, you can have Italian and seafood and Greek food or whatever all. That looks exactly. Wait, what's your, okay, one thing.

That looks exactly the same on the plate as it does in the toilet when you puke it up later. But also, what is your rule for life when we ask the question? What do you always say your rule for life is? Don't eat at restaurants that don't specialize in the cuisine that, in one specific cuisine. What? Yeah, here you are celebrating. it what's wrong with you can we can we just rewind can we just rewind corn on the cob rubin slider like it just rolled off the top you lost me a reuben slider yeah like the russian dressing

sourcrout to really spice this up dude they had loaded tots it's a good baseball game shrimp no that's a buffet it's like a cruise ship you know what i mean where you like that that isn't to me floating golden corral as my friend calls so you ate a rubin slatter and shrimp fried shrimp mac potatoes pizza um bloated pot

um very fresh vegetables on the buffet calamari yeah you know they always colomari so you got crustaceans encephalopods anybody who knows me knows I'm a sucker for fried

fried seafood like that's my that might be my goat food did you have ice cream in a helmet it was it was they had bluebell cups and then they also had like 19 different types of cake they had peanuts they had hot dogs they had it was oh i also had beef brought worst on that point it was amazing um that's what you want at the third inning i couldn't feel the lower half of my body like i was like ill like i almost vomited last night um and i was actually with the same person that i went to the rio buffet in Vegas with who made himself vomit in the middle of that

meal like 12 years ago when you get competing to puke and rally he puked and rally yeah he pulled the trigger on the bathroom took five minutes and then went back to the buffet he pulled a billy bob in the in the washing machine yeah it all makes sense while you were cuddling on the couch yeah he's my guy and that's why i met my wife so uh it worked um but yeah that was a that was a fun show that went off the rails a little bit but you know yes that's the experience here and we're going to close it by letting you hear from the great caleb downs here's caleb downs Here with Caleb Downs from Ohio State, and what has this off-season been like? It's been really fun.

I mean, we've had the opportunity to grow as a team and get to know each other better, especially the new guys that came in that are trying to step up. And we've had a lot of people trying to get better and put themselves in a better position for the season. Caleb, when you want a national title, what drives you in the following off-season? Just the opportunity to do it again, the opportunity to get better. better. The opportunity to prove yourself is always a key factor of it, just wanting to be your best self every day, not necessarily saying we're going to repeat it, we're going to do any of that, just saying we're going to see where we're at when we lift our heads up and

go from there. Because it's kind of like a diet, like for you, if you lose a bunch of weight, like me, when I get down to being skinny, then I've made it, and then it's time to go back up the ramp again, you know? I don't know. It's just like that main motivation to stay locked in. I don't know, man. You look pretty good. I don't know why you're saying. But yeah, you get the ring you got it but it doesn't mean anything this year no i mean the the fulfillment kind of goes away after some point and it's it doesn't it doesn't mean anything to say we won last year if another team could walk in here and say we won this year was that a strange feeling for you when when the fulfillment because i'm sure in that moment you beat notre dame the confetti's falling you did it yeah

when does it feel like oh wait now we have to do something else um i would say from the first workout when we got back, it was like, well, there's still another season to be played. Time doesn't just stop right now. And it's not like people are going to be celebrating the win that we had last year this year. And Coach Mick's been through a few of those. Yeah, he's, I think he's won the most on our staff. So he definitely teaches us a lot more. Okay, what is that first couple workouts?

Like, what does he do to erase everything and start you over? Oh, he's talking trash. A lot of what he does is talk trash and try to get in people's heads. So he does that at an elite level and makes people push themselves. He calls himself the motivator. How does he talk trash to you? To me? Like the first couple of days, pretty much it was just, he put me against Jeremiah and was like,

you better figure out what you're going to do. So me and Jeremiah was competing against each other, and it was like, you're still going to have to compete now, even though you guys won. There's a new season coming up, and you've got to do that at a high level. I've been dying to ask you this for six months. Are you ready? Take me through the toss play from 30. goal in the Texas game.

I asked him this after the game, so I was waiting for you to ask. Were you like, oh my God, they're doing this? Literally, every time somebody runs that play with me, I try to just, all you have to do is find one crease. And once you find that crease, it's just you and the ball carry. And I hate watching that play because I missed the tackle, and it actually... Can we talk about Lathan on that play? Oh, my, he saved me.

He got crushed. He saved me. And he still made that. How did he do that? I generally, I got up in the next play, I was like, I appreciate you. I was like, I appreciate you by God. But the thing is, if you're not in there like a missile, what he does doesn't matter because he's by it. No, it's a team effort, and I did what I could do, and he did what he could do.

Now, you said after the game, I remember you said that Georgia had tried to run that against you in the SEC championship game when you're playing for Bama. Like, when you have a play or a situation, how quickly is the recall? Is it as soon as you see formation, motion, it's like, I know this is happening? Formation and motions change it. Georgia ran it in the boundary 1 by 3, and they were running it out of 3 by 1 and 12 personnel. So that was a little bit of a different situation. But just the feeling of the O-Liaman, the way they move on that play, once you feel that, and the running back starts to move towards it.

All right, you're hearing this, right? How he remembers exactly what it looked. Like, do you have a photographic memory? For football, maybe. Yeah, I mean, I honestly would not pick on the best player in college football if I were running up. But it's incredible how the best players in football can remember these situations as they happen. Like, what you just said, that Georgia play happened two years ago. I mean, it has to be, you have to be instinctual and move in the moment,

and I guess that's the really only way that you can do it is if you can recall and remember at the time when it's happening. So last year, you were the new guy with a bunch of dudes that had been in these roles for a long time. Now you are the guy who has been. in a role. Sunny's still there, but it's a lot of guys in roles they haven't been on this defense. How do you help them develop? Really just try to be a sense of calm. I mean, some of the guys that haven't played, but just knowing that they got me, Sunny, guys that have played a lot of snaps can help them grow in the situations that they're going to be in and know what's going to come. And I feel like it's just having a relationship with people. If I know

somebody better and I know them at a high level off the field, then they can trust me on the Caleb, how much does Michigan game drive you and how much does it talk about internally? I mean, for me, at the end of the day, every game is the same. I can't say, oh, I'm going to put more effort in for one game. If I said that to somebody, I would sound weird. If I told you, hey, I'm going to play with more effort against the team of North and Purdue. That would just be, you would say, why would you do that? Why wouldn't you just play hard every game?

So for me, I mean, I try to play the same every game. Caleb, good luck this season. Thank you so much. Thank you. That was awesome. Appreciate you being here. That is Ohio State safety. Caleb Downs, and yes, he sounds like he's been in the NFL for 10 years. It is amazing. He's as smooth as it comes, and you understand why this guy is so good at what he does when you hear him talk.

One of the best players in the country, as Pete pointed out, one of the most important non-quarterbacks in the country. Maybe the best returning defensive player in the country will have to see. he's got a lot of work to do with the rest of Ohio State's defense where he's got to help some guys that have not been in this position before he and Sonny Stiles are going to have to do a lot of work to make sure that those guys know what they're doing when they get in there against Texas in week one. Speaking of which, we are getting really close. We got quarterback duels coming down to the wire. Texas starts at Ohio State.

Is it going to be Julian saying? Is it going to be Lincoln Keenholz? Notre Dame. Is it going to be Kenny Menchy? Is he going to be C.J. Carr? We'll find out. And I guarantee we'll be talking about that all week long. We'll talk to you tomorrow.