Andy & Ari On3 - The Big 12 might have the DEEPEST group of QBs in the country

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

Andy and Ari are live from Big 12 media days!(0:00-1:59) Intro: Sparky is back on the helmet(2:00-9:40) The QB position in the Big 12(9:41-17:03) Kansas State, Kansas(17:04-19:30) Will Oklahoma State turn it around?(19:31-23:24) Utah with Devon Dampier(23:25-26:23) Colorado Discussion(26:24-29:04) Ari sees a trophy(29:05-38:14) Wrapping up the Colorado discussion(38:15-43:10) Could the Big 12 get a title in the next decade?(43:11-48:52) The West Virginia Mountaineer joins(48:53-51:02) Reacting to the early access of the video game(51:03-53:48) Conclusion: Big 12 Group Photo Join the boys from The Star in Frisco, Texas, as they preview the first major conference media days. That’s right. The long offseason is over. Ari wonders if we’re underrating a good group of Big 12 quarterbacks. Big Ten and SEC schools tried to get players like Baylor’s Sawyer Robertson and TCU’s Josh Hoover to enter the transfer portal. They stuck with their teams, but they probably aren’t getting as much shine as they’d be getting in those leagues. But it’s possible the Big 12 is the deepest QB league in the country. What questions should Andy and Ari ask coaches like Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham, Baylor’s Dave Aranda and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham?  Watch our show LIVE, M-F at 9:30 am et! https://youtube.com/live/0aEbVNcpKKg Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Want to partner with the show? E-mail [e-mail]

Welcome to Annie and Ariane 3. We're here. We made it. Big 12 media days. The off season is over. Our long national nightmare has ended. We get fresh football content today. We ran into Kenny Dillingham already. He's looking great. Yeah, the uh, what's the part of the suit that's on the lining? The lining of the suit was Sparky uh he uh look dapper. Oh, we had huge big 12 news yesterday. We should point that out like we didn't talk about this on the

show, but this came out in the afternoon yesterday River roll the clip Sparky the sun devils back on the helmet is the main logo when they're at home. They're going to play in the in the Pat Tillman uniform. They're going to play in the in the best logos in college foo

triumphant return. That's having a head coach who's the same place in the same of course all of the deci are going to align with w to me, Andy, I think the most important thing that college football always seems to be about is tradition. And the number one way that you can honor tradition in the entire world is by what you wear. And there's so many programs that have drifted away from it. And as we were walking by the Big 12 check-in area where we got our credentials this morning, they had all the Big 12 uniforms.

And it's a really pretty... Oh, it's a good group. It's a good group of... Iowa State's got some really nice ones coming out this year, by the way. Yeah, yeah. So I do like the name of the university on the chest plate. I like the logo that Arizona State's working with.

And it's a team that is supposed to be pretty good this year. So it looks really good. We saw Sam Levitt down there. He was looking, looking sharp. We saw Avery Johnson. Avery Johnson is gigantic, by the way, the Kansas state quarterback. Yeah.

I don't think you fully appreciate that when you see him on TV. Yeah, right. And I don't think that people fully appreciate how athletic he is either. Yeah. Which I think is a good segue into the conversation we're probably going to have today.

But yeah, like the, the big 12 uniforms are good, but the big 12 quarterbacks are good. Okay, I think it's the deepest quarterback league in the country. I think if we went down the list of, you know, who feels really good about the, now obviously the BYU thing is an open question. Jake Retzloff is not coming back.

So that does ding it somewhat. But, think about this. And these are guys, some of these guys did get approached by Big Ten and SEC Schools trying to get them into the portal. Josh Hoover from TCU, Avery Johnson, we just mentioned, Jalen Daniels at Kansas, Sam Levitt obviously, probably the headliner

of the group at Arizona State. But Sawyer Robertson at Baylor. I don't have my computer to make me sound smart today, guys, so forgive me. So as we are referencing Big 12 teams, I'm going to do this. Who we got? Devin Dampier. Devin Dampier we forgot about. Baron Morton, Texas Tech.

Rocco Becht. We forgot him. Rocco Becht at Iowa State. Daniels at Beacon State, healthy, right? There's a lot of, you know, and the thing that I think is interesting is, is I think you can make the case that the big 12 is as deep from top to bottom as anybody at the quarterback position. But the thing I wanted to really ask you is,

if you honed in on the top three, do you think that they deserve more place in the national discourse than they've gotten this office? Who are the top three? Cause I can make some art. Right, Sam Levitt's number one, but I can make some arguments. So we Sam Levitt's number one, but I can make some arguments. So we can make arguments for Rocco Becht, Josh Hoover.

We can make arguments for Caden Salters at Colorado now. Like we got some interesting debates to be had. We have Jalen Daniels, who should be healthy, and Soria Robertson, I think. You know, that's one of those situations where he was not the starter coming in the season. They had gone out and gotten Dequan Finn out of the portal. Sory Robertson, remember, is a Texas guy from Texas, went to Mississippi State to play for Mike Leach. Mike Leach passes away and he ends up transferring. He wound up being incredible in that offense. And that was

that was Jakes Bapital's first year as the OC. Like, look at how good Baylor was at the end of last season. Yeah, right. And, you know, know there's we were just talking about this at breakfast before we started the show and it was just like wouldn't it be crazy if all the other conferences like the Big Ten and the SEC were as crazy. Unbelievable. We were sitting with somebody at breakfast who said that they had a future on Baylor winning the conference and Andy's like wouldn't it be cool at Big Ten if like somebody had a future that Minnesota was going to win it? Right! And it was real. Yeah, exactly. And that's the thing. So I'm looking at these helmets.

And this is, remember last year, Arizona State was picked to finish last. They won the conference. So I'm looking at all these helmets. So across the bottom row, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, Utah, West Virginia. Of those, Oklahoma State, we don't have high expectations for, but every time we don't, that's when Mike Gunney wins 10 games. Don't know what Rich Rod's going to be at West Virginia, but that was a tough portal situation that they dealt with. Willie Fritz is still building back Houston

as we go across the back, but Colorado obviously lost the Heisman Trophy winner record-setting quarterback, but they were within a game of playing for the conference title. Cincinnati and UCF, we don't know. BYU, we'll see what happens with Retzeliff, but they bring back a lot. Baylor could win the league.

Arizona State just won the league, and Arizona. Well, we'll have to get to you're all moderately. I know we'll talk about them another time. Yeah, but the thing is I just named over half the league as as teams that could potentially win it and there's no other league like that. Here's the thing though too and I'm very curious like I don't know how optimistic you are that a big twelve team can duplicate what Arizona State did in terms of pushing Texas in the first round or making a run in the

college football playoff. But the one thing that is unequivocally true about the game of football, and this isn't even insightful, it's just something that people need to recognize, that if you have eight quarterbacks in a league that you feel really good about, then your likelihood of somebody hitting it big or being better than we anticipated goes up. Like Sam Levitt we knew was good last year. We didn't know he was that good.

Which one of these quarterbacks is gonna be better than we're anticipating and which one's gonna elevate their team to a place that, there's a lot of candidates where you can elevate your team to a place that Arizona State went to last year. And that's what's exciting about it. It's not, it's like, cause I feel like a lot of times when we're at big 12 media day or we're it. It's not, it's like, because I feel like a lot of times when we're at

big 12 media day or we're talking about the big 12, it's always within the con, the conversation is always within the confines of the big 12. Right. We never think, well, what if they do this or that? Then it's like, I think that, you know, I'm the first one to point out that, Hey, they're probably not as talented as some of the teams in the big 10 and the sec, but when you have this many options at quarterback, you can let your mind wander and go like, what if Deon Dampear turns into like prime Michael Vick this year?

Like, you know, like, well, that's the thing. Like Utah actually has the beef on the line of scrimmage. Yeah. If they got in a game against some of these teams we're talking about in the SEC in the Big 10, that they probably could be competitive because look, this is a team.

And I said this a bunch of times and I'll stand by this. They were built in the trenches to win a league that at the time had Oregon and USC and Washington. Like they'll be competitive against those types of teams. You know, if the skill guys come through. It's funny that you bring that up. And I don't know, we, maybe we'll have a 10 minute segment at the end

about my first experiences playing NCAA football online. We can definitely do that. But one of the teams that I played with or against yesterday And I was actually Florida by the way. Oh very nice. They were Utah I heard J Michael Sertavent is is severely overpowered. He's very good I'll tell you the the folks at EA love the the pro football focus rankings Pro football focus loves J. Michael Sertivan, who's the UCLA receiver transfer at Florida. Yeah, and I don't want to blow it.

Like, I am 7-0 online and you don't want to slow. I am 0-1-1 against the CPU. I had very little time to play yesterday. My son has been playing for hours and hours straight. I actually think that the CPU at times is more challenging than playing another human. But anyway, he was playing with Utah and they made damp here really fun. All right.

And I was thinking to myself, what if we got peak Utah, like the Utah that beat USC two years ago in the pack 12 championship game, that was three years ago, three years ago, yeah. Um, on the long line of scrimmage and their defense, and then you add in a ultra-talented freak show of a quarterback into that mix. Are you telling me they couldn't stand the same field with Penn State? I don't want to over-promise and say

that that's going to happen. I don't know that I believe that it will. But I don't think it's inconceivable to think that there's a big 12 team that can do something this year. It's a question we ask about Texas Tech because of what they did in the transfer portal. Did they do enough in the transfer portal,

not just to win this league, but if they do happen to win this league, can they be competitive if they play somebody out of the league? And we've had a conversation about Texas Tech. We had it yesterday with the Felix Ojo commitment. Interestingly enough, Sam Spiegelman from rivals put out an RPM on the number one player in the class of 27, who's an edge rusher from

Savannah, Georgia, put the RPM out that these he might commit to Texas Tech. And so it was interesting because Cody Campbell, who's the former Texas Tech lineman who's now a billionaire from from buying and selling oil leases, he could be his intern, he he tweeted underneath that that tweet that hey, this guy is is for real his five star rating is legit and come on home basically. And there was a Texas fan underneath that said, you're gonna need to stack about five or six years worth of top 10 classes to compete with the big

boys, bub. And then Cody said tweets back at the guy, I'll be here for a long time, bub that's it's the conversation we had yesterday. Like, can you stack those teams? But for this year, Texas Tech, we don't know if they have that. But the guy they just got from Stanford, David Bailey, the Edgerusher. Yeah, he was. Yeah. Is a guy who's getting high around NFL buzz for next year. He's a dude on the line of scrimmage. Yeah. Also, too, that was a late late edition if I don't. Yeah, after spring. Yes, after they already killed it in the portal. They went out and got a guy that wasn't supposed to be available

that was available who now could be and he's probably the most talented player on their team. If you ask an NFL scout, which you know is a nice little. Yeah, I think that like we did spend 30 minutes talking about Texas Tech. I'm sure we'll talk about him again, but I wonder like you actually wanna dive into just like, how good do you think they're going to be this year? Well, I think Baron Morton will tell us a lot about that because there's a lot on his shoulders

and he's been their quarterback for a while. He doesn't have the numbers that Hoover has, that Sam Levitt has. Sam Levitt is a good example like when we had Cody Belair on or no actually it was Clark Brooks. Cody Belair is the one who told us last year Sam Levitt's the one you got to watch for but Clark Brooks was talking about Sam Levitt is the most accurate deep ball thrower in college football and that is very exciting. Yeah yeah it's like when we're doing the show

and I don't I'm out in front of my computer. My mind's going in 800 different directions. The question that I, you know, cause I think Sam Levitt we've already accepted is very good. Yes. Like there's nothing to analyze there. He's a very good player and his PFF numbers I think are through the roof. They are. They love him. And like I think that a lot of people had this notion that's Cam Scadaboo carried the team last year. And I think to a certain extent he did, but Sam Levitt was very functional, very effective in his own right last year.

Extended plays was very slippery and lost his number one receiver target in the process. Right, and Jordan Tyson is back, so. But which of these quarterbacks, if you look at these helmets, do you think is primed or in a position to have the biggest second year jump? I think it may be Sawyer Robertson because he wasn't the guy going into last season. That was a new offense for everybody. Jake Spavitale just gotten hired and like we've seen Spav in these these offenses take off. We did it at Cal.

He did it when he was working with Dana Holgerson at West Virginia. They really did click toward the end of last season and they were probably the toughest out in the league at the very end of the season. So that's the one I'm watching because he's had a full off season as the guy and this offense. Once you master it, you have a lot of answers to what the defense throws at you. Yeah. Avery Johnson now do that. Oh, okay. So Avery Johnson's the one I'm most interested in

because we always talk about that jump from your first year as a starter to the second year because he has all the physical tools you want. He's big, he's fast, he has a huge arm. He's a freak athlete. I don't feel like, because when they kind of sprinkled him in his freshman year when they had Will Howard,

you saw some of the speed. And I think it was the TCU game where he just blazed over TCU for a bunch of touchdowns. But then it felt like they couldn't put that together with him in the passing game. Like you weren't that worried about him just destroying you with his legs, and therefore he wasn't Dominating in the past game because that's one of those things. He's he's not You know, he's he's probably not a 1-1 NFL type guy So he's not gonna pick you apart in the passing game if you're not terrified of the run game

But if you are terrified of the run game Then he should be able to take advantage of those one-on-one matchups. The thing that I think is the most interesting with him is that last year, because of the sprinkling that we saw when Will Howard was there, we got it into our heads that he was a trendy dark horse. Johnny Manziel, yeah. Lamar Jackson type, yeah. And we were talking about Johnny Manziel and Johnny Manziel. Lamar Jackson was was was was my comp because of just because of the way he moved and I went back to like Lamar's freshman year at Louisville when they kind of sprinkled him in at the end.

But then there wasn't that jump like Lamar made this massive jump between his freshman and sophomore really hard to compare my personal opinion. Then we've had this discussion on the show and it's kind of hard to whittle it down to one person, but the best college football player of my lifetime, I think, is Lamar Jackson. It might be Tim Tebow, it might be Reggie Bush, Cam Newton. Those are the four. But I don't think that Lamar Jackson, like if you go back to those Louisville teams. He was unbelievable. And they were not very good around him.

But like to make that comp and not be laughed at last year. Okay. And then also also to Johnny Manziel, say what you want about the guy, but he might have been the most exciting player. He was a dominant college player. So like, you know, these are the, these are the expectations for Avery Johnson. He didn't come close to reaching those and obviously rightfully so, right? Right. But I think that as a result of not reaching those goals last year or reaching that potential or at least the hype that he, you know, had around his name, that we've also now forgotten about what might still be ahead

for it exactly and like that to me the thing that is the most important to acknowledge about him and I've said it three times on the show already is he's not just a fast he's very athletic yeah he's a twitchy guy he can make people miss and if you can put the the passing together like I think he has a chance to be a really, really good productive player in Kansas State. So he's really good. Exactly. That's the other part of it is Chris Kleiman

does such a good job of building that team the right way and having a bunch of good players around the quarterback. Like I think they're going to be again, a team you have to worry about winning this league. And you know, they didn't, they could not put it all together last year. There were a couple of games where, you know, turnovers killed them. So if Avery Johnson makes the leap, you're talking about them as a very viable conversational contender.

Yeah. So many teams. Kansas. I was just looking at Kansas' helmet. Yeah, so Kansas last year lost a bunch of games early in the season they shouldn't have lost. You saw them at the end, like when they beat Colorado, like you knew this team had kind of made the turn and figured it out, but unfortunately,

the first half of the season was so bad that you didn't really get the full experience. But when Kansas is humming, they're a very hard team to beat. Exactly. And I think Lightpole's done a really good job there. And when you think about what Lance Lightpole took over, Ari, it has only been four years since they fired Les Miles on the last day of spring practice.

Think about that. And then last year too, Andy, they had a really tough start and then won a lot of games in the second half of spring practice. Think about that. And then last year too, Andy, they had a really tough start and then won a lot of games in the second half of the season. It was viewed as, he has people in Kansas viewing things as a failure. Yeah, it's amazing how quickly that went,

how they looked at, like the idea of last season being a disappointment to them, if you'd have told them in 2021 that you're gonna win some games, they'd have told them in 2021 that you're gonna win some games. They'd have been like, some games? We'll take some games. They don't win any games. Yes, some games.

But that's a testament of what they've done because the expectations are higher. They are supposed to make a bowl game every year now. They are supposed to compete for the conference title here. Yeah. Who else? Do you want to do your Oklahoma State diatribe of nobody thinks are going to be any good? Here's the thing.

And we're going to have, you know, we're going to talk to Mike Gundy while we're here. And I'm fascinated. And maybe we'll just straight up ask him, how is it that you always come out of nowhere when your back's against the wall? Now the flip side of that question is why is it when there are expectations

you guys don't meet them? Last year, huge expectations. Ollie Gordon was back. They were very bad. But this is the kind of year Rockland State wins 10 games and I don't know why that is and perhaps Mike Gundy can shed some light on that because you know maybe it's they operate better without expectations or maybe that when certain players have huge expectations in that program it doesn't work out quite as well. The thing about the thing about the uh the thing about the uh Oklahoma State program is they're never terrible that's the thing like last year they kind of were at the end of last year. Yeah, but they're always consistently solid and consistently solid while being well coached in years where You know things aren't supposed to be good for you actually can play quite well in this conference

Yeah, if the team gets hot and I think it's been a very good for Gundy. That's the other part of it so they've done a lot to To change what happened last year So like I would love to give you some expert analysis on Oklahoma State, but like they're not gonna tell us who's gonna start a quarterback. Like we're not gonna know a lot about this team. There is a quarterback on Oklahoma State's roster

that I became quite obsessed with during the recruiting process. Oh yeah? House Haney, I don't know if you remember this kid. I went and watched him at a few camps, the Elite 11, you know, qualifiers and stuff. And he was the sharpest, most accurate quarterback out there, Andy.

And the thing that was so crazy to me is that he didn't have a high star rating because he was smaller. He's not as tall as some of the other players. And I wrote this huge column about how it doesn't matter whether or not he comps for the NFL. He was committed to TCU out of high school. Yeah. From the Aledo Fort Worth area.

All you need is a really good college quarterback. That's all these guys want. And I thought that he had a pretty good chance of doing it. He's now transferred to Oklahoma State and is on their roster. So I would look out like, you know how I am falling over somebody during the recruiting process and can't let go of it. But I'm very curious to see if he figures into that that quarterback situation at any point this year.

Yeah, I am. I am very excited to see if he figures into that quarterback situation at any point this year. Yeah, I am very excited to see all of it. Devin Dan Peer is the one that feels like the biggest wild card to me because if he is really good and the thing is I look. I've seen your critiques of him. I've seen why you guys are excited about him. I don't he obviously is not an NFL passer. Like we get that. But I think if he's if he's good enough on the ground and he was electrifying on the ground at times at New Mexico, if he's good enough on the ground, they're going to be open

receivers. He's not going to have to throw, you know, perfect tight window Joe burrow throws. Yeah, I'm also to like complete passes of being excited about a college quarterback move to he has to be an elite level NFL. I think the draft, the draft industrial complex kind of does that to us. And, you know, look of these guys, it's Sam Levitt. That's that's the one they're they're excited about. And probably if Avery Johnson makes a jump, they'll get very excited about him. Yeah, because of his measurables. Yeah. But for me, like we're a college football podcast and we spend a lot of

time talking about the NFL in the off season but like all I'm concerned with Andy is whether or not somebody's gonna be a good college player. Exactly. And I think he can be a very productive college player or very exciting college player. Especially quarterback. And like in college you don't have to make the same level of throw in the that you do in the NFL. Like I mean when I was covering Ohio State like Braxton Miller didn't have the best arm but I thought he was the best overall quarterback they had during that run and they had guys that got drafted pretty high like I you know

It doesn't matter and I'm not did I just compare Devin Dampear to Braxton Miller? I don't know if I did that or not, but That wasn't intentional but Braxton Miller such a good athlete. Yeah, I mean that's one of those I feel like people have forgotten Yeah, how good he was. Yeah. Uh, I've never seen somebody make somebody miss by flinching their elbow the way that he would do it. I was, I was on the field at Virginia tech when he made the spin move. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. And that I thought was very overrated, believe it or not. I did. Like it was a, it was a very good move for like from about 20 yards away. It was not overrated at all. Miller had a touchdown run at Penn state. That was one of the best runs I've ever seen in my entire life

and it was a yard. I don't know if you can picture in your head what that play was. Well, I can. And we also saw that last year with Jeremiah Love. But to bring it back though to Dan Peir, if he is somebody who can rush for 75 yards a game, make people miss, break some plays off, I think that's something to get excited about, rush for 75 yards a game, make people miss, break some plays off.

Like I think that's something to get excited about, especially because, you know, Utah has been in like camera rising, like injury prison for the last four years. Exactly. If they put together a really good Utah football team, and then add somebody that is as electrifying as he can be, it brings a jet engine

to what has been a very reliable car. Exactly, and look, I know the kind of the joke about Kyle Whittingham at Utah through the years is the offensive coordinators are like spinal tap drummers. Like they just go through them constantly, but every once in a while it clicks and it works. Like when, you know. That's the most Andy reference I've ever heard in my entire life, by the way, I, I know you were even born that way. I don't think

you were born when that movie came out. I know what it is. But I don't know that I've seen it. I thought it was a band. So now that you said it's a movie, it's a movie about a fictional band. Okay, yeah. But yeah, so a lot of exciting I say that like, if we did an exciting rankings, like Sam Levitt would be like in the middle of the pack for me somewhere because I know he's a proven entity. Yeah.

And for me, and this has always been interesting, even like in the off season rankings when I do like what games are you most excited to watch? Or I'm always most excited about revealing the unknown. Yeah. I'm not always excited. That's why like the Ohio State Texas game, there is a little bit of that with Arch Manning, but like the unknown in finally seeing something and like seeing him on the field with those athletes

because like that's the other thing too. It's like yeah, he might not be an NFL. We're talking about, you know, he was Spencer for no. Yeah, like I mean like Spencer for no is going to be an NFL guy like he's playing with a bunch of probably a first round draft pick. So let's let's talk about that gold helmet up there with that buffalo on it. Can you believe that we have made it what is it 25 minutes into this podcast and not talking about Colorado is the hype dead? I think that this is the interesting question because Colorado did not go deep into the transfer

portal this year compared to a lot of other teams, even in their own league, but across the country. Colorado was one of the more stable rosters. It just so happens they lost the Heisman Trophy winner, their record-setting quarterback. Now they did bring in a quarterback who's a three-year starter. We've not even mentioned Coach Prime yet.

We've actually just, we mentioned Kayden Salter before we mentioned Coach Prime yet. We've actually just, we mentioned Kayden Salter before we mentioned Coach Prime, but I felt like Deion Sanders did a good job last year at creating a program more than just churning the hype machine. You're buying that. That's like, that's, I'm not doubting you, but like you're all in on that stability?

I don't think they're going to suddenly be two and two and nine I don't Right. Do you think they're gonna be six and six that I don't know but okay You can ask that question about Every helmet up there. Yeah, like cuz there are there are teams up there that we think are Gonna compete for this conference title who are gonna be six and six Yeah, and there are teams that we think might be six and six that might be in the compete for this conference title who are going to be six and six. Yeah. And there are teams that we think might be six and six that might be in the hunt for the

conference title. So here's the thing that I was most impressive about Colorado last year. There were a lot of people who don't like Dion, who said that Colorado was going to go as far as Chidur and Travis took them. Right. But if you actually watched the sicko Colorado games, not just the ones that were on national TV, the sicko ones that we watch Yeah, I Came away from last season very impressed with coach

crime better on both lines of scrimmage as the season went on like they Couldn't they were well, they couldn't they couldn't block when they played Nebraska early, right? But if you watch them at the end of the season they were They were blocking well that you know, they were playing fast assignment or off the edge yeah no stupid mistakes like it's funny because we thought day on Haynes was gonna day on Hayes is gonna make this huge difference off the edge he ends up redshirting and transferring yeah like the other guys were the ones that that wound up playing well but my

my point is is that I thought they were a very functional and like I was very nervous too at the beginning with the Sean Lewis stuff I thought that was gonna turn I thought the whole thing was gonna be a complete circus and I thought they were a very functional and like I was very nervous too at the beginning with the Sean Lewis stuff I thought that was gonna turn the whole thing was gonna be a complete Circus and I thought Dion Sanders really found himself and his staff as the year went on and they weren't just in games because Travis Hunter I mean I think people forget Travis Hunter missed like four games last year and they were winning games without him didn't he? He only missed one full game. He did? Yeah, he went out against Kansas State and that was probably why they lost they lost that game Yeah, I thought he missed two more. Yeah, you know, maybe I'm but so the point remains I don't think that they were only good because those two players that said when you have those two players What you could say are arguably two of the best players in the entire conference

When's the last time before Deion Sanders was there where they actually? You know, you know they're they're taking out the national championship trophy here I don't know who that's for. There it is it's for us yeah we're the champions. The thing comes off the base by the way we learned that JD Vance taught us that yeah well I knew that but JD Vance taught the world that. Exactly when he dropped it. See I didn't know that when JD Vance did that so people were just like oh my god he broke the trophy I'm like no he just held it wrong guys I didn't know that when JD Vance did that. So people were just like, oh my God, he broke the trophy. I'm like, no, he just held it wrong, guys.

He didn't break it. He didn't held it. Yeah, he did not realize it was coming off the base when he pulled it. The base is separate from the gold part. Right. Right, because that's what the, when the coach gets it, they take the gold part out, hold it up in the air.

Okay. Exactly. That's what it is. I don't really understand why they do that though. I would just probably just make it one piece, but I didn't go to medical school Well, I think because you know they used to have the the water for crystal football We could take and you would take the crystal football and yes, which by the way was the greatest trophy ever Well now the the greatest example of that one getting broken Do we'll test your recruiting knowledge here. We'll test everybody in the chat. I don't even know what you're talking about

I've already failed. So it was one of the Florida trophies. We'll test everybody in the chat's recruiting knowledge. I don't even know what you're talking about. I've already failed. So it was one of the Florida trophies. I want to say it was the 06 one. What recruit and where did he play? He broke it with his ass. He bumped it with his butt and it broke. Where did he end up playing and who was it?

I have no, I don't have any memory of it. I know somebody in the chat's already answered it. Let me see. From where we are, I can't see it, but... Did they get it? Did somebody get it? Nope. Alright. It was Orson Charles from Plant High School in Tampa, Florida,

who ended up playing tight end at Georgia. Orson Charles was the offending buttocks. He played where? Georgia. Oh, yeah. Very good tight end for Georgia. Didson Charles was the Georgia. Break the national championship crystal with your ass. They still wanted him. His name is really good. The only appropriate thing to do is go play for a rival. You think that's gonna stop Urban Meyer like recruiting a guy? Yeah like Michigan like JJ McCarthy broke Archie Griffins Heisman with his ass and then went to Michigan and then broke the soul of the state afterward. I don't know uh that's a funny piece of trivia. I didn't know that Yeah, well, we'll see how many people are I do wonder like later in the day when people are listening in podcast form

How many people are screaming at the radios or so? Yeah, I bet you Florida fans would know that well, Georgia fans to Georgia fans Yeah, so but this is okay 2010 I was back 14 back to Caden Salter because two years ago, we saw Caden Salter lead Liberty to an undefeated season and a fiestable. Now, Liberty's schedule, we know is not the best, but Liberty's players also are not of the caliber

that he's gonna be playing with at Colorado. You know, he had CJ Daniels who was at LSU, is now at Miami. But could you say that Liberty's players commensurate with their competition were much better than what he had in Colorado? Yes, Liberty's players compared to Conference USA That's the best roster in the league. So he's not playing with the best roster in the league now his his rosters elevated But so are all of the opponents. So I wonder if there's even a difference there

It's gonna be fascinating to see and he's played a lot because this is what we've talked about with guys in the portal You know sometimes just having played a lot. Because this is what we've talked about with guys in the portal. Sometimes just having played a lot of college football games for a quarterback is a massive advantage. I mean, that's the one thing that they say is an underrated metric in the draft. How many snaps as a starter did you take during your career also has a pretty high?

Yeah, like Bo Nix when he becomes the Denver Broncos starter. Well, he's been Auburn and Oregon starter for five years. He's already played like 1,000 snaps Broncos starter. Well, he's been Auburn and Oregon starter for five, 30 years. Yeah. You know, a thousand snaps as a, you know, a starting quarterback that helps you. So here's the thing too, about Colorado that we don't talk about. We talk so much about Bryce Underwood at Michigan. Yeah. And maybe that's because he has a clear path. Cause he's going to start. Yeah. But that's, we talked a lot about Bryce Underwood before it was clear he was going to start.

Yeah. We talked a lot about Jujuwood before it was clear he was gonna start Yeah, we talked a lot about Juju Lewis before he before he picked Colorado and when he picked, Colorado Is Juju Lewis gonna play this year? Well, I think you have to when you have a quarterback who runs around a lot Who because I think Caden Salter is gonna start But yeah, you got to have that next guy ready and that's gonna be Juju Lewis. But we always play that like, do you have a package for him? Do you do this? No, I think you just have him ready because there may be a moment where he just has to become your starter. Because the whole thing too that was so interesting was that it's like, Deion's gonna go get a five-star quarterback out of...

And Lewis finishes a four I think, right? Yeah, he did. But still a very highly rated quarterback. But everybody thought, well, Shadoor's leaving, they got to go get a five star freshman to come in and take over right away. And it's like, that's not what they did. And I thought that was the sign of a functional program. Yeah. But yeah, I think Colorado has lost all of its hype. And I wonder if Dion can work magic in a way where they're out of the spotlight a

little bit. Yeah. And then surprise. Yeah, this is this is the back end. This is the real then surprise. Yeah, this is this is this is the real. Job now like the the Louis luggage is gone. This is a job that we were uncertain he was going to be around to do right at the beginning and and this is where it gets but here's the other part of it and and Colorado fans are going to hate this if I say this if he wins now. He's going to get snapped up by somebody else. I'm telling you, because this will be proof that what he does works. I've never understood the Deon Sanders to the NFL stuff. No, I've never understood that. But if he can win now functionally at Colorado, then

I can start buying because I didn't even think that he was qualified for any SEC job when you took the Colorado job. But being a three year head coach, somebody who got Colorado, like I'm gonna say it again, Colorado to the brink of the playoff. Now, if I were him, I don't know that I'd leave Colorado if I get this thing going, because I think they can make, they can make that roster the best in the league. Now we talked about Texas Tech and what they're doing.

They obviously have a plan and a desire to have the best roster in the league year after year. We can talk about BYU and what they're doing. They obviously have a plan and a desire to have the best roster in the league year after year. We can talk about BYU and what they're doing. They just got Ryder Lyons. They are clearly going to make a big effort to have one of the better rosters in the league. Colorado can do that. They have Jordan Seton starting at left tackle,

one of the best offensive tackle prospects in the class of 2024. He stepped in immediately, started right away, looked like he was pretty good right away. Don't go on the rant, don't go on the rant, don't go on the rant. What, the Jordan Seaton rant? No, no, the Talon Accumulation rant.

Don't even worry about that. No, but I do think that they will be solid, and I'm very curious to see what Deon's gonna do to get us back into the hype train, because he's gonna say something, he's gonna do something. But the thing that is interesting about him leaving, the notion of him leaving is that like the superpower that Deion Sanders has is his ability to make something that wasn't cool, cool. Colorado

is cool and I wonder if there's a sweat equity of being there for three years and turning the image of Colorado around that you don't want to start over. Well, and they've also, especially because he's worked there while he's got it the way he wants it, and they're willing to let him do it the way he wants it. Some of these others, like these SEC and Big Ten schools, there's a lot of, well, we've done this this way for a hundred years and that's how we're gonna do it. Like Colorado said, hey, we're 111. You come in and fix this. You do what you gotta do. I do think there should be some appreciation there. And like, I don't know.

And maybe this is me being at a job now. And I've done this a couple times in my career and I've probably gone on this rant before where I like the startup phase. Like I enjoyed being at the athletic when it was very young company where, you know, kind of flying by the seat of its pants. By the end, it gets bought by the New York Times,

you're getting more middle management in. That was very similar to what Sports Illustrator was like. And like the company we're at now, start, you know, young, new, flying by the seat of our pants kind of thing. Like I love that part. And also we helped build it. So the way we wanna do things, we don't have somebody

coming in and telling us you need to do this this way. Yeah. Um, we have a lot of freedom here. Yeah. And I do love when you take our personal life and experiences and, and, and projected onto millionaire coaches who don't think about any of these things at all. No, I know. But no, I would think this is something that I would think about a lot as a coach. And with Dion, especially like Colorado will let him do the job however he wants to do it as long as he is doing it effectively. And I think that's something you should appreciate. And the thing that's scary about Colorado, if you're a Colorado fan, and I don't wanna keep you up at night, guys,

but the second he walks out that door, I think the coolness evaporates. Like, do you think that like Deon Sanders can build something that has staying power there without him, or does it only work with him? I think it's a very hard needle to thread whenever that is, whether it's two years from now or 20 years from now. Because like they're, I don't know if I'm just imagining

this, but their uniforms got cooler. Their uniforms were pretty cool before. No, I know, but like they look better in their uniforms now, their attire on the sideline is better. He is one of those people, and there aren't, there's not that many of those people walking the earth who have that much aura, who by the very virtue of their presence, everything changes. The whole outlook changes, the way people view

you changes, and that's hard to do. And I think that's so much of the battle in college football, Andy, is just being cool. It really is. It's true. no, it's not stupid because it's interesting because we're talking to Kenny Dillingham earlier this morning. And I was thinking about this, you know, because realizing he's younger than you. Yeah. So he's 35 years old. Yeah.

But, but the thing is he can connect with these players better than people are aged can or people, maybe Kyle Whittingham's age can, but he's still a geezer to them and he also looks very young too Yeah, but he also is trying to make sure that he's he stays You know attached to that That age group while also bringing them back. Yeah, too because like, you know the thing that I've discovered in fatherhood Andy and I know you know this is how much different pop culture and understanding and coolness changes from a 10-year period yeah so like being 15 20 years

older than your players you're still young when it comes to your peers but you're still ancient in comparison to the people on your team yeah and you know what's cool because like I'm 38 and I know it's cool still I know what kids think is cool thing about the thing about Dion that makes him different from every other coach in America is he's instantly cool no matter what he's cool he doesn't he doesn't have to try he doesn't know what's cool he himself he makes it cool yeah and that's that's the superpower yeah so you know like the even like the cowboy hat thing.

Right. Can you imagine any other coach? Brendan Marion's doing it now. Yeah. Does it work? We'll see. Well, let's watch some Sacramento State games and find out, but. No, Brendan Marion's actually really, really cool.

He's got his own style, like, but he's, and he's trying to do it his own way. And that's, I appreciate that. I, and I think. And they also got a commitment from a pretty high end fourstar prospect over the weekend. I don't know if you saw that. Yeah, Sac State's-

Sac State's not playing- Highest recruit in the history of the program. Well, that's like what, 10 years? But we're seeing that. I mean, look, with Felix Ojo going to Texas Tech, we're seeing the idea that different schools are gonna attract these kinds of players. Yeah, and Sac State's trying to make some moves

into the FBS- Oh, I'm sure they're calling Brett Y mark because they try to get into Pac 12 and did not. I'm sure they kill to get into Big 12. So two years ago, I'm gonna I'm gonna change gears here again. Yeah, I don't know how much time it's been because we're not in front of our computers. But two years ago, I came to Big 12 media day and it was the first media day without or was the media day that had Oklahoma and Texas the last one time. Yes. And I asked Brett Yormark, how are you guys going to differentiate the Big 12 from a group of five conference after your two biggest brands leave? And he didn't appreciate that. Because, you know, it's a legitimate question, though. Yes. And I said, from a recruiting ranking standpoint,

you got the only two programs in the entire conference that are recruiting at a high level leaving. What are you gonna do? And I think that what he has done in the last two years from a branding and like deals perspective has been remarkable. It's so crazy, and I might write this today. How much has changed because the rules have changed?

Yes, two years ago I was like who's going to carry the banner for this conference now? Like Houston, like who do you? Yeah, and it's like we just got done talking about Texas Tech for 30 minutes. We were trying to look at it under the under the guise of the old rules. Like how do you how do you oh Houston's in a big city with a lot of players so they probably had, but that's not how it works anymore. But Houston has a five-star commit. They do. They ended at quarterback. I'm trying to look at the thing, the Ryder Lions committed to BYU, Colorado has proven it can do it. Yep. Houston has a five-star commit. Texas Tech has a five-star commit. Texas Tech is an oil baron running the show. And who knows, God, if T. Boone was still here. Oh, he missed his window.

Yeah, he really did. God. He had a great facility. RIP. But I'm just saying, like, there are, like you can look at the big 12 helmets now in a way that didn't exist two years ago. Yes.

And I might run that back. And the thing is, I wrote a column about Texas Tech that's at on three this morning, and it's, some of the elements of what you heard yesterday, but then I went a little deeper into it about how you break the caste system in college football. Well, the rules help you break it. The new rules allow it to be broken at this point.

And these are the schools that have to do it because we get that mailbag question What teams outside the the SEC and the big ten can win the national title and we're always like Clemson and maybe Miami and if Florida State can get its stuff together. We don't mention any of these teams But maybe if they stack some recruiting classes Getting five-star type players in those classes, maybe we do start mentioning these teams. It still seems highly unlikely that one of those teams that are gonna win a national title in the next 10 years.

It seems that way. Right. But I also have seen how much has changed since I was here two years ago. Yes, that was only two years. It was only two years ago. Think about five years from now. Cause here's the part,

and this is what I've been saying all along since the rev share stuff came out, when, you know, when the house settlement was agreed upon and you found out how the rev share was going to work. Like, you don't understand how big of a difference like Matt Campbell has so much more to pay players with now than he had before. Yeah. He still doesn't have as much as Texas. But there's something is better than nothing. There's a whole overarching theme discussion here which is and it was funny

because you did a story last year that went crazy on Twitter for on three right when you started or right when I started or before I started about the blue bloods. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we were talking. So, should we do that again? Yes, it works so well and then I made the comment. Well, I'm not necessarily sure blue bloods change It doesn't really change and blue bloods don't change because the definition of blue blood is just Yeah, but the thing that was always impossible and the reason why I have dabble Sweeney on my Mount Rushmore of college coaches

Is he's one of the only? Coaches at least in my lifetime that turned a good program into a great one now the question is You know how rare that was during the 15 years that he's been there. Can you turn a program that's not a blue blood into a team that can legitimately compete for a national championship? Not just once, but repeatedly. I actually think it's easier now. Now, I don't know. It's easier for Oregon or Tennessee or ones that have been trying to get into that space because they have money already. But the thing is, Texas Tech, prime example, they have a billionaire, actually two billionaires

because Cody's partner also played at Texas Tech. They have the funds. They have someone with the resources who can make this work. And look, it doesn't guarantee anything because we've had people over the years always say, well, if you could pay the players, then some sugar daddy's just going to buy a national championship team. Okay. It hasn't happened yet. Yeah. But can it happen? Um, and like the thing I am very curious of, is there a team over here? Is there a team in another conference at the bottom half of that

conference that hasn't ever been viewed as a national championship contender? Oh hey we got Chip from Colorado and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader and the West Virginia Mountaineer. See what I told you about Andy and Aura? This is amazing. The second Andy shows up there, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader show up. I think they're filming their Netflix show here. Yeah, but the thing I was going to say, Andy, and I don't know if this is impossible to do now here. Let's look at this. This is tremendous. Look at everybody.

Yeah, well, Chip is very pretty. That's what I was referring to. Look at the mountain here. That's a man right there, baby. That is a man. Look at this guy. Come on up, come on up. Is that loaded?

Not loaded. Not yet. Not yet. During games, the rules are different. About a month and a half. OK. She'll be loaded extra. the game. Is that loaded. Not yet. Not yet. During games the rules are different with a month and a half okay should be loaded extra very nice

yeah because you're gonna fire the thing off quite a bit this year right does rich Rod come in and give you a speech and be like listen I I've I've been here I know what you do he's a West Virginia boy so he says two things he said Kate.

Push ups and extra black powder that's all you need I said okay because everybody's asking what do you think of Rich Rod and that's he said I said Rich what do you want me to tell him he said tell him I told you to prepare for more push-ups and tell your people whoever does it to buy more black powder I said I can do that that's the easiest answer how we feeling about push-ups right now yeah I think it's scary just because a guy like Rich Rod you never know so 70 points is a scary about the push-ups right now? Yeah, I was like, I think it's scary. Just because a guy like Rich Rod, you never know.

So 70 points is a scary amount of push-ups after, you know. Yeah, because you have to imagine Pat White and Steve Slayton right now and how many push-ups. Because you got a big frame here. You've been doing it. But that's because it's not just 70. It's getting to 70. After the 63 and, and.

No, it's, it's a, it's a, we're not bad at math podcasts, but it's a multiple. It's a table. It's seven exponential. It's seven than 21. So it's 28. You got to go. It's like, I think it's 500 pushups. If you score 50, it's like 300 pushups.

Yeah. Right. And I think Jaheem White's just going to have me down there just. Dude, but you're going to have a sculpted upper body. I mean, how many can you just bang out right now? Like if you had to do 40, 50 burger. OK, you can do a 50 burger. I could do Ari work the camera.

What do you know? We're going to touch down. We're going to try. I want to touch down. What's the push up? You want me to push it down? I want you to you get behind it and you take a look through here at what we see. And we're going to we're going to And we're gonna see how many pushups.

Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it.

Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it.

Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. We're going to go up there 14. One, two, three. It's just Andy showing off how many push-ups.

Five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, one, two, three, four. Now imagine. And then we get a let's go mountaineer and all of Morgan's kind of rowdy. That's the goal right there. That is beautiful. I hate to be the bearer of bad news boys, but you should have done 21 for two touchdowns, but you know what? It's okay. 21 because you do

seven for 21 push-ups. We are a bad at math podcast. But you're gonna be jacked or you're already jacked. But yeah, okay. I'm corn fetish's yeah. How does that work? How how does the the process work to become the West Virginia Masters? So you apply online top tenish applicants they change each year however many they want to bring in they get an interview top four interviews they go in and we do a cheer off so all walks of life we go find old buckskins. Okay. Throw them on we walk around the coliseum we get half time to work our magic interact talk to the people and

then try to get a little bit of rowdiness going in the student section and then little people hiding around I think grading this on do you have to show that you you can handle firearms that how important it's West Virginia I think they just kind of assumed that we're all there. Yeah. Now where does this come from? I think it's an Indiana made product somehow but I'm not sure where they get it from. That's what I've heard through. I don't know exactly where it's coming from. So this is all leather too. That's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing until it's about 105 or fourth of July weekend. Those parades, like you said, I'm getting a little better shape after those.

Yeah, that's the type of outfit that you would see in like a luxury, like Western store and that like tops like 800, 1800 bucks, you know? It's like a sauna with some bodybuilder trying to lose some extra. Well, that's a thing. You are going to be shredded by the end of the season. So now I have to imagine that all of this

works with the ladies already. I've got a girlfriend. I keep it simple, man. Love that about you. They keep us so busy. We travel the state, we service the state, and you ain't got time for anything else other than servicing the people of- Which is I've got some bad news for you though, but the Cowboys cheerleaders can't take their eyes off you right now.

So- That might be a good thing for a picture, you know, one or two, but yeah, no, it's a, I've done about a hundred and some appearances in three months already. So we're on the road every day service in West Virginia, talking to the people and you ain't got time for much else. Beautiful. It's a man who loves his leather black powder pushups. Kate, thank you. So nice to meet you. Hey, really good job on push-ups too. I'm happy it wasn't me doing them Yeah We got to go to Indiana and find where they make the raccoon the rec the coonskin cap a Little impromptu workout. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm getting our shot back together here

This is we should you know, we didn't get to bring producer river on this one and and he should have been here good now Yeah So do you want to go back to the conversation that we were gonna have or do you want to talk about NCAA? Let's talk about the video game because the video game is out for the the folks who bought the deluxe edition And the early access folks and I got to play a little bit before my son just kicked me out of his room Are you believe our 7-0 online now? Yeah, I just mash people. I don't know if I'm very good, but I just get matched up with people who might not be.

And I just like, I terrorize people online. The things that I will notice, cause I only do road to, that's my mode is road to the CFP. I like playing people online with the headset, winning a game, going to the next person. The gameplay is slower. It's different to me.

You have to readjust. If you're somebody who logged, you know, a hundred hours of gameplay last year, you're gonna have to take a few weeks to readjust. It feels like they slowed it down so that you can actually do some of the RPO type stuff, that you can make the option decisions. Like I noticed, like on your first time

you run an option play, the pop-up comes up that tells you how to, you know, where the read key is and which buttons you need to press to do different actions. And it feels like they want to make sure you actually are comfortable doing those actions and that you have time. Cause that's one thing I did have trouble with in the old game. Like RPOs, I just couldn't process it fast enough to make the decisions I needed to make.

And this is my personal experience, but they also changed some of the buttons for some of the defensive pre-snap checks. And the thing that's difficult about that is when you play as much as I was playing last year, you become very... It's muscle memory. Right. Right. So you have to relearn this. So I have to relearn how to do everything and that's difficult. Some of the plays that you like to run last year, though still in the game, are in different places. So I had a hard time locating some of the plays I wanted to run. But the game is smooth. It's beautiful.

The defensive back stuff that you were talking about is very prevalent. And that you need to be in the right position to get an interception. My son was yelling at me because I like to play as defensive ends and D tackles. He's like, you need to learn how to play as a linebacker. You will never be effective.

Oh really? I like to float with my defensive tackle. Yeah, see I like to be an edge rusher. And they have the new thing where you can kind of, if you're a rusher, if you're a pass rusher, you can steer, What's up? We're gonna I just patted his head. I don't know if that was good form or not now How often do people just hand you a Guinness?

Cuz you and that bird are very similar We got the Kansas Jayhawk mascot here for those listening in podcast We're listening in podcast form is a rough last 10 minutes. Yeah, that was the West Virginia mascot we were doing push-ups with. Andy did push-ups with. I want him to say something. Rock Chalk, baby. He doesn't, not talking.

That's right. Rock Chalk, baby, right there. People are all jacked underneath because they're like standing in circles. Oh yeah, we saw, oh look it, we got the whole thing. We got the whole family. Oh yeah, we got Brett Yormark, the commissioner. Oh yeah, look at this.

We got the family photo right here. Beautiful, we got the commissioner, Brett Yormark. He's always stripped out with Gucci. Look at pistol Pete's head. That is amazing. Willie the Wildcat doesn't have his electric guitar anymore. It does look like they're trying. Willie the Wildcat, the most jacked mascot in sports. It does look like the most jacked mascot in sports

It does look like they're kind of recreating the college football video game. I But yeah Everybody love everybody. Yeah, so if you're listening in podcasts for him every mascot in the big 12 cheerleaders from every school and Commissioner Brett your mark have just taken over our shot and This is at Yormark have just taken over our shot and this is look at this they do look like one big happy family yeah this would be like what you imagine how much money EA paid to put this together exactly them and this is just which which mascot if you ran into them in a dark alley would you just the Oklahoma

State mascot yeah this will Pete for sure that guys robbed banks before there's no question him and the guy that's like a cheapskate incredible yeah look at we got we got like Sparky it's interesting because I didn't realize so Sparky small yeah the others that the other mascot heads tower over Sparky. So, but very interesting. So did not, did not expect that, but that was tremendous. Yeah. Well, uh, good job finding a podcast spot. I think it went well for the first 45 minutes of the viewers. Hopefully they enjoyed that, but absolutely, you know, Andy, I think this might be a good time to head on out. We gotta talk to players and coaches but we'll be back tomorrow from Big 12

80 days with interviews with your favorite coaches players see what happens. And check out on 3.com I think we're gonna be pumping some