Andy & Ari On3 - The coaching carousel is SPINNING | Virginia Tech, UCLA updates

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

Ahead of week 4 in the early college football season, the head coaching carousel has already started spinning. While Virginia Tech and UCLA parted ways with their head coach on Sunday, Pete Nakos joins the show to provide the latest on both coaching searches. Who is Virginia Tech looking to bring in? Does Virginia Tech being in the ACC help or hurt the hire? What about UCLA? How highly is football regarded now that the Bruins are in the Big Ten? All of that and more on today's Andy & Ari On3. (0:00-0:52) On Today’s Show(0:53-3:14) BetMGM(3:15-4:59) Intro: Coaching Carousel is ACTIVE(5:00-16:26) Pete Nakos joins - Virginia Tech(16:27-17:43) Modelo(17:44-29:49) UCLA Head Coach Search(29:50-31:22) Gametime(31:23-56:46) What’s Wrong with Arch?(56:47-57:41) Wrapping up the Arch conversation(57:42-59:24) Conclusion: Rest of Week’s Schedule Send your mailbag questions in to:[e-mail]@on3.com After the coaching carousel update, Andy & Ari head over to the Lone Star State to discuss Steve Sarkisian's Texas Longhorns. As Arch Manning has had subpar performances to start the season, the guys go deep into what is causing his struggles so early in the season. Will Arch turn it around? How will the rest of the season go for Texas? Our show is presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. This show is also brought to you by Gametime! Take the guesswork out of buying college football tickets with Gametime.Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Swipe. Tap. Ticket. Go. Download the Gametime app today! Visit Gametime.co. This show is also sponsored by Modelo! Some things in life are just made for each other. Peanut Butter and jelly. Macaroni andcheese. Modelo and college football. If you’re watching this, it means you live and breathe football. All season long. You know what that makes you? A Full-Time Fan. Which means you deserve a Modelo. Because football wouldn’t be the same without you. Modelo is the official beer sponsor of The College Football Playoff. Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/nKjIGiLwKJQ Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanGuest: Pete NakosProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy and Ari on 3, the great Pete Nacos of On 3 joins us to talk about the coaching carousel, which has already started spinning. What should we expect from the coaching searches at Virginia Tech and at UCLA? And what does that say about the other coaching searches that are to come in this new era of college football? Also, we ask the question, what is wrong with Arch? We also revisit Ari's preseason prediction that there is no possible. way that Arch Manning could be bad. But after watching against Utep on Saturday, it does seem possible, we'll hear from Steve Sarkesian and Ari and I will try to figure out what the heck is going on. And no, it's not just because we're mad because we're bad at projecting which quarterbacks

will be good. But we are bad at that too. On to the show. We are presented by BetMGM. And if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB, as in college football, CFB, and it'll get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with BetMGM. Here's how it works. Download the BetMGM app, sign up using the bonus code CFB. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. You receive up to $1,500 in bonus bets if your bet loses, just make sure to use the bonus code CFB when you sign up. Now, if you've already signed up for BetMGM, oh, we got something for you, too,

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Welcome to Annie and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. The coaching carousel is already spinning. are we talked a little bit about this on yesterday's show but obviously we had to get to the picks i would like to dive deeper into the job openings at virginia tech and ucla because it's fascinating that they're open now and i think we can probably roll that forward a little bit to talk about maybe some other schools where this may be coming down the pipe but also about who might be the right candidates for jobs at Virginia Tech and UCLA. Yeah.

I don't know. Do you think this is an indication that this year is going to go off haywire? Or do you think it was just two exceptionally bad situations? I think because of the way those teams lost to those teams that they played. So UCLA losing to New Mexico, Virginia Tech getting blown out at home by Old Dominion. I think because of that, it felt like there was no choice. Like somebody had to step in and say, this is changing. Please come back to our games, but we're making a change.

We promise. Trust us. I don't know that the other schools are there yet. But I do think there's going to be more action this year. I remember I had agents in the offseason saying because people were very reluctant to fire last year, that there will be more this year. And the reason they were reluctant to fire last year is the revenue sharing stuff was coming in. I was trying to make sure they had $20.5 million.

that they can share with the athletes. So now they understand how the budget's work in that situation. They're ready to go. And if they want to make a change, they'll make a change. So we'll see. But let's bring on an expert, Ari. Let's talk to Pete Nacos. He's been all over these job searches, which are in their very infant stages.

But Pete, let's start with Virginia Tech because this is a once proud program. Obviously, under Frank Beamer was one of the best programs in college football. ball. When they joined the ACC, they were dominant in the ACC early. But really, since the tail end of the Justin Fuente era and all through the Brent Pry era, they just haven't been a factor. Yeah, you look at Virginia Tech. Obviously, what Frank Beamer did there has been really hard to replicate since he left. And obviously, too, you know, they went biggies to ACC. But I think it's safe to say that what Frank Beamer did at Virginia Tech is almost what Clemson is done in the last decade. I think that's a good comparison for fans to have. Everything I've heard to this point

is that they want to hire either a sitting head coach or a head coach with significant experience. And that can vary. That can be a group of six. That can be a Pat Fitzgerald or a Dave Claussen who have been sidelined this season. And then with Babcock, he's having a press conference as we speak right now. He just basically outlined that he wants to hire a football general manager to really help oversee, you know, revenue sharing, NIL, roster management. So I think what we're going to see happen at Virginia Tech is a head coach who can come in and win and has that strong track record. At the same time, they want to bring someone into who knows what it's like to structure a college football program in 2025.

Are we going to get through this entire segment without like acknowledging that Pete is wearing a nice little sport coat with a golf shirt? like that that's like a elite level uh i'm rich and i belong to a country club attire is it not well when you start breaking news like pete does that that's what happens to you you get into that echelon yeah exactly he's going to he's going to belong to a country club at some point with all of this news breaking and i just love that part of one right now are you no gosh no i mean a lot of these country clubs actually have very they have very attractive uh rates for people in their 20s and try to get them, you know, locked in. Pete's still in that Groucho Marx mode.

I wouldn't belong to any club that would have me as a member. But, okay, speaking of clubs, we do have to figure out what club Virginia Tech is in because Pete, you mentioned Whit Babcock, their athletic director. And I think Whit Babcock did something about two months ago that I don't know a lot of ADs would have done. He went to the board that oversees Virginia Tech and basically said, hey, we don't fund our athletic department or our football program at levels where they can be truly competitive in this day and age of college sports and basically asked for more money and said the school's

going to have to kick in some if we want to compete with the likes of Clemson and Florida State and in North Carolina in the way they're spending. And it's interesting because I was talking to somebody else about this today and they said that probably answers some of the questions that coaches and their agents are going to have when they talk to Whit Babcock. Yeah. So Virginia Tech has about $122 million athletic budget right now. They want to get to $200 million, or at least that's what Whit Babcock suggests this summer. Just from speaking to agents and trying to get a feel for how candidates are going to feel about Virginia Tech,

the biggest question is what is the NIL going to look like? Because what facilities was a decade ago, maybe even less than a decade, NIL and revenue sharing has taken over as you know what can i do with this roster in a short period of time because it's it's great if you can bring players with you from the school you're at or something like that but if you don't have the money to go acquire talent you really can't turn around a program you know the i just think that virginia tech in general is interesting and i don't know if just like my childhood clouds the judgment or if history clouds the judgment of what's expected at a place But like, what is Virginia Tech supposed to be in 2025 and how do you tailor a hiring to mirror that?

Obviously, you want to go get somebody who is going to be as successful as possible and bring your program ceiling back up to national title. But I feel like it's a very hard job to hire for because I don't know what the plan is. I don't know if it's recruit locally. I've heard Michael Vick's name thrown around. I've heard Shane Beamer's name thrown around. Like, I don't know if hiring Michael Vick is the answer to the initial question. You know what I mean? Like, it's just kind of a confusing job to me.

What do you think, Pete? So on the Michael Vick front reported this morning that have heard that some boosters push for him to go get the Norfolk State job, just so we have some coaching experience moving forward. I think it's extremely unlikely that Virginia Tech hires him this go-around. But it really wouldn't surprise that many if, you know, in five years, if Virginia Tech hires a coach who brings the Hokies back to a high standing and maybe he wants to go to the SEC or something like that, we could see Mike Vick's name kind of come to the forefront.

That wouldn't surprise a lot of people. Now, in terms of what the ceiling is at Virginia Tech, and I feel like I'm queuing this up for Andy to jump in and expand on it, but I would say making into the ACC title game every three years is kind of what they envision being in the top 25. in a consistent manner so they're relevant nationally. I think those are kind of like what the ceiling or at least the standard and the opinion of fans and people in the administration look like. Yeah.

And I think the ceiling and standard is different. So like that, you know, the standard, I think maybe for every, for every power for program, I think their expectation is to be in or around the top 25 on an annual basis with a breakout year once every five years. right like yeah and i think that's a very fair expectation for virginia tech now the one thing about virginia tech too and i know we're going to talk about u sLA like virginia tech expects football to bring more eyeballs onto the university

like they need football to be the front porch and i know that is the biggest cliche that administrators throw out there but they they need and expect football to like be a high representation of the university and drive enrollment and get more dollars and things like that well and the thing is like lane stadium the inner sandman entrance like when that place is packed and hopping it looks like a really cool place to go to school so i get where they're coming from on that the question is what type of coach wants this job what type of coach fits this job you know you mentioned pat fitzgerald who i i said would fit at either here

or UCLA because he's won in a place where it's probably more difficult than either of those to win at Northwestern. But also, I'm wondering, is this, would you go a coordinator again? Because they went coordinator last time. It didn't work out the way they wanted to. But would you go like a Buster Faulkner, who's been a very good coordinator in the ACC at Georgia Tech and understands kind of where this is going, has been there as Georgia Tech has changed the way they fund their athletic department? You know, that's, they're a place that was probably in the boat that Virginia Tech is in when, right around when Brent Key got the job. Yeah. But Jay Batt, who has since gone on to Michigan State as the athletic director, did a pretty good job raising their level of funding.

You know, the way I look at it too is I'm talking to someone about this yesterday. I think a Jeff Monkin or Brian Newberry, the Army and Navy head coaches, are almost more, you know, I kind of have them high. higher on my hotboard at this point than an offensive coordinator just because of the, I think Virginia Tech really wants to bring someone in who has proven that they can win. And Jeff Monkin has, he's got a great body of work and has proven that. Now, the one thing about Buster Faulkner, and we talk about other coordinators too, if Wapcock goes and brings in this GM who can really help, you know, Buster Falkner set up his roster and things like that.

And Buster can just, you know, make their recruiting pitches and make sure that, everything goes well in the field, then maybe that kind of higher works. And we're talking about like a Jim Nagy at Oklahoma, Ron Rivera at Cal, where this is a GM with some power. Yes, yes. Pete, I don't know if we can get through Virginia Tech without at least acknowledging that Shane Beamer exists as Andy and I were 10 feet away from him and as he was getting emotional talking about Virginia Tech two weeks ago.

And I'm not asking you if you think he would take the job, but I think that it frames another interesting question, which is, you know, the three of us know that the ACC is on borrowed time. And we don't know what that's going to look like or how it's going to manifest in the crazy world of expansion and all the things that college football is headed. But if you use Beamer as a case study for the rest of the coaching candidate list, I have a hard time believing that Shane Beamer would take. that job because how could you leave an SEC

job? There's no way in hell I would take that job if I were Shane Beamer. I don't care how emotional and sentimental you get about it. South Carolina bid against itself to give Shane Beamer more money this offseason. They would owe him so much money if they fired him. So if things went badly in Columbia, like

the worst thing it happens, you get paid guillions of dollars. Yeah. There's no way I'd leave. But to land the plane, how attractive because we're going to talk about UCLA and I find this interesting because on one hand, to me is a much better job than UCLA because of the, you know, agreed, because I don't know if UCLA believes in the front porch theory.

Like, I don't know if they've shown that. They don't need it. So, yeah. But it's an interesting conference affiliation because do you want to go to a place that's in the Big Ten or do you want to go to a place that might be in a conference that's dissolved? And I don't know where Virginia Tech lands in realignment. I don't know if it's a valuable property or if it's one that is in danger of being left

behind. Maybe you don't think about that. You're a coach in three or four years. You do well there. You have a chance to go up and get a better or bigger job. But how much does being in the ACC help hinder indifferent when it comes to who they are trying to hire and how they're perceived on the job market? I think Shane Beamer thinks about that. I think he's well aware that Virginia Tech could be on the wrong side of realignment, whatever you want to call it.

And the other reality, too, is UVA is the more attractive school to poach for one of these conferences, Virginia Tech. And I know some Virginia Tech fans are going to come at me. YouTube comments, but that's reality. Well, and the reality is UVA may open, too. Like, it depends on the year Tony Elliott has this year. So they actually may be competing against one another for this. And that would add a different dynamic to it as well. But, yeah, it's going to be fascinating to see what they do.

Obviously, they're not going to hire anybody tomorrow. Maybe they hire the GM during the season and we kind of get a sense of what they're looking for. That's going to be really interesting to watch. We will be back talking more coaching searches with Pete Nacos. But first, let's talk Madelo. Your school just fired its coach. You might want to crack a meddello. If your school's looking for a new coach, you might want to crack a meddalo.

If your school's doing great, if they had an incredible game last Saturday, didn't have to fire anybody. In fact, they're thinking about giving the coach more money. It's time to crack a medello. That's right. College football season is Madello's season. And if you're listening to this right now, it means it's time for a reward, and you need to reward your full-time fandom with a Modelo.

I cracked one on Thursday night when that ACC Tilt came on, and it was glorious. What an experience. Cold Modello in hand, college football on the TV, there is nothing better. And look, if you're a full-time fan, you're dealing with the ups and downs of the season. So you may be rooting for a team where the coach has been fired or is about. to be fired, you may be rooting for a team that is on the upswing, that is having a great year. Either way, the best way to enjoy those games is with an ice cold medello. So grab yourself a medello and stay game day ready all season long.

Let us head to Westwood now, Pete, because the UCLA job is different than the Virginia Tech job because it is a big 10 job. So it is in one of the two conferences that everybody wants to be in. But if I'm a coach, I'm looking at it like UCLA does not seem to care about football the way most of the rest of the Big Ten seems to care about football. And how do they handle that? How does UCLA handle that? Is it possible that they start to care more? Because the firing of Deshawn Foster and the timing of the firing of Deshawn Foster suggests a bit of a change.

because when Chip Kelly left, they clearly were hiring on the cheap. They were looking at assistants. They were looking at alums. They were looking at people who would probably give UCLA a little bit of discount. This time, it feels like somebody stepped in and said, hey, we got to do something right now. And I wonder if that means that that changes the tone and tenor of this search. So obviously, UCLA moved on from Deshaun Foster Sunday morning. There were some, I don't want to say confidence, but when we woke up Sunday morning and UCLA hadn't done anything yet, there was a thought that, okay, Deshaun Foster is going to make it, you know, another week or two weeks or whatever it is.

But then they call the players meeting, and that was the sign that it was heading in the direction that it went in. I think the biggest question mark that everyone in the country has about UCLA is, is what does the commitment to football look like? How relevant is it to the UCLA administration and the booster group as a whole to give money to UCLA? Now, there is a new chancellor. He helped get Mario Cristobald to Miami. From everything I've been told, he definitely cares about football and understands how football can help the university. The other big factor here is I'll come out and say Casey Wasserman, who's helping put together the L.A. Olympics in 2028 is the – No relation to Ari.

No. You don't know that. I'm pretty sure. He is the biggest booster for UCLA, and he will have a say in this, especially when things haven't gone well with Martin Jarman's decisions in the past. I think a lot of people around the country,

though, really don't have a great understanding that will need to be clarified in the next weeks or months about how much UCLA cares about football. I just feel like on the search, surface, if it was four or five years ago, UCLA, I just like, the old geography aspect of this whole thing, the beautiful uniforms, I don't know how much you care about the stadium being a 40-minute drive away in LA traffic. I think that might be an issue. But like UCLA, we've seen be very good at times. And I just like this idea that UCLA all of a sudden is a hopeless job in the new era of sports

is kind of crazy to me. Like, it feels hopeless to me. And in the moment, now that can change all you need is in flux of cash right yeah but how does a coach feel like that's going to happen in the interview process do you you know have the conversations with chancellors and boosters and people of like hey how's this thing going to go yeah how do you take how do you take that people at their word if you have one bad year do you revert back to stadiums having 28 people in it like i i just don't know how you could possibly do that job yeah and like the other thing too is there's obviously a lot of financial problems within the institution. They're paying a million dollars a year to Cal.

There's just so many questions. Now, the other interesting thing, too, here is UCLA better because they're in the Big Ten. Like, obviously, Oregon has looked good. USC's starting to figure it out. Washington is really exciting this year with Jonah Coleman. I think UCLA would be in a better spot right now if the Pact World didn't dissolve. Even with the money?

Yeah, I mean, I think being able to recruit on the West Coast and play the set of schools they played, I think would be better. And I'm well aware that they, you know, they lost the UNLV in New Mexico, but I think that overarchingly, I think they haven't won this whole conference realignment. Well, the thing is, like,

they've got to pay the $10 million. a year to Cal. So they don't really get to reap the benefits of Big Ten membership in the way that Oregon does and Washington does, even though UCLA is actually making a bigger share from the Big Ten than those guys are. But they're not the same boat USC is, for example, because USC's a private school. They didn't have to deal with any of that through realignment. So that's what I wonder, because it is, there is a lot to sell.

And again, I mentioned it, it's in one of the two conferences everybody wants to be in. They are already in the club. They're not getting kicked out of the club. They're a brand name. So do they try to capitalize on that? Because I do think that increases the quality of the candidate pool. What do we know

about coaches? So they know sitting head coach or they want to coach with significant head coaching experience. Obviously the hot coordinator names are going to get thrown out there. Will Stein at Oregon, Dan Linnet, USC. Two power four names that I've heard that have really

come up that makes some sense is Dave Arena at Baylor. He's from the West Coast. Bruce Feldman in front of the program pointed out that his first date with his wife was a UCLA football game. I didn't know that before I read Bruce's stuff. Because he wanted an environment, Pete. He wanted to

feel cozy, but being like, you know, be able to hear what she spoke. He didn't want to go to a lot direct time. That's cold. That is cold. Okay. Other name is Brent Brennan. The Arizona coach who used to be at San Jose State.

Rocky first year, three and oh to start year two. There's a new idea, Arizona. Does he look for an exit route and try to get closer to home? The other name everyone's going to talk about, too, is Jetfish. I'm aware he has a big buyout. I'm aware that it's only year two in Seattle. Are you aware his alma mater is also potentially coming open? I'm aware, but I'm also aware that there's another name at the top of the board of Florida,

whose name is not Jetfish. That's true. That is true. I wonder how much of that will change and if, like, Washington has another great year. I don't know, but here's what I was going to say. Well, I look at it, before you say what you're going to say, Ari, before I didn't know what you're going to say.

But I, I don't like it. I want to give you the stage for it. Oh, yeah. I want to give you the stage for it. But I think Washington's a better job than UCLA right now. Like, I don't even think it's close. Oh, yeah. It's close either.

Yeah. I mean, Jed Fish just might like moving. I don't know. I think it's the worst thing in the world. I'm kidding. I think that if he has a really good year in Florida opens, that is going to be a fascinating thing to watch. But what do we know about coaches? We know that they are climbers, that they want to know what jobs are open. They're always constantly looking at what opportunities are around and they are very aware of how they are viewed and care a lot about that, right? Yeah.

If you take all the things into play at UCLA and you say, oh, it's in the Big Ten, you know, it's in a fertile recruiting territory, all the, those things, there's a lot to like about it. But the one thing that is going to hurt them, I think, in trying to find somebody, at least an up-and-coming coordinator even, is that you have to be more aware now than ever before of taking the wrong job and what that can do to you. And, you know, that's true in our industry. That's true in everyone's industry. If you take the wrong job too early, you can mess up your trajectory. And I think that, like, if you're thinking about like a Denton-Lind type person who has coached at both places, but is also regarded as a great coordinator and awesome recruiter on the west coast like do you want to go and take

your first opportunity at a place that is an uphill battle to be successful in a way that isn't at other places and is that a good long-term chess move for your career path you know uh and i think that like it is a very fair criticism of that place at the moment and you can say some make jokes about how their stadium is empty um their stadium is empty because there's a reason for it to be empty it's about the product that's put on the field and that product has been porous. And you have to go into the questions of why has it been porous? Is it because Deshawn Foster is a terrible coach and it's Hill all his fault?

And I don't think that it's all his fault, you know, and it's a shame that UCLA is viewed this way now. Because at one point, maybe even 10 years ago, I would have made it a top 25 job in the country considering where it is and what it has to sell good school, all the things that kids used to care about. Now it just can't pay as much. And it's not committed to paying as much. And I don't care if you're, go ahead, Pete. No, I'm sorry to cut you off. I didn't mean to cut you off. No, no, you're good.

Go ahead. I'm just saying if you're a coordinator, UCLA is not the first job I want. I prefer to wait it out and go take a USF or Tulane over UCLA right now if I'm going to be a first time head coach. This is going to be a fascinating job search because they can go a lot of different ways with this thing. And, you know, we talked earlier about Virginia Tech, and I feel like they're in more of a kind of a defined slot of what you're looking at or, you know, kind of types you're looking at. Yeah. This is open to all types.

Because there's a lot of people who want to come coach in the Big Ten. I also, PJ Flex, Sam has already been thrown around a little bit. He talked to them last time. Didn't they kind of lowball them? They wall. I believe they lowball them. But what I was going to say is I just find it extremely unlikely that he leaves Minnesota at this point for a school that. kind of passed on him last time I'm around.

Yeah, this is going to be a very intriguing coaching search. I don't really know how to handicap it at this point. And they've got time. I mean, part of this is they have two and a half months to figure this out. And I think sort of the question that has to be answered is, what is UCLA care about football? Like, how deeply do they want to care? And you mentioned they have a new chancellor.

We'll see what Casey Wasserman decides to tell people behind the scenes, because obviously he's a very important part of all this. Yeah, your cousin? Yeah. Long lost. Like Vince Staples is my cousin? Yeah. There's got to be something there.

There's not a lot of Wassermans out there. Okay. Well, you just reach out and say, hey, long lost. Just tell me who you're going to hire. We want to break this thing. Pete, one more question before we let you go. So with UCLA, you know, we talked about Virginia Tech hiring a GM. Obviously, UCLA's former conference mates, Cal and Stanford, have situations where there are very powerful GMs that are probably more powerful than the coach, which is more of an NFL model than a college model traditionally.

Is that something we could see at UCLA? I think we could see it. I think there needs to be a lot more clarity about who's making the hire at this point. And as someone I talk to a lot, likes to say the body isn't even cold yet. But there are a lot of questions that need to answer. Yeah, I think that's one. And people think all coaching searches are alike. And you just fire a guy and you go find a new guy.

It's not that. A lot of times you have to figure out who's in charge at the school. Who's actually making the decision? And this is one of those where I think we don't totally know yet. So we'll wait to find out. Virginia Tech either. That's true. It's true.

Well, we'll find out as we go, that will present itself over the next few months and we'll probably be able to narrow it down a little better. Pete Nacos, thank you so much for joining us. I love you, Pete. Love you, too. All right. All right, we're going to talk Texas and Arch Manning next. But right now, let's talk a little bit about game time.

Do you want to go see Auburn play Oklahoma? that's where I'll be this weekend. There's some pretty awesome tickets that are available for a pretty reasonable price. I was looking at one for 158 bucks that it's a hell of a view. And I can actually see the view on the GameTime app because you click the game you want. It shows you the tickets that are available. And it shows you exactly where you'd be sitting in the stadium. So good deals.

If you want to go to Auburn, Oklahoma, good deals. If you want to go to Michigan, Nebraska, there's a couple in the $200 range that are just awesome views at Memorial Stadium in Nebraska if you want to watch Michigan and Nebraska play in a very big, big 10 game. Download the GameTime app, redeem the code Staples for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply.

That's the code Staples, S-T-A-P-L-E-S, download that GameTime app. Ari, you look at these seats. These are good seats for not nearly as much as I thought they'd be. Yes, and also, too, the no hidden fees thing. Oh, love it. Yeah. Love it. The number you see on the GameTime app, that's the price you'll pay. They don't stick another, you know, 80 bucks worth of fees at the end of it. That number is what you're paying. And those are pretty good numbers right now if you want to go to Auburn, Oklahoma or Michigan, Nebraska. So download the GameTime app for doing the code Staples and get $20 off your first purchase terms apply. Of course. Ari, let us talk now about Arch Manning. I know we talked about him a little bit on Saturday, but Steve Sarkesian talked Monday. So we have a little.

more context, though I don't know that we have any answers. But before we get into the discussion of Archmanning, I want to go back to August. Because while both of us were positive about Archmanning, both of us thought he was going to be pretty good. You said something that gave me pause. You said something that made me push back. And I wanted to revisit it because I wanted to see, am I not remembering it correctly? It turns out I'm remembering it exactly right. But this is the discussion we had on August 13th. If he balls out against Ohio State, we are due for a full-on frenzy.

And if he has a bad game against Ohio State, it will be like the world is ending. It's going to be utterly fascinating. I covered Tim Tebow as a beat writer and remember watching that. But that was 2006 as a freshman, 2007, his first year as a starter. social media did not exist in the way it does now this is a completely different animal here andy i've shared this on the show this take and i'll say it again tim t i mean it's not tim tbo arch manning is a lock to go to new york like there's no way he's not going to new york period but if he's bad the only way it's the only way that he doesn't is if he gets hurt he's going to new

what if he's bad it's just it's not even a possibility dude it's just not you don't think it's possible okay not even bad average you don't think it's possible that he could be average i think that if he is average in that offense that he will put up good enough numbers to warrant the mania i think that he will insist upon him he got booed by the texas fans against utep We're a long past average. Listen, Andy, I was in Fayette. It was the mountain air. Like, what do you want?

Like, the elevation. Listen, that take I still feel pretty good about in the moment because in my mind, there's no, whoa, whoa, stop. Just like I have to own and eat. Yeah. The DJ Lagway is the number one quarterback in the country take. like you have to there's no feeling good about this take I was going to tell you

I feel good about where my head was at at the time because here's the difference I said and I was wrong there's no there's no getting around it I'm not trying to pretend like I wasn't wrong clearly I I was wrong but I think there's a difference between being

truly elite and being productive I thought it was an virtual impossibility for him to at least not be productive. Like, that's the thing. Like, what we saw on Saturday was legitimately shocking. And I don't care what you said in August, whether it was as blatantly obvious and wrong as what I said,

or what you were saying or what everyone else was saying. Nobody had that on their predictions list. Okay? No. So, like, you're right. You can, like, mock people for thinking he was going to be good or overhyping him. And rightfully so, those people, you know,

in week three of the season have so far been proven to be wrong. there wasn't a single analyst out there that was like, hey, I've watched the tape, I've seen what he did last year, and he's going to come out the following year and have a different throwing motion and not be able to complete a pass against U-Tap. Like that is not on the range of things that we're supposed to see coming. And you've been saying this, you've been saying this since the Ohio State game. You were like, he's throwing from a different arm slot, what's going on? And we've had people ask D. Sarkesian if he's hurt.

And Steve Sarkozyon says he's not hurt. And, you know, I went back and watched his start against Louisiana Monroe last year just to kind of see if I could see the same thing you were seeing. And it does look different. Like there are very confident throws that he made in that game where he's just letting it rip. He's just ripping it right down the seam. And it is not, it doesn't look like his arm motion looks this year. It looks mechanical to me. And like, I don't know if you're trying to come.

up with a reason because there is there has to be a reason because here's it it looks like it looks like a golfer who you know they finish a pga season they go away for the winter and they get a new swing coach and they come back and all of a sudden they can't play and because they change their swing and either something physically or mentally changed with them and it looks completely different and i want to keep it looks like here and i don't know if it's mental, physical, or both, but that's what it looks like. And I want to keep unpacking this, Andy. How many starting quarterbacks in the power four do you think could dice up Uteb's

defense? Like, from a percentage perspective, make it up. 75%. I was going to say 80. So you're telling me that Archmanning is in the bottom 20% of good in college football. Like, is that what we're thinking right now? That's what it looks like right now. So, like, I guess.

guess if you're buying stock, this would be a pretty good value buy because I don't think it's as bad. This isn't the dip. This is a crash. Ohio State was the dip. This was like, oh, my God, the earnings report came out and it is awful. I have no idea how to react to this because I've never seen this before. I can't even think of a time where a quarterback who had such hype and the quarter and the program was built around them from a coach that we view as an offensive juggernaut come out and not be able

to be productive against U-TEP. And I don't know if that's a team thing. I don't know if it's an offense thing. I don't know if it's a mental thing. I don't know what the reason is. But like you can go through all the quarterbacks that have come through as five stars and bust it out. You're not going to find a lot of tape of guys in their first year the way that

arch is like the full-time starter like throwing 10 in completions or nine incompletions a row against U-TEP. Like that was so remarkably bad. It's shocking. So, like, yeah, it's on the complete polar opposite of the funny, like, assertion that I made in the summer about him going to New York, because I could not quantify in my head in August how he wouldn't at least be productive. So I was wrong, but like, so was everybody else, dude. Like, I was wrong in a more, more aggressive degree. What the, but, like, to me, it's still like, what the hell is going on there?

Like, this is. And if you're Steve Sarkisian, you've got to figure it out, because. Because you let Quinn Ewer's walk to the NFL, and now you've got this guy who you thought was going to be the heir apparent, the replacement, your starter for at least the next two years, and you've got to figure this out. You've got to make it work with him, at least for the rest of this year. So now, Steve Sarkeesian seems fairly confident that Arch has it in him to come out of this. And so he got asked at his press conference, how do you get a player's attention? Because it's not,

the quarterback's a little bit different. Like you can't pull a quarterback out of the game like a defensive end. And, well, I guess you can. I guess we saw that with Quinn. You was an arch in the Georgia game last year. But usually you don't do stuff like that. So. But I saw Quince,

and I know that Quincy Avery, the quarterback coach is a like pretty out there. For the personality on Twitter. But he, I think he posted something. It was him or somebody else. some 90% sure it was him on early this week that reminded me of a conversation that I wanted to go down with you over the weekend, which is this. Quincy Avery tweeted, you want to know what the worst part about the situation at the University of Texas is, no matter how bad the QB plays, you cannot go in another direction.

You just have to stew in the mess. The season isn't going to end well if something doesn't change. And it's like, I kind of agree with that. Like, you cannot bench him, not to mention the fact that, like, they're not overly deep at the quarterback position anyway. So, like, it is what it is, and it's going to play out. My prediction still, and you don't have to take my prediction with any credence considering the fact of how wrong I was in August. I honestly, I don't know if it's impossible for him to make the Heisman finalist ceremony now, but it seems impossible. Oh, yeah.

I still think that it's not as bad as it looks because it just it cannot be because if it is that bad then Steve Sarkesian has done a terrible job right like well here's here's what Sark said about what you do about getting his attention just coach him just coach him you know that that's our job to coach and um you know different scenarios call for for different measures right of what you need to do and um you know i didn't you know if if if if if if Arch was having a bunch of mental errors and not operating the offense well, then that maybe it would have required to take it out. I didn't feel like that was the case.

So, you know, different things require different things to get your point across. And so, you know, we handled it accordingly. We'll handle it accordingly this week and expect them to come out and have a great game Saturday. They're playing Sam Houston State on Saturday. So, like, they're going to win this game. This is a chance for a get-right game for Arch. Clearly, Steve Sarkesian is confident that he can come out of this. Has your thought of Texas as a program that could win the national title altered dramatically?

Yes. Like, if you can't offensively operate against U-Tap, you have no chance of winning the national title. Yeah. My question really is, is how much of it, like, you know, sometimes when you have games that are just sleepy or games that are bad, Because he did, you know, clearly the week before, he threw four touchdowns in the first half against a better team. So, like, clearly that isn't like. But he wasn't great right off the bat against San Jose State either. No, I know.

But I don't think that what we saw against Utep is an indication of what he is. I think that, like, it's probably the baseline is much higher than that. I think it was an exceptionally bad game. Well, he's about to play a very good defense in Florida. Now, we'll see where Florida's at. We don't know what's going to happen in the Miami game. Florida's got an open date between then but Florida's defense

has been good. Their offense is another story entirely and obviously DJ Lagway is a big part of that. That defense will test him if he plays the way he played against Utep it would get ugly

potentially unless DJ Lagway is also throwing to the other team which he did it five times against LSU so who knows. Yeah I still think they can win the SEC. Like, I am not like, in the correction of overreacting when things go well, I'm going to try to be better about overreacting when things don't go well. Now, I think we'll know against Florida a lot because against Ohio State and his first start on the road,

there's a lot of mitigating circumstances there that could make things difficult. I also will go back to the very end of the Ohio State game when they just kind of let it loose and we're running up tempo and he looked much more comfortable like he looked at the end of the Ohio State game he looked comfortable I don't feel like watching that looked awkward like it did at the beginning of that game or at the beginning of the San Jose State game or throughout the entire Utah game is the perfect test where it's a good defense on the road in the SEC but you're not playing an overly great team at the moment like it's like if you can't have a very good or pretty good game

and lead your team to a win at Florida, then I'm going to really be ringing the alarm bells. Right. And, I mean, that's going to work the both, that's going to work both ways because the Texas defense is obviously very good. And DJ Lagway is going to have to play against that defense. Now, DJ Lagway will have played against the LSU defense and the Miami defense already. So we'll, we'll kind of know where that's at.

But it will be just a fast. fascinating matchup in general, and we'll obviously talk about that more when that game comes. But that's the one I have circle, Mandy, and I think you might do. Well, it's circled, but the thing is, if Miami and Florida State keep winning, we're not going to be in Gainesville. We're going to be in Tallahassee that day. We're going to learn a lot. We're going to learn a lot that day about him.

So Steve Sarkesian clearly thinks Archmanning is going through a phase and is going to be okay. that this is not a problem that can't be solved. And so you've got to ask a question by Kirk Bowles, the Austin American statesman columnist about Arch and what happens. And here's the answer. I think it gives you a very good, clear picture into Steve Sarkesian's mind right now. Stephen, the offseason, you noted that there would be challenges for Arch. And just kind of curious, this is probably the first time he's facing this type of adversity on his career.

In a way, is it good to finally just get this out of the way because you can only go up from here? I think you hit the nail on the head. I think some of this is really good. Here's a guy who's had an awesome life, you know. He's, you know, the way he's grown up, where he played, the school he went to, the people he's been surrounded by. But I think you learn a lot about yourself through adversity and overcoming adversity and getting on the other side of adversity. And so to have some of this adversity that he has right now, and when he gets on the other side of it, I think all of this is going to serve not only well for him, but well for us as a team. And so love the challenge for him, love the challenge for us.

And, you know, he's a strong-minded guy. He's got great work ethic, great poise, great composure. He's an awesome teammate. And so I love the end of the movie for him when he gets on the other side of this. So looking forward to it. Sorry, that wasn't Kirk Bowles. that was the sunshine pumper question, which you'll get in the college football press conferences.

It's like, things aren't that bad, right, coach? He's had a good life. He has a great life. Great life. And even if it doesn't work out in football, still going to have a pretty good life. He's a tall, handsome manning.

But like it's, it is in, like we talked about it in the off season too, Andy. Like, if he's good, you know, we're going to talk about him a lot. But it's more competitive. telling that he's bad right now because it seems so in congress with everything we've heard and seen and the thing is we had a small at least a small sample size of him as the starter where he

looked effective last year this utep game was far worse than anything he did last year i have a tin hat theory if you want it oh yeah yeah it's tuesday it's tuesday put you ten full Steve Sarkesian is intentionally tanking the first half of the Texas season only to bring him back in the second half of the season and him look awesome so that he can still accomplish his goals in 2025 without having to answer questions about the way 2024 in. Wow. That is so galaxy brain.

Yeah, genius. It's not true, but you know, nothing on here. It's true. Nothing's true. Yeah, there's no chance that's true, but you had me for a second. I was like, roo, maybe, maybe. Yeah, like, you know, if Arch finishes off in November and catches fire and is awesome in November and December, they make the college football playoff, you can always go back and say, well, why didn't Arch play more in the playoff last year? Because he was not ready to play.

And everyone will believe it now. Everybody believes it now. So, like, this is actually perfect. for Texas. That is amazing. I love it. I love it. And I kind of believe it, even though I know it's not true. You want to believe it. Here's another facet of this. I did mention that there was a Kirk Bowles question in here. So this is the Kirk Bowles question. And I was intrigued by Steve Sarkisian's answer. And I want to get your thoughts on an R. With Archer's struggles, do you kind of lean more into the running game, a little bit like you hit with 56 runs? Yeah. I mean, obviously,

we leaned into him running the ball a little bit more. And again, as I said, Saturday, I think we're going to have to wrap our brains around. That's now kind of part of our offense is utilizing the quarterback run game. Some games will require more than others. I think we were intentionally Saturday. I needed to find out about these other three kids running the ball with Jerrick and Christian and obviously James Simon, you know, with Trey down and with Cedric down, finding out about them.

I think the style of defense dictates some of that too. it was a bunch of three safety don't give up deep balls against us and so you know running the ball was was advantageous i felt like we left a lot of meat on the bone in the run game you know we probably should have more yardage there than we did interesting right yeah we have to wrap our brains right because kirk balls did not ask about arch in the running game he asked about the running game in general and sarkesian's mind immediately goes to we have have to wrap our brains around the quarterback run being a more important part of the offense, which is probably true because it is something that, that Arch does fairly well.

Ari, trivia question. Who currently leads the Texas Longhorns in rushing yards? Arch Manning. That's right, by two. C.J. Baxter has 110. Arch has 112. Who currently leads the Texas Longhorns in rushing touchdowns? Arch Manning.

Arch Manning has three and the rest of the team has zero. I'm so good at trivia. The offense, I don't think, I think Steve Sarkisian envisioned using Arch as a runner, but I don't think he envisioned a true dual threat QB offense, which is maybe what it needs to be to maximize Arch. Yeah, which. It's a scary proposition because he has gotten banged up a few times. So, you know, you want to limit his exposure, but at the same time, if he is a lethal running threat,

which is what we were screaming into microphones last December about incessantly, then you want to make the defense feel off balance as much as you possibly can. And if you, like, look at the best quarterbacks in the world, all of them are rushing threats. I mean, like Josh Allen, it's impossible to defend him because he's incredibly active. and makes great passes downfield, but also if you lose sight of him for a second. He's a 240 pound dump truck that can run you over. Yeah, and I'm not comparing Arch to Josh Allen, but I'm just saying what's obvious, which is when you have a running threat and a quarterback who can be lethal with his legs,

it's inherently harder to defend. So I would lean into everything that he does well while he's growing and make him more comfortable. I think that a lot of it, too, is confidence. You know, he needs to see a few passes, you know, land in the end zone and the right way, you know, not into the defender's hands like it was against U-TEP. Did he throw a pick in the end zone? Like, it's a gradual thing.

And if you believe that, you know, he's still new and he still hasn't played much and he's still, you know, he's been in college for a long time, you know, but he hasn't played a lot. Do what you can to make him feel comfortable. Yeah. And that's what I wonder is Steve Sarkisian, does he feel like he didn't build the offense necessarily the ideal way around Arch's skill set. And I have no doubt that, because it's not like people,

people assume that, you know, this is the playbook, there are only these plays, but every coach has a pretty diverse playbook and they kind of tailor it to the players they have. It's not hard for Sark to just reach into different parts of the playbook and then say this fit, this may fit this QB better. So this is not something that, like, you have to go an overhaul and off season. Like, you can do this in season. And so maybe we see a little bit different flavor of the Texas offense going forward

that does emphasize Archmanning as a runner. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be great. Oh, one other thing I wanted to throw at you, a curveball, I do a thoughts piece every Monday. That's 20 thoughts from the weekend. and it gets to like 3,000 words and it's just me just like regurgitating to my brain. And I had a thought, and I even sent it to you on Sunday, if you remember, beforehand,

wondering if it was fair. You know, Arch is the story. Arch is the famous person. Arch is the player we spent all offseason talking about and the most hype recruit of all time. That said, is it time for Steve Sarkesian to consider hiring an offensive coordinator? I've seen a little bit of that. And so. obviously, as someone who lives in Gainesville, I'm a veteran of the head coach needs to hire

an offensive coordinator argument from the fans. I don't think Steve Sarkesian's there yet. I know we've talked about his red zone struggles. He clearly sees those. I mean, they reared their ugly head again against U-Tap. But I think he's been successful enough doing it the way he wants to do it, that he's earned the right to keep doing it that way, if it were to get worse, if it were to get to where they suddenly were regressing, and maybe they are, but I would need to see a whole season of regression, or even more than a whole season of regression, because what he's done so far has been pretty excellent. And so it's not the same thing as Billy Napier being 20 and 22 in year four and refusing to give up play calling. Yeah. And also, and also,

Also, there's a discussion that could be had of should any coach, head coach, be calling plays. Like, you know, I think that we've seen a lot of coaches who have given up calling plays take a next step in the success of their programs. And I wonder if that's just like a thought, a think piece. Maybe that's an offseason discussion. But like it's. Yeah. And the thing is like it's, it ebbs and flows. Like the NFL's got a ton of coaches right now that call plays on both sides of the ball.

Yeah. And it's great when it works and everybody's on your ass when it doesn't. And maybe it's just low-hanging fruit when things aren't going well. It's just an easy thing to grab. Well, and I saw on the Florida message boards floating around, there's a quote from Eli Drinkwitz that he gave when he hired Kirby Morris's offensive coordinator where he said, hey, I realize that I needed to do a better job with the CEO and motivational aspects and mindset aspects of the game.

And I felt like I could be a better head coach this way. And don't quote me on the record. I believe it's 27 and 5 since he did that. Yeah. They've been very good since then. So it just depends on the person. It depends on the coach. Like, I like Steve Sarkesian as a play caller enough that I don't know that he could hire a better play caller than himself.

Yeah. Billy Napier probably could hire a better play caller than himself. Yeah. Yeah, good stuff. Good stuff. So, yeah. We'll see. We'll see.

We'll be at the same time with our shoulders. I know, like, yeah, because the arch thing is, that's what it does to us. That's what this arch argument does to people, because while everybody, and we discussed the backlash, everybody got sick of us anointing him, they're happy that we were wrong about that. But I also think, and you mentioned this earlier, nobody honestly thought it would be bad. They thought probably the floor of this was average. Yeah.

And I thought that even if he were average, he would amass enough statistics and production to go to New York. That was the heart of the thing that you played. Yeah. But I meant average average, like just the guy. I think the Blacklist fans would tell you that Quinn Ewers was average. Right. But I don't think when yours was average. And now I really don't think Quinn Ewers was average.

Yeah. He's down in Florida right now, smoking some Sigs on a balcony, looking at the ocean and just letting the breeze go through his hair, right? I don't think he's smoking any Sigs. Yeah, who knows? He's from Texas. He's on an NFL roster right now. He's got to maintain a healthy life. Obviously, you've never seen all the iconic pictures of. Yes, in the 50s and 60s, they also sewed cars in the offseason. Dude, they were smoking darts at halftime when men were men. Ari's going back to the Y.A. Tittle days.

I don't know if Y.A. Tittle smoked, but, oh, listen, we've had some smoking hot takes about Arch Manning. We will continue to have smoking hot takes about Arch Manning because I got to say, as you pointed out, Ari, he is probably more interesting this way than he would be if he'd been awesome. Yeah. So we'll talk more about it. The rest of the week, Wednesday show, Mega Board. What is popping off on the on three message boards? Our guy Brett McMurphy will join us. I know we're talking some Notre Dame,

but also we're going to monitor the megaboard and see what else pops up because you guys are very fun on the message boards. Very fun indeed. Also, Thursday, you know what it is. Dear Andy, dear Ari, hit us up, ask us your questions. We will answer them on the show. Andy Stapleson3 at gmail.com, ari.wasterman at on3.com.

Send us those emails. We've already got a couple good questions for the show, but we love more, and we love answering your questions. We love when you help drive the show. So thank you for watching. Be sure to subscribe to the On3 YouTube page that'll cost you nothing,

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