Andy & Ari On3 - The college football coaches you need to watch in 2024 if you think your team may need a new coach

Episode Date: June 27, 2024

It’s a Dear Andy show, and you’ve sent some spectacular questions…(0:00-0:57) Intro(0:58-8:49) EA Sports Update(8:50-30:20) Rising Head Coaches (30:21-35:49) The Future on Conferences(35:50-39:49) College Football 101(39:50-45:34) October 12th and a Wedding(45:35-52:09) Traveling West of the Mississippi this season(52:10-1:01:29) Random Ranking - Albums(1:01:30-1:01:50) ConclusionWhich coaches should fans whose teams might need new coaches be watching? Liberty’s Jamey Chadwell? USF’s Alex Golesh? Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann?Will giant conferences kill conference pride?What are the best five games to attend this season in the western part of the country?How do two friends — an Ohio State grad and a Penn State grad — handle another friend’s wedding on Oct. 12? That’s the day Ohio State plays at Oregon and Penn State plays at USC.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/UIf_Y1kQuLwHost: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. It is Thursday, best day of the week. A Dear Andy show. Your questions drive the show. I do love these days. So, and you have some spectacular questions today. Some of these are that came in while I was on vacation. There's one I will read that I spent a lot of time thinking about on vacation because it is quite a quandary. And it's one of those that like could just tear friendships apart, could change relationships completely. Of course, we're talking about a wedding that's on a big college football Saturday. Like it's going to be, it's going to be a problem. I don't, like I said, I've been thinking about it for a while. I still don't have a lot of good solutions for our person. And I'm a little worried about that, but that's okay. We will get to that in a second. Cause we've got, we got some other big topics in deer, Andy. There's some more

macro topics that we need to make sure we get to. One thing I did want to touch on before we get to deer, Andy, our friends at EA sports, uh, they're geniuses in terms of giving us little tiny hits of what to expect when this game drops, this EA Sports College Football 25. And I realize there's probably a few of you who don't play video games. You're like, why do you keep talking about this? Because a lot of us are going to be consumed by this game next month. And judging by how many of you guys come on when I start talking about it, how many of you guys watch the videos when I do talk about it, I know that I'm not alone here. I know that there's a lot of us that are going to be

disappearing for a while. And in my house, it's going to be like a wrestling match because the PlayStation is in my son's room. I'm going to have to steal it. it's going to be like a wrestling match because the playstation is in my son's room i'm going to have to steal it it's going to come down to my office we'll have to figure it all out there may have to be a custody dispute there may be a you know we may have to take it to arbitration we'll figure it out but they released another video on wednesday and it was the the deep dive into the sights and sounds of the game and it was the deep dive into the sights and sounds of the game. And it was pretty crazy. Like they showed us in the, in the video game version, some of the stuff that they talked about when we went down to EA sports last month to learn about the game and what they

did to bring it back. And like they, they showed us the motion capture and then the actual scene of like the team taking the field because they had told us they like they have this big sound stage in vancouver where they do motion capture and they said they had built this custom ramp and they had hired a bunch of stunt actors to be clemson players coming down the hill so the ramp was made at exactly the same angle as the hill at Clemson and so they hired these actors and they showed them a bunch of Clemson entrances and showed them what the different players do when they hit that one flat spot on the hill like do they jump do they do you know do they kick do they how do they handle

that and so they built this custom ramp, put everybody in motion capture suits, and then had them run down the hill. And then they show you that next to the Clemson players running down the hill in the video game. It's pretty amazing. And also, I had mentioned that they got the formations of the bands when the teams were on the field. They made sure they got every one of those. And one of my great regrets of the last few months is when I said they're going to have Tennessee running through the tee and Tennessee will turn left in the tee. And I was like, wait a second. Tennessee turns right in the tee, not left.

So now you actually get to see that. There is a little snippet of that. It starts off with Smokey's handler running through the tee, and then they show the players as they're turning in the tee. And it's really cool. Also, the other thing that a lot of people had asked about and that I was just trying to make sure they did have are the stadium special occasions. Those were the

ones that we just weren't sure if we were going to get all of that stuff or how it was going to look. Well, they actually show it to you a little bit in this game. They've got Stripe Kinnick. They've got Striping and BYU. They've got Checker Nealon. They show a little bit of that. Now, I'm not entirely sure how you get, because they're not going to do it every single game. If you just pick Tennessee and play now mode, somebody at Tennessee, I don't think you're going to get a Checker Nealon. I think it's got to be at a certain point during the season, and it's got to be a special occasion. Penn State has the whiteout like they show that in the game. So it's going to be pretty cool. And I just every time I see this stuff, it gets me more excited

about what is going to happen next. And I believe they have a Georgia blackout in the, in one of the examples they showed, which listen, I went to the 2008 Georgia Alabama game at Sanford stadium, the blackout game. I don't think I'd ever do another blackout after that one. That, that really should have ended it for everything. That should have said,

okay, nope. We are, we are a traditional team uh don't worry about wearing black you guys with the shoulder pads that have the spike shoulder pads wear those everybody else wear red we'll wear red jersey silver britches we're done with this that should have been that but we shall see now ea sports has is tease what they're leaking out the rest of the week. What's coming up Thursday is pretty interesting too. It's they're going to be there. They're going to reveal their top offenses and their top defenses in the game in terms of ratings. And I'm curious to see this. And I, I, we're going to use that. I think as a, as a thought

starter for tomorrow's show, because we haven't had the best offenses and best defenses in college football for 2024 show. I'm not going to make it a show about the video game, but I do think we can kind of use what they have because they use the PFF rankings and they're using data to create these. I want to compare that to real life. I would like to have that discussion. We've not really gotten into that discussion on the show yet, where we talk about the best offenses, the best defenses, exactly what we should expect, the ones we're most excited to see. Because there are, there's new new quarterbacks new everything uh there's some trash talk going on in the chat right now speaking of new quarterbacks and uh adam is responding to

some folks talking about the national title debate and he says it's an out it's a bama georgia debate this year we all know avery johnson's backup can't take ohio state. That is the kind of salt I want to see from you guys. And that is the interesting dynamic that we need to get into and talk about. Because like Will Howard, yeah, he's at Ohio State because Kansas State had decided to start Avery Johnson. Now, I think what's going to happen is you're going to find out that Avery Johnson is really, really good. And that's why that happened. But that doesn't necessarily mean Will Howard's not good. It just means Kansas State thought Avery Johnson had a higher upside. Put Will Howard with all that talent, it could be pretty darn good too.

But we'll see. I'm very curious to see where they put Ohio State's offense in that ranking, because obviously they are loaded at receiver, loaded at back o-line is the one spot we're not entirely sure about but they feel pretty good about it and then you got will howard so we'll talk about that on tomorrow's show we'll definitely talk about the top defense that's one where ohio state i think i think i don't know i i don't know how you're going to pick anybody but ohio State is the highest ranked defense next year, just based on what they bring back. But obviously you're going to want to, you're going to have Georgia pretty high there.

I think Alabama's got a lot of, a lot of really good pieces that they've brought in. Now, obviously they lost Caleb Downs to Ohio State, and that's a big reason why I think Ohio State will be the number one defense. But if you look at what Alabama has up front, I think there's some guys there that maybe not household names yet that will be as the season goes on. So we're going to find out what happens next.

But we've got some questions about what happens next, what happens through this season. And at the end of next season, JT is going to kick us off for Dear Andy with a really good question. And I appreciate the way JT comes at this question because I didn't want to do the traditional version of this question either. So I'm glad, glad he asked it this way. Andy, I do not want to do a hot seat question in June. So I'll take a slightly different approach. History tells us that there are likely two to three SEC jobs that will open this year, putting speculation about what Sam Pittman, Shane Beamer, and Billy Napier have to do

to keep their jobs aside. What names should fans of these types of programs be keeping an eye on this season? For example, South Carolina fans are probably watching a lot of Liberty, Arkansas fans, What names should fans of these types of programs be keeping an eye on this season? For example, South Carolina fans are probably watching a lot of Liberty. Arkansas fans, PTSD aside, are probably watching hometown boy Rhett Lashley at SMU. But who are the major power five assistants that seem to get less shine in these early conversations? Is Glenn Schumann ready for that leap? Kane Womack?

Will Stein? Or the rising star head coaches like G.J. Kinney or Alex Golish ready for SEC jobs? What happens with Matt Campbell if he wins eight or nine games again at Iowa State? I'll hang up and listen. Great question, JT. Also, JT, do you work for a search firm? Because that's a hell of a list. That really is. JT hit a lot of the major guys that you're going to want to talk about. And so let's, let's talk about the group of five head coaches and the power conference coordinators that we should be looking at. And this is like JT said, it doesn't necessarily have to be a, this guy's going to get fired. This guy's going to take his job situation. I don't know if that's going to be the case. And we also tend to have surprises. Like we may have

somebody leave for the NFL. Somebody is very successful, leaves the NFL. Somebody's very successful, leaves for another job. Somebody retires. Like these are all things that could happen as well, and we've seen them happen very recently. So that part adds to the intrigue here. So this list, I don't think you should just think about it in terms of if these SEC jobs open. While a lot of these guys are probably very qualified to work at SEC schools, these are also people that if a good ACC job were to open up, if a good Big 12 job were to open up, a good Big 10 job were to open up, they're going to be on the list.

They're going to be people that get considered for these jobs. So I'll start with Jamie Chadwell, the Liberty head coach, because this is one where if an SEC job opens up, his name will come up. If an ACC job opens up, his name will come up. If an ACC job opens up, his name will come up. The guy has won everywhere he's been. He's won at every level. So started out at North Greenville, Division II, won there. Went to Charleston Southern, FCS, won there.

Went to Coastal Carolina, Group of Five, won there. Obviously went undefeated in his first season at Liberty and then lost in the Fiesta Bowl to Oregon, which had a far better roster. But the bugaboo with Jamie Chadwell, the reason, it's like when South Carolina opened and they hired Shane Beamer, Jamie Chadwell had Coastal Carolina going

and probably should have been a pretty big candidate for the South Carolina job at that point. But the question with him, and it remains the question now, is he's never had to recruit at the power conference level, at the SEC level, ACC level, any of that. He's never had to recruit at that level. Most of his staff has never recruited at that level. And at that time when he was at Coastal, he had kept that staff together. A lot of those guys had been with him since North Greenville. He's still got guys that have been with him since North Greenville, but they've diversified it a little bit since the move. Some of the guys didn't go to Liberty with him and they went to different places. He had to hire other people. So it's been diversified a little bit, but if the guy just keeps winning over and over

and over again, turning whatever quarterback he has into a massive producer. And here's, here's another thing to watch, like watch what Grayson McCall does at NC state because with Grayson McCall, who was Jamie Chadwell's quarterback at Coastal Carolina for a lot of the time he was there, he was phenomenal there. Now last year, not as productive under Tim Beck at Coastal. What happens when he goes to NC State where he's definitely got more talent around him? But if NC State's coaching staff

can't make Grayson McCall look as good as Jamie Chadwell did, then you need to look at that as an AD looking to make a hire and go, oh wait, it was probably Jamie Chadwell's offense that did that. And that should probably boost him in your eyes as the AD. So I do think Jamie Chadwell is one you've got to seriously consider if you are an SEC school, an ACC school. Now with him, he has joked, I've talked to him about this. I've talked to his wife about this. They joke that they're not leaving the South. I think they're joking. Well, I actually don't think they're joking. Both of them, or I believe both of them

were raised in Tennessee. Both of them like living in the South. Most of Shadwell's career before he went to, well, pretty much all of Shadwell's coaching career before he went to Liberty was in the state of South Carolina. So a job in the state of South Carolina, in the state of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, those are probably the ones they are going to be most active trying to get if they want to, if they would want to move from Liberty. So those are the ones that, that you need to look at because I don't necessarily see him going to the big 10 or going out West. Like he definitely seems like he's going to be in the South. Now let's move to Texas because you could see some movement in jobs in the

state of Texas. If big 12, there's, you know, big 12 jobs that might open. G.J. Kinney at Texas State. You've seen him on this show a couple of times. G.J. is a rising star. He's actually very young in the coaching profession because he did play in the NFL for a little while, did not get started in coaching until he went to Hawaii. He was there with Todd Graham. And it's interesting to see his rise, but he's worked with Gus Malzahn at UCF. And he was at Incarnate Word, which has been kind of a launching pad because like Eric Morris was the Incarnate Word head coach. He went to be OC at Washington State. He became the head coach at North Texas.

G.J. Kenney had Incarnate Word going. He moves to Texas State, which historically had not won very much. They went to a bowl game last year. They won their first bowl game. And then this year, they are going to bring in Jordan McLeod as their quarterback. Jordan McLeod, the reigning Sunbelt Offensive Player of the Year. He was at James Madison last year with Kirk Cingetti. Kirk Cingetti leaves for Indiana. Jordan McLeod goes to Texas State. So I think they're probably going to have a pretty good year. Now, it's a tough

league, but if G.J. Kinney's winning in that league, he was on the list at Mississippi State last year. I don't think it was necessarily a serious contention for that job. I think it was more, hey, you're a hot young coach. We're going to talk to you. Maybe down the road this works out later, or I'm an AD somewhere else, and I'm looking at it. That's one of those things where you'll put somebody on a list that you just want to talk to, but you know you're probably not

going to hire them right now, but it's somebody you want to get to know better. I think that's what G.J. Kinney is for a lot of these ADs. They're looking at him and saying, okay, if he keeps this up, this is going to be a star. Another guy who's going to draw serious interest, and I think he's going to get big interest this year coming off of this season, if he has another good year, is Alex Golish at USF. So Alex Golish was the offensive coordinator at Tennessee with Josh Heupel. He takes over at USF, which is a place that has been pretty tough to win historically. Jim Levitt founded the program, had it going all right, but they just really haven't been able to put together what you think they should be able to, given where they are in Tampa. You should be able to recruit better there. Now, they don't have an on-campus stadium. They're

working on that. They're building one of those, but Alice Golish took USF to a pretty good place last year, turned them around very quickly. And Byron Brown, the quarterback there, looked fantastic. It's that same offense that you see Heupel run at Tennessee, that you saw Heupel run at UCF and goalish. The fact that he could do that so quickly and the previous coaches at USF, so you've got Jeff Scott, phenomenal recruiter, but couldn't get it going at USF. Charlie Strong inherited a really good roster from Willie Taggart. They were good that first year, and then they just fell off. And Charlie Strong is another phenomenal recruiter. So they just haven't been able to get it going. The last coach who had success there was Willie Taggart before he went to Oregon. But the fact that Golish could come in right away and make

it successful tells you that you could probably do this at another level. It probably translates very well. USF beat Syracuse in its bowl game. If you watch that, it was a pretty impressive showing. Now, Syracuse obviously had fired its coach and was in transition. Fran Brown coming in this year, you know how I feel about Fran Brown, that Syracuse is going to be pretty good right now. But I do think USF and Alex Golesh are a team you need to watch. Another coach that I would watch this year that I'm intrigued by is Jeff Traylor at UTSA because Traylor has done a great job at UTSA, but he's had the same

quarterback most of the time, Frank Harris. And you heard when we talked to Will Stein, who's the Oregon offensive coordinator, he had been at UTSA before he went to Oregon. And we were joking about, you know, going from one lefty quarterback to another, but Frank Harris was basically an institution at UTSA. And so now we're going to see how does jeff trailer do without him well i do think that is going to be a telling thing because you you start to ask these questions is it was the success based on having a quarterback who was reliable and you knew exactly what you were going to get and you could game plan around that or can you do this everywhere and Jeff Traylor long history is a really good Texas high school coach if he has a good year now that the Frank Harris administration is over

at UTSA I do think that they are going to be a he's going to be pretty hot commodity his he and his staff Traylor is 39 and 14 at UTSA entering year five. So do it without Frank Harris. And I'm telling you, everybody he'll, he'll be on every list, especially like, again, I know we didn't want to make this a hot seat question, but let's be real here. The Baylor job, if they don't turn it around, the Baylor job could come open. That would be a spot where Jeff trailer would fit pretty well. So that's one to watch too. Among, well, let's throw one more head coach. So one more group of five head coach out there. And that's Jason candle, Jason candle at Toledo. This is year nine at Toledo for Jason Candle. And we had Matt

Campbell. JT mentioned Matt Campbell in the question. Jason Candle, he succeeded Matt Campbell at Toledo. Usually that doesn't work this way where a guy succeeds in a successful one, has success himself, but then doesn't later. Jason Candle's been up for jobs, but it's just, it hasn't quite worked out. But one thing I would pay attention to is how Toledo is recruiting right now. They had, I believe they had the highest ranked group of five recruiting class last year. And this year they're way ahead of everybody else. They have more commitments than everybody else. Uh, but he's 54 and 32 at Toledo, two Mac championships, six bowl appearances. So this is a guy that in the old system, in the old ways of doing things

would have already gotten a big 10 job, like would have already moved up, but he hasn't. And it's interesting because you know he and matt campbell former mountain union teammates they're both kind of in the same boat where they've done great at their jobs and you kind of wonder did they miss their window is the window potentially going to reopen because i i thought what jt asked in the question about Matt Campbell was very interesting. Because I go back to last season. They lost at Ohio, I believe. They lost a game at a Mac school, Iowa State did. And a guy mentions hot seat to Matt Campbell.

And Matt Campbell kind of walks back toward him. And you're like, this is not going great. But then by the end of the season, they're beating Kansas State. And you're like, oh no, no, no. Matt Campbell didn't forget how to coach, like not having Brock Purdy for a while. That that's tough. Like when you have Brock Purdy for four years and then you don't have Brock Purdy anymore, that does require a little bit of adjustment, but it's sort of the same thing we had with, we were talking about with Jeff Traylor. If you can prove you can do it with somebody else, you can do it pretty much anywhere with anybody. So that's where Matt Campbell comes in here. And look, if Matt Campbell were to leave Iowa state,

which JT mentioned this in the context of sec jobs, I do not think Matt Campbell wants to take an sec job. I think that is probably not his style. I think the big 10 is probably where he would head if, if that was the case. Now, if you look at it, it doesn't look like a lot of big 10 jobs are going to open anytime soon, but like we said, we'd never, you never know strange things happen. So that's when, if Matt can't, let's say Matt Campbell is, has Iowa state in contention to win the big 12 this year and a big 10 job opens a good big 10 job. Like, yeah, they're going to consider him. He's going to need to consider that job if he wants to do it. But he also has said he likes Iowa state. He seems to be happy there. They seem to understand that he's

maybe the best coach they've ever had. Like this is a good, it's a good marriage. Sometimes you don't want to mess with Happy, but if he did get that job, if you're Iowa State, why don't you just call Jason Candle and be like, can we run this back? Can you stay with us for nine years? That would be a pretty good arrangement. All right, let's talk about the assistants because JT had a nice listing of assistants. That was impressive, JT. Like I said, I think JT works for a search firm. Glenn Schumann is the Georgia defensive coordinator. If you watched yesterday's show, you heard Philip Dukes firm. Glenn Schumann is the Georgia defensive coordinator. If you watched

yesterday's show, you heard Philip Dukes talking about Glenn Schumann and how good he is with linebackers and IDing and developing linebackers. So Glenn Schumann kind of came through the Alabama machine, the Nick Saban machine, and started out very young there. The world at large doesn't know as much about him because he's worked at Alabama. He's worked at Georgia. Those are two kind of one voice programs where you haven't really been able to hear much from him. You see what he does at Georgia, but you haven't been able to hear much from him so i think ad's kind of want to get to know him a little bit but i do think even big sec jobs if they were to open he's going to get considered for him this because he's taken kind of the same path as dan lanning and if you look at what lanning's doing in oregon let's say

or let's say lanning does take that next step because you've heard me say a bunch of times, Lanning needs to take the roster he's built and now turn that into championship opportunities, playoff opportunities. I think he can do that. But everybody's going to be looking for that next Dan Lanning. Well, Glenn Schumann looks like the next Dan Lanning. So I think he's going to get serious consideration for jobs after this season. Look, we know Georgia's defense can be good again. Their players are fantastic. The other thing that we need to look at with these hot coordinators is what's the path? The one with the most interesting path is Kane Womack. Kane Womack is Alabama's defensive coordinator. I know what

you're saying. Well, he just got hired at Alabama's the DC. Why would somebody just after one year at Alabama try to hire him as a big time head coach? Well, because he's already been a good group of five head coach. That's where he has the more interesting path than I think any of these guys. So Kane Womack now grew up in this. Like when I met Cain Womack, he was a GA at Ole Miss. His dad, Dave Womack, a longtime SEC defensive coordinator. And Cain was in his early twenties. He was helping out Hugh Freeze's staff. And that's where he got to know Tom Allen. Tom Allen was assistant Ole Miss. Tom Allen gets the head coaching job at Indiana, brings Cain Womack with him. C Kane Womack grows up into the defensive coordinator at Indiana, was really good there.

When he's at Indiana, this is a fun story. Tom Allen says, hey, I'm looking for a new offensive coordinator. I would like you to watch some film, tell me, based on who you played, but also maybe guys, you haven't played, do some research, find offenses that would drive your defense crazy. So who, what does he bring to Tom Allen? He says, you need to call this guy, Kalen DeBoer at Fresno state. Cause this offense would drive my defense crazy. Tom Allen hires Kalen DeBoer as the offensive coordinator in Indiana. Kalen DeBoer meets Michael Penix Jr. The rest is history, folks. So the Caden Womack thing is a very interesting one. If he's very good at Alabama

this year, there will be a lot of interest in him. He was 22 and 16 at South Alabama. Not an easy job, but like you go last year, they went to Stillwater and thumped Oklahoma State, the Oklahoma State team that played for the Big 12 title. So that's definitely a name you need to watch. And I do think, watch how he's recruiting in Alabama this off season, because that's one of the reasons they hired him is to help them navigate recruiting in the South. When a lot of the coaches with coming with Kalen DeBoer had not worked in the South before. So they kept some other guy, Robert Gillespie, one of the assistants they kept on staff, but Kane Womack was brought in because, Hey, you're a familiar person. We know you, but we also know that you understand this region very well. So if he becomes a major part of a great Alabama season,

and then you add in what he's done as a head coach already, that will be a very strong candidate for a lot of jobs. A guy you saw here a couple weeks ago on the show, Will Stein, the Oregon offensive coordinator, he's very mature beyond his years if he can get the same results out of dylan gabriel that he got out of bo nicks there's not a coaching search that's going to go on that doesn't have will stein's name at least mentioned because ad's love offense ad's know they believe offense sells tickets if they want to generate excitement they want an offense that's going to score a lot of points will stein's name will come up and you

heard him talk on this like he's that part of it that part of being the head coach the the front facing part he's going to be great at that and that's that's the part you you say oh that doesn't matter it only matters if you it does matter when you're hiring a head coach, when you're hiring a face of your program, the, who the person who becomes really the most visible person at your university, that stuff does matter. And I think that's one where like Glenn Schumann hasn't really gotten a chance to show he can be that because of the places he's worked where they don't really let those guys get a lot of attention. I would imagine Glenn Schumann can be that, but that's one of those he's got to prove to an AD

he can. Will Stein, I think, already has the tape for that one, but they want more tape on the offense with a different quarterback. If Dylan Gabriel is high 70s completion percentage, they're averaging, you know, eight, nine yards of play. Yeah, I think Will Stein's name is going to come up an awful lot. That was a great question. That's a phenomenal question. Let's move on to something from Rich that I had not thought about, but this one also came in on vacation. I was like, you know what, Rich, I think you have a very good point here. So here's what Rich asked. Andy, this is likely too long for Dear Andy segment, but I've been chewing on an aspect of college football's future that hasn't been touched on much. The too long didn't read is we will all be Notre Dame.

Quick background. I'm an LSU alum living in Dallas and all of my interactions with Texas and Oklahoma fans going to the SEC seem tempered. I would imagine the former Pac-12 schools feel similar as they go to the Big Ten. My prediction is these schools will look at their schedule as a few permanent conference rivalry games eventually for the SEC. He says it's one right now, but we don't know what it'll look like past 2025. Five, six games a year against conference foes and a few wildcard games each year, which is exactly how Notre Dame's schedule works now this will bleed into other teams outlooks as conference standings will have little to no impact on winning the national title ultimately the conferences will be more scheduling arrangements than true conferences leading to more teams feeling a bit

more independent not looking forward to this but I continue to be fascinated by the unintended consequences of this new world I think Rich might be right because now you'll still have your rivals, the big rivals. And that's why I do wonder what the SEC is going to do with this schedule going forward. And I always said, oh, you know, they're definitely going to nine conference games. They're definitely going to have three permanent rivals. I don't know that now because again, I'm watching to see what happens with Florida State and Clemson and North Carolina. If the SEC were to get even bigger, then the math doesn't work on that anymore. The math works on that with 16 teams.

It doesn't work if they go to 18 or if they go bigger than that. So I don't know what that's going to look like. But I do think that this outlook is kind of right because the way Notre Dame's schedule works is they do play USC every year, Stanford every year, Navy every year. And then they have a rotating cat. They have the ACC teams that rotate through. So they do play Clemson a lot. They do play Florida State a lot. And those tend to kind of foment into rivalries. But then they've got a rotating cast of Michigan and schools like that. They played Purdue, that they played frequently. And then you throw in a Texas A&M this year.

They like to throw in the wild cards. It does make sense that it would feel this way. I kind of wonder, I don't know, if you're an Alabama fan, did the whole SEC, sec thing bother you because your school was kind of carrying that like the whole mississippi state and south carolina fans glomming on and sec's greatest conference in the world what was alabama winning those titles like it wasn't mississippi state or south carolina winning those titles so i i kind of wonder if some fan bases are will be relieved by that,

that the other schools in the league aren't glomming on. But yeah, when you get this big, you're not really a conference anymore. Like, I think the perfect conference size is like nine. Like, or 10. The 10-team Big 12 that played a nine game conference schedule there was a true round robin like that's a real conference everybody's a rival rivalries can kind of switch and reverse but you know you're going to play everybody every year this is not this is this is going to be yeah it is more of a super league kind of scheduling arrangement

and it's it's quite a bit different i i yeah this is this is good i but again i don't know if that's bad like i do think the conference pride thing got a little toxic for a while dakota tough says screw that bring back the big eight the big eight had lots of good rivalries that was the Oklahoma Nebraska Oklahoma Oklahoma State Kansas Missouri yeah let's I'm I'm all right with that Kansas Kansas State a lot of good rival Nebraska Colorado Oklahoma Yeah, we can do that. We can bring back. That would be like here. Here's what I think could ultimately happen. That it's not the greatest thing in the world, but it could be, you know, one silver lining based on what might happen if you do get into a Super League situation, and it is a deal where a lot of the power conferences have basically consolidated, if they could form divisions then, because that's why there's a viewer named Mitch who frequently asks, when are they bringing divisions back? And I answered that question on Dear Andy a few weeks ago, and I said they're bringing divisions back when they have the Super League. Not before, because right now, the way the playoff works, divisions don't make sense. So. If they bring the Super League, bring in the Super League and you bring divisions back, you just make your divisions what those little conferences were, where you have a small number of teams clustered in a region that could become rivals or already are rivals.

That would be the best way to do that. I don't think in the current format it's going to happen because you just want the highest rank. So it doesn't make any sense to have divisions. All right. Next question. It's from Nathan. It's on video. How do I prepare someone to attend a football game for the very first time?

For context, this fall, I'm traveling with my wife's family to the U.S., and I wanted to take my father-in-law to the USC-Nebraska game. But my father-in-law has never watched football, isn't really a sports person, and doesn't speak English, so he won't be able to understand what they're saying over the PA system. And I have no idea how to prepare him for the absolute madness that is college football. Please, please give me your advice. This is a,

this is a crazy question. So Nathan has sent in a lot of questions before. And so from that, I got Nathan lives in Israel. And so I'm assuming his father is Israeli. a crazy question so but nathan has sent in a lot of questions before and so from that i i got nathan lives in israel and so i'm assuming his father is israeli and so it's coming over and it would be just a crazy madhouse in that so he's talking about usc nebraska which i believe is in l in la so now the fact that it's in LA would be interesting because you've got a big city. Multiculturally, you can probably handle that a little bit better, but it's also not the

kind of representative college town environment that you get if you go to Lincoln. But in the game itself, what is that going to be like? I think you just sort of explained to him, Hey, you're going for the experience. You're going to like, just sort of ride the wave of the crowd. Now, Nathan's a Nebraska fan, so they probably want the crowd to be quiet. They're going to want the crowd to be disappointed. But I think just seeing the entrances seeing the the pageantry and the pomp because there's nothing like this anywhere else that's one of the things that makes college football so great like international soccer has you know these huge fan bases and and it's they're very passionate but in america our pro teams, they're just not like that.

College football is the closest thing we have to that. And it's a bigger spectacle, I would argue, at the biggest games because of the bands, because of the mascots, because of all this other stuff. Like your father-in-law, Nathan, is going to love the USC band. He is going to be entranced by the USC band. Like he's going to wonder what the hell Tommy Trojan is doing out there, but he's not going to be able to take his eyes off of it. And I think the ceremony of all this, just being able to see that is cool enough. And then the game, I don't think you have to understand the game if you've got the energy of the game.

And the thing is with both these teams, we don't know what Nebraska or USC is going to be this year, but we suspect that Nebraska could be pretty good. This is November 16th. So Nebraska will have had to play Ohio state. So you have a better idea of what's going on, but if Nebraska is really good this year, they're going to have a hot start because their schedule is fairly easy for most of the first couple of months of the season. So they're going to have a fairly good record going into that game. USC could go one or two directions. USC could be in the dumps because the defense didn't get better or the defense did get better. And USC is very competitive in the big 10. And that game is a big game in terms of standings in the big 10,

which case that one is going to be very high energy. And I think he's going to have fun. I think he will enjoy it even if he doesn't understand it. I think that would be the best way to put it. All right, let's go to another question. This is one I teased earlier. This is difficult. This is from Aaron. Andy, on a recent podcast you did with Max Olson, you mentioned how epic the weekend of October 12th would be for college football. My buddy and I are in a dilemma as one of our very good friends decided to get

married on October 12th. To make matters worse, I'm an alum of Penn State, we play at USC, and my buddy is an alum of Ohio State. They play at Oregon. I'm a big fan of following the TV release dates, especially for the Big Ten, and feel pretty confident that Penn State game will kick off at 3.30 on CBS and the Ohio State game will kick off at 7.30 on NBC. This is largely based on Brett McMurphy's tweet from a few weeks ago. Can you give me some ideas on how I can convince the bride and groom

to put the games on during the reception? I'm trying to think of something that's better than just watching on my phone. I already looked at the venue for the wedding reception, and the only TV they have is where the groom gets ready. I obviously want to be a good friend, but also do not want to miss watching these incredible games. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Austin from Bay city,

Michigan. Holy crap. Austin. What are we going to do with, with your friends? Like, first of all, we're,

we got to question these friends. Like, did either of them go to a large big 10 school? Cause if they did, what are they doing why are they doing this to you because they're not just doing it to you they're doing it to a lot of their friends this is this is a tough situation so i'm glad you've already scouted out the venue this is this is important because this sort of guides how I'm going to answer this question.

The only TV is where the groom gets ready. Here is the problem. You can't fit that many people in that room. If everyone were to disappear, you're going to have a very angry bride, probably an angry groom, probably an angry family of the bride and groom. We don't know who's paying for this wedding but whoever's paying for this wedding will be the most angry because the reception you you pay so much for a wedding reception so much and if everybody just disappears

his friends marley for president chat his friends are mean because WTF, seriously, like that weekend of all weekends. Why? And I realized they probably, they probably scheduled this wedding before we even knew that Oregon was going to be in the big 10. Alan in the chat,

I acted like the baby needed to be walked around so I could watch the game. Dude, this is good. If you have a baby needed to be walked around so I could watch the game. Dude, this is good. If you have a baby, probably some walks need to happen. I think you're going to have to watch on your phone, Austin. I think that's what's going to happen. You're going to have to watch on your phone. Christopher says, do not attend the wedding.

Hard and fast rule. Chicken says, your conception and qualification of friendships are distorted. Yeah, look, I get it. As crazy as I am about college football, and of course, I'm not coming to your wedding if you scheduled on a college football Saturday because I have to work, but that applies to my own children and they know that. You've got to go to this wedding. Sounds like these are fairly close friends. You've got to watch it on your phone. But here's what you've got to figure out.

One, how's the cell service at the reception venue? Two, is there Wi-Fi if the cell service is bad? Because we do live, we're lucky to live in an age where we can watch games on our phones from pretty much anywhere. You know, there were people 10, 15 years ago who just had to sit in the reception and slowly die. So at least you have this. Listen, these people

are terrible for scheduling their wedding on this day. So they should understand at least that they're terrible and give you a little grace and everybody else a little grace when they're at the reception looking down at their phones maybe bring an ipad something that you could put in the middle of the table so people can watch peasy says gotta bring airpods around at the wedding does anybody actually have a wedding singer anymore like a like a real adam sandler singing covers that's a lot it's a lot of money to to plow into a cover band i i just don't know if i can handle that but i just you're gonna have to watch these games on your phone they're gonna have to get over it they were the horrible people who scheduled the wedding on this day and river can you throw that graphic back up that says what games are October 12th?

Because it's not just the two Big Ten games you mentioned. You've also got Florida, Tennessee, Ole Miss, LSU, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas State, Colorado. These people are monsters. Absolute freaking monsters to have a wedding on this day. So yeah, you're going to have to tell them, listen, there are going to be a bunch of people watching the game on their phones or potentially on a tablet that is propped up by a flower centerpiece. That's just going to happen, and you guys need to be okay with that

because you're the monsters who scheduled your wedding on this day. That is the only way. Otherwise, you just can't go. Did you see? You see that list of games? No other way to do it. All right. While we're on the topic of those games, this is a really great question.

From another Austin. I'm an Ohio State fan and a big fan of the show. I work for Nationwide Financial based out of Columbus, Ohio. And when COVID hit, I sold my place and I've been working and traveling all over the US, living out of Airbnbs and hotels from Florida all the way to Alaska. This is brilliant, by the way.

Brilliant. I'll be buying a built-out Sprinter van soon to live in while traveling because it's cheaper than paying those ridiculous Airbnb prices along with the $150 cleaning fees. I've never been to any college football stadiums West of the Mississippi river. What five college football games should I attend this year while traveling out West looking for the best atmosphere and food. Also, when I got out of the military, I picked up photography and would like to work from scenic places so I can do my photography. So scenery would definitely help. So I've got a list of five games for you. Now,

West of the Mississippi is a lot of stuff. So this would include all the Texas schools. I'm going West of that. I'm going mostly West of the Rockies here. So we're going to go way West because I want to give you your scenery, but I also want to give you some good football. The first one, not the biggest game in the grand scheme of things for the national championship, but it's going to make me really jealous because it's a place that I've always wanted to see a game and I haven't gotten to see a game yet. So I'm going to be very jealous that you have gotten to see a game there before me. September 14th, BYU at Wyoming. I would love to see a game in Laramie. If you watch Texas Tech Wyoming last

year in week one, the atmosphere was amazing. And you want scenery? Well, that's absolutely 100% beautiful scenery. When I was at SI, I did a big story on Josh Allen. I actually met up with Josh Allen in San Diego on his spring break, which is, look, San Diego is nice. Love San Diego. But would have liked the trip to Laramie. The photographer who took the pictures for that story got to go to Laramie and take pictures of Josh Allen. I would have loved that. So BYU at Wyoming.

That's your first one, September 14th. Two weeks later, you're in Salt Lake City, Rice Eccles Stadium, Arizona at Utah. This is a place where you can take some pictures because you got look down from the stadium. You've got downtown Salt Lake City. Look up from the stadium. You've got the Wasatch Mountains. And then, of course, not far from the stadium, you got Park City. You got Snowbird.

Beautiful vistas as far as the eye can see now obviously september 28th not ski season so it's going to be less crowded if you want to go take some photos in park city but i would highly recommend that i would highly recommend a little uh little bison let's see oh no no it's the i believe it's an elk steak at shimayo beautiful but no salt lake great place to watch a game rice eccles is an incredibly cool little stadium and you know little little ah stadium as that one florida player put it before utah beat them at rice eccles last year so ari So Arizona coming in with that high-powered offense, Utah with its defense, that's a good matchup, period.

We're now going to go to one of the most scenic stadiums in college football, October 5th, Michigan at Washington. Is there a more beautiful view from a stadium than the view of Lake Washington from Husky Stadium? I'm not sure there is. So that one is a perfect one. Plus you get a huge game in the new Big 10. And we don't know what Washington is going to be, but I have faith in Jed Fish to make them pretty good right out of the gate, even though obviously it is a big rebuild because 20 of 22 starters gone from the team that played for the national title last

year. That one is going to be a fun game. And then we get to October 12th. Now this was, I had to figure out what, where I wanted to send you on October 12th. As we discussed in the question before, you've got Ohio state at Oregon. You've also got Penn state at USC. I'm going to Ohio state at Oregon. One of the biggest games in the USC. I'm going to Ohio State at Oregon. One of the biggest games in the country. Autzen's incredible. Oregon's absolutely beautiful. Drink some great Pinot while you're there. You're in the Willamette River Valley. So some of the best Pinot Noir in the world. You're going to have a blast. Obviously, don't drive your Sprinter van after too much Pinot. Be responsible here.

But that's another place where you can take some beautiful photos and you're going to see an incredible game at a great venue. The next one, I'm going to give you a choice. You're going to LA. And I realize Sprinter van driving through LA traffic, not fun. But I think you should probably stay down i believe it's huntington beach where jim harbaugh is set up he's got a spot because they like the northern orange county beaches have these huge parking lots by the beach where you can do rv

parking and it's not expensive at all i think you could probably park your sprinter van there so like i would do huntington beach i think that's probably the best one now it's it's not expensive at all. I think you could probably park your sprinter van there. So like I would do Huntington beach. I think that's probably the best one. Now it's, it's going to be decent amount of traffic and build in some time to get to the game, but that's where you stay, wake up. You're right there on the beach. You can choose either Nebraska at USC on November 16th, and maybe you'll see Nathan and his father-in-law there or Notre Dame at USC on November 16th, and maybe you'll see Nathan and his father-in-law there, or Notre Dame at USC on November 30th. Either way, you're going to see something cool. Because I do think, like I was saying in the question Nathan had, I think Nebraska-USC

is going to be a really fun game. I think both of them are probably going to be pretty good, And so you're going to have a fairly high stakes game. But Notre Dame USC, like if USC is good, that could be a game. Maybe both of them are trying to get in the playoff. Maybe that's an elimination game for the playoff. We don't even know. We have no idea. So that, I don't know.

I think Notre Dame USC is the one I'd lean toward on that one. But again, maybe you want to see Nathan and his father-in-law. So if you do, I think that's the way to go. All right. Last question comes from Matt. He wants a random ranking. A little off topic, but you heard me and Dukes get into the hip hop rankings yesterday. So I think we're going to delve back into music because Matt has a good question.

And Matt does love his vinyl. So hi, Andy. I know I've sent in a bunch of potential random rankings in the last two weeks. Tastiest mascots, best college football programs in towns. If family was the first priority, we'll get to those too, but this one is closest to my heart. So, you know, my profile pick is the best album from the greatest American rock band. I've been listening to that album tonight and thinking there's not even one bad or filler song on automatic for the people and Eagles album. It's not, you know, anyway, what are your random ranking top five albums without any filler songs where every song is a banger? This is tougher than it sounds because

even a great album like Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever has the absolutely awful Zombie Zoo on it. It is very hard. He says, I'll get you started, Automatic for the People. Okay, we'll start with Automatic for the People, which didn't make my list, but it would make my honorable mentions. Everybody Hurts is the song everybody knows from that one. Automatic for the People, by the way, by REM, the title is from a restaurant in Athens, Georgia called Weaver D's Delicious Fine Foods. Weaver D's is a great fried chicken restaurant in Athens. And when you go and you get your food, Weaver will take your money and you'll ask him, hey, can I get green beans with this? And he'll say, automatic. And so the sign out front would say automatic for the people. And that's where they got the title from.

But Everybody Hurts was the biggest hit off this album. Definitely not my favorite song on it, but obviously it was a huge hit. My favorite REM song is on this album, man on the moon. I love that song so much. It's about Andy Kaufman. Uh, it is, I think the best REM song also night swimming also drive. I heard drive on the soundtrack to a TV show the other night. It is a spectacular song. It was why I hadn't heard that song in years. And I was like, man, I forgot how much I love this song. So great suggestion, Matt. Now, let me give you the ones that I thought. So my honorable mention that didn't quite make the top five is In Pieces by Garth Brooks. And like a lot of kids who grew up in the 80s and 90s, I was a young teenager at this time.

So the Garth albums, I went through those pretty thoroughly. And this was a time when you'd buy a CD and you'd play everything. But this one's got standing outside the fire american honky tonk bar association ain't going down the sun comes up the red strokes is a really good song that was not i don't think it was a single or anything uh colin baton rouge of course so it was this this was one that was was full of bangers but did not quite make my top five let's Let's go with one that did make my top five that was eight. This is number five. This was quite possibly a soundtrack to several months of

high school where it was just being played over and over and over and over again. And that is Weezer's debut album, self-titled. Everybody calls it the blue album now. My name is Jonas. The world has turned or left me here. Buddy Holly, the sweater song, Surf Wax America, Say It Ain't So, Only in Dreams. I mean, come on. You just let this sucker play. You don't have to do anything with the blue album.

Next one, Matt's going to hate this. Cause I know how Matt feels about these, this particular artist, but this would actually might have the highest percentage of, of just pure bangers. And that is Taylor Swift's 1989. There is not a bad, like welcome to New York is the worst song on this, on this song,

on this album. And it's still not bad. Like it's a pretty good song everything else is almost spectacular or better like it is a great album uh style maybe my favorite taylor swift song i wish you would bad blood and this is one where even the deluxe edition where they added three songs. So like New Romantics is on the deluxe edition. It's not on the standard album. That song's awesome too.

So it is just shock, blank space. It's probably, Shake It Off's the biggest hit. Blank Space is probably the second biggest hit. But it's just a massive, massive album of complete bangers. And Matt, I know I'm making you furious by saying this. Ryan says he's logging off because I mentioned Taylor Swift. Come on.

You guys are crazy. Crazy. Next one, Equimini from OutKast. I know a lot of people are like, why not Stankonia? Because Stankonia peters out at the end. Equimini does not. Equimini just keeps going. So like Stankonia, you really can't beat the start of Stankonia where you've got, you know,

basically you've got gasoline dreams and and miss jackson and bombs over baghdad but it doesn't keep up it doesn't doesn't keep up the pace you know equipment i has rosa parks skew it on the barbie synthesizer with george clinton is awesome that's one that you know it wasn't a single, but a lot of people, but I played that over and over and over again. Uh, Spodeody Dopealicious is an incredible song. Like you want to hear storytelling. Andre 3000 is a storyteller. Spodeody Dopealicious, when that guy's trying to apply to UPS, that's a story. Now there's two songs in there the artist storytelling part one and part two also amazing our storytelling part two is like that first verse from andre is is

about as intense as it gets but our storytelling part one the story of sasha thumper like it's a movie in a verse like i counted the words at one point it's like in 189 word verse andre basically writes a movie script it's pretty incredible so equipment i definitely there next one number two metallica self-led, we call it the black album. I know a lot of people think this is their sellout album. You're going to say And Justice for All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, that these are real Metallica albums. This is when they went pop. Don't care because these songs are awesome. They brought a lot more people into the tent. And if you don't, if you think it's a sellout, that's fine. You can feel the way you want to

feel. But I challenge you to go to lane stadium when inter Sandman plays and go, Oh, this is a sellout song. But think about this inter Sandman, Sabbath, true, unforgiveniven wherever i may roam nothing else matters like these are classics and then the songs that weren't quite classics are still really good that's one you can definitely listen to all the way through but it was not my number one. My number one is one that every song has a story. It introduced us to this band. It changed the way we think about this genre.

It maybe ended Hairspray Rock. Maybe ended that era. Everybody says that Nirvana ended the glam era you know everybody says that that nirvana ended the glam era i would argue that appetite for destruction ended the glam era like when appetite for destruction came out everybody's like no no this is what it should sound like this is this is what it should be so guns and roses appetite for destructions off with Welcome to the Jungle.

Like, that's the beginning. The first thing you get is that. Unbelievable. Starts off with Welcome to the Jungle. It's so easy. Night Train, Mr. Brownstone. You get to Paradise City. Sweet Child of Mine was on side two if you were buying it on vinyl.

Rocket Queen's the last song. If you don't know the backstory behind Rocket Queen and some of the sounds being made, I'm not going to say it on a family show. If you're a discerning adult and you want to read something interesting, read about the making of Rocket Queen. Appetite for destruction. Number one, all killer, no filler, back-to-back bangers, back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back 12 times bangers. That's my number one, Matt. Great question. Bunch of great questions from all of you.

And thank you so much for that. That was a lot of fun. Tomorrow, we'll use EA Sports as our thought starter, but we're going to talk the best offenses and defenses in real life in college football in 2024. We'll talk to you tomorrow.