Andy & Ari On3 - The college football players we're not talking about ENOUGH

Episode Date: May 26, 2025

The conversation around the 2025 college football season has centered on a few players — mostly new starting quarterbacks — but there are plenty of potentially great players we’re not talking about. Today, they’re in the spotlight.(0:00-0:59) Intro(1:00-9:22) Players we're not talking about: Ryan Wingo, Cam Coleman(9:23-11:50) Story Time(11:51-17:23) Texas A&M QB Marcel Reed(17:24-24:36) How good can Oregon be this year?(24:37-31:38) Miami's Outlook, Rueben Bain Jr.(31:39-35:10) Jadan Baugh at Florida(35:11-36:18) Nic Anderson, LSU(36:19-39:42) Max Klare at Ohio State(39:43-40:55) Where does JP Pickles play?(40:56-44:03) Dylan Raiola at Nebraska(44:04-45:43) Who do we talk about the most?(45:44-46:11) Conclusion: Happy Memorial Day!  Ari believes Auburn receiver Cam Coleman could be a breakout star. He also thinks Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain could be a force now that he’s fully healthy. Andy thinks Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed has been lost in the shuffle with all the talk about new starting QBs in the SEC. Reed will be the leader of Team Chaos, so he could play a very important role this season. Andy and Ari agree that Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman is a huge key to the Ducks’ portal reload. Want to watch the show LIVE? Join us on YouTube, M-F at 9:30 am et! https://youtube.com/live/5dSciy6LOUM Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Want to partner with the show? E-mail [e-mail]

Welcome to Andy and Ari on three. Happy Memorial Day. You may be traveling somewhere. You may be traveling home. You may be getting ready for a cookout, not a barbecue. Bruce Pearl learned that the hard way, right? I think barbecue is fine. I think that barbecue is fine. A type of food. Type of food, not an event. I just think that like the point of words and communication is to effectively tell the person what you want to say and I think barbecue gets the job done.

That's right. That's fine. They serve. I think they serve burgers and hot dogs at that event where aircraft was or was not and I think it was not a barbecue. It was a cookout. So that's fine. That's fine. We have a fun topic today because Ari had an incredible column over the weekend. 10 players were not incredible.

Yes, I liked it. 10 players were not talking about enough. I wanted to come on here Ari and be like, we're gonna talk about Arch Manning again. Just kidding. Listen, we are- People are talking about talking that we're doing this on Memorial Day. People are hanging out and have a lot going on today. If you're here right now with us live, you're a die hard.

We want to talk about football and we want to talk about some players that, frankly, have not been spoken about enough. And I think that we do a pretty good job, Andy, you know, as a duo, you know, covering the sport and going around the horn a little bit. And, you know, these names have popped up from time to time, but there are too many really good players out there that are being overshadowed.

And I think my theory of that is, it's such a intensely deep year for the quarterback. Every conference, all the power schools have exciting quarterbacks for the most part. Like, I mean, you can look around and it's like there's a reason to get excited about Indiana's quarterback. There's a reason to get excited about Oregon State's quarterback, frankly. Like, I mean, everybody's got an interesting story and, you know, this year, that's going to be the story of the season. But how about all these awesome, amazing players that, you know this year That's gonna be the story of the season. But how about all these awesome amazing players that you know exist?

That we don't talk about enough. So let's do it today Yeah, and it's it's interesting because it's all different reasons like listen I'll be honest We talk about Arch Manning a lot because when we talk about Arch Manning lots of you want to want to watch and want to Comment on it. We talk about Nico a ton because man, you love talking about Nico. But there's a lot of guys that for one reason or another are not getting the shine right now. Ryan Wingo is a good example. He's on your list. He's the Texas receiver. And we talked about him a little bit with Clark Brooks last week. This is a guy who probably would have been used more in a different on a different

team last year as a freshman, but they had Matthew Golden and Isaiah Bond. Like it just, he was good and probably would have put up bigger numbers somewhere else, but he was behind a first round draft pick and another really good receiver. You know, and I also think too that like Jeremiah Smith, we know we've talked about a lot as an alien and I just feel like because they're the same age and the same class that everybody's directly compared to somebody who shouldn't be compared to like Jeremiah Smith, a good wide receiver, but I think he's a receiver in his own category and Ryan Williams, uh, compliments to him was good enough to at least be compared

to him directly without people laughing. Right. Like, but just because you didn't have a, you're going to be a first round pick freshman season doesn't mean that you're not really good. And that also goes for the other person, the other receiver on this list. And that's a cam Coleman at Auburn, another player who was incredibly productive, despite the fact that he played in a team that didn't have competent quarterback play. And this is another person that most certainly could be selected in the future in the first round.

And it just, I feel like whenever you talk about Auburn being good, you get met with laughs. And it's like if Jeremiah Smith was on Auburn's team, people might not be laughing as much. And I feel like there's a other player out there that was ranked in the same general area as him who was very productive last year and now might have a quarterback to throw in the ball. Like, I mean, he could have a huge year and it's like, I just don't think that people outside of like Auburn fans have like acknowledged that and it bothers me. Well, and I also think their addition of Eric Singleton Jr.

from Georgia Tech, that helps Cam think their addition of Eric Singleton Junior from Georgia Tech reason that helps him Coleman and that helps Eric Singleton because I think Eric Singleton probably didn't have that guy on the outside that scared defenses so defenses could worry about him and he still got his. Like you saw him in the Georgia game.

He was awesome, but imagine now. He's moving around in the slot and you've got cam Coleman on the outside. Like they're, they're going to feed off each other. And I think that's really interesting. Yeah. Um, and I just think too, that like production and physical traits, like, I mean, his traits are off the, off the charts. You know what I mean? Like it's not just, Oh, this guy was ranked high. So I think he's good. Like he was productive and he's right. If we were talking about the physical freakishness of the receivers

in the class of 2024, obviously Jeremiah Smith is at the top, but cam Coleman was next like Ryan Williams had an amazing year. We just talked about Ryan Wingo, but in terms of just being a physical freak, cam Coleman's more freaky, but he didn't have the same kind of year. It took him a while to get going. As you mentioned, the quarterback play at Auburn was, was pretty suspect. So I think what we saw in the Texas A and M game and at the end of the season, that was, that was the Cam Coleman. It's about ready to break out.

Yeah, and I don't know if this is a it's not right because Ryan Williams is six foot, but I like have an outrageous prediction right now and I'm freaking some people out in Alabama, but like I think Cam Coleman in the draft will get taken higher than Ryan Williams eventually. Like I think that the praise that Ryan Williams is getting is outweighed by the potential of what the NFL draft will see in Cam and I see that now.

So, I'm not trying to act like I- I think it just depends on how they build on what they did. I mean, if Ryan Williams builds on that season, because he already had a great freshman season, if he builds on that, I think the NFL is kind of wised up. Like, yeah, the physical attributes are great, but if you get open and you catch passes

and you make huge plays, like they don't care at this point. And here's a good comp, and I don't know if it is or not. Devontae Smith, who just had a huge touchdown catch in the Super Bowl and was one of the best college football players of the last decade is the same size. So like it's not you don't have to be Jeremiah Smith in order to be taken, but it's very possible and I'll probably end up being wrong because Ryan Williams is so explosive.

It's insane and has that Devontae Smith ish, you Coleman, if he is a productive player, has a measurables that will make people like fall over themselves. If he continues on this trajectory. And it's like, not like he didn't have a bad year. He had a great year last year. I think he had like nine or 10 touchdowns. Yeah, this is gonna be fun. This is with these,

cause you we've talked about that class of 2024. And obviously Jeremiah Smith and Ryan Williams rightfully got all the pub out of that because they were awesome as freshmen. But if Cam Coleman and Ryan Wingo then become what we think they're going to be, we're going to be talking about how historic that class was in terms of just absurd talent. Yeah. And I also think too that Ryan Wingo is going to make a lot of plays this year that make Arch Manning look good and he's going to get sucked up into the media sphere. Like I think that part of the reason why I'm so certain that Arch is going to have a successful year and part of the reason why I think that Arch Manning being a good Heisman bet right now at 8 to 1 is Because he exists in a world where Ryan Wingo exists, you know, like it's and I think Texas fans are up to speed I just don't know like if you actually have been listening to other pop. Do you listen other college football podcasts?

every once in a while Don't hear the ones I'm not on Yeah, I listen to I listen to a lot of other ones, too, because I like to see how what they're talking about, how we're doing and steal their ideas and stuff. But like it's a long drive today. And so I've got a I've got a backlog that I've got to I'm going to burn through because I'm I'm going to Destin for the SEC spring meeting. So you will be hearing a little bit from Greg Sankey

and from from all the SEC football coaches this week. I hear that the spring meetings is a really awesome thing to cover, by the way. I heard through the grapevine. It's not. It seems like it would be because it's in testing. Scenery, food, hotel. The scenery is amazing except you can't go out to it. Like you're stuck in the hotel waiting for people to talk to you who don't want to talk to you. And then- So it's like a playoff thing. Like you're stuck in the hotel waiting for people to talk to you who don't want to talk to you and Then it's like a playoff thing Yes, but the food is good if you can get there I probably won't be able to get there just because of the the schedule. But yes, you can get to the red bar

Uh black and grouper over fried grit cake. It's my death row meal. So i'm gonna try but I can't It may be that i'm just eating beef jerky in the lobby. By the way, I saw somebody um it may be that I'm just eating beef jerky in the lobby. By the way, I saw somebody post on Instagram or Twitter or something that some guy who just got sentenced to death picked his last meal. And his last meal was the tour of Italy from Olive Garden. I was like, salute dude.

Like that, like that. Cause it's the hunk lasagna. It is chicken fettuccine Alfredo and chicken parm all on the same plate. And it's like that literally is the two like all the stops in Italy you'd want to make. Right? That's the Holy Trinity of Italian food. Not really.

No, I've actually been to Italy and that completely ignore Southern Italy. I don't know if I've said this on the show. Now, if you want to go down this road, Italian pizza is not as good as American pizza, by the way. That's true. We perfected it. We perfected it. Italian pizza is not as good as American pizza, by the way. That's true, we perfected it. We perfected it. Southern Italy is a ton of seafood. It's less pasta.

Like those langostinos, those are amazing. Italian high horse. Americanized Italian food. The holy trinity of that. We're the greatest country in the world. We perfected everything. But I'm saying if you go to an American Italian restaurant, the three Italian dishes that you get

or that make up the hall of fame, I'm not saying you can't get ravioli or whatever, are chicken and veal parm on one end, but a Gini Alfredo in the middle and lasagna on the right, right? Like, is that not, am I missing something? No, I mean, if I'm a to be if I'm a murderer about to be sent off to hell, that's who it really might be the way to go.

And like pizza is its own category. So I don't want don't be like pizza pizza is its own food. Is pizza different food here? Probably because they invented it again, we perfected it. So created pizza is its own food category. Yes, yes. Exactly. Like if you get Uber Eats, it says Italian and pizza.

It's two separate things. Right. So obviously. Ben, Olive Garden is American food, bro. No kidding, Ben. I know. Ben is the original and Optimus Springs, Florida. I can assure you it's American.

Memorial Day is a day to, you know, thank all the people who sacrificed their lives and were brave enough to give us what we have. The greatest country in the world. And what we have is, part of that is encompassing of all the Olive Garden locations. So like we, we need to be thankful for that too. So yeah, anyway, I'm happy to let me go on that aside. But like I on that aside but chicken harm the dish in the tour of Italy we're not talking about enough. No, all right

Can I can I throw one of mine in there? That's not on your list. We're gonna because your list is amazing I want you to throw as many people on the list as you can Yeah, it's not about what I think but I'm sure there's people who popped right into your head This is a about what I think, but I'm sure there's people who popped right into your head. This is a person who I think when certain fan bases go back through their season, and we're sitting there in December, and maybe they've fired a coach or maybe they've, you know, they've not had the season they wanted, this person will be the name they curse. And it's Marcel Reed, the Texas A&M quarterback. Interesting.

Because Texas A&M is team chaos. We talked about that before. River, if we've got Texas A&M's schedule, let's throw it up there because this is team chaos for sure. There's a good chance they ruin multiple seasons here, even if they only go eight and four. Like the thing about it is if Texas A&M goes eight and four, they probably got at least one person fired and maybe two. And that's the scary part. So they play Notre Dame, they play Auburn,

they play Florida, they play Arkansas, they play LSU, they play Missouri, South Carolina and Texas. Obviously they're not getting Sark fired, they're not getting Shane Be and I can Shane Beamer fire. We we know that, but. They can make life miserable for Auburn, for Florida, for Arkansas, for LSU, and we don't know they're going to

beat one of those two of those. Probably. Maybe more. We just don't know who they're going to be. And Marcel Reed can have a lot to do with it.. Marcel Reed's got to get better throwing the ball. But we saw Marcel Reed running the ball against LSU and they couldn't do a dang thing to stop him. So this guy now has a full off season as the starter. The offense is essentially built around him. Colin Klein's had time to build the offense around him. Instead of doing it kind of ad

hoc as they deal with whether it's going to be Marcel Reed or Connor Wegman. And now I bet we get a much better version of Marcel Reed. And the version we saw last year was good enough to beat some of these teams. Yeah, yeah. I think that it's interesting to look at the SEC quarterback, you know, group and is he in the bottom 33% and that's not because he's not good at just because he, that's just the circumstance of how deep the quarterback position is in the conference this year. I think, well, I think probably in terms of talking about, we're talking about

the situations at places where the job's not settled or where we think somebody's gonna be awesome because they're new like Arch, but like it's not settled at Alabama yet we think it's gonna be Ty Simpson. We're excited about what Lenora Sellers can be. We're excited about what DJ Lagway can be. Auburn, we're just wondering, and it was Auburn, you know, at Auburn,

and we just talked about this, it was such a huge issue last year. We can't help but discuss what Jackson Arnold winds up being in Auburn. So I think that's more that it's that all these other things are just more interesting, but it makes us forget. I want to do it. So I can sneak up and bite you in the ass.

I want to play the Dylan Raia game, but I don't want to be offensive about it this time. Okay, you go through the list of SEC quarterbacks Marcel Reed or the other team starter like how many times you think you're landing on Mars like Ty Simpson. I might well, I don't know what Ty Simpson is so that one I might take my to go onto the the plank plank and walk it like who you think I take Marcel Reed because I've seen him. I've seen him beat some good teams. That's one. Okay, if you're going to do that, then he might actually do better. But how about that one? We don't, we don't know what he's

going to be started yet either. Yeah. So you take tailing over Bo Piriola? No, tailing is Arkansas's quarterback, so Marcel. You didn't. I take Marcel Reed over tailing green. I think so that's two and then what about both Pribula? I don't know. That's that's the problem. I don't know. What about Jackson? I take Marcel Reed right now because we haven't seen. OK, so you're illustrating Austin Simmons, right? But not Austin Simmons at Ole Miss. I take Austin Reed right now because we haven't seen. OK, so you're illustrating your point though. But not Austin Simmons at Ole Miss.

I take Austin Simmons because we saw that one amazing drive. What about this? This is an interesting one. What about Gunnar Stockton? I don't know. I don't know. I think what you're saying is that there are some. It's out.

Marcel Reed over anyone in Knoxville right now. Yes. Yeah. Check. So that illustrates your point of like, we've spent a lot of time talking about Gunner stock and we've even talked about Zach Calzada on the show. Yes.

Talked a lot about the rule that we had James Franklin on to talk about that. We've talked about Diego Pavia, Atan, Lenora Sellers, Garrett Nussmeyer. Have we spoken about Arch Manning at all? I don't know. Like if we have or not. Once or twice, he is in the mix of interesting and he doesn't get his fair share of air time. So I'm happy you brought him up.

Yeah. I, I, and I just think they're going to have a good team around him. The defense is going to be good. We'll see what the, you know, they lose Noah Thomas to Georgia at receiver, but they gained Casey Concepcion. Like I. Like I'm excited to see what A&M is. I think it's kind of a mystery. Even if they're eight and four, they're going to be shocking. But what if they are a nine or 10 win team? Are that sort of upsets the whole apple cart in the SEC? And for that to happen, Marcel Reed has to be good.

By the way, if you're watching on Twitter right now, it's time to move to YouTube, hop in the chat, join us, banter with us, make fun of us. It's the place to be. The link below the tweet you're watching will take you to YouTube. We'll see you there. Ari, let's talk about the other names on this list.

You've got two from Oregon, and I thought that was really interesting too because Oregon lost a lot of good players, but it feels like they reloaded really well through the transfer portal. So tell us a little about Mackay Hughes at running back and Dylan Thienemann at safety. So before we do that, I also want to mention that this is probably going to take us to a different conversation, which is

Oh my god, how good are is Oregon going to be? Because I actually had a third Oregon player on here and I took him off the list because I didn't want it to be 30% Oregon. And that would be Isaiah World, the offensive tackle that they got in the portal. So, Mackay Hughes is the nation's leading returning rusher. He's a transfer from Tulane. Go watch his tape. He's incredibly good.

And Dylan Theoniman is a all American safety from Purdue. Isn't it great that Purdue has like two, like really good transfers every year. And they just come out and go rock crap somewhere else. Like Nick Scorn didn't last year. It would kind of be nice if they could do it at Purdue, which they do do as happened before, but that was when Jeff Brown was coaching them. Yeah. I think they do do it at Purdue.

I just don't think that they're. I don't think that their team around them is good enough for it to shine through, but like Oregon lost a lot of talent from last year. And I think that it's easy to be down on them because Oregon, you know, went wire to wire last year being the best team in college football, they go to the playoff, they get a buy and then their first game to the playoff, they get a bye, and then their first game in the playoff, they get shellacked by Ohio State. It's just like, well, they lost a lot of players

from a team that got blown out in their only playoff game last year. How much is there to like about them? And I know that Dante Moore is an interesting quarterback situation there. But I think that it's very clear to me that Oregon has done a very good job in backfilling their roster with some really good players.

And these two both, you know, pop out. And it's like, I don't know, like, if unless you're Ed Reed, I don't know how much, you know, conversation people have with, you know, the safety position. And I think that he's a turnover causing, you know, havoc wreaker back there. And, you know, something in the back end of the defense that plays like Oregon, I think goes a long way. So, you know, that's one. And then my guy Hughes, uh, plays, uh, the position of running back. And obviously we don't talk about that unless they're Ash and Gentie.

So I think that it's two really good players. Um, and there are some other really, really good running backs in the country that aren't being spoken about a lot. I'm obsessed with one and I think he might bring them up here. His mic, you're muted. Well, the reason I'm muting is stalling. Zero days from Sandy Mike issue. That's true, that's true. Put up the graphic. We'll have to make the

graphic. But the running back that I want to mention, I got to give producer over time to make the graphic for him because that was that was me saying in a minute, I'm going to bring this guy up. But let's let's let's keep talking about Oregon though, because we've had this conversation about other programs in terms of how much is homegrown, how much is in the portal. Oregon is still doing a lot in the portal, though, like, I don't know, like Dante Moore,

I don't think we're considering, he did come through the portal, but he's been there a year. He actually was committed to Oregon for most of his recruitment and then flipped on him. So are they, are they a little portal heavy? Cause we talked about this in terms of Miami too, but are they a little portal heavy or do they have enough homegrown to make this work? Because they're gonna, you know, there's starting three portal offensive linemen this year.

Portal running back, portal safety. Yeah, I don't know if I just have a hard time with this or this is a mental block for me, Andy. But I feel like if you recruit at a certain baseline at a high school, then you're immune from being called transient. Like I think Oregon- What you're saying is their foundation is strong enough that you can do this and it works. I just view it differently.

I think that if you're a program that recruits somewhere in the mid-20s to mid-30s, and you have six, seven players every single year. Starting in positions of needs. And that means that you got these guys out of necessity. And I'm not saying that Oregon didn't have spots that it had to fill or that, you know, like offensive line, especially like they didn't have to go get somebody because there would have been holes if they didn't, but I feel like Oregon is luxury shopping in like Florida state when they were doing in the past was like at the grocery store and I feel like it's just a different vibe and like maybe I'm just completely full of crap.

So Oregon is shopping at that mall by your house that has the billboard with your wife's ex boyfriend on it. Yeah, thanks for bringing that up again. You're welcome. You're welcome. No, but it's a good point because like Mateo Ullungole is a player that Oregon recruited out of high school who's going to be one of the best pass rushers in the country this year and probably also belongs in this list. So you may have had four Oregon players on this list if you'd had him in as Isaiah World. Well, and also Emmanuel Pregnon too, right? Like he was there. It wasn't that. Yeah. That's offensive lineman who's also going there. Like they, I feel like every single person they brought in at the portal position,

like was a really good player at the pass. Like I don't know how much speculation, like you don't need to speculate about whether Mackay Hughes is going to be good. You don't need to speculate about Dylan Theoniman. You don't have to speculate about Isaiah World. Guy's arms are like long enough to like, you know, I don't even know what would you do. like, you know, I don't even know what you do. The

French tickler I don't know I with love arms besides being an awkward alignment, but like he has great long arms like they have a lot. I want Ari to next next draft season we're gonna have Ari's draft terms are Ari scouting terms. Because you know the scouts have those their code words like bubble. That's their word for your butt. Like French ticklers are going to be long arm office attack freaks. And I just feel like they have enough good players that they recruited out of high school at the other positions. Like I mean, I think you could probably make the case I mean, like,

Evan Stewart to transfer, right? But does that count? He's returning like, right, you know. So I don't know, really don't, I really don't know how I feel about that. And I don't know if there's like a rubric or if it's just different from program to program, but I feel like if you recruit top 15, top 10 classes on an annual basis, Andy, that you, um, that you're immune from any of the criticisms that you get from being overly reliant on the portal, because I don't know that you get from being overly reliant on the portal because I don't know that you're overly overly reliant your luxury shopping and I think that you could say like one woman shops and another woman shops but

depending on where they shop like you feel probably different about it right same for men too so I'm a great shopper women be shopping I'm a great shopper. I actually enjoy shopping. Now I don't enjoy looking. Like I'm still going to move pretty quickly and with a purpose. So I'm not going to waste four hours in the store. But I do enjoy the process of like trying to find a deal in the store. Andy shop. Andy doesn't shop. Andy buys. Okay guys. That's right.

I love, before we get to the running back, I was going to talk to you. I actually, thematically, we probably should talk about Miami after we talk about Oregon, because we've asked the same question about Miami in terms of, is this too much portal or is it a good combination, a good balance? What we said when we talked about Miami and I still believe this is if you do

most of your trench shopping out of high school and then supplement through the portal, I think that makes you stronger. Let's talk about one of those trench. I just think Miami is more close to Oregon than it is to another team that is using the portal to make up for its lack of high school recruiting. I think like supplement versus necessity is the huge distinction that I find. And I don't know that like Miami just picked up a five-star offensive tackle that we talked about for the last two weeks. So like, I just,

I don't know Miami isn't necessarily Oregon in terms of high school recruiting yet. They're in that direction. Mario Cristobal is a great recruiter and you know, they just got Jackson Cantwell, like they're doing the right stuff. But maybe Miami is doing what Florida State probably was trying to do, which is use the portal to have one great year on the field and then use that great year on the field to recruit out of high school before the state never changed their gear.

Like they never got back at it. And I don't know. I mean, I don't want to pick on like, why aren't they recruiting better out of high school? If you go back and look at like the rivals and on three historic rankings, like Florida State was a top 10 top five recruiting outfit for a decade straight. And I feel like they can't put together a class for some reason. But Miami hasn't had that problem. I mean, since Mario got there, they've recruited put together a class for some reason. But Miami hasn't had that problem. I mean, since Mario got there, they've recruited well at a high school too. Like Francis Malinoa is their starting right tackle.

He's this third year as a starter, third year in the program, came out of high school, was a five star recruit. Same class, other side of the ball is a guy on your list, Ruben Bain Jr. Ruben Bain Jr, ACC defensive player or sorry, ACC freshman of the year. His freshman year last year he gets hurt early misses four games still winds up on him. We'll mention all ACC, but I don't think really was the guy that you thought he was going to be all season. I think you're going to see that guy this season and that guy is scary. That guy is really great coming off the edge.

And this is a defense that has to get better because the offense carried Miami last year. The defense was terrible, particularly the secondary. But I think the defense will get better. As much as we like Carson Beck and as much as you know, they might be excited about their young receivers. I need to see it before I believe the offense is going to be on par with what it was with Cam Ward, Xavier Restrepo. That was a group, just a great group. So that defense I think is going to have to be considerably better and with Ruben Bain healthy and playing at his optimum level, I do think that defense can get much better. I do. And I also think too that like, you know, the injury didn't play up to his potential

type scenario is the thing that makes you not talked about enough. But obviously, athleticism doesn't go away if you're back to being healthy. Exactly. And that's one of those when you get hurt early in the season, it just sort but obviously athleticism doesn't go away if you're back to being healthy. Exactly. And that's one of those, when you get hurt early in the season, it just sort of drags and nags all year and you don't really wind up being what you're supposed to be.

Ruben Vane, a healthy version all season. We're probably talking about a very high draft pick in 2026 and a guy who makes quarterbacks miserable. And by the way, two of the quarterbacks, a very high draft pick in 2026 and. A guy who makes quarterbacks miserable. And by the way, two of the quarterbacks, we talked about a lot this off season. He gets to see in the first month of the season. So he's going to see CJ cart Notre Dame. He's going to see DJ lagway. Like they're both coming to Miami to play in the first month of the season.

Yeah. And like Miami is in a position where it absolutely needs a dominant pass rush. Like mean it needs somebody to wreak havoc because that defense was so so bad last year. And I feel like I think their secondary is going to be better. It should be. I think they did a good job in the portal on that one. I would throw one more name at you. Zechariah Ploycer was a safety from Jacksonville State who was a freshman last year was fantastic in the Sun Belt or excuse me in conference USA. But he is he looks ready to jump in at the power conference level. Yeah, yeah. Miami is one of those teams like I don't know like Texas A&M just perpetually lives in the world of I don't know what they are. I think Miami is kind of those teams, like I don't know, like Texas A&M just perpetually lives in the world of I don't know what they are.

I think Miami is kind of in that in that ballpark for me this year of like last year I knew going into it like they're going to be really, really good, at least offensively and I think we were right about that. But like this year, this team could be 10 and two or this team could be eight and four, seven and five. And I don't think either of those two things would surprise me. And I don't really know which way to lean on it. Yeah it's I think they could be a playoff team if things break the right way like they

probably need to win. Well if they win the ACC obviously they're in but let's let's say Clemson's too good and it's too hard to win the ACC if they could beat Notre Dame or Florida and then get to the ACC championship game we could be talking about a playoff team there. Absolutely. If they, if they do those things, whether they will or not, you know, I think you have to have a lot of confidence in their quarterback. I think that you're probably more confident in him than I have been.

Uh, but at least we know what Carson Beck is. Like we don't know what CJ Carr is yet. Like I, I, I'm not worried about Carson Beck Just laying an egg. That's not gonna happen Carson Beck's gonna be an effective quarterback. Is he gonna be transcendent like cam warder was we don't know that but he's gonna be effective Yeah, yeah, I think he's a he's a trailer. So you know Effective I guess in that role, but you know they do. They lost their two number one running backs

last year. I think Mark Fletcher is a really good running back. Should be fine. Jojo Trader CJ Daniels. They've got guys on the outside. Good offensive line. I mean it shouldn't be. It's not going to be terrible. It's just what you're talking about. You need to be great. I don't know if I see that right now. I think they have a chance. The defense has to be really good and Ruben Bain is a critical piece of that. Now, if Ruben Bain and Akeem Esadour are terrorizing quarterbacks, then it's going to be really interesting. How about a guy who has to play at Miami this year? This is the guy that you mentioned earlier that I was going to bring up. We'll close

it out with this one. Florida running back Jaden Baw. And this was mentioned earlier that I was gonna bring up. We'll close it out with this one. Florida running back Jaden Baw. And this was mentioned earlier in the chat. And I think this is a really good point. And a guy that we haven't talked about nearly enough. So Billy Napier gets told he's gonna stay. In the process of getting told he's gonna stay, he was told hire an offensive coordinator. He didn't do that. He's going to continue to be the play caller.

So if you've watched Billy Nape, your offenses, whether it Florida or at Louisiana, Lafayette, he likes to run the ball a lot. And Jayden Baw is the bruising back that he likes to use. He's that that that type of back. So Jadenball average five yards to carry last year's freshmen kind of came on there at the end of the season. But I think with DJ Lagway, potentially with I think they're going to have better receivers. We'll see. Dallas Wilson, the freshmen and J. Michael Sturtevant, they bring back Eugene Wilson, the third who was injured most of last season.

I think there's going to be some room for those running backs to run. I, the, the line, it was good at the end of last season. And I think defenses are going to have to respect what lagway can do through the air. And I just don't know that you can load the box on Florida. And then they, they throw this 230 pound monster, Jaden Baw, at you. That's a problem. Yeah, I was upset with them last year. Runs incredibly hard, gives Florida another dynamic weapon on offense and anything that can help take the pressure

off of DJ Lagway on four. I know that they've got a few freshman receivers that we're super excited about if those guys can unlock or one of them can and you have a consistent run game and improved offensive line and a bullet for I mean like we've been talking ourselves into Florida all year like it's very easy to do when you start putting pieces together. Yeah. And Jacoby Jackson is pretty good to Jacoby Jackson average actually average more per carry than than Jayden Ball last

year. So I think they could have a very good running game. And we're, you know, we're all focused on DJ Lagway because obviously he's been the subject of a lot of intrigue this off season, the resting the shoulder, is he throwing? Now he is throwing, but I think if this works it works because Florida can run the ball because that is the offense that Billy Napier wants to run.

He is, he is a run heavy coach. He's not a throw first kind of guy. You know, last year they attempted 342 passes. They ran the ball 461 times. That sounds about normal for a Billy Napier offense. Now, will he maybe tweak that a little bit? Like we saw that with Dan Mullough when he was at Florida where he was very much a run first coach. And then when he got Kyle Pitts and Kyle Trasky decided, you know what? This is gonna be more of a throwing offense. And the percentage went way up on the throw side.

So perhaps that happens this year, but I suspect Billy Napier is going to run the offense he's comfortable with. And the reason he didn't hire an OC is because he wants to run the offense he's comfortable with. So it's going to be up to Jayden Baw to be very productive. Yeah. And somebody actually almost put on the list. So I'm happy you brought him up. Yeah, I'm fascinated by it.

We have to get graphics in the list. So I'm happy you brought them up. Yeah, I'm fascinated by it. We have to get graphics in the background. No, you bring up wherever you want. Throw up the list again, River. Well, here's one. And I don't know if we're going to go in order or not. But Nick Anderson at LSU, one that, you know, because like I, you know how I've been drinking LSU Kool-Aid. So Oh yeah. One that, you know, cause like I, you know, how I've been drinking LSU Kool-Aid. So, um, very explosive wide receiver. Um, somebody who was very explosive at Oklahoma was injured, uh, last year returning to, you know, LSU as a transfer and might be a very explosive dynamic player for them.

Um, so average 21 yards per catch. playing with Dylan Gabriel in 2023 and the catch everybody remembers obviously is the one in the Texas game. But this yeah, this guy's good. Yeah, and he's another in the Ruben Bain category of injured last year. Can he get back to you know, being the explosive version of himself that we've seen before in the past? But I think putting him into the LSU ecosystem makes it very, very interesting. One more, just because I see this name mentioned in the chat and you've been excited about this guy all season.

Max Clair at Ohio State. Yep. The transfer tight end. Once again, Purdue, another great Purdue player. We got, we got, hold on. Max Clair, Dylan Theinemann and Will Helt the edge rusher at Clemson. Will Helt at Clemson is probably somebody who should be on this list too. Although I think I've spent enough time talking about him a lot.

Yeah. probably somebody who should be on this list too. Although I think I've spent enough time talking about him a lot. Yeah. Um, but you know, Max Clair is a pass receiving tight end that, uh, is getting inserted into a team that, you know, is breaking in a new quarterback, sure, but might have the most explosive, doesn't not mind. It has the most explosive receiving core in the entire country. And then you have somebody who comes in, you know, having caught

51 passes for 685 yards for Purdue team last year. And can I can I help contextualize that stat you just threw out? This is fun. So Max Clair caught 51 passage for 685 yards. The number two and number three receivers at Purdue combined for 670 receiving yards. He doubled them up. Not great, Bob. Yeah, not great, Bob.

So that's why Max Clair was on the market. Yeah. Not great, Bob. So that's why Max Clair was on the market. So like Ohio State over the years has had some pretty explosive tight ends and over the years they have not thrown the ball. I mean there used to be a running joke in the Ohio State press conference where or a press box during games where when tight end catch a pass like everybody started laughing like because it's like they never threw it to them and they spend all spring and all fall, you know, talking about how they want to get the tight end

more involved than they never do. And I think it's partly, partly because Ohio State always has really good receivers that they want to throw the ball to. But like, adding him to that equation, if you use him as a threat, the way that he proved he could be, like, I just don't know how you cover all these people.

Like, some, but even if he doesn't have a huge year, even if he doesn't like match the stats that he had a year ago, isn't it just kind of automatic that like, he's going to make somebody better at the receiving room and vice versa? Like just, it's just another weapon that people have to scheme for. It's just too much. And it's like the more you think about Ohio State's uh you know roster offensively it almost feels kind of like the Arch Manning thing or it's like how can Julian say and fail? Like how is it even possible for him to fail? Yeah I mean listen he gets to throw to Jeremiah Smith, but the thing is Max Clare adds so much in terms of it. It just changes the dynamics of how you have to cover them when you have a dangerous tight end like that. Yeah, it's not like and obviously they have Jeremiah Smith, carnel tape, you

name it, but you're exactly right. Are we going to leave everybody this? It's a holiday. We're not going all day today. We know you got places to go. We know you got cookouts and barbecues to attend. Stephen San Antonio points out. And barbecues? What'd you say? I'm trying to not be that guy.

Trying to not be so pedantic. Good job. All right, Stephen San Antonio says, the best QB in the nation overlooked again, J.P. All right. Stephen San Antonio says the best QB the nation overlooked again JP Pickles. All right, Stephen San Antonio. We know you're the number one JP Pickles fan. Do you know who JP Pickles is playing for? Because he very recently transferred. I think I know the answer. All right. Who is it? Who's he playing for? I think he plays the answer. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do first or bear? Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Yep. JP Pickles.

He didn't even see Antonio is worried. Now the, what are the miners going to do? They have to deal. They've got Malachi Nelson for a five star. Yeah. Uh, Andy, I know you want to get out of here. I want to get out of here too. Uh, I've got a barbecue to attend, but I, you know, considering I'm public enemy number one in Omaha, can we just like have a two minute conversation about Dylan Raola? Like being on this list? Sure. Let's do it.

I'll look at that bastard. He didn't talk about him again. He hates us. Like, I don't want, I'm just going to try to avoid him. Okay. Yeah. Let's talk Dylan Raola. the quarterback position across the board. I think that it's fair to question whether we overcorrected and went from overly hyping Dylan Raola to just completely forgetting about him. Like I feel like I have expressed my worries about his game on the show in the past, also ruffled Nebraska feathers. I'm just not going to Nebraska,

the state of Nebraska for a long time. But let me try to extend an olive branch here and say, he still was a five star prospect who was fairly productive in his freshman year and as a place that wants to make the playoff eventually in like probably should be in the discourse. Some like we're talking enough about, we have talked to zero outside of that. Let me throw another name at you that we haven't really talked about that I think will help your case here because I do think I think Dylan Rael is going to be better in year two than he was in year one. I think part of that is the offense he'll be running part of it is the pieces they put around him and part of that is just growing up and getting used to the speed of the game and you tend to make your biggest jumps

between year one and year two as a starting quarterback. So let me throw one more name at you, Dane Key. Dane Key was a really good receiver at Kentucky at times. I think a lot of the problem was they didn't necessarily have anybody to get him the ball. So now Dillar-L is gonna have a really excellent target in Dane Key.

I think Nebraska, their running game should be pretty good. Their offensive line, it feels like they've done what they need to do to patch that. You bring in a couple transfers, Elijah Pritchett from Alabama, Rocco Spindler from Notre Dame. So you've got guys who've played in big games who were effective in big games. I do think Dylan Rayola has a shot to be quite a bit better this year. I think they've done what they need to do around him. And now he has to make that leap. But if he does, what did I say? I said Nebraska is an eight win team, perhaps a nine win team, maybe like going into the Iowa game with a backdoor shot

at the playoff. If he does all that, that's what they are. And that's a vast improvement. And might just be waiting there at the end of the year wishing they played somebody tougher in the non-con. You had to. I can't, you were doing so well. No, I mean, I'm very excited to watch him play. Like I'm not, I think that like if you're a Nebraska fan and you listen to the the Raola segment that we did two, three weeks ago, you might be like, oh, this guy thinks he sucks and like, there's no chance that he could ever be good. And I hope that's not, I mean, I have my, I still fear what I talked about.

I'm not backtracking that at all. I still think that inability to extend plays makes your ceiling as a quarterback relatively low. Maybe he'll be able to break out of that. Maybe he'll work on that a lot this off season and do something that I don't know is easy to do. We're not talking about him nearly enough regardless. Even if he, even if you think- tie says we always snubbed Tennessee players and

we do lists like this. But when the season comes and Travis Smith and boot carder ball out we'll be using them thumbnails to get views. Yeah, Ty, we've not talked about Tennessee at all this off season. Haven't talked about your quarterback situation even once. It's a grand conspiracy. Yeah, well, I think that. He thinks that Tennessee players should be on every list of really good players and.

I he's a fan and I think he should feel that way. I don't know that I feel bad leaving anybody off. Can we point out that we have a producer is a Tennessee grad who is consistently serving Tennessee players into into these lists for us? I think that if you wanted to talk about total number of minutes spent on teams this year, Tennessee might be number one so far? No?

Would they be number one of teams we've spoken about the most? Yes, 100%. Because when the NECO stuff was happening, it was like two solid weeks of what's happening with Niko. What's Tennessee going to do about that? So, yeah, we talked a lot about Joey Aguilar too. And I wrote out. Yeah, we have a chance to be a legend.

He's got a chance to be a legend. I'm very Joey Aguilar is not going to make a list of guys. We're not talking about enough because we talked about him a lot. We talked about him more than we ever would have had. He just been at UCLA. Yeah, that's fine. And that's maybe we're not talking about Nico enough because I like I really want to watch a bunch of UCLA games like UCLA. Utah is my sneaky favorite game of the opening weekend.

I can't wait. And we're gonna watch that together. We are. It's gonna be amazing. Ari, it's been a pleasure. Go enjoy your barbecue. Whether you're going to a cookout our barbecue today, whether you are driving home, whether you are traveling somewhere else. Hopefully we've made your trip a little bit easier. Be safe. Don't do anything Ari wouldn't do. We'll talk to you tomorrow.