Andy & Ari On3 - The curious case of the new millionaire Texas Tech offensive lineman

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

The boys are back live, and they’ve got a lot to discuss!(0:00-0:36) Welcome Back!(0:37-19:08) 5-Star OT Felix Ojo commits to Texas Tech(19:09-23:50) Story Time with Ari(23:51-28:08) Concluding Texas Tech discussion(28:09-39:59) Alabama's BIG Recruiting Week(40:00-47:27) Golfing or Fishing?(47:28-55:07) Jake Retzlaff Update(55:08-57:15) Charles Jagusah Injury(57:16-1:00:55) Conclusion: Big 12 Media Days this week! Five-star offensive tackle Felix Ojo committed to Texas Tech last week. Ojo’s agent said Ojo agreed to a guaranteed three-year deal worth $5.1 million. Texas Tech sources quickly responded, claiming the guaranteed portion of the deal is actually worth closer to $2.3 million over three years.The entire saga is fascinating. There was the usual hand-wringing about how this is ruining college sports, but would Ojo have agreed to go to Texas Tech any other way? Plus, the way the salary news leaked out has a very NFL-in-2005 feel to it. It shows that we who cover college football need to get more sophisticated. Also, BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff is expected to enter the transfer portal. Retzlaff is leaving BYU rather than face a reported seven-game suspension for violating the school’s honor code. Meanwhile, Alabama is on a recruiting hot streak that looks like the Nick Saban days. The Crimson Tide had four top-50 players commit in the past two weeks.  Watch us LIVE on YouTube, M-F at 9:30 am et! https://youtube.com/live/yIAAydk9FIk Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Want to partner with the show? E-mail [e-mail]

Welcome to any in our area on three. We are back live. I hope everybody had a good Fourth of July weekend. We're gonna talk about a guy who had a great Fourth of July weekend. Felix Ojo, the newest commit to the Texas Tech Red Raiders, five star offensive lineman from Texas, who I think in another era would have gone to Texas or Texas A&M or Oklahoma or Michigan or Ohio State. But he's going to Texas Tech and, Ari, it was a fun Friday watching the news come out in different ways. Yeah, I was on a boat and I was kind of tracking it.

I didn't know I was a boat person. I'm a boat person though. Um, And that I'm never gonna get on one again the thing that I think is interesting about this and it will be the continued talking point is He just went there for money He never go there for any other reason if it weren't for money And what does it say about somebody who went somewhere for money? And the thing that I have said over and over and over again, and will continue to be true until we do not have to have this conversation anymore, is the compensation package, from my standpoint, is part of the overall sales pitch of

everything that you get there. Like, it's not just because of money, it's part of it. And like, the thing about it is, is that there's no denying where he would have gone, Andy, right? Like had this not existed, he would have gone to Texas or Ohio State or A&M or some other place. And that would have been because that was not part of the whole sales pitch. The sales pitches have changed. So like, if you were somebody who was a pro playoff expansion person,

if you were somebody who wants more parody in the sport, or if you're somebody who is tired of seeing the same three teams win the national title every other year, then like you should be rooting for this. Like the vitriol, like the thing that is so funny to me is that there's vitriol. And it's like you, 90% of the people who watch this show pretend like they want there to be parody, but it feels like the entire public is resentful of this.

And I don't understand that. That's exactly what I was thinking Friday as I was watching everybody say, well, this is ruining the sport. You people have complained. You people for how many years about the same three teams winning the national title. Do you know how you avoid that? You get players like this to go to other schools.

How do they do? How do you do that with money? That is how you do it. I don't know about this. And I actually forget where Kelvin Banks is from. I don't think he's from Texas. He was from, do you remember where he's from? I'll look it up.

It doesn't matter where he's from. But what if Kelvin Banks was not on Texas's football team last year? Will they have made it to the SEC championship game? Maybe. Trevor Goosby maybe a number one pick or a first round pick too, so maybe, yeah. I mean, maybe, but I'm just saying like,

if you like remove a very important piece of the puzzle to a very good team, things change. And they are not. This is from the Houston area, by the way. He's from from Humboldt, Texas. So he was committed to Oregon, I think, at one point, right? Am I making that up? I can't remember.

I actually last night, my family and I went to dinner with Bruce Bruce Bruce Feldman's family a nice little taco joint and we were talking about you Andy for like five minutes and No, and Bruce said Andy is amongst one of the smartest people I know in that he can recall information off the top of his head in a way that I've never seen before and then Christy his Wife said Andy should go on jeopardy and I'm like, I think Andy would actually be pretty good on Jeopardy. Anyway, um, I don't know what I'm like. I, I, I'll take your ego.

I'll give you your ego boost, but it is so funny to me because I feel like there's confusion. It's like, do you want as a mass now, obviously A and M fans don't want him to go to Texas and you know, Oklahoma fans don't want Ojo to go to Texas, but in totality does an Ohio state fan, a fan a Florida fan a Florida State fan want that kid to go to Texas and why is everybody upset like I just don't understand. It's different. It's different. That's why people don't like it and and not everybody doesn't like it like anybody who because this is what we told you guys, because this is what smart people told us,

before all this happened, like remember all the ADs were like, well, this will just widen the gap between the haves and the have nots. And the economist said, no, it won't. Like basic economics tells you that it will spread things out. So like the ADs of course were lying because they wanted to protect the status quo. They knew they knew what would happen to this is what happens.

Somebody who would have never gone to this school is now going to go to the school. What I mean by never got like the rarest person in recruiting is the athletic big man Ari. This guy may not be good. We don't know if he's going to be good or not, but we know physically he is exactly what you want. And there are so few people built like him in the world that they're very hard to get. Like the people who look like the number one cornerback in the country that they're very hard to get like. The people who look like the number one cornerback in the country. There's a lot of those relatively speaking. The people

who look like the number one offensive or defensive tackling country. There are sure you them much fewer. Here's the thing advances are one of our best listeners and most supportive people's I like to highlight his comments, but to compare this to relations, I feel like people have a problem differentiating having a stable financial situation to gold there. And I think that's true. But at the same time, too. If he is a gold digger, let him be a gold digger. Who cares? Let me ask you this, Andy, just point blank. Are you for Texas Tech

being awesome? I am. Would it be crazy if Texas Tech was like a top five team and just running the entire Big 12 out of Lubbock? Like that would be entertaining as hell. Like it's a question. It's a question we've been asked a bunch of times in the mailbag shows. Do you see an ACC or Big 12 team ever winning another national title? And I'm always like, no. But guess what?

If Texas Tech can start recruiting at this level, and I don't know if they can, I don't know if they can accumulate enough of these types of players, but if they could, then the answer might be yes. And here's the other thing that I had to and I always come back to this because I did I did some reporting and I did this story four years ago or three years ago. But I went to Waxahachie High School where Calvin Simpson Hunt went to high school

and he was a fast rising corner in this class. And have I told the story on the show? I'm sure I have. I don't think so. But he was a person who was obsessed and in love with Texas Tech when Joey Maguire first got there. Texas Tech found him very early in the process when he was a three star prospect because of their, their mechanism of like, measureables and you know measuring athleticism, and then he ended up turning there, it's like, oh, well, I want a guy who wants the relationships. It's like Calvin Simpson Hunt has had and did have a huge, deep, loving relationship with Joey Maguire and his staff.

And he went to Ohio State because Joey Maguire's relationship, though better, did trump the package that Ohio State offers of what they're going to give you as they put corners in the first round routinely. They win national championships. They win Big Ten champs where they haven't won big. You could also say that Calvin Simpson Hunt decided with his wallet. Then he was being compensated differently. Yeah, like if you want to play the relationships game, we've had Joe McGuire on the show.

Has anybody ever met this guy? You he makes you feel like he's your best friend in five minutes. Like, Joe McGuire is one of the coolest coaches in the entire country and probably be a first round pick in the Who Would You Want to Eat Lunch with draft. You want to talk about somebody who knows how to build relationships. Probably nobody in the country you could say is probably better at it than Texas Tech in terms of a

personability standpoint. You know, it's like so funny Texas Tech has lost so many battles over the course of the last five years with elite level players in the state of Texas in spite of relationships. So now they're winning it this way and they're assholes now. What do you want them to do? Exactly. This is my whole point. I want to write this today, by the way.

Well, I was going to do it too. So one of us needs to. Whatever, we'll talk about it. It's really funny. But it is really interesting to me because okay, if we're going to talk about the money part of it, and we have to get into the specifics of the money

because that part's interesting too. That's actually a little bit of a media story, that part of it. But to get a five-star offensive tackle, again, they're rare. Like, there just aren't that many of those humans on the planet. If you're is tech,

you have to offer significantly more money than everybody else. It's not like you just have to offer the most. It has to be so much more that they can't say no. And that's different. You have to, it's not just money. You have to offer enough money where your entire compensation package, outside of money,

that means facilities, that means location, that means conference, that means history of developing draft picks, all the things that you weigh are equal or superior to your competition. And where you are, your program in terms of stature and where you stand in the bar graph of how good you are at all those things, probably there's an algorithm that can figure out how much you would have to offer to overcome those things. And I think Texas Tech is a, you know, I've never even been to Loving. So I'm not gonna pretend to.

I've never even been to Amarillo. I've never been there. I don't know where they are in that standpoint but in terms of like compete for national championship and developing left tackles for the first round and all those things I can imagine they're probably not as high as some of the teams that they were competing against not probably to imagine. Yeah. Oh so they have to use money in order to level the playing field to make your entire package the most marketable I think it's always maybe that's just like a word salad to say pay the most but

You weigh everything when you have a job. Where is it located? Who are your co-workers? Who are you working for? Who's your boss? Who who or what are the details of your job? What are your responsibilities? How much am I being paid? Obviously being paid is probably the thing that that matters the most, but you weigh all those things. And when I was coming down three, I was like, Oh, I get to work with Andy again every day. That was also part of it.

They want to invest in our podcast in a way that our previous stop didn't. That was a part of it. Yes, I got paid more, but like I weighed all the things. And Andy will tell you I wasn't 100% on board right away Just because of the money but the money helped and you know what? I'm happy I did it. So like I don't know like I just feel like every single time we get a a Commitment to a typical place as a result of a vast and I'll deal we have to have the same conversation again

Well, I want to hear Here's Kenneth in the chat. Good players shouldn't go to mid teams, you guys. OK, how do mid teams ever become good teams then? You just want them to always be the same? Yeah, like Kenneth Love is like a smart dude, and he's been around, has consumed my stuff, and we've interacted a lot. And it's like, I kind of understand,

and I think he's a fan of a big time team. I can't remember which one it is. But like, I think that people who are like, if you're a Bama fan, you're more likely to think that. If you're an Ohio State fan, you're more likely to think that. But if you are a fan of the sport, and you want equality, and you want parity, maybe not equality, that's the wrong word, parity, then you have to celebrate the times in which we are leveling the playing field. The thing that's so insane to me is that, oh, he's an Ohio State fan. Okay. So if he's an Ohio State fan, you can understand why he thinks that. Like, I like, why do you think he thinks that? Because he wants to be scared that players, maybe they won't go to Ohio State and suddenly Ohio State won't be as dominant as it's been. Yeah, I got it. But also like as a fan of the of the

actual sport, overall like Ohio State might be hurt by that, but so guess who's directly hurt by that? Texas, a team that Ohio State will likely play in the playoff this year. Like it's everybody is gonna get hurt the same and I think better spread of talent will mean we don't know who's making the playoff in October, which is fun, right? Like we should be celebrating this. Yeah.

I don't know. Exactly. I think we should be celebrating it. I don't think we should be criticizing it. If we want parody, this is how it happens. Stop listening to the ADs and the coaches who just want to protect the money they make. This is how parity happens. Andy, I don't follow Major League Baseball that much.

Like I have a fantasy team and I share it with a friend, but like I don't like follow the ins and outs of who's signing where. But like, let's say Julio Rodriguez signed a super max deal with the Detroit Tigers and people be like, oh, yeah, like the Tigers have a pitcher Scoobal. He's in a contract year. Like, I'm sure the Dodgers can throw a million, you know, millions and millions of more dollars at him.

The really good player. The Mets just paid a billion dollars too. Soto Juan Soto, that's right. If one Soto would have signed that deal or a supermax deal with the Royals, would people have called him like a scumbag? No, they've been good with that, or would people have celebrated that?

Like I think they would. They would have been like, oh, finally, the Royals are spending some money in Juan Soto. Yeah. It's like, shouldn't we be finally, the Big 12 is spending some money? It kind of was like that with the Mets when he signed with the Mets, even though they are in New York. Yeah.

But so, but yeah, I mean, that's the thing. Now the other piece of this I find equally interesting. Can understand people's frustration with this part of it because it was fascinating the way this all came out. And so it came out, it was Friday when this came out, right? Friday. So when it came out, it was an ESPN story that quoted his agent. This was not a sources said. This is a, his agent is saying, so Derek Shelby of Prestige Management, that's Felix Ojo's

agent, he tells Eli Letterman from ESPN, he did a deal that is a three year, $5.1 million, fully guaranteed deal. So the agent is saying that on the record. So Eli publishes that. Very quickly, very quickly, and I'm not, I don't think I'm talking out of school here because they didn't call me, they called other people. But people from Texas Tech

called reporters at various outlets to say this is not true. It is not that much. It might be able to get to that much depending on how the regulatory environment evolves in the next two years. But in terms of revenue share money, he's getting about 775,000 a year, which adds up to what about 2.3 million over three years, which is still incredible money for a guy who's never played a snap in college. But it's interesting because,

and this is why I think it's kind of a media story, we're so trained with the NFL that the second a contract comes out, we know exactly where it's coming. Like, oh, this is the one the agent leaked. Let's wait till the team leaks it to find out what the actual guarantee is, what the real money is.

And that's exactly what happened here. It's just, we're not sophisticated enough to understand that. And it's obviously in the agent's best interest to of course. How many phone calls do you think he got? Yeah, because it makes him look like he's doing a very good job. And I mean, by and large, he did. I'm not saying he didn't, but like we have to understand motive

and stuff too and dealing with agents. So I'm not upset about any. No. I went to bed with a smile on my face on Friday night. So I don't know. I think that, and also too, Texas Tech is very likable to me. Well, and it would be, look, it would be the same to me if this was TCU, if this was Baylor,

like if this was SMU in a different conference, like somebody who wants to compete at the highest level has some money and they're actually investing. Like that's the thing. Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, all the schools, how did they get good? By spending money on football. They just spend it in different ways. You can talk about all the under the table and all that whatever, whatever. That actually was a pretty small percentage of the money in the grand scheme of things. Yeah, we're investing in football more than other people

were. Stadium renovations, waterfalls in the locker rooms, everybody gets a personal Xbox meal plans, trainers, Better coaches. Better coaches, all these things. It's not just, and it's funny because I think people think, oh, well, Alabama paid and LSU paid and Ohio State paid. It's like, even if they did pay, what do you think it was like in a percentage standpoint of how much money they spent overall on everything else?

Like 1% even, even 1%? I remember what we said a few weeks ago, the bag man was broke. The bag man was broke. The bag man was broke. This is this is that lock room waterfall money actually going to the players now. Yeah, now I don't know. I'm sure Texas Tech also made a new facility recently too, didn't they? So I don't know if they have a waterfall. But I remember when Ohio State put their waterfall in, it was like, wow, look, everybody, we have a waterfall. It was like, also to like you walk by it. And it's like, it was really cool at first. And just like you walk by it every day. And it's just like

everything else. Like it's like, I don't know how much it costs to make an interior water feature in your home. Have you ever looked into it? Well, I mean, I put in a pool. So but, you know, anybody who I'd love to have all you over to my house one day, but Andy's been to my house. He's actually coming here tonight. We don't have a backyard.

Okay. We have a front yard that's massive and it's off to the side of the house. So it kind of like we live off of a ravine and there's no, we don't have any like neighbors behind us, but it's like the city of Dallas owns. Like it's like, anyway, we thought about putting a pool into the front yard and then putting up shrubbery to make it private because it's that big. Like you could build like a mini casita

in our front yard, it's that big. Guess how much the quote was for a pool and privacy shrubbery. Oh, and the shrubbery is the killer there. I'm guessing it was $200,000. 170 grand. Okay, and so in real life, all that's done you're spending 300 Is that what yeah, you told me you're like, yeah, they tell you they tell you the quotes multiply it by two

Yeah, yeah, and I was like, okay. Well, we're not gonna do that. But um, It is insane how much it costs to make a pool So but I would think that the water feature would be what? 50 grand, 25 grand? Oh, it's probably not that much. It was really high. It's a really high, we had like a whole lot of it. Yeah, we talk about those things and it's not, it's really not that much in the grand scheme,

but it is funny because it's totally unnecessary. A big part of adulthood though is like finding out how much stupid stuff costs. You know how much it costs to like put a gate around your backyard? Yes, I do. Yeah, and you know, if you would have told me when I was 22

how much it costs to put a fence in around your backyard, I would have keeled over. Like, you know how much money, what's the thing that surprised you the most in terms of how expensive it is? It was the fence. The fence. It was the fence.

And two sofas for me. Yes, a good sofa is so expensive. Yeah, cause I got my sofa when I was living in Columbus. By the way, Britt likes to tease me about this, but like every single thing in my apartment, cause I lived in a like one bedroom bachelor pad on high street in Columbus, I bought it off of Max. And it was fine. But like when we bought our couch here, I was like, they want what for what now?

But when you but the thing is, when you buy a very cheap couch, you can tell the difference. Sometimes you get lucky because you have like when I was younger, I was a big like, oh, family members getting rid of a couch, I'll take your couch. We found it when I was in college, we found a couch by the dumpster in the apartment complex and like this perfectly good couch. So yeah, Scott just said in the chat that we need to improve my home

improvement skills. The so we have a shower in my in our master shower had two hooks that are in the shower to like hang towels. Yeah. Far enough away to get splashed on, but they were, so my daughter was in the shower and she grabbed a towel and yanked the hook down. And there was like paste on the back of it. And I was like looking at it and then the tile, there was like paste on the tiles, like adhesive. And there was this like mechanism inside and like an Allen wrench area and what's supposed to happen was you were supposed to drill one of the pieces, anchor it in, and then tighten it so that can't happen.

So just so you guys know, we know Ari's builder was in a hurry. Yeah it bothered me. It bothered me. Yeah if that, then what else in this house is... Right. And of course, that's not the easiest thing to do in the world because when you're drilling in the tile, there's a chance that you may crack the tile and now you have to replace the tile. So they were trying to save a little time and you became me. Anyway, I went to Home Depot. I'm like, hey, do you guys have any more adhesive? Not knowing that... I just thought it was adhesive was The right way to do it and the guy goes who did this?

and I was like You are he goes who? Who did that to you and I was like the people who built the house that we still can't afford And he goes yeah, they did a really terrible job what you're supposed to and then I hired a handyman And he came over and did it for a hundred bucks But like like Britt got mad at me and I was just like, what do you want me to do? You want me to drill in a tile? You know how that's going to go for us?

We're going to have to do an entire bathroom remodel. Like there are certain things I will, you would agree with me that like this is not something that I should have attempted. I would not let, yeah, I would not recommend you. I don't think I would do that unless I knew I was changing out the tile or doing yet. Like, but guess what? The guy was here for 30 minutes and the hooks are back in and I took and I pulled off the other one that was up

and he needed both the right way. And home ownership is buying a house and then quietly making everything that's wrong with it work again. That's what I've learned. Exactly, that's exactly right. Well, and Joey, Joey McGuire is very loudly trying to make Texas Tech work again, because we have the

ojo. He's not even playing yet. And the thing is, one more thing before we move on from this topic, because there are several other topics we need to get to, including Alabama's incredible recruiting heater, what's going on with Jake Retzlaff right now. Yeah, so that they are taking an incredible risk here. And this is something that I don't think I would take this risk if I were Ohio State or Texas or Georgia, because I don't have to. We don't know if this guy's gonna be able to be plug and

play. Like, Tennessee spent a lot of money on David Sanders, the number one offensive tackle recruit in the class of 2025. It looks like he's gonna start for them this year as a true freshman, but you don't know that coming in. Like Felix Ojo is six, five and a half, six, six. He's 275, it's the perfect frame. Like the idea is you pack 40 more pounds on that frame. And when he heads off the NFL, he's six, six, three 15 and moves really well.

But you don't know if you can play him as a freshman. It's like, it's a crap shoot with lineman. And the world can cost if it doesn't work. Right, are you paying for nothing? Like Tennessee did Nico's freshman year. Like you have to accept that that's part of the risk too But that's also another way you can get that guy Because Ohio State and Texas don't have to take that risk

Yeah, also to like the Browns are paying Deshaun Watson what two hundred million dollars yes, it happens in the pros, too so that's you know that that that's what, you know, Dar I, I clapped back at Dari Noka from the sec network the other day. Cause he said, he said, what could possibly go wrong? I'm like, somebody may have been paid more than they were worth. Like that's literally the worst thing that could happen. Yeah. And also, that happens all the time everywhere. And also too, and here's the flip side of it that no one ever wants to acknowledge. But if Felix Ojo is being paid too much in the long run for what he's worth,

then he made a savvy business decision. True. Yeah. You know, like, cause that's the thing. It's like, everyone's like, well, why take the guaranteed money now? Go to Bama, get developed and go to the pros. But it's like, if you stink, then you're a millionaire and you, you already, that's an insurance policy.

So like that to me, maybe, maybe, uh, he won't, I think that there's certain level of athleticism and size and capability that makes you best, best proof. Like, like there's no way he's going to stink. Like he will start there for multiple years and he will be fine. And there's a good chance he could start as a freshman because he's, he's two 75 now going to a senior high school. Uh, you, You put him in the college weight room, which almost always, especially for the bigger guys, there's an immediate set of

gains. I mean, you could have him at 6'6", 295 playing next year, which that, if he's athletic, which he seems to be, that will make you a serviceable tackle in the big 12. Like the older, the older edge rushers may eat you up, but you're probably going to catch on pretty fast. I think like complete sunken cost is can't play, won't play. Yeah. You put somebody in there who struggles their freshman year, then that's also the same thing as a rookie struggling in their NFL contract. Kayden Proctor struggles as a freshman in Alabama and Kayden Proctor's maybe

the number one Spencer Fennault in Utah and Kayaden Proctor struggles as a freshman in Alabama, and Caden Proctor's maybe the number one. Spencer Fennault in Utah and Caden Proctor your number one and two tackle prospects in the country this year. Going to the draft. You know, I don't think that they have to be a all conference player right out of the gate for that to be solid money.

And also too, I know that like Texas Tech is really excited about this year and is hoping to compete for a big 12 championship. But if you do this year over year over year, then you're not going to be as reliant on the first one. Like they're more reliant on Ojo than they would be on other players three or four years down the line if this is a regular thing. Yeah, they might be plugging in their five-star freshman in 2028

who will be joining two or three or four junior five-star players who have been in the system for three years and he's just an accessory or a nice little piece to add into a team that's already very good. So like, you know, this to me isn't just investment in a single player. I think this is a message to the sport that, hey, we're here to play. You know what I mean? And that, I mean, is exciting. It's not just, oh, do they pay this guy enough and will he be worth it? It's Texas Tech is playing big boy football now. That's not just, Oh, do they pay this guy enough? And will he be worth it? It's Texas Tech is playing big boy football now. That's a press release. Let's talk about a school that's been playing big boy football

that we thought when the coach retired, maybe they wouldn't as much anymore. But Alabama's recruiting the past two weeks has looked exactly like it did under Nick Saban. So let's let's throw this out. Alabama now has four or five star players in the rivals industry rankings. They have six top 100 commits in this class. Oh no, seven, excuse me.

Or is it eight? It's eight, it's eight, yeah. So this is, and most of these guys have committed in the past two weeks. So Alabama not going away on that front. Now we just talked about how Texas tech is trying to break into that group by getting one of these guys. Right.

Alabama just got a bunch of these guys. Yeah. I also don't think that like, I don't know. The thing that is interesting is that we've spoken regularly on this show about the Mega class that A&M put together a few years ago and how it didn't work out, right? Do you think that we will ever get to a point where Texas Tech or a team comes out of nowhere? It doesn't just do this for one player But does it with 14 players like does like, in a place where they like land

in Alabama or Georgia-like class out of nowhere? We kind of saw it with Ole Miss in 2013. It wasn't quite as deep as one of those classes, but of course they got investigated for that. Now they wouldn't. I wonder, well yeah, but now everybody else would be playing the same sport, and it might still be difficult.

But like, the thing that I think is interesting is that we do get that out of shape and we just spent 28 minutes talking about Texas Tech and whether or not that's okay. But still the difference between Texas Tech and the teams that are actually going to be competing for a national championship is still night and day. Like this is in the right direction, but they're not they haven't arrived yet. And like that's the thing too, that I want to also make sure that we're like, you know, keeping the proper perspective of like the 2025 team. Like the 2025 Texas Tech team is going to be much better

in theory than previous Texas Tech teams, right? But like, I don't know that I'm viewing them as, oh, this is a team that's going to go out and compete for the national title. I think this is a team that wants to win the big 12, you know, contend for a roster, I mean, a playoff spot. But I don't know that their roster is going to be in a place. You know, I've been wrong a million times before, maybe they'll be special and do something that we don't see coming. But from my understanding of what they have on their roster right now, I think it'll be one of the better big 12 rosters. But I don't know that it can stay on the same field with Georgia for four quarters. Or Alabama. I mean, the thing is, Alabama has the kind of roster right now. Yeah, because we're talking about the 26 class with these guys they got. But they currently have the

kind of roster that can compete for a national title. It's up to Kalen DeBoer to actually do that. But he's doing everything. And this is I made fun of you. this is, I made fun of you. I made fun of you when you wrote that column of him, acing his first year. Cause you said, well, he did everything off the field and the recruiting that he needed to do. And I was like, well, yeah, but he lost three games and you can't do that. But he is still doing everything off the field that you should be doing to keep Alabama at the level that you expect to be so wrong about that

like I know that like I know that Alabama has a standard of Winning and they have to win in last year's on the you know He fell below the standard, but he still aced it ace means you got a hundred percent and if you fell below the standard You did Alabama ghost the playoff this year and competes for the national title and players from last year's class are awesome. Everything's fine. And then back to Bama. Everything's fine. He's just, like, that's all I was trying to say.

Like, he is, the thing that I think is so funny is if Alabama would have gone 11-1 last year or 10-2 and lost in the SEC Championship game and signed the number 27 class, do you think that would have been better? Like, that would have been way worse. That also would have, here's the problem, Ari. You can't say aced about the guy replacing Nick Saban unless he did exactly what Nick Saban would have done, and he didn't. So it's not an either or. It's not a if they'd gone 11-1 and had the 27th best recruiting class. No, no, you're at Alabama. You're supposed to win the national title and have the number one recruiting class. Like that's the job. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. You do Texas Tech.

I'm going to write this today because I'm fired. Okay. All right. Go for it. He is doing everything off the field that you need to do as Alabama's head coach. And to me, that was the impossible part of replacing Nick Saban. Like it wasn't like, and I know that like winning is going to like if he sucks on the field this year, like that is inexcusable, right? Like there's no excuse now for Alabama to be nine and three in the midst of playoff.

I love that you call nine and three sucking. It's something that Ralph Russo gets mad at me about. I mean, when I'm talking about a team, I know their standard. I understand. I know nine and three is a good season for most teams. But let me tell you something. I'd fit well right in in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for calling him for saying they suck at 9 and 3. Okay, so like I'm like teleporting myself into a person an Alabama fan when I'm talking about Alabama. But the fact that he is crushing

it on the recruiting trail, if I'm an Alabama fan like I am at ease. I might be frustrated about last year. I am at ease that the person who came into my program and never signed a four star prospect at all in my entire career coming into this job is doing what you be able to do it. I was afraid, and I think Brian Harson is a bad example because he like almost felt like he had like a moral distaste for recruiting top 100 players. But I was afraid that they would have a hard time or that they would be stuck in their own ways and try to over-evaluate the way they did at Washington. And like, hey, we got to the national title at Washington. Like we can go get our three star players

from Northern California and be just fine. And like they are not doing that. They're getting the best. Like I mean, I had a extensive conversation with Courtney Morgan at the national championship game and wrote a big story for the athletic about like, here's a person who helped recruit two teams at the national championship. And like if you brought up a five star at the national title game, Courtney Morgan was like was like oh that's not recruiting that's choosing and like he almost like scoffed at the notion that like getting a bunch you need to choose a little bit too if you can but I was afraid that Courtney

Morgan was gonna outsmart himself at Bama and just try to over evaluate everything and he's an amazing evaluator which has been proven time and time again seeing what Alabama is doing right now is chicken soup for the damaged just try to over evaluate everything. And he's an amazing evaluator, which has been proven time and time again. Seeing what Alabama is doing right now is chicken soup for the damaged Alabama soul, is it not? Oh, it definitely is. It definitely is. We're still Bama, being Bama.

We're doing Bama. The other thing about it is, now it's not exactly like the saving classes because this one is much top heavier than those saving classes. But we'll see, cause there's still time. But I don't think you can do what those Saban classes did. The thing about the Saban class thing

is that no one's doing that anymore. You can't and Nick Saban knew that. Like if you go look at Georgia's class, and I think I wrote about that, Georgia has more three star prospects committed in their class this year. I think right now, that Georgia has more three star prospects committed in their class This year, I think right now unless it changed over the weekend while I was on buzzed Island Had it has eight three star prospects in the on three industry rankings, right?

I don't think at any point going back to 2018. They signed more than five, right? because because certain guys still cost and They're gonna be at the top of the pay scale at Kentucky and they would be further down at Georgia and so instead of being the 21st guy in Georgia's class, they're going to go be the second guy in Kentucky's class. That's the new economic reality. Kevin Chavis here said, it's odd because apparently On3 and 247 both have composite rankings. They both average out all the recruiting services

into a consensus ranking, but have different rankings. That doesn't make sense. It does, Kevin, because On3 has a different formula of weighting which services, right? Am I right? It's a weighted average and both companies weight them differently. And like we emphasize On3 and 24 seven, if I'm not mistaken,

because they have the largest, most robust staffs. Which and obviously it'll change because we have we have rivals coming to board with us. So it'll be different in the coming years. But that's why it's different, Kevin. Yeah. And it's it's it's it's interesting to me because this is how you have to do it at Alabama. That part of it. And I'm with you. It is.

If you are an Alabama fan, you should be thrilled that Kaylinda Boer, that Courtney Morgan are looking at this. Like we still have to go get the best players. We still definitely need to get them when they're in our city or when they're in our state. So Sudarian Morgan is Xavier Crowell. These are two five stars who have committed in the last two weeks. They're out there state of Alabama guys.

Like they still want to make sure they dominate their state. And meanwhile, we're all counting Hugh Freeh's golf rounds. Well before, during this time, so. We'll get to that. Before we um, forget, could we do a state breakdown? I wouldn't look this up before before the show. Oh yeah, yeah. Alabama's state breakdown for their 2026 class. They have, I believe, 19 commitments right now. Is that right in I think so 19. I think so. Yeah five Bama for Georgia to California, I'm sorry to Florida one, California one Illinois one, Indiana one, Maryland one, Mississippi one, Nebraska one

Ohio one Tennessee, that's a pretty nice spread You have half of your class from Alabama and Georgia. You pick off some important pieces in other states of guys that you like. For instance, they have a top 100 player athlete committed out of the state of Illinois. You go get that guy. But like that's that looks healthy to me. Like I know people are like, people are kind of like, oh, they're not doing that great in this. I think they're doing great in the south. They're doing fine in the south. I Yeah, yeah. And the thing is like the state of Alabama is not

always going to be as robust in terms of prospects. There are up years and down years. Like Georgia, the state of Georgia has up years and down years, but they're like Georgia and Florida's up years and down years look different. There's still tons of players in both states. So you need to be effective recruiters in Georgia and an effective recruits in Florida if you're going to be the head coach at Alabama. And it seems like Kayla Naboor understands the assignment.

And I think that was probably the biggest frustration for Auburn fans with Brian Harson is that he didn't understand the assignment. He frees understands the assignment. We talked about this a few weeks ago. I think you freeze in a different place. Like we can make fun of him playing golf all we want. The fact of the matter is they're not going to be able to put together attractive offers to high school prospects until Auburn proves that they can win under Hugh Freeze because they're either going to win

under Hugh Freeze this year and he's going to stay and they'll put together a bunch of attractive offers and have this massive recruiting comeback in November or they'll fire him and the next coach will be trying to get players with competitive offers. Yeah, yeah, which is an impossible situation to be in and also I would play golf in that situation too like that's what Billy Napier was in last And also, I would play golf in that situation too. Like, what's the deal?

That's what Billy Napier was in last year. Now, I don't think he played that much golf, but that was his situation. I don't know what he does in his free time. Let me ask you this. Do you go to Ferrari dealerships and look around? No. No, you show up when you got the money and you're ready.

But that and that's that's what happened at Florida last year is once they got some momentum, once it was clear he was coming back, then they started putting together competitive offers. And this time last year, their class was in the upper 50s. They went upside in 10th grade class. Auburn I suspect will be similar if they're if they're good enough for Hugh Frees to stay. Alabama, meanwhile, although I don't agree with it.

Why I I I think that I don't know. I think that Auburn football if they want to compete for a national championship should operate under those pretenses 100% of the time that he he's gonna stay? No, that they should just try to get as many good players on their teams. But you don't want to commit money to guys that the new coach might not want? I think you commit money to guys that every coach would want, is what I'm saying. That's, you can do that.

Yeah, like I think that every coach would want. The guys that every coach would want are not going to go to the place where the guy might get fired. So that's the problem. You know, let me ask you this. Do you think that if and I don't know like if Auburn even can do they don't have a billionaire like land man behind them.

But if Auburn Austin. You have the CEO of Apple who's a grad. He just doesn't care that much about me as a football guy. Yeah. Apple needs to be investing in AI a little bit more. They don't need to be investing in football. OK. If Felix says the guy with a bunch of Apple stock.

Yeah, hey, don't don't. Hey, what CNBC has to you know, they have to tell you if they're talking about their stock. If you hold it, I hold Apple stock. And you all should too, by the way. If Felix Ojo got the money, then the offer from Auburn that. Texas Texas Tech offer. Yeah.

What do you think? And do you think that random coach replacing you freeze would want that guy on their roster? Yes, I don't think that I don't think that I think that's overthinking it a little bit. I think that Auburn should do its best to to but if you feel it's Ojo and you have similar offers from Auburn in Texas Tech. You're gonna play for Joey. I gotta tell you something.

And Joey is very familiar with this. But if friggin Texas Tech goes six and six this year, you might not be there either next year. You make a good point because they have made the investment. So there's no guarantee in the sport that anybody is going to be anywhere ever. And also Florida signed a really, really good class last year. By the time those players are also could get right. You're right. You're right. You're right. Like, what they like even if Auburn goes nine and three this year.

Are you telling me that you freeze isn't on the hot seat next year? Maybe not. Buddy, well, also, also knowing Auburn's history, Ari, the way they react to that, to a good season is immediately. Lock the coach down with a massive to a good season is immediately. Lock the coach down with a massive extension with a huge buyout like you freezing is very very manageable by SEC standards this year. Do you think that Auburn would react to 9 and three that way? Like would you consider that like I

watched him do it with Gus Malzahn and well 2017 was a little bit. They did win the West they won they were better than 9-3 I think they were 10-2. They won the SEC Championship game the last time. Yeah yeah the third loss came in the SEC or no I don't know it was only the second loss. I just want as many good players on my team at all times as possible and I would deal with the fallout of those things if and when they happen. That's that's the way I would approach it. Yeah, but I also because it's like There's no momentum there like you want your you want your program to feel like there's momentum like Auburn fans are like upset right now I wouldn't want my fan base to be upset That's the difference between you and you you'd be trying to make them happier and he's Playing golf, but you get those lane kevin tweets river. River, let's let's throw the lane keppin tweets up there. Lane Kiffin retweeting a few who freeze tweet from May.

Where he's holding up a golf trophy. And lane goes great job. Coach game is on fire. Lane Kevin also keeps tweeting fishing photos at Hugh Frees every time Ole Miss signs a player that Auburn wanted. And look, I say this as someone who's got a kid who's getting into golf now. I had to go buy clubs that played against sports. Oh you did? Well, I bought very basic used clubs

because I got to make sure you actually wants to do this. Yeah, right. But fishing still much far, far greater than golf as past times go. Far greater. I've never been fishing, Andy, outside of like throwing the rod into like a lake and standing on land. We gotta take you,

I mean, I'd love to take you deep sea fishing. I don't know if we have time for that. Deep sea fishing strikes me as a much more involved activity. It is, but now there's a middle ground there. There's a, you can do inshore fishing in the saltwater where you've got action almost constantly if you're finding the right places,

but it is not the equipment and all the other stuff that you have to deal with with deep sea fishing. Because deep sea fishing, if you don't have the right equipment, if you don't have the people with the very specialized knowledge of what they're doing, it's not gonna go very well. In shore fishing, you can have a lot of fun,

and it's not boring like throwing into a freshwater lake and praying there's a bass. But every time I go to a call, I'm like, I'm gonna have to hop on the phone or text or something. Like, you can conceivably recruit and do what you're doing on the golf course. I don't know, like if you're on a,

I watched The Waterfront, have you seen that show on Netflix? I binged it very quickly, yes. Love it, right? Those people are like busy. You know what I mean? Well, yes, those are commercial fishermen. That's a little bit different.

Yeah, I mean, those people are, I mean, they're also- They're also running drugs. Yeah, but- Spoiler alert. Great show if you haven't watched on Netflix. Me and my wife banged through that episode. That sounded weird. We crushed those. That sounded weird. We binged those episodes very quickly. It only took 45 minutes too. So yeah, I don't know what it would feel like to bag a fish like that though. Like

that's got to be a relief. The one on the screen is is a massive yeah that that's your way out hundreds of feet deep water like you have very specialized equipment. I'm talking about going and getting redfish. The ocean is the scariest place on earth but speaking of activities that Jews do this is a good segue to. Here we go. All right we we are enough enough for Volody. We do have to be somewhat sensitive with this particular one because this Jake Ratz, the Ratzel story is very strange. So he's the BYU quarterback. He was coming back for this season. He actually probably got some interest from other schools in the off season. He actually probably got some interest from other schools in the off season, but decides to come back to BYU.

He has a lawsuit filed against him in civil court accusing him of sexual assault. His attorneys respond to this lawsuit by saying there was consensual sex, but it was consensual and it's not sexual assault. If he went to any other school, it would then play out from there of who's telling the truth. Because he goes to BYU, his admission of having premarital sex is a violation of BYU's honor code and Therefore he was going to be suspended the reporting is that it would have been seven games that he would be suspended. So When it comes out that he's gonna get suspended he his people make it clear that he's probably gonna move on and Immediately the case gets dropped.

Once it's clear he's leaving BYU, the case case gets dropped so. I don't know how much more we want to opine on that, but it's very strange. Yeah, very strange and also very serious and. I think we all can come up with our own opinions about the BYU honor code and all those different things. I don't think it's our place to provide those opinions, but I think what's interesting here, Andy, what our listeners should hear from us is like what is next from a football standpoint.

Right. Nikos wrote a story for on three. Was it yesterday or two days? He just wrote it. I read it. Yeah, it came out this weekend and so it's interesting because also last week the NCAA said we're going to open the transfer portal this one time in the summer and it's it's almost

like an expansion draft, right? We're basically teams put out a list of players they might have cut anyway. And those players are allowed to if you're on that list, you can go into the transfer portal and go seek somewhere else to play. And this is because of the roster limits coming in because of the house settlement. Presumably be why you can just put Jake Retzliff on the list because he said I'm not coming back. And they can take the roster spot and so they can just put him on the list and he can enter the portal. But that's not but that from my understanding is up to BYU to do and I don't correct I don't know if BYU will with somebody. I would think BYU could just release him from his scholarship anyway and then he could just go somewhere

else because he's he's been cut effectively by BYU. Yeah. I don't think BYU is fighting this. Like, I don't think they're trying to make him stay at this point. Very, very interesting. And like, I don't know. And I honestly don't know, Andy, I guess we're kind of like at the mercy of waiting. But like if he'll be playing somewhere this year or not.

But the thing is, if if Jake Retzliff gets hits the portal. There are quite a few schools. I think it would would be interesting. We can't guarantee that BYU will will oblige this. Right, we can't guarantee it, but if he does this. They're going to be. Let's put it this way. I would be nervous if I was a starting quarterback or thought I was going to win a starting job, but wasn't real sure that I'd

want it. Yeah, or yeah, you're on the portal. Yeah, I mean he can play so you know that that we know. And that window I believe opens today. Yes it does it does so we'll probably get some more information on this and okay so programming note I'm flying to Dallas tonight gonna gonna hang with Ari we're going to Big 12 media days will be a Big 12 media days Tuesday and Wednesday so we'll see Kalani Satake there. We may have some clarity on this by the time

the BYU contingent gets to Big 12 Media Days, but that is gonna be obviously one of the more interesting subplots of Big 12 Media Days. We'll see Joey Maguire. We can ask him for a loan. Maybe. Because he's spending money. I mean, if Texas Tech has an in-house podcast that they need hosted. I don't think we'd be allowed to do that, but I mean, I think they'd be willing to buy us out

of our contracts. Do you think we could do a daily Texas tech podcast? We could do anything for enough money. Yeah, I could figure it out. Um, the BYU is there on Tuesday. BYU is there tomorrow. Yeah. And I think that like, we need to make sure that this distinction with Jake Retsliff is made.

He is not leaving BYU because of the accusations. He is leaving BYU because having pre-marital sex is not is a is an infraction. It's violation of their honor code. So he is still dealing with the allegations in civil court. But the reason why the case has been dropped. I'm sorry. Sorry. He would have been. Yeah. What I'm saying is that the accusations aren't the reason he's suspended or not playing. It's the is, well, they're gonna have to say it was consensual. And if they do, that's an article violation. Yeah, that was the first thought. I was like, either way, he was in a sexual situation. And like, you know, we've spent a lot of time

in the past discussing BYU. And like, if they turned on the money cannon for NIL to promote Mormonism and stuff, I think that this kind of made me change my mind about that. Into a very different situation than almost any other school in the country. Because like that, it's like no drinking and all that stuff, but like it's very hard to stop young men from feeling those feelings.

Or acting on those feelings, especially in a position to do so. And I feel like that is just a, it's a tough situation to go into for a lot of people who don't, especially if you're not somebody of the faith. So, you know that. I don't know if I have anything else to add on this, Andy, but we'll know I just will see what happens. We'll hear from Kalani Satake tomorrow and we'll probably have a better idea

of what's going on. But this portal opening, you're not gonna see a lot of players that you know in there. It's gonna be a lot of guys who would not have been on their rosters or would have been getting cut because of space concerns. Yeah. So. I mean, who was the last supplemental NFL draft pick

that like was of note? The last one I remember. Troy Criger? Yeah. Yeah like so. But yeah we're we're headed to big twelve media days this week Andy and I'm pumped man. I'm pumped. Yeah. Football season is starting and it's gonna be good to be back in the same building with a lot of our friends and colleagues and man our show's gonna be good this weekend. I mean like I don't know one more news story that we haven't talked about yet though,

Ari, and this is, this one sucks. Like poor Charles Jagas. Oh yeah, yeah. Notre Dame offensive lineman. Remember he got hurt in preseason camp last year and missed most of the season. He got back in for the last two games, but he broke his arm in a UTV accident over the weekend.

And so he, they said the prognosis is positive that he should be able to recover, but we don't know what that means for this season for him. He was playing guard at the end of last season. He was supposed to be the starting left tackle. Anthony Knapp came in and became the starting left tackle. And remember Notre Dame lost two starting offensive linemen who started the national championship game because those guys probably weren't gonna have jobs as starters this year. It's interesting that they are deep enough, like there's a way that they can absorb the jagged side

injury and still probably be okay. Probably would have liked to have one of them. It's just a testament to how deep they are. Yeah, but also to probably would have liked to keep one of the guys who left in this situation now. But yeah. Yeah, that's a that's a tough blow and as somebody who's had to overcome this before so we'll keep our eyes on Notre Dame, but like it is a. Tough break for sure, yeah,

hands and the team. Yeah, we'll see what happens, but it's, it'll be interesting because it may require some moving around again. Like last year, Anthony Knapp was not supposed to be the left tackle. He played left tackle. He, if you were going to have Jagasah at right guard, Anthony Knapp might be the one you move to guard. And then maybe Garry Lambert starts at one of the tackle spots. Emil Wagner is already at one of the tackle spots. So it is already at one of the tackle spots. So it's, it's interesting because I was kind of wondering, Garry Lambert was a massive recruit in the class of 2024 who you, you know, remember we taught,

we started the show talking about Felix Ojo and how few guys like that exists in the world. Yeah. We remembered to one of those guys. And so they were going to have to figure out how to get him on the field anyway. This might force that that their hand on that one. Yep. Yep. So Ari, I will be seeing you very shortly. Folks in the chat, if you if you got questions for the Big 12 coaches, we're going to be talking to all of them. We're not. We're not sure if we're going to talk to Dion. We think

we might I texted annually. Are we getting Dion? But he's had the health issue like, but he's in Dallas. I don't know. I mean, I hope here's the thing we're talking to right now as we're recording this, we believe every Big 12 coach. Yeah. I don't know if every Big 12 coach will make the show, but we'll do our best to be as entertaining and interesting as possible with all of them and then we'll cut it up and but we have our own room, our own booth.

What questions do we need to ask these guys? Chat, tell us. What do you want us to hear to be asking these guys? And we can talk more about this tomorrow because we'll be at the facility tomorrow before things get kicked off. We'll do the show tomorrow morning and then everything gets gets going later in the morning. Yeah. and we have a nice hour long drive for the star together

where we can brainstorm, but it's going to be a fun time and I and it feels like football season again guys so it is big 12 this week SEC next week big 10 and ACC the following week oh yeah the big big 10s in Vegas but I will tell you from having been to a big 12 me days at the star. Jerry puts on a good show. Do you think we can get Kelly Dilligam to do the worm for us? I think he's now moved up in the world too much for that. Yeah, I don't know. We can try.

He's gonna be wearing a suit. So I don't know even better. Yeah, there's a sports card shop in the star too. If you want to go spend money. Well, that's probably not a bad idea. And I'll have to drag you out of there. I'm sure we are not wearing suits. Ari and I had the conversation about dress code yesterday, because I've done that where I've worn a suit at SEC media days to kind of fit with the coaches and players. You can put a flower on your lapel. I do. Yeah, it's a tribute to the great Ed Ashoff. Yeah, who always did that. But we're not doing that this time. Because we got to be mobile. We got to be able to move. Because the players are going to be downstairs and I like I definitely want to talk to Spencer for no. For sure. Yeah,

we do. There's a bunch of other players I'm excited about. We do the show and then we go to the event and do reporting and then in the afternoon, my understanding is we get the coaches. So it's going to be a full day of of big 12 football in the mind. So we will be diving into that and. You know, I think that's exciting. There's a lot of interesting big 12 teams. You know what this you know what this really means if we boil it all down.

We made it. We made it through the offseason. The offseason is over. I didn't know if I was allowed to celebrate it, but we did. Celebrate now because like we're getting fresh football content starting tomorrow. Not us trying to contrive something. Not playing a game show.

New new stuff from the actual coaches and players starts tomorrow. Ladies and gentlemen, we did it. Happy football season. Let's go. We'll see you tomorrow.