Andy & Ari On3 - The FREAKS of College Football | LSU Season Outlook | Nelly at Halftime! | Bo Nix in NYC | Andy On3

Episode Date: August 17, 2023

The FREAKS of College Football | LSU Season Outlook | Nelly at Halftime! | Bo Nix in NYC | Andy On3Want to watch the show instead? Head to YouTube and don't forget to subscribe!https://youtu.be/Z-V6r_UU9c8As the College Football season is rapidly approaching us, we break down the freaks of college football. Bruce Feldman from the Athletic picked 101 of them, and we break some of them down.The Big 12 is “done” with this round of realignment, according to commissioner Brett Yormark on Wednesday on the Marchand and Ourand podcast. Andy discusses what that means going forward. Meanwhile, Oregon unveiled a giant Bo Nix billboard on the side of a Manhattan building — a plug for the QB’s Heisman hopes and an homage to the Times Square billboard featuring Joey Harrington when he was the Ducks’ QB. (0:00-10:26)Next, Bruce Feldman (The Athletic/Fox Sports) joins to discuss his Freaks List, a compendium of the 101 freakiest players in college football. What does the sheer number of freaks on Penn State’s roster mean for the Nittany Lions? Is South Carolina freshman receiver Nyckoles Harbor America’s freakiest player? Can Miami freshman OL Francis Mauigoa turn freaky traits into instant production? How good can LSU DT Maason Smith — who was lost for the season to injury after five plays last season — be in his return to the field? Plus, Bruce highlights Harvard defensive tackle Thor Griffith, the Ivy League’s freakiest player. (10:27-47:28)Later, Shea Dixon of On3’s The Bengal Tiger joins to talk LSU. What’s the latest with Texas A&M transfer cornerback Denver Harris? Plus, Shea reveals the names of some LSU freshmen who could make big impacts this season. To learn more about all things LSU, check out The Bengal Tiger: https://www.on3.com/teams/lsu-tigers/ (47:29-01:03:31)Andy’s Extra Point pays tribute to Nelly, who reportedly will be the halftime performer for the 2023 Big 12 title game. It even includes a bonus Random Ranking. (1:03:32-01:07:17)

Welcome to Andy Staples on three and it's Wednesday, August 16th, 2023. And the big 12 is done for this round of expansion done. That is what commissioner Brett Yormark told New York Post's Andrew Marchand and the Sports Business Journal's John Oran on their excellent podcast, if you are a super nerd about things like TV rights and all that good stuff, you should be listening to that, but only after you finish listening to this one. So they are done, done, done. According to Brett Yormark, there was a question about would UConn still be a potential ad maybe for other sports, which would get the basketball team in there?

Would Gonzaga be a potential ad? Gonzaga, of course, doesn't have football. And those were, I think now we're realizing those were sort of backup plans if the big 12's master plan didn't come to fruition and so if it had just been colorado let's say the pac-12 would stay together arizona arizona state and utah had said no we're fine in the pac-12 then maybe you get yukon even as an all-sports entry and maybe maybe you tack on Gonzaga just to add more quality to the basketball league, which the big 12 already a very good basketball league with Kansas Baylor, Kansas state under drone Tang is fantastic.

So they had a pretty good product going there, but then they add Arizona, which already a power five member and has an incredible basketball program. And then you get Utah, which is a great football program and Arizona state coming along to, which we say sleeping giant about all their, their programs until somebody wakes up. And, uh, perhaps Kenny Dillingham, the new, the new head coach at Arizona state will be the one to wake them up. But Brett, your mark says, no, it's done. And basically what happened is this, that they had gotten some guarantees from Fox and

ESPN about how much money they'd be able to get if they got certain schools that they were targeting. And the lion's share of that money would be if they could get existing Power Five members. So they get Colorado. It looked good for them to get Arizona but then as all that went down it turned out that Arizona and Arizona State were a package deal and Arizona State very much wanted to stay in the Pac-12 but as you know all of that fell apart so Arizona and Arizona State come Utah looking for a place to go and oh by the way they're the two-time defending Pac-12 champs they've been good in pretty much every conference they've been in since the turn of this century so they go to the Big 12 as well and what you have I think again I keep saying this maybe the most entertaining just from

a pure competitive standpoint football league going forward obviously the SEC and the Big 10 are going to have bigger brands they're going to have these massive games that everybody wants to watch. But I think, especially given the, I think I know the audience of this show pretty well. We are the type of people who will be tuning into all of those big 12 games. Like it is going to be very fun to watch that conference play going forward. But so I don't think this means maybe they're done forever. I come back to that Trev Alberts quote. Trev Alberts is the AD at Nebraska. And he was talking to Amy Just of the Lincoln Journal Star over the weekend and said,

the next round will be more disruptive. There's more coming. And I think Brett Yarmark probably has to make plans for whatever that next round is and figure out what he's going to do to keep his conference strong. But for this round, I think this is probably it for the Big 12. And I would say if we're choosing winners and losers up, the Big 12 did really, really well in this round. This was a conference that could have been decimated after Oklahoma and Texas left. Had the Pac-12 been more aggressive, they could have been the one decimating it.

But Bob Bowlesby, who will probably never get enough credit, immediately moved to expand. They got Cincinnati, BYU, UCFf and houston which all could wind up being really good programs in that league from a football standpoint and as as we've mentioned before increasing basketball capabilities you add houston and cincinnati that's that's going to be nice and byu has had good years as well so they really are probably the biggest winner of this round of realignment. And I know nobody wants to hear that, especially if you're an Oregon state or a Washington state fan, but part of what makes them a big winner is they made sure that Kansas state, Kansas,

Iowa state, Oklahoma state, Texas tech, that they still had somewhere to be and that they're still part of a very strong college football ecosystem. And I think that is probably why they did the best job is those schools had been in that situation before they understood what could happen. And they were very aggressive and they knew they needed to be. So that is maybe a closing of the chapter on this round of real life. We we've got to find out what happens to the remaining PAC 12 schools, the PAC four, Cal Stanford, Oregon state, Washington state. I still think the most logical move is a merger with the Mountain West, but you keep the branding of the pack, the pack 16, you call it.

There are some assets there. There's NCAA tournament units that belong to the pack 12 that you probably can, can keep. So there's, there's money there too, but I do think that would be the most logical thing and let Gloria Navarez of the Mountain West run that combined conference because she might've been the person you should have hired in the Pac-12 in the first place. So in other news, in the current Pac-12,

but this is a team going to the Big Ten, but this gentleman will never play in the Big Ten, at least we think. Bo Nix, Oregon quarterback, is on the side of a building in New York. Now, remember, back in the day, Joey Harrington, Oregon quarterback, billboard in Times Square. He was down the side of a building in Times Square. A little different neighborhood for Bo Nix.

He is at 23rd and Park, basically, so he's hanging out by Sugarfish and Gramercy Tavern. But nice digs, nice digs. But Bo Nix in New York, I like this. I like Oregon pushing their guy, making sure that the nation is aware of him. Now the nation's very aware of Bo Nix because he was a starting quarterback at Auburn for three years before he went out to Oregon. But if you're thinking, oh, this is, this is Bo Nix. I don't know how I feel about him for the Heisman. I will point out before he got banged up against Washington last year, his stats were tracking almost identically to the ones that Marcus Mariota put up in his Heisman season of 2014. So

when we talk about how loaded the current Pac-12 is at quarterback. We're not joking. Caleb Williams at USC is super special. Won the Heisman Trophy for a very good reason last year. Is a guy who I think could potentially repeat, become the only repeat winner since Archie Griffin and will probably be the number one pick in next year's NFL draft. He's special, special. But you heard Jed Fish on the show this week talking about Jaden Delora. You heard Bo Nix has been the subject of a lot of praise. We'll see if Cam Rising can get back

from the knee injury at Utah, but he could be special again and has led his team to two consecutive Pac-12 titles. You've got Michael Penix Jr. at Washington who led the nation in passing yardage last year. I'm very excited to watch these guys play. We'll see if DJ Uyangale is the guy at Oregon State. Can they resurrect his career there after the time at Clemson? They return a bunch of guys. They can run the ball really well.

They're not going to put a ton of pressure on him to have to be the savior there. So it's going to be a fun year in the Pac-12, even though this is probably it for the Pac-12 as we know it. But I do appreciate Oregon. They've always been great at making sure that O is very recognizable nationally and that their people are recognizable nationally. Well, now if you're in New York, go say hi to Bo Nix, former Auburn quarterback, current Oregon quarterback, and I guess go get some sushi at Sugarfish. Good show today. We're talking freaks with Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports and The Athletic. He puts out the freaks list every year. It's one of my favorite times of the year.

This is a story that I just cannot stop. It's 101 guys this year. It's usually 100. He had to add one, and you'll hear why. And the dude's name is Neck, which is just tremendous. But we talked about what that means for Penn State, how many freaks they have on their team, why Michigan has gotten better, and the freaks are a big reason.

And also maybe a little reason to be optimistic about Miami because of a freshman freak. Bruce Feldman, talking freaks next. Later in the show, Shea Dixon joins us for an update at LSU. Denver Harris was a very high profile transfer from Texas A&M. He was a very high profile recruit at Texas A&M. He's not with the team now and Shea will give us an update on what's going on in that situation. Also, fill us in on some freshmen at LSU that we should be marking down right now because they will be names we know once the games start.

But first, let's talk about some great names with Bruce Feldman as he talks about his freaks list. Lots of guys that you've heard of, but also some guys that you probably don't know anything about, including a guy named Neck and a guy named Thor. Here's Bruce Feldman. One of the greatest weeks of the year, every year, when the Athletics' Bruce Feldman puts out his annual freaks list. It is freaks week.

Bruce, you are the greatest freak of them all because I know how much work it takes to put together this list that you do every single year there's some people don't do this much work in a year and you do it for this one story so uh thank you for that but i just this was this was this one of the more fun ones to do you're leading off with a true freshman you've got a bunch of guys that are uh you know we're gonna learn about them in the draft process but you've also got some guys that we know very very well on this list yeah i feel like they're all kind of unique when you know depending on the year and everything but what was different with this as you said nicholas harbour true freshman

who is a big big time track credentials guy um you know that was a little bit of a curveball for me and then you know there was a couple of super sized offensive linemen that i was like oof you know and i had evan neal on here number one a couple of years back but i just think they're you know these are younger linemen too and so I know we'll get into them but it's just like it's a little different this time I think um I never had as many players I had from one school but the Penn State Hall of Freaks was you know kind of a wow thing and it's like I can't not have Abdul Carter because I know what he's like. And I can't, you know, it's like, so you kind of have to find room for it. And then I ended up having 101 this year because I had a coach reach out to me from a power

five school who made a strong case for one of his players. I was on the phone with their strength coach at like 1030 at night, that guy's time. And as you know, Andy, on the publishing schedule for The Athletic I'm on the west coast you're not but I feel like those stories go up at like two o'clock in the morning my time yes so I'm thinking like how am I gonna you know like fortunately our editor she was like no I can she was like but who do you want to bump and I was like and I'm looking at it and i got neck mitchell a nose guard from southeast louisiana said neck mitchell he's from louisiana and his name is neck i don't yeah exactly i was like i'm not bumping the world needs neck mitchell on this list and she was like let's just keep 101 i was like great let's do 101 this year

that is amazing well i i like the penn state thing's interesting to me because this is what i've been saying about penn state all off season because i keep saying we keep making this an ohio state michigan thing but don't be shocked if penn state is in the hunt for the big 10 this year because of exactly what you said and it's not just the the freaks aspect of it but the fact that some of these freaks are major major NFL prospects so you got Chop Robinson, Jordan Vandenberg, Olu Fashnu, Nick Singleton, Zane Durant, and Abdul Carter from Penn State. Olu might be the first offensive lineman drafted next year. Abdul Carter when he is draft eligible is going to be very sought after. That's, that's a lot of,

a lot of talent there. Yeah. It's a ridiculous hall they have there. I mean, you know, Nick Singleton, the guy people compare them to is Adrian Peterson. I mean,

that is a heavy duty guy compared to, in terms of just super freak athlete. You mentioned Olu. Olu is 6'6", 320. And the thing I loved, you know, when he told me was like, you know, both his parents, they're not taller than 5'8". And he got to be 6'. There was really, and again, three star guy who is just, you know, last year was 19. People were talking about he was the best O-line prospect in the country. You have a bunch of other guys in there, Chop Robinson, Abdul Carter.

There were probably three other guys, Keandre Lambert-Smith, super fast receiver. You had another, Trey Beeman, another D-lineman. You had a couple other guys in there who probably if they played at a different school, I've been like, yeah, I'm going to put those guys on there. But I can't have nine guys from Penn State. But it's just ridiculous how much how much talent they have in explosive athletes. And I know people will look at this and I actually mentioned this on Twitter when I put out the story. It was like, people are going to scoff, oh, these numbers can't be real or whatever. It's like, this school in particular, and State, I've seen it time and time again, whether it's Saquon Barkley, Micah Parsons, Owe, Gesicki.

These guys put up ridiculous times when we had them on the freaks list and then they go to the combine or the pros and they, they match them or exceed them. So that place has got a ton of. Well, and I think your freaks list kind of predicted the rise of Michigan too, because over the years you've had quite a few Michigan players on this list. Ben Herbert, the strength coach there is great at getting you video

arkansas yeah and he's also yes he is ready in the video you want proof here's your proof yeah and that i love watching those they've got that big set of stairs that they do the leaps up but the the the one you had chris jenkins on the list this year defensive tackle for michigan and he's doing a turkish get up in one of the videos you put out with 170 pound dumbbell in his hand that's crazy it is insane it is it is just insane like when i saw harbaugh last time i saw you andy was we were both in indianapolis for for big 10 media days and i saw harbaugh and he you know gave me this bold quote that he thinks they're going to break george's record for the most players drafted in a single draft. He said he thinks you're going to be 20.

And he said, Chris Jenkins, I think is going to watch him go as a top 10 pick. And, you know, our old friend, Dane Brugler, who is our draft analyst at the athletic, he had, you know, I think a lot of guys were like, yeah, he's, he could be a top, you know, top 100 pick or whatever. But I don't think anybody's realized just what this this kid's evolution is now i mean he was in the 250s and also by the way another three-star guy who's really blossomed there his great genetics obviously his dad was also chris jenkins who was a pro bowler in the nfl but the numbers he puts up the stuff he does now he's 307 pounds and 34 inch vertical jump and shuttle times are crazy or like what you'd expect from like, honestly, from a running back.

I mean, it's and he's been really good against the run, but they think he's really taken his game to the next level from the coaches I talked to this past month as a pass rusher yeah it is and mozzie smith was one of those last year and where it it didn't seem like he was that big of a draft prospect going into the season and coming out obviously he was and that they've just been great at that yeah he goes in the first round i mean he was they sent me all this stuff the combo combo twist, 800 pounds and just incredible strength. And look, you're seeing plenty of video now at a training camp of that strength of what he's you know, the Cowboys need him to be a guy to clog up the middle and not get rooted out of there. And with that kind of strength, he definitely has it. Now, he was 337. You know, Chris Jenkins isn't that big, but some of the other guys, a little like Penn State,

there was three guys on there. Zach Zinner, who's been a really good offensive lineman, you know, 6'6", plus 325, and he vertical jumps 33 inches, and his shuttle times are really good. Mike Sainer, still a great nickel guy there. He jumps over 40 inches, and shuttle shuttle times are you know under four seconds so even even blake quorum another one super strong 30 reps for a running back at two at two and a quarter and also his his shuttle times we know he's coming off the the knee injury

um is a pretty spectacular athlete so they're they're deep in it as well. You know, in Ann Arbor right now. So even their transfers at Michigan are making the freaks list. You got Julius Welshoff who has transferred to Charlotte for, for our favorite guests so far on the show, Biff Poggi. And, uh, this guy's a mogul skier who could do. Andy, I had him on, you know, probably four years ago and he was a kind of a regular on the freaks list the last few years I mean he was a guy who was doing backflips walked

on his hands for like 50 yards he's he's from Germany just you know some insane video we used to have of the stuff that that he could do and he's still a guy at 6'6", now 265, who's going to vertical jump in the mid-30s and broad jump 10'6". We'll see what he does with Biff because I think he's going to be showcased a lot more as an edge rusher right now. And I think they obviously have a Yabi Oki

or a Yabi Enoma, as he was known before when he was a five star and he was at, you know, bounced around from Alabama and ended up at Michigan. Played for Biff in high school. Played for Biff in high school. That's right. And so I think it's going to be fun to watch that, that Charlotte program. And I know, I know it'll, it'll be very entertaining with Biff to see how, how it comes together in the AAC.

Oh, it's's it's going to be tremendous but yeah I I think the the thing that surprised me the most when I opened the freaks list this year because usually you you do lean toward experience but this year you led off number one with a true freshman and it's a guy that we've talked about a bunch on this show because uh Spencer Rattler was on talking about him. Shane Beamer was on talking about it. Nicholas Harbor, South Carolina receiver, 6'5". Shane Beamer told us he weighed 243 the other day. And he's run a 10-200.

His 200 time is blazing. What can this guy be? I mean, he could be a great edge rusher could he grow into like you know he's going to be a match-up nightmare that's what he's going to be just because of that size and so i talked to shane as well probably a couple of days before this you know to get his updated numbers do you have any you know any gps times on him or what have they done because we know he's fast as you said said, 10-2-200 is crazy fast. And to put it into context, so Shane has a tight ends coach named Jody Wright,

who was at Alabama for a while. And he was there when they had both Julio Jones and, among others, and Derrick Henry. And we talked about that kind of comparison. Obviously, those guys are really big freaky dudes this guy's bigger he's much bigger than julio julio jones and both of those guys were legit track guys in high school at least really competitive and he's bigger and he ran a full second faster in the hundred a full second as you, in track is a lot. It's an eternity. Yeah. So for that context, I was like,

I may have to have a true freshman number one. Yeah. I mean, I might run a full second less than Derrick Henry. And Derrick Henry is running a full second less than this guy. Like that's, that's crazy. We know a sports writer who's going to run a full second less than Derrick Henry in the hundred, but maybe in the 40. Yeah, probably not. Yeah. I could definitely do a 12 second 40. There's no question about that. Oh, wait, we're talking about a five and a half second 40. Maybe, maybe. We'll see. We will have our sports writer combine before long, Bruce, and we'll, you know, now that gambling is legal.

I'm not at the age of I want to be doing this. There was a time when I would have embraced it. Now I probably wouldn't be watching. You will demolish everyone in pull-ups. I know pull-ups is not an NFL combine drill, but you'll just destroy it. And that thing is not something, like I haven't done them in a while. So when I was back at Florida, the Florida-Georgia,

I know you told you that story. That was a big thing for me, but those days are long gone. This is, the story is basically bruce and somebody else are walking into the the florida georgia game in jacksonville and what was the army or the marines the recruiter the local recruiter had a pull-up station and they were letting drunk people do pull-ups basically and bruce how many did you knock out i think i was at like 33 and i just remember now i was not i was there I wasn't writing off the game but so our college basketball writer at the magazine ESPN magazine John Gustafson and I like he'd never

been he was like I always wanted to go to Florida Georgia like okay so we did a lot of sightseeing walking around the the tailgates and everything and they had a Marine Corps station set up and I think I won like maybe a beer koozie or something for it i just remember i walked into the into the press box and i had such a pump like i couldn't like my arms were still like kind of pulsating your sleeves are just yeah i was raining i had this like i had this golf shirt that looked like a tank top on by that point i was sweaty and um sadly that was like that's the closest i can get to andy to your uh to your national championship ring i got a beer koozie from the marine 33 pull-ups is better than that it's better than anything i did

that season so that that is amazing i i do want to talk to you about a guy that I read about on your list and then did a Google video search on him. And it was some of the most fun I've had this off season. And that's Kingsley. Help me with the last name. I, again, I, sometimes when you hear somebody pronounce their name, it's almost like you can't pronounce it that way. But I think that's how his last name is pronounced. So he is an offensive tackle at BYU. somebody pronounced their name it's almost like you can't pronounce it that way but i i think

that's how his last name is pronounced so he is an offensive tackle at byu he's a he's going to be a redshirt sophomore this season he started his career at oregon in 2021 uh he's from the salt lake city area uh tight with the sewell family i don't know if there's cousins with that yeah who's because okay yeah and I referenced where I hear in his name, I, he did a, uh, I think it was Kalani Satake's coaches show. He was a guest on with Kalani and the hosts. And yeah, he said that there, and I've seen, you know, a lot of pictures with him in the schools. I think he said that there, that that's his cousin. Um, and certainly the bloodlines are strong for, for, you know, special athletes.

His video is hilarious because there are just so many clips of this guy launching people. Like he is a, a finisher of blocks. He will block someone across the sideline and then just add that extra little shove to make them fly into the bench. It is incredible to watch this guy. And he does not – like offensive linemen used to be fat. This guy is jacked. Yeah, he also looks – when you look at him in the face, he also still looks like he's pretty young, which he is, obviously. But you could sit there and go, because I remember doing sideline for a lot of Panay Sewell's games, and Panay was just a giant.

He was just this mountain of a man. And I'm not saying Kingsley's not, but he looks like he could still get a lot bigger you know and probably will but when i i knew he was probably going to be on here and then aaron roderick the offensive coordinator at byu sent me a text and he was like he's the most violent most athletic offensive lineman i've ever been around and they just had a guy in blake freeland who was a legit freak offensive lineman at byu now he was nowhere near as hefty and big. He was tall at 6'8 and he was 302. And he vertical jumped 37 inches at the combine. I mean, he lit up the combine.

He ran in the high four nines. To be more athletic than him, I was like, wow, this guy's 23 pounds bigger. And then he said, well, you need to talk to our sports science guy. And I did. And he said, he's faster than our line sports science guy and i did and he said he's faster than our linebackers and i was like wow and then he i was like really he goes yeah he goes we had him at 21.5 on the um on the gps which is flying 21.5 and he said no he wasn't 325 he was 318 318 is still huge 21.5 is is good running back speed right that's

what i i wrote in the freaks list 215 if you're 218 pounds is pretty is good 25 015 you're 318 means i might have i probably maybe could have made the case that he should be number one and not nicholas harbour i mean to be 66325 and I don't know if he would still do 21 five, but this guy was like, yeah, I think he's a four, eight guy in the 40 and we'll see what, you know, he didn't give up a sack last year in every pass attempt that, that BYU had, they moved him to left tackle now. I mean, as you said, he's still a young, young player, but I'd be surprised if he is not going to be a high first round pick when

he eventually leaves there right and he is draft eligible this year because remember that first year at oregon so that's that's one if you're a draft nick keep an eye on him watch some byu games because he very well could be in the mix it it's he's not as young as as say olu was last year olu fashnu was 19 for most of last season and that's one of the reasons according to him and James Franklin he didn't go out that he felt like he wanted to more physically mature before he went to the NFL but Kingsley looks like he's pretty physically mature already so yeah he is I mean he is special I mean, he is special. I mean, like Olu was super mature and grounded when you talk to him and everything. But I this is there's a group of offensive linemen that are here, you know, in the first twenty five and they're big, big tackles to a Mario Cristobal actually recruited.

One obviously was Kingsley. The other one is Francis Maui Noah. I think that's how he's pronounced his last name. Well, and I'm glad you brought him up because he was the next one I want to talk about. This is another true freshman. This was a top 10 recruit from last year, probably going to play right away for Miami. So he's going to be playing game two. He's going to be playing those monsters from Texas A&M. And please, I almost crashed my car.

I know I shouldn't be reading your stories while the car is moving. But it was the most Mario Quistobal quote of all time. Yes, greatest muscle density in Miami history. And you said it, and I agree. I thought the exact same thing. It's a freak thing about a free, you know, there's always ways because we're so used to quantifying these things with, with vertical jumps and forties and bench press reps and whatnot.

And then there's this, you know, and it's not like the only time I've ever heard something along these lines, but it's, it's something now. And just the idea, six, six, three 41. And I'm gonna have to read this part to you only 20.9% body fat, which as you know, for an offensive lineman is pretty lean. Um, so he has 270 pounds of pure lean muscle mass. He is young. He is a true freshman. It's not like he's had three years in a college weight program. He didn't. So, and then the other parts of this one, seven, two, 10, 10 yards split the only 300 pound alignment at the combine who ran faster than that was the aforementioned Blake Freeland

from BYU. And Blake Freeland is 39 pounds less than this young kid. Well, and, and so I don't know if you saw the pictures we were rolling while you were talking there, there's a picture of him with Joe Salavea, their, their defensive line coach. And if you've never seen Joe Salavea, he looks like he could play defensive line in the NFL today. Yeah. Right now he looks very small compared to young Francis. I know it's crazy. It is crazy how when you see somebody like that make somebody who, you know, I go back to this is my, it's one of my favorite videos and it's a person I, it's two people I really like, but there's that video. It's like of a college game

day, um, little like demo field and our friend Cole Kubelelik who by all accounts i mean he was a starting center in the sec yeah he's now not a small man no and marcus spears just tosses him like he's a crouton and i was just like i don't know if you i'm sure you've seen that video where it's like but spears is spears would have made if the freaks list had existed oh yeah he was playing 320 pound defensive end who probably legit could have played college basketball yeah yeah but it was just like i mean again just see a huge man throw another big man around like ragdoll um like i mean he basically like marcus spears made colt jubilick look like he was like throwing around chris vanini you know it was just like and so our our former co-worker or my former

co-worker at the athletic chris is probably 170 soaking wet yes 170 no chris is trying to give him a little more anyway um but yeah that's that's crazy how to see that comp you know because like you said this is one of the biggest coaches in college football in terms of was a big time you know nose guard still a huge you know hulking guy and just to see that for scale is something it is it is unbelievable and and so i i am i just i love this stuff and and now i'm it makes me more excited to see miami play because this is this was kind of mario cristobal's mandate is get them better on both lines of scrimmage and this sounds like the kind of person who can now i realize we're putting a lot on a true freshman yeah well the other offensive tackle the other five-star i got samson okalona is actually that far behind him in terms of he's

you know not quite as not quite as massive but he's close and he moves not quite as well but pretty close yep well let's stay on the line of scrimmage. There's a guy who, if you only missed the first five plays of last season, you didn't see him. Mason Smith got hurt. Play five of the Florida State game. This is LSU's star defensive tackle. He's back this year, and some of his numbers were just wild. Yeah, I mean, Andy, as you said, he had was, had a really good freshman year and he kind of,

kind of flashed and, you know, was very disruptive. When I talked to Jack Marucci, who's the guru at LSU and probably knows more about sports performance and, and how athletes are wired than anybody working in it. I said, cause he was at Florida State when they were winning championships, and he was at LSU for a long time. I was like, is there anybody he reminds you of? Because look, there's been the Glenn Dorseys and a bunch of other guys,

but they weren't like this, right? Not as athletic, no. But also not as big in terms of, not as like rangy. And that's what he really is. And so he was like, no, I don't think in terms of being a guy who could be outside in terms of being a guy who can definitely be inside um you know but the

numbers at 6 6 3 15 over 19 miles per hour on the gps and just the length and and everything else he's 15 pounds bigger than he was last year um i would expect and this is a potentially dominant d line because of they have a bunch of other they have two other guys who could have been on the freaks list as well in that group yeah and that's that's where with lsu they may need to make up for for which is weird to say about lsu they're not as deep in the secondary as they usually are so they may have to make up for that up front and get after quarterbacks, but this dude is going to, is going to get after some quarterbacks. Yeah. He's going to be a problem.

You obviously have Harold Perkins who's super, you know, warp speed. You get Omar Spates there. I'm going to be a fun defense, Matt. You know, I think on Matt house is a really good defensive coordinator and he's got a lot of pieces to work with, especially in the front. I don't feel like they have those cats that when Corey Raymond was now in your backyard at UF, he had a bunch of dudes. I don't know if they have that caliber of guys on the back end,

but they're going to be a problem for quarterbacks just getting it off. Speaking of backyards, in your backyard you have a a transplant from the midwest uh carson steel you know stole our hearts as a as a maxion tailback at ball state uh you know he's the guy who's got the pet alligator named crocky jay's blonde hair like he's now at ucla and it feels like that that they want him to kind of fill that zach charbonnet role they do and look they have big backs he's not the biggest back in the running back room they have two other guys who are actually bigger but he is super strong a 450 pound bench guy squats almost 700 pounds but he's exclusive almost you know vertical jump so you know 35 inches hits 21 on the on the gps and there's

some great stories about him when he first transferred there he was blowing people away in the weight room with what he could do and just how physically strong especially his lower body is um i think chip kelly loves this guy and he was a you know i think he was like 95th on the freaks list last year. He's in the top 25 now. And he's a good fit for what they want to do. They want to be physical. He's a hammer. And I think, you know, I think Don't Let the Long, you know,

like the beach look of his headshot fool you. This is a really, really, you know, it's kind of like a warlord in terms of. Yeah, I mean, he's from the indianapolis suburbs there's nothing beach about this guy so yeah it's it is it is fun though i i can't wait to see him in that offense because it does seem like chip kind of after a little trial and error found what he wanted their identity to be and it is a very physical smash mouth type offense. And he fits the bill perfectly. But if we're going to name someone in the freaks list, I mean, we're going to have to go to Thor.

You got a guy, you had a guy named neck, but you got a guy named Thor and he goes to Harvard. Thor Griffin. Yeah. to Harvard Thor Griffin yeah this the story's about him Andy in terms of he grew up as a terrific hockey player then he was a wrestler and he's from New Hampshire and he is incredibly strong right and there's video of him benching two and a quarter 45 times he's he's worked really really hard to increase his agility and his speed and he got down from last year i think we had him at a 5-1 in 5-1-3 5-1-4 40 it's 4-9-5 now his shuttle times are really quick and everybody i talked to whether it was coaches who played him or coaches who work

with him they're like his work ethic is like second to none so when i talked to whether it was coaches who played them or coaches who work with them. They're like, his work ethic is like second to none. So when I talked to Thor, he was like, he's basically put himself on a diet of six to 8,000 calories a day. You can, you can put that into context, but it is, you know, he's unblockable in the, in the Ivy leagues. And I had a freaks list guy last year in the top 20 andre yoshevis yeah high level track athlete at princeton really good receiver and he's created a lot of buzz with the bengals right now he got drafted and i suspect a year from now thor will be in somebody's camp

and people will be talking about him too you just i mean that's so perfect like it's it's the perfect ivy league star defensive lineman name that if harvard doesn't have like a heisman campaign or uh well it wouldn't it wouldn't be the heisman uh but just a campaign of him with a hammer he's built for this and the the hockey thing you mentioned that was crazy So he played in youth hockey. He played in a tournament where basically like half the 2019 NHL first round was playing in. That's the kind of duty wasn't hockey. Yeah.

Jack Hughes was one of those players is like so many guys. It was the junior Bruins and his team was a junior Bruins. And, you know, again, when you have guys who are like that, who are playing other sports and really good at it, and then their bodies keep growing, it's like it doesn't shock me that it translates well and he blossoms into something else, you know, when he just focuses on football. Now, another guy on this list, I'm going to go back up the list to number two

because I think that's the one I want to conclude on because he actually might be the best pure football player in college football this year Marvin Harrison Jr. and you watch him play and everything looks so easy for him what did what did the Ohio State folks tell you about him in terms of just how he does all this. Yeah. I mean, obviously Brian Hartline, the receivers coach, former NFL receiver himself had, you know, a crazy run, whether it's Garrett Wilson or a lava or Jackson Smith and jig, but this is the biggest one. This is the most explosive one. He's, he's, he's not just good at everything. He's great at everything,

but he's six, four, 208 pounds. When I talked to him a few weeks back great at everything, but he's six, four, 208 pounds. When I talked to him a few weeks back, you know, he, last year I had him number two on this list and is, you know, he was 23 miles per hour, which is already fast. He went from 23 to 23.3. He was like, I really, you know, kept working on my acceleration and some of the detail stuff. Usually when guys are as big and lanky as he is, they're usually, you know, a little cultish. I hate to, you know, pun intended, because obviously his dad was a great player for the Colts.

But in terms of just the shuttle times may not be that great in terms of the stop start. Well, his are. I mean, he's a 3-9-4 shuttle guy where anything under, you know, 4-2 is flying. And to be that quick to go with all the other stuff he has, he would have been the first receiver taken in the draft if he could have come out this past year. I think he's going to – I would – I don't know.

The guy who won the Heisman I think is really special. I'd have a hard time saying, though, like, you know, Drake May is close to caleb there's nobody close to marvin harrison jr as right and and caleb's probably first in the draft because he plays quarterback but in terms of how special they are at their position and caleb's very special at his position but you're right about marvin and what made i went i've gone back and looked because we we assume the name's the same you're like oh he Oh, he's, you know, he's an NFL, you know, hall of fame receivers kid. Of course he's good.

But Marvin Harrison senior was such a different kind of player. He's six foot tall, one 80 playing in the NFL. This guy, his son is completely different. Yeah. I did a conversation with him that we did on the athletic to kick off fre kick off Freaks Week. And one of the things that he talked about, I said, how much film do you watch of him? Because here and there, but, you know, he just lined up on one side and that way he did his deal. Whereas I'm in the slot, I'm all, you know, they do a lot of different things with him now. He goes, coverage was way different than that it is now. You know, he obviously has a ton of respect for what his dad did, but I think it's such a different game, and he's such a different skill size, you know, in terms of being that big. You know, he's rare, man.

He's just really rare. Well, this is why I love this week so much every year because reading this gets me so excited to see all these guys play like I've been circling games and now I gotta now I gotta find some Harvard games to watch like I gotta watch Thor yeah same here look I was waiting I knew you're gonna bring up Thor at one point and I was like not a ton of like conversations with him over time of this he's one of these guys who I feel like the freaks list is kind of made for. So I was, I'm excited to watch this fall.

Yeah. I Thor, uh, listen, we're already watching Charlotte for Biff Poggi, but we got our, our moguls guy who can walk on his hands. I mean, it doesn't, it doesn't get much better than this. And, and Bruce, this, you are the best in the business. And this I think is my favorite thing you do. Appreciate it, Andy. It is definitely the thing I feel like I will be most known for, for my career. And I'm okay with that because I mean, it's been a long time working on it and a lot of coaches and strength coaches and, and people inside athletic departments have been really have supported it well. And, and NFL scouts people and those kinds of folks have been really have supported it well and and nfl scouts people and

those kind of folks have been very cooperative too so i'm it it's something i love working on and it's exactly what you said it's a great way to lean into the start of college football because you're talking about the players and and that's what gets me most excited so next year for freaks week i want you doing turkish get-ups in the michigan weight room to kick it get so you also work for fox like and they have that great relationship with the big 10 so that's that's what you should do fox pre-game show week one is you doing turkish get-ups in the michigan weight room andy i don't think i could do a Turkish getup at this age with more than like a two liter bottle of Coke. I actually had to do them for a workout not long ago.

I am not a small person. I weigh like 230 right now. And so Chris Jenkins and his 170 pound dumbbell Turkish get up. Like I was doing them with 45. Okay. So that should tell you yourself in the freaks part. Like, so I, I, um, at big 12 media days, I saw the God, the Godfather, Dante Corleone. Yes. Cincinnati, Cincinnati.

Size 18 shoes, size 11 hands, which are obviously really big. And, um, I don't have small hands like i have size 13 shoe my my hands are pretty big and i put my hand up against his and took a picture of it and i don't like i was like surprised because we were gonna run it i thought we were gonna use it but we didn't but um you know just when you just some of these things for scale, again, I just think like, yeah, 40 pounds is for an average human being is actually a lot to do a Turkish getup, you know, for somebody who's, who's, you know, over 40 years old. I'm not sure I could lift 170 pound dumbbell off the rack. Yeah, I don't, that's a good question.

I don't know if I could either at this point, like I'd like to think I could, but I'd be, I'd be so worried about like pulling like, like something in my neck or something to my shoulder. And then all of a sudden, like a day later, my back is bad because of it. Yeah. That's, that's where you realize, you know, some of these really, really great college football players are completely different species. So I was with, I played with a guy named Zach P pillar who wound up playing for a long time

and so he would be he would be on the inclined bench doing dumbbells and the heaviest dumbbell dumbbells we had in the weight room were 150 pounds and he would just be pumping out reps talking like you and like you and i are just having a conversation and I just remember trying to pick one of those up afterwards thinking if I could ever do one rep of this on an incline I'll be happy but it's nothing to him just nothing yeah I I used to go heavy for me in the weight room and I was I was a little under 200 pounds but there were times where I could not even hand, like I was more concerned about, can I control the weight? Not can I actually do it when I'm moving it?

Hang on one second. Okay. Anyway, so enough of my weight, my weight exploits. Okay. Well, Bruce Feldman, thank you so much for joining us. It has been a pleasure. Thank you, Andy. I enjoyed it. And I definitely appreciate the love for the Freaks List. It's my favorite.

And we will talk again many, many times before the next one, but I will probably be texting you with suggestions. Awesome. Thank you. We welcome Shea Dixon from the Bengal Tiger, LSU's on three home to talk about the Bayou Bengals. And Shea, it's been a pretty newsy couple days. What is the latest? I know Brian Kelly talked on wednesday what is the latest on

denver harris the the texas a&m transfer corner yeah what is fall camp without news andy this is what the sec is all about exactly first off welcome to on three i'm uh my first time being on with you i'm pumped to have you on the squad uh i hope you don't run into any indefinite suspensions or time away from the team like Denver Harris currently. Oh, yeah. I don't want that. I heard unavailable. I heard, yeah, time away.

So we don't know how long that's going to last. And I found it interesting only because, and I know you've covered this because you cover recruiting in this area and you've dealt with a lot of it. But so if we go with the Texas A&M class of 2022, the ones who've been removed from the roster, Smoke Bowie went to Georgia, has already been dismissed. Chris Marshall went to Ole Miss, has already been dismissed. And now what are the words we're using for Denver Harris at LSU?

Time away. Time away from the team. Personal things figured out. Okay. So it is not an auspicious debut on their new teams for the Texas A&M 22 members who didn't stay in College Station. No. And, look, you can,

you laid that out well because now all eyes are on Denver Harris. And for this to pop up, it's sort of like, man, it's been one domino after the next with that group of guys that SEC West or SEC schools took a shot on for a second chance. I think you go back to high school, Denver and miss games in high school for disciplinary reasons. And he was at North Shore, a team that's competing for Texas State Championships at a really high level. So to not have him on the field, this is the same team that had Zach Evans on it.

Like to not have him out there was a big deal. That's also the team that Zach Evans got kicked off of. That's also true. You'll remember that a year ago, A& played miami in the season opener well he was one of the guys that got that sat out of the game because he missed curfew so he comes back week two whatever it was by mid-season he was on the on three freshman mid-season all-american team yeah and he was living up to this five-star billing and he's got obviously i think he only allowed like one catch maybe through like the six games he played.

And then you run into that point of the season. What was it, Andy? It was in late October probably where a handful of guys got suspended indefinitely. There was something that happened in the South Carolina visitors locker room. And that's where those guys ran into their trouble. So they get the boot or suspended indefinitely from A&M. And in LSU's case, they're going, they took four cornerbacks out of the portal a year ago.

And we saw them lean on those guys heavily as the guys they played this past season or a year ago, whenever they won the West, they did it again. They only had one returning corner on roster coming from that team to this team, LaTerrence Welsh. And he was a freshman last year and really was just playing special teams. So it was, let's go heavy. We have to, Brian Kelly said in the portal again, and they took four guys and Denver Harris was the highest ranked. He was the guy you said he's the most talented,

but the guy who came with the most question marks and we went through spring ball. We never heard anything. We went through summer, never heard anything. And I've been covering this beat since the early two thousands and not through any of less or any of coach show. Have we ever been given access to practice fall camp? Like we have with Brian Kelly now, and that's allowed us to watch almost the entirety of every single practice. So we've gotten to see Denver Harris out there and he started out in the first week running

second team. And it kind of felt like, okay, they're dangling the carrot, right? And they're motivating him and they want him to take charge. Well, in very short order, he was third team and with guys who were walk-ons and in a room where you've already lost one of your transfers, JK Johnson, to injury during fall camp. Now you're down to two transfers and Deuce Chestnut and Zy Alexander. Those two get every first team rep and now Denver's third team. And we just saw things in practice with the media being there of kind of piping back at the coaches or whatever

it might be to where you're like, oh man, this isn't what you normally see. And you're not seeing that from anywhere else. Then after that kind of team fight they had, which it, you know, a lot of media were there and he was in the middle of that. And that carried on, I guess, beyond even practice. And he's now missed a handful of practices. We haven't seen him in about a week and he was not in the team photo. And then Brian Kelly came out and said, he's not with us right now. He's handling personal stuff.

If he can get it together, maybe as soon as this weekend, we'll invite him back. But as of right now, they are moving forward without him daily at practice. So there's your Denver Harris cliff notes and I'm, everyone wants it to work out for everybody right but it also you're sitting here after news like Bowie and after news like Chris Marshall and you're not all that surprised that they're in a situation where it was described from the start from Brian Kelly is saying we knew this is a risk to take a kid who was just suspended for half a season if he doesn't fall in line with x y and z here we won't have the patience for it either and i think that what two weeks out from the season it seems we've hit that kind of line in

the road and it's interesting because it's not not just with this one but you kind of you you almost wonder like how much different will a and m's chemistry be this year given now what we've seen with the guys who left and and what happened at their at their new schools i i almost wonder if if maybe we are now underrating texas a&m because some of the stuff that may have been happening off the field may have been dragging them down on the field yeah i think with a&m that you can't there's we saw in the lsu game last year they have so much talent that they can go out and beat a team that had already secured the West. But at the same time,

you see it fall apart in games like App State and all that. So, hey, I'm front row for this Bobby Petrino Jimbo. Whoever's holding the notebook full of 8,000 sheets of plays and, you know,

I've got the headset on for the games because they have too much talent not to reel off better records than they've got let's talk about a little better news for lsu bruce feldman and i were talking about his freaks list and one of the people we had a long conversation about was mason smith who most of us have not seen him since five plays into last year when he got hurt against florida state how's he doing how's he looking looking as they go into this season?

He's been great. His off season, he was way ahead of schedule on rehab. He is looked the part. He sat out of spring, but then was all there for all of summer conditioning. He's been there all of fall camp, but we've reached in the past week. I think he one day kind of banged something up in the lower body. And then today kind of sprained his ankle, but kind of hobbled off and was fine. And everybody was sort of like, are they going to just put it,

put them in bubble wrap and put them up on the shelf for the next week and a half, two weeks, because he is, as you mentioned, he was on Bruce's freaks list. He's a gay, he's a five-star. He's a game changer. He's a guy a year ago. Remember at sec media days when Brian Kelly said, I've just taken over this new roster. And he singled out Mason Smith as the guy who said, this guy will be a household name by the end of the year. Everybody's going to be talking about him. And his season's over on the first defensive series of the year on a non-contact play where

he's celebrating the team getting off the field. He's now, I think, in a position to where he can pick up where he left off. And you got to think this is a junior season, a money year. He could be LSU's highest draft pick, given what a dominant defensive lineman he is when healthy. But again, we've only got a freshman season of him playing kind of a backup role of film out there. So everything hinges on this right now for him.

And I think Mason sees that he's about as dialed in as a football player. You'll get great kid does everything the right way. Very good leader. And it's just for a kid, his size is belongs in the freaks list. He does things at that size that wide receivers can't do athletically. So right before we, we talked, I had, I had just gotten off the phone with someone who had recently visited an LSU practice, and they said, you got to ask about this guy, Kamorian Pimpton. This is a tight end from Fort Worth. LSU flipped him from Vanderbilt.

On three was very high on him as a recruit. But how's he been since he got on campus? We've already set the over- under on touchdowns on our podcast. We moved it from two and a half to three and a half. This is a guy, look, Mason Taylor. We saw him have a breakout year as a freshman tight end. He had the catch at the end of the Alabama game for a touchdown and then an overtime to seal it on the two point conversion. And he was their go-to guy all year. Well, now he's got some help.

And we know that between Kelly and Mike Denbrock they want to play multiple tight ends and now they've got the chance to do that and they've got a handful of other guys that'll be out there more as inline blockers but a guy like Pempton is 6'6 as you noted as a recruit he was committed to Vandy he had switched high schools late in his career and then just blew up. And Texas for a long time was trying to flip him as the in-state school. They ultimately didn't. It came down to the very end and he flips from LSU. And to describe what kind of kid we're talking about being committed to Vanderbilt, he used

the word sanguine. So grab your dictionary when describing his lsu offer on social media when i saw that i said he's sticking with vanderbilt no doubt in my mind uh but lsu pulled it off and we've like i said we've been at all the fall camps he averages once a week a catch where you're like oh my gosh like get him in the red zone and nobody's guarding him he's such a mismatch charles power like you said on, ranked him our National Director of Scouting and Rankings as the number four tight end of the country. He was easily in the top 100.

I think he's a guy that a lot of people will start to take notice of this year. And remember for LSU, Andy, they had Eric Gilbert, the number one tight end in the country, and he lasts half a season during the COVID year. They had Jake Johnson, Max's younger brother at one time was the number one tight end of the country Max transfers to A&M and Jake flips to A&M so this feels like beyond Mason Taylor this feels like finally their chance of capitalizing on a

guy who is thought to be sort of head and shoulders above everybody else in the position coming out of high school well and and to be able to play 12 personnel and, and really, you know, we we've seen Georgia do a lot with two tight ends on the field. It does just really diversify your offense. We're going back to the Les Miles days, aren't we? We're diversifying our office. No, we're not. We're not promising.

We're not promising to use the tight end and not using him. No, no, no. But yes, this kid is again,'6", catch radius off the charts. Keep an eye on him. Mason Taylor is going to start. But, yes, Kamori Pimpton will be a name a lot of people will quickly have an eye on. Any other freshmen that we need to know about? Because this is, you know, Will Campbell came in last year,

and everybody said this dude's going to start at left tackle. Emory Jones was the one who maybe was a little more of a surprise. And then, you know, they make him the starting right tackle in game two. And all of a sudden it's like, Oh, there's two great true freshmen tackles on this team. Yeah. And now they've got a third with Zalons Hurd who think of how unfair this

is. Zalons Hurd is a Louisiana kid, a five-star. He and Will Campbell played on the same high school team at Neville. So they had two five-stars at left tackle and right tackle. And A.J. Allen, their running back, went on to sign with the college team because he had nowhere, everywhere to run on every play. Those two guys are pretty unfair. But you mentioned that Emory Jones and Will Campbell a year ago, where you're two starting tackles. Well, Emory Jones was a guard prospect coming out. He just won the right tackle job. The question is can Zalons Hurd as a freshman do what those guys did,

which means at some point in the first month of the season, he's worked his way onto the field. He's in either a rotation or he's starting. And then maybe you slide Emory Jones inside inside now we've seen like again every camp so far practice emory jones has been at right tackle but heard has been second team right tackle and third team so they're getting him those reps we'll keep an eye on it i know a lot of people are high on deshaun wilmack a five-star edge rusher coming out of the state of maryland who was recovering from shoulder surgery so he wasn't there in the spring.

And now I think he's just kind of getting adjusted to the Maryland Baton Rouge heat and humidity. Exactly. Comes with wearing full pads every day and going through that, but he's going to be a big time player. And you mentioned Pimpton, guys like Ashton Stamps. There's some DBs at corner, notably that may have to play if guys like Denver Harris and JK Johnson aren't in the equation. So it'll be interesting to see. I don't know if there's a

Harold Perkins type flash impact guy, if it's not Womack, but I also don't think they need that as much as they did a year ago. They've got more veterans back. Is corner the biggest area of concern? Without a doubt. it was last year too. And they relied on some transfers to carry it for them. And they got by and had a pretty solid season. But now you're starting from scratch. And like I said, you took four transfers and you only returned one corner from last year's team. And he didn't even play much corners, mostly special teams. And then they only signed one high school prospect, true high school prospect at corner.'re coming from Syracuse and Southeastern, which is making an FCS to SEC jump in Zy Alexander.

And then some unknowns beyond that, guys who are either out of high school or are returning and haven't played much. And that's not the norm for LSU. The corner is usually a place you worry the least about. Now for the second year in a row it might be the biggest concern and as Brian Kelly said look I watch them every day I see them more than anyone I don't know where they're at yet until the first week when they'll go up against FSU which has arguably the best receiving core in the country like your first test out of the gate is the best

guys out there so hopefully Malik neighbors and Brian Thomas and all those guys are giving them plenty to, uh, of reps to get ready for, because boy, week one is straight out of the gates. Oh, you get thrown into boiling water basically. Cause, cause Johnny Wilson six foot seven Florida state unlocked him last year, figured out how to use him. And then Keon Coleman was Michigan state's best player and they just grabbed him out of the transfer portal so it's it's lsu fans here putting their earmuffs on here and keon another

louisiana receiver that did not get lsu right there well listen maybe they need to ask some of those receivers if they can flip their hips because it might be might be time to to double train it uh we'll remit that was tre davis white best movie ever made. He's a very rich guy in the NFL now, and he signed as a receiver in about a weekend. They said, hey, we're low on corners. You want to play? Now he's got an NFL future. Well, when you have athletes all over your roster, you can do things like that, which is one thing LSU is blessed with. So Shea Dixon from the Bengal Tiger, thank you so much. Absolutely. I look forward to being on more with you.

Today's extra point features a bonus random ranking. Brett McMurphy, my former Tampa Tribune coworker now works for the action network reported on Wednesday that Nelly will be playing the halftime show at the Big 12 championship game. And I'm sure people got their jokes off about a guy who hasn't been that popular in 15, 20 years being the guy the Big 12 chose. But it's interesting, when I heard Brett Yormark, the commissioner of the Big 12, say at Big 12 media days that they were looking for someone to do a Super bowl style halftime show at the

big 12 championship game. My thought was he, your mark who used to work for rock nation coming from a hip hop world, the fan bases in the big 12 decidedly country leaning. And you got Nelly. Now, if you haven't paid attention to Nelly lately, he's actually got a

really good album that came out a few years ago called Heartland and basically I think what happened this is this is just my guess is someone heard Nelly's verse on the remix of Cruise by Florida Georgia Line and was like you should just do a whole album of that where you basically are are crossing the world between hip-hop and country and that's exactly what he did so he threads that needle of the person who probably is what brett yormark was looking for so in honor of nelly playing a concert at 12 30 in the afternoon local time on December 2nd at Jerry World. Let's do a top five Nelly songs. Number five, Just a Dream. Nelly 5.0, a little bit later in the career. Very good song. Number four, Hot in Her. This is coming off the success of the debut album. He's one of the biggest artists in the universe. That's just a great summer jam.

Number three, Country Grammar. That's the one that put him on the map. Now, we could sing like I did with the cartoon theme songs, but this would get bad. The joy of Nelly is that he's a rapper, but he kind of sings songs and everything because he's got a really good voice. So that's what... I'm not going to do it. I'm just not going to put you through that again. It was bad enough that you had to hear me sing the Gummy Bears theme song. Number two, I mentioned that Heartland album, Good Times Roll. This is actually a Jimmy Allen song with a Nelly featured verse, but it's on the Jimmy Allen album and the Nelly album. So I'll give it to him here.

Number one, we go back to the debut album, Ride With Me. Yeah. You hear those opening guitar strings. It takes you right back to the summer of 2001. You know exactly where you were probably sitting in the sun on the beach in a convertible. Like even if you were never in a convertible in the summer of 2001, that song makes you feel like you were riding down the street in a convertible, just letting a raise cook. Those are your top five Nelly songs. Let's see how many of those that he plays in the Big 12 Championship Halftime Show.

Coming up on Thursday, big show for you Greg McElroy from ESPN former Alabama quarterback will join us to talk about the nation at large and also his his alma mater which is in the middle of trying to decide who to play at quarterback. We'll talk to you tomorrow.