Andy & Ari On3 - The LATEST on how Tropical Storm Isaias could affect Georgia-Alabama time and location

Episode Date: October 7, 2026

As the marquee matchup of the weekend ahead if Georgia traveling to Alabama, Tropical Storm Isaias may have some other plans surrounding UGA’s big trip to Tuscaloosa. Currently as a tropical storm, the weather pattern down in the gulf is expected to be elevated to a hurricane on Friday morning. How will this affect the marquee SEC matchup of the week? Andy & Ari dive in(0:00) On Today’s Episode(0:55) Presenting Sponsor(2:22) Intro: Weather Man?(6:31) Hurricane Matthew back in 2016(12:40) Dynamic Duo of the week(15:55) Previewing David Cone(16:19) David Cone on Michigan(34:36) Oklahoma O-Line ahead of Texas game(47:36) LSU’s fake quote on Kentucky QB?(59:25) Oregon Coach Dana AltmanOnce Andy & Ari finish up diving into the weather report, it’s time for David Cone from On3’s Crain & Cone to join the show. A former Michigan QB, how does David feel about the state of Michigan football? The fellas dive deep.Next up, Brent Venables had some notable comments involving the Oklahoma offensive line. Led by longtime Sooners coach Bill Bedenbough, what changes need to be made at Oklahoma? Andy & Ari dive in.Down in Baton Rouge, Lane Kiffin and the LSU Tigers are doing whatever they can to motivate the team before their trip to Lexington, including fake quotes from the Wildcats QB Kenny Minchey. Watch here as Andy & Ari dive deep into this bizarre situation.To close, Andy & Ari dive into Oregon basketball coach Dana Altman retiring. Calling it quits a month before the season, Andy & Ari discuss.Grab Jack & Coke before the game. It's the iconic combination you already know, with no mixing required—just crack it open and enjoy. Choose the classic that's already done right—Jack & Coke. Jack & Coke is hitting the road, and on October 10, we'll be sipping Jack & Coke in Gainesville on with Patric Young! We’ll be doing our show from NW 21st Street & University Avenue and would love to see you there! jack-coke-tailgate-tour-2026.iconex.events/?lockedEventId=38652Our show is presented by Polymarket!New User Offer: Deposit $10, get $50 upon sign uphttps://app.polymarket.us/S8ac/ON3Trade on College Football games every week on Polymarket. Download the Polymarket App with code ON3 for a $20 bonus upon sign up.18+ only. Restrictions and eligibility requirement apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur.Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/joinWatch our show on YoiTube! https://youtu.be/1Idn84QACjEHosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River BaileyInterested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy Nari on 3 presented by Polymarket the latest on tropical storms, soon to be Hurricane Isaiah's, and what it means for the Georgia-Alabama game scheduled for 7.30 p.m. Eastern in Tuscaloosa on Saturday. Could the game get moved? Or could the storm just move? Plus, we will talk the Michigan quarterback situation with former Michigan quarterback David Cohn from the Craning Cohn show. Also, Brent Venables with some very pointed comments about his offensive line coach and the offensive line situation as the Sooners prepare to play Texas in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday. And Kenny Minchie said what?

Oh, he didn't say it at all. But that's not what LSU players are thinking as they enter their facility. We'll explain on today's Andy and Arion 3 presented by Polymarket. We are sponsored by Polymarket the world's largest prediction market. and you can join us at Polymarket, not just by using Polymarket. You can join us on Polymarket on our On3 squad. So you download that Polymarket app. There's QR code on the screen right there.

If you hit that, you will be entered into our On3 squad, which has me and Ari and all the Crane and Cone guys and J.D. Pekal. And you'll be able to see what we're doing on Polymarket. You'll be able to chat with us on Polymarket. People will be on there during games. There will be probably trash talk going back and forth. So join our On3 squad after you join Polymarket. When you join Polymarket, use the bonus code on 3.

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all on Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply, not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur. Welcome to Annie and Ari on 3 presented by Polymarket. And Ari I have always wanted to be a weatherman because everybody loves the weatherman, even when he's wrong. Like when we get our predictions wrong, they hate us.

They get really mad at us. But the weather person's frequently wrong, and they still, like, they're still, Al Roker's like the cuddliest guy in America. Do people result check weathermen? Like, is there like a Twitter out there, a weather Twitter where people are like, the weatherman has been wrong, like 63% of the time this year, or do they only do that with our college football fix? I just think they do it with us.

I think the weather people, it's like, listen, force majeure, act of God, what are you going to do? Like, they have a built-in excuse. You're telling me that John Mateer's fumble wasn't an act of God. I disagree. Maybe he says Adam Smith's invisible hand. I don't know. It was something like that.

Andy, the thing I don't know, because you know this, and Ralph Rousseau from the Athletic also knows this, that I'm a resident not understanding weather guy. You don't believe it's a thing. I understand. I believe it's a thing.

I don't know. Like, when, how far in advance does a weather forecast become reliable information? Like, for instance, we went to Disneyland with my daughter a few, weeks ago when Britt was checking the weather forecast 14 days out of like what's it going to be. Like when does weather, and I know that hurricanes are different. It depends on where you are. You were going to Southern California. That's a pretty reliable forecast. I live in Florida.

The forecast doesn't become reliable until an hour before. Right. So this is, hurricanes are probably more scientific because you can see the weather pattern forming and all these different things. And obviously they're scary and need to be taken seriously. So, you know, my weather jokes are about. like light rain and temperature. But, you know, yeah, it, my hope is that everybody is safe, first and foremost. But my second hope and selfishly, maybe this is everyone's hope, is I just hope they find a way to play the game. Yeah, and here's the thing.

Let's talk about this. So I've talked to people at both schools this week. I've talked to people at the SEC. So they are monitoring the situation. It's just Alabama put out that statement yesterday. The SEC will tell you the same thing. The on the record comments are we're monitoring the situation. we will make a decision later in the week.

It is too early to make a decision. The off-the-record conversations are we're monitoring the situation. We'll make a decision later in the week. It's too early to predict. But I can give you probably a narrowing down of the potential options here. So earlier Saturday is probably not an option because the storm is probably coming through earlier than maybe it was predicted to yesterday. It looks based on the most recent stuff, like the storm is.

sped up a little bit. And so it was supposed to be kind of over Tuscaloosa right around kickoff. Now the feeling is it'll be past Tuscaloosa by the kickoff time, which there's a chance if it speeds up enough that you don't move the game, you just leave it where it is. There's also a chance you don't move the game because the storm moves east, which that happens a lot where a storm that's in the Gulf will track east because the jet stream tends to push it that way. And so you've seen where the projected landfall has moved from like Mississippi to this morning it was like Orange Beach, Alabama. So who knows, I mean, by Saturday or Friday night, depending on how fast it's moving, it could be Panama City, Appalachicola. Like, we don't even know. So if that's the case,

then it would be going mostly up into Georgia. And Tuscaloosa would be fine. And Tuscaloosa would be fine. So you've got that situation. Now, if it is going to hit Tuscaloosa and it is going to put either the people at the game or people trying to get to the game or get home from the game in danger, then you would possibly move it to Sunday. That's the situation. And I know the SEC is really sensitive about this. Ari, you remember 10 years ago Hurricane Matthew? There was a hurricane that was tracking toward Florida. And I remember this because I was in college station to cover Tennessee, Texas, A&M, and Hurricane Matthew was forecasted to hit my house.

So Hurricane Matthew was coming at Florida in 2016. I was in college station to cover Tennessee at Texas A&M, and I was sitting there worried the hurricane was going to hit my house, which happened to be several miles from where the LSU Florida game was supposed to be played. And that became a whole huge thing. That was a LSU in Florida arguing with one another about would the game get played. LSU claiming they had a plane ready to get the team over. Florida is saying, hey, this is a pretty strong hurricane.

We may not be able to have emergency personnel available for this game because they may need to be doing other things in town. And it became a big fight. And that was very early in Greg Sankey's tenure as the SEC commissioner. And I think you had a unique situation where Joe, leave it, been at LSU a while. Jeremy Foley was the outgoing athletic director at Florida. He had already announced his retirement, but was still working. So, like, he wasn't really worried about any sort of repercussions from the conference office.

And that situation got nasty. This will not be that. This will be more like that same weekend. And I think people forget this. That same weekend, the South Carolina, Georgia game in Columbia was moved to 2.30 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday because of the same storm. and they did it with no real problem. The ADs understood and made that change.

And so I think that's the hope is that you're dealing with Greg Byrne at Alabama, Josh Brooks at Georgia. They're very very reasonable people. And I think this will be handled very professionally. And I don't think you're going to see a lot of sniping back and forth. That said, I know nobody wants to play the game. on Sunday that's affiliated with either team. Because Alabama plays at Tennessee next week, Georgia hosts Auburn next week.

They do not want to be dealing with a short week when the other team doesn't have one. Right. Andy, so when do you think, when you say later in the week, do you have an idea of like if you had to take a stab at a guess of like when we'll really know based on your understanding of weather that I don't possess? I think Thursday night is where they will start to try to make some decisions. I think before that it's too early because things can move. things can change. So they probably have a little better idea of where the storm is actually going to hit

as of Thursday night, the speed it's going, because that's the other part that it's going. It's funny because it's going eight miles an hour right now, which sounds like nothing, but when you multiply that by 72 hours, it's a lot of space you can cover. So I think we'll probably get some more clarity as we get into Thursday night. I don't know if they push it to Friday morning, but it also may be at that. point you have a very good idea of where it's going to hit and maybe it's not going to hit in Tescalo. Oh, the other thing I've gotten questions about whether they'd move it to another site. I don't know that there's another site available that isn't also potentially in the path of the storm.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, for example, if the storm were to track east, it could hit Atlanta. I realize it's a Dome Stadium. But the other part of that is Mercedes-Benz Stadium is spoken for on Saturday night. There's an MLS game on Saturday night. it wouldn't be available anyway. So I think probably the best guess for me is one of those two options. Play it on time on Saturday as scheduled, which given the way the storm seems to be tracking, that seems possible. I don't know if it's likely, but it seems possible.

And then the other one would be play at Sunday where, again, neither program wants to have to do that. But I think if they had to do that, that's what. that's one where the SEC Commissioner comes in and says, hey, I know you don't like this, but we got to do it this way. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it has to be played this weekend, I think, right? I don't know. It doesn't get played if it doesn't play this weekend.

Yeah, they have different open dates. Georgia's open date. So Georgia plays Auburn next week, then they have an open date. Alabama then has two more games before their open date. So that's just the way it goes. Yeah. All right. well, thanks for the weather update.

And that's been the weather with Andy Staples. Yeah. That's the best I can do. I do need a map. If we can get, if we can get me a map, I'm here in the lovely On3 studios in Nashville. Like,

that's our next major investment. I will craft an email to the bosses saying, we need a weather map. I don't know if it's bad production, but you should be standing up and one of the on three screens behind. You should have that like map of the weather storm or the storm that you sent me. We should.

Oh, my God. And you should be like pointing. at it. Like in here you have, you know, producer river. What are we doing here? How come you didn't build a river weather map set? Come on. Knowing that this was coming. Oh, river boy. Man, that kid. No, river's the best. We love him. He's doing his best. Ari. This game, I think it's going to get played. He's going to be played this weekend. I'm very excited about it. We've talked a lot about what these two teams are. We think Alabama is a better version of what they were the last two years,

that they're more physical up front. Keel and Russell changes the math on a lot of things. Georgia, we think, might actually be a better version of what they've been the last two years, which was SEC champs, but they got beaten the semifinals of the playoff both years. But let's talk Georgia. And I think the defense at Georgia is the most interesting side of the ball here because they're the ones that will have to deal with Keelan Russell because Keelan Russell is dangerous with his legs, he's very dangerous with his arm,

and you have to be aware of where he is on the field at any given moment. And by that, I don't mean like they're going to move him around. He's a quarterback. But if you are getting pressure on him, that doesn't mean you are safe. That doesn't mean you are going to have a positive play for you and a negative play for them. Because he can slip pressure and then become a very difficult person to deal with. And so they've got to figure out how do you keep track of him? How do you account for him all the time? And there's a dynamic duo that I think will be tasked with that.

But of course, the best dynamic duo, the most dynamic duo, the boldest duo, if you will, Jack of Coke right here. Look at that. Look at that beautiful can. It's perfect. It's the red and the black of, uh, of, uh, of, Georgia, but we're going to talk about a couple guys that wear red and black right now. I'm going to talk to you about Raylan Wilson and Chris Cole, Ari. Raylon Wilson is your more

traditional Mike linebacker. I mean, he's six, two, he's 235 pounds, he's going to come in the A gap and stuff you. He may blitz through the A gap and try to put a 330 pound guard on his back, and then you've got Chris Cole. Ari, I think the whole country knows who Chris Cole is, right? They saw the John McKeelts this year than Oklahoma's offense. Yes. Chris Cole is a big enough inside linebacker. He's not a huge inside linebacker, but he's a big enough inside linebacker that he can do all the physical things you need to do. But he is lightning.

So he picks up that John Mateer fumble against Oklahoma. It's 23 miles an hour on the GPS while running that sucker in for a touchdown. He was unbelievable in that game. I believe he had two. fumble recoveries in that game. He did. In the first half. Yeah, and Raylon Wilson had a force fumble in that game. So these two guys are the ones that you're going to want accounting for Keel and Russell in most

circumstances. Chris Cole, if you're going to pick one to be the spy, he'd be the one you'd want to spy him because he's probably about as fast as Keel and Russell. Might even be a little faster. And that, not many teams have that. Not many teams have a linebacker like that who can move with a quarterback like that. And so I think that is the part that is going to be absolutely fascinating. It reminds me a little bit. When I was younger, I worked for the Tampa Tribune.

Michael Vic was the quarterback for the Falcons. I went to cover a Falcons, Buccaneers game, and Derek Brooks basically shut down Michael Vick by himself because Derek Brooks is one of the fastest, rangiest, just smartest linebackers you'll ever see. And so if you have somebody like that, it can reduce the level of danger that Keel and Russell provides.

And then you've got Raylon Wilson, who's going to be in there, making the calls, getting everybody in the right place, and then when Alabama tries to run the ball, which they are going to try to run the ball. They are a much more physical team up front this year. They're going to try to run it right at you.

Raylon Wilson's the guy who's going to be plugging those gaps. So that is a great dynamic duo, almost as good as this dynamic duo, Jack and Coke. Tailgate season is here. Make life easy. Mixed perfectly for you. Pick up Jack and Coke today. Throw that in your cooler,

and you're going to have a great, great game. Ari, we move from the SEC to the Big Ten where there is much, much angst in Ann Arbor about the quarterback situation. I think we need to talk to someone who knows more about Michigan and more about playing quarterback at Michigan than we ever will.

Let's talk to David Cohn from Crane and Cone. about the Bryce Underwood scenario. All right, we've got to talk about the Michigan quarterback situation, and who better to talk about Wolverines quarterbacks than an actual Wolverines quarterback, David Cohn, from Crane and Cone. And David, let's go back to Saturday. You guys have a hotline like we do where people call and vent their frustrations.

And after Michigan lost in Minnesota, you got some calls. I got plenty of calls, yeah. I just got to tell you this is an absolute joke. Bryce Underwood needs to go. It needs to be left in Minnesota. If Tommy Carr is not the starting quarterback next week, we don't deserve to even take the field. It's absolutely a joke at this point. Look, I started to get excited with some of the things that I saw in the first half against Minnesota,

and really even in the loss to Iowa. But the second half against Minnesota is the worst half of football I can remember seeing in a long time. Back-to-back interceptions, a fumbled punt. Michigan had the football for 55 seconds. in the third quarter. Nothing is working and now you lose on the road to Minnesota and hats off to PJ Fleck in Minnesota. It pains me that the brown jug is leaving Ann Arbor, but they deserve a lot of credit for that. And now from Michigan, you hadn't even gotten to Indiana to Oregon or to Ohio State. You got to clip one of them now or two of them because you're staring down the

barrel of six and six. And brother, any way you cut that, that is a massive disappointment. Six and six sounds awfully harsh, but then you look at the schedule. Look at it. and it makes a lot of sense. Okay, so if you are Jason Beck, Kyle Whittingham, do you keep rolling with Bryce Underwood, or do you give Tommy Carr a try? Well, that's the ultimate question. First of all, I just want to thank you guys for having me on.

This is a great honor. And the second thing I want to do is I want to apologize to you because I think you were very bullish on Michigan preseason. And, man, I had all the respect in the world for it. So I want to personally apologize for you making that college football. How could Kyle would be bad? He's never been bad. And that's where we're at right now.

That's where we're at because I thought two things. I mean, last December was just an absolute embarrassment. To be not just a Michigan fan, but to be a Michigan alum with everything that transpired was Sharon Moore, the off-the-field issues. It really couldn't get any lower. And look, I defended the program very heavily in 2023. I thought that national championship team was the greatest season of football in Michigan history. And for that to be overshadowed by signal deciphering or in-person scouting, I thought was an absolute joke. That's just a part of our game.

And so I really defended the program. But everything that transpired with Sharon Moore was an embarrassment. Then you hire Kyle Whittingham, tenured for over two decades at Utah. I mean, if there's anyone in the country we know about, it's Kyle Whittingham and the staff that he was going to be able to put together. And quite frankly, I also thought watching the Michigan basketball team win the national championship and have one of the best teams that we've seen in college basketball history would really inspire the football team. And, brother, it has done anything but that. And Saturday, when I got that call in and I got dozens and dozens of them, that was not in a vacuum, right?

We're only a few weeks away from Michigan needing a Hail Mary to beat Western Michigan. And if that's not bad enough, you have the clock controversy. Every single week has given people across this country that already kind of hate Michigan, another reason to hate them, which really disappoints me because it is a fine institution and a proud football program. But in terms of your question about what to do at the quarterback position, yeah, I mean, you asked me an interesting question when I walked in here, which is, is if Devin Dampier transfers with Kyle Wittingham to be at Michigan, what's their record right now? Well, I think it's better than what they are right now. Quite frankly, what if their backup transfers? What's their record?

Bird Fickland from Utah. I mean, they got two guys over there that are doing it. And I don't think all the blame does belong on Bryce Underwood. I think he gets a lot of the blame, one, because of the way that he acts in the media. I think that off the field, you know, the things that we heard about Ohio State not being a big rivalry or, you know, bet, I'm going to deliver this weekend. And it's the way that he talks to the media, I don't think does him any favors, but bigger than that, you're one of the biggest flipped recruits in the history of college football, right? And all of the money that comes with that.

Plus, all the eyes are going to be on a Michigan quarterback anyway. So I think that a lot of that is warranted. And, man, it's just, it's tough to see where the program is right now, particularly offensively, because things just aren't working. And now you've got a tight end coming out and saying that, hey, this isn't Bryce's fault. Actually, it's the OC. Just very disappointing. Yeah, and I think the Zach Marshall comments, like that blew up this week, and now we know it really was him.

He's apologized for it. So we hadn't talked about it yet because we couldn't verify it. Okay. And, you know, Ari, I'm curious, what do you think needs to be done? They play Penn State next week. And then the schedule is pretty rugged after that. What would you do if you were Whittinghammer Beck? Well, I'm having a hard time with who to blame here, guys.

because Kyle Woodingham has a 20-year track record of being an incredible head coach, and I don't think he just forgot how to coach. And I think that a lot of times you hyper fixate on new coach, new problems, it must be his fault. But also, he didn't recruit Bryce Underwood. He had nothing to do with it. And when you are invested this heavily in a player, it's a little bit more complicated, probably than it would be to try somebody new. So I was going to ask back to David, like I don't know,

terms of like what can be done this year. I think this year is what they are what they are. Even if they finish eight and four or nine and three, that's not what they wanted. And my number one take with Michigan in general was even if they slogged their way to 10 and two or nine and three, the way they did last year with a really good defense and a offensive tried to play Iowa football, like that's also not what they paid for. So either way, they don't, they didn't get what they paid for. I just don't know who's to blame and how you feel about Kyle Whittingham, David. Yeah, well, let's work backwards a little bit to answer the quarterback question from the

2023 national championship season because Jim Harbaugh coaches the final game of the season because he's in the Natty. Then takes another week to decide if he wants to go to the NFL. Well, then J.J. McCarthy takes what another week to decide, hey, I think I want to go to the NFL too. By that time, you're almost at spring practice to figure out your junior quarterback who just won a natty is no longer on the program. Now, should Michigan football have a roster retention and roster answers at the quarterback

position for a quarterback leaving, absolutely. But I think the 2024 season, when Shero Moore takes over, you kind of say, okay, we don't have the answers at quarterback that we thought we did with Alex Orgy's development. Davis Warren's going to have to end up starting. You know, this season just kind of is what it is. Well, look at the way Davis Warren's playing right now at Stanford, playing some really good football. And even that year, you're not winning, but he's not winning, but he's throwing for 350 yards. Still you beat Ohio State that year. Still you beat Alabama in the bowl game. So while it was a disappointing, what was it, eight and five, season, Sharon Moore's first year, you still have a win over your biggest rival, and you just

flip the highest rated recruit and program history in Bryce Underwood. So the fact that he hasn't lived up to that, like I think that frustrates some Michigan football fans, especially combined with Kyle Whittingham coming in, like we've already talked about, being this conservative coach who can at least fix the culture issues. Where do you stand on the money part of it? Because Ari and I argue about this all the time, you know, Ari worries about crushing somebody's confidence or, you know, side-tracking their development. I worry about do you win games or do you not win games. So Bryce Underwood is obviously a massive investment.

You have to think about that. If you are considering a quarterback change right now, you have to think about this as the highest paid player on the roster. We do need to consider this. This is something NFL teams have to consider. But at what point do you say, don't care, need to win, let's try something else. That's the only approach you can take if you're a coach, in my opinion. And I hate to see that college athletics is at a point where we're even having that conversation.

Not the fact that guys are getting paid. I mean, if you have a skill set that warrants being compensated, that's amazing. Congratulations. I love the fact that these guys are able to put some money in their pocket. But the fact that the consideration would be we can't bench someone. And I don't know if this is where it's at with Michigan, right? But if they're at a point where, man, I think Tommy Carr maybe gives us a better chance to win, but we can't make that decision because we're paying Bryce under with too much money,

then you've got to make coaching changes at that point. And I'll even say that in the NFL. I mean, if you as a coach, a ball coach, can't play the guy who gives you the best chance to win because of some financial entanglement, then where are we at with this sport? Now, the question ultimately that you guys are asking is, is Michigan in that place? Do you want to ride with Tommy Carr? And, man, I sure hope he turns out to be like his brother. Right. And I played for his grandfather.

I played for his grandfather. The fact that C.J. Carr gets away from Saline High School and leaves the state to go to Notre Dame. It still pains me, and I still don't understand how that happened. But at least we got his brother. Do you really want to go back-to-back seasons with an 18-year-old true freshman? We already rode this experiment out last year with Bryce Underwood, and people tolerated it because you're the highest-rated recruit in program history. We decided, hey, you can take your lumps here because your upside is going to be so

valuable for the program. Well, that hasn't happened. But I think that's where the investment comes in because I go back to the hypothetical I presented you before. If they don't invest that much or have that much invested in Bryce Underwood, I would imagine that either Devin Dampere or Bird Ficklin follows Beck and Whittingham to Michigan. So you don't think that was a timing issue? You think that was a financial issue?

I don't know, or not a financial issue, but a let's look at this guy and he's under contract. He's got this incredible skill set. He looks like everything you'd want to quarterback. And let's go with it. So let me ask you this then. if there had been a post-spring practice transfer window after they got a chance to see. Ah, yeah, after Eric Weddle blew the whistle and sound of the alarm? Yeah.

There might be a different quarterback in Ann Arbor this fall if that window had been open post-spring. It would have been the biggest story in the sport and Bryce Underwood would have left. But if they evaluated through the spring and thought he's not it, they would have let that happen. And they would have gone and gotten somebody. But that doesn't exist anymore. But I like what you said, Andy, and I think that it's the right way to look at it is your quarterback room costs money. Now, the money might be allocated to more heavily to the number one than it is to the two and three, but you should view your quarterback room as one individual expense and then whichever one gives you the best chance to win wins.

Now, the other question I have too is, you know, I know that building teams and building programs looks a lot different now than it did 10 years ago. We had this discussion yesterday about Nebraska. but is there anything to gain if you think that Tommy Carr is the future by letting him come in now in a season that's already pretty lost, get the reps that he needs so that he comes in next year, more experienced, more seasoned, you know, you're more familiar with how he operates the offense you want to run around him and just kind of make that switch. Is there any part of you that thinks about next year or do you just try to win Saturday? Well, before you start, David, I was thinking about that.

So as you said this, Ari, I'm thinking what's next on the schedule. So Penn State, Indiana, they also have to play Ohio State, obviously. You actually would know, they have to play Oregon, too. You actually would know whether Tommy Carr's the guy or not going into next year. And do you have to get somebody else even? So it might be worth the try. I don't know. If you're done with Bryce, I don't know if they're done with Bryce.

Yeah, here's what's so frustrating about these past two weeks. in the loss to Iowa, Bryce's development, and really the whole team looked much better than they did in the three games that they won. But you lose at the last second. In the first half against Minnesota, I'm shaking my head, just like I said in that clip, wow, he's starting to figure it out. The team's starting to run the football better. And in the second half to have the football for 55 seconds in the third quarter, back-to-back interceptions, it just absolutely falls off a cliff. So to answer your question, what would I do if I'm the head coach right now, and I have to think about it as if I'm a, what, 65-year-old plus man?

Because not my age where you might have a decade or plus to be the head coach at Michigan if things really work out. But where is Kyle Whittingham mentally in this new takeover that he's having to do at Michigan? What I would think and what I would do is what gives me the best chance to beat Penn State? Not about next year or about who, quarterback evaluation. Because like I said in that clip, you go six and six. Yeah. Or five and seven, even worse.

You haven't, I mean, you've lost the last two games and you haven't even gotten to Indiana, Oregon, and Ohio State. Those were the games plus Oklahoma. Those were the four that were supposed to either put you in the college football playoff like you had Michigan going or keep you out of the college football playoff. And guess what? Week two, you already beat Oklahoma. And yet you still have two losses. So who gives me the best chance to beat Penn State? And it might be Tommy Carr and it might not be because he's even better than Bryce Underwood. It might be because if you play Tommy Carr, much like Davis Warren in 2024 when you beat Ohio State. Now, granted, Mason Graham and Mason Graham runs around that defensive front.

Okay, Kenneth Grant, I understand. But just like in 2024 when you beat Ohio State 13 to 10, maybe he's just good enough to alter the game plan so that you have to do something a little bit different. In order for that to be the case, though, you've got to run the football better than they are. Yeah, and it's interesting because that rhino package that they keep using, which is having the sixth offensive linemen on the field, it is a tell. Yes. It is, it's great if it works.

If you can say here's what we're doing and you can't stop us, that's fantastic. But if it doesn't, if you can't do that and they have not been that dominant up front. So it's not working and it's a tell. It's a twofold tell. One, it's, well, we're not running the football good enough with five offensive linemen. Let's put another one out there. But then also, Bryce Underwood's getting too much pressure on it. Maybe he's not setting the protections in a right way.

But that leaves you a two man out in the route combination, which is what Zach Marshall's talking about here. I just have a hard time believing the coaching staff is doing that, just doing that to do it. It's got to be out of necessity. I also have a hard time believing. I'm not calling the young man a liar. I just have a hard time believing. I've been around the game for a long time and so have you guys, that an offensive coordinator would come into the tight end room and tell tight ends you're not valuable to this offense. He may tell them you're not playing good. He may say you're not playing up to the standard that I can put tight ends on the field. Those are two different things. That may be, that may be if we are to consider the source,

somebody who heard, you're not valuable, but was actually said is you're not blocking well enough. And that's why we have to do this rhino thing. Are you had one more? Yeah, one more. And if I can I, if I can just change the tone for one second because you said something interesting, David and I've been very interested about the the spy gate thing and how you thought that, you know, how you felt about that and all those things. And then the Sharon more thing happening. Obviously, you played for Lloyd Carr. You know that Michigan has always pride itself on being Michigan men doing things the right way and all these different things. How do Michigan fans, how do people who played in that program feel about the perception

change about the program, how they've kind of become a villain? Like, how have you personally dealt with that? And like, do you think that I'm wrong about thinking that they're the villain? No, 100%. I get text every day. I got a text message this morning, Ari, from one of my college roommates who wasn't a football player on the team, they are embarrassed by the state of the program. And this goes back to even the spy gate signal, uh, signal stealing thing that you're talking about, or however the headlines phrased it to be, um, because a lot of people who don't know the game of football, they just see the wave of embarrassment that's coming for the program. And honestly, quite frankly, I don't think Dave Portnoy helps a lot of this with his persona publicly.

I mean, it's great to have someone who owns a media company be a pro Michigan guy. But I think a lot of people, if you already hate Dave Portnoy, then that just gives you another reason to like hate Michigan. Well, he's also made it a bit too. Right. He's playing into it in a way that, yeah. But the Michigan, but not just loving Michigan as a bit, but the Michigan man part as a bit. And when I played there as someone from South Georgia, who went a thousand miles away from home to become part of this brotherhood, the winningest program in the history of the sport, being a Michigan man, even though you weren't from Michigan really meant something. And we all try to live up for that. So I think people are very tired of the embarrassment on the program. And right now we have an interim, well, an athletic director who's on the way out, an interim

president. There's a lot of things to consider an interim basketball coach because Dusty May leaves after winning that Natty. There's a lot going on right there that's problematic. On the signal deciphering specifically, though, what I tried to tell people who were friends of mine who maybe don't understand football quite as well is that, look, if your team is not trying to decipher at least to some capacity, the other team's signal. If you're going to let the offense gain an advantage on you by going no huddle on your defense and send signals in,

you at least need to keep some notebook of what signals they're sending in. It was the advanced scouting part of that that Michigan ended up getting in trouble, which is equally as as as asinine to me because even as a six-year-old playing Pop Warner, I'd ask my dad, can we stay after to watch the other team play? Can we see what maybe they might do against us? That was. That was banned because schools were cheap. It was.

In the 90s, right? And then they were talking about possibly doing away with that. So anyway, that part to me. And Connor Stallions has popped up this week actually defending Bryce Underwood. Because he's thrown some All-22 out there because you've got people who are using TV copy of plays saying, look, there's two guys wide open here. And then they show the All-22, and there's three guys in the route concept being covered by eight guys. And it's like, nope, there's nobody.

Also, don't forget who did Connor coach in high school after he got in trouble? He coached Bryce Underwood. He's going to be, yeah, he's going to be defending him to the ends of the earth, would be my guess. And the question that we're all going to have to find out the answer to next week is how willing is Kyle Whittingham, how willing is Jason Beck to roll with this? Do they think they can make it better or do they try something else? We will find out. That is David Cohn from Crane and Cone. You watch them every day on the Crane and Cranone YouTube channel.

And they are fantastic. but, you know, David, obviously, when he's talking about Michigan, very much more informed than we are because he's been there. He's played that position for Michigan and understands exactly what's going on up there. Ari, another place where there's a lot of pressure all the time is Oklahoma. We've talked a lot about the quarterback situation there. John Mateer, obviously, is not making the fan base very happy. But the offense is not strictly.

John Mateer's fault, the failures on offense. Offensive line hasn't been very consistent. They've not seemed really confident that they can run the ball with the backs, which obviously falls on blocking. Brent Venables got asked about offensive line coach Bill Beedenbow on Tuesday, and his answer kind of shocked me. We'll start with George. Yeah, Brent, Bill Beedinboe has coached the offensive line here for some time.

It seems over the last two or three years you guys have had some instability with that position group. What do you maybe attribute that to and what do you like about the development and trajectory of that position group under build going forward? Yeah, I like a lot of the players that are in there now and certainly what we've recruited. It's been incredibly inconsistent, very disappointing. You know, as you build your football team, that's a critical place. That is a place that probably requires the most development of any position that you have on your roster. and we haven't allowed for lots of different reasons. The portal is the number one reason.

And the opportunity to our first couple of years, you had two free agent windows and, you know, so guys could come and go. So the instability because of the climate is a big part of it certainly didn't do a very uneven job when it comes to, you know, choosing a guys that we've brought in here. Way too many guys are coming and going at that position group. And we need continuity

and consistency in order to develop that group into what we want. We've got six guys coming in and the 27 class can be incredibly important to bring back a good majority of the guys that are already here that are young guys that are developing, you know, as we speak. But it's been very unstable and certainly not the kind of development that you want, you know, from top to bottom. So that is as harsh of an assessment of an assistant coach that I think I've ever heard a head coach say on the record. Yeah. Andy, so I've listened to that now two or three times. And do you, that was a very harsh, harsh, harsh, harsh review. How much of that do you think he is putting on Bill's feed in terms of the climate

slash inability to retain slash bringing a bunch of new guys in climate and how much of that do you think is he's not developing the guys in the building good enough? Well, I mean, you have to remember that Oklahoma's personnel strategy changed last year. It changed in spring of 2025 when they hired Jim Nagy as the general manager.

But before that, the coaching staff was, it was a much more traditional situation where the coaching staff was responsible for selecting the players and bringing him in. And so there was heavy criticism of Bill Beanbo's recruiting strategy early in the NILA. And remember, Bill Beenbo goes back to when Bob Stoops was a head coach. He has been at Oklahoma for a long time. He stayed when Lincoln Riley left.

And that was considered a huge coup for Oklahoma that a guy who'd helped build those successful teams was going to stick around and help the new coach, who obviously Brent Venables had been an assistant under Bob Stoops as well. So this is an interesting situation because obviously Bill Beanbo is a beloved figure at Oklahoma, or at least was until recently. And so, you know, I think the criticism of that is probably levied at him because offensive line is a developmental position. ideally you'd be starting guys that you signed at a high school three years ago. That's the ideal situation.

Now, it's not how it works anymore. Like, I've got a story coming out on Georgia's offensive line because I was going to do this, well, they're doing it the old-fashioned way, and they're the only, they're actually the only offensive line in the SEC that doesn't start a single transfer. And Kirby Smart blew that up when I asked him about it. He's like, we're all just trying to win here. So it's a different environment. It is different.

You can't just rely on, I'm going to sign these guys, and we'll sign five a year, and hopefully we'll get two who can play out of those five. We sign every year, and we'll have a good starting five of guys who've been here three, four, and five years. Like, that is not how it works anymore. This just isn't. And Oklahoma struggled to adapt to that. Yeah, I mean, I feel like the offensive line has been a pretty consistent work.

for Oklahoma in our national discussion about them for what three years now. Yeah. And, you know, they're not running the ball very well. And obviously, it's very easy to, you know, throw John Mateer in front of the bus. And maybe he deserves to be in front of the bus to a certain extent with the turnovers and stuff. But if you can't run the ball, you don't have a balanced offense and there's no threat to attack the defense in that way, then obviously you're putting everybody behind the eight ball. You know, what I found out today, Andy, is, you know, I made a joke on.

Twitter about how the only person who can restore good vibes for Oklahoma heading into Red River was Stephen Shin, the person who operated on John Mateer's hand last year right before this game. And then I came to found out that John Mattier's hand, which was in question, I saw there were some reports today that, you know, he might not be 100% healthy, blah, blah, blah. they're actually now viewing Stephen Shin as the enemy. He's the hand surgeon that broke John the tear, apparently. And I just learned that today. I embarrassed myself in Norman, Oklahoma,

because I was trying to make a joke, and everyone's like, you don't know ball. If you knew ball, you would know that Stephen Shin is not welcome here. Poor Stephen Shin. I thought that was really funny. Poor Steven Shen, who I don't know if Steven Shin was a college football fan before all of this. He got to ride the wave last year of folk hero status,

but you either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain. And I think he's living. Which then brings you back to the original point here. If you live long enough to become the villain, is that what's happening with Bill Beedinbaugh? I think that's probably it, too. Things change. The other part of this, and this is something that it's not necessarily his fault or anybody's fault, one thing that I've noticed over the years is when you hire offensive coordinators and don't allow

them to bring their own people and specifically don't allow them to bring their own O-line coach, it's typically a recipe for disaster because the O-line coach who comes with the O-C tends to understand the protections, the O-C needs, the blocking scheme, the O-C likes, the body types the O-C likes, all of that stuff. And even when you have someone who's a great teacher of the position who's done a great job in the past, it doesn't always mesh with the offense necessarily. Yeah. And that is, that's something to think about.

Was there some concern with him too? And correct me if I'm making this up. But I think I remember that, you know, he was also late to adopt the NIL model a little bit in that old school coaching type of way. Which, which I don't necessarily pin on him. Like that, that's the head coach's responsibility at that point. Now it's the GM's responsibility. But at the time, that's the head coach's responsibility.

to impress upon his assistance how that's supposed to work. Like I don't blame an assistant coach for that. Yeah. Also, if it had been a issue for two years and you want to put it at his feet, it's also a head coach's responsibility to fire and retain coaches. So if you retained him, that means that from your viewpoint through the two years that we just went through, that you felt like he was doing a good enough job. So, you know, at the end of the day, you can throw your assistant under the bus. you can have these harsh comments,

but it doesn't matter when you're the person who puts them in those positions. So, you know, I don't know, Andy, if I'm, like, misreading this situation, but it does feel kind of dire in Norman, doesn't it? It does. Like, he looks, Brent Venables looks like he's at the end of his rope. And I think that these types of comments tend to happen

when a coach is feeling that way. And last year, he came into the season on the hottest of hot seats. And I thought that he also did an incredible job at that time navigating that. It doesn't seem like he's navigating it this time very well. So I don't know what's going to happen in Dallas on Saturday, but I do know that, you know, things are very, very far from hunky dory and Norman. No, they are not. And as Peruse River points out.

When you pick the scab, too, when you pick the scab of what's wrong with the offense, you know, you can start at the discussion point of the offensive line coach, the personnel and the development of that position. But what happens as you're talking about it? Then it bleeds into is Ben Arbuckle kneecapped because he didn't bring us on a line coach. Then you can go to is John Matier not the right quarterback for Ben Arbuckle system, even though they came together.

Like it's a spider web that goes out and out and out and it just turns into a huge mess. Like talking about Oklahoma's offense feels like to me like when glass breaks. Like you can start somewhere, but then you're going to go down all the different cracks. And it's a pretty wide-ranging discussion, honestly. Are there offensive playmakers good enough? Are their linebackers good enough? Is a quarterback good enough? I know Rocky Beers has been awesome.

The tight end position seems good enough. But there seems to be some sort of blame for just about everybody affiliated with that offense at the time. And when it's that bad, I think that's probably right. The only thing that fixes it is beating Texas. Unfortunately, Texas may have the best defense in the country. That's the scary part is you're going against a defense that I think ideally is going to be.

playing a decent offense, they may only give up 10 to 17 points. Playing a bad offense, you're going to struggle. So whatever you've got to fix, hopefully you've figured it out with this open date last week. Yeah. Because if they struggle, and we talked to George's story about this last week, the 62.2% who do not want to move on from Brent Venables, that opinion is going to shift pretty quickly. Yeah, I'm amused too because what you just said is a common viewpoint of like if they want to fix things in Norman, they've got to beat Texas.

Well, no, I mean, they got to fix the offense to beat Texas. It's not it's not the reverse. You don't just go beat Texas with fairy dust. Like you have to block better. You have to run the ball. You have to not turn it over all these different things. And, you know, I'm not sure that's something that can be fixed. So, and if it does, it requires an offseason and personnel changes and maybe even coaching changes.

So I don't know what's, again, this is a very unpredictable sport. You know, I saw a statistic where, you know, scoring percentage today that was floating around had Texas somewhere in the 30s and Oklahoma in the 60s, which shows you that, you know, Texas has some offensive issues that they're trying to work through too, which might give them a chance if they can play some really good defense, Oklahoma, that is. but they're not just going to magically score 40 points on Texas this weekend. Like, it's, there are problems that need to be addressed. No, I mean, listen, there's a reason the spread basically predicts an Iowa game. Texas is favored by seven and a half, the total is 39 and a half.

Like, that is a pretty typical Iowa spread right there. So, or Iowa total. So that, that we, the world, the markets think that the defenses are going to dominate this game. They're probably right. that's what these teams have shown us. But can Oklahoma's offense be slightly different? Can it be more effective than it has been? Can John Mateer hang on to the ball?

Can they block? Can they get some production out of the running backs? These are the questions that have to be answered. And they will have to answer them on Saturday under pressure in the Cotton Bowl. All right. We have to move to another game in the SEC. This is one of the funnier stories of the week. because our friends at KSR tweeted this earlier Wednesday.

Apparently there is a graphic on one of the screens in the LSU football facility, and it shows a picture of Kenny Menci, and it claims to have a quote from Kennedy Menci that says, LSU's defense hasn't seen anyone like us in our offensive line yet. Now, Kenny Minchie didn't say that. the folks at KSR have confirmed that, which is essentially confirming that Kenny Menci is an intelligent person who doesn't have a death wish.

But if you're going to make up a quote from somebody, you can make it more incendiary. I mean, you're making it up. So why not make it more incendiary? When you zoom out of that quote, it just says it's a comment on LSU's schedule so far and how good Kenny Menchie thinks his own team is. which everybody thinks their team is good.

No one thinks that they're practicing with a bunch of losers. You know, have you ever worked at a publication that you thought sucked? No, like you always think that you're doing the best job. No, I have, but I wouldn't publicly say that I'm working with a bunch of ham sandwiches. Like, you're just not going to say that. I mean, I think that we make the best college football podcast on Earth because this is my podcast. So, you know, like that's just the way my brain works. But it's, so let's go.

Do you have things that you would put on the board if you were the person making the fake graphics? Like, I would say, like, LSU's defensive line is top ass. Like, I'll put that up there. Yes. I look forward to watching our offensive linemen drive LSU's defensive line across the goal line over and over again. Something like that. Something to really piss them off. Like, have a fake quote that actually takes aim at somebody like Prince Will Oman Mielan,

who is going to be the one trying to get Kenny Minchie on. the ground and given Prince Will's recent history is probably going to get Kenny Mitchie on the ground at least once. So like, yeah, let's, I mean, you're not going to, we're not going to talk about his mama or anything like that, but let's, let's make it a little personal if we're going to do that. Maybe, maybe the, the graphic is smart and that it has to be a somewhat believable quote because you're not going to be like Sam Levitt's a pretty boy or something like yeah, but you could say, um, Thanksgiving has come early. We are going to feed. on Saturday.

Yes. That would be good. Yes. That's something that doesn't, that's like a general enough statement where like you think that you're going to score a ton of points and, you know, have a nice meal and it's going to be at LSU's expense without personally attacking or singling out an individual player.

But yeah, I don't even think that that quote, even if he said it in real life, would be all that offensive. We think we're good and LSU hasn't played anybody as good as us. Does not insult LSU Tigers. But now I'm trying to remember the last person. who said something like this for real. And I think I know the answer.

It was Tommy Castellanos last year in the preseason when he was playing for Florida State talking about Alabama, where he said they don't have Nick Savan to save them. He said this to our guy Pete Nacos. He said, I just don't see them stopping me. And guess what? He was 100% correct. Like he backed it all out. And Tommy made some good coin, I think, on some of the T-shirts that he was able to sell after that.

And I think that, like, honestly, we say this all the time. I think our sport needs more people like this, more comments like this. You know, it's the T-shirt era, right? It's the NIL era. You can monetize your words. You know, why is is trash talk bad? Like, I think trash talk is great. It adds promotion to the game.

It brings excitement. And then, of course, there's a who was right. Just because the person talks trash to mean that he's not going to, you know, cash the check he wrote. So, you know, it's going to be. fascinating but I do also wonder Andy you've been in a locker room I have not how much things like this actually drive people like my viewpoint on college football motivation is pretty simple and that motivation is every single rep that a human being takes on a Saturday that's on television or being filmed is a future um job interview where everything that you put on that film is going to determine how much money you make in the future which is the ultimate driving force of everyone and I don't know if like Kenny Minci taking a fake jab at me moves the needle a little bit more as much as I want to eat that other person's heart

so I can get drafted higher. But do you think stuff like this moves the needle in the building? Yes, because I think everybody's looking for motivation. Everybody's looking to find a little kernel of motivation everywhere they can. This is why over the years when we've talked to Georgia and Alabama players after games, they've been like, nobody believed in us. Like no literally everyone believed in you.

Everybody believed in you. The fake underdog storylines were so... But somebody convinced you that nobody believed in you. So you were clearly looking for that. I'll give you an example, when I was covering Florida as a beatwriter, the Gators played Ohio State for the national championship. And Ohio State was favored in that game by more than a touchdown.

So really, nobody did believe in the Gators. But Urban Meyer, it wasn't good enough to just have the spread. Urban Meyer had his graduate assistants make up all manner of headlines and quotes to post on a board that the gators would walk past every day saying how bad Ohio State was going to crush Florida. And it, like, if you read them, obviously fake quotes, obviously. But to the players, it didn't matter. Do you remember any of them? No, because they made, they were nonsense. It was, it was similar nonsense to what Kenny Menchie says in this made up quote. Like, it's not, it clearly not, it's almost, there's almost, there's,

There was no AI back then, but it sounded like it was written by AI. But I will tell you, I remember standing in the tunnel in Glendale as Florida was walking out for that game. And every single player is like, I'm going to kill somebody. And obviously, you're going to do that before the national championship game anyway. But they had really worked them into a lather thinking that the whole world said, you suck and you're going to get your asses kicked, which they kind of did. But they even put more on top of that to make sure that they were pissed off. Yeah, well, the other thing, too, is that these guys don't know that it's fake.

Like, even if, like, H.S.R's out there spreading the word that this didn't happen. Like, I don't know if football players in the middle of game prep or is online enough to even know that they're not fake or think twice about it. So, you know, I think that it's an interesting strategy. I know during my time at Ohio State, they used to put messages up on the video board during practice. I think this is very common practice. I just didn't know that fabrication of them was common. Common practice. You know, I think widespread.

You know, we need to, yeah, yeah, LSU's $40 million roster lacks substance would be a good quote. That would be incredible. Lane, yeah, Lane Kiffin is more talk than performance, you know, like try to, you know, hit them in the, like, I'm just trying to think of like what I could say to an LSU fan to enrage them and just put them on the board. more like lame kissing. How about this? This is the one right here, Andy. Okay, okay. Kenny Minchie said you cannot buy championships.

Oh! I heard him say it. Kenny Minchie said that. Yeah. Now, Kentucky bought its roster too, but that's neither here to there. It's not important. Yeah, it's not even important if it's real.

Yeah. Yeah. Buyout money. Is there like a play on buyout money? I don't know. your governor can't save you how about that one? That's tremendous.

Kenny, if you're listening now is this like turn your phone on yourself and just record yourself saying the governor can't save you and press send. Do it now. No court. Yeah, no courtrooms this Saturday. Just field.

You can't get a TRO from us. Yeah, that's right. Come on. Just if you're going to make it up, make it better. Come on. Exactly. I know you're going to see this clip, man. Well, be funnier next week. I mean, we've learned that Lane likes Chat GPT quite a bit. So what do you want to bet Chat GPT wrote that Kenny Minchie quote?

He probably, yeah, Chad GBT did because it is kind of funny. It's language, but it says nothing. It seems incendiary, but like it actually is very benign. Yeah. And there's no substance to it. But like, could you say, imagine Keni Menci is like, you can't get a TRO against us this weekend. We're coming, pal. Like, that would be, that would be a hell of a quote.

It'd be incredible. Your governor can't. Yeah, your governor can't save you. Oh, that's a good one. What do you think? If they win, Will Stein will say something, I think. Yeah. I have a feeling.

Yeah. I mean, he's already shown that he's wanting to, with the showmanship, he did it at SEC Media Day. And you can't necessarily do it until you have. like if you have something to back it up, that's kind of when it works. So like after a win like that, you know, Mario Cristobal is the main. He loves that.

Right. Like, you know, remember two years ago when they beat the crap out of Florida in Gainesville and he came into the podium and he said, and if you're a player in the state, and you want to go to a place that's on the right trajectory, come to Miami and he slam the podium. Like that's,

I mean, I think that there was a place game. But the Florida state, okay. I was told. I was told. Sources, sauces told me. When Miami beat Florida at Miami last year,

Mario Cristobal really, really wanted the PA to play, I won't back down during the fourth quarter. And they wouldn't do it? They couldn't get the message up there. They didn't have a way to communicate the message up there, but he really wanted it. In 2025, they couldn't figure out a way to text the person who's in charge of it? Well, there are rules about who, who, who,

you can communicate with and who you can't. Okay. That's crazy. Yeah. So reliable sources have told me that that was something they were hoping would happen, but they couldn't quite get the communication. Also playing antagonistic music in stadium is very commonplace. Yeah.

Missouri played I won't back down after they beat the crap out of Florida. So. Yeah. Yeah. So it happens a lot. Yeah. I think Minnesota played Mr. Brightside after they beat Michigan last week.

Yeah. As you should. and the social media teams have been really, really good. And obviously Ole Miss played Colin Baton Rouge after they beat LSU. Kentucky will do the same thing if they win this weekend. Kentucky, though, eight to half point dog at home. This is a big test for LSU. This really is.

And so, like, I don't blame Lane Kiffin for pulling out the stops. I do blame him for probably using AI slop for the fake quotes. AI slop. Like, just write better fake quotes. That's all I ask. You got a staff of a billion. Find somebody creative who can write a better fake quote than that. Let a human do it.

That's all we ask. We're just trying to save people's jobs, Ari. That's what we're doing here. Yeah. We're job creators. Be funny. Speaking of jobs, there is potentially a big college basketball job open, not immediately, but possibly at the end of this season.

because Dana Altman, the Oregon basketball coach, has retired essentially on the eve of a new season. So this is not expected, obviously, because if it had been expected, it would have happened after a season had ended. But Dana Altman, who longtime Oregon coach, longtime Creighton coach before that, very short time Arkansas coach, took the Arkansas job, did the press conference. Not sure if it was the calling of the hogs or what was it that that spooked him, but he was headed back to Creighton the next day. So, but then he did eventually leave Creighton, went to Oregon, has been there for quite some time. And, you know, this is a program that obviously Phil Knight involved in the basketball program as well as the football program. They're supposed to win. They're supposed to be really good. Not.

as consistent, probably as they'd like. They were five seed in the tournament two years ago. They were an 11 seed in 2024, but before that, hadn't been since 2021. So he is retiring now. Tony Stubblefield, his assistant will take over. This, Ari reminds me of a couple years ago. Remember when Tony Bennett retired at Virginia? I do.

I went and looked up. So today's October 7th. Tony Bennett retired on October 18th, 2004. and so Ron Sanchez replaced him. He ended up not lasting as the permanent coach. They hired Odom. They hired Ryan Odom after that season. So Stubblefield will coach the Ducks this season.

We'll see if that winds up being a permanent thing. It gives you a lot of runway. And I always feel like when these things happen, it's to make sure you're giving people runway to get a chance to get the job. permanently or like the football version of this because we don't see this very often in football usually the only time a football coach leaves right before the season starts is amid scandal like the the pat Fitzgerald firing at northwestern the only one i can think of it was voluntary was bob stoop's when he retired in june of 2017 but they had already decided lincoln riley was

going to be the next head coach so that wasn't that wasn't to give lincoln riley runway that decision had been made probably a year before that Lincoln Riley was going to succeed Bob Stoops. And I do think that one was to make sure that Mike Stoops, the defensive coordinator at the time, got to stay. And Oklahoma fans would probably say that he got to stay about a half season too long because he was fired midway through the next season, the 2018 season. So this is a- Allman did take him to the final four, didn't he? I think in 2000. 17, he took him to the final four. I remember that.

So it, uh, you go, go look it up, but I'm like 90. They did. They lost North Carolina by one point in the, in the national semi-final. They, they, they beat Iona, Rhode Island, Michigan, and Kansas on the way to the final four. Is Oregon's basketball program kind of like trying to mirror what their football program does in terms of like, no, not a traditional power, but has money and resources? and like how much of a pride, and maybe we can have people call in and tell us their favorite Dana Altman memory, but how much pride do Oregon people take in the Ducks basketball program? I think they take a lot of pride, and I think they don't look at it like the football program.

The football program has become a national power. Like it is a legitimate national power. So I think they would like the basketball program to do the same thing. And that's what the hiring of Altman was intended to do. and he got them, you know, like you said, got them to the final four fairly early in his tenure. You know, and Ernie Kent had done some good things before that. So Ernie Kent kind of the, I guess, in the Mike Bellotti slot, and then Dana Altman, they were hoping would be the Chip Kelly, if that makes sense, if we're comparing it to football.

But. Because ironically enough, like Nike's entire empire, I know they started off as running, but didn't their empire take off with Michael Jordan and like basketball. Yeah. So like you would think that there's still the number one basketball shoe brand in the country or in in. Yeah. Yeah. For sure.

So, you know, you put the basketball DNA of the actual company into it. But football, I guess is king in America. I don't know. Yeah. Well, this will be interesting to watch because this is a situation where, uh, you've got an interim. They'll get every chance possible to, to claim the job fully. And I'll be interested to hear what Dan Alman says about his.

reasoning, you know, when this was Tony Bennett two years ago, it was a lot of criticism of the state of the game. He just didn't want to coach in this environment anymore. And that maybe where Dana Allman's at. Dana Allman's been coaching a long time. So this is, he's had a long and distinguished career. Sometimes people just want to go smoke a cigar by a lake, Andy. Yeah.

Sometimes it's not deeper than that. You know, he's 68 years old. So like, this is. Sources have confirmed that Dana Altman heard the voicemail from our friend and Oklahoma State fan that's in the pool drinking bourbon all the time. He's like, that sounds pretty great. Yeah, Kyle?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, he heard Kirk Ferrence's biggest hobby was drinking beer in the pool. And it was like, you know what? I could just do that permanently. So, yeah, that sounds amazing. I mean, isn't that what we're all doing? We're just trying to work long enough

where we can just go drink in the pool as much for as many times as we want without it ever being a problem for work or for your obligations, right? Yep. So happy trails Dana Altman. Good luck to the Ducks this year. And I would imagine if that job is to fully open at the end of the season,

that will be considered a very desirable job. Big Ten program, lots of money, major benefactor that's big into basketball. I think it would be a pretty desirable job. You know what we desire, Ari? We desire our listeners and our viewers to ask us great questions because they do every week. We've already gotten a few really good dear Andy Derari questions, but Thursday, of course, is a Dear Andy, Dear Ari Show. We'd love to hear from you.

Andy Stapleson3 at gmail.com. Ari.wosserman at On3.com. Send us your emails. Send us your questions. We've already got a few really good ones. Cannot wait to see what you send us, and we will answer those questions on tomorrow show.