Andy & Ari On3 - The No. 1 class of 2026 QB flips from Georgia to… Vanderbilt?

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

As National Signing Day is less than 24 hours away, it's only right that Rivals' Steve Wiltfong joins Andy & Ari to break down the biggest headlines entering the big day. As reports of the top QB flipping to Vanderbilt from Georgia have surfaced, Steve Wiltfong breaks down this latest development, along with USC's impressive class and teams that are flying under the radar. A jam packed show you won't want to miss here. (0:00) Today's Episode(1:16) Presenting Sponsor(3:28) Intro: Jared Curtis flip to Vanderbilt(8:51) Steve Wiltfong Joins(13:00) Wiltfong on Jared Curtis(17:53) Academy Sports + Outdoors(19:10) Signing Day in the New Era of CFB(20:55) USC's impressive class(24:13) Battles Ahead of Signing Day(33:04) Classes flying under the radar(40:12) Will Stein to Kentucky(42:27) Rest of the Carousel(44:24) Alex Golesh to Auburn(47:12) Closing out with Steve(48:47) Continued Importance of National Signing Day(55:24) PaniniAmerica.net(59:23) LSU Introduced at Lane Kiffin(1:22:28) Closing Out - See You Tonight! After Steve Wiltfong, Andy & Ari dive into LSU introducing Lane Kiffin as head coach and his top moments from the introductory press conference. Will fans of college football like Lane Kiffin at LSU? Andy & Ari break this all down from Baton Rouge here. Our show is presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. We’re also brought to you by Panini! Panini delivers the most collectible sports cards and memorabilia on the planet. Check out the new exclusive Arch Manning collection or the Panini Prizm Draft Picks College Football series. Visit PaniniAmerica.net to start your collection today. Our show is sponsored by Academy Sports + Outdoors! https://www.academy.com/discount Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/kG3GnbSC8Ns Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested 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 and Ari on three presented by BetMGM, huge news in the world of recruiting the number one quarterback prospect in the United States of America. Jared Curtis from Nashville is flipping from Georgia to Vanderbilt. National signing day is tomorrow. He is flipping now. He is going to sign with Vanderbilt. And yes, think about that. Think about if you traveled back in time four or five years and told someone that the number one quarterback in America would flip from Georgia to Vanderbilt in December 2025. They would have had you arrested, but that's happening. We're going to talk to Steve Wilfong, rivals and on three's VP of Recruiting and Transfer Portal, about the flip. We're also going to talk to him about USC, potentially lending the number one class in America tomorrow. And also, what are some of these new coaches? Lane Kiffin, Alex Golish, what are they going to do in terms of recruiting right now and then recruiting in the future at their new schools? Plus, we break down Lane Kiff's introductory press conference at LSU all today on Annie and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM.

We are presented by BetMGM, and if you're not signed up for BetMGM yet, what are you waiting for? Download that app, sign up using the code CFB, that's CFB, that's CETMGM, and if you're not signed up for, yet, what are you waiting for? CFB as in college football, and you can get up to a $1,500 first bet offer. Here's how that works. Download the app, sign up using the code, CFB, deposit at least $10, place your first bet. If your first bet loses, you could get up to a $1,500 offer in bonus bets. When you are signed up, you get goodies like what we have going for you this week. on Friday and Saturday, December 5th, December 6,

a college football odds boost token. You zero and every snap activate your odds boost token on any college football bet on championship weekend and you'll receive a bigger payout if your bet wins. Also on Friday and Saturday, college basketball has an odds boost token. So any bet on college basketball, you hit that odds boost token and you get a higher payout if your bet wins. So go to bet and GM, download the app, use the code C,

FB, sign up, and let's go. Make it legendary. Make this one, one for the books. Make it legendary with BetMGM. See Betmgm.com for terms. 21 plus only. U.S. promotional offers are not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem.

Call 1-800 gambler in the U.S. Call 8778 Hope N.Y or text Hope N.Y 4-6773-69 in New York. Call 1-800 next step. in Arizona. Call 1-800-327-5050 in Massachusetts. Call 1-800 bets off in Iowa or 1-800-9-1-0023 in Puerto Rico. First bet offer for new customers only, subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for bed at MGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to Annie Narion 3 presented by BetMGM.

Big News in the World Recruiting on National Signing Day Eve. We already recorded our interview with Steve Wilfong, who is the On 3 and Rivals VP of Recruiting and Transfer Portal. And he was giving us basically the broad strokes of Jared Curtis's flip from Georgia to Vanderbilt. He had not reported said Flip yet. He was still saying, predicting a flip and then a few minutes after we recorded the interview Steve got the piece of intel that allowed him to report

that Jared Curtis is indeed flipping and I again because I've been doing this George and a Vanderbilt. Yeah, veterans of the industry know what it means when Steve Wilfong is predicting something. He's pretty good at this. But yes, that is a significant move I would say. And also I feel like Clark Lee would have never signed an extension at Vanderbilt or been so certain that he could do what he needed to do to make them nationally relevant if signings and flips

like this weren't possible. So hats off to Vanderbilt for properly investing in their football program, giving their tools or their coaches the tools necessary to be in this playing field. And like honestly, like for the first time ever, it felt like impossible to build a program. And it made what Davosweeney did at Clemson so insanely impressive because nobody else was doing it before. Now I feel like more than ever, if you're a fan of a lower or middle tier team that you should never give up hope that one day your team could win a national championship or one day your team could reach the heights that Vanderbilt's reached, which is blowing out Tennessee on their home field on Saturday and having a pretty legitimate case for college

football playoff inclusion. So, you know, I want you to hit it, the Wilfong interview, and then I want you to come out of it, and I want to talk to you for five minutes about a column I wrote and some of the reporting I've done the last few days in recruiting. I love it. I love it. So we'll talk about Jared Curtis a little bit before we get into the Wilfong interview. Jared Curtis, is it Nashville Christian school? He's playing for it. for the state title on Thursday. He was originally going to sign on Friday. He moved that up to Wednesday.

Wilfong explained exactly why. But this is pretty monumental because this is something, this is probably an only-in-the-NIL transfer portal situation. I don't know that in any other era we would ever see this, the number one quarterback prospect of the country going to Vanderbilt. I mean, the Vanderbilt's current quarterback might win the Heisman in a few weeks. This is true, and he has already said this is his last year. The job is open, and if you sign this person, part of signing this person as Vanderbilt is

you're probably not getting him unless he's starting next year. Georgia has Gunner Stockton. Gunner Stockton is playing really well. Gunner Stockton is probably coming back. Man. Go doors, huh? And you know what? Vanderbilt Loyalist, you've earned this.

basking it. Absolutely. And we've talked about this multiple times. And I think we're going to talk about it after the Wilfong interview. High school recruiting still matters greatly, but the dynamics of everything have changed. A school like Vanderbilt 10 years ago had no chance to land a player like this. No chance. Zero point zero. Now, anything. possible. Love it, dude. Absolutely love it. You know what else I love, Ari?

I love drama on signing day. Like, nobody even uses faxes anymore. I want somebody stealing a fax tomorrow. I want it. How do they do it? What do they take a picture and email and like send it through a fax? Yeah, you just send a PDF now. Yeah, PDFs are legal documents now.

Yeah. Or maybe they, I think they do do docu-sign too. Yeah. Because, well, they definitely do do docu-sign for these NIL deals. I've been having to use DocuSign quite a bit recently, just randomly for certain things, like contracts of like doing something around the house and all this stuff. And it's like, you just click a button and it signs just your name for you. Like I don't know pretty soon.

I wonder like if I'll be like 40 and never pick up a pen ever again for any circumstance. I cannot read my own handwriting anymore. Well, because it's been so long. It's all. Doctors offices, your paperwork is now on an iPad. The only time I ever pick up a pen is if I'm writing a check and I don't have to write checks anymore. So I don't know it's crazy that like writing is dying, like physically writing. Do you know what's not dying?

The chances of other schools landing top prospects because Vanderbilt is getting the number one quarterback in the country. Let's talk to Steve Wilfong about that, about USC, potentially setting the number one class in the country, about what to expect from Lane Kiffin recruiting at LSU and much, much more. Honored to be joined by Steve Wilfong, the VP of Recruiting and Transfer Portal. The Veep. He's just the greatest recruiting reporter.

Can we? Yeah. That's like a waterglass you would have in like your great-grandmother's cabinet. these are the only glasses that shan and terry stocked the rivals on three world headquarters with i mean this i'm pretty sure i could drop this on the ground and it would not break that that's either thing you get for your wedding yeah that's either like you know how to like so we're kids of the 80 80s and you might be late 70s andy i don't know but uh china cabinets like i was up

in i was up visiting my parents like the china cabinet is out for everyone to see and then there's china in there like these are the kind of glasses that are in there that you only drink out of once every three years and read off the plates once every and i told my wife i was like i want that i want that like i feel that nostalgia i'm a grandfather clock type guy like uh i want that china cat she's absolutely not like she our house is modern colors modern if it was up to me we'd have a grandfather clock in every room we'd have china cabinet so but the whole one. You're an old soul, Steve.

Wallpaper. You're an old soul, but you've introduced us to a term over the last few months that I very much enjoy when I watch the Wolfong Whipp around with Josh Newberg and you. A modern recruitment. And as we sit on the eve of National Signing Day, can you just tell everybody what a modern recruitment is?

Just straight cash, homie. I feel like that's not in terms. I feel like that's not in either leaving. if you have your infrastructure in order good infrastructure good resources look man but good that's what it is and i'm not mad at it it's just the it's just the funny way to say it right and and some of these look some of these young men come from walks of life that we can't relate to and and and some it's all about the quan you know and and getting a head start on your financial portfolio and we know that money doubles every seven to ten years so if you can start on that at

18 instead of 28 that's a big double it's a big double to get early yeah uh you know the we just brought steve on here to talk about the powers of compound interest um but i was just wondering um back a few years ago when we would talk about straight cash homie and talk about biggest offers i think that there was a notion that the highest amount wasn't when winning as many recruiting battles simply because it's the highest as we would have thought. Have you seeing an increase in how many people are just taking the highest offer now, or is that a misnomer? Well, what I would say is you don't get to even make an offer if you don't have a good product.

Okay. Like you have to have a track record of player development. Kids still want to play in the biggest games. They want to be coached by great coaches. Some kids want to have a great college experience. So you have to have some foundational things to even get into the round of compensation. And so the programs that check the most boxes are still the ones that are going to land the most kids. But sometimes the offer is just so big, it's hard to ignore.

Like they have a chance to go to their dream school, but another school is half a mill higher. it changes the way the thought and decision process has gone. You know, one offer, your value is based on what someone's willing to pay you. So sometimes those get ratcheted up and then sometimes those offers come very late in the cycle. So Steve, another kind of modern recruitment, because in 20 years ago, we never would have even been talking about. this is a signing day matchup here but Jared Curtis

who's a few miles away from you where you're sitting in Nashville right now he's the number one quarterback in the cycle according to rivals industry rankings he is committed to Georgia he is committed to Georgia decommitted from Georgia recommitted to Georgia but Vanderbilt is making a late push

he just moved his commitment time up he was going to do it Friday after his state championship game now he's going to do it Wednesday before his state championship game. What is the latest on him? And how wild is it to be talking about a Georgia Vanderbilt competition for the number one quarterback recruit in America? Well, it just goes to show you where Clark Lee has taken his alma mater, Vanderbilt's head football coach. And you talk about modern recruiting. I don't think Clark Lee signs an extension with Vanderbilt if he didn't believe

that the administration was going to give him the support and the resources to compete in the SEC. He's a competitive guy. Certainly he was able to rebuild this program with less right now, but to be consistent in that regard is hard to do if you have less when you're competing against some of the best coaches in the world and Kirby Smart and the guys that are in this conference. So his extension tells me that he is going to have the support and resources to acquire more top of the board caliber prospects for them. Certainly nobody higher on the board than Jared Curtis. Now, Clark Lee has also gone out and hired a terrific coaching staff, offensive coordinator Tim Beck. I don't know where he falls on the Broils Award list, but obviously Vanderbilt is a very exciting offense this year.

in Diego Pavia, I believe, is third in the country in points per game, absolutely lighting it up as a dual threat passer that's infused a lot of juice into this program and made them a team that people like to watch on TV. They're entertaining. And he has shown what a quarterback can do in Coach Beck's offense. So Jared Curtis committed to Georgia. I think as the National Signing Day period comes, I don't call it early, signing period because that's ridiculous. 90% of the kids are signing. It's not there. The one in

February is the late sign period. This is a three-day national signing period. And then you have a late signing day in February. As it comes closer to the time to put pen to paper, I really believe that the opportunity to play as a true freshman became more and more important to Jared Curtis, who's never been a backup quarterback to my knowledge. And so, Kirby smart Mike Bobo the best that they could tell him is compete for QB2 their Heisman candidate Gunner Stockton expected back leading Georgia to the SEC title game

maybe a national championship this year Vanderbilt has a path to play in year one and I think that's exciting to him now Jared has been positive with the Georgia staff I think people around Athens feel good about keeping them in the fold Obviously, my predictions on Vanderbilt, we'll see what happens. You know, Vanderbilt, there's a lot of reason to believe that he could flip to Vanderbilt as well. So that's kind of where it's at.

He's going to announce his decision on Wednesday morning, which makes sense because if he didn't, unfortunately, the state title game would have a bunch of media there asking him about his pending college decision on Friday. Now he gets to make his decision. And then the state championship is about the state championship and questions that he would receive. Steve after the game would be more about talking about your teammates, your experience at Nashville Christian, like the lead would change, right? He was committed to whoever. Talk about ending your high school career on this note, hopefully with another state title. But if he was up, if he had not made his final decision, the game would actually like take a back seat to the media there

wondering, are you going to stick with George or flip to Vanderbilt? So my opinion, good move to move it up to Wednesday, so the main thing can be the main thing on Thursday, which is the state championship and a special time. He's a guy that had opportunities to go to other high schools. He's playing at the same high school for four years with guys that are good buddies having a traditional high school experience, and he has a chance to go out in a special way, and recruiting will be decided before he takes the field on Thursday. We'll be back with more from Steve Wilfong. But first, I want to tell you about Academy Sports and Outdoors.

The holiday season is here in Academy Sports Outdoors has the legendary gifts you need at undefeatable prices every day. Shop in store online and Academy.com to save on gifts on everybody's list. From football jerseys and basketball hoops to fire pits and deer stands. The most wonderful time of the year happens here this Christmas give the gift of fun from Academy Sports and Outdoors. And my son came to me this morning. He has a charity drive that they're doing. in one of their classes, and he said, you know what, I think a really good, cool gift for these families would be a soccer ball. And I said, well, why a soccer ball? And he said, because you can

just drop the ball and the kids can all play and they can have fun with it. And it just gives them hours of entertainment. It'd be really cool. So academy, boom, got a soccer ball, ready to go. So when you're in a pinch, when your kid drops a, we got a charity drive at school, and we need a gift right now, Academy Sports and Outdoors, a place to go, or academy.com for all of your sports and outdoors needs. Now, back to Steve Wilfong. Steve, I think that there's this notion that because we're in the transfer portal NIL era, that National Signing Day is less important than it used to be.

But at the same time, I view it as you still know. need to be foundationally sound and consistent in high school recruiting to win the national title. And I look at the 2026 rivals industry rankings, and I'm looking at the current top 10, USC, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oregon, Ohio State, Bama, Texas, Miami, A&M, and Tennessee. Number 11 is LSU. Number 12 is Michigan, 13, Florida. You get it.

It's the same traditional teams that are still leading the way. What do you say to people who think that the importance of Wednesday and beyond are diminished in this new era. Well, we talked about it off air. The foundation of most championship teams is going to be through high school football recruiting and development. And then you supplement your roster

through the transfer portal. If it's a position room that was decimated by injury, guys leaving early for the NFL draft, or just some recruiting misses, or if you're one of the said programs where you can just go in and get a Caleb Downs or a Dylan Gabriel or a Bo Nix because you're that logo and you have that power behind

behind you, you do it. But when you, the number I look at when you talk about the rivals recruiting rankings, USC 34 commits from high school, Georgia, 30, Notre Dame 27, Ohio State 28, Bama 23, Texas 24, Miami 29, A&M, 25. These programs are still subscribed to recruiting high school players first, and then they'll go into the portal where they have to. Steve, let's talk about one of those schools because USC seems to have had the biggest shift in their recruiting philosophy in what they're bringing in out of high school. I would imagine a lot of that has to do with hiring Chad Bowden as their GM away from Notre Dame, but they're the number one recruiting class in the rivals rankings. As you mentioned, I was just counting up they, I believe it's 13 top 150 players in this class. And you are predicting a potential flip from Ohio State for a receiver could be member of the class number 35.

How different is this class compared to the ones Lincoln Riley assigned previously USC? Well, I think when you look at this class, they went out and won some wars on the recruiting trail with other national title contenders. And to hoist the crystal ball at the end of the year, you got to have these recruiting wins on the trail. you are not going to outsmart the championship contending programs for your entire roster. So USC, they have the most modern recruiting win of the cycle in Luke Wafel when you're talking about a guy, rivals number four player overall, our number one edge rusher. He's from New Jersey, commits to USC during his summer official visit, calls the other coaches to tell him, hey, I'm done, I'm going to U.S.

Ohio State says not so fast. You're our number one overall player on the board. Let's rethink this. Here's our new plan for you. All right. I'm a Buckeye. He's a Buckeye. He's going to come into the Buckeyes now.

Chad Bowden, USC, Coach Henney, they get the call. Going to Ohio State. Well, they're not taking no for an answer. and Chad Bowden, one of the most aggressive, competitive GMs, and he also connects with the recruits. There's some GMs, they just are in personnel and contracts. Chad Bowden's in personnel contracts and relationships for USC. Coach Henney, they counter, counter the counter.

They get him back. And in the meantime, Penn State throws a hell, Mary, with James Franklin and Company because his brother's at Penn State, Bill Belichick and Coach Lombardi over there put a big number on the table. But he's a Trojan. But again, you do not get into the conversation without something he can believe in. Eric Henderson, his track record of a defense-aligned coach in the NFL, coaching guys like Aaron Donald, winning a Super Bowl with the Rams,

all the support that's being poured in the USC football right now, the new facilities. Lincoln Riley, he has taken multiple teams to the college football playoff, despite what some people will tell you. about Lincoln Riley. They showed improvement this year, have a chance to get to 10 wins. Certainly it's college football playoff

or bust for them next year, even though it might be a very young football team. That's kind of where we're at with them. But with all of that, they win the most modern recruitment to date, in my opinion, Luke Wafel, which was just an awesome thing

to kind of track behind the scenes. Steve, what battles are our listeners looking for? on Wednesday. Who are you tracking what's going to be this? Like, is it still this? Yeah, look, there's still a lot of things going on out there. We have a story on the rival's front page right now, National Signing Day, Eve Intel. I've done this story for like 15 years, all the things I think I know 24 hours beforehand and the story kind of updates. We talked about Jared Curtis. Obviously, my predictions on Vanderbilt. There's people around Georgia that think they keep them in the fold. How about Ryder Lions? Quarterback committed to BYU,

touted guy, Pete Nacos and company with the story yesterday that he's kind of become the, his BYU's head coach, Kalani Sataki, has kind of become the forefront of the Penn State coaching search right now. So what does that mean for Ryder Lions and his recruitment? I think there's been some buzz behind the scenes the entire fall that there could be some movement. That doesn't mean there's guaranteed to be some movement off his BYU commitment, but could be movement. The number one receiver in the country, Chris Henry Jr., been committed to Ohio state since 2023. The Buckeyes, the track record not only of being a first round draft pick out of there with Brian Hartline, Ryan Day, and company, but being ready to play in the NFL

year one, OTAs and beyond. That makes it very attractive. I think Oregon is a program. Dan Lanning has had some national signing day splashes because they have one with Chris Henry tomorrow. I'm not ruling it out. Let's see, Mario Cristobal and Miami looking for a couple flips. They have a top 10 recruiting class. Tennessee is a program that could have a lot of buzz tomorrow, already projecting them to flip four-star defensive lineman, Jeremy, J.J. Finch from Alabama, projecting them to land former Texas A&M commit Jordan Carter.

Now, this stuff's all subject to change in the last day, guys, but just kind of where those things stand. South Carolina, Shane Beamer, he's as active, a head coach as there is in the country on the recruiting trail. They got a lot of guys on the line. James Franklin, ever since he got to Virginia Tech, it's him and the off-field recruiting staff. They've been on a roll.

That's going to continue today and tomorrow. They were the 118th ranked recruiting class the day he stepped in Blacksburg. I think they got a chance to be in the top 30, if not the top 25, when all said and done. Auburn and Alex Goalish in position to make a lot of noise down the stretch here. that's that's kind of the major storylines but there's all kinds of there's all i've got a question though that i think is a good follow-up to this and i don't know it's been 36 hours since lane kiffin mania uh happened what is ls u looking to do are they looking to retain

are they on the offensive here or their old miss what is your take on on lane kiffin's first 36 hours and how difficult do you think it's going to be for them to sign a top class in you know the short amount of time in terms of retaining the commitments that they've had Yeah, well, they have the nation's number 11 recruiting class, but maybe the best defensive line, edge rusher hall in the land. I mean, Lamar Brown, Richard Anderson, Deuce Gerald's, Trenton Henderson, anyone would love to have those guys. They have all of them, you know.

So as you try and build this program back up, and Blake Baker has turned LSU's defense around, I think they ranked in the 80s two years ago in the top 20 this year. You bring in Lane Kiffin for the offense, But landing these guys, those are championship caliber pieces in the front seven. Offensive tackle, Bryson Martinez, holding Texas off to keep him in the fold would be huge. They got some wide receivers that can make plays in Jabari Mack and Kenny Darby. So they got a couple still out there.

We project them to land a couple more four-star receivers, a four-star tight end. So they should add some more playmakers to this class. And then the bump of Lane Kiffin at LSU is going to resonate with 20. Now, he is not a recruiter that's a nine-enning guy, but he's as charismatic a head coach as there is in the country. So when guys sit down in front of him, he's going to make them feel at home. They're going to trust that he's going to turn LSU around with what he did at Ole Miss and some of the jobs he's had historically. He's going to be a great storyteller. He's worked for Pete Carroll, Nick Saban, and he's been around some of the best football players that college

football has had over the last 25 years. And again, he's articulate. and his message for the program. He's excited to be at LSU. And so with that, the Tigers are already formidable on the trail. Top 10 classes consistently hasn't mattered who the head coach is. You're bringing in Lane Kippen to maximize the guys you have on your roster. And so it's never a talent problem with the Tigers. They haven't maximized, whether it's scheme, culture, both.

So Lane Kiffin's in there to get the best out of your roster. and Blake Baker, is he 100% of staying on? We think, we think he's staying on. I think what you put up. It's kind of like the word allegedly, you know, like. Yeah. What you brought up is why Lane Kiffin takes the LSU job. Like, we can complain about or talk about the machinations and the mechanics of his move.

But this is why you take the job, because you walk into a class where the top four recruits are top. 100 defensive linemen. Like, not, not among the top 100 defensive linemen, defensive linemen who happen to be among the top 100 overall players. And let's like, you know, Brian Kelly walked into a recruiting class that contained Mar Brown. Yeah. Brian Kelly walked into

recruiting class that contained Will Campbell and Emery Jones, they're two great offensive linemen. That's what you, like, the LSU's built in advantage is there's so many guys who just want to be tigers. So Lamar Brown University Lab School. So right right there in Baton Rouge. Richard Andrew Anderson's from Edna Carr, a great program in New Orleans.

So they've got guys that are in-state guys that are going to be freak athletes that they can mold. So that's why you take the job. But I'm curious, Steve, how much of a bump do you think Lane Kiff can gives it? And I don't mean right now where you've got 48 hours to figure something out. But when we do this again next year, what kind of class are we going to be talking about? Well, I would imagine it's a class that would have a chance to be in the top five just because of historically how LSU is recruited. I don't think that that's not what we're talking about with Lane Kiffin in recruiting.

Recruiting doesn't suffer at LSU. It's can you beat Alabama and Georgia consistently and be in the conversation to win the national championship? And that's the expectation. So LSU, they lost three games this year to top 10 teams. their quarterback was injured their offensive line was young and at the end of the day you point that falls on the coaching staff's desk and there's a change because there's a standard at that program to win at the highest level and so three we can sit here and say well they lost three games to top 10 teams sue me you know well they fired you and so lane kippins lift lane kippin's there to maximize the talent on the roster and scheme it up and create a culture and an environment where this team plays ferocious on Saturdays on defense and plays explosive on offense. When you look at the speed that LSU has in their running back in receiver rooms,

they should not be struggling to score two touchdowns of all game. Now, again, I know they had some injuries with their returning starting quarterback, and they had a young offensive line, but that's part of like having a good GM and knowing where you could be deficient, next season and making sure you're not deficient there next year. Ohio State, they're never deficient because Mark Pantone, Ryan Day, and that coaching staff make sure that when the portal season comes, they land the guys that they need to land at the positions they need to land them.

So when they go out there and play on Saturdays, they play at the caliber that they're supposed to week in and week out. And so LSU, their offensive line wasn't. up to snuff this year. That's on talent acquisition and roster management. Nussmeyer gets hurt. It stinks, but nobody feels sorry for you in the SEC, and they weren't able to play through that for those things, and they lost the top 10 opponents. 20 years ago, you don't get fired for that, but you get fire for that now. Steve, are there any classes in your mind? I know that, like, this national signing day is often just a whip around to borrow that word, the top 10 programs

in America and how many great players are getting. Are there any classes in the top 20, maybe outside the top 15, lower than that, that stand out to you is maybe underrated or undervalued from a national perspective? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, when you look at, I mean, Illinois and Iowa have top 25 classes. Illinois is going to add to it. Brett B. Lemma said this is the best recruiting class he's ever been part of. So it's exciting to, they're in the Big Ten and they didn't have the year that they were expected to have this year, but they're certainly in the top half of the best league in the country right now.

Indiana's class is really strong on defense. I think that you look at the way they've recruited all three levels, defensive line, linebacker and in the secondary, they're not going anywhere under Kurt Signetti and company. They have a chance to be an annual 10-plus win team. This recruiting class is the best recruiting class I've seen Indiana recruit. They have guys on the defensive side of the ball that the powerhouse programs tried to pilfer.

And these guys stayed rock solid because of the relationships they have with Indiana staff. You know about Bryant Haynes, coach Coontz, coach Shanahan, Coach Ola Adams. like those guys are kind of electric. Maybe Shanahan's not like as outwardly electric, but those guys build great relationships with their recruits. They're winning at a high level. And the biggest game of the college football season is coming to the best sports city in the world, guys. Are you guys coming up to Indy this weekend? Are you guys coming to my city? Are you going to Atlanta? You're going to Atlanta. We're going to Nashville. We're going to, we're going to be sitting right where you are. Is the SEC title game in Nashville? No, it's in Atlanta. We, we, we, we, we, we, we, we

We got to watch it all, Steve. So we're going to watch it all. You guys are always at Gaines. Why aren't we at Indy doing a show from Georgia Street? We got IU versus Ohio State. Best sports city in the world, man. He dominated the NFL Combine. We've had Super Bowls.

We've had national title games. Final fours come into Indianapolis this year. Andy and Ari would put the cherry on top. Big Ten title game. Indiana, Ohio State. Indiana's got a basketball game in the after. noon against Louisville, it's going to be rocking in the Hoosier State. I thought for sure you guys were coming.

Steve, we're probably going to be there for the final four. I'm telling you right now. This is a little preview. We're working on some things. As a football segment, I'll come meet y'all for a little football segment. We'll talk football in front of the final four. I have no problem with that whatsoever. We did last year.

The Indiana class is exciting in Washington. Jed Fish and the Huskies, they have a top 20 class. They got some guys that are really electric with the ball in their hands and running back Brian Bonner in that receiver room, Mason James. They're working the flip, one of the fastest players in the Lone Star State, Jordan Clay, from Baylor right now. They have a quarterback Derek Zammett, who they coveted from New Jersey that can spread it around and be accurate with the football.

Cody Green is a five-star offensive tackle. They flipped from Oregon that was also high on Texas and USC. So top 20 class for the Huskies, they had a solid, like they're kind of in that, them in Illinois are kind of living in the same zip code right now, right? Who's going to emerge and flirt with the college football playoff? Unfortunately, USC's living in that zip code right now too. USC doesn't want to live in that neighborhood. They're, you know, they are a program that has the resources to live on the same street as Oregon, Ohio State,

in Michigan, and Penn State did under James Franklin, despite what some people would say. If you look at the 12-team playoff, James Franklin had Penn State annually in New Year's six games, which puts you in the conversation to be in the college football playoff year-in-in-year-in-year-out. I'm still just so confused

that they fired him after six games. I mean, and look, maybe after the end of the season, you say, hey, it was an amazing 12 years and we're going to just, split here and end on a high note. But they were in the national title Final Four, or they were in the Final Four last year. They would have made numerous playoffs,

and they've had some great players at Penn State, and those are the kind of guys that kind of shine on those stages. Who knows what kind of noise they would have made? I know he struggled to beat Ohio State and beat Top Ten opponents, but really only Kirby Smart kicks the crap out of top ten opponents, right? I'm not saying Franklin's perfect or I'm not saying he's Jim Harbaugh or anything like that but I did think he was a good coach that had Penn State in the right conversations and so it was just wild that they fired him after that many years just in the middle of the season

and then you guys hear the same things I hear just kind of like where they were going to pivot to but then how quickly they're changing their mind on that stuff right it's why it's why that that one you know because they they pop so early and they fired james franklin so early you'd have thought the ducks would have been in a row and it's still maybe that they're hiring somebody who is in a championship game we had the story on kalani sataki now apparently the crumb the crumble cookie CEO big b yu guy i saw him with that cookie money maybe maybe come with that cookie money to keep rider lions in the fold who knows the best part of social media is like the mentions like there's so many clever people out there just the mentions of like the money that in support that b yu has but as as

these cc coaches were being named on sunday my wife was like who got penn state i was like i forgot penn state was available that's how like all the how off the path they fell you're pen state man you're you're you're in the final four last year you annually won 10 games you had played some of the biggest games and i forgot about you I think it's the highest pressure job of the ones that were open the cycle, other than LSU, obviously, which your expectations win the national title every year. Tradition is awesome, the support. They could still hire a great coach, but I forgot about Penn State,

and I'm a Big Ten Midwest guy. He got Penn State. What do you mean? I was like, I forgot it was open. Lane Kiffin sucks the oxygen out of everything, though. He's such a spectacle that everything stopped for him, including the entire coaching carousel. Like Lane Kiffin making a final, final, final decision,

you saw Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Domino's fall almost immediately after that. And so it was, everybody was holding up waiting on lane. Will Stein to Kentucky's intriguing. He's obviously a great offensive mind. I know for a fact he is a hard nose. roll your sleeves up recruiter that enjoys building relationships with guys on the trail that will carry over, getting to be in that organ machine. I mean, Dan Lanning is so likable the way he treats people, the way he treats as players,

coaches, staff, media, people around that football program, to be under his regime and administration and see how Dan Lanning carries himself as a head coach. to have that experience, but to also have the experience of being at UTSA, where it's straight evaluation, like just finding the best guys and then out coaching the people in your conference, it's just the perfect blend of for Kentucky, and then to add on to it, he's from Kentucky, to bring him to Lexington. Guys, it seems like yesterday, Kentucky had to like Wildcat Lynn Bowden because they couldn't put together consistent first downs.

They were really good at that year, though. they're going to have a coach that understands how to scheme first downs now. And they were always hard-nosed on defense. They have a lot of support and resources around that program. I've seen Kentucky win some modern recruitments because of the support that they have. And so I assume they'll have even more having Will Stein in there. And it might have been you guys that talked about it, but I like the idea of hiring these outstanding coordinators

and giving them their shot. It was a U.R.E. It was us, yeah. We've been talking about it the whole time, Steve, because we couldn't understand the obsession with sitting head coaches when all you have to do is look at the top 10 teams in America, the top 15 teams in America, and see how many guys were coordinators or position coaches

when they got their first head coaching job. Exactly right. Kirby, Lincoln Riley, Marcus Freeman, And, yeah, it's, so that's a good hire. And there's some other, I mean, like, did Mike Shanahan and Brian Haynes get any interviews? They got interviews, but they didn't get a lot of traction. And I was shocked by that. Well, they could be in the mystery.

They got a game still. So we'll see. And there's some good jobs that are now open, right? Like the two lanes and Memphis's of the world. So that'll be interesting. I'm being, I'm joking a little bit here, but not. The Mike Shanahan thing, for those who don't know, Mike Shanahan is the offensive coordinator at Indiana.

He is not the Mike Shanahan, who was the head coach of the Denver Broncos. He's not Kyle's dad. I worry if you're not a school that plays Indiana or is familiar with Mike Shanahan, you announce that hire, and you're like, we hired Mike Shanahan. No, not that Mike Shanahan. No, again, I know I've referenced my wife a couple of times, but even she thought, I was like, no, this is a much. Pauler, Mike Shanahan, that played why you see the.

Wilfong, no ball. I mean, to a lesser degree, there's a Tim Beck problem, too, because Tim Beck, the offensive coordinator at Vanderbilt, not the same person as the Tim Beck, who wasn't an offensive coordinator, but he just got fired as the Coast Carolina head coach. So that one almost got me, because it's not like Tim Beck from New Mexico State was a name that I would know. But I certainly know I'm at Vanderbilt now. And so, yeah, it's a lot.

be interesting to see you, it feels like these jobs at Tulane and Memphis and South. There's some good, there's some good American jobs open now. And we'll see, we'll see how those go. Some, I, you know, we'll consult you to see how good recruiters these guys are because that's, that's really the key. Like, I heard you talking on the whip around about Alex Golish and what a great recruiter he was at Iowa State. And then that, you know, when he got to Tennessee, he was as the OC, he was a great recruiter there and helped them win. some battles. And it makes sense why he got USF going when it had been hard to do that for a while. My favorite trade about Alex Golish for Auburn is that I think that he is incredibly competitive and will do what he has to do to rally the resources and infrastructure necessary to compete with

the top teams in the SEC. He will be accountable himself on the recruiting. chair. Recruiting is such a game of inches. You don't know how they're going to add up and land you the guys you want to land. And Auburn is not going to miss out on a kid because they don't feel like they know the head coach. Tristan Keys, five-star receiver, flips to Tennessee from LSU. Certainly a lot of modern recruiting element there with him having the Adidas deal, Tennessee getting the Adidas deal, and the balls having their ducks in a row to do what they have to do to get Tristan Keys. But Tristan Keys also didn't have a relationship with Brian Kelly. So it's much easier to tell LSU

Sianara when you don't know the head coach. Anyone that Auburn recruits, Alex Golish is a players coach, and that's built by getting to know your players through recruiting, getting to know your families, and he's going to embrace that. He's going to hustle. I mean, the dude

hustles, he grinds. Iowa State, they were one of the worst teams of all our lives until Matt Campbell got there. And he was a big part of helping put in that foundation to help them be one of the more consistent teams in the Big 12. Now, for what they are, it's hard for them to win 10, 11 games every year

because of where the cards that they're dealt, but they maximize their hand every time. And Alex Goalish was part of that underneath Matt Campbell, a Mount Union guy. Those guys know football. They know culture. They know how to get your roster in place, your practice plan in place to maximize your Jimmy's and Joe's.

Then he goes to Tennessee. He calls the place for some of the, of the most prolific offenses in the country at Tennessee, and now he's at USF. They're beaten Florida, having big wins, energizing that program. This was a great hire for Auburn. I was very excited for them to hire Alex Golish, and he deserves this job. And he's that for what they, they're the number two team in the state. Obviously, he's going to have a chip on his shoulder every day to just kick Alabama's ass. Similar to what they did at Iowa State, number two team in the state.

Iowa's number one. Certainly Iowa State has their rabid following two, but they're not the Hawkeyes. But Chip on their shoulder, the Sighawk game, all of that. Like, he's built for this Auburn job, and that doesn't guarantee you success, but I like the prospects of it. Well, cannot wait to see what he does. Steve, I know you are incredibly busy. I can't believe you can give us this time today.

We love you so much. We will see you in Indianapolis soon. Enjoy that fine crystal that Shannon Terry has put out. That crystal is either like a $500 a glass of pure crystal or something you got at home goods. And I don't know which one it is. Well, what would you think with the? I would think it would. I would think it's the good stuff

it's the good stuff but here you go Steve here's what you need to know he came from his house so those those can't have been in his home one day he's like I got no use for this I'll put it I'll stock the office is stocked with like stuff that he earned after

the original rivals sold no room for this stuff anymore I moved down to the level have that crystal in there Steve go to the lower cabinets that's where the bourbon is well we're going to drink some we're going to drink some of the brown stuff after the signing the national signing day is through here boys but thanks for having me on it's always so much fun i am disappointed you're not

coming to the big 10 title game but you got to watch all the games i get it you got you got support uh supporters you have a great studio that's making you look so good or you maybe you're making the studio look look it's river man river did the lighting in here uh it got everything ripping and roaring around here steve wolf long thank you so much it has been a pleasure Yeah. Thanks, Steve. I appreciate you, man. Really do.

Yep. All right, Ari. You've been working on a story about the continued importance of high school recruiting, even in the transfer portal era. And, of course, great timing running this right before National Signing Day. Tell me about that story and what you found talking to people. So I just was like talking to a bunch of person. staffers. Talk to Mario Cristobal in front of you yesterday. Talk to Steve Wilfog

just now. What do you think? There are 10 people I've spoken to that are personnel staffers in college football, and I asked them a simple question. How many, or what rank on average of a class out of high school recruiting does a program still need to sign in this era to win a national title? Seven out of the 10 responses were the same. What range do you think that they meant they went to? well i i know what mario christabal said so i'm i'm probably going to go with with something close to what he said which would be top 15 top 15 7 out of 10 and a few said it doesn't matter anymore which i was kind of surprised to hear um but for the most part i think there's a general agreement among everybody in the sport that you need to have a foundation of top 15, top 10, top 25 at the very least classes in order to compete. Now, the game has changed quite a bit, right?

Because, you know, in the same breath, you know, Barton Simmons and Clark Lee have put together a team that could, you know, win playoff games right now and none of their numbers are very good. But if you go back to the beginning of the internet recruiting era in 2000, you know, my favorite stat in the world, only three teams until Michigan, between, 20 or 2000 and 2023 ever won a national championship without having signed a top five class in any of the previous four recruiting cycles. And that was 2010 Auburn, 2016 and 18, Clompson, and all of them had transcendent

quarterback talents. Now, Michigan routinely signs top 15 classes and they did it in 2023. So to date, unless Indiana goes and wins the national title this year, it's never not matter. So what I think the best teams do is sign top. 15 classes and you want to get between six and nine NFL players or high level college players per class. So if you stack that up and retain them

over a three year period, you've got 20 NFL players on your roster. That means you're going to win a national title or compete for one. That is still the way to build a program until somebody proves otherwise. And like Vanderbilt, Barton Simmons is the lead to the story. I asked him the question and he was one of the people that says

this is bandy's personnel director, Vandy's general manager. Vanderbilt, former Yale football player, former rivals employee. And now the GM of Vanderbilt football, he doesn't think it matters. And, you know, he honestly can stand on that opinion because Vanderbilt hasn't recruited top 10 classes and look what they're doing this year. If you put, if you matched Vandy up with with anybody ranked below number five, you know, basically the five through 10 spots are all spots that are going to be at large teams.

If you match Vandy up with any of them, the spread is going to be. low single digits but the one thing that i would push back on is that vandy probably although they're having a great day and a great season and a great program arc probably isn't going to be in the playoff this year so question is or the thing that we need to focus on together collectively is that there's a difference between parity and winning at all there's more parity now the nil has and transfer has made it so that more teams can compete and win games and it's harder to hoard and stack that talent. But in order to actually break through and win the national title, if you look at the teams that are competing, seven of the ten that are right

now are the traditional recruiting powers, and Indiana, Texas Tech, and maybe even Ole Miss might be the exception to those rules. And Texas Tech, if you look at what they're doing for, say, 2007, they might be in that mix of top 15 type classes. So. And everybody's goal is to use on the field success through portal hits and through finances to then fall back on the traditional way of doing it. You're trying to backdoor your, and part of the reason why Florida State has failed is because they didn't use the one year success that they had from the transfers that they had multi-year transfers like Jared Verse and Jordan Travis and those guys and parlay that into top 10 classes. They just haven't recruited well enough. So, you know, I posted a stat about Florida State on Twitter three weeks ago that made people freak out because they didn't understand there's a difference in rankings and ranking services.

But according to the Arrivals industry ranking, Florida State has never signed a top or a five-star prospect in the Norville. Yeah, in the Norville. Yeah. But like, so what are you confused about? Why it's not going well? now there were there were some top 50 players some fringe five stars and there were some five stars that went from five to four i'm not saying they've never signed a good player but according to our industry rankings for the company which which combines yeah that and and the industry rankings for those don't know combine the rivals ranking and then when when rivals and three were separate there were also separate rankings so both of those the 24 seven rankings and the ESPN ranking so it's it's a composite of those the point of the article really is just saying like yeah parody is good the nil is fun transfer portal is awesome but like wednesday really matters still it really does yeah it really does i don't know if it's going to matter as much in baton rouge because as we talked about with steve will fong ls you recruits well no matter who coach is there but i'm guessing it's going to get better

with Lane Kiffin. Well, I'm wondering if part of the main draw of leaving this is knowing that. Like, leaving Ole Miss for LSU is knowing it. Well, and I definitely think that's part of it. And we need to break down Lane Kiffin's introductory press conference at LSU. But first, we've got to talk about our friends at Panini. Most collectible sports cards on the planet.

Panini, America.net is where you go to collect your favorite college and NFL stars. Ari's looking around his office because he has a stack. and stacks of pinnini cards everywhere. Yeah, I was saying, while you pick a couple of nukes to show some people, I have a pack of Donnerous Elite right here. I am going to rip this pack right now, and let's see if we can hit something big. Let's see what we got.

These are beautiful cards, by the way. The Donner's Elite ones, the base cards are this beautiful silver, and then, of course, we're looking for some numbered editions and some other things. So I got a Kool-Aid McKinstree. My son hit a numbered Kool-Aid McKinstree the other day on one of these. We got Devin Witherspoon. Ed Reed, maybe the greatest safety you ever played.

Chase Brown. And here we go. We got a number. We got a number. Number to $7.99 Extra Edition, Travis Hunter. Shame that he's out for the season. It is a nice card. Shame that he's out for the season.

because I think he's going to be a star in Jacksonville. Yeah, I mean, he was really coming on when he got hurt. So, you know, maybe a good entry point for those who like to buy singles, but definitely that's one of the main draws of the 2025 product. I've got some random cards here. Let's start with some really big ones. Here is a pair of Jaden Daniels graded hits. This is a 2024 optic retro series, Blue Ice to 15.

This card is a big. one was bigger six months ago but you know i still have confidence that he's going to be he's going to be fine he's just you know he's injured right now he just needs to to get back and here's another jaden daniels out of twenty twenty four contenders optic green pulsar this is number to 49 and this is a psa nine that i've got laying on my desk here and then here's some speculative plays i've picked up and i want to know what you think of my speculative oh here's the marvin harrison out of spectra this is a first off the line edition number to 11 that's a psa 10 uh rookie card he's not having a great start in Arizona, but I don't think he's doing

bad. Here are my speculative ones. I bought this car. This is 2023 Prism Blue Shimmer rookie. This is a first off the line exclusive of Damarian Overshone. P.S. I love Demarian Overshone so much. He was awesome the other day.

Quinn and Williams being added to that Dallas defense and DeMarian Overshone coming back from injury changed the fortunes of the Cowboys this season. He's like legitimately a really good player. He was awesome at Texas. Oversham was awesome at Texas, too. By the way, since we're comparing Jaden Daniels' rookie cards, that's a gold standard trade-in. I got a mystery rookie that I pulled from a pack,

and you key in the code at Paniniamerica.net, and you get who you get, I got Jaden Daniels number to 99 gold, you know, refracting gold standard. That's a nice little hit you have there. You know what I bought for Dirt Cheap? 24 Prism Adonai Mitchell, A.D. Mitchell out of Texas. This is a really big card for, like, if this is a quarterback, this would be thousands of dollars. I got this for pretty cheap, and he just scored on Saturday, so I have it on my death. I don't know. The Jets are very happy they traded for him.

I think they're very optimistic, and obviously they're not doing great, but I think if they draft well, they've got some good parts, and A.D. Mitchell could be one of the more valuable pickups for them. Yeah, and here's 2024 Prism Jalen McMillan, Red Shimmer. These are all first off the line edition cards. This one's number to 35. The 80 Mitchell I just showed you was also to 35. Just some speculative plays, and I'm trying to figure out whether, you know, the optimism around 80 Mitchell is a good exit point or if I should hold that long term. But that's the fun of collecting.

That's exactly right. All right. Paniniamerica.net to start collecting your favorite NFL and college stars. Ari, let us talk about what LSU collected over the weekend, which is a new head. coach. Lane Kiffin arrived in Baton Rouge and met the assembled media. And I'm telling you, we had this conversation, and I put this out on Twitter. You said he's going to be a villain. Everybody's going to hate him forever from now on. And I said, no, once he starts saying funny things, we're going to be right back in his boat, right back on his side. I'm telling you, Ari, there's a clip we're going to play.

I can see it now. It's not going to take long. It got me thinking, though, and I did a poll. I just said, do you like Lane Kiffin, yes or no? That's a good, like a Q score kind of thing. And your point is that they might not right now, but in two years they won't care anymore. Yeah, it won't matter.

Yeah. But right now, 72% of the 2,400 people who voted in the poll said no. Yeah, that's interesting. I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised that right now, but I we should set a reminder on your phone for two years from now yeah and we'll ask the same question because even one year from now I'm very curious to see what happens you think about the pantheon of sports I don't know if that's the right word if you just think about the entire world of sports

and like some of the terrible things people have done just like have nothing to do with loyalty and football yeah exactly off the way way off the field yeah yeah like really bad people have become very famous still so I mean like the the line of of not being able to come back from like whatever lane kiffin is doing this does not cross that threshold at all so exactly yeah all right here's here's a clip about money because i i've been inundated with people saying this is you know throughout this process when you know we found at lSU was open we found out florida was open we found out they wanted lane kiffin everybody's like it's all about money he's is all money i want you to listen to lane kiffin and and i i guarantee you

you, the average listener is not going to believe him. And afterward, I'm going to tell you why you should. I said through the process, okay, I'm never going to make a decision on money. And I'm telling you right now, I don't know what my contract is here. That's not very financially responsible, okay? I'm sure it's really good, okay? I don't know what it is. Nor did I know what the other places what the numbers were because I said in the beginning I told Jimmy Sexton don't tell me the numbers okay I want to make a decision that has nothing to do with money for me now tell me the numbers and the plan for what the money is for the players because that's everything in that area to me okay not what I make what they make to understand how can you build this and if you're

going to make a change and you're going to move and all these people are going to going to move and you're going to do all this and go through all that, which was a very challenging, obviously the last 48 hours, and a lot of ways sucked. It's the only way I can describe it. It sucked for a lot of people. And there was no way to possibly do it, in my opinion, any better than we did from a timing standpoint because it's a bad scheduling system of how it's set up and eventually hopefully it gets like the NFL where you can't do that in the season and don't have to make those decisions. But in that, it was very important and very critical.

And Verge and his team had a really, really good plan. So I didn't know, but I don't know my contract says, I don't know if I believe him necessarily that he doesn't know what his salary is going to be or anything like that. Do I believe he cared intensely about what it was going to be during this process? No, I don't.

I'm from talking to people throughout all of this and getting some more intel yesterday on Florida's pursuit of Lane Kiffin. I don't think Lane Kiffin was motivated by money at all in this thing. Jimmy Sexton basically went to the bidders to Ole Miss and to Florida and LSU and said, hey, he doesn't want to do this negotiation thing three times. like we're going to negotiate once so he's going to pick what he's going to do and we'll end up negotiating with that team and you can say that's giving away your leverage but you always have the option to open it back up

so the leverage remained and I don't think Lincoln and it comes back to what we've said millions of times on this show none of these coaches ever think they're going to fail they don't care about the buyout they don't care about the this that that they just want the job And that was Lane Kiffin's sole motivation in this one was that job. I don't think it was about the money at all because Ole Miss could have paid him the same.

Florida could have paid him the same. I think that's the job he wanted. Yeah. I mean, I think that money would have been a bigger factor if there was a major difference in the offers he was getting. It's not like one was $14 million, one was $9 million. There was going to be virtually no difference. Everybody was going to match everybody. So I believe him in the sense is I don't know what my salary is because it might have

in half a million more or less than the other options, but you're all in the same general neighborhood, which is record setting. You know, and I also believe that too, because if it was all about money, you would have seen a more, I think traditional bidding war type scenario

that would have made it not play out. It would have been everybody's sending in offers, and that's really not what happened. So there were some, not what happened. There were some proposals, I think, that got sent early on in the process,

but it was kind of, just here's let's get started talking and then jimmy told everybody hey no no no we're going to do this at the back end and so that's that's how it went down and i thought that was very interesting and again i'm sure there's a significant portion of the population that does not believe him when he says that i mean it's also a pretty fair assumption in 90% of cases that money won out like it's like if you think that like it's a you're probably going to be right 90% of the time you think this is this is a this is a very fair assumption and this is an unusual case like most job situations you and i have been through these the money

hasn't always been the overriding factor but it often is most of the time i'd say it is yeah so what's the next clip andy the next one is lane talking about tiger stadium and this is one of those that i imagine he thought about this a little bit during the process but probably didn't hit him really until he got to Baton Rouge. And this is something that I imagine everybody who's taken over at LSU, it's hit them kind of the same way. Here's Lane talking about Tiger Stadium. Then you're a number of times, you know,

now that you say it, I think about it, I've been down there in what you guys have watched for a long time, I would say that you would probably say two of the most intense times and feelings, and those were two over times. times, one at Alabama here, and then one at Ole Miss here in the overtime two years ago. And, wow, man, that feeling on the other sideline all the way from the warm-ups of those night games, I coached a lot of places, okay, and a lot of road games, NFL college, there is nothing

like the feeling when you're on the other sideline and the intensity that you feel. It's like a weight that you feel. You know, I've talked to head coaches who have been here before, obviously. Can they talk about, like, feeling on the other sideline, like how they feel lifted up by the crowd in the intensity? Well, when you're on the other sideline, you feel it the other way. And especially as you get to crunch time and overtime at night. So I've felt that. And I always thought to myself, man, what if we had that advantage on our side?

So if we combine what we do, the way that we coach players, the systems that we run, and now we have that intensity on our side for the opponent to deal with. Again, that that's how all it painted all together to say, and this is where you're supposed to be. Now, I will say the weight can be felt by the home coach at Tiger Stadium as well. I think if you asked Brian Kelly at Orgeron and Les Miles, there were times when they felt the weight of that crowd on themselves. as LSU's coach, when things started to turn.

But when Tiger Stadium is rocking, when that fan base is happy, when LSU is winning, I contend there is no better home field advantage in sports. Yeah, right. I mean, I think that when you're, if you break down this press conference, Andy, clip by clip, you know, you're going to find a lot of advantages. Oh, it's a big stadium and it's super loud at night. And, oh, it's a wonderful fan base that's completely bought into all the things that we're doing it all the time. and like, oh, the recruiting advantages.

Like, I think that, like, what you're basically doing is showing your work on a math equation of why it's one of the five best jobs in the country. Yeah, and why he took the job, which he needed to explain, not from a PR standpoint necessarily, but just to get it out there. This is why I did this.

This is why that whole circus happened. Right. So, I mean, I think, like, again, I don't know if there's a lot of people who don't have a specific dog, and the fight that are questioning the actual decision of doing it. I think with Lane Kiffin, the discussion has been more about the execution of the exit more than it is the decision to go.

But he doesn't get to go to LSU unless he exits like that because, I mean, I guess he could have, the only way he could have exited more gracefully is understanding that he wasn't going to be able to coach Ole Miss and just be like, I get it. I'm okay, I'm gone. Yeah. Or like done it. That's the only thing that would have happened. Yeah.

Yeah, done it in a way of like, hey, this is what I want to do. do what but everybody's still be pissed off at him right now for that yeah and that's the other thing too it's like if you if you think that people wouldn't be calling him a quitter or a backstabber or all the things that people are calling him even if he would have left gracefully and you know you think that people would be like oh he's changed like everybody's going to say the same things that they're saying so from his standpoint it probably makes a lot of sense to just what's the difference what's the difference i'm going to push my my leverage as far as i can go and maybe they'll let me do this and if they don't then whatever you know like that's just

kind of the way it is so um you know i i think it's very easy to be critical of him and i have been you have been i think the number one thing that has irked me about this if i could express one thing it's that he has tried to come across or at least even and i think he's truly perceived himself as being a victim in this scenario and you're not the victim lane like yeah i do think he believes that even though it's not true it was a hard situation i certainly believe that it it sucks to give your life six years to some place and then being flipped off on your way onto the airplane and all those stuff or like he mentioned that he was people were trying to drive him off the road three separate times during his news conference on Monday and like there's

no exiting a nice way and I feel like you made the decision being the villain or being called a backstabber or disloyal or you haven't changed or all byproducts of that decision and you're not the victim. You got to improve your existence in life based on the way that you perceive it, and sometimes there are some consequences for doing that. All right. Now we get to the clip that I think will explain why, I believe, if you ask that, do you like Lane Kiffin poll question again in one year, two years, three years, you're going to get different answers. Here's Lane talking about calling our pal coach oh i actually were going by tiger stadium i called one person i called ed ogeron and i said hey man all i can do is man this place just makes me want to talk like you right

now i did i was like we were in the car and the kids were in there and i was like and i was like and the coaches and they're like what are you doing i'm like i don't know i'm like channeling head right and i'm like i'm feeling him like i rolled down the window and i was like go tag us to the fans And I'm like, so I called out, I said, I don't know what's going on, man, but I'm feeling you right now. And he's like, coach you at the best place in America. So I feel that. So as I thought I would do, I have no idea what your question was. Coach, oh, now maybe, maybe this, does this explain the Brian Kelly for Amelie thing?

Like, because Lane said it just sort of hit him. I mean, like, the desire to talk that way just seeped into his pores when he hit the Baton Rouge air. Maybe that's what happened to Brian Kelly and why he said, family at that basketball game. You know that, like, I have, like, I say things impulsively all the time because I have, like, this bubbling, like, go get him, eggs. Like, I like saying that. Right. Go taggers. Which is not something, they don't say go get him, mags, but they do say go tigers.

Yeah. You don't have to correct. That's a completely and utterly authentic way of cheering for A&M. But go taggers is a fun thing to say. At least Lane Kiffin acknowledged it, though. I think that was maybe the difference between him. Yes. And like, let's be honest about something here too.

And I'm not trying to pile on Brian Kelly. But aura and how you are and what people expect of you is certainly plays into how and what you can say, how you can behave, and things you can pull off. And, like, I just think that Lane Kiffin is on a different playing field when it comes to swag and energy and everything else

that allowed it to happen that way. Well, did you watch that clip, though, and think, okay, when he's doing one of these, because there's a moment like that in every third Lane Kiffin weekly press conference or maybe every other one. So in a year or two,

when he has a moment like that that goes viral that everybody laughs about. If you ask that poll question again, do you like Lane Kiffin? Do you think more than 50% will say no? Or do you think more than 50% will say yes? I don't know, Andy. I'm sure that I'm sure he can win people back

because winning is the cure. I mean, Tiger Woods people were rooting for for like crazy and like he didn't think I would say are worse on a human level. so like you know and they came back around like when he won that master's that was the last major he won it was like one of the most single most impactful sporting event results in the history of the world so like you know i and that was after everything but you know college football coach uh fans like shadenfreude is like a big part of it and i think that like college football fans hold

on to things that happened in the past a little bit more closely to the vest than other sports. Is that a fair thought? Is that a fair estimation? Yeah, they remember everything. The best example I can give you of that, of college football fans having one, incredibly long memories, two instant recall of those incredibly long memories. So I was covering the Georgia Auburn game in 2017 at Jordan Hare. That was 10 years after Georgia beat Auburn in Sanford Stadium in 2007. The song that was very popular that year was cranked that by Soldier Boy. You do, do, do, do.

So they were playing that at the end of the game, which was a decisive Georgia win. So near the end of the game, they're playing that right before Georgia kicks off. They come back from commercial on CBS, and Bern-Lunquist is dancing in the booth to Soldier Boy. And it was a kind of a moment burned into everybody's memory. And so, 2017, Georgia is number one in the country. They come to Jordan Hare Stadium. They are kicking Auburn's ass in the second half. And this is late, late, late in the game.

I was already down on the field, I think, at this point. And you hear, doop, doop, doop. The whole stadium just explodes. Everybody remembered that. everybody knew why that mattered and that is what you're talking about yes yes uh 100% college football brain is more powerful i think than other sports um you know and the question here really in terms of pressure and winning people back is like nobody stopped to consider this but like what if lSU goes nine and three the next three years he'll be fired and and

then but then what happened here this weekend will come back into play in terms of his marketability for whatever next job he wants so like i feel like in doing what he did and this is an aspect that no one said i think i'm the first person that said this that you are gambling your career on this move because it took him how many years to bounce back from the u.s.s. he's not gambling his career somebody if he gets fired at lsu somebody who hired him, coach football again. But I will say, like in terms of being at a top tier place, like this is your shot. No, no, this is the shot.

Yeah, yeah. This is your shot at one of those. You've got to make this count. Now, speaking of stadium music choices, Lane goes to Oxford next year, Lane goes to Knoxville next year. When he goes to Vaught Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, what are the odds that they will play? Oh, use a hoe, how use a hoe, I'll say that you's a hole. What are the ends of that? Probably 100%.

You know, Andy, we have a lot of like coaches returning and stuff to places and players returning to places that they once were that were high impact. How do you think this will land on the most intense returns list? And I'm trying to think of like Nick Sabin back to Tiger Stadium is probably the number one of that if I had to think of the past 25 years or so. Who do you think is the most intense return of any athlete ever in sports? Because there's one that sticks out to me. Ooh, this is hard because there's so many where the athletes have done it. LeBron back to Cleveland, but they play so many regular season games. That's the one that I think is the most intense,

when LeBron returned with the heat to Cleveland for the first time. I think that this did, like, match up to that. I think Nick going back to LSU with Alabama was as bad as that. Yeah. certainly so yeah this is going to be off the charts i mean lane did get a golf ball thrown at him and a mustard bottle at tennessee also if you throw a golf was that is was that his first i'm trying to remember if that was his first time back at tennessee's head coach he had obviously coached at tennessee i produced river he'd obviously coached at tennessee as alabama's offensive

coordinator so it's not like that was his first time back in neeland stadium 2021 was his first time back as a head coach but he did come back in like 2015 as OC-abama so okay so yeah but first time back as a head coach uh mustard bottle golf ball got it you mean if you throw a golf ball at somebody from the upper deck and it lands on their head you could literally kill them like it's like you should be careful yeah don't throw stuff at him yeah booing mercilessly of course but don't throw stuff yeah yeah talk shit that's assault brother yeah don't don't assault people um like There was some pretty intense reactions to, like I, I struggle with this, Andy, because on one hand, the people who drove to the airport to yell at him and flip him off as he flew away are the reason why SEC football and college football in general are a different breed than some of the other sports, but then on the other reason why it's my favorite sport.

but on the other hand I have a hard time as an adult understanding why somebody would take time out of their day to do that so like that listen I'm yeah I don't I don't care if I understand it I'm just glad they do

because that's our people this is this is our audience like these are our people yeah the lunatic fringe just don't throw anything you don't throw anything dude we honestly should have just named

our podcast the lunatic fringe but I feel like we I feel like the Ohio state version of that took it in such a bad place. We want it to be said with love. Yeah. I mean, certainly.

But I feel like being part of the lunatic fringe is almost a badge of honor at this point. But yes. I mean, like what I want to see is a meeting between the people who were flipping lane off at the Oxford airport and the people who were booing Gene Chiswick when he landed at the Auburn airport.

Yeah. Because it said it'd be two generations. Like, that's 15 years later. yeah you um it is so funny too to get booed and then like what how long do you think it takes a private jet to fly from oxford to baton Rouge like an hour if that 45 minutes yeah like the dichotomy of that yeah and you know so go taggers oh but i do think that lane kiffins foray into baton rouge and in the highest of high levels of college football is going to be a very interesting story for us to track long term.

And I'm very excited to see how that all plays out, while also feeling remorseful and upset for Ole Miss fans who shouldn't be dealing with this during one of the most exciting times in program history. Like that, right, both of those things can be true. Exactly right, exactly right. We're going to have a lot to talk about. Lane Kiffin will continue to give us a lot to talk about.

Ole Miss will give us a lot to talk about here. We got to talk about Ole Miss in the playoff tonight. 7 p.m. Eastern time is when ESPN will be revealing the college football playoff selection committee rankings. The last one before the one that actually counts, this will set the table for that. This, I think, will be the most instructional one yet. And we don't know what's going to happen. Where does Texas A&M fall?

Where do they have Notre Dame? Where do they have Alabama? Did Vanderbilt move when they beat Tennessee? We talked to Mario Cristobal yesterday. put out the case for Miami, does Miami move? Does BYU move? So many questions to be answered. We'll discuss it live at 7 o'clock Eastern time as the rankings are revealed. And on tomorrow's show in the afternoon, we've got the coach of one of the most interesting teams that is playing this weekend and perhaps the most interesting team that's playing this weekend because a lot of people

are paying attention to the Duke Blue Devils. That's right, the five lost Duke Blue Devils who will be playing for the ACC Championship this weekend. Coach Mani Diaz will join us tomorrow. So live show 7 p.m. Eastern Time as we reveal the rankings, Mani Diaz tomorrow, this never stops, folks, never stops. We'll talk to you soon. I'm going to be.