Andy & Ari On3 - The Sherrone Moore Era BEGINS at Michigan | Transfer Portal Check-In | Iowa FINALLY Hires an OC

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

In tonight's episode of Andy Staples On3, Andy takes a look at the official beginning of the Sherrone Moore era at Michigan, the revolving door of news with the transfer portal, and the hiring of an offensive coordinator at Iowa!(0:00-20:15) Intro - Sherrone Moore is Head Coach at Michigan, and Clayton Sayfie Joins(20:16-36:14) Pete Nakos Joins to Talk the Transfer Portal(36:15-50:59) Tom Kakert Joins to Talk Iowa's OC Hire(51:00-51:15) ConclusionWant to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/D-QkuS7OV0Y

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. . .. It's obviously not Jim Harbaugh, but does it feel as close to the Jim Harbaugh regime as it's going to get? Yeah, it feels like a continuation for sure. I mean, and also, too, part of Jim Harbaugh's legacy, I think, is grooming Sharon Moore, you know, the next guy to take over. And obviously he had Jim Harbaugh's endorsement. So it'll be interesting to see what this era is. I mean, clearly Sharon Moore has his own personality and he'll put his own stamp on the program.

But he said on Saturday morning at his introductory press conference, he wants to keep the philosophy the same, not only on both sides of the ball, but also within the program. We're not satisfied with victories of the past, but we're hungry for future success. We want to attack every day as we walk into the building as it's the Monday of the national title game. All hands on deck. We want to make sure that we're in the best position, that we can compete on and off the field. We will work extremely hard every day to represent this university, this program, this city, this state, and attack every day as hard as we can. Physicality, playing Michigan football.

He's an offensive lineman and offensive line coach. You know he's going to want to run the ball. You know he's going to want to have a really good offensive line and defensive line, win in the trenches. So it's going to be similar. And, you know, he said he wants to take recruiting to another level. He's going to be involved with, you know, helping NIL get a boost there. So, you know, things are going to be different.

He's going to be aggressive. He said he wants to be aggressive in every area of the program. So there's going to be changes. But at the same time, this is, you know, a continuation of what Michigan has built. And by the way, as you know, Andy, Sharon Moore helped build a lot of what Michigan has become anyway. So that's a big part of this as well. That's the thing. It feels like the identity that they have now began to get established when he got moved from being the tight ends coach to being the offensive line coach. Now he wasn't elevated to offensive coordinator quite yet, but it feels like that

is when this sort of hard-nosed really heavy run heavy identity started to get forged yeah no doubt and really it was Jim Harbaugh kind of going back to his roots as well and something that I think suited Sharon Moore really well and and at that point you know Jim Harbaugh replaced six out of ten assistant coaches Sharon Moore was one of the four that was held over along with Jay Harbaugh and a couple others. One of the reasons why he was held over is because of the relationships he has with the players.

He's a great recruiter, you know, very energetic on the younger side. We all know Michigan got a little bit younger back in 2021. But then also elevating him, I think Jim Harbaugh knew at some point he wanted to make him the offensive line coach, and it was the right time. And, you know, then they go back to this identity that we've seen kind of the pendulum swing back a little bit more in college football. I mean, back in 2017, when Haskins comes in that Michigan-Ohio State game for JT Barrett and starts throwing all over him, to me, that was the moment in the Big Ten, at least, when

Ohio State took that step to pass heavy. We all know they could spread it out already. But the pendulum kind of swung back when Jim Harbaugh made a lot of those moves back in 2021. And then at the end of the season in 2023, Michigan's the toughest team with the best linemen on both sides. And again, like we said, Sharon Moore was a big part of that. So I think that's going to be

Michigan's identity moving forward. And, you know, when you look back at the journey of Sharon Moore, it's been pretty incredible to watch. He's moved up quickly. This is only the third place he's been as an assistant coach and then now as the head coach.

But he's been here longer than anywhere. And he's, you know, as Michigan as any of the other guys that are going to be moving this program forward. So on Thursday's's show we talked to Anthony Broom your colleague at the at the Wolverine and he was going over a three-point plan of what Sharon Moore would need to do to be successful right away one of those is out the window Jesse Mentor which we kind of thought was going to happen he's going to follow Jim Harbaugh as a defensive coordinator for the Chargers.

So what does Sharon Moore do now in terms of filling that spot? Yeah, that's a big one. You know, I think he's going to probably look at some people with Ravens ties, surprise, surprise, and just kind of keep that pipeline going. It's kind of funny, too, because, you know, now that Jim Harbaugh wants to make Los Angeles, West, as he said, with kind of a pipeline there, Sharon said we have two pipelines to the NFL now. And I think that could benefit them not only with some of their guys getting drafted or picked up as undrafted free agents

or even guys that have already been in the league and what have you. But it's also going to help, as we've seen with, as you and I talked about a couple weeks ago, kind of that internship program as well. And it benefits both sides. It benefited the Ravens with Mike McDonald after he kind of had a tryout for a year with Michigan, and it benefited Michigan getting him for a year and then Jesse Minter for two. So I think stuff like that's going to continue. So people with Ravens ties to look for, Zach Orr is one name that people are kind of circling as well. And then Clint Hurt, a guy who was the defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks, that staff obviously getting revamped there with a new head coach coming in at some point.

And Sharon Moore worked with him at Louisville, so they have ties there. But I do think they want to keep the system pretty similar, regardless of whether or not they get somebody who has worked either with Minter, McDonald, or with the Ravens. So that's going to be really interesting as they move forward here. And Andy, you and I talked, you know, I think off air about a month ago or two that, you know, on the offensive side, is he going to call plays as a head coach when that time comes? Sounds like he's not going to. So that's going to be another big hire as well. Yeah. And that's an interesting decision. And you at you know right across the rivalry ryan day just deciding he doesn't want to call plays anymore you've seen it around college football gus malzahn did it

before this past season eli drinkwitz decided to stop calling plays before this past season and it is there's a lot to get your arms around as a, as a head coach. But I think that's interesting with Sharon Moore because the first taste of him as a head coach, we got, he was calling the plays in those games. Exactly. Exactly. So it is a may, maybe he's, he will be refreshed, maybe less workload than, than at the end of last season. But, but I do think that's interesting. And it does allow him to kind of put a stamp on that. You mentioned Clint Hurt.

Interesting thing about him. You don't have to worry about can this guy recruit. Longtime college assistant before he went to the Seahawks with Louisville and with Miami. And so that's a guy who has some very good recruiting ties as well. You mentioned Sharon Moore and wanting to kind of supercharge the recruiting. And I think that's interesting because Michigan sort of, I think, set a new blueprint for how you can win a national title where you mix in some five stars and then some guys you developed

and some four stars. But it sounds like Sharon Moore would like to recruit in the more Kirby Smart, Nick Saban, Ryan Day type thing. Yeah, I think so. And even maybe Dan Lanning as well with just the buzz that Oregon has created. Obviously, NIL has played a factor in that. And Sharon Moore said he's going to be heavily involved. And he's already had this is Saturday morning. He was hired Friday night at 7.01 p.m. or whatever it was. He said he had already had NIL conversations and everything as we talked to him on Saturday morning. So I think that's going to be a factor. But here's the thing. One, Michigan did kind of create this different blueprint on

how to win a national championship, but Michigan also had Jim Harbaugh and a fantastic staff. Not every coaching staff around the country is going to have that luxury to have somebody like that heading your program and the way they develop, the way they run the program. And Sharon Moore is not Jim Harbaugh. So I think, yeah, to win, they're probably going to have to recruit at a little bit of a higher level. And I think Sharon Moore understands that. And either way, I think he would want to recruit at a higher level. So yeah, he talked about being the face of the program on the recruiting trail as a head coach recruiter, you know, in terms of really getting on the road, really getting to connect with these kids. Because in Harbaugh, Harbaugh, the last few years, he wasn't climbing as many trees.

And, and, you know, yeah, Yeah, doing the sleepovers as much. You know, he was still involved, did a lot of satellite camps when they could. But I think Sharon Moore wants to, you know, kind of, I think supercharge is a great way to put it the way you said it. I think he wants to take it to that next level, as he said. And, you know, that's going to be something that he's really good at. People forget because so early on in his tenure when he was tight ends coach, he was their ace recruiter. He was also in on all the top recruitments that Michigan or top recruits Michigan was going after. Regardless of position, regardless of area of the country, he did hone in on the Midwest when he was tight ends coach. Took a little bit of a step back in that area once he

became O-line coach and O-coordinator, and then obviously this past year having to serve as interim head coach for four games. But I expect him to be really involved as a head coach recruiter as the face of this program, and I think that could give them a good advantage as they try to land some of these higher-rated guys that they haven't been able to get the last couple years. Well, and that probably explains the abdicating of play-calling duties and game-planning duties.

If that is going to be one of your primary focuses and you want to be the face of the program and recruiting uh you know we talk about nick saban he was alabama's most aggressive recruiter he was their closer the you know the top 15 guys on the board those are his guys and so i i would imagine that that's something sharon moore wants to do speaking of, we've got to talk about Mr. Herbert, and I know probably the casual fan thinks when I tell you Mr. Herbert, we're talking about Justin Herbert, Jim Harbaugh's quarterback with the Chargers. No, we're talking about Ben Herbert, the strength coach at Michigan.

What are the chances that Sharon Moore can keep him around? Yeah, so I think initially, and probably still happening, the buzz was that Jim Harbaugh was going to try to take Ben Herbert with him uh Michigan strength coach who is one of two in the country who makes over a million dollars now he's been that valuable to this program Jim Harbaugh tried to nominate him for the Broyles award a couple years ago the Broyles award said no you can't and he should have won it you should have won it right absolutely and so But the Burroughs Award came back and said, you can't do that. But that's how much he means to Jim Harbaugh and this program and the players and everything else.

Now, from what we've heard, there's a strong chance that Sharon Moore is going to be able to retain Ben Herbert and keep him in. He said yesterday that he's very encouraged. We've also spoken to people around the program who it sounds like that's the way that things are leaning at this point. And a big clue as well would be Sharon Moore before he addressed the team on Saturday morning for the first time as Michigan's head coach. The guy who addressed the team before him was Ben Herbert, the guy who was leading the workout before that. It was Ben Herbert in it. It was fitting the first team meeting was right in the middle of the weight

room there with Herb and Sharon. So I think that that's going to happen most likely, and that is huge for Michigan. He's also associate head coach. I mean, Jim Harbaugh tried to give him every title he possibly could because he just loves the dude. But everybody loves the dude, including Sharone Moore, and I think they understand how important it is to keep him. Well, as a good strength coach, he's the second most important staff member on any staff and right you're absolutely right and and the fact the fact that they had a workout before the first meeting with him as head coach like it was like during yeah everybody stop lifting I'm here you know me continue lifting was that is that the meeting right there? It's, it seems like this is just while we're on that topic too, because, you know, I think people are starting to learn who Sharon Moore is.

A lot of us who have covered him, you know, have gotten to know him a little bit and, and, you know, especially in a media setting. Sharon Moore is a very lovable guy. He has a smile on his face. He's young, he's energetic. He connects with the kids. Sharon Moore is also a hard ass. And you'll see

that in his speech we will be smart tough dependable relentless enthusiastic and do that at a championship level with a championship team that loves football plays with a passion for the game plays for each other plays for that one talent and you know he said the offense alignment one day they hate him one day they love him but all he cares about is if they respect him so this is not going to be a guy that's a pushover by any means uh he's kind of strike he strikes that balance that jim harbaugh was able to when jim harbaugh really hit his sweet spot in his back half of his career at michigan where he was able to connect with the kids have that relationship be the funny quirky guy you know the guy who's doing squats in the weight room with his khakis on, but also the guy that's going to light into

him. Like, so, and you need to have that in this day and age, he's trying to keep his roster intact right now. But he also said in that speech, like, you know, pretty much get out if you don't want to work hard and work at a championship level. So I think they're going to keep that aspect of this thing going where he's going to have that relationship with these guys. It's important, especially with NIL transfer portal, but he's going to get on them as well. Well, this explains why Jim Harbaugh ID'd him, because I would imagine Jim Harbaugh saw a lot of himself in Sharon Moore.

One guy's a quarterback, one guy's an offensive lineman, but they really do seem cut from the same cloth in terms of how they manage players. You know how Sharon won Jim over? He told the story at his presser yesterday. His interview when he was at Central Michigan comes down to Ann Arbor for his interview for the tight ends coach position. He said the first thing he did was pulled out a chair and started showing them how like his run block technique. I took a chair out. I showed how to run block him. I obviously you guys know coach. I mean, he was right there.

He got up, he pulled, he tightened his belt. He wanted me to run block him. He pulled another guy. He's like, yeah, go ahead and base drive him, down block him. I'm like, I'm gonna knock him out if I do that. So it was, it was phenomenal. It was like a five hour meeting. And then we went into film and he was like, yeah,

you want to spend the night? I came with a suit. He said, yeah, we'll go downstairs, get you some gear. It'll be great. I was like, sure. He spent the night, they offered him the job in the morning and the rest was history. But so yes, Andy, they are cut from the same cloth. That is amazing. Speaking jim harbaugh he is in baltimore supporting brother john in the afc championship game before that game he was interviewed by cbs and uh got asked about leaving michigan and the answer i thought was

really telling he said there's only one lombardi trophy and this is something that you and i have talked about a bunch over the last few months but how how hard was the pull of the idea of winning that Super Bowl that that eluded him the first time around yeah and I wonder even when he took the job back in December of 2014 if in the back of his head like it was in the back of many people's minds that at some point he was going to go back and chase the Super Bowl now I don't think know, he's a guy that lives in the moment. I don't think that was kind of, you know, some,

all he thought about over the last nine years or anything else. But I do think the last few years when they've started to have a little bit more success, he was drawing a little bit of interest from the NFL that that kind of intrigued him. And he wanted to go two years ago. I think he didn't want to go as much last year because of the team he had coming back.

Yeah. Yeah. They ended up winning the national championship. And now, you know, he's a builder. You wrote a great column about this after he left. And I was thinking the same thing where you go back to what he said. He's a construction guy. He's not an architect, but he's a builder. And there's some dirt now in Los Angeles for him to use to go build. But he also, you know, almost won the the Super Bowl and almost

got there as a player he almost won it against his brother in 2012 as a coach he said you know the uh what did he say the sand in the hourglass you know there's something like that like basically there's only so much sand in the hourglass exactly he's six years old so you're exactly right and yeah you know it was a it was an incredible run and it sounds like this worked out exactly as he would have hoped with Sharon Moore taking over because it feels like that's who he wanted running the program yeah I think so I think he made that very clear from what Ward Manuel said on on Saturday that when he called to tell him that, hey, I'm taking the Chargers job and everything else, you know, it was, hey, Sharon Moore is my pick. He also stood in front of the team. Jim Harbaugh flew back to Ann Arbor for his final team meeting,

which lasted quite a while, I guess, and was pretty emotional on Friday. And he said there's nobody better to lead the team than Sharon Moore. He made that clear in other interviews that he had done. And obviously Michigan wrapped it up pretty quickly and just about exactly 48 hours. So yes, I think Jim Harbaugh made it clear. And Andy, I think that he was kind of hinting at this over the last really year that he wanted Sharon Moore to be a guy that eventually runs this Michigan program. So that's important that he has that endorsement. That's not a small thing. And I think that's going to help the roster stay intact. I think that's going to help really the ideas down the road. I mean, Jim Harbaugh leaves on incredibly good terms here.

So maybe Michigan West, you got Michigan West in LA, you got Michigan East in Baltimore, hell, maybe even Charlotte, you know, with, with Biff Poggi down there. So you got some, they're starting to kind of take over the uh the country the map dueling internship programs and feeder systems for defensive coordinators and yeah they got it all and i appreciate michigan doing this quick i got a little tired of going on radio shows and people out who who else are they going to look at who are they going to interview them like they're going to hire sharon more yeah and that shuts down the radio interview real quick. Right. That's not the

answer they want to hear because they want to talk about this guy or that guy, but that's, that's what was going to happen. That's always what was going to happen. And, uh, that's what happened. Yeah. And it sounds like Sharon Moore hit the ground running. So all of the, cause there was worry about the recruiting process because you know, when Jim Harbaugh is looking at NFL jobs, it's hard, even, even if you know, Sharon Moore'sugh is looking at NFL jobs it's hard even even if you know Sharon Moore is going to be the guy it's very hard if you're Sharon Moore to say I'm definitely going to be the guy come to a junior day let's do all now they can do all that stuff yeah they have I think a week before the dead period at least and I think that's why they

wanted to get this like let's get the press conference out of the way let's get you to the basketball game and by the way he was there with a bunch of the top players he's trying to keep them as close as to him as possible uh and he let donovan edwards talk naturally as one would uh to the michigan crowd there but he wanted to get that day out of the way and i think he wanted to make sure he could get all the uh you know first orders of business out of the way which is staff you know because that helps with recruiting too you got to announce guys, make sure you retain all the guys, including Ben Herbert. You got to make sure guys don't go in the portal, which by the way, kind of helps is weird because the timing for Washington and Alabama wasn't great.

But now that semesters are kind of, you know, three, four weeks underway, it might help Michigan in that regard, at least until the spring portal period. So that's going to be big. And then, then you really can, you know, kind of continue to sell them throughout spring ball and during winter workouts but yeah he's got a lot on his plate immediately uh but he feels like he's got the energy and in the uh you know just just the motivation to really hit the ground running here well it'll be fascinating to see and yeah the guys that are already there, they're in classes. They're hanging around for the spring semester. May as well do spring ball.

And yeah, it probably does put a dent in who might go into the portal. Although I'm sure there are plenty of people who are in those dudes ears because there's a lot of good players at Michigan. But we shall see. New head coach, Clayton Safey. Sounds like a new boss. Almost the same as the old boss yeah not gonna be too uh too different it's gonna be fun though for sure appreciate it Clayton yep we're joined now by the great Pete Nacos who

Pete have you gotten to breathe a little bit this weekend? Yeah, it's funny you mention that. Our good friend at the Andy Tipple Show, J.D. Piquel, made a comment on Twitter yesterday. He said, oh, we finally have some time from the portal to breathe. I'm like, don't you dare jinx it. I walked out of the apartment yesterday. Big day for me. Yes, left the laptop here for like an hour. Yeah, big day.

What does sunshine look like? What was that like? Oh, it rained. So but yeah, of course. Of course. So yeah, the only really, you know, kind of big ish news out of the transfer portal was Jabbar Muhammad from Washington, committing to Oregon. And that's something that's kind of feels like it's been in the works for a couple weeks. Yeah, the interesting thing about Jabbar Muhammad is is when committing to Oregon. And that's something that's kind of feels like it's been in the works for a couple of weeks. Yeah. The interesting thing about Jabbar Muhammad is,

is when he went in the portal right after Kalen DeBoer took the Alabama job, Texas and Oregon made in-home visits. And right after that had a source. I really trust reach out to me and say like, this is going to be organs to watch would be very surprised if he went elsewhere and i reported that throughout his recruitment and obviously took the official visits to texas and alabama and the whole time i was continued to be being told that oregon was going to be the school to watch and then he made the official visit this weekend as justin hopkins reported from scoop duck and uh and then yeah he committed and it's a another just huge pickup for

dan lanning in the portal especially in that secondary yeah and that's something that that he did last year where he really upgraded the talent in the secondary and you saw it paid dividends pretty quickly and it does seem like he he just he knows where he wants his talent level he's not quite there yet. But as they move into the Big Ten, I would imagine they feel pretty comfortable where they're at. If I am in Eugene right now in the Oregon facility and I'm Dan Lanning, I feel like we have a great roster that has one of the best chances of any team in the Big Ten to win the league in our first year,

making that jump. And I would have to think that it's going to be college football playoff or bus for the Ducks. Elsewhere in the Big Ten, Sharone Moore is named the head coach at Michigan. And even though Jim Harbaugh left Wednesday night, so the portal's been open for several days, no Michigan players in there yet. No Michigan players in there yet. I think that Michigan got who they wanted, got who the roster wanted and probably get the guy who is,

is really going to step in and do a good job in Ann Arbor, just knowing the infrastructure and how it's all figured out. The one comment I will make about the transfer portal is like, if I would, if I, if a Michigan player probably would wait to the spring, I would have to bet. Because they're in classes and have been for weeks.

The academic calendar is not doing any of those players favors right now. So not ruling it out that the Sharon Moore hire maybe changed minds. I'm just saying that I won't be surprised if maybe a Michigan player who was thinking of going in would prefer to go in the spring just because of the academic calendar. Yeah. And look, we've seen it with Sharon Moore coming in to replace Jim Harbaugh. If we would assume they're going to act kind of the same way they've acted the past few years,

which means Michigan's probably going to pick up a few more post spring. Cause that was something they've done really well each of the last two years. Yeah. The Wolverines have kind of been on pause right with like carbaugh trying to figure out what he's going to do when they didn't have a junior day they didn't really get overly aggressive in the portal um i think part of that was obviously winning a national championship but um obviously again some spots to fill and obviously the biggest one that we're all going to be looking uh to his quarterback and what charles moore decides to do in his first year at that position yeah yeah he's got some guys on the roster he can check them out in the spring and then if uh if none are satisfactory then you

uh you put up the old help wanted sign and and see who hops in although auburn probably has that help wanted sign up too so there are a few spots where there, there may be some job openings. Yeah, I definitely think there are a few schools, including Auburn and Michigan that are definitely going to be in the quarterback on. And the funny thing about the spring too, Andy,

and you know, this is like a team might enter spring ball, feel really good about a quarterback. And then they watch how practice and the spring game goes and they might rush to the portal. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be be as you keep telling us the spring portal is going to be wilder than it was in the past couple years i i'm very intrigued to see how all of that shakes out but while we've got a moment to breathe here let's

talk about some of these rosters coming out of the winter portal window, who can we say are you? We just mentioned Oregon as one of the bigger winners of that with Jabbar Muhammad just now, Dylan Gabriel, obviously the biggest name that they got out of the portal. But who are some of the other teams that really did upgrade their rosters? You know, I think the ones that really come to mind right off the bat is obviously Louisville has done everything they needed to do to be right back in the ACC championship mix.

Yet again, Deion Sanders revamps the roster through the transfer portal at Colorado. Ole Miss probably puts together one of the more overall talented classes I think we've seen in recent memory, obviously led by Walter Nolan. You can't overshadow Ohio State and what they've done with Julian Sane, Caleb Downs, Will Howard, Quint Sean Jenkins. And then a couple dark horses, too. Like, I really like what Cal did. They brought in Mikey Matthews and a really talented offensive lineman from Temple.

Florida State, yet again, brings in some Alabama players who could really be a big-time upgrade for the Seminoles. So, yeah, a lot of teams have impressed. Those are just some off the top of my head, to be honest with you. Yeah, the Florida State one's interesting because it seemed like the most popular place for them to go the last couple of years was South Carolina. But it seems like Tuscaloosa was the spot that they were drawn from the most this time around. Yeah, another couple of guys, you mentioned like Mikey Matthews going to Cal. I think that that's a really interesting one. MJ Morris going to Maryland.

I think that's an interesting one from NC state. So MJ Morris's situation was he played as a true freshman at NC state, got hurt. And then they, they recruit Brennan Armstrong kind of over him and say say Brennan's the starter. And so MJ was going to redshirt. And then they wind up not being pleased with Brennan playing MJ. And then he goes three and one to the starter and is like, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and redshirt. And then I'm out.

And so he is now replacing Talia Tungabai-Lowe at Maryland. I'm very intrigued with what he can do with Mike Loxley's crew. Yeah, that's a great point. The other ones that kind of jumped out to me too, is like everyone kind of jumps to like the Ole Misses and Colorado's, but yet again, Steve Sarkeesian goes to the transfer portal and gets exactly who he wants. He completely retools the wide receiver room. We'll have to see how that kind of plays out. But, uh, just on paper, it seems like, uh, Steve Sarkeesian did everything they needed to do going into the SEC yeah and it's you know he's been he worked at Alabama

recently enough to kind of know that roster really well uh got Isaiah Bond but also got Amari Nyblak the tight end who I think is has a chance to do some some JT Sanders type things at Texas which it feels like that's a that's a pretty easy comparison right there. I completely agree. The other one that I am probably more intrigued by and want to see how it plays out is South Carolina brought in a really big class of transfer portal players, and the one that obviously jumps out to me is

how does the quarterback position kind of shuffle out? They have a really talented freshman lenore sellers and then they bring in robbie ashford who's definitely had some bumps along the way which way does shane beamer go and and what could really be a defining year of his tenure with the gamecocks yeah yeah because spencer rattler is gone and you had to and it sounds like i mean that's basically deciding what you what you want your offense to be when you pick between those guys because we've seen ashford at oregon and at auburn we know we know what he is and then sellers will get a chance to see that and you know they've got some some younger talent that they've been kind of bringing along so yeah it's it's it's interesting so pete i don't think i'm going to bring you in for this game, but we will be playing a whose team is it anyway? I think starting in spring ball

where we make someone guess who plays for who now. I think you probably are a ringer in that game. If there are prizes, though, I want in. We'll definitely have to come up with some gift cards or something like that. We definitely have a Buffalo Wildlings gift card for sure. But yeah, it is interesting. And this is the thing about the transfer portal. And people, I think old school college football fans don't like the fact that there's not as much continuity.

But I do get the sense that at least with some fan bases, it gives them a bigger sense of hope in the offseason if they did not have the kind of season they wanted the year before yeah i think you're spot on there that um maybe you it's it's a team that only won three or four games so all of a sudden you're like oh wow like i can review tape of 20 players if i'm like a football junkie and want to see how it's all going to come together and um the college reporter in me also says that because of the transfer portal, in my opinion, I think athletes have better brains now because they have more name recognition if they're going from school to school. I think that's kind of the part of NFL free agency

that seeps into the college game now. Well, the other piece that I think is it makes, and we saw this with Alabama and the struggles with the snap. We saw it with Georgia banged up at receiver there at the end of the season. I feel like it's taken the top, you know, the older depth away from it. Because I just mentioned Florida State, you know, taking five different Alabama players. And these were not guys who were starting in Alabama.

That's exactly right. But are they good enough to start at Florida State? Yeah. Very likely. Yeah, that's a great point. The other school that I was going to mention that has all of a sudden slipped my memory, but I'm going to go back to it, is interested to see how Miami does, right? Yes.

The right teamwork goes there. You talk to people in South Beach, and one of the biggest takeaways from this past season was like, hey, Tyler Van Dyke maybe just isn't the best guy for what we want and feel like that may have held us back in moments and things. And obviously they go and get the number one ranked quarterback i believe in in the all three transfer portal rankings i think julian saying messed up those rankings but still the point is one of the top quarterbacks in the portal uh i don't consider julian saying a transfer i i know we we had an

like an official ruling on that last week where we said, you know, Sine immediately in the portal does not count as a portal guy. Yeah. But, yeah, Cam Ward and Mario Cristobal's offense with a really good recruiting class and some intriguing transfers next to them. Does Miami make the jump and compete with Florida State and Clemson and Syracuse now for an acc title well and shannon dawson being there that he runs an offense it's really similar to what cam ward ran at incarnate word and at washington state so he should be able to pick it up pretty

quickly the one thing and i know people get caught up with the transfer qbs you got to remember though there there will be qbs on the roster and either because of injuries and they have to come in or because they play better like do not count out emory williams in this situation because they thought at the end of last season that he might be the guy and he gets hurt in the florida state game i think it was broken collarbone so he's going to be healthy at some point and i do think that helps a lot now Emory Williams is in his second year as a college player if they feel like Cam Ward can give them a bridge and then ease Emory into the starting job that would work too but I I would not be shocked if he's

still there and then let's stick in the ACC because we talked about Florida State we didn't mention DJU like that's one of the more fascinating situations he's the starter at clemson for two seasons he goes to oregon state does well there obviously everything happened with the pac-12 that happened he has one more year and now he's in tallahassee and he's gonna play against clemson on october 5th i know i know and going elsewhere like you were just saying that i was like oh my gosh, Riley Leonard also transferred. That is how long this entire process has been. And starts against his former coach on day one.

Yes. Because Notre Dame plays Texas A&M, so Riley Leonard played for Duke for Mike Elko, and now Mike Elko will be the head coach of the team that plays against Riley Leonard's Notre Dame team on day one it's only January 28th and like it's the the two months that it passed seems like three years to me like it's been incredible it does and it also seems like what what this is heading toward is a season that isn't going to feel or look like anything we've ever seen before and that's what I had a really interesting mailbag segment last week where people were asking me which teams would be the most improved and it really gave me a chance to dive into the schedules I don't think people are ready for the kind of variability that these new Big Ten and SEC schedules are going to bring

some teams got great draws some teams oh yeah yeah yeah right does it doesn't Florida have a really tough go of it Florida has the toughest one probably yeah yeah oh but you know who else has a really brutal state no not Ohio no they got it oh I thought you said oh I okay yeah no Ohio States is not bad Michigan's is hard and I don't like Oregon's very much either it is um it's gonna be really interesting to like seeing like the big ten teams have to go from west coast back home things like that for the first time and uh i mean i know a lot of people have tried to report on it but like what does that schedule look like and is there actually going to be like impacts on how

games play out things like that like yeah and out now the pac-12 had a really interesting you know when when you played on a when you played a road game on a friday night or you played a road game on a saturday and then had to play a road game on a friday how that always like it was a pretty consistent you lost when that happened so um that is is another thing that that're going to have to see how that works because, yeah, with some of that cross-country travel, it can get pretty hairy. So very different world that we're moving into. But, Pete, you may have a couple weeks before everything goes crazy again.

Yeah, just a couple weeks. I have April already circled on the calendar and ready to jump back into that. Hey, listen, this is fine. We got the meat of college basketball we got march madness and then transfer madness again yeah and and and basketball and football are gonna coincide it's gonna be fun oh yeah yeah you can call like you can call joe tipton and and yeah be like all right who's transferring in your sport yeah this is yeah it's gonna it's gonna be wild but

pete thank you so much and it's it's been a lot of fun we will still be regularly checking in even though your head's not about to explode at all times so uh i i do appreciate all of the uh all the time you gave us when you were trying to break stories in between hits it's all good it's been fun it's been fun all right pete nicos he's relaxing now this is pete relaxed we'll talk to you soon okay we're joined now by tom caker to the hawkeye report big day in iowa city tom big day you have you guys been waiting since oct October 30th to find out who will run Iowa's offense going forward and the answer is now known it is former Western Michigan coach and one time great Broncos Western Michigan Broncos quarterback Tim Lester Tim Lester um

yeah I jokingly said that I was waiting for some puff of white smoke, like when you elected Pope from outside the Iowa football complex, that there had been a new offensive coordinator elected. And it's Tim Lester, and it hasn't gone over what I would say great. I think the Iowa fans are kind of underwhelmed by the hire. He was let go by Western Michigan at the end of the 2022 season. This last year he was an analyst for Green Bay. Kind of fun fact, when Lester was the quarterback there early in his career, his backup quarterback was Matt LaFleur. Wow. So that's kind of the connection there. So that's how they kind of know each other. So he ends up at Green Bay. He had been an OC at

Syracuse in the mid 2010s, like 2014, 2015. Took over in the middle of 14 with one of the worst offenses in college football. And the next year he did improve it. It went from the worst offense in college football to just kind of an offense in college football. Improved it by 10 points a game. One of college football's offenses, yes. Yes, yes, to like 25 points a game instead of 15. So he's a quarterback too, which I think Iowa needed a quarterback coach, a legit quarterback coach, so that's big. Well, and that is the interesting thing.

So people are going to look at that last year at Western Michigan, and it was bad. Now he was playing freshman at quarterback. They were, I think, 124th in yards per play, uh, in, in the country, but I will say the year before they were 28 in yards per play in the whole country. So it's not like he hasn't had success as an offensive coordinator, but the quarterbacks coach part, I find very interesting because, uh, I don't know that the average person is aware of who has been coaching quarterbacks the last few years at Iowa.

It was Brian Ferentz, who is by trade an offensive line coach. Yes. Yeah, he's an offensive line coach. They did have John Budmeier around as kind of one of those analysts slash coach thing. I think they called him assistant to the head coach or something. Assistant to the regional manager. Yes. Yeah, assistant to the regional manager yes yeah assistant to the

regional manager so he was kind of helping out he was a quarterback coach by trade at wisconsin and um was at colorado state for a year i think bud meyer's actually going to end up being their wide receivers coach because they let kelton copeland go at the end of the season but to me they've actually got an actual living breathing quarterback coach coaching that along with being the offensive coordinator and i think that's a positive development because i i think tim lester's been a pretty good quarterback coach so um you know not nfl guys but he's done well in you know you talked about that last year at Western, but in those, you know, three of the four years, we won't count the COVID year where they averaged 41 points a game against Mac teams,

but those three other years, it was 32, 33 points per game and over 400 yards of total offense every year. Uh, so that's, to me, that tells me he's got a big, good offensive repertoire that he can go to. Yeah. When he had caleb ellaby as a sophomore he averaged nine yards per attempt which is something iowa hasn't sniffed in quite some time so that would be that would be the the hope and you got you know kade mcnamara coming back and that's that's the thing i wonder is how much of what happened last year was you know obviously losing eric all hurt but losing kade mcnamara when they did i think they had a lot of plans that just like deacon hill was not

built to run a good passing offense which again that's also the fault of iowa's coaches for not having a capable backup yep yep they shopped for the groceries, too, and they did not have— that's going to be one of the things to watch this spring, Andy, I think, is because Cade McNamara is going to be out. He's coming back from an ACL tear, so he's at 7-on-7 at best, but I don't even know that they'll do a lot with him out there. But you've got a battle between Deacon Hill and marco lanez to be the backup and if you can't find a back if you can't feel comfortable with deacon hill and i i've suggested

they just go to lanez for the backup position during spring ball and give him all the one reps because see if what you've got there because you know what you have with Deacon Hill. You absolutely do with nine games of experience. You know what he's capable of doing. And then if you're not comfortable with what you have at quarterback, I think in the spring you look in the portal and you see what's there and see if you can find a backup or even somebody who can push Cade McNamara a little bit because, let's be honest, Cade McNamara a little bit, because let's be honest, Cade McNamara has been out basically the last two years with the exception

of seven games in the last two seasons. Tom, is there no one who can go to Kirk Ferentz and say, Hey, do you remember Brad Banks and how good he was? Maybe try to find somebody who kind of like that, who can run around and throw. I mean,

and CJ Beathard to a lesser extent could run yeah and it was a very good offense under you know with cj bethard running it like i don't understand why is it because they can't get someone who knows how to run or they choose not to i think it's more of a a choice although they do have some guys coming in i mean lanez is pretty mobile you saw him running around a lot in the uh in the citrus bowl if you stuck till the end of that game and and God bless you if you did uh but he can move around uh a little bit and then um a guy coming in James Reece and don't expect him to play but he's a guy who's run like a 10 600 so yeah he's a guy who can come in and maybe maybe has that mobility. But again, true freshman, really raw. Don't think he can come in and help him this year.

Yeah. And that's that's the thing. It's going to be an NFL style offense. That's part of it'll be Kirk Ferentz's offense. And, you know, a guy who just worked with Jordan Love in Green Bay, I would think would be pretty helpful in that respect but it is also going to be a you're right a difficult offense for a young guy to come in and just pick up right away here's one of the things that with lester though if you look back at his western teams they run a lot of rpo sets and they're in the gun a lot and do a lot of those different things is kirk going to be willing to do that he's been kind of resistant to do the rpo stuff on a regular basis and kind of sit there in the shotgun and kind of

deal that way it's just not been something he's been interested in will he do that now i don't know it's going to be interesting yeah i think that's the the biggest question is is how much is he willing to seed control how much is he willing to to change what they do because like phil parker's still there let's be perfectly honest iowa's defense can be good as long as he's there so you don't have to be perfect offensively to still win a bunch of games but i do wonder tom like how much does the the end of divisions in the big 10 change the math on this a little bit. Cause it's not about being better than Nebraska, Illinois, Purdue, you know, anymore in Minnesota, it's, it's about, you, you gotta be third or third best really, if you wanna make the playoff.

Speaker 2, Yeah. And you've got more competition for that because you've got, you know, Michigan, Ohio state, Penn state, Oregon, Washington, USC. You know, you've got some heavyweights that are coming at you from all different corners. So, and you've got, you know, teams that are going to be on the rise, maybe. You know, you get a new regime at Michigan State. Are they, you know, come back and try and get in that race? You know, Purdue, are they going to rise? You've got a lot illinois brett bielma you got wisconsin you know you've got a lot of competition there for that

i don't know that everybody's going to compete with michigan or ohio state right out of the gate but you're going to have some competition there yeah it's it's going to be very interesting to see because uh you know your your fan base, they understand. The message boards, we see. And it's interesting because it's a group that has kind of just developed a really dark sense of humor about all of this more than anything else. Gallows humor. They've got gallows humor. They're not even mad anymore.

No. mad anymore like no what would it what would the iowa fan base do if iowa had a an efficient i don't even want to say fun i just want to say efficient offense that scored you know mid-20s a game and kept the ball a little bit does Does that guy become the frontrunner to take over for Kirk Ferentz? Who's going to be 69 years old in August? If a guy comes in and lights up the scoreboard a little bit, who knows? Beth Getz, the new AD, I don't know what her agenda is going to be in terms of hiring people but um it's something that you think about you have to think about as an offensive coordinator and that's why i wondered if

they might attract somebody you know kind of out of the norm because they might say hey if i come here and i do really well um because the bar is so low right now for a good offense maybe i could become the next head coach at the university of iowa big 10 school and and the big 10 jobs now andy as you know are are like a golden ticket i mean it's the big 10 sec and that's it yeah yeah and that that's interesting now let me this is something that i think you probably answer a lot but for for a more national audience why not phil parker as as the head coach he's clearly the best defensive coach maybe there ever was and probably should be paid 10 million dollars a year yeah um i don't know that he really wants to do it he's kind of told me before you

know just in interviews that he's really not all that interested in being a head coach. I'll tell you who might be a future head coach. There's two guys on staff. One of them that kind of a fan favorite right now is probably the special teams coordinator who is really well, well thought of in the industry. I know, I believe Nick Saban tried to hire him a couple of years ago to come down to Alabama.

And then also Seth Wallace, who has taken on the title now of assistant head coach and linebackers coach. He was the assistant defensive coordinator before. Again, creating titles so you can give guys more money so they stay. But he's a dynamite coach, dynamite recruiter. And if Phil Parker ever left or retired, Seth Wallace would be Iowa's D.C. tomorrow. I am very intrigued to see how this happens because you may be right.

Like, if anybody ever did unlock the Iowa offense and figure out how to make it work, the world will beat a path to your door. I mean, that is. They're going to get a head coaching job somewhere that next year, right? Somebody's going to come to you and go, if you can fix this, you're a head coach somewhere next week. Exactly. So I am in Mobile, Alabama, Tom, and I am going to see a gentleman who has been very important to Iowa football

for the last few years, and that, of course, is Torrey Taylor, the punter. Yeah. And I got to ask you, one, what do i need to ask him that's a good question um you know i i think ask him about the punting his winning shirts because those were such a cool thing i thought that was just such a novel um uh a novel thing that he did and did it for charity too to uh to give back to uh a charity that helps young young families that you know in need and um and and people and helping people out so i i would say that might be something to ask him about the t-shirts and and um his first um his first it's so wild i remember this like it was yesterday.

His first game, punting was in front of no one. It was during the COVID year at Purdue. There was nobody there. And just what that must have been like for him. That's his first college football game he's ever seen was that he played it. And there was no one there broke broke in without 85 000 screaming fans and then got used to that so the next question though how do they replace him they've got an australian restock another australian right in the pipeline who uh so

here's a cool story so we're down at the bowl game and we're waiting to talk to players. It was me and Scott Dockterman, our mutual friend and Chad Lysko from the register. And I think John Steppy from the Gazette. And we're just kind of standing there and this guy walks out and we thought maybe he was, he was Reese. And he goes, no, I'm McKenzie. and it was tory taylor's coach who coaches reese actually too and so we got to talk to him and he said reese has a chance to be better than tory taylor whoa that is yeah he goes he's got a bigger leg yeah he said he's got a bigger leg so um yeah so it pays to be there early and and ask people if they're reese or not you know, when they're walking out of practice. How do you know? Are they just holding Vegemite?

Like, how do you know someone's Australian? I don't know. We just saw this guy walking by, and he kind of looked like him, but he wasn't. And then we just, I think he talked to somebody, and we heard an Australian accent. And so we're like, maybe is so it was fun well i'm gonna throw another shrimp on the barbie get ready to interview tori taylor there we go here mobile tom thank you so much.