Andy & Ari On3 - The transfer portal is OPEN FOR BUSINESS | Kalen DeBoer isn't missing a beat at Alabama

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

The transfer portal is open again, and On3 national writer Pete Nakos joins Andy to discuss which players jumped in and which teams will be shopping.(0:00-8:25) Intro - Spring Transfer Portal is OPEN(8:26-25:53) Pete Nakos joins to layout the Transfer Portal(25:54-47:36) Tim Watts from Bama Online joins(47:37-1:04:03) UNLV OC Brennan Marion joins(1:04:04-1:09:11) Conclusion - Ole Miss Spring Game RecapPlus, Tim Watts of On3’s Bama Online joins Andy to discuss Alabama’s spring game, which featured Nick Saban as a spectator and our first look at Jalen Milroe in Kalen DeBoer’s offense.Next, UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion joins the show to talk about the Go Go Offense, a two-back, triple-option based scheme that features frequent deep shots down the field. Yes, it’s as fun as it sounds. Marion discusses his first season calling the offense in the FBS and how it can evolve in year two in Las Vegas.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE from 8 am et to 9 am et! https://youtube.com/live/52MUcWGceik

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Transfer Portal Day part two. Well, I guess it's the first one of the 2024 calendar year, but it's the second one of this off season. And the Transfer Portal is open for undergraduates, in case you didn't know. That happened about midnight, but we're starting to see names actually trickle officially into the

transfer portal as people are waking up at the schools where the people are planning on going into the transfer portal. Remember that the guys have said up to, you know, a week or two ago, Hey, I'm going in. We're starting to see those guys trickle in.

Not a lot of huge surprises yet. Not a lot of huge surprises.. Not a lot of huge surprises. We've had some people, not on this show, not in the On3 universe, but we've had some people tell you that it was going to be the wildest, craziest, most baffling transfer portal season yet, which probably good advertising, but I don't know if that's going to be the case. If you look at who's going in there, it is following a very predictable pattern with a few exceptions, like Damian Martinez from Oregon State, who is a number one back, who is in the portal, with a few exceptions. It is mostly guys who have gone through spring, a lot of times with a new coaching staff at their school, and they found out, okay,

I don't know that I'm going to play much here. So I'm going to go find another place to play. Now, some of these guys have played a decent amount or have flashed in places and are very intriguing. So that's the thing. You're going to find some guys who might be able to help your team in the portal. It's just that they might have gotten stuck behind somebody on their current team and there wasn't much they could do about it. We're going to talk to Pete Nacos very shortly. He is actually currently just blasting out names of folks who have entered the transfer portal. He is working the phones like crazy, but some names that have gone in or are about to go in. Officially in is Ohio State running back Dallin Hayden. Now, Pete wrote about this a week ago that Dallin Hayden was planning on entering the transfer

portal. He looked like the number three option behind Travion Henderson first, Quenshawn Judkins, who came from Ole Miss. But Ohio State, you know how deep they are. You know how they recruit at the running back position. So freshman James Peoples, freshman Sam Williams-Dixon, those guys have impressed in the spring. Walk-on T.C. Caffey has impressed in the spring. So Dallin Hayden looking for another place to play.

At Tennessee, Elijah Herring, linebacker who led the balls and tackles last year. He's hopping in the transfer portal. Now, he stepped in when Keenan Peely got hurt last year. Keenan Peely is the BYU transfer. Tennessee was very excited about him, an inside linebacker. He gets injured, misses all of last season. Elijah Herring steps in, does a good job. Now Elijah Herring was hurt this spring. Keenan Peeley's healthy, looks like he's gonna be ready to go. And so Elijah Herring is looking for a place probably to have a very prominent role because he showed that he can handle a prominent role last year. We've seen Michigan receiver Carmelo English. That's the one that Pete just put in

there. Now he was a big time recruit, top 250 recruit, played a little bit on Michigan's national championship team last year. He's from Phoenix city, Alabama, like just in the shadow of Auburn. So we'll see what happens with him. Another name you might know, you see if you watched that UCF Baylor game last year, you saw some crazy stuff from this guy. But former USF and UCF starter, Timmy McClain, planning to enter the transfer portal. So those are the types of names we're talking about. Indiana's had a few guys enter because you're dealing with a new coaching staff. They've had a spring now with the coaching staff. Everybody's kind of figuring out where they fit, where they belong.

So that's how this process is going to work. And remember when a player wants to enter the transfer portal, they have, they notify their own school. The school has up to 48 hours to process. So there could be some bigger names coming in and it may be that the player has wanted to keep that under wraps. School wants to keep it under wraps. They're telling the school now, the school is then processing it and it'll come out when the player actually hits the portal. In a lot of cases though, these players have representatives or sometimes it's their own people, their parents, that sort of thing, talking before they enter the portal saying, hey, I think my son's going to enter the

portal. I think my client's going to enter the portal. And that's how some of this news gets out. But the bigger names, I do think we may see a little more secrecy, but we also just may not see that many big names. You think about the spring portal the last couple of years, Jordan Addison was the huge name in 2022. He was the reigning Bolitnikoff award winner, but remember Pittsburgh had lost Kenny Pickett. They'd lost Mark Whipple, their offensive coordinator. They'd lost a guy that we're going to talk to later today, Brennan Marion, who was the receivers coach on that team. He was Jordan Addison's position coach. And Jordan Addison was looking at the new offense,

looking at the new personnel, like, okay, I think I can do better. He goes and plays with Caleb Williams at USC. Last year was Bear Alexander at Georgia. Now you find out the day of the spring game, he's not playing. He's entering the transfer portal. He winds up at Georgia. You find out the day of the spring game, he's not playing. He's entering the transfer portal. He winds up at USC. We had a little Bear Alexander drama last week where some of his people said he might be entering the transfer portal. Then 24 hours later, he's like, no, I'm not entering the transfer portal. We may see some of that too. We may see some more of that where, oh, this guy might go in, might go in, might go in. Nope, nope. Not going in. All's well. Don't worry. Deal's good. We're good. So we're going to see a lot of these things. We're going to see a lot of these things. Now, a little preview of what

we'll be talking about on the show after we talk to Pete Nacos, we got Tim Watts from Bama Online to talk about Alabama's spring game. Obviously very strange with Nick Saban in attendance, but not coaching the Crimson Tide. It was weird, but what we saw in the field didn't look that strange. Didn't look all that different. Looked like a very, very good football team. We'll talk to Tim about that. And then as I mentioned, Brennan Marion, UNLV's offensive coordinator will join us. He runs what I think might be the most fun offense in college football. It is a triple option base, two back offense that takes tons of downfield shots. If you didn't watch the Rebels last year, go find some cut-ups go to youtube and watch some highlights it's spectacular it is so much fun it's called the go-go offense he designed it when he was

working in high school he crafted it at the fcs level at howard and william and mary this last year was his first chance calling it at the fbs level and it was really fun but transfer portal comes for everyone jade maiava who was the quarterback who played so well in that offense last year he hit the portal after the season was going to go to georgia for about a day and then decided to go to usc and now you and i'll be looking for a new starting quarterback they've got a transfer from campbell they have a transfer coming in from holy cross and they've got a guy who's been with them. And Brendan Marion has to pick a quarterback from among that group. But it's, he's very excited. He feels like they can still do some things because this is an offense that he was just installing this time last year.

Now the other players know what they're doing. So we'll talk to Britt and Mary about that later. But right now, let us bring on Pete Nacos. Hopefully your Nacosifications are set. Mine are. I am getting a Nacosification every time Pete tweets, and it is frequent right now. How are we doing, Pete? I'm good. You'll laugh at this.

I woke up at 530 this morning with the hope that, you know, maybe Kyle McCord 2.0 might pop in the portal. Yes. No one went in until 7 o'clock. But here we are. I don't think the compliance offices are awake. You know, Damian Martinez, that news came out almost a week ago. But it is 5.09 a.m. in Corvallis, Oregon.

Like, I don't think he's going in the portal until later today. I think somebody's going to wake up to enter his name. I would have to agree. Shout out to the Indiana Compliance Department, though. They gave me something to do around 6.45. Much appreciated. Well, let's talk about that because they did have a few guys into the portal.

Probably the headliner is Trent Howland the running back but they also had uh quarterback Brock Lowry wide receiver Cameron Perry and I I imagine Pete this is this is going to be a fairly common occurrence at schools with a first year head coach finishing up spring where everybody kind of figures out where they're at yeah I mean a few things right uh the Kurt Cignetti hire wasn't late in the cycle, but it wasn't exactly early either. And yeah, I mean, the spring practice really gives you an idea of where you stand. Obviously, Indiana brought in a couple of quarterbacks and then yeah, I mean, you get a really good idea of what your playing time is going to be

throughout spring ball. I don't think there's any secret there. And that's kind of college football 2024. Guys know what their fall is going to look like and make the decision to hop in the portal and maybe try to go find more playing time. And that's the thing. I was talking earlier, Dallin Hayden, the running back at Ohio State, you wrote about him about a week ago that he was going to enter the transfer portal. He's now officially in the transfer portal. That's a situation where people look at it and go, okay, but,

but he had, you know, 300 yard games as a freshman in 2022 had, you know, how does it, how does it work out like this? Well, Quinshawn Judkins was not a gleam in the eye when the season ended last year. And Quinshawn Judkins is now there. Travion Henderson is still there and ohio state still recruits at a very high level so you've got freshmen coming in who we may not know how many

carries they're going to take but if you were in spring practice with them and you were in offseason workouts with them you've got a pretty good idea yeah and you also have to think about it too right uh i mean down hayden's gonna be draft eligible after this season i don't know if he thinks he's ready or not, but he obviously wants to go somewhere to help his draft stock. And trying to get reps behind the two best running backs in the country definitely isn't going to be the place to do it. So not a surprise.

Going to be a really intriguing back to watch, especially when you factor in how there's a few SEC teams who need to add a really intriguing back to watch especially when you factor in how there's a few sec teams who who need to add a running back and the sec transfer rule could could hamper that in a couple situations so i i'm confident that down aiden's got to be on some boards these next few weeks so neil in the chat with an interesting question morning my brothers over under qb's stay or go at ohio state so let it let us count the ways. But the Ohio State quarterback situation is interesting, Pete,

because it doesn't feel like everybody's ready to just jump in the portal. But we'll go over the guys. So Will Howard just got there from Kansas State. He's probably the starter. He's not going to work. Devin Brown is coming back. You've got Lincoln Keenholz. You've got the two freshmen, Aaron Nolan and Julian Sane.

So that's five. Usually the number you want is four. So I'm going to put the over-under at one. I'm going to take the... I think Julian Sane stays. I think Will Howard stays. I think the question marks then surround Aaron Nolan, Devin Brown, and Lincoln Keenholz. If you told me all stayed, I would not be surprised.

Yeah, and that's the thing. Because Will Howard looks like he's got one year of eligibility. So that means the Ohio State quarterback job is, even if it's not, if you don't win it this year it is open again next year and i still i don't know about you pete but i i still think there's a lot of value in being the backup quarterback at a tiffany type program because especially in the stay and age of the quarterback running so much like there's a very good chance you're going to start games. You know, we saw that last year with Texas. Like, you are probably going to be called upon. You're probably going to be needed.

So if you think there's a chance that you can be the number two guy, like a Devin Brown situation, do it. I view it a little differently too, and I'm interested in your take on this, but maybe they don't want to get thrown into a situation where they're not comfortable, right? Maybe they don't want to go learn a playbook in three months. Maybe they think the best situation is to go through another off season with Chip Kelly and Ryan day to the brighter quarterback minds in the game,

and then really evaluate what their future is in December when there's going to be more starting jobs open. And I think that's the right way to talk about it because we talked about this yesterday. When you pull that quarterback in post-spring, that person is behind the eight ball. They've got to learn the offense. You brought them in presumably to play. Yeah. And that's a lot of pressure on them.

It also creates a weird situation with the rest of the quarterback room where you may end up running off some other quarterbacks who are already on the roster. So coaches have to tread very, very carefully right now with the quarterback position. Like if you don't, if you aren't sure that person you're bringing in can come in and start, you've got to be careful.

You've got to think very hard about what you want to do. Yeah. I completely agree. Sorry. Four Bowling Green players have gone in the last. Whoa. Yeah. Yep.

Come on. Actually, one, two, three. Yeah, four. Wow. So the compliance departments in the Midwest, Come on. Actually, one, two, three, yeah, four. Wow. So the compliance departments in the Midwest, those Eastern time zone schools in the Midwest, they are really on point right now.

Yeah. Everybody else is still asleep, but these guys are going, right, somebody's walking in, firing up the computer, and just hitting the button. I think the other thing I want to talk about this morning with you, and I'm sure you were going to bring it up at some point, is if there isn't a mad rush of power for talent right away, I mean, you got to think about who's still in spring ball, right? Like Michigan's spring games this Sunday.

There's quite a few other teams out there who are still going through spring practice. So we've talked about it. I've written about it. It's going to be very slow burn these next few weeks. Yeah. Well, and the other thing is I've heard coaches say, like, you had coaches schedule spring practice to go past today for a reason. They want their players thinking, okay, I'm thinking about spring practice.

I'm thinking about winning a job, not thinking about I'm going to be into the portal. So you're right. This like a week from today, we see a fresh set of names. Like now you did mention there's a, well, you tweeted recently Carmelo English, the Michigan receiver going in. So it's not, it's not unheard of that. They're going to do it before the end of spring practice, but yeah, there will be more as those spring practices. And remember you've got Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M. These are, these are big time programs where there's a lot of talent and there's in, in a couple of cases, Michigan and Texas A&M new head coaches. Yep. And, uh, I mean, Wisconsin scheduled their spring ball. It's not going to end.

It's going to go right up to the May 1 date. And Luke Fickle was the primary one who said, I did this for this reason. So the Wisconsin quarterback, Nick Evers, announced over the weekend he's going in, former four-star who started at Oklahoma. So that's like one of the more intriguing quarterback names at the moment. Yeah, Nick Evers was actually committed to Florida for a long time.

He was recruited by Dan Mullen. He was going to be in the 2022 class at Florida, and then Mullen got fired and Evers went to Oklahoma instead. So, yeah, he's been at Oklahoma, at Wisconsin, and now we see he's a Texas native. So we'll see. I am curious because Carmelo English, the receiver at Michigan, is from Phoenix City, Alabama.

That's basically like 20 miles from Auburn. Does geography matter? Does going home matter in these situations, or is it just you're looking for your best situation I think it completely matters I think that going back in the portal most of the time you want some familiarity right guys kind of have an idea of what they want and I'd imagine going home with me and playing at Auburn a place that he grew up watching is definitely in the mix and it's worth noting that Kentucky and Auburn were the two finalists

in his high school recruitment along with Michigan. And that's the thing. The other thing we're seeing alongside guys that looks like they've been there and it looks like they may not be getting as much playing time as they thought they would, a guy like this who was a freshman, who we don't know exactly how much they would have played but they were a big time recruit and with those guys it feels like there's there's more upside and probably gonna be a little more action for guys like that in terms

of who's shopping yeah and i, stars don't always matter, but stars do matter at the same time. Our guy, Charles powers does a great job. And when, when coaching staffs have to evaluate film, I mean, that's that matters.

And, and Carmelo English was a really highly regarded recruit coming out. So I'm sure that will help bolster his recruitment as well. So Ryan in the chat says Phoenix city, also 20 minutes from Georgia. Yes. 20 minutes from the state of Georgia. But not from the University of Georgia's significant drive. But yes, if you don't live in the South and you've never traveled around Columbus, Georgia or Albany, Georgia, or Albany, Georgia, Phoenix City, Alabama, Smith Station, Alabama. You may not realize how close these things are, but yes, Phoenix City, very close to Auburn,

very close to Columbus, Georgia, but not close to Athens, Georgia. So there we go. So Pete, you mentioned Kyle, you know, you're wondering if it would be Kyle McCord 2.0. Let's go back to December because that was the name that opened the transfer portal. That was the bomb that dropped that day. I can't – I'm trying to imagine any scenarios where anything like that would even happen, where you'd have a starting Power 5. I almost said Power 5. I've been working on it, looking in the mirror and saying power four oh there it is uh core four we agreed we agreed on this show we're going to call it the core four because you know two of them are alike and two of them are not alike but they're all different from everybody else but i i i find it very difficult to believe that a core four starting quarterback

would hop in at this juncture. Yeah, and I think I'm in full agreement with you. I think you have to look at the landscape as we've been talking about. There are not any really appealing opening jobs right now. I know everyone has kind of circled Auburn, but I don't think Auburn is going to take a quarterback unless you get like a Caleb Williams or something like that. Obviously Caleb Williams is in the draft, but the point stands.

So yes, I don't see like a power four starter jumping in right now. I think the backup pool is going to be really interesting. And we were talking about Ohio state earlier. Alabama has a really intriguing quarterback room as well right now. Do some of those guys jump in and then all of a sudden do some programs maybe rethink their their quarterback room and maybe how they want to approach things because because there's some attractive pieces in the portal i think that's kind of what we're going to see here rather than um a starting uh power the core four starter yeah and you're getting you're getting reports now about backup quarterbacks staying uh ryan fowler who's a reporter in tuscaloosa

reported on monday that that looks like ty simpson plans to stay at alabama which if you you know watching spring practice talking to people there it does seem like he is, he is the backup right now. So, uh, and we'll talk to Tim Watts about that a little bit later with the Ty Simpson, Dylan Lonergan, Austin Mack situation. But again, like I said, if you can be the number two guy at a big time program, there's a good chance you're going to be needed. So, uh, that Pete, I would sell the hell out of that if I was a coach. Yeah, no, I definitely would. And, um, we talked about it yesterday, but right. Scholarship counts matter too.

Um, yeah, I don't know exact scholarship counts, but like, I know Alabama needs to lose some Ohio state. Um, I mean, big Georgia, some really big programs like that need to lose a couple scholarship kids so um how does that shake out that that is going to be really intriguing to watch and just something to keep in the back of your head when you see some of these athletes do do jump in the portal well pete i know you are very busy this morning. You got more guys. I don't know what, what Midwestern school is next to just hit the button on like six dudes in the portal, but it's coming. We cannot wait to see what's going on. Again, if you do not have your

notification set for when Pete tweets, do it because you will be the first to know because he is the first to know. I appreciate it. Have a great day, Andy. Get to work, Pete. I will. I'm on it. Pete Nacos, on three national reporter, one of the very best,

and he is in his element on a day like today. We're going to get more names. Like Pete said, this will be a little bit of a slow burn as various schools finish spring practice. We're going to talk about some. Like Pete said, this will be a little bit of a slow burn as various schools finish spring practice. We're going to talk about some of those schools that are finishing up spring practice tomorrow. We're talking about Oklahoma at length. We'll have our guys, Eddie Radosevich and George Stoyer III from Sooner Scoop.

They're going to join us. Other big programs, I mentioned Texas, Texas A&M. They're finishing up. Michigan finishes up this week. You've got a lot left and a lot of depth chart position that maybe isn't quite set yet, but it's getting close to set. And I think you sort of see that a lot of times at schools where you go into the last week of spring practice, like that Dallin Hayden news coming out when it did last week, the writing was probably on the wall by that point for Dallin Hayden.

So you'll see some guys probably at those places that enter their names in. But for the most part, people are going to wait and see where they stand. They'll wait through the exit interviews. And again, like Pete mentioned, Wisconsin's going to push it all the way and try to make sure they know exactly what the roster is going to be when this thing ends. But one place where the roster looked sort of in flux after a coaching change, but now has settled down very much. And one of the guys who left is even coming back is Alabama. It is going to be a very interesting season at Alabama.

We know that Kalen Abor replacing the goat. But watching that spring game, the weirdest thing was Nick Saban in attendance, not coaching. Everything else, it still looked like Alabama. Still a lot of really good players, still a team that if you are another team in the SEC, you're very, very worried about. You don't want to see them on your schedule. The talent level there does not seem to have changed very much. Obviously, Caleb Downs is at Ohio State, but Caden Proctor went to Iowa. He's coming back to Alabama. In fact, he was in attendance at the spring game. So they are in a very interesting position. As Pete mentioned, they probably got to lose a little bit at the bottom of the roster. We'll see if somebody tries to pick off anybody who's in a

backup role, who is in a situation where they could be in for serious time, but could they start and star elsewhere? That's what you worry about when you're Alabama, when you're Georgia, when you're Ohio State. You're not as worried about somebody picking off one of your starters. But somebody who could help you, who could be a star somewhere else, that's the question. That's what you've got to figure out let us now talk to Tim Watts from Bama online about Alabama spring game and what to expect from Alabama as we enter the offseason joined by the great Tim Watts of Bama online talking Bama spring game which happened on

Saturday and I'm still trying to process Tim the image of Nick Saban in the press box as the spring game started, not coaching the team. You know, going around telling our friend Glenn Gilbo, did you get lost? Or no, they kick you out of Louisiana, I believe is what he asked him. Nick Saban, like we know he's not the coach anymore, but seeing that is still jarring to me. Yeah. I think it's just everything about every time you see Nick Saban, he looks happy, right?

Which you're not used to. You're so used to the intensity. You know, he looks happy. He's having a good time. He's enjoying it. He looks at ease. But running out there, you know, you're wondering what, you know, him watching the Alabama team run out there just seemed kind of not wrong,

but it just seemed odd. I mean, 17 years is a long time for anybody to be anywhere, but especially in this day and age. I mean, that's like 40 years in the 70s. So seeing him watching but having a good time, I mean, it was good. You had a lot of people at that A-Day game, kind of famous. You had Bryce Young come in. Caden Proctor's chilling on the sideline.

Nick Saban. So a lot of interest in that A-Day game. And, yeah, obviously Saban was the big story. Well, but the other story is what do they look like under Kalen DeBoer? And I think the takeaway is yeah still really talented this is still a group that feels loaded at almost every position group um but it's it's interesting because like the the justice haynes touchdown was really the only thing we saw from him all day but that one run you're like oh yeah he's gonna be real good yeah and

you know people were wondering like roy dale william, he's going to be real good. Yeah, and, you know, people were wondering, like, Roydale Williams had a chance to play and why he left. I mean, if you saw Jam Miller, I mean, goodness gracious. You know what I mean? I mean, Justice, you know, we know Justice is going to be great, but Jam's not going to be left out of that discussion. Extremely talented kid. Looks just like an NFL running back.

They blocked really well. Even Richard Young, Daniel Hill, the short doses we got of most of these guys, they showed you they're very talented running back room, and they're very young. They've signed four guys in the last two classes, and with Jim Miller on top, that's a pretty good group. The offensive line seemed to block well. But, yeah, I mean, there's a lot to like,

and that's not even going to be their offensive line at the start of the season. Right. That's the thing. Caden Proctor, you mentioned, is just hanging mean, there's a lot to like. And that's not even going to be their offensive line at the start of the season. Right. That's the thing. Caden Proctor, you mentioned, is just hanging out because he transferred to Iowa. Now he's transferring back. But the assumption is he plugs right back in at left tackle. And then what does that line look like once that all gets done? And Parker Brailsford also is back full time.

Yeah. I mean, that's why, you know, a lot of people are saying Bama needs to go in the portal for the offensive line. Well, they have. If they get Caden Proctor back, number one offensive tackle in the portal. They've got Parker Brailsford, who is the number one center in the portal, so they've already filled in some of those holes. I still think you want depth there, right? I mean, even if you say Pritchett or whoever, if you know your right tackle, Proctor's your left tackle, you're still not very deep, roughly four offensive tackles on the roster. You still want one of those guys. And I've kind of been thinking if you can find, you know, it's hard to go in the portal

and find a guy who's not going to start too. But if you can find a guy kind of like Barrett Jones, as far as the versatility, center guard tackle, I think you have a better chance of filling those roles. But again, those guys are going to be hard to find. Yeah. Hard to find in the portal for sure. And this is an interesting one, Tim. We were talking to Spencer Holbrook from Letterman Row about this on yesterday's show. He was talking about the depth of receivers at Ohio State in the context of if you're Ohio State and you aspire to win the national title, you're going to have to play 16 or 17 games. And so you, even as deep as you are, might not be deep enough at receiver. And Ryan Day agreed with Spencer when he asked him about it on Saturday. Alabama, same thing. It feels like

on the offensive line, they have everything they need. It feels like in the backfield, they have everything they need. But in this era of college football, where you may have to play 16, 17 games to win a national title, what would be the position group that you would worry about the most at Alabama right now? I think they want to have more experience in the secondary. They've got talent. But again, Damani Jackson has been on campus three or four months, and he's the oldest guy in that group, basically. Malachi Moore is obviously there. I was talking corner.

But you got to get some more experience, want some guys. A lot of talent. They signed a huge class, a freshman. But again, they're freshmen. They're coming in. You're going to have to work through all the growing pains. So I think defensive backs, the one thing you look at. Wide receiver, you know, with Ohio State, I think it benefits them to say,

we're going to play you all because they saw what happened when they didn't get the ball to Jamison Williams. He went to Alabama and turned into a first-round pick. So wide receiver, I think you can get by with six guys. Offensive line and secondary, I don't think you can. Well, let's talk about the pass catchers at Alabama because, you know, we saw how well those receivers played at Washington for Kalen DeBoer last year, and three of them were legit stars.

Roma Dunze is probably a first-round draft pick. Who could be that next, you know, great receiver in Kalen DeBoer's offense? I think it could be Jeremy Bernard, oddly enough. I mean, he knows the Washington. Who was at Washington, yeah. We said that the whole time. When Jeremy, when Isaiah Bond left, hit the portal, went to Texas, when Jeremy Bernard came, I talked to several people that said, that's not a downgrade. It's possibly an upgrade. Now,

he again is behind three guys that are going to go in the first three rounds probably of the national football in the NFL draft. So he had three wide receivers ahead of him, but you saw what he did in the spring game. He's got that look of wide receiver one. He's fast. He knows his system, made big plays in that game, so he's the guy, I think, right out of the gate that you have to look for. You know, Caleb Odom, a true freshman, is a guy you hear a lot of people talking about as well, so I think the way they spread the ball around, you're going to see other guys emerge. Kobe Prentice is a guy that could emerge. It's too bad about the injury to hell. He was a guy that had a chance, but they're going to have guys to spread it around too, but probably not as good a wide receiver room right now as they had at Washington last year, but I

think they're working on fixing that. Now, Kalen DeBoer has been pretty upfront that Jalen Milrow is the guy. He goes out with the first team. I don't know that they've officially named him the starter or anything, but they've made it pretty clear that he's the guy. How did you feel like he looked in that offense? I thought he looked okay. A couple of drops hurt his stats. He was three for nine, completed a couple of really nice passes.

You know, the one thing about him is you have to worry about the decision making. That's the question. He got the ball out quick when he got it out. But when he hesitated and he didn't find his first guy, he got, you know, touched for a sack. And also I should note that, like, when you're Jalen Milrow, you're not used to playing tag football. Nobody's touching you and bringing you down.

It's hard enough to grab you and bring you down. So I think mentally he knew he had that escapability. And even though it was touch, he's, you know, he does what he does with his leg with a nice run. So I think he looked fine. Simpson's going against the twos. I thought he had some moments. We all think, you know, Ty Simpson has that as well. The talent as well. I think overall quarterback room, if you compare it to last year, didn't really know a lot about last year's team, right? You had Tyler Buckner in there. You thought Ty Simpson might be the starter, Jalen Milrow. I think if you flip forward a year ahead, the quarterback room's in much better shape. I still think Jalen's your starter until proven

otherwise. Ty Simpson, Dylan Lonergan, Austin Mack, who's the transfer from Washington. Which of those guys is the backup, do you think? I think Ty Simpson. I still think it's to be determined. I think it's between Ty Simpson and Dylan. I think I would give Ty the advantage because he is able to pull it down and run with it. He's got a little more experience. I think Austin Mack's going to be fine, but he is young.

His age, he does have that baby giraffe look when you watch him play. He is young for his grade. Probably, you know, probably could still be at his high school prom at this time. But I think Ty's going to have the advantage over Dylan, and I think Ty would be the one pushing Jalen Milrow if anybody is. How do you think Kalen DeBoer handled this first period? We had the check-in, kind of the first 100 days check-in, right when spring practice started,

and they were bringing all the visitors on the campus. Now there are going to be official visitors for the class of 2025 coming in. How do you feel like Kalen DeBoer has handled the transition into being the Alabama football coach? Yeah, I'd give him an A plus, 10 out of 10. Now, I'm basing that on where I expected Alabama to be when Nick Saban retired four months later. I did not expect them to be in the shape they've been. They did a tremendous job of getting visitors on campus more than I've ever seen at Alabama during that spring period. They went through the spring. You don't need to change the spring game up to kind of put his own flavor on it. You know, and that's not the easiest thing to do in Alabama.

You change something and, you know, you can offend, you know, mainly the fan base, but everybody wants everything to stay the same. But I feel like lost guys in the portal, replaced guys in the portal, did a good job there for the most part, and then they turned around, handled, recruiting's been great, they had two commitments this weekend, they did a good job there, what they're proving to be are really good evaluators, and they have a type, they're going to go after the guys they want, I don't think, you know, recruiting rankings matter at all, I think most of these guys will end up pretty highly ranked at the end of the day,

but I think they're going to go out and get the guys they want, latch onto those guys. But I'm not sure what else they could have did better at this stage in the middle of April. And again, you know, we're about to hit the portal and see how things change, if anything changes. But I feel like he's did a really good job. It's amazing because we spent so many years. I just remember I would get the mailbag question every offseason. I I'd answer it like twice an off season because everybody wanted to know like what's Alabama gonna do once Nick Saban retires and we had all these different ideas and different ideas about what the SEC would look like afterward and I the just watching this group

fill in and and put its own stamp on this stuff. I just don't see Alabama taking that big of a step back. Yeah. It's hard to say. I mean, it's Nick Saban. It was a dynasty. I mean, all that you're, you're right though. You know, the talk was that the, the perceived talk, the wanted talk, people try to talk it into existence from other schools was who's going to take the job. Remember that trend? Remember schools was who's going to take the job. Remember that trend? Remember that? Who's going to take the job? Who wants to follow Saban?

Well, they got one of the top five coaches in the nation to follow him, you know, and did it quickly, got him in there pretty quick. But we've went from nobody wants that job to people do want that job to recruiting. The roster is going to dip to the rosters pretty much. I mean, it's not as good as it was. Obviously, you're losing guys to the NFL and all that other stuff, and you've got youth all over the place, but it's still a really good roster. It's a top five roster right now, and they still have stuff they can do in the portal. I've been told by numerous people there's going to be a lot of eyes on Alabama as a destination. There's going to be more people interested than people they can take. So, you know, I don't know what else you could have wanted out of this.

If you're an Alabama fan, I think your worst nightmare is nobody does want the job. You get turned down. I mean, you just saw the Kentucky basketball search. If you want to see how good a job Alabama did, and I'm not saying this is nothing against Mark Pope, to be clear. I think he's a good coach and I think he's going to win in Kentucky, but they had to go through numerous turndowns to get to Mark Pope and Alabama didn't have to suffer that embarrassment. Yeah. And I've been thinking about that a lot lately because watching

that Kentucky basketball search got me to thinking about how the Alabama football search went. And, you know, we don't know what happened if Mike Norvell was the first choice or Kalen DeBoer was the first choice. Either way, they basically ID'd a pretty small group of coaches and were sure somebody was going to take it. I had a pretty good job by Greg Byrne finding somebody who was qualified and not having to deal with that. I do think in football, it's harder to win the national title. Like, you know, that Kentucky basketball search, Scott Drew can say, look, I just won a national title here at Baylor. I don't have to go somewhere else.

But if you are Kalen DeBoer and you just lost the national title game to Michigan at Washington and you know how good your team was, you're probably looking at it and going, hmm, I don't know if I can ever get back to this point here, but I can there. Yeah, with basketball, you can find a guy. You can ride that guy. Never nervous Purvis. Always go back to Louisville riding him and Camaro, Carmelo, Anthony. You've seen guys ride their guy to get there. You don't really see that much in football. There's been guys that were unbelievable, responsible for championships, you know, Johnny Menzel didn't win a championship, but very competitive. Deshaun Watson, those guys changed the game. Those guys are so hard to find in football.

Basketball, I mean, you find a pretty good bit of guys that can carry you. You saw that even with some of the smaller teams in the upsets. You'd have one guy just shooting the lights out and carrying them to upsets. So I agree with you. I mean, in basketball, you can put together a team. Nate Oates just did it. He just flipped an entire roster basically and took a team that was the number one seed in the tournament to a final four the next year. So he, he showed you, you know, exactly how to do that. And I think other coaches are doing it as well. Well, and let me ask you about Nate Oates, because I think this is an interesting dynamic because Nate Oates is essentially like, you know, when the Alabama job, the football job came open, all eyes turned to Dan Lanning, who immediately said, no, I'm good here

at Oregon. Nate Oates essentially did the same thing when the Kentucky job opened, all eyes turned on him. He's like, no, I'm good here the difference is though alabama didn't really reach out to landing we've never heard that the fan base i think it started with somewhere over in his neck of the woods some reporter reported that dan landing was a candidate he actually reported he was in tuscaloosa but there was never been i mean he's got an 18 million dollar buyout i think i don't think that was even 20 20 million eight. Nate Oates has the 18. Now, Kentucky, at least we know that Kentucky contacted Nate Oates on a Monday because there was a little bit of panic. Alabama was able to not with no panic, but I mean, they reached out on Monday.

Boosters stepped up. Greg Burns stepped up. They agreed to give him a practice stadium. NIL money came flowing in that he needed. So we do know at least there was that far with landing. It was just like a report on some small TV station, and then 10 people reported it was true when it was never true. Dan Lanning was at home watching The Bourne Identity with his son

or whatever, which is great, which makes it better. So, yeah, those huge buyouts, I think, factor. But I think Kentucky, you want your guy. And in Kentucky's defense, they shot for the stars. I don't know exactly. I mean, you go after Hurley, you know, a Final Four national champion coach. You go after Nate Oates, you know, a guy that, you know, fits exactly what you want to do to bring the excitement of Final Four coach.

Scott Drew, national champion coach. And they, you know, even mentioned, I don't know if it got to Billy Donovan, but another national championship coach. So Kentucky shot for the stars. There were some long odds on all those guys, but yeah, it was a different search than Alabama's football search. Yeah. And that's the thing. You go back to that. Less than 48 hours, Alabama had the guy and in place and in Tuscaloosa, like he was in Tuscaloosa.

So we start with saving retires, catches everybody off guard. Dan Lanning is on campus miraculously. I guess he owns a DeLorean with plutonium and he shot over to Tuscaloosa. And then the next day, you know, all heck's breaking loose. And, you know, that guy was on back at Alabama within 48 hours. It's just you have to applaud how that went down, considering they felt they got their guy. Yeah. And it's going to be a very interesting situation. I mean, I was there a couple of weeks ago, talked to Kalen DeBoer at length.

I it doesn't feel like they're missing a beat, which I think is probably very disappointing to the rest of the SEC, because that's one thing I talked about with everybody when Nick Saban retired was, okay, what does this open up for the rest of everybody else? And now I think people are looking at it like, oh, well, still have to deal with them. Nobody is saying Kalen DeVore is going to be Nick Saban, but I think everybody else is still looking at Alabama as a significant impediment to their own success.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, five years ago, they were saying Dabo wouldn't take that job. Dabo don't want that job. Who's going to want that job? Nobody wants that job. I mean, that's what they were saying. I really think it was just speaking it into existence again. I don't think they actually felt that. They wanted to fill it. It started out just two months ago. Kalen DeBoer and staff couldn't recruit. They've got a top five class now. I think they couldn't recruit. Auburn fans were referred to him as Brian Harzen, Kalen Harzen, which is Kalen DeBoer's already got more commitments than Brian Harzen ever got at Auburn, I believe, to be honest. I mean, it's close anyways. More top 100 commits for sure. Well, there's no, there's no comparison between the two i mean just because you're from the west coast you know i don't think that they're all the the same person i think that

was just kind of again wishful thinking but i mean you look at what alabama's done you have to give them because i mean again if you and i had this discussion where are we at after sabian retires i don't think this is where they're at now is what you and i described i think there'd be a no and i i didn't i didn't think there'd be a lot no and I I didn't I didn't think it would be this seamless I I didn't think that was possible and look we still gotta see him coach games sure but I think they're they're gonna have a really good roster they have a chance to be a really good team and Taylor and Devorah's game day coaching I don't feel like he's in much doubt at this point yeah I, I mean, it's true what you say, that the doubters will say,

we haven't seen him coach a game. Well, all we can judge is at this point of his tenure, and at this point of his tenure, I feel like he's done a good job, 10 out of 10. I think he's done the things he had to do to, you know, even in the portal, you know, if you watch, and I'm not saying they're all equal, but you lost Caleb Downs, you got Keon Saab, you, if you watch, and I'm not saying they're all equal, but you lost Caleb Downs. You got Keon Saab. You lost Julian Sane.

You got Austin Mack. You lost Caden Proctor. You got Caden Proctor. Yes, absolutely. Best replacement you can find. That's one of my favorite lines. And then, yeah, you got Parker replaced Seth. So they did a good job, Jeremy, to replace Bond.

So they lost talent. I'm not saying they're all equal. Some are better than others. But they replaced that talent out of the gate, going into this portal to get to spring. And now they've got a chance to upgrade again, right? They've got another chance to find out what's in the portal. I've just been shocked how quiet it is as a Monday morning. I'm like, what's happening? They're making me nervous, but not Alabama. I'm talking nationally. It's just, yeah. Well, Alabama, I would think Alabama has got to lose a few from the bottom of the roster because they got to be within a, they got to be under the 85, especially

if they're going to bring some more in. But yeah, that's the question is, is the type of player who can come in and help Alabama even going to be available? Yeah, I think that's the first thing. You don't just take anybody. And again, the portal shopping is not as easy as you think. I mean, this is about, if you're in the portal and you're, say, a junior, redshirt, sophomore, you're probably looking for an instant starting job. Now, there's going to be guys that are true freshmen or just signed in December and a coach left. Michigan, you know, Michigan's an interesting situation to watch with their, their window was oddly time. So they could have some movement possibly,

or they might have them all locked down, but you've got to have a guy, you got to be able to, you know, you can't just recruit a guy out of the portal and say, Hey, you're, you're for sure starting at quarterback, knowing you've got to start in quarterback. You're going to have to work that. Not many guys are coming to be a role player unless they're young, I think, and just looking for a change which i also think could happen

well we will find out because that portal is open as we speak so we will we will see what happens tim thank you so much you got it andy anytime buddy that's tim watts talking bama and yeah i, I think there's reason to be pretty excited. And it is calmed down. And now we're going to see about Kayla and Nabor's recruiting strategies. We've already seen who they could bring in to campus to get a look. We'll start seeing them get more commitments for the class of 2025 here in the next few weeks and months. But I think that the transition has gone a lot more smoothly than you would have imagined because we just assumed you're replacing the greatest of all time.

There's going to be some bumps in the road. And look, Caleb Downs leaving is a bump in the road. But I don't know that you could have handled it much better than they've handled this so far. So we will see how that goes from here. But now we get to talk to a guy that I'm thrilled to have on the show. I have loved this offense for a while. And back when it was in the FCS, people were stealing from it. And it was so much fun. And I thought,

okay, what, what is this going to look like? Well, now we know what the go-go offense looks like in the FBS. And now we get to see what happens when you get multiple years of it in the FBS. So let us welcome Brennan Marion, the UNLV offensive coordinator to talk about the go-go offense and what comes next at UNLV. Yes, today, somebody I've been waiting to talk to for a long time on this show, Britton Marion, the offensive coordinator at UNLV. And for those of us who are geeks, who were paying attention to the go-go offense when it was at Howard and at William & Mary, and seeing people steal concepts from it like getting to see Brennan Marion run this thing at the FBS level at UNLV was

a treat last year Brandon welcome Andy I appreciate you man thanks for having me on listen you do two of my favorite things you run the triple option you throw the ball downfield and uh it used to be said you couldn't do both things at once but you y'all managed to do it. So just what's, what's this last year been like for you? Because I know, you know, you went from running, you ran that offense at Howard and William and Mary, then you were position coach at Hawaii and Pittsburgh and Texas, getting to run it again, your own way. What did that feel like? I think, you know, obviously Coach Odom gave me a great opportunity to be all out and just let me do my thing, gave me complete autonomy to run the offense in full. I thought he, you know, really liked what, you know, the offense had to

offer being a defensive guy. You know, most of the guys, you know, obviously with Coach London and Howard and William and Mary, and then here with Coach Odom, those guys both being defensive head coaches, they see kind of the challenges that our offense presents from a defense perspective, and they really respected the fact and, you know, let me run the offense the way that it's supposed to be ran.

So it's just been a blessing this last, you know, year being here, you know, getting to just be completely, you know, free to run, you know, an offense that really started. And, you know, the JV level high school and, you know, brought it to college football and it's been going pretty well. The thing I love that you say about your offense and you tell your players this, that how you play without the ball determines how much you love your teammates. And it is an offense that like if your receivers aren't blocking, it doesn't work. If your backs aren't blocking, it doesn't work. Your backs have to be willing to take some punishment

because of the triple option concepts in it. But how much fun do the guys have have because you mentioned it started at the high school level like you got to make it fun for those guys yeah absolutely i've never lost that ability to remember when you were a player and just the way a coach and a team and the camaraderie can make you feel if you guys if you're really having fun and not just, you know, it is business to a to a certain degree. But at the same time, you know, we want to create a healthy community. You know, I say obviously it's not family because family doesn't cut you or, you know, you don't things like that don't happen in family. But it is a great community where people can be their best best selves and get the opportunity to to do great

things together uh in a positive way and i think anytime another player looks over and he goes man this guy's really selling out for me it makes it a lot easier for that guy to sell out for him and you know we were able to get that accomplished last year that that offense worked so well at the fcs level were you surprised it took a while for somebody to say hey come do this at the FCS level. Were you surprised it took a while for somebody to say, hey, come do this at the FBS level? Yeah, I was really, you know, confused for a while at that. You know, just from the standpoint of guys would always come wanting to clinic and look at the offense.

I know it actually was like, here you go. Here's your opportunity to run the offense. And everybody wanted to take bits and pieces of it, but not use the whole thing. I guess they thought it was a, you know, anytime something's new, you know, maybe they thought it was a fad or, you know, just a formation. But, you know, obviously last year we got a chance to prove that it can work at this level versus, you know, any opponent it was able to work. So I think now it'll be more of, you know, I look for a lot more coaches to start using and implementing at a, at a wider scale level. When, when you got to UNLV and you're, we're working in spring practice last year, did you, did you know, okay, this is definitely going to work just as well as it always did before?

Yeah. I mean, you got to think about the talent level that, you know, everywhere that I've ran this offense has been at a school where, you know, like in high school, I took over two of the last programs in the state, one in the last in the state of California, one in the last in the state of Pennsylvania. And then in one year with no transfers or, you know, doing any stuff like that, we were able to be one of the top offenses in the state, in both states.

So that gave me confidence when I got an opportunity in college. And then the same thing at Howard, you know, to be the back to back leader in HBCU football and FCS football as one of the top, you know, 10, 15 offenses in the country, you know, with six linemen, a walk-on quarterback, you know, not enough guys, you know, like all that stuff, all those stories of not, you know, underdog players and underdog programs, being able to get national recognition from what we do offensively gave me great confidence in knowing that, you know, especially after, you know, you have to think back. I scaled back and learned from some of the great offensive minds in football with Whipple and EJ Kenny and, you know, Coach Sark at Texas, learning under those guys and, you know,

implementing some of the go-go stuff in their scheme and then learning a lot what they do developing quarterbacks you know putting that all together now now i was really ready to roll so that and j kenny you mentioned we've had him on the show he's the texas state head coach now and so he was your quarterback at tulsa right so so he was red shirting uh my senior year he was red shirting and his recruiting trip he come he came uh came and stayed and hung out at my house and we've been close ever since you know gj and me probably talk once every couple weeks you know we've always stayed in contact when he was on the eagles different places when we were in hawaii together we've always you know stayed

close and connected yeah that's it because he's he's another one rising star you know big things are expected from both you guys it's it's crazy that that you're you're hosting him on his official visit to Tulsa but that you know Gus Malazan was there at the time like it's you you've got a really interesting kind of football pedigree in terms of who you learn from. You mentioned, you know, getting to work with Sark when you're at Texas,

Mark Whipple, when you're at Pittsburgh, like who, who do you, who would you say is your biggest influence? I'd really say just Gus from the standpoint of, you know, there's Gus from the standpoint of having the confidence to call your own offense and create something and do something different and unique,

I'd say Mike Norvell from the standpoint of how I coach players and it being super personal and getting the best out of each player. He was my position coach at Tulsa and recruited me there. I always say there's two people, him and a guy named Howard Irvin are the two reasons I have a college degree. I mean, that dude used to wake me up at 5 a.m knocking on my door like your ass is going to be a freaking star like you have no choice like you're you're not gonna fail you know he's just willing you to start him yes yeah Norvell was not having it you know and so I've always coached my players the same way that he coached me just just take it very personal. And every player that I'm responsible for, I'm trying to make sure that they become a star and have an impact.

And so, you know, really those two guys, you know, Gus just being the way that he is, like we're going to run our stuff. I don't care what no one says. And then getting a chance to be around Whipple, who is really the same way, just in a passing way. I had never seen a guy, like, so obsessed about the pass game and, like, forcing it to work and making it work and not caring what anybody thought about it.

And then I guess being with Sark, you know, just – Sark is just a cool dude from the standpoint of, like, you know, it's really hard. I mean, you got to be a real guy to be able to manage the level of politics and stuff that go on in Texas, the superstar, you got to be a real guy to be able to manage the level of politics and stuff that go on in Texas, the superstar, you know, status of Texas and still, you know, call the plays and be able to do, do all that. So, you know, I try to learn from everybody. I mean, I've worked with a lot of great guys. I've worked with Kenny Dillingham,

you know, all types of, I mean, all types of guys that are big time guys in football right now. And you know, I've taken pieces from, from all those guys. So you mentioned Norvell as your position coach, like he's in his twenties at that point. Could you see what, what he became with like, even back then, could you see that that was, that was coming for him? Yeah. You always, you kind of always knew what Norvell, like he wasn't, he wasn't out there to make friends or see if coaches liked him. Like he was full speed and developing the receivers. Like he was a GA at first, and they were like, all right,

you get to work with the receivers today. And he was like cleats on, full speed, release it. Like he was ready. Like anytime you gave him a job or a task, you just saw that he was doing it, you know, like trying to do it like best in the country. I mean, that was that was kind of his mindset. He was hungry. And you could tell that, you know, he would be something big in the future. But we had I mean, we had Jake Spavitol on that staff. Yeah.

I mean, there was a lot. There's so many guys. I mean, Coach Graham, you know, gives coach graham a hard time because he's a tough tough guy you know but he hired a lot of he hired a lot of real real coaches that you know he gave opportunities at a young age dan lanning i mean there's a lot of guys that have gone through the todd graham tree that have made it you know big time in football now so you did it by creating this offense that throws back two backs, you know, the option running, which which you block very simply and kind of let the quarterback in the backs, figure things out. And I just, it's elegant in its simplicity. But it's got to drive defenses crazy because you have these

vertical shots off the option. Yeah. I mean, people, when people talk about our offense, they're like, man, you guys do so much stuff in my mind. Like if you asked our old line coach, coach vice, he's like, well, we got four runs, you know, like it's, it's, it's very simple up front, you know, cause you got to think like I've never every time that we had this offense we couldn't be complex up front because we didn't have enough guys like we had six offensive linemen at Howard you know like when I was a high school coach we had we had five or six offensive linemen and we would like flip sides like okay we're gonna run over here you two you're better you go over here you know so we've always kept it simple on the O-line.

And, you know, really the hardest job is for the quarterback. But every year, except for William and Mary year, he was on pace to be an All-American. Every year the quarterback's been an All-American, led the conference, been a freshman player of the year. Because, you know, if you just do it right at quarterback, you play point guard at quarterback, you're going to have a lot of success just from the standpoint,

you get to pull and pitch the ball and you get to run the ball. And like you said, there's a lot of vertical shots and opportunities down the field for you to take as well when they try to overload the box. So it's definitely poetry in motion. There's a lot of things that can happen on any given play. And we really don't try to put limitations on what the quarterback can see and do out there from that standpoint.

Well, and that job is open for you because Jaden Maivia, who was with you last year, was great, but he hit the portal. He looked at Georgia, he wound up at USC, and now you guys figuring out who your starter is going to be. You've got a transfer from the Campbell Camels. You got a transfer coming from Holy Cross that'll join you for camp. You got a guy who's been with you. Like, how do you decide who gets to run this thing? Really, it just comes down to the decision-making, the guy who can, you know,

make those quick split-second decisions and lead us down the field. I think last year, obviously, Jaden did a good job. We always talk about one great year can change our lives. And, you know, obviously that happened for him. I mean, you know, when you talk about, you know, getting the best out of each person in your community and setting up an environment where people can grow

and become their best selves, you know, that kid went from, you know, red shirt, not getting an opportunity to play, and then, boom, jumping onto the scene and being one of the best freshman quarterbacks in the country. You know, arguably one of the best quarterbacks out there. So, you know, that obviously opened the door for us to go get more quarterbacks. You know, and now we have two of the top FCS quarterbacks coming in here to compete with a guy who was here last year, Cam, who did a really good job. And he's learned, you know, he was a true just drop back passer and he's learned how to, you know, play a little bit of street ball. As we say, you know, you got to be able to, you know, just distribute and dish the ball and also be, you know, very fundamentally sound and be able to throw the drop back passes as well. So it'll be, it'll be a, it'll be a fun summer for sure to see who, you know,

fights it out and makes it out. But really in our room, we want to have three guys ready to play that can go in and make an impact. Last year, we started with a guy who, you know, went to the Manning camp and we thought would have a, you know, a really big time year, you know, and obviously injury took him out and then jayden stepped into the role and and took over and and led us to the conference championship game for the first time in school history so our job in the quarterback room is to make sure we have three guys ready to roll to you know help us play championship level football and you got that vertical threat in ricky white which i imagine makes all of that a little easier. Yeah, I mean, that guy's different.

That's a different human right there. You know, he's just visiting Earth every once in a while, you know. How exciting is it for you? Like, you're not installing this anymore. You've got players who run this offense who understand it. Obviously, we mentioned you've got to figure out the quarterback situation but how much more can you add to it with most of your offense understanding what it is they're doing already oh we're always going to try to stay on the cutting edge and be innovative and you know go look at things that you know for me and my creative space you know it's it's always trying not to put too much in.

But as much as we can do same as and add little wrinkles to everything that we do, we're going to constantly stay on that. You know, everybody in the room has great ideas and has been great places. And I try to make sure we we can, you know, work collectively as a staff and group and and put some things together that guys have done other places with what I've done other places. There's still a lot of plays that I've ran in high school that we didn't have. We haven't seen in college football yet, you know, some different RPOs, some different rollout plays that we haven't even used in the college game yet. So there's still things that you'll see that'll be like, damn,

they're doing something else, you know, and, you know, as the personnel changes, so does our plays, you know, and, you know, this year, every year is a different team. So, you know, we'll have a different, you know, platoon of soldiers that will go out there this year, and we'll, we'll try to deploy them a different way to to help us win so you know last year you had that g lead that was was more of a sweep yeah like that well it felt like a little throwback you know that was that's a high school play everybody goes you know like that ain't gonna work i'm like i guarantee you because like you can't get wide he did but he got he got wide yeah yeah so you know stuff like that there's still some stuff that we haven't done yet that we did in high school

and that I've looked at for years that I wanted to run, and now we have some players that we could run it with. So we'll definitely have some things that are unique and different this year as well. We cannot wait to watch, Coach. Thank you so much. No doubt. Appreciate you, man.

Why does that G-le lead sweep work so well because there's a receiver coming in and clearing out whatever that overhanging defender is on the play side that receiver is ricky white the third if you've not watched some ricky white the third highlights of him catching the ball and running with it, he's really great at that. He's also a very good blocker and a very willing blocker. But after we finished talking, Brennan told me that Ricky demands to be on the play side of that play so he can crush people. Which, that is the kind of receiver you want. One more thing before we go. One more thing.

So we talked about the Ole Miss spring game. We previewed it on Friday. We had Zach Berry. Zach had talked to Joey Chestnut because Joey was going to play a role in the spring game. There's been a little controversy about the Ole Miss spring game. Our friend Phil Steele. I love Phil Steele. I love Phil Steele. I will never forget when I found out from Phil in 2020 that he was going to put out his magazine. It made me realize, yes, they're going to play football this year.

There's going to be a Phil Steele. Everything's going to be okay. I mark time by when the Phil Steele preview comes out. But Phil was not amused by the Ole Miss spring game, which had some flag football, had a dunk contest, had a hot dog eating contest. And I can say I was pretty amused by it. But I love the opinion that most spring games

are letting you see only what the coaches want you to see. So if a quarterback goes off in a spring game, it might be because they dumbed down the defense. If a quarterback looks bad in a spring game, it might be because they sent the wolves after him in a way that they normally wouldn't. It's all choreographed. So I'm not that beholden to what I see. Bill was mad though. He said, don't even bother watching. You're not going to get anything out of this. I'd say you don't get anything out of a lot of them if you are looking to really evaluate who's good, who's not. But I get it. But I will say I was entertained by the Grove Bowl games at Ole Miss. And we'll let Lane Kiffin kind of defend himself.

I mean, think about using Joey Chestnut as motivation. The inspirational story of Joey Chestnut. Because I think there might be a time during this Ole Miss season when it's going to be tight. And it think there might be a time during this Ole Miss season. When it's going to be tight. And it's going to be the fourth quarter. And he's going to. Kiffin's going to gather the team together.

On the sideline and say listen boys. Remember Jaws. Joey Chestnut. He didn't win his first seeding competition. But then he became a champion. So we're going to overcome. We're going to beat Georgia today, just like Joey beat those hot dogs.

Here's Lane Kiffin. You know, obviously, you know, there's tackling to work on when we get to fall and have our final roster. So I thought outside of that, guys accomplished a lot and did a lot of really good things. Was Joey Chestnut as impressive in person as you thought? I said after watching it, it's kind of one of those things, like until you really see it.

I actually felt this way kind of as a young kid, like NBA basketball. And then I remember going down in one of the front rows for warm-ups of a game and going like, wow, these guys are way bigger and way more impressive. Or like in hockey, being down on the ice, on the glass. And I felt like it was like that. There was some appreciation watching on TV, but it's one of those events, unless you're close up, it's a whole other animal.

I had a couple players by me say that that's one of the coolest things, most impressive things they've ever seen in their entire lives. We'll take questions up top. And we used Joey's story to motivate. Because when I met with Joey today, I said, how did you start? And he said, my first competition I lost. So, you know, we use that to motivate our guys. You know, it's not how you start, it's how you finish.

So, Michael Jordan got cut from varsity, that to motivate our guys. It's not how you start, it's how you finish. Michael Jordan got cut from varsity and Joey lost his first eating competition. Got to stay with it. You never know. Now the guy's a 15-time world champ. Michael Jordan, Joey Chestnut, Jackson Dart. Who knows? All right.

We're talking Oklahoma tomorrow. We're also talking more Transfer Portal. We'll see what names pop in in the next 24 hours. It's going to get a little busier. Those compliance departments, they're waking up. They're starting to process some things. We'll have a lot to talk about over the next few weeks. We'll talk to you tomorrow.