Andy & Ari On3 - TRANSFER PORTAL DOMINOES: Sam Leavitt to LSU | Dylan Raiola to Oregon | Ty Simpson and the NFL Draft

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

As news of the transfer portal is constant as of late, the latest is that Arizona State QB Sam Leavitt is committing to Lane Kiffin and the LSU Tigers. Watch here as Andy & Ari recap Lane Kiffin's interesting weekend (0:00) On Today's Episode(1:15) Presenting Sponsor(3:00) Intro: Sam Leavitt to LSU(8:55) Lane's Trip to Knoxville(13:08) Dell(14:18) LSU's other QB in Landen Clark(17:47) Dylan Raiola to Oregon(22:45) What will Dante Moore decide?(23:28) Ty Simpson domino, Oregon's Effect(27:00) Is Ty Simpson STAYING in NFL Draft?(39:45) Texas Transfer Portal Haul(47:23) Pre-Season CFB Rankings: Is Texas #1?(48:51) What does Alabama do now?(55:50) Conclusion: See you tomorrow! With news of LSU landing a top QB out of the portal, the Oregon Ducks have landed a notable name in Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola. As news of Raiola committing to Eugene made news, the next question is what Dante Moore's future holds. What will happen with Dante Moore? Find out here. Meanwhile, it has been reported that Ty Simpson has been offered a substantial amount of money to remain in college football. With the Crimson Tide QB currently expected to enter the NFL Draft, will Simpson keep his name in? Watch here as Andy & Ari discuss the latest with Ty Simpson's future. Over in the Lone Star State, Texas is making sure Arch Manning has some top weapons to use in Steve Sarkisian's offense. With portal additions in RB Hollywood Smothers and WR Cam Coleman, the Texas Longhorns are well on their way to having a loaded offense this fall. To close, Andy & Ari take a visit to Tuscaloosa to discuss the outlook for the Alabama Crimson Tide after the first few weeks of the transfer portal. While the Tide have missed out on a few names and lost a few pieces of the team, what should the fans in Tuscaloosa expect for the season ahead? The Dell XPS proves there’s no need to compromise—style, power, and reliability come together in one expertly crafted machine.Check out the all-new Dell XPS at Dell.com/XPS. Our show is also presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/7mROdXUJHIM Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy and Arion 3 presented by BetMGM, Sam Levitt, has decided on a school. And Lane Kiffin has his quarterback, the former Arizona State quarterback, is headed to LSU. He will be the new QB1 for the Tigers. Lane also, by the way, got his 2006 Trinidad Shamblis from Elon. So the LSU quarterback room, which was empty yesterday, Very full today. Meanwhile, Dylan Raola, the Nebraska transfer, has picked a school. He is headed to Oregon.

What does that mean about the decision looming for Dante Moore, the current Oregon starter? Does that mean he might stay? Or does it mean that Dylan Raola is the guy? Or does it mean that Oregon might bring someone else in? Because there is someone else who has decided he wanted to go to the draft, but people still keep throwing money at Ty Simpson, the former Alabama quarterback. What will he do? Is he going to continue his path to the draft? Or will somebody convince him to stay in college for one more year?

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Welcome to Annie and Ari on three presented by BetMGM and the news is coming fast and furious out of the transfer portal. Ari, Sam Levitt, has committed to LSU, the former Arizona State quarterback. The number one player in the transfer portal is headed to play for Lane Kiffin and Baton Rouge. Most significant piece of news, I think, of the portal, just because of who it's married to. I think that for a minute there, LSU fans are panicking, but when the dust settled, it looks like the Tigers might have gotten

the most electric player at the position in the portal. Prove me wrong. Talk me out of it. You're probably talking to the wrong person because, you know, I've seen that Texas Tech defense in person, and the one guy who beat him in the regular season was Sam Levitt. And, you know, he's, you saw him

when he was fully healthy for a season, leading Arizona State to a big 12 title. They probably should have beaten Texas. If the defense holds up on fourth and 13, they would have beaten Texas in a college football playoff quarterfinal, would have made the semis. I think this guy can really elevate an offense. He throws a great deep ball.

He throws an accurate deep ball. He's also not afraid to scramble, not afraid to make plays with his legs. So I think they'll be very exciting with Sam Levin at quarterback and Lane Kiffin running the show. I'm a little amused that Sam Levitt made Lane sweat a little bit. Sweat is not even the right word. Well, I think Lane made Sam Levitt sweat a little bit,

and then Sam Levitt turned the tables. Because remember, Sam Levitt was on his visit in Baton Rouge. He's at the basketball game with Lane. All the DeMondon Williams stuff starts popping, and he wondered, okay, what does this mean for Sam Levitt? And the photo is like, oh, oh, man, This could get kind of weird. Let's see what's going to happen with these guys.

And he goes to Knoxville. He goes to Tennessee. And then you got Lane Kiffin tweeting from the Knoxville airport. Like, hey, I'm back in Knoxville. And it's like, oh, wait, you're going to meet him right there while he's leaving his Tennessee visit. But it sounds like the convincing case was made. Now, the other piece of this area is Sam Levitt's coming off an injury to his foot. he had to have surgery that ended his season early this year.

So that's another piece of the puzzle here is how healthy is Sam Levitt? What's he going to be able to do? Is this going to be a situation where he's going to be able to participate in spring practice? I would assume he'll be ready for camp. We can make all the assumptions we want. But the fact of the matter is like Carson Beck was in a probably even worse situation this time last year where he had just torn a ligament in his elbow in the SEC championship game, had to have elbow surgery.

And it all worked out fine. He's playing the national title game on Monday. So I think if Sam Levitt can be healthy for camp, you're in really good shape. Did anybody freak out about the meeting in Knoxville deal? Surprisingly not. Are we just numb to all this now? I'm wondering, has this portal season been so weird in this Lane Kiffin season, which I guess started probably when Florida fire Billy Napier.

Like the Lane Kiffin season's been so weird that that isn't even on the top like 15 of weird stuff with Lane Kiffin. I mean, I gotta tell you, you know, as we were joking about making both parties sweat. You know, I think somebody once said that the person who cares the least in the relationship is the one who possesses the most power.

And it kind of feels like there was a little bit of a tug and war of making the other one sweat during this. and then like Lane Kiffin, like, dashed to the airport in the last scene of a rom-com movie and, like, swept him off his feet. Like, is that what that, is that what happened? Like, Sleepless in Knoxville? Is that what we're, this is sleepless in Knoxville? I love it. And of all the places that he could have gone.

Right. The place where when he left, people started fires. Yeah. Yeah. Like, literally caught on fire when he left. I'm surprised that Tennessee fans weren't like standing at the airport to put their hands on his chest, you know? like, I mean, like, you're not coming into this town doing what you think you're doing. Like, is that word?

He's a QB. Do we know, though? Is that where he closed the deal? He's like, I love you. And then he's like, I love you. Like, wow, there was a Tennessee like helmet and some glass cage at the airport. Is that what happened? Like, somebody helped me with this.

That's a massive. The only college memorabilia in the McGee Tyson Airport is ball stuff. Like, that's it. So it may have been that he was surrounded by Tennessee Orange. and decided to pledge the allegiance to the purple and gold. But I don't think so. I think the decision didn't come down until today. So I don't think they had that done there at the airport.

Okay. Well, what I do know is that he was pouring his heart out at the Knoxville airport, and it's a modern love story. And he felt scorned. I'm just a coach who needs a QB, and you're just a QB who needs a coach. Like I'm like the Lloyd Dobler boombox say any or you know, say anything. Can you just like picture Lane Kiffin like on his phone in Baton Rouge and he like got the alert that Sam Levitt was extending his trip and he's like, oh, fuck this.

I'm going up there. It's like I'm not letting some other woman steal my guy, you know, like I don't know. Like I don't know how to put it, but that's kind of how it felt to me over the weekend. And I'm actually surprised that like, I don't know, River, you can help me out here because you're. more plugged in with Vol Twitter? Like, did Wall Twitter freak out about this? Because it seems like something that Vol Twitter would freak out about. I mean, at this point, it wasn't really a freak out, but it was like,

oh, of course he's in Knoxville. Of course he's in Knoxville trying to get his guy back. And like, I don't know this, Andy. You can help me with this because I don't know all the rules, but like, are there no rules against road game recruits recruiting in the portal season? Because I figure it would be against the rules if a coach

were to show up at the airport or near or in the town. He's not on Tennessee's campus. They can't keep him, you can't keep him from being in the airport. So let me just, just give you another scenario that might mirror it. You tell me if it's against the rules,

because I don't know. Okay. Ryan Day and, let's say James Franklin, because they used to recruit a lot against each other, are recruiting against each other for a five-star prospect from the state of West Virginia. And this prospect goes to Ohio State first

and has a wonderful visit. then goes to Virginia Tech and extends his trip one day. Is Ryan Day permitted to fly to whatever airport you fly into to get to Virginia and meet that person there and recruit him in the airport? You can't keep Ryan Day out of Rowan Oak, Virginia? Like you can't ban Ryan Day from Rowan Oak, Virginia in this situation. No, there are no rules against that, nor should there be. That would be a little bit draconian.

I don't think you can go on the other schools campus, although I think you, well, maybe you can because remember in the situations where back when there were NCAA penalties that allowed people to transfer with no penalty, that back when you had to sit out of year, people would go on to other schools' campuses and recruit. So I don't even know if you can keep them off the campus. I think once you're in the portal,

you're allowed to be recruited. Like that's the whole point is any school, unless you have a do not contact tag, any school can recruit you. So I don't think it really matters. where they are i think you in in this case lane kiffin went where his guy was and so the first time i bet he stepped foot in knoxville not for a game it is not because he every time he's in knoxville recruiting he'll tweet it oh he's been there a few times since he's

been all this maybe i'm trying to make this into a blockbuster movie and it's not but it felt it felt very dramatic for the movie for the movie you don't have to actually tell the truth you know the movie you can dizznify this like you can make it the first time he's been in knoxville since they threw a golf ball at him in a mustard bottle yeah not true but you can say it picture him running to the gate as sam levitt is boarding his flight slow motion what song is playing he knocks over some poor guy who just got his personal pan pizza like i i can just see it in my head right now it goes flying through the air you know what you know what song is playing did you Did you ever see the Sylvester Stallone movie over the top?

I have no recollection of it. It's an arm wrestling movie. You would remember it. You'd remember seeing the service about arm wrestling. Came out in the 80s. The main theme from that movie was Kenny Loggins, because of course it was Kenny Loggins, a song called Meet Me Halfway Across the Sky.

So I'm just imagining Sam Levitt. Now, I don't know if Sam's running because, again, he just had foot surgery. But Lane's running in slow motion towards Sam Levitt at the McGee Tyson Airport. As Kenny Loggins, croons, meet me halfway across the sky. As we're talking about this, I just look at Rivers' face and it looks like he's having oral surgery. Well, anytime I sing, that's what happens. Yeah.

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The Dell XP proves there's no need to compromise style, power, and reliability come together in one expertly crafted machine. Check out the all-new DellXPS at Dell.com slash XPS. So I mentioned LSU's quarterbacks, not just one quarterback Sam Levitt, multiple quarterbacks, because I think if we learned something from Lane Kiffin's team in 2025, his Ole Miss team, is that sometimes you need more than one quarterback. So Austin Simmons, of course, was the player who was supposed to be the starter all year for Ole Miss. He got hurt very early in the season.

I believe in the Kentucky game in week two, and Trinidad Shambliss came in. Trinidad Shambliss, and we've talked a ton about him, but for those who don't remember, transfer from Division II Ferris State took the Ole Miss. He was looking at some other schools with the possibility of being a starter. He was looking at a group of five schools,

decided to go to Ole Miss, understanding that he'd probably be a backup. Well, Lane Kiffin has apparently embraced that model again at LSU because on Sunday, LSU got a commitment from Landon Clark, who was the quarterback this past year for Elon. Elon is an FCS school in North Carolina. They're the Phoenix, probably best known for being the stop for Kurt Signetti between Indiana University of Pennsylvania and James Madison. he needs to fill a room. So like I trust him more than anybody

or just as much as anybody to find the gem, obviously. Well, and the thing is, I'm sure Landon Clark is looking at this situation like, hey, look at what happened with Trinidad Shameless. They're going after Sam Levitt. Sam Levitt is coming off foot surgery. There might be an opportunity here for me to play right now. There might be an opportunity for me to play pretty early.

I will have a chance to take first team snaps in the spring. There's a lot of opportunity here for a guy like Landon Clark, and if it all works out great, then Sam Levitt's fine. He leads you to, you know, untold wealth and riches next year.

And then Landon Clark, maybe he's ready to take over. Right. You know, I think that we're going to discuss this later on on the show too, Andy, but like, transferring just to start right away isn't always the most prudent decision.

So, that is foreshadowing. I like that. That's a, it's a good point. Like, you can take a little bit longer view. And most quarterbacks don't take a longer view. So I'm glad you mentioned that. So Landon Clark may be one who's taking a longer view. I, I'm very curious to see, you know, when we get to know these guys, when when these guys get on to LSU's campus and they start talking, you know, with the locals about, you know, why they decided to go to LSU and what, what they plan to do there. I'm curious to hear what his plan is because I do imagine he's taking a little bit longer view of this thing.

And I am very glad you brought that up, already, because that brings us to another very interesting you have to make here, Andy, before we move on to the next thing about Landon Clark is that he's a freshman or was a freshman. This is not, yeah, this is not Trinidad Shameless with one year left. Yeah. So, you know, you go there, you take first team reps in the spring. You see how you measure up. You see how things go. even if Sam Levitt has a wonderful year and never gets hurt,

you're in a position to be in a really, really good spot, potentially if you're good enough. So I like when guys bet on themselves and I like the story. So anyway, I will let you transition now. Well, it's a big transition because it's Dylan Riola committing to Oregon. The Nebraska transfer, Dylan Ryola announced on Monday that he is headed to Oregon and that is one of the bigger moves of the transfer portal. This would have been the lead to the show had Sam Levitt,

not also committed to LSU. So Dill-Riola going to Oregon and he's coming off an injury. Remember, his season ended with a broken leg. So what is his plan? It certainly seems like his plan is to do kind of what Dante Moore did when he went to Oregon. It's not necessarily go there with the plan to start right away. It's go there with the plan to finish. rehabbing this thing, get back to complete full strength.

And you may end up sitting behind somebody who's a little bit older and wiser for a year, which is exactly what Dante Moore did. Now, Dante Moore wasn't hurt when he transferred from UCLA to Oregon. But he understood that he needed some more seasoning that he needed a little more time before he was ready because he'd been thrust into the starting role at UCLA. As a true freshman, it had been tough. and he felt like, okay, I can learn from being behind Dylan Gabriel. And that's what he did, ended up having a great year this year.

We are still waiting on Dante Moore's NFL decision. But it certainly seems like Dylan Riola is headed to Oregon. And one of the hopes for the Oregon folks is that Dante Moore comes back and that Dylan Ryola can play behind him this year and then be ready to take over in 2027. Yeah. what I think is interesting about what you just did, and I think it's true in the way I thought about it. It's like, let's mirror this to what Dante Moore himself did. Go sit behind somebody who's older and wiser. Dante Moore's not older or wiser. I think that Dylan Raola is true.

They're the same here, aren't they? Yeah. Like, so I think that this might be an admission that you're not good enough and or where you want to be in your career because like to go do this unless you don't anticipate not good enough is the right. Yeah, I don't know that not good enough is the right. Yeah, I don't not good enough is the right combination of words. I think it's more, yeah, like you just said, you're not where you want to be or where you thought you did here. Or not good enough yet.

Because if you were, like the reason why I said that is because if you were, here's the thing that I'm not sure about is when he is supposed to be fully healthy and ready to play again. So like if you know that like you might not be fully ready by fall camp or for the season next year, 100% healthy, then you go to the best possible landing spot. to rehab, learn the offense, and then come back the following year. If he's fully healthy and just willingly sitting behind Dante Moore, I think that that's actually the most healthy thing that this guy has done in his entire playing career.

If you go back to his high school transfer history, you go through his recruitment and his multiple decommitments, and now this transfer, like going to a play, you would never think that it would be in the cards for them to not make Dylan Rayola the center of attention or the main storyline of his own team. So I actually think it would be more encouraging if he knew he was going to be healthy enough to play

and he decided he needed that year to develop to be on a team with more talent, to learn from somebody who's playing at a high level. And then of course, when he's ready to start, be surrounded by a collection of talent that frankly Nebraska just doesn't have. So, you know, here's the deal. If he was able to play next year and he was considering the NFL,

after next year, this would be a terrible move. But I wonder if there is some inward looking of like, hey, I'm not where I need to be or I'm not good enough yet. I'm going to go to the situation that has the best opportunity for that to be brought out of me so that when I enter the NFL draft the year after, I'm in a really good spot. I actually think this is a very functional move for him. Yeah. And let's remember, he did complete 72% of his passes at Nebraska this past year. So it's not like he was terrible at all. he was not blocked very well for that's a that's a terrible

blocked four very well he was not blocked for very well that's right are you uh and he didn't have the supporting cast around him that that he would have at an organ and we'll have yeah yeah and so i i do think that has a lot to do with this but you're right it would be a it would be quite a shift from how his situation had gone really since high school where he was bouncing from high school to high school. He committed to Ohio State. He committed to Georgia. Then he ended up signing with Nebraska. So this would be a pretty dramatic shift from that. But I do wonder how many people looked at what Dante Moore did and said, you know what? That was a pretty wise move, which is also why, you know, and again, I know this stuff happens so fast. We don't know what Dante Moore's decision is yet.

and my thing on that is make whatever decision you want for you. But what I will say is the fact that Dante Moore took the unconventional route already makes me wonder if he'll do that again. Because if you think you're going to be a first round draft pick, even as a quarterback, you should probably go. Well, did Dante Moore's draft stock take a hit because of what happened in Indiana? Or is he still a top high pick? It very well may have.

Now, one game's not going to change everything for you. Yes, it didn't go very well. Yeah. I don't remember watching that game. Dante Moore is killing him, though. Like, I don't know. Well, but here's the thing. He's going to make a decision one way or the other.

The idea of an older or, well, a more veteran quarterback being there is not out if Dante Moore leaves. If Dante Moore leaves, then that brings in the Tyah Simpson situation. Ty Simpson, the Alabama quarterback, who has decided he wants to enter the draft. Well, remember, Carson Beck decided he wanted to enter the draft this time last year. And after a couple of weeks, he changed his mind and hit the portal and ended up at Miami. So with Ty Simpson, we had a report from AL.com on Sunday that somebody's offered him up to $6.5 million to come back and play in college next year. We don't know who that is, but Oregon's one of those schools that I think would be very interested in Ty Simpson. Tennessee is another one.

But so if Dante Mortar were to go pro, it doesn't necessarily mean that the starting job automatically falls to Dylan Riola. Oregon may still be in the market for Ty Simpson, if that's the case. Yeah. That doesn't mean he's going to say yes, because we saw Quinn Neuers last year who could have done this. It was like, no, I want to go to the NFL. I'm going to the NFL. And he did. He left money on the table and went to the NFL.

NFL. Whether Ty Simpson is going to do that, we don't know. Yeah, I mean, the thing that it was interesting to me, and I don't know, just let's just come with me into fantasy land for a minute. Sure. If Dante Moore was automatically leaving, let's just say he declared it already in this fake world. And Oregon signed Dylan Rayola to start next year. Would you be surprised by that?

Just that on its face. Me too. Yes. I would. I would not be surprised at all if Ty Simpson. were signed by Oregon to start there. Right. So what does that mean? It means that Dylan Rayola is going to be in a position,

but a good position to rehab and get familiar, like we all said, be around some good players. I don't know that this is a guarantee that he will ever start a game there. So because like, is this a good move for Oregon? Like that's the question. Like do you like the, and let's go back into reality. do you like putting Dylan Raola on your team as a stash? Yes, absolutely.

A guy who in the Big Ten completed 72% of his passes as a starter, yes, I absolutely like that as a stash. It's a hell of a stash. Then that gives Dan Langing an entire year to evaluate the quarterback future. And if he comes to the conclusion that Dylan Raola isn't the guy, even while he's there, he can go get another quarterback in the portal at this time next year to start. Right, right. And that information would be communicated and Raola would go elsewhere as well. So yes, that would be a workable plan for everybody, I think. So it's a pretty good situation.

Pretty good situation. We'll see what happens because we need to know what happens with Moore, and then we need to know after the Moore decision if Moore decides to leave, what does Oregon do after that? But again, more took the unconventional path once. Maybe he does that again. We'll find out. And as we record this and I say this, I've said this the entire time, Ari, that the transfer portal has been open. I hope this isn't out of date by the time we finish recording it.

Yeah, me too. Me too. But good luck to Dylan Riola in Eugene because it sounds like that part of it's set up. We'll see what happens next. Let's continue talking about Ty Simpson, though. because this is such an interesting conversation. And it brought up Quinn Ewers already, who definitely could have made more money had he gone back to college last year,

not at Texas, because obviously Arch Manning was going to be ascendant at Texas. So where was he going to go? He didn't want to go anywhere. He wanted to leave and be known as the guy who helped bring Texas back, and he was going to the NFL. And he did. and he was not a very high draft pick.

He's not making anywhere near in salary what he would have made this past year in college had he transferred somewhere else. So Ty Simpson, possibly in the same boat, but also, Ari, if Dante Moore did decide to come back, Ty Simpson, maybe the second quarterback off the board now. Andy, where do you have to get picked in the NFL draft to make $6.5 million?

Because you're like the salary structure guru here. Well, that's Spotrack is the one that publishes this stuff. So we give credit where credits do, but they published the 2006 NFL rookie salary scale, which has been very handy in these conversations about these quarterbacks that have a choice between the NFL and going back for another year of college. Ari, to make $6.5 million as a rookie in the NFL, so next year's salary, you would have to be drafted seventh or higher. So seventh. I don't think that's going to happen, right? So I do think that there's another part of this conversation

that I'm not an expert in, which is if you get your second deal in the NFL, don't you make more money dramatically? So isn't there like an opportunity cost situation where you might take less in year one to try to get to that second deal and make a crap time of money? Absolutely. And I don't think it's always cut and drive. Yes. That's the piece of it that if you are confident,

you're going to be a good starter in the NFL, then go to the NFL because the second contract is still worth so much more than anything you'd make in college that it's worth starting your clock. And let's not forget, too. That's what I couldn't drive with quarterbacks though.

Ty Simpson's also 23 and had been at Alabama for a long time. So it's not like he's like just bolting to the NFL like the first opportunity or like he's been starving to get like it just, it might make sense. sense for him. That said, this is a more interesting question. Who the hell is paying them $6.5 million and is that even worth it? Like, did you think he played commiserate with that income? I think there are some teams now that need a QB. Like, we don't know what happens with Oregon yet with Dante Moore. Tennessee still needs a quarterback. Miami now wants to transfer a quarterback.

You only need two bidders. It's possible you have three because Levitt's off the table now with him going to LSU. There's not really anybody else. of this caliber who's this proven at a high level. So yeah, they're going to throw the bag at Ty Simpson if he says he's even considering another year in college. Yeah, and it seems unlikely, right, or that Joey Aguilar's done, right? Am I understanding this correctly?

Well, Tennessee's still waiting on that decision. So we got two eligibility decisions from the NCAA on Friday. you got Trinidad Shambliss denied the waiver he was asking for. Chandler Morris, the Virginia quarterback, denied the waiver he was asking for. So both of them are still going to try to exercise their options to try to get another year. Trinidad Shamblis probably will be filing a lawsuit at some point this week in court in Mississippi. We'll see what Chandler Morris decides to do. We're still waiting on the Joey Aguilar decision.

Joey Aguilar is, he's a little bit different. He has Jucco in his past. So it's not, I don't know if it's as cut and dried. Like the Trinidad Chamble's case was pretty cut and dried from an NCAA standpoint. Like he was at one NCAA school for four years and another one year. He redshirted his freshman year. Like that's pretty much how it goes. So we'll see with Joey Agarar, but presumably Tennessee would love to have Joey back.

But I don't think they're acting as if they're going to get him back because that's why Sam Levitt was in Knoxville. Yeah, right. And like the way that they are proceeding through the portal would be an indication that they don't believe he will be back. Because like, I don't know if you're in the market for this much money to get a starter for one year if you think you're going to get your guy back. And Ty Simpson is from the state of Tennessee. His dad, Jason, is the head coach at UT Martin. Now, very different part of Tennessee, West Tennessee, East Tennessee, almost separate states. but he is a Tennessee native.

So I think there's some Vol fans. I've seen a lot of come home posts on the VolQuest message boards. But again, this is his decision. He has to decide what he wants to do. And if he wants to go to the NFL, just like Quinn Ewers last year, go to the NFL. Like that's my thing with all these guys. You do what is best for you.

And some people are going to be. motivated more by money. Some people are going to be motivated more by loyalty. Some people are going to be motivated by a confidence that they can be a really good NFL player and they'll get to that second contract faster. Who are we to judge what motivates these guys? Yeah. I mean, I think he has an NFL arm. He's very mobile. He's very accurate. And I don't know if we got the full experience of like what he's capable of at the highest possible level because when you're a quarterback on a team who can't run the ball. You're limited in that. And I thought he was, even with that limitation, I thought he was highly effective. So, you know, I don't know. I just, we're getting up there. Six and a half

million is just so much money. It's absurd. It's so much money. Yeah. It's absolutely absurd. And look, there's, I don't know how they're, they're splitting it up. How much is that's rev share? How much of that is an NIL? A guarantee that you are actually not allowed to make, unless you can actually show someone the contracts of this company will pay you this and this company will pay you this and this company will pay you this. So it's all very much in the theoretical world right now. So I'll be curious to see what he does. I just think the question that these GMs have to ask themselves is,

is the production we're going to get from the six and a half million dollar man going to be so much different from the three million dollar man that we shouldn't use that. extra three and a half million because three million dollars still gets you one of the top quarter quarterbacks like he's making almost double but they're all gone unless you can I know can tamper somebody into the portal before it closes later this and I get that that leverage is part of the reason why the price tag is so high or that why these places feel the need to offer that much money but is your team better off spending three million dollars on somebody else and spending

three million dollars on two or three other players that keep positions or is is Ty Simpson the guy who elevates your entire team? And I think there should be some question about that. That's a lot of money. And if you're Tennessee, you've just gotten an example of this because they did not pay for Joey Aguilar what they were going to pay for Nico. And would Joey,

I would argue they got as much or more production out of Joey Aguilar than they would have gotten out of Nico. Right. And I don't know even before the scarcity issue happened because Nico Iamaliava's decision came so late in the process in the spring. if they would have just been in the bidding war to get Joey Aguilar from App State, that would have been a million dollar quarterback maybe, 800,000 if I had to guess. That wasn't a three million dollar guy yet.

I think he was a million at UCLA. So yeah. Oh, is he, so is Ty Simpson going to be five and a half million dollars better? Like, what does that even look like? That's wild. I mean, I just think it's, well, I'm not saying they shouldn't, I just think it's wild. But it's scarcity, it's desperation. It's all of the above.

And again, Miami's in this, this, this. mix too. They've had Cam Ward. They've had Carson Beck. They are going to tell you getting Carson Beck helped get them where they are right now. So they want to do it again. They want to run it back. The other question I have too is if you're willing to pay this much money to get a guy at that position. And this isn't just the Tennessee. This is speculation. This is just anybody who's offering him that at the moment. What were you doing when the portal opened? Like how did you get your in a situation where you had to spend that much money to get somebody to not go to the NFL. Like, why didn't you, why were in this in this case, but in this case, Ari's supply didn't,

didn't meet demand. So they were trying, but they didn't, they didn't get somebody. It's, it's musical chairs. Like, the chairs got filled. And they got offstanding. So they had to convince somebody to bring out another chair and it's probably pretty expensive. And be better at tampering. I do love that's what it comes to. Like, you're just not good enough at tampering. I mean, honestly, like, if you would have just gotten a mid, mid tier player or a, you know, above average quarterback and that's on another team right now and say, we'll give you

three mill to come to our school. They wouldn't do it. It's a three and a half million dollar mistake. Well, that's, I love, I love the lessons that we, uh, we impart in this show. We need that. That maybe that's our first Andy and Ari on three t-shirt. Be better at tampering. I mean, everyone's doing it.

Let's not, I'm not going to pretend like it's not happening. Like you can't have an agent, call an agent, play a little, you know, you want to play musical chairs. Why don't we play phone tag while we're at it? That's right. Now, you, listen, tampering grab ass is, is the best kind of grab ass. So, Ari makes a point. Ari makes a point. But we'll have to see what happens with Ty Simpson because, again, it is his decision.

and if he is over confident that he is going to be a decently high NFL draft pick, that he's going to go in and grab a starting job on an NFL team, and by the time he ends, let's say he's a first round draft pick, by the time his fifth year option is finished up, he's ready to sign a mega deal, then it all worked out. Chad GBT says Ty Simpson is a mixed bag, seen by some as a potential first round talent while others day two, second, third, fourth round. Way to narrow that.

down chat gpt that's that's what people are paying billions of dollars for that's that's the the keen insight yeah the insight we got there is he could literally go in the draft at any point if you really put you in to it we did see shader sanders go in there with people thinking he was going to be the number two pick and he went in the fifth round so i mean all chat gbt does is like search the internet way faster than you can and compile all the things they found on other websites right right yeah which what that means is the all of the people who watch and comment and talk about and interview people about football have looked at this situation and gone, eh.

Yeah. I don't know. I think it's okay. The first Andy Nari t-shirts that say you don't know how to evaluate quarterbacks because I don't think anyone does. That's true. I don't think NFL people do. You could actually say that about NFL, about NFL scouts, about college coaches, about

high school coaches, like fans, none of us knows because if we did, somebody would be rich. I was eating. I was eating dinner with somebody. We had a double date the other night, and the guy goes, so what do you think of this quarterback? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know how to evaluate quarterbacks. I've got a graveyard of cards on my crescendo over here.

Is that the word crescendo? A graveyard of credenza of quarterback. You can have a crescendo if your credenza fell over. It's a credenza. I actually think it's just like a chest. It's a drawers. It has drawers. A chest of drawers.

A chest of drawers. filled with cards of quarterbacks that suck now. So I don't know. I don't know. And honestly, I didn't know that Joey Aguilar would be as good as he was. No one knows anything. So go pay $6,000.5 million to find out whoever you are.

All right. Let's talk about a school that has a quarterback. That would be the University of Texas. Arch Manning is the Longhorn's quarterback. The question is, who's you going to throw it to, who's you going to hand it to? And I think the Texas folks were getting a little,

nervous as the portal season dragged on without any sort of big news. Well, they got their big news over the weekend. Cam Coleman, the wide receiver from Auburn, who was looking at Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Alabama shows the Longhorns. Meanwhile, Hollywood Smothers, late of NC State, he was at Oklahoma before that, he was committed to Alabama and flipped to Texas over the weekend. So now Arch Manning has a new, I think Cam Coleman's their wide receiver one. Ryan Wingo might have something to say about that.

And Hollywood Smothers, probably RB one. River, will you ISO me? There is a 0% chance that Arch Manning will not go to New York City for the Heisman trophy ceremony next year. What's the bet? What is the bet? what's the bet arey i'll run five miles i'll put running back on the table i'm not letting you out of this one if archmaning is not a heisman trophy finalist next year arre is running five miles i

will put the go pro on my head and taunt him the entire way you know what i'll make it six miles to make it a mile no no no no no no ten miles we're going to drag you to the finish i don't think i could physically do that don't make you do that don't make you that Not 10 miles. Come on. How far is 10 mile? What's the half marathon? It is 52,800 feet. A half marathon is 13.1 miles.

Yeah, you'd be three miles short of a half marathon. I don't think I could even do five. I don't recommend that, Ari. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Five miles. Fine, fine, fine.

You do 10 miles? Can I do 10? I've run a marathon. Yeah. I'm just saying right now. Yeah, I could do you like get up out of your seat and go run. 10 miles right now. Yeah, it would hurt like hell, but I could do it. Because if you think I'm going to like go like train for this, you're out of your mind.

Like I'm showing up. I'm doing it. I'm raw dogging it, dude. All right. So five miles with with commentary for me the entire time. Well, if we will figure out logistically how to how to do that live because it's going to be spectacular. Yeah, we can do a live show while I'm trying to do it. And while I'm going to break. You can save Ari, though, by having a great year and making it to New York City. For those who don't know why I'm laughing so hard at this, Ari said before last season that there was no way that Archmanning wouldn't make it to New York City in 2025. And on that show, I said, because he has tickets to Hamilton, because obviously, you know, stuff can happen.

You don't know how good a quarterback's going to be. He could have gotten hurt. A lot of stuff could happen. Well, it turned out he didn't have a particularly great start in the season. He did not make it to New York. but he did finish very strong, and yes, we will be excited about what Arch Manning can do. Ari, I think, is very excited, and you back me up on this, Ari, because of the supporting cast that they're putting around him, Cam Coleman is a really exciting player, obviously not used to his full potential at Auburn these past two years, but Cam Coleman has, in terms of athletic ability, speed, body control, everything you need as a receiver, he has NFL wide receiver one potential. Texas does not have this guy on their team last year.

This person was not on their team. I don't think Texas had that guy on their team when they made the semis the year before. Like Matthew Golden was really good. But he wasn't like this. Yeah. Not like this. Yeah, exactly. So the raw potential is off the charts.

It's just a matter of can you get the production? Hollywood Smothers, on the other hand, you've seen the production. Like if you lock. in on some of the like NC State blessed us with some very interesting Thursday and Friday night games where we got to really lock in on them and Hollywood Smothers was one of the most fun guys to watch on that NC State team so I I'm excited to see what he can do in awesome okay yeah I like it um I know that this is annoying people but like the arch hype train is leaving the station this entire off season again right like is that what happened here I mean honestly I think we learn

I think we learned last year. I had a arch manning card I was selling on eBay. And it's sold during the game, the bowl game. What game was it? The Who Gives a Shit.com Bowl against Michigan. The ReliQuest Bowl. Yeah. He played really well in that game.

Citrus Bowl. They were the Citrus Bowl. I'm sorry. Okay. So that's actually a better bowl. They deserve more credit than that. No, it's a cheese at bowl. Can't spell Citrus.

Which is the Citrus bowl. Can't spell citrus bowl. without UT. The cheese at the cheese at citrus bowl. As Steve Spurrier once said, referring to a different U.T. I thought he played really well on the stretch of the season. You add this monster to his team. He's going to be really good. I don't know. I shouldn't have said zero percent. I'm scared. But like it is of saying, I think Texas is going to be really good again next year. And I know that annoys people who just like to doubt them. But they're at the point in, I mean,

they didn't have a, it feels like their year was a disaster. It certainly wasn't. They had a pretty solid resume at the end of the year. You add a first round receiver to the mix and, you know, maybe address some of the offensive line issues that you had during the season and you have itself a really good play caller. Like I don't think Steve Sarkeesian sucks all of a sudden, you know, like it's a pretty good, pretty good situation, I would say, at Texas right now.

And like, venture. I would be. And I think, but I do think we learned our lesson from the arch hype train last year. and people will not be as just all in on, oh, he's going to be the greatest quarterback of all time. You know, how is he not going to be the number one pick in the draft? Maybe he ends up being all of those things. But I don't think we're going to go in expecting that.

And that's probably easier for archins for Texas and everybody else, too. So this is a better situation. I would argue that this is a better situation going into this coming season than they had going into last season because the expectations were out of control, preseason number one. Everybody expected Arch to be a star immediately. I don't know what they're going to be preseason. I don't think preseason rankings matter.

I never thought they mattered before. They really don't matter now. Well, you know, we have an assignment today. Oh, my God, I still have to finish my preseason rankings. You start it? I don't even know where to start it. I don't even know what to do because we don't know what the rosters are going to look like. Like we've just spent the entire day talking about who's a new, you know,

which quarterback decided today to be somewhere. but we've got a couple perennial top 25 types schools and one school that's playing the national championship game this week where we don't know who they're starting quarterback is next year. Yeah. I'm just going to throw something against the wall because this is actually way too early. But like Texas number one. We do call it that for a reason. Is Texas number one?

I don't know. I have to figure that out. I like what they bring back. you know, they certainly have, if we're talking about guys that nobody else has or guys that everybody would want, Arch is one of those guys, Cam Coleman's one of those guys, Colin Simmons is one of those guys, Ann Hill is one of those guys. Like, they have those guys. They have a lot of those guys. And so I do think they're going to be good. And I think the way this year went probably is one of those that like,

because this is not going to be a radically different roster. It's not going to be like some of these teams where you change so much in the portal that the locker room culture is completely different or everything's different or the chemistry of the team's different. Most of the people are coming back and most of the people went through here

and understand what went wrong in the games where things went wrong like the Florida game and understand why they got better. So, yeah, I, if I were buying stock in a team, Texas would be one I would be buying quite a bit of right now because they dealt with the bad parts of it this year and probably are not going to get bitten by that next year. Yeah. Yeah.

They're going to be in pretty good spot. Well, good luck to the Longhorns. Alabama, on the other hand, this is, this is tough. Like losing Hollywood smothers who you were hoping would come invigorate your run game. They wanted Cam Coleman too. I don't know that they were one of the favorites. I think we thought going into that when he put his name in the portal, it was going to come down to Texas or Texas A&M.

But if you're Bama, you're looking at this and, like, you know, Quay Rousseau, the linebacker's leaving. He's going to wind up somewhere else. There's so many unknowns for you right now that it's probably pretty frustrating. And like, can you imagine these fans who got so used to completely ruling and dominating the sport. And now they are where everybody else has been for all these weeks. And I don't know if this is annoying to you,

but like I do hang out with a lot of people who love college football and I talk about college football with them and they all like different teams. An Alabama fan over at my house, we were watching one of the NFL playoff games yesterday, Andy. And he was talking about Bama and he was kind of upset. And obviously so because Alabama didn't have a great day on Sunday. When you think about all the teams and the places, and I know a lot has been made about

Alabama's lack of Fortune 500 companies and lack of billionaire alums and all those things, but when you think about all the places that are backing up the Brink's truck to get players, whoever paid or is going to pay or offered Ty Simpson's $6.5 million does not have a recent national championship. I guarantee it. I don't even know. who the teams are, is because Alabama was so successful. One of those teams might be one that's playing for national title on Monday. We don't know if Miami's that one, but they're in the, they're in the middle. Desperation makes you do crazy things when it comes to financially supporting and paying players.

And I think if you even go back to the beginning of the NIL era, who were the teams that were most aggressive at starting off on the teams that hadn't been relevant or wanted to get back to high level relevancy for the first time in a long time. And I wonder about Alabama's success, how much they've won, the fact that most people who are Alabama fans my age have seen them win five national championships, how much the lack of desperation in tasting what it feels like to be at that level hurts them in their desire to pony up to get the players they need. I haven't thought about it this way, but that's a good thing. theory because you're right. It may be that there's enough people in the fan base among the

people who can write these kinds of checks who are like, you know what? I just saw a national title. Like players are still pretty good. Yeah. And I've always wondered this about people too. It's like I think that part of the reason why billionaires or people with a ton of money want to help build their team in their program is the sense of accomplishment of like, hey, like if Cody can't, if Texas Tech wins the national title one day in the next five years, everybody will look at Cody Campbell as the guy who saved the program or usher the program to that point. I think they're looking at them like that now.

I mean, I do. I think there's got to be a level of titles before this. Like, there has to be a level of self-serving. of this too of like i want to be a part of this i want to be a part of this team i want to be a part of this program this is how i can contribute to them and be a part of it like if alabama

raised a bunch of money from a bunch of people to pay quarterback x millions of dollars and they won the national title in 2026 like i don't know if the person who pony up that money at bama would get viewed the same way that cody campbell would be if texas tech does what it does you know I think that there's there's a level of attachment or a level of like, I don't know,

being a part of it that matters. And it's just like Alabama has done it so many times. I just don't know for the desires there right now. Maybe if they go back to not winning it for 10 years and people are tired of it, like that'll come back. But for the time being, like how does it feel like if you stroke a fact? That's where they were when they hired Nick Saban.

They were at that level. Like basically telling Malmore, like you get Nick Sabin or else, go get Nick Sabin. how would it feel to stroke a fat check, one of those $20 million checks that Kenny Dillingham was talking about? And then your team actually wins the championship. And then the next day, it's like, oh, man, thank God, I spent that money. Like, if you're an Alabama person, like, you'd be like, oh, well, this feels just like it always did. Because it happened 80 times when I was in the last 15 years.

It's just, I just like, that's my theory of why Alabama is struggling because, like, I just don't think that the attachment there or the desperation to taste something that they, tasted. So it's like if you live by the ocean and you get your own lobster every day, you might not spend $250 for lobster at a steakhouse. It's a good point. And I had never thought about it that way, but I think that is a very smart way to think about it. And now I will say having obviously relatives, my mom graduated from Alabama, so I know lots of people in that fan base understand the psyche of that fan base fairly well. It won't take long for that desperation to set in. They like winning. They're used to winning. So I don't think it'll take much longer for that feeling to arrive because, you know, go back to the Nick Saban when he was hired,

they were seven years removed from, from an SEC title and being, you know, a very good team in 1999. But they were at that point 14 years removed from a national title. And that was unacceptable to them, absolutely unacceptable to them. So maybe in a few more years they get to that point. But you're right, it may be that right now they're saying, you know what? I experienced this just five years ago.

I experienced this multiple times over the past 15 years. Yeah, the person sitting on my couch that was complaining about Bama yesterday like went to like while he was in college. I think Bama went to the national title game three times. Oh my God. Can you imagine?

So I mean, that's the reality for most people that went there in the, to 2010s. Yep. Well, we will find out. I'd be curious to see how their fan base reacts to this. You know, look, they could still be really good next year. We'll see.

It's not like they stopped having good players. They've got Keel and Russell and Austin Mack. They're going to have a quarterback competition. We will see what happens with Alabama. But I like that theory because it makes sense to me. And I hadn't thought about it that way. So I'm glad you brought it up. Ari tomorrow, Big Denna's show.

You and I are going to pick the national title game. Picking the national title game against the spread. Indiana, favored by a touchdown. Ari has a hot streak. I believe you're undefeated since the quarterfinals. I am. Can he stay undefeated against the spread? We'll find out tomorrow on Indian Ori on 3.