Andy & Ari On3 - Transfer Portal MAYHEM | Landing Spots for Kyle McCord, Dillon Gabriel | Texas & Tennessee in Portal

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

It's officially day one of the transfer portal, and we are breaking it all down here!This episode is sponsored by Fanduel! Visit Fanduel.com/Staples and use the promo code Staples. Right now, new customers get $150 in Bonus Bets with any winning $5 moneyline bet! Thank you to FanDuel* for delivering the lines for this bowl season's slate of games!(0:00-7:59) Intro - Transfer Portal News(8:00-9:22) Caleb Wiliams News(9:23-1:36) Opening Lines for Bowl Season(13:37-29:45) Transfer Portal Guru Pete Nakos Joins(29:46-39:15) Transfer Portal 101 - What You Need to Know(39:16-46:16) Bobby Burton from Inside Texas on the Longhorns in the Portal(46:17-52:26) Tampering - Is your school doing it? Probably(52:27-1:02:48) Brent Hubbs from VolQuest on Tennessee's Outlook(1:02:49-1:03:25) ConclusionWant to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and subscribe!https://youtu.be/LuWwAmmWxTQMust be 21+ and present in select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas StarCasino, LLC. First online real money wager only. $5 pregame moneyline wager required. First online real money wager only. $10 firstdeposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com.Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania,Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona, 1-888-789-7777 or visitccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, 1-800-9-WITH-IT in Indiana, 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 1-877-770-STOP inLouisiana, visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland, visit 1800gambler.net in West Virginia, or call 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope ishere. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or textHOPENY in New York

Welcome to Andy Staples on three and happy transfer portal day to those who celebrate. I don't know how many people celebrate, although hope is springing eternal at schools who think that someone who jumped in the transfer portal today is going to come save their team. Not so much for those who lost players, although maybe you plan to lose that player. And that's a distinction that we kind of have to get into as we talk about these names as they enter the portal and where people are going. This is going to be wilder than last year and probably will continue to get that way until it finds an equilibrium as people figure

out exactly how this process works, which is probably then when they'll change the rules again. But right now it is free agency on steroids. It is crazy because anybody basically can jump in. If you're an undergrad who's transferred once, then maybe you're not doing it. So like most of Colorado's roster, but if you've graduated or if you've never transferred before, it's open to you and you are doing it. Woke up Monday morning to the news that Kyle McCourt, Kyle McCourt, who started at quarterback for Ohio state, like a week and a half ago against Michigan he's in the transfer portal now we're going to talk to our guy Pete Nacos from on three about that process figure out who's who decided that was going to happen was that a Kyle McCord decision was that an Ohio State decision a little bit of both and where's he going to wind up and what's Ohio State going to do at quarterback

now are they going in the portal for some of these guys that are available because you've got Cam Ward from Washington State you've got Dylan Gabriel from Oklahoma you've got Riley Leonard from Duke we knew about Riley remember Riley's coach left so he obviously had a chance to put his name in earlier than everybody else and we knew he was shopping around. But tons of quarterbacks in the transfer portal. We already knew about Tyler Van Dyke from Miami. On Monday, Brock Vandegrift, Georgia's backup, even though Carson Beck has not made a decision about what he wants to do.

But they also have Dominic Raiola coming in, number one quarterback recruiting country. They still have Gunnar Stockton. So there's a lot of moving pieces to this thing. Just the quarterbacks. Let's go through a couple more of those. Boise State quarterback, Talon Green green just won the mountain West with them. Now he's looking in the portal, Alabama quarterback, Tyler Buckner entered the transfer portal

as a lacrosse player. We'll ask Pete Nacos about that one too, about what that means. Other positions, the big name. And I don't believe we've actually seen him in the portal itself yet, but he has announced that he's going to enter it. Texas A&M defensive tackle Walter Nolan. He is one of those people who does not grow on trees. Very few human beings like this enter the transfer portal. He's going to be highly sought after, assuming he officially enters the transfer portal.

But right now, it's thought this is going to be one of the guys that everybody in America has at least taken a look at because there are so few defensive tackles who can affect the game the way he can. Monroe Mills, offensive tackle from Texas Tech. Chris Tyree, wide receiver from Notre Dame. Julian Fleming, a wide receiver from Ohio State. Now remember, Ohio State's got some good young receivers. They've got Jeremiah Smith,

the number one recruit in the country, coming to play receiver there, and he's pretty special. But Julian Fleming had a role, and Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Obuk are leaving. So that was an interesting one as well. This is going to keep going because there were names that we thought were going to go in that we didn't see go in on Monday. There are some names that we didn't think were going in that did go in on Monday. And I think as this process goes, especially with the quarterbacks, you know, when we thought, okay, it's Will Howard from Kansas State, Riley Leonard, DJU, Cam Ward, we thought, okay, maybe this thing will calm down at some point. But now you've got Dylan

Gabriel in the mix. You've got Kyle McCord in the mix. Dylan Gabriel is an interesting one. I think if we just break this all down, he's probably the most accomplished of those quarterbacks in the portal. He's probably the one who's played the most effective football games. And where does he go? Because remember, he's going to play at UCLA before he decided to play at Oklahoma. Caleb Williams makes a decision to leave Oklahoma and go to USC. Dylan Gabriel was committed to UCLA, was about to start class, and said, whoa, no, no, no, I'm going to play for Oklahoma now. So guess who he might play for? USC. He could be Caleb Williams' replacement at USC. If he doesn't go to Oregon, you know, USC's Big Ten rival. It's going to be hard to

get used to saying that, but we got to get used to saying that. Or this is an interesting one. Could he go to Mississippi state? His offensive coordinator at Oklahoma was Jeff Levy. Jeff Levy also worked with him at UCF. Jeff Levy is Mississippi state's new head coach. So Dylan Gabriel would be able to move into a position where he's completely comfortable, knows exactly what he's doing, but then there's also USC. There's also Oregon. This is a very fun kind of free agency. I realize it drives some people crazy. They don't want to talk about it, but it does seem like most people are interested in it. And I know I see your tweets where you say, this is ruining college football.

I also see how many people watch videos, how many people read certain stories. You guys love this stuff, whether you know it or not, whether you're willing to admit it or not, you love this stuff. And I got to admit, it's really intriguing. I mean, I don't think I got up Monday morning thinking that Tyler Buckner, who is a guy we talked about quite a bit when he transferred to Alabama for Notre Dame, would be in the

portal as a lacrosse player. And yet here we are. So we will delve into that. We have a lot of Transfer Portal related stuff today. We're going to talk to Pete Nacos, who's been breaking stories left and right. He's the one who broke the Kyle McCord story on Monday morning. We're going to talk to Bobby Burton from Inside Texas about what the Longhorns are expecting to do in the portal in terms of what they're getting and what they may be losing. That's with me and J.D. Piquel from our Transfer Portal live show that we did on Monday morning.

Me and J.D. also talked to Brent Hubbs from VolQuest about what Tennessee is going to do in the Transfer Portal, what they're looking for, what they may lose. We also talked about how the Transfer portal works, exactly what's going on here. Because I know a lot of people still confused by how everything fits together and the rules keep changing. So we talk a little bit about that. We also talk a little bit about tampering the necessary evil that makes the transfer portal go that is against the rules, but you will never catch anybody doing it. I explain how everybody gets away with it, why everybody keeps doing it, and why they're not going to really do anything about it. So we got a packed, packed show.

One more piece of news, though. I mentioned Caleb Williams earlier. Surprise, surprise! He is not playing in the holiday bowl for USC. I know after winning the Heisman last year and coming, you know, a few points against Utah away from making the college football playoff. I know he dreamed of playing in a holiday bowl against the Louisville team that looked barely functional on offense in the ACC championship game, but no, alas, that is not what he's doing now. He has not mentioned that he's officially entering the draft or that he's leaving USC yet. I imagine this will get dragged out in a way that seems stupid.

But I would assume Caleb Williams is going pro. I would assume we've seen the last of him in a USC uniform. I don't think he's entering the transfer portal. I think his next transfer will be to the Chicago Bears, who hold the Carolina Panthers pick, unless the tanking New England Patriots somehow manage to swipe that number one pick. That's what I think is going to happen. But who knows?

It's a weird world. Five years ago, I'd have never said we'd have a transfer portal show where the guy who started for Ohio State against Michigan 10 days ago, who's a sophomore, is leaving Ohio State. Never would have thought. But now we got to talk a little more about the college football playoff, about the bowl season, because our friends at FanDuel have been nice enough to provide us with lines for these games. So go to FanDuel.com slash Staples, sign up. And if you make a $5 winning money line bet, could be on anything in the NFL, the NBA, NHL,

college football, you get $150 in guaranteed bonus bets. So one winning $5 Moneyline bet, which is you saying, I think this team will win. And you get $150 in free guaranteed bonus bets. Now here are some of the lines. Remember, we always do the Iowa total. I'm dumb. And I have picked over for Iowa two of the last three weeks. And the under has hit in all three weeks. The under with Iowa is 11-2 this season. Iowa is playing Tennessee in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl. I don't normally say the sponsor name, but Tennessee tweeted,

I woke up feeling the cheesiest coach today. I hate that commercial. They need to stop. It is seared into my brain after however many years of playing it over and over during college football games. Please never show that commercial again, please. I'm doing you the solid of saying the sponsor name so that you don't have to show that commercial to anyone ever again. But let us talk about Iowa and Tennessee. Tennessee's a seven-point favorite. Nobody cares about the spread. I mean, somebody does. But we care about the total here. 35 and a half. Under, under, under, under, under. We'll talk to Brent hubs later about the balls. Is Joe Milton playing? We'll ask under, under, under, under, under, under, under. Also from our friends at FanDuel, the orange bowl, the game that nobody wants to play in

Florida state versus Georgia. Georgia is a 14 point favorite in this game. I would have a hard time setting the line on this sucker because I don't know who's playing. The Florida State players get together, Galvin and I say, we got screwed and we're going to go out on top. So we're all going to play. And we know Georgia is going to have a bunch of opt-outs. And so we're just going to go steamroll them. Or do a lot of Florida State's NFL prospects say, you know what, I'm not risking injury here. And Georgia's NFL prospects go, I'm not risking injury here either. And we have no idea who's going to be playing

up until about a week before the game. That one is going to be fascinating to watch that line move as the news trickles out about it. Let's go to the college football playoff. Washington and Texas. We guessed at the line when they set this game, JD Piquel and I guessed at the total on this one, and I guessed 68 and a half. I was high. JD thought it might be over 70, 63 and a half. I feel like that's a little low. I feel like these offenses could put on a show, but Texas is a four and a half. I feel like that's a little low. I feel like these offenses could put on a show. But Texas is a four and a half point favorite in that game.

In the Rose Bowl, number one Michigan versus number four Alabama. The Wolverines are a one and a half point favorite. So everybody who said the committee was picking Alabama because they'd be favored by Vegas against everyone, they are not. We'll see if the gamblers change that. But right now, Michigan is a one and a half point favorite on FanDuel. So go to FanDuel.com slash Staples. Put down one winning $5 Moneyline bet and get $150 in guaranteed bonus bets.

FanDuel.com slash Staples. Next up, our man Pete Nacos. Pete has been working his buns off all over the transfer portal. When we woke up Monday morning, Pete was dropping the bomb. We're going to have to come up with a, like we got Woj bombs.

We're going Nacos bombs. We're going Naclier bombs. We're going NACLEAR bombs. We got to figure it out. We'll ask Pete what he wants it called. It's his thing. But we're going deep, deep into the transfer portal with Pete when we come back. We welcome on three's Pete NACOS, who started Monday morning by dropping the news that Kyle McCord is leaving Ohio State. He's in the transfer

portal. Pete, we're trying to figure out, okay, we got Woj bombs. What are we going to call it when you break transfer portal news? Are we going to call it a NACOS bomb? A NACLEAR bomb was one I thought of, but we got to come up with a way to phrase this. Our honorable colleague Jack Terry suggested NACOS notifications, and I'm a fan of that one. NACOS notification. A NACOSication. No. NACOS notifications.

Say it five times fast. You'll love it. Okay. Perfect. NACOS notifications. We have a NACOS notification. Perfect. Rolls off the tongue. All right. you'll love it okay perfect naco's notifications we have a naco's notification perfect rolls off

the tongue all right let let us start with kyle mccord because i think this is one where the casual fan looks at it and goes oh my god i just watched him playing for ohio state against michigan he's a sophomore what the hell is going on yeah yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll try to tell you what's going on. I think that, and just from conversations I've had and things like that, I think the McCord family was looking from a commitment from Ohio state that, that Kyle was going to be the starting quarterback next year. And Ryan day and the Ohio state program wasn't ready to make that

commitment. And that's understandable. I think what's really clear too, is the decision was more about the betterment of Ohio State more so than anything else. I think, obviously, you've talked about Ryan Day's in a very peculiar position right now with everything that's going on coming off three straight losses to Michigan. And right now it's about doing what's right out of Ohio State

and not what's best for Pat McCord. That's the blunt reality we're in. I think that's something that people just aren't used to, but in this age where players can leverage their own success for more financial success in the transfer portal, I think the teams do have to consider the same stuff. Again, another piece of Ohio state news, Julian Fleming, a receiver who had a role on this year's team. I was, you know, I think with Jeremiah Smith coming in with Cornell Tate, probably taking on a bigger role in his second

year, even with Marvin Harrison, Jr. And Emeka Abuka leaving, I'm not, that's what I was trying to figure out. Was there necessarily a bigger role for Julian Fleming or would he have to go elsewhere to find that? Yeah. I mean, you have so much talent coming in and, and if Jeremiah Smith does stick with his commitment as everything seems on track, I mean, you got Brandon Ennis, you have Carnell Tate, uh, you have Jeremiah and you have plenty of other talent in that room. What is Julian Fleming's role? Um,

and the last thing I wanted to mention too with Andy about Kyle McCord is I think you also have to give credit to Kyle. He made his decision quickly and maybe Ohio State didn't like how it shuffled out. But we're in this world now with NIL dollars and he can't wait till December 15th and enter the portal and have every option open. You got to go now because spaces are taking up. So I think the McCord family has to make that decision as well. And where might he be looking? Yeah, I've had some conversations early on. I think the two factors here are going to be, one,

Kyle is not going to want to go play for a lesser Big Ten opponent. He does not want to be in a position where he plays Ohio state. I just don't think that's something he wants to do. And number two, it's all, all about development for the NFL. He worked with Ryan day, one of the best quarterback coaches in the country this year. And, and now I think he needs to go find a place that's really going to help development and year two as a starter.

I mean, there's a few of those like Jeff Brom at Louisville. I know, I know Tyler Shuck, the Texas tech transfer is supposed to visit them there too, but that, that seems like it might be a fit. Let's talk about some of these other folks in the portal, the Dylan Gabriel news, the guys at Sooner Scoop were prepping me for that last week. Cause they were asking me what's his value in the portal.

I'm like, guys, are we getting a little premature here i feel like but he's right he's in there it feels to me like he's the most valuable quarterback out there yeah i think that the experience um i mean playing at oklahoma i don't i think you could argue right that's a top 10 program in terms of national spotlight um he proved i mean that drive that drive against Texas and the River rivalry, I mean, I don't – can you get much better than that? That was pretty impressive. So the experience, he's obviously been in Jeff Levy's offense. So, yeah, his name is going to be arguably the most highly sought after

in the portal in Oregon,, um, Oregon, Mississippi state and USC are all going to be some schools to watch. I that's the thing. Like Mississippi state makes sense because Jeff Levy is the new head coach there. That's his offensive coordinator from Oklahoma and UCF. So he, he's very comfortable in that system, but I've just, I can't help, but imagine him running the offense. Bo Nix ran this year. Yeah, yeah. Just talking to sources and stuff, I really think that that is coming together. But obviously, it's only day one, and we're going to have to follow this thing throughout.

Well, and that's the other part of this is we get this information. And like you mentioned with Kyle McCord, who you say doesn't have all his options available if he waits until december 15th how quickly do other people who might be on the fence have to decide hey do i want to jump in or do i want to stay before they basically are running out of options yeah and december 15th i kind of threw out there um i i think that's kind of like a good middle marker for the 30-day window. But you hear this too, Andy, like some of recruits going through the process are told to like make their decision before end of November because their spots are the best. We have two spots and there are three we like at this position. So the first two who take it, it's yours. Yep. So I think we're starting to see that in the portal.

And there's less and less kids with COVID exemption. So maybe that'll be different next year. But obviously, if you're a quarterback who enters the portal like Dylan Gabriel or Kyle McCord or Dante Moore, I mean, you have a short list of schools you want to go to. And it would really suck for you, honestly, if you went in too late and that place wasn't open anymore. So Dante Moore is another one. He's announced that he's leaving UCLA and entering the portal. We have not seen his name in the portal. The other, another guy in the Pac-12, well, does the Pac-12 exist?

I don't even, we won't get into that now, but Aiden Childs from Oregon State has made the announcement. We haven't actually seen him in the portal yet either. Is it possible Aiden Childs follows Jonathan Smith to to Michigan State and then you've got Michigan native Dante Moore does he wind up at a Big Ten school uh with Aiden Childs I mean I I'm hearing rumors and a couple sources have mentioned that a visit to East Lansing is on the on the docket for him um I think a lot of people assume that Aiden to Michigan State

just makes way too much sense. If you're Jonathan Smith, why would you not try to bring your quarterback who has experience in the offense in year one with the Spartans? In terms of Dante Moore, I think that Dante Moore, just talking to his camp a little bit today, he really wants to be developed more. Things didn't go perfectly at UCLA this year. And he had those 7-10 balls every game where you were like, wow, that is a five-star. There's a reason why Dan Lanning wanted him.

But he needs to develop more. I don't know if being thrust into a starting role in year two is exactly what he's looking for. One thing that was brought up to me today, sitting behind J.J. McCarthy for a year, could you imagine a better situation for Dante than going to Michigan and stuff? There's a lot of outside factors to Michigan right now that just need to kind of be settled.

Well, and the question with Michigan, one, is Jim Harbaugh going to be there? Two, is J.J. McCarthy even going to be there? Because he's one of the NFL people we love, and he's got to make a decision. Another guy who has to make a decision is Georgia's Carson Beck. I've talked to some people, and he's still on the fence. He's not going to leave Georgia to go to another school, but it's the NFL or come back to Georgia. We saw Brock Vandegrift say he's going to transfer.

So their backup is gone. If Beck goes, what does Georgia do? Because they have Dominic Raiola come in, but would they go find somebody? Yeah, you have Dylan Raiola coming in. I've also been told. Dominic, that's his uncle. My bad.

Light center at Nebraska. What Georgia does necessarily, I think, remains to be seen. I think there's a lot of hope right now in Athens that Carson does come back. And then in terms of Brock Vandergriff, I've been told from multiple sources that Kentucky is going to be the school to beat there. Well, they do love their transfer quarterbacks in Lexington. So that's a fun one all right so speaking of transfer quarterbacks in the sec this is the

wildest one that you reported today so we we wrote tons about tyler buckner when he left notre dame to go to alabama after spring practice he ends up playing against USF. Very clear he's not the best quarterback on that roster. Jalen Milrow takes back over. Tyler Buckner is in the transfer portal today, but not in the way the other guys are. So what is he doing? I think that, well, Tyler Buckner is the men's lacrosse transfer portal. That came out this afternoon.

What is Tyler Buckner doing? I think that he just wants to reassess and explore all options. This season at Alabama definitely did not go as I think he envisioned and some others envisioned. Obviously, Jalen Milrow has been fantastic. And Bama's in the college football playoff now, arguably because of his performance in the leg stretch. But yeah, Tyler Buckner is going to be on the men's lacrosse free agency market. And as funny as that is to say, I think it's something Tyler really wants to do. Definitely not going to rush his decision.

But as Blue and Gold's Mike Singer reported earlier tonight, and I have heard from some other people too, returning to Notre Dame, being on the Fighting Irish men's lacrosse team would be a really good fit for Tyler. Well, they wear the same kind of gold helmets. And for all the lax bros out there, Buckner's a middie.

And he did commit to play for Michigan in high school, originally to play lacrosse at Michigan before deciding ultimately play football at Notre Dame. So that, that is a, you, you got aggregated by inside lacrosse today,

Pete, I bet you never thought you'd appear in that publication. A first for everything. First for everything inside lacrosse, by the way, the greatest all name team of any publication they did. They. Every year they do a lacrosse all-name team and you're like, holy trust fund, Batman. It's tremendous. All right, Pete. What

can we expect here in the next few days? Because like we mentioned, there's some announcements. Dante Moore, Aiden Childs, Walter Nolan at Texas A&M, the defensive tackle. They've said they're entering the portal. They've not done it yet. Do you think we're going to get any of these guys say, you know what? I'm good. I'm going to stay?

You know, I have not heard of any of that. Obviously, you and I talked earlier today about Walter Nolan. I still believe he's on track to enter the transfer portal, but it's Monday at 6.30 Eastern time. Do I know if he's going to go in or not? I think he is, but obviously he made the announcement last night. It's a little odd that he hasn't gone in yet. But yeah, I think all the big names who announce will go in. I get the same sense on Nolan as well. And I think there's a chance he could be one of the most sought after people in the portal. Obviously, people want quarterbacks, but there's no so far there has not been a defensive tackle even close to his caliber. A couple of guys from the Ivy League who I think can help some people out at the power five level. But Walter Nolan is a five star talent who in the time we've seen him on the field seems to be capable of doing the things we thought he could do as a

high schooler. A hundred percent. And the last thing to mention about Walter Nolan, and I'm sure you've heard the same thing is like, linemen do not grow on trees, right? Grown linemen do not grow on trees. And the other really interesting thing about linemen and the transfer portal

is like, you see Alabama, you see alabama you see georgia they won national titles because of the trenches so if you go add walter nolan and i don't know maybe you have a really electric offense and all of a sudden you have someone playing in the middle of your defensive line who's making all the difference i mean that that truly makes the difference from going i don't know fringe top 10 to a top five team possibly. Right. And, and, you know, Texas developed its interior defensive lineman to bond Ray sweat and Byron Murphy this year, but that's what you have to have to make the playoff.

Texas didn't have that before. Now they do. So yeah, if you want to get like those teams that, that you're watching in the playoff, Michigan, Alabama, Texas, well, even Washington to an extent, they've had a great run of interior d lineman over the last 10 years like you have to get those guys one where either either out of high school or now and when one pops into the portal as we saw with barry alexander last year it doesn't happen often yeah and i mean when they do pop in like they're not going to be on the market for like 30 days

like that once walter nolan goes in i'll give it 10 days until he makes a decision because he's just going to be swamped by offers and visits and things like that well is that that is that why riley leonard does a do not contact when he enters the portal because he knows basically like i know where i want to go. So we'll, we'll reach out to those people and we'll compare and contrast and not worry about everybody and their brother calling. Yeah.

I mean, if you're an elite player like Riley Leonard, like you're going to know where you want to go. And Riley Leonard's making the decision to go back to college instead of go to the NFL draft. So everyone's like accusing of tampering and things like that. The do not contact is because Riley Leonard sat down with his family. He sat down with his agent probably,

and probably listed three schools that he was going to take seriously. And then he put his name in the portal and then the, his camp went out and well, actually he was contacted by the schools and made it probably very clear what his three schools were going to be. And when do we think some of these dominoes will fall? Because we've seen the early ones, the players whose coaches left or whose coaches got fired, like Max Johnson. He leaves Texas A&M. He's already committed to North Carolina.

Right. Some of these that have gone in today, when will we see the dominoes fall of them actually making choices? I think, I hate to say this, but it's really like recruitment by recruitment, right? Like Riley Leonard is adamant. He is going to go on a visit before he makes a decision and maybe he'll make his decision on the visit. And maybe that comes this week. But, um, with some of the names that you're seeing going in right now, I would give it like the seven to 10 day time timeframe. Um and like we talked about earlier with like kyle mccord wayne so really a lot of

these guys want to commit now too so then their dream school whether it be i don't know usc or oregon does not get swept up because just like yeah i mean lincoln riley needs a quarterback he doesn't want that to dry out if you're a head coach. The race is on. Pete Nacos, we'll be talking quite a bit in the next few weeks. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Andy. Next up, J.D. Piquel and I talk about what you need to know about the transfer portal, including what the transfer portal actually is.

Let's sort of reset the table here, Andy, because there's been so much going on when it comes to the transfer portal window and how it sort of evolved. As we sit right now, kind of explain to the people what they need to know for this transfer portal world we're living in right now. All right. Well, what you need to know is the transfer portal sounds like something out of Star Trek. Yep. What it is, is an online spreadsheet. It is basically players saying, I would like to have the opportunity to go to another school, other schools I'm available. And we talked about the no contact tag. That's rare. Most of them are saying, please, by all means, contact me.

I would like to know if you're interested. And we talk about the portal as if that was the big change. All that was was a way to organize this particular set of information. What changed that made this really interesting is a few years ago when they said, you don't have to sit out a year when you transfer as an undergraduate. You get one transfer where you can just transfer and play immediately. And so that's what changed everything. That's when everybody supercharged the portal. And so basically guys who either they got to a school it was not what they thought or they blew

up and now they feel like they can do better they're going in the portal yeah it's still more more people who couldn't play at the level they were than people who are really good and trying to upgrade but we're talking mostly about the people who are trying to upgrade or who are just trying to go parallel because they don't like the situation they're in. Absolutely. And quarterbacks specifically finding themselves in a better situation, better offense, better coordinator. Maybe just they want to follow a coordinator.

I mean, I don't think we've seen more impact at any position felt across the college football landscape than the quarterback position. I mean, let's just talk about that. We know why. There's one quarterback on every team like if you're an offensive lineman and you don't win the left tackle job you can win the right tackle job yep if you're a linebacker and you're not you're not the starting sam linebacker you might be the starting will linebacker like there's still a place for you on the team and on

the field more importantly if you're a quarterback you don't win the job you're either changing positions or you're going somewhere else. And for most of these guys, and we talked about the world of growing up quarterback these days, like if you're a quarterback in 2023, who is being recruited by colleges or who was on scholarship at a college, your parents have dumped so much money into your training over the last 10 years. They are going to make damn sure you get, they get something out of their investment. And who can blame them? I mean, when you look at the transfer portal quarterback world today or look at the quarterback world today rather across college football take a look at some of these

names like it feels like it is becoming more and more rare for a top quarterback to not be a portal guy i mean quinn ewers caleb williams jayden daniels sam hartman from this past cycle should we're saying from this past let's let's look at the heisman trophy like the three quarterbacks who are competing probably i i think they'll be the top three vote getters we'll find out the voting the voting closes today but i think jayden daniels and bo nicks and jay and michael pennix jr will be the top three vote voters in the heisman trophy race all three of them transferred yeah all three of them it's unbelievable and i mean even when it comes to the college football playoff you got two of those four teams with

quinn ewers at texas and michael pennix at washington being transferred portal guys we'll talk about the playoff here a little bit more in a second but we talked about the portal market quite a bit when it comes to the quarterbacks that are available are going to be available who in your mind is potentially like this year sam Sam Hartman, like the guy that can plug and play and be someone that elevates your team to one to two more wins than you would have had the season before? He's leaving the same conference and maybe going to the same team. Riley Leonard. Okay.

That's the plug and play guy. Interesting. He is the plug and play guy. Although Cam Ward, again, if you already run an air raid, he's a very easy plug and play for you as well. That's why if Cam Ward winds up at USC, I find that very intriguing. If Cam Ward winds up at Wisconsin, I find that very intriguing because I think he's such a scheme fit for them. Riley Leonard is a guy who elevates the guys he's playing around.

That's what Notre Dame wants. That's what Auburn needs. That's what a lot – I mean, everybody needs that. Let's be real here. But Riley Leonard is one who I feel like just makes everybody around him better. When he was healthy, Duke could beat teams that they couldn't normally beat. A guy who's kind of become under the radar. I'm curious to see where he lands because

andy i am i'm going down on the tyler van dyke ship if it does go down because i saw him in 2021 yeah rookie of the year in the acc dude is slinging the pill all over the yard under rent lashley i still am not convinced that he just can't play football he's had three different coordinators in three years no is he a guy that you're watching could be a plug and play and just elevate some team tremendously? And we're like, Oh, Tyler Van Dyke's back.

How does that feel? Absolutely. This is a guy who, who you put him in the right place. And all of a sudden he's going, he's going to be pretty good. Now, Miami looked at it,

decided Emory Williams was their guy, a guy they signed last year out of high school. And so Tyler Van Dyke needed to go look around. I would say, look, so he, he, his best success is in Rhett Lashley's offense. And so Tyler Van Dyke needed to go look around. I would say look. So his best success is in Rhett Lashley's offense. Now, Rhett Lashley still has Preston Stone at SMU. So I don't think that's really the option.

But Gus Malzahn, John Rhys Plumlee, if he's done. Could be interesting. You get the OG of that offense. You came up under Rhett Lashley, but Gus is the og of that offense like you you you came up under rhett lashley but gus is the og of that offense rhett lashley was gus's high school quarterback so uh that the the people who run that offense would should be very interested in tyler van dyke could be the right because you've seen him succeed in interesting i mean we're talking about auburn too a second ago with riley leonard being in there potentially know, in the sweepstakes for him. Grayson McCall, a guy who's the three-time Sunbelt Player of the Year who dipped his toe in the portal last year.

And there was a ton of smoke around, hey, he's Auburn's guy. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. And then on the one-yard line, seems like it fell apart, whether it was academic or administrative, whatever it ended up being. Is he someone you're watching for Auburn this time around, fitting in that Hugh Freeze, Phil Montgomery system? It sure sounds like NC State's the one to beat for them. Staying home. Yeah, so that would be an interesting one too

because when we saw MJ Morris enter the portal today out of NC State, which that was a strange situation where MJ Morris started some games as a true freshman in 2022, and then they recruited over him took brennan armstrong as a transfer then brennan armstrong plays poorly they make mj morris play he goes three and one as a starter and wins some pretty big games and then they're like and then mj morris is like okay i'm gonna redshirt now because you told me i was gonna redshirt this season yeah and you knew that meant he was gonna enter the portal he is entering the portal i can see grayson mccall going to nc state which has been a very like dave doran's team has just been solid every year yep they've never

particularly great but they've always been solid perhaps grayson mccall can elevate them to grayson dealt with injuries this year he was playing in a different offense at coastal under tim beck than he he played in with jamie chadwell but tim beck was the oc at nc state so the the people at nc state are going to understand the offense that he's coming from kind of that puzzle piece yeah you will when it comes away and then and then the next domino is okay so where's mj morris go yes it really is it does feel like it's it's a poor comp because i've talked so much about conference realignment to being like musical chairs but it feels like to me the transfer portal quarterback market is musical chairs the music is going

and you better have a chair by the time you sit down because there's going to be somebody you would imagine that gets left maybe not out of this thing but where you know a situation that they would rather not have been in when it comes to where they end up landing. Absolutely. And, you know, you just get these weird situations where sometimes two quarterbacks have started against each other. Just flip flop. Yeah. You know, it's a very weird deal. And right now, if I am a quarterback in the portal, I'm just I'm looking at scheme. I'm looking hard at scheme because if you go to a place that's not necessarily a scheme fit for you you're not going to start and or you're going to get there and it's going to be a tough transition and somebody who's been

there out of high school like the other thing is we look at the mac jones situation you know some of these other quarterbacks who stayed, Kyle Trask at Florida, who stayed instead of transferring when everybody else transferred. Sometimes that's the last man standing. I will caution some of these guys who are entering the portal and say, if you are the backup quarterback at a big-time school and are well-liked you get along with the oc remember you are one injury away from being the starter at that big time school maybe that collective is taking care of you just enough to you know exactly so you might be in a better

position than you realize when we come back bob, Bobby Burton of Inside Texas joins us to talk about what the Longhorns are going to do in the transfer portal and why they were so much better in it this past year than the year before. Let's go into it to our guy. We go with Bobby Burton to jump to him, guys. And let's do thumbs up, thumbs down. We're good to go. Hey, Bobby, how are we feeling on Portal Monday?

Obviously, Texas is a major player when it comes to the transfer portal if they want to be letting guys like Adonai Mitchell and Quinn Ewers. First of all, how are you doing? Second of all, how is Texas feeling about their portal aspirations this Portal Monday? Talk to somebody on Friday. Texas expects

to be very aggressive in the portal with certain players. Texas is now at a point entering the college football playoff, Andy and JD, where they feel strongly that they can be selective and pick the right guys for their culture. Y'all may be talking about Walter Nolan. You may be talking about Evan Stewart. Those guys may not elite in talents, right? Elite in talents may not be right for the culture at the University of Texas right now. They're going to look, Eddie and JD, for specific guys that hit specific

roles. And that's what's so interesting. You heard Steve Sarkeesian talk about their culture last week, Bobby, and he seems to have done a great job, kind of like Mike Norvell at Florida State, in identifying guys who come in and fit right away, especially this past year. It feels like this past year more than the year before, where they did take a couple guys who weren't fits and who didn't really contribute. This year. It felt like they hit on everybody. Yes. You're so right. You just hit.

I mean, add a Jai Hall, Jalil Billingsley were not culture fits. Keelan Robinson was at nine. Mitchell was Ryan Sanborn, the punter for Texas. I mean, the average 45 plus yards of punt after Texas averaged 42 a year ago, these guys that they brought in have all fit the culture.

They're more blue collar for the most part, which seems to be what you want coming out of the portal. You don't necessarily want the prima donna that's going to upset the culture. You want the guys that are great players, but also ready to go to work. Bobby, is there any positions of need that just jump out to you? Like, hey, Texas is definitely going after X, Y, and Z position this portal cycle. No doubt. Texas is going to graduate heavily at wide receiver, JD. Not only Xavier Worthy heading off to the pros after a junior year,

Adonai Mitchell having a 10-touchdown reception year. He's headed to the pros most likely. Jordan Whittington, who's kind of that all-purpose guy for Texas, he's gone. Top three guys gone, and really their only depth behind them are freshmen. So they're going to look for some adults in the room. I expect Texas to probably go after two receivers in the portal. Then you also look at other positions, tight end JT Sanders, who had a whale of a game on Saturday against Oklahoma State. He's gone. You look in the secondary at safety.

They need to add some adults there because they've got two graduating safeties. Other than that, interior defensive line, but that's like the golden ticket. I mean, you're looking like Willy Wonka and the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I mean, it's really hard, right, to find the right guys. Brandon Fisk, what a pickup, for example, for Florida State this year. I mean, Texas would love to find someone like that, right? But were there any others in the portal? Texas got Trill Carter who played, I don't know,

100 snaps all year for Minnesota. They're just on our lot. They're just on our lot. So I feel like that's going to be, like I said, I mean, I think that's a golden ticket. Well, and that's, we were talking about Walter Nolan before this, Bobby. It feels like somebody like that who could play anywhere on the defense, you know, for anybody's defensive line,

the market's going to be so high for him because there just aren't any of those guys out there. Yeah. But look, Texas passed on bear Alexander last year. Who's a Texas native. They just let him go. I mean,

they, he, he, they were approached. They just didn't, you know, there's some things about that. And I,

and I do think Walter Nolan has some things about him like that. To be honest, certain teams will be attracted to him. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to denigrate this young man or his family. It's just he will fit some places. He will not fit every place. Bobby, you mentioned fit being such a big thing.

A lot of these guys want to play. And when you're at Texas, it's difficult to get on the field in Texas being in the college football playoff I don't expect that probably to get too much easier to see the field on the 40 acres how does Texas approach in roster retention with so much success they're having on the field right now uh Steve Sarkeesian's having meetings with all 85 members of the team uh in the next week to two weeks. That's his normal exit interview process. Every university that I know of goes through the same exact process. Texas's has been delayed a week from normal

because of the Big 12 championship. And then you have not only all of the media needs that Steve Sargassian had to accommodate yesterday. I mean, you all know how much, Andy, you particularly know how much of a zoo that can be for a coach. But then you start thinking about other topics. And I'll give you all know how much Andy, you particularly know how much of a zoo that can be for a coach. But then you start thinking about other topics and I'll give you one. I mean, he had to go on a recruiting visit last night to see Kobe Black.

That's not a 30 minute trip to Waco. J.D., you know that of all people. That's a that's a good hour and a half there, an hour and a half back. It's always construction. Yeah. Yeah. Thirty five. For a while there. Yeah. And but and then you talk about the hour and a half back. It's always construction. Yeah, 35 minutes. He was in control for a while there, yeah. And then you talk about the hour and a half, two hours in the home. That's an evening, right? So he can't be meeting with his players simultaneously. And so I think he's going to try to sit down with them this week

and try to figure it out. I expect Texas to lose players to the portal that they don't want to, right? You talk about I mean Texas is is getting deeper and deeper but you know I think that's the way of college football right now I really do you mean Kyle McCord going in the portal I mean what the you know Will Howard I mean these guys are are they're incumbent quarterbacks at major programs. This is crazy. Dylan Gabriel.

It really is. It's a weird world we're living in, Bobby. It really is. Like you said, having guys at big-time schools that were starters last year deciding to seek greener pastures. Bobby, we appreciate your time, man. I know you've got a lot going on with the playoff and now Portal Monday. We appreciate you coming in and dropping some knowledge on us greener pastures. Oh, Bobby, we appreciate your time, man. I know you got a lot going on with the playoff and now portal Monday.

We appreciate you coming in and dropping some knowledge on us when it comes to what Texas may be doing this portal cycle. Yep. Absolutely. You guys have fun. Yes, sir. Will do. Next up your favorite schools tampering. I promise you think your coaches aren't you're wrong.

They're tampering. The coaches they're complaining about tampering are also tampering. Everyone's tampering. I'm going to explain why and how and why nobody's going to do anything about it when we come back. There's some guys that you don't know they're jumping into the portal unless maybe you get in their ear with mom and dad or a trainer. Unless you maybe already knew. A little tampering going on. You don't know they're jumping into the portal unless maybe you get in their ear with mom and dad or a trainer.

Unless you maybe already knew. A little tampering going on. Which is, I mean, if you don't think tampering is happening in college football, you're kidding yourself. Yeah. Andy, there's tampering and there's probably some loopholes to tampering. What are some ways that happens that are technically legal that make it doable that you're hearing about? Well, the coaches love to complain about tampering but never actually accuse anybody of tampering because they would all like to reserve the right to tamper sure so here's here's the problem it's almost impossible to catch someone tampering like you would have to be so colossally stupid to get caught tampering that it's probably

never going to happen i mean basically like you you'd have to have a position coach or a coordinator texting the player or the player's parents directly, hey, would you consider coming here? They're never going to do that. Never. There are layers and layers upon layers to this. And here's the thing to remember. In high school recruiting, everybody's got a guy.

Everybody's got a guy, whether it is mom, dad, high school recruiting, everybody's got a guy. Everybody's got a guy. Whether it is mom, dad, high school coach, speed trainer, quarterback trainer. There's somebody that you go through. And you can get a message to that person. So let's say that person signs with school X and you work for school B. During that player's freshman year at school x if you think they're not happy or you think you see that they're not playing but you you really like them in recruiting you can get a message to whoever that player's person was and you can send it through a lower level recruiting staffer of yours you can call a coach, you know, in the area who happens to be around all this person a lot. And they can say, you know, so-and-so from school B was saying

they might be in the market. And so you can, you can pass that message along through a number of channels. Now with NIL, you have the, the other piece of it, which is more like what we've seen in the NFL or the NBA or whatever, where these guys have agents. Instead of a person acting as their agent, whether that's mom, dad, high school coach, quarterback, trainer, whatever, they just have a legit agent. And you just call that person. Like, you calling that agent is not tampering because that agent has many, many clients. He may have clients on your team. Interesting. And a phone call that isn't recorded, it just says you called this phone number.

You can't prove squat. Interesting. How rampant is this? Because it feels like with how easy it would be is it like 90 or north is it 100 100 really yeah interesting so every so every player jumping in the portal it's a high profile name there's been some back channels okay i thought you meant schools so 100 of schools are doing it yes no there are some players who just i'm i'm interested in entering the portal i'm interested in seeing what's out there that that maybe have not been tampered with.

But a lot of those players, the highest profile ones, they may already know where they're going. Or they've at least had their agent test the waters and float out there. Hey, if my guy went in, would you guys potentially be interested? If my guy, and then he's going to call another school. If my guy went in, is he somebody you might want to consider? And so they get a gauge of the marketplace before they go in. Which feels like a smart idea as long as you're able to keep it above board.

Because, I mean, you want to know what your market is for yourself, correct? Yeah. You want to help you as much as possible. You can't keep, I mean, officially the coach who says to the agent, yeah, we're interested, is tampering. But you can't prove it. Very fascinating. The whole thing is so fascinating because in the modern age of college football with so much player mobility, with NIL,

it seems like that is becoming something that might have to be regulated next. If you can, is that something that we end up saying, hey, it's happening, we're going to have to to put this all above board how how would you regulate it like how i don't know that that's the problem is there's too many layers involved it's too easy and it's it's actually i mean you think about the college football world coaching world recruiting world it's a small world relatively speaking everybody knows everybody it's too easy to just pass a message you can pass a message through three different people and it'll get where it needs to go it is not a problem it's curious

because it felt like to me there was a point in time where everybody knew payers were getting played to some degree but kind of same thing yeah couldn't really prove it or you didn't want to prove it yeah I wonder if the future of tampering is headed towards that kind of world well the future of tampering is like the future of all the rest of this like we can have a much bigger picture discussion eventually they're going to be employees there's going to be a collective bargaining agreement they'll have contracts and so it'll it'll be the same as the nba and the nfl you'll be able to have very serious penalties for tampering and you can call tan like within the terms of your cba you can call tampering whatever you want as long as everybody agrees to it interesting and so that's a different story once that comes in this all calms down because somebody's under contract

you're not going to mess with somebody who's under contract. Like you, you see how careful NFL coaches get when they get asked about a player who everybody knows is in the last year of his deal. And they're like, I don't know if I can say anything about this guy right now. And, and so it would be the same thing in, in college football. Once that happens now,

when will that happen? We don't know. It definitely seems to be heading that direction. There's no rule against me talking to Brent Hubbs, and J.D. Piquel and I, we got with the man himself from VolQuest, the purveyor of the finest Tennessee coverage on the internet, to talk about what Tennessee is searching for in the portal and also what they might expect to lose. Break it down for another team that's in the SEC right now,

obviously the Tennessee Vols from VolQuest, Brent Hubbs. Brent, appreciate you making time on this Portal Monday, man. Let's just get right to it. What do the Vols need to do in the portal to improve upon this season? Well, I think Tennessee's fascinating. I think they're one of the more fascinating teams in this portal cycle because they have 20 players on their roster who can return for a COVID year. So they could be one of the oldest teams in the league and in college football, or they could get really young really fast, depending on how many of those guys return. They have to have a tight

end in the portal. And that's why you've seen Tennessee just in the last few hours, Tennessee get active in offering the Jolly kid who plays at UConn that actually put on a show in Knoxville, nearly had 100 yards receiving against Tennessee. They just offered him here in the last couple of hours. So I think that's where it starts for Tennessee is at the tight end position, Justin Jolly being one of those guys. They can take up to two tight ends in this portal cycle.

And then you look on the offensive line. Do you need one? It depends on how many of those COVID guys come back. Same thing for the defensive line for Tennessee. So I think they're going to be active in the portal. But, guys, it's going to really depend a lot on what these COVID seniors do. And Tennessee's got to have some answers from those guys sooner rather than later because you can't wait in this cycle.

How do you handle that, Hubber, if you're Josh Heupel? Because these are guys, if they're COVID guys, they're probably graduated. They probably can transfer somewhere else and play right away, even if they transferred once before. Do you have to be kind of harsh at a certain point and say, hey, we need a spot. Well, and I think overall, Andy, this is the, this is the hardest thing for college coaches because college coaches don't get told no, right. Particularly at the power five level, you need more money. Fine. You need more

resources. You need another analyst. When's the last time guys are getting told no. And then you look at the NFL. There's a reason most NFL head coaches don't succeed as GMs because they have a hard time taking some of the emotions out of it and saying, I want everything. So if you're Josh Heupel, you can't, if you're going to flip your roster and you're going to continue to develop young guys, you probably don't need all those guys to come back. It's probably not in your best interest for all those guys to come back. So how do you handle that is a great question. Do you tell guys, hey, I think it's in your best interest.

You probably head on elsewhere. I think that's what happened with Brandon Turnage, who's a guy who went into the transfer portal. I think he felt like his opportunities weren't at Tennessee. And I don't think Tennessee was really overly bothered by that. Same for Warren Burrell. Tennessee's got some young bodies in that secondary that they need to get on the field because what are we seeing today, guys? How many sophomores are going into the portal because they've been somewhere two years and they don't feel like they're playing enough? That's the

challenge for head coaches around the country. The management of the veterans, I want them all back versus do I take a chance on losing young players because they're going to sit behind a veteran for another year? Well, that was kind of leading to the next thing I wanted to ask you, Brent, because right now a word you're hearing a lot or a phrase you're hearing a lot is roster retention, retention this, retention that, and how it pertains to the portal. Is Tennessee going to have to be fairly active on that front this portal cycle,

or do you feel like they're in good shape there no I think you have to be active I don't think anybody's in good shape with what we're seeing out there look at look at what's happened today look at all of the um look at all the quarterbacks that are going in the portal and I think that I think you have to have a plan um going into week, going into last week. I think November is very different than it used to be. You got to find out who, you know, if I lose a veteran guy, do I feel like my young guy can step in and go right away and we don't miss a beat there? Or do I really have to fight to keep the veteran guy? Or I have to fight to keep the guy because it's going to cost more money to replace him that I want to spend or I can spend? Or I the guy because it's going to cost more money to replace him

than I want to spend or I can spend, or I don't feel like I can get better than what I have right now. These are all the things that coaches are dealing with, which is a real shock and a real challenge for them because it's not just about going out and getting 25 guys every year anymore. And it's never going to be that way. And those who adapt to this, the best are going to long-term make it. And I don't, I think there's a balance between it all, right? Andy, you got to have young players. You develop, you can't be the John Gruden free agent team in college football, where you just take a bunch of veterans every year out of the portal, but you have to hit in the portal. Florida State was setting where they were prior to Jordan Travis's injury because of what they hit in the portal, the two receivers, Jared Verst. So you've got to hit it, but you've got to be careful that you don't overdo it. And you can't, you got to be careful that you don't underdo it because you've got to assemble a roster that gives you the best chance to win the following year, but also doesn't deplete you for two years from now because those veterans end up running off a bunch of young players. However, what are the chances that Walter Nolan returns

to East Tennessee? Oh, that's a great one. That's on the general's quarters today. There's a lot of topic and a lot of discussion about that one. You know, again, anything is possible, but I mean, that guy's a commodity, right? I mean, his phone's blowing up today. His people's phones have been blowing up for the last 48 hours when rumblings got out that this was going to happen. So I think anything is possible with him. I don't think he's going to go back to A&M, but it is a little bit interesting, Andy,

in that Sean Spencer has been hired as the defensive line coach in College Station. Walter Nolan visited Florida a couple times with Sean Spencer down there. So he knows Sean Spencer. Again, I think Walter's leaving College Station. I think that they're uprooting as an entire family and probably getting out of there. But at the same time, too, you just, in this world, you never know. He's going to have a bunch of opportunities. And if you're Tennessee, you got to you got to kick the tires there a little bit.

Right now, here's the thing. What happens if Omar Norman Locke comes back? And what happens if Omari Thomas comes back and you bring back four veteran defensive linemen? Does Walter Dolan look at that and go, wait a minute, I'm going to be one of seven in the defensive interior? Is that where I want to go? We saw a kid leave Georgia and go to USC because he didn't want to be one of five, right? I mean, and so, and he wanted more money. So there's a lot of variables in play there with Walter Nolan.

That one's going to be pretty fascinating to watch because his recruitment coming out of high school was one for the ages to follow for sure. And what is Josh Heupel's philosophy on the portal? Because I would imagine there are some coaches that kind of treat it like the NFL draft and say we're taking the best available. And if a five-star kid jumps in there, we're at least going to give him a call and see if he can help us. Or is it a thing where, hey, we need these positions? We have other guys we recruited we like, we want to trust and develop. Is there a balance there for Josh Heupel and his philosophy with the portal well I think every coach has to have a balance but you know it's if Josh Heupel is an offensive coach if a big time wide receiver

is out there is he going to turn him down it's a great question you don't have to see I mean it's got to start with need and filling those needs but the portal's been good to Tennessee now they haven't had necessarily the Jared Verse or one of those types of guys who just blew up coming out because nobody knew who Verse was coming out of Albany, right? But McCollum Castles was a really good pickup for Tennessee in the transfer portal at tight end. Tennessee doesn't win eight games without Castles. Keenan Peely was going to be a starter before an injury. They were beyond elated where they were with that one. John Campbell steps right in from Miami. You're talking about Miami earlier and their needs on the offensive line. Well,

that's a guy they had in their roster who left. He stepped right in and played at Tennessee up until the last couple of weeks when he had injury, but he stepped in and was a plug and play guy. So I think it's a combination of things. First of all, you've got to have needs. You have to address your needs. Then you're sitting there, and again, coaches don't like to get told no, so you get a little greedy from time to time, right? If you can get a toy, guys have a hard time turning those toys away.

So we'll see what the next 10 days or so brings for Tennessee. One non-Portal question for you, but of course they all lead back to the Portal. Guy who came to Tennessee from the Portal, Joe Milton. Do we know if he's going to play in the bowl game? We don't. He's been in the building. He's been practiced. He's been working out, doing those things. I mean, Andy, he's from just outside Orlando and you're getting ready to play in Camp and World Stadium in front of all your friends and family. It's hard for me to see him not playing in this game. Now, you can argue, does it benefit him?

I don't know that he could go out and play really well against Iowa, and that changes the narrative that the scouts have about him. At the same time, I don't know if he goes out and has a horrible day if that changes that narrative. I think he's got enough tape out there and tread on the tires that the NFL knows what he is and where the shortcomings are, things they need to work on, and things they want to see from him in individual workouts, meetings, scouting combines, those types of things. But again, it's at home, you know, when you're playing in front of your family. Now, how are coaches around the country going to keep

playing these non-playoff bowl games? Is it going to be a reward for your veterans? Are you going to have that youth movement where you play the young guys and you get a jump start on seeing where things are and build some enthusiasm and build some team things moving into the spring. That's a new dynamic with opt-outs, and that's a new thing that you're looking at with all these midterm guys coming to practice. Do you turn this into very much about youth in the bowl game? And maybe your veterans get a smaller victory lap

instead of a four-quarter victory lap. Again, I think these are just all things coaches are dealing with now that wasn't the case four or five years ago. Yeah, it's a fascinating world we're living in right now with the portal and opting out of bowl games and conference realignment. But all that to say, I'm sure things are going to get crazy, regardless of what Tennessee is doing with the transporter here in the next, oh, I don't know, couple of weeks.

But Brent, we appreciate you making time, and we'll visit again soon. All right, thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you so much for watching and for listening. What a wild first day of the open for everybody transfer portal. Who knows what Tuesday is going to bring? Come back here tomorrow tomorrow and we will talk all about it. I don't even know what it is, but I can't wait.