Andy & Ari On3 - We use BLIND RESUMES to predict the College Football Playoff rankings | How many teams are alive?

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

You’ve had Wendy’s Nuggs dipped in sauce. But have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy’s New Saucy Nuggs take the Crispy and Spicy Nuggs you love and turn them up to 11.Choose between flavors like Buffalo. Honey BBQ. Garlic Parm. Or, if you’re a real heat seeker, try Spicy Ghost Pepper, only on Wendy’s signature Spicy Nuggs. This show is brought to you by Panini America, makers of the most collectible sports cards on the planet. The Luminance football card series features NIL autographed cards from players including Arch Manning, Quinn Ewers, Cam Ward, Jalen Milroe, Dylan Raiola, DJ Lagway, and Luther Burden. To start collecting, visit PaniniAmerica.net. This show is also sponsored by PrizePicks, America’s most fun daily fantasy game. Use the code STAPLES to play $5 and get $50 instantly. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/STAPLES(0:00-3:23) PaniniAmerica.net(3:24-4:30) Intro; Tom Izzo Time tonight!(4:31-13:29) What teams still have a shot for the CFP?(13:30-21:39) Discussion from the live chat on South Carolina(21:40-37:41) Using Blind Resumes for the College Football Playoff(37:42-43:34) Quinn Ewers, Preview, Presented by PrizePicks(43:35-45:19) Continuing Blind Resume Discussion(45:20-55:37) Kyle Whittingham Discusses Future with Utah(55:38-1:05:02) Mack Brown Expected to be fired at UNC, Discussion(1:05:03-1:05:38) Conclusion; See you tonight! The College Football Playoff rankings will be revealed Tuesday night, and Andy and Ari will try to predict the rankings using blind resumes for teams in the mix. Andy and Ari each submitted two blind resumes. Can either correctly guess the teams? The guys also discuss Utah coach Kyle Whittingham’s comments about whether he plans to continue as the Utes’ coach. Is the new era about to inspire a certain generation of coaches to retire? Also, how is Texas QB Quinn Ewers’ ankle, and what should we expect from him when the Longhorns face Texas A&M on Saturday? Watch us on YouTube instead! https://youtube.com/live/6kiYd4yzyGQ Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

This show is brought to you by Panini America, makers of the most collectible sports cards on the planet. The Luminance Football Card Series features NIL autograph cards from players including Arch Manning, Quinn Ures, Kam Ward, Jalen Milrow, Dylan Raiola, DJ Lagway, and Luther Burden. To start collecting, visit paninamerica.net. And Ari, I have a question for you

because I have this card that I pulled. This is the 2024 Panini Gold Standard Mystery Rookie Redemption. So I have a rookie number two, essentially is what it says on the back. And if I scratch this off, I then go to the website to redeem it. Do I need to redeem this?

Or do I keep it this way and try to swap it with somebody or try to sell it to somebody like this. What is my better better play here. It's your preference so what's happening right now with the twenty twenty four year is. Caleb Williams and some of the other rookies are not in the product yet but they might be in the product later so what people are doing is is they're either redeeming it and taking their chances. And the higher the number on the card, rookie number two, rookie number one, people are assuming that that means it's a higher chance of that being a really good rookie that's worth a lot. So there are some people who are selling those as is for other people to redeem and take the risk, or there are some

people who are trying to redeem that on their own and hopefully they get a Caleb Williams card in the mail, which could roll the dice here to make my roll the dice. Yes. Basically, that's what the entire hobbies about like the the pursuit of the cards that everybody wants and how risky you're willing to be in order to try to obtain them, which is exactly why I love it so much. But yes, that's to me, I would probably redeem it because that's the whole point of collecting,

is like trying to acquire the cards. But that's what makes these boxes so valuable and so coveted because basically redeeming that is just ripping another pack in a different way. You know what I mean? Because one day a package is going to come in the mail and you open it and it's opening up a new pack. So yeah, that's exciting and that's a good hit because people want that. That's an important card to hit. I was going through a certain... Yeah, you should. You're starting the hobby a little bit. It's no fun when you're just starting if you're just trying to make a quick buck like that's not the collecting is later on. You sell cards in order to try to trade

up or to get cards that you want. You know, it becomes a whole pyramid scheme of my finances. You should see what my credit card statement looks like. But I hit some pretty big ones to myself Andy. I got this Patrick Mahomes splitting image out of contenders optic. That's the 25. I'm going to hold onto that. I got this Mahomes gold to 10 out of optic as well. I got this Bijan Robinson rookie auto, a hollow graphic there.

Does it have a dab of Bijan Mustardson? No, it doesn't. Inside the card. That would be sp- And then this is the one, this is the best card that I hit out of all the panini Cards that they actually sent me which is the gold Bijan Robinson here that one's going to PSA I'm gonna grade that and hold on to that one. Oh, yeah, I got the gold. Yeah, and a cooler right here

Can I just have that? No all mine All my speaking of Pukin Akua, we got to talk about his alma mater So let's let's start the show because you're wearing the salmon sweatshirt. It's a big day. Welcome to Andy and Ariane Free.

There's a playoff ranking reveal tonight. We're on Tom Izzo time again. So we'll see you around 8 p.m. Eastern time live tonight to find out together what it's going to be around 730. Let's 830 Eastern. Like this game is going to go. My wife has a doctor's appointment because she like hurt her

arm. So she's going to like a physical therapist to like get her rot rotator cuff like stretched out. And I told her you have to be home by 7 and I'm like, I've kind of rushed her with it. So she's going to be home by 7 and she's going to get here and it's going to be 7 15 and I'm going to have to start yet and she's going to be mad at me. Like I know like Michigan State Memphis are going to be calling time out after time out here. Yeah like we're going OT tonight like and

then she'll be like why did I speed home to be here on like so like I am like working against the clock both in our audience being excited but also how angry I'm going to make my wife later on this evening. So I'm excited about that. You're always rolling the dice too. So you have a story coming out add on three today, we'll give everybody a little preview of that. Because I think it helps us contextualize what we're going to see with the ranking reveal tonight. You've been doing this each week since the the playoff ranking started

getting revealed, how many teams are actually still alive to make the college football playoffs? So we are in the final week of the regular season there and and according to your calculations, there are 22 teams still alive for the 12 spots of the college football playoff. So this Saturday was a chaotic weekend, right? Like this Saturday, a bunch of losses happened and changed the entire scope of what the brackets going to look like and all that stuff.

Guess how many teams were alive last week, Andy? 22. Nobody was eliminated from the playoff this weekend. Like in my calculations. Now there's a debate about that. Right. Because there were two teams in the SEC that everybody is under the assumption is out. But when you really peel back the layers, they're not really out.

So we can go through the list right now just to get all the teams out there. And we can just go down and you can take five seconds for each one to tell me whether you think they should be in or out or if I may. Yeah, this also hasn't published yet so this is a good editing process. Yeah, some of them are super obvious. So Luke is in the story right now but I did did it by conference. So let me open it this way. Okay. So number one would be, uh, Oregon. Yes.

I believe they're still in it. Okay. So Oregon still in number two is Ohio state. They're still in. Yep. Okay. Number three would be Indiana. They're still in.

Yep. Number four. Now we're into the SEC because I think that's it. No, we're in Penn State. Penn State still in. So big 10 was very easy. That was good. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. This is really hard to read. I can do it. I have a list in front of me here. Let's let's let's move to the SEC. Yeah, let's move to the SEC. So you have in the SEC, Texas A&M, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Ole Miss. We'll get to Alabama and Ole Miss. But first I wanna talk about Texas A&M.

Because yes, they have three losses, but Texas A&M has a win-in-in chance. It's not a, that's the one thing, like people hate the beauty pageant. Texas A&M's a win-in-in chance. It's not a, that's the one thing, people hate the beauty pageant. Texas A&M's chances have nothing to do with the beauty pageant. If they beat Texas, they make the SEC Championship game. If they win the SEC Championship game, they're in.

So that's their only chance, but it's still a chance. So that one- Okay, I'll take it back over from you now, Andy, because I have it open. Okay, go ahead. Yep. Okay, So the two that were the biggest struggle though Andy were Ole Miss and Alabama because obviously A&M and teams that have more losses than you would think who control their own destiny are obviously still alive as well. So then we go on to the big 12. We have BYU, Iowa State, Colorado and Arizona State. You could not eliminate anybody from the big 12 because all four of them have a semi-reasonable path to playing in the big 12 championship game. They all lost and it went, or they all shuffled up and it got weird, but there's a lot of combinations for the big 12 championship game.

Still alive, could not eliminate any of those. Then we go down to the ACC. Miami and SMU are clearly alive and then I have Clemson alive too because they're a two loss team only one loss in the ACC. And like they you cannot say with a straight face they're 100% eliminated yet. They have a chance to make the ACC championship game. If Miami loses Syracuse. Exactly the reason why they're on there if they couldn't make if they were mathematically out of the ACC championship game I probably would remove them although maybe you could make a case to keep them in and in the independent Notre Dame is still live obviously and then we go to the group of five which is Boise State

UNLV army in Tulane I army lost to Notre Dame this past weekend But there's still a one-loss team that only lost to a power school who has a chance to win the American. So, like, there's, there's no real way that you could remove them, even though they have an uphill battle. So there are going to be teams on here, Andy, that frustrate people, because people are under the perception that they are 100% eliminated. But if you're still on the list, it means you still have a pretty less than non zero but reasonable chance to make. There are other

Alabama and Ole Miss would need some stuff to happen. But Alabama and Ole Miss are the ones that are going to piss people off. Yes. So do you want to talk about did we not say Georgia? Georgia is obviously alive. Everyone knows that if we didn't say Georgia. Well, let's let's let's answer Jacob's question. Because I think it'll help us with that discussion as well.

So Jacob says, if Texas A&M wins, and I think he means wins the SEC Championship, so beats Texas to make the SEC Championship game, then beats Georgia to make the playoff. Does that knock out Georgia and Texas from the playoff? It might knock out one of them. And I don't know, because Georgia beat Texas, it might be Texas, even though Texas would have the better record at that point.

Well, no, what would happen is, is you would be comparing Texas to a two loss ACC champion, and I think that that would actually probably be the route for the SEC to get the most teams in. Ah, that makes sense. If you actually think that one, you're talking about SMU or Miami, whoever loses that game. Yeah, if you start putting SMU and Miami up against Texas, you're gonna have a hard, it's gonna be a long day for you. So like, you know, you want whoever in the ACC

is being compared, the ACC loser with two losses, you want compared to a three loss SEC team. You do not want them compared to a two loss SEC team, in my opinion. So like team. Well,, the problem in that scenario is the three loss SEC team would be Georgia, not Alabama or Ole Miss, they'd be out at that point. But Georgia would be a three loss SEC team, but they would be a 10 in three. And they would have a head to head win at Texas. So it might get both in knock your ACC title game loser out.

might get both in, knock your ACC title game loser out. Yeah, so I think that for Alabama or Ole Miss to get in, they have to win out the rest of their games, each have one left. And then I think they would probably need an ACC team to lose, although I don't know what the pathway is. Now here's why I almost left them out, Andy. And I don't know if we talked about this

on the show yesterday. I think we did, but Ole Miss and Alabama basically, and virtually being the same makes it very difficult to decipher between those two. And I don't know, like everybody's like Alabama is going to sneak their way in, or everybody thinks that there's a chance that Alabama's brand is going to get them in somehow. But the problem that I have with that is, is that I don't know how you could put Alabama

into the field over Ole Miss. They have the same best win in Ole Miss beat the crap out of Georgia at home. Like, I feel like if you have, if Alabama or Ole Miss get in, that both have to find a way in somehow. And I don't know if that's possible. So like I almost left them off, because

their chances of actually making the field are very low. But here's why I left them on. Because as you were doing bracketology, and I was doing bubble watch, like I got to 11 teams in the field. And I was like, Oh, shit, I don't know who the 12th team is. I there's nobody here to put and then I realized I forgot Tennessee, but then it also opened my eyes to the notion that if Tennessee were to lose to Vanderbilt or something that like the entire world, like the last spot is like right now it works out cleanly. I think me and you agreed on our brackets and most brackets that I see are very similar because there's literally options and no options, like it's either one or the other, if one team loses that's in right now creates an extra spot.

Like there's going to be a bunch of people on fire like cause like it's going to be really hard to figure out who the next team that goes is. Yeah. I think Tennessee Vanderbilt Miami Syracuse are the games to really keep an eye on like if that goes the way that we think because I realized that would put Clemson in the ACC championship game. But I think I think Clemson being in the ACC championship game on its face makes the ACC a one bid league.

No matter what. Yeah. Yeah. I think if if you're right, if ACC either has a mix up and Clemson goes or a Team loses and you've got a three loss team. That's a ACC loser they're not gonna get in so there is some there's some wiggle room there and Yeah, it's very difficult to See a path for Ole Miss or Alabama, but it's also impossible to remove them completely. At this point.

Hold on, we got USCNDATL says, if South Carolina beats Clemson, and Clemson and A&M win the conferences, how can you leave South Carolina out easily? Because you put Alabama or Ole Miss in over them, because they both beat South Carolina. Yeah. That's how, unfortunately, they're blocked. South Carolina is blocked completely, even though I how unfortunately they're blocked.

South Carolina is blocked completely even though I think that they're playing the best football of the three. But you know what Andy? People have been making the point that Ole Miss was playing against a Florida team that is much better than their record. Like I don't know, I'm sure you saw a lot of that having been at the game. I was at the game. They're definitely better than their record.

They're definitely better than the team we saw against Miami early in the season, but it's still the same people. It also doesn't matter. Like that happens all the time to everybody. Sometimes you play teams on their best day. Sometimes you play teams on their worst day. You play the team and the team is who their record says there is. You don't get a benefit. Like I think the committee's like, well, we'll take into account that Florida team is playing much better than they did when they played Miami. It's like, that's bullshit. Like, that's not how it works. Because then you have to do it for everything.

USC and ATL has not given up here. Even though South Carolina beat the SEC and ACC champs in the scenario that it's A&M and Clemson as the champions. Yes, even though, because Ole Miss and Alabama beat South Carolina. So they would get in over South Carolina. Yeah. And it's like, I feel for the South Carolina fans because I feel like the deserving aspect of this,

like South Carolina has a case, especially if that situation comes true. But any more than it doesn't matter how good Florida is in the moment. It also doesn't really matter how good South Carolina is in the moment because you are what your resume says that you are. And your resume, I think a lot of times is a pretty nice clue into what you might be susceptible to seeing out of that team again in the future. So, you know, it's a tough break, but you know, it's not a feel good system. And at times teams that we think are worthy are going to get in and at time like, like for instance, like the South Carolina and the Indiana. Saylor Joe says came very close to beating Alabama and LSU. They really should have, they should have, but they didn't, and they didn't come close

at all to beating Ole Miss. And so, if you're making that determination, I think probably Ole Miss is who you pick. I mean, if I had to pick between Ole Miss and Alabama, I would take Ole Miss, which is, and that's precisely the reason why I probably could have left them off the list. But again, there's too much craziness that could still happen. And it's just impossible. I would not put my life in it. Brad says South Carolina gets in if Tennessee and Alabama both lose.

That's a, well, listen, that's a distinct possibility that Tennessee and Alabama would both lose, but Ole Miss would get in that case. Yeah. Because Ole Miss beat South Carolina 27 to 3 in Columbia. I feel like you're like the Dikembe Mutombo in its prime in the paint, and there's a bunch of people throwing South Carolina lobs up at the hoop, and you're just smashing it down right in front of the... This hurts my heart as someone who grew up a South Carolina fan, Ari.

Now, if you're the Gamecocks, okay, here's what you need. This will work. I'll give you one that works. You want Syracuse to beat Miami so Clemson can go to the ACC Championship game after you beat them. So you gotta beat Clemson. Clemson goes to the ACC Championship game, wins the ACC. That's gonna make the ACC a one-bid league.

You need Tennessee to lose to Vandy. You need Alabama to lose to Auburn, and you need Ole Miss to make the ACC a one big league. You need Tennessee to lose to Vandy. You need Alabama to lose to Auburn. And you need Ole Miss to lose the Egg Bowl. Miss to lose the Egg Bowl, yeah. If Ole Miss loses the Egg Bowl and Alabama loses Auburn, now we're talking. Now we're talking. Now you got a shot.

Yeah, it is so funny that the end of the year, how like the quality losses that are propping you up also become the teams that you need to lose. You know what I mean? And then it's like, then all of a sudden those losses look worse, but it's still helped you. We were rooting for them all season. What's going on? Yeah. And then the teams that you're rooting for to prop you up are the teams that eventually hold you out. But it's just a, it's a weird system. And you know what, like I want South Carolina to get in. I think it would be really fun to see sellers cook out there, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

You just do. And you know, maybe in five years- Richard, can you put the out of town schedule between Ole Miss and South Carolina? I don't have to because they played on the field and one kicked the crap out of the other. I'm sorry guys. Yeah.

If they have the same record, they're going to take the one that won 27 to three on the road. I don't know how to the fact that it was on the road to it's a real real kick in the knackers there, but yeah, I just don't see that happening. So we spend a lot of time on that. But that's just not gonna happen. But I do think it's interesting that like in the midst of a chaotic weekend, we were unable to definitively eliminate anybody who was alive a week ago. So, and then it's like also to-

Hold on, Brett's paid again and he's not giving up. Ole Miss losses are worse to Florida LSU. South Carolina got destroyed by Ole Miss guys. This isn't that hard. Stop making it harder than it needs to be. I hope he comes back with another $1.99 for another. Are you I want to see what he's got? I mean these people they're clever.

Oh, I like it. Andy refused to acknowledge the committee criteria and metric. The committee, it's in the criteria. If you have a head to head and they have the same record, you should probably use the head to head. That's what they would do in this case route for Mississippi state in the egg bowl guys. That's all I gotta say. The spread of that game is 26 and a half. So have fun with that. The South Carolina and Alabama is a much easier argument to make like I will hear South Carolina and Alabama ones

because South Carolina was on the road. The game was very close. That one I think is easier. Ole Miss went to Columbia and beat the crap out of South Carolina. That's the one team. do not wanna be compared against. Yeah, yeah. I know you guys want them in and it's your duty as fans

of that team to try to argue that way in, but it's just at a certain point, you gotta lay your sword down because it's just not happening. So, root for Mississippi State. Listen, I was in Gainesville. I saw Ole Miss. I was in Jackson Darts press conference.

Like that's a team I don't know. I don't know how they're gonna get up off the mat. So Mississippi State has won an SEC game all year, but I don't know what that, what those teams are gonna look like when they play in the Egg Bowl. So I'm saying don't give up hope quite yet South Carolina people, not quite yet.

Yeah. I like the why is South Carolina 23% to make it an Ole Miss 6% on ESPN? I don't understand if that's because it's fake math that they don't have to explain. I'm telling you right now if they're both nine and three and Ole Miss in South Carolina are compared head-to-head for the last spot Ole Miss will get it You do not want to be compared to them. You want to be compared to anyone else Anyone else. Yes. Well also too we have to take into account That Ole Miss will probably at the end of the year also have beaten the shit out of the SEC champion potentially like So but you're talking head to head records here. But like, it doesn't matter.

Assuming an A and M SEC championship, it's more likely that the SEC champion is Georgia or Texas, but Georgia having a win over Georgia is a more impressive resume bullet point. If you want to criteria your way out of this, like Ole Miss's resume is still better, so it's not, it's not just going to, I think that like the head to head bullet point if you want to criteria your way out of this, like Ole Miss's resume is still better. So it's not just gonna, I think that like the head to head is what it comes down to like when you've used,

because isn't there like an order they're supposed to go in where they look at this, this, this, and then head to head comes out play at the end. I don't know if they actually go in that order, if it's just a cute way of like putting it in a handbook, but I think that that would be a relatively short conversation guys. I know you don't want you don't want to hear that but they would have a better resume

and they're throwing all these fancy stats at us. The only stat that's going to matter if that comparison happens is 27 to three. That's it. So, Ari, let's do some blind resumes. We're in the blind resume season now. Hold on. I did a few. Brett paid two bucks again. Our win streak is better.

We beat more ranked teams. You lost 27 to three to Ole Miss. You don't want to be compared to Ole Miss. I'm sorry, Brett, that that happened to you, but it did. Again, this hurts my heart as someone who grew up in South Carolina. I was at their first bowl win in the Car Quest Bowl. I watched Steve Tannehill beat West Virginia in the Car Quest Bowl. I was at a pig picking the day they lost to Navy in 1984, watching grown people cry. This hurts my heart to say all this to you guys.

But I'm sorry. All right, blind resume time Ari. Producer River, let's start with one of mine. Can we start with the four team version that I sent? All right, so we got team A and team B. We're gonna have A, B, C, and D. So Ari, try to keep track of all this and try to guess who these teams are.

Team A is 10 and one. I put all of the different strengths of schedules in there because none of them will tell us how they're calculated. So you're just gonna have to hope that they're similar. Massey strength of schedule 68 Sagran strength of schedule 68 ESPN strength of schedule 51 ESPN strength of record, which is.

What the average team would do, you know a measure of how your team did versus what the average team would do against your schedule. All the strength of records will be very high because all these teams are good. Record versus Sagran top 31 and one, so Record versus Sagron Top 30, one and one. So that's team A.

Team B, record 10 and one. Massey strength of schedule 59, Sagron strength of schedule 61, ESPN strength of schedule 59, ESPN strength of record six, record versus Sagron Top 32 and 0. Let's look at team C and D please. Team C is 10-1.

Massey strength is scheduled 62. Sagron strength is scheduled 59. ESPN strength is scheduled 77. ESPN strength of record 9. Record versus Sagron top 31-1. Team D. Record 10-1. Massey strength is scheduled 73.

Sagron strength of schedule 89. ESPN strength is scheduled 81. ESPN strength of record 12, record versus Sagran top 30, 0 and 1. Ari Dari, who are these teams? It's like so messed up because I spent last night doing blind resumes, so like I know, I know like certain stat points, so it's like kind of cheating, but I know who the teams are. If you throw them up again. Yeah, so the first one. 51 is I think that's Indiana, right? Like because like I have. Ding ding ding ding ding. You're correct. That is Indiana.

And then I think team B is Miami. That's right. Because I know the ESPN strength of schedules. Okay. But like also too, but like if you look at what- Team A and B are pretty similar to team C and team D, right? They are. I don't know for sure about these,

but I think that because of the strength of schedule on ESPN, team D has to be Boise because it's bad. It's a bad strength of schedule. And I don't know if there's any other teams that are relevant that would have a strength of schedule that bad at this point in the season. Is that right? That's right.

But remember Team C's strength of schedule is only four different. So then it would have to be SMU. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. That's right. SMU and Boise State. So, but here's what's interesting about this. And this is where the miss seating

of the playoff comes into play. Boise State might be the four seed. One of those teams is probably gonna be the three seed. Meanwhile, the others are probably going to be at large. One of them may be out. We think the ACC is a two bid league right now, but what if the ACC is not a two bid league? Because there's really very little difference between these four. Yeah. Jay C just said it looks like we're all the optometrists. Which one's better?

Picture one. It does. Picture two. Picture one. You know what I think is interesting about that too, is just how similar like Indiana and Miami are. And the thing that's interesting to me about that, and it's like unfortunate that we didn't like show

each other these before the show, because I also did one as Indiana and Miami compared producer rivers supposed to say, you know, you got the same to here That's on him. I think we got a little my back from producer river. Don't worry I think there's a tweet that's gonna come up out of his past later in the show. Yeah, we're gonna get him back but like My favorite thing is resume comparison versus scrutiny comparison. Like Miami has not at all been scrutinized to the same degree that Indiana has. And I think it's just simple. Like there is a brand problem here.

And we do the blind resumes as a way to illustrate it, but I feel like if Indiana had the same exact resume that they do right now, but they were Michigan State even, or somebody who has even a small history in the recent 15 years of doing anything, that they'd be taken more seriously. But like that's, to me, if you look at that, like their strength of schedule is better than Miami's and their only loss as to a team that's really good. Like in my, in my teammate and TB that I get the river, like I also included who they lost to. And like Indiana lost to a top two, maybe potentially the best team in college football, and Miami's loss is to an unranked team. So like this is, they're very similar. But yeah, it is just an interesting perspective to look at like, why are we scrutinizing Indiana this much, but not at all talking about Miami? Like Miami is just like in as a two loss team, potentially, if they lose to SMU in the in the ACC Championship game. And SMU is the most misranked team in the entire sport, in my opinion. Like SMU's record against the Sagran Top 30 is one and one. They have a moderately harder strength of schedule. Their loss is, I mean, their loss is not nearly as

good as Boise State's loss, but like Boise State and SMU are probably higher up on the list if like... Right, and SMU's loss is not a bad loss. They lost to BYU, which is still in the mix for the Big 12 championship. Yeah, so it's not like they have a terrible loss. They don't have the Northern Illinois loss on their schedule. Yeah. Yeah, but that those are interesting looks for sure. All right, let's let's do one of yours.

Okay. Oh, I like the way you did the who the losses to. Okay. Okay. Okay. I did a lot of strength of record as well. So yeah, I think that strength of record is important. So for people who don't understand what strength of record is, it's it's how the average team would do against your schedule and the way you played it, right? So that helps. Yeah, but like these are next to each other here. Are they now? Let me because I actually don't know who these are off the top of my head. So I was right. Our is, is that Notre Dame?

Oh, that is Notre Dame. Okay. Team A is Notre Dame. Team B, the record is 10 and one. Strength of record is nine. Strength of schedule is 77. Game control is nine. top 25 wins and the AP poll is zero losses to the number 19 team in the AP poll. I'm struggling with this one Ari. Actually is this SMU? Is team B SMU? It is. It is. You nailed it. Okay. So if you like look at these side by side, strength of record and strength of schedule are identical basically. Wow. They're very close. They're very close. Not thought about putting these two together.

Like I put these two together because it's just Notre Dame's in no matter what. And SMU is 13th. Like it's like it doesn't make sense. But they now Notre Dame does have top 25 wins in the AP poll and I use the AP poll because we don't know what the rankings are going to be but army is still in the AP polls top 25 this week which helps Notre Dame out quite a bit and then A&M of course too will probably be in the low 20s so what you're going to have is is potentially like Notre Dame could finish the year with zero as well like they have virtually an identical resume

and then if SMU beats Miami then SMU's it that's a moot point because SMU is automatically in but there has been a difference in which and how we broke down SMU and Notre Dame. Notre Dame is look let's say SMU plays Miami in a six overtime ACC Championship game and loses like I would think this compares very favorably to Notre Dame and you're gonna have Notre Dame hosting a playoff game. Exactly, exactly. And they're playing an extra game that Notre Dame doesn't have to play. So that is like for me like SMU and the reason why I wanted to use SMU in Notre Dame is because like even when you look at this here, the

loss unranked in the AP poll doesn't really even do justice. Like they're lost. They're not ranked on planet Earth, let alone the AP poll. So like that is a terrible, terrible loss on top of that. So and that to me is an important one. So I'm happy that we did that one. Thanks River for putting that together. And I wanted to use some alternate stats too. It's like, oh, I don't even know where to look up the Massey poll, for instance.

Like I wanted to use like. You just type in Massey College football rankings. Oh, I'll try that on Google. Try that. All I know is when I type in Massey, usually in Columbus, Ohio, it took me to Massey's pizza, which I went to quite often. I'm starving. Let's go to my other one.

This is two, I will give you a hint, this is two teams that everybody says are in, but one is considered definitely in no matter what, as long as they don't lose a game they shouldn't lose. The other one, there are still questions about, and there's still some steps along the way where you think, oh, they might get knocked out. Okay, team A. Record 10-1, Massey strength of schedule 27, Sagran strength of schedule 39, ESPN strength of schedule 36, ESPN strength of schedule is 37. The Sagron strength of schedule is 37. ESPN strength of schedule is 32.

So these are essentially the same if we average out all the strength of schedules. ESPN strength of record is 4. So they're right next to each other there. Record versus the Sagron top 30, 1 and 1. Who is team A and who is team B? Who is team A and who is team B? Um, is team B Penn state? Yes.

Okay. Team A is either Ohio state or Texas. Um, I think Ohio state strength of schedule is much higher than than that. So I'm gonna go Texas. That's right. You got it. Yes. So the reason I did this is because it's a good one. I'm gonna issue a mea culpa here. I've been a little too down on Texas saying, oh, they're gonna get, you you know, they're going to have to play the who did you beat game? They are not like Texas is getting into the playoff. I think even if they lose to A&M this week, they're getting into the playoff. Yeah, I think that that's especially true after what happened on Saturday, because I do think that like there are jokes to be made about

like all the SEC is only going to get one team in this year. It's like that cannot and will not happen. Like if you're a 10 and two team at the end of the road in the SEC, you're in. It doesn't matter who you played or who you beat. You know, that is it is what it is. So I think that they are comfortably in. I think if they lose to A&M, they are still in.

Now, the thing that'll be interesting is, is that if A&M beats Texas and then goes on to lose to Georgia in Atlanta, what you do with A&M there? Because that would be an absolute dumpster fire if Texas makes it and A&M doesn't, because they've lost their fourth game. Right.

And then, but that is distinctly possible. And the people would say you should have won more games. Harrison Smith says, Texas has lost their only big game at home. But they have played other, like, that's the thing. They have not played a garbage schedule. They have played a not top 10 schedule, but they've played essentially the same schedule Penn State has and actually

played some, some teams that are a little higher up in the overall rankings. The thing that almost tripped me up with this one was that Texas's top 30 wins. I don't know if you know this off the top of your head, but who are the teams that, that, that was, I'm going to have to look that up real quick because I'm looking like it's like the teams that they could be could be Michigan, which I don't think is the case. Oklahoma can't be the case. Vanderbilt maybe Florida maybe and Florida is one of them. Yeah. Okay. So Florida is one of them. And I'm just trying to figure out who the other two are because Michigan is one of them.

Okay. Michigan's 29, so if Ohio State creams Michigan there's a really good chance that's that's out of there. So with the third one be Arkansas or Vanderbilt. I'm trying to find it. Huh? It says there's really one. It gets the top 30 and I'm looking at the top 30 and I'm not at the top 30 and I'm

not finding the teams. Because Texas A&M is in there, but that doesn't count yet, because they haven't played. They haven't played them yet, yeah, because like that's the thing too. It's like if we're get if we're assigning data like wins in data.

Like quality wins to Texas and data that doesn't necessarily jive with. What people see with their eyes either. You know what I mean? Like if you, if like beating, beating, getting a credit for a top 30 win because you beat Michigan is kind of stupid. Like I just like, I think that that is why people don't like getting bogged down with the numbers. But like I trust that your data is correct. And you're just like not you're overseeing. I'm just not, I'm just just I think I'm just looking it over

because it's unless they just didn't. It didn't update correctly when they when they hit the update button and updated the rankings. Because. I'm not finding it or I'm not finding four games against top 30 teams, yeah. So maybe maybe I'm wrong on that. But they still have two wins. Go dog says enough. Let's talk Thanksgiving.

I know. I'm so hungry. Well, actually, we do have a clip from James Franklin. So we do need to talk about that. But before we do that, while we're talking about Texas, let's talk a little bit about Quinn yours because we got an update from Steve Sarkeesian on Quinn yours heading into the Texas A&M game. He is he has an ankle injury coming out of the Kentucky game and. They had an MRI, but Sark before practice yesterday said he's

planning on practicing. It looks like Quinn yours is going to be ready to go for this game. He's got a price pick square already Ari. So when yours price pick square for passing yards against Texas A&M is up. Price picks best daily fantasy game in America download the app use the code staples when you sign up play $5 get $50 instantly. So 235 and a half passing yards for Queeniers, which by the way, he's done that two of his last five games has not done it in his last two games. He's not gone more than that in his last two games. And so I'm sorry, it's up to 237 and a half

this morning. So Ari, I look at what Peyton Thorne did to Texas A&M's defense last week. It felt like those Auburn receivers, which they've gotten better over the course of the season and Peyton Thorne has gotten better over the course of the season. I feel like Quinn Ubers could have a big game if he's able to move around enough with the ankle. Yeah. So, uh, that's the only concern I have. Um, you're, you're talking about a player that depending on how injured he is, Andy might not play the whole game if he like aggravates it or is it mobile.

So like whenever you start getting into that, plus on top of that, like I think that A&M is going to make things really difficult for Texas. Like my less than radar is going off pretty hotly here. Like I think that Quinn, yours could throw for 215 and they would win. They could win. But I don't think that it's going to be a 400 yard passing game. Like this is an automatic more than what's your thought process? then? What's your thought process? It's going to be hard to operate the offense in that environment, but I will tell you, okay, here's here's Peyton Thorn stat line against A&M last week. 19 to 31 for 301 yards, 9.7 yards per attempt, two touchdowns, one pick. You throw up a stat line like that, you're going to win with Texas's defense playing on the other side of this thing. So it's really up to A&M to disrupt him. It's up to that Kyle Field crowd to disrupt him because I think that's going to be, that's going to be the biggest factor and home, you know, home field advantage matters. Like Auburn is a tough place to play. Kyle Field is going to be a tough place to play. There's a reason the EA Sports people made Kyle Field the toughest place to play in the game.

It is so excited in there. Did you hear my voice crack? That's how excited I am. I can't wait to get there. So I just found out Andy that OK, you finish your point. Go ahead. Sorry. I was gonna say. So if we're if we're doing squares here, if we're looking

at when you were square, the last thing might be maybe the safer play because that hedges you against something happens and they have to go to arch because he's injured. Yeah. And I said that arch would, uh, potentially play in this game and you didn't think that was a hot take when I said it. So no, it's like, it's like saying before the season that arch was going to start some games, it wasn't a hot take because history has told us that that's how,

how it goes. Yeah. The lack of mobility plus XS AMS defensive line makes me think this is going to be an absolute banger of a game. Like in the back of my head too, like I do wonder, I will be honest with you, Andy, I do wonder. I think very highly of Texas and I think very highly of Steve Sarkeesian as a play caller and somebody who draws up good ball plays. So part of me is like Texas A&M really isn't that good. Texas is a team I think it's built in a way to win

a national title. Like they could go to College station and just kick the shit out of them. Like in my head, I like think that that's a possibility. But on the other hand, I think they could lose. So like I'm having a hard time like parsing through how I think this is gonna manifest. Like if it is as crazy as I think it's gonna be there, Andy, I just, that defensive line plus the lack of a mobility.

I think that is your map. Like get after Quinn as much as you can. I think is your master and them to be in this football game. Absolutely, absolutely. And they will and if it becomes a problem, they'll go to arch, which I realize people want to hear that. But that's for Texas. That's a blessing to be able to say that. Cause how many other teams would you feel that confident in your backup that

you could go to them and maybe still win this game? I don't think there's a lot of teams in the country that would feel that confident going to their backup. Yeah. So I wouldn't be be more confident if his. Reps were a little bit more frequent the last month in terms of you know when he came in in the Georgia game and when he would have to come in this environment like full game. So we at least yeah, I know he has played yeah,

but if he does come in too, you gotta give him more than a series like if you're going to do it, you gotta do it. So I thought that the way that they used him in the Georgia game was nonsense. Like I thought that was crazy. Well, they were just trying to get something started because they couldn't do anything and he couldn't do anything is that defense either but neither could Quinn so and then Quinn

settled but there's nothing the nothing I can do about that now. You just roll Quinn out there hope for the best but unlike most teams if it's not the best, you have an option. Whereas most teams wouldn't have an option. All right. Download that Price Mix app, use the code staples. Play five, get $50 instantly. Ari, Producer River has gone back into the Sagron rankings and explained what the four games are in the in the Sagron top 30 for Texas.

I was missing Oklahoma. I was not thinking of Oklahoma. But remember, they just beat Alabama 24 to three hopped up pretty high. So George's number four, Florida's 20 in Michigan's 29. So the one of their top 30 wins in Sagran could be out the window. The Michigan one, if Ohio State beats on them pretty good this weekend. Yeah.

Um, three quality wins against teams that aren't very good is just an interesting. That's why I just hate. Well, I mean, you, you gamble. You sagrens a power ranking, FPI is a power ranking. This is how line makers and that's what we've always said. What if the line makers rank the teams? I think the CFP uses the power rankings enough that we're kind of getting that.

Yeah, yeah, the problem with the CFP committee and it's not their fault, but it's this constant push pool of who we think is the best and who's the most deserving. And then, of course, that gets more complicated when who's the most deserving and then of course that gets more Complicated when you have automatic bids and seating impacts on that like it's impossible for their final bracket To just be straight power rankings because you can't do it that way So, you know last year I think the decision that they made with Alabama and Florida State was a legit just power ranking Decision right, who do we

think would win if they played? And that's all that was. It was, they, the power-ranking took the precedent over the deserving aspect of it. So yeah, you're right. So, Ari, let's, let's move out of the playoff picture and into the coaching carousel picture, because we've said, we don't think there's gonna be a lot of firings this year. And I don't think there's gonna be a lot of firings this year at the head coach level. I think there's gonna be a ton at the coordinator level. We just saw Houston fire their offensive coordinator, Kevin Barbay, today, this morning. We're gonna see a lot at the coordinator level. Not so much at the head coach level, but what we could see at the head coach level, one or more retirements. And I thought the way Utah coach Kyle Whittingham answered a question yesterday, tells us we might want to be on alert for this one.

So Producer River, let's play what Kyle Whittingham said when he was asked about coming back for next season. I will obviously evaluate after the season's over, see what the situation is. But my decision we made on what's best for the program, not what's best for me. evaluate after the season's over see what see what the situation is but my decision will be made on what's best for the program not what's best for me so it'll be completely determined on how I feel this program is best served going forward you know to time it just right so you go out at just the right time I mean that they're very very small percentage of people were able to do

that and so again I'm not I'm, well, this was a bad year. So for me, I got to come back and have a better year. I mean, everyone wants to have a better year next year, regardless of who the coach is. And like I said, it's just an evaluation process from me and my family to decide what's best. So maybe that's, I'm tired. I'm on my fifth starting decide what's best. So maybe that's I'm tired. I'm on my fifth starting QB this year.

I might say the hell with this, but after a few days I'm gonna be like, let's go bring on 2025. Or maybe that's I may decide to hell with this, sorry. Yeah. We were joking about this over text, but there is going to be a point in college football where the legends, the old heads, the long-term successful coaches who have been doing this for a long time, wipe their hands clean of this.

And this kind of happened in the newspaper industry, right? Like back in the 90s when I was growing up and when I was in journalism school in the early 2000s, newspaper writers did things a certain way, they wrote a recap off of the game, they wrote a notebook on Thursday, they had a feature on Wednesday, and they had another story on Monday. And that was it. Or you had a columnist who made six figures and wrote four 800 word columns a week.

Right, which is what we do on Tuesday. So, uh, or on Saturday, and it got to a point where the internet came and the internet is a never ending monster of content, right? Like you need to have new fresh stuff at all times and not just that. You need to do it in a timely fashion. Back in the day when you were a newspaper writer, if your coach got fire at 11 AM, you had nine hours to figure out how to put this thing together. If a coach gets fired now, you've got nine seconds to get this thing going, right? Yeah. And I think that there was a certain faction of newspaper writers that you saw either retire or change careers and go into PR and stuff, because they didn't want to deal with the hassle of, to them, what seemed like an unbearable workload. And the NIL thing is

happening now with college football coaches, where like Dabo Sweeney is a perfect example of it. It's like he has become accustomed to winning in a certain way. Nick Saban became accustomed to winning in a certain way. And now the equation and the demand of putting together a roster that's able to win at the level that those two teams were winning at in the past is a lot more difficult, a lot more challenging and a lot more frankly different. And there are going to be people who have made millions and millions of dollars who have their money already, have their championships already and don't want to deal with this stuff anymore.

And there's going to be a bunch of young coaches who don't know what it's like. Because like for me, like the standard of which journalism is done right now or how much I have to write or have had to in the past was always the case. I never had to adjust back from, but like I feel like if you had to only, if somebody- I was in the field at a newspaper when the call came down, the command came down, all of you beat writers,

instead of holding your story for tomorrow's paper, you're now going to write it immediately for the website. And oh my God, the debate over that. You wouldn't believe it now. It's laughable to think about now, but it was a raging debate in the newsroom. You had six figure people doing the workload of a half day for me now. Yeah. And if that was your life and then somebody's like, well, you've got to live the modern day life. I could see why somebody would be upset with that.

You have a very cushy, comfortable job. And also to the newspaper stories in the space that they have in the paper. And I don't know if we're getting to inside baseball with how journalism works, but like they were shorter. They were much shorter. Word, everything, everything that I write is 1100 words. That would take in a newspaper, the columns that I write for the, sorry, the on three and the athletic would take up the entire front page. And that's just how it is. So I never had to adjust to it.

I just knew that if I wanted a job, I had to do it the way that they wanted it, which is a good thing for me. But I think that's what's gonna happen in college football too. You're gonna see a lot of- You are Rhett Lashley, Ari. You are Rhett Lashley, who is early 40s. He's gotta work 20 more years. He's making good money. He's like, you're gonna pay me $5 million a year to do this?

Awesome, sounds great. Yeah, yeah. Somebody who's been doing it for 20 years as a head coach, Kyle Whittingham, this is season 20 as head coach at Utah. He's made his money. It's hard to keep adjusting because you and I, we can sympathize and empathize with these guys because same thing, we've had to reinvent change as the industry has changed. There was no such thing as a podcast or YouTube when I graduated college.

Well, it was like interesting- That is the main focus of my job now. We were at the Mississippi game against Georgia and I was joking with Andy as we walked down to the field but Andy had a huge ass backpack. It was pouring down rain. He had a $2,000 camera. He had a tripod. He had his phone out. He was taking pictures. It was pouring down rain. He had a $2,000 camera. He had a tripod.

He had his phone out. He was taking pictures. He was doing video. And I was like, buddy, this isn't what we went to college for. Like we weren't supposed to be trained on this. And he goes, well, listen, man, you either adapt or die. And that's, and it's like kind of like now I almost feel like it's maybe it's just Stockholm syndrome, but I feel like the people who had it made the way they did in the newspaper and they're soft like how could you possibly have a life they were so soft like so now but we are gonna be the soft ones eventually like I know there will there will come a point where I'm like I don't want to change anymore and and the younger people like well I'll take I'll

take your money that's fine so that's what's gonna happen to Kyle Whittingham. I'm assuming Kirk Ference at some point, though Kirk Ference just seems to roll merrily along. I, you know, Dabo I'm curious about, because I think, I think with the revenue sharing coming in, like Dabo is going to get back in the game in terms of NIL, in terms of Transfer Portal. Like they're gonna be able to really compete in a way they haven't been able to compete for those players.

But what does he want to do that? Because he doesn't have long-term contracts yet. I think they'll get to that, eventually long-term, you know, relatively speaking. I think they'll get to contracts. But Dabo likes to take a player from high school, develop him, and have him on campus and have him be part of the program. That's important to him. That's probably not the way of the world for the next few years. And so like Dabo is an interesting one to me because he's a younger guy, relatively speaking, he's a he's mid fifties, but he's been a head coach since he was 38 at a high level program. And that ages you in dog years. He's essentially the same age that Bob Stoops was when Stoops retired. Stoops got the Oklahoma job about the same age that Davao was when

he got the Clemson job. So I'm kind of looking at it that way. So that's what I'm watching just to see. Does he want to adjust one more time? Cause I think if he does, they could be really good in the revenue share era. I'll never forget Andy I was working at Scout comm when that was the thing back in the day

and I think I was making like $24,000 a year when I was 22 and the Cleveland Plain dealer called me and They offered me the Ohio State beat writer job for a newspaper. And that was my big career break. Like going from a small website at the time to newspaper beat writer was like, I never thought in a million years I'd ever get this job and I'm 24 and I got it.

Yeah. And they're like, and I remember the phone call like it was yesterday. And he goes, now this is an intense job. You're gonna have to shoot videos. You're gonna have to post a bunch of stories and we're going to want you to write 300 times a year. And like some of those were short posts or whatever, but then he goes, and we'd love to pay you $60,000 a year to do it.

And I was like, what? Yes. Yes. Yes. And I was like half the salary of the person who was mad that we had to do that. And then that was the, and that's what they did. And then people like me took those jobs and here we are. But like for me, I was like $60,000 a year. I would like cut off a limb for that much. And that's what I see people saying. We're gonna lose so many good coaches over this.

You're gonna lose old coaches who are tired. There's still good coaches out there and they're gonna be more than happy to take millions of dollars and deal with all the crap they have to deal with now because that's how the world works. I don't want to mess with my camera, but I got a Cleveland plane dealer newspaper from the first Sunday feature I wrote that went like on the front page in the plane

dealer and it was called Breaking Bama and I did this with Doug. I remember Breaking Bama and I did this with Doug. I remember Breaking Bama. I remember that series. Yeah, that series was all and it was like they did the graphic where they did the Breaking Bama the way they did with Breaking Bad and it was because Urban Meyer was obsessed with beating Alabama when he got to Ohio State. The and I'm just looking at it there and it's like it's crazy. That was almost what that's like 15 years ago now or whatever it's been and I'm well but it's interesting that we're having this discussion now and we'll push

the James Franklin sides discussion to another day. Oh no. I fuck Matt from from CBS Sports reports that North Carolina is expected to fire Mac Brown. Okay. This is one and this actually fits into this conversation that we were having because the question was is Matt gonna retire? Is he gonna is he gonna do this again? Come on. Remember when Mac said earlier this season in the locker room to his team after a loss if I'm the problem I'll go I think that probably was

close to it and I don't think he wants to go and this is probably the upshot of that like the conversations keep getting had he doesn't want to step down gracefully and This is where you land Yeah, um, I Really really like Mac Brown down gracefully and this is where you land. Yeah. I really, really like Mac Brown. I like him as a person. I think he's a great salesman.

I think he's really awesome for a place like North Carolina. And I think he would probably be the first to tell you that the trajectory of the program when he took over and how exciting it was and where we are today, it didn't live up to it. Like it did not work. I don't know why it didn't work, but there was a moment. They never had an effective defense. I was thinking about the quarterbacks that he had there. You know, Sam Howe and Drake may am Helen Drake may are pretty damn good quarter.

Like Sam, how he he walked in because Sam Howell is committed to floor state. He walked in and flip Sam Howell like day one. Yeah. So this is the thing with North Carolina. And you know, I guess we at the expense of talking about sides, we can go into this right now and we'll have plenty of sides discussion the next couple days. Don't you worry, Art? Yeah, I'm just I just want to talk about stuffing dude. No, but this is a this is an important topic. The question of how good of a

job or what is North Carolina ceiling is interesting because at the moment and I don't know you you are the one who said it but I got macked the athletic sent me down to Chapel Hill. And I remember this was 2020-ish because I got a phone notification after I left Mac Brown's office that the first recorded case of COVID had hit America. Like that's where I was.

And I was in the mountains of North Carolina. But I left there thinking thinking this guy gets it. North Carolina is a very underrated Tate, a state for in-state talent. And he's a very good salesperson who has won a national championship. This campus is beautiful. It's amazing academically. They've got that great hot dog place. Um, and the colors and the colors, the uniform, the Jordan, It's amazing academically. They've got that great hot dog place.

And the colors and the art guys uniform, the Jordan aspect of it, the Jordan room. Like I really did believe for a while that North Carolina was gonna be able to beat Clemson for recruits in that region. And for a while there, they were doing it. They got like Keyshawn Silver and five star players to go there. And at the beginning, I really bought into the fact that like, wow, North Carolina can be really, really good with the right coach.

And then I watched them field some really, really like Josh Downs was on that team. Like Josh Downs is amazing. Really, really good offenses. And their defenses were just terrible. And I just don't know from a coaching standpoint, is that a recruiting problem? Is that a hiring problem? Like, how do you, it's kind of like the same thing. It was like Lincoln Riley's USC for five years, you know? And at a certain point, just paneling it. I will tell you that there's been one time,

one time in their history that they've had the talent to really compete for the national title. And it was a Butch Davis year and it was the year that the whole agent scandal exploded and they had to suspend half the team. That team fully formed. If the whole team's playing, if that NCAA scandal doesn't happen, that team is competitive, I think, on the national level. But that's the only team I can think of that's been like that, that was good on both sides of the ball. And actually, it was probably a lot better on defense. Yeah. So I know that Matt Brown, like lives for this, like this

is his, this is his entire life. I think that if you asked him in a moment of truth truth or at any moment, because he's an honest, like good person, like he would tell you it didn't work. Like it didn't. Can I there were moments where it felt like it would get it was going to get there, but it just didn't get there. I think that's fair. And I think you would say that, you know, having talked to him on, you know, through the years about a lot of stuff. I think he'd be very honest about that. And he'll tell you where he tried and where it didn't work. Can I offer a suggestion?

That may sound sacrilege. I think I know what you're going to say, but go for it. I think Lee Corso is probably done on game day. Oh, I think it's probably time. Can we have Matt and Nick Saban together on game day? Like I would love that. And I want a bonus 30 minute podcast once a week of just them talking because Max the host obviously like Mac was born to host, but he would be able to draw out of Nick Saban. A lot of interesting stuff and

Nick Saban is good anyway. You've seen him on game day. This year is awesome. Like I would love to hear them talk about college because they both like they had different styles. They coach different ways. I would love that,

but I also would love Mac just on the desk. You retire the headgear stuff with it. Let Mac, if he do something crazy to replace the headgear stunt and just have Mac and Nick talk football. I would love that. He's the perfect co-host or the perfect replacement. And the one thing I wanted to say if we're closing down the show with this is Um, he's the perfect co-host or the perfect replacement. Um, and the one thing I wanted to say, if we're closing down the show with this is he's a purveyor of the filet-o-fish. So just like that's a guy who gets, I don't know if you know that.

We got to get him on the saucy nugs though. Yeah. I know he, well, that's the thing. I got converted to the saucy nugs, but he would text me about that. And I thought that was funny. Uh, so,. So I actually congratulations for a great career though Andy right like it didn't work out here but we're talking about a coach that won a national title at Texas and has won a lot of football games in his career and it's been really kind of a pleasure to get to know him and write about him over the years.

Adam over the years. Yeah. He's, he's one of the best and he's just, I know people think he's a politician and that, Oh, he can just glad hand really well. No, he's just a really good dude. Like he's really good dude to talk to. Yeah. It doesn't matter where you're from, who you are. He treats you with dignity and respect.

Like everybody, you know what he does, Andy? It's great. That is a really good life trait. And I don't do this, but I wish I did. Is he looks you in the eye when he's talking to you and he uses your name back at you. Like if you come in and it's the first time he meets you, he will talk to you and use your name as if you've known him for 20 years.

And I think that he has this ability to make you feel at ease and comfortable and in a room with friends, even if you just met him. I'll never forget the first time I met him. And the first time I met him, I felt like I had known him for 10 years. And I think that's a gift and not everybody has that. And that's what made me great.

It's a freaking superpower. Yeah. It's a super, it's one of those things that if he had decided to go into another field would have made him successful in any field he chose. And yeah, if this is it for Mac, God bless you, great career. If this is it, producer points out,

who are then the active coaches in college football to win a national title? Dabo Sweeney, Kirby Smart and? Hold on. Who am I forgetting? Don't tell me. You're not. It's whoever is it this year. If it's not Kirby or Davos. Okay. I was like Kimbo Fisher.

Like wait, he got fired last year. I think he's trying to get in if something opens. Yeah, that's it. So Yeah, if Max done, they've got the person who's won half of them since 2000 retires. It kind of sucked up all the oxygen there. Yeah, but it's interesting that we were having that retirement discussion. Because Mac was the one who didn't want to. Mac was

the one who wanted to keep trying. Yeah, and that's that's a kind of just a testament to who he is to write like he will he he wants to adapt and try age didn't matter. And I thought that he actually operated at North Carolina as somebody who's 20 years younger too. So you know, I know a lot of people want to talk about his age over the years, but he he really did have a gift. Guys, we're gonna talk to you again tonight. I know you're

sick of us at this point, but listen, it's crunch time, it's go time. So depending on when Tom Izzo and Penny Hardaway stop calling timeouts, Memphis and Michigan State, remember Memphis just beat Yukon last night. This is a big one. After that game, that's when they'll reveal the college football playoff rankings.

We will be here for you. Come discover it with us. We'll talk to you tonight.