Andy & Ari On3 - We went on Matt Rhule’s Podcast | Did Nebraska's Head Coach and Ari SETTLE the beef? Best Bets of Week 6 | Dear Andy & Ari
Episode Date: October 2, 2025As Week 6 is right around the corner, it's a Dear Andy & Ari episode, but first, Andy & Ari recap their visit with Matt Rhule on his podcast, House Rhules. Did Ari and Matt Rhule settle the beef from ...over the summer? Find out here! To watch the full episode with Andy & Ari and Matt Rhule, head here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHuDMSTegKc (0:00) On Today’s Episode(0:47) BetMGM(3:08) Intro: Ari and Matt Rhule’s Beef(10:30) OmahaSteaks(11:30) Andy & Ari joins Matt Rhule(18:39) Michigan State-Nebraska preview(21:33) Dear Andy & Ari: Coaching Carousel(41:56) Brunt Workwear(43:08) What will Oregon & USC be in the Big Ten moving forward?(46:30) Forward Progress & Officiating(49:15) PaniniAmerica.net(53:00) Luke Fickell’s situation(55:53) John Ewing from BetMGM joins(58:13) Kentucky-Georgia(1:00:18) Iowa State-Cincinnati(1:04:33) Heisman Odds(1:08:23) National Championship Odds(1:11:02) Producer River’s Halloween Costume(1:15:00) Conclusion In Today's Dear Andy & Ari segment, we have some GREAT questions... What will the coaching carousel look like this year?How will Oregon & USC fare in the Big Ten?What is the rule with officials blowing a play dead? We have John Ewing from BetMGM join and he gives us his BEST bets ahead of the Week 6 slate. To close, Producer River is getting started on his Halloween plans early, and he needs the listener's help. A jam packed Andy & Ari you won't want to miss! Our show is presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/U4Z609_u2rY Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email advertise@on3.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
On today's episode of Andy and Ari on three, we went on Nebraska Coach Matt Rule's podcast, House Rules.
Did Matt Rule and Ari squash their beef from this summer?
You have to watch and find out.
Plus, we answered some great questions for you, including one on the hot seat situation,
which seems like it is burning out of control at several places.
How many job openings will there wind up being in the power conferences this year?
Plus, John Ewing, the Insights Manager from Bet MGM, will join us to talk about some of the week's biggest matchups
and also maybe some of the other radar ones that we have not been talking about as much.
All today on A&A on 3, presented by BetMGM.
We are sponsored by BetMGM.
All the lines, all the totals come from BetMGM.
And if you have not signed up for BetMGM yet, download the app right now.
the sign-up code CFB, as in college football, CFB, and get up to a $1,500 first bet offer
on your first wager with BetMGM.
Here's how that works.
One, download the app, use the code CFB.
Two, deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.
Three, you will receive up to $1,500 in bonus bets if your bet loses.
Just make sure to use the bonus code CFB when you sign up.
Also, if you've already signed up for BetMGM, well, got some goodies for you this week, too.
On October 3rd and 4th, Friday and Saturday this week, you got a college football parley boost token and a college football odds boost tokens for the parley boost token.
No matter where the college football action is, there's nothing like getting in the game and leveling up your next parlay.
Use that token to boost your potential payout from a winning college football parlay.
Odds boost token, zero one in every snap and activates your odds.
boost token on any college football bet, and you'll receive a bigger payout if your bet
win. So you get those this week on Friday and Saturday. If you're already signed up for
BetMGM, if you're not signed up for BetMGM, download the app. Use the code CFB and sign up today.
Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary with BetMGM.
See Betmgmgm.com for terms 21 plus only U.S. promotional offers are not available in New York,
Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem. Call 1-8.
800 gambler in the U.S. call 8778 Hope N.Y or text Hope N. Y. 4673369 in New York. Call 1-800 next step in Arizona.
Call 1-800-327-5-0-0-0-0 in Massachusetts. Call 1-800-off in Iowa or 1-800-9-81-0-2-3 in Puerto Rico.
First bet offer for new customers only, subject to eligibility requirements, rewards are non-withdrawable bonus
bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget,
if you haven't signed up for Bed MGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer
today. Welcome to Annie and Ari on three big day on the show. Not really a big guest because
we were the big guests on somebody else's show, Ari. Did I squash my beef?
Hey, it's a good headline.
I like that headline.
So I'll give him credit, man.
That guy knows what he's doing.
Yes, he does.
Because you lean into it.
That's what you do.
You lean into it.
If somebody writes something about you or somebody has got your fans all in a tizzy or whatever, you lean into it right to the horse's mouth.
And it felt good.
You know, we had a private conversation the day that column in the summer ran the evening of.
But it was cool because we were.
able to discuss that openly again, and it was very similar to the way that the conversation
went in private. So we went on Matt Rules podcast, House Rules, and the episode dropped
today, Thursday, October 2nd. If you click that QR code that you see at the bottom of your
screen on the video version of our show, you can go to the House Rules podcast and you can actually
watch or listen to it. It's just like our show. It's available on YouTube. It's available on the
podcast platforms. We're going to play a chunk of it today. Ari and Matt Rule talking about
the beef and what happened over the summer. Because remember, Ari wrote a column over the
summer that was pretty critical of Matt Rule. And it was one of those where there wasn't
really a heads up. So he was a little surprised by it. And they ended up having a conversation
that night, like Ari said. And so you'll get a really good idea, I think, of what that
conversation was yeah you know the thing that i like about matt rule too um he's just like a
nice guy and like a normal like rational person so like that to me uh is good and obviously you know
my intentions when writing the column was to be interesting and thought provoking and not to hurt
somebody and uh if that's what i did then of course i'm regretful of that but that's not just with
matt rule that's with anybody i don't i don't my day's not better by
making someone else's day worse.
And he was on vacation, I guess, when they call him Rand.
So, you know, hey, I'm happy that he forgave me.
I think he forgave me.
And I still in my opinion and the world turns and the thing that I love the most is a good discourse about an uncomfortable conversation between two rational people and then getting to the bottom of it.
You might not end up agreeing on whether or not, you know, on that topic.
But if you can have a functional conversation and try to see where the other person is coming from, that is always good.
And I wish we had more of that in our society, period.
Yeah.
And the thing is, Matt rules in the content game now.
So he understands what we're trying to do.
And we understand what he's trying to do, that he's trying to win games.
He's trying to build a program there.
They play Michigan State this week.
This is a really critical week for them because they're coming off the loss of Michigan.
They had a week off.
I think they're going to win this game.
I think this is the bounce back to get right.
And I think Andy, too, our fans know, or our listeners and fans know this, that, like, they know what we're trying to do.
We're trying to be interesting.
He knows what he's trying to do.
He's trying to be interesting.
But the one thing I want to make certainly clear, and I know the people know this who listen to the show, is that we don't derive or contrive our opinions in order to move the need.
needle. We write into things that are already interesting. But I didn't make up how I felt about
what he said that day because I thought it would make people mad. Like, that's just how I felt,
and we're always 100% authentic to our opinions and our views of the sport to service the audience
in the correct and more appropriate way. And in this clip you see from the show, Matt talks about
how he tries to do that too. And that's actually different than what a lot of coaches. Because a lot of
coaches don't want to say anything that they would like to get in front of microphone get out of
there and not do any damage to themselves or anybody and not really say anything that anybody's
all that interested in matt's never been like that he's always been one who just sort of says
what he thinks and and when you think about times that gets you criticized when you think about the
things that matt rule has been through in his career and some of the circumstances that he's had
to live through some of the articles that have been written some of the circumstances of the
firings that he's been through like what i did
it is small potatoes.
Like my opinion on that is that doesn't compare to the stakes that that man's lived through.
So, you know, I'm happy.
When you've been fired as the head coach of an NFL team, and I get it, there's money
involved, there's buyouts, everything like that.
I realize they're well taken care of.
But when you have been fired as the head coach of an NFL team, the psychological part of that,
it's not easy.
Like Ari and I talk about this all the time.
how we need to be better at not arguing back on Twitter sometimes when people come at us.
But you're a human being and you see somebody, you know, just ripping you, you're going to
respond a certain way.
And imagine that as an NFL head coach.
Like the level of it, any of us, we can't comprehend because we don't have that many people
that care about what we do.
And with him, he's lived through that.
So it was fascinating to hear him talk about that.
And we're going to play you a chunk of this.
If you want to hear the whole thing, by all means, click that QR code or search House Rules with Matt Rule's last name, so R-H-U-L-E-S, search House Rules, and it'll come up and you can listen to it.
You can watch it.
It's really fun episode.
We actually end up talking about food for the last 20 minutes, which is outstanding.
Matt Rules, like we talk about the coaches you'd want to have a beer with that you'd want to have lunch with.
Matt Rule is very high on that list.
Not an accident than he and Joe McGuire used to work together, by the way.
Not an accident at all.
Joey McGuire was the previous guest.
By the way, some of the guests on this show, Joey McGuire last week, he's had
Wilcompton on, obviously, you know, former Nebraska player who has built a podcast empire.
He had John Gordon on right out of the gate, the motivational author speaker guy.
We are easily the worst guess he's had.
but I guess I'm the only one that ripped him
that's right
I will stand by
go read the thing
I didn't rip the guy but okay
why are you still
like you still argue about it
let it's like I'm the one who wrote it
I know what the motivation was so
but yeah let's let's play the clip
once you put it out in the world
it doesn't matter what your motivation was
this is one of those
because, you know, Matt Rule probably learning this as he becomes a podcaster.
Like, once you put it out in the world, it doesn't really matter what your motivation is.
It matters how people perceived it.
And that's how it works.
I think you're going to perceive this conversation with Matt Rule in a very positive way.
But first, I want to tell you, while we're on the subject of all things, Nebraska,
I want to tell you about Omaha Steaks because they got the early Black Friday sale going on right now, 50% off site wide.
If you use the code Andy N-R-E, so A-N-D-Y-N-Y,
A-N-D-A-R-I, and E-N-R-E.
You get an extra $35 bucks off your order.
And Omaha Steaks is amazing.
I made the tenderloin burgers the other night.
So basically, they take tenderloin, put it through the grinder,
give it to you in burger form.
I just sprinkled it with a little bit of the Omaha Steak seasoning.
It was incredible.
Our producer River made the beef tenderloins,
cooked them up the other night.
They looked amazing.
Oh, there they are right there.
Oh, God, that looks so good.
You're starving.
Omaha Steaks.com.
50% off early Black Friday sale going on right now.
And if you use the code Annie and Ari, you get an extra $35 off.
All right, Ari.
Here is us and Matt Rule on his show.
House Rules.
Here's the real intro.
All right.
Sports people out there, there is no.
feud between us. We love each other and don't, you know, don't believe, sometimes content
sells. So it's good to have you guys on. I appreciate you guys doing. Yeah. You know, Matt,
you're keenly aware of this and we'll just get the elephant out in the room out of the way here.
I wrote a strongly worded column about something that you said in the off season. And, you know,
it went a little bit more viral than I anticipated. But we had a nice conversation on the phone
and I have a ton of respect for what you have done and are doing at Nebraska.
And, yeah, I'm happy you don't hate me.
I'm hoping with some of the fans that, you know,
root for your team every Saturday will grow to love me too.
But, you know, I will say this in my defense and we don't have to get into it.
It came from a good place because Nebraska is moving in the right direction.
When you were hired, I said that they are going to get back with just consistent,
sustained competence, which is something that I think is arguable about the
past of Cornhusker football, at least the recent past. And, you know, you guys are moving in the
right direction. So that's all. But hey, it might be better for the show if you hate me, though.
It's up to you, whatever you want to do. No, there's not, there's not a bit of hate in this heart.
And if we're being honest, if we're being honest, I do hope people appreciate that like,
that like when they ask me questions, whether it's about scheduling, whether there's CFP, NIL,
at least I answer. Like, at least I have a take, right? And so like, then it can be like, you know,
so-and-so rips, you know, I've interviewed more people that've ripped me for my takes,
but it's better than, you know, it's better than being boring.
It's better than just saying, like, coach-speak.
Like, I say what I think, and, you know, people can, people can say what they want afterwards, you know.
Well, and that's the double-edged sword with what we do, because we want you to say interesting things.
But then we give you shit when you do, and that, I get the hypocrisy of that.
I try to ride the line when somebody says things that are like Mike Gundy, who, you know, we just,
Just part of her ways of Oklahoma State.
Love or hate Mike Gundy.
Mike Gundy always told you what was on his mind.
And for people in our business, that was amazing.
So I love that.
Now, Matt, we got to get into the backstory of the nice conversation you
and already had because I'm sitting on my couch on a Wednesday night.
And I see a number pop up on my phone.
And I'm like, oh, this is probably spam.
Because I didn't have your Charlotte number.
I had your number from Baylor.
And so the text comes, this is Matt Rule.
And that's all it said.
And I was like, oh, no, oh, no.
I'm going to have to clean Ari's mess up here.
Yeah, and that was so funny because, you know,
every time I make a mistake, whether it be a big one or a small one,
my personal life goal was to make Andy be the person who has to deal with it.
But, yeah, here's my point of view on it.
And I think I shared this with you, Matt, when we talked on the phone.
And for those who don't know, you had made a comment about scheduling
and whether or not it was advantageous for Nebraska to play tougher games in the non-conference
when there is an avenue or a route to the playoff that doesn't necessarily require
or benefit enough to put yourself in peril's way to potentially losing a game and hurting your
resume.
And from my standpoint, on the couch that day when I saw that, I thought Nebraska just got a five-star
quarterback that would never have gone there in another coaching regime.
They're bringing in players at a high level.
developing. They're making less boneheaded mistakes. They're not doing the things that, you know,
they did in previous regimes. And it seems like they are right on the cusp of actually doing things
in a big way that brings Nebraska football back. And I've watched you, Matt, rebuild two different
programs before you got to Nebraska. And I appreciate this new version of you, which is, I'm going to
just speak for everybody. And, you know, I hopefully this is my last job. I love all of that about you. But my
column, at least when I wrote it, or my intention was, hey, you don't need to worry about scheduling
because you guys are doing it so well right now that eventually it doesn't matter who's on
your schedule. You're going to be able to beat them. I think that is the hard thing sometimes
about, at least over the years when you read people's headlines. And sometimes the headlines
written by an editor, right? It's just, hey, we need to do this to get people in. And I probably,
honestly, I'm probably still a little sensitive from kind of the end of my time in, in Carolina.
You know, normally as you're kind of on the, you're on the hot seat and you start to go down, you know, everyone's kind of, you know, they're kind of writing their post warms on you before you're dead.
And I'll never forget, like, Adam Schaefter texted me the morning I got fired.
And he's like, have you been fired yet?
I heard you're going to get fired.
And I was like, can I get fired first before you ask me that question?
But it's the most awkward thing, though.
So, like, I live in Gainesville, Florida.
Everybody who follows college sports knows what's going on with Florida right now.
and this is it's the strangest thing being in a small town like this and lincoln's very similar
so like billy napier's kids go to the same school as my kids and you know i see members of
the coaching staff all the time so i don't take the whole conversation about somebody getting
fired lightly because it's not just the head coach it's also everybody in the in the organization
their families have to pick up and move you know and and we've seen it a lot of times
living in this town. It's happened quite a few times over the last few years. So it's it's such a
strange and and but to like with Schefter texting you, you have to sometimes you have to ask people
that. Like you just have to say are you getting fired? And it sucks. Yeah, Pete Thammel told me years
ago he's like, hey, there might be a time I'm going to have to put you on the hot seat. And so going
into my third year in Carolina, I was like, I think the time might be now Pete. I get people have
the job to do. And I think to your point, like, you know, I mean, going back to Coach Gundy, right?
Like, I personally, in my time coaching, there's not a coach that I went against that I had more
respect for the job they did, X's and those wise in coaching and roster than when I was at Baylor
and when he was at Oklahoma State. And then he made the comments before the Oregon game this
year and that kind of went viral. But like, my point very simply is always take out like the
school name. Because sometimes when I say things, you know, Paul Feinbaum last year said, you know,
just worry about that. Well, but it.
is what I'm saying right or wrong.
If you think it's wrong, then we can debate it.
Like, is it right?
But, like, when Mike Gundy was winning 11 games, everyone loved what he had to say.
What he said was exactly right.
Like, there's tears of money right now that we've never seen before,
and we pretended like they're going to go away, and they ain't going away.
And so let's just call it what it is.
Like, can you win enough games based upon how much your university has invested?
Like, I think that's a legitimate, that's a real college football question,
and not like a, let's all get upset and take our side.
All right, that is us on House Rules.
Now, I highly recommend you go listen to the whole show.
If for nothing else, then Matt Rule talking about his favorite Italian restaurants in Philadelphia,
Ari and Matt bonding over their favorite types of pizzas.
This is, it's good stuff.
Yeah.
And I thought it was pretty cool to have an open and frank conversation.
about NIL and like just talking about it with a coach publicly because we have those discussions
at times behind the scenes but you know it is interesting the position that those coaches are in
from a roster building standpoint and some of the things that are in and out of their control
I just think it's super fascinating so go give it a listen and of course and you know from my
standpoint wanted to say thank you personally to Matt Ruhl for not only having us on the show
but, you know, being open enough to talk to me personally about things that we disagreed with,
and I have a lot of respect for you.
So thanks so much, and that was awesome to be on a show.
Now are they going to win?
They are 10.5 point favorites against Michigan State.
I do think this is one of the more interesting games of this weekend because this is one that Nebraska needs this bounce back.
Nebraska needs to be able to beat this level of Big Ten team.
And, you know, I'm not sure entirely what we learned from the Michigan game.
yet that was a very close loss of a three point game they gave up a lot of explosive runs to
michigan i'm not sure michigan state can take those from nebraska i don't think they can make
that happen against nebraska but i do think there's a chance this game's a little closer than the
spread yeah yeah i think nebraska is going to win i think it's a lot of points too um what i want
to see out of nebraska uh is just short up line play um and like i don't know if they have a
Protect Dylan Riola, please.
Yeah.
And I don't know if, you know, what we saw against Michigan was a clue that they have some work to do in terms of, you know, holding their own or if that was just Michigan being excellent at what Michigan does.
We'll get more context on that as the season goes on.
But I still think Nebraska has a chance to win 10 games this year.
You know, it might be a little bit of an upper hill battle now that they weren't able to get the Michigan game, you know, in the win column.
but they are better than Michigan State.
They should have no problem, at least winning us.
Well, I'm fascinated to watch it.
The spread actually now up to 11.5.
So the better is confident in the Cornhuskers.
We'll see where that winds up.
But that is 4 o'clock Eastern Time on FS1.
Again, one of the more interesting games of the weekend.
This is a weekend that does not have a bunch of huge marquee matchups,
but it's got a lot of really intriguing plotline-type games.
We'll get to a few more of those when we talk to John Ewing from BED-MGM later in the show.
Right now, I want to get into Dear Andy and Dear Ari.
We have some great questions.
And the first one right out of the shoot is from our friend Nathan, who asks us questions all the time.
Nathan's a Nebraska fan, lives in Israel, has been noticing a trend this year.
And I think he's right on it.
He says, am I wrong, or does every Powerful Conference have a head coach opening already?
Is it too early to ask for an over-under on Power 4 jobs that will come open this year?
Feels like it is going to be a lot.
So Nathan is correct.
There's at least one job opening in every Power 4 conference.
So the ACC has two with Stanford and Virginia Tech.
The Big 10 has UCLA, the Big 12 has Oklahoma State, and the SEC has Arkansas.
Now, as far as how many, remember, last year did not have many.
and it kind of depends on how you want to count Wake Forest because Dave Clauston didn't get fired.
He just stepped down.
But you had Wake Forest, North Carolina, Purdue, what am I missing?
There's a couple other ones.
But it wasn't many.
It was a very small year for power conference changes.
Well, I wanted to ask you, because I had this thought last weekend.
Obviously, there's a few that seemed like they could be opening here, maybe even in the next
few weeks.
Yep.
But do you think that the rampant firings that have already happened so far this year
is an indication that there's going to be a title wave of change at the end of the season?
Or do you think that the openings that were most likely to become open came open early?
Like, I don't know.
Like, is this the beginning of a trend or is this or are these.
This is the question.
Yeah, this is essentially the heart of Nathan's question.
And so I'll tell you, I had an agent call.
me this past summer and say they thought there would be 14 to 15 power conference job openings,
which I think that might include some backfill, some like a huge power conference job opens
and a coach leaves a power conference job for that huge job.
But I, so I've made a list now, and I feel like it's a conservative, it's a fairly conservative
list. And again,
not all of these are
sure things. So
I'm counting up.
Bad, bad podcasting.
Okay.
I can give you 14.
Okay. I can get you to 14,
not backfill. Just
okay. So are you
looking at preseason lists, or are you
looking at circumstances that we've found out
in the five weeks that the season started.
I'm looking at circumstances we found out.
And again, I'm being very conservative because, for example,
I do not have Kentucky on the list in the SEC.
I know Kentucky fans probably want to do something with Mark Stoops
if what's happening continues.
But I just think the buyout is prohibitive.
I think he's got a mid-30 million, like $34 million buyout.
It's either 30 or 60 days, but it's all due in one lump sum right away.
I don't think anybody's doing that.
I think maybe, maybe, but I can't see it.
So I didn't put him on that list.
Are you going to go through this list?
Yeah, yeah.
I'm going to tell you.
Before you do it, Andy, before you do it, I wanted the, I wrote a hot, we both did a hot,
offseason hot seat list, okay?
And I just want to go through mine as a review.
Yes.
Because we're looking at the openings that River put up there already, and a few of them
were on the list already.
Like Sam Pittman was on my list.
Brent Pry was on my list.
So two out of the six or two out of the eight that I listed have already been fired.
Now, I'm going to let you cook now, and I want to see how many of the ones that you say line up with the ones that haven't happened from our hot seat list in the offseason.
Well, I'm also going to send people to a Brett McMurphy column on three that came out this week that is very educational.
So check the QR code at the bottom of the screen.
if you're watching on video and you just hit that with your phone and you can read along
with us.
So what Brett did is he made a list this week of every power conference coach who is either
at 500 or worse than 500 since the 2022 season began.
And I think that's a very good gauge for who might be in danger.
So you've got Mike Gundy already fired.
Pat Narduzzi at Pitt is 21 and 21.
Greg Shiano at Rutgers is 21 and 22, Billy Napier at Florida, 20 and 22.
Dave Randett Baylor, 20 and 23. Sam Pittman, already fired.
Justin Wilcox at Cal, 20 and 23.
Mark Stoops at Kentucky, 20 and 24.
Clark Lee at Vanderbilt, 19 and 23.
Brent Pry at Virginia Tech already fired.
Tony Elliott at Virginia, 15 and 24.
Now, Tony Elliott is hot.
Just beat Florida State.
his team is off to a great start.
I think they're already outperforming expectations.
So I think he's probably going to be fine.
Clark Lee, absolutely going to be fine.
Clark Lee had a really rough start at Vanderbilt.
They got better.
They are as good as Vanderbilt has ever been right now.
So Clark Lee is fine.
There's no danger for him.
Everybody else, with the exception of Mark Stoops,
because I just said, I think he's too expensive,
is an issue.
Although I will say I don't have...
Greg Shiano on this list because I think that might be too expensive as well or too
expensive for Rutgers. But maybe I'm maybe I'm being a little generous. So we'll start in the
Big Ten. The other UCLA's open. The other jobs I have that could possibly open Northwestern.
It could be David Braun. They decide to move on because they want to bring in somebody new
before they open that new stadium. Or maybe they just decided to do coordinator, flip a room.
see what happens with Northwestern, but they're not very good. They did beat UCLA, so at least
they've got one big 10 win, but that might be their only big 10 win. Wisconsin, it's really
expensive if you want to fire Luke Fickle. It's probably too expensive for Wisconsin, at least for
their tastes. But if it goes really badly, like if they get trounced by Michigan this weekend,
and it looks like they might know, if they feel like they're in a position where they might not win
another game, I don't know. You might have to do something.
Yeah.
That is interesting because there is the concept of too expensive to fire,
but also circumstances can get worse where that doesn't apply, you know.
So we'll see where that goes.
Okay.
Do you have more to go through?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
We got other conferences, buddy.
Let's go to the ACC.
Stanford's already open.
Remember, Frank Reich is there as an interim.
He has no intention of coaching pass this year.
So Andrew looks going to go hire somebody.
Virginia Tech is also open.
I have Cal on this list, though Justin Wilcox could save himself here.
I would have not put Justin Wilcox on this list at all if the San Diego State game hadn't happened a couple weeks ago.
Right.
Where they got shut out.
But Cal's doing well.
Like if they keep up what they're doing, then he's going to be fine.
And have a really exciting young quarterback, which, as you know, can help a coach.
Yeah, Jaron Kiave, Sagapolitelli.
Nailed it.
KS for short.
I have NC State on this list here.
And again, this is one I probably wouldn't have put on the list
if last week hadn't happened.
They lost to Virginia Tech.
They lost to zombie Virginia Tech.
And that is a bad sign with some very tough games
the rest of the way for them.
Like they got to play Notre Dame.
They've got to play Florida.
I was they have, who else they have?
They have Miami.
They have Georgia Tech.
They have Florida State.
It could get very ugly.
They've lost two in a row.
They lost to Duke.
They lost to Virginia Tech.
They play Campbell this week.
So they're probably going to win that one against the Camels.
If they lose the Camels, totally different story for Dave Doran.
But Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Miami, Florida State.
That's a four games in five span.
That's going to be very tough for them.
And I just don't know.
I mean, at that point, you have a good quarterback in C.J. Bailey, like, is six and six what you wanted out of this?
Yeah.
So they've got to figure that out.
I don't think Dave Doran is a sure thing.
I think he can definitely pull out of this.
Pat Narduzzi, same thing, can definitely pull out of it, but you worry about Pitt.
He pulled Eli Holstein at the end of the Louisville game and went with Cole Gonzalez for a little bit.
we'll see what they what they do this week it sounds like they're back to holstein to start but
that's another one where they're at 500 and you know pat nor dozy's at 500 since 22
what happens next so they play boston college this week no boston college just lost a cow
that's going to be one of those coin flip games that you got to win because they have florist state
they have notre dame they have georgia tech they have miami still left on this
schedule yeah man it's like there are certain coaches too that like we weren't really speaking
about much in the off season that like still have some pretty important games to win you know
because yeah circumstances change me that we don't foresee in the off season that we don't
foresee in the off season nar doozy's not a cheap firing I don't we don't know exactly what his
buyout is because the the laws in pennsylvania are a little bit funky and pit does not have to
tell you all that much but we'll see where that
goes. It would be pretty expensive.
So I think there's a chance
also he just wins enough that it's not
an issue. But that's one
to keep an eye on. Have people been satisfied
or are they, did they come into
the year unsatisfied? They're restless
right now. I think restless is the key word.
I think the loss in the backyard
brawl was pretty rough.
Yeah.
All right.
The next one in the ACC,
North Carolina.
Like,
they're
bad they're very bad and i don't know if you were going to do this this gets any better and if that
doesn't get any better because like this isn't like a succession plan where bill bill belichick's kid
takes over like if they are as awful as they have been and wind up being two and ten or three
and nine nobody's going to want anybody associated with them to come back the thing that is so
interesting to me is that when you hire bill bellichick do you hire him with the frame of mind that
they better get better immediately, like that you're hiring a wizard that's going to come in
and win 10 games right off the bat.
You hired him to be better than the guy you fired in Mac Brown.
And that's what, you know, I was reading the message boards a few weeks ago and somebody
said, you know, if we'd gotten the Iowa State coach, how much better would we be?
The answer is, and Matt Campbell was not coming to North Carolina, by the way.
He, you know, they tried, Bubba Cunningham, the AD, tried to reach out to him.
But they kind of sniffed out that Belichick was maybe wanting the job
and that the board chair was making an end run around Bubba Cunningham to get him hired.
If Matt Campbell were North Carolina, his coach right now,
Ari, North Carolina would be one of the better teams in the ACC.
Because Matt Campbell knows what he's doing in college football.
Yeah.
My thought process with this was always,
if you let Bill Belichick do what Bill Belichick is supposed to do,
which is evaluate talent, develop them, and coach them up, that that isn't an overnight fix.
So if you were to move on from the experiment after one year, then you shouldn't have done the
experiment.
I don't think they'd fire him.
I think this would be him going, I'm done with this.
I'm not doing this anymore.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I think that, you know, at the very least, he should have one full year, even if it's a bad
one to hit the portal again, get his bearings and try again.
If they're this bad again next year, then I could see that.
but I don't know that you hire Bill Belichick
with the hopes that he could flip a roster
because there's other people in the country
that would have been able to flip it faster,
especially people who are more familiar with the players.
I mean, John Somerall was another one
that was a candidate thrown around for that job,
the Tulane coach.
If John Somerall were North Carolina's coach right now,
they wouldn't be bad.
You know, the one thing that we did never talk about,
and I'm curious to bring it up now with you, Andy,
is that when we were talking about evaluation in the portal,
like Bill Belichick is a smart man and knows football,
but the general familiarity with the names,
having not gone through recruiting yet and all that stuff,
does that put you behind the eight ball if you're like an NFL guy coming in?
John Somerall probably is familiar with players.
Oh, absolutely.
Like when players at the transfer portal,
John Somerall knows them either because he recruited him at Tulane
or he recruited him when he was at Troy or he was recruiting that high school
and maybe that player was going like let's say he was choice head coach he was recruiting that high school
and his entire player was going to an SEC school but he knew him and his entire staff lived on on three
for the past five years and knows the lists like the back of their hands and I'm wondering if
it takes a year to just get your bearings on who people are like there's so many names we talk about
how often or I mean how how prevalent the portal has become the last few years think about it
thousands of names and a lot of times the players who end up at other places
cases end up there because of pre-existing relationships that occurred during recruiting in those
circumstances that you just outlined, which is I was recruiting this high school in Orlando and
we weren't good enough to get the left tackle, but he was there and I saw him work out when
I was watching this other kid and he can play. Let's go get him. Like, they didn't have that. So,
like, you know, it's awful right now. I don't know if you can jump to a 100% conclusion that it
cannot work in one year the same way you're not fine you fully guaranteed his contract you're not
firing him paying 20 million bucks like it would be him deciding this is ridiculous i don't want to
do this anymore it was ridiculous to say that he would be a no one really said this but it was
ridiculous to think that they would be an overnight success because of him and i think it's equally
ridiculous to give up that he could ever be successful after one season i think it's like somewhere
in the middle right yeah so again it would be him deciding i think not them to
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Let's move to the Big 12.
Oklahoma State's already open.
Kansas State maybe, but I feel more confident Chris Clyman after last week where somebody decided to let Avery Johnson use his legs or tell Avery Johnson to use his legs.
And lo and behold, when you do that, it does very well.
Yeah.
I mean, it was a disaster of a beginning of the year.
Yes.
And they did a pretty good job.
It's not in UCF, but losing to Army and Arizona and almost losing to North Dakota and losing to Iowa.
I mean, I don't know if that was just like the Ireland hangover or if they're just going to be cooked this year.
But Kansas State was a team that we could conceivably think could win the Big 12 and now it's been almost painful to watch them play.
So, you know, that's certainly something to track moving forward.
We'll keep an eye on it, but if they play like they did last week that he's probably fine, Arizona.
also Brent Brennan is one at the beginning of the year we said hey this is one you should worry about
I don't think you need to worry about him right now maybe it gets they did get housed by Iowa State
but I think Iowa State's going to do that to a lot of people but I will tell you it looks better
the wind flew out of Arizona sales last weekend people were getting excited hey this is a fun
team to watch they beat Kansas State you know they can put up points they've got a good quarterback I
still think Noah Fafita is good, and like they looked like really good the first three weeks.
And then losing 39 to 14, I know it was on the road, but they weren't even competitive
in that game.
And I think that you want to see them be competitive.
But so far, I think the early returns on Arizona season have been, you know, probably
more positive than negative.
And they're playing Oklahoma State this weekend.
So that should probably get them to four and one.
Then you've got BYU, Houston, Colorado, and Kansas and Cincinnati.
I think if Arizona gets to a bowl game this year, Brett Brennan's fine.
Yeah. It seems more likely they would get to a bowl game.
I mean, last year was an abject failure.
So bowl game would be a good improvement.
SEC, Arkansas is already open.
Wait, did we forget one in the Big 12?
Oh, what do we forget?
Scott Satterfield in the offseason.
Yeah, Scott Satterfield in the offseason, but I think he's working his way out of there.
Is he good?
He's not, I don't think he's quite good yet, but I think he's veering toward good.
and we'll talk about this with John Ewing later.
They're actually favored against Iowa State going into the weekend,
which is pretty amazing.
But Brennan Soresby, excellent quarterback for Cincinnati.
He's been good.
And so I think Satterfield may be okay.
You know, we were worried about him coming in the season.
I think he's going to be okay.
We can almost beat Nebraska in the opener.
Yeah.
So we'll leave that one to track.
But I left Arizona and Cincinnati off the Big 12 list.
So when I said 14, it didn't include them.
So let's go to the SEC.
Arkansas is open.
We are assuming Florida will open.
We don't know when, but we're assuming it will.
I mean, basically it would take Billy Napier winning out the rest of the way.
Yeah.
To save this thing.
We've spoken a lot about it.
Yeah.
Auburn is looking really dicey right now.
Hugh Freeze's his tenure is looking dicey.
we talk about the prohibitive buyouts this one gets added to this list because it is one of the least prohibitive buyouts it's manageable for them i want to say it's about 15 million which is still a lot of money but not for an SEC school but when it's not a lot of money your standard of what needs to happen to fire them goes down correct correct so so yeah and that's that's it for for the SEC schools to me i don't think there's anybody else
it's in danger of getting fired, except, again, because I don't think Mark Stoops is fireable.
I think it's too expensive.
Yep.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe Kentucky finds a lot of money somewhere in a bourbon barrel, but it seems unlikely.
But that's the list.
So that would be 14 power conference, not including, say, if Florida and Auburn open and somebody from a power conference were to take those jobs.
and then you fill behind.
There's one omission, actually.
Oh, okay.
Of a person that was sternly on the hot seat in the off season.
Mm-hmm.
And is interesting now.
Okay.
Brent Venables.
Yes, and I think he's going to be fine.
Okay.
I realize the schedule's hard.
John Meachers out for an indefinite period.
Maybe things slide.
Did he win the,
he won the fan base back yet?
For now, I mean,
Don't go get blown out by Texas, but, yeah, I think they're feeling pretty good.
Okay.
Just, I think that's one to track still.
Like, they feel like they're out of the woods.
They have a terrible injury that we have to work through now,
and there's Texas games coming up in a few weeks.
I don't know if he's 100% out of the woods yet if things go off the rails.
So Oklahoma still has to keep winning.
Yep.
Yeah, keep an eye on that one, too.
And it's like Hugh Freeze can turn it around in Auburn.
If Hugh Freeze beats Georgia, we're not even having that conversation again.
Yep.
So.
we shall see. It's going to be interesting next few weeks. Before we hit our next question, though,
I want to tell you about Brunt Workwear. Look at this beautiful boot. This thing is incredible.
This is the Marin. It's spectacular. It's comfortable. But it's also made to get the job done.
So the founder of Bruton Workwear, Eric Gerard, grew up blue collar. He started Brunt Workwear because he had friends in the
It's telling him that the big brands have stopped listening.
They hadn't changed in 100 years.
They're worried about fashion, all this stuff.
So he made a functional boot that looks great, that will hold up to whatever job you put it through, that also is insanely comfortable.
Like, you put these things on, and it feels like you are walking on pillows.
So, go to bruntworkware.com for durable, reliable workware.
Get $10 off with the code on three.
That's bruntworkware.
B-R-U-N-T-workware.com, all one word.
Use the code on three to get $10 off.
They will survive whatever you throw at them
and your feet will thank you for it.
Bruntworkware.com.
Ari, let's get to our next question.
This one comes from Andy in Phoenix,
who's originally from Tucson.
Dear Ari and Andy, watching that garbage Oregon versus Penn State game,
are we sure Oregon and to a lesser extent at USC
don't become another Nebraska
and Penn State.
Once great teams and programs
is a great speed
of the skill positions
that become slow plotting offenses
like Iowa or best case scenario,
old school Wisconsin,
they would never win the big one
or really compete at a high level
with SEC teams or Ohio State.
Ari, I don't know what Andy was watching.
Oregon didn't strike me
as that kind of team playing as Penn State.
Oregon struck me as the kind of team
that can beat you in that kind of game
or in a shootout kind of game.
Like Penn State's defense is awesome.
you are not going to draw Penn State into a shootout most of the time.
You're going to have to beat them playing a slog.
And Oregon proved they could win playing in a slog.
I think if Oregon has to play Ohio State and get into a shootout, they can do that too.
I cannot believe that was a takeaway from that game.
That's why I figured your reaction would be pretty priceless.
Well, listen, I understand, like, trust me, there's nobody more reactionary than me.
But I do think that there is this expectation that every team that can win a national title has to win every game 45 to 10 in order to prove they're good.
And like that's just not, they played on the road in the toughest and one of the three most toughest environments I've ever seen against a team that's got legitimately great players on defense.
Like did we think that they were going to score 40 in that game?
Like I just like don't know what what people want sometimes.
And, like, I think it's a good question, and I'm certainly happy that, you know, he, he brought it up and not listens to the show.
But, like, I came away thinking Oregon could win the national title this year.
And, like, when you say, well, they not be able to compete with teams like Ohio State and other, you know, they just competed with one of the best teams in college football.
Now, Penn State's getting a lot of flack and rightfully so for losing, but Penn State isn't a bad football team.
Like, that's one of the 10 best teams in college football.
football whether you like it or not and they beat them on the road so um stale slow like those types
of words like i would not think would apply to oregon in any way yeah that i'm much more worried at
penn state getting drawn into a shootout i don't know that they could win one right i'm not sure
their offense is equipped for that and i also think that their defense will prevent them from being
involved in a game from ever getting right from ever being um even even against really good teams like
we'll see them play ohio state it's probably
probably going to be one of Ohio State's lower-scoring games.
Yeah, because it always is.
So, I mean, I know Ohio State won a few by a lot,
but usually that game is pretty competitive.
So, you know, the winner of the game,
I would think that, like, Penn State might be an Iowa-type thing
where it's like they cannot figure out their offense.
Yeah.
Like, you know, they're not.
Yeah, Oregon, I'm not worried about.
Oregon was playing a really good defense.
They did what they had to do win the game.
When they play bad defenses, they light them up.
So I don't think that's a problem.
I don't Steve Pecorian Moore running out of the tunnel for Iowa right now.
Like, yeah, you know, they've got a lot of speed on their team too.
Yep, exactly.
All right, next question from Stephen San Antonio.
Hey, guys, a rules question, and it has to do with when the officials are supposed to, by rule, blow the whistle, and call the play dead.
The situation is this.
A ball carrier will have his forward momentum stopped while on his feet.
Sometimes the officials blow it dead almost immediately.
Other times they don't blow it dead until a few seconds later, which makes a huge difference.
We've seen it a lot where the rest of the offense, mostly linemen,
we'll all start pushing the ball carrier and defenders down the field.
It looks like a rugby scrum, and before you know it,
was a short game with four momentum stopped,
immediately turns into eight or nine yards and a touchdown if near the goal line,
all because the whistle's not blown.
When are the officials mandated to call the play dead,
and why are we seeing so much variance as to when the whistle is blown?
Seems to me they are using their own judgment.
Thanks, Stephen San Antonio.
It's because they are using their own judgment.
This is the Potter-Stewart definition of obscenity from the Supreme Court.
know it when I see it. And that's really what it is. So you are supposed to blow the whistle
when the ball carrier's forward momentum is forward progress is stopped. Now, every referee or every
official is going to give that guy an extra beat in case he keeps his feet churning and gets a second
effort push. So they're not going to the second he stops moving forward blow the whistle.
They're going to give that an extra beat. So if during that extra beat, everybody comes in and the
Pyle pushes him even further, he's going to get those extra yards.
But I agree with Steve.
There are officials that have a longer clock in their head, like, okay, I'm going to give this guy a little more time.
And it doesn't seem as standardized.
I don't know what you do about that other than...
Yeah, it's the judgment of the ref.
I understand it's aggravating, too.
Like if your favorite team or a team you pet on has a guy stopped and then the whistle doesn't blow
and then the next thing you know, what looks like a no gain turns into an eight-yard gain.
like that's a very big difference or even you know what wasn't brought up in the question which is a turnover like there are times where a player's forward momentum is stopped and they keep the play going maybe a second or two longer than they should and then they fumble the ball yeah and so yeah but like andy said i think it's a judgment call and you try to you blow the whistle when you believe the play is over and you know and they all look different too you never quite know when a play is over and i i actually am okay with them airing on the side of let it go longer because the actual point
of football is to get the person to the ground and if you can't do that then you should give them an extra second to try to figure it out but i do see the inconsistency that you see that's a good question and i don't know that there's like a steadfast way of solving it to make it uniform because how do you take a judgment call and make it a rule like i don't know how you would do that so uh but yeah i thought was a good question absolutely and we got one more from michael but before we do that uh you want to open a pinini pack
Visit pininiamerica.net to start your collection today.
I have a pack of Panini luminance right here.
We got this one of one, Patrick Mahomes, a couple weeks ago.
That's the best one we pulled out of this box so far.
A little better about it.
Every time you open a pack is a new opportunity, Ari.
So we're going to rip this pack right now, and we're going to see what we've got.
Oh, I can already see there's somebody who's in the news in this pack.
Oh, here's the base card version of that, Patrick Mahomes, one of one.
I'll take my one of one, thank you very much.
There's Jared Gough.
Jerome Ford.
Well, Eddie George from back in the day.
Ooh, here's a good one.
This is a number to 249, Benjamin Morrison.
How about a year one signature, Abdul Carver.
or with the autograph under there?
I'd sleeve that one.
Yeah, I think I'm going to sleep that one too.
Yeah.
I got a vestige, Brian Thomas, Jr.
Got a Kobe Hudson,
Xavier Watts.
And, yeah, here we go.
Shador Sanders, Ari.
Yeah.
So, hold on.
Let me give you this Shador Sanders.
If you're listening in a podcast form,
we were, we were mouthing words,
but not saying them,
did in his interviews yesterday yeah i didn't know what he was doing at first and then i realized
what he was doing so apparently rex ryan said on ESPN that he said he told him shut up and
yeah yeah so he mouthed the interview um shoulder sells dude he sells that's exactly right
so i'm gonna hold on to this you know even though it's a base card i'm gonna hold on to that one
because yeah you never know give me some uh i i need a i i i we may have a little more
more luminance coming, a little more product coming.
Yeah, if you're wondering why Andy's always the person that's opening the packs on the show,
it's because the second that they come into my house, they're opened.
Like, I don't have the ability to just like, you've got unripped packs sitting on your desk.
Like, that's like, it's like, I don't know, I cannot fathom.
It's like putting a pizza box in my fridge and expecting me not to open it.
Like, come on, what are we doing here?
I think we're getting some product and it would be great if Panini, which, by the way,
isn't juicing the product for us.
But if they would just toss some of the boxes that have the Patrick 101's
Mahomes 101's My Direction instead of Andy's, that would be great.
But, you know, just keep sending him here.
Yeah, I mean, he's the one opening the packs.
It's better for the ad.
I get it.
Like, but like, this is my thing.
This is my thing.
And he's got brunt work boots because he's a, he's a person who, who does work.
Oh, no, I just dropped everything.
You just fell out of here.
Your Panini collection just hit the ground.
Romo Dunzee, immaculate patch auto right there to 99.
That guy's scoring every week.
But, yeah, I love cards.
It's my favorite thing.
And so happy to have Panini on board.
And I love watching you rip the packs open.
All right, Panini, America.net, to start your collection today,
got some cool college team sets coming.
There's a really good Ohio State one that just came out.
So it is gift-giving season coming up.
Christmas is coming up.
You may have some birthdays coming up in your family.
Paniniamerica.net.
Give somebody a box.
Let them break a box.
Let them rip some packs.
All right, Ari.
Next question from Michael.
This came in.
We had already actually recorded the Ryan Silverfield interview,
so we can get a chance to ask Ryan Silverfield this.
We're probably going to have to text in this.
If you will, please ask Ryan Silverfield,
if he's related to my dad, Stanley L. Silverfield.
My dad was born in Birmingham.
Ham, Alabama in 1923.
He was a B-26 bombardier during World War II.
I wrote this podcast series, The Silver King's War, about his experience in the war.
And so Michael emails pretty frequently, he's a Wisconsin fan, said, any news on the Luke
Fickle Pickle pickle, perhaps Coach Silverfield will move to Madison.
And we talked about this earlier with the hot seat stuff.
I still think it's probably prohibitively expensive with Luke Fickle, but I don't know.
if it gets much worse, what you do.
Wisconsin, 16.5.0. Underdog at Michigan this weekend.
If they put up a fight, that's great.
But what if Michigan is just blasting holes in the run game and runs away with this thing?
What's expensive now might not be expensive if you're 2 in 10.
Right, right.
2 in 10, 3 and 9, all of a sudden, the things that seem expensive are like, well,
there's really no choice.
It's a perfect medical.
The analogy I use is perfect for the medicine.
Like nobody likes paying medical bills, right?
Nobody likes getting a, you know, when you think you have insurance and you get a bill in the mail from the doctor's office a month later saying you owe more money.
No one likes paying that.
But if it's dire enough, you know, you find the money.
So like that, that's been the analogy I've been using.
I don't know if it'll get to that point, but Wisconsin has been putrid this year.
And they were not very good last year.
And this is the exact opposite of what we thought would happen.
when fickle took over and the man has to show something he has to and you know just start
showing a fight showing a pulse this would be a great weekend to start doing that they're going
to Ann Arbor Michigan's feeling pretty good about itself after beating Nebraska this would be the
time so we mentioned a lot of these games are not marquee matchups but big time plot lines this is
big noon on Fox I mean a lot of people watching this you do not want a lot of people watching
you get beat 35 to 10, and Michigan runs for 450 yards.
So figure it out quick or the Luke Fickle Pickle will get considerably worse.
All right, we do have one more question, but before we do that,
we got to talk to our friend John Ewing from Bed NGM, Insights Manager from Bed NGM.
Every time John's come on, he has given us some really interesting stuff,
and he has a couple games that he is absolutely burning on.
So let's talk to John right now.
John, there is a fascinating game happening about 10 minutes from my house that I think the home crowd is more interested in what happens after the game,
maybe than what happens during the game.
And that's Florida, Texas.
But the during the game part is pretty interesting too.
Texas is a seven point favorite.
The total on this is 42 and a half.
half as we as we record this i i really don't know what to expect here because i don't know what
version of archmanning's coming and then i'm not entirely sure what florida's defense is going to
look like with the injuries they've had yeah uh you might be unsure but betters aren't this line
has moved from six and a half to seven for texas as a road favorite and nearly 90 percent of money
is on the longhorns to cover so uh an interesting spot for sure we haven't seen a lot from
Texas team, at least against good competition, Florida, struggling right now, but their season
could bounce back here with an impressive win.
And we've seen in the Billy and Apier era, the Gators are six and three straight up and
against the spread as home underdogs.
So just because they're on a slide right now, historically, they've been able to keep it
close at least when they're getting points in the swamp.
Ooh, that is interesting.
Yeah, you know, I pick Texas to cover here.
My alma mater has not
It has been kind to me in terms of my picks
Because I keep getting them right
But it doesn't make the people around here happy
Everybody picked them
I picked them too
John when you see a betting split like this
Where the position seems to be on the other side
How often is the public correct?
Yeah this you know
The betting's even moral outside of
When you talk about the money line
and parleyes, you're getting over 90% of the action is on Texas just to win this game.
It's a very popular parley play going into Saturday.
But we see this all the time.
Seven points is a lot on the road, especially against a conference opponent.
So would I be shocked if they don't win but don't cover?
No, of course not.
All right.
Let's stay in the SEC, John, because you've got an interesting stat.
on Kirby Smart against the spread as a giant favorite in conference games because Kentucky's
coming to town.
So Georgia's favored by almost three touchdowns.
That's right.
20 and a half point favorites, a lot of money, 80% is on Georgia to get the cover.
But we've seen in the Kirby Smart era, Georgia's just 8 and 17 against the spread as a favorite
of 20 or more points against SEC teams.
in the last seven such instances, they've failed to cover each time.
So really tough spot here.
Big favorite.
Georgia should win, but that number is where we're going to, you know, that's going to be
the interesting part of this game.
Yeah, it's so fascinating to me, too, that like when you put out a stat like that
of big, big favorite in SEC play and everybody views Georgia as this like infallible
giant that just beats the crap out of everybody.
and then you go back and you look at that stat and just like, well, you know,
maybe taking the points in the scenario actually is the smart thing to do.
I always struggle with what my brain is telling me.
And I think that's like the number one most difficult thing about betting in general is like
when you're a fan or a consumer of the sport, we all have our general notions of how
games should go, but a lot of times they don't go that way.
Like, is there going to be a fumble in the first quarter that turns into a touchdown?
That'll be the difference.
and I'm just so fascinated by, you know, how they, you know, how they keep putting out these lines and just people will just go, well, Georgia's going to win by 100, bang.
Right. I mean, that's why the spread makes games interesting, because Georgia winning, no one would doubt that, but by how much, that's why we watch.
Now, one where I'm not sure who wins, and I'm fascinated to see, you know, how betters are handling this one.
So you've got Iowa State Cincinnati.
Cincinnati, one of the more surprising teams in the Big 12.
They went and beat Kansas last week.
They are actually favored against Iowa State in Cincinnati at Nepard Stadium.
Iowa State undefeated, one of the better teams in the Big 12th, or so we think.
So how is this one moved and what are people looking at here?
We're seeing balanced action on this game.
The line hasn't moved at all.
But in the Matt Campbell era, Iowa State, they cover the spread 60% of the time as an underdog,
28 and 19 against the spread.
And they've won six of their last seven games when getting points.
So they're not unfamiliar being a dog.
So this is a situation.
I always like Matt Campbell, especially when he gets the points,
just because he's covered so often for me.
What other games jump out to you this week, John?
Alabama vandy obviously really interesting here
Bama open 12 and a half has been bet down to 10 and a half
Diego Pavia since he came to Vandy
seven and one against the spread of a dog as a dog
of seven or more
dog the number one dog in college football
that is our inside joke on the show John that
if we did dog rankings like who's the biggest dog in college football
is obviously Diego Pavia and this just
reinforces that because there's two meanings on that dog and dog you know the audience gets that part
are yeah no i know but i'm i'm just catching up you know i'm i'm also i mentioned florida earlier
as a really popular parley uh on the money line as a leg and parley's uh alabama's even more so
it's it's well over 90 percent of all bets are on alabama when you include
R-LAs. So if Pavia and Vandy could pull the upset, that would be a good outcome for the sportsbook.
So Gamblers bet this line down because they thought the spread might be too high,
but they still think Alabama is going to win the game outright, essentially is what you're saying.
Yep, exactly.
What people do, Andy, is if they don't want to bet the spread, they'll do like a three or four game money line parlay where they pick the favorites and they hope all the favorites win,
which basically is what John is saying is that Florida is going to win or Vanderbilt's going to win or someone's going to win this week.
that blows a hole in all those parleyes because it's very easy to be like, well,
I'm going to take Texas, Alabama, and Ohio State all straight up, and none of them are
going to lose, but there's always one that, you know, winning parleyes is hard.
And I think it's like a good way to look at it through the betting lens, even if you're not a gambler,
it's like, well, we have a Saturday slate that isn't necessarily jumping off the page like
last weekend's did with high-end matchups.
But like, when you think about how much money is crossing hands in terms of these money-line
parlay bets, it's almost like a.
general certainty that one of these teams is going to win or lose and it's going to go haywire well and
that's what it john when we do our pick segment i this week i didn't realize it as it was happening
because i didn't write everything down beforehand i just i picked the games as we went and there
were several games that that are just what you're talking about where so you got alabama vandy is
a double digit spread uh michigan state nebraska is one uh texas texas houston is another one and uh mississippi state
Texas A&M is another one where
the only underdog
I picked a cover was Vanderbilt
and I didn't think about it until it was over
and then that's exactly
my thought what already just said is like it's
it's hard to pick three or four
favorites
to win and win
and I think I may have messed that up
well you never know I mean
again favorites
it tends to be I mean just
to your point of like the sports book
usually needs one underdog to win outright just to help with all the parley liability that
will get as, it is very common just to add big favorites to a parley to increase the payout.
So the sportsbook often is rooting for underdogs, often rooting for an upset.
John, Heisman seems to be wide open.
Let's go down that road.
What are you seeing in the betting trends on that and who might be a good value play?
The favorite seems to change every week.
You know, first it was Arch Manning and Cade Klubnick.
Then it was Carson Beck and Garrett Nussmeier.
Now it's Dante Moore.
He was 20 to 1 before the season began.
He was 12 to 1 last week.
And now he's a plus 750 favorite to win the Heisman.
He had 248 yards passing three touchdowns against Penn State.
So a really impressive win.
That's what vaulted him to the top of the leaderboard right now.
But I will not be surprised if come, you know, Sunday.
day morning we have a new odds favorite because it's just this might be the most wide open
field i i can remember it it is amazing and i was looking so you guys send the emails out with
the the trends there's a spreadsheet that that you attach to it that has how everybody's moved
over the you know from preseason through each week this is you actually have a a column in the
spreadsheet that just says after mater injury it's basically it's what shook everything up but
Right. Who do you think has a chance to make the next move? Because it feels like,
it feels like Ty Simpson made a big move. Is it maybe Marcel Reed? Or is it, is it Pavia if he can win in Alabama?
What you had mentioned, Ty Simpson, just for everyone listening, 55 to 1 before the season started, 20 to 1 last week.
And now he's 10 to 1. So he's just sitting behind Dante Moore right there working to
you know jump up and become a favorite but he's 1100 passing yards 11 touchdown zero interception
so he has the impressive stats i really it's just going to depend on a team right one of these
teams needs to take charge and become a you know go on a run and then i have a feeling that the
quarterback will also get the heisman love from betters and from the odds makers man the thing that
is so interesting to me about the heisman race guys is that it also is kind of just
like a mirror of the national championship too, right?
Because a lot of these players that are there at the top of the board,
you got Oregon, Miami, Ohio State, Bama, Indiana,
all these teams that are at the top.
There isn't a single team listed there that isn't technically or alive
or somebody that you could see winning the national team.
Maybe Indiana and Vandy would be on the outside looking in that discussion,
but does that also.
Not Indiana yet.
I mean, let's see what Indiana does against Oregon are,
but I mean, Indiana B. Illinois,
53.
Like, I don't know about you, John,
but I'm viewing this.
them as a legitimate playoff team that can go in the playoff and win games. So the Carson Beck thing's
interesting to me because, you know, he's the second leading favorite according to the odds right
now. It doesn't feel like he's had to put up any kind of big numbers. And does he stay there
if they just keep winning or does, well, there have to be some games where he just blows up and
throws, you know, 350 yards and four touchdowns? Yeah, just given his,
awareness from better his odds won't come down unless there's a blow up like the train team will
leave him there just to if you lengthen his odds that'll just attract more action so
they're going to be happy with what they've got on him right now I was just looking back
through the odds to win the college football playoff you mentioned India still sitting at 40 to
one so uh a shot there if anyone wants to get on that yeah I mean the thing with Indiana and
Andy is that I'm with you, Andy, I think that they could beat anybody on a given day.
I don't know if they can win four or a row.
If I could take in the end and make the semis, like that would be, I don't think I would
take them to win the national title because I don't know that they'd be able to win that
many games in a row.
Yeah.
What is the national championship money and who they're picking, altering week by week,
or is that still pretty steady?
It's still pretty steady.
Again, we haven't had enough of a shakeup, you know.
Texas losing, that was to Ohio State, that was a good team.
So that's not bad.
Penn State losing to Oregon, that's not going to be a knock on them,
especially with the expanded playoff.
All these teams can easily get in with one or two losses.
The top 10 or so has really been pretty steady.
Yeah, I'm looking here at value plays here, Andy,
in terms of like numbers that you're getting in teams that could get hot.
Ole Miss, 20 to 1, and Miami 12 to 1 are the ones that jump out to me here.
I would think so, yeah, especially,
Miami, if they beat Florida State this weekend,
has a really clean path to a very high seed and a buy, possibly.
So I think that that would be a big.
But Ole Miss still has a lot of hoops to jump through, I think.
The way I look at this go, guys, is if you get 20 to 1 or 15 to 1 or whatever,
and you are like fairly certain that team is going to at least make the playoff,
that at least gives you some like wiggle room down the line,
or if they win a game or two in the playoff,
that you can start hedging out if you want to do that.
But I feel like it's like an absolute certainty at this point.
And you know how good I am, Andy, at being right when I say something
is an absolute certainty.
But like, I don't know what would have to happen for Miami to not make the playoff this year.
Like, I feel like they're going to make the playoff.
So if you go into it sitting on a 12 to one ticket,
at the beginning of the playoff, John, correct me if I'm wrong here,
everybody who makes it for the most part that isn't a group of five team
or a team that isn't traditionally known
as somebody who can compete like an SMU or something
is around 7 to 1 at that point, right?
Like, you would still have value going into the playoff
if you were to take it now.
Yeah, I imagine you're going to have some really bunched up odds there.
I mean, it might reflect what's on the odds board right now.
There's, you know, eight to 10 teams all within that 5 to 1 to 10 to 1 range.
Yeah.
Well, I am excited to see how this shake.
that. Obviously, Miami, Florida State should give us a little more clarity on that this week.
And then there's some next week that will give us even more. John, thank you so much.
Now I got to watch that game in Gainesville very closely because you've given me a lot to think about there.
Also, a lot to think about the game in Athens. And I wasn't even thinking about that game at all.
So thank you, John. You're welcome. Thanks for having me on, fellas.
Appreciate you, John. Thank you.
Thank you.
Yep.
that is john ewing we will see how this heisman race goes because it is the odds are very strange
they're fluctuating a lot because we have no idea what's going to happen also a lot of changes
you know new coaching staffs interim coaches coming in and coaching against some of these
heisman candidates there's one particular interim coach that is very intriguing that's bobby petrino
at Arkansas.
Producer River,
I hear you have a question for us
to add to the Deer Andy Deerari pile.
Yeah, so the month has turned to October.
We're here, it's Halloween season.
Last year, I may have done a little bit of foreshadowing,
but I was Bobby Petrino for Halloween last year.
That is a great costume.
Now, how many, because this is one of those
where if you go to the party,
and the ball knowers,
ball numbers knew it in Nashville there's just a conglomerate of people that went to SEC schools
so this was actually a Belmont law school party and there were some Arkansas alum there
and they were like Bobby they knew like Bobby Bobby hey and some people were like some people
look at him like who the hell are you yeah but um women probably yeah yeah and it was just like
I had to explain like well there's this coach he's in motorcycle did you say when I get up on the back
of my motorcycle baby no i didn't i should have dude that would have been a good pickup line dude you got a
game well and especially like the the one girl who knows that yeah that's who you marry
yeah yeah but um this year i am i'm pondering halloween outfits i want to keep it in the realm
of college football like a college football character i think you should do this again because he's
now in the news yeah um if there's any other suggestions amongst the crowd i would
I would love the suggestions to come in,
but I'm thinking about reprising my role as Bobby Petrino,
head coach,
not offensive coordinator.
So what'd you put on your face there?
What is that?
That was a Halloween story.
You just go like red blood and they got it.
Because I still to the day,
don't know why his face was red.
Like what was that?
Just like blood vessels?
He's in a wreck.
Road rash.
Road rash on his day?
Probably, I think so.
Because he's,
he's on the motor.
cycle dude it's not it's not pretty like when you crash a motorcycle you're he's lucky to be alive i mean
you nailed you nailed the the the red uh distribution too like because like i really tried to so
i have this picture pulled up as i was putting on the red blood on my face so um early thoughts
i thought about being larry cole pepper the dr pepper guy they don't use him people miss him although
i think the fanciful commercials are a lot better they are great um but there's any other recommendations
I'm open to suggestions.
Right now, I think the leading candidate would be Bobby Petrino.
You could do the Johnny Mansell Scooby-Doo thing, too, if you wanted.
Yes.
Oh, that'd be good.
That would be good.
Just get a Scooby-Doo outfit.
Because that's one of those that, like, the people who don't know ball are like, oh, you're Scooby-Doo.
And the people who do know ball, they're like, you're Johnny football.
Yeah, you got to get two girls to go with you, you know, so you can take pictures with them the entire time.
But, like, you know, that was, that's good.
I'm trying to think of one else, but, you know, let me, let's take the weekend to ponder it and we'll come back next week and we'll come. Well, you know, we're asking this now. We're about, what, three weeks out from Halloween for plenty of time. We got time. We got time. So brainstorm, come up with ideas. We'll see you next week. You know where to find us. So when you ask your dear Andy, dear Ari, question for next week, also include a Halloween costume suggestion for Producer River. That'd be perfect. Yes. That's the best way to do it. All right. Gentlemen, what are you.
a week of shows. We learned a lot. We're going to learn a lot more on Saturday, and we'll be back
Saturday night, 11.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Ari and I will be at Dope Campbell Stadium. We'll have
just watched the Miami, Florida State game. It's going to be a lot of fun. I cannot wait for
that show. I love, love, love Saturdays in the fall. We'll talk to you then.
You know, best,
I don't know.