Andy & Ari On3 - What Bret Bielema learned in the NFL that helped him supercharge Illinois | NCAA Denies Trinidad Chambliss' Waiver | USF's Brian Hartline joins

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

As the world of college football has changed drastically in the last decade, Bret Bielema has turned the Illinois football program and gained valuable NFL experience in the last 10 years. Watch here as the Fighting Illini head coach joins to discuss his roster building strategy, what he learned from the NFL, and how to build a lasting culture. A great show today with two incredible interviews you won’t want to miss! (0:00) On Today’s Episode(1:03) Presenting Sponsor(3:22) Intro: Previewing Illinois HC Bret Bielema(4:39) Bret Bielema joins the show(8:12) Bielema’s experience in the NFL(13:00) Illinois’ Roster Building(18:40) Illini’s Core DNA(21:00) Bret Bielema’s Former Players in Super Bowl(23:31) Big Ten’s Rank in College Football(26:31) Closing out with Bielema(27:02) What Bielema said about Balance in CFB(28:55) Trinidad Chambliss Denied by NCAA(37:14) Previewing USF HC Brian Hartline(38:26) Brian Hartline Joins(42:14) First Head Coaching job at USF(45:35) Leaving Ohio State(50:13) Defensive Philosophy at USF(51:33) Coaching with 2 jobs at once(54:21) Brian Hartline’s Arm Sleeve Tattoo(58:55) House Hunting in Tampa(1:00:12) Closing out with Hartline(1:01:00) Thanks for watching! Dear Andy & Ari tomorrow! Before Brian Hartline joins, a little news needs to be covered. On Wednesday night, it was announced the NCAA would be denying Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss’ waiver for a 6th year of eligibility. What is the Rebels QB next move? Will Chambliss suit up for the Rebels in Oxford this fall? Andy breaks down the current situation. Next, USF is entering year one of the Brian Hartline era, and he joins Andy & Ari on today’s show to discuss leaving Ohio State, finding a defensive philosophy, and getting a full arm-sleeve tattoo. An incredible interview you don’t wanna miss! Tomorrow is Dear Andy & Ari! Send in your questions here:[e-mail]@on3.com Our show is also presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code ON3 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 ON3.2. 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 ON3 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! https://www.on3.com/join Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/kvz-Rdp4MLQ Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy Noreon 3, a couple very special guests. Illinois coach Brett Belema coming off 19 wins over the past two seasons. The expectations at Illinois are that they are going to be good as long as Brett Bilem is there. He explains how he has gotten the Illinois so good. And it has a lot to do with the time he spent in the NFL before he came to Illinois. Also, USF coach Brian Hart on. Ryan joins the show. He's the best receivers coach in the world at Ohio State. He's had lots of options.

He finally took the plunge and became a head coach at USF. He explains why USF in particular. Plus, a ruling in the Trinidad Shambliss case as Trinidad Shambliss tries to get another year playing quarterback for Ole Miss. This one comes from the NCAA, but it is not the end. We'll explain it all on Andy and Arion 3, presented by BetMGM. We are presented by BetMGM. All the lines and totals come from BedMGM. It is a big week in the sport of football. Big week for BetMGM.

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we talked to Brian Hartline, the new USF coach. But first, first, a very big guest, Brett Bilema, the head coach at Illinois. He's having a great couple years, 19 wins of the past two seasons. And I don't think they're going to stop anytime soon. I think the Eli and I are going to keep on rolling under Brett Bilema. And he's going to explain a lot of the reasons why they have developed into the program they've turned into during his 10. tenure. Remember, he got fired at Arkansas. He went to work for the New England Patriots. He worked for the New York Giants for a little while. And I think he learned a lot. And you're going to hear him

talk about how he took what he learned in the NFL and put it to use in college football. And when you think about the timing of it, it's about as perfect as it gets because the world of college football was changing. And Brett Bilema had learned a whole bunch of stuff in the NFL, and he's been able to apply it in the world of college football with great success. So without further ado, let's talk to Brett Beelma. We are honored to be joined by Illinois coach Brett Beelma. And Brett, I got to ask you, like, we're sitting here a few days away from the Super Bowl. You got Devin Witherspoon who played for you playing for the Seahawks. You got Hunter Henry who played for you playing for the Patriots. You've had this situation before. There was one

year where you were the coach who had the most former players in the Super Bowl. What's it like when you see those guys on the biggest, biggest stage? You know, probably even more so now, Andy, to be honest, now that I actually won a Super Bowl myself, right, when I was with a pass, so when it was that way before, like I really didn't know the Super Bowl. I'd gone to a couple of them as an observer, right? But, yeah, in addition to those guys,

I also have Badarian Lowe, who's an offensive lineman for the Patriots. I also have Tommy DeVito, who's the backup quarterback, Kevin Richardson, who played for me in Arkansas as a young coach. First year in the NFL, he's in the Super Bowl, just absolutely awesome. But there's so much around that game that's more than the game, right? Like I remember, I've been to a million football games, but we go to the Super Bowl, we were in Atlanta,

and there was a tank parked out in front of our hotel, right? And I'm like, what the world, right? And it was to prevent someone to kind of like charge, I guess, at the hotel. Other one was awesome. Like I kind of just like wanted a fresh breath of air. We were, you know, it was, you know, been cooped up in meetings all day.

So there's a Starbucks down the street. street. I walked out of the hotel and I forgot my credentials. And it was like an act of Congress to get back in the hotel. I didn't have my ID. I didn't have anything on me. And, you know, I couldn't reach someone to get my stuff. It was, it's just such a whole different level. But I'm super excited to sit down and watch it Sunday night. My wife and I, it's usually one event every year that we kind of sit down and watch together. So it's kind of awesome. Well, yeah, you told the story at your press conference the other day about it was one of those, I guess, when you were with the Patriots. and your wife, Jen, was pregnant with one of your kids.

And you hired a bike, one of those bike trams to get you back to your hotel. But you thought he was only taking her? And he got to work ahead. So one thing about being the Patriots, they've been to so many Super Bowls, right? And so we get down to the celebration. We're down on the field. My wife was pregnant with our second. And my father-in-law was with us, and we were kind of celebrating everything.

And so it was going to take a long time all the post-game interviews. So someone had said, hey, if you wanted to, it wasn't that, it was a walk, but it wasn't a long walk, but it was a longer walk than a pregnant wife should be having. So I saw one of those bike carriage guys, which I never been on, right? And so I'd wave the guy down. I said, hey, can you take my wife back? And apparently it wasn't great English, right? So we'd lost some interpretation.

And we both hopped in. Or he's like, come on. And I'm like, me too. And he's like, yeah. So we were just giggling, driving. And then outsider hotel was a huge line waiting for everybody to get in, you know. So, yeah, one of those nights, what I'll never forget for a long, long time. I didn't say you walked in a snoop, your snoop dog was with you guys.

I always heard about the, you know, which was another whole conversation when we went to the Super Bowl celebration, we got our rings. But after the game, they invited it a bunch of music talent and set it aside for the Patriots team and the organization. And, yeah, just a really fun memory. And that game itself, you know, was the lowest scoring Super Bowl in the history of of all of them. McVeigh, you know, Coach Belichick had put me on a little mission assignment about when the

clock was at and how calls were made and just really learned some football one-on-one in that game was unlike any other matchup I'd ever seen before. It was pretty cool. Well, and that experience that you had between Arkansas and then coming back at Illinois, how much did that help you deal with what college football is now? Huge. For what, you know, coach and I had had a great related. He had drafted with quite a few of my professional.

players in New England. You mentioned earlier, I think I got a phone call three out of five years where I had more players in the Super Bowl than any team, any coach in college football. And it was, I had a combo platter between my, my Wisconsin days and Arkansas days. And now I got Illinois in the mix. So it's, and now some of my Wisconsin players have phased out. They're getting a little bit older. But, you know, I just was super appreciative. Coach Belichick kind of allowed me to sit in. I went on the road right away and did evaluations, basically the entire two months leading up that first draft. That first draft, that first draft, I drafted Yelda for Holt, who was a player of mine at Arkansas, and I was with Phoenix that I got to call him on draft day. Coach, let me do that. And then sat in there and listened to a couple other draft picks. And then really for two years was in a lot of meetings that he and I would share, personnel driven and just the way things work. And I think now, and then when I went to the Giants with Joe Judge to be a part of a lot of those conversations

and how a roster is built, developed, maintained, and paid, more importantly, have been huge for me here at Illinois. Well, and you mentioned something in your talk with the media yesterday that you basically told your staff during the season, you guys are focusing on football. You basically turned them into NFL coaches during the season because most people don't realize, like, even in season, college football coaches are usually always recruiting. They've got a set time where everybody gets together, makes calls. But you decided they were better served just focusing on football and your front office and you handled the evaluation piece. when did you decide to do that? Yeah, Andy, without a doubt,

we've kind of been an evolution of that since I got here. I'd set up when I walked in the building here, I took an NFL approach to the college game I'd never done before, and that was based solely off my three years in the NFL, set up a college personnel department and a high school personnel department. So in the NFL, you have pro in college. Well, in college, we now have college in high school. Jay Kaiser, who's now actually with the Jaguars,

kind of ran that development with me for five years. He was the NFL liaison of the year to the, to the in college football two years running because the NFL, there's so many times when those guys come through our buildings that we're the best visit of the entire year, just the way we kind of handle and streamline those guys on their visits. And it's really built for that purpose. We want, hey, I want our guys to be successful just like I want our guys to have success beyond college, right? So yeah, it really was structured that way. I kind of run, obviously our coaches, I coached my coaches, but I'm not involved in a lot of game plan things, but personnel I'm heavily involved in

and really the distribution and allocation of our money. So we have a GM, but I kind of work with another guy, Ben Miller, who works on contracts, negotiations, and the acquisition part through finances. So, yeah, our building is set up on retention, removal, and acquisition. That's exactly what we are, very similar to the NFL. And now in today's world, because of the structure of NCAA rules, that's exactly what it's like. Well, and so you tease that you've obviously got a defensive coordinator opening,

that we need to stay tuned after the Super Bowl to see what happens there. But you said it's going to be, you know, new scheme, somebody who's going to call it that allows you to deal with all this other stuff that you're talking about. How excited are you for that? Well, you know, two things.

We just had two of the most successful years in the history of Illinois football ever, right? So we've done a lot of really good things, but I just feel like we've been kind of knocking on the door doing something special and I really want to try to do some things that can help us get over that hump. and that's, you know, player driven, it's personnel driven. It's me as a head coach, got to improve on certain areas.

You know, we've had a little bit of transition. I'm going to have a new special teams coordinator, obviously a new defensive coordinator. So one of the things we've had over the last three years, we're the one of the few teams in the country that had offensive defensive and special teams coordinator back for all three years. And we've had two good years in a row, right? So transition is always a challenge, but also sometimes a great opportunity to get better even.

So I'm really excited about that moment. I love this process. we're in right now. I got around our team yesterday. I got to see my team work out for the first time live in person on the on the field. So it was a really fun day for us in that regards. But yeah, big two weeks. I'll get my offensive staff hired this week. I already kind of know what I'm doing special teams next week will be a defensive emphasis and hopefully hit the ground run in the week after that. And we got about four weeks before spring break. And then we come back into five weeks of spring ball. So an exciting time. Well, let's talk about this new team because you obviously did have a lot of success with it.

you had that core group. We had Luke Altmeier and Gabe Hawkes and some big stars that you're losing. But now you bring in Caden Hauser from East Carolina at quarterback. And this is a guy who actually started in your league at Michigan State and kind of got thrust into a situation that maybe he wasn't ready for because his coach got fired. They were just scrambling at that point. And then he goes to a different level and really blossom there. How do you handle that sort of thing? You've seen a guy up close, and now he's evolved as the years have gone on.

You know, every scenario, every player, Andy, is different, right? When we grabbed Luke, we thought we had Tommy back for one more year. Tommy Davido had been a lot of really good things for us. The Big Ten of Peruvring him for another year in the NCAA at that point was saying no to everybody. So they said, no, he couldn't come back. We thought we had Tommy coming back. So that thrust us in the market. It found Luke, who's been an absolute awesome ride here,

had not played a lot at Ole Miss, but he played a little bit. Him and Jackson dart were down to the bitter end, and they decided right before that first game to go with Jackson, and that put Luke in a backup role that whole week. But what I do is I think, you listen, I learned a little prayer when I was little, right? Here's a church, here's a steeple, open doors,

and here's all the people, right? Like, I can't say it enough about all the buildings are awesome, right? But it's the people inside to make a difference. And Luke really gravitated to what we are here, you know, he had chances to leave us, I think, for probably two times, three times of money we were paying him. But he stayed here because he knew what he would grow into and what he had seen. And I think he's going to be awarded for ever in the NFL. But on the flip side of it, this year, we really wanted a guy that had a lot of playing experience.

That was premium number one. Really didn't care where it was. We want to have a lot of playing experience. And that's why we went after and targeted Katon. Just he kind of fit our MO, had been through a little adversity. I like guys that have been through it a little bit. He had been at Michigan State, started in this league, actually beat out some, guys to become that starting quarterback. If you checked the depth charts back then, some of those

guys are now coming to the premium guys that are in the world that just became the transfer portal. And in my opinion, he started ahead of them as a freshman should tell you something. Super excited about where he is. I haven't named him to starter, but he's here competing with our guys. And the biggest thing for me, we were, you know, retention is by number one goal. I think any great organization, if you got a good player that builds into what you believe in, buys into what you believe in is a great principle of what our building is all about. I was able to retain Matt Bailey and Xavier Scott, two of the most premium DBs I've ever coached. Their DNA is exactly what we want.

One from South Florida, one from Moline, Illinois, and both of them had one offer coming out of high school, and that was the University of Illinois. And look where they are now. Any team in the country, I'd love to have them, right? So I'm super excited about that. Acquired a lot of guys through the portal, but also our kind of unique niche. We go after a lot of junior college guys. Got some junior college guys that I think will come in and make a huge impact.

We've had a couple of those guys get drafted during my. time here. So super excited for the future. Well, and how do you balance that? Because, you know, we talked a lot as Indiana ran to the national title about the get old, stay old philosophy, which we used to hear all the time in basketball, but now it's something that football coaches are talking about too. And I saw you took Jake Renfro from Wisconsin as a transfer and my immediate thought was, wait, did Brett coach him at Wisconsin? I know he's been there a long time. But no, I don't think you actually cross pass. But how do you handle that? Because I know you still want to be a developmental

program. And one of the things you do best is find these guys that maybe other people don't necessarily see the same upside as you. And then you turn them into these players and you got to keep them. And a great question. So I believe there's a balance. So for us, you know, I've signed 27 high school kids in this class that we're in. We just signed three more yesterday. All three of those guys, Illinois was the only offer. Same thing about Xavier Scott and Matt Bailey, who now are two of the most premium players in our conference. So we took three guys yesterday to add to our 24 that we've already signed. 21 of those high school kids are already on our campus alive and kicking and doing well. But then also I brought in a large number of players that have played other places. You

break Jake Rempo, classic story. Jake Rempo is from Illinois. His dad played in Illinois. When I was in the NFL is when he came out, he went to Cincinnati. When Luke went to Wisconsin, we had some conversations with him, but he decided to follow Luke to Wisco. And then we had an opportunity now. He gained a couple years more of eligibility. So we brought him in, targeted him as our number one center prospect and got him here in the building and super excited about what Jake brings to the table and he's played a lot of football. He actually had an NFL grade that was very good to come out this year in the draft. But I'm looking for, you know, we grabbed a couple guys from lower level divisions as well. I had a foreshadow of what I thought this defense was going to evolve to.

kind of went after some different type players than not that were normal recruits for us at Illinois. So they got to have a belief in tough, smart dependable. That's where our DNA starts. And I think it's always going to be that way. And now the transition to 2006 couldn't be more excited about. How do you balance the tough, smart, dependable part when you're, when you've got to negotiate with guys? There is no, there is no negotiations. Okay.

It's a non-negotiable. Obviously, we can miss on if we thought they're a little. bit more tough, smart, dependable than they are. But that's the DNA of our program. You know, Andy, I think you probably know this last year, we had six sets of brothers on our football team, six biological brothers that came from the same mom and dad and we're here with us, right? And that doesn't happen by chance. I really believe in DNA. So one of the things I always talk about when we bring a player into this building is, you know, we come from all different walks of life, all different nationalities, all different types of religions and regions and beliefs. But our core

DNA is tough, smart, dependable, right? And tough smart, dependable. Tough is mentally and physically. I've had a lot of tough mental guys that are weak physically. That don't work. Smart is really not your GPA. I've had a lot of guys with high GPAs who aren't real smart. I've had a lot of guys with low GPAs who are one of the smartest kids I've ever coached. So it's not a GPA or a test score. It's what they are on the football field and how they live life. And then the last one, dependable, right? Like I always laugh. Dependable is a really hard word to say when you're a young person, but it's also a really hard word to spell when you're older. I can't remember where the ease and the a age go, right? But dependable is a great trait. Like, think about where you are

as now, Andy, as a grown adult man, right? Like, there are very few people in this world that you know are truly dependable for you and your most difficult moment. And if we can get a room full of guys, our first day on campus, we had to break your bread with a brother today, right? So the first day on campus, I took all of the guys were in that room and they sat down and broke bread with a person they had never met before. And the purpose was to find their first middle and last, name and any significance in it, right? Because names are awesome. They're given to you before you're born because they were important to your parents. So a lot of times it's family members. It might be a person that was a friend or someone that was lost in life and you learn about your family's history,

right? So your name tells you a lot about who you are and it can tell someone you've never met before what you're all about. The second thing and the most important thing is probably, you know, give me a story that helped you get to where you are today. And sometimes it's a triumph and sometimes it's a tragedy, but it like defines who you are to get where you are. The third thing is who helped you get to this moment. A lot of times it's your parents, but it also might be your eighth grade basketball coach or it might be a pastor. It might be, you know, a guy that's your cousin, but he's not really your cousin,

but he treated you that way. Like we try to build our guys together in a way that when it's the most difficult moment in game four in a fourth quarter, we're down by six and need a touchdown to win, right? Like, that's when we got to be together. And I think that's what I love building. And that is such a great lesson, what you do in that moment, because one of the other things it also teaches those guys to do is listen and, you know, listen to your teammate and care about what your teammate is saying.

And such a valuable life lesson that will last them well past anything they do in football. When I reached out to our guys and made a Super Bowl, I just shot them in an individual text. And each one of those guys has an individual story, right? So like Devin Whittespoon, literally one of my favorite memories of Devin. He created a lot of great plays for us. He's the first round draft pick. I was with him on draft night when he got picked fifth overall and a huge money night, right? But my favorite moment was a practice that I threw him out of because he pushed the guy in the back.

And I kicked him out. Isaiah Williams, who just became the MVP of the New York Jets. He pushed him down from behind. And I kicked him out. And I brought him in later that day. And I showed him play. I said, Spoon, man, there's going to be a day when I'm not with you, right? You're going to play in the NFL.

And if you push down your star receiver. into the boundary and he gets hurt, not will only you be pissed and he'll be pissed and every player in a team, but the ownership will be pissed. And then I remember talking to John Snyder this year about the way Spoon was playing when we were out there in Seattle, they let us use their facility. And I'm talking with John and I'm like,

Hey, Spoon's playing his tail off. Looks like he's really funny. He goes, but the best thing about Spoon is he's our best practice player. And I was like, well, right? Like just literally had that little epiphany moment. Baderian Lowe, his story, his journey. Tommy DeVito, one of his first practices here, he called a timeout during practice.

I said, what the hell are you doing? That's what he learned in Syracuse. You get yourself out by calling a timeout. I'm like, hey, that don't work here, bro, right? And now for him to be on the path he's in. I love Tommy, he called me when he got to the Patriots. He'd been with the Giants a couple years. And he literally said to me, he said, coach,

it's so awesome to be in a building. He goes, literally my first meeting that I was with Coach Rables just brought me back to where I was with you about the things that we believe in, the football 101, all of the things that you manage and building us, right? And our players, I just had, you know, six or seven guys playing senior bowls. You know, Miles Scott had a great interview where he talked about,

coach, everything we did this week with these NFL coaches, we've already been doing for three years with you. And it was, they saw how when they went and competed against the best, the best in the country, the things that were in their DNA are what are making them great to where they're going to go. And that's a really cool. We were in a car, me and three of my coaches. And I called Miles.

I didn't even see that interview yet. I just want to know how his game went. And when we're hanging up, he just stopped me. And he said, coach, I just want to thank you for. And he talked about all the things that we had built in him and helped him learn. And I'm thankful for Miles. Scott Hill, we went a lot of games. But now we're going to be connected at that next journey in a way that I can't tell you how rewarding that is.

I can't even imagine. It's got to be the pride is incredible. Before I let you go, I got to ask you about the Big Ten and about how things have changed in the Big Ten. because I keep saying this on the show. You know, and you coached in the SEC when they were winning a bunch of national titles, and one of the things that was going on then that you saw at Arkansas firsthand was, you know, the depth of that league at that time.

And I keep saying it as the NIL era and the Transfer Portal era changes football, you're going to see the same thing in the Big Ten, where it becomes this kind of murderer's row situation. Are you seeing that and how tough is the Big Ten week to week at the state? point. Andy, I know I'm talking to an SEC guy, right? So don't take offense. You know where I went to school. That's okay. So when I was at Wisconsin, my first year as a head coach, we went and played Arkansas in a bowl game that they were ranked in the top five. We were like probably 10 to 15. And we'd beat Arkansas that day just because I think we were a very good football team played really

well and we're able to win that, finish my first season 12 and one. Fast forward, you know, eight years later, I'm at Arkansas and the SEC and, you know, set out on a five years. adventure where my first year we went three and nine. My next three years we went to bowl games and won. My last year, obviously, we fell short and I was told I couldn't coach there anymore and got the opportunity of a lifetime to go in the NFL for three years. So I came back into college football three years later and I could feel automatically, right, there was a little bit of a shift. And then two years later when the NIL revenue share, but also, you know, the portal world opened up and kids didn't need to sit behind people anymore. They were going to experience in depth. You know, now two

years in a row, I bet you an SEC team head-to-head in a bowl game that everybody thought was going to go the other way. And it's just the rosters are so much more comparable. The opportunities are so much more comparable. It's a balanced world that I've never seen before. Listen, I know there's a lot about Big Ten SEC. Tony Petiti, and then I was very fortunate to be under Greg Sankey, two of the best people, in my opinion, to see beyond what's in front of them that I've ever been around. I literally was a coach at Arkansas that helped lead a group of coaches to try and, you know, know, say, hey, we would love Greg Zanky to be the SEC commissioner, right? I remember having a conversation with Greg and others about that, right?

Those guys are incredibly gifted. And I just think to have two those men of that caliber. And now to have, you know, the ACC and the Big 12 also have great leadership. It's just a really exciting time for college football. It's not, it's not Big Ten SEC. It's about college football, man. We're at a place. This is my third in it, my third NCAA head job, obviously Wisconsin, Arkansas,

on here and there is no better time to be a head football coach in college football than right now. I know there's a lot of headaches and there's a lot of things that everybody complains about. Accept it, build, grow, surround yourself with great people and a lot of great things can happen. So I'm super excited about where we at. More importantly, excited about the game of football, right? Like college football is competing with the NFL in every way, right? Like just TV, marketing, money. It's a really cool time for this to be about and I think it's only going to get better. Well, we are anxiously awaiting the announcement of a new defensive coordinator, which we need to watch the Super Bowl. So I'll be paying special attention to the defenses in the Super Bowl, and we'll see what I.

I might have gotten a little cheat sheet looking at your transfers in, body types, you know, playing styles. I might have tried to make a few stylistic guesses there, but we'll wait and see next week. Brett, thank you so much. Absolutely, I appreciate it. Have a great one. I all up. Yep. That is Brett Bilema. Always fun to talk to him. And you heard him. It's as balanced right now as he's seen it. And I think it's going to keep getting more balanced in the SEC and the Big Ten. I think because of the way the rules work now, because of the way players can move efficiently, like he said, you don't have to sit around and sit on the bench behind an All-American anymore. You can go play somewhere. I think that's going to keep changing the way.

way these leagues are balanced competitively. And I think the Big Ten, maybe it was a little behind the SEC in terms of the mid-tier teams and the lower-tier teams having that level of talent. Now you're seeing that happen in the Big Ten. And I think Brett Bilemon has turned Illinois into one of the better teams in the league. I think, you know, when we look at obviously what Kurt Zinetti's done in Indiana, they're fantastic. They're going to continue to be good.

We expect Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Oregon to be very good. It's really that next group, which, by the way, is going to produce playoff teams, is going to produce potential national title contenders down the road. Who emerges? Is it Illinois? Is it Iowa? Is it USC? Is it maybe Nebraska?

Is it Minnesota? Is it Michigan State under new management of the path of stroke? I think there's a lot of potential in all those programs. But Brett Bielma, I think, has Illinois a lot. further along than most of them. We'll see how he does as he keeps going. Now, he mentioned, you know, back in the day when he got Luke Altmeier that they thought they might be able to keep Tommy Duvito, found out they couldn't. Quarterback eligibility has changed quite a bit, as Brett Beelam alluded to. And we got more news on one of the more high-profile quarterback eligibility

fights that is going on right now. Remember, Trinidad Shamless, the quarterback at Ole Miss trying to get that extra year. On Wednesday night, the NCAA denied his appeal for a waiver to get an extra year of eligibility. So the NCAA, they had the waiver process. He didn't get the waiver. They appealed. Now they said, okay, your appeal is also denied.

That process is done for Trinidad Shameless. And Ole Miss came out with a very strong statement right after that because right now there's nothing anybody can do through the NCAA to get them to change their mind. They will have to force the NCAA's mind to be changed in the courts and wouldn't really be changing their mind. It would just be forcing them to do something they don't want to do. But here is what Ole Miss sent out right after that ruling. The NCAA Athletics Allensibility Subcommittee's decision to deny Trinidad's appeal is

indefensible in light of the undisputed facts. The NCAA staff and the subcommittee asserted that Trinidad was not denied the opportunity to compete during the 2022 season. This is when he was at Faris State, despite the reality that he did not dress for a single game while suffering from severe incapacitating medical conditions. These conditions were fully and contemporaneously documented by his treating physician, yet this waiver request was still denied when it should have been approved at the NCAA level. Trinidad's representatives will continue to pursue all available legal remedies. and we will publicly stand behind Trinidad while holding the NCAA accountable for a decision that fails to align with its own rules, precedent, and the documented medical record. So what Ole Miss is saying, and this is what they've been trying to do. Trinidad Shambliss, who started his career at Fair Estate, spent four years at Fair Estate, came to Ole Miss for what he thought would be his final year, winds up becoming an incredibly effective starting quarterback at Ole Miss, takes them to the college football playoffs semifinals.

So they are trying to get what we call a medical redshirt. The NCAA would call it a medical hardship waiver for the 2022 season at Faris State. So Trinidad Shameless red shirts at Ferris State as a true freshman in 2021. In 2022, he didn't play at all. And what Ole Miss is arguing, and actually Faris State is helping argue this based on the documents we've seen from the waiver request is that he had enlarged tonsils, he had some respiratory issues that kept him from being effective enough to play that season. So what they would like is a medical hardship when the NCAA is arguing is, hey, why didn't Ferris State apply for it then? Why now? When, oh, yeah,

he was a really good quarterback and he stands to make a bunch of money if he can come back to Ole Miss. All of these things are true. So in the meantime, Trinidad Chamble's attorneys have been working on another potential solution, and that is in the court system. Now, you've seen cases. You had the Diego Pavia case last year in federal court that allowed Diego Pavia to play another year at Vanderbilt. We've heard about the Joey Aguilar case at Tennessee. This kind of between the two of those, it's a little bit different because both those guys played in Juko, the 2020 season is involved there, where the NCAA had issued a blanket waiver for anybody in the NCAA who played in 2020.

But Trinidad Shameless, none of that applies to him. He is trying to get an extra year, and he's saying, I should have been given this medical redshirt. So basically what they're going to do is they're going to argue in front of a judge in Mississippi, and listen, this was filed in state court in Lafayette County, where Oxford, Mississippi is, for a reason. They want the home field advantage. They've got a hearing next week, and what they want is an injunction.

And what the injunction would do is it would keep the NCAA from enforcing its own rules and allow Trinidad Shameless to play while this is all pending. Now, my guess is the wheels of justice will turn fairly slowly in that case, and nothing will get resolved until at least after the 26th season, which would allow Trinidad Shameless to play this season, which would allow him to collect on the very big NIL deal that he has signed with Ole Miss. And at least Ole Miss hopes, he would be able to lead them back to the college football playoff. Whether that will happen or not depends on a judge in Mississippi.

That judge, he's a Mississippi law grad, an Ole Miss law grad, Delta State undergrad, play quarterback in the Jukos system in Mississippi. So you've got all of these dynamics going on. And this is a defined strategy by Trinidad Shameless's attorneys. They could have filed the case in federal court. They could have sued on antitrust rounds. They chose not to because the NCAA has actually been winning some of those cases in federal court, not winning as the cases completely get resolved, but they've had judges ruling in their favor in the federal court system on the eligibility stuff, not on the pay stuff, but on the eligibility stuff.

because I, like I've said a bunch of times on the show, I do think most people want there to be finite eligibility in college sports. They don't want you to be able to play until you're 50 years old in college football or college basketball. So I think there's a chance in the federal court system, in those cases the NCAA kept losing for eligibility reasons, they might actually win some of those. But in state court, where judges get elected sometimes and, you know, have to be approved to stay on the bench and that sort of thing.

Well, you need to curry favor with the local voters. And the local voters in Lafayette County, Mississippi, are mostly Ole Miss fans. And I think that is the strategy that they're hoping will work. It's the same strategy that Joey Aguilar's attorneys at Tennessee are trying to use because he was originally a part of a federal lawsuit. He got himself dismissed from that so he could file in Knox County, Tennessee, where guess what, the judge has two degrees from Tennessee, and guess what, most of the voters are Tennessee fans.

So we'll see what happens, but that is the goal for Trinidad Shameless. Now, if he were to be denied the injunction, which is still a possibility. I've told you about the home field advantage theory, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to get what they want. But if he were denied, he'd start training for the NFL and then Deuce Knight. the transfer from Auburn, who's from Mississippi originally, was going to go to Notre Dame,

who was committed to Notre Dame for a long time, when C.J. Carr became the most likely heir apparent at Notre Dame, Duce Knight flipped to Auburn, played his freshman season at Auburn. We got to see him in one game against Mercer. Look kind of awesome in that game. But the prevailing wisdom on Duce Knight was that Ole Miss is hoping they can take him,

develop him for a year, when Trinidad, Shambliss finished, is after the 26th season, they hope, then Duce Knight is ready to step in and be the starter. He could have to step in earlier than that if it doesn't work out with Trinidad Chambleau's in court. But that's the next step. Now that the NCAA has denied the appeal of the waiver, there are no more NCAA avenues for them to take. And Ole Miss has said, you know what? Go ahead.

Declair war on the NCAA in court. And we'll see what happens. The judge will hear the arguments and then make a decision on whether he gets the injunction or not. If Chambliss gets the injunction, I bet he plays in 26. If he doesn't, I would imagine he's in the NFL in 26. So that's the next step. Hearing is scheduled for late next week. I'd imagine we're going to get an answer on this pretty soon.

We now move from Oxford, Mississippi to Tampa, Florida, where Brian Hartford, Heartline is busy taking over as USF's head coach. This is the guy who's one of the best assistants in college football in the past few years. He was a vital cog in what Ohio State was doing as the receivers coach. I think it'd be hard to argue that anybody was a better recruiter and developer of wide receivers over the past five years, 10 years. He may be the best at that in the history of college football. If you look at the guys that he has recruited and put in the NFL, we're going to watch

Jackson Smith and Jigboat playing the Super Bowl on Sunday for the Seahawks. Just another one of those guys. And it's a long list. You know, you've got Garrett Wilson. You've got Marvin Harrison Jr. You have Jeremiah Smith who's still there, Carnell Tate, who's going to the draft. The guy was great at it.

You knew he's going to be a head coach at some point. The question was, which job would he decide is the right one? USF is the one he decided on, and he joined me in Ari to explain why. We are honored to be joined now by new USF head coach Brian Hartline and settled into the office now, off the road recruiting. I've been seeing the videos of the very, very early morning workouts. How's life as a head coach treating you? It's good.

You know, I think that we're kind of in different cycles, right, or different periods. So, you know, working through staffing, working through roster management, and then, you know, get on the road a little bit to see some high school. we'll see some players develop those relationships and continue to develop those relationships, to be honest. Now we're in a spot. We're, you know, focused on training. First thing on focused on installing defense, offense, and just building this team organically the right way with hard work. So I like this time of the year, looking forward to it. But spring is upon us pretty quickly. So trying to maximize every day. Hey, Brian, you know, during your time at Ohio State and the success that you had there. Your imminent departure from Ohio State was an annual

discussion about when's he going to go. What does he want? And I think that you were kind of working through that yourself over the years of what your goals were, what you wanted. What was it about this time, this place, this moment in your life that the move made the most sense for you? And why was this the time for you? Yeah, I think that's a great question. I think that ultimately, a hunch in the end, right? I mean, there's still a gut call at one point. You know, but for me, there was a couple of things, frankly. You know, me, the ultimate vision of being able to win consistently in Chase Championships, wherever I'm at was very, very important. And so I felt like that was here unattainable at USF. And frankly, probably at a higher level than it's been.

And that was, you know, an important piece of it. You know, I think the ability to do that, is involved with players, right? I mean, your resources are really important, the place with the right kind of resources. Having resources that match expectations, right? It's really, really important. You know, in this new world, frankly, in the portal, I think that being in a spot that is easily accessible

to players returning home or being in that, and that only helps. I think that the state of Florida is the best, if not, is one of the best, of not the best state in the U.S. as far as high school football. There's obviously a competition out there. I get that. But if guys want to head home, this is a great spot to be.

So there's a lot of things that were lining up. I think ultimately there was a gut call, you know, and frankly saying this is the right time. My wife was very adamant on Brian's time. You know, Brian is time. And then when you have that side of it, as you guys know, family was. It was really the perfect match. I mean, it also helped.

Frankly, the state of Florida has always been our home away from home, to be honest. The time being spent in Miami, spending time with the dolphins, the amount of recruiting I've done in the state, I just feel very at home here. And so for her, for me, it just seemed like the perfect alignment, definitely in a spot where this, you know, our place has upward trajectory, significantly, and that's our opportunity to maximize the momentum we have. And so it's a perfect spot already, to be honest. and it was just the right time. You are in the right place. You were in a Wives-Mus grant permission show.

Yeah, if you understand our lives. So I'm glad we're kindred spirits here. I'm curious, Brian. I mean, this is obviously your first time taking over a program, but this is an era where when you take over a program now, you have to essentially start from scratch. I mean, Alice Golish moved on from USF, went to Auburn, the best players from USS for some of them.

They're now at Auburn. You've got to deal with an entirely new roster, essentially. What was that challenge like? Were you getting there and just assembling basically a whole new roster? Yeah, I think it was just trying to outline what we were looking for. You know, I think, you know, obviously you want great players. That's a no-dust statement. But I think sometimes athletically, especially on what you're asking to do,

is really more of a check-the-box. Do we feel like he's good enough? Do we feel we can maximize him? Can we get more out of them? How is he as a player? That's separate conversations. I think the biggest conversation is making sure you have guys that have the right mindset and the right build and the right tenacity and toughness and want to.

And they want to chase bigger goals. They don't want to just go somewhere because it's sunny and there's nice facilities and the grass is green. So I think our process was really, really important. I think through our process, frankly, we were very transparent. We were pretty tough in our meetings. from just identifying how they were and where they want to be and how far off they are from that potential.

We also talked about maybe what we can do to help you get to where you want to be. So we had a lot of hard conversations, frankly. We did not want to make it easy to build a team. We are to the guys to say yes, I should say. We want to make sure they were hard conversations. We're looking for the right guys, not necessarily maybe the best guys.

If they were in that same fit, then we were like all in, all in. But we want to really dive into the person first because, you know, frankly, you know, if you're going to choose a school for maybe, again, I'm just going to use it because it's the hot topic, right? You're just going to choose a school based on compensation. If you're going to able to, you know, this team's off from me. That's okay, we'll offer you that too.

If you make it easy for people to come, then it's easy to leave as well. And you're also tied to that school or that opportunity, but maybe not the main thing, the main thing, right? So we wanted to devise a system or have an understanding that if you were coming to USF, it was for something else. It was not about the compensation. We wanted to make sure we did a good job business-wise to check the box for sure. You're right by the kid. You're right by that kid, the young man and the family.

But we wanted guys in the locker room that wanted to be here for the right reasons. We wanted guys to choose USF for maybe a coaching staff or a system or the way the meeting went or whatever. even if it is, you know, but wanting to be in Tampa. That's good. That gives you a reason to stay in Tampa. So it's not just about, you know, always the business side of things. That's definitely a checkbox. But we did the best we could.

We had the right guys, the right mentality coming here for the right reasons versus the guys that it was easy to say yes to because we were very accommodating. Oh, here's a starting spot. Oh, here's the, you know, the compensation you're looking for whatever. Like that's what we didn't want to do. And I think we did a pretty darn good job with that and got a team full of guys that came here for the right reasons. Brian, when you look at your acumen as a recruiter and what you did at Ohio State at the receiver room, I think you can make the case that it was maybe the single greatest hall of talent to one room that we've seen in the entire organized recruiting history.

And, you know, I think part of that obviously is what those players ended up doing in the NFL. Is part of you and your reputation as they fierce recruit? to the test now at a place that needs to be built? And did you take that as a personal challenge of like, hey, I can do this somewhere else that isn't Ohio State? Because frankly, you know how powerful that place is. Yeah, for sure. I think that there's something to it.

I can't say that that was a challenge to myself in any kind of way. I think that I'm very prideful in that position. I'm prideful offensive at what we do. But I'm prideful for how we're going to play as a total team. You know, I think that you're pointing out. you're pointing out, you know, recruiting, right? We never took a transfer receiver in Ohio State while I was there, you know, nothing against that, but it was just built from the high school recruiting, like you said.

I think, though, again, like we've said in the past, it was right about the type of player that we're able to, that was able to choose there and be there with us. It wasn't just me by any means. It was definitely Coach Day's offense and the way he was building things, starting with Coach Meyer. So it's definitely a special mix. Let's just call it what it is. doesn't just happen. And if it did, you'd have examples of it throughout history, but we didn't. And so, you know, they're still in really good hands, I would say they're at OSU, but it was definitely

a special run of special players. And I'm looking forward to watching Jackson in the Super Bowl in this coming week. So, but again, well, how did that happen? I think a lot of it was these guys wanted to play with other elite players. These guys were coming to Ohio State without guarantees. these guys were coming to Ohio State for less, you know, in the business world, knowing they can get more on the back end because they believed in Coach Bay, they believed in the quarterback situation, they believed in the offense, they believed in prior myself as a position coach. All that married together is why that was able to work.

Guys were turning things away for the immediate to look for the back end. I think they're seeing that. So, again, great players. But I would say also really, really, really well situated mentally and mental makeup and that's why they were able to get maximized because there's a lot of great players that run the same speed and the same size and the same height, same catching ability that you maybe never heard their name again across the country. So yeah, I mean, it was a special time during that run and I look forward to seeing if we can, you know, compete at a very high level

and have some guys remind you, Ari, of some guys at Ohio State down the road. Well, Brian, when you hear Jeremiah Smith go on I am athlete and say, everybody go to USF and go play for Brian Hartline. What does that mean to you? Frankly, it means a lot. This whole coaching thing is all about relationships. Honestly, the coaching, trying to impact young men their lives, the way it impacted me. That's it.

And frankly, I've enjoyed it so much. Now I've wanted to do it from an offensive perspective. And now I've enjoyed it so much, I want to impact guys throughout the entire team. and frankly, even the coaches, to pour into coaches, to maximize them. That's the true, you know, motivation for being a head coach, is just being able to impact others and maximize them, try to get them to be the best version of themselves. And so for him to say that, and hopefully he has positive things to say about the impact

I had on him. I know he's had it on me. That's one thing about coaching, Ari. And I'm like, you know, you go out to impact others, come to find out they impact you. And so I have that most responsible. respect to Jeremiah and his family, Cornell, Lameca, Marvin, Jackson, Garrick. I mean, even the guys,

maybe you know, here, but Terry McClure and KJ. Hill, you know, Paris Campbell, there's so many guys, Johnny Dixon, that have impacted me over my time there. And I'm hoping to just impact some of these guys, you know, down here at USF. I don't know if Jeremiah Smith realizes this, but if he wanted to play for you, he could have. Yeah, we had a deal worked out.

I just decided to tell him it was probably better for him to stay at Ohio State. He was more than welcome if you wanted to. It was okay. The message boards were scared, Brian. Did you see? They were scared that you were going to take them? Couldn't found a spot. No, I mean, Ohio State's a special place.

We know that, guys. And it's not just one coach, one player. It is how they operate in totality. And him being there will absolutely maximize what you skate for. So I've always wanted to ask a new head coach. I always forget. So I'm going to do it now. All right.

You're an offensive guy. You come from an offensive background. When you know you're about to get a head coaching job, your first time, how do you decide what your defensive philosophy is? You hired Josh Aldridge, who was really good at East Carolina this past year as your defensive coordinator. But how do you decide, okay, I want to be an even front guy or not front guy? Like, does that matter to you?

Or is it more about finding the right person to run it? Oh, yeah, it all matters. But definitely starts with the person. I think that's important. I think, you know, we do have some different. different offenses we see. The academies are different. So having awareness of those, I think it's just important. I think it just came down and sitting down and identifying, you know, what I believed in. What do I feel like causes issues offensively? I'd like to see some of that

on our defense. And so, you know, went through a lot of Zooms and Coach Alders was by far the guy, you know, I wanted to take that opportunity. He was all for it. He was all in. And we're off to a good start. And I like the way things are rolling. I love his communication style. I love his expectations and what he expects from the position groups and the coaches. And I think his organization has been awesome. So we're off to a good start, but we've got lots of way to go, both offensively and defense. Brian, you're not the last guy or the first guy to get hired to be a head coach while your team's in the middle of the playoff run. And the position that you were in was undoubtedly had to be difficult.

What was it like living through that and what advice would you give to anybody in the future that is going through trying to do two jobs at once? Yeah, I think making sure you do a great job with your time allocation is really, really important. I think that the initial shock of accepting a job or assigned to move on with an opportunity, either. I mean, that's probably the hardest part that week if you were to choose. I would say it was just the amount of things going on and conversations and the way to get pulled away. It was just a lot. And so that's okay.

That's one thing. I'd say from there on, though, It was okay. I think it was really important as I was trying to allocate time and try to identify some staffing choices and decisions. That was one thing. But once we were getting ready to prep for, again, we were blessed, frankly at Ohio State with having that off week.

So with having that felt really good about it. I mean, honestly, that my allocation of time was good. It felt actually normal through those two weeks, three weeks, really. and so it really came down to just game time and then putting together a good game plan and executing at a high level. But I think it's definitely, you're able to get it done.

You definitely got to be smart. You definitely got to do a good job, allocating your time, being transparent with your then head coach and making sure you do right by the players. That's the biggest thing for me is making sure you do right by the players. And yeah, I mean, it's definitely trying time.

It's going to happen every year. And I wish everyone in the best with that. But I understand both sides. I couldn't fathom, you know, walking out the door with those guys, you know, when the decision made to kind of take a different opportunity now after this year, you know, I didn't choose the schedule, wasn't on us. But I couldn't imagine walking in and just saying I'm leaving you right now and telling my, you know, the officer staff, I'm leaving you.

And now I can figure it out. Like that's, I just didn't comprehend with me. I'm not saying it's wrong or right. I'm just saying it didn't comprehend with me and not how I'd want to look back and six months a year, six years, 30 years, and I didn't think that was the right move. So I think to answer your question, without me babbling, that it's a hard spot to be in. Hopefully the calendar didn't get changed a little bit, get that figured out. I don't know how you do it.

But the NFL has done a good job with it. I know that much. So hopefully there will be a better way to allow the players a clean system and the coaches as well. So you're one of the few FBS head coaches with NFL experience, but there are others. I mean, Eddie George and Dionne Sanders had pretty good careers. But I believe you're the only, I've done some deep research on this, the only FBS head coach with an arm sleeve.

Okay. The only one. Are you trying to judge me right now? No, no. I'm legitimately curious because I think it's an amazing look. And I feel like I've gotten my arms in a sculpted place where it might, but I need to know, are you getting a sleeve? Tell you want to be my tattoo guy?

How much total pain are we talking about for all that ink? What is the accumulative amount of pain that you've endured to make that happen? There's opportunities to minimize the pain, if you'd like. There was only one instance that I decided to do that. I really did it because I didn't care at that point. It was the last piece. But when doing so, it's time-consuming. Time allocation is real now.

All right. So, you know, basically per quarter of my arm was like six to seven hours of sitting there. I mean, so again, you feel free to get a rushed if you want to. You want to rush one. Go ahead. But I will say, and the guys will know this. And there are some guys that I know that I coached that either will not get the inside piece of their arm done, right? Or we'll adamantly just, you know, we'll use the numbing cream. I did use numbing cream on there. Now, here's the catch, guys. And all you guys have tattoos, like, you still have to break the skin before the numbing cream works.

So, like, you're in, it's like agonizing just to get to the point, like, okay, we can now, you know, numb the area. But I did not use any, any numbing cream for the vast majority of my arm besides the inside piece. That inside piece was real now. It was real. So, yeah. I mean, I can't scratch the inside of my bicep. I'm just, like, holy, holy heck, I promise. I was like, and I'm looking at the mirror, just like, man, and this is what's messed up.

Here's what's messed up. I'll give you some insight for me. Like, it hurt, like really did not feel good. It hurt, especially in certain spots. The elbow got me, the wrist. But like, it feels like they're ripping your skin, but there's no blood. So the whole time, like, stop being a wuss. Just like I'm talking to myself the whole time.

Like, there's no blood. How can it hurt that bad? And so, you know, it was a good conversation for, for 28 hours to, you know. Andy, do you have a tattoo? I don't know that about you. I don't. I've always been afraid to. Your arms look good now.

I think it's about time that you... Yeah. My wife has a fairly extensive tattoo. And I was there for the completion of it. And she was in the chair for, I want to say, nine or ten hours. Oh, yeah. I cannot even imagine. And that would turn me up.

But I'm telling you, we keep showing this picture of you when you're at practice at Ohio State. and that thing's out there and the guns are blazing. Like, yeah, I mean, I feel like I've done the right amount of curls to make this work, but I got to get the guts to do it. Yeah, it was. So like, I just, I talked about it for the longest time. And I said, listen, man, like, either stop talking about or be about it. That was it.

Like, I was like, I'm done. I was so worried about the perception and whatever. I was like, I'm done. I'm doing it. I called it. My wife was like, yeah, give it a shot. And then she really liked it. So I helped the motivation.

I will tell you a secret. You want to tell you a secret? Yeah. Why it ultimately happened? So I was David Beckham for Halloween. And I got a full sleeve. And I've been talking, guys, I've been talking about it since I played. Like, I'm talking like 2009, right?

And so I've been talking about this for a while. I did that. You know, it kind of got the approval from Whitefee. It was like, oh, you know what? Actually, it looks pretty good. I was like, what do you mean? Like it? She goes, okay, I like it.

So I was like, that's it. I'm getting it done and went on a design a spree there for about a month or two. And then ultimately in January and February, I was able to knock it out. Well, you were David Beckham. Now I understand why your wife's like that. It was the actual put it on. I'm telling you. I'm telling you, Andy, put the sleeve on, buy some old man I was on, walk in and let me if you look at it.

She might give you the motivation to get it done. Yeah. Brian, I want to ask one other thing. Yep. And I got in trouble. So bad. I got in trouble with people in Norman, Oklahoma because I went on a tirade about how moving from Norman to L.A. would be a great, great personal improvement of life.

And I know I lived in Columbus for 10 years. It's a wonderful town. You got to move to Tampa and house hunt down there. What was it like to house hunt around palm trees? And did you guys find a badass place? Yeah, we found it. the house I am not part of that at all my wife definitely took care of all that uh I asked her as I listen whoever makes like the last couple the last two like you know the cut I'll

look at those and then I went in I'm like they're the same what are we what are we talking about so now my wife handled that very excited family comes down in March uh it is a very nice home looking forward to being down in it uh but with that is you know furniture and set up and everything. Well, do you have a pool? Oh, yeah. You have to have the pan barbecues back there.

Like, that's the whole feel. No, it's really, it really is. It's pretty sweet setup. And so looking forward to that. But, like, as coaches, we're never there. It's more about the family

and everything else too. So, but no, it's pretty cool. First time house hunting and moving and whatnot. It was significant. I'm not going to minimize it, guys. I mean, home was Columbus for us to move. It had to meet for the right spot, the right opportunity, the right belief.

And me and my family were undoubtedly certain this is the one for us. And we're excited about the opportunity. Well, we're excited to watch you. And congratulations on moving next to the best Cuban sandwiches in the world. You lived in Miami, so you understand the debate. Great no debate. It's Tampa. There was a great mall.

I'm not a big mall guy. What I like the most, I'm back to sushi life. So I went from Miami, you know, to Cleveland, got really back into hamburgers and steaks. and then back to Columbus, which, you know, is amazing for all the eating. But now coming back here, got to say, the fish game is back. And so enjoy that part of it. Well, congratulations. We can't wait to see what you do there.

Thank you so much, Brian. Yeah, I appreciate it, guys. Hope you guys come down and visit in the spring or in the fall, man. I look forward to seeing you guys. Yeah, well, we can arrange that. Thanks so much for being here, Brian, and we're looking forward to watching what you do down there. Awesome. Thanks, thanks, guys. Thank you to Brian Hartline and to Brett Beello for joining the show.

A lot of fun. tomorrow. Auburn coach Alex Golish joins the show. That's right. The guy who just left USF and is now at Auburn. He's going to tell us what his first couple months on the loveliest village on the plains have been like going to be a fun show. Also, dear Andy, dear Ari, feel free to get your questions in. You know where to find us. Andy Stapleson3 at gmail.com. Ari. Dot Wasserman at on3.com. Get them in and we will answer them on the show. We'll talk to you tomorrow.