Andy & Ari On3 - What do 5-stars in the Class of 2025 want most? | Should a QB ever say no to Lincoln Riley?

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

Phillip Dukes, the host of On3’s Five-Star Flex, joins Andy for an in-depth conversation about the new world of recruiting.(0:00-1:36) Intro(1:37-15:22) Jim Schlossnagle leaves A&M for Texas - What NOT to do(15:23-18:15) Phillip Dukes Joins(18:15-25:23) Lincoln Riley and QB's(25:24-28:59) Other Positions and Coaches that are tied together(29:00-36:43) What are Five Stars actually looking for?(36:44-43:16) Forbes Rappers List(43:17-1:09:13) EA Sports Toughest Places to Play(1:09:14-1:10:16) Conclusion, Dear Andy tomorrow! [e-mail] are five-star recruits in the class of 2025 looking for in a school? Money? Development? Championships? Early playing time?Andy and Dukes also discuss the decision JuJu Lewis has to make as he decides whether to stick with his USC commitment or play for Coach Prime at Colorado. Should ANY QB with an offer from Lincoln Riley’s team ever consider another school? And is there another school/coach/position combination with a similar reputation for development?Later, Andy gives his critique of the EA Sports Toughest College Football Environment list while offering his own list for you to critique.EA Sports had Texas A&M’s Kyle Field as the toughest place to play. Andy chose a different SEC school.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/a1OwhrLfv_wHost: Andy StaplesGuest: Phillip Dukes, AKA "Dukes The Scoop"Producer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Big day for you today. We got Philip Dukes coming on. We're talking about what five stars want right now in this era of college football. We're asked the question that the Steve Wiltfong got me thinking about, and I can't stop thinking about it. Like if Lincoln Riley wants you to be his quarterback, can you say no? Can you even consider anybody else?

I realize we've talked a lot about Julian Lewis, the quarterback who's currently committed to USC and has looked at Indiana and Colorado and Auburn. But that question just stuck in my head. And I want to ask Dukes about that because Dukes knows Julian Lewis very well and can offer some insight into that recruitment specifically. But in particular, I want to ask generally, if you are the quarterback that Lincoln Riley wants, do you, do you have to say yes? It's a really interesting question. And my other question I think Dukes and I'll get into this is, are there other coaches positions programs where if they offer you at your position like you have to say yes that's willfong brought up tight end at iowa and i thought that was a good one but those are going

to be some interesting conversations phil dukes also my reaction to the ea sports toughest stadiums to play in list i've got my own own list. We'll talk about that. But first, a public service announcement. We got to help out these poor coaches. These guys, they're whining about the transfer portal. Then they're cutting and running. They're leaving jobs and doing it poorly. So Jim Schlossnagel dominated the news cycle on Tuesday. For those who maybe were living under a rock, Jim Schlossnagel was the head baseball coach at Texas A&M. He is now the head baseball coach at Texas. Now, what makes this interesting is Texas A&M was seven outs away from winning the College World Series on Sunday night. Then Tennessee forced a game three. Then Tennessee beats them by a run in the deciding game on Monday. On Tuesday, Schlossnagel is announced

as the Texas coach. Now, adding to the intrigue of this, Texas fired its coach on Monday, or at least announced that it was firing its coach on Monday. And so the rumors were rampant. Remember, Schlossnagel had worked for a while at TCU. Chris Delcani, the athletic director of Texas, was the AD for a time when Schlossnagel was at TCU. So there was a lot going on on that day. But Jim Schlossnagel gave us a masterclass in how not to handle when you are leaving for another job. He screwed this up every possible way you could screw this up and looks terrible. So as a public service, I'm going to help the other coaches who all, you know, ultimately you're going to cut and run at some point from a job.

Even Nick Saban, who just retired after tons of years at Alabama. Remember he said, I'm not going to be the Alabama coach. Then he became the Alabama coach. That was when he was a Dolphins coach. It's going to happen to you. You're going to have some success. Somebody's going to want you. You're going to want to leave and you're going to have to answer questions about it. And you're going to have to figure out how to make the most graceful exit possible in a situation that is never going to be perfect. And it's never really going to allow you any grace because the way college sports works is, Hey, you got to start recruiting right now. We need you right now. You got to change jobs right now. So you're never going to get an easy out here, but there are ways to handle it and there are ways to not handle it.

And Jim Schlossnagel handled it as poorly as humanly possible. Well, maybe not. Jeff Fuller in the chat says, Andy, who did it worst? The A&M baseball coach leaving for Texas or Bobby Petrino leaving the Falcons for Arkansas. So let's travel back in time to 2007. Bobby Petrino is in the middle of his first season as the Atlanta Falcons head coach and decides, I can't do this anymore. I was supposed to have Michael Vick. I don't have Michael Vick. This ain't happening. I'm going to Arkansas. He left a note in each player's locker, typewritten, not handwritten. There have been a lot of handwritten notes, but Atlanta Falcons players, out of my respect for you, I am letting you know that with a heavy heart, I resigned today as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. This decision was not easy, but it was made in the best interest of me and my family.

While my desire would have been to finish out what has been a difficult season for us all, circumstances did not allow me to do that. I appreciate your hard work and wish you the best. Sincerely, Bobby Petrino. Circumstances meaning I don't want to do this anymore and Arkansas is going to pay me some money. This was a Monday night of a game week. They had played 13 of 16 regular season games. He's calling the hogs by the end of the night. So yeah, Bobby Petrino handled that very badly. But if you want to see how to do it worse, here is Jim Schlossnagel after his team's loss to Tennessee

in the national title game with a question from Robert Zane of Tex-Ags, who is asking the question that everybody who follows Texas A&M and Texas wants to know the answer to. Okay, last question. Coach, with respect to the difficult outcome tonight, but with the rumors circulating today about a specific job opening, what do you have to say about your future in Aggieland?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty selfish of you to ask me that question, to be honest with you. But I left my family to be the coach at Texas A&M. I took the job at Texas A&M to never take another job again, and that hasn't changed in my mind. That's unfair to talk about something like that. That'd be like you asking Montgomery if he's going to sign in the draft. But I understand you got to ask the question,

but I gave up a big part of my life to come take this job. And I've poured every ounce of my soul in this job. And I've given this job every single ounce I can possibly give it. It's right that. Right that. Write that. The reporter is selfish for asking the question that everybody wants to know the answer to? The question that's on everyone's mind? Who's more selfish?

Let's have a pop quiz. Who's more selfish? The reporter whose job it is to ask the question that everybody's asking or the coach who's about to stab his team and his employer in the back and go to their rifle like you were 12 hours away from stabbing them in the back and you're lecturing a reporter on selfishness like that is how stupid this all was you look like a complete hypocrite like if i'm recruiting against you i'm going to show this clip to the parents of every player you're recruiting and be like you don't play for that guy he's about to completely bail on his team

he's worried about a reporter asking a a question. Now, the Texas fans thinking this makes it better defended Jim Schlossnagel by saying, well, you know, he did the same thing when he left TCU for Texas A&M. He said, I'm not leaving TCU. I don't care that he said he wasn't leaving. And really, if you parse that entire statement that he made in the answer to that question, he never said he's staying at Texas A&M either. So if you were eagle-eared, you saw some stuff in there. But the fact that he handled it badly at TCU, now he didn't berate the reporters at TCU. He just said in general, something similar, a similar type statement to

that. And then he left a couple of days later. Well, that tells me he does not learn from mistakes that have simple solutions. And that's not a good quality either. Like, here's how you answer that question. Everybody's like, well, it's very difficult. How would you answer? Like thousands of coaches before you have answered that question in a very effective way. It's still going to be awkward. It's always going to be awkward, but they don't look as stupid afterward. It's very simple. When you get asked that question, you say, I understand you have to ask that question, but I'm here understand you have to ask that question, but I'm here to talk about my team and those guys in that locker room that have given their

heart and soul to Texas A&M this season and this special year. It didn't end the way we wanted, but we're going to celebrate this because those guys gave everything. That's it. That's all you got to say. Nobody's going to ask you again. But he didn't say that. No. He called the reporter selfish when he was about to stab his own team in the back. There's a better way to do this. Here's an example, recent example. So right after the national title game in football, I asked Jim Harbaugh a question, and it was a question that either I was going to ask him or one of the other 10 people with their hands raised in the press conference were going to ask him because it was the question everybody wanted the answer to.

Nope, it's not playing, of course. One more try. We're going to try that again. Of course, the Jim Harbaugh video will not... We're going to try it again. One more time. All right. Here we go. Takk for at du var. Nå er det en av de fleste som har vært på en av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av de fleste av Takk for at du så med. okay so that's jim harbaugh he does the you know mock annoyed like can i just enjoy this and i

realize he's won the game he didn't lose the game but then he very quickly moves into the the prepared answer he had because he had prepared for that question because he knew everybody's going to be asking because we all knew he was looking at NFL jobs. Spoiler alert, he left for the NFL. But you have to ask that question. And in that particular case, like Jim Harbaugh is like the one coach who might pull the Nick Nolte and blue chips and just do it right there at the podium. I'm done. It's been great. So you have to ask the question. I'll give you one more. And this is the galaxy brain version of it. So if you're a coach who's about to leave your job and you want a better way to handle this, I know everybody thinks I just bag on Lincoln Riley. This is going to be the

day of saying nice things about Lincoln Riley, because this is a masterclass right here. I said the Schlossnagel is a masterclass in what not to do. This is a master class right here i said the the schloss thing was a master class and what not to do this is a master class in what you do one to answer this question and two to get everybody off your back while you're trying to go to another job so here is lincoln riley answer your question from our guy carrie murdoch at sooner scoop after the loss in the 2021 Oklahoma State game. Lincoln, are you shocked that you've gotten this far without anybody asking you about all the rumors this week?

I'm just saying I'm going to ask you about it, so I might as well. I mean, it's nonstop. I mean, it's every day. Hold up, hold up, hold up, Gary. I'm not going to be the next head coach at LSU. Can I ask you? Next question. Brilliant!

He was not going to be the next head coach at LSU. He said a 100% true statement. There's no, like, trying, like, with Schlossnagel, we're trying to parse what he said. Did he really say he was staying? Did he leave the door open? No, no, no. Lincoln Riley said, I am not going to be the next coach at LSU, which was a hundred percent true. And which, interestingly enough, Lincoln Riley and Brian Kelly share an agent. It's possible Lincoln Riley was one of about six people who knew that Brian Kelly was going to take the LSU job the next day.

But that is brilliant. Now, unfortunately, there were no other high profile baseball jobs for Schlossnagel to say he wasn't going to take. But it would have been funny if he said, I'm not going to be the next LSU coach because Jay Johnson would have been like, huh, what? That's the actual LSU coach. But nobody's going to take issue with you there. Yes, I realize Oklahoma fans still got mad at Lincoln Riley,

but the jilted fan base always going to be mad. The key here is not to make everybody else mad. So Lincoln Riley did it. He said something that was 1 million percent true. He was not going to be the next LSU coach. And it got everybody off his back. He actually did take a follow-up in that press conference and talked about the conversations that needed to be had at Oklahoma. But if you want to spin that his way, you can. You can be like, well, he had those conversations

the next day as he was deciding whether to go to USC or not. But for Schlossnagel, if you're going to do this again, you've done it twice, so you might do it again. The next time you do this, it's pretty simple. I'm just going to talk about my team tonight. That's it. Don't get mad. If you're actually looking at another job it's your fault that question's being asked so don't get mad at the person asking it just say i'm going to talk about my team tonight

and that's it and then you're done you're welcome all right now let us bring on the great philip stuke philip dukes dukes the scoop he never messes up in press conferences never says the wrong thing i'm just here to talk about my dukes you're a falcons fan we brought up that petrino thing oh what was that night like for you man it was insane i know it was a 49ers hat. I know it matches your shoes. It's okay. Man, you know what? It was a real crazy night based on everything that was

going on around that time. But everything that could go left went left in that year. So it was like just, all right, what's next? Nobody really was like, oh, we lost the coach. That whole year, so it was like just, all right, what's next? Like nobody really was like, oh, we lost the coach. Like that whole year was so crazy that we almost, in my opinion, I was like, well, thank you.

We don't even have to get our hopes up. Hey, you don't want to be here? Hell, we don't want to be here. Like it was one of those type of deals. So sometimes you can appreciate it. I had somebody asking me about the whole J.J. Redick thing and he's getting the Lakers job and all of this. And I was like, you know what?

I would appreciate if more people would just say, hey, look, it is what it is. We're not going to try to do all this facade and, you know, prancing around the question. We know LeBron helped you get that job. You don't have to go out of your way to say he didn't. I mean, it's clear. So the same thing when it comes to these college football coaches or coaches, period, who say, hey, we're going to do this.

But it's that media posturing that if we wouldn't ask the questions if we didn't have to, it's our job. And so if you put us in situations where we didn't have to, then we wouldn't. But knowing that those questions are coming, then why not just go ahead and keep it a hundred and say, Hey, yeah, maybe I don't know. This is not the time to talk about it. Boom. Exactly. Exactly. That's it. I had a situation where when I was covering Florida for the Tampa Tribune, we knew Billy Donovan was talking to magic and I had basically became the person designated to ask him at every media availability if he was talking to the magic.

And I got like I'd practiced the question so many times, like I'd gotten it to where he couldn't really wiggle out of it. Like he basically just had to lie to me at that point. And I felt bad. He felt bad. I mean, he never got mad about it. We actually when he ended up coming back to Florida, we actually ended up having dinner one night and he was explaining all of, all of that to me and, and how much pressure he was getting from the magic. And like, it was, so you understand that side of it, but yeah, he never got mad at me for asking the question. I faked being mad that

he lied to me, but I was like, look, you're going to lie. Like I've, I've asked you this question 700 times. I'm now giving you no way out. Like you have to lie if you're going to, if we're going to keep going here. So yeah, it's, it's a strange deal, but yeah. So Dukes, I wanted to talk to you about, we were talking to Wilt Fong yesterday. So Steve Wilt Fong, who works with you on the on3 recruits channel the wilt fong whip around the godfather of recruiting reporting and we're talking about you know what what players want and we were talking about julian lewis and wilfong brings up an interesting point and i've not been able to get it out of my head so julian lewis quarterback from carrollton georgia

he's committed to usc but he's looked at Colorado. He had an official visit there last weekend. He's looked at Indiana. He's looked at Auburn and Wolfung pointed out that the way Lincoln Riley recruits QBs, he only recruits one. And he's not one of those coaches that'll play one against the other. Like if you're his guy, you're his guy. And you've got the track record of Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, the year with Jalen Hurts, Caleb Williams. Can you say no to that? Like, does Juju have to stick with USC? Like, can you turn down Lincoln Riley as a quarterback? It's going to be hard.

When you look at how he recruits, he locks in on a guy. And he lets you know why you're his guy. He's going to show you what you're going to be able to do in that offense, why your skill set really would adapt well to that offense, and how he's going to coach you, not just having the head coach being like a guy who's over. Sometimes you get a head coach who's another position guy or another position coach.

Well, when your head coach is the quarterback coach and the coordinator, you have a certain bit of synergy that you don't really have in other situations. Lincoln Riley knows that he has the track record. He has guys that he can call who can relate to you. Who else can get Caleb Williams on the phone right now, probably in the college game, probably besides Lincoln Riley. Why? Because he just posted me, helped him become number one. So if you have those type of aspirations, Lincoln Riley makes a really, really tough case against

telling him no. Now, when you have a quarterback or a recruit like Julian Lewis, who for all intents and purposes has been the number one quarterback since he basically started playing quarterback, he already has a team around him his father is right there he's been guiding him through the way so they're going to be a lot more pragmatic in their decision making and saying okay how does this fit does this fit does this fit but there's a reason that he committed to Lincoln Riley as early as he did and that like he committed to him in 10th grade even though he reclassed up you're basically looking at a rising junior even though he's a senior now so go ahead oh no i i was thinking about this another quarterback in the state of georgia that lincoln riley was recruiting a few years ago like brock vandergriff

was that guy for those who don't know the caleb williams story brock vandergriff was the guy in that class for Lincoln Riley. And then he flipped to Georgia because he wanted to play for his home state school. And Brock Vandegrift, you know, the way that story evolved is he's at Georgia, doesn't become the starter. Now he's at Kentucky. He'll be the starter there. But like, what do you think Brock Vandegrift is thinking as he watches Caleb Williams do all that stuff? I mean, he's got to be thinking maybe a slight kick to himself. When you think about Brock Vandegrift and being the guy, but he was literally in Athens, like right outside of Athens.

He was really the guy. I think he was at Prince Christian Academy. I think that's the name of it. Yep. When you have a guy that has that type of hometown pull on him, dad's a Georgia fan, dad's been around the program a long time, dad was the head coach at the school. So he had a different amount of pull than the average quarterback does

when you talk about being outside of a powerhouse program that wants you to be the guy. Now, the way it turned out, of course he's probably thinking, man, it would have been so much different if I would have went with Lincoln Riley. I look at Caleb Williams. I have a similar skill set. And to answer your question, I absolutely think that he thinks I think that he thinks about it. And but now he's in he's in a position where he can go show his skills, similar to like a Spencer Rattler type deal where, yeah, it didn't work

out for me, but I found a place where I could get enough film to make myself attractive to the NFL. And if you look at the reports from the OTAs, Spencer Rattler has been doing his thing. So I think I really think that Brock Vandegrift, he'll be fine. But it's interesting because this also speaks to how Lincoln Riley evaluates, and he doesn't seem to miss very often. Malachi Nelson, who left USC for Boise State, we'll see what happens with him. But Spencer Rattler got beat out by Caleb Williams. There's no shame in that. Wound up being an effective starter at South Carolina, getting drafted. The guys that Riley's brought in who haven't become the star have still

been very good. And then you obviously you've got what he did with Baker Mayfield, what he did with Kyler Murray, what he did with Jalen Hurts, what he did with Caleb Williams. So, but the other thing that is interesting to me and that I want to point out to people that this is the part that, that Walt Fong was, was saying that, that really got me is the way Riley recruits QBs, because it's a little bit different than other coaches. A lot of coaches will kind of play one QB against another. They'll offer two and say, we're taking the first one who commits. That's not how Riley operates. Like you are his guy. Even if you haven't committed yet and he's decided you're his guy, you're his guy until you tell him no. And then he'll go find another guy. But if Julian Lewis did decide to flip, the domino effect would be crazy

because that means Lincoln Riley would have to handpick another guy because he probably doesn't have another guy he's got on the hook right now. Yeah, but I think that the way college football football teams evaluate now even though he may not be recruiting a guy there's a guy he's looking yeah yeah yeah that they've identified who has the traits that could be the type of guy who will work in their office and then you also have to think about every year there's this guy who nobody's talking about this year right now is keyline russell who just committed to al Alabama, who was committed to SMU. And as the season started to unfold, the recruiting season, I mean,

the cycle, that's a better word, as the cycle started to unfold and play itself out, you started to see people say, hey, you know what? This Keylon Russell guy is pretty good. Oh, he's committed to SMU? Is he a guy that we want to take? And then you go look at the film and say, no, SMU just did a heck of a job evaluating because they've got a guy and so now when you get their guys in the four-star range who are committed to other schools who are getting bigger who are getting faster who are getting smarter and

they're developing at a rapid rate that lincoln riley may go back and look and say hmm now at this time he wasn't the guy at the time that julian lewis became the guy imagine how much better other quarterbacks have become in the last year and a half. And I think that's where, if this does go left for USC, that's why I think the silver lining is, is that you have to trust Lincoln Riley's evaluation and there will be options. There are options. And there's been nobody better in college football as selecting the option to

play the trigger man in Lincoln Riley. Yeah. And that's that. So that, that brings up my next question. Are there other positions where if the head coach or the position coach wants you at a particular school, like you kind of have to say like Brian Hartline, the receivers coach at Ohio state, I feel like he's in that boat. Cortez Hankton, our guy at LSU, the receivers coach there, is getting to that point as well in terms of being able to develop first-round talent.

Like if Brian Hartline comes to you and you're a receiver, do you even talk to anybody else at this point? Yeah, I think the guy in that position right now is Glenn Schumann at Georgia. If you're a linebacker that wants to be successful, well, who else put three linebackers in the first three rounds in the same draft besides Glenn Schumann at Georgia. If you're a linebacker that wants to be successful, well, who else put three linebackers in the first three rounds in the same draft besides Glenn Schumann, a guy who basically turned down the Philadelphia Eagles to become a defensive coordinator a couple of years ago,

who has a – when you look at the linebacker room that he had, he had N'Kobe Dean, he had Quay Walker, both of these guys in the NFL right now. Channing Tindall was your third guy. Then you still – in that same locker room, you had Jermon Dumas-Johnson, who made a ton of tackles, who's now at Kentucky. Smile Mundin, who's coming back as a starter this year. And then you add guys more and more five-stars.

So it seems like Georgia is providing enough five-star linebackers for multiple teams in college football. If you get that step of approval from Glenn Schumann, it means something. The NFL relationships that he has, being able to – and the way – and they all talk about the way he breaks the game down and makes it palatable for anybody who wants to play linebacker at Georgia. If you want to put the effort in, you're going to be good, and you will recruit it because you have the physical traits to play that game.

So I think that Glenn Schumann is the guy if I had to pick anybody. That's a really good one. Glenn Schumann, maybe somebody's head coach next year as well. He's, he's one of those guys that is sort of in that pipeline where when jobs come open, he's on very short lists at this point and kind of the same track as Dan

Lanning before he went to Oregon. I was going to mention another guy at Georgia. That's Trey Scott, the D-line coach at Georgia, because think about the talent he's developed. It's not just necessarily the Jalen Carter who everybody on earth wanted, but it was Jordan Davis who Trey Scott was in on very early and I believe recruited him for South Carolina, then went to Georgia and recruited him at Georgia and then developed him at Georgia. So, I mean, it is, it's, I, when you have that guy, it's very hard to say no. Now we got Bo Davis going from Texas to LSU. The job Bo Davis

did with those Texas D tackles, like, okay, when Bo Davis says, I think I can make you an NFL player, he's got the stats to back it up. Right. Absolutely. And I think in that state, in Louisiana, he's going to be a monster. He was already recruiting that state well, but in that southeast region where you're getting these monsters, these trench monsters, Bo Davis at LSU is going to be a cheat code. I think you'll start to see it.

And we'll see next year, possibly this year with the number one player overall, one of the best defensive linemen I've seen in a long time in Jakeem Stewart. He's been visiting. He's been taking trips everywhere. But if you can get Jakeem Stewart to stay home, I think it really just starts the momentum as far as saying, hey, if you want to be the guy, you got to go to Bo.

And that's a position group that LSU needs to get back to where it was. It's D-line and corner. They need to get it back to where it was, and then they're fine because offensively they're absolutely fine. But the next thing I wanted to talk to you about, Dukes, is you talked to all these five stars. Your show is called the Five Star Flex on the On3 Recruits channel. We talked about this with NACOS a couple

of weeks ago, right after our survey came out from the elite series. And I thought it was really interesting getting that information from those players where you do kind of understand, okay, here's how much money matters. Here's how much development matters. Here's how much I'm worried about one thing or the other, but you talked to all these guys. What are most of the five stars looking at? How are they breaking down their recruitment? How much of it is, what kind of NIL deal can I get? How much of it is, who can develop me for the NFL? How much of it is winning championships in college? How much of it is playing as a freshman? How much of that matters to different guys? Yeah, I think when it comes to five stars in particular, the money is going to be basically the same across the board. Unless somebody jumps out there with an incredibly large deal and they're

really setting the market in a way that nobody else has, then I think the NIL is basically the same when you think about five-star athletes. What's really making a big difference is the brand and will you win? Because a five-star isn't going in with the mentality of, oh, I'm not, I probably won't play. If you're one of the 32 five-stars in each class, you're already thinking, hey, I'm that guy. So you're not really worried about, hey, the playing time, because usually a team is going to be forced to play you based on everything that comes along with your recruitment. I think the brand is really important. Think about a class of 2025 player, a five star and 25.

They basically probably start following college football closely in about six to seven years ago. The teams that have been successful recently are the teams that have been doing better when it comes to getting five stars when you look at the teams that have multiple five stars in this class is georgia is ohio state is lsu like those are the teams and they have had recent success since these guys have been following football closely so i think the brand is huge in it because if you look at the teams that are securing five stars that are doing well recruiting or in the top 10 that haven't had that much recent success, it's been an all-out recruiting blitz. And it takes a little bit away from what you're able to do as far as development because we heard Hugh Freeze say it last year, hey, I was focused

on recruiting because I got to get this thing together. Now that we've got the ball rolling, I can kind of take that recruiting. I don't have to take it off, but I can tilt it to the side a little bit so I can kind of add some space for being the guy who's going to be running the plays. So I think that right now brand and fit is huge when it comes to these five stars. So if you're Auburn, if you're Florida, a school like that where there's been success in the past and even in the fairly recent past, but not necessarily recent for a 17 radar, or is it just throw every resource you have at them in terms of people and try to build that relationship? Yeah, I think it's spending time and it's spending money. The collective is going to have to be very, very persuasive.

And we saw it. The teams that were getting these five-star last year, Florida got L.J. McCray and D.J. Lagway. It's going to be time from the head coach. If you're if you're if you're it's going to be hard for your position coach to recruit to a team that hasn't been doing well lately. So when the head coach gets involved, the connection that he has, the people that he knows, the calls that he can make, it's going to sound a lot differently than it would from a position coach at another school. So when coaches can divvy their time up and they say, like, a guy like Billy Napier says, you know what, I got to have DJ Lagway. He has to spend his time.

He basically can say, you know what, I'm recruiting this guy. And from that point, Billy Napier is going to be a better recruiter than the average offensive coordinator or quarterback. And the other coaches who are recruiting him probably don't have as much time as him. So if you can basically inundate that player with time from the head coach, I think it pays off in huge dividends.

And we all hear the stories about head coaches who don't like to recruit. Well, those head coaches who don't like to recruit usually don't keep their job very long. So I think that is really, for a team like Auburn or a team like Florida don't like to recruit usually don't keep their job very long. So I think that is really what, for a team like Auburn or a team like Florida or any team that hasn't had the recent success, when it comes to recruiting five stars, it's going to be time for your head coach and your collective better come with it. Yeah. And that's the thing. I think that brings you in because

you made an interesting point that I don't think a lot of people consider. Like when you're a five star, when you're a guy that everybody wants, Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, the schools that have been doing really well, that get lots of four and five stars, that put lots of people in the NFL, when they don't have to pay as much upfront as everybody else, because they can show you on the back end what you can make. But also, they're going to do about the same thing. Like, that's how markets work. Everybody kind of, it's just like our jobs. Like, everybody kind of comes in at the same place.

And you're like, how'd you know? Well, they know. It's their job to know. And I think that's what people miss. Because I was thinking about this, D Dukes with the rule change that allows the analyst to coach, because I think that probably is going to help free up some time for some of those assistant coaches at big programs who let's be real. They're there because they can recruit, not because they teach the game in a particularly great way.

And for a while there, I would say, Oh, it doesn't matter. Those guys don't matter as much because of NIL. But then I realized, no, at the top level, ultimately when the market levels, they're all going to pay the same. It's still going to come down to which person you like better. Absolutely. And I think that's a huge rule because there are guys who get jobs because they're able to be relationship builders and they recruit well. Well, those guys are going to be freed up in order to let their talent shine. Previously, there are guys who have had huge problems when it came to delegating their time and making sure they were putting out a great product on the field as well as spending time recruiting. Well, those guys now can shift mainly to recruiting and say, hey, we got an analyst who can teach you the techniques

and I'll come in and oversee that guy. So it's almost like the same CEO structure that we talk about when a head coach may not coach every positions, but they coach the coaches because you can spend your time a little bit better coaching the guy who's been doing it for a while. Well, it's the same thing when it comes to these recruiting guys, when they have analysts, you can teach the analysts, hey, this is what you need to be doing the analyst already has a better a better uh database for what you're trying to teach him because he's done it before and this is what he's paid to do so now that coach can go spend all of his time trying to go find out hey i gotta call if i want to get this guy i gotta call grandmama who are all the decision makers hey what's his favorite color

what what company does he like the best like these things that we are do we have any alumni from these companies and there's a lot of things a lot of nuances that go along with recruiting that takes time to do and i think by freeing those guys up it kind of makes their jobs a little bit easier yeah it's gonna be interesting to see the dynamics of that now because we don't have to have anybody pretending to be a position coach when they're not and the ga GA is the actual position coach or the analyst, the actual position coach. So the sidelines are going to look a little bit different this year, especially for the schools that were actually trying to hide it. Some schools weren't even trying to hide it anymore, but that rule did change.

So we'll find out who got the promotions here pretty soon. But one more thing before I let you go, Dukes, because you brought this up on Twitter the other day, and it's the same thing that my 14-year-old son asked me. So my 14-year-old, you know, going to the gym, so he's hearing all the classic bangers. He's developing some very, you know, defined opinions about hip-hop,

trying to guide him as best I can, but I'm an old guy, so I don't know how well I can do that. But you pointed out the Forbes list of the top 50 rappers, which had Jay-Z at number one, which I'm good. Jay Cole at number four ahead of Tupac

is a war crime. I'm going to talk about that list of toughest college football stadiums to play in in a little bit but this list may be worse yeah i said forbes maybe it's financial maybe because tupac didn't get a chance to make as much money because he's not in the stream in there but there is no way i mean come on dog tupac the number was he number six? Something like that? Tupac is number five. One ahead of Drake, who's ahead of Kanye West. Say what you will about Kanye West.

The man is very talented. They're all ahead of Nas and Eminem. All of them. And all of them are ahead of Biggie. I think Biggie's like 12. Biggie's number 12? Yeah, you got Biggie at 12. I'm a South guy.

You see it. South side. Shout out to Atlantic brand. I'm a guy from the South. There's even, I know that Biggie is better than the 12th best ever. That is insane. When you look at Tupac's body of work and what he was able to do in such a short period of time, you absolutely know that Tupac is one of the top two and maybe not two greatest rappers of all time.

Like, I understand, Jay-Z. And and there's always in this generation or recency bias. We forget, like we don't remember. And that's the part of the reason I would love to sit down and talk to the guy who put that list together, because that list is absolutely insane. I mean, there are so many mistakes on there. It's rage bait. It's rage bait. It's rage bait, Dukes. That's what it is.

We do this. I used to have a segment on my old show where we'd do college football rankings, and the rules were that you would have, if Notre Dame was supposed to be bad, you'd put them in the top five. And if they were supposed to be good, you wouldn't rank them at all. And if A&M is supposed to be better than Texas, you'd rank Texas ahead of A five. If they were supposed to be good, you wouldn't rank them at all. If A&M is supposed to be better than Texas, you'd rank Texas ahead of A&M just to piss people off.

I think that's what we're... Would we even notice this list if Tupac is... If it goes Jay-Z, Kendrick, Tupac? Would we even notice it? I mean, I love Kendrick, but man, can you even that? I'm like, like bro kendrick right now last

year nobody would put kendrick in the top of this list because they not like going crazy right now nobody would put kendrick that high on this list last year so i'm like come on dog like it's 1000 percent getting people i think and and from what i learned, Forbes is kind of flipping over to more of an editorial type deal when they do these types of things. So I'm not sure. This is not the old Forbes list. This is not the old Forbes list where like, these are the richest people.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely not. So when it comes to that, it kind of makes sense. Like, Hey, you know what?

We'll give them some provocative. Yeah. They'll retweet it. They'll get mad. Yeah. And then they'll see that. Hey, come see what we've got. But, yeah, man, it's absolutely trash. No disrespect to the guys, but, man, that's a trash piece of work.

And, hey, I hope you got what you wanted because at this point, every Tupac fan is ready to desubscribe from the Forbes magazine that they don't get already. Clearly a moment of clarity fan, though. Can we say that? It's Jay-Z at number one. Talib Kweli at number 50. So clearly a fan of the song moment of clarity.

One of the greatest bars ever. If skill sold, truth be told, I'd probably be lyrically Talib Kweli. Truthfully, I want to run like common sense but i did five mil i ain't running like common sense hey okay eddie my boy that's a good one one of the best bars it is it is oh dude thank you so much i gotta ask you something before we go can you put andre 3000 on that list separate from big boy or does outcast have to go as one i think they have to go as one and i've said this many times like the magic of outcast which is my favorite group hip-hop rock country you name it my favorite group of all time it is that if without andre big boy is probably just your average kind of boasting rapper

they're not average he would have been above that you know above average and without big boy andre would have been like doing yoko ono albums like it was together they're perfect they're the perfect yin and yang they complement each other's skill sets perfectly we were at i brought my 14 we were listening to roses the other day and and he's like he's like was this the last time and i was like they did the idle wild soundtrack but this was really the last time right so savory yeah i think um when you think about andre like even on this list i would be hard pressed i think that guy who made this list would be hard pressed to really present his case based on the fact that andre doesn't have a solo album so when you put him on this list what are you basically is it so now we have

to think about this list is it the body of work is it the lyricism like how did you put this list together now i would agree i think andre 3000 is one of the greatest lyricists of all time so now it just makes me question this list even more because how did you put that together to have young thug is one of the top 50 ever and have Andre on the same list without Big Boy. That's, I don't know. It doesn't make sense, but we talked about it for five minutes. So there you go.

My guy. Mission accomplished. Dukes, thank you so much. All right, thank you, Eddie. All right, while we're yelling about lists, while we're yelling about lists, so EA Sports came out with its toughest places to play list 25 toughest places to play in college football i had some thoughts and also

had my own list here you go i've been blessed in my career to get to go to some of the biggest games at some of the best venues in all of college football and they've given me some very strong opinions on which are the toughest places to play so i'm looking at this ea sports list of toughest places to play as they get us excited for their video game that's coming out ea sports college football 25 coming out next month and they've you know worked to simulate these stadiums in this game and and you've heard me talk about what they did. I've talked to the creators of the

game about what detail they went into to try to make these places feel realistic and feel like you're actually playing there and I gotta tell you, I don't know about their list because when I found out they were creating this list, I said, all right, I'm going to make my own list of the top 25 toughest places to play in America. And the, the, the way I was thinking about it, I was thinking about it from their perspective, from the video game perspective, not necessarily from the perspective of if you play in this stadium in 2024 in real life, how hard is it going to be?

Because if that's going to be the case, like for the last couple of years, like we're going to have Georgia number one every single time because they had the most talented roster in their stadium and that makes it a very difficult place to play. So the way I looked at it was, let's say you're a person playing this video game and you're in dynasty mode. So you can create the best version of any team that would play in this stadium of any home team that would play in this stadium. How would I rank the stadiums then if it's the best possible version of that team playing in that stadium. And we were fairly close with my number one and their number three, Tiger Stadium, LSU. Listen, 102,000 plus screaming people. They've cooked the most amazing things in the day before the game,

the night before the game. They've got the ice luges at their tailgates where they're pouring vodka down the luge and somebody's sitting there with their mouth wide open and then they're going into the stadium. These are the drunkest fans in America. They are some of the most passionate fans in America. And when LSU is good, I don't know that there's a better place in college football than Tiger Stadium. The whole experience feels like it would just intimidate the hell out of the visiting team. You don't know if they're going to try to tip your bus over. That's why I had them number one.

Now, EA Sports had Kyle Field number one. Now, Kyle Field is an amazing place and has gotten incredibly loud since they did the expansion in the past decade. So I went to some games before the expansion, some very good games like the 2013 Alabama game that they didn't win, but it was very close. Johnny Manziel dueling with alabama it was awesome the environment's incredible since they've expanded it it's even louder it's over 100 000 people they're waving the towels that you know before the decks kind of went straight up but it was it was fairly open on the ends now it's completely closed in it holds all the noise in, but here's my problem. And I, again, it's hard to separate the stadium from the team playing in it, but it doesn't feel like that environment has caused Texas A&M to win a lot of games that they weren't going to already win. So I have a hard time making that number one. Like I was at one of the best games they've played at that stadium since it expanded. I was at one of the best games they've played at that stadium since

it expanded. I was at the 2016 Tennessee game that went double overtime. It was an incredible environment, just unbelievable. And Texas A&M won that game, but I didn't feel like the environment won them the game there. And it's strange because it is an intimidating environment. It is loud. Like when they lock their arms and sway, you can feel the stands sway. They're doing the Aggie Warham. It's incredible. But I, I had them at number seven just because I couldn't, couldn't put them that high because it doesn't feel like the environment carries them that often. So my number two was Bryant Denny Stadium, Alabama.

That was EA Sports number two as well. And that's an interesting one too, because Bryant-Denny Stadium, so my mom went to Alabama and she used to always say before she passed, Bryant-Denny was where you played the games nobody cared about. You went to Legion Field in Birmingham

to play the big games. And since they decided that they wanted the big games to be on campus and they've expanded Bryant-Denny, it's a totally different place, totally different. So an older Alabama fan probably still thinks in terms of Legion Field being the place you go for the big games, but Bryant-Denny is loud every time. Now, yes, do they leave early when they're playing sanford or you know ut chattanooga yeah absolutely they do leave early but when they're playing a big game it is loud start to finish it is wild it is the way they've built it up the noise stays in and yeah even if

the team's not nick saban alab, good. Like I went to the 2005 covered the 2005 Alabama, Florida game. The Florida was pretty good coming into that game. That's a Mike Shula team. Now it was a pretty good Mike Shula team, but that environment was one of the best environments I've ever seen. And it wasn't because they were competing for national championships necessarily. That was that they weren. They hadn't been that good before, weren't sure how good they were that year, but just an incredible environment. So I don't think that's Nick Saban team dependent. Number three for me, I stayed close to home, my alma mater,

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the swamp, the place I've seen most, more games than any other place. It's not just because Florida was good under Steve Spurrier and good under Urban Meyer that the crowds would go crazy. Like there's an architectural reason for the Swamp being as intimidating an environment as it is. And so like the history of the Swamp it's it's night it's right right after the the big crash of 1929 they've got to build a stadium they've got to fund it privately they're getting donations that they don't really have a lot of money to to hire somebody to plan it uh so the the coach at the time had come from Notre Dame and calls Newt Rockne and says hey can you send the plans for

Notre Dame Stadium so we could kind of copy off them? That's the bowl of Florida Field. The bowl of Florida Field, the original one, is essentially Notre Dame Stadium, which is not on my list, is very low on EA Sports List because it's not a particularly intimidating place to play other than sometimes Notre Dame has a really good team in it. But what Florida did is instead of just stacking decks on top of the bowl, like most stadiums do when they increase capacity, they just sort of kept building up the sides almost straight up vertically. And it holds the noise and it is so freaking loud. Even when it's not that big of a game even when the crowd isn't as into it because they don't you know maybe they're not happy with the coach which

happens quite a bit at florida but when they are good and when the crowd is into it i there's maybe not a more intimidating environment in college football it is And a lot of it again is structural because it's 90,000 seats, but you could fit that stadium into the footprint of a lot of 60,000 seat stadiums. It's just like those big NFL, the NFL stadiums at seat 65, you just drop Florida field there and it would fit into the footprint. Like, I, I don't think this is entirely accurate, but it feels like it. When you stand inside Neyland Stadium, like on the field at Neyland Stadium in Tennessee, the sidelines are kind of wide. So it actually feels like you could drop all of Florida field, including the stands, into the bowl of Neyland Stadium.

I don't think that's true, but that's what it feels like. That's how tight the swamp is. It's not the tightest stadium in America. We're going to get to that, but it is very tight. The stands are very closest to the field, to the sidelines. It's a very intimidating place to play. Another one that we seem to agree on, EA Sports and I, Beaver Stadium, Penn State.

I had it at number four. EA Sports has got it at number six. This is the loudest Big Ten Stadium. This is again built vertically and holds the noise in but that student section in the end zone. Like when you are if you're the opposing quarterback driving toward the student section, you're looking at that S cuz remember you have the group of fans where some of them are white and then around

them they wear blue so that it creates the s for penn state it is incredibly intimidating it's it is a just a sight to behold and i wouldn't want to be a visiting quarterback having to pilot an offense into that end zone like they especially white out time like they're just awesome fans and they get so loud 10 107,000 plus. So that one, I got a number four. Now, where I will quibble with the EA sports list. So they've got Ohio Stadium at number four, Ohio State, the horseshoe, and they've got Sanford State between the hedges, Georgia at number five. I would argue that both of these are very, very tough places to play, especially recently because of the team that is inside them, not necessarily because of the stadium themselves.

Like Ohio Stadium is a beautiful, glorious college football cathedral. You've got the arches and you got the dome and it's pretty and it feels like you're walking into a historic building. But it doesn't get that loud for 105,000 people. It's loud because it's 105,000 people, but it's not that loud. So it's not necessarily the stadium that is causing you to not play well. It is Ohio State's team that causes you to not play well it is ohio state's team that causes you to not play well

sanford stadium is louder i would say than than ohio stadium but is it louder than most of the the stadiums we're talking about in the sec not necessarily i don't think it's louder than lsu i don't think it's louder than florida i don't think it's louder than auburn when auburn's really rolling but the team inside is awesome now here's's where Sanford stadium, you've got the hedges. That's one thing, but also it is one of the coolest architecturally that you're going to see it's dug deep into the ground. And on one side of it, basically the upper decks are the only thing visible from street level. It's really cool and also you can walk to downtown Athens. You can walk to five points. Like you have all of the coolest college town in America within walking

distance which is pretty cool. So, that part of it, yes. But that part doesn't contribute to intimidation to anything else. Georgia having a bunch of NFL draft picks is what makes that a a tough place to play. So that's why I had Sanford stadium at number 11 and Ohio stadium at number 12 on my list. Now, one that we both had, well, actually they don't have it in the top 10. EA sports didn't have Neyland stadium in the top 10 Tennessee fans, I know how you get. I've thrown a foul of all Twitter before. You go after these folks for this one because

when Neyland Stadium is going, when Tennessee is good, when the game is big, and the reason I didn't have Tennessee number one, because there are games where they could be number one, but I had them at number six because it is somewhat opponent dependent and is somewhat how good are the Vols dependent. But a play a game like the 2022 Alabama game, you will not find a better environment in college football than Neyland stadium. You won't. And when they are going and they're good and the opponent is good, it is deafening in there. The place will shake when a big play happens. It's awesome.

So I got them at number six. Just ahead of them at five, I have Jordan-Hare Stadium. And Jordan-Hare for me is the one where there are certain days where it does not matter who Auburn is playing. Doesn't matter. The visiting team is not winning. I was at the 2017 Georgia game two weeks later at the Iron Bowl. Both those games were like that.

That 2017 Georgia game, Georgia is the number one team in the country at the time. And after about five minutes of just, well,, well, you hear, you know, you had the flight of the Eagle and you had everything. After about five minutes, you realize they ain't winning this game. Like it won't, it won't matter what they do. They ain't winning this game. And then the Iron Bowl two weeks later was the same. And like the 2010 Georgia game was like that when Cam Newton was there. Like you have certain days like that where they're just, you don't have a chance. Now, the reason they're not number one is because the days aren't always like that. You get a New Mexico State game last year, for example, where there's no excuse for any of that.

Like the environment should be able to intimidate a team like that. And you can say it's the opponent, they schedule a better opponent, but other stadiums get up. So that's the only reason why I don't have Jordan-Hare Stadium even higher, because I do think there are days at Jordan-Hare Stadium where it is just off the charts, where you cannot hear yourself think. Number seven on the EA Sports list, they had Camp Randall, Wisconsin. Now, I've got Camp Randall lower on my list. I've got them at number 15.

This is a great place to watch a game. It's a downtown stadium. It's a different environment. Like if you're at the game, if you're a fan going to the game, it's not as easy a tailgating situation as the big land-grant universities that are in the middle of nowhere and you have lots of different places to park near the stadium and you can spread out and tailgate. It's not quite like that.

But they do get after it, obviously, in Madison. And it gets loud. And you can feel, you can hear the bolts creaking in the stadium when they do jump around between the third and fourth quarters. I think EA Sports has a little higher opinion of this as an intimidating place than I do, but it is one of the cooler places to watch a game. One of the games I attended there, 2010 Ohio State, Wisconsin won.

They tore down the goalpost. It was pretty awesome. I remember fighting one flip-flop on the field as I walked across from the Ohio State interviews to go interview Wisconsin people. And I thought that one flip-flop probably has one hell of a story to tell. Like this is a place where the fans truly do get after it. Now, our number eights kind of tell the difference in how we made our lists.

They've got Oklahoma number eight, Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium. I have Austin Stadium in Oregon at number eight. So Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium is a very nice stadium. Oklahoma fans cheer loud, but they're not that loud. They're due for an education, like when they go to Auburn and when they go to LSU this year, about what actually being loud is. They haven't really been exposed to it.

So, they'll figure it out. They just, I mean, they haven't really been exposed to it. So they'll, they'll figure it out. They'll get it. But it it's really Oklahoma has had excellent teams in the stadium and that makes it a tough place to play. Austin stadium, while they've also had excellent teams at Oregon, Austin stadium is a very intimidating place to play despite only holding 60,000 people. Like standing room only, it's only 60,000 people. And you cannot believe if you've been in these, like if you've been in these 100,000 seat stadiums, you cannot believe that 60,000 people can get this loud, but they can't. I think some of it's architectural

because of the way the stadium is built where the middle of the stands goes up higher than the other parts of the stand so i think that traps some noise in and makes it bounce back and forth but a lot of it is just the the fans are juiced up and going when they when they hit joker and the thief that wolf mother song before the game game, the duck rides out on the motorcycle. Like it is a roar and it's like a little more than half the people that are at Michigan stadium, which was number 17 on my list. It's one of those that it's the biggest stadium in the country. And it was number 16 on EA sports list. So we were kind of, we were very close on this and it's big and it gets, you know, reasonably loud because it's, it's 110,000 freaking people, but the way it's built, it's spread very wide. The Rose Bowl is

similar construction where it just, it doesn't hold as much noise in, but it is still an intimidating place to play. But I think a lot of the intimidation factor probably comes from how good Michigan's been on the offensive and defensive lines lately. So EA had Autzen at number 11. Another one we seem to agree on is Memorial Stadium at Clemson. They had it at 12. I had it at 13. It's a beautiful place.

Death Valley is the nickname of LSU's stadium and Clemson Stadium. It does feel like you're in a valley when you're on the field at Clemson because the sides are so steep. But I think the open end zone, which allows them to have one of the greatest entrances in college football, I think it also keeps the noise from getting trapped in there. Let's let some noise escape. It's not as loud as it could be. It's not as intimidating as it could be, It's not as intimidating as it could be.

Although it is again, one of the coolest places to watch a game, to play a game in college football. Another one that's sneaky, intimidating. And I, when I got to play the video game, I was glad that they, they did recreate this is Kinnick stadium in Iowa. Kinnick stadium is very intimidating. It's very loud. It's, it's kind of, it's not as claustrophobic as some of these other ones, but especially because they're so good on defense, it can kind of feel that way. And you, you wonder like if they ever had a really good offense and they didn't get bored for half of the game, like how, how crazy would the fans be? How loud would they be? So maybe they're better on offense this year. Maybe a healthy Cade McNamara helps,

but I do think Kinnick stadium is one of the tougher places to play in America. And I will say, this is not an intimidation thing. It's kind of the opposite of intimidation, but the wave to the children's hospital, all of the fans, both of the teams on the field between the first and second quarter is the coolest tradition that has developed in college football in the 21st century. And I hope it lasts forever. And I just chokes you up every time, every single time. It's so cool. Now, I want to go back to my list. One that I had ranked much higher. Actually, they didn't even have this stadium ranked on the a sports list. Boone Pickens stadium in Oklahoma

state. I added a number 10. This is the most claustrophobic stadium in America. There's no place where the stands are this close to the sideline. And then you've got the people with the paddles hanging over the front row like it is nuts it is a crazy place to play a game and if you're the visiting team it doesn't feel like any other place so I thought that was a a glaring omission from their list I felt like it had to be in the top ten again just because of the claustrophobia factor like it is a tough place to play. We both had

Doak Campbell, Florida State at number nine, which I think it's one of those there. I don't know that TV does it justice in terms of how loud it actually is. And also when you come out of the visiting tunnel, so you come out of the visiting tunnel out of one of the end zones. The first thing you hear from the back of your head is the marching chiefs are up in that end zone, blasting that war champ. And then you see everybody doing the chop. So it's just like a sea of arms and you're hearing this. Oh, and it's insanely loud because the band is right behind where you're coming out. And look, when they had those Mickey

Andrews defenses in the nineties, when Bobby Bowden was there, like, yes, the team on the other side of the field is what's really intimidating you, but the environment certainly didn't help. And that's one of those where it gets insanely loud for big plays in big games. I think about there's a Notre Dame game a few years ago, ended on a fairly controversial call as an offensive pass interference. Like the, the allow the roar of that pre-play was off the charts. So don't Campbell, another one, very intimidating place to play. If you're the visitor, I want to throw some from the bottom of my list. And these are, these are toward the bottom of the EA sports list as well. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, they had it at 23. I had it at 24. This is one where you catch

the right game. You catch the right opponent. Holy crap. People have no idea. Texas went to Arkansas a few years ago and learned this the hard way. When Arkansas fans want to go, they go. This is a very loud place when it wants to be. Elsewhere in the SEC, Williams-Rice Stadium in South Carolina is like this too. When they smell an upset brewing. I was at the 2009 Ole Miss game. That's the one where sandstorm really kind of took hold at Williams rice stadium. But I was also at the 2010 Alabama game. I think if you watch that 2022 Tennessee game, similar thing,

like also the, the upper decks very wide at Williams rice stadium. When they get going, the decks can sway. That's kind of, that's kind of crazy and very intimidating. Another one that I think people don't necessarily appreciate as much as they should, Rice-Eccles Stadium. Remember the Florida player tweeting when they got there last year, little ass stadium. Yeah, it's little but it's mighty. They call it the mighty Utah student section actually the must. When that

thing gets going, it is one of the pound for pound toughest places to play in college football and it's just a it's beautiful setting. Beautiful setting. So, down in the valley, you've got downtown Salt Lake city. You go up the hill, you have the university of Utah, and then there's a mountain in the back. And so you are kind of sitting up the hill kind of perched in this stadium. And it is, it's really cool. One of my more fun memories there is Pittsburgh opened there on a Thursday night, week one, a few, I want to say it was like 11, 12 years ago.

That place was off the chain. And again, it's a smaller crowd, but they go one more, my number 25. I'm going to throw that one out there for you. Another one, smaller crowd, but they absolutely rock when it's time to rock Martin stadium at Washington state. So if you've never been to the Palouse, like it really feels like you have landed on another planet. So for these visiting teams, they get in there and they're driving around and there's like, are we on the surface of the moon? Like, what is this? And then you get into this little stadium where the people are hopped up on fireball and God knows what else. And they are going crazy. So if you are like those PAC 12 teams that would get sent there on a Friday night. And those folks in Pullman knew that they were the show that everybody's

watching them, that they're going to see old Crimson flying on college game day the next day man doesn't get much better than that so martin stadium my number 25 just this was a lot of fun me and ea sports do not agree on this but i think we might have come at it from different directions but is there because i came at it like a guy playing dynasty mode and they came at it like i I don't know. I'm not sure what their criteria were. I've explained mine. Feel free to argue with me in the comments or on social media. You know where to find me, Annie underscore staples on X on Instagram. But this has been a lot of fun. And EA Sports is going to drop a few more of these things. It's going to be highest rated offenses and defenses in the game. You're going to drop that few more of these things. It's going to be highest rated offenses and defenses in the game. We're going to drop that later this week.

Then we might be getting some player rating reveals. We got less than a month until we can play this thing, boys and girls. I'm pumped. I'm pumped. And this has gotten me pumped for actual college football to see some of these stadiums full again and rocking. Thanks for watching. Can't wait to see you guys in a stadium soon.

Even sooner than that, though, I can't wait to get your questions. I can't wait to do Dear Andy tomorrow and answer your questions. When I was on vacation, I was getting questions for Dear Andy from a lot of the folks who regularly ask questions. We're like, hey, I'm asking a question this week whether you're doing a Dear Andy show or not.

So we've already got a few good questions, but we can always use a few more. So, Andy underscore Staples on X on Instagram. AndyStaplesOn3 at gmail.com. If you have a truly epic question, if you have a video question, feel free, send it in. It's going to be an epic Dear Andy show tomorrow. I can tell you that right now

because I know some of the questions are great, but there's always room for that next great question. So ask away and we'll talk to you tomorrow.