Andy & Ari On3 - What kind of coach will YOU be in Dynasty Mode? | UTSA coach Jeff Traylor starts a new era

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

It’s a Wednesday edition of Dear Andy, but we’ve also got more EA Sports College Football 25 info AND a special guest.(0:00-1:28) Intro(1:29-3:29) Utah State Firing Blake Anderson(3:30-12:05) EA Sports Dynasty Deep Dive(12:04-33:20) Welcoming UTSA Coach Jeff Traylor(33:21-37:57) Dear Andy, Will EA Sports Educate Fans?(37:58-41:33) Which fans are most educated about their team and CFB?(41:34-44:37) If Florida goes 9-3, do the Gators make the CFP?(44:38-47:25) Does finishing in last place guarantee a coach gets fired?(47:26-51:02) Most Shocking: Georgia Tech winning ACC, USC winning Big Ten, or Oregon losing 3+ and missing CFP?(51:03-55:28) Average finish in recruiting rankings for a Big 12 team to compete?(55:29-1:01:07) Tastiest Mascots in CFB(1:01:08-1:02:39) Conclusion, Happy 4th of July!Andy examines the newest info drop from EA Sports. This time, it’s Dynasty Mode. What kind of coach will Andy choose to be? Will he try to recruit more from the high school ranks or take the Coach Prime/Lane Kiffin route? The possibilities look very intriguing.Next, UTSA coach Jeff Traylor joins the show to discuss the transition from high school coach so good they named the stadium after him to college head coach. Traylor explains the pros and cons of the transfer portal at his level, and he discusses how to hang on to good players when other programs come knocking. He also talks about how different it will be without stalwarts Frank Harris and Rashad Wisdom, who started all four of Traylor's previous seasons at UTSA.Then it’s time for your questions.Will the video game make people better fans or more annoying fans?Is finishing No. 16 (or No. 17 or No. 18) in a conference grounds for automatic firing?Which school has the tastiest mascot?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/2jF_lVTZDtgHost: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three big, big show today ahead of the holiday weekend. We do have a special episode for you coming on July 4th, coming Thursday. So just remember that I'm going to ask something of you for that episode. So just be prepared. I know you're all ready to serve. Big show today, though. Jeff Traylor, UTSA head coach will join us new era starting UTSA Frank Harris feels like he's been playing quarterback there forever he's moved on

now Jeff Traylor starting anew with new quarterback not really new because the two quarterbacks who are competing for the job did play some last year when Frank Harris was hurt. So we will see what happens next in San Antonio. But Jeff Traylor with a really good discussion of what it's like to be coaching at that level right now with NIL, with the transfer portal. And this is a guy who's been very, very successful. And as we mentioned last week in our discussion of coaches who, if other jobs come open, Jeff Traylor's name is going to come up quite a bit just because he's been so successful. We'll talk to him in a few. Also, EA Sports released a deep dive into Dynasty mode, which is something I know a lot of you have been looking forward to.

Wanted to get more details on that. We're going to talk about that. But first, a little bit of news. It seems like every year in July, there's something like this now. On Tuesday, Utah State informed coach Blake Anderson that it intends to fire him along with a deputy AD and an assistant over an incident that happened in 2023 that the university has been investigating basically they're saying that blake anderson violated title 9 policies quote that require full and timely reporting of disclosures of sexual misconduct including domestic violence that's what they announced this has been going on for a while this investigation has been going on for over a year. It came to a conclusion. Now they're firing Blake Anderson.

We'll see what happens on this because he has hired Tom Mars, who you've heard Tom Mars' name a lot on this show. He represents coaches a lot against the NCAA. Sometimes he represents coaches against their old schools. We first learned about Tom Mars in the college football world when he was representing Houston Nut. And that case, the case of Houston Nut against Ole Miss actually wound up getting Hugh Freeze fired at Ole Miss.

So Tom Mars has been involved in this stuff. He's representing Blake Anderson in this case. Blake Anderson has 14 days to respond to this. Utah State hasn't actually fired him yet. Said, we are going to fire you. You have 14 days to respond. So we'll see what they come back with because Tom Mars will try to get Blake Anderson his buyout. The school does not seem to want to pay that. We'll probably get more details about this case as that goes on, but Nate Dreiling, defensive coordinator, he'll take over at Utah State for now, and they'll probably be in the market for a new head coach unless Dreiling does a really good job at the end of the season.

Coaching carousel never actually stops. That's the thing you need to learn. And it's interesting because it's in the real world and now you've got it in the virtual world. On Tuesday, EA Sports dropped the deep dive into dynasty mode, which also includes the coaching carousel. It includes recruiting. This is when you decide what your team is going to be and you decide how you're going to run it. So online dynasty, the way they've got it set up, you can have up to 32 teams for up to 30 seasons. So we can, we can go into the 2050s here. You can have a robust coaching career. You can start at the bottom of the FBS and work your way up all the way to national title contender. You can start with a national title contender.

It really depends on what flavor you want. But it was interesting seeing some of this stuff in action. They talked to us about it a lot and showed us screenshots when I was down at EA Sports in May. But a lot of it, I kind of need to see it in motion to truly understand what they were talking about. But the key changes here, I think that the people who played the old game are going to,

to have to sink their teeth into it's, it's the same that the real coaches have to deal with. Like we'll talk to Jeff trailer about this, but it's dealing with the transfer portal. It's deciding how you want to recruit. Do you want to recruit more out of the transfer portal or more from high school deciding how you want to recruit. Do you want to recruit more out of the transfer portal or more from high school? Do you want to recruit blue chippers in the portal? Do you want to get your ready-made players out of the portal? How do you want to do it? How do

you convince your current players to stay? How aggressive are you at convincing your current players to stay? all of that stuff is going to be in this game? Like for instance, when you are coaching, you can check during the season. You can check every few weeks. If you want, check your own team and say, okay, who's at risk for transferring at the screenshot up right now. And it's, you're the Cincinnati coach in this screenshot. And it's got a list of players who for these

reasons may want to transfer. And you have to decide, are you going to try to convince them to stay? Or are you going to just let them go? That's going to be very important. So the roster management piece is going to be very similar to your actual roster management in real life. Like how important is it to keep this player over this player? How important is it to keep this player over this player? And then of course you go into the actual recruiting. They still have the high school recruiting. It's going to generate 3,500 high school recruits per year.

And there's 14 different pitches that you can use to sign those players. And every player has different stuff that's important to him. The brand exposure pitch, this is the one they told us is the most equivalent to NIL. Because remember, the guys who made the game said they weren't exactly sure how to incorporate NIL because they were worried that the rules were changing so quickly. The situations were changing so quickly and the environment was changing so quickly that they didn't want to make it in the game. And then everything changes and it's not that realistic. So they made brand exposure as kind of a catch-all for NIL. So that's NIL if you are trying to recruit.

One interesting thing they've got is a deal breaker, which is very common in actual recruiting situations. Now, I'll point out, whether you're recruiting out of high school or whether you're recruiting out of the portal, that recruiting process works the same way. It's just you decide who you want to recruit out of the portal and who you want to recruit out of high school. But the deal breaker situation, the example they showed, playing time. So you have a C plus playing time where you got a situation where a guy can come in and

he might win a job. This player needs at least a B minus playing time situation. And so he's not coming. And you basically, if you don't meet their deal breaker, you can be locked out. And so if you get locked out, you're done recruiting that player. That's it. But while you're still in the mix, you've got to make sure you're in their top eight, in their top five.

This is where our on three cross branding needs to come in. This is where EA Sports, I'm telling you right now, you need on three in this game. You need us to do the top eight and the top five. You need the game to generate a Hayes Fawcett recruiting edit when the top five is selected, when the top three is selected, and when the player commits. Like there needs to be a Hayes Fawcett edit because that's what happens in real life. When a blue chip recruit commits, he gets a Hayes Fawcett edit. When I committed on three, I got a Hayes Fawcett edit.

So come on, come on EA Sports. We need that. We need that. But the recruiting piece of it is very interesting. Like, you know, you bring in your guys for official visits and like in real life, you want to stack your official visit weekends. So, you know, in real life, we can kind of tell who a school really wants by who they match up player wise on their official visit weekends. Also the quality of the game that they bring them to during the season. But you know, a lot of times it's off season. So if you've got your quarterback who's been committed for over a year and he's a big time

recruit, like you're going to pair him on the official visit with everybody else that you really truly want. The guys that are the most important for you to get. You do that. You can do that in the game. And I think that's very interesting. Also custom conferences, up to 20 teams in your custom conference. So if you want to see what, I don't know,

the big 10 would look like if it had Florida State and Clemson in it, or if you just wanted to go back to old conferences, if you said, you know what? The ACC circa 1988 is the conference that I want to play in. That's my ideal conference. You can make that conference. You can make Florida State an independent again. You send Miami. Well, I think Miami would have been an independent then. They hadn't joined the Big East quite yet,

but you can do that in the game. Also, of course, in dynasty mode, you are charting your own career as a coach. Now you can start as an OC or a DC. So start as an offensive or defensive coordinator, or you can start as a head coach. I think that's pretty fun. Like you can kind of work your way up through and you can move around OC jobs. If you're a head coach, you have to hire and fire coordinators. You have to decide, am I going to fire my coordinator? Or did my coordinator just come into my office and say, I'm taking this other job. And now you've got to go find somebody else. All of that stuff is real life stuff.

All of that stuff is stuff that coaches have to deal with. So I'm fascinated by this. I cannot wait to try it. A lot of the cooler dynasty mode stuff in the old game, I missed out on because like I said, once my kids were born in 2000, you know, first kid was born in 2009, there was no time to play video games. I stopped playing the game a lot sooner than a lot of you guys did. So I missed a lot of that stuff. So I can't wait to try that because that's where I feel like I can completely nerd out. Now, my colleague, Steve Wiltfong, had a very smart tweet on Wednesday.

He said, I don't know where all these grownups feel like they're going to find all this time to play this game. And I just like, Steve, you're probably right. Look, my ULM online dynasty, the grand plans I have for it might be scuttled by real life, might be scuttled by having to take my kids to various different activities, but I'm going to try. I'm going to try. The question is whether I'm going to get kicked out of my son's room because he's got to do his homework and I'm on his PlayStation. But we'll find out. Because I want to know what kind of coach I'm going to be. Do you want to be a tactician? Do you want to be a motivator? Do you want to be a recruiter? You have to decide that. That's your main personality component. And it's a great question. What kind of coach? Do you want to be the recruiter

type who just stacks talent, the tactician who's incredible at the X and O's, or the motivator who can kind of do a little bit of both, but can also make guys play better than they really are? It's going to be fun to find out. Next up, a coach who I would say he checks those three boxes pretty well because in the game, you can kind of stack your talents. I think Jeff Traylor at UTSA stacks his talents pretty well. Because I think if I were to pick those three, from those three archetypes, I would say motivator for him. And I think he'd probably agree because he feels like it's a people business. He feels like it's a relationship business. It also helps in recruiting. And obviously he's a very good X's and O's coach, but I do feel like inspiring loyalty. And we'll talk about that when it comes to the transfer portal and guys staying or deciding if they want to go look at another opportunity.

When it talks about inspiring loyalty, when it talks about maybe in the transfer portal, getting guys back who you recruited the first time around, but maybe they decided to go to a little bit bigger program. But when they decided to go somewhere else, they said, you know what? I really love this staff. I really love this head coach. I'm going to try to talk to him and see about coming to play for him. That's the sort of thing that it feels like Trailer and his staff have been really good at through the years. And the tree for Jeff Trailer is already pretty good. This is a guy who is a great high school coach in the state of Texas for a long time. Instead of going very quickly into like a coordinator role in college, he went into a position coach role at Texas under Charlie Strong and learned the ropes of coaching in college.

Then moved on to the head coaching job where he already had a lot of experience as a high school coach, obviously, you know, so the CEO, but at a different level. And I think it's worked out 39 and 14 and four seasons at UTSA. Like I said, I know the UTSA people don't want to hear this, but if he has another good season and there are jobs open, yeah, he's, he's going to be up there for them. And they've, they've dealt with this before. They've dealt with this already, so they know. But very interesting to hear his take on the transfer portal

because they've had some really good players over the years, and he's had to change how he feels about it, his attitude about it, how he deals with it because it matters down the road too. So let us talk to Jeff Traylor from UTSA about a new era for the Roadrunners. Honored to be joined by UTSA coach Jeff Traylor. The man's got a stadium named after him back in Gilmer, Texas. And coach, I kind of want to start with that because you were a longtime great Texas high school football coach. And I've talked to Gus Malzahn and Hugh Freeze and the guys who've made the leap. But how much of what worked for you as a high school coach, CEO, still works as a college coach, CEO?

How much translates? A ton. I think the biggest thing it does for you is just job, the time on task. I was a head football coach for 15 years. You're still having to do the exact same stuff as you do in college. I do know that me being an assistant for five years before I became a head coach uh todd dodge and i were really good friends and uh when todd was having his great run at south lake carol if

you remember he went to north texas immediately as a head coach and i would go see todd all the time and not that i ever thought i would get the opportunity uh but just for being around todd all the time at north texas i said to myself know, I probably need to be an assistant for a while, kind of learn this game. Just the ins and outs of recruiting, you know, compliance, academics. I mean, you have your own spring staff, all those things you don't have in high school. So there's a lot of advantages. But getting to watch Todd go to North Texas and be around him a lot actually helped me in my own mind if I ever got the chance. And luckily I was afforded the opportunity in December, 2019 to come to UTSA.

Well, and you, when you left high school, you went to university of Texas and you worked with, with Charlie strong. And we're one of the best recruiters in the big 12 almost immediately. Like Devin Duvernay was, was one of the guys that you recruited to Texas. How much was that experience? How valuable was that just having the recruiting piece of it from that side? Because you obviously had it from the side of the high school coach with the players, but having that side of it and then you put them both together when you get to UTSA.

All I did was provide Charlie the opportunity to get in the door with all the Texas high school football coaches. But I got a master class on how to recruit. Charlie was incredible with the relationships with the kids and their families. And there was also two guys on that staff named Brian, John Marie and Chris Vaughn, who, in my opinion, were two of the greatest recruiters I've ever been around in my life. And they took me under their wing a little bit, and they taught me how to do that.

And I wasn't stupid, Andy. I used Charlie and Chris and BJ as well to help me with kids, like you mentioned, Debra Newberry and Brandon Jones, and those kind of kids. And I just love – I hate the word recruiting, honestly. I just don't like the word. I love people. I just genuinely like being around the kids and their families.

It's the best part of my day. It's always been the best part of my day. And I've never seen this work. I enjoy talking to them. Still in contact with Brandon and Devin all the time. And even kids that we don't get per se in recruiting stay in touch with them through the years i'm still a fan of the game and fan of players well and i want to talk to you about that because i i've heard you

say some really interesting things about that over the last few months because you know you've been pretty outspoken about nil transfer portal but i don don't know that people are listening to the whole message because you've said, I don't want to be a dinosaur. I'm going to adapt. And I thought it was interesting. You lost, I think, three guys who played for you a lot in the Transfer Portal. You got 13 coming in who are guys that you tried to recruit the first time around. So how is that relationship piece, how much does that help when it comes back around? There's no doubt. And I say that all the time.

It's not the piece that people like to remember. But we lost three in four years. But we picked up probably 30 in four years. And of the 30, 27 of them have played a ton. So our roster has become better overall. It's just I don't like the fact that three kids who really don't want to leave, I'm literally telling them they have to leave. And I'm happy for them.

The money is just so large, they have to go. And that's the piece I hate. And I've just had to change. It used to be, you know, when you're at Gilmer, Texas, I had them in kindergarten all the way through 12. So I had 13 years. Right. Then you get into college world and pretty much you have four or five years to develop long lasting relationships. And then the new world, if you have a kid for a year, you better really enjoy that one year with him or they might be gone. And that's the piece, you know, you just, I just, you know, and it is what it is. I love the kids and I don't,

I don't like seeing them go. And, and honestly, the three kids, if you talk to all three of them, they would tell you how much they enjoy playing for us and we enjoy coaching them. And how do you do it? Because you mentioned the tampering, and that's one of the parts that you hate the most. It's going to happen if you have good players.

People are going to come after them. How do you combat that? Well, we've been fortunate. I mean, I have a defensive tackle on my team right now named Joe Evans. come after them. How do you combat that? Well, we've been fortunate. I mean, I have a deep tackle on my team right now named Joe Evans. That he turned down, north of $600,000 this year. And I read the contract, I saw it and the kids stayed. I mean, and we don't have that kind of money here.

It's still relationships, but the money's just gotten so large that I don't blame those young men. And I would have no ill will towards them whatsoever. I told him, I said, Joe, you should go. I mean, that's crazy. He's one year from playing in the National Football League, and he believes he'll be drafted, and I believe he will be too. And those are the kids you root for.

You'd like for the media to do a lot more stories about the guys that stay and have success. And you don't hear much about the kids that go and don't ever get to play. That kind of gets left out. I mean, there are stories out there. Don't get me wrong, Andy. I'm not trying to be negative and nasty here.

But there's a lot of kids that get left out in this portal deal. And the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence. So you really try to do it as a parent, not as a coach. When they come in your office with their parents, you just talk to them like you would your own children. And I give them the same advice I would Jordan, Jake, and JC. And if the opportunity is there and the money and the chance to play, then go knock yourself out.

If not, stay here at UTSA, and we're going to win a lot of ballgames, and you'll have the chance to play, then go knock yourself out. If not, stay here at UTSA and we're going to win a lot of ball games and you'll have your chance to play on Sundays here as well. So let's talk about Jordan, Jake, and JC. You've got kind of a village people thing going on with your kids. Very different. Jordan goes into the family business. He's coaching with the Saints. Jake covers the presidential campaign for NBC News,

and JC works for The Tonight Show. Yeah. Their mom, you can tell, Andy, must be pretty talented. I'm proud of all three of them. They've all done very different things. Obviously, there's pressure in all those jobs, but it's a fun thing. As a dad, it's probably harder. The kids the kids are having a blast, but you know, every time I see Jake on NBC or on TV, I'm nervous.

He's going to misspeak on one word. And, uh, then obviously getting to watch Jordan coach of the saints has been a blast. Uh, coach Allen was nice enough to have our staff down there for a week and got to go watch him, you know, kind of do his thing. And coach Cougier was fantastic for us as well down there and then my daughter you know having to live in the shadow of my two boys uh i'm excited she's getting to do what she'd love to do but and trust me andy i would have never thought when you're raising three children in gilmer texas that uh one of them would be in

manhattan the other one in new or, and the third one, you know, following Trump around everywhere he goes. It is amazing. And I'll tell you, as someone who covers sports and people have very strong opinions about sports, I don't think I have the stomach to do what Jake does because as strong as the opinions are about sports, they're a lot stronger about all that stuff. So he's got the guts of iron there. He's going to look back one day. It's going to be a great learning experience for him. I mean, this is historical, what's going on with our politics right now. He's right in the middle of it. And they all got in yesterday. So I'm really excited to get to spend some time with them, just kind of catch up, just kind of hear what's going on in their worlds.

And I speak to them daily, but I'm excited to spend some time with them. Now, they came in for a very good reason, apparently. You will know the answer to this question when this interview airs, but you've got a gender reveal for your first grandbaby. Yeah, we're excited about it. Jordan and Sierra are going to let us know today at 2 o'clock. We're excited to find out. It blows my mind. You mentioned a while ago, I'll tell you a funny story.

This young man still plays, so I won't name him because I don't want to embarrass him. But I had him committed when I was at the University of Arkansas. And he was at the Gilmer track meet. And he FaceTimes me, and he says, Coach, you're not going to believe this, but that stadium in Gilmer, whoever that person is has the same name you do. And I said, you're not going to believe this.

I said, but that is me. That's not like somebody else. He's like, I thought only people that were dead got stadiums named after them. So I said, well, I'm not in this one example so this this particular wide receiver i'm sure he'll some of his buddies are going to piece who it is um i still give him a hard time but i'm not dead i'm alive and well that that's you are so only three home losses in four years now it's a it's a different area you talk about you know how little time you get to spend with some of these players now at this level but you're never zeros frank harris and rashad wisdom you have to spend a lot of time with them but how different is it going into a season

without those guys well i'll just give you we vote for our numbers you know i stole that idea from that rule from years ago so but not only do we vote for our single digit numbers the people that wear the two the one and zero whoever has the most votes you know they get to wear the zero and i've had think about this andy for for four straight years my entire college head coaching career rashad wisdom's one to zero on defense frank harris has won the zero on offense uh frank is from Converse. I mean, Frank is from Church Clemens. Legend in San Antonio, obviously, and Rashad is from Converse Judson, another hometown boy, two of the greatest individuals you'll ever meet, wonderful families.

And they're both gone. I'll never, however many more years the Lord has me coach, which I hope it's at least 20 plus, I'll never have the same kid worth a zero for four straight years one more time, in my opinion. So that's going to be a huge loss for us. But I was also, you know, I've been a head coach for 15 years in high school. And the fun part is seeing the next group step up to keep a program going. It's not just one quarterback or one safety. As much as I love Frank and him and I are still very close. He works in the city and Frank's been injured a ton. We've had to play a lot of games without Frank. So that's a blessing and a curse, obviously,

because Frank is so good. But Eddie Lee Marburger got to play a lot last year. So did Owen McCowan. And those two kids are both going to be vying for the starting quarterback job this year. I was going to say, how much is having them both have, because Eddie had to play in the regular season, Owen played in the bowl game for you. At least that you know what they look like when the lights are on.

Yeah, I've known them forever. You know, I coached Owen's father, Josh. Josh was our high school quarterback at Jacksonville back in the 90s. Eddie Lee is a South Texas legend. He can really sling it. Both kids are wonderful. Both kids love the Lord. They love people.

They love ball. They're an absolute blast to coach. Our kids love being them. We all understand the gravity that Frank Harris brought to our program. We're not trying to understate that. But at the same time, we're very excited about Eddie and Owen. And we're going on year five, Andy. We're going to put a good football team around them.

And I hope people will remember what Frank was like when he first started. You know, we only won seven games that first year. We were not some offensive juggernaut. We were a defensive football team. We kicked and covered very well, and we won a bunch of games we weren't supposed to. Now, obviously, as Frank got to play, he got better and better and better. So we all need to cut Owen or Eddie some tremendous slack, and let's grade them on frank's first year curve not frank's fourth year curve right exactly well and you know you mentioned you know you coached josh you coached the mccown boys but you've got you got quite a tree going yourself as a as a coach so gj kenny was a guy who played for you at gil. You ended up coaching against him last year.

He's now the Texas State head coach. And we had him on the show last year right after they beat Baylor. And he's like, yeah, I'm a little nervous. I'm going to go coach against my high school coach. But how proud are you of what he's been? And I realize his dad's also an all-time great high school coach too. But that you had a hand in teaching him how to be a coach. Yeah, you mentioned my son earlier, Jordan.

G.J. was in the wedding. Will Stein was in the wedding. And both those two kids are literally like my own son. We played G.J. again this year. He was my quarterback at Gilmer, as you've already mentioned, Andy. But he's literally like a son to me and will. I don't like playing people that I love as much as I love G.J. That's a game I wish we could skip.

It's also a robbery game. He's done a fantastic job turning that place around. So it's, yeah, it's fun because I still speak to them just like I did. I also work with G.J. At SMU, we were assistants together. At Arkansas, we were assistants together. Will lived with me, you know, for a year at the University of Texas while Carrie was back with the kids before she brought them to Austin.

So unbelievable relationship with both those kids. And it's crazy that those kids are where they are. And I know I call them kids, and they're not kids. They're young men. They can't stand it when I call them kids. But they're like my kids. Well, we had Will on the show a couple weeks ago, and he's obviously doing great things at Oregon now as the offensive coordinator.

But he said that when he was living with you in that period in Austin, that you would talk about what it would be like if you became a college head coach, how you would run your program, your five pillars. And he said, you know, and he wound up working for you at UTSA. He said he did it. He did it exactly the way he said he was going to do it. Yeah, I had a lot of practice in getting to work for Charlie, and I also worked for Chad Morris.

It was just good for me to see some things and learn some things my own self and how convicted I really was to what I believed. I've got an amazing staff that really believes in me and what we've done here. We feel very strongly about what we do. So it was a blast. Will loves ball like I love ball. And being at the university of texas and away from my family for a year was obviously a tough year but living with will who believe it

or not back then he's a ga and he just needed somewhere to stay for free and uh we just became extremely extremely close uh i still miss him it was after we beat north texas to win our second conference championship in a row uh will came in my office the next morning and let me know about dan's offer and uh he cried and i cried and uh carrie and i still miss darby uh you know he's got a son now joey we facetime and zoom and still stay in touch but that's the hard part about this business is we all get separated. We're players, coaches, but the relationships are real. And I love those two boys and miss them both very much. But I know somehow we'll all circle back up together one way or another one day.

So Will says there's one other member of the family I have to ask you about, and that is Izzy. So Izzy is a a cockapoo yeah it's a cabapoo actually and this is king charles cavalier spaniel and a poodle yeah i'm gonna crush will stein for that uh private information i was raised in the country my children only had labs growing up we had had chocolate labs. We had black labs. We sure didn't have any poodles. But when Carrie and I became empty nesters, she wanted a dog. And it gets even better, Andy. The only game we got canceled during COVID, we were supposed to play rice. And we didn't get to play that game. That was the weekend she was driving to Godley, Texas to get this Cabapoo. Because I didn't have a game, Andy, I had to be the only college football coach in the country that was driving to Godley to get a... To go meet a poodle breeder.

Probably two pounds. Now she weighs eight pounds. That's pretty embarrassing. I will admit I've kind of fallen in love with her. She kind of runs the house right now at the Old Treasurer Household. Oh, listen. Okay. So we have a little bit, slightly bigger, 30 pound Bernie Doodle named Cookie. Same thing.

I was a basset hound guy. We found out my daughter was allergic to pet dander. So we had to get a non-shedding dog for our next dog. And so we went with the Bernie Do bernie doodle and this this dog is in charge so i i when you say that i i firmly believe i understand exactly what's going on yeah will stein gave me up uh yeah i might get over it for that hey let me know he also says you're terrible to watch a game with because you turn into a coach. Like you just start rewinding like crazy. Let me know the next time Will's going to be on your podcast

and let me give you some information back. This is what we need. Yes. I've got some dirt on Will Stein and Darby, so we have a good time, Andy. Beautiful. Beautiful. Thank you, coach. Imagine being in that house watching games with with will stein and jeff trailer

but yes i i always wondered with coaches can you watch a game in real time without running a playback over and over and over again can you do that i i don't know if they're capable of it i i think most of them can't turn it off. So, but that was a great interview. Jeff Traylor, lots of fun. Listen, as someone who's got a, who's wrapped around the paw of a doodle dog, it happens. You can be the toughest,

like big dog person in the world. No, you're powerless to resist. It's just how it goes. I am powerless to resist your questions because I love them. I love when you guys drive the show. Tell me what you're thinking about, what is on your mind. And some very good questions this week. We'll start with one from Dan and it's about the video game. What impact on fans will the video game have besides helping men and the ladies reconnect with friends and neglect their honey-do lists? Will it make fans more educated or raise their irrational confidence in knowing what a coach should be doing? Will it create more engaged fans, especially in the younger TikTok crowd who don't normally have the attention span for a real three-hour game?

Second, we all know social media is full of people who love to complain as loud as possible. But which fan bases do you think are the most educated about their teams and CFB at large? That's very interesting. The video game question from Dan, I don't think it's going to change the fact that as sports fans, we cannot help ourselves. When we see a coach do something that we think he should do the different thing, we're going to yell at the TV or yell down onto the field if we're in the stand. It's just ingrained in us. You can understand the difficulty of the job. You can understand the difficulty of circumstances as well as anybody. It is just a natural human reaction to go, Mario Cristobal, call timeout, or take a knee.

What are you doing? That's just how we are. We can't help it. And yes, if we were in that position, if we were in Mario Cristobal's shoes or Shane Beamer's shoes or whoever's, we would probably freak out under those circumstances, but it's, it's in our nature. So I don't think playing the video game, which does kind of put you in those circumstances, but in a much more obviously lower stakes environment, I think it may educate you on, on some things. It certainly will help you understand various playbooks a lot better. I think with the way the game works now because i do think the blocking has become much better it actually probably helps some people understand what's

going on at the line of scrimmage a little bit more but as far as players i think where where it's going to really help people and and more and more than anything, individual players themselves is in branding, in NIL, like true NIL, not the roster value type NIL. Because I think there's going to be certain players who, because of their skill sets, become favorites of people across the country. Maybe people who have never watched that team play any other way, but your buddy goes, hey, this quarterback at Kansas State, he's so fast. I'm talking about Avery Johnson. Like I think Avery Johnson is going to be a guy that people across the country want to play as. And so I think his star will rise strictly because of that,

because there are a lot of people and what Dan points out with the younger crowd, like they are not sit down and watch a whole game kind of people generally. There obviously are, but I've noticed that with my own kids, like they like snippets of stuff. They are not big sit down and just watch kind of people, whether it's sporting events, movies, TV shows, like they're just not wired that way. And so I do think that will help raise awareness to some of these players. Like there will be certain players that everybody will say in the state of Kansas, like Jalen Daniels, the Kansas quarterback, another super exciting player to watch in real life when you play as him in the video game it's got to be fun it's got to be fun so i i am interested to see who becomes more famous who develops a cult

following based on the video game because i do think that's going to happen as to dan's second question which which fan bases are most educated about their teams and college football in general? I think the old line goes way back, fan bases. I think they tend to know the most now. It doesn't stop them from being irrational occasionally about their own team. Alabama fans are completely irrational about their team. They expect national titles every year. I think they've been spoiled by Nick Saban,

but they do very much understand the history of the game. They understand their team's place in it. They understand what you have to do to be good. I think Georgia fans very similarly, and they've gone from long suffering to insufferable. I know there's some Georgia fans who are frequent viewers. I'm sure some will show up in the chat, but I think you can agree. You've gone from long suffering to insufferable, but, but during that period of long suffering, before you broke through and won a national title,

I think you, you, you guys more than a lot of fan bases kind of autopsied how national title teams work, like what it takes. Because I think like during the Mark Richt era, there were a lot of Georgia fans that were kept saying, this is not working out. This is not, it's good, but not good enough. Another group that I think is interesting on that front is LSU fans. And I go, we talked about this when Les Miles sued LSU last week. So LSU fans wanted Les Miles gone way before everybody in the country realized, oh, they can probably do a little bit better. And I think that's one of those cases where you, you see it up close, you understand. But also it's because they understood the landscape of the sport.

They understood, okay, these are teams that should be winning national titles regularly. These are teams that should be competing with Alabama regularly. And at that point, there was a losing streak to Alabama. It felt like LSU had fallen behind. And they were right. The roster was there. They just needed to be moved around differently. I think Notre Dame fans are very knowledgeable too.

And Notre Dame fans, I feel like as a group, feel the most realistic about their chances and what their team is and kind of understand, especially the people who actually went to Notre Dame, really do understand Notre Dame's place in the world, why Notre Dame chooses to do the things that Notre Dame chooses to do that maybe aren't the most pro-competitive things for Notre Dame, but they are what makes Notre Dame special. So I think those are very educated, savvy fans. The truth says Ohio State is just the insufferable. Now that the Dallas Cowboys college football always hyped up and rarely ever.

Okay. All right. The truth is a Michigan fan. We know you hate Ohio State. I would argue that michigan and ohio state fans are all pretty savvy i i think you they're with ohio state alabama georgia some of the other some of the big sec schools like that you get a lunatic fringe of those fan bases because they're just so big in michigan too and those are not representative of the entire fan base. So let's, let's push those aside. Those because the opinions of those folks that it's just unhinged.

It's not the same thing. This question comes from HB. If Florida can manage to go nine and three against that schedule, would they make the playoffs? That's a great question. So Florida's schedule is the hardest schedule in the country, at least on paper right now. If everybody is as good as we think they're going to be, going nine and three in this schedule would mean you lose. So you would lose to some combination of probably Georgia, Texas, Miami, Tennessee, LSU, Ole Miss, Florida State. Like all those teams I just mentioned could be double digit win teams. If you were nine and three, which means you didn't lose to them all.

You beat some of them. So if a nine and three team were going to make the playoff, this would be your nine and three team that would make the playoff. Because if you look at that schedule, no matter what three you pick to be losses, there are still going to be some quality wins. They're going to make that resume better than a lot of other resumes. So yeah, if you can go nine and three against that schedule. Now, if Billy Napier could go nine and three against that schedule, forget coming off the hot seat. He'd certainly come off the hot seat. He might get elected governor. That would be an incredible coaching job, I think, against this schedule with this roster. But if you can do it, yeah, that's Godspeed. But yes, nine and three, I think against that schedule,

assuming everybody's as good as they are. Like, let's say, I don't know if Ole Miss and Florida state were not as good as they were supposed to be, but you beat them, but you lost to the teams that all made the playoff. It's a little bit different story. It also depends on the three losses, how they go. Like, let's say, let's say the losses are to Georgia, Texas and Ole Miss, or the losses are to Georgia, Texas and Florida state. And they're by an average of six points yet. You're probably making the playoff. If they're by an average of 45 points, then no, you're probably not making the playoff. Even, even if you did beat some of those other teams. So I think that part matters too. But yeah, with this gnarly of a schedule, if you can go nine and three

and the three are against playoff teams and you were competitive in those games, yeah, absolutely. Florida would have a chance to make the playoff, but that is so much easier said than done because you'd have to go nine and three against this schedule. And that have to go nine and three against this schedule. And that would be like nine and three against this schedule would be tough for

anybody. Like any, any, even the teams at the back of the schedule that we think are going to be really good. It would be tough for them to go nine and three against the schedule too. So I think if look, if Florida goes seven and five,

eight and four against this schedule, I think you should feel pretty good about billy napier going forward if their record is what it was last year then you're gonna have decisions to make that's that's really what it comes down to but it's a tough schedule it's it's a tough tough schedule this one comes from aaron i saw the big 12 media predictions for the conference's final standings. Wow, 16 teams is a lot. I'd hate to be number 16 at the end of the year. With the way conferences have done away with divisions,

does finishing in last place in these big leagues guarantee a coach gets fired? Well, I'll start with your Big 12 example. So they released the poll. Arizona State is number 16 in the poll. If Arizona state finishes number 16 in the big 12 this year, Kenny Dillingham isn't getting fired because the Arizona state brass knows exactly what Kenny Dillingham inherited. They know exactly what kind of job he had to do. And Oh, by the way, now they're moving conferences like no it's everybody understands their own individual situation and somebody's gonna have to be picked last in all of these leagues so but but really like if you're picked 16th in the sec like vanderbilt's gonna be picked 16th in the sec

is it really any different than being seventh in the East? Like it's not good either way. Just seeing that big number, I guess is going to make some people feel a certain type of way, but being like being last in your division just means you're either the worst team in your league or maybe the second or third worst team in your league. It still stinks. It's still not what you want. So I don't think that's necessarily going to change anybody's higher fire decisions. Somebody's going to finish number 18 in the Big Ten. And that is a long way down. But again, I'm looking at the Big Ten right now. I couldn't tell you that anybody's going to be on the hot seat even after a really bad year this season. There's no obvious hot seat candidate in the Big Ten,

including for whoever's going to finish number 18. I just think the same decisions that drive hiring and firing, they're not going to change because there are no divisions. The psychological piece of finishing number 17 or number 18, I don't think that really makes a difference between that and finishing number seven in a 17 division, but it does look weird. But I will remind you, the Big 12 media poll is a great example of this. Last year, they played 14 teams.

You know who got picked to finish 14th? West Virginia. West Virginia won nine games last year. They did not finish 14th. So we're going to be wrong on a lot of these things too. So you got that going for you, Kenny Dillingham. Good luck to you. Now from DD Wag.

Dear Andy, which of the following would be the most shocking? Georgia Tech winning the ACC, USC winning the Big Ten, or Oregon losing three or more games and missing the playoff. The most shocking of those to me would be Georgia Tech winning the ACC. I do think Georgia Tech's been better under Brent Key. I think Buster Faulkner, their offensive coordinator, is a rising star in the business. I think what they did with Haynes King, reclaiming his career essentially after Texas A&M,

turning him into the quarterback that everybody thought he was going to be when he was a recruit. They've done a phenomenal job. We're going to get to see them in week zero against Florida State. So we're going to get to see them against maybe the best team in the ACC to kick things off. But I don't see them winning the ACC. They also have a pretty tough draw in the ACC. They get

Florida State, they get NC State, they get Miami. That's a pretty tough road. The only one they miss really is Clemson. And they also have a Notre Dame game because obviously ACC schools have to play Notre Dame every once in a while. So that one would be the most shocking to me. The second most shocking would be Oregon losing three or more. Look, anybody can lose three games. Anybody can go nine and three. I don't think Oregon will go nine and three, but it wouldn't completely shock me if Oregon went nine and three. But I don't think that's as shocking as Georgia Tech winning the ACC. USC winning the Big Ten wouldn't shock me. I mean, it would be surprising.

I don't think it would be shocking because what have we said all offseason? If Dantan Lynn can make USC's defense better, if Lincoln Riley can globally coach the team in a way that allows the defense to thrive, that allows the defense to still be physical, make tackles as the season goes on, USC is going to be fine. USC is going to be good. Like, we know Lincoln Riley's offenses are always good. So if that happens, USC is going to be one of the better teams in the big 10. If it doesn't happen,

if their defense is the same as we've seen in previous iterations of Lincoln Riley teams, whether it be at USC or Oklahoma, then they're not going to be, they're going to be a slightly above average team and they're not going to do anything special. That is going to be the deciding factor. But if the defense is good or better, I mean, it doesn't even have to be great, but better

then yeah, USC should be very competitive in the big 10 and no problem with that. I think, you know, it's, it's interesting how many people are just straight up out on Lincoln Riley. I need to see what he's going to do in the post-Alex French era. If it doesn't change, then yeah, I'll be right there with you. But you're talking about a fairly young guy who's been a very good coach so far. He's got a blind spot. who's been a very good coach so far. He's got a blind spot. That doesn't mean he'll never fix it.

Now, if you change DCs, the results don't change. Now we start thinking maybe the blind spot doesn't get fixed. But I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. Next one comes from Powerlipout. What average recruiting class finish would allow a team to be competitive for a conference championship year in and year out in the new Big 12? 15th seems like it would put you well ahead of just about every other team in the conference.

Is that a strategy worth pursuing? Well, yeah, recruiting great players is always a strategy worth pursuing, but I realize this is a more nuanced question from power lip out because I think you can, there's a way to game the recruiting rankings where you can have a higher recruiting ranking, but you don't necessarily help your team. And I've seen coaches do it where they'll, they'll sign some guys or they'll take commitments from guys late in the process who maybe were guys that were ranked high as recruits earlier in the process, but some stuff happened and a lot of the really good schools backed off of them. And I think those are the ones that the high recruiting

ranking doesn't really mean anything because they're not taking them because, oh, they fit what I do perfectly, or I see them in this role on my team. It's I'm just taking them because they're not taking them because, oh, they fit what I do perfectly. Or I see them in this role on my team. It's I'm just taking them because they have a high recruiting rating. So that, that's not an effective strategy. That's never worked. What does work is yes, really good players who fit what you do. Now, what does it take in the new big 12? I don't even think you got to be number 15 because you still got to be a good developer. Let me put that out there right now. Like Utah was winning Pac-12 titles with classes in the 30s and 40s.

So you are up against Kyle Whittingham, one of the best developers in the country. You are up against Chris Kleiman at Kansas State, one of the best developers in the country. Mike Gundy is a miracle worker at Oklahoma State with results relative to recruiting rankings. Lance Leipold at Kansas, incredible developer. Willie Fritz just got to Houston. He's a great developer. So that is what you've got to deal with. You've better be able to develop as well. The straight up number star rating is not going to help you if you can't do that. That said, if you can develop and you can get classes in the upper teens and in the low

twenties, you could win this league or be in the mix to win that league every single year. Because right now, class of 2024, the highest finish in the new Big 12 was Texas Tech at 23. For the class of 25, which is obviously still very much in flux, TCU is the number 20 class, Texas Tech is 30. So yeah, if you could get into the teens, just crack into the teens, and you are doing it in a way that is true to your scheme and your program's culture, then you would have a year in, year out contender. I'll be interested to see, like Colorado's interesting because we say all we say about Dion not doing the in-home and in-school visits, but they are drawing interest from big-time recruits. Now, do they fit what they do? We'll see. Like

Jordan Seaton, he's a freshman this year. He was the number one offensive line recruit in the country last year. Will he work out? If that becomes a place where very high level recruits want to go, that's a job and a situation where you can become the most talented team in the conference and have a chance to win the conference every year. It's going to be fun to watch. It really is because I think a lot of these teams, they're very close together in terms of where they are in the college football universe. They're very close together in terms of who they can get. Go Black 45. Andy Staple says the Big 12 is just a development league. Post it.

What do you think? Do you see anybody getting five stars routinely in the Big 12? Do you see a likelihood of them getting a bunch of five stars instead of the Big 10 and SEC teams? I don't. So yeah, you better be able to develop. And oh, by the way, if you're going to play Kyle Whittingham, you better be able to develop no matter how many stars you have on your roster. Cause that dude will whip your ass. All right. Last question. This is an honor of all the 4th of July cookouts. Our guy, Matt, he set the, uh, the, the random ranking question last week about the, the all killer, no filler albums. Andy, have you ever done, the random ranking question last week about the, the all killer,

no filler albums. Andy, have you ever done a rant random ranking of the tastiest mascots in college football? Matt's a Georgia fan, by the way, and a nice conversation with a Texas fan the other day. And of course he sent a video of Bevo charging it at UGA as Texas fans love

to do. And another Georgia fan said, if he were there that night, Bevo would be on his grill the next day. The Texas fan said, Oh, it's like that. And I said, don't blame us because your mascot is delicious. With a gif of a sizzling steak underneath my message. And that got me thinking, what are the tastiest mascots?

So, Andy, as you are the foremost expert of all things college football and food, what are the tastiest mascots in your mind? Top five or top ten? Bevo definitely has to be number one, right? Okay. So, I did a top five or top 10. Devo definitely has to be number one, right? Okay. So I did a top five and here's why, Matt. I can't find 10 live mascots that are socially acceptable to eat in this country. Now, if we were in a different country, if we were European, if we were in certain parts of Asia, maybe we have a different list, but we're American. So we get a top five because this was, and I only went with schools that actually have a live

mascot on the field. I do suppose we could expand it to schools, you know, like Texas, UTSA is the Roadrunners. I've never eaten Roadrunner. I'm guessing it tastes like chicken. I don't know. But we'll go with the ones that actually have live mascots. And there were only five I could come up with. Number five, Billy the Goat at Navy. If you've ever had curried goat at a Jamaican restaurant, this is good stuff.

So Billy the Goat, I realized there were a lot of shenanigans in the previous years about people trying to steal Billy the Goat, rival schools, messing with Billy the Goat. But Billy the Goat, I think would be fairly tasty. Number four, Sir Big Spur at South Carolina. Tastes like chicken? It's chicken. Does Coastal Carolina have a live Chanticleer? Because we could probably put that one on that list too. I wasn't sure. But Sir Big Spur definitely on the list. Now, my top three were hard because two of them kind of taste the same. And one of them tastes very different, but is probably equally good.

Kale in the chat says, the Syracuse orange needs some citrus in it. Is it actually an orange or just an orange being? Like if it is the fruit, an orange, then yeah, we'll put the Syracuse orange at number six so we can avoid scurvy. I'm not sure if it's an actual orange. I'm going to have to do some more research on this. All right. So here's number three, Ralphie, the Colorado Buffalo. And I struggle with this because bison and beef, not entirely different, tastes very similar. So how do I, how do I separate these? Should I have

Ralphie and Bevo right next to one another? Because there's another mascot who's really delicious. So my three, my top three are really clustered together because I feel very strongly in favor of all three. But bison is great. Have you ever had a bison burger? Maybe a little tad juicier than beef. It's definitely leaner than beef. I think, and you notice I haven't said beef yet. So I will probably give beef the nod because the marbling in beef

does allow you to do a little more things and you can go lean cut. You can go a fattier cut. So bison, Ralphie, number three, number two, Tusk from Arkansas. You know, I had to have pig meat in here somewhere. And really whether I want beef or pork depends on the day. I am a lover of barbecue. And there are some days I want brisket. And there are some days I want pulled pork. Some days I want a beef rib. Some days I want pork spare ribs.

Like, it really just depends on the day. So Tusk at number two. And of course, bevo at number one how do you beat a sizzling steak how do you beat perfectly cooked brisket how do you beat a glorious beef rib with that on that giant bone yosef says florida gators i know some people said it tastes like chicken i've actually eaten a lot of gator in my life uh they don't have a live mascot anymore so i didn't include them but

yeah if we're if we are including ones that don't have a live mascot i would put alligator meat it would be down between five and 10, probably. It's a great appetizer. Fried gator tail is a great starter dish, but it's not the greatest in the world. Like I'm not putting it above pig. I'm not putting it above cow, not putting it above bison. But yeah, I feel pretty good about that list. So whatever mascot you're cooking on July 4th,

please be safe. Please have fun. And please tune in to tomorrow's show in the morning and send it to a friend. This is, I'm going to ask you to do us a favor as college football fans. Take tomorrow's show, hit the share button. And whether it's you like to watch it in YouTube form or you listen in podcast form, hit that share button, send it to five friends you know who love college football, but maybe

don't love it as much as they think they do. Because there's an information gap when it comes to the 2024 season. There are going to be a lot of people who like college football, but have not been obsessively following it the way we have all off season. We're going to be in shock come week one about everything has changed.

Let's help them. Let's get them ready. So I want you to hit the share button on Thursday's show and share it with as many people as you can. All your friends who you know love to watch the games in the fall, maybe don't obsessively follow it in the off season. A couple of reasons for this.

They need the help. And also we want to bring them into the tent. So hit that share button on Thursday. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for being here. And of course, please enjoy your holiday weekend. Be careful out there. Careful with the fireworks. Be careful with the grill. Don't do anything I wouldn't. We'll talk to you soon.