Andy & Ari On3 - What's NEXT for QB Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee?

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

We’re excited to announce we’ll be hosting Andy & Ari On3 LIVE from the Draft in Green Bay on Thursday, April 24 and Friday, April 25! We’ll be set up right outside the famous Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field at the Culver’s Great Wisconsin Tailgate. Born in Wisconsin, Culver’s is the home of the legendary ButterBurger, Fresh Frozen Custard and Wisconsin Cheese Curds—there’s no better representation of America’s Dairyland than that. We’ll have some very special guests throughout the Draft that you won’t want to miss, so stay tuned for more details and get ready for a weekend of fun, made fresh with our friends at Culver’s: https://go.culvers.com/culvers/sAkHC (0:00-13:27) Intro: What is going on with Tennessee and Nico Iamaleava?(13:28-24:53) What's next in Knoxville?(24:54-34:03) T-Bob Hebert Joins the show(34:04-38:01) The Pulse in Gainesville(38:02-44:08) Are playoffs a must for LSU?(44:09-49:35) John Williams Story with T-Bob(49:35-52:07) LSU's run game(52:08-57:08) LSU's 2025 Schedule(57:09-58:55) Culver's(58:56-1:02:12) Oklahoma an upgrade over South Carolina?(1:02:13-1:06:10) LSU fans and Brian Kelly(1:06:11-1:08:26) Dear Andy & Ari(1:08:27-1:12:12) A 7-5 Alabama?(1:12:13-1:18:11) Places to go in Mid-20's(1:18:12-1:30:40) Random Ranking of John Williams' scores(1:30:41-1:34:29) Conclusion: Ari's Crazy StoryQuarterback Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee are still negotiating Iamaleava’s deal for the 2025 season, and the clock is ticking. How did the situation reach this point? What should each party do now that the negotiations have become public? Happy Friday! It's a Dear Andy & Ari show but we have T-Bob Hebert joining the show to discuss LSU, John Williams, and he also helps out with Dear Andy & Ari. Will LSU win a national championship with Brian Kelly? How will Garrett Nussmeier perform? Does LSU need to establish more of a run game? Later, Andy & Ari answer some great questions sent in. One fan asks what happens if Alabama goes 7-5 while Jake sends in an incredible question for his group of friends. Closing out, T-Bob closes the show out with us to randomly rank his top 5 John Williams scores. Finally, Ari tells a WILD story about his wife and a billboard. Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F at 9:30 am et! https://youtube.com/live/H2UM0Mjd3k8 Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to any and RN3 presented by Culver's. We have a very much fluid influx news story to talk about this morning. We had actually planned to give you a really fun show with T Bob A Bear, our friend from Baton Rouge talking LSU and you're going to get that. But before that, we have to talk about Nico Iamaliava in Tennessee. Pete Nacos reported on Thursday that Nico Iamaliava in Tennessee are in active negotiations regarding his deal for 2025. Tennessee spring game is Saturday. The transfer portal opens Wednesday. Ari, it seems like they need to get a deal done prior to that and this this is

serious and this is real. I know there's a lot of people who including Nico's dad who says on Twitter that there's no negotiation. There's a negotiation. They are definitely negotiating right now. Whether he stays at Tennessee is another question, but they're definitely negotiating. Yeah. Um, there's just a fundamental inability from a lot of people to accept news when they don't like what the news is, but it's happening. So, um, you know, you, you can be a productive part of this conversation or you can insult us, but that's not

going to change whether or not this is happening. So, um, first I wanted to start off the show. I'm kind of fired up. I don't know if you noticed this on Twitter before we started, but there was a fundamental misunderstanding of what clickbait is, and I just don't, we're even seeing it in the chat here. That's not even what that word means. You don't get that from somebody who has been reporting on this stuff consistently

right for years. Pizza pro. He knows what he's doing and it's correct. Okay. And here, here's the, here's the other piece of this. When stories are false, everybody involved comes out and says these are false. Everybody involved comes out and says these are false. Nico's dad says it's false. Nico's dad is negotiating a deal right now with Tennessee and who and you have to ask yourself who who stands to gain the most by

acting. Yeah, you know who hasn't commented publicly on this Tennessee. You know why because they're negotiating with Nico. Yeah. So anyway, I just wanted to get that out of the way There's certainly a lot to unpack here about Nico personally about Tennessee personally the concept of leverage Also, whether or not you like this and if it's gonna be a norm You know because I think that like there are varying degrees of this like I think that hold on Let's let's address Nick in the chat There are varying degrees of this like I think that hold on let's let's address Nick in the chat

How the F can you say that when he Niko's dad literally says there are no negotiations because there are negotiations Nick Sometimes people don't tell you the truth Sorry, they are go Robbie tonight Nick I Don't think you're telling the truth Ari. I think you're lying. But I said it. But is Margot Robbie, do you even have her phone number? I have a date with Margot Robbie tonight. I said that's enough. Well, I believe you.

Ari, nobody in the chat say that Ari doesn't have a date with Margot Robbie because he said he does. Yeah. But there's a lot to unpack here, Andy. We were on the phone about this, just shooting the crap about it. Uh, I know we did the show yesterday. Um, so where do you want to start? You want to start with Tennessee and Nico? Yes. I want to start with Tennessee and Nico because this is the situation.

We have reported a ton on Nico's deal back when we worked at the athletic. Stuart Mandel was the one who really got the ball rolling on this thing. And we did a lot of stories on this deal. It's real. I know people think none of these deals are real. It's real. And it pays. It's like an eight million dollars over four-year deal.

It escalates as the years go on. So this year, I believe the scheduled amount is 2.4 million on the deal. And when it was signed, it was the biggest deal ever. But just like anything else, like when you watch the NFL free agency or you watch the NFL quarterback deals, like every one that is signed is the biggest

and then the next one happens two days later and that's the biggest. Well, the market's changed. Carson backs making more than that in Miami. Darian Mince is making more than that at Duke. There are other quarterbacks making more than that now. And so you've got Nico's team saying, Hey, we would like something more commensurate with the market. And they went, they went to Tennessee in December.

Trying to get this done. Austin price reported that on a ball quest. Yeah. So it didn't get done. And so it's not done yet. Now there's an argument to be had about should college players be allowed to leverage this over and over and over again, or should they be held to the deal they signed? But that's not the argument right now. If the schools want to change how these work and say they're paying them for football and sign them to more binding contracts, then great, do that. They are not doing that now. So right now, you've got the players team taking advantage of the leverage the player has.

You've got the school and the collective trying to decide, okay, do we cave into their demands? Because if we do, this is the tentacles to this, Ari. If you're the school and you cave into the demands, everybody else on the roster is going to come. And want to race too. Which is tough. If you let him walk. You've probably got to pay more to other players on your roster to keep them because if he walks, then a bunch of other people might walk too. And then you probably have to hit the tamper button and try to find a QB unless you want to roll a Jake Merklinger.

And that's going to cost you a bunch of money. So there's not a great outcome here for Tennessee's collective. They're going to probably have to end up paying more no matter what. Yeah. And I think too, that, you know, if you see pushback to this, it's probably from somebody who was orange in their profile. And I understand that. And I want to, I want to say that I'm okay with Nico doing this. Like this isn't a, nobody has shared an opinion on whether or not he should. Right? Like there are Tennessee fans who are okay with this too. I read the

ball quest message word yesterday. It was fascinating because there's a wide range of opinion on this. And I don't, I'm not going to criticize anybody's opinion on this because you're allowed to feel however you want to feel about. And so there's a, there's a let him walk camp. There's a, Hey, it's the market pay the man his money camp. Yeah. like it's all of it but also to like if you have leverage or you are worth more than When the market changes and you feel like you're entitled to retest that market Then you that's your prerogative as a person. You can't sit here on this podcast and talk about the free market and how

players are never gonna be restricted about their income and how they should be compensated all those things and then and then get down on somebody for trying to negotiate their leverage. But that that in this situation, there's a question about how much leverage Nico actually has whether or not he played to a level that's commensurate with what he wants as an income, and whether this is a smart thing for him personally to do. This isn't a you know, Andy and Ari think Nico is an idiot.

Like I think I might do the same thing, especially considering the fact that he is on my top 10 quarterbacks in the country list. So like I, I don't hate this move. The question is whether it's going to work. Uh, and that's a completely different scenario. So like that to me, um, you know, you, you get paid what the market is. If all of a sudden, podcasters across the country started making a million dollars a year, I'm sure that you and I would probably want to be paid commensurate with what those podcasters, I mean, it's just the way the world works. So, you know, that the timing and the amount, I think is a certain, certainly an

interesting thing to track. Whether or not they are viewed as worth it from the people who are writing the checks is something that is interesting because I'm not necessarily sure that at this point, Tennessee is a team that we believe is going to make your chances of doing that higher, maybe. Do you try to use that money elsewhere to bolster your roster for the future, maybe? Like there's a lot of angles that you could take on this. And frankly speaking, Andy, if the negotiations weren't, you know, settled in the fall, winter, when this was happening, that's when leverage would have been at an all time high, right?

Because that's when most of the schools that needed a quarterback were in the market. So there are places and destinations that you can connect the dots to in terms of what could work. There's a few schools in California that might come to mind, but there aren't 24 teams that are looking for a quarterback right now. So your leverage is shrunk from that standpoint. So it's what are you worth? What is your place say you're worth? And what are your other options if you don't get what you need? And that's all very fascinating. And we're going to watch that happen in real time, but to act like it's not happening because you don't want it to happen or to think that we're criticizing him for doing it are both wrong. I think that the most logical conclusion

to this is they give him some more money and he stays at Tennessee. Yeah, that seems pretty simple because it's very complicated. What happens next if you if you say let them walk and you say we're going to stand on principle, we're not going to be held hostage, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's all fine and good. But if you have a bad season because of this, and I've gone back and forth on this, and I've talked to somebody at Tennessee about this too, because if you have a bad season, are people going to blame Nico or people going to blame Josh

Hyple in Tennessee, if Nico is not there and they have a bad season? I think some people will blame Nico, but I think some people ultimately will just blame Tennessee. So the question is, and this is what they have to ask themselves, is how different is the season gonna be with or without? Because if you think you're a playoff team again with Niko, you gotta pay Niko. It's not complicated.

Yeah. And this is a completely different topic, and I don't know if it's even possible, not topic, but tentacle to this, is that if you, uh, you know, are going to get brought back to the table for somebody who signed a multi-year deal when they came here, then do you start doing rollover contracts that, you know, allow you to pay them commensurate with the market that is with their play, you know, because the schools might want to do this. You know, like, you know, it's not just when the player wants to make more money. What if they're not worth that money in year three or four? Yeah, you know, so like that, this is all very interesting. And like, these are the things that happen as a system that's still fairly new,

works through its kinks as it's also changing. Yeah, like I do think that, you think that this is a completely rational thing to do from Nico's standpoint, although I do question the execution of it. Right, the execution is the issue. Why this didn't get done in December. Now, Tennessee may be at fault for why it didn't get done in December too,

but that's one of those things that should have been buttoned up before now. Yeah, I mean, it's easier for Tennessee to be like, where are you going to go now than it would have been in the winter. But there are places he can go. Yeah. Yeah. So Yeah, yeah, so. That's the tricky part. That's the tricky part and. You know. Again, if you're Tennessee, do you? I think you have to make a value

judgment on what you think your team is going to be before you decide whether you're standing on principle or you decide whether you want to, because look. You're probably paying more money either either outcome outcome one is less complicated than the other, though one is simply just write bigger checks, and that's keeping Nico because there probably will be other players who like OK, now I want to raise or I'm leaving too.

And you're going to have to deal with that. Yeah, the other option is quite a bit more complex. You have to decide is Jake Merkley or the guy you want starting right now? Or did you? Would you want to go get another quarterback? It's a lot lot more to deal with. Yeah, and there's a.

There's a T word out there that comes to mind from an option that Tennessee might have and it's not the one on their on their helmet because there are guys out there that I think they could bring in for cheaper than Nico and be just as good if not better. Right. But then, okay, but if Nico leaves, like if I'm one of his receivers, I don't know if

I do I want to stay like you're gonna have to tell me why I need to stay. So that's the complicated part. Yeah, I mean, I guess. But at the same time, too, it's like, does Tennessee have a receiver room that's loaded with people with a bunch of leverage right now? Like, I mean, that's one thing, too. I guess one, there's one that's speculative. But there's not a lot of production in that room right

now of like, oh, God, they're all going to run off like rats on a ship and go find better places to play. It's like they haven't even proven they're good yet. That's the number one weakness on this team right now. So, you know, that to me is an interesting thought, but here's another thought. Um, how far, uh, and maybe not as far, uh, as when Nico signed the deal initially, when you reported that with Stu at the athletic, but how far does what he's asking for go in, in bolstering a class that can prop you up in the future?

Um, you know, and like there's, you don't have to, it's not just a zero sum game of do you pay him or do you pay another quarterback just as much? How about you don't pay him, you don't pay another quarterback just as much, and then you use the funds that you would have allocated towards him to bring in some players in either the spring window if they're available that have multiple years

left of eligibility, or you go all in again on recruiting the way that they did in his class and try to bolster the future because like listen, this is year three right? Yeah. You can go pro after this right? So you know, he can yeah. The thing about this is that you're probably gonna if we know anything about Nico's plan it's been very clear from the beginning that it's three and done right? So the odds of him being at Tennessee for a fourth year are fairly low and if he him being at Tennessee for a fourth year are fairly low. And if he comes back to Tennessee for a fourth year, that means you didn't get what you paid for to begin with.

So you have to make it seem, or you have to accept the reality that this is the last year that he's there regardless. So the only reason why I would pay him what he's probably asking for is if I believed internally that we have a Program or a team that is capable of not only doing what they did a year ago But advancing further in the playoff and I'm not sure Tennessee got better in the offseason

Maybe they did if Nico got much better, right? like so and then those are the The decisions that the people internally who are writing the checks have to know because they know whether he did or not better than All of us do right so like Donovan in the chat with Nico, we are a 10 and two, especially with our schedule. We have to, we have to beat Georgia if we want to become an elite program, go Vols play Nico and let's move. So that's, that's one side of the equation. And look, there were quite a few Tennessee fans I noticed in, on the ball quest message board that shared Donovan sentiment that felt the same way.

But I'd say there were an equal number that said, let him walk. And the interesting thing, because this happens at a very interesting time. And like, I don't know if we're geniuses, or we just walked ass backwards into this. But we shared top 10 lists of quarterbacks literally yesterday, right? Or was that two days ago? It was two days ago. I had Nico on my list. You did not. And that was a major point of contention in from Tennessee fans, right? And now with this new information, it's very interesting that you and I were split on that one player who's now the center, you know, discussing why do you think, why do you think I didn't have him on the list?

Well, even if that was the case, I still think you have to rank him. If you think he's one of the best quarterbacks in the country. I don't know why that that would keep. But, but let me put it this way. If, if you're hearing from Tennessee that maybe we don't think he's one of the best quarterbacks in the country. Which is what you also would hear from a place if they don't want to pay somebody either, right? Like, I mean, like, that's true. You know,

like I've covered recruiting and I'm no, but we know, we know how they act when they love the guy. We know how they act. Yeah. I'm not saying that you're wrong for doing that. Um, what I'm saying is, that's just my opinion. I had him in the honorable mentions. Okay, I had Darien Mensah on the list. You didn't. You had Haynes King on your list. I didn't. Like it's different. We are allowed to have differences of opinions in places seven through 15 on our quarterbacks. Let me wrap what I was going to say though. I wasn't criticizing your list again. I did that days ago. How have your mentions been about him since? Because I know you were getting a new, new,

Yeah, the critical Tennessee fans slowed considerably. Okay, on Thursday, the one the Tennessee fans mad about me leaving Nico off that that slowed considerably. Now, I will say the Luke Altmeyer hive at Illinois picked up the slack though. So very much mad that I left Luke, Luke Altmeyer off. I mean, both of us had him in the honorable mention and having Luke Altmeyer as a top 13, 14 quarterback in college football is pretty good. Like pick where I think it's interesting and I know that, you know, they want to be on the graphic and I get it. I'm

okay with that. But we think very highly of him. So, yeah, so like now this is super interesting. And I guess we're going to wait and see what happens. I don't know what your timeline is in terms of what we were going to find out. Well, the spring games tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon. So I would suspect you get something one way or the other. And like I said, I think the logical conclusion is they pay him more and he stays. Yeah. So, which is that makes more sense than anything else.

If that happens, that doesn't mean that what we're talking about didn't happen. I want to make that clear. No, it's okay. Listen, people are going to believe what they want to believe. If they want to believe there are no negotiations going on. That's fine. I know there are like these people who are calling us liars are not going to sue us. Because they're negotiating. Oh, I'm not worried about that. Yeah, I know. But what I'm saying is, these are all you got

the people in the chat like, Nico's dad said this, okay, let me explain how this would work. If Nico's dad thinks we're lying and defaming them, he would sue us, but the ultimate defense against libel is the truth. And if he sued us, on three's general counsel would subpoena his text messages, his emails, all the text messages and emails

from everybody at Tennessee's collective, all the text messages and emails from the Tennessee coaching staff and the athletic department. Guess what we'd find? They're negotiating. So that's why that won't happen. Yeah. I'm excited now though, like, because, you know, this is that, you know, college football has been a sport that is pretty active in the off season. And this has been kind of a dry off season. And like, this is a very interesting thing because it's not just interesting. Because of the quarterback that we're talking about, it's interesting because of like how it might shift, you know, in the time being how people approach NIL too, right? Like, I mean, if you're a school,

if you're a player, like is this smart on both sides to the way that you write contractor language into those, can they be more incentive based? I mean, there's a lot of different things here that- Okay, we can talk about the solution because this is actually flows into what we talked about with Mickey Joseph on yesterday's show. Mickey Joseph is the grambling coach.

He went viral last week for saying these guys should have buyouts. Well, here's what the deal is. If the schools will ever admit that they're paying them to play football, you can have that in the contract and you don't have to make them employees. Ari, you and I know people who have very large lucrative deals that are 1099 non-employee compensation deals. They're not, they don't get W-2s. Yeah.

So you can do that and you can say, because this is for playing football, if you do not play football for us, then we do not pay you. This is a binding contract for three years. If you choose to go to play football at another school, then you owe us or someone owes us X number of dollars. You can do that if you want to, but the schools do not want to admit they're paying them to play football or play basketball. And that's the part that they got to get over.

Yeah. And then also, as long as you don't get over it, you're going to open the door for situations like this. Now, now the question I have for you is, do you think, even if you don't think that Nico is a top 10 quarterback in college football, which we've discussed at length this week, do you think his performance slash trajectory is worthy of a pay increase? Compared to the market? Yes.

Cause I do think so. Like, this is the thing. Like I think it depends on what side of the equation you're on. I actually think that Nico is entitled to more money or is at least entitled to try to get more money. Okay. I don't know if it's gonna work out, but considering where Tennessee is

and where he is in the course of his upside slash development, all the things that I was screaming about this week, I would pay him if I were Tennessee. And the other thing too is I think that I might disagree with you on something, even though I think you're kind of right, which is that made no sense, but it'll make sense. Okay, I'm listening.

Your notion of if you're not gonna make a deep run in the playoff, and even I think I shared this at the beginning and I'm Rethinking it Then he's not worth it because he's gone after this year But at the same time to Tennessee can't have a disastrous season that they are in they are at a place as a but that's that's The question what it's and that is the coaching staff and the athletic department and and the collective's Responsibility to evaluate what is your what is your floor and ceiling with or without if the floors are close

together with and without then you're probably more apt to let him walk but if you think he raises your floor considerably you got to pay. I disagree with you even though you're right, is a philosophical bar. I love it. That's that's the show everybody. Yeah, but the thing that I do know is that like, you don't just pay him because you think he's going to get you to the

national title game, you also pay him to avoid disaster. I think you have to you pay him to avoid disaster. And then also to you might pay for the upside. Unless you think it wouldn't be a disaster and that's that is the key Piece of it that we don't know because the only people who know that really are Josh Hype on his staff. Yep Righty Ari All right. Ari, this has been absolutely fascinating. It's a fluid situation. We could be back later today. Be like, Nico's got a deal. Done.

Or we could be back later sometime and be like, holy cow, this is going to go a very different direction. I was supposed to go buy a, or help my wife buy a new car today around three o'clock. I probably shouldn't do that, right? Okay, we'll see how it goes. But we're going to be on high alert. All right, everybody. So now we have a fun rest of the show for you because Great show. Yeah. T-Bob A-Bear, we got your mail back questions and then a bonus random ranking that sprung from our conversation with T Bob so now let's talk LSU with T Bob a bear

right now let's go see T Bob the specifically in the Shire. What hobbit hole would this be? You're in Bilbo's house. Yes. Bag end. Uh, the, the homestead of the Baggins is for many generations. We just got to make sure that those dirty damn Saxville Baggins is don't get their hands on the deed. What's up boys?

How's it going? Ari has no idea what you're talking about. And I love, I love that. I don't even, and I know we went through this last time you're on the show. I don't even boys? How's it going? Ari has no idea what you're talking about. And I love, I love that. I don't know. I don't even, and I know we went through this last time you're on the show. I don't even know what the Shire is or like what show that's from. Through the hobbits live. Go to the ranks. Get cultured, you nerd. Yeah. I know. I grow up.

I do need to grow up. I grow up. So our friend T Bob, you can find him pretty much everywhere. He's got his own show with Aaron Murray called snaps that you can find on your YouTube's also off the bench with Jacob Hester. Great. Two great former LSU players chopping it up on 104.5 ESPN radio in Baton Rouge and also hosting the after hour, the happy hour after the Jim Rome show on Jim Rome's Fast Channel. Nothing gives me more pleasure than confusing Jim daily in the same way that we just confused

Ari. I did not expect him to let me do it, but they straight up let me do the show from Bag End to Every Day on Jim Rome's Fast Channel. What a incongruous tag team. Are you confusing him in similar ways with the same stuff or is it different ways? No same stuff. You know, look, Jim, I think we all know Jim, right? I mean, you're talking about one of the radio OGs, firebrand guy, freaking loves sports, definitely grew up in the era when like being nerdy was like nerdy, but I've gotten to him to him to admit I'm a firebrand guy. freaking Uh, yeah, but actually it's, it's, it's been shockingly fun.

Jim is awesome. Jim is the best. Yeah. The best, like, cause I used to go out and do his TV show when he had the CBS sports TV show. Uh, but also I still go on his show pretty regularly. There is no radio host. Who is better prepared for his guests. He has read every single thing you have ever written

and heard every single thing you have ever said, and he's ready to roll. Yeah, I think that's a big thing with Jim, is you just got to put in the work. You prove that you're down to put in the work, and he's down to work with you. Also, what a fascinating subculture the jungle is. You know, that's what they call the radio show and all the clones and everything else.

It's been a I'm someone who I love new communities, right? Like I love when you have a shared group that is passionate about something specific. And I love dipping my toes in these communities, right? Like I was watching the Excel World Championships the other day. I've never worked on Excel a single minute in my life. I have no clue how it works. Hold on. I was flabbergasted. This is my spreadsheet World Championships. Yeah, they're unbelievable. You've never seen anything like it. Absolutely fantastic. I watched like a 30 minute YouTube video on the Beyblade that broke the Beyblade meta,

which I guess is like an old anime that I'd never seen. So I'm a big fan of this. So this whole experience getting to know the jungle and the clones has been like diving head first into a niche community that I didn't know much about before. It's funny that you brought that up Andy. I actually want the clones against the fine bomb callers. I'm not going to be a niche community that I didn't know much about before. It's funny that you brought that up Andy.

I actually want the clones against the Finebom Callers. Oh, dude. I would I would pay to see clones debating sports with with Finebom Callers. I don't know who would come out on top. You definitely have like that would be a heavy like

West Coast versus South sort of rivalry as well. That'd be I think it to be a business guy. And, uh, you know, I could have been a, uh, I do like the, the investor bro vests I'll give, I'll give them that they, they got something off that, but one of the first classes I took because Arizona actually surprisingly has a really good business school, um, was an Excel class and it was the hardest, most unbelievably challenging class. You could, like, you would think, Oh just you're learning how to use a program. I've never seen what T-Bob's talking about.

I can't imagine, but like the depths of what that program can do will blow your mind. Well, like who's the Jaden Daniels of Excel? I don't know. Is it based on speed T-Bob, or is it based on knowledge? They give them, they give them these challenges and they have to run through them as fast as they can.

Again, I've never used it a minute, so I really don't understand what's going on. It's almost like me watching like ASMR video though, because I get deeply satisfied, a deep satisfaction from all the clicking mechanical keyboards. And like, you know, you could tell when other people get pumped up. I mean, Ari, you should watch it because you have an actual history. Like you will appreciate the depth of what you are witnessing. It might actually be the class that caused me to get into journalism. So you can blame the Microsoft Excel person for ruining all your guys's lives.

But I am in your same shoes, T-Bob, where I watch things on YouTube that people would think I'm crazy for watching that are just satisfying to me. Yeah. I like, I watched this thing at night before I go to bed and my wife's not in the room or she goes to bed early or whatever. I'm obsessed with people who go find classic cars or old cars that have been sitting in a barn for 30 years and haven't been touched and then detailing them like I'll watch them detail and it's

satisfying the water go down those disgusting dirty rims and then like scrubbing them is just so satisfying to me. Andy, do you have any weird YouTube subcultures that you're like into that you watch when you're by yourself? No, I watched the condensed version of Florida LSU from last year. My father watches it. It's boring. Like he watches Putt-Putt. And there's like a hundred thousand subscribers. The most unbelievably off-the-wall things that you can imagine have very lucrative YouTube channels and

a bunch of people who are oddly obsessed with it. And I'm like one of them in the car. I'm like a car detailing guy. Isn't it sad though? Isn't it sad though? When like we're technically in that same profession. Yes. And you're just getting smashed by the guy racing marbles or like, I think

about, have you all seen the MD foodie boys? Oh yeah. I think it's like a guy who's mashed by the guy racing marbles or like I think about have you all seen the MD foodie boys? Oh yeah. 12 year old. They're incredible. They're 12 years old. They're like, what do you like on pizza? Well, I just like cheese and they're like,

what about what about fried chicken? I've never had it. It's unbelievable. Have no life and and I actually do like it. The clips are funny, but like no life experience, nothing interesting to say, and yet are vastly more successful at the same profession than I have dedicated my entire adult life to. Yeah, it is like really demoralizing because I was like at home

and my dad was watching these people play putt-putt. Yeah. And I'm like, first of all, what are you doing? He goes, I can't explain it. And then like, that's the perfect answer. I can't explain why I watch the stupid stuff that I watch. And then I saw they had like a million subscribers and it's like, I bust my ass every single day.

And so does Andy to try to create a YouTube channel and a show that a million people will listen to. And we're losing to a five-year-old playing with a toy that he's ripping out. We are losing to a person playing putt-putt. And it's like, you got to strike it right. And I know that's a very difficult thing to do, but there's a YouTube channel for everything. If you want to watch somebody like epoxy a garage floor, there's a 100,000 people who are like like locked in on this and like I don't know

how we do it but like what's the I would I would watch a time lapse epoxy with some relaxing music behind it that actually sounds kind of wonderful to be fair because it is at least satisfying to watch people accomplish goals that I couldn't

do in a million years. Wait, so Andy, how we feeling? All fat and cocky up there in your national championship throne, huh? Those damn dirty Gators, three football, three basketball, one baseball. Y'all are just so good at everything. Aren't you, Andy? Yeah, everything's cool. Everything. Hey, gymnastics season. No, wait, that's almost done. You're not. You're not going to

go on like a diatribe about how many awesome journalists came from your journalism department. I look that is pretty good. We mentioned that actually on the show this morning about how like, you know, I like to think of Florida as being trash, but sometimes I get really pissed off

when I get reminded about just how confident they are at everything kind of. Like it's not just sports, but it's also like an elite public school. You may not talk about the journalism school today. It makes me angry. So then I just- Here's what you need to know.

I'm at the school paper. And at the same time like so when I was assistant sports editor the sports editor was Andrea Shulstein who became Andrea Adelson who's at ESPN now Israel Gutierrez was our men's basketball beat writer he's at ESPN covering the NBA now if you went out to practice to do interviews after football practice there's Erin Andrews standing with her tape recorder working for WRUF. The level of talent was in Jamie Eisenberg, who's been doing fantasy football for years at CBS,

one of the biggest names in fantasy sports. He was there too. It was bizarre. And then we leave and Jeff Darlington and Jeremy Fowler walk in the door. What? That'd be nice. Was this urban years? This was Spurrier. Okay. And Jeremy and Jeff got the Zook years.

So it was really, really strange how it all worked out. But it's one of those things where, and it's kind of like we see in football and basketball, like where you have a special recruiting class and these people just happen to work well together, feed off each other, compete with each other, and it creates this thing. Well, congratulations. Very begrudgingly.

Very begrudgingly. Congratulations on your basketball blue blood status. They should do a Netflix documentary on the, what's it, the Alligator, is that what it's called do a Netflix documentary on the, what's it? The alligator. Is that what it's called? Uh, the independent Florida alligator. That's right. It's swamp King. Wait, that is an incredible name for a paper that's going to be reporting the

alligator, like a play on allegations. Absolutely fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. I just can't wait for the scene in the Swamp King style documentary where they show me on the last night of publication, I don't remember what semester it was, where I brought in a bottle of Jack Daniels and had a 44 ounce giant big gulp that I kept refilling. And the morning where I wake up, the next morning,

8.30-ish, because class started at 7.30, puddle of my own vomit in the back room. Like, that's good times. The only problem is Swamp King documentary would never show anything that real. So you're right. That's true. It would just be a puff piece.

I never knew what direction they were gonna go with that. Because the rumors you heard about the urban era Florida teams, like if, if half of the rumors were true, it would be the greatest movie ever made. Urban was in it. I knew it was over. Right. Sure. But all right. So now you're being modest T Bob. I mean you played on some really good LSU teams Yeah, you're alma mater is excellent football has has Won a national title under three different coaches in this century. Yeah, so My question to you is are they gonna win one under the fourth because that is

The grand existential question right now under Brian Kelly. Yeah. So at the time of hiring, I was answering this question with an emphatic yes. Through three years, though, it has been far from a disaster or anything, right? It's been surprisingly successful in some ways, surprisingly disappointing in others. But the overall takeaway would be a, a kind of regression of that confidence. I don't, like, again, it used to feel like it was an inevitability. It was a matter of when, not if. Now I think if is firmly in play. And when you look at this year's team specifically, I would say gone are the excuses. Now I'm not holding them to a natty or bust level of

expectation because winning a championship is so singular and so tough that like, you know, you got to have some things go your way to get there. It is what it is. But this is absolutely 1000% a playoffs or bust year. Like I'm not saying you're going to get fired or anything, but if you cannot make the playoffs this year with this roster that you have assembled, then I will never again expect you to. Maybe you get lucky, you know, maybe you have a great year, everything times up and you end up making it, but I will never again expect you to. Maybe you get lucky, you know, maybe you have a great year, everything times up and you end up making it. But I will never again expect you to. Because right now Brian Kelly has three top 10 recruiting classes in a row

stack together, the number one transfer portal class from the December portal season, a second year returning quarterback in Garrett Nussmeyer that projects to be one of the top in the entire country, a second year returning quarterback in Garrett Nussmeyer that projects to be one of the top in the entire country, a second year with Blake Baker trying to remake that LSU defense, bringing back to what they used to be, right? Highest paid DC in the entire country. Like the timing is such that I don't care what you took over from Coach O, there is no excuse not to be in the playoffs this year. And that's where this gets

so fascinating because I don't think they're winning the first game of the season. But we can maybe get into that a bit more. Ari had him number one on his top 10 non-conference games of the 2025 season. Yeah, it is because there's tentacles. I like that word. You know what I think is interesting about what T-Bob's saying though, is that all of it is true. It's all factually accurate. But I also think that the compounding pressure, compounding, I should say, pressure of the job and Brian Kelly failing to make the playoff last year makes you feel that even more, like naturally.

Like LSU had one of the best offenses in college football history two years ago and didn't do anything with it last year they had a down year like there's only so much of that that you can take at LSU before that becomes the baseline expectation regardless of how you want to like talk about it like they have the pieces in place and they built it sure but now we're in the time arc where that's a necessity regardless of what you do and I think that those two things work together. Well and last year was also the kind the kind of year that got Ed Orgeron fired and Ed Orgeron had the national title. I mean I well I would say this though I mean uh I don't think, again, the thing about the Coach Joe era, and it's impossible to extricate the fall from COVID.

I've talked to some people that were, you know, working there high up at that time and hearing about what it was like in 2020, coming off of the 19 championship, feeling like they were not able to parlay that 19th success in the way that they should have been because of all of a sudden the world shut down and all this other stuff. And then, yes, you had a coach kind of fall victim to success, you know, a bit of a E-True Hollywood story. But like maybe he could have made it if COVID was there. But the point is it was. And just objectively, I mean, you were sub 500 over a two year sample size. Like, Brian Kelly's been nothing close to that. Right? Year one, you made the SEC Championship.

Year two, the ultimate disappointment is that you had one of the greatest offenses ever. You just happened to pair it with the worst LSU defense we've ever seen. And then year three was kind of a mishmash of the two. But I don't believe that Brian Kelly has had a disastrous year at LSU yet. But also, again, like I said, surprisingly positive in some ways, in some moments, and surprisingly disappointed. Look, nothing is bigger right now than win the first game of the season. Because that is what has held him back from all of his goals.

That is what has changed the math every single season to the point where LSU doesn't end up in the conversations that they want to at the end of the year. And it's kind of shocking, but LSU hasn't won a season over in half a decade. I mean, the last time you won it was 2019, 2020, you lose to Mississippi State 2021, you lose to Mizzou or sorry, 2021. Oh, who was it? Because then you lost to Florida State in 22 and 23. USC last year in 24. And now you have Clemson on the road in Death Valley with Kate Clubnick and Garrett Nussmeyer topping a lot of the best quarterbacks in the country charts. You got a new offensive line going against a fearsome Clemson front seven that

features multiple All-Americans. You got those young Clemson receivers, Lil Old Davo, right when you think he's back, like Jesse Jimstone, he comes back from the dead, baby, ready to roll. I gotta ask this, just as an aside, they lost to... UCLA in 2021. That's what it was, yes, UCLA. A memory-hulled back game.

38-27, UCLA at the Rose Bowl, I don't even remember that happening. It happens. Dorian Thompson Robinson had a big game. I just remember it happening because pretty good. Uh, that's what Coach Joe said. Like before the game he yelled at one of the fans about their sissy blue. And then UCLA ran counter like 40 times and

Zach Charbonneau just stuffed it up their ass. Yeah. I also remember that weekend though because that Friday I was in a medicinal marijuana shop in LA and somebody I knew from Baton Rouge like, hey, you going to John Williams tonight? I'm like, what are you talking about? And John Williams is my favorite, the composer, is my favorite musical artist of all time. It's not even close.

Every year my Spotify rap, I'm in the 0.01% of John Williams listeners. Like I am autist level obsessed with John Williams. And long story short, after I talked to that guy in line, I immediately went and bought tickets. I got to see John Williams live at the Hollywood Bowl. I literally started crying at the end of the performance and one of my buddies filmed me.

And then Mark Hamill tweeted me about it. What a night. Luke Skywalker himself. Luke Skywalker himself tweeted me about hearing John Williams live, referred to me by my first name, probably the greatest moment of my life. So it was worth LSU getting their dicks kicked in by UCLA. Behind the scenes River had to explain to me who you were talking about because I had no idea and now it all makes sense. T-Bob, the thing I was wondering about. Well, no, no. Rivers said he's the Star Wars composer. That drastically understates. John Williams created more songs that you remember than any human being in history, including Beethoven and Mozart. True. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Superman,

Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Superman, ET. The list goes on and on. Again, he basically composed the 80s and then also Home Alone. When you think about whimsical nostalgia, like that is John Williams. That's the guy who made, that's the guy who made do do do do do do do do. Yes, yes, yes, that's John Williams. The question I have about this, this is impossible to have this guy on the show to talk about football, I just can't do it. Don't worry, we will.

We'll think that. And I don't want this to be an insult. This is just a theory or a question. Yeah. Do you think that the brilliance in the music was the brilliance in the music? Or do you think it is also combined with the nostalgia that it always coincides with all the things that you remember from your childhood? Like which one is it?

Well, I'm glad you asked, there is an incredible documentary on Disney Plus right now about John Williams, and it really shows you that as much as the movie is informing the music, the opposite is just as true, if not more so. And the story that really reinforces this is Spielberg, who's all throughout the documentary, and it's worth it just to watch Spielberg and John Williams talk. I got goosebumps, of course, my body thinking about it. But Spielberg talks about how when he's showing John Williams cuts of Jaws, he has a horror movie temporary soundtrack behind it.

You know, a lot of like psycho like, like, yeah, it's like discordant violins and everything. And John's like, no, no, no, no, Steven. What you don't realize here is this is not a horror movie. This is an adventure movie. It's a nautical adventure. And then you go and you watch the movie and you see the score and you're like, oh my God, he's right. And Spielberg said it himself. John Williams showed Spielberg the type of movie that he was actually making. And that's not even getting into the fact that he essentially created The shark, which in one of Hollywood's best create, or what is it, necessity, breach, creativity, something along those lines, necessity, mother, innovation, something.

Like the shark just didn't work. So all of a sudden you can't show the shark. So you shoot it away, you can't show the shark. What brings the shark to life? Duh, duh, duh, duh. And hearing Williams describe his field sitting down and hitting those two notes to be like, here's it. I got it.

Listen to this. When you see him in concert, is he playing all of the scores from the movies? Yeah. Yeah. He's he conducted the LA Philharmonic in all the that's insane. Yeah. It was it was it was again. I'm not exaggerating like outside of the birth of my kids and maybe the it was it was it was again. I'm

not exaggerating like outside of the birth of my kids and maybe a couple of other things. It was the greatest night of my entire life and you got your glaucoma fixed earlier in the day too. So it was a hell of a day for you the hell of a day. Yes, I I

treated my chronic post football pain and then and then Zach Charbonneau has a day brought it back UCLA UCLA gives LSU the game plan for the Florida game in 2022. Yeah. The LSU used run power 19 times in a row. Um, and it all works. Okay. Actually, I don't know how we got back to it, but I, this is, I want to run this by you.

I have an LSU theory that I want to run by you. Yeah. And I said this on our quarterback ranking show on Wednesday. We talked about Garrett Nussmeyer and I said one of the things holding back Garrett Nussmeyer is play calling because LSU abandons the run too quickly in this particular play calling administration. It's a 59% pass team last year. Like I part of this is I rewatched the Florida game the other day

and was stunned because I didn't remember LSU having successful runs, but they actually did early in the second half and then they stopped, which allowed Florida to tee off on Nussmaier. Interesting. I don't remember them running the ball well either. It almost like it had a couple of Kaden Durham runs

where you're like, whoa, they're moving it. No, they, um, it's one of the wildest things I've ever seen in that last year's offensive line was the best pass blocking line I've ever seen. And it wasn't just that they were average at run blocking. They kind of sucked. Like third and one was a terror. Like any time when it's third and one and you feel like you have the disadvantage, that's a problem. And you would see LSU running all kinds of, you know, okay, let's get a guy in like a jet motion and that will swing it out to him. You know, all these passing plays that you could say are extensions of the running game, but they still come with risk in that they were very predictable. And like, what if it's a bad throw? What if it's dropped? Like you have to be able to just line up

and run the ball. And again, to your kind of overarching point there, you're doing Garrett Nussmeyer a huge disservice by not taking some of the pressure off of his shoulders. I think that's why you saw him go through that kind of a lull in the middle of the season was Everything was just on his decision-making and he got got a couple times lost some of his confidence and credit to him ended up refining it But yeah, like I wouldn't mind like my great Hope for this year's offensive line would be I'm okay if you're going to be not as good pass blocking But you have to be better at running the ball and to your point For Joe Sloan and company they have to have more commitment and emphasis on it, which I forgot about this until again, I read it the other day, but they hired Alex Atkins to be running the game.

And like that's a great ire in that regard. Like that should show you that, okay, they realize that as well, and they should be more committed to that phase of the game. I was very interested in your Clemson thought already predicting potentially that they might not win. If LSU is who we think they might be, should they be underdogs in this game? Yeah, like I think there's a world here where LSU is still a playoff team but loses to Clemson because Clemson's just that good and it's on the road and it's the first game of the season. I mean road and college football first game this stage. It's going to be incredibly hostile

and we all know the advantage that in this sport specifically that being in a great home stadium, the advantage that it gives you. Also, look, man, you know, how many years in a row can I pick him to win the opener to lose, right? Like at a certain point, I have to just accept what things are. And I think all five years I picked him to win the game and they've lost.

So I'm not freaking doing it again. OK? I just, I just. I think you're right. I think they can lose that game and still be a playoff team. Just like Clemson lost the Georgia game last year and was a playoff team. The Florida game for LSU feels much more monumental

because it's a conference game. This is, for both teams, it's one of those where if you wanna get where you wanna go, this is a team you have to beat. Like Florida feels the same way. And so that's the one I keep looking at, like there's gonna be a fricking meltdown from somebody after this game.

So I think the difference there would be that I think that Clemson is a very complete team right now. I think that Florida is still a bit and this is without doing all of my like, you know, deep offseason dives on the roster and whatnot. So so what you're about to say is completely fair, but Florida just feels like a team a bit, you know, more on the rise, a bit younger. Now, DJ Lagway, he is so obviously the wild card here, right? Like he is the piece of the puzzle that changes all the math and that maybe

overcomes the more complete roster of LSU or whatever the case may be. And the environment and everything else. Yeah. Yeah. Like DJ Lagway is that guy. I mean, you know, I have staffs there. Murray, he knows quarterback very well. He is obsessed with DJ Lagway. And it's easy to see why.

6-1 is a starter. I mean, if he doesn't get hurt, maybe they beat Georgia last year. Like the guy was unreal. But in terms of overall roster and the fact that LSU's at home, I do think LSU should win that game. If Florida does, then my God, start the Gator hype, because that would be a springboard for them into, wow, look at that, it runs straight into Miami, then to Texas, and what?

Good God, what up? Yeah, good God. This guy's schedule's brutal. But let's see, put up LSU schedule because we can say the same thing. If LSU beats Florida, now you've got the- I think it's Southeastern, I think. Yeah, it's a lot.

Southeast Louisiana, yeah. Then Ole Miss, South Carolina. But LSU schedule's not easy. First of all- Well, nobody's dis, Ole Miss is gonna be pretty good. South Carolina is gonna be very good. A&M is the agent of chaos in the entire SEC and then they gotta go to Tuscaloosa. Florida's schedule is unbelievably harder than this.

They're both hard, but Florida's is all in a row. Yeah, Florida's timing is very rough. Three of those four being on the road as well. And then closing with Ole Miss, Tennessee, Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee. I mean, Kentucky's whatever. Yeah, that's but even Kentucky's on the road. Yeah, this is a, this is pretty brutal for, for neighbor. But we said the same thing last year and they outperformed expectations. I think, um, I, I always like looking at, cause everybody's schedule in the sec is going to be hard obviously, right? So it's like very degrees of hard. And, uh,

I find that looking at the combined record of the opponents from the last season was a pretty good metric last year of how things ended up shaking out. And if you look at that again, it's like, okay, Tennessee and Mizzou, they have the easiest schedules. I think Ole Miss is down there on the easier side. I think Georgia and Alabama got relatively friendly ones. And then LSU is kind of in the middle there and Florida is near the top of the- Yeah, Florida and Oklahoma got the shaft.

Well the worst part is and partially this is because they can't play themselves but it's literally like Mississippi State and Kentucky and Arkansas all have ridiculously hard records where their combined opponent win percentage is like almost 70. It's like there's like 150 basically. It's like, God, can't, can't. We will be back with more from T-Bob A-Bear. But first, I gotta tell you about Culver's. We are of course presented by Culver's. Culver's bringing us to Green Bay for the draft

for the great Wisconsin tailgate. It's gonna be tremendous. We're gonna be across the street from the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field. We're gonna have special guests. It's gonna be spectacular. Ari and I are gonna be breaking down the picks. We're gonna be breaking down where our favorite

former college players are going and where we think they're gonna wind up. But also we will be surrounded by the goodness of Culver's, which of course is born in Wisconsin, home of the legendary Butterburger, fresh frozen custard and Wisconsin cheese curds. I told you the other day I had a cookies and cream frozen custard a couple weeks ago. It was the first one I'd had in a little while. I forgot how good they are. And I drove past the Culver's in my town yesterday. And the flavor of the day on the Marquis is just spectacular because

it just sucks me in every time. This was a strawberry one that was very intriguing to me, but unfortunately I didn't have time to stop. So maybe bring that back around Culver's because I want to try that next time. Yeah, the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field might not be frozen given the time of year we're going, but I'm going to make it frozen with the custard I'm going to put down out there. I'm super excited about it.

And yeah, super happy to have Culver's, which has an expansive menu outside of this. The menu items that you listed in everything on that menu is really good. Happy to be there. Cannot wait to go to Green Bay and hang out with the folks from Culver's. Ari, let's get back to T-Bob. T-Bob, I want to ask you something.

This is a dear Andy, dear Ari Day. We do the mailbag today. We got a question that I would like to put to you because I, this, I don't even care about the general concede of the question. It's the secondary piece of it that I find more interesting. This is from Matt. Yeah. Says, what do you think of this prediction? Shane Beamer will be the next coach at Oklahoma and it could happen as soon as this next off season. I feel bad for Sakarolana spelled correctly, if you're going to pronounce it that way and making this prediction.

But Beamer is due for an upgrade. So it's not the will Brit Venables get fired question because we obviously know Brent Venables is under pressure. My thing is if. Shane Beamer is doing well at South Carolina if they have the

year we think they're going to have. Would you even leave? Even for a job like Oklahoma? I mean, the Oklahoma piece is real, real tough because a couple of years ago, you would have said, absolutely. But now that Oklahoma's in the SEC, it's got a little bit of what I call family guy logic, where there's an episode where I think they sit through like a timeshare meeting, and at the end of it, they're like, okay, you could choose a boat? You get a boat or you get the mystery box?

Mystery box. Yeah, and Peter's like, I mean, Lois, a boat's a boat, but the mystery box could be anything. It could be a boat. So if you've already had the boat in South Carolina, are you going to leave Oklahoma and do the same thing? And I get it. You have way more story tradition. South Carolina is literally like, probably the least story tradition almost in the country, which is why I appreciate their fans. real ones, South Carolina fans are. But and you got great resource and everything. But yeah, it's with Oklahoma being in the SEC, I think is the element of that question that makes that hard to parse. I got I mean, I feel that I got questions for South Carolina though, because they're up there with the hardest schedules.

And they lost a lot defensively and I know you still have Dylan Stewart, but like they lost a lot of upper classmen. Can that defense still be that good? Can Dylan Stewart still be that good when you don't have to worry about canard and Tonka and all these other guys? It's interesting. It reminds me actually of a story involving LSU, uh, when Bobby Bowden was early in his career at four state that they were playing LSU in Baton Rouge every year, cause they were just, they would just play anybody anytime, anywhere.

And so they, they in 1979, they go to play LSU. LSU knows their coach is retiring. They offer bot they've already offered Bobby about the job if he wants it basically to come the next season. Oh, wow. And he, he tells his wife, Anne, if we beat them, I'm staying at Florida State because it means I can do it here. If we lose, I'm taking the LSU job because it means we can't do it here. And he beats LSU in 79 and he stays at Florida State. Damn. Wish LSU could have won that game. Crazy, right? That is a crazy fork in the college football history road.

Yeah. I have to ask you this because and I know we departed temporarily from LSU, but I asked you this a year ago and I want to ask you again. Yeah. Do LSU fans like Brian Kelly? Uh Yeah, I like there's always this perceived idea that LSU fans don't like him and It's just uh, it's just not true. I mean he hasn't um, well, I think two things first off He has been Very gracious uh

and very personable with local media and fans. And again, he hasn't had like a disaster year. Like, yes, there's been disappointment because that you will find sex of the fan base that don't like him, but you can find sex of any fan base that don't like the head coach, right? It's not like some overriding opinion that Brian Kelly is disliked here. No, that's actually not the case. Um, that's the thing like people who win and he's still winning. Yes.

I mean, and like, and these conversations like that's, that that's why, like, I get so upset sometimes with these coaches and their rabbit ears. It gets so sensitive. It's like, Hey guys, you control your own destiny. You know, you win and everybody's going to love you no matter what you lose. And they're going to hate you no matter what. It's so funny. After a big loss, all of a sudden, it's like, you hear all these rumors about, well, I mean, coach in the off season, he's pretty checked out, man. You know, he's out there golfing, traveling, not doing the work. And then the next week you beat Alabama, and it's all good. You don't hear another peep about it.

Like, like there's never been, I I've done this job for long enough now in a local setting, especially where it is so blatant that all that matters is winning any off field scandal, anything else like that. We'll be erased and covered up if you win. So don't bitch if people don't like you or to call it for your head. Like Al Davis said, the most true words that have ever been spoken in sports, just win baby. You do that and they gonna love you. I think I might have had a like phrased it poorly because I know that like with Brian Kelly, maybe this is the only coach in college football where that could be misunderstood as do they like him as a human? My question is, is like, do you think they're satisfied with the where things are at?

No, I think I think how I laid it out at the start there is pretty representative of the overall, I've mined, where again, it's not there hasn't been like it hasn't been like a disaster anywhere. But you've also left a bit too much meat on the bone and that this this is the Prove It year again not in being fired because that's not happening. But this is the Prove It year and will the fan base maintain that belief in you? Like I'm sure like, okay, if y'all did a top 10 coaches in college football at the time he was hired at LSU, Brian Kelly's probably guaranteed in the top five at that point. And now if you do that list, does he make the top 10? I had him at number eight. Ari had him further down.

There you go. That's what I'm saying, right? So like it's the the same slippage of belief that you have nationally is also I would say happening locally, but it's just not to the point where they're like Anybody's like ready to like run them out of town or anything So t bob i'm gonna i'm gonna call an audible on this show here because we we've got the mailbag segment So here's what i'm gonna do We're gonna go answer some questions in the mailbag segment, and then we're going to come back to you. Because we do a segment called the random ranking sometimes.

And I have a random ranking for you. We are going to randomly rank John Williams' scores. And I am looking at this and realizing how hard this is going to be. So Ari and I are going to answer your questions, and then we'll be back with T-Bob for random ranking John Williams scores. We'll be back with more from T-Bob. We got a John Williams random ranking to do,

but we do need to answer some of your questions. And you guys had some really fun ones this week. We already asked T Bob the question about the South Carolina Oklahoma thing, which look, I don't wish losing a job on anyone. I just think it's we understand that Brent Venable is under pressure this year, but I thought that was an interesting question. And I really thought it reminded me a lot of the Bobby Bowden LSU situation in 1979 that he told the story about, because I think that's,

if you're Shane Beamer and you win that game again this year and you're like a playoff team and Oklahoma has a bad season and makes a change, like, I don't know, you might already be there. I thought T-Bobs- Who in the world would take this? Yeah, go ahead. Like, no offense.

Oklahoma is a blue blood job. And one of the places that had the fewest prolonged down periods in the history of our sport. I'm not gonna pretend like that's not an upgrade of a job. It's a very good job. And Shane Beamer was under consideration when Brent Venables got the job. I think if Brent, if something had gone sideways with Venables, there's a good chance Beamer would have

gotten that job anyway. We have to say that the reason why Shane Beamer would be up for that job in this hypothetical is because of the tremendous job that he's done. But that doesn't mean that he's been there before he there's a little history to he was an assistant there. What does it mean that South Carolina is an easier place to win at. Like that, those are two very different things. No, and that's what makes it a question is if you're already

winning at South Carolina and you'd have to go rebuild Oklahoma, I think I would stay at South Carolina in that situation. I would not. I would go to the place that has won forever all the time and gives you the resources. You have a new recruiting footprint, but I think that the long term likelihood of being a winner in 10 years from now is higher in Norman than it is in South Carolina. Here's another question. And I, you guys are being

negative Nellie's this week, but these are legitimate questions to ask. So big booty underscore TD on Twitter. Read it again. Read his name again. Big booty underscore TD. What happens to Kailin Dabour if it turns out Alabama doesn't have a QB and he goes seven and five. Which is not insane to say out loud. If we show the Alabama schedule

and this were to come to pet, now look, it's still a really good roster. So I think it would be really hard to go seven and five, even if you didn't feel like you had a great quarterback, but it is possible. We just mentioned Shane Beamer in South Carolina, they got to play them. We don't know what Florida State's gonna be.

We think they're gonna be, we think Alabama would be better in Florida State. We think they'll be better than Wisconsin, but Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, South Carolina, LSU, Oklahoma, and Auburn all scary games. All of them. If you if the quarterback thing is

not what you hope it is, went 9 and 3 last year and people want to paint the quarterback as being the clear reason for that. That quarterback might be a first round pick in the NFL draft coming up. If they have a complete let down at the quarterback position, it's not insane. Okay. And I think that like it's obviously the big underdog for that to happen. No one's expecting that to happen. But it's not an insane thing to put it's it's not like asking what happens if, you know, Georgia goes two in 10 this year. Like that's not even worth discussing. This is worth discussing.

It's crazy to think that that you're a year and a half removed from Nick Saban retiring or not even a year and a half removed from Nick Saban retiring. And we were talking about that being a possibility because that was never, never really a possibility in our Nick Saban after the first year. And I don't think it's going to happen this year. If it did happen, I don't, I mean, they might pull the ripcord on that. The seven and five would probably be bad enough to pull the ripcord at Alabama. I think at most places it wouldn't be. At most places, okay, well, you're on the hot seat next year. Alabama is different.

Alabama expects quite a bit. The expectations were skewed by Nick Saban's success, which I'm not sure anybody's ever going to be able to repeat. But yeah, it's critically important. The question is, could Kalen DeBoer conceivably be fired after this year? That's what the question is. That's the question. And if it's that bad, then probably. I'm with you. I think that's the one place where I don't even think about what I don't worry about

what the buyout would be if they're, if they're motivated enough, they'd make it happen. Yeah. Now it's a pretty difficult question too, because you also have to analyze the market and see if you, you know, I think you make the case if this were to happen that Alabama was in this situation because like I mean, like at the time they hired one of the three hottest coaching candidates in the country. So like, you know, who was around and all that stuff has to probably be taken into account, the money and all that. Who is coming back, how he recruits next year because they had a really good recruiting class. And you know, I'm a lot higher on the value of that maybe even more so than most people. But like you can't go seven and five at Alabama. You just can't. Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen.

I think the worst case scenario is probably eight and four but which also is a disaster. But yeah, I just read you that schedule. Like if you're not happy with the quarterback situation or you don't feel like you have the right guy for any part of the season, well, I guess early in the season, you can probably get away with it. But once you hit week four, you better know what you got

and you better be happy with it. So we'll see. This is gonna be a really interesting year. I didn't even mention Vandy as a potential loss. They lost to Vandy last year. I don't think they'd do it again, but who knows at this point. All right, here's one more question from Jake.

I love this. Hey Ari, big fan of the show. I have a question for you and Andy. My friends and I recently began a yearly tradition of attending a game at a different stadium each year. We went to Austin for a Texas game last year and had a blast. We're a group of 26 year old guys,

so barring any disasters, we have 50 plus college towns we need to get to at some point. So we only pick one new game slash stadium each year. My question to you is this, in your opinion, which college towns game stadium do you think we absolutely need to hit while we still have no responsibilities?

And which ones do you think we can save for the latter half of this century? For example, my take is that a game in South Bend can be saved for later, whereas I wanted to get down to Austin for a game as fast as possible. So no responsibilities. I'm assuming this means no kids. I don't know. Some of you are probably still single, which means you're ready to mingle.

But before we get to the actual question, though, I want to give you a piece of advice that I feel that personally in my life, which is my friends and I used to go to Vegas every year while we were in our 20s, annual tradition, five, five or six years in a row, I think. And then that stopped because we all got married and had families. And it was harder to do schedules and obviously Memorial Day weekend's a big, a big weekend for kids that don't have school. And we weren't able to maintain that. So do everything in your power to make sure that you can continue that tradition for as long as possible, because I think it's important in maintaining friendships, especially now that you don't live in the same town a lot of the times that you meet people in college, you don't live in the same town as the best friends that you made.

And I miss my guys very much. So that was kind of a little bit of a deeper answer for that. Yeah. So that was kind of a little bit of a deeper answer for that. But at the same time, too, we also have to discuss that there's a difference between college towns and how good the team is in those towns at the time. And I'm assuming that if you want to have the coolest trip imaginable, you want to go and pick those games based on who's awesome that you're a big game. My number one pick, and I'm sorry if I missed it in the question, would be State College for a whiteout. Like if you've never done that as a team, that's where I would go.

But can you save that one for when you are a little bit later and more boring in life is what Jake is asking? Because he's saying Notre Dame you can save, and he's right. Notre Dame you can save. is what Jake is asking. Because he's saying Notre Dame you can save and he's right, Notre Dame you can save. When you're young, when you wanna let it rip, when you wanna go wild, there's one place you're going. It's Baton Rouge. You're going to an LSU game.

Now, I think you also probably wanna think about going to Oxford for an Ole Miss game in this situation. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, those are the young and boring thing is like Penn State might be number one in the country this year. Ari these guys might be single. Okay, you're missing the subtext of the question. I understand. They're definitely young single river. Yeah, they're definitely single if they don't have any responsibilities. Yeah, like you're missing the subtext of the question. They're like, where do we need to go? Where the pretty girls are? It's like you can say the line out on your college campus on America. Like what? Okay. It doesn't matter. Yeah. You got to go to Athens, Athens, Athens, best college down in America. Yeah. And like also also like when I think like older and boring, like I think like go to BYU because that would be an awesome

place to see a game. I've never been. Sure, and that's where or now Arizona State could be either one of these because you go to Arizona State because obviously. You know the the environment is is what it is, but also. If you're setting up a guy's golf trip later, like when you're all married and have kids. Yeah. So that one could serve dual purposes. Now, they're really good right now, so that tempe

might be your spot this year. But what you're asking, Jake, I'm telling you go to Baton Rouge or Athens or Oxford for what you're asking. Do that now. Well, you know what, guys, if you're a Penn State fan, just know that I have faith that young single guys could have a good time in state college too. I'm sure they can. I'm sure they can too. And going to Beaver Stadium for a whiteout during a time in which they're this good. Hopefully it's sustainable, but this is be a good year.

And like, I get that it's cold there and there's gonna be a lot of sweaters, but like it's an awesome place. Well, listen, if you go early in the season, it's not gonna be cold. So yeah, yeah. I mean, all of these places you can't miss, but you go to the scenic ones as you get older,

go to the big loud stadiums or big time games with a bunch of drinking and a bunch of parties when you're younger. Is that okay? I think that's fair. I think that's very fair. So I hope we've helped you Jake. Can you write us back and tell us where you're going? Because who knows maybe maybe Ari and I are going to that game.

I would maybe two old Mary guys will cramp your style. So perhaps you don't get after it. I can still. So perhaps. I'll get after it. I can still get after it. I can get after it for one day now. I can't do it for four days in a row. I can do it one day. I can't recover. That's my problem is that I used to be able to go out till three in the morning, bounce

back, you know, 7 a.m. the next morning, ready to roll. Let's go get a full workday in. I need like four days to recover now. Yeah. That's my problem. But yeah, good question. That was fun. That's the spirit of the show.

I love it. I love it. But please, Jake, let us know where you wind up picking. And I want a full report. Ari, we're gonna get back to T-Bob now because we've given him some time to think. Random ranking, John Williams scores. to get back to T-Bob now because we've given him some time to think. Random ranking, John Williams scores. This might be the hardest topic we've ever had.

Okay, we are back. I've given T-Bob some time to think, but this is a really difficult random ranking. The top John Williams themes brought on because he told us about going to see John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl. Yeah. So let's just run through a couple things. But the obvious ones, basically all of the famous Star Wars ones. Are we doing five? We'll have Star Wars. Let's do the franchises can be contained, I think to just one ranking, right? I think we have to because we don't need a part of the yeah, the Star Wars main theme in the Imperial March probably should get their own spaces. But well, I mean, honestly, you'll talk to some you're a duel of the face guy. I was going to say you talk to some classical music guys and they say that duel of the fates guy. I was going to say you talked some classical music guys and they say that duel of the fates would be considered like

One of the greatest scores ever written if it wasn't tied in, uh with a with a movie um Also across the universe is an absolute banger from the prequels in episode two Uh, one of the best love themes ever written You can feel the longing like Like you go listen to Across the Universe and tell me you don't almost feel the story of Romeo and Juliet playing out in your head as you listen. But this guy has the Indiana Jones theme,

the Jaws theme, the Olympics theme. Yeah. The freaking Olympics. Jurassic Park, E.T., Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, Superman, Close Encounters, David Pryor, Ryan Hook, Memoirs of a Geisha, Schindler's List? Very sad.

Yeah, Schindler's List is another big one. Yeah, that's... So what's everybody's number one of these? So, oh my God, this is my God. This is really tough. This is really tough. Because again, full breadth, it's gonna be very hard to beat Star Wars because like I said,

there are bangers littered throughout from prequels, even to sequels. Rey's theme in the sequels is great. But in a bit of an upset here, I think I gotta go Indiana Jones number one. And specifically the Raiders March. Now sometimes you'll look this up though and you won't get the full version, but the long version of Raiders March, I think it's about five to seven minutes, somewhere around there. You get the full breadth of John Williams. You get that. You get the adventure. You get a bit of whimsy.

You also have the amazing Karen Allen love theme thrown there in the middle, which, my God, Karen Allen, just a smile that can can melt your hearts, a smile that you would launch warships for. So that like, that's probably my single favorite song. So I will actually go Indiana Jones one. And then I think you have to go Star Wars two. Yep. And this is where it gets a little tougher because, I mean, I'm looking at Superman, Potter, and Home Alone, as Andy T as all being incredibly strong here. Yeah.

I'm going to go Star Wars number one. I have to go Star Wars number one just because it's such a because he's loaded again just the main Star Wars theme and just the Imperial March alone probably have a place on the list. I mean I like Leia's theme a lot of a lot of shared DNA between Leia's theme oh and that uh that kind of Caranelle of... I'm gonna go Superman second. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. The new Superman, the new James Gunn Superman trailer where they play with those themes. I mean, it's timeless.

It's like, again, that's the thing is you hear his music devoid of the movies and you still perfectly understand the story and the emotions that are supposed to be evoked. So you're going Superman 2. I'm gonna go with Jurassic Park number three. I love the, like when the gate, welcome to Jurassic Park and the gates open and it just swells.

Bim, bim, bim. No, I mean it's like. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na. Yeah. It feels like laying your head down on the pillow after a long day of taking care of kids where you're satisfied but exhausted. It's...

Oh, by the way, there's a real company that's making Jurassic Park. We're all gonna die. Yeah, the dire wolves. It happened this week too, so. But like So what are the dire wolves supposed to do now? They're just pre-chose, right? Like you can't read them. They're just going to live in captivity for us all to Augal.

They're just waiting for the Starks to come along and claim them. That's all. Ari doesn't know what that means either. The only way it's ever going to be funded is if you get rich people hunting mastodons. Like that, and you can just continue to make them. You're apparently working on mammoths next. I can imagine a mammoth hunt. Yeah, that's what I mean. A mammoth. I don't know.

Vladimir Putin playing it, paying to go on a mammoth hunt. Yes. The hardest part about this for me is, like, I don't have a connection to Star Wars at all, personally. Like, it's not... But the beauty of this is is you have seen Jaws. You have seen. Yeah, you know, Jurassic Park, follow these other ones. You appreciate the brilliance of the music, even if I'm not a huge fan of the movie. Like Indiana Jones, for instance, like that is an iconic. Like it doesn't matter whether you you you are into those types of movies or not.

Like maybe I maybe I had a terrible childhood. I had a great one but I just like never like I never like went all in on these things but like the thing that I think is one that you guys are neither of you are going to say I'm just

going to throw it out there but like he didn't catch me if you can and catch me if you can. Oh, that's great. It's not going to make my list but it's like, yeah, it's great. That's a great movie too and like home alone and then of course, this is a college football show. We have to at least talk about of grit and glory. Yes, dude. I

mean, look, I'm the biggest of grit and glory fan on the planet. That is a song that he custom made for the national championship when he is being a couple years ago. Uh everybody that I interact with on snaps and Jake has a memorial show. They all **** on me for it. It's no round. It's no round ball rock. No, but but what is right like like Williams can't give you

round ball rock, but the greatest football on Williams in of grit and glory like it is a great football song is of course heavy action. The Monday Night Football theme song. I wonder I like the greatest football song is is of course heavy action the money night football theme song um i wonder i i don't know man there's a bunch of the nfl films bangers from yeah i'm trying to remember who the main composer was they called him uh like dr funk or something oh man back in the 60s hold on i gotta i gotta, I gotta look this up. Well, while you think of that, I'm gonna... Sam Spence, absolute legend.

Well, I wanna, I wanna go with my next John. So I'm, I'm to number four now on my John Williams list. I'm gonna throw Harry Potter in there. It's not his normal, like, soaring, you know, it is. It's so I'm going to go. I'm actually going to go Potter three on my list and I feel cheesy as hell for it because it is a little cheesy. It's a little cliche. It's a little mainstream, but I genuinely love listening to it when I'm doing other activities and I don't know that anybody I mean you

want to talk about defining the movie defining the universe capturing the vibe. Nothing is more important to the success of Harry Potter and a visual medium than the music of John Williams. So I'm at Indy one, Star Wars two, Potter three. Okay. And I, and I'm at, I'm at Star Wars one, Superman two, Jurassic park three, Harry Potter four. I'm going to go with Jaws as my five because it makes the movie. You, you told the story of, Because it makes the movie. You told the story that he explained or the Spielberg explained. When shark doesn't work.

The reason the movie works so well is you don't see the shark for so long. Yeah. What makes the shark work is it's the suspense. It's like alien. Well, and how genius where the temptation Would be to overwrite and he brought it back to the barest

Simplicity that you possibly could again. It's a very funny anecdote when he's talking about being Pitching Spielberg and be like this is it and then he just goes, bump, bump, like just, just two notes. And it's like, huh? What? I mean, I honestly feel like that's probably number one because everybody knows what that is. Yeah. Yeah.

It's for a lot of the things, but like, if you hear bump, bump, like, like that's immediate, like you're just saying that's, that's why I wasn't kidding when I said he's written more memorable music than any other human in the history of the world. And the sad thing is that maybe even illustrated in my lack of name recognition will be relatively anonymous doing it too. It's not like he's like a person. Well, he'll never achieve like Beethoven or Mozart, but that's what he's deserving of. Yeah, right. Okay, so I okay, so I got Potter three, I'm gonna go Jurassic Park four.

That's easy for all we named. And even though I like the movies Home Alone better and I have way more memories of Home Alone, I'll close out my list with Superman five. So Indy Star Wars Potter Park Superman Superman top five John Williams. I put one. Unbelievable. I put one together. So I'm just going to share mine because okay, I'm probably the least credible

because I didn't connect to these movies the way you guys did but number one just because it's a college football show of grit and glory. Like that's- Yes. Good man, Ari. If you ever do anything that has a pop cultural reference on our game or an impact on our game, then you're good in my book. Two is Jaws because it's iconic for reasons I just said.

Home Alone, I am in a beautiful big house covered in snow whenever I hear that music. It's like I don't know what season it is. Jurassic Park obviously is just like a movie that we all watched and like that's iconic. And then Five, Catch Me If You Can is an underrated. A great list, Gary. I love that.

That's it. Schindler's List probably should be on one of our lists too, but that it's hard because it's such a sad subject matter. Well, yeah, that's the problem is that most of these you hear them and you're filled with a warm nostalgia. You hear Schindler's List and you're filled with a generational dread and kind of sadness, which speaks to the power of the material and the music. But also it's like that's one of the ones where

when I'm casually listening to it, I skip over it because it does drag you into such a nice and feel terrible because yeah, it was awful. Yeah. So but that is I'm so glad that you brought up that Hollywood Bowl story. You've told me that story before and I just love what it, cause it's one thing to know it's there, to have your tickets months in advance, but to realize it's happening and then just go.

Oh man. And it'd be one of the greatest. One of the joys of your life. In LA in general. My mom lives in LA and I was supposed to go spend the night at her house and I straight up just called her. It was like, hey mom, sorry, I'm not gonna go spend the night at her house and I straight up just called her and was like, hey, mom, sorry, I'm not going to see you.

I'm not going to make it. Sorry, just give me basically our one time to hang out this weekend because I have to go do this. Which credit to her, she knows what it means to me and she was like, oh yeah, for sure, go ahead. Yeah, yeah. That's incredible. Well, T-Bob, it has been wonderful. This is exactly what I was hoping

when you said you would come on. And anytime you want to talk, you let us know. We will happily tunnel into the Shire and yeah, we'll do a little home. You're always amazing to have on the show and I'd like to love your vibe. So I appreciate you being here. Well, that's very kind, and I will reciprocate by thanking both of y'all for all the content y'all doing on three, because a lot of times, a whole Snap show will just be throwing up a list and chatting about it and just breaking it down.

So we, no, we recredit and everything, obviously, but like, yes, but like, we, yes, so we use y'all's just breaking it down. So we know we regret it and everything obviously, but like, yes, we, uh, yes. So we use y'all's stuff all the time. We, we, we gotta have Aaron on soon too. Cause I, I used to do radio with Aaron quite a bit and, uh, and he hasn't been on this show yet. And I think he'd be great. And we can talk about how he, uh, he completely exposed Jimbo Fisher to me when he explained how he makes his quarterbacks carry the ball and I could never unsee it again and I was like, this is never going

to work. He's a model now. Yes. He got signed by a modeling agency, full shirtless, photo shooting, everything, and he's booked a gig. He's already booked a gig. This is like when I walked into an Abercrombie and Fitch, like two years after college and the guy on the wall was my high school

quarterback. Bro that happened to me too! Legitimately! One of my best friends from high school, my fresh year at LSU, I'm in the mall walking there and there his abs are staring back at me at like the main picture. I was like, I'm gonna warm up you guys. I was at a high end shopping center here at a place of that sold stuff that I couldn't afford. I was with my wife and we look forward to a billboard at the most handsome man I've ever seen in my entire life. And

my wife said, that's my ex boyfriend. No. I don't want to say the guy's name because I don't want anybody to Google him. Oh no. I have no idea what that's the most emasculating thing that's ever happened. You had no idea that that was the ex like when you saw the billboard you were like, oh, look at that. Like she will did to you as you're looking at the billboard. I knew that she had a brief fling with a male model. So it wasn't and it wasn't a so it wasn't like out

of nowhere. Like this is just news to me. It was the revealing of yeah, that's the guy. Oh my god. Yeah. And by the way, I feel bad for her because she has to like this is revealing of, yeah So that's good. Now it reminds me that we'll have male model Aaron. Yeah, look at his girlfriend said that she was. Oh, wow. That's a whole stand-up routine about how her how her or his girlfriend's ex was a Navy SEAL and how he couldn't like deal with that.

No, I mean, there's something what he can do. All right, boys. Well, I mean, there's something, what are you going to do? All right, boys. Well, thank you so much. Take care. Thank you. T-Bob. We will see you guys on Monday freaking out about spring games because there's a bunch of spring games this week in Ohio state, Georgia, Florida, you name it.

We'll be back on Monday. Talking more actual football. Let's go.