Andy & Ari On3 - When will Nico and UCLA become OFFICIAL? Revisiting QB Rankings

Episode Date: April 18, 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 (0:00-1:14) Nico Watch.... Continues(1:15-6:18) Spring Portal Open: QB Steve Angeli enters(6:19-12:05) Tennessee QB Watch(12:06-13:44) Culver's(13:45-32:09) Dear Andy & Ari: Top QB from 2023 class?(32:10-39:44) Any Chance Tennessee sues?(39:45-42:15) An Agent Registry for College Athletics?(42:16-45:04) Would Nico sit this fall?(45:05-47:06) Jim Nagy Hype?(47:07-51:56) Gio Lopez at P4, UNC's Ceiling(51:57-1:04:16) Bill Belichick's Girlfriend Role(1:04:17-1:04:56) CHAT A.R.I(1:04:57-1:13:16) Producer River's Highlight tape(1:13:17-1:13:58) Conclusion It's Friday, and yes, Nico Watch still continues. While all signs point towards UCLA for the former Tennessee quarterback, there has yet to be anything official announced. Meanwhile, the quarterback room for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish got a little smaller on Thursday, as veteran Steve Angeli enters the portal. Is this a potential option for Tennessee in 2025, or will Angeli look to go to the group of 5? It's also a Dear Andy & Ari show, and we have some excellent questions from our listeners. First off we take a look at the 2023 QB class which contains Arch Manning, Nico Iamaleava, Sam Leavitt, and Lanorris Sellers. Were the qb rankings of these guys accurate so far? What about the class of 2021 and 2022? More questions revolve around Nico, but one from an Oklahoma fan comes in on Jim Nagy: Is he worth the hype? Later, the guys do a deep dive into North Carolina's situation on the field while discussing the news regarding Bill Belichick and his girlfriend. To wrap up, we receive a gift from Producer River's high school coach: his hudl tape. We close out the show by breaking down some of River's best plays, and others that are definitely illegal these days. Producer River's full tape here: http://www.hudl.com/video/3/7486480/587131853deaab0d7c54a964 Watch the show LIVE, M-F at 9:30 am et on the On3 YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@On3sports Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey 

Welcome to Annie and Ariane. It's Friday. Niko watch continues. Nothing official yet from UCLA Ari, but their spring game is tonight. So maybe get an answer after tonight. Yeah, it's kind of feels like you're at sea like waiting to see a whale or something and like the whale is just being stubborn and it won't come to the shore. Like I don't know what we're does seem like if people were convinced on Wednesday evening that UCLA was the place that by now it would have happened. So I'm wondering how

it's going behind the scenes right now. Well, we'll see. And it might just be a matter of wanting to get through that spring game. And then we figure out what happens with Joey Aguilar, who went there from Appalachia State. But we'll check out that situation as it goes. And we'll update everybody as it goes. But we have a Dear Andy, Dear Ari show, lots of interesting questions, obviously

some NECA-related questions, some transfer portal-related questions. There was some news on Thursday, Steve Angelli, the Notre Dame quarterback headed into the transfer portal. Now, Steve Angelli was in the mix at Notre Dame this spring. It was CJ Carr. It was Steve Angelli. It was Kenny Menchie, CJ Carr and Kenny Menchie remain.

Do we think this means CJ Carr is QB1? Uh, yeah. Uh, I said that CJ Carr won the job on Twitter, uh, when on three posted the news, uh, that Stephen Jelley entered the portal and I got a lot of people like commenting old takes exposed there. Am I like off there for thinking this? Oh, there's, there's a Kenny Minchi hive out there. Okay. There's a Kenny Minchi hive, out there. OK, there's a Kenny Menchie high,

but the thing is like. You had to make sure you didn't lose two. And Marcus Freeman said after the spring game, it's probably easier as a two man race than a three man race, but I kind of wonder because I would. I would think Angelli was number two in that. Competition, yeah, Angelli is probably a guy who can go start somewhere right now.

And, you know, Pete Nacos wrote a story about what about Steve Angelli at Tennessee. I think Tennessee's trying to see what else shakes out to see if anybody who is a QB1 somewhere established decides they want to enter the portal, maybe with a little slight nudging. But I don't know that Angelli would be in line for that, but I would think Angelli is in line somewhere.

If somebody still isn't sure how they feel about their quarterback situation. In the power four or at the top of the group of five that I think Steve Angelli could start for some of those schools. Well, I mean, do you want to have an honest conversation about how good he is? Because a few weeks ago, we had a discussion on the show with Greg McElroy, and he came on the show and was saying that every single time he's watched him

on film and stuff that he's been very efficient. He compared him to Joe Burrow in the sense that he could come out of nowhere, not in terms of production. And I thought that that was an interesting conversation because nowhere, not in terms of, you know, production. And like, I thought that was an interesting conversation, because I think we look back at the Notre Dame-Penn State Semifinal. And, you know, we see the, the rough situation that the man was thrust into, and the fact that they got three points at a time in which even the Riley Leonard-led offense couldn't get a first down. And we're, like, assigning some sort of,

like, great value to that. And I don't know how far we're taking this. Like, like, do you think that he also wasn't the only game he ever played in. He also started the Sun Bowl for them the year before and was great in that game. So it's not like he had no experience whatsoever. But yeah, maybe we're making a little too much out of one drive in the bowl game.

But I gotta tell you. I feel like that drive really is carrying a lot of weight here. And I think that I don't think Notre Dame would have won had he played the entire game. So I don't know, you can't ever go back and know the answer to that. And I don't know if that's an insult.

I watched the way his teammates acted around him. They acted like he's a real dude, so I'm not saying he should have won the starting job at Notre Dame. I'm saying he could start somewhere. Yeah, and yeah, he's got to. He's gotta find that place now, but do you have what you think you know

or what we think I know about Steve Angelli? Is that enough? Of a resume for a place like Tennessee to move on someone like that? No, not even Tennessee. Yeah. Oh, you wait and watch or, or you could take a Steve Angelli. But like, taking Steve Angelli, if you're Tennessee does not mean you're making him your starter. You would go to him and you'd say, listen,

you can compete with Jake Merklinger and George McIntyre. We're not guaranteeing you anything. Yeah. There are other quarterbacks who currently have starting jobs who if they were to go into the portal, Tennessee would probably take them and guarantee them the starting job, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

No one ever actually guarantees it, but they would do that. Yeah I mean usually the the contract amount is a pretty good indication of you know what someone's intentions are with you but at the same time too like if you're Steve Angelli you're somebody who loved Notre Dame and loved being at Notre Dame and that was like the legend of who you were right like program over person and if you're going to leave Notre Dame and that was like the legend of who you were right like program over person. And if you're going to leave Notre Dame that means you have a strong desire to play. I'm not even sure if he has the temperament or the desire to go somewhere and be in a competition somewhere else because if he's going to be a backup somewhere I think he'd rather do it in South Bend than anywhere else. So right I think he's going somewhere to start and so it probably

means he's going to a place where that job is is not necessarily guaranteed guaranteed to him but but where there's an assumption that he's coming in to start that's not Tennessee for him there are other guys for whom that would be Tennessee but not him yeah and we're still kind of on Tennessee watch too because I think that there was this notion you know at least last week I mean I thought it was that like Tennessee would you know tamper a little bit and you know I think that there was this notion, you know, at least last week, I mean, I thought it was that like Tennessee would, you know, tamper a little bit. And, you know, I know that that's taboo to say, but do something to... Let's, let's be real. Everybody tampers. Let's just talk about it like adults here, and kind of drive the screws loose a little bit and get some, some options out in the portal and ready to go. And that hasn't happened yet. And I don't know if you think that that's something that you would have to wait for or if that's something that would have happened already, but I feel

like every day that goes by where that hasn't happened. It seems more and more likely that Tennessee is probably going to have to find somebody to come in and be a body not necessarily somebody to step in and save the team and have a starting right right somebody you would be comfortable putting in a game this fall, but not necessarily making your starting quarterback. Yeah, And so those are different situations. Those are different quarterbacks.

Those are different monetary amounts. I think that's what everybody's hung up on. They're like, oh, Tennessee was gonna pay Niko 2.4 million. So they're gonna give somebody 2.4 million. No, they'll give them whoever the person is a paycheck commensurate with what they are. And I think they have to decide, is this somebody we want to bring in to be our starter,

or do we want to get somebody who will compete with Merklinger and McIntyre, and we just pick the best of the three and we're good with it. That's up to the coaches, and it really is up to what the options are, because I'll tell you, I talked to a coach at a school where they're feeling pretty good

about what they've got coming back. They had a good season last year and they think they're going to have a pretty good season this year. They love their quarterback. They're not really worried about their quarterback, but it's one of those things where they kind of worry if other players, good players get picked off the team or get, get enticed into the portal that the quarterback may go. Well, now I don't have the same situation. So I think there's, there's nervous coaches all over the country watching this situation, like, okay, are they going to come after my guy for, and we've seen, we've seen some, some reporting, like Pete Nacos reported on Wednesday that Josh Hoover definitely

staying at TCU. That's one that pretty quickly we thought, okay, Tennessee might go after that guy. Now we don't know if Tennessee did, but my guess is some conversations were had and Josh Hoover probably got a little bit better deal and a collection of names in my head of guys that I thought could be candidates for that job and I know we're not saying those names. He was one of them. Well, look, let's we can be adults about that too. It's it's most

of the big 12 like yeah, there's a lot of good established starting QBs in the big 12. There's one in the ACC that I think is ripe for the taking, but I don't know how realistic that is. Do you know who I'm talking about? I think I do. Is it okay if I just say his name? Sure. Is it Kyron Drones?

It's not. Everdeen Tech? No. Oh, well, interesting. Okay. Now I don't know who it is. He was in your top 10? Oh, Haynes King. Okay. I don't think Haynes can go anywhere.

I'm just saying if Tennessee could lodge that loose, I think Tennessee would have a player that you know comes in is productive, as tough as nails. I think he embodies what Tennessee would be looking for. And I'm sorry if you're a Georgia Tech staffer and you're watching this, but like that would make a lot of sense to me. Yeah, I don't think he's going anywhere. So I based on what we've heard, but that's the interesting part of this

because whoever it is, it's got to learn a new offense in a hundred days. And we've talked about that relative to Nico and his transfer. Same deal if somebody comes in at Tennessee. That's not easy. That's very hard, especially if you hadn't played. Now, if it's somebody who's played in this offense before,

that's a different story, but that's not Haynes King, by the way. And that's not Josh Hoover. So. I just know that Haynes King is a battering ram, has a pretty good arm. People love him. He's exciting to watch. He's not somebody that's going to command a two and a half million dollar, you know, contract, but also as somebody that I think can elevate play around him.

I think Haynes King was probably more of a truck last year than even Nico was. And like if they were to try to go get a starting quarterback that is in a position of being very good while also not being at a team that's traditionally competing for anything, that that would be, you know, but again, I made it's made up in my head. I'm not saying that like this is happening. I'm just saying like, Yeah, and that's the problem with this is it, I have a hard time talking about this stuff. Yeah, because I don't want to piss off the fans of the school that have the quarterback right now. And if the quarterback has no intention of leaving, I don't want to, I don't really want to cast the aspersion that they might want to do that. So, cause I just, it's, and that's why I get it.

Cause people keep asking, what about this guy? What about, why don't you talk about this on the show? Why don't you talk about this guy to Tennessee? That's why. Also, it's just, I think it's important to reiterate the context on how we got here, which is there were names that popped into both of our heads at the beginning of this before anything happened,

before anybody knew anything that's been like, oh, okay, well that might make sense. That's all that Hanks King discussion was. That's not he is, that's not that he wants to, it's not that it's going to happen. It is just a- No, it's we think he's a very good quarterback. I just think he's a very good quarterback

and that move to me would make sense if it came together, that's all. Yeah. Yeah. Now I will say, based on what we've heard, not gonna happen. So take that with you Georgia Tech fans and sorry for getting your blood pressure up

for a few minutes. But Ari, let's get to our dear Andy and dear Ari questions because there's some really good ones. Before that, I want to tell you about Culver's. They are bringing us to Green Bay next week. The frozen tundra of Lambeau Field is where the draft is going to be held. We are going to be right there

at the Culver's Great Wisconsin Tailgate. They're essentially building a restaurant around the set. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be incredible. Culver's born in Wisconsin, but of course they brought the beauty of the Butterburger and the fresh frozen custard and Wisconsin cheese curds to the rest of the country. I've got one right down the street from me in Florida. Ari's got some down the street from him. It's incredible. And we are so, so thrilled to be joining them in Green Bay. I can't wait. I've never been to Green Bay before. Never been to Lambeau Field.

Very excited about this. Can't wait to see the draft. Yeah, this Nico stuff is overwhelmed. A lot of the conversation. I'd like to have some draft conversations next week because there's some crazy stuff going on Jackson, Darton, Jalen, Milro we're going to be there in Green Bay.

And Shador isn't, from what I remember or think? He's not. He's not. Cam Ward is not Shador. I still think Shador gets taken before those other guys. Not before Cam Ward, but before the other two. But we'll see. But we'll have all those conversations next week. Thank you, Culvers, and we'll see you next week. That's true. Wow.

Yeah, we'd like to. We will talk about it. Are we going to have a Nico show in Green Bay? Is that what's going to happen? Who knows at this point? Who knows? We didn't have a DJ Lagway show at the Final Four. Like you never know what's going to happen. You never ever know. Our first question comes from Willie.

And Willie always brings it in the chat. He's tremendous, always makes great points. And this is a fantastic question. Which top 10 quarterback from the class of 2023 is currently closest to performing at their ceiling. And it's interesting because we have a picture of Sam Levitt there, who is a member of the class of 2023, but was not a top 10 quarterback in the class of 2023.

So I'm going to read you the top 10 quarterbacks in the on three industry rankings from the class of 2023. And we will we will evaluate from there. So this is the industry rankings. So this is the composite of all the various recruiting services, including on three. Archman a number one Dante more number two, Nico Iamaleava number three, Jackson Arnold number four, Malachi, Nelson, number five, Jayden, Rashada, number six, Eli Holstein, number seven, Chris Vizina, number eight, Avery Johnson, number nine, and Austin novice ad

number 10. It's a pretty clear answer, right? Of which is, which has got close to the ceiling. Well, it's so crazy because we only have two guys here with a full season body of work and it's Nico and Eli Holstein. I mean, I think that the only person that's closest to operating at their ceiling is Eli Holstein because he has a whole season of body of work. And I don't know that we felt that he was gonna be

a number one overall pick. Like when you go down this list of names, and I don't know that we felt that he was going to be a number one overall pick. Like when you go down this list of names and I don't know if I'm just stuck in like recruiting rankings past, but like Arch Manning hasn't scratched the ceiling of what I think his potential is. Dante Moore had a, had a pretty, you know, in terms of tape at UCLA a few years ago played, but didn't play particularly well. It wasn't great. Right.

He's going to be at Oregon this year. And I think a lot of people are anticipating that he's going to be awesome. Nico is who we've talked about for the past four days. And I think that there are some debate about whether or not last year was scratching his ceiling, or if there actually is something, a second gear there. Malachi Nelson, we don't have to review Jackson Arnold,

I think was put into an impossible situation last year. Got benched in the middle of the year for things that were outside of his control, and now is going to a new place to maybe be the quarterback at Auburn, like nowhere near his ceiling. Jayden Rashada, I don't know that we'll ever see him play. Same with Malachi Nelson and, you know, Austin Overthorpe. How about Avery Johnson? Avery Johnson? It might be Avery Johnson if you think that last year is who he is. It might be Avery Johnson if you think that last year is who he is. That's what I don't know.

I thought when I saw the flashes of Avery Johnson as a true freshman, when you saw how fast he was, you thought, okay, if this guy develops as a passer, we're talking about maybe like the Lamar Jackson light, which would be really good, which would dominate in the big 12. Absolutely dominate. They were not dominant last year, clearly. So that's the question is, is, does Avery Johnson have another gear he can kick it into in his second year as the starter? Because like he was a good runner, not a dominant runner last year. And then through for 2,700 yards, his yards per attempt is pretty average. His completion percentage 58.3. He could stay in and bring that up a little bit. 25 TDs, 10 interceptions.

So like a pretty good season, but I thought given his speed, if you combine that with the arm, this was a dark horse for the Heisman guy last year. But he dominated. Yeah. He did not have the year that people thought was on the table there. I remember people were comparing this guy to Johnny Manziel last year at this time.

I got excited about him too. Honestly, remember when the video game came out, if you ask somebody, what team are you most excited about playing with? Like a case date? Absolutely. Case date. Excuse me was one of the top answers to that question. So, you know, I, the thing is, is that when you have an entire season under your belt, I think that the fantasy or the illusions of what could be get dimmer because you become more familiar

with somebody. And I think that like when it comes to like Arch Manning or Dante Moore even, who has played quite a bit despite not at Oregon yet, you can let your imagination run wild with these people. Because you don't, I feel like we know who Eli Holstein is. I think we know who Avery Johnson is to a certain extent. And those two are probably the only answers to this question, because you have a few in there that are just completely flamed out. And then you have a few in there that have yet to really have their moment, and their moments coming up this year, which is why I think that this year specifically is one of the most compelling years in terms of candidates to take over the face of the sport role, because the SEC's entire, every team that's competitive outside of 2 or 3, and the SEC has a new, exciting young quarterback that, you

know, either is going into their second year or their first year. And, like, listen, I think that Arch Manning is probably going to be in New York next year. I think that, like, he insists upon himself. And I think he's going to be very productive. So like my imagination still runs wild with him. Can I give you three names not from the top 10 but numbers 18, 19 and 20? Sure. Because I'm fascinated by these guys. 18, Lenora Sellers. 19, Austin Simmons, Ole Miss quarterback. 20 Marcel Reed, Texas A&M starting quarterback. So three SEC starters right there that Lenora Sellers was clearly under ranked because he should be in the top three of this class,

top two probably. And it's crazy that he wasn't considering his physical measure holes. Like that's usually when a player is a freak of nature, the way that Lenores is, that carries a lot of weight in the in the ranking process. So I'm surprised. I don't remember how raw he was as a high school senior. Maybe he was very raw. And that was part of the reason for it. But he has the physical intangibles that put you in a position where you can go to the moon. Yeah, exactly. And we talk about ceiling. We've seen a lot from him, but I don't think we've seen

a ceiling yet. That they very excited about him. Austin Simmons. I go back to our conversation earlier in the show about Steve Angelli. How much do we put on one drive? You and I were at the Ole Miss Georgia game last year when Austin Simmons had to come in because Jackson Dart got knocked out for a minute. Austin Simmons leads a touchdown drive against the Georgia defense, and I was like, Oh my God, well, I cannot see this guy's their starter. Yeah, but the other the difference between those two things, Andy, is that Austin Simmons doesn't have like a long history

of playing average before that. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not trying to come down on Steve Angelli, but like this isn't like a player that- Right, he hadn't been in multiple quarterback competitions and lost them. Austin Simmons hasn't lost it. He got to Ole Miss, Jackson Dart was already the starter.

Jackson Dart is leaving. He's ascending to the starting. And our only extended real high leverage snap experience was a touchdown drive against Georgia. He looked and he looked incredible. Now I will say what I thought was interesting was even before that drive, watching Ole Miss warm up, watching Austin Simmons before that game, because I didn't know much about him.

I knew what I'd read. I knew his history. He's also a baseball player, but didn't know much about Austin Simmons, the person, the player, how he interacted with his team. That's a guy who the team revolves around. Like you could even tell, even as a backup he was like that. You it's a guy that you feel common.

I know Ole Miss kicked the crap out of Georgia that day, but that's a guy that you feel they would have won the game with had he had to play the rest of it. Cause remember how dire it was when Jackson got hurt? Like that was like- Cause Georgia just scored. Yeah, Georgia run down the field and scored. Jackson, Jackson Darke got injured

and the entire stadium kind of, you know, was like, oh boy, here we go. And then Simmons comes in and leads that drive. And it wasn't a field goal drive either. And I think the thing that we forget about the Angelli drive is that he should have turned over before getting that three. And if he would have turned it over, then we would have forgotten about that drive. If their right tackle doesn't pick up that fumble, it's a different story.

The Ole Miss offense operated at peak capacity under his leadership. It looked like peak Jackson Dart back there. He was he was finding people. But listen, also, too, Ole Miss beat the crap out of them like and like they were like, I don't know if it was just a team that showed up that day and the other one didn't. But like he was rolling along with the rest of the team too. in this class, Texas A&M starting quarterback. And because of the circumstances where he gets put in against Florida, because Connor Wegman's hurt, but the thought is as soon as Wegman's back, he's starting again, which is what happened,

because Wegman got healthy, they started against Missouri. But then Reed comes in against LSU and then it becomes his job. I think we could see a significant jump from Marcel Reed from year one to year two, because he has a whole off season. Yeah, as the starter and also too is the type of runner that's very exciting. And I think that like it's it's he's not a particularly big guy, but when he gets into space, he can make people miss and is very explosive. So if the if the.

Stuff comes together with the arm, then you have a potentially really explosive player who's very young in his career. And also we don't talk about it enough, but how bad ass is it like with his big white mouthpiece every time he smiles after a big play? Like, I don't know if you picked up on that, but it's just like the guy's got swag. He's definitely got swag.

Now let's go to number 24 in the industry rankings, but number seven in on threes rankings, which that is a good one from Charles Power and Cody Blair, Sam Levitt and Cody Blair told us when Sam Levitt transfer from Michigan State to Arizona State. Watch this dude. Yeah. I mean operating close to their ceiling is a, is not an insult with Sam Leffet. Cause I thought he was already very good. Like this isn't somebody, if he plays like he played last year, that means he's very, he's just, that's who he is.

Um, so like maybe the answer would be Sam Leffet, if he were a top 10 player. But I feel like of all these guys, I mean, I don't know that I would take him over all the guys we've talked about because you're talking about like. Lenora sellers in this conversation, and I'm not sure I'm that, that far down the hole with, with him. But like I had Sam Levitt as my No. 6 quarterback in college football. So if you're already ascending to that level, then I think that you could say that he is, is playing peak performance and peak performance as an elite-level quarterback, which I think he is. quarterback, which I think he is. It's really interesting. So Willie got me wondering because it feels like the world really. Mise-évaluated in the class of 2023 and I was like, OK,

how close is this to some of these other classes in terms of like who ended up being really good and who ended up just kind of washing out? Is this, was this a normal year? Was this an outlier year? And going back through the other classes, it feels like it was actually pretty normal because quarterback recruiting is just a crap shoot. It is very difficult to determine

who's gonna be number one. Producer River asked, is Darian Mensah in the 2020 class? Yes, he is. He was in the 100s in the on three industry ranking. Everybody messed that one up. Though I will say our guys had him in the sixties. So they had him higher than everybody else. Yeah. I mean, also like messing up too. It's like sometimes people just have growth spurts. Like, you know, that you don't see coming. I think if everybody agrees on something that they were probably properly evaluated at the time,

and then they just ended up turning into something that was better than they anticipated. Well, so I was looking at 2021. I feel like 2021 was the best evaluated class in a while. Now, the top, some of the top people didn't wind up starring at the school they signed at, but there were unusual circumstances in each case. So Quinn Hewers was number one,

he signed with Ohio State, and obviously ended up being a three year starter at Texas. Caleb Williams was number two, signed with Oklahoma, followed Lincoln Riley USC. Then you had Sam Heward, who didn't end up playing at Washington. Brock Van Der Grift went to Kentucky from Georgia, didn't play well.

Kyle McCord wound up starting at Ohio State, wanted to be guaranteed the job, wasn't guaranteed the job, goes to Syracuse, had an awesome year, going to the NFL now. Ty Thompson, Jackson Dart, signed with USC. Why is that being your starter? Don't miss Jackson. Dart was a late riser.

I don't think people remember that. Like he had no offers. I think going into the fall of his senior year and then just blew up. And part of that was position scarcity with quarterback sometimes too. Like if you are one of the top remaining power five schools who have yet to take a quarterback

because they issued commitment so early and somebody has a really good senior season, then all of a sudden they become like a highly ranked player. It happened to C.J. Stroud too where a late bloomer turns into a coveted asset from teams that are looking for quarterback spots and then all of a sudden they're awesome. But yeah, like I think that like the one trend if we want to talk about trends in college football that are just happening right now, Andy, is that even if a player signs with a team and leaves, that like that doesn't mean they're not good,

it just means they're gonna go be good somewhere else. I think like five years ago when a player transferred, that means that they stunk or that a team didn't want them or that they're the coward and they want the easy way out. And it's like, I don't think that's the way it works anymore. Well, and quarterbacks have always done this, even when you had to sit out of your quarterbacks transfer. Yeah.

Cause there's only one quarterback job. Like if you're an offensive tackle, there's another offensive tackle job, or you might get moved to guard or you might, you know, if you're a linebacker, you might get moved to a different linebacker spot and still play. Quarterback is different. Now in that class, because like I said, this, this was probably the best evaluated class in recent memory. Drake May was number eight, three season in North Carolina, went to the NFL. JJ McCarthy was number nine, three season in Michigan, went to the NFL. Jake Garcia currently

looking for school number four, but then you go to 11 and 12. 11 is Garrett Nussmeyer who waited his turn and is now the starter at LSU. Jalen Milrow, who waited and won the starting job at Alabama and was a two-year starter there. So that was a very well-evaluated class. You go to 2023 and you get one that looks like the, I'm sorry, you go to 2022 and you get one that looks pretty similar to 2023, where it's just not, it's very here to miss. You know, Kade Klubnik, that was a good one. Still there, is the starter at Clemson. Ty Simpson, maybe the starter at Alabama right now.

Drew Aller, definitely the starter at Penn State. But then you got Connor Wegman, Devin Brown, Walker Howard, Brady Allen, Nick Evers, Gunnar Stockton. That was a very class in general anyway. It's not just some years you just have a lot of really good players and that class specifically had a ton so. Yeah, so it I mean 22 looks more like 2324 actually could could wind up by the end of this season producing or by the beginning of the season producing more starters at their original school they signed at than than 2023 because you already have DJ Lagway and Dylan Raiola starting

at their respective schools and you may have CJ Carr and and Dylan Raiola starting at their respective schools. And you may have CJ Carr and Julian Sayen. Does Julian Sayen count? Because he did sign with Alabama and was there for like a day. Does he count as, I mean, I view him as more of a high school sign-ee. I do too. I do. He was at Alabama for a day. Yeah. And would have signed somewhere else. I don't know if he would have signed at Ohio State, but what a science

and where else have Saban would have retired before signing day. Yeah. So but it's a it's a very interesting question situation. You know that class of 2023 is it just feels like everything got weird. Seeing Jay and Rashada's name just still like the because Nico is the situation that Jade Rashada wanted and they were actually repped by the same lawyer at that point in their recruitments when Nico committed to Tennessee when Rashada, I believe,

committed to Miami. And it's amazing how the Rashad thing fell apart much earlier, but they feel like they've fallen apart in the same ways. Yeah. My understanding was that Rashad, the person, wanted to go to Miami. Right. Like that's where he would have gone in the old era. Like that's where he wanted to be. Right. Right. Right. And he was not really he was not really in charge of the decision making in his situation either, which,

you know, I don't know if you can do this, but sometimes I wonder if you just let a kid go to a place where he feels comfortable, if that also, you know, stunts their development in terms of being unhappy where they are. You know, I think that we've probably gotten to the point now where we know that Rashada was a little bit overrated in terms of where he was ranked. But I also wonder, too, how much all of this nonsense off the field stunts the development of somebody who never really had any structure or any consistency in their development to begin with, you know? structure or any consistency in their development to begin with, you know? Yep. Yeah, so we'll see with that class of 2023. I'm like, what does Arch do? What does Dante Moore do? What does Jackson Arnold do at Auburn? What does Nico do at UCLA?

It'll be a fun question to revisit in November. Yes. Yeah, because we're gonna have definitive answers or at least more definitive answers on these guys. So Willie, bookmark that. I want you to ask this question again in November. We love your questions. You know we're gonna answer it. So you know the email. Next question from Dan. It's a two-parter. One, is there any chance Tennessee or their NIL collective sues Nikko and his team for a breach of contract, or would that be a bad precedent to set for future recruits worried about being come after?

Two, it seems like a lot of rules cannot be put in place without collective bargaining agreement and acknowledging players as employees, but is there any reason why there's no certified agency list similar to professional sports? I know pro athletes don't have to have an agent, but, and the certification is with the Players Association, but this seems like an easy win for the NCAA

if that body of power even exists anymore. Well, we'll start with number one. We don't have Nico's contract that he's working, or that he was working under at Tennessee. I have an older version, but they reviewed it and did some different things right before he signed on signing day. But the older version does assign his NIL rights to Tennessee's collective. And that is essentially what they're paying for. They are buying his NIL rights. So there have been situations in the past where players have left a school

and the collective at the old school owned the NIL rights and went to the collective at the new school and said, hey, you owe us some money because you need to, you need to buy these from us. Have there been any examples of teams that own the NIL rights to somebody who goes to somewhere else and continues to make money off of them even if they're not representing their school? No, I don't think anybody's done it yet. I don't think anybody's done it yet because I don't think it... Remember, it doesn money off the really good players, off their NIL rights, but they're really, it exists to pay them the salary to play. And so Texas A&M had Walter Nolans, the Texas A&M collective had Walter Nolans rights,

and they sent an astigram to Ole Miss collective when Walter Nolans went to Ole Miss. And I believe a deal was worked out. I don't know that it was like the same amount of money changed hands, but a deal was worked out. So. Which could be the reason why this is taking a long time or has been taking a long time.

Yeah, as we record this, we're actually recording this segment on Thursday afternoon. So we don't know exactly what Nikko has decided yet. Or what? Which you can tell because my hair is dry. Exactly, yes, that's right. Ari has wet hair in the mornings. But I do think this could be a complicating factor

in anything going forward. Now, what a lot of the newer deals have, and this is an older deal, so this deal was done, like I said, before Niko signed with Tennessee, which would have been December 2022. A lot of the current deals that are being done this year and that were done last year have what's called clawback language.

It's not a buyout. It's not like what we were talking about with Bramlin's coach the other day. So it's not like what we're talking about with Mickey Joseph. Mickey, what Mickey Joseph was suggesting is, is what coaches have where if you would like this person to come work for you, you have to pay this amount of money. So because the players aren't employees and you can't hold

a non-employee to a non-compete, you can't have a buyout buyout. You can't say you can't go work there unless you pay us this amount. But what you can say is we've paid you in advance for these things that you are now not going to deliver. We want the money back. That's perfectly reasonable, fair provision that contracts all over the world have. That's not unique to this.

And it's not something that the NCAA rules govern and it's not something that an athlete could file an antitrust suit and get out of. No, if you had that clawback language in your contract, there's a very good chance you're just going to have to pay that money back. Which is actually happening with an Ohio State assistant in Oregon right now. I don't know if you've been paying that for that. It actually is. Carlos Loughlin, the running backs coach. Now that's a buyout.

That's not a clawback. That's a buyout. But yeah, so in this clawback situation, and I was told the other day, I talked to an athletic director who, they had lost a basketball player to another school, and he said, yeah, we got some money back. Or the collective got some money back. And it's not a full-on buyout,

because they could not have stopped this player from leaving, and they could not have stopped this player from playing at the other place, but that player would have been bound by the court to pay back the original collective. And then when these collectors work together too, a lot of times agreements are made between the two that allow relief of the actual player writing a physical personal check. Right. Like there's, there's things that can be worked out. I would assume

that's what happened in the Walter Nolan situation. I don't think Walter Nolan needed to write a check. I think probably Ole Miss wanted him to play and they were very happy to get him. Or if you're writing a check back, then the check that you're getting from the next place more than covers the balance of what you paid back. Right. Which is the point of moving. Yeah. So that could be a complicating factor in any of these things.

So if I were Spire, the collective that services Tennessee, I probably would not push this too hard. Cause I would assuming everybody at Tennessee just wants this to be over. Am I wrong? Or would you go after them if you had some sort of avenue where you could just to mess it up? would you go after them if you had some sort of avenue where you could just to mess with them?

I would probably anticipate that there would be some attempt at recouping some of that money as a result of even the contentiousness in which this played out. Like this isn't just like, oh, he's not good enough or oh, you know, this isn't working out. Like this is like bad business. So I, and we're talking about a pretty big contract here. This isn't like three hundred thousand. Right. And we have we have no idea what because we've heard what Nico was scheduled to make for the twenty

twenty five season. We have no idea how those payouts are structured and what you know what goes to what because you have to have deliverables in an NIL deal. So like what were the deliverables, how much has he already done, has he been paid in advance for deliverables that haven't been met yet? Those are all things that we don't know the answers to. So if you have deliverables that haven't been met and you've already paid for them,

then conceivably you could go after that, I would think. So we'll find out. then conceivably you could go after that, I would think. Yeah. So we'll find out, but this is a, again, just a whole new world of all this stuff. And I go back to what I always say, you don't have to do it this way, schools. You can choose to do it a different way. You can choose to say you're paying them for football, say they're employees.

Maybe you don't make them employees of the schools, maybe you make them employees of the conferences. But you could do it that way and avoid a lot of this. Or they have real buyouts, or they have contracts that they would be required to honor. So you're choosing this. Now as to Dan's second question, how about an agent registry? I'm not sure the NCAA can do an agent registry right now. I don't know the NCAA has enough teeth to do anything like that. I do think if you get to the point where

there is collective bargaining with the athletes, if they become employees or if there's some sort of congressional carve out that allows them to bargain, even if they aren't employees, then whatever bargaining unit forms might create an agent registry. And I think that would probably be a good thing. Like, yeah, the NFLPA has an agent registry. If you're going to represent an NFL player in a contract negotiation with the NFL team,

you have to be registered with this agency registry. So I don't see a problem with that. I think that would help. And you could create whatever standards you want for it. It could be a very high standard. It could be a very low barrier to entry. It really would depend on what the members of the bargaining unit wanted to do.

Yep. So I don't think it's a bad idea. I just, it's one thing, I actually remember writing about this back when, you know, the North Carolina situation, Marvin Austin and all them, why doesn't the NCAA have an agent registry? Like, well, cause they wouldn't let the players have agents,

but my thing was let the players have agents, and then register those agents, police them if you want to police them. But I don't know if the NCAA has the juice now to do that. Yeah, I mean, it would be nice because I think it would also promote the protection of players from dealing with people who aren't good at this. Yeah, with people who aren't good at this. Yeah, yeah. Now, look, you can't stop a dad from representing his own kid. Can't do it. Like, you do whatever you want.

You can have whatever agency, you know, agent registry you want. You can't probably stop what happened here. Yeah, the NECA thing. So it's this will happen. There, there are going to be outliers. And that's why I kept saying over and over, I do not think this is representative of something that's going to happen a bunch from now on. I do think this is an outlier case.

Part of the reason I think that is because most quarterbacks at Niko's level are repped by somebody who already represents NFL players who's very experienced in this sort of thing. Or works for an agency that has lots of experience with this. So that's one of the key differences. All right. This was from Jason.

It's another Nico question. I thought it was interesting. You didn't address the option for Nico to not enroll in the fall, get a QB coach, wait for the dissembled portal window, or just enroll somewhere like the Wisconsin guy, where all schools can bid and he gets much more or better options than what he's got today. And he says, would the house settlement

affect the future sum? Well, we don't at this point know if the house settlement's gonna get approved because the NCAA doesn't want to phase in the roster limits and the judge seemed like she wanted them to do that. But I don't know that the house settlement would make that much of a difference.

I think we know now that it's not going to happen. But the reason Ari, and correct me if you think I'm wrong, the reason Nico would not have considered this, right, he wants to go to the NFL next year. You can't sit out this year and go to the NFL next year. It's not gonna work. So you gotta play. Yeah, you might be in this position

or considering that if you had an extra year before you were allowed to go to the NFL or if you were rational in the sense that you extra year before you were allowed to go to the NFL or if you were rational in the sense that you didn't think you were going to be at a point of going to the NFL a year from now anyway you might have this discussion but that's not where these people's heads are at. Yeah, yeah so I think we've seen enough to know that that's not what he's going to choose obviously but there's a good reason why is that they are they are looking at this like this was a three years in college head of the NFL situation and I think probably because. Everybody else a little more rational they're going well wait what if he has a bad year this year I don't think they're thinking about it that way I don't think they're imagining any scenario where he has a bad year. I think they think he's Joe Montana. Yes.

And that's how they're operating. Yeah. Yeah. And then, and he might be Joe Montana this year. We don't know. So if he is, he's six foot six with a big arm. I mean, the thing too that you have to consider is that you want to put the best possible tape out there to get drafted at the best possible tape out there to get drafted the highest possible point and by taking more money or demanding more money and then

Downgrading the perceived talent around that player The odds of him getting the tape necessary to get drafted where you would like him decreases and you might actually come up with less money a year From now like that's the thing that no one's talking about Yeah. Yeah. You play worse. Not only may the NFL not be in the cards next year, you're taking a pay cut. Or if you, if you go to a different school, like there are so many ways this can go bad, but sitting out would probably make it even worse.

Especially given the fact that they want to go to the NFL. Yeah. In three years. Yep This question from at Doomer 405 Has Jim Nagy lived up to the hype Jim Nagy of course is our friend He used to run the senior Bowl who is now the general manager at Oklahoma This question feels premature hurry. The guy's been on the job like two months. I'm gonna say Can you just add this to the ask us in November of 2026 list? Like, I don't know.

I mean, he didn't even get a chance to do a the December portal window. They've gotten you know, they got Jade not from Cal at running back. They got an offensive lineman from Stanford that they I think they think is gonna is gonna play for them this year. So that's a good sign. Those are two players who probably going to be productive for them this year. So that's a good sign. Those are two players who are probably going to be productive for them this year. So that's good. But yeah, let's give Jim at least one full recruiting cycle before we before we do anything.

Yeah. And if Oklahoma is an absolute dumpster fire of a thing, then maybe Jim will have some more duties that don't only pertain to talent accumulation. So we'll see how that goes, but, you know, way too early, I think, to answer that. Yeah, yeah, we just don't know because two months, two months, and again, if you don't have a December portal cycle and you don't have a full high school recruiting cycle,

it's really hard to tell anything about the person whose job is to acquire talent. I mean, even if it it was almost this year, I still think it would be premature because his thumb print might be on like a few players, but A, any personnel staffer in the country would have taken Jay Nott. I don't know if that's like a feather in his cap. And then two, like John Matier was signed and ready to go there before he showed up. So he was already enrolled. I don't think that like really much of anything that happens on the field this year is as much of a reflection on him

and it, you know, and what he's doing. Yeah, because I just think it's too early. So we'll have a better answer to that. The first question will his question will have a better answer in November. Probably need to go to the following of her before we can have a good answer to this one. So yeah, November 2026 put a pin in that one.

Do it for five. We'll we'll get back to it. Next question comes from Wagner. I just love the way he asked it more than anything else as a Carolina fan, North Carolina fan Ryan Brown starting QB terrified me over the last few days. I've watched every highlight of Geo Lopez and I'll need to call my doctor if this feeling lasts more than four hours. I watched every highlight of Geo Lopez and I'll need to call my doctor if this feeling lasts more than four hours. How do you see Geo transitioning to the power conferences?

What is North Carolina's ceiling? So Geo Lopez is the South Alabama transfer that we expect to move to North Carolina. He's a lefty quarterback. He moves very well, runs really well, looks good in the RPO game. So what does North Carolina see? I don't know what North Carolina ceiling is already.

Bill Belichick did a really good job of keeping a lid on. What anybody could see of that roster. We know Boatkins and their, their best returning defensive player hit the portal. That's not a good sign. Easiest schedule in college football this year. That's true. Not wrong on that. Not wrong on that. So that part, be excited about Wagner. Gio Lopez, I think you could be excited about because he was fun to watch at South Alabama. And, you know, it's interesting. I went down a rabbit hole and I've gone

down a couple North Carolina rabbit holes this week because obviously Matt Baker at the Athletic had that incredible story about the emails between Bill Belichick's girlfriend and everybody else but I went down a Freddie Kitchens rabbit hole. Freddie Kitchens is the offensive yeah yeah Freddie Kitchens is the offensive coordinator at North Carolina. I was going back to when he took over the Cleveland Browns offense in 2018. So remember Hugh Jackson gets fired as the head coach and

they also fired the OC at the time. And so they make Freddie kitchens, the interim head or actually, I'm sorry, Freddie kitchens was made the play caller. And then the DC was made the interim head coach at that point. But Freddie Kitchens, the offense that he put together in very early Cleveland Browns Baker Mayfield land

was kind of cool. Yeah. Like they were doing some stuff that didn't work. Like there's a really good Brian Baldinger breakdown of the difference between their offense before the firings and their offense after Kitchens took over. And like he was running inverted wishbone in the NFL, not the offense, but the formation.

And then working out of that formation, he was doing a lot of things to give Baker Mayfield a chance. Whereas the offense previously didn't give them a chance to do anything. Big Browns guy. I don't have a lot of positive memories of that era. But the Browns were also like the worst assembled NFL team in the history of the planet when Hugh Jackson was the coach. So like I have a hard time to like assigning any blame or praise for somebody who takes over. You know, you know, what I think happened was that the Browns were a car in the middle of a field in Nebraska and somebody put them on blocks. And I think that that that Freddie kitchen drove the tow truck to get this piece of crap out there and now the Browns are a piece of crap

on someone else's lawn. You know, I don't know. But the Todd Haley offense was not giving them much. But what I what I appreciated about what I saw from that from that very, you know, short window of time was that Freddie kitchens clearly looked at the talent he had. And. Created something that would work with that talent. In a very short time. Which is kind of what he has to do here. So. He's dealt with this before and I will tell you,

as you just pointed out. North Carolina schedule, not as hard as the 2018 Cleveland Brown schedule. No, although I'm not sure the Browns would have fared much differently against the schedule. You know, it's a lifelong dramatic experience to the point of pure numbness to the point of indifference for me, but it is pure numbness to the point of indifference for me. But it is one of the more compelling things. I am very upset that the Bill Belichick hire has an inspired more interest. Like it pales in comparison to Deion Sanders' arrival at Colorado. I don't know how this isn't more compelling to the average person, but what they are, what they look like, how they perform, what their ceiling is, all these things. I think North Carolina is a very fascinating thing to track.

And his girlfriend basically being the PR consultant is fascinating. Explain this to me. I know we talked about behind the scenes. Explain to me what's happening and why it's a big deal. I read the story and I didn't. I don't know if it's a big deal. I just think it's sort of salacious because he's in his seventies and he's got a 25 year old girlfriend

and she's taking a very active role in all of this. And so. But her girlfriend has a PR background, yeah? Is that what you're saying? I don't think so. I didn't say that. I thought somebody told me that she like her career. I think she made it in philosophy in college.

Oh, okay. So that's wrong. Okay, got it. So we're running a full, I don't know much about this woman. Now, what I will say, like I'm reading the emails that she sent to their sports information people and-

They seem right. Well, she understands the concept of messaging for sure and she has some ideas about it. Like here's an email that Matt Baker from the Athletic obtained. This is her writing to the sports information director at North Carolina. Though Steve Belichick is in fact Bill's son,

he should be depicted and represented as his own established credible entity as opposed to an extension of Bill. It can easily be misinterpreted that Steve is simply benefiting from nepotism, but that is not the case. Steve was fortunate to have learned defensive football strategy from the greatest defensive mind of all time. He has earned his position due to his performance and output. It's really worth emphasizing the point that Steve has the experience of being a college defensive coordinator and will bring a plethora of knowledge to the coaching staff Hudson wrote I believe being strategic about the depiction of Steve will prevent controversy and show up most respect towards Steve's career

Validate bills decision as a head coach to hire how much money will you bet me if we could figure out whether or not you think? Chat GBT wrote that email? I don't know. All I know is the email that was sent back by Robbie Pickerel Evans, the SID at North Carolina, was basically, ma'am, this is a Wendy's. She goes, we haven't actually announced that hire yet. We've never said a single word about either one of the, Steve Belichick, so. Plethora, the word plethora is a dead chat GBD giveaway.

I use Plethora all the time. I've never used chat GBD ones in my life. I bet you haven't. That was a really good column you wrote today, Andy, huh? Professional writer for God's sake. No, I just, it seems like, it seems like she's trying to sell North Carolina on what's obvious.

And like the thing that I think is interesting about nepotism in general, and there's been a few cases of this, especially considering the fact that we have. In football? No! But like it's like if it isn't nepotism, it's a hell of a coincidence. You know what I mean? Like so I'm not saying that the man would he had been in other jobs. Well our guy Jed Fish hired Steve Belichick as his DC. Yeah, yeah.

I think Jed Fish is a good coach. I'm saying the fact that he is at North Carolina right now working for his dad to ignore the family connection, much like he didn't ignore the Sanders connection at Colorado. It worked out and there's no question that Shador Sanders is a qualified college quarterback, but his existence at Colorado is a direct correlation. According to Dion, we wouldn't even be talking about Chidor getting his jersey retired if his last name wasn't Sanders.

He's absolutely right about that. He is absolutely right, because it wouldn't be getting retired. Wouldn't be happening if he wasn't. That's the brunt of that conversation. Because the, but yes. So yes so okay thank you for your input on whether or not we should uh you know promote bill bella check's son as his own entity i appreciate that there's a plethora of there's a plethora of things to learn from that that email and i'm happy you know what

that was it was a nicely worded email that said absolutely nothing. It didn't say nothing. It said, please don't make Steve into a Nepo baby here, which I don't think that was the plan. But she didn't care. Anyway. I don't even understand why she would care. Well, there also was an email about, I don't know if this was like a comment

on one of the social media channels that got hidden, but it was it was critical of Bill and her relationship, which obviously is getting personal and is nobody's business. But I gotta tell you, like, less than one about working in college football. Never read the comments. Like never, if Bill Belichick's reading the comments, my opinion of how this is gonna go is gonna be very different. We've been talking about this for five minutes

and I still don't know what we're talking about, honestly. Like I have no idea why this, like honestly, like the athletic does great work. I have a lot of respect for them this is something that I got a push notification from from Apple News this was a big deal to a lot of people and I understand that it's somewhat interesting that actually it wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be what's the nut graph of this story what would give me what I'm supposed to take from this. I still don't know. His girlfriend who's an Instagram influencer is involved.

Got it. Okay. Good to know. And people are interested in that. People are interested in it because it's Bill Belichick, but people are not as interested as either you or I thought they would be. Like all of the Bellachick stuff,

and there's a reason we're talking about this now and not talking about it the day that it came out. Because we were talking about Nico cause that's what everybody wanna talk about. The thing that I have to, I don't wanna get fired. Like this was sensitive. Whenever you're talking about a young, attractive woman, like if she was 50 years old old would this be a story nobody would

say a word okay it is it is more people being fascinated by the relationship than i think anything else because i thought being real about it smoking gun of like malfeasance or something like there is nothing to this she didn't do anything wrong. Yeah. And her having an interest in her guys situation, there's nothing wrong with that. So, but it is interesting. When there are people in North Carolina whose job that already is, I think that's what's in one of the pieces

of it is interesting. When you're just like driving around and you get a push notification about it from Apple news, that's usually an indication that this is some heavy thing that you need to pull over and read or, you know, there's something significant to this and the significance of this is she's an attractive 25 year old woman. That's all that matters here. I don't know that that's all that matters here. This isn't a story. This is not a story. Okay. I don't know that that's all that matters here. This isn't a story. This is not a story.

I'm sorry. Bill Belichick's Instagram model influencer girlfriend is involved. Perfect. Is involved. Yes. Perfect. And if you want to call that involved. You're not interested in that at all?

Like that doesn't fascinate you in some way. I would be interested if the involvement was something other than a chat GBT. If she was calling place. Like, I don't know. Or like if she was helping recruit or doing something that like, like she didn't even inform you. Like she that's obvious. And now head coaches, significant others always help recruit. So we know that. Yeah, that's not a role.

That's an email that I could have written in between, you know, that you think was written with chat GPT. I I'm gonna I'm gonna say that plethora is just in the vocabulary. Because I use plethora all the time. It seems like a I have a plethora of ways to use plethora. The way that she used plethora in that, it was like a way to make a rudimentary email of information that isn't enlightening at all seem to be deeper than it is.

Let's not make his kid look like a Nepo baby would have been a sufficient email. That was a 400 word email. I don't think you want that one found in the Freedom of Information Act request. That's a, I think she handled it very diplomatically. So the word nepotism was actually used in the thing. So what she didn't say, Neppo baby, Neppo baby would have been the problematic

phrase. How about this email? Let me show you, can you let's, let's do this. I'm going to read you right now. I'm chat GB. I'm, I'm chat GBR. Chat chat. I'm chat Gbri. Chat ARI. Chat ARI here. When promoting Bill Belichick's son publicly, let's do our best to highlight what made him uniquely qualified for the position through his own individual accomplishments as to avoid any accusations or thoughts of him being here as a result of nepotism, period. Or, and I think this is probably what some of the folks who again, already work at North Carolina

with that job might say, don't send that email at all. Cause they already know that. They've already thought of that. It's like me telling a diver, a scuba diver in a 400 word email to make sure their tank is on before going in the water. Right exactly. Exactly. While using the word plethora there's a plethora of things that can happen. There's a plethora of ways you can drown here buddy. Dude there's a plethora of food topics we should be talking about right now this is so boring to me. Dude, there's a plethora of food topics we should be talking about right now. This is so boring to me.

Well, it's like the Culver's menu is a plethora of options on the Culver's menu. And I don't think that the topic is boring. I think like the fact that this is a story is boring. I'm happy we're talking. I just there's no juice to this at all. Am I wrong? I am glad we got your feelings out on this. But like, am I wrong? I think, well, I think we should ask the folks because so hit us

up and hit us up in the chat and hit us up on social media. Do you care? Does this matter to you at all? This is the thing with me though, and we've talked about this on the show before. I don't know why TMZ exists. I don't understand the fascination with the royal family. And I think that's that's that's your problem because this is this is the college football story designed for those people. Yeah, it's like young attractive Instagram model girlfriend. And then whatever comes after that doesn't matter. It's just like that's it. Um, and like that there's an entire business based on that. But it's like the same reason why I don't care who Liam Hemsworth

is dating right now. You know, like, I don't give a crap on that but it's like the same reason why I don't care who Liam Hemsworth is dating right now. You know, like I don't give a crap about that. Isn't he married? No, I don't even know. I don't know any of their... I just was the first name that popped in my head. He's not the one that's Thor, right? I don't know a single actor's relationship status. You want to know why? Because I don't give a shit. Like, who cares? I'm just messing with you. I'm actually, you know what I'm doing?

I'm looking at the sourdough melt at Culver's. Let me guess, Liam Hemsworth's wife is really attractive. I don't even know if he's married. Let's find out. No, he was married to Miley Cyrus briefly. That's fucking... Oh, sorry. That's weird.

That was a real, real reaction that I would have said if we were just hanging out. I lost track. Hey, now you're fascinated. Now you want to know all about Liam Hemsworth's relationships. Yeah, that's weird. I didn't know that. Sorry, Andy. This is, this is the show, Andy. This is this is the show everybody.

This is what happens when we get late on a Friday. This is what happens. I've warned you time and time again. Here we are. So all you new people who have joined since this Nico drama began and I know there's a bunch of you when you hang out long enough on the Friday show, this is where we go. This is where we go. But we are live Monday through Friday, 930 AM Eastern.

Going to be a fun week next week. We are going to Green Bay for the draft. We'll be talking draft. We'll be talking transfer portal, which will still be open through next week. We'll be talking whatever the heck happens next with Nico because it's this story just so many legs. I'm sorry I know you're wrapping this up. I just wrote one. No, we have another segment we have to do. Okay well I told you what happens when I get to Friday. Andy, I wrote write a note to North Carolina about avoiding nepotism in the hire of Stephen

Belichick. To whom am I concerned? I am writing respectfully to express concerns regarding the recent hire of Stephen Belichick and to emphasize the importance of transparency and fairness in the hiring practices of him at University of North Carolina. While Stephen Belichick undoubtedly- I don't think that's the letter you're trying to write. I'm just saying, I feel like there's no, I can't distinguish what I'm, what I'm reading from what you read. That letter is the complete opposite meaning

of the one she said, but other than that, sure. I have to express concerns regarding the reason. Whatever. We do have one more segment we need to do because I had a gift that landed in my inbox on Thursday morning. It was a pleasant surprise. I was not expecting this and I gotta tell ya,

Coach Josh Hensley, you are a gentleman and a scholar. So, Josh Hensley is a football coach. One of his former players is the one and only producer river. So he sent me producer rivers huddle highlight tape from his senior season in 2017 River. What high school is this? This is Cherokee High School in Rogersville, Tennessee. All right. So what classification are we?

We are. We just got reclassified are my junior years. I think this is for a out of a Tennessee football. Very, very small for a school, though. So let's take a look. And you are at this point, you weigh a buck. What? 35, maybe 35. What, you weigh a buck what? 35. Maybe.

Buck 35. What do you weigh now? A buck 40? A buck 45. I've added a little bit. All right. We gotta watch some of these clips. These are tremendous.

Okay. So here's our intro. Very professional introduction. We're in number 15. I'm sure it's either Tim Tebow or AJ Suggs that he's wearing it for Yep, that's slant right at this River catches slant right out of the gate You're gonna see a lot of this this man ran some great slants ready here We go want to watch River score a touchdown look at this run a slant bang. Oh, yeah now watch this throw it to the ref

Bang. Oh yeah. Now watch this throw it to the ref. He'd been there before and celebrate with your teammates. Teach tape right here. Teach tape. Be honest with you. I didn't know you scored. That's cool, man. Yeah, that's not even the best touchdown we've got here. Now this is the same play. What happened here, River? This was a jamboree, so this is early in the season. I just wasn't prepared for a hit like that quite yet. You gotta lower your shoulder and pull your way in the end zone, brother. It's not the time to go down so easy. One more time. Hold on.

Because this touchdown. He's gotta move. That's a linebacker. Alright, here's one. I feel like this is a real missed opportunity. River. Oh, yeah. This is fun. Rivers takes it on in and around. Okay. Is this a trick play where you're supposed to throw? No, no, it is not. I don't care what was called and I don't care that you're moving from

from your right to your left and your right-handed throw the ball. You had dudes running wide open. They never would have, never would have guessed. It looked like he was going to throw it there, but there was no receiver there looking for the ball. Oh, there were two. Well, we had always practiced that play to the right and then in the game they called it to the left out of nowhere. I was like, this is the wrong way. But he, he nodded me because we're on the right hash.

He's like, yeah, just do it. And I was like, okay. I mean, they didn't pick up eight yards, didn't they? Oh yeah. No, this is, this is a quality plot. It's an, it's a successful play. Like we're, if we're measuring success rate, this is a successful play. This is a successful play leverage his lead blocker to get the defender, you know, locked up and there's a few that I didn't put on here.

Like River does not go down easily. There's a bunch where River gets hit two or three times and is still standing when he goes over the sideline and looks back like, ha ha ha. Now. Here's the most successful of the plays in the highlight tape. Watch this. Little Razzmatazz! Double pass!

See you later. Look at River pausing to look back at the DBs that are chasing him right before he crosses the goal line. Dude, that's a guy, you know, that's a guy. You got ladies. That's what that's right. Or Rogersville, man. Look at you because he pauses, kind of leaves the football out there. I'm glad you didn't drop the ball ahead of the goal line. That would have been terrible. Can't do that.

All right. One more. We're going to watch our boy River commit a felony. Here we go. This one was fun. River tells me when I get this clip. There's one in there where it might not be legal anymore. Yeah, that's a penalty. This was never illegal.

You know what? They didn't call it there. Yeah, they missed it. The block in the back, buddy. You murdered this poor kid. Oh, this was tough, but yeah, so it was supposed to be a trick play. Gets, you know, somebody drops a ball, it gets blown up.

Just trying to make something out of it. He's right there. I'm going to look at this again. All right. Where's this guy looking here? Where is he looking? All right. No, no, he's not looking at you. Dude, dude, he was five yards 15 yards right there Hey, I will say we had some of the cleanest helmets in the game We really did the head dress the level of uniform swag on this team

you had like Four different alternate jurors. This is incredible. Yeah, we had some good stuff that was names on the back of the jerseys. Yeah, we're doing it big in East Tennessee, man. I just one more time. I'm going to watch River murder this kid. This guy has no idea what's coming. 125 pounds of bent steel sex appeal coming right at him. River next

time Andy gets snippy with you just just lay your shoulder down. I'm terrified. Listen the hardest hit I ever took in football was not from some like future NFL player at Florida. It was in high school quarterback throws an interception. There was a safety who was so short that like, if I've just, because I was looking downfield trying to find the guy with the ball, he was so short that he did not appear in my field of vision.

I mean, I told you my next thing I know his face mask is in my chest and he's lifting me up. I'm going to the heavens. My high school football story I was playing varsity my junior year. And I was playing left guard and the quarterback threw a pick. Okay. And I went and ran down the field to try to go tackle the person who intercepted the ball.

And somebody hit me like River hit that person. And they like launched their body into my, I didn't see them cause you don't see them. Came out of nowhere. He's not looking at all. Well, he wasn't looking. What River did was illegal. He hit me under the chest and I remember seeing the sky and then I remember seeing the ground and it knocked the wind out of me so much that like I could barely make it to the sideline

and the coach came up to me and said, all right, man, you ready to go back in Wasserman? You got the kickoff team and then it's ready to go back out there. And I looked them up. I looked them up with my face mask still on. And I said, coach, not only do I not want to go back into the game, I don't want to play anymore. I want to go home. And that was the end of.

It was the end of your career. There you go. I want to go home. Well, I will say to the not so tall person I'm talking about who played at Edgewater High School in the mid-90s, you didn't do anything illegal. It was a perfectly clean hit on me that I should have been paying more attention. River on the other hand should have been flagged, but I'll take it because listen, mistakes

of aggression, especially when the ref doesn't call it. Watch the line up here. I mean, take the line here. Boom. I didn't know he had it in him. I didn't know he had it in him because he's a smaller guy and he was. I listen, we're not messing with River anymore. I don't. I'm the good guy. You're by your back. I'm good.

Not anymore. Not anymore. All right, gentlemen. It's been a hell of a week. It's probably not over. There's probably more crazy news coming. Who knows? We'll always be here for you at on three to tell you what's going on. If it's a Saturday, we'll break right in. Don't you worry. We'll hit the emergency show horns. But if there's nothing wild this weekend, we'll talk to you on Monday.