Andy & Ari On3 - Where does QB Nico Iamaleava go now that he's left Tennessee?

Episode Date: April 14, 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/sAkHCThank you to Gametime for sponsoring today's episode! Planning your college football travel for this season? Gametime has tickets to every game. (And every concert and comedy show.) Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed. (0:00-8:12) Intro: Recapping the Nico Iamaleava weekend(8:13-14:22) Landing Spots for Nico(14:23-15:31) Culver's(15:32-19:52) Class of 2023 QB's(19:53-21:53) Continuing the Nico Discussion(21:54-23:26) Gametime(23:27-43:33) Tennessee at the QB position(43:34-53:43) Florida's Spring Game, DJ Lagway(53:44-1:02:33) Notre Dame's QB Battle Update(1:02:34-1:07:45) Conclusion: Nico and Belichick? Now that quarterback Nico Iamaleava has left Tennessee, where might the former five-star recruit land? Some big-name schools got tossed around last week, but are any of them realistic? Is it possible Team Nico is still demanding too much money? The flip side of that is Tennessee’s next move. Volunteers coach Josh Heupel said during the spring game he was excited to see the two scholarship QBs on Tennessee’s roster. But will the Vols reach into the portal to take another? Meanwhile, there were spring games Saturday at major programs across the country. Ohio State, Notre Dame, Georgia, Alabama and Florida all wrapped spring practice. Perhaps the biggest news came from Gainesville, where Florida coach Billy Napier said QB D.J. Lagway will be throwing again in a few weeks. Watch us LIVE, M-F, on YouTube at 9:30 am et! https://youtube.com/live/YPKXQapff0Q Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Want to partner with the show? E-mail [e-mail]

Welcome to Annie and Ariane 3 presented by Culver's. You've seen a lot of us lately. We had emergency shows on Friday afternoon on Saturday morning. We're back for the regular show now, and we got to sift through what the hell happened. We've had some time to think on it and some time to see what has happened next. Nico Iamalaleaba leaving Tennessee,

Tennessee moving on with Adam. Ari, do we feel any differently than we felt on Saturday when we were trying to figure out where Nico goes from here, where Tennessee goes from here? That was a jam packed weekend of emotions. And I think that like everybody has kind of come along to what we were talking about all week, right? Like I think that like there are very few people in here

that believe this is a savvy move and this is just bad business. And I think that's where we're at right now going into the week. Yeah, I watched over the weekend as people in our business tried to make this into something that I don't think it is. And we've all had this. If you work in our business, you've had that editor who calls and says, OK, so we need to make a trend story out of this. We need to explain how this fits into the bigger picture.

We need to explain how this is going to touch off a whole bunch of these. And you listen to the questions that coaches got after their spring games. And that was all, well, are you worried this is going to happen with you? This is not the start of a trend because this is people who didn't know what they were doing. Nico is not the symbol of something bigger here. Now he had been the symbol of something bigger. Like when he signed his original deal, he was. When the Tennessee Attorney General went after the NCAA rules to keep the NCAA from investigating his contract, he was.

He's not here because here's the thing. Negotiations like the ones between NECO and Tennessee go on everywhere. There's a reason they don't go public. There's a reason you don't hear about them because they don't have people acting as stupidly as people were acting in this one. Usually this stuff happens in December,

the negotiations happen and one of two things happens. Either the player is satisfied with the deal they are offered and they stay at their school or they are not satisfied in the school says we don't think you're worth what you're asking and they leave and it happens quietly because Nico's team overshot their window of leverage and took it into spring and then doubly because Nico's team was stupid enough to tell him to skip practice Friday and skip the spring game. You saw it all play out in public. That's the difference.

That's really the only difference. This is a case of guy is on a deal. School thinks deal is fair. Guy thinks deal is not fair. School says you're not worth what you're asking. Guy says, I think I am. And we're gonna find out whether he is or not. My suspicion. Is that he's going to take a pay cut to go somewhere else?

That people are not going to be jumping to pay him more than the 2.4 or 2.2. That exactly it's something right around there that he was supposed to get for this season at Tennessee. You walk away from a good deal. You walked away from a really good deal, a deal that a lot of people would take. So here's my thought process on that because I know it's been irking you all weekend that people are trying to make

a trend out of this. Okay. The thing that we have to understand about this is that if Nico would have held out, and here's the other thing, too, we're not sure that was a holdout. He left like everyone was not a holdout. Keep calling it a holdout. I think he didn't go to practice because he was done not

because he was saying I'm not going to show up until you pay me like he was finished. That was it. He didn't go to practice then later on. What was it a day? Was it a day later the following morning? He's in the portal like I think that he knew that he was done because Tennessee was done with him when that was going on.

So you can't even call it a holdout trend because there was never a holdout to begin with. Second of all, you wanna know what would create a trend? Is if Nico was an all SEC player last year and Tennessee had the same exact team and he decided that he was gonna hold out, really hold out at the beginning of spring and say, hey, listen, the spring portal opens. The window opens in two and a half weeks. This is the beginning of spring. I'm not going to practice till we get a deal done. If we cannot get a deal done, then I'm not going to go on the portal.

And then Tennessee finds the money in the middle of spring, pays him, and then he comes back. That is a successfully executed holdout in the NFL sense. And that's not what happened here. So like that is completely different, right? So what you have here is a person who thought that they were worth a lot more than they were, tried to strong arm the university that, you know, he plays for, found out the hard way that he's not worth what he thinks he is,

and now is left to go find something else. Now, the thing that I he's not worth what he thinks he is, and now is left to go find something else. Now the thing that I tweeted over the weekend that I think is interesting, and it's something that we need to talk about is the hope for him is that he had a backup plan lined up. Like usually, like when I go to the table with a contract negotiation, if I tell my employer I'm going if we can't get a deal done, that means I know where I'm going. You don't say that if you don't have anywhere to go because you can find yourself unemployed. So the hope for Nico in his camp is that the backup plan is already in motion and that

they're able to go to a place that they're comfortable with. But if they end up taking a pay cut or going to a place that isn't a power school, I don't think that's going to happen. I'm sure he'll land in a power school. But if he goes into a worse situation, money, are we sure? I'm sure somebody is going to take him. You know, it's a quarterback man. Like you, it's a, it's a, it's a quarterback with a high ceiling. I think it's I think he'll find a P four spot. I would be shocked if he didn't. If they're still demanding that level of money, which I heard as of yesterday,

they are, but if they are, if they are demanding that level of money, they will get to a point where it becomes clear. Listen, let's use, I'm so excited. I dropped the top off on my car this weekend and drove it around. I paid X for it. If I wanted to say, Hey, I want three X for it right now. And I put it up on Craigslist or I put it up on Facebook marketplace or auto trader. There's a certain point where you realize that no one's going to pay three X. It's not

worth that. We think but so they should have already reached that point. They pay even less than a Power 4 school to go to a group of five school or don't play at all. Like at a certain point, you've got to acknowledge what something's worth if you wanna get money. I could put this Apple watch on eBay right now for five grand.

No one's gonna pay for it. So there's two options, either lower the price to fair market value or don't sell it. He's got to sell for it. So there's two options, either lower the price to fair market value or don't sell it. He's got to sell his services eventually to somebody. He might end up making a bad deal. We've all sold things that we think are worth more for less because we want the money.

He's going to have to sell himself for less than he's worth to play at a power school or he's not going to play at all. That'd be insane if he ended up at UNLV or something. UNLV just made up. That's just the first G5 school that popped into my head. I just like, I don't know. Dan Mullins like, ah, come on, come on.

But like you're talking about, do G5 schools even have enough money? Some do to pay a million dollars for a quarterback. But most don't. Most wouldn't do that. So if he ends up at a G5 school, more likely than not, he'll be making a third of what he made at Tennessee. That would be insane. Let's talk about where he might go.

Let's talk about where he might go because I see in the chat like foster in the chat says USC is Lincoln Riley on the phone. No, he's probably not on the phone. WTF crap says let's not say to Oregon Oregon's not in this. Organ likes Dante more. Yeah, I think everybody assumes that because he was a five star recruit and because I think he

played at a big school and they had a good record last year that they are going to just be all of these bidders in the marketplace. I don't think there are, especially after this. Think people cannot fathom how bad of a business move this was and they want to think Oregon or Ohio State or Michigan or somebody's on the phone. Yeah, you want to think there was a plan. But I don't know that that's what's happening here.

And like, listen, even if he ends up at, you know, UCLA in the chat, North Carolina in the chat, Georgia Tech quarterback swap in the chat, everybody's got their theory. I don't know if any of the teams that are listed here in the chat or that we can come up with are paying what Tennessee was set to pay him. This is insane.

Well, Scott in the chat says the Georgia Tech QB swap. Okay, that's not gonna happen either. Cause let's say Haynes King decided he wanna go play somewhere else. They have Aaron Filo. Like they're not gonna deal with this mess because they already have a guy they like. And like also when you think about rental quarterbacks

for one year, Andy, you think about people that have proven production value. And like, listen, let's not like rewrite history and pretend like he stinks. Like I've seen a lot of that and I don't think that's- No, he's pretty good, but he's not as good as they think he is. Yeah, like I saw a lot of switch up of like, you know, I watched it happen firsthand to you last week where Tennessee fans were giving you crap on Wednesday about leaving him out of your top 10 and then on Friday he sucks and it's like you can't change.

He's a good quarterback, probably an average to above average quarterback in production value last year that has a chance to be great at some point. I think that we can- I still think he's one of the best 15 returning quarterbacks in the country. And if you would have ranked him in the top three

portal quarterbacks, had he done it in the winter with John Matier and Darian Mensah and those guys, then you can't like push his value down now for a team that would love to have like an unexpected gift. So like, I do think somebody will probably spend money and probably overspend to get Nico, but I just don't know that it's gonna reach what Tennessee was set to pay him

based on the insane contract they gave him to begin with. So like that to me is interesting. But yeah. And like Ben in the chat, SMU, TCU, okay. Kevin Jennings, Josh Hoover. Kevin Jennings led SMU to the playoff. Josh Hoover set the TCU single season passing record last year.

Like they're good. And also too. Unless for whatever reason those guys wanted to leave. Kevin Jennings was on our like honorable mention for top 10 returning quarterback. I know we didn't play well against Penn State. But like he is a guy that SMU is really excited about the ceiling of two like he's not that far off in terms of just

physical ability that Nico is. So like we are Yeah, we are we are in a very interesting time. And my god, it's just a this could be a trend, hopefully, that helps people teach parents that think they know what's going on to hire an agent, which is kind of what you wrote this weekend. Yeah, no, a professional agent would have saved Nico from this. This would not have happened with if they had somebody who knew what they were doing, because this all would have been handled very quietly back in December. And it wasn't. So, and look, they started trying to find one this weekend.

I don't know how that search went. I know it didn't go well at first because basically the demands were still unreasonable. And if they're unreasonable, it's these guys are not going to want, like if you're a real professional agent, you're not gonna go to a school with a straight face and be like, you gotta pay him all these millions of dollars.

Like a real agent who deals with NFL players who does these negotiations all the time is going to say, here's what's realistic, here's what we can realistically ask for. That's what we're gonna ask. The same way you wouldn't hire a real estate agent to sell your house and say, I want 9 million for it. Everybody knows what's right. What's rational except the people who are closest to it.

Well, that's why you hire that person because you get so emotional about it. Like I get it. If I'm I got a son, I think the son rises and sets with him. But you know, is he a, is he a D one quarterback? No, cause he doesn't even play quarterback, but. But he's a D one. I understand that, but I still am going to overvalue him. Yeah. Yeah.

I, I've gotten myself into a lot of, you know, deals with things that I try to sell because I'm an eBay-er. And I think something's worth something that it's not, and eventually you've got to accept that it's not worth what you think it's worth. And this is someone's life that we're talking about here in Potential. And my hope is for him as a person because like you know I just you don't want to see him you know everybody's like calling them the Malachi Nelson 2.0 thing I think that this is that's not a good comparison. He never wanted a starting job anywhere. He was never good. Now he's at UTEP.

I don't think that's a fair comparison but you don't want to see him fade off into the distance and then become a you know ninth seventh round picker an undrafted free agent as a result of this terrible move. So hopefully even if he lands in a place and doesn't get as much NIL money as he thought he was entitled to, he can still play his way into the money that he probably is worth from a prospect standpoint. But the whole thing too is like, this is so NICO centric and it should be, but at the same time too, I also feel bad for Tennessee because now they're in a position where they lost their quarterback and have to figure it out like during a time in which there probably aren't that many. May have fuel maybe drop out of the sky but you know you know you speaking of trends Andy you know what the one trend is the players and Niko's class transfer. talk about that but first I want to tell everybody about Culver's because we are excited to tell you that we're hosting A&ENRA on 3 live from the draft in Green Bay on April 24th and April 25th we set up right outside the famous

frozen tundra blambo field at the Culver's Great Wisconsin tailgate. Born in Wisconsin Culver's is the home of legendary Butterburger, fresh frozen custard and Wisconsin cheese curds. No better representation of America's dairy land than that, and they have brought it to the rest of the country now, and we thank them for that. With some very special guests throughout the draft you won't wanna miss, so stay tuned for more details and get ready for a weekend of fun,

made fresh with our friends at Culver's, and you passed along some news to me with a Butterburger cheeseburger that I'm not gonna make any health claims here. Some news station found that it was voted the healthiest. Good enough. It doesn't look like it's it looks amazing. So I'm not going to make any health claims. I'm just saying this butterburger cheeseburger is the way to go.

So yeah, hit up Culver's. It's yourself frozen custard. That cookies and cream is fire. Fire. All right. Let us talk about the class of 2023. Because it might. Is this the most cursed QB class ever? You got Arch Manning up there at the top. He's still at Texas. You got Dante Moore who started out at UCLA. He's now transferred to Oregon should be their starter this year. You've got Nico. We'll see what happens with him. You've got Jackson Arnold, who was at Oklahoma, who's now at Auburn. You've got Malachi

Nelson, who went to USC, didn't win the job, went to Boise State, didn't win the job. And now he's at UTEP. You've got Jayden Rashada. Committed to Miami. Signed with Florida. Signed a $13 million deal where the person who was going to underwrite it was like I'm not paying that for him. Went to Arizona State, went to Georgia. We think he's going to wind up

a Western Kentucky. We don't know. You got Eli Holstein. Alabama to pit. Got Avery Johnson down there, just below Eli Holstein. He's not on Got Avery Johnson down there just below Eli Holstein. He's not on the on the graphic, but every just like hey look, no, no, no, no.

I went to Kansas State and I'm starter now like. Let's not say the whole class is cursed. Uh, this curse the right word because Dante Moore is going to be the starting quarterback at Oregon. Archman well and Dante Moore originally was going to go to Oregon before he flipped on on signing.

Arnold is going to be the starter at Auburn, which you know at the moment isn't a major fall and then Eli Holstein I thought played really well against pit at times like I don't know like it Rashada overplayed his hand to Malachi Nelson just didn't turn out to be the player that we thought he was in high school, but everybody else still has a chance to do something here. I'm very obviously the most anticipated decision of, of what happens next here is, is Nico. But I think that more than a curse might be a trend of like, what you're always talking about with the five-star quarterbacks. Like, this is just what they do.

It's a crapsie. You know, and it's, and I feel like, if you want to talk about like, ongoing trends, this is the trend that I would have my eyes peeled for, not whether or not. Can I shout out our guys, Charles Power and Cody Belair here? Oh, sure. They're great. Because I'm looking at the 2023 quarterback rankings and I'm looking at where On3 had these guys and where the industry had these guys. So the two most accomplished quarterbacks in the class of 2023 so far are Sam Levitt, who started out at Michigan State and is at Arizona State now, who led Arizona State to the playoff last year, and Lenora Sellers, who's in South Carolina, who's our number two returning quarterback coming back next year. So our guys at on three had Sam

Levitt number seven in this class. When you average it with the other ranking services, he was number 24. We had Lenora Sellers number eight. And when you average it with the other ranking services, he was number 18. And I'll go down because the third, well, I think Avery Johnson is probably the third most in this is maybe, but the other guy who's been really good in this class, and there will be others, because I think Austin Simmons is gonna be good at Ole Miss, but the other guy who's been really good

out of this class already is Darian Mensah, who was the starter for Tulane last year. He's gonna be at Duke this year, got a big bag to go to Duke. I believe we had Darian Mensah at number 65 in this class. Yes, but when you average what the other services had him as he was number 113. So short story or short version of a long story quarterback

recruiting is a crap shoot. Yeah, but our guys are good at analyzing them. I saw Cody Balera in action over at the, uh, um, camp that I was at earlier this month and it was, uh, or seven on seven I was at and he was cooking and he was teaching me stuff and showing me what to look for and how he looks for things and like, it's, it's insanely intricate. Like I think that people have this like notion that, you know, five star quarterback analysis is,

is just kind of like throwing darts at a board, but like they are looking at the details. They know, you know, size, measureables, all that stuff, but they look at footwork. They, they see how they, they do under pressure. I mean, like they have 9,000 different things that they're looking at that helps them put them in that position.

And I think that they're pretty trustworthy people and the rankings speak for themselves. So I'm think that they're pretty trustworthy people in the rankings speak for themselves. So I'm happy that they're on our team. Sailor Joe says Nico to USC. No, I don't think that's gonna happen. I've seen Ohio State in the chat. Not gonna happen. I've seen Notre Dame in the chat. Not gonna happen. We're gonna talk about Notre Dame later in the show like CJ Carr look great during the spring game. Marcus Freeman has a decision he has to make,

but it's not whether he's going to bring in Nico or not. Yes. Oh, I mean, I'm like I'm like just on the edge of my seat here waiting for this. Like I need to know. Like, you know, I kind of feel like this is a cliffhanger on a TV show. It's like, where is he going to end up? Yeah, Mike says Oregon State. They just got Malik Murphy. Do they have money to pay for a quarterback?

I don't think so. Yeah. So a game show of teams that most need a quarterback that would be willing to do what they can to get him would be fun. Zach says Belichick needs a QB. That's probably true. That's probably true. So there are power conference

schools. Oh, you know, I'm sure he'd get along quote well with that team. Oh, yeah, I'm sure that would be awesome. But but but maybe Nico's dad would actually listen to Bill Belichick. Maybe that's the one guy when Bill Belichick's like, listen, he's not worth $4 million a year. Yeah. And I do want to- We'll give you one five. We'll give you one too, yeah. I'm not really good with that question.

We're on to Wake Forest. I don't know, aside, speaking of Niko's dad, I want to say that I think it's very funny that his tweet calling Niko's report not true got community noted. That was hilarious. That was amazing. The community note basically says it turns out the report was true. Turns out the report is true, yeah. Although he didn't,

the community note didn't refute the other part of that. So I'll refute that. I don't think he's a Bi7CH. Yeah. Well, all right. Yeah, maybe he's a bi8CH, but not a 7CH. All right. We love you, Pete. We got it. We need to shift to the other side of this coin.

Before we do that, I want to tell you about game time. Game time. The best place to get last minute tickets. Ari. I looked up Dallas. Game time, the best place to get last minute tickets Ari. I looked up Dallas. You could see AC DC tonight at Jerry World for 82 bucks. 82 bucks. You could get in to see AC DC at Jerry World 75. There's a couple for like that's insane.

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Yeah, well you gotta come up with some date night ideas over here in the household. And I'm thinking, because my wife loves concerts, I'm gonna check this out, because Kendrick would be cool. Yeah, well remember, sign up, use the code staples and get $20 off your first purchase terms apply So like if you wanted to get into AC DC if you wanted to to little you shook me all night long Before you know who knows then? You could get in there for 55 bucks after that that 20 bucks off

So go to game time download the app use staples, $20 off your first purchase. All right. Let us talk about Tennessee and what Tennessee does next because you had Jake Merklinger who were going to be calling Jake Merklinger for the rest of the season on this show. Trick. George McIntyre, the freshman, you had them playing and I think Josh Hypal likes these guys. I don't know how much he likes these guys and we're going to find out how much he likes these guys this week because the

transfer portal does open. Do you think Ari Tennessee goes after another QB? I would think so Tennessee's got bullets. I mean like, you know, it's not like they're like a poverty program. So, oh, they got money just because they didn't want to pay Nico what he wanted. Doesn't mean that they don't want to pay somebody with their worth. You know, like those are two very different things.

And the thing I wanted to say, I'm going to go on a, on a two second diatribe about this, cause I'm going to write a column about this right after the show's over. I was going to do it yesterday, but I fell asleep, dude. Do you remember having a toddler over the weekends? Like weekends are not relaxing. Like I get more relaxation. I know I just think it's funny. Like I was gonna do but I fell asleep. I did. Yeah. I mean, like, we went to a a

flower festival in Ennis, Texas, which was like an hour south because it was supposed to be this beautiful field of blue isalias or something. I don't know what the flower is. We got there. Azealia. Like Izzy Iggy. I don't know what it was. I don't know. They were blue and they were everywhere. And like we wanted to dress up Liv and put her in a dress with a hat and put her in the field and take some pictures or whatever. And we got there and it was an absolute nightmare.

Like there weren't as many flowers as Instagram promised. There were a million cars there like trying to get a picture of a toddler who skipped her. It was just like, Master Sunday was not a sleep on the couch day for me, unfortunately. Although at the end, we should talk about the ending of that. That was amazing. But back to Tennessee, I am going to write that like, this is kind of a really great gig

for whoever can get it, right? Like, because Tennessee is in a position, like I know they didn't beat Ohio State in the playoff last year. Defense is still good, and you're still surrounded by some pretty good players. Do you remember the fans and how much they got behind going to Ohio Stadium?

Yeah, they're blue bonnets. Thank you, Lotus. They were blue bonnets. That's what the flowers were. That is a fan base that is just dying to love you. Dying to love you. It is a big time program and a big time conference that will make you a millionaire,

plays in one of the most iconic stadiums in college football, and they are at a place where they are dying to love their quarterback. Like in terms of big time football and being coveted in a way that you might not be coveted other places like this is a tremendous opportunity and a very sexy opportunity for somebody who wants to step into that role. And whoever steps into that role will automatically start five or six spots ahead of where a quarterback typically does in the admiration department because Tennessee is hurt by what happened here.

They might not. They might act like they don't. You can be the greatest rebound QB of all time. Yeah. This is the greatest rebound relationship ever. If Tennessee goes out and gets somebody and then they perform? Like Tennessee might be like the sexiest spot to land. Imaginable, I'm gonna write that today. I think that this is amazing.

So, you know, and it's just like, I saw somebody, I think River sent the tweet, but like it was like some Tennessee fans like, who wants to be a millionaire quarterback edition? It's like, okay, let's get it. Who wants to be a millionaire? Someone's gonna be one, okay, let's get who wants to be a millionaire. Someone's going to be one. Oh yeah. And it had basically the entire big 12 starting quarterback list.

Tennessee vaults. Twitter. Please don't come after me for saying this. I've just been thinking about this all day and I can't stop if they don't get a portal quarterback and then Mercklinger holds out. Stop it. What's wrong with you? I'm just saying like not that he would, but like he should dare you besperse the Merk Slinger like that. He would never know. I'm just saying talk about leverage.

What this we're talking about business, right? Yeah, I don't think he's going to do that. But the trust tree I'm not going to. You're evil. I don't know he's going to do that. Around on the trust tree? I'm not going to. You are evil. You're evil. I don't know how much he's being paid, but he better be paying. Like, listen, they either go pay seven figures for whoever you bring it or whatever, or you're paying him that.

People are getting raises off of this. Nico might not get a raise, but he's going to get everybody else one. Because there are a bunch of quarterbacks in big 12 and the ACC and the big 10 that if you think Tennessee might come after your guy, you're calling his agent like, hey, how about we?

I'm not trying to be funny. You can stay a little bit. I know like I'm the funny like sidekick guy, but like I'm not being funny. This is a business, right? It is a business and, but I think that would be an equally stupid business move because if you do that we already saw how Tennessee is going to handle that

and I don't think Tennessee is so desperate because remember Tennessee has other options like in this hypothetical which I do not think will happen. I mean we're not putting that evil on you, Jake Markslinger. It's a podcast. Let's talk it through. It happened in this hypothetical. If that were to happen, Tennessee's just gonna go get somebody out of the portal. They're gonna they're gonna just fire the money cannons and somebody's coming. What if he decides to hold out in August? Then they're that's what I'm saying. You can make it through the portal window. You can't go get these never going to play again.

Because he's never really played, and if you're the type of person that would do that, I don't want you on my team like he's. He doesn't prove and he's good enough to even think about doing that. I know, but if you're the starting quarterback at Tennessee, whether you're good or not, you are worth X doll.

You're not the starting quarterback at Tennessee if you haven't started a game. I think it's interesting because Tennessee would have no choice. I am firing you as my agent. You're the worst agent ever. I mean, I didn't go to law. This is terrible advice. Arizona journalism, but Tennessee would have no choice though, right?

You're like Nico's dad. I'm not saying go ask for 9 million. I'm just saying I would say, hey, I need to be made. If he's not being made whole, he needs to be made whole in some degree. I'm sure they're gonna bump him up a little bit, dude. Yeah, okay. I'm just saying, I'm talking big business here, man.

It's sort of like when you fire your head coach and you give somebody the interim job, like you give them a little bit more scratch. This is gonna go viral. Your role's increased. This is gonna go viral and I'm gonna have to be off Twitter today, aren't I? But I mean, you're the, your roles increased. This is going to go viral and I'm going to have to be off Twitter today. Aren't I? Um, but I mean, you're, you're the one poking ball Twitter with the pointy stick. Listen, I'm not poking them.

I'm just saying if you are a, if you, a place that is paying what Tennessee is paying is reliant on you and you're not made whole, you have a unique leverage of like, if I'm not playing quarterback, then who is you get paid the money? Yeah, and you can nuke your entire career. I'm telling you. I'm you are fired as my agent fire I want no part of you. Well, the good news is is that I'm actually not an agent I don't try to be so at least I know There you go. All right. Let's hear from Josh Heiple He came right out of the gate after the spring game

and talked about this situation. I'm sure I'm going to get asked about this here in a second, so I'll address it on the front end. Today's landscape of college football, it's different than what it has been. And, you know, it's unfortunate, you know, just the situation and where we're at with Nico. I wanna thank him for everything that he's done since he's gotten here.

That's as a recruit to who he was as a player and how he competed inside of the building. And so a great appreciation for that side of it. Obviously, we're moving forward as a program without him. You know, I said it to the guys today, there's no one that's bigger than the power team. And that includes me. And they hear me say that a lot inside of that team room.

This program has been around for a long time with a lot of great coaches, a lot of great players that came before that laid the cornerstone pieces, the legacy, the tradition that is Tennessee football. It's gonna be around a long time after I'm done and after they're gone. And that's what's special about being here, is that there is a legacy and a tradition that is so rich and a logo that's recognized not just across the nation, but across the world.

He's right. That logo is bigger than anybody else. And I think Philip Fullmer actually said this back when he was about to be fired as the coach. He said, you know, a school is bricks and mortar. It's gonna be here forever. Like, he's right. None of these guys are bigger than the power team.

None of them are bigger than the program. And that's where team Nico miscalculated, I think here because they, they made, they made Tennessee's decision really easy. And Ari, I think other coaches would find this decision easy too. Here's Mario Cristobal talking after Miami's spring game. He got asked about it too. We're not going to do that at Miami and I say that without any hesitation. If anyone's thinking that and they could be the best player in the world if they want to play a holdout they might as well play get out. We don't want to do that.

We don't want Miami to become that. Too many guys have sweated blood and have laid on the line on that field to ever become that kind of a program. And same answer really. Like the program's bigger than you. And it was interesting when Chris Deball was doing his press conference. This was the last question the press conference and he's getting asked and you could tell his SID was getting a little nervous about it and Mario turns back and he goes, oh I can answer this one. This will be good. And it was it was good. Yeah it is interesting though because on one hand if you are a transactional program and Miami has actually done quite well in high school recruiting so maybe they're not quite as bad at both they're good at the transfer portal and high school if

you are a transactional program you can't say that as much with a straight face as a team that tries to use high schools like you know like for instance like not to bring Dion into this but let's bring Dion into this if people like Colorado started playing these games Dion strikes me as a type of person that would have zero. No tolerance for it. He would have done with them. Yeah. But the same time too,

if you bring those types of people into your program, it's the same exact thing that we said about Tennessee. Like Tennessee brought them in knowing who they were. This is the Kirby Smart argument. This is the, what Kirby Smart said. And I am going to write that column today because you told me I needed to, I'm going to. Yeah. You're happy.

Her restart said it two weeks ago. He said, we're not going to recruit people whose primary primary motivation is money. And everybody's motivated by money in some way, shape or form, but not everybody is motivated. Number one by money. And the trick now is to find football players who would do this for free, but yeah, they'll take 750 grand or whatever it is to do it. Yeah, and also to everybody in college football has been motivated by money forever. Like this isn't new. The money just was how well do you perform? How much do you sweat blood and tears or whatever the thing is

for your program to put on tape that you're worthy of an investment? So like every everyone always goes and says like, I'm afraid they're not going to play really hard. It's like I would hope that they would play hard because there's film of this and NFL Draft Scouts are going to be looking at every single snap you play. And there's still more money in the NFL. Still more money.

So but yes, I think that there's a way to be driven by money, while also keeping the main thing the main thing. One more from Josh Hyple. And it further underscores how easy Team Niko made this decision for everybody. Man, if it's gonna happen, rip the bandaid too. At the end of the day, we got a lot of great work for the two guys that are here and we got a chance to move forward as a program. It's unfortunate, just in the landscape of college football,

that this happens at this point. I told our coaches yesterday afternoon when they had to staff me, and I said, if it's gonna happen, sometimes it happens through injury, game five, game six. I've had it in my career where I lost starting quarterback before we started training camp, the day of the start of training camp. And at the end of the day, this is the greatest team game there is. That group where we lost them on day one, they rallied together.

Adversity when it strikes, you got two choices, it can bring you together or divide you. That group came together and ultimately went on to win a conference championship that year. And this group inside of that locker room, they're tough, they're competitive, they care about each other and we gotta grow together. Two things, Andrew. So he's talking about Rhett Beaumar in 2006 in Oklahoma.

That was what he was talking about in case you guys were wondering. How torn up do you think Hypal is? I don't think he's that torn up now because he realizes this wasn't the guy because anybody who would do this isn't the guy. Although I do think because again, I don't think Nico is the one personally making this decision and everything I've been told is Nico and Josh Hyple had a very good relationship. So he's probably pretty disappointed that this is somebody he liked that he doesn't get to work with anymore. But the fact that this went down the way to what like if I'm Josh Hypal, I'm thinking about everybody else. And I'm thinking maybe, maybe this wasn't ever going to work, maybe wasn't destined to work.

Perfect segue to my second point. So I wrote a column, and I think this is the reason why people in Vault Twitter, if they remember, think I hate Tennessee. Although I don't. River can attest, right? I don't hate Tennessee. But when the Greg Shiano stuff happened, I knew Greg and saw him on a daily basis because he was at Ohio State at the time, and I was still on the beat. I thought that was like amongst some of the most dysfunctional behavior

I've ever seen. And I thought that the program by, you know, acquiescing to that was a dysfunctional program. And then when Nico came, I thought that was a desperate program willing to pay more than market value because that's what we thought at the time for a quarterback that may or may not be good. That's exactly what it was because the way you got into getting players like that early in the NIL era to keep them from going to Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia, which is where they all went, was pay more than those schools would pay. But here's where it gets better.

They are the ultimate functional program now. Like old Tennessee might have done that, might have bent at the knee there and done it, right? They might have given him what he wanted. But Josh Heiple is the absolute epitome of functionality and rationality to me. And I don't know how much the coach, I don't know where he stood in the pay him, don't pay him camp. I don't know how much his input, you know, led to the decision. I'm assuming that he would be the one that would know and understand whether or not he's a worthy investment. And I feel like if I'm Tennessee, and

I might write this too, I'm really frickin' proud of my coach today. And I'm really proud of my program. And you might lose a game or two that you wouldn't have lost had Niko stayed. But I think if you would have gone down this path, you would have ripped apart your locker room. You would have kept the person that would have become resented by his teammates. You would have become the pillar of dysfunctional behavior. And I think that putting the power T as, as cliche as that sound, because a lot of logos are recognized around the world. But Tennessee, I think became a better football program today. They might have become a better football team. And maybe the next week they will become a better football team if somebody comes in that is productive. But I'm, if I'm a Tennessee fan, I'm, I'm damn proud of my program today. Is that, is that a fair thought?

I think it's very fair. And I also think this shows you how easy that decision is to make. If you don't think that person is worth it. Now, if that person played like Joe Burrow in 2019, the year before, you probably would have got the money anyway. You just would have paid him. You just would have paid him. And that's the part I don't think everybody is grasping here. One of the big reasons this all happened is Tennessee and the coaching staff and the collective took a hard look at what they got out of Niko and said, we don't think you're worth what you're asking. It's an easy decision for programs at that point.

It's only hard if the player is really, really good and they're asking for something that the program can't pay. Yeah. But this was an easy decision. And I think it's, it will be easy if this happens again. I don't and I don't think this is gonna because this is gonna become a cautionary tale. We'll see what where Nico winds up. I'm very curious. I don't know. I don't know where he's gonna wind up. It may lead to program reform too. I also don't think this is like,

I don't think it's gonna to be a parallel or better move for Nico. So he's probably going to become a cautionary tale. And anybody thinking about doing this is going to think a little bit harder about doing this. Yeah. Richie here on the chat says Tennessee is as dysfunctional as it gets. There's nothing this situate that about the situation that is functional. I think that the dysfunction is on the player side, not the program side in the situation. Yeah, the program could have acted dysfunctional because they could have stretched this thing out. They could have tried to keep him. The fact that they cut bait as quick as they did, they're like, that's it, you're done.

That tells you what you need to know. I'm going to write that too. I think a lot of the better programs in the country would have done that. I think that's just like, you're not messing with Ohio State like that or Alabama or Georgia or yeah, you imagine somebody trying to do that to dabble. Oh, yeah. Well, I don't think yeah, like we didn't talk about who's going into the program. I don't think that's what that breeds. But like, yeah, I mean, Tennessee does bear some

responsibility for being in this situation. Because when you open up the door to allowing that type of personality to come in, then you're obviously playing with a higher risk of this happening. But I also am very curious to see too if Tennessee will be more cautionary with their NIL dollars for high school students moving forward and they might want to read the personality and what drives them a little bit better than they did in this situation. So, Jlovesports says, Carson Beck got three million and subscr some scrub got 5 million from Duke Derry Mensah, not some scrub also didn't get 5 million, but did get a lot of money. Yes, but Nico can't ask for 4 million. Nope. Here's the thing

we all can ask like I can go to our boss Shannon Terry today and say I would like 5 million dollars a year. Will you do that? Sure. See, he's gonna laugh at me. All that money is going to Naco's now. Yeah, I know. Naco's is gonna take our jobs here soon. Yeah, and he earned it, man. Yeah, Naco's earned every penny, baby. Every penny. Because you guys have no idea what level of nastiness was coming toward him. From the Tennessee fans, from the family, from everybody. And then, lo and behold, it's all true. Because Pete's a good reporter and had good sources. So, all right, let us close the book on this discussion for now

because we'll be talking about it again tomorrow and Wednesday as the transfer portal opens and Thursday as we start to get some movement in the portal. But we're going to talk about some of these other spring games because there was news out of them. Let's start in Gainesville. Dallas Wilson that dude. Apparently I'm in so much trouble Andy.

Oh why because I am going to be all Florida this entire off season and like I better not be made a fool of. You be careful with that Ari. I'm gonna warn you as someone who's watched the Gators for a very long time, be careful with that. Andy, I told you that I pick a team every off season to be good that people laugh at me for. And I did it two years in a row and I was right.

Okay, Texas, two years ago, I said they would win the big 12 and make the college football playoff. People said I was insane because they always choke. They made it. Last year, Notre Dame, and I stuck with it even after they lost to NIU all the way through the year and then picked them to go to the national championship game

in my bracket before the playoff started, was right on that. I think Florida is going to be my team this year. That's fine. I think they're listen. If you think I think you've got a good good shot here. Here's your here's your here's your issue. Okay.

What's going to happen with DJ Lagway now? Let's play a clip from Billy Napier that should make you feel very, very good. This is Billy Napier talking about DJ Lagway. Yeah, no, DJ's doing great. He'll start throwing here in a couple of weeks. But yeah, just in general, very positive there. You know, he's, you know, the lower body stuff is good and I think he's been able to do that. And I think we're working on, you know, he's – you know, the lower body stuff is good, and I think he's been able to do that, and I think we're working on, you know, just kind of getting him in position

for the next step. But in general, they're a lot of positive. Everything's on schedule. So you expect him fully ready for camp? Oh, yeah. He'll be – when we start OTAs in June, he'll be 100%. He'll start throwing we start OTAs in June, he'll be 100%. He'll start throwing a couple weeks. So Billy, if you're saying that that DJ

Lagway is going to start throwing in a couple weeks, he's not been throwing all spring. He's got a shoulder sore shoulder nagging shoulder injury. And that has been a major area of concern for Florida. Now, I don't know that he's just said a couple of weeks. I think people are thinking it's exactly two weeks. I don't think it's exactly two weeks. I think it's a little bit longer than that. But the plan is to have in throwing during this, you know, during the summer term, like school summer term starts in late May, early June. So the plan is to have him throwing by then. The question will be when he throws, does the nagging injury persist? Because if it does, then you got to worry about maybe having surgery. But if he throws and there's no pain, he's good to go. And they are confident that he's

going to be good to go for camp. If he is Ari, I think your projection of Florida being good is. Let me be perfectly clear. You got a good shot of being right there. Let me be perfectly clear. If he's not healthy, I'm not standing by that. Okay. Like this obviously obviously. Yes. Is predicated on DJ Lagway being awesome. So, but when you have freshmen receivers who show out, my number one concern with them is that they couldn't, they didn't have enough, you know, receiver power to get consistently open and have game-breaking ability because the more the years go on,

the more the good teams that end up winning the most have those guys who can't be covered, who will make plays in important times, are the ones that are really good. And I just I don't know how good Florida's receivers will be but I feel a lot better about it that now than I did on Friday. That's I look we've been telling Dallas Wilson's pretty good but now everybody's seen it in person now everybody's seen it live and on your screen out you have your spring game heroes. So you never know but he had 10 catches 195 yards, I believe two touchdowns. It's it's a big deal because look at last year, Elijah Badger, Shamir DK, good

receivers, they're gonna they're gonna wind up playing the NFL. But they're not going to be first round draft picks. And Florida had the option to go into the portal and get a bunch of guys. They got one guy they liked, J. Michael Sturtevant from UCLA, but they spent a lot of that money on flipping Dallas Wilson from Oregon. They also got Vernal Brown III,

who's another receiver from Orlando. But, and we have to be clear. But Dallas Wilson is the one they went in on. That's the one they were hoping. And I think I'm not going to compare anybody to Jeremiah Smith, because I think that's a one of one. But we can say like Ryan Williams last year. Like if you can get Ryan Williams type production out of Dallas Wilson, which would still be asking a lot, that could be pretty amazing. I mean, spring game hero usually goes for the walk-on or the guy

who's buried on the depth chart that has an awesome game and then disappears into the abyss, not the first spring game from a borderline five star prospect who everyone's counting on. Like I mean, that type of production to me, I think means something. So I don't know if that means he's going to have 1500 yards receiving this year or he's going to be somebody who has 500. But I think that the notion of Florida could get a big boost if one of their freshmen receivers turns out to be a productive player.

I think that you probably feel pretty good about the likelihood of Dallas Wilson doing that. Let's hear Billy Napier on Dallas Wilson. You know, like I told you guys before, these rankings are a little more accurate than they've ever been. And I'd say that's what a five star looks like. How about that? Talking about on three, and the other guys too. But yeah, they said the rankings are more accurate now because that's what a five star looks like.

Like that is, and that's something Florida has not had at receiver in a long time. The guy who comes in and just immediately overwhelms you with his talent. Like you have not seen Florida capable of getting that type of player for a while and now they have one. Can you imagine Dan Mullin saying that? No, because he'd be like, I don't care what the rankings say. It's like recruiting when it's time for recruiting. Yeah, when I heard him say that, I was like, yeah, that's

that's what I like. That's why I bought into Billy from the beginning. Um, but yeah, we have, uh, a lot to be excited about as it comes. Down the pike here with Florida and the hope is that, you know,

DJ will be, you know, healthy and productive and ready to go once fall camp starts. Fisherman in the chat, Kyle Pitts was good. Kyle Pitts was a tight end. He also committed to the Jim McElwain staff. So there's that. Producer River throw up Florida schedule. I'm just gonna throw a little cold water on your Florida schedule. So even if

they're good, even if they're better, it still could be very, very hard. LSU week three on the road, week four on the road at Miami, week six, Texas comes to town, week seven on the road to Texas A&M, the ultimate chaos agent is a hard schedule. Nine and three against that schedule gets in the playoff this year. I think you might be right. Yeah, I think you might be right because you you probably have beaten a playoff team if you go nine and three. Although Tennessee there on the tail end of that schedule. Given the Niko drama

does does that change how you feel about that game and obviously it's the next to last week of the regular season a lot can change between now and then. Yeah, I mean how I feel about that game now and how I feel about it a week from today could be different, you know So, you know, I I'm gonna abstain from an opinion on that until I see who they're working with but you know, I feel Florida's probably in a better position today, but that's temporary. Yeah, so If DJ lagway starts throwing again pretty soon, there's not a lot of pain. Everything moves smoothly and he's full go in camp. I think you are absolutely right to be very optimistic about Florida.

I think you should push in. It's definitely worth that being the one you trump it all off season. They still can let you down though because the schedule is really hard. definitely worth that being the one you trump it all off season. They still could let you down though, because the schedule is really hard, but if the healthy DJ Lagway shows up at camp that I think you're in a really good spot. I also am playing with complete house money because the team that I was trumpeting last year lost to NIU like very early in the season and then went up playing for the

National Championship. The best part about that was sticking with them the day after and consistently through. I think Florida has it as a might lose multiple games. I think Florida being very good doesn't mean that they run the table against that schedule. I don't think that's the expectation for everybody. So, you know, the hope is that here's the thing and Andy, you'll know if they're good and when you see it, you'll know it. Whether their schedule won't tell you whether they're good, you'll know it with your eyes. Yeah.

Also, if they are good, they can beat anybody on that schedule. Like it's one of those weird things. Like if Florida is a playoff team, Florida is a national title contender. Because if you can make the playoff against that schedule, then you can win the games you have to can make the playoff against that schedule, then you can win the games you have to win in the playoff.

I think that Florida today is a national title contender in my in my eyes. Yeah, wow, there's the pulled quote. Yeah, I mean it's April. If you if you we did this, didn't we take it with your chest? Sorry, saying it with your chest. I'm saying if you put a list of teams together that could conceivably win

the national title, it's an extensive list now in Florida's unquivocally on it. No, I'm with you. Yeah, I'm with you. Like I said, if you can make the playoff against that schedule, you are a national title contender. And if you can't, then we'll see what happens. Let's move on to Notre Dame. The team you adopted last off season and trumpeted all the

way through and did not bail on when they lost to NIU. Unlike everybody else, Notre Dame has quarterback competition going on because Ryan Leonard is headed off to the NFL. Notre Dame did not did not go into the portal for a quarterback this off season. They wanted to go with CJ Carr, the high profile recruit from the class of 2024. Steve Angelli, who was the backup last year, Kenny Menchie, who also was a highly rated quarterback recruit.

And we got to see them play on Saturday and everything that I saw. And then everything I read from the folks who know Notre Dame well is that CJ Carr seems to have separated himself. I'm shocked to hear that. Andy, I think that if they were going to go Steve Angelli. I'm trying to think of how to say this. I just think that like it's a fake quarterback battle. I think that we do this. And I don't think it's fake. I don't think it's fake. I think Steve Angelli did enough to be considered, but it might be the CJ Carr is

just better and that makes a difference. Our couldn't play or that they were unsure of whether or not he could conceivably win the job or. Be a very good player. They would have hit the portal position in the offseason. I also wonder if CJ Carr hadn't hurt his arm last year as a redshirting freshman. Would he have been the backup by the end of the season? That's the other question.

But Marcus Freeman has a choice to make now. He's got to figure out what to do because he said after the game that you want to make this a two-man race. You don't really want to make it have a three-man race going through the summer. So what does that mean? Because this is a tricky spot. Because if Kenny Menchie and Steve Angelli both think that CJ Carr is gonna be the guy, then you've got to figure out how to keep one of them. Because you probably want to keep one of them. Yep. So if you're Steve Angelli, do you leave? Because you actually have shown enough, probably,

to get a look as a potential starter at a program that does it that's coming out of spring not really sure what it's doing. Or you can definitely be the backup somewhere this season where they have an older QB where you'd be the front runner to start next year. So if you're Steve Angelli. You may have a higher incentive to leave than to stay. I agree and I'm very curious if we're going to get like spring quarterback dominoes in a way that we weren't anticipating last week. Because of Nico. Because of Nico, but also, you know, you get one more person in there and you know how

it goes quarterback leaves quarterback leaves quarterback leaves, they got to get backfield backfield backfield like that's how it goes. So yeah, I don't know if I would like I mean, Steve Angelli probably would have been a pretty marketable player to some extent had he done it in the winter, but he was the type of person who stayed and he stayed last year. So I don't know if I would. Yeah, he wants to be the Notre Dame quarterback. Like he wants to win this job. So that's and look, that's the one thing I wonder how the conversation goes because clearly he's been loyal. Like if you're Marcus Freeman, you say thank you for being loyal, but if we're gonna go with CJ, he's gonna be the guy for two more years. You got it. You're too good to not be a starting quarterback somewhere.

So also let's look at Kenny Menchie. Can we just appreciate the Kenny Menchie back flip after the TD? Watch this guy. So he's gonna score. Here we go we go here we go here we go. The Colts are going to take him number four overall to that leprechaun was like. I gotta get out of the way so listen, this is a this is a

dude. This is an athlete so we'll see what happens. I mean, maybe he ends up being the backup quarterback in Notre Dame this year. But there is there's a lot of questions to be asked. Of how you handle it's it's a pretty delicate situation. I think for Marcus Freeman. Now the one thing that's not delicate for Notre Dame is you're going to have a great offensive line.

Whoever is playing quarterback is going to be protected well. You have great backs. That you can hand off to. You know, Jeremiah loves Darian Price is about as good of a backfield combo as there is in country. So that's the thing. I think no matter how this goes, you should feel fairly confident in that. And often, but with Notre Dame, my questions are probably more on the defensive side of the ball.

Yeah. I'm with you and I'm excited to see how it how it how it plant pans out sorry. I had a very hard workout this morning and now my body is rejecting words for some reason. It happens. So here's the thing Ari and funny.

Funny story from this morning I'm watching'm watching highlights from the Notre Dame spring game and my son comes by. Oh yeah. And he looks over my shoulder and I'm watching the throw that Steve Carr makes, the kind of one that goes over the shoulder to the tight end that was just a beautiful drop in the bucket kind of throw. And I said, I said, yeah, this is the guy that I think

is probably gonna wind up winning that starting job. And he goes, oh, where did he play first? Just assuming that Notre Dame would have a transfer quarterback. I'm like, no, no, no. They recruited him out of high school. He's like, whoa. Whoa, yeah, it's funny because I was talking to a friend

over the weekend about what you were telling me about how your kids don't have a connection to the weekend about what you were telling me about how your kids don't have a connection to the movie theater like we do. Like we did. And like now I wonder like if your kids and my kid will, like as they grow up, have no connection whatsoever to the art of high school football recruiting. They live in Gainesville so they've seen DJ Lagway in Florida. They've seen a guy who came out of high school who became a famous person at the first school. So it's not out of the realm of possibility for them to see this, but yeah, it's strange.

But yeah, my son is a pretty big college football nut. So he knows that Notre Dame took Riley Leonard. He knows that Notre Dame took Sam Hartman. So I think he just assumed, oh, they took a veteran quarterback for somebody else. Yeah that's funny though. Yeah and it's interesting because I think you were right you said this earlier in our Notre Dame conversation that the fact that they didn't go into the portal in the offseason probably told you what you needed to know. Yeah. I think that the not what the coaches say, what the coaches do, tea leave reading is probably the most efficient way to go about doing things in terms of like your predictions, because I've learned and you're not it's not 100%. You're not always right about

everything. But if a coach does something roster move wise, recruiting wise, whatever, there's probably a reason for it so. Yeah I will see how it goes but I've anticipated from the beginning of the card will win this job and it's kind of the same conversation at Ohio State with Lincoln Keynes holds that was the tell for me with CJ Carr happened last fall. It was when Deuce Knight, the quarterback recruiter from Mississippi, flipped to Auburn because I think Deuce Knight went to Auburn thinking he could compete for that job.

It seems like Jackson Arnold's gonna win it, but I think it was a little more of a question. Yeah. I think the feeling around Notre Dame was CJ Carr is the guy for the future and that he would probably be the starter in 25 and 26 at least because you got to stay three years. So if that's the case, then if you thought you were going to be in the mix for the starting job, then you're probably going to look somewhere else. And so I think that's where they're at right now. I'm excited to see what happens, but you know, the guy's got a big strong arm. I remember watching him warm up before the national title game and thinking,

this is a dude who can make some throws. And we had Greg McElroy on and he spent a ton of time around Notre Dame throughout the playoff. And he said, look, this guy has every bit of the skill set you want. It's just a matter of how he puts it all together on the field. Yep, absolutely. You know I'm a sucker for five stars.

I know you are. You can't let it go. Yeah. You can't let it go. Never will. I work it on three now. But it's interesting, so, cause you're not,

you're not feeling that way about Nico right now, who is a five star. Like I never thought that every five star was, by the way, listen, Nico was in my top 10, five days ago. Well, but here's my thing. Normal, like the Ari I'm used to would be like, everybody should go after Niko right now. No, he was a five star.

What he did was insane. Exactly. Exactly. And that that tells you how crazy that whole situation was and how it's probably not a trend. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think no, but I don't think that you shouldn't go after him if you

need a quarterback. I'm not in if you can get him for a reasonable price and insert him into a team that needs a quarterback. I think you absolutely should, especially considering the fact that I think it's very unlikely that he will be in college football a year from now. So if you want a one year rental, a guy to come play quarterback that you think has a high ceiling and you want to try to get him at a bargain. I think you should swing for the fences for this guy. I'm not I'm not on team Andy of oh avoid him like the plague. No, I mean that's you know

he can play and well I I am I see he's disqualified himself for me if I'm the person who thinks I need a quarterback right now and I need the person who's gonna lead my team and take me, I don't want any part of this. I don't want, I don't want any, whether it's Nico or his family or combination of the two, I don't want someone who would do what happened Friday to be leading my team. of Nicos tenure at Tennessee from

message boards from people that we interacted with. Nico was a very well liked individual in the locker room. Okay, but but if Nico can be influenced that easily to do something this stupid, but he can't be influenced anymore because once you sign him, he's got one more year left of football and that's not going to be an issue. You got to play football for people who would do stuff this dumb, there's no deadline on it. They'll keep doing dumb things. Yeah, I guess. That's the part I would be

very concerned about. The camp also promoted his redshirt freshman year, right? So it didn't seem like they were overly impatient at the beginning and that they had a plan, which was there was angling behind the scenes like it and look, there were there were questions and I think legitimate ones about whether Josh Heipel should have started Nico over Joe Milton at the end of that season.

If somebody can get the guy for a million dollars to come play in the fall, I think they should do it. I disagree with you. Well, if you need a quarterback, Yeah. That would be a pay cut. Maybe it's Belichick though. I just... I think we've resigned ourselves to the acceptance of that. Yeah. I just can't wait. I want it to be Belichick at this point. I really do. I don't think it will, but I want it to be Belichick just because I want to hear the conversations between Belichick and

his dad. Belichick coming into college football was funny enough, but then going right to the most to the underbelly of what makes college football so dysfunctional would be hilarious. Exactly. Although, although of all the people who work in college football right now, he's probably the one that someone who won't listen to anybody else would listen to. See, cause if you're not going to listen to bill Belichick, you're not going to listen to anybody. Do you, but you, you know that there are going to be coaches that there will be some coaches that will, will agree with me on this and like, it's not like no

one's going to take him. Someone's going to take it. Dave's here. He isn Someone's gonna take him. Dave's here. He isn't gonna take a pay cut. He's a good to great QB in a market without any. See, Dave's here is overestimating the number of buyers in the market.

This isn't December, and that's where they screwed up. Had this been December, I would agree with you completely. But everybody's already paid their quarterback. Yeah, so the market is not that big. Now, the only thing to- But they could capitalize on desperation. Like I think Carson Beck capitalized on Miami's. He did, which is why I said December 28th was the day.

Because December 28th was the deadline to enter the portal in the winter. That was the day you should have done this. You should have gone to Tennessee and said, we're entering like when the Pop Tarts Bowl ended and it became very clear that Miami was going to be desperate for her quarterback. So it's at 6 o'clock Eastern time that night. You go to Tennessee and you're like, we're going to the portal

unless we get a deal done here. That's when you would have done it. That's when a smart agent would have done that. Yeah, we'll find out, man. If it's Nico and Belichick, greatest sport of all time. Great sport ever. It is already. Yeah. We'll talk to you tomorrow.