Andy & Ari On3 - Whose Team is it Anyway? The Transfer Game! | Shane Beamer Joins the Show | FIU Vice Unis | Andy On3

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

Whose Team is it Anyway? The Transfer Game! | Shane Beamer Joins the Show | FIU Vice Unis | Andy On3This episode in sponsored by Birddogs! Head on over to Birddogs.com/Andy and enter Promo Code: ANDY for a new awesome deal at checkout!Want to watch us on YouTube instead? Head on over and don't forget to subscribe!https://youtu.be/NSkKhgUAsjcWe start off the show on a rather slow Wednesday with some news coming out of Northwestern and its football practice. (0:00-3:42)South Carolina Head Coach Shane Beamer joins the show to discuss his 5 star player Nyckoles Harbor, relationship building amongst players and coaches, and what he learned from Steve Spurrier. Thank you to BirdDogs for sponsoring that interview. (3:43-22:48)FIU has released their newest alternate jerseys, "Vice,' and they are the early candidates for Uniform of the Year. (22:49- 24:30)Andy brings on Dan Rubenstein to play the first game of WHOSE TEAM IS IT ANYWAY? (24:31-31:15) QB JT Daniels (31:16-32:19)WR Dante Cephas (32:20-33:08)LB Justin Flowe (33:09-34:30)WR AD Mitchell (34:31-36:00)RB Carson Steele (36:01-38:09)OL Ladarius Henderson (38:10-39:56) Edge Steve Linton (39:57-41:34)OL Ajani Cornelius (41:35-43:25)TE Kyle Morlock (43:26-46:29)RB Ray Davis (46:30-48:24)OT Michael Tarquin (48:25-50:02)TE Austin Stogner (50:03-51:44)Wrap up of Whose Team is it Anyway along with Honorable Mentions (51:45-1:00:00)On Today's Extra Point, Andy honors a legendary AD with a remarkable career who has announced his retirement. Ohio State's Gene Davis is retiring after 18 years in Columbus. (1:00:01-1:03:00)

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Great show for you tonight. We got Shane Beamer, the head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks. He's got an update on a five-star recruit who just started practicing with the team that when you hear how much this dude weighs and then realize how fast he is, your jaw is going to drop.

We got that in a few minutes. Later, Dan Rubenstein of the Solid Verbal joins us. We are going to play a new game. It's called Whose Team Is It Anyway? How well do you know the players who entered the transfer portal and came out the other side? Probably not as well as you think. This game was hard and we could have made it a lot harder, but it was a lot of fun. We'll have that for you later in the show as well. Not a lot of huge earth-shattering news in college football today,

which given the past few weeks feels like a bit of a breather. No conferences have remade themselves. It doesn't seem at the moment like any giant move is imminent, which that's probably good. Probably needs to calm down a little bit. The biggest news was the T-shirts, apparently, that the Northwestern coaches wore to practice. Cats against the world with Pat Fitzgerald's number 51.

That's the number he wore as a Northwestern player on the shirt. And it caused a bunch of stories to be written, a bunch of controversy. The university athletic director, Derek Gregg, came out with a statement, which it's funny because Derek Gregg, we barely heard a peep from him for about three weeks when all this stuff was unfolding the the hazing allegations pat fitzgerald being fired everything else but they wore some t-shirts in support of pat fitzgerald he said i'm extremely disappointed that a few members of our football program staff decided to wear cats against the world t-shirts neither i nor the university was aware they owned or would

wear these shirts today the shirts are inappropriate inappropriate, offensive, and tone deaf. Let me be crystal clear. Hazing has no place at Northwestern, and we are committed to do whatever is necessary to address hazing-related issues, including thoroughly investigating any incidents or allegations of hazing or other misconduct. Translation, we're getting sued like crazy. Please don't do that. Now, David Braun, for lack of a better term, poor schlep who has to deal with all this stuff.

He was North Dakota State's defensive coordinator last year. Now he's here and he's the interim coach. Oh, by the way, his wife just had a baby. He got asked about this and I like his response. He said, I'm not going to dive into it. It certainly isn't my business to censor anyone's free speech. That's probably the right attitude for Braun to have in the situation he's in. As for the coaches, the players, anybody who is throwing on those shirts, you might want to consider one thing just before you do it. Because I'm with Coach Braun on this. You are allowed to feel however you want to feel about what has happened. And if you want to support the guy you think has

been wrong, then absolutely. But before you do, again, just think about this. You are a 1-11 team that apparently likes to do a lot of weird naked stuff. Is your culture really that great? Is it really something you need to defend and celebrate? Just a thought. When we come back, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer joins. He's got an update on five-star Nicholas Harbor. You're not going to believe it. We'll be right back.

We are joined now by South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer. And, Coach, we can't talk about any specifics involving recruiting, but I did text you the other day. You seem to really enjoy the DMV, Washington, D.C. area, and I'm curious if this is a prelude to running for office. I don't know if you're just shuttling back and forth to get, get some experience in case there's a Senate running coming up. Yeah, well, I'm a, I'm up there a lot. I certainly making a lot of connections.

I do love politics, but I, between coaching in the SEC and, and politics, I think when I'm done coaching, I think that'll be a time for me to retire and run off into the sunset. I think you could handle it though. You do have that state, well, maybe we won't get too political on this show, but that statesman-esque quality where you could probably unite sides of the aisle

if you needed to. I think you might be able to do that. I would like to think so. There's a lot of correlation in the app between athletics and politics i guess and dealing with people and and all that and i uh have been up there in january recruiting nicholas harbour and then back in june we had a like an nil summit day up on capitol hill so that was really cool for me as a guy that does that loves history but then also enjoys politics to be in the U.S. Capitol

and have a chance to meet with people and walk the halls. And you think about all the history in those, in D.C., in those areas. It was really cool. So who knows? We'll talk about it later when you need a comms director. It's no problem. But I will ask, you mentioned Nicholas Harbor. I was going to wait till the end of the interview,

but I know there's a bunch of recruitniks because I work for On3 now. So I know there's a bunch of recruitniks that are excited to hear about what does this gentleman actually look like in pads on a college practice field? He's eye-opening, without a doubt, from just a physical stature standpoint. You know, take the speed out of it, just his height. I mean, the guy's 243 pounds at today as we record this and has size, has athleticism. He's a great kid, great young man.

I mean, he works really, really hard. Football is important to him. Sometimes you, when I was telling him, and I've actually, I told the team this the other day, he showed it in a team meeting. I mean, he's, he's got toughness. And, you know, sometimes when you were bringing a guy out, that's also quote unquote a track guy, all they want to do is just run fast and, and not deal with the physicality that football is and not him. He,

he likes the physical part of it. He's got a competitive spirit to him, and awesome young man that works really, really hard, and excited he's with us. As his recruitment went along, how did the evolution of his position change in your mind? Was it him driving that, or was it you guys kind of saying, wait, you might fit better here?

Yeah, a little bit of both. You know, when we first – the first time I ever saw him, I was coaching at Oklahoma. And I was in Archbishop Carroll, his high school, and we were recruiting Anton Harrison, who ended up signing with Oklahoma and just got drafted into the NFL. And I remember Robert Harris, the coach there at the time, while I was sitting in his office, and he's like,

hey, I know you're here to see Anton, but I got to show you this video of this freshman I got. And it was a video of Nick running track. And I remember sitting in the office thinking, oh, my God, this guy plays football. And then he pointed him out to me in the hall, and he looked basically like he does now. And that was the first time I ever saw Nicholas Harbour and just knew, you know what, he's whatever he wants to be.

And then we get to Carolina and start recruiting him. June of 21, I guess, is when everything, the COVID dead period ended, and recruits were able to get on campus. And he came down here with his high school coach. And early on it was going to be we were recruiting him as a defensive end. and recruits were able to get on campus. And he came down here with his high school coach. And early on, it was going to be we were recruiting him as a defensive end. With that size and strength and speed and athleticism, he could do that. And he could.

I still believe that. But then as it went on and on, he decided he wanted to play offense. You know, so at that point, we started talking to him about offense. And naturally, you start thinking about tight end. And then it goes it's one of those okay this guy's 240 plus pounds and as a world-class sprinter do we really want him half the time blocking sec defensive ends um or cutting off the back side on an inside zone play and he's got toughness he will he would do that and then it just kind of evolved to we're better off let's just get him out in space use his athleticism and his speed and uh that's what's best for him and then for us as a team as well but then it was a group effort

too because sterling lucas who coaches our defensive ends sterling was connected with him because um he was initially going to be a defensive end so sterling continued to build that bond and then justin step our wide receivers coach and joey right our tight ends coach they got involved he was initially going to be a defensive end. So Sterling continued to build that bond. And then Justin Stepp, our wide receivers coach, and Joey Wright, our tight ends coach, they got involved because Nicholas was going to become an offensive player. So I feel like every coach on the staff, except maybe the O-line coach and the D-line coach, were involved in his recruitment.

Well, and it's just one of those coaching small world things, too. I was listening to Trey Knox, your tight end transfer from Arkansas, and I was asking him questions about Dow Loggins, your new offensive coordinator who came from Arkansas and was his position coach there. And he's like, no, no, no, guys, I knew Coach Stepp first. Yeah. So it is amazing how much cross-pollination there is.

No, it really is. And, you know, it just goes to show in recruiting, you develop relationships. And nowadays, probably more than ever, it's prevalent, Andy, with just a transfer portal. Like if you lose a guy initially in recruiting and he goes to another college, I mean, you don't want to end on bad terms. And we don't. A guy goes somewhere else, we wish him well, but it's more prevalent than ever because there's a chance that, you know, down the road with the way coaches change, the transfer portal being prevalent, that it may all circle back and you may be reconnected with that guy.

But, yeah, when we first hired Dal and Justin, or Justin was already on the staff, and I can remember we were down in Fort Lauderdale in December out recruiting, and that was when Trey Knox first went in the portal and we were getting ready to do a home visit with a wide receiver defensive back down in Fort Lauderdale. And before we went in the house, I got on the phone when Trey Knox first went in the portal and we were getting ready to do a home visit with a wide receiver defensive back down in Fort Lauderdale. And before we went in the house, I got on the phone with Trey and it really resonated with me. Obviously, what a great young man he is. But he had the connection with Dow.

But then Justin was with me. And then to hear those two guys talk like they had just seen each other the day before because of the bond they built in recruiting was pretty cool. We'll be right back with more from South Carolina coach Shane Beamer. But first, I want to tell you about bird dogs. You've heard me talk about living your most efficient life in bird dog shorts. There's a picture of me and my tight wads that have the built-in liner. No need to buy or wash underwear ever again. They can take me from the bar to the golf course, to the pool, to wherever life might bring me. But what about the top? What about the tarp? What are we doing about that? Well, Bird Dogs also now makes polos. That's right. This beauty right here is the Fidel Bass Pro. They've also got the Galileo Ravioli, the hand polo. Oh yeah. They like their puns at Bird Dogs. But the point is now

you can go into places that say no shirt, no shoes, no service wearing Bird Dogs because you had your shorts on, but you were going tarp off. Now you can go tarp on with Bird Dogs. Go to birddogs.com slash Andy, or use the promo code andy you get this amazing hat so you can go shorts upper torso and head all covered by bird dogs birddogs.com slash andy promo code andy and it probably makes that recruitment much easier that's it would seem to be that if you don't have some pre-established relationship, once some dude hits the portal, you may be out of luck. No, there's no doubt, you know,

because every school in America is if a great, if Andy Staples is a great player and he goes in the portal within two hours, you got everybody in the country after you, you're naturally, I think, going to go maybe where you have some natural built-in relationships already. And, and the other thing, too, with that is because of those relationships, they can trust that coach. So, for example, if Justin Stepp, yeah, Justin Stepp works here at South Carolina and wants what's best for our program, but he's also got a relationship with Trey where if he tells Trey Knox, look, this Shane Beamer guy that you don't know, here's what he's really like, and here's what this program is like,

and it's not fake and things like that. You know, being able to, you know, have those conversations with players, certainly it's an advantage when that happens. We've, you know, we've benefited from it, and then we've lost guys that were in the portal that maybe we wanted that we didn't get because of a relationship he had with another coach somewhere. So switching gears to guys who never went in the portal that maybe we wanted that we didn't get because of a relationship he had with another coach somewhere. So switching gears to guys who never went in the portal, I want to ask about another one of your offensive weapons, DK Joyner.

Year six in the program, third different position? He's a running back now. He started as a quarterback, then a receiver. Brief cameo at quarterback again in a bowl game, and now he's playing running back. How did that conversation go? Yeah, it was one of those, you know, in the last two seasons, we've lost multiple running backs out of our program,

whether it be after my first year, Kevin Harris and Zaquandre White left early for the NFL. And then last season, we had some guys that decided to transfer. So the depth in that running back room was not what it needed to be. And we were going into spring practice this past spring with Juju McDowell was a scholarship running back returning. And Mario Anderson was a transfer running back from Newberry that we had just brought in on scholarship.

And those were our only two scholarship tight ends that we had in the program. Excuse me, scholarship running backs that we had in the program. So initially it was, we got to get some running backs to be able to just get through spring practice. And then when you look at DK, he's a big, thick receiver at the time. And you look at his body type, he looks like a running back in a lot of ways. But then for me, Andy, it was going back and we've used him in a Wildcat quarterback role over the last couple seasons. You alluded to the bowl game where he was a quarterback.

But if you go back and watch the Tennessee game, he scored a couple touchdowns in that game as a Wildcat quarterback where he showed really natural running skills. There was a play where we just ran like a downhill run for a touchdown where he had to lower his shoulder and get north-south and scored. And then there was another play we ran like a little bit of a zone read type scheme, and he had to make somebody miss out in space and then get it in the end zone. So I knew he had the ability, so I brought him in my office before spring practice and just said, look, here's where we are at running back. We know

you can play receiver. You know, you going through 15 practices in the spring, yeah, that's going to help you, but we know what you can do there. You're a smart guy. This is going to help our football team and help you if you want to just – we didn't even talk about doing it 100% in the spring. It was really just let's just take some days out of spring practice, out of our 15 practices, let's take, I don't know, five or six where you work as a running back just so you get some experience.

And then he got in there and probably one or two days in, I think he felt at home and he's never not once since then, has he come to me and said, when am I going back to receiver? He's he embraced it, has done a great job. And, and it's really a natural, great position for him and for our football team this season. And then for his future as well. What does it say about a guy like that? Cause you know, usually when the quarterback doesn't win the job, they're gone,

but he has found ways to stay over and over again. Yeah. To me, it says what a fantastic, just human being he is. How unselfish. I mean, he is um if not the leader of our team he is one of the top leaders of our team there's no doubt about it um and then the other thing i think it says is that he loves south carolina and honestly you know after the way he played in the bowl game two years ago against North Carolina, when he was our quarterback, he had other schools that were, let's be honest, tampering with him, trying to get him to come play for their college as a quarterback. And, you know, he and I met about it and wanted to talk about him

and what was best for his future. And in the day, he's like, Coach, I love South Carolina. I grew up here. I don't want to play anywhere else. I've invested too much time in this program, and I want to finish what I started here at Carolina. And then, you know, went into last season thinking that it could be his last year, and then for him to decide to come back for another year has only made him better

and made our team better. But what an example for not just our players, but players all across the country. You know, a guy that hung in there and dealt with some adversity. But to me, his best football is still in front of him. So you brought up that Dukes-Mayo Bowl against North Carolina. You will play North Carolina again in that stadium to open the season. College game day is going to be there.

Drake May, Mack Brown, everybody. But the most important question, will it be easier to coach this game knowing there's no chance someone will dump mayo on your head? I'll probably be more focused and tunnel vision on the game. Because in that bowl game, it was always the thought in the back of my mind, every time we – or as it got closer to the end of the game oh shoot uh if we're about to win this game and i got a mayo bath coming my way so the anxiety you felt throughout

the game that won't be there but the uh intensity and the urgency it'll be an awesome night in charlotte but uh that no mayo thankfully i was gonna, thanks to DK Joyner. You actually took a decent lead early. So that mayo was probably in the back of your mind for quite some time. Yeah, it was early. They had Sam Howell in an explosive offense and we had to play. We got off to a good start

and had to play really well in the second half. But as the game went on, I mean, I can vividly remember being on the sidelines with about four minutes left in the game thinking, you know what, this, me agreeing to this mayo bath seemed like a pretty good idea like a month ago when they asked me, but now it's like reality. Yeah, it's like whatever for the cause, wait, what? I have to do this now? So you and I have a person in our history where we learned quite a few things from. So I want to ask you this, you coached with Steve Spurrier when he was at South Carolina,

that was your first time around and I'm watching you guys recruit and it feels very similar to, to that last time that you were there together where you were, you were getting all kinds of talent and, and really building that program and something special. What did you learn from working with Steve Spurrier? A lot. You know, that was like there were reasons I wanted to take this job at South Carolina

when I left Mississippi State from a personal standpoint. But just from a professional standpoint, the opportunity to come here and learn from a guy like Steve Spurrier who won an ACC championship at Duke and won what seven SEC championships, I think at Florida. I believe it's eight. Cause he counts the 1991 when they were first, but not eligible to win it. Yes.

Sorry, sorry, coach Spurrier eight as well. So it was a great experience for me as a young coach to learn, to get that opportunity. You know, a couple of things stand out. One, how I really saw how a team will take on the personality of their coach, you know, and the way the swagger, confidence, whatever you want to call it, that Coach Spurrier carried

himself with, to me, a lot of our players and our team kind of took on that mentality in a lot of ways. And then the other thing is just it was good for me as a young coach just to see that work-life balance that he had, that at the end of the day you better have good players and coach them up, as he liked to say, likes of the day, you better have good players and coach them up as he liked to say, likes to say, and you, but you better have good players, but get good players in here, coach them up, develop them.

But you can also, you know, you don't have to be up here from 5.00 AM until midnight sleeping in the office. And, you know, I have it, but I saw him in the spring during spring practice, play golf three, four times a week in the months of March and April during spring ball where you've got that good balance. And to me, you and your assistant coaches, you need that

because this profession is a grind. So those are probably the two biggest things, just the personality that he had, how it resonates with your players, that confidence, and then it was good for me to see that work-life balance that he had. One more before I let you go. I just, you've exceeded expectations the first couple of years in this job that they keep growing. How do you, how do you deal with that? How do you address that with your players?

Yeah. You know, it's, it's different because two years ago, you know, it's different because two years ago, you know, it's funny. This morning I had to record a bunch of radio ads and television, like commercials for sponsors and things like that. And the list of people that want to work with Gamecock football and be corporate sponsors has grown in the last two years. And that's a byproduct of winning. And so you kind of realize that there's more more eyes on you.

More people want to be associated with you. But because two years ago, there weren't expectations. There were people that said the ceiling for this team was two wins and we won seven. And then last year we won eight. For me, Andy, it's I want to be at a place with high expectations and we have high expectations for ourselves. Two from it's, you don't listen to so much of that. We weren't listening to them two years ago when, when they didn't think we were very good and we're not listening to them right now when there are expectations for us. And I know it's cliche, but it's true. We just worry about ourselves, try and be better tomorrow than we were today and maximize the potential of the

2023 team and, you know, get maximize the potential of the 2023 team and, you know, get to the end of the season. And hopefully we've gotten better as the year went on and we have, you know, maximized our potential, but we embrace the expectations. We want that. We want, you know, high expectations, but also realizing that we have a lot of work to do. Yes, we won eight games last season and did a lot of things for the first time,

but there's a lot that we need to improve for us to be able to take the next step also. Great lesson. Never listen to those media guys. Love it. It's perfect. Thank you, Shane. Unless they're like the experts like yourself. Yeah, just me.

Nobody else. Exactly. Thank you, Shane. You got it thank you big news in the uniform world on Wednesday night FIU announced its FIU vice uniforms and if there is a cooler alternate uniform this season I want to see it look if you're Penn State if you're Aub, you don't mess with your uniforms. They're perfect. The tradition is amazing. If you're FIU, have some fun with it.

And if you're going to pay homage to Miami Vice, do it with a neon Lamborghini, which is what they did. And my sources at FIU tell me that basically their video shoot started with somebody, somebody new going, Hey, I got a guy that can get us a Lamborghini. Which is about the most Miami sentence that's ever been uttered. Look at these magnificent uniforms. These are glorious. And I know what you're saying, but it's not, it's not classic. It's, it's pink. No, it's Miami. Now, the U has its own classic uniform. But if you're FIU, then you got to work harder.

And this is doing it right here. So Scott Carr, the athletic director, Dan Forsella, the associate athletic director, they came from UCF. They like those Citronaut uniforms they did there. But these, I got to say say as much as I like the citronaut UCF uniforms these are even better you got palm trees you got 305 you got bright colors and of course you got a Lamborghini if you're going to announce a new uniform in Miami you do with a Lamborghini FIU UT UTEP, October 11th, ESPN2.

You know, I'll be watching. When we come back, we're going to play the new game show that is sweeping the nation. Whose team is it anyway? Dan Rubenstein from the Solid Verbal joins us. How well do you know what came out of the transfer portal this off season?

Are you sure you know where everybody is now that camp has started? I guarantee you don't. This game is outstanding. It's fun. We're going to have to play it a few more times before games start. We'll be right back. We are joined now by the great Dan Rubenstein, pioneer of college football podcasting from the Solid Verbal Podcast. Hi, Dan. How's it going? Thanks for having me. It's great. Now, Dan, I've always felt like you missed your calling. You should have been a game show host. Yeah. And you have brought me on board for multiple game shows throughout the years on your show uh most recently sark tank which was brilliant you

and ty hildebrand uh did a tremendous job producing that episode thank you um first of all it's not too late i just turned 40 so i have time you've seen the the 10 years of like pat sajak hosting wheel of fortune for however 40 years or something so i have time the other thing is i i don't know if people i mean i've mentioned this no numerous times but i will be the only game show contestant the only college football game show contestant with actual multi-time game show contestant real game show contestant experience you you know i also have game show contestant experience. Well, you know I also have game show contestant experience. I mean, you were a singled-out champion, were you not? I was on MTV in the era when singled-out was on,

but I was on Idiot Savant's short-lived TV game show. There were three contestants, and I finished third. So was this... Didn't go well. Who hosted this? This is not Jon Stewart. I cannot remember who hosted Idiot Savants. I have to go look at that.

But it was Panama City Beach in 1997 is when we filmed it. There was a tryout. They they did tryouts on various campuses within driving distance of Panama City. And so I came through the the UF heat, the UF tryout, and wound up on Idiot Savants. It was doing well. I was actually in the lead. And then they had this segment or category where they had a model in a skin-tight kind of human anatomy outfit.

And she would point somewhere. And you had to explain where she was pointing. I had something very similar on my game show, weirdly enough. Which game show? It was Pick Your Brain. It was my face in a cardboard cutout. Or excuse me, it was my mom's face in a cardboard cutout. She stood behind it, and I would be told a body part,

and I had to put a Velcro thyroid or whatever where it is on the body. I did pretty good, not great. Well, funny you mentioned thyroid. My downfallfall where it all started going downhill for me was saying pituitary when i meant thyroid oh yeah i kept saying the thyroid on the thigh but i was nine years old oh well see i i was 18 i had no excuses i also mis also misheard the Beck lyric bottles and cans. Just clap your hands. Just clap your hands. Got that wrong from where it's at. So not not the greatest game show experience for me. But I also had a lot of friends who helped me prep because growing up high middle school, high school in Orlando,

there were so many classmates who had been on some version of Double Dare. Yes. Yes. People don't understand. I mean, I think it's the Orlando area is the same way. If you grow up in Los Angeles as well, I got game show audition flyers in my school cubby, right? They need to fill these spots. So a bunch of my friends and I would go on game shows. And the one I just mentioned, I think I won a $5,000 savings bond when I was nine or 10 years old. So yeah, that's just how it operates. It is.

It was, it was quite an economy, but I, I'm just, I'm disappointed. I should have won that game. It's, it's been eating at me for a long time.

And that's why I've created this game show. We are both hosts and contestants in this game show we are both host and contestant in this game show because okay i i figure that you're the better game show host of the two of us but i will i do want to break into this industry if i can and i would like to also show off and see if i can beat you i'm not sure i can in this game but i think this is a this is one that everybody's going to get something out of okay and we're probably going to play it annually we'll probably play and we may play it a couple more times before the season starts but this game is called whose team is it anyway and it is in honor of the transfer portal you and i were talking before we

started recording about just not even realizing where some guys were until about four days ago the season starts in a couple of weeks we need to know where everybody's playing so what we're going to do is i'll name a player and you must name, here's the catch. If they've gone to multiple schools, you got to name them all. Oh God. Okay. So,

but you've got to name where they were and where they are. And you're going to do the same for me. If we're each going to do five players, I've got a longer list in case we've got to go to a tiebreaker round. It's only active players, right? Like I'm not going to need to remember where sam mcguffey this is people who moved this off season and sam mcguffey in case you're scoring at home that would be michigan to rice right so there you go

but the game is whose team is it anyway okay get ready dan we're about to play maybe you're a former five star who couldn't find the field at your first school. Or maybe you blew up in the FCS or Division II and want to take your talents to the Power Five. Or maybe you just got a sweet, sweet NIL deal and always wanted to drive a G-Wagon. No matter the reason, you fell into the transfer portal and now you're somewhere else we have to remember where you're playing and you know what that means it's time for another game of whose team is it anyway okay so here we go whose team is it anyway five rounds i'll name a player you name where they were before and where they are

now these are all people who transferred this off season okay so i'm gonna start you with an easy slash tricky one oh this is just setting me up for failure my my uh my disclaimer is i will pre-tell everybody i'm an idiot and so if i get something right it goes against it so okay let's go we're gonna get them wrong here this is this is this is the thing we're explaining how hard this is to keep up with and i if you're a casual fan just coming in going okay i'm ready i'm getting let's get me ready for college football season a lot of this is going to be news to you so here we go you ready dan yes quarterback jt daniels okay that that was a nice soft take on but name the schools all all of them all of them full path uh jt daniels started his career

he enrolled early at usc then georgia then west Virginia, and has now touched down at the now aforementioned Rice University Owls. That's correct. Boom. One point for Dan Rubenstein. And now the pressure is on me. Dan, who's your first player? Okay.

My first player to you. Ooh, there's a lot of good ones here okay i think this is well i think that i was thinking of a medium one i'm gonna i'm gonna give you a soft takeoff as well let's go with dante cephas dante cephas i like how you're saying it like a spelling bee Dante Cephas. Dante Cephas. I like how you're saying it like a spelling bee. Kent State to Penn State. Correct. Absolutely correct. And by the way, any of the Mac schools are a really nice first guess.

Yes. Because a lot of guys leave Mac schools yes the offseason yeah all right let us move i'm gonna give you another easy one okay before i really start trying to stump you this guy you should be fairly familiar with okay linebacker justin flow Justin Flo. Justin Flo from the University of Oregon to, with his brother, the University of Arizona. That is correct. Former five-star Justin Flo, recruited by everybody in the country. Injuries derailed his career in Oregon, but he's now with Jet Fish at Arizona. And this is one of those, Dan, I don't know how you feel about this, the the guys who were mega recruits and then it doesn't work out somewhere there's always that hope that they're

just gonna blow up at the next place yes no there's always that hope because it's just you talk yourself into a fresh start you talk yourself into well they were sort of misused they were in the wrong position at this school or like it was just off because the depth chart was wrong or the position coach who recruited him left and he just he needs that right place and in some cases totally true in some cases justin floe could not really cover tight ends and running backs out of the backfield yeah right and and so we will see if that's a case of he just mis-evaluated or in the wrong scheme or injuries derailed. We'll find out. All right, Dan, what is your next player?

All right. I'm going to stick thematically because receiver is one of the more fun plug-and-play positions in the portal that, you know, if you can beat corners one place, you can probably beat a bunch of corners in another place, and everybody's going wide open. Their offense is everybody needs receivers. A.

D. Mitchell. A. D. Mitchell. Last seen catching a touchdown pass. And I believe he caught one in it. We definitely caught one against Alabama in the national championship game.

I believe he caught one against TCU. But he is headed to the University of Texas. Correct. He will be a target of Quinn Ewers. And that was a case where, you know, I think people thought, well, you know, what's going on here? Georgia, but Georgia also,

and I don't know if these are your guys either, but Dominic Lovett from Missouri, who was probably Missouri's best receiver last year, went to Georgia. And then Rara Thomas, who was missouri's best receiver last year went to georgia and then rara thomas who was mississippi state's best receiver last year went to georgia so for ad mitchell it was a kind of a fight for for getting some balls thrown to him that's true and texas has a bunch of good receivers but it seems like tavian sanders a tight end and they the uh And Isaiah Nayer is the one. Yes, a Wyoming transfer from last year.

Yeah, he tore his ACL, so he should be healthy this year, I believe, at the time of recording. So there really is no excuse for Quinn Ewers with a great offensive line in front of him, what should be good running backs, and a bunch of good receivers. Are you ready for my next item? It's my turn to give it.

Oh, sorry, sorry. I did 80 minutes. Please. Oh, yeah. Here we go. This you ready for my next item? It's my turn to give. Oh, sorry, sorry. I did AD Mitchell. Please. Oh, yeah. Here we go. This is one of my favorite ones. And I realize we've gone mostly skill guys here, but that's okay. This is one.

Those of you who like to watch football on the weekdays, who like to maybe put a little action on the games, you'll know this guy. But do you know where he wound up running back Carson steel? Again, you're very good. Just looking at the Mac as the, the starting point here. Okay.

I believe this is ball state to UCLA. Yes, that is correct. I sometimes get Ball State and Miami of Ohio apologies to both of those schools because I think they're both red and black. And birds as their mascots. Yes, they are bird teams. Carson Steele has a pet alligator. I find that amazing.

Now, he's from Indiana. He's from suburban Indianapolis. I think the pet alligator is back at home, but he does have one. And I'd love to see where you put that in the, I don't, he's probably not in the dorms at UCLA. He's probably in some apartment. He drives an alligator cross country from suburban Indiana to Westwood. I think he stays at home. Crocky J is the alligator's name. Crocky J, which is a,, by the way. Crocky J. Is it an alligator or is it a crocodile? Do you name an alligator? Well, I mean, he's a crocodilian.

I mean, that's... Right, right, right. So the family crocodile. That's true. The other thing confusing about Carson Steele is UCLA also has a transfer named Colin Schley. From Kansas City. Up and back. it's very confusing

for when you are a slow person like myself so well carson steel was a battering ram yeah at ball state but but is faster than than people realize and so i'm interested because he could play kind of the zach charbonnet role for UCLA this year. And I think that could be a lot of fun. All right. So three for three for you. I have to keep pace. That's true. I'm going to make this slightly more difficult.

Okay. Now I'm going to stay with a bigger school theme because you start dipping into like deep USA. You're going to a group of five to group of five or yeah you're hurting it yeah uh it's it's just tough it is just tough because it doesn't always make the headlines but i'm gonna go with a larger human power five to power five okay ladarius henderson ladarius henderson had to start as a 17-year-old at Arizona State against grown-ass men from Utah and Oregon and you name it.

He will now be a widely savvy veteran on the offensive line at Michigan. This is true. Perhaps the deepest and best offensive line in the country, multiple-time Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line. The only thing that is confusing to me and relatable to me is leaving a warm west coast place for the midwest is not a move you see a lot yeah i myself growing up in southern california now living in the chicago suburbs ladarius if you want to come over it's's not uncommon. Ladarius is from the Dallas area originally. It's true.

Yeah. It was one of those moves when – because I feel like Michigan has done a great job identifying offensive linemen in the transfer portal when they need to do a plug-and-play situation. Olu Oluwatimi coming from Virginia last year was a great addition to their team. And it sounds like he's doing great. And I believe with the Seahawks right now uh that was a a big pickup for them and and exactly what they needed so maybe ladarius is that guy for them this year holy cow we're both three for three somebody's got a question here all right here here's one i don't think this guy is much of a household name now but i think as the season goes on and the draft buzz starts to build,

I think we're going to learn a little bit more about him. Okay. Edge rusher Steve Linton. Edge rusher Steve Linton. I don't think I have this. This is a tough one. This is a tough one.

So Steve Linton. You can see my hands i'm not googling i'm not doing no googling so i will i will give you some time yeah let the music play i mean the surrender cobra pose right now as i try to scroll through random tweets and headlines in my head i'll give you a hint. Power five to power five. Steve Linton sounds like the bass player for Pearl Jam. Yes. I'm going to say power five to power five. Maryland to Florida State.

No. Steve Linton has gone from Syracuse to Texas Tech. And so Texas Tech looking for somebody on the edge to replace Tyree Wilson. And this is a guy, if you listen to like Jim Nagy from the senior bowl, Steve Linton is somebody that we are going to be talking a lot about when the season starts, because he can come screaming off the edge, the way they want to use them in Texas Tech's defense might showcase his skill set a little bit better. And so this is one that could be a lot of fun. Keep your eye on him. All right.

So let's see if I can take the lead here because we were tied before this round began. So can I take the lead? All right. I'm going to protect my competitive nature here and go a little bit trickier, but it does involve a Power 5 school. Ajani Cornelius.

Ajani? Ajani? I believe it's A-J-A-N-I. Oh, no. I am completely blanking on this. Ajani Cornelius, are you giving up? I'm not giving up yet. Okay.

I'll take one hint like I gave you on the last one. So what was the hint that you gave me? I gave you power five to power five. This is FCS to power five. It's jumping over the group of five. Yes. Oh, man. Okay.

And I think you said edge rusher, too. I'll give you a you a position you gave oh yeah yeah i have to give a position yes yes uh offensive tackle oh that's right he's the offensive top he is rhode island to where did he go you got the hard part yes rh to, oh, where did he wind up? Oh, no. I'll even give you a sub clue. I'll give you another clue. Okay. Offensive lineman, power five, and the offensive line coach who recruited him subsequently left shortly thereafter.

Notre Dame? Oregon Ducks. Oh. him subsequently left shortly thereafter notre dame oregon ducks oh adrian left the nfl you're right oh my god yeah man oh that was tough it's a tough one that is probably the the like the deepest down i will reach so i will give you a hint before I give you your final name. We are now tied in. Stump each other. Yeah. Because this is a similar situation. Oh, no. Okay.

Not FCS. Okay. To Power Five. It is Division Two to Power Five. This would be the Austin Reed move. Actually, Austin Reed was Division Two to Group of Five last year. So this is tight end Kyle Morlock. Tight end Kyle Morlock.

Okay, I've seen this name. And because he was Division II, I don't remember the name of the Division II program. I just remember seeing him. I am going to... I will give you a hint he went to a power five school that has become well known for taking people out of the transfer portal and making them stars taking people out of the transfer portal making them stars uh it's an educated is it Ole Miss?

it is not Ole Miss I will give you one more guess as to the Power 5 school but I don't think you'll get the Division 2 school you know I remember the Division 2 school being a school I had never even it wasn't even the vicinity you've probably never heard of most of even the vicinity you've probably never heard of

most of our viewers slash listeners have probably never heard of this place right um what is Arkansas no it is now interestingly enough the D2 school he comes from is in Arkansas. Oh, okay.

Shorter College. Shorter College, yep. Is the school he played for. Nothing. Kyle Morlock is now at Florida State. Now, the bigger headline tight end transferring to Florida State was Jaheim Bell transferring from South Carolina. But they like Kyle Morlock.

They think he can do some stuff for him this year. And so, yeah, Florida State, which Jared Burse was the guy last year from Albany, the edge rusher. He's back this year. Jermaine Johnson came from Georgia and became the ACC player of the year in a first-round pick a couple years ago. So the Seminoles, great in the portal great at id'ing and then figuring out how they work within their own system well it's what johnny wilson trey benson fentra cypress this year a corner from virginia i actually thought about use i wanted to avoid florida schools with you because that's just it's too close it's hard to stay because there's so

many transfers it's hard to keep track of but yeah it's they have quite a state because there's so many transfers. There are a lot. It's hard to keep track of. That's true. But, yeah, they have quite a few. But, man, that's the one if it blows up, you know, just crown Mike Norvell King the portal. He doesn't get the credit that Lane gets. Like, there is something portal king-ish about Mike Norvell that I don't know if he necessarily is as well known as he should be for for the success he's had there all right if I get this when I win otherwise we got to go to a tiebreaker okay I want to I want to go somewhere interesting with this difficult with this um

all right this next player's first name which I'm going to tell you or his his full name sounds like he was a baseball manager in 1994 okay ray davis did ray davis coach the reds who's to say what position does ray davis play ray davis is a running back this sounds like that movie the replacement the pseudonym they made for the guy they got out of prison yes i think his name was like chuck smith everybody ray smith or something like that so ray davis third base coach for the pirates yeah he's a he's a running back a running back ray, Ray Davis, and this is Power 5 to Power 5. Ray Davis.

I got to say, I am completely stumped. Completely blank. And not only, I'll give you even, I'll give you the conference. Okay. It's the Southeastern Conference, the SEC. Within. Which means more. Within.

School to school. Oh, so he went early okay man i'm still i'm gonna say arkansas to mississippi state not a bad guess but neither of those schools is correct oh no i believe ray davis was vanderbilt's leading rusher last year that's right oh my gosh into kentucky uh who loses what kvasi smoke kvasi smoke uh yes chris uh chris rodriguez in the in the draft right yeah i mean they look they lose both of those running backs last year but kvasi smoke to the portal and and uh yeah chris so we gotta go we gotta go to a tiebreaker round dan okay i had a feeling this might happen i'm gonna i'm gonna position

power five to power five i thought you're gonna nail it okay so the let's make it where these have to be power five to power five okay fair because we do want this game to end at some point all right i will give you one. Let's see. Offensive tackle. Oh, no. Michael Tarquin. Oh, hold on. I can actually see his face.

I know the name. I'm totally blanking. Michael Tarquin from... There is a familial connection by marriage to the new school. I was going to say from you? No. Michael Tarquin, familial marriage. Minnesota to Tennessee. He went from Florida to USC.

He was Florida's starting left tackle. He will be USC's starting left tackle. His wife is the daughter of former USC star Tony Buscelli, who was a great Jacksonville Jaguar. So they met in Florida, but he's going to, to his father-in-law's alma mater, I believe wearing his father-in-law's number at USC. So that's a fun. All right. If I can get this one, I win. Who you got?

I just like this name a lot. And I've read it for the past three years in both good and bad context. Dwight McClothern. Okay. Okay. He's a multi-transfer guy, right? I believe so. LSU to Arkansas. Am I right?

Yes. Okay. And where is he now? Oh, it was last year. Let's scratch that. I got it right. He did what? You did get it right.

He left Arkansas? Isn't he still playing in Arkansas? I actually knew what I was going to do. Before you did yours, I was going to do Dorian Singer, but you had a USC arrival, so I was going to do Dorian Singer, but you had a USC arrival. So I was going to scratch that one. Arizona to USC. I can get that one.

Okay. Austin Stagner. Austin Stagner. So that would be Oklahoma to South Carolina, back to Oklahoma. Correct. Absolutely correct. Yes. to Oklahoma. Correct. Absolutely correct. Yes. All right.

Yes. Austin Stardner, the person who incepted the idea of South Carolina trying to get Spencer Rattler as a transfer, then went over and now he's going to finish his career where it started in Norman. That's very impressive, Dan. That was a tough one. It was almost like he was the the vehicle that brings the plane

to the runway and then goes back to retreat like he was the vehicle for spencer or the plane that used to piggyback the the space shuttle used to piggyback on when it came back from california yes yeah correct that is uh wow that is that that was a lot of fun that was great i you can't even study for this like you really can't it's like studying for the sat is like it's great that you looked up every word but you got to be able to perform well that that one like when you said austin sagner and even when you know it there's this inkling in the back of your head that you're wrong i was like that's the tight end from oklahoma to south july and then you went back and i'm like but what if i'm complete what what if this this

guy played at oklahoma state and now he's going to utah like, but what if I'm complete? What if, what if this guy, this guy played at Oklahoma state and now he's going to Utah? Like how am I going to miss this? Who are the, and Stockton was the first one I thought of. I was trying to think of the returning transfers guys who came back. There haven't been a lot, but there have been some, I feel like. Well, I was going to give you not a, not a returning transfer, but another multi-school guy. I was going to throw Keaton Slovis at you.

I figure that's a fairly easy one. That's tough. But, yeah, he ended up at BYU via Pitt and USC. That's correct, yeah. I guess Liam Cohen would technically count. New offensive coordinator. Transferred to the LA Rams and transferred back. Correct. There's Jeff Tedford who left and came back.

You have a lot of the coaches doing that, that they rehire this guy because they're trying to recapture Magic. But, yeah, you don't see it as much with players. Stetson Bennett technically counts. Yes. Transferring away to Tupou and came back to Georgia. But, yeah, this is – you know what? I was thinking about this, and I don't know if there's more to this game.

But I was thinking about this, and I don't know if there's more to this game, but I was thinking about the game. The portal and following players and following coaches and following schools and conferences, it makes college football kind of impossible to be a fan of in a casual way. You really have to dive in if you want to understand the sport. You know where I stole this from is all the NFL shows, because they've done this for years where they come back because you know you have the diehards that are following this stuff religiously all season and all off season but most people have jobs they got stuff to do yes and so

they'll come back when training camp begins and be like oh that guy's there and that guy's there and so your good morning footballs and your shows like that will give you a new face, new place feature to kind of highlight who's new and what they can do in the new team. But with college football, there's so much movement. And I was thinking about, we barely even scratched the surface. Like I had Treshawn Ward on my list. Treshawn Ward, Florida State fans know who that is. ACC people know who that is state he's going to kansas state behind an offensive line that has cooper bb who might be the best interior lineman in the country and three other

sixth year seniors who have been multi-year starters on that office like trayshon ward's gonna run for a ton of yards this year. Yeah. There are those opportunities that seem like perfect fits, but the idea, especially when you talk about the NFL or the NBA, at least hypothetically, those guys have been around six, seven, eight, nine years. Oh, this cagey veteran

is now with the Ravens or something. But with college, you're skipping around so much. Look, I've followed the NFL casually and as a diehard, not as a diehard anymore for the entirety of my life where I could watch it

and take in football. I still don't know what dead money is, right? There's the NFL equivalent of like red shirting and gray shirting and blue shirting and like suspension. dead money is the players not on your team anymore but he still counts right yeah that's what my brain sort of

figured out but like yeah i still don't understand like but he's making this much but his cap hit is this right that there's the details of being an nfl fan that are just different well get ready college football may be headed that way too yes i i do but i was thinking about this with how difficult it can be to be a sports fan and and trying to explain things to my wife who's into college football she went to michigan but she will sometimes listen to when she's bored a like celebrity gossip podcast where they're outlining why this person has tension with this person because it goes back to this thing when they were both on this show and i realized college football is just bravo for sports dorks like it's all the same exactly right where exactly right all these details that unless

you are following along with like oh deshaun jackson just went to cal because everybody thought he was going to go to us like cool that there's so many tiny details. And there is connective tissue to both what I am saying to your game. Yes. Do you have a clue what that connective tissue between Bravo and college football might be? The host named Andy. There is a host named Andy.

Yes, that's good. That's my ding. But also, I want to say the DB's coach of Utah. Yes. As a real housewife husband. Yes. Who, I might, this is just me overhearing. I think his wife might now be incarcerated for something.

Might be. There was an issue. And he just was able to secure one of the more coveted cornerbacks in the transfer portal. I Miles Battle from Ole Miss is now if Shaw is the is the coach you're talking about. Sharif Shaw is the coach. Jen Shaw is the the real housewife in question. Yes. And Miles Battle, I want to say, is the corner cornerbacks name who was especially

good two years ago i don't know what kind of year he had last year but he is going to be stepping in for clark phillips i think was the corner who was terrific for the youths unfortunately just got hurt in training camp he's out for his rookie season so but yeah so yes it is all interconnected. All connected. What a game, Dan. I feel like we need to bring on some other friends. Like my friend Max Olson over at The Athletic, we call him the transfer or the portal authority. I feel like he could get almost all of these.

Like I'd have to go to the real hard stuff. Like I'd have to throw like Andrew Armstrong at him. That's the Texas A&M to arkansas wide receiver transfer so uh but he would max would be like oh what you guys did was too easy do you think he would he would have gotten you know 12 for 12 or whatever yes i do and and so i think i would have to do you know howopardy, you can get a certain number of questions. But then when the tournament of champions starts, you can't get any. We'd have to give Max Ken Jennings level tournament of champions questions where he's he's answering questions exclusively about the equivalent of medieval art or deep Old Testament knowledge, like stuff that is just not at the tip of everybody's tongue. Yes, that is right.

So this has gotten me more excited, though, because some of these new faces, like Carson Steele, I loved watching on Wednesday nights. Yeah. I can't wait to see him at UCLA. He's going to be great. And there's a lot of really strong fits, right? Some of these don't always make sense like he's

going there uh and then you get the weird stories who is the it's what the north carolina the tez yeah well he got denied his uh his request yeah right so you have the weirds because he went to a school that didn't end up playing central yes they canceled their season so he went to kent state and then he transferred to North Carolina, and because that's his second transfer, they're like, nah. Right. So you get that kind of weirdness, and sometimes when you go to the portal pages,

you're like, yes, this player has left Oklahoma State for question, question, question. You're just like, oh, okay, so they're just sort of stuck in the portal. Yes. You don't want to get lost in the triangle. It's sort of like being in the in the quantum realm correct marvel person yeah this is a strong game this is it's tough because if you're not paying attention on june 30th if you're not paying attention on march 18th if you're not and this is our jobs but even still it's it's the sat is all over again for me that's exactly right right. It's been fun. We'll probably have to play this again once or twice

before the season starts, and we shall see what happens. But when we come back, we bid an early farewell to an AD who's done it and seen it all and announced his retirement on Wednesday. We'll be right back. On today's Extra Point, we wish good luck to Gene Smith, who is going to retire as the athletic director at Ohio State at the end of this school year. He announced that on Wednesday, talked about all the changes that have happened since he's been

Ohio State's AD. Some big changes just happened last week. He will be leaving ahead of the new and expanded Big Ten that adds USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington. But he also leaves behind a very big legacy at Ohio State. This department is in a really good spot as Gene Smith leaves. It is the envy of college sports. And this is a place where a whole lot of people are going to want that job including probably some folks who come off of gene smith's tree who've done a very good job in their own right as athletic directors you've got heather like at pittsburgh you've got pat chan at washington state you've got martin jarman at ucla this is one of those jobs that everybody wants and whoever takes it will have some very big shoes to fill. That's, you know, I've always wanted to leave a place better than I found it. But I also want to leave a place that when the next person comes in, gives them a chance to transition in as smooth as possible.

And they now have that ability with this team. And it always wasn't that way. You know, we've been unstable a little bit. And so now it's a situation where I feel they'll come in, they'll make changes, they will, based on their style. But they should be able to come in and take their time on the learning curve and allow the team to work. And then they ultimately will make the changes they need to make.

That video, courtesy of our friends at Letterman Row, Gene Smith seems very content with his decision and that he's done a very good job. He talked about the times that he regretted the 2011 tattoo gate that ended in Jim Trestle basically being pushed out, the dealing with Urban Meyer and Zach Smith in 2018. But on the whole, if you look at his tenure, it has been remarkably successful. And Ohio State is in a great place as he leaves it.

Basically, the envy of the entire industry. So good luck to Gene Smith and good luck to everybody trying to get one of the most coveted jobs in all of college sports. When we come back tomorrow, we got the most interesting man in college football, Charlotte coach Biff Koji.

If all you know about him is that clip from the American Media Days where he's mad about only getting three questions, you're about to learn an awful lot. We'll talk to you tomorrow.