Andy & Ari On3 - Why Is Ole Miss getting PILED ON? Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian take shots

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

On Monday, the national discourse around college football swirled around Lane Kiffin’s comments with Vanity Fair. Leaving from Ole Miss to LSU, the current Tigers head coach took some shots at his f...ormer employer in the piece. Also, Steve Sarkisian had some comments that piled on top of Ole Miss. Why is everyone piling on the Rebels? Watch here as Andy & Ari dive into this bizarre situation in college football here.   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (1:00) Presenting Sponsor (2:23) Intro: WHAT did Lane Kiffin say? (16:49) Sarkisian chimes in (20:02) Wilson Alexander’s story on LSU (29:55) College Gameday: Week 1 (31:21) CSC & Nebraska (43:29) Baerskin (45:12) Syracuse HC Fran Brown (49:39) Syracuse QB Room (55:50) Ideas from Fran Brown (1:00:37) Closing out with Fran Brown (1:03:49) Thanks for watching! See you tomorrow   Once Andy & Ari dissect all of the Ole Miss conversation, there’s some news regarding LSU’s first game of the season: College Gameday will be in Baton Rouge for the Clemson at LSU game in Baton Rouge.   Next up, the CSC won its case against Nebraska. Watch here as Andy dives into this case and what could potentially be next as current Husker athletes are looking to get paid.   To close the show, Syracuse head coach Fran Brown joins Andy from Amelia Island at the ACC meetings. With a lackluster 2025 season after losing their starting quarterback, Fran Brown is poised to learn from his mistakes a season ago. How will Syracuse be in 2026? Watch as the Orange head coach joins the show.   Thanks for watching!   Send your questions to: andystapleson3@gmail.com ari.wasserman@on3.com   Right now BAERSkin is running 60% off on the Heavy-Storm Rain Jacket with free shipping. Text ANDY to 3-6-9-twelve - that's ANDY to 3-6-9-twelve - and they'll send you a link to grab one at 60% off. Get yours today at baerskintactical.com   Our show is also presented by BetMGM!   If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works:   1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB. 2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. 3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you use bonus code CFB when you sign up!   Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary.   See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. This promotional offer is not available in DC, Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET (Available in the US) . 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only (if applicable). Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/JcvrUxDRIDA   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email advertise@on3.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:01 On today is Annie Narion 3 presented by BetMGM. Why did everybody start deciding to pile on Ole Miss today? You got Lane Kiffin going after him in Vanity Fair. You got Steve Sarkesian going after him in USA Today. You got John Summerhal up Florida just having fun with everything. What the heck happened? We'll break it down. Plus, the College Sports Commission wins its arbitration case against Nebraska.
Starting point is 00:00:27 What comes next for Nebraska football players who are still. trying to get paid. Also, Syracuse coach Fran Brown joins the show, and this is a fun one. We love Fran Brown. He's a great talker, and he's going to tell us why the orange are going to be better than last season and why they are deeper at quarterback with a guy coming back off an injury and also a former five-star on his fourth school. We'll talk to Fran Brown.
Starting point is 00:00:57 On today's Andy and Ari on three presented by Ben NGN. We are presented by BetMGM. All the lines and totals you hear on this year show come from BetMGM. If you're not already signed up, download the app, sign up using the code CFB. That CFB is in college football for up to $1,500 in bonus bets. Lots going on for you. If you're already signed up for BetMGM, though, got a PGA championship odds boost token this week. Obviously, NBA playoffs odds boosts, NHL playoffs, odds boost. And of course, the hat trick jackpot where you select someone as an anytime goal score, and if that person scores three plus goals in an NHL playoff game,
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Starting point is 00:02:00 8778, Hope and White. Text Hope N. Y-467-369 in New York, 1-800-3-2-0-0-0-0-Massachusetts, 1-800-0-0-0-2-3 in Puerto Rico. First bet offer for new customers only, if applicable, subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. And Ari, I don't remember seeing on the calendar. you know you wake up and your phone tells you what holiday it is that it's national ice cream day or national jalapenos on hot dogs day who decided that this was national pile on olmiss day
Starting point is 00:02:52 i don't know but uh it did kind of sneak up on us there a little bit i i was telling you guys before the show and i'm kind of amused by this but being somebody who was born in the north was was raised in the Southwest and lived 10 years in the North Midwest. My voice had a perception that Southerners and SEC people were a tight-knit community and that the administrators and coaches at those schools are usually like kind of all headed in the right direction, pulling in the same direction. They all backed Greg Sankey. Like all this like the SEC knows what the SEC wants.
Starting point is 00:03:30 But like once a year, they kind of beat the crap out of each other. don't they? It kind of reminds me of like the next day. It's not just once a year, it's it's frequently amongst themselves. You know, Georgia fans get on Tennessee fans, Tennessee fans get on Alabama fans, Auburn and Alabama fans are always at each
Starting point is 00:03:48 other's throats. Old Miss and LSU fans always at each other's throats. But this one, so you've got Lane Kiffin and Vanity Fair. And I'm not exactly sure why he had the idea of
Starting point is 00:04:03 I'm going to mention Olmiss's racial history as a justification for leaving Ole Miss for LSU because I don't know that that's necessarily the well it's definitely not the reason because if that was such a big problem he would have taken the Auburn job
Starting point is 00:04:21 when he had a chance to take it a couple of years ago so I understand what he's saying when he says parents come in and they say it's a little bit different in Baton Rouge and it is but you also have a school where the nickname of the of the team is also based on something Confederate. So it's not, these SEC schools are not that different on that front. But then you have also Steve Sarkesian from Texas talking to USA today.
Starting point is 00:04:53 And he says at Texas, we will only take 50% of a player's academic credit hours. You may be a semester from graduating, but you're going all the way back to 50% if you, if you play here in one a degree. but at Ole Miss they can take you. All you have to do is take basket weaving and you can get an Ole Miss degree. And oh man, the Ole Miss people, I don't blame them for being mad right now. Like this is like they woke up Monday morning feeling pretty good. They got Trinidad Shamless back. They just went to the playoff.
Starting point is 00:05:23 Sure they lost Lane Kiffin, but they feel like Pete Golding is going to do a good job. And just piled on for two straight days. Yeah, I mean, I've been reading a lot of statistics about population trends and enrollment diversity breakdowns and stuff, and I didn't know that that was going to be happening this week. I will say this, Andy, I think a lot about things that coaches have set on the record over the course of my career. And I'm kind of having a hard time thinking of something that was worse or something that was like, why would you say that than what Lane Kiffin said? And like, listen, we have been in Lane Kiffin's office. You've spoken to him more than I have over the course of your career, but we have interviewed him together in his office at Ole Miss.
Starting point is 00:06:11 I can understand if you are doing an article for Vanity Fair. And also we have to point out, too, Andy. It wasn't like he was getting peppered with football questions, probably for four hours. Like, if you're being interviewed by Vanity Fair, I, like, I'm going to give him a little bit of the benefit of the doubt and maybe think that the conversation was more free-flowing and different than it might be if you and I were asking him questions. as someone who's written magazine profiles before and and written a 3,500 word profile of Lane Kiffin before, like, my read on it, and I wasn't in there for four hours, but my read on it is that's the most interesting thing Lane Kiffin said, that he didn't give, he didn't give the guy very much that was sexy. And it's interesting because if you read where he put it in the story, I don't think he was trying to play it up that much either. But that's the sort of thing that you know if you were in the magazine business in 2026, which is different than like when I started at SI, it wasn't like that. Everybody got SI.
Starting point is 00:07:11 The story would kind of stand on its own. Now it's much more what's the piece of the story that gets pulled out and aggregated by everybody. And that's the piece of the story. So that's also the writer story that the Vanity Fair official account pulled out of the story and used in the tweet. Correct. The article that was behind the paywall. Yeah. You look at where the writer put it.
Starting point is 00:07:31 and it was more in the flow of the story. It was down low. That is the bosses at Vanity Fair going, oh, this is the one that'll set everybody off. But still. Here's part. If you read the story, Lane Kiffin knew a day after the interview that that was going to cause this.
Starting point is 00:07:52 Because there's a part in the story that says he contacted the writer and kind of tried to soften it. And so I did a. profile on lane when he was at FAU and it was had a similar situation where he invited me to go to church with him and I went to church with him and the players and then he texted me as I was leaving the next day and said I hope you don't think I was trying to to spin you or that that was disingenuous and I texted him back I'm like if it had gone a certain way I probably would have thought that but it didn't go that way it
Starting point is 00:08:31 it clearly was something you do with your players. So I don't have a problem with it at all. But he is the type of guy that will kind of replay the thing in his mind and go, oh, that might be a landmine. And I think he knew within 24 hours of saying that this is probably going to be a landmine. Andy, you are more familiar with the South. And here's what I think is interesting. It's not like, we'll get into the Lane Kiff and said one more stupid thing that makes
Starting point is 00:08:57 Ole Miss hate him, September 19th, blah, blah, blah. do you think there's any merit to what he said? Do you think that is a challenge for the Ole Miss coach in a way that it is not a challenge for other coaches? And like, is that an important thing to end with? Yeah, I think it was a challenge for Ole Miss coaches in the past. I don't think Lane Kiffin ran up against it very much at all as the coach at Ole Miss. Maybe he did more than more than we think. Because if he's just saying that and it worked a lot.
Starting point is 00:09:31 lot to change. Yeah. Yeah. The thing that I don't know is if it wasn't an issue for him or it happened once or twice during his tenure, why you would say that. Like, so if it, if it's something that happened a lot, then I understand saying it, but you also haven't been at LSU long enough to know whether it would happen there. So like, I'm still trying to like figure out like what the upside of that. comment is in any context. Like, it's hard because, like, you, there's, it's not, there, the only, the only upside is, is, is that somebody reading Vanity Fair, who maybe not, isn't as familiar with all of the schools in the SEC might read it and go, oh, that seems like a logical justification. And the Vanity Fair audience, which trends left, probably is going to look at that and say,
Starting point is 00:10:30 that feels like a logical justification for, leaving Ole Miss for LSU. And so maybe I don't think as poorly of this person who left Ole Miss in the middle of a playoff run. Like, that is why you would say something like that to provide a justification. But for people who grew up in the South, people who attended SEC schools, I think if you surveyed lots of different people who went to SEC schools, including football players who got to SEC schools, you would get the.
Starting point is 00:11:02 probably consensus that almost every SEC school has its share of race issues to this day. And it's always going to be in the background. It's always going to be something. Ole Miss had the more overt imagery, but every SEC school to a degree has dealt with this. Well, there's another aspect of this too, Andy. It's not as different as he's trying to make it sound is what I'm saying. Yeah. My understanding, and like honestly, like as a college football reporter, I never consider, like, the impact that those thoughts would have on a recruit, maybe I should more.
Starting point is 00:11:48 But it's like I feel like we've advanced enough as a society where if you're a African American Ole Miss football player, that your life's probably pretty good. But what I don't know and the thing that I think is interesting about the comment is, that if you're not from the south which a large portion of recruits that are being called by lane kiffin aren't from like there is a perception of lSU and the type of place baton rouge is and there is a perception of oxford and the type of place that is that are completely different like in my brain i've been to both places now so i've experienced them and i don't know that they're like really all that different but if i had never been there you know what i would think and i'm just being frank with you as somebody that would have to like envision it from afar like old miss is full of the people of
Starting point is 00:12:38 from the blind side who adopted michael or like that's like old misses like culture as a town people like that and that baton ruse would be i'm sorry i'm miss people that you have to hear this well i'm saying my perception of somebody who had never been there is that i'm just saying like if you're recruit then maybe that's how you maybe that's how you that is that is like the most cartoonish that is the most cartoonish perception you can possibly have like do you think everybody in new york is is is walking around going hey i'm walking here like you think every single person in new york sounds like that like no no do you automatically believe the most cartoonish i'm trying to understand of of any town like i might even is every person in in minneapolis walking around like
Starting point is 00:13:26 oh yeah sure yeah i actually do believe that one um but the i'm trying to you watch too much fargo I'm trying to, like, it's going to get projected on me as saying this, and I don't even know if we should move forward on it. But like, I'm trying to think of like what a African-American family might think in their head to bring it up more about Ole Miss and LSU that even made it enough worth enough for him to say. Yeah, they're going to bring it up. And that's something Ole Miss coaches have been answering for decades, including Lane Kiffin. But our LSU coach is not answering the same question?
Starting point is 00:13:57 This is the confusing part for me. Like, that's what's confusing to me about this. Oh, I can tell you right now it's something Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher had to answer when when Nick got the job as the head coach at LSU and Jimbo Fisher was the OC. There was a perception that they were not a they were not the friendliest program to black players. It's one thing if he went hard to change that perception Michigan State job or he went and took the USC job or something, but he like is not that far away. So no it is it's something past lSU coaches have had to had to work to overcome too and that's the thing it's it's every SEC school you're going to find that i mean they didn't they were the last to integrate every SEC schools had this so yeah it's just like it's an uncomfortable conversation too because i just we're two white guys having a conversation about the cultural impacts of the civil war on young african americans and football players. And like, I don't want to diminish that for anyone.
Starting point is 00:15:06 Yeah, we're not in their shoes. We're not in their parents' shoes. And they have the right to feel however they want to feel about it. And if, and you're seeing it now. It's actually in the political discourse right now, not, not the, the ghosts of it, but the current part of it. Because you have, you have people saying to young recruits saying, don't go to schools in states where they've gerrymandered the maps
Starting point is 00:15:32 so that you don't have as much political representation. That is a popular discussion point in the political discourse of today right now. So it's not like it's changing. It's actually coming more to the forefront. But if you ask Pete Golding, I wonder, like I'd love to ask, if we have Pete Golding on the show, we're asking this because he's coached to Alabama, he's coached to Ole Miss. Like, does he get more questions at Ole Miss about that than he got at Alabama?
Starting point is 00:16:05 But maybe all this can be boiled down to the more prominent graphicing of it at Ole Miss. Which they've tried to get away from. But like longer. Yeah, I'm just, you know, I don't know. I don't know. I think it was a highly controversial and unnecessary comment. And I don't really know what there was to gain from it, what he thought was going to happen. And then, of course, it hit him after it was over with.
Starting point is 00:16:34 But this is the exact reaction that I would expect. And frankly speaking, I will side with the Ole Miss on this and probably say that it was uncalled for and unnecessary. Yeah. Well, and now let's move on to one of Lane Kiffin's buddies, his former coworker, current SEC rival, Steve Sarkesian, who tells Matt Hayes in USA Today about the Texas. academic situation as a transfer and then throws Ole Miss under the bus with the basket weaving quote.
Starting point is 00:17:03 I got to tell you, Ari. I watched Send Help over the weekend at Rachel McAdams movie, where she and the horrible boss gets stranded on a desert island. I would kill for a basket weaving degree in that situation.
Starting point is 00:17:20 I would kill to be stranded on a basket before. No, but it actually seems like a pretty cool class. I would be, I would kill to be stranded on a an island with Rachel McAdams, but I guess you and I have different wishes. But, you know, not this version of her. You wouldn't. Okay. I don't know when this movie came out. I've never heard of it. But basket weaving is always a class that is kind of used in this context. Do they actually offer basket weaving at a lot of colleges? Because I've, like, has anybody taken a basket weaving class? I've never taken a basket weaving class, but I got to be honest, I think I might have gotten more
Starting point is 00:17:57 out of a basket weaving major than I, than my journalism classes. Because I learned most of what I needed to know to do this job working at the school paper i didn't necessarily learn it in my classes so if i same with me i'd still be able to do this job but i'd also be able to weave a basket i go back in time a lot and i think about some of the classes i took in college like one was like the prehistoric history i know that's redundant the prehistoric man the history of the prehistoric man and the evolutionary process and speech audio mp3 uh nutrition food new which was one that i probably should have paid closer attention to some of these classes. And I feel like if I were to get thrust back into school right now and asked to take a final exam for any of those classes that I attended back in the day that I would get a zero percent on all of them.
Starting point is 00:18:46 And like, I feel like if you were to take basket weaving, you might actually remember how to do that. Well, the head coach at my alma mater, I'm not sure. I haven't been through the catalog at the University of Florida in a while. so I'm not sure what the current academic offerings are, but according to John Summerall, he says he's grateful to coach in a top 10 public university that also offers advanced basket weaving.
Starting point is 00:19:11 And I do feel like when you have 60,000 students, you probably should offer a pretty wide range of classes. I'm actually looking up right now does the University of Florida offer basket weaving. You think I should enroll, get a second degree? The University of Florida does not offer academic credit-bearing courses in basket weaving. However, the Rights Union Art and Craft Center at UF offers creative non-credit classes that may include basketry as part of its specialized arts program.
Starting point is 00:19:48 Ooh, interesting. So I wonder if I even need to be a student to take that. So I just head over to the Student Union and make that happen? Let's get to the heart of what you. I really want to know how to make a basket now. Okay. Here's my takeaway. I don't ever want to hear about the disadvantage.
Starting point is 00:20:09 that you have in life if you're Texas as head coach, even if they're valid. I think that's probably fair. I mean, it does kind of feel like a billionaire complaining about taxes a little bit, doesn't it? Just a little. Yeah, just a little. By the way, Lane Kiffin did respond to R. Wilson, Alexander, on 3 about that situation in the Vanity Fair interview.
Starting point is 00:20:42 So this is from Wilson's story, which appeared at On 3. on Tuesday. This is from Lane. I really apologize if anybody at Ole Miss or Mississippi was offended by that. In a four-hour interview, I was asked a lot of questions
Starting point is 00:20:53 on a lot of things, and Ole Miss has been wonderful to me and my family. I was asked questions about the differences of recruiting, and I said a narrative that we battled there from some out-of-state black parents and grandparents was not wanting their kid to move to Mississippi. That's a narrative that coaches have been fighting forever.
Starting point is 00:21:07 It wasn't calculated by bringing it up. And if it were calculated, you probably would have used that Zinger in a in a publication that more covers college football and not Vanity Fair, right? I would think so. And again, it's one of those stories like, it's,
Starting point is 00:21:26 it was written by a writer who, it seems, has a baseball background, but judging by the story doesn't know that much about college football. It was interesting because they had a Trinidad Shambliss story in Vanity Fair, the previous issue, and Bomani Jones wrote that story. And Bumani, while he doesn't cover college football day to day, he just covers all sports, is very in tune with college football.
Starting point is 00:21:52 He's been a college football fan his whole life, understands the sport really well. And the story reads like that. This story reads like someone is examining college football like it is something from another planet. And so I think that that also may be part of where it gets lost in the translation. Yeah. And the I think the thing that I saw Ole Miss fans were almost as angry about. about was the lead of the story, which was, you know, a narrative about how he was run off the road. Yeah, he wasn't run off the road. That got debunked.
Starting point is 00:22:23 Yeah, that like never happened. But I do wonder like, does stuff like this, if you have no rooting interest? So let's say you're not an LSU fan, you're not a Texas fan, and you're not an Ole Miss fan, does stuff like this make you get behind Ole Miss even a little more? like if you're picking when you watch their games if you're picking who you like or if you want to win
Starting point is 00:22:50 and you don't care you don't root for either team when you do you think more more casual fans are going to get behind Ole Miss because it feels like the world is just piling on I don't know if this is human nature or if you experience these types of things
Starting point is 00:23:05 Andy but like when we have a young man on our show or we have a coach on our show and they treat us with respect and grace. They give us their time. They're engaging. They're interested. It doesn't feel like we're putting them out.
Starting point is 00:23:21 And you get a sense for them. Like I as a human, like, want them to succeed. And a lot of times those are contradictory things is when we can might have an Ohio state player and one week have a Michigan player and they're both awesome. You know, but like, yeah. I mean, I have a rooting interest in TCU now. Like, I feel like that would be cool to see somebody from Harvard.
Starting point is 00:23:43 Oh, because Jane Craig, yeah. I mean, he was a really nice guy. Like, I liked him. I liked having him on the show. But when you are looking at programs and teams, do you view, like, who you would like to see when? Not that it ever, like, changes our moods or anything. I don't want it to be, like, misconstrued as rooting interest.
Starting point is 00:24:03 But do you envision? Yeah, with us, we're in a different position. Yeah. Yeah, but, like, I look at people who have been on the show and I wish them well because I appreciate their time. But usually when I'm picking a team or a thing that I would prefer to see win, a lot of times I kind of side with the fan
Starting point is 00:24:22 that's been more tormented. And I would like to see, I like to see teams that haven't done anything for a long time do something new. I like to see teams that are spoiled, maybe, you know, trip a little bit because it creates more balance in who is rooting for it.
Starting point is 00:24:40 It creates more balance on who's, interested in the show, it creates more balance in just life in terms of who gets to enjoy it. Like if Mississippi State won the SEC, I think that would be awesome. I think it's awesome that Indiana just won the national championship. And we have a whole new sect of football fans that might not have listened to our show every day that are here now with us. So that's kind of how I view it. I was rooting for Ole Miss to succeed last year after Lane Kiffin left, not because I think Lane Kiffin is a scumbag for leaving, but because of the impossible situation that Ole Miss
Starting point is 00:25:11 was thrust into through no fault of their own based on a messed up calendar. Yeah, you wanted these people who've been through this to have some joy and success in spite of the odds. And I think that's a pretty natural reaction. But like is Ole Miss a more lovable football program today that it was on Sunday? Is that your question? Yeah. Because, you know, I feel like they're getting bullied a little bit here. So here's the thing that I have a hard time with.
Starting point is 00:25:44 I think that in media and in online discourse, there is often this desire or like the necessity. It feels like there's a need to over explain very simple things to make it make sense when the reality of it is probably just the most simplest thing, which is LSU is a better job in football. They have more resources. They're in a more friendly state with high school. school football talent. Their last three coaches before Brian Kelly won national championships. It is viewed as one of the mecas of college football. Yeah, there's not a cross-state rival trying to get the in-state talent from you. You own the state of Louisiana and you have a higher likelihood of a getting compensated more and B, winning a national championship. And at the time in which
Starting point is 00:26:34 you had to go to the place that was better, through no fault of your own happened during the worst possible time in Ole Miss football history for you to leave. Like that's it. Like there's no like racial undertones. There's no, you know, all these different things that we're trying. Like, you can ask Lane Kiffin 9,000 times why he left. And the answer to the question is he thought LSU was a better job. Like, it's that simple. Like there's nothing more to it. And I think that like when things like this happen, like there's this, this like craving from people to try to get some deeper meaning out of it. And it's like, no, there is no deeper meaning. He left for what he thought was a better job and more money. And he left because that was a time period in which he had no
Starting point is 00:27:09 choice to leave. He couldn't have said no. And if you're out and still gone, I truly believe. I truly believe that if it was in his, I mean, it's not a belief he was fighting to stay at Ole Miss through the run and then go to LSU. That was his preference. His preference wasn't to bail. So as much as I think he says some dumb stuff and sometimes I think he can be, you know, Lane Kiffin online manipulating like the way that he is. Like the fact of the matter is it's a very simple situation, excuse me, that has been made overly complicated because of the weirdness of it. Well, and if you're not really familiar with how college football works, and you get parachuted into a story and told to find deeper meaning for why you left,
Starting point is 00:27:55 then maybe you buy something that isn't just he thought LSU was a better job, but you're right. That's exactly why he left. But I actually think that's no other reason. What if Lane Kiffin just came out and said LSU is in a better state for talent, they have more money, more resources, and it's a better place for me to succeed. Would that have been more offensive than what he said? No, I don't think that would have been more offensive. I think all of those things are true.
Starting point is 00:28:24 So, I mean, like a lot of times it's just kind of like, why are we splitting the atom twice? You know, it's just like we know the answer. And through his actions, Andy, didn't it turn into a circus because he was trying everything he could to stay at Ole Miss through the playoff run? That's why it was a circus.
Starting point is 00:28:39 Like, if he would have just been like, forget it, I'm done. left Ole Miss during a... Yeah. He turned into circus because he left Ole Miss during the playoff run. Most coaches would have stayed at Ole Miss, would not have taken another job. That's the difference. Like, you can talk about the calendar and how cruel it is and unkind.
Starting point is 00:29:02 The fact of the matter is most coaches would have just stayed at Ole Miss and be like, okay, this is not the time to leave. Yeah. There's no like deeper, we don't have to get out shovels. going to my backyard and dig to the crust of the earth to figure out some explanation. Maybe it was a selfish decision, but it was a decision to just go to a better place in his mind. And if it meant screwing their season up and leaving and doing what that was the price he was willing to pay, he just wanted to go to LSU. It's not that complicated.
Starting point is 00:29:31 Yes, but we're going to make it complicated. Keith Carter, the Ole Miss AD tweeted this on Tuesday. Kind of amazing how uncomfortable our success is making some people. So I appreciate Keith Carter. Carter finding the silver lining there. You hate us because you ain't us. Always feels like an appropriate response. Also, according to Pete Nacos, speaking of LSU,
Starting point is 00:29:58 college game day headed to Clemson, LSU week one. Breaking. So Lane Kiffin's debut as the LSU coach will be the game day game on September 5th, which is not as far away as you think. Andy, I want to ask you this. I don't know if we've ever done this before. I'm just curious based on something that you said. Because you're 100% correct.
Starting point is 00:30:22 And when you asked, did Lane Kiffin turned it into a circus because he opted to leave when most coaches would have stayed? If you put a hundred coaches at Ole Miss last year in the middle of the playoff run, and you said LSU or Ohio State or Alabama are calling you, of the hundred random coaches to be put in that same position that Lane Kiffin was in, how many of the hundred do you think would have stayed just out of year, just a guess? 75. Yeah. I just was hoping you weren't going to say like 95 because I think it's closer to 60, 70 than it probably would be.
Starting point is 00:30:59 Like, I don't think it was a crazy. I don't think it was a lawyer you think it is. Yeah. Oh, he's not the only one who would do it by any stretch. but there are more than you'd think who wouldn't do it. Yeah. Ari, we've got to talk business now. The College Sports Commission, that's the thing that got created by the House settlement.
Starting point is 00:31:31 It's supposed to enforce the quote-unquote salary cap. And basically how that works is schools are allowed to pay a certain amount to their athletes, currently $21.3 million a year. beyond that you have to have deals approved through the CSC Nebraska had some deals rejected for 18 of his football players so this is a according to the CSC documentation 7.5 million dollars worth of of deals across 18 football players these deals got rejected Nebraska took the CSC to arbitration because they can't sue because Nebraska is a party to the house settlement the players are a party to the house settlement so They have both by opting into the House settlement, waive their right to sue, they have to settle things through arbitration. The CSC won. Now, Ari, I was here at ACC Spring meetings last night. Brian Seeley, the CEO of the CSC, was here.
Starting point is 00:32:31 And I thought it was very interesting because I was a little surprised that the CSC won, but I was more surprised by his reaction to it and his response because I'm so used to the CAA. And when they issue an enforcement thing or an infractions thing, they really kind of spiked the football and they make it sound like the people doing this are criminals. And he was not like that at all. He basically was saying, oh, no, Nebraska did nothing wrong. The players did nothing wrong. All they have to do is rewrite the deals and resubmit them. And they probably will get paid. More or less is what he said. And I found that very interesting. because that is not normally how these things have gone in college sports.
Starting point is 00:33:20 But this is a different era. This is a different time. Now, if you're Nebraska, $7.5 million, you got to make sure these guys get paid. So if they don't get these deals cleared, that's when things go nuclear. And I asked Brian Seeley from the CSA is he, worried about Nebraska's Attorney General suing in court in Nebraska over this because the second one of these attorney generals sues, it's over because the revenue cap, the CSC, the all this, anything that is a bunch of competitors getting together to limit what other people can get paid. Illegal. Is he illegal in this country?
Starting point is 00:34:12 It's illegal in federal law. It's illegal in most states. It's illegal. And they know this. And so, well, do you have a, I found an interesting of what Nebraska needs to rewrite or where they went wrong?
Starting point is 00:34:29 Yes, I've talked to people there. And they basically, they did 18 deals for 18. So one deal per player where they basically said, I'm selling my NIL rights to this company, Playfly. Playfly is the multimedia rights partner for Nebraska.
Starting point is 00:34:44 They work with a bunch of different schools. I believe they work with LSU as well. Playfly is one big one. Learfield is the other big one that covers almost all of the schools in the power conferences. And both of those companies, like what they used to do, the way those companies used to work back before players get paid, is they would pay a school like a set amount, and then they would go sell sponsorships for the school,
Starting point is 00:35:09 and they would take a profit. off that and whatever they sold above the amount they paid the school. Since players have been allowed to get paid, the relationship has evolved, and these companies now essentially act as pass-throughs, they still do the sponsorship stuff, but they act as pass-throughs for NIL deals that are, you know, third-party deals that are not directly from the school. And so basically what Nebraska needs to do is rewrite this into 50, you know, If it's a million dollars worth, you rewrite that into $50, $20,000 deals. I'm bad at math, but that would be a lot if you're breaking it up $20,000 at a time.
Starting point is 00:35:52 But you kind of have to do that. And it is basically we will pay and we will put this through as long as you do the paperwork properly. And look, there's nothing these people in higher education love more than bureaucracy and paperwork. It's their favorite thing in the whole world. They love paying middlemen when they don't need to. And that's what this is. because we could like you come to on three and you read about these you know 40 million dollar rosters and you probably ask yourself okay if there's a cap how are they allowed to do that
Starting point is 00:36:23 well there really isn't a cap they're going to put this through and you know why they're going to put this through because the people who get paid to be part of the cc don't have jobs if they don't put like if they do not put the nebraska players deals through if if if nebraska players miss even a penny of what they're supposed to get paid. Nebraska's Attorney General is going to sue, and the CSE is going to explode. That will be the end of it. I don't understand why it exists or why we're doing any of this, and I hope we don't have to keep talking about this over and over and over again moving forward, because they're
Starting point is 00:36:59 never going to decline a deal. We will talk about it over and over and over again until the schools figure out, well, they're hoping to get a law passed through Congress, which is not. going to happen. Once they figure out that's not going to happen, perhaps they'll then finally realize there is only one way to have a salary cap. And it is a collective bargaining agreement. And if you have a collective bargaining agreement, you can have a salary cap, you can have eligibility rules, transfer rules, whatever you want. But both sides have to agree to it. And they would. Because I've had people say, well, why would the players agree to anything? Because there's always a number.
Starting point is 00:37:39 there is always a number that you will agree to. Yeah, it just kind of feels like we're walking through a maze and the end of the maze is where you started to me. It is the people at the schools refuse to acknowledge. And this is not all of them. You've seen coaches do that. Like even Davosweeney did this. Davoswini, who was as anti-paying players as anybody ever was,
Starting point is 00:38:09 turned around this January and said, fine. Make them employees. Let's get a CBA done and let's have some rules. There are plenty of coaches and athletic directors who are feeling that way. It's getting the the school presidents and the people who make the absolute final decisions on board. This specific thing that we're talking about with Nebraska and the CSE feels like we are jumping through a bunch of unnecessary hoops and going the long way to the same destination. And destination is the starting line correct yeah correct that they but they just the the people in charge of the sport keep refusing to deal with reality on reality's terms the days coming where they're going to
Starting point is 00:38:55 have to and i said this when the cc was formed when the house settlement got approved like there were certain schools you cannot mess with if you're the cc you should just avoid these schools and and pick on somebody else i came up with a five final list this morning just to make sure I had it right. It's Tennessee. Tennessee number one. Yeah. West Virginia. Yeah. Missouri. And the fifth one, which is another one along with Tennessee that you absolutely should never touch is Nebraska. Yeah. Here's why. If you're the Attorney General in Nebraska, a hundred percent of the voters will be behind you if you go after the CSC for trying to take money away from Nebraska players. 100%. There are so few issues in this politically divided world where 100% of your electorate will be behind you. So of course they're going to do that if they need to.
Starting point is 00:40:00 Honestly, like, I don't want to diminish. I enjoy your column today. This is just nonsense. This whole thing is just nonsense. But we have to keep bringing it up because these guys keep coming up with new and different ways to bang their heads against the same brick wall. No, I'm not saying that we shouldn't be talking about it. I'm sure fans are interested in it. But like when you really break down what's happening here, it really is like walking four miles when you can only, when you could just walk 10 feet in order to get to the same place. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:30 And the reason we keep talking about it is, you know, because fans keep hearing different things. They hear ADs and they hear school presidents and conference commissioners say, well, we have these rules now. we have a revenue share cap and then they see stories from us going oh rosters are 40 million dollars this year they're going to be 50 million next year and they're like wait wait wait but how well this is how this is how they're they're not really they don't care that much about it they just want to try to restrict the players earnings as much as they can and as soon as they realize that that's illegal
Starting point is 00:41:10 and they'll just need to negotiate with the players, they'll be in a better place. It'll be easier. It'll be easier than this, I promise. But right now you've got a bunch of people who've been making a lot of money that want to keep making a lot of money. And so they're going to fight it every step of the way.
Starting point is 00:41:29 Yeah. But I wonder, too, if all these committees and think tanks and lawsuits and lawyer fees and designs of new committees and all the money that I spend on that. Like, I wonder if just like admitting that it's over and talking to players and negotiating with them would actually be cheaper in the long run than playing a... It would be.
Starting point is 00:41:52 Fighting a losing battle that you have no shot of winning and making it annoying for everybody in the process. Yeah. As my college football inquire co-host Stephen Godfrey said on Tuesday's episode, for the amount of money spent just with this Nebraska case between the CSC and Nebraska and all the legal wrangling that's going on, you could have funded a college tennis program. Like, you remember Arkansas cut the men's and women's programs last week? And that was people like, oh, this is a sign that football players get paid and these programs
Starting point is 00:42:30 get cut. Well, you didn't care about those programs anyway, first of all. But second of all, they're wasting money on stuff like this. that could pay for stuff like that. Yeah. It's just how they choose to waste their money. Yeah. Congratulations to every Nebraska football player
Starting point is 00:42:46 that will be paid in full with what they were promised they were going to be paid, though. Yep. Gentlemen, you're going to get paid. I feel very confident in saying you're going to get paid one way or another. You're getting that money. Mike Aramond,
Starting point is 00:42:59 congratulations to your bank accounts. You will be made whole. Exactly. Exactly. Next up, Syracuse coach Fran Brown. Great first season, tough second season. He's learned a lot. He's going to explain what he's learned right after these words from bearskin. If you ever been caught in the rain without a jacket at a game, at a tailgate on the sideline, walking to the car, you already know the problem. And I'm telling you right now, Oxford, Mississippi, George Ole Miss, 2024.
Starting point is 00:43:38 I was getting poured on. Didn't have a rain jacket because I thought, oh, it's too bulky to bring. I don't have to worry about that now because I have the bare skin heavy storm rain jacket. It packs into its own pocket. You can stash in your truck, throw it in your bag, keep it in your glove box. It is always with you. It weighs almost nothing. And the second the sky opens up, you pull it out and you are covered. We're talking 20,000 millimeter waterproof. That is expedition grade, not a flimsy poncho, a real tape seam, sealed zipper rain jacket that handles sustain. downpours and it's completely PF as free no forever chemicals which is more than most outdoor brands can say here's the part I really like it zips directly
Starting point is 00:44:24 into the bear skin hoodie which if you don't have one of those oh my goodness so on a cold rainy game day you zip the rain jacket onto the hoodie and you've got a full warm and waterproof system when the rain stops unzip the jacket pack it back into its pocket and keep moving right now Bairskin is running 60% off on the heavy storm rain jacket with free shipping. Text Andy A and D.Y to 36912. That's Andy to 36912 and they'll send you a link to grab a jacket at 60% off. Keep it in your truck.
Starting point is 00:44:59 Keep it in your bag. Next time it rains, you are the guy who's ready. So text Andy to 36912 for 60% off. Andy to 36912. We are joined by Syracuse coach Fran Brown. And I can't, we can't talk names in recruiting, but y'all are on a heater. Y'all are on a roll. I see you every time I click on on three, you get another commit.
Starting point is 00:45:31 You got this job. And we talk about it when you're on the show right after you got the job. And you said, we're going to compete. We're going to be in it for everybody. How much is that? a year and a half into it, or two years, two and a half years into it. How much is that resonated? Now when you make first contact with somebody and you say, okay, we want you to consider Syracuse, how much is the reception changed?
Starting point is 00:45:57 Well, they understand it. They know that it's real. First off, shout out to our recruiting staff. They're doing an amazing job. Aaron, Alex, Josh, all those guys in the room, Trent, E. Mark, Anthony, A. David, Bruce Eugene, Tommy going, been in out of there. I was in there for a week straight, just going through stuff. I mean, they do an amazing job, so nothing will work without having the right recruiting staff
Starting point is 00:46:24 and all those things that those guys are all doing. But we just compete. We're going to keep going to tell me no a thousand times, you know, because I don't mind being a guy talking to you either. Yeah, because you'll come back around when. You're going to just keep telling me no. Keep telling me no. See, me and Sierra didn't get together the first time.
Starting point is 00:46:40 Yep. It's about the fourth time after the first time. after the fourth time, it's like, look, I'm going to keep going, you might as well be with me. So we was together. We've been together now going on 26 years, our birthdays tomorrow. Happy birthday, Tierra also. Very nice. Mother's Day, happy birthday, but we've been together then 26 years, about to be married 22.
Starting point is 00:46:58 Persistence. I know about being persistent. Yeah, my 25th's coming up. And you've got to be persistent to stay married. So it's an ongoing job. Consistently competing. Well, and that's what you guys are doing. I mean, you've got new everywhere.
Starting point is 00:47:14 Vince Karras comes in as your D.C. Legend in D3, by the way. Like 95 and 6 is his D3 head coach. And what does a guy like that bring to your staff? Calm. He's the calm. For the storm, I'm the Storm. Oh, you're definitely the Storm.
Starting point is 00:47:30 He's the Com, I'm the Storm. He brings a lot of wisdom, though, right? Understanding and think things through. I think that he's came in and done a really good job. And he has the ears of the players. I think that him and Jeff Nixon, they do really well against each other throughout practice. It helps us a lot. So it's a good deal having him and Coach Nixon running our offense and defense.
Starting point is 00:47:53 And then Bayer coming in from Bowling Green, who's done a really good job. He's done an amazing job with the special teams where all the kids, our players are balled in. They're completely bought in and they understand it. I have the heart. The coordinator's got their ears. I don't make it all right. I remember talking to you a couple years ago and you were explaining how you get your culture set. And you were telling me that, you know, every week you want your players, you know, establishing a plan for the week and what they're going to do.
Starting point is 00:48:20 And how is that involved? Now you've had some guys in the program for a while who understand and they can teach. There's a lot of kids who will help them. Yeah. Besides me, you know, there's a lot of time that we take to help them put everything together. I mean, but they all fell in the schedule out Sunday night, our entire team. Yeah. just sending it out to them.
Starting point is 00:48:39 They filling it out. They're getting it back to the coach. And then I get it on Monday. And I have a chance of going through every player on our staff, which is on our team and looking at and see what they are. And sometimes they might see, like, coach, get this one in. Where is he at? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:51 And the coaches are on it because they understand successful people have a schedule. Mm-hmm. Right? To be successful, you have to have a schedule. And you've got to make sure that you are following that schedule. I tell them, if you could follow this schedule, 85 to 90 percent, you'll be more successful than most people in the world. I feel like this is stuff I tell my kids all the time.
Starting point is 00:49:10 Like if you can do these basic things right, that's the leg up already. Like you are already ahead of everybody else. And, you know, we go with you guys. The first season, obviously you had a very good year. Last year, Steve Angelly gets hurt. Things kind of go. Yeah, I think everyone wants to go down. Steve and Jelly.
Starting point is 00:49:29 And that would be the easy thing. We're not blaming him, but it's tough when he was a starting quarterback. Yeah. Quarterback loss. So that's why I went down. And it just exposed a lot of things that was. that should have been taken care of a little bit more, right? And you've seen what they were.
Starting point is 00:49:41 I won't call them out or do anything of that nature. So that's on me being able to adapt, right? And I feel like I didn't adapt last year. So we could just say Steve went down and that's what everyone will try and do because that's the easy one and that's usually on every level. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:57 That happens, Little League, high school, college pro. When the quarterback gets hurt, it takes a lot. Yeah. He is the second in command on the football team. But there was other things, right? And there were other things that needed to be fixed and need to get right. And by him losing, it helped me become a better, by us losing Steve, I became a better. Well, I mean, and that's what you know, you were only in your second year as head coach.
Starting point is 00:50:20 And they always say, like, every head coach I've ever talked to says you don't know what you don't know until you sit in the chair. Gotta go through it. How much different of a head coach are you now than you were? We'll see at the end of the year. I'm going to judge by wins and loss. Yeah. So right now I'm just 500. It's right.
Starting point is 00:50:35 So we'll say at the end of the year, but no, I'm a lot different. I'm a little bit more understanding. I want to listen to everyone's opinion. I want to see, figure out, and then I got to go make the best decision. And once I make the decision, I'm running with a full tilt. And everybody around me, we're all going to run with it and follow a full tilt. So Steve coming back and you've said nobody near him, no media near him, no cameras near him, you make sure he has Jason.
Starting point is 00:50:59 He just hit 19 miles per hour on a live. What was this? on Thursday. Yeah, so he hit 19 miles per hour, Thursday running, he's getting all that stuff. So he's damn there 100%. And he's been doing a good job.
Starting point is 00:51:11 We've been having them do stuff at practice, but it's just on air. Everything's on air. It's nothing like towards the other stuff. And then he'll stand in back of the guys and I'm asking, where's the ball going? Boom, what they're in? And he's able to just say it fast.
Starting point is 00:51:23 I'm able to point out he's really done a good job. He knows the offense, like, really well, right? Like, he'll know what Jeff's going to call before he calls it sometime. Yeah. And then, in the spring, you got to look at your other quarterbacks who you brought in, because you brought in Malachi Nelson, we've seen at USC.
Starting point is 00:51:41 So he's really, really good. So you, like a lot of people put different things on him. That kid is really good. You believe in him, and he understands and knows that you believe in him. He's tough. He fights. He's super athletic. Like, I had no idea.
Starting point is 00:51:53 Like, you know, okay, let's get in because you watch the old stuff. But like now I'm coming to work with us. And I'm super impressed, right? I can't wait to watch him. And Steve now compete, right? to see because now Steve is going to be in a mix with all these guys. So to see him compete, I think Amari Oldham's done a really good job
Starting point is 00:52:09 of understanding being able to run the offense. He's done good, Danny Labrish. So we got another kid, Danie. Georgetown. That came from Georgetown. Danny's good. Those guys, like we got some guys, right? I'm not going to get caught like last year. Right. Again, without it, but we got some guys, but they've all competed, but I do feel that
Starting point is 00:52:24 some of those guys, I was like, wow, okay, Malachi. Well, with Malachi, like, he was the number one quarterback recruit in the country. Yeah. See how, you know, talking with one of his trainers, talking with our position coach. He's done a really good job, too. Sean Ryan's done an amazing job. But talking with them and just seeing, I see what people saw. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:44 And I can understand and see why. Like, okay, yeah, he is. Now, how do you unlock that? Is it a case of believing in him? Is it, like? Honestly, and I can say this now because we've been around each other and I've been spending time with him. And we're just constantly talking and going through stuff. Like, I love that kid, right?
Starting point is 00:52:59 Like, he's a good kid. right he um he deserves the best now i want to see him win i want to see him be successful i think he has a good mother father but just who he is like the kind of leader he is his character his integrity right um he's he's solid you know and so other guys too yeah like i feel different but malachi and myself we've uh we've got a pretty good connection we've gone he's he's been through it it's it's three schools and it's it's tough when you have those expectations and then the world is going to think one thing of you, and then you're still working. That's the thing.
Starting point is 00:53:33 I think he's not really worrying about the world no more. Yeah. The world thinks all this stuff for me. Like, what it matters. All that matters is really what me and Malachi think of each other. And to make sure that we get the team to follow us, right? To make sure that if Steve's the guy that you be the best teammate you can be for Steve, if you're the guy, then maybe we're going to make sure Steve does the same thing, right?
Starting point is 00:53:51 Yeah. So I think it's just changing his mindset. I don't know to say this about being just, I'm a football coach system. I'll turn it into a dog now. Oh, yeah. Like that killer instinct. Well, okay.
Starting point is 00:54:03 That's it. Like, he hasn't it. Like, no, let's go. Like, you got to be a dog. We ain't worrying about what everybody else. This is something I always wondered. Can you make someone a dog? Do you have to have it in you already and get it pulled out?
Starting point is 00:54:16 Or see, I believe you can't. Okay. I think it's who you hang around and how they act in with the consistency of it, right? There's different. They say you are who you hang with. So if you hang with a bunch of guys that aren't doing the right thing, you're probably not going to do up. Yeah, not going to do the right thing.
Starting point is 00:54:32 So if you hang with a bunch of guys that all like contact, they all hit, they all do something right that way. As you being around them, you naturally going to start to be that guy that does it, unless you're comfortable not doing that. Right. Most of the time, those guys that are high achievers don't want to be around people that don't achieve high.
Starting point is 00:54:47 They want to be around other people that are high achievers. So just kind of got them in that circle around those guys that, like, let's go get it. Yeah. Let's turn this thing out. So he's, I'm bringing out the best. to him. I can't wait to see this. This is exciting. I can't wait to see us compete because I think Steve will be a draft pick as a quarterback. So if somebody beat Steve out, then bet.
Starting point is 00:55:11 Yeah, Steve's already on tape. Like, yeah. So if you go beat Steve out then it's like, okay, bet. So like, Marri and those guys being able to compete, compete, it's going to be, we'll have a lot of fun. Amari took his team to a conference title last year, Kennes South State. Yeah. He can do anything on the run too. It doesn't matter who's coming out. How many guys Blitzen, he can extend plays like nobody else, right? So it's going to be fun. Like, I'm just thankful that God allowed us to have more than one quarterback to be ready. Exactly. Exactly. All right. So I want to ask you about ideas because you've, you've thrown out
Starting point is 00:55:44 ideas since you've been a head coach that I don't think a lot of people would normally do, but you and, you and Dion Sanders threw this out a couple years ago trying to play a spring game against each other, which would have been awesome. It was just a soccer game played against another team. I know. I don't understand why they don't let y'all do. Sure. I know they play exhibition basketball games. Yeah. They get to go against other guys and see it, but not sure. I'm, what other ideas do you have? Because I mean, I'm curious. Like, every coach thinks about these things, big picture. I don't got. The ideal that whoever made this idea of only having one portal for football, they should get a race. You know,
Starting point is 00:56:23 they should get a race. So your life is better. It is. It's like that's, I bet every coach here is excited that we didn't have two portals and have a portal open right now. Oh, yeah. Just getting ready to close and just going through it. So that's been a plus that we're all able to have our football team and give a go and it helps out a lot. How different, like you said, you know, because that was happening this time last year, that that portal was still open. How different is it knowing that the team you had in the spring is your team?
Starting point is 00:56:50 It feels good. Yeah. Understanding and knowing. And then knowing what high school additions will be added. The guy with one of those guys were done. It feels really good, man. I love our football team, right? They've been working their butts out.
Starting point is 00:57:00 We all working hard. So we'll see what it's like when we get a chance to come out here in June and come back and getting there. They get some strength of conditioning and working throughout the week a couple times. A lot of OVs and stuff like that. So it's going to be fun. It's just to continue to grow together. Yeah. Like everybody's safe family, right?
Starting point is 00:57:17 And it's all the recruits. Everybody out there. Like, we're not family. You know, like, hey, family. Hey, welcome to the family. Now, it takes time for that, right? Yeah. Me and some of the coach who just got together.
Starting point is 00:57:26 So, like, we're associates right now that are trying to become friends. Yeah. So eventually we become family, right? I'm not going to, I'm not calling out our recruiting guys here. But every single commit story we write, what do they say? Family atmosphere. I picked it because of family atmosphere. But you're right.
Starting point is 00:57:44 Not until you get there. Not until you. Yeah, yeah. It's like, okay, cool. We got you. Like, we'll do everything with you. We're going to start to help you right now. We're trying to develop and build being a family.
Starting point is 00:57:53 But it's just almost. like, okay, we're engaged, right? We're engaged. So you keep making this work because we hope to become family, right? Yeah. We hope to, like, go do that. It's just that filler you should have in your gut when you want to commit somewhere. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:58:08 And I know it. And it doesn't matter. But once you want to commit to that school, take another visit. Just to make sure. Just to make sure. All right. Once you want, this is where I want to be at. Cool.
Starting point is 00:58:18 It's somewhere else. It's funny because it's like we get back to what we talked about at the beginning with the marriage and it's all, it's work. So my wife and I got engaged after three months. Yeah. And I tell her all the time, I'm like, I could have been insane. I could have been an expert. You would, three months, you wouldn't have known.
Starting point is 00:58:33 Listen, I was 16. I told my wife, we're about to be together forever. So, you know what? So, you know what I'm saying. Once you know it, you know it. But that first little bit, like for us, that first few years we were married, it could have not worked. We didn't really know yet.
Starting point is 00:58:49 But when it works, it works. And it's the same thing with the team. Like when you put those people together, you don't know that it's going to work. But you can feel it when it's starting to come together. So this is what I tell everybody, right? And I say it to some of the guys, like you get NIL now. You come to college to do all that. The chances you plan right away as a first man, hopefully you do.
Starting point is 00:59:08 Yeah. But it might not. But when you come to Syracuse, I can't speak this for everybody else. You're coming because you want to be a part of the culture. You're going to allow me to help you with structure. Right. Right. So we're going to pay you to come be a part of this culture, help you with structure.
Starting point is 00:59:22 So that way, when it's your time next year, you can help the next freshman and all those other guys get ready for it. We're paying you to come here and help be a part of a 3.0 GPA. We're paying you to come here and help be a part of a winning team, right? Because we're going to win. So you coming in and being paid as a young guy, we're going to teach you financial literacy. We're going to make sure that you get that all the time. Like our guys are so from January all the way through when they just left.
Starting point is 00:59:44 Every Wednesday there was financial literacy, right? You're going to come and do community service. Like it's important that. You do that every week. So we're paying you to become the pro that you want to be. come and we're giving you structure at doing it. So when you look at it that way and other people start to say this now and that I'm saying it. When you do it that way, you look at it that way, just go to school for the structure. Go to school to get right. Go to school to pay. If you're going
Starting point is 01:00:05 to school just because there's a certain amount of money there, then that's not going to be the place you'll stay. Right. Got to go to school because, okay, they're going to help me become the man that I'm supposed to be. They're going to give me the structure that I need at 17, 18 years old. So that way, when I do go and earn more, when I am on the field, when I do get all these other things. I know how to handle it because he set this up. Yeah. This isn't just a... And do you see that with some of your guys who, you know, when you were your... I see it. I see it with Byron Washington. I see I was working with filming. Now, he's getting better and better. And are there areas where guys mess up at?
Starting point is 01:00:38 They made mistakes, yeah. That's along the way. That's a part of a culture. That's a part of being able to develop them, right? A Calvin Russell gets hurt. Right. This is the place to get her that because of who I am as a coach. How I care about who you are, right? So all of those things are dead. How do you... How do you, how do you, how do you, how do you he handled that? Because Calvin Russell, obviously, biggest recruit Syracuse has ever signed, you know, he gets hurt in spring practice. How do you handle a guy who had these big expectations on him? Now he's got to deal with the injury. He's got to deal with not being able to play. That's the thing. We got to deal with it. Okay. We got to deal with you can't play. Okay.
Starting point is 01:01:12 We got to make sure that mentally you understand and know who you are. See, football is what you played. Calvin Russell is who you are. Yeah. So we're going to continue to develop the man, Calvin Russell for you to understand and know that. So when you come back to play football, okay, all these things just add on to who Calvin Russell with. We've been on the phone all weekend. You know, it's a non-stop thing when it comes to Calvin Russell, when it comes to Demetri and Sam.
Starting point is 01:01:34 You asked them how many times I'm calling them on my champion level group. Like, I'm on the phone with these guys all the time. Development doesn't stop because the season's over. Development doesn't stop because you get injured, right? There's a mental that you have to mentally get stronger. And I was just, me and my wife just did a bike ride out here in the Middle of Island. And we were talking and I was like, I'm thankful for where friend he is right now. I love that he's compassionate.
Starting point is 01:01:57 But I want to make sure that my son understands that you can be compassion, but the job still got to get done. Yeah. Like, yeah, that's cool. No one cares. The job still has to get done. But keep that compassion. I like who he is and how he's growing and what we've done with him. But I wanted to make sure the job still gets done.
Starting point is 01:02:12 So it just doesn't stop with us, right? It doesn't stop. And that's for every player, right? I'm on the phone with Chris Bill's mom all the time. Jalen pray's mom, right? different guys. I'm talking to Beaheim pops all the time. A different one. Behan, I never get in the game force, right?
Starting point is 01:02:26 But he dominates and helps us on the team. Ted Olson's my guy. So there's so many kids on it. Like, I have 105 little brothers that I have to take it. Well, 104, one of my son. But I have to take care of all of them. Like, it's my job to do that. And I feel like our staff they're doing a really good job of helping us
Starting point is 01:02:42 do that. Is it easier having as much information, having a relationship with as many people as you have? Does that make coaching easier? Does it make it harder? I think it probably would make it harder. It's a little bit more, you know, when you are. Like, some people like transaction. A little bit better, right?
Starting point is 01:02:57 For me, I don't. You know, but when it's time for practice, you got to go to practice. Like, I just watched a movie called Man on Fire. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Denzel. I watched that one. Oh, the TV show, yeah, yeah. Yeah, after I watched Denzel, I went to watch the TV show.
Starting point is 01:03:12 And he said, your dad taught me to be like a surgeon. Don't be worried about in the room being compassionate and do all those things. When you're at football practice, be like a surgeon. This is what has to happen for this to get right. Yeah. Don't be at practice being all compassionate. You know, it's not about family at practice. At practice is about the mission.
Starting point is 01:03:31 Yeah. We're going to go win the national championship, right? Right. We want to compete in the college playoffs, right? We want to win this conference. So at practice, yeah, we all surgeons. Let's stay focus. Lock in on what we have to do.
Starting point is 01:03:41 Get the job done the day. When practice is over, now we can go talk. Now back to our family atmosphere, which is a close family net there with us. like everything is tight but it takes time to get in our family that is Fran Brown and excited to see Syracuse this year Steve Angelly we think we'll be back we think we'll be ready but who knows you might see Malachi Nelson a little bit early we might see Malachi Nelson later who knows but I thought that was very interesting Fran Brown talking about the former
Starting point is 01:04:18 five star and why he was a five star and we'll see we'll see if they can get that out of him if they're going to need to because maybe steve angelie's completely healthy and he plays the whole season but i found that very interesting because that's not something a lot of coaches will talk about but uh fram brown not shy talking about anything ari it's been fun tomorrow megaboard wednesday we will peruse the on three message boards and uh yeah Yeah, they've been popping off this week. Thanks to Lane Kiffin and Sark and it's just been one of those weeks. We'll talk to you on Mega Board Wednesday.

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