Andy & Ari On3 - Why Michigan WINS BIG in 2026: How Kyle Whittingham utilizes Bryce Underwood & Savion Hiter at UM

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

As the Michigan Wolverine fanbase has big expectations for Kyle Whittingham's tenure in Ann Arbor, the new head coach for UM is set to rely on some of the young talent on his roster. With young stars like Bryce Underwood and Savion Hiter, Michigan is looking to be in the College Football Playoff conversation later this fall. Watch here as Andy & Ari dive into the best megaboard topics!   (0:00) On Today's Episode (0:56) Presenting Sponsor (2:10) Intro: Michigan's INSANE young talent (16:26) Similarities in Ohio State adding Urban Meyer (22:08) Pete Golding at his press conference (38:49) How Texas rallies around QB Arch Manning (47:49) NCAA vacates Kirk Ferentz's wins (56:59) Sherrone Moore sentenced (58:35) Conclusion: Thanks for watching!   As Andy & Ari wrap up discussing the Michigan Wolverines, the fellas head south to the SEC to talk about what Pete Golding said at his press conference. With what seemed like a subtle jab to former Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, do the two head coaches get along? Watch here as Andy & Ari discuss.   Next up, as Andy & Ari record the show, Chris Low released another incredible story, only this time on Arch Manning. Entering his second full season as a starting quarterback, Manning explains how his team rallied around him and how much he wants to see the Longhorns succeed. Will Texas run the table this fall?   Later, the NCAA has finally done something about tampering. Four of Kirk Ferentz's wins have been vacated for tampering violations of QB Cade McNamara from the 2023 season. What does this even mean, if anything?   Send in your Dear Andy & Ari questions here!   [e-mail] [e-mail]   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/AypPdp6cJ40   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's Andy and Ari on 3, Michigan getting ready for its spring game. The Wolverines have a lot of reasons to be excited as the Kyle Whittingham era has a soft launch in a spring game where you're not going to see a bunch of starters, but you may see some very interesting young players. Plus, new Ole Miss coach Pete Golding throws a little shade at his former boss and current LSU coach, Lane Kiffin. We'll talk about that on a megaboard Wednesday. What else has the message boards hopping? Oh, I don't know. The NCAA's vacating four of Kirk Ferrence's wins for a tampering case. Yes,

the only tampering case they've ever been able to solve apparently involved Kirk Ferrence and it took them three years. We'll talk about that and more on today's Andy and Arion 3 presented by BedmGM. We are brought to you by BedmGM. And if you you're not signed up for BetMGM, here's how you do it with a code that will get you up to a $1,500 first bet offer. You download the app from BetMGM. You sign up using the code CFB. That CFB is in college football. You deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. Then you've got the

NBA play in tournament this week. You got the playoffs starting the NBA. There's a lot going on right now. You receive up to $1,500 in bonus bets. If your first bet, loses. Just make sure you use the bonus code. CFB when you sign up. Make it legendary with BetMGM. See Betmgmgm.com for terms 21 plus. Only this promotional offer is not available in DC, Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem called 1-800 Gambler or 1-800 My Reset available in the U.S. 87788-Y or text Hope in Y or 467-369 in New York. 1-800-3-0-1-800-50-5-0-1-Massachusetts, 1-800-8-0-0-0-3 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 three presented by BetMGM. It is a megaboard Wednesday. The boards are popping. Listen, Ari, every time a Chris Lowe story drops, you know there's going to be a message board thread about it. And I go to the wolverine.com, head to the fort. and boom, our man Clayton Safey has already posted about Chris's Michigan story because Chris was with Kyle Whittingham this week talking the new version of the Michigan Wolverines. They've got their spring game this week.

We can actually watch it. It's on the Big Ten Network, 2 o'clock Eastern Time on Saturday. I'm not sure there's a team I'm more intrigued by than Michigan going into the 26th season. Yeah, well, first of all, happy tax date, everybody who celebrates. And if you don't, you're my hero. I hope everybody got through this awful, awful Wednesday unscathed. But yeah, Andy, I think that it's very interesting because I think that even if all the stuff that did not happen to Sharon Moore wouldn't have happened, they would have been very interesting to me. What is your two under Bryce Underwood look like?

Are they going to get back to where they were three years previously or was that a blip on the radar? And then you throw in the complete disaster that happened in December. You throw in, you know, a frantic search for a coach that actually wound up with a pretty stable, accomplished winner. You have a bunch of new players and you still have that quarterback. Like, what is Michigan? How good are they going to be? What's their ceiling? All of that stuff is highly compelling heading in the year.

And the thing is like a lot of what we'll see in the spring game is the guys that haven't played much yet. the guys that have played a lot, probably going to be chilling out. They might play a little bit early. But I think one of the more important things he did, and it's interesting because Chris Lowe, when he was in Ann Arbor, talked to Zeke Berry, the cornerback, who was a guy who entered the transfer portal, but examined the new coaching hire at Michigan and did his homework on Kyle Whittingham and decided to stay. And I think there were a few guys like that.

there were a few guys who just weren't leaving, who were happy to be at Michigan, want to stay at Michigan. This was a really good roster already. And then Wittingham brings in some of his guys from Utah, like John Henry Daley, the edge rusher. They brought in a receiver. You know, they brought in guys that I think are going to be

immediate value ads to what was already a good roster. Absolutely. And, you know, Michigan has over the years signed some pretty good running backs that have had major impacts on their teams. Yeah. And I think that there's one here in particular, Savion Heider, who was the number 12 overall player in the rival's industry rankings

and the number one running back in the country, five-star kid out of Virginia that is supposedly going to be very, very good. And I'm excited to see how that plays out. Andy, last time they had a pair of really good five-star running backs. They ended up running all over the field in the national championship game. Donovan Edwards made. So, like, they, you know, I never really have an idea. Like, you know, I was thinking about this when you said,

we're going to talk about Michigan today this morning. We had a huge discussion last night about Wisconsin and their program identity. Right. And sometimes I wonder, like, because Michigan has had that identity to a certain extent, right? Like when you think about Michigan football, even the team that won the national title, what do you think? Hard-nosed running team with good lines. Michigan has wanted to have this idea.

identity going back to Bo Schembeckler, they have been always succeeded in it, but they have, when they've been at their best, this has been the identity. It's like, it feels like if it ever were to work for Wisconsin, this is what it would look like, right? Like, it's almost like they are aspiring to be Michigan. Right, but Michigan has a lot more built-in advantages, but didn't always take, didn't always take advantage of the advantages, for lack of a better term. they have or did in the Jim Harbaugh era it seems like they're doing that in the Kyle

Whittingham era we don't know yet but well here's the thing that I find really leaning into what they what they are good at Michigan for the four years that it ruled the Ohio State rivalry what did they do during that four years they beat a team that was flashy a team with a ton of wide receiver talent, a team that threw it all over the yard. A finesse team is the word they use by beating the crap out of them in the trenches and breaking their will, right? Right. I do think that as a fan, you probably do always, even if you're a Michigan fan or a Utah fan or a Wisconsin fan or any of the other schools that play this brand of football, have a part of you that would probably long for the idea of playing like Ohio State one day. I'm sure a Wisconsin

fan would love the idea of throwing the ball around and being really explosive offensively, hitting teams over the top and having big explosive passing plays. But it seems like Michigan knows who it is. Michigan isn't going to overcorrect that and give into that feeling. And they wound up finding a coach that played that brand of football at another place who kind of epitomized getting the most out of being the toughest team on the field. So you're marrying those two things. One, you have the brand, the recruiting territory,

and obviously the financial infusion to go along with this, but now you have a coach that epitomized playing Michigan brand football at another place and won the PAC 12. They're doing it that way. You're marrying those two teams together, and it makes me feel like they can be the peak version of Michigan under Kyle Whittingham without really inventing, reinventing itself.

Yeah, but they are going to be able to throw the ball because they have a very talented quarterback. And look, Utah got good quarterback play out of Devin Dampeer last year. He's not the best thrower of football. Bryce Underwood is a lot more talented arm. But they're giving him some weapons to work with. We saw Andrew Marsh at the end of last season. We saw him develop.

And really, they didn't have a lot of other good receivers around him. The hope is they bring in JJ Buchanan from Utah. Jamie French comes from Texas. And we've talked a lot about Texas's receiver core. I have a suspicion. We're going to find out that Texas was just loaded. And when they brought in Cam Coleman, that pushed people down the depth chart somewhat,

pushed people down the NIL paycheck chart. What is the thing about- And so you see Parker Livingston go to Oklahoma. Jamie French was a big-time recruit from Florida who signed with Texas. I was going to say, what is the characteristic that he might have that I might like? Yeah, yeah, I know. He was, he was big time crew. He's big too. It didn't work out at Texas and I don't know. Like sometimes and that's what I think makes us so hard, Andy as you're evaluating portal classes and even evaluating the portal and who to take is did it not work out of Texas because like this is more of a Jameson Williamson, Jameson Williams situation at Ohio State or is this a this didn't work out because of him deal? And you have to evaluate. weight that really quickly, bring him in.

And, you know, he could be a pure wide receiver one at Michigan based on his physical traits. And then you marry that with Andrew Marsh and Hyder in the backfield. I know that they're going to have a good offensive line. Jordan Marshall still, Jordan Marshall averaged six yards of carry last year. He's still on the team, yeah. I mean, they have a lot of pieces that, you know, you could buy into in terms of being a really good team.

And if they play with the discipline and the strength and the, in the vigor that Utah played with, which is the personality of. their Harley riding head coach. Like you could talk yourself into a playoff team here, no? Oh, you definitely could. Now, the schedule is harder than what they had last year. So we've said this, and I think when we say it, it's somewhat tongue in cheek.

It's definitely an oversimplification. We've said, you know, if Sharon Moore, with all that going on could win nine games, how many can Kyle Whittingham? He should win 11. But let's back up a little bit because the schedule is, I think more difficult. At home, you have Oklahoma, Iowa, Penn State, and Indiana.

On the road, you've got Oregon and Ohio State. I don't think that Minnesota is easy either. So, like, there's a lot of landmines on this schedule. But if this team is as good as we think it is, from a roster talent perspective, and then you add in a coaching staff that knows what it's doing, that isn't distracted by some of these other things. That's a team that should be able to traverse that schedule

and be competitive in the Big Ten and be competitive for a playoffer. And you know that Whittingham has a chip on his shoulder too, right? Like there's no way that he doesn't like want to show Utah that he is still the man. You know, and doing it at this place gives you an opportunity to win at a level that, you know, frankly was beating all the odds. Like if he has a great season at Michigan, he will, you know, have an average year that would have been one of the most memorable seasons in Utah football history, right? Like even if you make the playoff in advance a game or two at Michigan, that's like a really

solid year, but not one that's going to go down in Michigan lore. Like he has a chance to do something here that, you know, frankly, there was a ceiling on at Utah for many of the years that he was there and he burst through those ceilings a little bit, even winning the Pac-12. He definitely, he had an undefeated season in 2008, kicked the crap out of Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Like that, that happened. He then takes them from a group of five conference to a power conference,

builds up the depth, makes that program one of the best in that power conference. I get that he may not always be the easiest guy to work with if you're the AD, but I still have a hard time processing what happened there. And, you know, maybe we'll see. Maybe it turns out that Morgan Scali comes in and Utah's awesome and everybody made the right move for everybody. But right now it looks to me like Utah is paying Kyle Whittingham $13.5 million to take a better job with a much higher ceiling

that Kyle Whittingham has a chance to compete for national titles. now, whereas at Utah, that was going to be pretty hard. I think when you say it that way, I wrote a column, and that was the headline, what you just said. Utah paid Kyle Whittingham boo-coo dollars to take a better job. Like, the way that it played out was pretty advantageous for everybody. It was advantageous for Whittingham because that job wasn't supposed to be open, especially at the time that it was open, and it worked out for Michigan because a coach of Right. Utah was worried at the time, if you look at the timeline.

Utah was worried because Kalani Sataki was in the mix for the Penn State job at the time all of that negotiating back and forth was happening and so they were very concerned that Kyle Whittingham might get the BYU job if Sataki went to Penn State. That was the concern. I don't even think it was on their radar

that he'd wind up at a Tiffany Big Ten program. I also think that it is amusing that you are ready to move on from a person because he's no longer good enough for you but you are terrified that he will go to your rival. Yeah, that doesn't quite compute, doesn't. Yeah. I mean, maybe it's just kind of one of those deals of like, hey, I don't want my ex-husband dating my best friend. You know, like, I don't know. Like, maybe it's one of those deals. You've been watching too much secret lives and Mormon lives.

I have. I've been watching a lot of it. And I'm like really sucked into like the Coachella drama that's happening on Instagram right now with all those characters. So, um, you know, who's not Kyle Whittingham is not. Kyle Whittingham is not. Although he is very familiar with their stompy. worried about that at all. That whole show takes place in Salt Lake City. So, um, and it makes me want to go to that place. Have you seen Swig? Have you seen that place? No. It's like a soda place that's just in Utah and is expanding and there's one in like Frisco. I want to go up there and just smash a soda. It's expensive soda. It's like dirty soda. Have you heard of this? Or they take like duck pepper and they like put like different like flavorings in it and Google it. It's a whole new adventure for

you. I'll take Coke and I put Jack Daniels in it. That that makes it pretty dirty. and delicious. Could you imagine if they were genius enough to put those two things together into a can and then you get his buy it already made? It would be amazing. Wouldn't it? It would be.

Oh, wait, they have. Oh. It's happening. It's all happening right now. Yeah. That sounds like something that I could definitely be a part of. Andy, the... Yeah, I could definitely endorse that product if they wanted us to endorse it.

For sure. If and when that was something that they were like into doing, sure. Yes. Yes. But on their firm. Peanut butter and jelly, Jack and Coke, certain things just go together. And maybe we find out that Kyle Winningham and Michigan are two things that

belong together and you didn't even know it. It worked out great for Michigan. Like, honestly, if you would have asked. I'm just excited for these people because think about, and look, I get it. I know all the fans of the other teams are still mad at Michigan over the Conor Stallion stuff. There's a lot of how does he keep getting away?

with this going on. But if you went to a Michigan fan on December 10th or whatever the day that Sharon Moore got fired was and all that drama went down and you said by the spring game we're going to be predicting you probably have a playoff team and everything's going to be

okay. Oh yeah. They would have said you're insane. For sure. They were probably bracing for impact. I'll head down arms over the head. You know, I had thought about a column. And maybe I'll do this this week or maybe I'll do it next week because I don't want to rain on Chris Lowe's parade. But I remember back in 2013, 2012, when all the trestle stuff was happening and the fickle stuff was happening at Ohio State. And they had their only, was it a losing season?

Did they go six and seven that year or seven and six. They did because they should not have played the Gator Bowl, should have suspended themselves from that. and then they could have been eligible for. I just don't remember their record. I think that might have been their only losing season of my adult life. A horrific Florida team played that Ohio State team in the Gator Bowl and a game was played.

But that was supposed to be the time where Ohio State went through a terrible transition, lost their legendary head coach, lost a bunch of players, lost a bunch of games, and they were going to struggle to find the replacement. And then Urban Meyer fell out of the sky. Yeah.

And I remember thinking, and I remember wondering, like or hearing Michigan fans at the time say why it was almost like the Jesse Pinkman. They can't keep getting away with this theme of like, why does Ohio State always land ass backwards into a better situation? And they kind of did, right?

Like Urban Meyer wasn't. Well, yeah, because you know what Urban Meyer was probably going to do, right? He was probably going to take the Penn State job and replace Joe Paterno and then the Sandusky stuff happened. And the Notre Dame was also a team. that he would have considered at the time, I think. I don't remember where they were as a program. I don't, it wasn't open because Brian Kelly had just started there.

But also there was some concern or thought that Urban Meyer would maybe want more time away from the game at that point. Right. And then he like dove into the deep end of Ohio State football head first off the diving board and then turned Ohio State and frankly the Big Ten into something that it wasn't before his arrival. And I remember thinking like Michigan fans thinking like, this is supposed to be the transition period where something bad happens, you cheated.

You're paying the consequences for that. Your program's going to take a step back for a few years because there's no obvious candidate to come take over and then Ohio State found urban and then they got even better. What if this is Michigan's version of that? It absolutely can be. If he does what he did at Utah with the resources of Michigan, with the recruiting reach of Michigan, with the NIL budget of Michigan,

there's no reason that shouldn't happen. The only thing that's different now is the Big Ten is deeper and especially deeper at the top. The Big Ten has schools that are really trying to win the national championship. In fact, has the last three national champions, one of which is Michigan. It has Oregon. When Urban got there,

it was basically Mark Dantonio at Michigan State and Brett Bielman at Wisconsin, and nobody else was trying that hard. So everybody's trying really hard now. So the degree of difficulty is probably a little bit different, but there's no reason it can't happen that way. Yeah. So we'll see.

I like thinking like those types of thought processes, like, you know, what if history repeats itself and stuff, I'm happy that it makes sense to you. Maybe I'll do that. It makes absolute sense. And it's right. And I know there are probably people who get sick of us bringing this up over and over again. A part of it is hearing Kyle Whittingham talking to Chris Lowe.

And if you're not subscribed to On3, now's your chance. On3.com slash join National subscription 1999 for your first year. You can read everything from me and from Ari and from Chris Lowe and from Pete Nacos. And I get the sense from Kyle Whittingham that he is very excited about some of the guys on this. team. And like even the Savion Hyder thing, normally you get coaches trying to put, you know, put the brakes on a little bit. He's not putting the brakes on at all. He's what he says about Savion Hyder to Chris Lowe. He's tough, has great balance, a smart, smart young man who does a good job with pass protection. He's still got some technique things to iron out,

but he's not afraid. He sticks his node right in there and has great hands. He's the whole package. Guys, this guy's going to be a feature back for them this year. Yeah. That's the coach. saying that right there. I mean, that's what you expect from somebody. It's really hard to get a five-star rating as a running back. As a running back. Yeah. Because it is based on the NFL draft positional value.

And running back is the lowest of those positional values. So he must be like Jeremiah Love is considered an incredible prospect because he's number one on some people's big boards. The suspicion is you're going to see him take. making in the top five, but definitely the top 10, but possibly top five. Like, that's how hard it is to get into that realm. And so to be the number 12 overall recruit in the country as a running back means they think you're pretty special. Yep.

So very excited to see how this turns out, but still just completely fascinated by how everything happened and loved hearing. from Kyle Whittingham and Chris Lowe's story because he's a guy that I just think he's the most interesting person in college football right now because of the circumstances of why he's here now.

Ari, he's not the only interesting coach in college football, though. Let us let's move through the megaboard. Let's go to the Grove at OM Spirit. That is our own missight. Everything Pete Goulding had to say at his spring practice press conference on Tuesday, Ari.

Well, our friend Ben Garrett posted everything he had to say. But this is the thing that caught my attention more than anything else, and I'm sure yours too. Producer, please roll the video. I have to ask, I'm sorry. Do you pay attention to stuff that happens on X that gets where you get mentioned by certain people? I really don't.

I mean, obviously, I've got kids. And we've got people that work here and all that that do all that. So things get brought up or someone else, send me a text message. And so you definitely see certain things. But, you know, I'm not good enough of this job to be on that all damn day and do this job. I don't know how they do it, more power to them. I learn one day. But there's enough things in the building that I need to do at a high level.

But yeah, I definitely see some of it based on what gets sent to me. Where are you going with that? I was just curious there. Your golf game was mentioned. There was an interaction at a baseball game recently, that kind of thing. My golf game? So Malloy. Malloy is one of my best friends, right?

So they had their little fundraiser for their part three. So turn to that and I went and I hit the first shot. So I didn't get a play. I hit the first shot and they came on back. But I can assure you if you saw my golf game, you wouldn't be worried by me playing golf. Well, no, that's not what I was doing. Did you put it on the green?

We only saw the shot. We didn't see where it wound up. I think I did put it. It was a big green, though. It was a big green. That is Pete Golding. I will repeat, I'm not good enough at this job to be on that all day.

and do this job. Who do you think he's talking about, Ari? I think he's talking about somebody that may have used to golf a lot, and I think that it might be... Well, no, the guy who used to golf a lot's Brian Kelly. That's not who he's talking about. Is he not talking about Hugh Freeze?

Well, Hugh Freeze is the golfer. Who do you think he's talking about... Of course. With the social media, yes. Now, look, the thing thing that I am interested in is he said he's not very good at golf, but then he said he hit the green, and that seems pretty inconsistent to me. He said it's a big green.

Okay, well, I don't know how good of golf you are, but it doesn't matter how big the green is. I ain't hitting it. So, no, I do think it is. I am much more interested in the Lane Kiffin shade. Yeah, of course. Then the, the Hugh Freeze and or Brian Kelly shade. The, it is amazing to me, actually, that Kiffin does as well as he does, while whilst being on social media as much as he is.

Well, how much do you think he's actually on it? That's the question. How much do you think he's actually on it? Or do you think he pops in, drops a joke and then closes it and just like reacts to things that people send him? Do you think that he, how online do you think he is? And do you think he's the most online coach there is? Yes. I do think he's the most online coach there is. Now, he's certainly the most publicly online coach. I do know there are other ones that don't post as much that are clearly reading everything.

and seeing everything. But he's the only one responding. And I don't know. I think he's as online as I am and possibly more, because I've cut mine back. How many hours a day do you think you look at Twitter? It's way down. It's way down.

I'd say it's less than an hour a day now. It used to be an hour or two hours a day. I look at it compulsively. I know you do. Yeah. I look at it like at stoplights. It's not safe, Artie. I mean, we're not moving. Okay.

So the light turns green. You're still staring at Twitter and be hard. I mean, there have been times. Yeah. I try really, really hard. I used to have a texting and driving problem. But ever since I had my daughter, I've tried really hard to not look at my phone while driving. But at stoplights, certainly. I think that.

Oh, producer River wants to play a game. Okay. Let's play. Is he popping up here? All right. Check your screen time. Yeah, let's go to your settings app on your iPhone and type in screen time. And then you'll see, type in screen and then screen time will be at the top. Okay. You'll see your daily average, your overall.

But then click see all app and website activity. Oh, boy. And scroll, you can get a down. Yeah, you get a breakdown of every app you do. Oh, okay. Mine's not so bad. What is it? Mine's 28 minutes.

Oh, that's not bad at all. That's got to be just for today, though. No, it says app screen time average 28, but I also look at it a lot on my computer and I'm on my computer all day. Ah, okay, there's the difference. But what's your averageing 12 minutes a day on Twitter on my phone? What's your screen time, Andy, just in general? Six hours.

Mine's seven hours and 28 minutes. What about you, River? I am five hours and 40 minutes. Now, part of that is this is our, it's part of our job. But I'm on, I'm on this laptop all the time. Yeah, other people who have to be on, you know, on screens all day, it's, you know, if it's your job, it's your job. Lane doesn't have one of those jobs. Pete Golding doesn't have one of those jobs, which is why he's saying, I can't do this.

I can't be online all day. I'm fascinated by Lane's ability to do the job well and still drop in with a pretty well-timed tweet every once in a while. The thing that I am very curious about the way, Andy is a large portion of the job as a coach is obviously talent acquisition and talent maintenance. And a large... You got to be DM and kids on...

You have to be doing kids on Twitter anyway, so you're already on it. You have to be using these apps to communicate with potential talent, but also maybe your own team. Like, I don't know. You and I are from different generations. River and I are from different generations. So it's like three different generations.

But I would say that I interact with a lot of my closest friends more often through social media apps than I do through direct text. Like through group chats. I would say. High schoolers, that is definitely how things work in that and their generation. Like my son is 16. He communicates with his friends almost exclusively through Snapchat. So I don't have Snapchat. I used to, but I do a lot of Instagram.

Like we send reels and stuff. Yeah. You know, like, so I do think that there is a certain part of a coach's job where being completely disconnected from technology and the internet's actually irresponsible. So I think there's probably a happy medium there. We know Pete Golding's on his phone, or at least Davos Sweeney has accused him of being on his phone a little bit.

But we didn't, I guess they didn't say how that message got delivered, whether that was via text or DM or whatever. But I do, I love this whole thing still. And this is another thing. I know we keep bringing it up. But I can't stop thinking about how great this LSU Ole Miss rivalry is going to be. Like the drips and drabs, every little thing, every week there's something else. We need to save this stuff and just start making notes to have a supercut of all the times that Lane has thrown shade at Ole Miss and Golding has thrown shade at Lane. Yeah.

Because I think by the time we get to the game week in September, we will have like a 10-minute supercut of hilarious incidents. Yes. And I think that like you said, like the paper cut deal of like little, little, little, little, little. little like it's already, already explosive, Andy. It's April. Yeah. But like, but what happened is the biggest cut. You know, one coach left one for the other, you know, like that's so.

But all the little thing like the thing that I don't know. And here's the question I wanted to ask you. Do you think that Pete Golding and Lane Kiffin like each other? Ooh. That's the main question here. They work together. Mm-hmm. I'm assuming that whenever.

you have somebody who hired you as part of their staff. You respect and appreciate that. Also, if Lane doesn't leave, Pete is not the head coach at Ole Miss. Also, now, he probably would have gotten a head coaching job in the SEC at some point, but he might not have it now. Doesn't Lane also seem to, like,

root for Ole Miss and Pete sometimes online? Like, I don't think that he talks, he doesn't really talk trash to them. He has the Trinidad. Yeah, but he also tries to take their players. who aren't the transfer portal, which I'm sure is not something Pete Golding enjoys. Yeah, but if you would have asked Pete Golding,

hey, you can have to be the head coach of this program, but you're going to have to deal with Lane Kiffin stealing some of your players. Like he probably takes that deal a hundred times out of 100, right? Yeah, and he also, but he also had to deal with the whole drama with the coaching staff during the playoff. So I am sure there have been incidents that have happened since Lane left that have strained that relationship. Yeah.

I would love to give both guys a truth serum and ask that question you just asked me, like, do you like this guy? Yeah, do you like it? I mean, also, not everybody likes their boss. True. And the thing is, like, and I don't know that fans understand this is, like,

all these coaches have known each other for a long time. They know each other probably a lot better than you realize. and some of them talk more often than you think, even though they're rivals, even though they're going after the same players, because there's a lot of kind of espri d'court where they're in the same business, they're in the same boat.

They're in a fraternity. Yeah, and they can all get fired really quickly. Like, they all have been fired. Like, they all kind of understand one another. I mean, sports writers are similar to, like, Like national college football writers, we all get along pretty well. We're not like the NFL ones that try to throw down in front of the Starbucks at the J.W. There's been physical altercations in the NFL.

Are there other national college football reporters that you cannot stand? Because I can't think of one. No, no, I get along with almost all of them. And some of them I'm really good friends with, even though we are competing for stories. We are competing for different coaches. We're competing for all of this stuff. But a lot of it is they understand. understand my job and I understand their job and it's a weird job and people don't really

understand it if you don't have it. So it helps to have something to talk about. So I think that's why these coaches get along as well as they do. Yeah. And I'm always amused because like, and I know that there's probably been very many instances of this Andy, but like Woody Hayes and Bo Schembecker like adored each other. Yeah. Like they were like, I think you were they best friends or like they they were brothers to each other. I'm trying to think who doesn't like each other. I think Petino and Calipari don't like each other. I think that Ryan Day and Jim Harbaugh did not like each other.

They hated each other, yeah. I'm trying to think of other rivalries of where coaches go back and forth publicly. I don't think Jim Donnan liked Philip Fulmer. But like Kirby Smart and Nick Sabin liked each other, right? Yeah, I mean, they worked together. Yeah. long time. I mean, after. Yeah. No, I definitely don't think that either one of them dislike the other, right? And they certainly seem to get it like, you see them talk now.

Producer River brought up a good one in the SEC. I don't think Josh Heipel and Eli Drinkwitz like one another very much. Because remember, Tennessee poured it on Missouri one year. And the Missouri came back the following year and beat the crap out of Tennessee. And Eli said we stand on business, Josh, at the head, the handshake after the game. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm trying to think of like explosive coach fights. And I remember Brett Bealema and Shane Beamer got into one, but they don't play each other or aren't in the same hemisphere enough.

I think they've buried the hatchet too. Yeah. I think they've talked it out. But what's the most explosive coach confrontation that you can remember from the previous few years? John Cheney trying to strangle John Calipery in a press conference. I mean, that was like, I was like 11 years old when that happened? I'm talking like, yeah.

When have you ever seen somebody trying to strangle the other coach in a press conference? Yeah. I mean, he did say, I will kill you, didn't he? Like, I think it's that's true. Literally had his hands on his throat. Like, I'll kill you. Can you imagine if X? I still want to call it Twitter had existed when that happened.

I still call it Twitter. don't give in. It doesn't make any sense. But can you imagine if social media had existed when John Cheney tried to strangle John Calgary? Yeah. But getting back to the main point, though, Andy, I do think that people, like, if you're an Ole Miss fan or an LSU fan, you probably want your coach to despise the other coach and program as much as you do. That's probably comforting to you.

I think part of the reason why the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry during the Ryan Day, Harbaugh, years was so enticing was because they hated each other. Yes. The fan bases hated each other and the coaches hated each other. And there's no like, yeah, we're all trying to win the game, but we all respect each other. No one wants that anymore. I don't know. Like this Brent Venables and Steve Sarkesian have they, they've never really interacted, right,

publicly in a negative way. I don't think they dislike each other. They seem to be fine. And then Mike Elko, I don't know how you would like that guy. Barry Switzer and Darry Royal. I don't think, I think Darryl Royal really didn't like Barry. Switzer. Yeah. That was a good one. Yeah, but I actually don't think they hate each other. My guess would be that they do not hate each other. With Kiffin and Golding, yeah. But I don't know. I do wonder

if the tampering rules, the transfer portal, that part of it, if that doesn't really change, I assume it will change eventually. I assume there will be some way that they can make rules and have a little more orderly system down the road several years from now. But if it doesn't, doesn't change. If that keeps going, I do think that will fray some, some relationships. Yeah, I guess. I mean, I just like, I don't think coaches, like, did coaches back in the day, when you first took your SI job and you were covering recruiting on the day-to-day basis, coaches used to get frustrated when a coach would flip a player out of their class, right? But did they ever after that? No, because they understood that it was part of the game. The ones in the SEC didn't care

ever because they basically said until you sign you're recruitable. It was the Big Ten that had the quote unquote gentleman's agreement that Urban Meyer blew up. It would be kind of a cool to anonymously poll coaches and just

say when we're asking every coach that we can get in touch with this question, but who do you not like as a human? Who do you just hate? Who do you think would win the poll? I don't think Lane is particularly liked. Brian Kelly might have had a hard time with that.

Yeah, Brian Kelly would. It's interesting because I think, like, if you'd ask me this question in the 90s, I'd have said, oh, Steve Spurger, they all hate him. They didn't. They actually liked him. Yeah. But we want there to be drama, and we want there to be hatred between fan bases, and I think we have it with those two.

We do, we do. Ari, we've got a story that just dropped at On 3. there will be a megaboard thread about it, I am sure. We've got to talk about this. Arch Manning, one-on-one with our man Chris Lowe. I was just reading the actual quotes from it right now, as you said that, and that should do pretty well for us today. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, Chris has been a busy, busy guy. Now, he was in Austin a couple of weeks ago, And so I think this one, we had to wait a little bit before it could be published and now it is being published. And this is a guy who I think everybody's been waiting to hear from. Yep. Do you want to read the money quote? You go ahead. I'm not going to shy away from anything.

People are allowed to say whatever they want. It doesn't really affect me. I know where I'm going and I know no one's going to stop me. I got another one. I feel like it's a credit to our culture here and the guys we have in our locker room. A lot of teammates would have probably said, who the hell is this guy getting all this attention

when I really hadn't done anything yet and then go out and play the way I was playing? But all they did was support me and we went through it together and started playing better toward the end of the season. That's a pretty interesting quote too. To be honest, I didn't really see hard times like that coming. You always want to expect the best and you think about the game winning touchdowns and stuff like that.

And obviously that wasn't happening early on, but there's nothing you can really do besides keep on working and getting better. I was more confused like, why is this happening? I know good times are coming and I just need to be patient. So this is really interesting here, Arch's side of this. I think we heard a little bit of this and the support from the teammates and the understanding of where everybody was. remember Ari we were covering the Texas Oklahoma game and Sark got up after that game and basically said this locker room loves this guy

and this is he had played well in that game but that was really the first time we'd seen him play the way we you know everybody thought he might be able to play and we'd expected to see that all season and you didn't see it against Ohio State, and then it was very shaky in games where it should have been easy. So that part of it's interesting. So whatever is going on inside the Texas locker room, there's some good leadership there,

because all of this could have been a lot worse. It could have blown up in their faces. And it feels like the team was very mature about all this. Yeah, I mean, I'm reading T leaves, and there's a lot, a lot, a lot to like about this team, I think. Yeah. Moving forward. Yeah. Because.

That's a championship favorite to me. Well, and I think that there's a reason they are one of the favorites at that MGM right now. But we're going to see it pretty quickly. They've got Ohio State week two in Austin. to Nealon Stadium week four. That back into the schedule is not going to be easy either. So this is going to challenge them, but I do think what they went through last year,

dealing with the hype and then the criticism and then the coming back around. They kind of got the whole gamut in that one season. They got the out-of-control hype that was probably unnecessary, the criticism, the level of which matched the unnecessary hype.

It's like physics, right? It's like if the pendulum swings one way on the hype machine, then and things go really, really bad, then it's going to swing equally back in the other direction. Yeah, Newton's first law of hype. You know, like when you push the swing,

it can't go further back than when you pushed it right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But that's real. I think that's real. And like also, Andy, we have to just call it what it is. His debut after years and years of years of hearing about him, I don't think it could have gone more, it could have gone worse.

Could it have? I mean, I guess they, I mean, the Ohio State game could have gotten more off. They could have lost the Utec game or one of those games. That would have been worse. But it was pretty bad. And I think he acknowledged that in the story. Well, and I think the fact that it sort of came back around. And, you know, you still get people saying, well, he wasn't that much better at the end of the season.

I think he was significantly better at the end of the season. Yeah. His numbers aren't great in the Texas A&M game, but they're playing against a really good defense. And, oh, by the way, they won the game. Yeah. And I think that every single thing about the offense around him is supposed to be better this year. Yeah. So, interesting to hear what he had to say and what he saw.

last season. And it sounds like he's very appreciative of his teammates, which I think is the other piece of this that I think matters. Because a team that the players care about one another, then obviously that's going to be a better team. And it sounds like he very much appreciates the way they had his back. And I wonder how that, he must be fun to be around in the locker. He doesn't really show much of his personality

in interviews on social media. But I think if he wasn't, I think these dudes would have turned on him instead of supporting him, instead of having his back the whole time. Well, I also think, like, hype has an impact on the way that people around you feel. And if you're an asshole,

they're going to resent the hype, right? Yeah. They're not going to, you know, have your back when things are going well if they think that you have unwarranted hype and you're not appreciative of that hype or the people around you that are helping you try to get better and be better. And, you know, I have never heard a single thing about anybody within a program, both of the high school level, because we reported on his recruitment very heavily back then or at the college level where somebody didn't like him or they had something negative to say about him.

And I think that part of the reason, you know, that this is the case is because he is a manning and understands that culture and locker room and how you handle yourself and your business is of prime importance. So I'm not surprised to hear any of that stuff. And I truly, truly, to the depths of my soul, Andy, believe that he's going to have a really good year this year. So here's the quote from Trevor Goosby, their left tackle. He's talking about after the floor again. So Texas is at that point is three and two. They just got pounded. against florida neither side of the ball played well in that game this is what trevor gruezby said i mean he was getting beat up everywhere we let up six sacks but that next week he came out there

never made the first excuse and took every single rep in practice all that did was solidify my belief that he's a quarterback i'm willing to put my life on the line for because what matters to arch is team my life that's a money quote right there yeah offensive linemen are not easily impressed, especially really good ones. And they don't like fake people. So to hear a really good offensive linemen say that, and it tells you how the team feels. You probably want your most important offensive alignment

who's protecting your head every day feeling that way about you. Yeah, it's a good relationship and they've done a good job. Both ways, the other players on the team and Arch have done a good job fostering this relationship and figuring it out. And I get it. People don't want to hear praise for Arch Manning after all the praise that was heaped upon him last year. I think we went way overboard on that last year.

I think we've scaled it back. But it's a reasonable expectation to think Texas is going to be good and Arch is going to be better next year. I agree with you. And I think they will be. Well, that was a heck of a story from Chris Lowe. And he's, man, he's been busy. So one more thing from the mega-

boards, Ari. Not points, too, man. Heck yeah. Let us go to the I.O. Swarm Lounge at the Hawkeye Report from Jasper Hawk, 78. NCA just now announcing the Cade tampering penalties. This all happened on Tuesday, Ari. And, yes, the Cade McNamara situation. And this goes back to 2022.

2022, Ari. It's so funny, dude. So funny. Kirk Ferrence gets four wins vacated. That's the headline. There were other penalties, recruiting days, recruiting calls they can't make.

But basically, I went four in one with McNamara playing in the 2023 season before he got hurt. And so those four wins get wiped off of Kirk Ference's ledger. I think vacating wins is stupid. We all know who won the games.

I'm very much on the record saying that. I also think it is hilarious that with all of the tampering that goes on, this is the most high-profile case of tampering that the NCAA cops have been able to close. And it took them three and a half years. And the player wasn't that good. well that is that is probably so it had zero impact on the team yeah Kirk fairer kirk ferrance and and john budmayer their their quarterbacks coach who we remember former wisconsin quarterback john budmire uh major award a member at the hawkeye report

has the best post in this threat bud mayer should be fired for this not so much the illegal contact but for kate in general like well any that's that's that's that's The crux of this. I want to ask you this because I don't know. What is the thing about this specific tamper situation that was different enough from everyone else that was punishable? They got them dead to rights calling before he was in the portal. Also, the thing is different is I was like, yep, we did it. You got us.

We're sorry. It'll never happen again. Yeah, if they would have just been like, I don't know what you're talking about. It was a butt dial. Yeah, yeah, most schools would not do that. Iowa's not one of those schools that's going to say, no, we're going to fight this tooth and nail. If you try to punish us, we're going to sue you.

And I think it's funny because, or is not funny, I think that puts Iowa at a disadvantage. Because in this world, there's no incentive to follow the rules. Because this is what happens to you. Seems like a pretty tough punishment, too. Yeah. I mean, I actually think that, like, I agree with you. I think that vacating wins.

Everybody knew Kay McNamara was going in the portal. It was not a secret. His name was not officially in yet. I know that vacating wins is stupid. I think it's less stupid when you're vacating them from like one of the most prolific, longest tenured coaches of all time that needs a win. The winning his coach in the Big Ten. And is he still the winningest coach in the Big Ten after this?

I can't. Now, he's going to still be because he's going to win more than four games this year. So it doesn't matter on that front. I think messing with people. His winning percentage is good enough that he's still going to get in the Hall of Fame. This won't knock him out of the Hall of Fame. But it still sucks. I think messing with people's resumes who are Hall of Famers is,

I mean, and I don't know, this is probably just a skid mark on an otherwise amazing resume. And it's not going to be remembered at all. And a week later, people have already forgotten. This isn't like a legacy tour. But this is why people hate the NCAA. Because this is all you can do. This is the only case you can close. All of this other stuff.

We just got done talking about Ole Miss. You've got that deal with Clemson, but you've also got clearly the former Ole Miss coach was trying to get players to come to LSU with him. And nobody gives a shit. No. What are you doing? Three years later, taking four wins away from Kirk Fares.

What was the point of all this? Nobody cares. What was the point? Yeah, no, it's stupid. It's dumb. And, you know, maybe it's just kind of like, you know, bullying the one thing that you can bully when you're getting bullied. I don't know. Maybe it's kind of that.

But, yeah, it's just, it's wild to me. And Ferrence has handled it. Remember, Ference got suspended for a game over this in 2024. Yeah. We're still dealing. I mean, the good news about this is at least we don't have to talk about it after today again. I guess. I guess.

At least it's over now. It's been a three-year battle. I know. And look, it's done. I am excited for Iowa this year because Iowa was the toughest out last year in terms of when good teams had to play them, they struggled mightily. Like Indiana struggled with Iowa. Oregon struggled with Iowa. Iowa goes to the bowl game and they're basically full strength.

And Vanderbilt's basically full strength. Vanity's a 10-win team and Iowa beats them. Like, I'm excited to see what Iowa can be because if they are the same kind of tough out, which they're very consistent, they're consistently great on defense. Now, LeVar Woods, their longtime special teams coach did go to Michigan State with Pat Fitzgerald. So that is something to watch. But I suspect they'll still be good on special teams. Phil Parker is still the defensive coordinator. They're still going to be really good on defense.

they've got a quarterback competition between two guys who transferred in last year, Heckerling and Hank Brown. I don't know. I just, I'd love to see them break through and beat one of these mega powers in the Big Ten because I feel like they're capable of it. I feel like if you have to go to Iowa City, it is just going to be brutal for you. I mean, hell, they brought it to Southern California last year. year. Like that game against USC, they brought the weather and turned it into an Iowa game.

They control the weather in Iowa. I don't know. Yeah, I think that there is a question to be asked of because there was a time in this sport not too long ago where the way that Iowa was built and the way that Iowa played did not translate into beating giants. And I wonder now if the sport and its evolution has changed enough to the point where actually being a tough, hard-nosed team that has a lot of people back. All of the things you need to do right now. translates better to playing Ohio State than it ever did before.

Yeah. Because I think the gap in talent is more narrow. Right. Or you don't have so much insane talent that it doesn't matter how tough the other team is. You can just run around them. Like it doesn't work like that anymore. So.

You know, last year, Iowa was much better at the end of the year than I think either of us thought they were going to be going into it. And it's very, very cool to see or to at least envision that maybe they'll be very good again next year. I think they could be throw that schedule up there again one more time, Producer River. Iowa at Michigan, we talked about that. That's a tricky one for the Wolverines.

But the Buckeyes have to go to Kinnick. October 3rd. Everybody just. I've been there when it's on sideways for them in Kinnick. Mm-hmm. Just circle it, everybody. That's a, by the way, that's a brutal stretch for Iowa. Look at this stretch of three weeks at Michigan, Ohio State at home at Washington.

Yeah. If you go one and two there, you're doing something right. But you've got to try to go one and two. But maybe they'll be better than that. Maybe what if they're two and one? They're a playoff team. If they're two and one on that stretch, they're a playoff team. They absolutely could be.

Man. All right. Kirk Ferrence has all this crap behind him. Good job, NCAA. You did something about tampering. That'll stop it. Just don't admit it. I'm done.

It drives me insane. That's the guy you pick on. I know. It's the place and the person and the player. And the quarterback. Like, Kay McNamara finishes career at East Tennessee State. It's the, yeah, it's the place, which is Iowa. it's the coach, which is Kirk Farrant,

and it's the player, which is Kayed back to Mara. All three of them is like, what are we doing? Andy, speaking of penalties, we did breeze past a important... Yes, Sharon Moore. Yes, we meant to talk about this in the Michigan segment. Shromore sent us to 18 months of probation. The judge, very critical of him,

but said it didn't necessitate jail time, which Shromorne Moore didn't have a criminal record before this, So I wasn't expecting him to get any jail time over this. But the judge was pretty much blasting him from the bench saying, you had no right to do that. You did not need to bring your pain to this other person. And I hope everybody involved can move on from this. Because it was just a freaking mess.

Yeah. Dromor has got a lot to work on. feel terrible for his family that they've put up with all this and had to deal with this. But yeah, it's so maybe there's some closure there and maybe everybody can can move on. Yeah. Really tough situation. I'm very curious to see more so what Michigan does on the field with its new coach and its new team than ever. But I hope that, you know, everybody involved in the Sharon Moore situation, like you said, is able to move on and heal and hopefully learn from what happens.

happened here. Yeah. And we've learned a lot today. Got a Chris Lowe, Arch Manning story dropped in the middle of the recording the show. Man, that's big doings right there. Yeah. Yeah. I think that that's going to be a very good story that performs well for us. I already retweeted it. Go check it out at on three if you're listening. It's not very often that you get Frank comments from somebody as famous as Arch Manning. He didn't speak one-on-one very often in the past year. and I think it's going to be an important piece for us this summer. So speaking of which, subscribe to On3. If you're not subscribed already, On3.com slash join.

You've got that national subscription, 1999 for your first year. Also, if you're not subscribed to our YouTube channel at On3 Sports, subscribe there. We just went over 300,000. So thank you to all who have subscribed and tell your friends. That way, when something happens, when there's a really interesting story, it'll get pushed right to you. and also for those of you listening in podcast form, if you do not want to look at our faces,

which I understand completely, and you're listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, I know you're already subscribed, but don't forget to drop a review every so often. Just say, hey, if you're having fun, hit the five stars and say, I like these guys. This is fun.

If we're one star, tell us that too, by the way. We're open to your criticisms. I email, though, hopefully not in the reviews. Yeah, hit the five star. Come on. We got a little review bomb by some people that got mad during the season about some things we said. Yeah. So we need to rehabilitate. We got to rehabilitate our images. If you actually are annoyed by something that we do or say, you're more than welcome to feel that way. Hit us up, though, and talk it through, you know?

Yeah. It might even turn into a segment on the show. That's the best part. I think that there have been multiple times in the past where you and I have said something, or both of us have agreed on something. somebody emailed us why they disagreed with it and gave us really good points and then we read it on the show. We're not trying to gatekeep your thoughts. So, I mean, I think that's, and I think both of us too have shown a pretty good ability to change our mind if been given a new information that changes it. So speaking of that, by the way, Friday, of course, is Dear Andy, dear Ari, get those questions in. Andy Staples, On3 at Gmail.com. Ari.com.

dot wasterman at on three.com you can also hit us up on social media at andy staples at ari waserman on x the everything app uh at ari wasterman at andy underscels on instagram so yeah get those questions in we'll answer them on friday if we said something stupid by all means tell us we'll probably talk about that on friday but but very interesting guests coming more we've got a fun guest, Big Ten Coach. Let's you try to figure out who that might be. Talk to your mind.