Andy & Ari On3 - Will Howard CHOSEN as Ohio State's QB1 | Arkansas DC T-Will is the freshest MC in the coaching game

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

The scarlet smoke you saw coming out of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center means Ohio State has a new starting quarterback. Coach Ryan Day officially — but not surprisingly — named Will Howard the Buckeyes’ starter on Thursday. (0:00-9:29) Intro: Will Howard named Ohio State's Starting QB(9:30-14:34) New information in the Jaden Rashada Lawsuit(14:35-18:13) Deep Dive into Helmet Communication(18:14-35:50) Yeah Coach! Arkansas DC Travis Williams Joins(35:51-37:40) Discussion on Arkansas, Tennessee(37:41-44:06) Tennessee's Center Cooper Mays joins(44:07-46:23) Hear the beautiful singing voice of Tennessee's Elijah Simmons(46:24-55:58) Veteran Tennessee DL Omari Thomas joins(55:59-59:00) Discussion on Tennessee, Iowa(59:01-1:06:35) Iowa LB Jay Higgins joins(1:06:36-1:13:33) Iowa TE Luke Lachey joins(1:13:34-1:17:06) Conclusion, J.D. PicKell and JP Pickles?Meanwhile, there’s a little more detail in the Jaden Rashada-Billy Napier lawsuit. And as if on cue, Thursday also brought bad news for the company run by the Miami booster who was bankrolling the deal Rashada was supposed to get at that school.Auburn’s director of football equipment explained how the new in-helmet communication system will work.Arkansas defensive coordinator Travis Williams joins the show to discuss his freestyle rap that went viral and earned him praise from Snoop Dogg and, more importantly, made him more beloved by his players. T-Will also explains what "Embrace the Hog" actually means.Later, Tennessee center Cooper Mays and defensive tackle Omari Thomas explain why the Volunteers are better on both lines of scrimmage than they’ve been in a long time.Also, Iowa linebacker Jay Higgins and tight end Luke Lachey join to explain why the Hawkeyes could be a sneaky College Football Playoff contender.Want to watch the show instead? Join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/pQhTvS0lqnQ Host: Andy StaplesGuests: Arkansas DC Travis Williams, Tennessee OL Cooper Mays, Tennessee DL Omari Thomas, Iowa LB Jay Higgins, Iowa TE Luke LacheyProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. I told you we were going to start getting these quarterback announcements in. Now we're getting them. Lots of news these days as we get closer to the college football season on the field and off field. But we have a very fun day for you because we're talking a little bit of the news, but we've got a great interview with Travis Williams, the defensive coordinator from Arkansas, who is the freshest MC in the coaching game. You've seen the video. I know you have, if you haven't, or you think you haven't, you'll see it and you'll go, Oh yeah, I saw that. Cause like Snoop dog shouted this guy out. Like this is the premier MC among coaches. He also a very good defensive coordinator. So we'll talk to him. We'll also talk to a couple Tennessee Vols from in the trenches, center Cooper Mays, defensive lineman Amari Thomas. Also, a couple Iowa Hawkeyes, linebacker Jay Higgins, tight end Luke Lachey. We will get you ready. But first, the news from Thursday.

Will Howard named the Ohio State quarterback QB1 as predicted by Spencer Holbrook on Monday's show. Ryan Day said, Will Howard will start our first game against Akron. He's our starting quarterback. I think Chip has done a great, Chip Kelly, of course, has done a great job of rolling our quarterbacks from the first day of spring all the way to now. We're talking 27 or 28 practices. When you take the aggregate of all the numbers, Will has graded out significantly ahead of the other guys. Our friend Parker Fleming, at stats war on X, very funny tweet yesterday breaking veteran quarterback who signed hefty nil deal is named our starting quarterback he was not speaking of course only of will howard this is all of these quarterback competitions we talked about tyler van dyke at Wisconsin yesterday. Yes, the advantage was heavily tilted toward Will

Howard in this competition, but Ohio State has plenty of money. If Will Howard had come in and been a complete dud, then I think Ohio State would have moved on and started Devin Brown, started somebody else. Devin Brown will be the backup. Remember Devin Brown started the bowl game, got hurt pretty early. We never really got to see what he can do, but I just, I don't know if it's going to be a situation where Devin Brown really gets a chance because now they've got Julian saying, now they've got air Nolan. Now they've got all, you know, all these other people who could potentially be the starting quarterback. So that's the guy. Now there are doubters about Will Howard. Eric in the chat is one of them. Will Howard will lose the starting job for good when he throws three picks against Nebraska and loses by two touchdowns., that's game eight, I believe.

So he'd be pretty deep into the season at that point. But I've seen this refrain a few times throughout the offseason. There was a comment in the chat yesterday, even, that said, you know, Will Howard just isn't good enough to be Ohio State's starting quarterback. And Will Howard's a pretty good starting quarterback, helped Kansas State win a Big 12 title a couple of years ago. And I see people saying, oh, you know, if he wasn't that good at Kansas State, why is he going to be good at Ohio State? Well, he has considerably more talent around him at Ohio State. That does seem to matter, right? I go back to Jaden Daniels.

Remember Jaden Daniels when he was a freshman at Arizona State? We're like, this guy is awesome. And then the next two years, we're like, wait, what happened to Jaden Daniels? Well, let's see. When Jaden Daniels was a freshman, Brandon Ayoub caught 65 passes for 1,200 yards. And then Brandon Ayok went to the NFL. Funny thing about that. Jayden Daniels became a worse quarterback when Brandon Ayok wasn't there. And then Jayden Daniels went to LSU, became a much better quarterback when Malik Nabors and Brian Thomas Jr. were there.

Crazy how that works. Name the best receiver or the best pass catching target at Kansas state during Will Howard's tenure. There's been Senate. I'll help you. There's been Senate, the tight end. He had Deuce Vaughn two years ago when they won the big 12 championship and Deuce Vaughn was gone after that year. So he's going to have Emeka Abuka, Carnell Tate, Jeremiah Smith, Travion Henderson, and Quinshawn Judkins are the backs. It's a very different environment around Will Howard with Ohio State.

This is going to be a very interesting thing because as A.J. Adams points out, he's trying to make this a thing. I'm for it. Saying Will Howard got beat out by AJ Jett. That would be Avery Johnson at Kansas State. Yes, he did.

Kansas State put a lot of NIL resources into Avery Johnson, a guy from Kansas who is younger than Will Howard, who will be there for at least two more years. They made that choice. Same choice Oklahoma made with Jackson Arnold that allowed Dylan Gabriel to go to Oregon. And we'll find out. It will be very interesting. I am fascinated to see how people judge Chris Kleiman at Kansas State and Brent Venables at Oklahoma if we are watching Dylan Gabriel and Will Howard duke it out for the Big

Ten title and possibly duke it out in the playoff? Are they going to feel like they made a mistake if they're not also in the playoff? It's going to be interesting. Chicken 15-15. Also, he's got Chip Kelly. That's a big also. That that's a huge also Chip Kelly as the offensive coordinator only having to worry about offensive coordinator things not having to worry anymore about head coach things that's kind of scary that's kind of scary and that's yet another reason why we keep pumping up Ohio State this offseason and you got got the people, they can't beat Michigan. No, they've lost three in a row against Michigan. You're right.

But if you're paying any attention, there's a good chance they're substantially different this year. Nathan in the chat, giving up your A-level QB for another A-level QB just because the second one is younger is like the old dude divorcing his hot wife of 20 years for a barista at Starbucks. Well, it depends. Is the barista at Starbucks also working on a startup that could be worth billions? That's the gamble here with Avery Johnson or with Jackson Arnold.

The startup that the barista is working on may be worth billions or it might not. We just don't know. And that's the issue right now. But I am really intrigued to see how everybody gets judged for all of this because Chris Kleiman has done no wrong at Kansas State. Brent Venables, he's at Oklahoma. The standards are very high. He's gotten criticism like that first year that they were just not good enough. Last year, they were much better, but both of them could be subject to some fairly intense criticism if Dylan Gabriel and Will Howard are just flat out awesome this year and their QBs don't live up to the hype.

They're going to have to do it. There's a lot of pressure on Jackson Arnold and Avery Johnson, but there's also a ton of pressure on Dylan Gabriel and Will Howard. Will Howard is being handed the keys to a Ferrari. Maserati. Maserati Marv's gone. What are we calling Jeremiah? I think Jeremiah Smith is a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. And I'm sorry Kyle McCord took the Honda McCord stray.

I feel very bad about that. I didn't do that, by the way. I didn't coin that term, but somebody did. Goat dog, they left him for a young thing. Well, that's right. But here's the thing with Will Howard. If we're going to continue this analogy, if we're going to torture this analogy, Will Howard is that hot spouse of a long time who got dumped for what the person supposedly thought is an upgrade, who hit the gym super hard and is just rocking the bod, coming out, every head's turning, and they also came into money. They have inherited something, got a promotion at work, something. Because they've also got a squad around them now that makes them pretty good.

So that's Will Howard. And Will Howard competing against the ghost of Avery Johnson. Avery Johnson competing against the ghost of Will Howard. We'll find out what happens. It's going to be a lot of fun. Other news. Other news. A little Jaden Rashada news. The Jaden Rashada-Billy Napier lawsuit continues.

An amended complaint filed by Jaden Rashada's attorney. A little bit of new info. Laid out a scene that happened in June 2022, alleging that Florida donor Hugh Hathcock was let in through a backdoor in a meeting and then offered Jaden Rashada $11 million, an $11 million NIL deal. This was not in the first complaint. Don't ask me why. I don't know. This feels like information you could have included in the first complaint. But remember, Jayden Rashada alleging fraud against Billy Napier, against Hugh Hathcock, the donor in question, against Marcus Castro Walker, the former Florida

NIL guy who now doesn't work at Florida anymore. Not alleging breach of contract because the contract was terminated within the terms of the contract. Saying essentially, Jaden had this deal at Miami that was on the table. And he gave it up for one at Florida that was then pulled out from under him. That is why they're alleging fraud. Billy Napier, his attorney. Marcus Castro Walker, his attorney. Hugh Hathcock, his attorney, they've all said now that in their motions to dismiss, they all said this is not true. It's not fraud. Everything was handled above board.

Everything was handled within the terms of the contract. We will see what happens. This is a fascinating case because here's why so far jayden rashada and his team have not put forward anything that looks like it will win this case but there is no incentive for him to quit trying all it can do is get dismissed at some point by a judge or he could lose the case if it if it went to trial the others there's more potential for damage if it goes to discovery. There's some people who got caught in the middle of all this

who will happily unload on everybody from both sides if they end up getting deposed here. Yeah, those of us who are fans of open records laws, pretty excited about that possibility. So we'll see if it gets that far, but the judge may say, no dismissed or somebody may settle. We'll find out, but there's no incentive for Jaden Rashada to quit this. I saw a lot of people say, Jaden, this makes Jaden Rashada look bad. Jaden Rashada has looked bad the whole time. What does he care at this point?

So he has no incentive to stop. But if I'm Billy Napier, I'm not settling with Georgia's third-string quarterback. I'm just not, on principle. As the head coach of the University of Florida, you don't settle out of court with Georgia's third-string quarterback. You just don't. Other piece of news, very interesting piece of news that just happened to happen on the same day. The Miami Herald reporting that the company LifeWallet, for those who don't know, that's run by John Ruiz, Miami booster. LifeWallet told investors on Wednesday that, quote, there is substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue operating.

This is a company that went public a couple of years ago at a multimillion dollar valuation. And now it may just be poof. Well, that company was funding a lot of Miami NIL deals back in the day. For those who think, oh, because of all this, a bunch of Miami players are going to get hit the transfer portal. That's not what's going to happen. They've they have diversified their NIL portfolio in terms of donors. It's not all John Ruiz, but John Ruiz was going to be the primary person funding the Jaden Rashada deal in question in that case.

What's interesting about that is in the Jaden Rashada complaint, it says that there was a $9.5 million deal for Miami on the table. Ruiz has said repeatedly that it wasn't worth that much. So if I'm the attorneys for the defendants in that Jaden Rashada case, I'm trying to prove that that wasn't the case, that that wasn't the dollar figure, because it would seem it falls apart if that is not the dollar figure on the table. None of us have seen, like we have published on three, we have published the contract between Jaden Rashada and Florida's, the Gator Collective,

which is the now defunct collective that was representing Florida at the time. Like it exists. You can read it on our website. No one's ever seen the Miami deal. So we'll see what happens, but just an amazing coincidence that that John Ruiz news came out the same day that there was an amended complaint in the Jaden Rashada case. Another little snippet that we saw on Thursday. Auburn Director of Equipment Tyler Renard did a presentation on the helmet communication. And if you want to read about that on Auburn Live, our guys did a really good job breaking that down. But we got a clip from that where he's explaining a little bit about how it works.

You have a radio that is connected to our coach's headsets. And then all he has to do is press this little button and you guys can hear the comms coming out of the helmet. Obviously in the college game there's not as much huddling going on as in the NFL. It's something that the coaching staff is working through of do you huddle more, do you try and slow the game down so that you can just talk to the player on the field offensively? Obviously with the Connor Stallion stuff and the sign stealing and all that with Michigan,

this has been a very prevalent thing in college football to get it passed. So yeah, the Connor Stallion stuff was interesting. But what Tyler Renard said about huddling, I think was the most interesting. We've talked about this a little bit on the show already. This is what coaches are talking about because coaches do want to get rid of a lot of the signaling on the sidelines.

But you can't do that and go really fast. You're still going to have to have the guys in multicolored polo shirts or some signs. If you would like to talk, like, if want to get a play in, in five seconds, you can say it to the quarterback. He can then probably communicate that to the offensive lineman, but you can't talk to the receivers who are out on the edges. You can't explain what they've got to do. So you've still got to be able to signal them. Same for the defense. You can, you can send it into the middle linebacker who can tell the other linebackers and the defensive linemen, but somebody's got to get that information

to the DBs. And so does that cause the offenses to huddle even more, go back to huddling more? Because you can securely get your play in. It might take a little longer. And really that would be a return to where the game used to be where you huddled most of the time, but when you needed to go fast, you went fast. And I think the teams that can do both effectively are the ones that are, that are the most effective. The ones that go fast all the time. It's just like a major league pitcher who only has a hundred mile an hour fastball. Yes, you're going to blow that by some people, but eventually major league hitters are going to time that up. If you don't have a change up a curve ball slider that forces them to think differently. The offenses that can go at multiple tempos are the ones that are going to win.

So we'll find out. All right. We got a lot of fun stuff for you today. A lot of fun stuff for you today. The first, we're going to talk to T. Will. That's Travis Williams. He's the defensive coordinator at Arkansas. He went viral earlier this month for a rap in a team meeting. This is not the first time he's done this.

This is he's perfecting his craft at this point, but this is one of the hottest rising stars in coaching. I'm telling you, watch this guy. He's going to be a head coach someday a lot of fun and he explained how that came to be and also what it means to embrace the hog honored to be joined now by the defensive coordinator of the arkansas razorbacks travis williams better known as t will since that's since high school right or or did that come in in Auburn when you're playing probably when I was a player I had all kinds of different names. Um I actually I like T Will the best like I won't even tell you the other name. Well it's it's it's tough though

cuz you know you've got a couple coordinator you got T Will and T Rob in the SEC and both played at auburn yeah both yelled out by will muschamp a lot i'm sure yes yes me and t-rock go way back like that's like that's my brother that's that's my brother like his his son is his name travis after me so we we like really close really close so i'm curious because you guys have worked both of you at several different schools like you you've been at Arkansas you've been at UCF you've been at Auburn he's been at Auburn he's been at South Carolina he's been at Florida have you ever had recruits that you're texting think one of you is the other guy because the because the nicknames you know

what no never have we get more it's more coaches than anything it's more coaches than than players that we recruit you know they'll call me T-Rob or sure they probably call him T-Will um but they know I'm sure they know our faces are different but yeah I mean one's the DB one's the line you don't look anything alike nothing alike i'm definitely better looking for sure of course of course so all right we you blew up a few weeks ago blew up you post this video on your twitter this is i i don't think i'm being too extravagant here i don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this is the greatest freestyle in the history of a, of a meeting room.

So let's, let's play it. Oh, he will back. And you know, the flow is a free throw Really from the hood, all I fear is God and the Rico Made it out the gutter, I'm putting on for the have-nots

Always strive for more, but I'm thankful for what I have Got no play wrong with T-Will, he's a head case, all he do is blitz If I say sorry, it's hammer time, cause he too legit You know now I'm not new to to this On the mic I'm truly sick No schedule us for a homecoming cause we will ruin it Yeah coach Cho slamming running backs when they hit the hole Yeah coach

Lennon and Cam gon' ball when I say go Yeah coach DBs fly around yeah they outta here Yeah coach Standards not starters cause that's what got us here Yeah coach 6'6 quarterback and he dropping down quarter went crazy on the offensive line we hear the whispers and we gonna face them all

the hill to trillion we embrace the house so this is amazing we got we got your name dropping players you got xavian sorry and you got lana jackson in there you you're warning people not to schedule your homecoming the all right i gotta ask the yeah coach did you have to tell them in advance did they figure it out immediately you know what what i did was is is is a song Glorilla is called yeah yeah glow right right right I played the instrumental I said so how it came about cam ball I forgot what happened but he was he was saying something and he was I think he said yeah coach I said you know what that'd be pretty cool it's a track so now once i played the instrumental i say guys at this part right here is in the song

when they say yeah coach it's okay coach we got it we got but they didn't they never heard the freestyle you know so i'm just going i'm going and then once my hand go like this i'm cueing them to say yeah coach and it was a one take one shot it ended up being a pretty good deal that's it's it's well and then that doesn't work if it's not organic like if you're on take two of that you're not putting that on the internet right it was awesome man it was it was it was awesome but so now do you get guys coming up to you saying okay how do i get in the next freeze? Like, how are you going to work the next year adverse the next great Albany to the, you know, to the big time transfer Anton Junkaj into a, into a freestyle?

I got it. I put some words together and I figured out the first time I did, it's been like four years. I was at Auburn at the time and it was during COVID. And I was just in my car and I freestyled. And then we got, then we started going to practice. And then our coach Malzahn asked me, hey T, will you want to do a freestyle? So I did one on the field. And then from there, it's been a long time since I've done one. It's funny because I go to different schools and different coaches like,

hey, man, we need that freestyle. Or different players that come on campus like, hey, coach, you're the one that did the freestyle. And I remember I was at the airport, and I think I was in Dallas. I think it was Dallas. But I saw Inky Johnson. And I listen to Inky Johnson each morning, just motivational speaker. And I saw him at the airport, and then we bumped into each other. He said, hey, man, we need another freestyle. So I said, man, you know what? I may just motivational speaker. And I saw him at the airport and then we bumped into each other.

He said, Hey man, we need another freestyle. So I said, man, you know what? I may just do one. So I've been doing them. It's just been a long time. And this one was, I guess it was the right time. And it hit. For those who don't know, Inky Johnson, former Tennessee DB had a horrific injury in college has turned into one of the best motivational speakers in the country, not just in the world of college football, but in the country. Absolutely. And when that dude says we need more freestyle, we need more freestyle. Right, 100%. So it's been a while, and so I did it.

And I think it's just, you know, I do so much. Just being your authentic self, who you are. And, like, I take the guys. We guys went paintball and we do dodgeball. And I posted that, I posted the paintball and I just happened to post the freestyle rap and it went viral. But we do so many different things with our student athletes and just trying to give them that home away from home field and giving the guys who we really are.

So this was just one that just went viral well and and i find you know everybody who's played will say if i know a coach cares about me if i know like i i got a connection with my coach he can yell at me he can he can get mad at me he can he can say this stuff and i'll work harder for him because i know and i would imagine stuff like that just deepens that connection it does it does i i think it's really important to you know actually the kid the student athlete knowing that you care about him you know i just believe in support then demand a lot of people demand you know try to ask kids to do different things in the days of just do as i

say because i said so it's just it just doesn't work so you want to support a kid and and then from there then you can actually do hard things football is hard so we demand and we it's hard so but we we like to love on them and support them and making sure the experience is a great experience i think yeah coach may be the brand like i'm not going to make you a one-hit wonder. We know there's more hits coming. I saw a video, and I can't play it with you on because I don't want to get you in trouble with the NCAA, but I saw a video of you in a recruit. We won't name names, but this is a pretty big-time recruit.

And what's the guy say? Yeah, Coach. That is so funny, man. This has to be when they commit now. Yeah, I've had some people like, you need to get a shirt. You has to be when they commit now. You want to come play parkour? You need to get a shirt. You need to get a hat. You know, all of that stuff.

And yeah, coach can be your deal. You know what? Man, I just, I don't know. I just want to coach football. I think it's pretty cool. But I do think people need to see who you really are as well. And like you said, you could go to my Instagram and I'm singing in the car of my daughters or I'm jumping in the pool. I'm just doing all kinds of different things.

I just I'm comfortable being myself. I think a lot of times as coaches, you know, it's like, OK, it looks like this. So I need to do this. You know, I think coaching is be who you are you know yeah or who the good Lord has made you to be and I'm full of energy and I like to dance sing have fun I remember talking to Dave Arana about that one time and and he made a really good point because he said early in his career he would try to mimic what all the other coaches were doing and he'd come home at night be like that's not me like I don't I'm not that person and so he just eventually decided no no this is who i'm gonna be i'm more soft-spoken

i'm more this is how i do it and i i think the way you do it like if i'm a kid that's who i want to play for i want to go have fun at practice i don't and i don't mind working but i want to have fun right and that's what it is. You know, and the fun is obviously in winning, but defensively the fun is, you know, during the game is getting to the ball with bad intentions and having fun as a collective group getting to the ball. So, you know, that's what we try to instill here. And starting with our head coach, Coach Pittman, is just, man,

make sure they get to the ball, you know, with bad intentions. Like the hair is on fire. So, you know, that's the idea. But the fun, make sure they get into the ball you know with bad intention like the hair is on fire so you know that's ideal but the fun man is getting to the ball collectively and making big plays and coming on the sideline and celebrating so I gotta what you you've got Lana Jackson your star defensive end and we've seen him in some games where it didn't matter who you put in front of him he wasn't't getting blocked. Can you tell during a week of practice when it's going to be like that? Or is it just on game day, you know? No, during a week of practice.

I mean, like even going through fall camp, he practices so hard. Coach Deke Adams has done a great job with him. You know, it just, he leads by example. You know, and the guys know he's a pretty good player, but he shows it. He comes to work every day and he practices hard, doesn't miss practice. He's not one of those guys that has a little banged up here and there and wants to sit out. No, he wants to practice.

So that's the best thing about him. He loves to practice, he loves football. So then you can see kind of the fruit of his labor on Saturday. But during the week, you know it. Like, man, he goes hard. And, you know, you're going to get out what you put in. So he does a really good job, really good job. So I heard Coach Pittman say this at SEC Media Days, and then I heard you say it again in the freestyle.

How does one embrace the hog? You know what? We have a really great brand, and it's a unique brand. We the only Razorback in the country. We're the only Razorback mascot in the country. And we talk about just being tough and just being accountable, having pride. So we talk about all of those different things and that embodies embracing the hog.

So just being committed to your teammates, all of that different things that come together. But that's what embrace the hog. So just being committed to your teammates, all of that different things that come together, but that's what embrace the hog means. Because it is a great university here, it is a unique mascot and you got to be tough. That's just what we're about here and it's been like that way before we got here and that's what coach Pittman is instilling in the players, the coaches, the community, just embracing the hog.

How do you guys handle that? Because I heard him talk about it before, but like internally, you do have a lot of outside noise that you're dealing with right now going into the season. How do you handle that with your players? You know what? We talk to our guys about flushing everything. So let's say we have a good practice, you have to flush it.

Let's say if you have a bad practice, you have to flush it. Let's say the game goes great and you have a really great game and we win by 1,000 points, you gotta flush it. Let's say we come up short in the game, you have to flush it. So you have to have that mentality and we're talking about just taking it one game at a time as well. You know that the great thing about playing football, you still have to put the football down and

you have to really show what you're really about. So even with whatever anybody say about any team, every team has to go out and go and go perform. So that's the great thing. You just never, you just never know. So we really think we have a good team and we see the guys performing. They are working hard. So we encouraged about this year.

How excited are you to unleash this version of this defense this year? Very excited. It's year two. it's year two in the system and we're doing some different things defensively. We're trying to do some things that matches our personnel and we brought some guys in, we have some new guys coming in. But really, man, it's so fun, it's so much fun just coaching these guys, just coming to work every day. Them guys have great attitudes, we got a lot of team guys, so it's been so much fun.

So this year is gonna be a different year because we got some new faces, but it's year two in the system. And just I'm being blessed to be around some great coaches here as I'm able to coach with coach Wilson and coach Deke Adams. So we do this thing collectively man, but we're very encouraged and we just wanna go to work and put the ball down and play football. So we, we, we talked about your adopted sons there on the,

on the football team. I do have to ask you about a video I saw with, with your actual 13 year old daughter, because I'm going to have to put a camera in my truck. Cause I, this scene has happened with my 13-year-old daughter. The same look on her face. I'm going to play it. We'll see what the Swifties say about it.

Okay. Pick a song, man. Call it karaoke. You think our daddy old. I don't think you're old. Okay, wait. I'm trying to. It's not loaded.

Okay, here. She nervous.... It's not loading. Okay, here. She's nervous. You know this song? Oh. Oh, Cruel Summer. Now, we're not going to play too much of it because Taylor might get mad, but we're going to play this part. It's nice. Just roll your eyes.

It doesn't matter. It's more. It's you. Saving our 30 years. You. You're very cool. we have the exact moment that and it's you like same thing my daughter is dying of embarrassment and as i know you now you you have to do that now. Yes. 100%. You don't have to post it, but you got to send it to me.

Now the question is, do we go Cruel Summer? Do we go, I don't know. We could go Lover. Cruel Summer because it's that high note you got

to hit yes all right as soon as the chords come on and i and i want to see andy angels ice you will talk haters robot eyes yeah okay something something something wants you more in his crew the thing is like your daughter recovered well mine's gonna hide hey listen true my daughter she was so embarrassed she was like but she get like listen at the house they know i'm singing they always like that chill out chill out are you that because because I'm I am that person like I I can't sing but I'm always singing every song whatever's in my head I'm singing out loud do you know what that's why I see me and you we can click because you're comfortable being yourself oh yeah it's okay so everybody else is taking up so the the viewers of this show know I will start singing

at any time and it's not pretty. But that's right. Now, one more question, one more freestyle question I was thinking about. So you worked with Gus Malzahn for a long time. You worked with him at Auburn. You worked with him at UCF. Everybody who's been around Gus Malzahn, player, coach, knows that he does not curse, but he has a lot of substitute words. Is it possible to get a freestyle with all the gosh sterns and the

gold diggities and the you name it you know what i can you know what i can i could put a crud in there could crud is one of his words bull crap i can um i could probably put something together and then i sent it to him and miss christie and And I probably wouldn't post it, but I sent it to them so they could get a good laugh, man. He's been so good to me. He's the one that told me. He said, Travis, keep doing what you're doing. Nobody's doing it. Be yourself.

He said, I was his old high school coach and people laughed at me. And he said, Travis, what you're doing, man? A lot of people are afraid to do so. Singing in the car and dancing and running up and down the hall. He said, man. So he is the guy that encouraged me to be myself. And I mean, he's been so great for my career. I love him.

He's my guy. So he's been awesome. Sing when you want to sing. Blitz when you want to blitz. That's exactly right i just told the guys today man listen i you know we listen to some we listen to church music around here too so i told them most people whistle while they work i say man worship while you work so we do some worshiping while we work as well so kirk franklin lisa sacks that's what they say there you

go so you will thank you so much eddie thank you so much brotherWill, thank you so much. Yeah, Eddie, thank you so much, brother. Be blessed. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Travis Williams, lots of fun. We're going to see that defense. Unleashed game one. That's Thursday night of week one.

Arkansas against Arkansas Pine Bluff. That is a warm-up, definitely. They get Oklahoma State week two in Stillwater. Ollie Gordon. Got to figure out a way to stop Ollie Gordon and Alan Bowman. That's going to be a very interesting matchup. Oklahoma State, by the way, they start with South Dakota State, the defending FCS national champions.

So they did not ease into the schedule. The Cowboys, the Razorbacks are easing into the schedule with Arkansas Pine Bluff, but we'll see what happens. That obviously is a staff that, hey, we've said it. It's a hot seat situation at Arkansas. They got to coach their way out of it. They're going to try it. They're going to try it, but we'll see what happens when the Razorbacks. I think we know it's going to happen to Arkansas Pine Bluff. But when they head to Stillwater, that'll be a fun one. T-Will will continue to be a fun one.

If that Gus Malzahn freestyle does happen, I hope it does leak. That's all I got to say. Hope it leaks. All right. We'll stay in the SEC. But let's head over to East Tennessee. The Vols expecting big things this season. Right now, you're going to see an interview with the person I think is the most important player on Tennessee's team. He's the guy they need. He's got to stay

healthy. If he does, they're in good shape. I speak, of course, of center Cooper Mays. Caught up with him at SEC Media Days and came up with an idea about how one of his teammates can use a not-so-hidden talent to Tennessee's advantage. Here's Cooper Mays. We got Cooper Mays. Custom hat for the Tennessee Center. All right, so explain this custom hat process that they got here at SEC Media Days for you.

Yeah, so basically they've got a whole room set up to where you're kind of in there taking pictures. You got a custom hat going, and you can kind of pick whatever you want. But I chose to listen to the professionals and get something that goes with everything, they say. Now, that's right. This goes with a suit. It goes with everything they say so now that's right this will go this goes with a suit you can dress it down you can wear it with jeans now how

do we feel about the line dancing is that because you could wear this hat if one went line dancing and I realize there are some establishments in Knoxville where where that goes on yeah there's there's a few haven't seen them yet haven't been over there been over there you know you've been in knoxville a long time i know i try to i try to stay away from anything that jeopardizes the ankles and knees so so no no line dancing for me i will say okay so i never i avoided it too and i like i grew up i was in high school like when boot boot scoot boogie came out achy breaky heart all the the classic era classic but i didn't go until i was in my early 20s. I was already married, so it was too late. And I walked in there, and I see the girl-to-guy ratio is like 8 to 1. And I looked at my wife.

I'm like, I messed up, didn't I? She's like, yep, you should have learned to do this earlier. You know, I actually went to a rodeo like two weeks ago, and it was the same thing. Wow. Same thing. They call it a slide and ride in Jackson, Tennessee. It's a pretty cool place. So the rodeo thing would Same thing. They call it a sliding ride in Jackson, Tennessee. It's a pretty cool place. So the rodeo thing would be cool. Now you grew up in Knoxville. So it's, you know,

people assume, I think people outside the South assume, oh, you grew up in the South. There's horses and cows everywhere. You grew up in the city, but like, what would you have done in the rodeo? If like, if, if you'd have really grown up on a farm like i did i did a little bit what'd you do so well we we grew up so everybody says i tell people i'm from knoxville right but i'm really from a place called kingston tennessee it's uh well i do know where that is 35 minutes we grew up you know uh about 110 acres cows oh shoot i didn't realize it cows chickens okay we used to throw hay bales all year around dude terrible terrible the only thing i wanted for my birthday was to not do hay again because

we we get done with practice for about two hours i go throw hay stack hay for two hours in a hot barn 109 degrees up there terrible how heavy is a hay bale uh depends which which kind of grass you got but we had alfalfa orchard mix, so it's like a good 60 pounds. And then over and over and over again? Over and over and over. It's like hang cleans, over and over and over. It's funny because Cody Mock, who plays O-line for the Bucks, I asked him about that.

He grew up on a farm in North Dakota, and apparently they were a little more of an industrial farm than... Because he's like, I didn't throw hay bales. We had a machine for that. Oh, yeah, no. Like, we had to reload them into a semi. It was like, oh, okay, we're talking about a different level of farming here. Yeah, no, we were very much small scale.

Just, you know, get your hands dirty or, you know, deliver into the small time. How much does that feed into the work ethic, though? Like when you learn how to work like that, does it make the strength program easier? Does it make going to practice easier? I think so. I mean, when you teach your kids how to work, it brings a whole new respect to kind of your whole life in general. But, I mean, I tell you right now, if I can go do the hardest practice in the summer and

then go two more hours of throwing hay and stacking hay that I just stacked up just to throw off of it to stack up again I mean if you can do that you can do a football workout oh yeah yeah well that's what and like you said hang cleans over and over and over again over and over but man so I'm amazed you never got on the line that the line dancing piece of it so now back to my rodeo question so what what would you be in the rodeo steve would you steer wrestler would you you know what do you think you do i feel like i could steer wrestle i wouldn't be bold enough to to try to ride the bull i could maybe i could maybe do steer wrestling though if you if you let me get a good grip of it i feel like o- linemen are sort of built for that because I could do it because you get the grip and it's you know

You get the upper body twisting but also the lower body strength. It does feel like Probably feels like dealing with a nose time. Yes, I mean, I haven't done it yet. But if if I had to compare Blocking Elijah Simmons in a one-on-one pass That's what I do Elijah Simmons, I'm-on-one pass rush that's what I do Elijah Simmons I'm glad you mentioned him yeah beautiful singing voice yes yes does he ever sing across the line of scrimmage from your practice no not not on the line of not on the line of scribbles but if you hear somebody singing in the in the locker room it's usually him belting something out is it still

songs that all came out before you were born oh yeah that's all because he's Mr Boyz II men yes uh shy we had a we had an interesting like he took me through the whole oh yeah no I think I don't know the more I get older the more I love the 90s 80s R&B the blues the classic you're an old soul I am man I I really thrive in that arena I think I think if you're if you're in that arena you, you're going to be a good person anyway, dang near. Oh, yeah. So this is good. All right. So if you're playing Tennessee, if you're playing in the trenches,

and you hear somebody humming, if I ever fall in love. It's Big E. It's Big E. And it is beautiful. That would be, because somebody was talking about Michigan had a guy last year who could fake the clap with his mouth oh and it's legal if you can do that yeah and but i'm thinking elijah if he just starts belting out if i ever fall in love by shy or into the road just get up and start dancing Could he cause somebody to make a snap infraction,

to jump off, or to false start? Is that possible? I think it's possible. I mean, only one way to find out. Can't hurt. Maybe a little bit less breath. I want to know. We're going to check in with you and Elijah week one.

Got it. So I want you to go back to Knoxville with this idea and say, hey, listen, this is going to be our secret weapon. It is you singing 90s R&B to the opposing center. Yeah. Hold us to it. And just lull him into false sense of security. Hey, I'm here with it. You've got to check in. I'll hold him to it. This is how Tennessee is going to make the playoff. Just watch right here. Cooper Mace. Thank you him to it. This is how Tennessee's going to make the playoff. Just watch. Right here. Cooper Mays, thank you. Appreciate it. That is the idea that I had, and I'm going to tell you why.

I have witnessed Elijah Simmons singing in person. He sang to me on my old show. Here's a clip from Tennessee's official podcast, The Slice. And this is actually the song he sang when he was on my show. This is Song for Mama by Boyz II Men. You tell me if you're the center and a shaded nose starts singing this, you're not going to at least hum along a little bit, get a little bit, maybe forget the snap count, maybe not hear the quarterback clap if you're not going to at least hum along a little bit, get a little bit, maybe forget the snap count,

maybe not hear the quarterback clap if you're going on that count. Just listen to this. Mama, mama, you know I love you. Ooh, you know I love you, mama. Mama, you're the queen of my heart. Your love is like tears from the scar. Mama, I just want you to know that loving you is like food to my soul.

That's going to be a problem. I'm telling you right now it's maybe not as effective as the as the guy who can make the clap sound with his tongue but it's close it's up there it's up there it's up there goat dog says hit that who-yah by Genuine. We could do Pony. That's right in Big E's wheelhouse in terms of era and genre. It's a little bit naughty for him.

I think he goes more wholesome. That's why I try to suggest Shy. But I don't think they do that. Freak me by silk. There you go. Also probably a little too naughty. But definitely right time, right genre. All right.

So I pitched this idea to Tennessee defensive lineman Amari Thomas. We'll see what he has to say about it. Tennessee defensive tackle Amari Thomas. And Amari, I have to run this by you. So Cooper Mays and I were talking. Okay. And this is about your teammate Elijah Simmons. Okay.

Now, I have had Elijah on my show before. You have? And he sang Dear Mama by Boyz II Men. Okay. The voice of an angel. The voice of an angel. And so I'm talking to Coop, and I'm like, do you think he could sing to opposing centers, and would that distract them, or opposing guards,

or, you know, could you make somebody false start, like if you just bust into a Boyz II Men song? I think, you know, especially Elijah being who he is. Yeah. If he's standing over the center, he just starts singing, the center will probably get a little thrown off. And then he just like run right through his face.

Because Elijah's huge. Yeah, he's huge. And he's super strong. So like for something like that to happen, I could just see him like, oh yeah, start singing a song. And then he just run right through the person's face. What is your favorite Big E song? So I think I hang out with Big E almost every day.

Right. So, like, me and Big E literally, it doesn't matter what we're talking about. We could just have a regular conversation. He will sing me to answer. Like, he will end up just singing me to answer back. And I just, people, when they first come around, they're like, Big E, you just sing all the time? I'm like, yeah.

Like, he literally sings. If I sang like that like that i would never stop saying it sounds so good but his favorite song well my favorite song that biggie probably seen is is definitely going to be something boys to men for sure he loves boys to men yeah he's a very old like you you got a lot of old souls it sounds sounds like. Yeah, he doesn't listen to no rap music. The only way he knows rap music is probably from just being around us and just listening to it. You need to introduce him to some Nate Dogg because he can sing some books. Yeah, we're going to get him right. So this D-line, this is as deep as Tennessee's D-line has been in a while.

What's it like for you knowing that you've got a fresh guy who can come in and not lose anything? It's great. Knowing that I come out, the next person come in, then we just pride ourselves on being able to know that everybody needs to be good. Everybody is considered a starter. Everybody is a one on our team. That's how we look at it, especially in the D-line room. When one person comes out, we need to be coming in with the same energy, same production.

It should be no fall off. And I think this is a year that we do have a lot of depth for us and a lot of guys who are mature, who know the game of football, who we all have a lot of good chemistry. So I feel like it just will be something good to see, and I'm excited for it. And I imagine a bunch of guys coached by Rodney Garner are probably pretty humble because he humbles you right off the bat, right? He humbles you like crazy right off the bat.

I've talked to him before about certain guys, and it's funny because the younger the player, you can always tell you're going to get, ah, I don't know about him. And then he starts to trust you and he starts to feel it. It's just Coach G, he's just such a great guy. Like, one of the things I love about Coach G, like, he always pushes us to be better people rather than just being a good football player. But, you know, when it get on that field, like, you know what time it is

because he'll get on your tail, like he don't mind. But at the same time, he'll come right back and let you know how much he loves you, why he got on you. Like if you tripping, you tripping, call a spade a spade. And that's what Coach E is. He's just a real guy. He's honest, but he's a funny guy. Our meetings are literally jokes all the time.

Like we just joke around. It be so funny because we make a joke or something, and he don't even know what we're talking about. And he's like, oh, y'all are joking right now. We're like, yeah. So he just enjoys it. We enjoy it, so it's fun. And so playing with James Pierce, who the whole country is going to be watching him, all the NFL people are watching him, how he evolved as a player right since he got

there he's just um one thing about James he's coming in always had confidence in his game no matter freshman year James or this upcoming year James he's been confident in who he is in his game so it's good just to know that James is going to continue to be confident and just make the plays that he's supposed to make he's going to continue to do his job he's not going to continue to be confident and just make the plays that he's supposed to make. He's going to continue to do his job. He's not going to try to go out to ordinary, but we're all able to play off each other. Like, he making plays, they double him, the next person got to make plays. They double me, the next person got to make. So it's just all working off each other.

We know we all got to be able to do our job specifically in order to get where we want to go. So it's good. Do you feel like his defense is a little bit slept on because when we talk about tennessee obviously we talk about coach heupel's offense we talk about nico becoming the starting quarterback but it feels like for y'all to get where you want to go you have to have a very good year on on that side of the ball um you know i feel like there's just pride we taking in no matter what. Since Coach Ipenham been here, everyone knows what it is. Like, it's offense, offense.

Everyone knows that. But we don't care that people don't talk about us. It's just fine that they don't talk about us. We just like going out there and competing every week and coming in and knowing that we feel like we have one of the best defenses in the country. And we just got to come in every day and really prove that to ourselves. Like, we're competing against each other. Like, we got to know that if I push you the hardest

and you push me the hardest, we're going to be good. And that's just what we really bought into, just everyone just bonding to the culture and knowing that we got to be together. Like, we can't let any outside noise, whether good outside noise or bad, dictate or determine who we are. How is that O-line holding up against you guys now? Because that's a group that, like, you know, it's funny because everybody's like,

oh, it's a Josh Heupel offense. You guys ran the ball pretty well last year. Yeah, like our offensive line, like, those guys are dogs. Like every last one of them, they're going to fight to the end. They're going to pass block. They're going to do everything they got. They're going to pass block. They're going to do everything they've got to do for us to be successful. I feel like it's one of the positions on the team that people talk about bad a lot,

but I love the O-line. I'm with them a lot. We compete. We go back and forth. They make us better. We make them better. I feel like it's all honestly going to start within the trenches. I feel like we have a good offensive line, defensive line to push that and be able to just control where we want to go.

A guy a lot of people might not know about around the country yet, but I imagine about to get to know is Lance Hurd. Yeah. What is he like? Because I remember seeing him in spring practice and going, oh, my God, how good are Will Campbell and Emory Jones at LSU? Yeah. When a guy comes in like that with that you know kind of raw talent how much fun is it to watch him

it's good to see you um you see Lance Lance puts in the work day in and day out Lance wants to be great lamb wants wants to be at Tennessee so everything he's happy he he does everything to the fullest the best of his ability good athlete smart everything about him is just like okay like and then you get off the field he's just a good guy like and that's the type of people you want to play with like people who gonna give they everything they're gonna bust their tail on the field but when we get off the field like everything that's on the field on the field like we good people off the field it seems like y'all have a pretty good like everybody gets along on this team and i've noticed that when i've gone

to knoxville like you guys are always in the complex like guys are always hanging out together right and i know it wasn't always that way in knoxville what is it like now it's right now it's literally like it's probably if you were just walking around Knoxville, you probably would never just see a football player by himself. Like, if you see one, you probably see multiple. And that's just like how we travel. Like, having been talked about or anything like that, we just, that's the culture we push. Like, to be a family, actually be brothers.

Like, you can't fake things like that because if I feel like you're faking a real friendship, real brotherhood with me, how can I trust you? We build off trust. We build off those relationships. Like you said, our whole team, they do get along. Everyone loves each other. Everyone just wants what's best for everyone, and we just want to win. Now, Keenan Peely, 26-year-old Mary man, can you get him out?

Can you get him out the house? Oh, yeah. Keenan Peely, 26-year-old Mary man, can you get him out? Can you get him out the house? Oh, yeah, Keenan Peely hang out. He invite us over, you know. We all just have a good time. Like, everyone, no matter what, like you said, Keenan Peely to the youngest guy on the team. What's it like having a guy as experienced as Keenan in the middle of that defense?

It's a blessing. I feel like, you know, you have a good, smart linebacker like Kenan Peeley. Controls the defense a lot. It's going to be good for us playing with Kenan the little time that I have. But practicing with him the most is amazing. He's a

great guy and great teammate. Everything. It's good. I told Cooper to bring Big E my idea. I want you to back me up. I'm going to back you up. I promise. I told Cooper to bring Biggie my idea. Okay. I want you to back me up I'm gonna back you up. I'm a promise. I'm gonna tell Biggie soon as I get to my phone. Yes I want it. I want the the microphone to pick it up. Yeah, we gotta get we got to get a mic though No, I'm not don't mess up this song You think I'm gonna mess up into the road. Don't mess up that song. You think I'm going to mess up

End of the Road? That's a great song. I was in high school when that song came out. This is my era. Y'all weren't even born yet. Nah, that's a great song. Thank you, Amari. Yes, sir. Thank you so much. So those are your Tennessee Vols from the trenches. Amari Thomas

on the defensive line, Cooper Mays on the offensive line. They will be playing this year, as Steven Wilson points out, Neyland Stadium, home of the Vols, preserved by a pilot. That's right. There are gas station logos

on the field at Neyland Stadium this year. That was the big announcement this week. They did not change the name of the stadium, Neyland Stadium. They did not change the name of the field neil stadium they did not change the name of the field shields watkins field but they did throw pilot on the end there and they did throw pilot logos on the field obviously the haslam family longtime tennessee boosters the founders of pilot it's based in east tennessee it makes sense it makes sense but it is this is kind of how you

thread the needle remember we talked to scott carr the athletic director at fiu about pitbull stadium well you can do that at fiu and scott was pointing out scott used to work with with tennessee ad danny white at ucf by the way but scott was pointing out like when he worked at southern miss or auburn they've been playing a lot longer. You can't do that. You can't change the name of the stadium. You got to figure it out. Well, Christopher Jordan in the chat has figured out how Auburn's going to do it.

And I appreciate this. This is, this is the ultimate right here. Auburn will eventually be Pat Dye Field at Jordan-Hare Stadium built with concrete, but with yellow wood lumber as a structure. And Tim Cook, can we get some of that Apple money? That's right. Apple CEO Tim Cook is an Auburn grad. I think really what you need to do

is you make that giant video board at Auburn, get Apple to turn that into the world's largest iPad. You do that, they'll do it. I think Apple will be happy to participate in that. All right. We're shifting gears now. Now, if you saw earlier this week where I did that little exercise that Ralph Russo from the Associated Press gave me when the AP poll came out, I did that exercise where you take four of the top five from the AP poll, two of six through 10, two of 11 through 20,

one of 21 through 25 and three unranked. And that's your 12 team playoff. Well, I had Tennessee in there. I also had Iowa in there because if you've looked at Iowa's schedule, there is a path if the Hawkeyes are better offensively to 10 and two, there's also a path to potentially 11 and one and a birth in the big 10 championship game. So we'll see what happens, but at big 10 media days, I caught up with a couple of Iowa players and I want you to hear from them because they're both really fun. We'll start with Jay Higgins. Like you talk to Jay Higgins. He's their linebacker who makes all the tackles. But you talk to Jay Higgins and it answers the question. Why is Iowa always so freaking good on defense?

Because they have guys like Jay Higgins. Here's Jay. The heart of the Iowa Hawkeyes defense, Jay Higgins. You ever tired making all those tackles? No, it, uh, it's actually really fun. I love it. I'm banged up on Sunday morning, but I love it. Well, I, so this defense is it's good, but it's kind of become legendary in the last couple of years, because partly because the offensive struggles, but you guys,

it doesn't seem to matter what field position you get put in. You do what you got to do. What, what is the attitude been like, you know, how do you build that? How does that, that mentality become a, you know, just an ethos. I'd say a lot of that comes from coach Parker. Okay. Just his, his ability to get a guy to run through a brick wall. Like I don't, I don't have it. I keep it pretty simple when I'm talking to the team. I think it's his passion. Like he,

I don't know if you ever watched him on the side. We have. Yes. He's pretty passionate about this thing and it's easy to play hard for him. And we kind of just picked up like the standard. Like we understand. And I knew for me, like I wasn't going to be the linebacker that ruined the defensive standard. Like so it's going next year it's on Jaden Harrell. Like that's his problem to worry about, not mine. So what is Phil Parker like at practice?

Right now, what are we, 37 days out? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That might be pretty close. Yeah. It might be pretty close. Yeah, yeah um right now he's calm okay he's calm like he's coaching you know what I mean he's telling he's telling the corners the the funnel uh-huh those guys up to up the seam but the moment we we put those pads on the moment we start getting real deal he'll he'll turn up he'll definitely turn up so it is like as it gets closer to the game you feel you feel the intensity different it's

all of them they're all different human beings like yeah Coach Wallace is like this guy is so nice to me right now everybody's friends like everybody's patting on the back right now oh yeah the day before that game just night before some clicks wow some clicks and everybody gets serious everybody gets focused one thing i do appreciate of wallace is he's going to coach his heart during the week but on saturday he's really nice to us nice and he understands he's his own good cop and bad cop yeah yeah he understands that like in that, like, in the game, I probably don't need to be yelled at. It's probably too late. If you're yelling at me during a game, we've messed up.

And that's something I really appreciate. You talk about, you know, I don't want to be the linebacker who messes up the standard for the Iowa defense. Like, how appreciative are you of the history of this defense? I mean, because Coach Ferentz has been there. He's the longest-tenured coach in the FBS. Like that defense has been good for as long as most of us can remember.

Yeah. Yeah. They were playing good ball before I was born. Yeah. Anytime you're learning the install tape from Bob Sanders. That's a good thing. That's amazing. And you it's, I just feel like because we have coach ference here yep we're

extremely connected with our history i don't that might be a like iowa our program right is that because you have a different experience than almost any other player yeah and so we're well aware like our legacy our lineage of guys who came before us um and it's cool, just Abdul Hodge, Jack Gamble, Josie Jewell. You got some crazy list of linebackers on that list. Did somebody come to you? Did one of the older guys come to you when they realized, okay, you're going to be that guy? It's cool to see Coach Hodge in the building.

I get to see him play coaches at tight ends. Lachey made me a little nervous because he went up to Coach Hodge and told him I beat his tackling record. Coach Hodge is still pretty big. He looks like he can play a little bit. The love I've gotten from those guys, Chad Greenway, just the support I've gotten from the community, the community of linebackers, the community of guys who play defense at Iowa has been great. How does that work? Does Chad Greenway just text you? I mean, we got numbers.

We got Instagram now. It's never been easier to be connected. Wow. But what is that like the first time they reach out? I'm from Indianapolis, so I don't have a lot of Iowa history. Yep. But, you know, the name brands like, you know, yeah, exactly. Names that stick out. Well, and Bob Sanders, obviously, from Indianapolis. Dallas Clark. Yeah. Yeah. I used to drink milk with Dallas Clark. Yeah, exactly. It's just I grew up. I grew up. So that's all I knew.

But when those guys reach out like it really lets you know you're doing something special. And at the same time, it motivates you to keep going and keep pushing forward. We got to talk about you are home. You are here in Indianapolis. And you just told me off the air, like, when you end in Indianapolis, good things are happening to you as a football player. But what does it mean to you just to be here representing Iowa? Yeah, it's great.

I'm from here. So Lucas Oil, this is a part of everyday life. But it's a part of it as in outside looking in. That's where the Colts play. That's where the professionals play. So being in here conducting football talk is obviously a dream come true. Yeah, state championships in here, but so is every other state championship. And the Big Ten championships here. Exactly. And when you're here representing

the university, Big Ten's known for high-level football. It feels good to represent the family, represent all the Indianapolis guys. And then obviously at some point you're going to come back here in your underwear and be judged. How crazy is it to think that that's not that far off for you? It seems like it's around the corner, but I know the best thing I can do is play good football from week to week. Yeah. If I can play good football week to week, I'll worry about this, and that'll be a good problem to worry about.

Yeah, and the thing is, like, I feel like your coaching staff does such a good job of making sure guys are not too worried about that. They keep the main thing the main thing, I guess, would be the way to do it. But, again, you're going to have pressure on you to be this great defense again. What do you tell your teammates, especially young ones who have not gotten to start in this defense yet? What do you tell them about how to hold up that standard? Yeah, standards are high um but a lot of time pursuit to the ball effort makes up for a lot of mistakes yeah um if you're gonna mess up do it as fast as you possibly can yeah i mean if we if we got 11 guys running to the ball like their life depends on it

like yes somebody gives up the wrong gap but we'll we get it done. We'll get it figured out. And it's about being coachable. Like, you got to be able to listen to constructive criticism. And I think the biggest thing out of high school is these guys, they don't mess up because everything's easy. It's going to be hard. Like, these dudes are going to run the ball. These guards are going to pull. These tight ends are going to get under your ass.

You're going to wind up in the wrong place if some 330-pound dude's going to put you on the ground. Yeah. So it's your ability to bounce back. And if a guy can bounce back quick, that's all we can ask for. That is Jay Higgins. And, yeah, you hear him talk and you're like, oh, I get the whole Iowa defense thing.

If they're all like him, there's nobody like him, but it is a group of guys who are very disciplined, very tough. That's why they're so good on defense. Now for Iowa to get where it wants to go, it's got to be better on offense. One person who can make them better on offense was a guy who didn't get to play much last year. And that's Luke Lachey, but he is back. He is healthy. He may be the nicest guy in the world. Just not if he's blocking you. Here is Luke Lachey. I am here with the nicest person in the world. So says Kirk Ferentz, Luke Lachey. All right. I asked Jay Higgins, your teammate, like, is that an insult as a football player?

How do you feel about it? Are you okay with this? Yeah, I'm okay with it. I think it's a compliment, you know. It's a high praise. I don't know if it's true, but, yeah, I don't think as a football player you need to go out there and be the meanest person. Well, Jay says he likes to mess with you. Okay.

Like he'll know when you are essentially a decoy on a route and not supposed to be doing much, but we'll still yell at you after the play. Like, how did you not get open on that? Yeah. Yeah. He does that a lot. Now I know, now I know his secret. You just told me it.

So, well, I, yeah, I don't't think he's i think he's pretty transparent about these things but but what's it like having somebody like that you get to play against every day at practice who you know is one of the best players in the country who is so good at his job that you're gonna get that look every single day it's awesome you know and and the the thing about jay is like he's been you know so under the radar the last four years, but I've known all along what he's capable of, and I'm just super excited for him that things are coming to light. We came in the same year, and I knew he was talented.

And I'm just, like I said, he's just such a great guy, great friend of mine, and I'm just really happy for him. So let's talk about your situation. You get hurt game three last year. Obviously, you were going to have a huge role in the offense. Cade's hurt most, you know, from the from the preseason, essentially. Do you feel like we've not actually got to see what your offense should be right now? Yeah, it's hard to tell. You know, it's a new offensive coordinator.

We're looking forward to moving forward and, you know, getting the hope is to try to stay healthy. You know, football is a, you know, a the hope is to try to stay healthy. You know, football is a, um, you know, a violent game and, uh, it's a lot of fun, but you know, some things can, can come up and, uh, you always hope that it doesn't happen to you or to anyone, but, uh, yeah. How hard was last year watching? Um, it was hard, you know, you just want to be out there with your, your brothers and, uh, you want to succeed with them. You want to struggle with them. And, uh, it's just, that's the biggest thing is you just want to you know be out there on the field but it's it's always not it's not always fun being a low head well i was gonna say because you you

could you came in and you know sam had had such a big year the year before you're getting to watch sam ball out for the lions and you're supposed to be taking that next step. And, you know, I know there was a choice that you had to make. How did you decide, okay, I'm coming back to Iowa for another year versus I realize I was hurt, but I could go into the draft? Yeah, I think the biggest thing for me is just like there's so much I thought I had left to prove and still do at Iowa. And it's just such a great spot. I really couldn't see myself leaving.

And I just felt like the opportunity was there with a great spot. I really couldn't see myself leaving. Uh, and I just felt like the opportunity was there with a lot of guys that were also planning on coming back and, uh, just, you know, couldn't have made a better decision in my opinion. So I was reading up on you and I read that when you got to Iowa, you were actually probably a little bit better receiver than you were a blocker. Yeah. How is that possible with your dad being just an all-time great offensive lineman? I just, you know, I was never big enough to be a lineman and growing up and I was always, you know, in fourth, fifth and sixth grade, I was a quarterback and then moved to running back wide receiver kind of thing in middle school. And then high school, I was only a wide receiver. So I just, we didn't focus on that, but you know, you'd think it would be different with him so i was going to say how much did dad say now make sure you even when you're a receiver because obviously receivers have

to block too but for sure how much would dad say now make sure you you're blocking at practice make sure you know know what you're doing on when you're blocking yeah you just want to go out there and do your job whenever you know whatever you can do to help out the team but uh he always he he he'd tell you i have better hands than he did. So I would, you know, probably true. He's a good athlete, everything like that. But so I just think that he knew that, you know, I might be a wide receiver, tight end type of guy. And so he just never really did. How much does it help coming, you know, as you grow up, you know, and your size changes.

So your position changes. But but you've played quarterback, you've played receiver. Now you're playing tight end to, to kind of holistically understand what's going on in the offense. Yeah. I think it helps a little bit. Like I said, you know, being quarterback in fourth, fifth and sixth grade, I don't really count that I'll say it, but it doesn't really count. Like single wing, a little bit like I formation type stuff. Hey,

which is great. We will not besmirch the eye formation here okay okay okay fourth fifth and sixth grade you can kind of do that you play for Iowa anyway you guys actually have fullbacks you can say that great that's great uh but no and then you know receiver in high school it's good you know and I played corner in high school as well so I kind of knew like some of the yeah I knew the zone you know coverages and stuff like that and so that helps me but you know, as far as you know, at all, like reading offenses as a holistic, I just feel like learning from the coaches here at Iowa has

been so helpful. They've done a great job. So Jay was telling me about how the the linebackers through the years stay in contact like Chad Greenway will reach out to him and say, Hey, is it the same way with the tight ends? Yeah, it is. You know, Dallas Clark. uh, he does, this is, this is where he did his work. Super cool. I know he's going to be, have his name up on, you know, the, in the stadium here soon. And so I just can't wait for him. I'm super excited for him and, you know, his family. Um, but yeah, he's been awesome. And then, uh, you know, I just keep in touch with Sam all the time.

Oh yeah. What was it like to watch Sam get in the NFL and blow up? Oh, my God. It's awesome. I'm super excited for him, super proud. He's one of my best friends in the world. Just seeing him go out there and succeed and do things that I knew he could do and that we all knew he could do, it's been awesome. Are you guys tired of the jokes about the offense? Yeah, we are.

No one likes to hear that kind of stuff and we're just trying to move forward from it. Do you think we're going to see something different this year? Yeah, I think Coach Lester is going to put us in the right position to succeed and I think all the guys are really locked in and ready to go. We'll see come week one. He's even nice when I ask questions like that. He really is the nicest person in the world. Luke Lachey, thank you so much.

I appreciate it. Yes, they are tired of those jokes. By the way, that was Jake Butt, former Michigan tight end, coming in to have some tight end on tight end talk with Luke Lachey. But I'd be sick of it too But I'd be sick of it too. I would be sick of it too. We'll see what happens. We don't even know who's going to start a quarterback for Iowa.

You've seen the stories this past week about Cade McNamara versus Brendan Sullivan, the Northwestern transfer. So we'll find out what they're going to be. But they've got Illinois State before that game against Iowa State. The Seah out what they're going to be, but they've got Illinois State before that game against Iowa State. The Seahawks game is going to be a big one. You know, Matt Campbell's team looked a lot better at the end of last season.

It's going to be a lot of fun to figure out what Iowa is because we've had our fun with the Iowa offense jokes. I would actually like to retire them for a little bit because I think if you put a functional offense with that defense, you're talking about a team that can contend for a lot of different things. By the way, I love in the chat, it's still just a Michigan-Ohio State argument has been just raging for an hour. We haven't talked about either Michigan or Ohio State since like the eight minute mark of the show. We're so close people. A week from today, we're going to be

talking about an actual college football game happening the following day. Think about that. That's right. Next week is week zero. We're almost there, almost there, but hopefully something you'll see as we get ready for week zero. I'm going to admit, I feel like I know college football rosters pretty well. I did not know this person was on a college football roster until yesterday. And I apologize for that, but we need to make this happen. So if you had not, if you weren't on the college football internet on Thursday, then maybe you didn't see this, but UTEP wished happy birthday to quarterback JP Pickles. It's not a made up name. His name is JP Pickles. As you all know, here at On3, we've got a guy named JD Piquel, former Cornell Big Red player.

So you've got a past college football player named JD Piquel, a current college football player named JP Pickles. We need a collab. I don't even have authority to do it, but I have invited JP Pickles on J.D. Piquel's show. I texted J.D. I was like, sorry, dude, he's going on your show. You got to make this happen. And when they do, the old people will remember David Letterman hosting the Oscars. Oprah, Uma, Oprah, Uma, Oprah, Uma, JD, JP, JD, JP.

I mean, it's JP Pickles and JD Piquel. Both of their names sound like they are the title character in a Paramount Plus show aimed at three-year-olds. We have to see this happen Mars in the chat pickleball match even better JD get your ass on a plane to El Paso let's make this happen guys I'll talk to you Monday you