Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BIG 10 SQUAD: Ranking the BEST Head Coaches in the Big 10 | Where Kirk Ferentz sits

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

Big Ten coaching rankings ignite debate as Curt Cignetti’s meteoric rise at Indiana challenges Ryan Day’s Ohio State dominance. Can Cignetti’s underdog playbook outshine traditional powerhouses if given equal resources? The discussion also spotlights Kyle Whittingham’s consistency, questions Dan Lanning’s performance in pressure games, and evaluates where Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies truly fit in the new Big Ten landscape. Washington’s daunting 2026 schedule faces scrutiny—can the Huskies surpass expectations with key matchups against USC, Oregon, Penn State, and Iowa? The conversation breaks down Washington’s roster strengths and weaknesses, Jedd Fisch’s offensive strategy, and what it will take for the Huskies to clear FanDuel’s 7.5 win total projection. Which Big Ten coach would you want leading your team through a gauntlet, and how will conference newcomers shake up the hierarchy? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The season inches closer. Who are the best coaches in the Big Ten? Where does Jedfish and his Huskies fall on that list? And where they're going to rank in the Big Ten this season? Will they go over under their win total? That's on today's Locked-on Big Ten Squad. You're talking ball with the Big Ten Squad. From USC to Ohio State from Michigan to Oregon, from Nebraska to Washington,

it's the local experts of the Locked-on Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming Big Ten weekend. No hurt feelings and thin skin allowed. Squad up, you're part of the Big Ten Squad. Happy Thursday, everybody. Welcome to this week's Lockdown Big Ten Squad. I'm your host, Spencer McLaughlin, Neutral Arbiter of All Things College.

Football, Zach Saco, of Lockdown, Nettney Lions is here. Mark Colkin, locked on USC. Trent Condon of Lockdown Hawkeyes. Is that a Navy hat? You got rock in there, Trent? That's a Minnesota North Star's hat. Nice. Ah.

Old school. Roman Tomashoff of locked on Husky is also here. Maybe Craig Schiemann of Locked on Big Ten will show up to the squad show associated with the conference that he actually represents there here at the network. And such, we'll just have to wait and see. That's what we do every single week. We wait until like the 10 minute mark past the hour and then we wait to see if Craig is going to get here.

But let's hop right into this. It's list season and perhaps no better list to talk about right now, Zach Seiko, than who the best coaches are in the Big Ten. I know who my number one is because it's the same number one that I have in all of college football. It seems pretty obvious to me. Is it obvious to you as the host of Lockdown Nitty Lions? Are you going to throw Matt Campbell's name in the ring? We're talking about Jed Fish, right?

That's Jed Fish. I was talking about Brett Bealema. What do you? Oh, no. Where did Jed Fish come from? We're on two different pages. It's the guy that does so much more with way less. You don't win a national title.

at Indiana by accident. However, I do want to see Kurt Signetti put a few years together. Now, again, he was ultra successful at James Madison. It's clearly translated to Indiana, but now the target is on your back. You're not sneaking up on anybody. Everyone's going to put their best game plan together for you. Great coaching gets around all of that there. But I would say that Kurt Signetti is the best coach because imagine if all the resources were equal, right? Kurt Signetti, if he had the war chest, and he's starting to get that now. Imagine if he had the war chest that Ohio State did or Oregon did or USC, et cetera,

what he would be as a coach on a consistent basis. So, yeah, he's, he's number one. But Ryan, Ryan, I would say 1A, 1B. Ryan, Ryan Day is not too far behind because he still succeeds. He still wins a lot. Yeah, I think it's fair to put Ryan Day in there. Trent, if this was a longest-tenured question, then, of course, your guy, Kirk Farrantz, would be number one, top of the list. Would you rank Ryan Day ahead of Kurt Zignity or are you going with Indiana's guy like, you know, the rest of us with our head screwed on? Yeah, I don't think there's anything. I mean, what was it? Coach Third Base back of the day with Ryan Day and I think it's out. I mean, a national championship to his credit, sure, but he did at Ohio State. We've seen plenty of guys with a lot of success at Ohio State.

Kirk Signetti's taken over a program that has done absolutely nothing for the better part of, what, 80 years of football and took them to a national champion. I mean, if you would have said when Kirk Signetti was hired that he would even have Indiana as a playoff team any year, you would have been laughed out of the room. He's done it in back-to-back years coupled with the national championship, coupled with an undefeated run. The gap between him and everybody else, I think, is significant. It doesn't matter what level of this list you're looking at. Signetti, then everybody else, big gap. Mark, are you putting Kurt Signetti at the top of that list? Or are you going to make a surprise?

No, no surprises here from Mark. But you may explain anyway. But I'm going to use, I'm going to go with Zach's logic. You have Kurt Signetti number one because of what he did in two years at Indiana. But on the flip side of that, he did it with a very experienced, mature team that had a lot of chemistry, played together. You know, most of that roster came from King of Madison. And to their credit, they were still able to step up and play Big Ten level football and win a national championship in year two.

Dole, if we just put Kurt Zignetti, everybody agrees he's the best coach in the conference right now. Who's the second best coach? Using Zach's logic, I'm going to go with Kyle Whittingham if you're talking about doing more with less. Because I think that's why there's so the, and I'm using finger quotes here, the expectation level is high at Michigan. Because I don't think they've got a great roster. They've recruited well enough, but when you're comparing it to the way that Ohio State's recruited, Oregon's recruited to the most recently USC's recruited, I don't know if Michigan has that same level of depth. But what Kyle Whittingham did at Utah was you just take really good solid football players, which Michigan has a lot of, and you have them compete really well on the field. So I'm not saying Ryan Day isn't a great coach.

He is. But I would just say Kyle Whittingham, maybe Jed Fish gets into the discussion as well. I'm looking at just from it from that perspective. Interesting way to look at it. I don't know that I would have, I mean, I'm a huge Kyle Whittingham fan. I get it. James Franklin out coached him. Does that matter?

Yes. Yeah. A lot of people are just throwing it. It has to matter. But by the way, Seiko, I have to say, I loved your, your perception of the world where the big spenders in the Big Ten are Ohio State, Oregon, USC, and Penn State's just not there. They're just, they're broke up there. That was the exact point I was trying to make. Yes.

Poor, poor, poor little, poor little Penn State. Adidas is now backing Penn State. So get ready. Is that going? Is that going to make it better? Is that any extremely rich pig farmers in Iowa? I looked at your. No.

They're Iowa State fans. They're Cyclone fans. You guys have no money to bring in a name for the transport at any position. They went a different route this year. Instead of doing that, they said they're going to go with depth. They were going to go with multi-year guys. Iowa, I think, is really bending and building towards 2027. Whoever the quarterback is going to be this year is going to have a couple years of eligibility.

They brought in all these FCS transfers. It's a pretty good ones that other major programs were after. But all these guys have multiple years of eligibility. And the other thing with Iowa this year and the way that obviously the Big Ten schedule, we've talked about this in the past, opening up at Michigan, home for Ohio State, at Washington, on a short week on top of it is as grueling as anybody has. But I think that's what they're trending towards, excuse me, is that 2027 season. They only have 10 seniors on this roster, very uncurt-Ferrant-like.

Roman, you may weigh in because I will allow you. Because I is the gracious and generous hosts of the show will give you the same chance that everybody else had. Are you putting Kurt Signetti on top? And perhaps more importantly, who are you putting in number two? It's Kurt Signetti and that it's Ryan Day. I hear Mark's point about Kyle Whittingham. I can't get over his bowl game record, just some of these other things when it comes to just being super sold on what's going to go on at Michigan. I think that he certainly raises the floor of some of the bad

Michigan teams we've seen over the last 10, 15 years. I don't, and obviously we know what Michigan ceiling is, right? But I don't necessarily know if he is going to be the guy to get them all the way there. I think the top two in this conference is very clear cut. And then from then on, like, yeah, there certainly can be a debate to be had and to, you know, bring it to Jed Fish in Washington. I think this is going to be a very interesting year for him in that regard, because there have been certain questions about, you know, him as a play caller, can he get things right? And 2024, 2025, there were certain roster challenges. Short side speed option, anybody?

No, we don't need to talk about that today. I think we should. I thought you were a neutral arbiter of all things college football. I just, when you think Jedfish, the play caller, how can you not go to his most famous play call of the short side speed option? That just sounds like bias to me down here in the bottom right where you so conveniently put me, even though we're talking. about Washington today. I added everyone as in the order in which they came in and

Streamyard determine the rest. I put the fate of your existence in the stream yard God's hands. I was. That sounds like a sky net thing and now I'm a little bit terrified for the rest of the show. Yeah. Well, we might be, we should maybe I'll be terrified, but for a completely different reason. I'm going to put all these guys on the spot when we get back and ask them where their respective coaches fit. And somebody's going to have to mention Dan Laining at some point because he's awesome. First, this episode brought to you by our friends over at Fandul. The biggest stage in world soccer is here and every match feels like it has the potential for a memorable moment. One goal can completely change the energy of a game shift momentum and alter the outcome in an instant.

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into the round of 16. If you want to bet on that game or any college football game, Fandual is indeed the place to do just that. From the opening whistle to the final kick, let there be goals on Fandwell. Visit fandual.com to get started now. Check them out at fanduel.com. Real quick, do your guys' ad transitions make the little sound? Not more. Yeah, that's what I see. My sounds went away too, and I liked the sounds. Sounds awesome. I know. It's great. losing my hearing. Yeah, it's, you might be. It's jazzy. It's funky. It's, you know, it's got a little, little moxy, little pizzazz, little flair, just a small thing and it went away. But then here it is in

the squad. So now I'm going to, I got to figure out how to get this into my other windows to record, because I like the little. I downloaded them for what it's worth. How'd you do that? I recorded them in a stream yard session and then like shot and then like clip the like, like, end. so then they exist. I have them. Look at this guy. Innovative. Innovative. Zach Seiko, the innovator. So that means you get to go first because that was a great idea.

I mean, you're also in first position. I got to step in here. Trent, Trent did request that he goes first. Oh, you're right. And you know what? That's fair. That's fair. That's fair. Seiko, you get to go first.

Okay. I can go second. Trent, how many Big Ten coaches would you rather have than Kirk Ference? Great question. And it's not a very long list. It's certainly not Matt Campbell. It is not Lincoln Riley, Jed Fish. Dan Lannning, yes. Probably not even Ryan Day. I really, I don't think that even Ryan Day, I would take over Kirk Farrants because what is Ryan Day going to do recruiting at Iowa? What is he going to do building the consistency that Iowa has? Year in and year out, yes, they're not the high water marks and we're waiting for a playoff appearance and all that. But the consistency you get out of Farrant's year after year after year knowing a minimum you're going to be eight and four with hope of 10 and two and that's kind of the the window year after year after year after year. I don't think there's many coaches in this conference that can do it. So it is a couple and that is probably it. Could somebody maybe take them to heights? Could Ryan Day maybe build that team and have one winner better perhaps? But it's just that consistency. The year in year out that Kirk Farrant is able to do. So not as long of a list as I'm going to guess many outsiders would have for the Iowa head coach. Did you guys hear that? All of your coaches are secondary to Kirk Farrants in the Big Ten. Sanko, how do you feel about that?

I really like the hire of Matt Campbell. And of course, Trent leaves us the second that I had to go. That I step up to the podium to defend Matt Campbell, which what, what does he mean that he doesn't want Matt Campbell at Iowa over Kirk Farrants who was an interesting take? Yeah, that that that was a. fine he's locked on hot guys guy i i totally i totally get that one but a young coach going into his prime that's been in iowa would have more resources comparatively and you want to keep the coach that gets you to seven and five eight and four okay okay that's fine um there i kurt signetti is an obvious one because i feel like kurt signetti could win just about

anywhere if he can win in indiana he could win anywhere he's also a pennsylvania guy um so that is that right. I don't want to just say, well, Matt Campbell's better than, but just him having the opportunity, there, there aren't a lot of coaches that I would flip-flop him with, right? Okay, trade Lincoln Riley for Matt Campbell. What does that do for anybody? Jed fish for Matt Campbell. What does that do? I think that Matt Campbell is a great fit for an alternate timeline discussion that we don't need to have on this show. I don't know. I kind of think we should. Matt Campbell's a great fit at Penn State. And so bringing over someone like Lincoln Riley, it's not so oh Lincoln Riley is this awful coach no I don't think he'd be a good fit for the east coast I think

he needs to either be at you I think he needs to be a Texas tech if I'm being honest I don't think he's a fit at USC I think he should be a Texas tech and if USC decides to part ways with him and I don't know how long Joey McGuire is Joey McGuire even an actual head coach we'll see and uh Dan Dan Landy he just he just ran rough shot over his entire conference and kind of beat the crap out of all of them Okay, so we're dunking on Ryan Day for doing, for, he's, he's not meeting expectations and has all these resources, but Joey McGuire gets a pass when he gets an oil check every other week? I mean, I think that's a fair way to look at Joey McGuire and say it's why he's not one of the top 10. Like, he's not on my top 10 coaches and all of college football, but I mean, you still got to go out and win the games. Okay, with all that money in the Big 12, I feel like any of us could coach Texas Tech to tend to.

I don't think I would happily take that. I'm not. I'm in. I'm in. Mark, you think you got that in you? Coaching Texas Tech to a Big 12 championship? If I got Cody Campbell's money in my back pocket, I do. I mean, it's a little bit more nuance.

Well, I can also buy the best coaching staff as well. I mean, if we want to get nuanced, I get the best. All yours. And I can buy the best assistant coaching staff of the all. Now, to your original question. If I want the, if I'm going to replace Lincoln Riley and I got to pick a coach out of the big conference, I'm probably starting with Kurt Signetti, especially if I want to stay with a guy who's offensive-minded. We know he can develop quarterbacks.

We'll see if he can do it with Josh Hoover. Make him a better quarterback, I guess is the better way of putting it. Now, if I want to go defense, I just want to have a tough, minded guy. And, you know, we can maybe even talk about this when we do our crossover show later this week. But I would, I think I have to go with Kyle Whittingham because of his success against USC. His teams are always physically tough. And that's one of the stigmas against USC right now, at least perception wise that we can have another coach is a physically tough team. We're going to find out if that changes this year with the idea.

of Gary Patterson bringing Mike Eckler back to the USC's linebacker coach as well as improved special teams so I would have picked Dan Lanning but every time he gets to a big game in the postseason he's got a dirty diaper like a you know four-month-old baby I mean other than the playoff games that he won last year or the times or the or the time or the times or the times where he's won on college game with college game day and attendance you know I was at one of those Wait, hold on. If you take away all, you know, you guys both make valid points. If you take away all the big games that Dan Lannning has won, he hasn't won any big games.

You're so unbelievably right. That is just, that is, that is very true. I can think of three examples off the top of my head. Sure. I can give you some other ones. They weren't big games because Washington hasn't pulled their heads out of their rear ends just yet. But yeah, go ahead, Roman. I can, I can think of three pretty big examples because you bring up college game day.

I remember standing there watching Lee Corso. There's a Washington staple. Live in the past. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right on cue.

It's on. It's on brand. No, it's okay. It's his on brand is Oregon bringing out a new, a new uniform combo. No, but it's okay. But this is the second time last month that you've thrown a fit about me talking about Washington. It's okay.

I'm going to get the floor back because I get, I get plenty of time to do that later. No, that's okay. No, no, no. It's, it's your turn now. You could, you could say, where you drink, Jedfish, amongst the rest of the head coaches in the big 10. I hope you're not going to put him ahead of the coach that he's never beaten in his career. Wow.

You see, look at, look at this. You're setting me up. What kind of neutral arbiter of college football? I just, I'm just pointing out the facts. And you didn't even give me a chance to state my opinion before we get there. There you go. You go.

You go. I would put Jedfish at like seventh or eighth in this conference right now. Like that's, and I, I feel like, in Kirk Farrants, is that it? I don't know if I'd take Kirk Farrant. That's, that's a different discussion. Yeah. You know the funny thing about Farrantz is that he gets the most out of the defense and the least out of the offense. So what does that mean, you know?

Like, I know that it's hard. I know that Trent's point about Iowa is that it's not easy to win that. Like, I get that to a degree. Are you telling me that that's actually the best. offense that Iowa football can possibly put out. I don't buy that. I hire someone at that point, just hire an offense and just let them go. According to Fox Sports, their best, you know, transfer player is another FCS player,

that wide receiver from wherever. Last year they tried it with the quarterback. It didn't work out. And that was the point I was trying to make the kind of like, dude, spend some money, get a real D1 player to come help your team. Yeah, that'd be good. Anyway, so Roman, seventh or eighth. Yeah, sorry.

Sorry, seven or eighth, I think that's a reasonable take. No, and it's one of those things where I think that this year we're going to learn a lot about Jedfish, because we saw what he did in Arizona, right? He did a tremendous job turning that program around. He took them from one wins to 10 wins in three seasons. And now this is year three at Washington. And the expectation should be the same. Spoiler alert for a little bit later on. Because I look at just kind of the talent that he's been able to recruit over the last couple of years, how is how he's, how he's, how he's,

been able to recruit, what he's been able to do by going out and doing what Kirk Farrants to do on the offensive side before Spencer kindly cut me off for the 17th time in the show. And just hire a Ryan Walters, hire a Gary Patterson, like USC did with Lincoln Riley, just hand that side of the ball off over to somebody else. And I think that it's something where if Jedfish is able to maximize the talent on offense, without Jonah Coleman, without Denzel Boston, I think we could be talking about him in a very different light this year because we know he's very, laissez-faire with the defense and just letting things play out on that side of the ball.

So there's going to be more of a microscope under him this year as well because he chose not to hire an offensive coordinator this offseason. Like we know the offense is his and doing so would be in title only. So there's a lot that we can say about Jedfish right now that come December could be very, very different. We are going to talk about the team Jedfish coaches because their win total, according to our friends at Fandall, is sitting. at seven and a half. It's sitting at seven and a half for the Huskies, according to our friends,

over at Fanduel. For those who don't have their schedule memorized, which I imagine is most people out there, except for Roman, they open with Washington State. Don't lose. Don't lose. Utah State, a couple of pack 12 teams there, then eastern Washington. They opened Big Ten play at home against Minnesota. First four games of the year at home. I feel like Washington does that more than anybody in the Big Ten. Then they play at USC on October 3rd. One week after USC plays Oregon that week, also in L.A. Then Washington on a Friday hosts Iowa.

Gosh, they might win that game by 20. Iowa might not score a single point. Then they go at Purdue another Friday. Yeah, also on a Friday. Oh, also on a Friday. That's interesting. At Purdue on a Friday. Then they have a buy.

Then they play at Nebraska. They host Penn State. They go at Michigan State. Then they close with Indiana and at Oregon. Roman, would you like to start or end this particular? You'll end. You'll end. You'll end.

Okay. Secoe. This is, I mean, very sneakily, this is one of the toughest schedules in the entire big time. One that has Oregon, Indiana, Penn State, and USC on it. Ohio State is, you miss Michigan as well. That's favorable. I don't know. You think Washington gets to,

gets to eight wins as they did last year? I think Washington's a really good team. And I don't think their record's going to indicate that because I was not all too familiar with their schedule until we got together, right? And looking through it, that five game stretch at the end. Oh, my, oh my goodness.

You're at Nebraska, right? And then you host Penn State. Then you're at Michigan State. So the games that you're naturally going to be favored in on a neutral field or You're just the better team on paper. You got to go to their dojo. And then you play Indiana and then you're on the road at Oregon. So the games that I'd say, okay, they probably beat Nebraska.

They probably beat Michigan. Now don't exactly work in their favor just because of home field advantage for those other, Michigan State, yes, for those other games. I look at Penn State as a toss-up. I think Washington and Penn State are pretty evenly matched. I would favor Indiana and Oregon, not necessarily significantly, but does, decisively. And then USC and Iowa, those are games where, okay, Iowa doesn't have favorable circumstances, but I wouldn't say they're too far behind. And USC is going to be really good this season. So how many wins can you pull out in the first half of the season? Ideally, if you're Washington, you want to be

undefeated. You want to be six and O in the first half of the season because that second half is more or less a gauntlet. Geez, I would say that seven and a half line is airtight. I would. I would say, I would would say eight and four looking at this schedule. That's kind of where I'm leaning. I'm not making an official prediction just yet, but Mark, it might come down when it's all said and done to what happens in the old school Pac-12 matchup when Washington goes to Los Angeles. I'm looking at those swing games on that schedule because they're going to win eight games. What I'm trying to figure out is can they push the over on and get to not?

Yeah. you're making the point about that game against USC at the Coliseum is USC assuming USC gets by and they you know they get that duck off their back so to speak do they have a letdown because the whiteout game is probably the week following that's on let yeah it that's that tricky scenario there it's not that USC is looking beyond Washington but how much did they invest the week before in that And it's a significant matchup against Oregon. I think it's going to be the talking point of the week when those two teams play,

because they should both be undefeated. So again, Washington, they get to host Indiana, they get to play in Eugene. Which one of those games does Jed Fish get his guys to overachieve, so to speak, and get that ninth win? I would lean. I know where you're leaving. And I mean, I mean, lean. between those to Indiana because they're at home.

Yeah. Well, I just going to think. I know what Seattle's like when that place is revved up, especially when it's cold. Spencer Remigners. But the other thing, no, I wasn't there. The other thing you have to take into account is at that point in the season, will those fans have a reason to be revved up to the extreme?

You will have 10 games under your belt. And if you are sitting there at six and four, I don't know that that's going to have the same punch in the state. I'm saying if, Roman, relax. Like, I'm just saying hypothetically, playing spoiler for Indiana or Oregon, I don't think lands the same for home fans the way it does being an actual contender.

I think it does for the first half. If Washington's competitive leading in the game, yeah, you can keep the fans in there, take on that spoiler role. But if Washington is not looking good, if they're just getting, you know, getting boat raced on Montlake, yeah, you know, fans are going to trickle out like they do at Arizona when they know their team has no chance of winning a game. You look up and all of a sudden the stands are empty. It's one of those types of situations. Okay, so Seco, you're at eight and four.

Mark, you're also eight and four? Eight and four is their floor. Floor. Yes. I, I'll be, I'll be frank. As this segment has gone on, I have gotten more and more confident that they will go over the seven and a half because I do not believe Penn State is actually on their same level this year. And that game is at Husky Stadium. That is my biggest thing with that game.

It's, I'm assuming I can, I can do my spiel now. Yeah, all lean. I might be like these guys and sit right there at eight and four, but I would pick nine and three before I would pick seven and five. That for sure. So I'll just for now without picking a number, I'll go over seven and a half. Roman, go ahead.

Yeah, eight and four is the absolute floor for what this team should be. There's so much talent coming back that people just don't really seem be aware of because you look at the draft and yeah okay so if your first point is a running back again there we go that i feel like that helps my point here i know i know i know what you do it i've heard it a lot uh but no but you look around and it's jordan delz boston carver willis out the door on the offensive side of the ball you lose both your starting corners to the nfl you lose two guys along the defensive line you had seven players get drafted yeah they're going to be concerns however you look at what you brought back on the defensive side of the ball because uh where you got a freshman all-american

in Rylund Hill and Allen safety, along with an all big 10 honorable mention, Alex McLaughlin, that combined with great name, great name, combined with a whole lot of talent in the secondary as well, with Dylan Robinson, who started five or six games as a true freshman last year. Rishon Clark really impressed the nickel. Emmanuel Carly has that production that you're looking for coming over from Virginia and the transfer portal. That group alone is really solid, along with a retool defensive line where I do have my questions, but I think that there is more depth there than we've seen in the last couple of years. that all is going to be anchored by, in my opinion,

one of the best groups of linebackers in the nation, where Jacob Manu is fully healthy. That's a dude who was extremely productive at Arizona, along with XRI Alexander who down the stretch, there were few players to position in Big Ten who looked better than he did. He had 60% of his 70 tackles in like the last six games of the year. He was someone that really impressed me. Zagris Rani Saleh was someone who,

if he wasn't coming off a torn ACL last year, and played more in the first half of the year, would have been another freshman All-American. and on this roster. So I love what Ryan Walters is doing on the defensive side of the ball, coming back in year two. This is a unit that was top 12 in the nation and run defense last year. Top 15 in points per game allowed. Top 25 in yards per game allowed.

That unit, I have a lot of confidence in. The questions are all on the offensive side, which is, you know, just lends the questions that we were talking about earlier as it pertains to Jed Fish because it's does DeMond Williams take a step forward in those big games? And I think that he's got the talent around him to do it. this offensive line internally, this coaching staff expects to be one of the three or five best in the conference. And they're saying that with a true freshman at left tackle in Cody Green because you've got a guy who's a preseason All-American right next to him in John Mills. There's so much talent.

Drew as a party at right tackle is a dude who could have gone off the NFL and been a fourth, fifth round pick this past year. So I'm curious to see what he looks like. All the questions are who steps up at running back where there's talent. We haven't seen all of them yet because the two transfers they brought in, both didn't practice in the spring, but I look at wide receiver, another freshman All-American in Desmond Roebuck. That's a dude who really impressed this past year. Who else is going to step up and help out around him?

Is it going to be one of these transfers like Christian Moss from Kennesaw State? Or is it going to be something that has become very common just in the Jetfish era? Is it going to be a young player? Whether it be Chris Lawson, a four-star wide receiver who really impressed last year, but just got hurt. There are two guys who I really like freshman right now in Tres Davis and Jordan Clay, who watched me flip really close to signing day from, Baylor and Tulane, respectively.

All of these guys, there's so much talent on this roster. It's just young. It's a little bit inexperienced. And to talk to two-year guys's point about that gauntlet at the end of the year, would there be, you know, Penn State, Indiana, Oregon. If all these guys are rolling and have enough snaps out of their belt at this point, I really do believe that nine and three, 10, and two, that's very much in the cards for this team. Who is the true freshman corner?

you said started five or six games. Was he the guy that cooked by Jeremiah McClellan in Seattle? He did not look great in that game. So that was a yes, is the answer to my question. He did not look great in that game. Shaking in my boots. The coaching staff believes that he is first round talent,

and that is a guy who didn't get there until June, by the way, Spencer. Fun fact. And that was his first year playing corner full time. He'd been a two-way player up until that point. Well, it certainly looked that way for one particular game. Anyway, that's our squad for the week. It's like a neutral arbiter college football. Yeah, just for me.

Remember in factual situations that happened for regarding Washington football. He also started against Jeremiah Smith. Happens. That's true. Jeremiah McClellan, Jeremiah Smith, basically the same, according to Roman Thomas Schoff. You heard it there first. Zach Sego, locked on nanny lions, Mark Hocke and Lankton, U.S.C. Roman Thomas Shop, locked on huskies.

We had Trent Condon of Lockdown Hotkeys as well. That's our squad for the week. I'm Spencer McLaughlin from Lockdown all over the place pretty much. We appreciate everyone listening. We'll see you next time. And until then, hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day.