The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Snaps - Bo Nix returns to Oregon, will Deion Sanders snag Travis Hunter?, Dante Moore flips to UCLA

Episode Date: December 20, 2022

Aaron Murray and T-Bob Hebert discuss Bo Nix foregoing the NFL Draft and returning to Oregon, 5-star QB Dante Moore flipping his commitment from Oregon to UCLA, Billy Napier's first season with the Florida Gators, and whether former Jackson State cornerback Travis Hunter should follow Deion Sanders to Colorado. #Volume #ColinCowherd #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The volume. It's the most wonderful time of the year. What up y'all, T-Bob here from Snaps, your new favorite college football show on Fanduil, and it might be getting cold, but the sports calendar is heating up. That's why it's the best time of year. There's so much different place to bet on,

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and Fandual. So use promo code snaps and download the Fandle. app today to make every moment more. Yo, what's up? Y'all, what's going on? It is Monday, December 19th. Well, would you look at that, man? The old Christmas season done snuck up on us as we are here nearly at the end of it. It is Christmas week, folks, which means I think you'd expect a very festive atmosphere on this week.

Snaps as we celebrate the. reason for the season. And, well, I must say this is a great reminder to anyone who's maybe being too caught up in the daily pressures and responsibilities of life and whatnot. Let's take a minute and slow down. Let's be thankful. Let's enjoy this week because on the other side of this is January. During January, the long dark of the off season looms, another year to grind it out, waiting

for that wonderful Halloween Thanksgiving, Christmas stretch once again. So let's be thankful. Let's kiss each other on the cheeks. Happy Hanukkah to everybody who celebrates. Happy Hanukkah, Aaron. And, well, this is Snaps here in the Volume Sports Podcast Network and YouTube channel.

Shout out, Volume for having us here. Shout out, FanDuel. Sign up for the VanDuel Sportsbook app. Promo code. Snaps. Shout out to Papa Colin. And if you want any Snap's merch, go click the links. snaps 20 gets you 20% off. Aaron, I'm your host, Tebow Baybar,

joined as always by QB1 SEC legend. Aaron Murray. Aaron, what's up, brother? Yeah, first of all, happy Hanukkah, since we are at the Hanukkah stage and you make fun of me for being a bad Jew at times, but we are going to be doing some lacas in the Murray household household on Friday. So

we will get some good clips of that. But no, no, listen, it's a great time of the year. A lot of excitement. Wow. Wow. So you're just using your you're just using your Jewish heritage for social media likes. It, not we're doing lock goods on Friday. No,

it was more sharing videos on Instagram. No, because you always doubt that like I do anything to, to celebrate the Jewish side of my family. No, we do celebrate the major holidays. We do like the menorah. We do make walkers. We do spend the dreidel.

We do all the fun activities, T. Bob. So, and we obviously celebrate Christmas, I have the Christmas trip. So, look, I don't care. the house. I don't care if you eat Latka's. I just need a lotka takes out of you. Okay? This

week, I need you to have a lot lined up and ready to go here. Oh, I wish we could do some like dradle take game where you spin the virtual dreidel and then we have to take on something that the dreidel lands on. I don't know, Brum. I'm just, you know, my stepfather's... I mean, that is a 12 out of 10 idea.

I love that. That's what I'm saying, dude. I'm not, and look, I think I'm allowed to play as my stepfather is Jewish. I'm not culturally appropriate in anything so i think we're good to go dude um what maybe would be a step too far would be if i wore my set rogan star of david uh sweater that somebody got me from the night before which is an excellent very funny christmas movie and erin i can't remember i know i can't remember if i told you this hmm when i wore that star of david sweater one time it's a few years ago i maybe didn't understand that how that could be offensive or whatever at the time uh i wore it to uh uh i i don't know you know what sometimes

just better to like not test the waters. But I wore it to Linux Mall in Atlanta. And when I tell you, and I got to be clear about this, I've been a chubby, two fado lime in my entire life. I've been my wife's high school. I have never gotten hit on by women. When I wore this star of David's sweater, in Lenox Mall, four times.

I had four different women. And we're like the first time it happened, I was like, wow, I'm like, she's like legitimately coming on to me. And it got awkward, though, because the conversation immediately went to are you, you know, are you Jewish or whatever? And the first time around, I answered honestly and it immediately got very awkward. I was like, no. And they're kind of like, oh, she's got, well, why, you know, why the fuck you have a sweater on? And then after that, I just, I was like, okay, before I get home, I just got to start lying. And I was just, yeah, yeah, I'm half Jewish.

But yeah, it was crazy, man. Uh, I, I, I don't know. That's very random. Uh, maybe I, you're gonna see got picked on a lot at Lennox. I thought you're about. No, no, dude. Let us a little sketchy. I thought you.

No, I maybe not, not as much then, but, but either way, no, I've never felt as wanted, uh, as I did wearing that star day. It was, it was crazy man, crazy experience. Glad I had it. Glad I had it. Have not worn the, uh, the, uh, the sweater in public. Uh, yeah, exactly. Uh, okay. So look, we got a few things to get it today.

to talk, Borgon. Borgian, as Bo Nix, chosen to stay at Oregon, did he make the right choice? Been a weird year for Florida fans, the unreal beginning, beating Utah at home, everybody thinking they had arrived. Then they lose to Kentucky. We're like, okay, Kentucky's good. And it's been kind of a slow unraveling sense culminating in a bowl game over the weekend where Oregon State not only whoops that ass and made both me and Aaron some money.

Great job, Aaron. and I followed you down that pathway. But, oh, by the way, Team Staps, four and two on the best bets this weekend. Love to see it. But not only did Oregon say, whooped that ass, but Florida had one of the saddest social media posts of all time where they tweeted out in all caps, it's good!

And tagged a video of their kicker doing a gator chomp to make it 30 to 3. It was without a doubt. one of the lowest moments in Florida social media history. So we'll discuss where Florida fans should be. Should Travis Hunter follow Dion to Colorado? Should he go elsewhere? Georgia, Miami, USC on his list. And then, much to Aaron Murray's happiness,

Will Anderson and Bryce Young, saying, you know what? I'm not a little bitch. I'm going to play in this bowl game. But let's start with your guy, Bo Necks. as he has announced that he has returned or excuse me, he's announcing he is returning to Oregon coming off of what was a career year for Mr. Nick. Aaron,

did he make the correct choice? See, I don't know if he made the right choice or not. I think he's a guy that definitely could get drafted. And I would say, if you look at this year's draft, he could get drafted pretty high too. I think top two, top three rounds. So you're talking about significant money if he came out. I just, what he brings to the game is.

is what we thought about last week, like that playmaking ability from the quarterback position. Bo Nix has proven that he is that guy for the past couple of years. And I thought he took a major step forward once again this season. And yes, you could say, oh, well, he's playing against, you know, easier competition. He got to the SEC going out there to the Pack 12. This was a good Pac-12 conference this season.

So really impressed with what he was doing all year long. So I thought he could have left. I guess I think he would have been an early round guy. But I'm sure being in Oregon right now, being the guy, being the quarterback, he's probably making mid-six figures to close to seven figures. So he's making NIL money. He feels like maybe there's some unfinished business. The season did not end the way that he wanted to end.

So I don't blame him. But if I was in his shoes, if I was Bo Nix making a decision about the future of my career, and I look at this year's draft class, I look at next year's draft class with Caleb and Drake and some other guys, I probably would have come out. He's played good enough football, in my opinion, to, I don't know what he's. his draft grade was, like I said, I would put him in a top three grade. That's, that's more money than you would make coming back for a senior season. I probably would have, I would have darted if I was him. So, uh, it is more money, uh, certainly if you would go to the NFL, but this is where

I think NIL becomes a bit fascinating is, uh, one of the guys here locally that's one of the big NIL investors. I was asking him about this. Um, you know, you get a guy like Kishan Booty return. How does that come about? How does that happen? And he was kind of talking about, well, Well, look, the deal is, the thing that I love about NIL is that it now gives these players options, right? And in the past, when you look at Bo Nix, he is someone who has had a very adverse college career in many ways. He's had highs, he's had lows, but for the most part, was he at Auburn for three or four years, Aaron? He was three years. Okay, so for all of his three years at Auburn, he largely,

had to deal with constant negative press, right? Like he had to go to class with students kind of eyeing him sideways. He had to deal with a ton of coaching turnover to coaching staff that didn't fully believe in him or at least couldn't get the best out of him. He had to deal with a media cycle that was zeroed in on him from day one and then just talked every single day about how disappointed they were in him. That's an awful life experience to go through as a young man. Now, he emerges stronger on those side.

He gets out of Auburn. He gets out of Auburn, Alabama. He moves to Eugene Oregon, one of the most beautiful parts in the country. He gets to play in front of an incredible stadium every single weekend that loves him. He learns with a great young OC and Kenny Dilling, Ann, who can get the most at him. All of a sudden, he ties are third in the country, accounting for 42 touchdowns. They only lose two games. It's an awesome year.

Bo Nix is happy. I mean, and even happier for the three years of wandering the desert that it is. he had to go through before he reached the promise land in the past he would have had to issue that happiness to go to the NFL to try to maximize money now this what I love about NIL again it gives choices now even though he's maybe not going to make NIL money he can continue to be happy he could try to get better maybe he does he's going to make an aisle money no no that's what I'm saying and now he'll still make a portion of that NFL money and then the NFL money maybe it's a bit of a lower pick maybe not like the NFL money will still be way

there. So I love it. It allows him to stay where he's happy. It allows him to try to win a championship before he goes to the NFL. He's not thrust into the professional part of his career where when that wins, it's all over. Like, this is one of the great reasons why players being able to benefit all of their name, image, and likeness is so excellent. Because it allows, like, if you are someone who bitches about college basketball players leaving early and won and duns and players immediately going to the NFL. Well, guess what? Name image and likeness. It changes that. It changes that significantly and that now a guy like Bo Nix can sit here and return. Well, I think it goes back to the bigger issue, T, in the sense of or the thought process of, like, what is the rush to get out of

college? Like, you guys, most Americans out there that have been to university, especially some of these Power 5, like you said, Eugene or Auburn or Georgia, Alabama, LSU. Like, it's the best time their lives like what is everyone you go when you go back and meet up with your boys and you have little you know trips to Vegas or whatever it's usually your boys that go to college way like like that is and you talk about the good stupid shit that you did back on campus in your heyday like going to college is awesome and and for collegiate athletes the thought process of this is just a stepping something this is all my way to go making money like how how how can i get through this this horrible three years of my life and get to the NFL

instead of looking at like, man, I get to play college football. I get to be a normal kid and have fun and go out and go partying and go to frat parties, whatever the hell you want to do, whatever your cup of tea is. Like it's enjoyable. I loved every moment of it. Like I, I would know you. I wish. Oh, I did.

I wish I could have had a six year. I wish I could have a seventh year. Make it a minor league. I don't care. Like what is the rush? Especially you lose to like, especially with NIL now, there is no rush. sit back, enjoy being a, I guess you can't really call them amateurs anymore because they're making money, a somewhat amateur because the university is not paying you, before you get to the, to real life. Because real life for 90% of these kids is going to suck.

Because guess what? You're going to go the NFL. You're not going to make a roster. Maybe you get on P Squad, which if you're on P Squad, you're probably making more money at NIL than you are on the P Squad. Peace Squad. You have to deal with a lot more responsibilities, a lot more attack. when it comes to the media, a lot more negativity. Just sit back, enjoy it, have fun.

And most importantly, like I will always end this with, playing the damn bowl games. Playing the damn bowl games. What? Wait, that's really how you're ending it? Just going out of your way from your fear of my old man. I'm always going to find a way to, I'm always going to find a way to sneak it in. Just have fun.

Enjoy it. You're playing a kid's game. Playing the games. Stay in college. Get your degree. get that NIL, the NFL will always be there. It will always, always, always be there.

Andy J says, who took the bigger risk? Oregon or Bo Nix? And so the news story that has evolved out of this, Bo Nix announces he has staying. Oregon loses a five-star commit. And Dante Moore, who is now going to UCLA, so a team that they will now be directly facing off more.

Look, Dante Moore, or maybe, maybe good, right? But we know Bo Nix is good. And look, he's a five stars. So chances are he's going to be good. But what do they say, old man, Aaron? I know you've heard of this one. And you're in your old rocking chair over there.

What is a bird in hand worth? No, I'm in the bush. A lot. Two in the bush. No, two in the bush. Okay. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. And so they, you already had a guy who just led you to an 11 and two record.

And, account for 42 touchdowns. Dante Moore, like, this is, college football fans put themselves, I call it the Peter Griffin. There's that episode of Family Guy where they go to meet about the timeshare and then they can choose a boat or the mystery box.

And Peter goes, I mean, hey, Lois, a boat's a boat. But the mystery box can be anything. It could be a boat. Like, that's college fans with some of these prospects. They're like, I mean, look, Bo Nix is an elite quarterback, but Dante Moore could be anything. anything, even a league quarterback. It's like you already have one.

Okay. You can trust your recruiting, trust that you'll get another guy after Bo necks and let Dante Moore go his way. What I don't want to get is, is, Bo, I don't know if he can pull another year out of his ass somehow, which maybe he can, but like this will be it for Bo necks. Like there will be no more seasons after next season. So, you know, does the kid think that he's going to come in there and want to be a day once or two?

Like, that's a problem to with high school kids, especially quarterbacks. Like they want to come in day one and be the starter. No one wants to sit. No one wants to learn. No one wants to develop. And there's nothing wrong. Like I wish, I wish going back to my recruitment, like Stafford stayed another year. Like I love learning from Joe Cox.

So give me wrong. But like, I was like, man, Stafford's the best quarterback in college football right now. He's going to be the number one picking the draft. Like what I would do to learn from him for a year to study his tape, to study his footwork, how he approached practice, the games and the plays he makes, all that stuff. Like, how can I learn? from him i would say the same thing like bo next like you you have an opportunity to go learn from bow for a year a guy that was was you know a week away from maybe being in new york as a hysman

finalist um you know put his team in contention to win a pack 12 championship you have an opportunity to go sit for i don't know if he's a mid-year guy or a four-year guy or whatever it is you have a chance for six to 12 months to learn from i would say heading into next year a top five quarterback in all of college football a guy that's played for four years i got that's going to be playing his fifth season of collegiate football, learn from him, develop for a year, and then go get four years after that. So like I, and plus like what what what schools in a better position for long-term success would you say? Oregon or UCLA. I know UCLA had a great season this year, but UCLA is about to go to the to the big 10. Maybe Oregon does follow suit here in the

near future. I don't know. But Oregon has as a far better track record over the past decade of of success of winning conference championships, um, having good, play at the quarterback position i think it he's he he himself is rushing an opportunity like i said to learn from a very good quarterback and then take over if that's the reason why he's decided to flip from oregon to u sLA because bo necks decides to stay for another season yeah which i don't know if that's the reason like i don't it's it's hard for me to believe that that but but d t dr is gone at ucla right yeah yeah and so there has to be other kids on that roster though yeah but you know that ain't what Chip Kelly and the company is saying,

they're saying, look, man, you come in here, you have a chance to start day one. You can't start Oregon. You know what? You come here, you get three and done, son, three years, and then you out here. And you get to play in the Big Ten. You know what the Big Ten reminds me of?

Like, if I really just like, if I think about the Big Ten, I think about Maricana, I think about red meat, I think about Omaha Steaks. Okay, look at me, closely. Look at me. me, do I look like a man who knows me? Obviously, I do, okay? And I've loved Omaha Steaks. I

loved Omaha Steaks my entire life. And the holidays are here and they got you with your last second needs, okay? If you want to give the perfect gift this holiday season, Omaha Steaks is the play. It can even be a little late. That's fine if you get to the slate whenever you hear this. Because the bottom line is Omaha Steaks have put together a delicious selection of various gift packages to make shopping for the ones you love nice and easy. All you do is go to omostakes.com and take advantage of 50% off sitewide. Plus, use the promo code snaps. You get an additional $40 off your order, okay? Happy meat miss. Be Santa Claus, but with meats. You go over to your loved ones house, you get out your sack, you dump it out on the table, and it's just steak.

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And, well, I'm fantastically exciting. So I know you're pumped about the stakes as well, Aaron. Oh, I'm a big steak guy. Let's go. Red meat. Let's just, mm. Yeah. Red meat.

Pre. Pre Christmas, families coming over Friday. Nothing says Hanukkah like red meat in lock us. I mean, Friday night dinner is going to be turned up in the Burry House. I'll throw a little red wine on there and we're good to go. Aaron's all about red meat playing all five years of cups. and playing in the bowl game. Okay, that that's what Aaron's new favorite player is the guy from Oregon who just got his ninth year of eligibility.

Yeah, I saw. How did that happen? I did the math. I did the math. He got three medical years. Okay. So three medical years, COVID year, redshirt year, four years of eligibility. Bam.

Whoa. Almost ran out of fingers there. Can you fathom how awful that is? I mean, doing summer conditioning every single year only then get hurt and not be able to actually play. a full decade spent in a college football system. When I tell you, I was so ready to get the hell out of there after five years, like it was a race well run and I was very excited about it. But I didn't want to run another one 10 in my goddamn life if I'd not have to.

But it goes to N. I.L. again, like, okay, listen, if you can make decent money without having to spend money, because you're still getting a stipend from the university to pay for rent and food, and you're getting food and you're getting to work out, you're getting to play football. If you know like your career's done, like treat it like the minor leagues. Like get as many paychecks as you can before you have to turn into real life. Like that's how I would view it. Like if I know like, man, there's no chance that I'm going to be playing in the NFL. That's it.

Like once I'm done with college football, the next time I pick up a football is going to be in some seven-on-seven tournament with a bunch of old guys that, you know, everyone's staying in the ACL, every other play at the local YMCA. Like that's next for me. If I wanted to prolong that, what am I going to do? I'm going to stay in school as long as I can. I want to find every way possible, every loophole possible to make NIL money, to go to school for free, get another degree.

I don't know. Like, I don't, I, I'm not faulting the mayor. If you have no NFL future, get it why you can. Get it why you can. Especially, especially T. If you're doing it the right way and say, my man may walk out of here, we're like two doctorate degrees and a master. Yeah.

And, yeah. Yeah, hell yeah, let's go. Yeah. Hey, what happened to college football when it was about school, right? Yeah, the academics. These are, hey, hey, did Brumden, we all forget they're called student athletes, okay? What comes first? The student.

Exactly. Part of the equation. Aaron wants every college athlete to basically be Van Wilder. Yeah. That's a great movie. That's a great movie. I'm not sitting here in judgment of him. That would have not been for me, though.

And it's a bit of a bummer because if you play O-line, like you mentioned playing seven-on-seven. If you play O-Line, you never get to play again. Like, there is no way to ever. And not that I necessarily want to because my body would shatter into a thousand pieces. But like, it's not like basketball. There's no pickup to be had. There's no men's fast-pitched softball, even a men's fast-pitched league.

No, like you're done, you're done to Aaron's point. So go ahead and get that 10th year. Plenty of people go to college for seven years, Richard. Yeah, they're called doctors. We should do that one Halloween, maybe. Little, a little Farley David Spade action, huh? We go a little black sheep, maybe a little Tommy boy. It'd be really good.

I think the real one there is we got to get you in the Matt Foley outfit, the motivation. I would love, I don't want to try divorce. I don't want to try off the top here. I'd have to rewatch to get my impression down. But I can definitely do Matt Foley. Tebow, I can do the complete opposite. I can do tiny guy. a big jacket, you know, kind of role reversal from the season.

The big blazer boy and then I'll go fat guy. The big blazer boy. Oh, God, I love Tommy Boy back in the day. Okay, so people are talking about jingle all the way. I have a lot of jingle all the way talk, but I'll wait for it. We can get first into some more of these CFB Lottkas. Number two on the list today. How should, oh wait, last thing I had to ask you, Aaron, sorry,

I know we've gone along about Boenix in Oregon. Who do you replace Kenny Dillinghammer? You know, Kenny Dillan, now the youngest coach in the FBS, the head coach at his own saying he was O.C. at Oregon last year. It's a very good connection. How do you replace and make sure that Bo Nix can remain who he was last year? Oh, man. I don't know.

It'll be interesting to see if he brings or looks to bring maybe someone over from Georgia that he knows well, someone that's in-house. To be honest, I haven't done a ton of digging about who's going to be the next guy to take over. And that's one thing you do, which is even more surprising that Bo Nix, to me, going back to why I thought he should leave. I thought two things. One, you know, very good draft grade. Two, you're having to learn a new offense again. This will be his fourth offense that he's had to learn in five seasons, two there at Auburn. And now two at Oregon, it's hard to build consistency when you don't have the same system. Like, that's a problem.

That's crazy. There's a lot of offenses to learn. That is. Hey, but you know what? might help him in the NFL as he will, you know, he will, whatever, it could help him because, who knows, he could bounce around maybe in that league and he's at least used to having to digest new playbooks. All right. Shout out to Clint Moses in the chat says, go beaves. See you later, Alligator. And it's a perfect transition because the Oregon State beavers beat up

on the Florida Gators. Aaron, I don't know if you've seen some of the clips from this game, making the rounds. I mentioned the awful social media. You saw that pass rush clip when it's 10 nothing, game's still close, and you have a defensive end. Like,

normally when coaches or fans say going through the motions, I kind of roll my eyes because I'm like, this is the fat guy sitting on the couch drinking a beer. They're just going through the motions. But no, they just like, they're just maybe getting their ass kids. No, no.

This cat wasn't even going through the motions. Like, he didn't even do the motions. He literally walked off of the, ball and lightly waved his hands around it it feels a little bad against florida since um actually aaron what what did you think first about the game because i got to pull up a tweet right now that's going to blow your mind about how bad florida has been since the the shoe throw yeah the tweet about the shoot throw has been horrendous well first off the game was it's embarrassing and and

expect it like when you have more support staff showing up to a bowl game than you do actual players We all remember the photo from the summertime showing what Florida has built when it comes to just coaches and assistants and JAs and all that. They had more of that there than actual players. That's going to be a problem. So what was Florida's motivation? Not a lot. You know, you're on your third or four string quarterback at that point. Oregon State, you know, wanted to get to that 10th win.

They've had a good season this year there in the PAC 12. Just I think that's the biggest thing right now when we look at bowl games. You figure out which team is more motivated than the other. That's why I text you like two hours before the game and said, hey, put some cash money on Oregon State. They're about to whip up on Florida. Florida. Now they want to go to Vegas to go have fun. They want to go to the casino.

They want to go to slots. They want to. That was their trip. Now they're all that. Go enjoy the ball game. I get it. Whatever. So it was a little bit of embarrassing.

And, you know, as I was sitting around last night, watching some more clips about the game. It kind of hit me because I've kind of been irked about the whole thing for now for the past year. Dan Mullen should never have been fired at Florida. Ever, ever, ever, ever. A lot of it, honestly, T. Bob, it reminds me of a little bit of the Auburn situation where Gus was winning. Gus was having a good career. You're at Auburn.

But of course, expectations are stupid high. Why? Because you're in the SEC. Why? Because you face Nick Sabin and Alabama's in your same state. So people weren't happy for the fact that, hey, you've been to a natty. people weren't happen for the fact that you beat Alabama a couple of times. It's not good enough.

Sorry, it's not good enough. So expectations were far from what they should be. Gus leaves. You're bringing someone that was kind of very different, very unique. And look how long that lasted. It lasted a year and a half before he's, Brian Harsons on his butt looking for a new job. I kind of feel like the same thing is happening with Florida. Dan had success.

Dan had a great season in the previous year. Brought them to the Scy Championship game. was more competitive against Alabama that game than anyone else the entire season. Had a hell of a game. Bad season. I get that. Everyone wants to compare him to Florida to Georgia,

so you have that comparison similar to the Auburn, Alabama comparison. Yeah. Didn't live up to people's expectations. So you get rid of him. And then you bring in someone that, just like Harrison, very unknown and maybe in a lot of people's minds is unproven. I'm not saying that he's going to be harsh. I'm not saying he's going to get fired midway through next season.

but I just think that both situations are eerly similar. And I think both, first off, both coaches should not have been fired in the first place to start with. So I don't know. I just feel like there's a lot of fans right now kind of send back saying, you know, we'll give him year one. We get it. He needs to make this team his own. They're recruiting fine. We'll give him another couple seasons.

But I just go back to the very beginning. Dan Mullen should never have been fired in the first place. Oh, ho, ho. Hello there, Sancho, here. I hope you're having a wonderful Christmas season. I'm busy up here in the North Pole, cobbling together sweet toys for all the little girls and boys. But I've employed one of my favorite people,

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Oh, ho, ho, ho. I agree with you on nearly everything. It is. And I didn't really frame it in my head that way. A lot of the narrative brushstrokes that created this situation are shockingly similar to the Harsen hired Auburn. The only difference I would say is even though Harsen was maybe at a, was at a bigger school in Boise State. I'm actually more impressed

with what Billy Napier did at UL, UL Lafayette here in Louisiana. And granted, maybe that's a bit of local bias, but like Boise State has been an elite spot where they have won an elite amount of games. Like Brian Harsen took over somewhere

with tradition. That was very good. And he didn't elevate it. He kept it going, I suppose, but he did not elevate it. That was the big major red flag when they hired him in the first place. U.L. had been really bad. for a while. It's funny, UL's fortune is always kind of directly coincided with oil's fortune, like big oil, like quite literally. You have money to get from boosters, et cetera, et cetera. Billy Napier transcended that, and he made a UL team that was not winning into a consistent threat

to win the Sunbelt Championship putting together some great years. So I think that like I still, again, I can't halt, I can't fault the hire of Napier at Florida. But like I always talk about, I'm a hiring nihilist. You just never know if these things are going to work out. Like everything should say that Billy Napier should work out. But year one feels awful. Year one feels awful. In fact, it's been a couple of bad years as Florida.

This comes from John Tweet Sports points out that Florida since the shoe throw in 2020, which is where Florida had the game one player throws an LSU player's shoe. It ends up in a personal foul, 50-year field goal, Florida losing it. Since that game. I mean, they were on the verge of the playoff. Since that game, Florida is 1 and 7 against ranked teams, 5 and 13 against the SEC, 12 and 17 overall. They have fired their coach,

and they've had back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since 78, 79. So while I still believe in Billy Napier, this season went off the rails. and they underachieved relative to their talent this season. And he failed to get growth out of Anthony Richardson, somebody who had so much potential when he was out there beating Utah at night in the swamp back in week one. We were all like, oh, my God, dude, how ahead of schedule is Florida?

They've arrived. And ultimately, do you want to see does a team ascend or descend over the course of a year? And that's how we judge the coaches. And there's no doubt that Napier's Florida descended here in year one. Yep. So the big question, because I go back to the comparison issue, like, are you good enough at Auburn to beat Nick Saban? That's all people care about. Like, you can go one in 11. But if you beat Nick Saban, Alabama, it was a good season. Like, that's all they care about. Like, that is the game. The same thing could be said for Ford and Georgia right now, two that's best teams in the East for the past, you know, essentially decade. Missouri had a little bit of time there, you know, when I was coming out. But it's been Georgia. or Florida, really, just ping pong and back and forth of who's going to essentially represent the East and the Scy championship game more times than not. So you will get judged on can you beat Kirby Smart and can you beat Georgia? My question is when you look at both these coaches, so if you

look at Billy Napier and Dan Mullen, which one of them do you have more confidence can beat Georgia and Kirby Smart? And my answer is Dan Mollett. Like if that's where you need to get done, at the end of day if like if your job is to beat georgia because if you know if you beat georgia you will be in the cc east and that's goal number one is to make it to Atlanta to give yourself an opportunity to win i see championship game if that's what needs to get done my money's on dan moll and on on on on billy napier so so will billy napier ever beat will will will billy napier ever beat kirby smart and i will say no he won't dan mollins ever done that i don't think yeah i mean i don't think he'll ever be kirby smart i don't i don't think he'll be there long enough to beat him

God, you sure are feeling. At least Gus, at least Gus, at least Gus beat Sabin. At least Gus brought you to a natty. Yeah. And Dan did the same thing there. They didn't be into a natty, but, you know, had a hell of a season, got to the SEC championship game, beat Kirby. Like he did some of the stuff that you wanted him to do.

I would say, I don't think Billy's going to get there. So I don't think he's a better. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, no, I just don't think like. I said, like, if I would put my money on a horse, my money's going on Dan. Yeah, and if any of the audio listeners are wondering why we have some of those weird hiccups, we deal with like a two-second delay.

It's one of the only thing that sucks about doing this show remotely as opposed to me, just getting to be in Aaron's house every day doing it with him. But no, look, if it's a Dan Mullen versus Billy Napier conversation, I mean, I'm with you, do. Like, we saw Dan Mullen go from, oh, he has to have a running quarterback back to, oh, I made Kyle Trask one of the best pastors in the country. Like, like, I will never, ever, ever, ever doubt Dan Mullen's coaching ability. For a pure schematic standpoint, I think he was one of the best in all of coaching.

Now, I think he obviously had some recruiting things that rubbed the wrong way. Maybe he didn't want to tickle everybody that he had to tickle down there in Florida, right? Like, Dan Mullen's problem was maybe the politics of everything and the recruiting aspect. Where Napier's done that well, it's been the actual on the field stuff. that Napier has struggled with here in year number one. I kind of think Florida and Oklahoma fans are in the same situation in that they're both having to do some mental gymnastics about look.

Yes, did you underachieve relative of your talent? Yes, but it's year one. Give this man time and he will figure it out. We will see. But you're right. I mean, Florida is a school that views themselves no lower than second best in the east. And that now appears much harder with a Tennessee that has seemingly arrived. Yeah, yeah, bad too.

Which that, I mean, and that's where you get into. That's the biggest strike against Napier is the fade away at the end of the season. They fell apart. But now you've got a Tennessee that looks like they're sustainably good. You have South Carolina who continues to get friskier and friskier. You have Kentucky who is obviously capped, but is much more solid than they have been in the past. Like the road to ping ponging with Georgia is infinitely harder than it was previously. And we go see if Billy Napier is a man to get it done.

T Pat says A money's like, hell no, T Bob coming to the house every day. That is not true. Aaron would love nothing more than for me to be in his study every day. This isn't it. Yeah, I would love for T Bob to be here, make the show even more entertaining. Plus we can make lock us together. Question T. what you got so we both we both played against alabama in their heyday and obviously you know

this this goes more to east or west in this conference and and listen the cc will change so this is going to be irrelevant in a couple years and it looks like 2024 when texed oklahoma come but the road to atlanta when alabama was going through their their dynasty yeah what was it was it i guess i'm trying to find a way to phrase this the best way was it harder for lSU and company to get over that hump to get to Atlanta compared to the east trying to get through Georgia right now. What was, I guess what's more realistic? The rest of the West getting through Alabama for the past decade or the rest of the east going to try to get through Georgia for the past two years for the next decade plus now. Hmm.

Are you going to be asking who's a scarier final boss like? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, she's a great question. Essentially.

Essentially. Essentially. So it's interesting because... This goes back to our conversation about like Florida getting over this hump. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no doubt. No doubt.

And I mean, they kind of feel the same in a lot of ways. Now, for my own personal experience, I finished three and three against Alabama in my years at LSU. Like, if you've ever read about the Punic Wars back in the day where as Rome and Carthage and the two major superpowers of the time, well, there's a reason why in modern society we have all of these Roman echoes, right? Like we have synods and Congress and we have all of these things that you can trace back to Roman civilization.

There's not a lot of Carthaginian echoes, okay? I think Barcelona is named after Hamilcar Barka. Outside of that, Rome pretty much wiped the other superpower from the face of the earth. Like they took them, salted their lands, absolutely destroyed their culture. To me, that was kind of that 2011 national champion. championship game. We were Roman Carthage. The superpowers are meeting. They succeeded. We fell.

LSU was in ruins and Alabama enjoyed essentially, now Auburn got frisked couple times, but essentially unchecked success over the next decade. The reason why I would maybe give a slight nod to Georgia as being scarier here is that if they went back-to-back championships, they have done that for, well, actually, no, never mind. It might continue to be the same. Because Saban only won back to back championships one time. And it was 11 and 12. And that was what, five years in? And I think Kirby wins it this year.

Is that five years again? So actually no, Aaron, he's actually following the blueprint exactly for what Nick Saban laid out if he wins back to back Natty's. And then if he does that, yes, the wise men would say that we are destined to suffer for a decade under the rule of the red and black, the fearsome. slobber tooth genetically inbred bulldog uh which just sounds like a horrible time to be alive which is why i'm so thankful that uh brian kelly will be coming to assert the throne and put that dog down and the cast iron throne will reign supreme once again well i guess i do the

two two i mean you brought a good point with brian kelly there too like your two biggest rivals i guess you have three when fortissate looks like i mean four states rolling too you know but i'll focus on the east right now um kirby smart and brian kelly like me he just goes back to the hiring like i'm not trying to have a whole you know rip on billy napier segment here because i do think you did actually pitch this i know you did literally pitch this topic yeah but it wasn't i love aaron smiled the the the the topic wasn't billy napier sucks the topic was dan mullen should never been fired that's That's two different things.

I'm not saying Billy Napier is a terrible coach. I'm just saying Ben Nolan should be still the head coach of Florida today right now. But Billy Napier and they're two of their biggest three rivals, rivalries right now. And you could even say maybe all three of them is the inferior coach to all three. And then for Florida, it just goes back to head scratching moment, similar to Auburn and Brian Harrison. You hire your, you took a major risk on hiring this coach. You took a guy that is not proven at this level.

and are giving him now an opportunity to coach at the power five level, the question really becomes. And after next year, if it once again is an average football team, say they even just barely improve, say they're seven and five. What is the discussion going to be? Like his leash is not as long compared to a coach that had more of a proven track record at the Big Boy League.

God, I mean, life comes at your fast, if you're Napier. They loved them all off season. He's got infinitely more money. Like LSU is actually doing very poorly in the NIL space. I feel like a lot of my fears, I feel like a lot of my fears when it came to, you know, everybody's cheering for this new age of college football. And I agree from a player empowerment standpoint.

But like Louisiana is a shit state. I love it. I live here. I was born here. All my family lives here. But we ranked dead last and everything, right? Economic opportunity, education, all these sorts of things. And so I wondered in this new age of college,

football would the literal economy of the state become a ballast around the neck as you try to stay competitive with these more successful places, and you are seeing that. Whereas like even Florida has four or five times the amount of money in their collective than LSU does. But with all that hype and all the positive momentum, Napier had and beating Utah, here we sit. And well, these are the conversations that we're having. That's why I say life comes at you fast. Real quick to close up here and talk a little bit of a little proud.

As Prime is going to Colorado, again, I talked about it on the app. If you have not seen it, go look up the clip of Dion Sanders talking with one of his players who kind of blew the game in the HBCU National Championship in the Celebration Bowl this weekend. And if you think I'll Dion, if you think Dion is a coach, if you think Coach Prime is all flashed and no substance, the clip that has gone a bit viral, I think we'll show you otherwise. And so the question is, as he leaves Jackson State and starts anew, will a very important player follow him? Travis Hunter, the former number one player in the country who rebuffed Florida State to follow D on the Jackson State. There are all kind of rumors about a million dollar NIL. I don't believe to my knowledge that ever coalesce. And it's something that they denied throughout the process.

And now Travis Hunter is decided, okay, do I go to Georgia, Miami, USC, or? or Colorado should Hunter follow prime yeah he should follow prime i think you know he went to the hbc you for a reason you know i think he obviously bought into a little bit about what the main mission was for dion and why dion went to hbc you went to jackson saying in the first place but you also want to get coached by one of the best guys at your position by the best db of all time hey i get an opportunity to go learn from coach prime for three four years hell yes sign me up i mean listen i i i'm a great story of this because i never watched georgia football growing up literally my first time watching georgia was the the the the the the sugar bowl when they

woped up on hawai and i was like ooh interesting team love the uniforms kind of badass stafford's pretty sweet oh man that was a good good did some research learned yeah it was a hell of the game did some research learned a lot you know a lot more about bobo and in coach rick and their history and their development of quarterbacks i'm like man i want to go get coached by those guys they know how to coach quarterbacks that's why i didn't grow up a georgia fan i could care less about Georgia growing up like I'm a Florida kid I went to Florida games I got offered from Florida Florida State Miami USF UCF like people were like no way Aaron leaves the state of Florida but I want to go get coached by two guys that knew the position like I said could develop

and that's why I went to Georgia and obviously fell in love with it living the state now and and very happy with that decision so for me for me looking at his situation when he had offers from all over the country I would say 80% of why he went to Jackson State was the opportunity to go live and learn and be around prime. Yeah. So why would you not continue your reasoning for going to Jackson State now going to Colorado? Well, okay. So I, again, I don't know that I can say what Travis Hunter should do, right?

Like only Travis Hunter knows what he should do. But I do see the angles here. And sure, sticking with prime, it makes sense for every reason that you just said. On the other hand, what I could also see out of Hunter is when you do look around and you see all these NIL deals. And sure, you can get paid at Colorado, but we know Miami's paying. We know SC is paying. And we know you can get paid at Georgia, probably more than you could at Colorado. I feel comfortable saying that.

And so the question is, does he feel like, okay, I played for Coach Prime and he taught me how to approach the work? He established great fundamentals in me. You know, I got to be committed in the classroom. I got to be committed every day working out. I got to take this seriously. Like, he helped me build the foundational blocks upon which my career can flourish. And now that I've learned that base, I want to go start to take more advantage of my name and play for championships. And if you walk into Georgia, is it going to be competitive?

Will you be guaranteed a spot? No. But if you get a spot, the rewards will be greater than anywhere else. If you walk into USC, you will be guaranteed the starting spot. you will likely compete for championships, and yes, you would get paid. Miami's a bit different here because that would almost feel like more of a purely monetary angle,

though Mario Cristobal is recruiting very well right now. My only deal with Chris Ball is I have to see him win with that talent, right? Like it's one of the reasons why Brent Venables, again, is so disappointed in Oklahoma this year. He had top 10 talent. Look at the recruiting classes. He is someone who had a team that was significantly better, pure talent-wise, than his Big 12 brethren.

and he underachieved with that team. I feel like Martin Cristobal underachieved with even this year's Miami team. He has to prove to me that he won't continue to do so. So if I'm Hunter, I think Georgia and SC personally make the most sense here. But again, I think there's a very clear reasoning and logical reason that he could choose any one of these schools, which is I just did something that's awful to do in this job, which is I literally gave you nothing. I threw a lot of words out there. And all I said at the end of the day was I could see him going to any of these four schools.

I'm sorry, bro. I'm sorry. Hold, let me try again. Let me try again. He should go to SC because Georgia sucks. The future's in L.A. And Lincoln Riley's going to be better than Kirby Smart. Bam.

All right. So I did have the thought like when he committed to Jackson State from the very beginning, you know, there was a lot of discussion about this. And I kind of was buying into the thought process of, okay, you go to Jackson State for, year you you learn from from you know from from from prime you help continue the mission of of the hbc use to bring attention which it did i mean there was a ton of attention what prime is done and obviously when you get the number of recruit there's a lot of eyeballs now on the program he accomplished both those in year one and then you go do that you enjoy you learn what you need to learn from coach prime and then you go to someone somewhere more realistic in order to win a

national championship you put yourself in a situation to where you use your one free go you go to Florida State or Georgia or Miami or Alabama or whatever it is and then say, okay, I did what I came to do. Let me go now. But the hiccup with this whole thing is now obviously prime leaving to go to a power five school. Obviously Colorado is a one and 11 program, but look what teams have done. And I just feel like, and why I always say like once you get around Coach Prime and once you get on

campus it's and once he has his talents in you it is it is very very difficult for you to let go i'm telling you man he gives he creates some of the best kool-aid out there and when you drink that cool that that that coach prime kool-aid you love it you feel it it's in your body and and you want more and more and more of it like he is that kind of coach that type of personality i just don't think like once again like once you're part of it i i wouldn't want to leave man i i he's an ultimate salesman, I am buying everything that he's selling. Look, I feel you. A lot of people are kind of

intimating that they think that the scene in the locker room after the Jack State game was inauthentic or staged. And I want to push back on that. First off, just because it's filmed doesn't mean it's staged. There's cameras everywhere nowadays for a reason. That just comes

with the territory. Secondly, I've been in that situation. Like I said, I feel like where I feel like I really screwed something up. And I've kind of, well, I never had a coach talking like that. That would be great. I don't know.

I don't know. Maybe I'm naive. Maybe I'm naive. And maybe you're cynical. It was all staged viewpoint is correct. That is not the feeling that I got in my opinion. I think it felt very real. And at a certain point,

doesn't even matter. Because I think the words that Dion expressed in how he expressed them had value when he was telling this kid, look, you've overcome so much adversity to get here. This is just more. This is the adversity. How you respond to this moment will determine the type of man you are going to be. This is what is going to prepare you for life. These are all truths.

So like at a certain point, it doesn't matter if it's staged or not because he gave that young kid wisdom. And he made him feel better and he gave him something to work on and you grow upon. But no, I think it is legitimate. I think if you're saying it's stage, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe during this Christmas week, we check the cynicism at the door a little bit. And what I love, Aaron, is that you could talk about speaking of being hopeful and

naive. Like, yeah, Colorado went one and 11. But and honestly, that is one of the great, um, traits of this new age of college football. Uh, whatever it is in life, hope is a hell of a thing. And one thing this new age does, it provides you with hope. If you, if you get the right hire who people can be excited about with knowing that you can go into the transfer for that maybe you can get some money to pay kids, like anybody can have hope. Whereas previously be, okay, we got to wait three to four years to build up. So. So I'll be very intrigued to see what the year one return is from Colorado and just how much of that hope they can fulfill. Hey, y'all, we have to go.

Aaron Murray has a radio show to do. Aaron, I'll give you 30 seconds. How do you feel about Will Anderson and Bryce Young playing in the bowl game? I appreciate you. Let me get one more. I was celebrating, drinking, getting wild. two kids unlike anyone else there in college football

that actually love the game of football. I hope it starts a trend for it. Knock on wood, please, please let these kids stay healthy because you know if one of them get hurt, no kid will ever play a bowl game ever again.

So please, please, please, please, please. I didn't even think about that. Please, please stay healthy. Yes. They may just get rid of the bull system because they're going to know every kid is just going to not play if Will Anderson or Bryce Young get hurt in this game.

So I am praying they stay healthy. I hope they go out there and kick ass. I hope they dominate and hope they go on and get picked in the top five in the NFL draft. So everyone can see there's nothing wrong with playing in the bowl game. Yeah, man. I understand what guys don't play, but I do love this. And as much as I hate it, you know me. My entire grift is hating Alabama.

It does speak to Sabin's culture that you would have these two guys put it on for their brothers for the team, for something greater than themselves. And if I'm an NFL scout for whatever this is worth, I'm giving them a check in the pro department. And I mean like pros and cons. Like I'm giving them a positive, a plus mark or what you will. Well, thank you all so much for hanging out with us in the chat. For real, you know, we love seeing new faces here.

Saw a few today. This is the most fun that we have every single day here on these snaps college football podcast. Thank you to the volume, sports. Podcast Network and YouTube channel, hit the like button, subscribe to the channel. That really helps us. Please, wherever, I'm loving seeing the reviews, guys. They're creeping up. Maybe we'll read some on the show soon.

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