The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Virginia Secures Two Transfer Portal Commitments; How Do You Grade UVA Transfer Portal On 12/17/24?

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Virginia Secures Two Transfer Portal Commitments How Do You Grade UVA Transfer Portal On 12/17/24? ACC Landscape – What Has Stood Out So Far? Rumors Link Anthony Colandrea To Ole Miss Memphis (8-2) at UVA (6-4), 7PM, Wed, ESPN2 Is Memphis Game A Must Win Game For UVA? Keys To The Game For Virginia Basketball Is Dai Dai Ames Healthy? Will He Play At 100%? Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Tuesday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry show, a talk show that goes an hour straight without commercial break, a talk show that spotlights the University of Virginia, college athletics, the Atlantic Coast Conference, and the musings of a friend, Jerry Ratcliffe, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, his namesake website, jerryratcliffe.com. I am on every day, usually at the breakfast table to start my day with my boys and my wife sitting around that table, coffee in hand, iPhone in hand, scrolling his Twitter account or his website to see what the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer is pontificating about or pondering. JerryRackliff.com has a story on the University of Virginia landing a quarterback from North Texas and a quarterback from Nebraska.

We'll talk about that today. We'll talk about the Memphis Tigers hitting the John Paul Jones Arena on Wednesday. The Tigers, a heavy favorite, a top 25 team, and what could be a must-win game for Ron Sanchez and his team as they try to build a tournament resume before ACC play starts. We'll talk the rumors about Anthony Calandria to the Southeastern Conference and Ole Miss. This was a quarterback that went unnoticed in high school, now being courted by big-time college football programs. Judah Wickauer behind the camera, the director and producer of the talk show. Judah Wickauer, studio camera, then a two-shot,

as we welcome the star of the program, Hootie Ratcliffe. Good Tuesday morning to you. Good morning to you, and I hope you've had a good week, and I think we'll have an interesting show today. I think we've got a lot to cover. I want to highlight the man's looking fresh. He's outfitted by one of his partners, Roback. Exactly.

And a very nice hoodie, my friend. Thank you very much. You matched the drawstrings of the hoodie to the undershirt as well. Looking fresh, hoodie. I was purely by mistake. Half asleep when I got dressed this morning. My friend, the show is yours. I start with the same question on every talk show. Where would you like to begin?

What has tickled your fancy so far? Well, I guess the portal is obviously the talk of the town right now. And obviously those two quarterbacks were a big deal because Virginia was in dire straits, clearly losing Calandria and Tony Musket's eligibility being exhausted. So they were kind of behind the eight ball. They needed to bring in two guys, at least one with some college experience and success behind under his belt, and certainly the kid Chandler Morris from North Texas State.

Virginia will be his fourth school, by the way. He started out at Oklahoma, then TCU. I guess he actually started out at Arkansas. But, well, maybe he didn't actually go there. I think his dad was there. Oklahoma, TCU, North Texas. Oklahoma, TCU, North Texas, and now Virginia. Yeah, so his dad, obviously, is Chad Morris,

who coached with Tony Elliott at Clemson 2011 to 2014. They were sort of co-offensive coordinators. Elliott was the play caller, I believe. But Chad Morris came out of the high school ranks in Texas where he was a very innovative offensive mind and was hired by Dabo down at Clemson and then went out on his own, was head coach at Arkansas and SMU. And, you know, that's where his son flourished as a quarterback

in the high school, Texas high school football. And threw for, I think, an ungodly 4,000 yards and 46 touchdowns his senior year at Highland Park High School in Dallas. That's the rich neighborhood in Dallas that all the SMU billionaires live in. So, you know, the kid comes from a solid background and has had a certain amount of success. He had a great year at North Texas this past year and finished his 31 touchdown passes, were the fourth most in major college football behind Deion Sanders' son, Shadur, and Cam Ward, who is a Heisman Trophy finalist,

and Cade Klubnick from Clemson. So he's got legit credentials, and it'll be interesting to see how that translates to Virginia football. And then the other kid from Nebraska has four years of you know Morris has one year of eligibility left which would give Virginia time to bring in the Nebraska kid who has four years of eligibility left and they can kind of groom him to be the guy of the future he had nice high school credentials too, but unfortunately for him, lost out to a superstar quarterback prospect.

Who played as a true freshman. Yeah, five-star guy, started all the games for Nebraska. And he's a freshman, was a freshman, so he's not going anywhere apparently, unless he gets itchy feet, happy feet, and wants to go for the money somewhere. But two solid guys in that position. But as we know, I know what you're thinking right now.

Yeah. You want to tell them what I'm thinking right now? Because I think what I'm thinking and what you know I'm thinking is exactly right there, Hootie. Yeah. How are you going to protect these guys? It doesn't matter how good they are if they can't. Bill McChesney on the feed says the same thing, the mayor of McIntyre. Yeah.

It's like you can have anybody behind center. If you've got no one protecting them, they all throw the same way. The mayor is exactly right, and we've seen that time and again. And if you can't protect the quarterback, then, you know, it's fool's gold. They've got to, I think that was the critical thing outside of landing quarterbacks in the portal is getting some proven successful offensive linemen in here who can keep the pass rush off of these guys.

I know they're in it for a guy from New Mexico who played for Bronco. He's down to Virginia and Kentucky, and then there's two or three other guys that didn't give up a single sack this past season that Virginia has offered. So they're in it for guys, but they need to close the deal. Virginia football, guys, makes the splashy, gets the splashy commitments with the North Texas gunslinger who's got one year of eligibility remaining. He looks like, on paper, the starter in week one

and will get the majority of the starter snaps during spring ball and training camp. And he's got pedigree, as Hootie's highlighted. Curious, the Tony Elliott link to his father at Clemson, how much did that play in with Morris coming to the University of Virginia for his last year of college football? I'm sure it was an impact. It was a factor.

Those guys worked closely together for, I guess, five years, four or five years, on some really successful football teams, so they know what each other stands for and what they're all about. I'm sure that Chad Morris was pretty confident that Tony can do something with his kid. I'm sure that was a factor. Immediate playing time in a Power 4 conference, which North Texas is not in, was a factor. And I imagine NIL probably played a role, too.

We were told that Calandria was making around $800,000 this past season at Virginia. I didn't know that. That's fresh news to me here. That's worth repeating. Yeah. $800,000 a year? Yeah. That's a nice chunk of money.

It is a nice chunk of money. And I imagine Morris is probably going to get somewhere in that neighborhood. If not more. If not more. If not more. Yeah. So I imagine all those factors adds up to a pretty attractive package for that young man. And it's important to highlight, Chandler Morris is not only a coach's son, not only an offensive wizard's son, but this guy is an elder statesman.

He first went to Oklahoma in 2000. He did not play much at all in 2020. Excuse me, I said 2000. In 2020, only five passing attempts, as JerryRackliff.com has reported. Then he enters the transfer portal, goes to TCU in 2021, red shirts, plays, but't burn burn a season of eligibility gets hurt in 2022 then he goes to tcu for a 2023 season where he has a breakout year that's at north texas where he has a breakout year and now he's at the university of virginia so this is a

this is an elder statesman quarterback this is what in a lot of ways would be a fifth year type quarterback. Yeah, he's been around the block and he's seen some pretty good offensive systems, worked with some good coaches I'm sure and just played in a couple of different conferences and probably seen it all and his numbers are mind bogoggling if you stop and think about it. And, I mean, if he had been in the same place for four years, Lord knows what his numbers might be like if he had started all that time.

But, yeah, you're right. He's a guy that's got tons of experience and that that should weigh heavily for virginia in fact the fact that they've got a guy like that in their huddle um i agree i agree what do you think of the quarterback plan they have in play where they have a a passing of the torch if you may with the the kid from Nebraska, who also has pedigree. I mean, we're talking about one of the top prospects out of football-rich Nebraska out of high school. Yeah, I mean, he had good numbers in high school.

I think he was a three-star. But, you know, he had some solid numbers, and Matt Rule was looking for their quarterback of the future, and obviously this kid wasn't it. But for a certain amount of time, he probably looked like he was going to be until they got the Riella guy, who was the topic of a major recruiting battle, if I recall. And so, you know, finishing behind him is certainly no embarrassment. But, yeah, he does have a good pedigree.

And you got him to come in and learn your system this year. I don't know if he'll be an early enrollee or not. Perhaps. learn from Morris. If he's as good as advertised, you're set for the next few years. Virginia football makes the

splash in the transfer portal. Now it's time for the next few years. Virginia football makes the splash in the transfer portal. Now it's time for the probably the most critical position. The coaches, you ask any coach, they say the two most critical positions on a football field are the offensive and defensive line. And we saw that with Virginia football this past season. The offensive line

could not protect Calandria. We'll get to Calandria and the rumors that are linking him to Ole Miss in a matter of moments, but we all got to highlight the offensive line here. The offensive line's got to be much improved. This team is going to improve. And what we think has got to be a make-or-break year for the head coach, Tony Elliott.

The last three years in Charlottesville, he is the losingest head coach in college football the last three years. Yeah, in FBS. In FBS. Or at least Power Four. But, yeah, and they have to get the offensive line right. They have to. It's a must.

And if they don't, then it's just going to be more of the same. And his job is clearly on the line this coming season. And they can't afford any shortcuts or any mistakes. They've got to get the offensive line right. There's not many guys returning from that line, which was... Suspect.

Very suspect, very shaky. And, I mean, they finished next to last 131 or 132 in the nation and quarterback sacks given up. And no quarterback can operate successfully under that kind of pressure. And I know Tony Elliott likes to say the offensive line always gets the blame. Well, in this case, I think the majority of the time they probably deserved the blame because they just didn't do the job. And, you know, surely Calandria had somewhat of a role in that

in holding on to the ball too long sometimes or maybe not knowing when to throw it away. And some of the receivers couldn't separate from man-to-man coverage, but I still think that the majority of the blame falls on that offensive line, and they just didn't get the job done. I 100% agree. The majority of the blame falls on the offensive line, and I put the second majority of the blame on the play calling with Kitchens,

the offensive coordinator. Some of that as well, yeah. Yeah. James Watson watching the program. Bob Shotta watching the program. Tom Powell watching the program. Scott Thorpe, Rob Neal, thank you for watching. Charlotte, North Carolina watching the program, Tom Powell watching the program, Scott Thorpe, Rob Neal, thank you for watching, Charlotte, North Carolina watching the program, Atlanta, Crozet, Richmond, Northern Virginia,

Southwestern Virginia, the folks in Allentown watching the program, just to name a few. Virginia football, the rumor has Calandria, who had so much promise in upside, in a lot of ways seen as the golden boy, the future, the savior of Virginia football. The scuttlebutt has Calandria linked to Ole Miss Hootie in the transfer portal. Well, he visited Ole Miss on Friday, I believe it was, and apparently liked what he saw. He had a visit set up to go to Pitt yesterday. I don't know if he took it or not, and he's supposed to visit Syracuse next week, and again, I don't know where that stands right now. There were some reports that he had committed to Ole Miss. I haven't been able to confirm that,

but most of the people expect him to commit to Lane Kiffin's program. Who knows if he actually will or not, but certainly that would be incredibly tempting. It would be hard to turn down Lane Kiffin and the kind of success they're having down at Ole Miss. They've been one of the more exciting teams in the NCAA to watch over the past three seasons. He's building something special there. It appears. The guy's a solid coach and

a good recruiter. He could certainly do worse than going to Ole Miss. You're playing in the best conference in America. Exciting football every week. Anthony Calandria, as a Virginia fan who bleeds orange and blue, I want nothing but Anthony Calandria to have success. I want him to have success wherever he goes. It terrifies me having Anthony Calandria in the Atlantic Coast Conference

with a bigger chip on his shoulder and something to prove and a chance to face the Virginia Cavaliers. It scares the bejeebus out of me. Yeah, the kid was I always enjoyed being around him. He was He had Moxie. He had Moxie.

He was a little more cool and under control this year around the media than he was. First year he was kind of wild, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, so to speak, but didn't really, he talked like he played, and no holds barred and not much of a filter. So he was more fun in i had respect as a freshman but they wanted him to tone things down a little bit this past year and he did

but um you know i i thought i thought it was highly predictable that uh if you're gonna mess with a guy's emotions and his pride. The whole fan base saw this coming. Yeah. I don't see how Tony Elliott did not see this coming. How could you not see that coming? Yeah, right. He made the perception was Tony Elliott made Anthony Calandria the fall guy

by benching him before the Virginia Tech game, and he's doing this to a guy who is barely 20 years old. Yeah. Who's trying to figure life out. Exactly. And he was put in some bad circumstances a lot. So I don't think Landry was totally to blame for that collapse at the end of the season.

I mean, without him, they would not have beaten Pittsburgh. He made some outstanding plays in that game. Sure, he made mistakes, but he was under duress constantly, and you can't overlook that. I don't care if you're a head coach or somebody that doesn't know much about football. If your quarterback is made uncomfortable, and that's what the defenses were trying to do.

Mack Brown was the first guy to come out and just flat out say it. Virginia goes as Calandria goes and we're going to try to take Calandria away cut the head off the snake and everybody obviously followed suit with that and he made some brilliant plays, extending plays

with his feet found receivers downfield, escaped incredible pass rushes. And, yeah, he was sacked a lot and threw some interceptions and made mistakes. But, again, I don't totally blame him for all of that. I think he was put in some precarious positions by the play calling and protection or lack thereof.

And again, Virginia's inability to establish a reliable running game throughout the season, which was a little better this year, but still not where they needed to be. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. It's a talk show where we encourage participation from you, the audience. If you're watching on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Rumble, any of the podcasting platforms, if you're listening to us live, put it in the feed. I will relay the comments to the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer.

Let's go to some of the comments coming in. This is from Lynchburg, Virginia. Tim Bates, we appreciate your questions and your commentary. You make the program better. He says, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet on the show, but is there any insight on if staff changes will be made this offseason with Coach Tony Elliott's group? He says he loves the show, by the way.

I'll throw that to Hootie with a little additional color. The skipper in Blacksburg, Virginia Tech, has canned multiple coaches, including a couple that arrived with him to Blacksburg. So we saw coaching changes for a Virginia Tech team that in the preseason was predicted to be in the top of the conference, finished mediocre at.500, and he makes coaching changes. So far, nothing from Virginia Hootie. Yeah, and I wonder if that speaks to the philosophy of the two athletic programs and the two ADs and the head football coach.

If somebody is failing at their job, do you keep them around? Or do you make changes to make your program, your product better? Most CEOs don't fear making changes, particularly at serious football programs and serious football schools. And right now you have to question whether Virginia is either of those. Um, I don't think anything's coming or we would have seen it already. Exactly. Um,

Tony Elliott told us on national signing day, uh, was that less than two weeks ago that, um, was that less than two weeks ago, that he didn't anticipate any staff changes unless somebody left of their own volition. And I haven't heard anything about that happening. So I'm assuming everything is status quo moving forward. I think he's exactly right.

If there were coaching changes that would have been made, it would have happened before the portal. So the commitments understood who they would be working alongside. Making changes during the portal or post portal is just not stable organizational development. Just think about it as a business. Comments, put them in the feed. I'll relay them live on air from Waynesboro. Kevin Yancey throws a little shade with what's going on here. He says, let's be serious.

Before these portal commitments, has anyone on the show or anyone in the fan base, had they heard of these quarterbacks before? And then he says, the kid from North Texas has one year. It's a repeat of what they had. Without an O-line, it doesn't matter who's the quarterback. The kid from Nebraska hasn't taken a game of college football activity, a snap of college football.

And he says, what is the definition of insanity? Of course, that's insanity doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result as what he's alluding to there yeah well i i don't know if i totally agree with him on the on the i think we should push back on that on the morris kid yeah right i mean he's he's proven he can play college football and i think had he not been injured that one year at TCU he probably would have put up some pretty big numbers there for a really good football program I mean is he a Heisman candidate probably not but then again who? If he gets the kind of protection he needs,

he could put up some incredible numbers and Virginia could possibly pull off some stuff. I mean, nothing's impossible in college football because things can change so quickly depending on your talent level. And that's what Virginia is clearly trying to do we'll see how this cake bakes and and you know they they may be a bust in the portal who knows they've gotten some decent players out of it in the past and they've gotten some guys that really didn't help them very much but this But this is a major rebuild going on. More than half the roster, they have to rebuild through the portal.

More than half the roster, folks. Yeah, I mean, how do you do that in one recruiting cycle, particularly under the recruiting circumstances that they have to deal with, with the 60-hour deal and all that, and having to go mostly after grad students, not totally, but for a major part of those recruits. I don't know about the Nebraska kid. No, I had never heard of him before.

I had heard of the guy that beat him out, obviously. So who knows? He may be really good. He may not be. We don't know that. I do think Morris has potential to be a pretty good college quarterback, and he is. I think he is a good college quarterback.

I mean, he passed for nearly 4,000 yards and 31 touchdowns this past season. Granted, it was at North Texas State and not a power four school, but that's still a pretty good level of success. It's the American Athletic Conference, which SMU came from, and we've seen the kind of football that they play. So I wouldn't totally disregard him as just another fly-by-night guy. I completely agree. Kevin Yancey continues with a little bit of the bearish commentary

on what they're doing with the quarterbacks and the transfer portal. I respect your opinion, Kevin Yancey. I know you follow college football. I know you're a Florida State fan. We'll respectfully agree to disagree on this. A kid with the Chandler Morris pedigree, a dad who's a head coach, a guy who was recruited by Oklahoma coming out of Texas. This guy's a big-time quarterback here. Is he a big-time quarterback that's going to compete for the Heisman like Hootie said? No, he's not. But is he a big-time quarterback here. Is he a big-time quarterback that's going to compete for the Heisman? Like Hootie said, no, he's not. But is he a big-time quarterback

for the University of Virginia? Yes, he is. So it's all about perspective and putting things into perspective here. And everyone's in agreement with the viewers and listeners that continue. Let me ask Kevin Yancey. Had he ever heard of Bryce Perkins before he came here and did what he did? Exactly. Right. It's how it plays out. It's called recruiting. Yeah.

It's called recruiting. The offensive line commentary is all over the feed. And viewers and listeners, we're 100% with you that the O-line is something that must be reimagined or rebuilt for this team to have some success. I love doing the show with Hootie because I learn a lot of things. I learned today that Anthony Calandria was clocking about $800,000 a year in NIL pay when he was on grounds as a second year, 800K. Do we expect the pay to considerably uptick? There are some media outlets reporting that Virginia's collective,

NIL collective, is a top 15 collective in the nation, Hootie, with what they can allot to kids on the roster. Yeah, and I was hoping that would come up at some point. I was talking to somebody the other day who said they had a good a good feed on on how much the gift was an anonymous friend who said that the gift is somewhere between $5 and $7 million. This was the anonymous gift that came in less than two weeks ago with a wire transfer in super DL fashion.

Yeah, and the money was supposedly split between the VAF and Cav Futures over two years. And if you add that to the, and again, I saw that same list that I guess everybody else is talking about that said that Virginia was in the upper echelon of the NIL with, I think it was 12 million so this would uh this would greatly enhance that and put virginia up in the top five or six nil programs in the nation uh assuming that the others the ones that we know about obviously some of the some private schools probably weren't in there like SMU and Notre Dame and some some people of that ilk but that's not money to sneeze at and if you spend it wisely and if you can attract the talent and get them into school you can you can you can change your program overnight we've seen that happen with some other schools. I mean, if you look at the college football playoffs,

up until this year, you wouldn't have picked some of those schools as the 12 top programs in the country. I mean, Indiana, Boise State, perhaps another school in there. I don't have the list in front of me right now, but things are changing, and money's powerful. I mean, and I think SMU is a microcosm of that. SMU is definitely, yeah. They wouldn't have ever been mentioned in the past. So there's three of the top 12 schools in the playoffs

that never would have gotten a look at the playoffs before. And Boise State's even getting a bye, for goodness sake, which nobody would have ever predicted that. So if you have the money and you can spend it wisely and buy the talent that you need you can make some inroads quickly I'm not saying that Virginia's going to do that I'm saying the potential is there to do that if they can get guys into school. I don't know that you can fill an entire half a roster that way, but you can make some big inroads.

I mean, one of the big things that's hurt Virginia in past years, and this goes way back, is the lack of depth. And it really shows up late in the season when injuries start to mount. Always been a problem. Yeah, and even Tony Elliott said that one of the big differences between his program and Virginia Tech's program was the offensive and defensive lines, and particularly his defensive line was getting controlled by Tech's offensive line,

and Virginia's depth on the defensive line was not sufficient. Those are major needs that have to be addressed, and again, they can't strike out in either of those areas and expect to be a winning program next year. Questions are coming in quickly here. A lot of people flabbergasted by the $800,000 pay that Anthony Calandria was receiving as a second-year quarterback. This comment comes in from Tennessee.

He was receiving that kind of money for mediocre numbers. It's a brave new world, folks. Was it Matt? It was the Nebraska head coach that said, if you want a top quarterback in college football, it's a million plus a year to pay him. I believe that was a couple years ago when he said that. Yeah, I'm sure the price tag has gone up. Again, that's the world we live in.

I think a lot of fans would probably be staggered by some of the numbers that are out there. And that's why we should be very mindful of what Bill Belichick is building at UNC. Absolutely. Segway to that. Yeah, I thought that was a brilliant move on Carolina's

part. For years, people have said that Carolina doesn't care about football. The have said that Carolina doesn't care about football. The same comments that Virginia doesn't care about football. Well, Carolina went out and put its money where its mouth is. They showed that they

have made a firm commitment to getting their football program turned around. They brought in a professional organization. One of the winningest coaches in pro football history. A guy who is as meticulous and detailed as they come. I've heard incredible stories from Al Groh about the incredible depth that the coaches

that coached under Bill Parcells were forced into back with the New York Giants and then with other franchises after that. But

that's a huge coaching tree and some really successful coaches. And, I mean, it was the kind of stuff that Bear Bryant was quoted for. He would bring his staff into a room and said, this is the problem we're facing this week. Don't leave this room until you figure it out. And they might be there all night, but they figured it out.

And that's the kind of dedication and commitment we're talking about. He's got a general manager coming with him. He had a detailed plan on how to reorganize Carolina football. I'm sure he's going to put together a pretty brilliant coaching staff. NIL money is going to be there. I was actually talking to Al Groh a couple of nights ago and I said, you know, it's good timing for Carolina because the ACC right now is up for grabs.

100% it's up for grabs. And anybody that really wants to make a commitment and brings in the right guy, they can take control of this conference. Yeah, 100% it's up for grabs. And I think the program that's licking their chops is SMU with the money in that program. SMU scares the bejeebus out of me. Should scare the heck out of Clemson and Florida State, the perennial powers. Especially with what we just saw from the Florida State Seminoles this past season.

Debu Sweeney, I know he's in the college football playoff, but there's a lot of folks in Death Valley that have gotten lukewarm on Debu Sweeney. And they're crazy. They were incredibly lucky to get in this year. Some say they should not have been in,

but of course they won the conference championship. Right, and that makes a difference. Yeah. But, I mean, after the way they blew the South Carolina game, I thought they were dead in the water and probably should have been. But like you said, you know, you win your conference title and you're in. And I'm sure that Bill Belichick has already got designs on being in that championship game next year if he can get the right players into their program.

And Carolina can recruit. They've always been able to recruit. Hot bet. Hot bet. We'll talk to Dave Klaassen, in Wake Forest News in a matter of moments. Comments are coming in quickly here for Hootie Ratcliffe. This is from Rob Neal. He bleeds purple.

Fanatic on JMU athletics. He says, question for Hootie Ratcliffe. What's more important, forward money or coaching? Someone is always going to spend more and more. Great coaching will be required to either perfect the John Calipari model or develop diamonds in a rough which is what the Indiana head coach is doing the former JMU skipper it will take an amazing leader or coach to do either model and then he highlights the Calipari model is so much harder for football John Calipari's model is what recruit talented

freshmen and get transfer portal commitments and reimagine the roster every single year um the indiana head coach is finding diamonds in the rough he did that at jmu he's famous for the quote look at me look me up online all i do is win baby that's right and he's embodying that quote right now he's backed it up he's backed it up your thoughts on what rob neal has to say well yeah you can be a great coach, and if you don't have any talent, you're not going to win. It's as simple as that. What do they say? It's about Jimmies and Joes. It's about Jimmies and Joes, and if you don't have them, you're not going to win, and if you don't have enough of them, you're not going to win um yeah a coach can take can you can coach up players

but you know you still got to have talent i'll never forget um working the bear bryant camp when i was a young man and wanted to be a coach and i did did a summer counseling job um along with some other guys that wanted to be in coaching, and some of them are still in coaching that I know. And one night, Bear Bryant told us after dinner, he said, and I'll never forget this, talking about recruiting and how important it is. He said, I'll put it simply, gentlemen, he said, you ever seen a jackass win a Kentucky Derby?

And he's right. I mean, there are certain guys you can coach up, and you can coach up enough of them. I mean, Dave Clawson did a really good job of that at Wake Forest, taking two stars and three stars. Jim Grobe did the same thing down there for a while. And you can do that, but you can't do it year after year after year. It's just too demanding.

You've got to have talent. I mean, look at what Duke football was and Duke football is now. And NIL has helped them bring in talent. I think that's probably one of the things that frustrated Dave Clausen, just like it did Tony Bennett. You've got to have the talent. You've got to bring it in, and NIL is incredibly important with that. And if you give Nick Saban Virginia's roster this past year, would he have done any better than Tony Elliott?

Maybe a little bit, but you just got to have the talent. If you give Tony Elliott Nick Saban roster, his last year at Alabama, I think Tony Elliott probably could have taken that team somewhere. You just got to have the talent, and there's just no other way to do it. What do you make of Clawson retiring? Surprising fashion. I think, again, I think it's a loss for college football because he did it the right way. He was a good guy.

Head coach of Wake Forest, guys. Somewhat of a miracle worker. I mean, that's the second smallest school in the NCAA behind Rice. I didn't know that either. That's two things right there from you today and uh i mean uh their alumni base um is mostly in the northeast that's one reason they they don't draw well because their fan base most of them don't live in most of the fan most of the football and basketball fans that are in Winston-Salem are Carolina fans. So the fact that he was able to do what he did at Wake Forest,

he was one of the best coaches in the country, in my opinion. He brought something different to the table and used that to his advantage, and a lot of people never figured it out. And he beat a lot of teams he had no business beating. I think it's a sad day for the ACC that he's moving on. But, again, that's part of the world we're living in. And I think unless they get this under control, we're going to see more victims of this, losing really good coaches who love the game for the right reasons

and just can't take it anymore. Clawson led Wake Forest to seven consecutive bowl games during a run that included top ten appearances in 2021 and 2022. Unbelievable. Unbelievable for Wake Forest. I mean, that is just – should never be forgotten. Interestingly, Dave Clawson highlights, just like Tony Bennett did, the changing landscape of college athletics. Also,

interestingly, Dave Clawson is going to take a very active role in the athletic department, most notably as a key advisor to the athletic director and as a key fundraising instrument, a guy that's going to lead the fundraising charge for Wake Forest. Curious to see if it's a similar path that Tony Bennett takes at the University of Virginia. We're also very curious to wonder about the athletic director at the University of Virginia, Carla Williams, whose contract is set to expire at the end of May,

and there's been no talk about renewals or anything of even negotiations in the rumor mill. I'll throw all that to Hootie. I want to highlight James Franklin's comments. The head coach at Penn State, who just lost his backup quarterback to the transfer portal, despite Penn State being smack dab in the middle of the CFP, Franklin said this overlap with the portal opening while the college football playoffs is going on

is a disastrous scenario for the teams that are in the CFP. He did not blame his backup quarterback. Instead, he said his backup quarterback did the right thing, what was best for him. He blamed the changing landscape of college football. Yeah, the system is screwed up, and it has a lot of flaws. It was never really well thought out to begin with, and coaches are doing things by the seat of their pants, and I feel sorry for these guys because there's no letup.

You go straight from the end of the season, and you're having to recruit all over again, not only recruit talent incoming into your program, but trying to keep the guys that you want in your program to not leave. I mean, this guy, six rushing touchdowns tied for the team. He's second on the team with six rushing touchdowns, the quarterback that's leaving. 38 carries for 242 yards. He completed 26 of 35 passes for 275 yards with five touchdowns and a pick.

The starter announced on Sunday night in surprising fashion that he was going to return. When he announces he's going to return, it creates a domino effect for the backup quarterback on Monday to enter the portal, a guy that's a key component for Penn State who's trying to win the CFP. This is bananas. It is bananas, and there's no rhyme or reason to any of it.

Again, it was never clearly thought out. It is bananas, and there's no rhyme or reason to any of it. Again, it was never clearly thought out, and there are new things popping up every month in college football and college basketball. I mean, we went from guys opting out of bowl games. We got guys who are quitting in the middle of the season to preserve their year of eligibility. Just numerous little waves of disruption that continue to haunt the sport. And who knows what's next? I mean, it's insanity. And I don't know what the answer is.

I really don't. I don't know who's even going to grab the tiger by the tail and try to get all this resolved because NCAA seems powerless. College football could break away from the NCAA and form its own entity and make up a new set of rules, but I hope they think these out better than they have all the new innovations that have swept through the sport and um i don't know if congress is going to do anything or not a lot of people think that they're the only ones that can make everything uniform but there seems to be a reluctance there to do to move on it

i don't know i i think the wild, wild west just remains the wild, wild west until somebody gets a grip on things. Michael Murphy watching the program in Baltimore, Maryland. He loves the show. He says keep up the great work, and he appreciates us. Thank you, Michael Murphy, for giving us some props in Baltimore. Dot the I's and cross the T's on football, what we can expect with the transfer portal

Because we've got a pretty big basketball game on Wednesday night That we've got to break down Football's commanding much of the attention When the Memphis Tigers, the top 25 team Hit the John Paul Jones Arena Wednesday evening ESPN2 National Television And some are calling it a must-win game for Virginia basketball Well, if you put it under the microscope

It really is because it's Virginia's last opportunity to get a quad one win outside of the ACC. And there's probably not going to be a lot of opportunities within the conference this year to get quad one wins because the league is down. Excuse me. I'm still battling a little bit of whatever virus that's going around.

But I've said it, and Seth Greenberg turned me on to this two years ago when I had him on a podcast. He was on his way to Auburn and had been violently ill and was hoping he could make the podcast. And we talked a lot about college basketball. And, again, this was two years ago, Jerry. And he was talking then about how the SEC was about to take over college basketball, even though UConn has won the last two national titles. In terms of a conference, the SEC has,

the SEC, I think, is the new ACC. 100%. 100%. They're getting all the talent that the ACC used to get, at least a majority of it, and beating the ACC powerhouses for talent, and it's all because of football money. And again, we're going back to the root of the matter. It's the NIL and football money that drives the train, and the SEC is taking full advantage of that. They have a commissioner who understands

and allows his conference to thrive on it, and they take no prisoners. I mean, they've got money for facilities. They've got money for coaching staffs. They've got money for athletes. They're the dream conference right now. You can talk about the Big Ten all you want, but I still think that the majority of the great athletes in this country,

the majority, live within the South. And the SEC takes full advantage of that, plus the money. They are in control. And the ACC is taking a back seat. And I don't know that that's going to reverse anytime soon. So, again, this is a big game in that respect because I think, well, Virginia has one more non-conference game after this one, and this is Virginia's opportunity to make some noise against a top 25 team. Memphis was just moved into the top 25 again, number 21,

after beating Clemson in overtime. And Memphis is certainly not an SEC program, but they're built much like an SEC program. And big, physical, athletic, one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country. And Virginia has to be on its A game to be able to match that. This is a big-time contest, folks. Memphis, 21 in the AP poll, 22 in the coaches poll.

I'm going to go with the coaches poll here. Duke, the only ACC team ranked in the top 25 in the coaches poll. They are five in the coaches poll, five in the AP poll. Let's look at the SEC schools. Tennessee, Auburn, Kentucky, Florida, Alabama, all in the top seven. Five of the top seven is SEC guys. Then you got also in the SEC, who do you got? You got Ole Miss is in there, ladies and gentlemen.

You got teams with talent, Mississippi State in there, in the SEC. You got a large portion of the top 25 SEC schools, the point that Hootie has made. You got one ACC school in the top 25. That's why a lot of folks are calling this a must-win game for Virginia if they're going to put a tournament resume together. Another thing to highlight, last year how UVA went down that first four in stuff with Virginia, and a lot of folks said that Virginia stole a bid from a lot of other schools that deserved it.

And they were probably right. They were probably right, especially how it played out. That may work against the University of Virginia this year if they're on the bubble. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised with that because even though the committee is supposed to have amnesia in those cases, They're only human. They're human, right.

But, you know, again, Virginia's going to run out of chances to make an impression, and they really need this win. It's a home game. I mean, remember how Virginia was drilled by Memphis last year out at Memphis? And I'm still surprised that that Memphis team faded the way it did of the season, I mean, they looked like the Memphis Grizzlies instead of the Memphis whatever they are. But that was a big physical bruising basketball team, and Virginia had no answers for it. It was like watching men play with boys. And I think that's someone that I respect a lot said, you know, a lot of NBA scouts come to games like that because they want to see how a

team like Virginia goes up against an NBA-style opponent. And if they can handle that physicality and athleticism and they certainly were no match for Memphis last year, I think they'll be better suited this time around particularly if they can prevent

Memphis from being successful at the three-point line. They're one of the top four teams in the country in shooting three-pointers. But they still have some big physical guys that Virginia's front court is going to have to muscle up and not get hit in the face early. And if they are, they're going to have to respond. Day-Day Ames.

The talk is ankle, potentially high ankle. Will we see Day-Day Wednesday night? Well, he's back at practice, so that's a good sign. I expect that he will be. I think that's probably why they held him out of the last game to try to get him to heal. So it's not the same basketball team without him on the floor, not even close, because the offense flows better.

He can attack the basket. He can create shots not only for himself but for other people. I was impressed by Sharma the other night. Oh, he was fantastic. I thought he did a brilliant job in coming off the bench and putting up some desperately needed three-pointers to take a little bit of pressure off of McNeely. I mean, should Sharma be inserted in the starting lineup?

What's the starting lineup look like now? Well, I think he'll probably still be the first guy off the bench, but I wouldn't expect for them to wait long. So you've still got what, Day-Day, McNeely, Rohde, Saunders, and Buchanan? Yeah. I think they'll continue with the three-guard lineup because it's supposed to cut down on the turnovers. It didn't in the first half of the game the other night.

But that's one thing that they have to resolve going forward. If they want to become a tournament team, they've got to eliminate some of these turnovers. They're just making way too many, and the other teams are taking full advantage of it. And I think that's one reason that they need Day Day in there because he doesn't turn it over very much. Christian Bliss, any news on that front?

I thought he might play the other night, but I haven't heard anything new about him. Does it get to a point where Bliss doesn't have a red shirt? He red shirted last year. So this would be a burnt year here. Yeah, and maybe that's why they're being extra cautious with him because if it's still a fragile situation, they want to make sure he's 100% before they take a risk

on putting him out there and lose a year. Certainly they can't afford to do that. I think, again, I haven't seen him play, obviously, since high school, but I still think he can bring some things to this team and help, particularly as a shooter and a guy who can attack the basket a little bit. But it's a wait-and-see mode with him. What's in the hopper at jerryrockliff.com? We're going to be constantly scouring the transfer portal to see what's coming

and what's, I think, probably most of the players who have left are gone now. I don't think I'd be surprised if anybody else enters at this point from Virginia. But, you know, if they're going to fill up the roster like we know that they need to, there's a lot of action that's going to have to happen between now and the close of the portal, which is not that far away. So they've got to get a lot of people coming in and taking visits and going to see them to see if they're legit. I know they're trying to see as many of these guys as they can.

Like Taylor Lamb flew out to Nebraska and worked out the Nebraska kid before they offered. So they're trying to get eyes on some of these kids, and some of these kids need to come in and see UVA and see if they're a fit for here and and so we're going to be uh closely monitoring that and and obviously keeping up with the basketball team and and everything else and uh and uh wow um gretchen walsh unbelievable Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Was it nine world records? I think so. I think every time she sticks her toe in the pool, she breaks a world record. We're looking into this. I think she's making a ton of money in the process of this. She should. A ton of money in the process of this. I think she racked up around $300,000 maybe in this recent performance in the world championships. That stuff comes with money, and I'm assuming she's allowed to take it. Eleven world records, nine individual, two relay.

I mean, unbelievable. That is absolutely ridiculous. I can't even fathom that. I can't fathom that. I cannot fathom that. I mean, to be this good at your craft is just absolutely unbelievable. A fourth year at the University of Virginia. I mean, they... Not even, still entering her prime of performance.

Should name a street after her. 100%. Name the swimming pool at UVA after her. Yeah, or the whole facility. We're just absolutely amazing for Gretchen Walsh, if you're not following what the Virginia swimmer is doing. And then there's Kate Douglas, an alum. Yes, not exactly a slacker.

No, just happens to be swimming against Gretchen Walsh. Yeah, Not exactly a slacker. No, just happens to be swinging, swimming against Gretchen Walsh. Yeah. I mean, goodness gracious. Um, and they've got some others in the, you know, behind them that are going to be great.

Virginia swimming is basically, uh, the breeding ground of Olympians of not just Olympians, but metal winning Olympians, world record holders, world record holders, ladies and gentlemen, unbelievable.

Um, Hootie Rackleth, the Virginia sports hall of famer namesake website jerry rackliff.com check it out we're on it every day for everything uva um related jerry rackliff.com judah wickhauer um mvp the glue guy the blue man behind the camera thank you judah wickhauer for everything you do uh my name is jerry miller this the the jerry and jerry show archive wherever you get your your podcasting Thank you, Judah Wittkower, for everything you do. My name is Jerry Miller. This, the Jerry and Jerry Show, archive wherever you get your podcasting, your social media, and your Internet content. Thank you kindly for joining us.

The I Love Seville show up at 12.30 p.m. So long, everybody. Same to you, my friend. Thank you.