The McShay Show - The SEC Sues LSU: Making Sense of the Chaos With Bruce Feldman

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

Bruce Feldman joins Todd and Muench to break down the latest in the battle between the SEC, LSU, and athletes trying to return to CFB from the NFL. Plus, the guys get into some of their favorite prospects off of Bruce's annual "Freaks List" and talk about which teams are being overlooked. (00:00) Welcome to The McShay Show! (01:44) Bruce Feldman joins the show (02:23) Breaking down the SEC vs. pro athletes returning to CFB (07:33) Could Lane Kiffin be punished for this? (14:47) Understanding why the SEC sued LSU (22:49) Favorite prospects on Bruce's college football "Freaks List" (32:16) Which teams are being slept on? The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Host: Todd McShay Guests: Steve Muench and Bruce Feldman Producers: Tucker Tashjian, Conor Nevins, and Daniel Comer Social: Abou Kamara Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a flash pod. LSU's a mess. Lane Kiffin might have picked a fight that he now doesn't want to finish. We'll see how it plays out. We don't know enough about the loss. We're bringing on Bruce Feldman, who's dialed in, and he's got a lot of resources and sources. There's more to sort through today than we even thought there was going to be

with the situation in Baton Rouge. And you know what's really messed up, Munch? There's still 238 days until the NFL draft, and I'm in a totally different outfit. So are you. Ment you good? I'm confused, man. Talk for all that thing, please.

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at Real Canadian Superstore, when you're ready, we're ready, with a whole world and more. Man, you and I are idiots with this stuff. So we had to call on our friend Bruce Feldman. Like, Bruce, I know the scene in Baton Rouge right now is a zoo. I've been texting with a couple people. I know that this, all of a sudden,

we get the Commissioner Sanky is on the stand for like two plus hours. Standing room only. They've had to put players in like a jury box or something like that. Commissioner Sanky is there. And so that in and of itself is why originally we wanted to talk to you, but we're now talking to you even before we get a ruling on that because it's lasting a lot longer than we thought. And the bigger news, the breaking news today is that a separate suit,

a federal suit, is filed in the state of Alabama, which I have to believe it's not a coincidence they filed in that state, against LSU and Lane Kiffin. So I don't know how else to bring. you on or what other question to ask you besides like what the hell is going on right now as we're getting ready to kick off college football week one i know it's crazy like this is such a surreal kind of thing right because of all the things you laid out i mean lane kiffin loves drama he's drawn to it like you know like the moth and the flame and i think right now like this is like

next level even for him right and it's crazy to think again these two players you know you have a big de lineman and a pretty good tight end of course he's nowhere near as good as Trey does green the tight end they already have and it's not like this de lineman is Reggie white and yet here's Lane Kiffin and what feels like all of the state of Louisiana because it's the governor it's the school it's the president they're all named in this lawsuit with you know with the SEC now you know from the people I've talked to who are on the legal side they are like what is ls u doing what is lane kiffin doing they're not going to win this because at

some point it's going to end up in some way fast they think it will end up going up to the federal level where least the people i talk to do not think um they can win that and so where does this head to beyond that like what kind of collateral damage could come out of this on the lane kiffin side you know because there's like a sportsmanship clause that that gives greg sankey and the cc a lot of discretion coming out of it just the that this lawsuit has become that way, you know, and we're what, I don't know, 48 hours away from the first game? Like, I don't know how that is not a distraction at all if you're Lane Kiffin and you're everybody at LSU. Because I was texting and I won't see who this was, but it's like a mutual friend of ours who used to be a coach in the business. And he goes, you know, I, and this was like, this was two or three days ago, though.

And he said, you know, I don't think the players will, it gets to the players. And I said, eventually this stuff does. Because, and I didn't know it would get to where we are today right now. But I think it's just you can't, this is like next level, beyond next level of the circus. So again, so we have this, we have this suit. And I've got to pull them. Like we have this lawsuit and like with Judge Jordan, right, in Baton Rouge, kind of a procedural issue. We're waiting that decision. And that is essentially on like the stay, right,

whether whether these, these players can come back and play. But then we have this federal suit that's now been filed against LSU and named Kiffin personally in it. Is that correct? Yeah. He's he's made as well as the AD Virgil Augsbury and a few other people. I mean, it's it's just nutty all of it. So like, so if they win, if they, If they win this suit and they come out victorious in Baton Rouge, but they lose the lawsuit in Alabama, the federal lawsuit. How does this all play out? Does it become null and void what happened in Baton Rouge?

Yeah, I mean, from what I was told that federal court would supersede everything. So that would literally trump whatever else is going on. Now there's two separate tracks here. I don't, you know, again, I'm not a lawyer either. I'm just going by what a legal expert told me and is very familiar with some of these things and also familiar with a lot of the people involved in it and has followed the case closely. But I just, I don't know where, like, my gut is that eventually LSU is not going to get their way. And then, you know, does the SEC go just look, all right, just don't do that again?

or do they try to get a pound of flesh from Lane Kiffin and LSU because you really backed us into a corner that was unfathomable, right? So step away from this for just a second and think of it in this context. Like, right, we have all this talk about playoff expansion, and here's the Big Ten and how they are kind of essentially aligned under Tony Petiti. They may not, everybody may not agree with exactly everything that's being pushed forward, but you're not getting a lot of people speaking out. In the SEC, there's more dissent that goes on and that seeps out,

and they're not unanimous in it. But this is like this other piece of it, if I'm Greg Sanky, I am alarmed by a break here. And by the way, this isn't just like some school. It's one of the flagship schools in the conference. Right, right. You know, so, man, I don't know what the legal strategy is going forward again. because, you know, if Lane Kiffin's subject to that sportsmanship clause, which gives Sanky a lot of leeway and how he could choose to punish him, is, you know, does ultimately Lane Kiffin end up serving like a one-season suspension? I mean...

Yeah, Bruce, I'm sorry, but I also was told that Sanky today, like, there were some embarrassing moments for him personally. Embarrassing might be too, but some moments that, like, you're sitting on the stand and, you're sitting on the stand and, someone and an attorney general is grilling you on what's your tax return say oh four point something million last year did you fly here private yes like at one point he needed like to get a glass of water and and reset like this is not like i had to show up for court and give like 15 answers and got in and out and get back on the plane and go this is a moment where it feels personal right and enough we're all humans if i'm sanky and i'm walking out of there kind of sweating under my my collar and having to answer questions that just don't feel good and are uncomfortable.

Yeah, there's a level of embarrassment. And typically as human beings, when we get embarrassed and you're in a position of power, it's like, okay, it's time for you to get yours, Lane. Hold on. Well, I'm sorry, go ahead, Mitch. I just, like, is that something that is a real, that could happen? That he could get a season? This is what my concern with that is.

at what point do you does it have to stop? Because if they suspend him for a season, I assume LSU is like, all right, now we go to the mattresses. Like now this is really on. And something that was ugly before is going to get even uglier.

And that's no good for the SEC either. Like doesn't Greg Sankey have to, at some point, say enough is enough we're moving on? I think that's, you know, what Todd started laying out a minute ago about the line of questioning. This isn't like one of us

given a deposition. where we're getting interviewed by a bunch of different lawyers from different sides, and it happens in a private office, and you may walk out of there pissed off, but you are not like, the only people who know it are like the six people who might be in the room, and maybe there's a camera that nobody ever gets to see. That's my reference from being in the Michael Leachal lawsuit, but I get it, right? Like, that wasn't public or whatever. But they haven't made a documentary about it yet.

No, and haven't helped the person who wants to see. sit through 700 pages of my deposition. But the thing that I keep coming back to, and again, this is a conversation that started like 20 minutes before he came on, was has Lane Kiffin actually ever been held accountable really for anything that where he's gone way over the line, right? No, Nick Sabin shoved him out the door after he got tired of him when he took the FAU job and he was like, I don't need you around.

You're going to screw this up. for us in the championship game, right? And there's been other times where people have been ticked off at him. But really, like, yeah, he got fired on the tarmac by Pat Hayden, you know. But like, to me, this is different, right? Because this is not the, this is a marriage that just started. It's not a marriage that's already over like USC's was, right? So I'm fascinated to see what they end up doing.

Because there's a lot of steps. Obviously, you know, the person who is like walking me through the discretion of Sanky, if it gets to this point. And again, I don't think it's at this point yet, but I didn't think we'd be anywhere near where we are right now or where we are in the last two hours. So it's almost like all bets are off, right? Like we're out in the middle of something. We don't know, we don't see shore anywhere around us.

Right. Yeah. And there's, the fact. that it was filed, like, as they're going into court, essentially, or this takes place as a surprise to just about everyone nationally in the state of Alabama, I think kind of tells you what Sanky and SEC, like, their thoughts on what's going on, and how much they enjoy this trip to Baton Rouge, you know, as we're getting ready to kick off week one of the college football season, right?

I mean, it kind of feels like the Sorsby thing a little bit. You know, Brendan Sorsby, like, when's the local? in Lubbock, Texas, wins the local jurisdiction and he's able to play. But then the Big 12 comes in with their big guns, for lack of a better phrase. It kind of feels like something similar. It just happened to occur simultaneously

in two different courtrooms at the same time. And eventually, Sorsby, through his people, his group, decided to kind of wave the white flag. Yeah, they blew. But that also happened, like, two months before we're actually going to play football. This is like less than 48 hours, right? And that's where I was going to finish. Is, are we, did Lane finally get himself into him?

Did he finally pick with, pick a fight in the bar with someone that is not only like big and strong enough to kick his ass, but also kind of wants to go out in the alley with him? You know what I mean? And by the way, he's calling. plays on Saturday. Like you know what I mean? Like how how this isn't a distraction would be beyond me? Yeah, I agree with you. And it's like, I think what you get to ask here is,

is anybody able to tell Lane Kiffin in his circle, no. No, you just like, this is bad idea. But he just, again, for like, for what now, right? I mean, I hear all. These are players who got cut from the NFL, they're not like, you know, you have an elite tight end who is much better.

Yeah, this isn't like Aaron Donald, like McVeigh and Les Need trying to win a lawsuit to bring Aaron Donald back if the league was pushing back against, well, why does he just get to go back to the Rams? There should be a draft. Like, it's not Aaron Donald. Like, with all due respect, you know?

No. It's a guy who, look, I mean, I know you guys do a ton of evaluation too. This was not a D-Linman that people were like he's a big man, but it was not a guy people were raving about starting with like the interview process coming out of Indy. And all of a sudden, and by the way, he was also like a guy who I think, you know, wasn't saying the most flattering things about Lane Kiffin when all this stuff was going on around the playoff, right? But this is kind of what they're leaning into, right?

And so, man, you know, of all the crazy things that we've associated with Lane Kiffin, I did not think we'd ever get to this. And I definitely didn't think we'd get to it before he ever coached a game at LSU. I hear the juice and the squeeze here. They don't line up. Go ahead, Mitch, sorry. A hundred percent. And I understand that.

And I hear all of this argument about Lane. I want to flip the script here a little bit. Is he actually right in this situation? Why not let these kids play? Why not let these kids? Like, Daycon Wright is not. You just said he's not, you know, we mentioned earlier Travis Kelsey before we got on. He's not traded as green.

This is not someone who's going to come in and, and I think, tip the scales in a way that's going to make this, the difference between a championship team and not a championship team. These kids are going to get five for five. This kid played seven games at Virginia Tech as a freshman. If he had played four, we're not having this conversation. Is it? And like the whole amateur versus pro. pro thing is out the window. These guys are getting paid. And I don't think that Todd Monkin, as good as a coach as he is, somehow magically made Dayquan right so good that we can't let him

play college football again. Like, I, there's, maybe I'm missing something, but there is a lot of, there seems to be a lot of holier than now with some of these guys about this is just, we can't do this in the game. It's interesting to me. I wonder, do you have any kind of a feel on that? No, it's definitely like Lane had kind of rationalized that argument in whether related to Trinidad Chalbis, who's all quarterback, or people's different clocks. I mean, there's plenty of players in college football who are going to play this weekend who are older than these guys, right? It's, I think what we're kind of running into is anybody can sue anybody to work their way into this and they were trying to stop it. I don't know how it grieved people get, right,

you know, with some of this where, oh my God, this guy's going to play. I remember, you know, Not as much as our friend Riscilla, but I watch a lot of NBA, right? Like there was a freshman point guard from UCLA who spent one year at UCLA. Wasn't that wasn't as good as expected. Played like 10 games for the Hornets and then ended up trying to come back, right? I don't even, and he's like not 24 years old because he left the NBA so left college at UCLA so early. But I think all of this people are like, whoa, I've seen him in an NBA uniform. I've seen him in an NFL uniform.

Like everybody got flipped out about. Jack Piper and had two sacks in a game a couple of weeks ago. Right now, he ended up landing somewhere, so he pulled back. But, yeah, I think that, you know, the point you're making is valid because it's, because there's enough wiggle room in all these other cases. The part where I just kind of was like, all right, you got to back away from it if you're LSU, is when your commissioner of your league, which you've, you know, supposed to be in alignment with, goes, don't do that, because then all of a sudden causes more chaos and we're just plowing ahead.

And what's interesting to me, again, like, if either one of these guys was going to start for them, and look, you know, defensive tackle could because they're going to, they have, you know, three freshmen who are really good, but they're still freshmen, right? Would you say, okay, Lane's just doing it for any possible advantage? because obviously having two big bodies definitely isn't going to hurt. But I don't know if there's, you know, is there another ulterior motive that's, because it doesn't feel like just, I'm not, Lane Kevin's not doing anything for altruism. No, that's, and I totally agree with that.

Even if I believe that, and this might be the right move, I don't think that's, that's, Lane's motivation isn't let's do right by the kids. Like, I don't think that's what's going on here. Yeah. Is there anyone who's enjoying what has going on? today like in this moment more than dabbo sweeney i mean i'm sure college coaches around the country are kind of like maybe maybe lane's finally going to get a little taste of it or get what he deserves you know but dabbo as he's preparing his team you know there's so many fascinating

he got dragged into it this week too that's right the john taltie book where it was that lane tipped off, you know, Lane tried to tip Dabo off to get after Old Miss. And then, you know, Matt Luke, the old former Ole Miss coach and offensive lineman who works at Clemson, tip them. Like, I don't even, it's hard to even keep it straight. And then Davo's like, no, that really didn't happen that way or whatever. Right. Are there actually any coaches that, you know, are quietly, you know, we would, we would go through

with this if we could. We don't think it's a bad thing for college football. If these kids, again, they are not, they have to clear waivers. They are not kids who are on an NFL team saying, I'm going to head back to college. Are there any college coaches do you think that kind of agree with them? They are if they're probably their position room. You know, I had two injuries or some kid. Yeah. You know, didn't get admitted or something like the luck. You know, I did some survey like in the off season. And one of the questions was, are you in favor of five for five? And there's an O-line coach that I've known for a long time. And he goes, no, we should not have that.

He goes, but I'll be the first to admit that if I have problems in my position room, I'll take a guy who's in a seventh year wants to come back because I, you know, it's my livelihood. And we all in this profession are protecting our self-interest. Yeah, like Andrew Lux, like the mother Teresa of football. And he, he, as the general manager, we had him on a week ago. and it's Stanford and he's like all but like we're exploring every angle as because when when leadership and structure are not in place like there's opportunities and and we're going to explore everything

until they get you know until everything is aligned and and there are rules in place that prevent us from doing certain things it's just we're all competitors and you're all looking at and saying yeah who who's it hurting it's not hurting anyone in fact it's helping these young men maybe it's another opportunity for them. Certainly they're going to make more money than not playing football next year. And there's a loophole. And it's been created by the lack of leadership

in college football. But I'm not going to get on a soap buck. Well, the only way I think it gets cleared up is long term they have to probably go to collective bargaining because then it gets all the funnels of lawsuits in every like hometown court, judge, and all that puts that, you know, kind of in the back,

in the rearview mirror, Because right now it just seems like this is an endless case, an endless run of lawsuits and drama. And, you know, I think everybody's exhausted by it. Yeah, you've probably talked to more lawyers over the past year than you have your entire career. Probably feels like. I would imagine. It would feel like it definitely does. And there's a lot of stuff, you know, and again, because I'm not a court reporter,

I don't, you know, like, know the ins and outs of the law. And so the case you guys referenced about Soresby, you know, a bit of, ago, you know, it came up that like the way that kind of played out was the Texas Attorney General weighed in for some reason and really stepped in it. And he opened up a pathway for the law firm to kind of run right through. And without that, it kind of blew up in Sorsby and Texas Tech's face. But most of us who cover this had no idea that was the, what flipped it? Well, well, The aha moment. Yeah.

And so because we just don't know the law like this, we're kind of all like walking around in the dark on it, you know? And it's really interesting when you see like, if it's exactly how the people I talk to today think it is that LSU is just kind of going to walk into the wall in a couple of minutes from this, it sounds like. I watch enough datelines and documentaries. I feel like I'm a lawyer now. But then today happens and I'm put right back in my place.

I have a feeling we're going to be calling you next week and bugging you because there's going to be more updates. But while you're here, can we actually talk a little football? I would love that. Your freaks list. Your freaks list is out. And obviously, you know, that McShay, that's so two weeks ago. But I want while you're here, I'd love to ask you kind of a couple questions on those guys as it pertains the NFL draft. I think I even said it on X the other day.

Like, I don't know that there's an article. that comes out annually that more people in football, whether it's scouts, general managers, college coach, that race to go read your annual freaks list. So we'll give you our thank you for what you provide for all of us. That is the kindest praise I can get from anybody. That people inside the football world really care about it. I was like blown away when I started realizing that a little while.

Yeah. But while we're here, like the obvious world, like we know, like Jeremiah Smith's going to be on there and Dylan Stewart, the edge wrestler from South Carolina. There were a couple of guys that were intriguing to me, like draft prospects, right? KJ. Duff is a guy I keep mentioning

on this show and we'll get to him as we get closer to the draft and I know Rutgers probably isn't going to be in a position where we're talking about them every Saturday nationally, right? Give the folks a feel for this wide receiver that's going to start getting more and more attention, especially as we get into like into the spring,

or even like February, March, and April of what he is physically. He has a, you know, got remarkable ball skills, right? You know, he's six, five-ish with long arms, you know, athletic, but just has crazy catch radius and makes some spectacular one-handed catches. And has been doing this since he was like 10 years old. They found this commercial that he was in where he made this remarkable catch in Pee-Wee football, right? And so, Rutgers have to be a lot of. has good skill talent, right?

They lost one good receiver Ian Strong, who Cal took, but the running back is also really good players originally from Canada. But KJ is remarkable. And, you know, it's not like he's got a great quarterback throwing to him right now. Dylan Montergan, who had been in Alabama, and then at BC is, you know,

would be the guy or Bob Serase, the Princeton coach's son, you know, was the, is in, you know, was competing for the job as well. But it's just he's a guy you will see on halftime highlights that he made a spectacular catch or two spectacular touchdown catches in like a 31 to 20 Rutgers loss. The list comes up a lot on our show. And I use it. I love to go to it when there's a guy that maybe McShay's a little lower on than I am.

And I think that Oregon defensive tackle in Mari Washington is a great example. He's a guy that his tape's a little inconsistent, but he's just different. And I'll go back and be like, oh, yeah. Well, Bruce has a number three in the freaks list. I think last year was number four. Just, can you talk about him a little bit and what makes him unique? Yeah, I mean, he's, you know, 6-3 plus. Now he's down to down to 330 pounds.

He was like 338 last year, 35, 36-inch vertical. He's running almost 21 miles per hour. That's not. Lannin told me what they clocked him at last year. Igu was like, are you serious? This is like, there was a couple of times in the last year. Definitely last year, there was two moments where I was like, no, that can't be right. Yeah.

That was one of them. And but he's super strong too. There's, you know, there's video that they posted of him doing Pat Field Squat with like 855 pounds, right? Yeah. He's, I get it about the inconsistency. You know, I think he's a really good player. He is, you know, the thing I would have. ask you guys and you guys do this for the living on it is how many 340 pound guys in college

are consistent you know like that's the concern I guess but there's some wow traits and again if you told me he's going to be the 20th pick of the draft or the 18th pick of the draft I would say yeah I could see it right you know it's just the like some of these guys who because last year um you know Clemson you know Clemson's defensive tackles is now with the chiefs obviously terrific was terrific recruit and really dynamic athlete for being such a big guy now he's probably 30 pounds less than than amari washington is but you know you go somewhere now all of a sudden he's around Chris Jones and it's like ooh that feels good or you know last year walter nolan got drafted by the cardinals there was another really good a couple of really good influences around him like okay maybe this is the thing that gets him

over the top. And so, you know, I could see teams, again, and he's still got a full season this year. They have really good DeLyman around them. I'm excited to see what he can do because I just think he has really, really special talent. I mean, Caleb Banks went 18th overall. You mentioned like 18th or 18th.

Caleb Banks had nothing but, Caleb Banks got drafted on the wild moments and the freakish ability, but had more injuries and inconsistency, probably than even Washington. Last one for this. For me, at least, South Carolina's got two guys prominently featured. We've been hearing about the talent and watching it on tape for a couple of years with Nick Harbor,

who ran, like, it's absurd, 23.8 miles per hour, I think, is what your article said, at 235 pounds, but it also makes 300 and, would you have 327 pounds for Washington running 20.7 miles an hour? even more absurd. But I guess is there any, like talking to coaches, is there any feel as we get ready to kick off week one of the season? Maybe this is the year we start to see Nick Harbor, the receiver, not just the highly featured guy on Bruce Feldman's list, who makes six to eight plays a year where you're like,

oh my gosh, the potential, but you can see the rawness about him. Yeah, I mean, that's the question mark, right, with him. For the first couple years, he was still running track in the offseason, and I think there was a feeling of, okay, he's going to continue to develop. But I don't know when is he getting serious about football. That's not fair to him. But when, you know, it's not like all in. Right. Like I went down to South Florida in April.

Malachi, Tony is about as all in as anybody I've ever been around, right? And he's obsessed with the details and the love it, you know, just blown away by it. Now Malachi Tony is 511,195 pounds. This guy's bigger than Megatron. He's an inch taller. He's going to be faster. Like, as fast as Calvin Johnson ran 435 at the Combine, whatever it was, 20 years ago. This guy should run 425.

Oh, my gosh. At that size. Wow. And he's an inch taller. He is longer. Like, usually, and I actually saw him when he was a recruit, we had a big noon game where it was Michigan, Maryland. And I remember Loxley said, I think it's going to come down to us. And he looked like a defensive end.

You know, he was every bit of 6.5 plus and around 240 pounds in high school. And he looked almost like a power forward. And Loxley was like, it's going to come down to us in Michigan. Well, then Shane Beamer ended up going in there and winning that recruiting battle. And Lenora Sellers, who's also on the Freaks list, is, you know, he's had three different OCs in three years. So I think there's just been a lot of things. The O-Line wasn't great last year. I don't even know I would say it was good,

especially in the SEC. So I think there's just a lot of things that have been like moving targets. Like I like Lenoris a lot, you know, and I want to see, you know. Bench is doing this. Yeah, I know. I've seen those.

Listen, Bruce knows ball. That's not my fault. You know, like I don't think of the guys who are, you know, Lenoris is 6-3, 235, he is fast, too, he will run in the four or five. He's also really smart. I think, you know, here's another one with the consistency issues. You know, of the three guys they have who are freaksless guys, you mentioned Dylan Stewart.

I mean, Dylan Stewart's probably the safest pick. But again, I think there's people who are like, oh, the consistency side too there. You know, he's think they're, you know, he's probably not going to play this weekend. And they're hoping he gets ready for when the bigger games start, right? but I don't know, like they're all elite athletes, and I think they all do some things where you're just, okay, I see it. You just need to see it more.

And my gut is if you get the bounce back year from Lenores, I think what will come with that will be a lot more wow plays from Nick. Yeah, I was going to get to Lenores too. And three guys on your list from South Carolina, like there's talent there, there's top end. talent. I'm interested to see if South Carolina hangs around this year. You know, like with, with Briel's coming enough. I want to ask you this, speaking of a school that's like not in the top 10, who if you, if I had to give you one team, or you can pick two if you want,

but a team that as you're talking to people around the coaches and people in the game around the country, are we sleeping on? Are we overlooking a team? We've got right, like, a people. Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, Notre Dame, Texas, Indiana, Miami, A&M, Ole Miss, Oklahoma. It's kind of a lot of the usual suspects with Alabama there at 13, LSU at 11 and college football playoff team last year, Texas Tech at 12. Is there another team or two that you're hearing like, hey, don't overlook, like, we're worried about playing them, or there's more talent there, or that kind of sets up well for them. Any teams that we should have our eye on as we get ready to kick off week one? I would have loved for you to have said of the top nine because that team that's like on the cusp of the top 10 that I'm very interested in is Oklahoma. I think they have a chance to make a big jump forward, right?

Take some notes, Munch. Here we go. Metteer was a shell of himself, right? He played with the broken hand, and that's one thing. The O line was super young last year. They were playing freshman. Now they've added too much older linemen, and the freshmen are talented and they're not freshmen. anymore. I love Dionne Burks, but Dionne Burks was kind of playing out of position outside because they had

Isaiah Satania who can really run too. So you had Trell Harris from Virginia is a really good addition. The other thing that's big, and this is from talking to people there, Jason Whitten has had a huge impact on that program. He's the new tight ends coach. That was a real sore spot for them last year. They bring in three transfers, all big guys, all experience, like big, big, tight ends. And I think that's going to help mature in the offense out a lot because it gives them a lot of flexibility and what they can do. I think, you know, it's not like mature is six four, so having a six, seven target out there from Florida who can run. And is, you know, is another freaksless guy. I think that'll help.

And their defense was really good last year, and they think it should be even better this year. So as long as material stay is healthy. I think they're a team that could really be a lot better than people think. I think they could be a top. The problem is they could be a top eight to ten team and still not make the playoff because of the schedule. That's my concern for Oklahoma. I agree with everything.

But what if they're that good? Like what if Texas is overhyper? Great. I'd love to. I would love to see. What if Georgia doesn't make that next step? What if A&M's is just last year was awesome, but we got to regroup.

Come on, Mench. Ifs and buts. I get it. Listen, that program's going in the right direction, but that's if some butts. Let's let Bruce get out of here. He's got to go cover two trials now.

This thing's a mess. Let the folks know where they can see you. For a second. I know. Where the folks can see you this weekend and every weekend throughout the college football. I am in studio with Coach Chris Peterson from Boise and Washington fame.

That's got to be fun, man. It is. There's nobody better to watch a football Saturday with. I've actually heard that from many people. Like he's just, he's different. Yeah, he's so obsessed with the game. You can ask him anything. I'm like, why would they not like,

I remember there was a specific game. I was like, why would they not just go to zone? And he doesn't, he may not know exactly why that team isn't do it, but he can walk me through of like this, what he thinks they're seeing or different things, how they come up. He just, he's super smart. And because he's such a football junkie,

he wants to watch every game. And, you know, it's really cool to just kind of have that kind of connection. Yeah. It surprised me that no school has convinced him to get back in it. They're not going to. He, so, this is one I feel confident of all the people I know who are out, who had not, like he knows himself well enough to go. That's how smart he is.

Yeah. I don't want to go back because if I go back, I can't, I'm going to, it's going to go to my worst instincts and I'm going to live a life that I don't want to live. I don't want to be chasing recruiting 24-7. I don't want to be, you know, I'm not Mario Cristobal. That is not the world I want to live in at this stage of my life, you know, and good on him. I think he's very comfortable with what he did as, what he did as a coach. And, you know, I think there's a little bit like Stoops, Bob Stoops, when he retired early. Now, Bob Stoops retired really early because his dad passed away in his 50s was a great high school coach in Ohio. And I think Bob was like,

life short. I'm going to have fun. I'm going to do what I want to do. And he is. And I think Coach Pete in a similar, maybe not for the exact same reason, but I think for some of it, it's like, you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to be very comfortable with this because this world that college football is now, I don't want to be in that. Yeah. And then he's not, he's not alone in that. Tell Mike Hill, I said hello. I will. His old colleague of ours from the ESPN days. How about that? Right. I always enjoyed doing shows with Mike. And he's at Bruce Feldman, CFB on X. Follow him. You're going to want to follow him all season long for all of the information, the freaks list and everything else. We appreciate you coming on for short notice, man. And hopefully we can just

get to enjoy some football this weekend, you know? Yeah, looking forward to it. Thanks for having me, guys. Thanks, Bruce. We'll talk to you soon. See you guys. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming.

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Thank you.