The Ryen Russillo Podcast - College Recruiting Stories With Brock Purdy, Norman Powell, Matt Barkley, Andrew Whitworth, Ty Jerome, and Jesse Palmer

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

Russillo talks with Brock Purdy (0:26), Norman Powell (3:12), Matt Barkley (5:25), Andrew Whitworth (8:20), Ty Jerome (15:08), and Jesse Palmer (17:28) about their best recruiting stories. Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Brock Purdy, Norman Powell, Matt Barkley, Andrew Whitworth, Ty Jerome, and Jesse Palmer Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFriills.ca. Recruiting story time. We love when we get the athletes on and we save these questions for a one-off episode, we usually do it once, sometimes twice a year, getting the origin story of so many of the athletes of today. Brock Purdy, a three-star recruit coming out of high school, played his college ball at Iowa State. And now after a guy we were like, he's going to be the starting quarterback in San Francisco,

just signed a five-year deal. Before we let you go, I always like going back to the high school days and getting these recruiting stories from you. So let's go back to what Gilbert, Arizona, and you thinking back to probably the best recruiting story that you have from that time. Man, I think, you know, I got offer, I got a preferred walk on to Alabama and then they ended up extending it as an offer. And so I took an official visit there and, you know,

we walk in to have our meeting with Saban and, you know, he has the button that he presses, the door opens and it closes and then you walk in and you sit down and he sort of just gave me like a run of, you know, what he thinks of me as a player and where I'd fit in with their program and stuff. And so basically it was just funny cause I don't know, you walk in, you see his hat that he wears at practice up by his desk and everything.

And then I'm like, man, dude, we're in Saban's office. He's got all those rings opened up on the table, all the national championships. And then he just runs through a list of like how, like, you know, like who I am as a quarterback and my accuracy and all this kind of stuff. I mean, you probably heard the stories of how he said I was sort of average in all those areas, but if you come here, you could help us win a national championship.

And I'm like, all right. So I didn't really know how I felt about the meeting, but more than any other. Did you not believe him? Did you not believe him when he said that to you? No, when he's saying all that stuff, I'm like, dude, what? My highlights and everything in high school, I think they're pretty good. I thought I was accurate and making plays and how did you not see that?

But obviously he's been recruiting and evaluating players for his whole life. So he knows something and he's good at it. But anyways, as a kid or high school kid, I was like, all right, man, that just adds a little bit more to the fuel, even though it's Nick Saban saying that kind of stuff. But I respect him, what he's done as a coach and everything. But it's just funny for me and my story that I sat down in his office and he told me his evaluation of me. And then I ended up going to Iowa state and all that, but it worked out how I needed to. So I'm not mad about it, but it's just a funny story. So did you have to tell him, no, Hey, I'm not coming here actually.

Uh, no, I didn't say that. I spoke to, I think the guy that was recruiting me was the special teams coach. So I got to tell him, I had to tell him, I'm like, yeah, thank you. But I'm not coming here. So, uh, it's all good. It ended how it needed to. And, and I'm glad that I went to Iowa state. So here we are.

It ended how it needed to and I'm glad that I went to Iowa State. So here we are. Norm Powell running around for the Clippers recently just traded to the Miami Heat, but he knew LA well because he played his college ball at UCLA. We caught up with Norman Powell and asked him about his best recruiting story from that time. I think the funniest one, I don't know how funny it is, but to me it was. So San Diego State was my first full scholarship offer. And then USD was my second. And so when they first offered it, I wasn't getting majorly recruited.

It was literally just like the San Diego colleges and maybe a little bit of the learning odds in LA. I wasn't that big of a recruiting term after my junior year. But I took my San Diego state visit, was fine, and I took my USD visit. I'm talking to the coach and he has me outside, we're overlooking San Diego. The one thing he said was like, yeah, I know you're probably not gonna go here,

but just know, whatever happens, like you'll always have, as long as I'm the head coach here, like you'll always have a scholarship here, but I know you're not gonna go here. I think that was like, for me, like one of the funniest things. I didn't know what to say. I was like, yeah, you're probably right,

but you know, I'll keep that in the back of my mind. But I took the visit because my family wanted me to go there, but I couldn't stay in San Diego in general, but that was probably one of the funniest moments for me, recruiting, and then I don't know how PG it is, I think my second one was being off, no, I can't say that PG it is. I think my second, second one was being off. Nah, I can't say it. No, it's crazy.

We got it. We were very PG 13 on this pod. So go for it. It was just a one and it's one of the coaches that will get a, oh, if you come here, like, Hey, like you'd be the man. Like I feel even you even date my daughter and stuff like that. It was crazy. But we want to say, we want to put a name to that.

But even that 18 was kind of crazy. Uh, yeah, we, we don't need to, we don't need to put a name to that one. Maybe he just loved your personality, Norm. He just wanted, maybe he wanted you around long-term or maybe he saw, he saw the potential. Matt Barkley was the 2007 Gatorade national player of the year and a highly coveted recruit. How did he get to USC? Let's go back to you, high school,

matter day, top recruit. We know you ended up at SC, but what's your best recruiting story from that time period of your life? Well my recruiting story journey was pretty simple actually, especially in comparison with what today kids are doing shopping themselves around and taking the highest bid and I knew from my sophomore year in high school that I was going to SC and I silently committed to be Carol then and so I didn't even take another official visit to any other school. And so I didn't even take another official visit to any other school.

So maybe that's the story then. Like give me, I've met Pete enough. Like what did Pete, how did that go? I'll tell you that, but I did take, there was a Nike camp up at Stanford. So I went up there, met with Harbaugh, who was there at the time, loved him, but Andrew Luck had committed and he was a

class ahead of me so like all right I'm not gonna be playing at Stanford if Luck's there but I went I met with Jeff Tedford who was at Cal at the time who I really respected really thought was a a bright play caller great offensive mind great coach met him. His office was in the stadium, kind of overlooked everything. But you looked out his window, it was in Berkeley, I count, and you saw in the trees outside of his office, the tree people, that is 100% a real thing. That was not just some like overblown story. There were people living in like hammocks in the trees,

like full on like mini little villages in the trees with like pee bottles hanging down. Like they lit, they stayed up there. And I was like, all right, maybe Cal's not the, not the best place for me. Sorry, coach Tedford. That was a quick, quick no for me, but I still loved him as a coach. But Pete, I mean, he will come down just being local. He would come down to, to modern day's practices and watch us in the off season. So I kind of got to know him pretty well in high school and doing the camps upon on campus, uh, the showcases or whatever. Um, but he, he just had a different aura to him, uh, which we even saw in the

league when he was with Seattle as the oldest coach in the league, still seemed like one of the most vibrant youngest coaches just bouncing around playing catch, hooting, hollering. And that like, he, he's so unique in that regard. And so again, like not really any crazy stories. Loved my recruiting season of life, but at the end of the day, I knew I wanted to be a Trojan and just made it simple, made it that.

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Shop now at ikea.ca. Andrew Whitworth, a Super Bowl champion with the Rams and a legend at LSU. His decision on where to go coming out of high school. Let's go back to Andrew Whitworth out of Fun Row, all right? Fun Row Monroe, baby. Right, you're getting the letters, you're getting recruited. Give me your best recruiting story.

Well, obviously, you know, I was Nick Saban's first recruiting class at LSU. So I've got some epic, as I always say, I had Nick Saban unfiltered back in the day. So I've got some epic Saban stories, but I don't think any of those can go public. But I'll say this, my epic recruiting trip story is I get invited, this is back when it was real football.

So I get invited up to, you when it was real football. So I get invited up to, you know, these kids would pass out if they even heard this existed anymore. I get invited up to Arkansas, Houston Nuts there. At that time I was a tight end in high school. I was a big tight end and so I wanted to go to Florida or Arkansas. They had huge tight ends. I mean Florida didn't want to play all night. No, no, no. I thought I was going to. I was really committed early to Florida. I want to go play for Spurrier. And that was right after they won the net 96 national championship. And I was like, I want to be a Gator. I had Danny Werfel jerseys, you name it.

Fred Taylor. So I want to be a Gator. So I go up to Arkansas. I get invited to come to a padded two day recruiting trip. Like you padded, you're hitting people. Like I know recruits, you're like, what? Yes. So I get invited up this invite only padded recruiting trip to Arkansas, meet Houston Nut, hang out, have a great time. And even more illegal probably, they're like,

hey, there's actually two of you guys we kind of want to see go each other a little bit. Could you and this other guy come to the field where y'all's pads and we kind of want to just do a couple of drills with just you two. And I'm like, all right, cool. So get out on the field. Well, the other guy was a guy named Sean Andrews, who was a really special football player at the university of Arkansas, and then ended up being a

draft pick for the Eagles, getting paid a ton of money at some injuries, you heard his career, but he was a freak of nature. I never forget when I was at LSU, Marcus Spears always had a neck brace on the week after we played Jason Peters and Sean Andrews because that was a lot of big fellas that could move physical week for him. But so Sean Andrews and I get down and they're like, all right, at that time I played tight end defensive end and, and, you know, they were wanting me to play offensive line in my senior year, but I wasn't, I wanted to stay at tight end. So Sean Andrews is an O lineman, obviously huge human, massive guy had to be almost 400 pounds in high school and we get down and we're doing drills.

I'm the defensive end. I am whipping this dude. Like just, I am having, so I'm jumping, I'm beating him every snap. These coaches are going crazy. Like, holy crap. You know, so now they're like all over me. Well, Sean didn't have anybody at the camp. I went to West Monroe high school. We recruited 24 seven. Okay. There's a reason we went 58 and two and won three state championships is because my senior year, half the team didn't even go to school there before my junior year.

So we're like, hey, Sean, the coaches were with me. They're like, hey, let's take Sean home. All right, yeah, that's fine. So Sean's riding in the van with us and my guilt starts hitting me. And I'm like, you know what? I gotta tell this dude the truth. So I'm like, hey, Sean, man, hey, listen,

I know I was whipping you, but I gotta be honest with you. sh the way the sun was hitting, I could see through the shadows, which way the coach was telling you to block me every time. And I can see the snap count. So I am just killing this guy. He's like depressed the whole ride home. And I tell him this story and we've had a great bond ever since dude, because it was like, man, I couldn't take it.

Like, I know I got you, but I got to tell you the truth like dude I knew exactly what was happening every play so it was good for me I was good for you but hey it worked out for everybody both had great careers no no harm no foul that is one of the best and most unique because I we haven't heard one like that before but I have to press a little on the saving thing. Okay, I have, because he gets you there. Give me the one that you think, maybe you haven't shared, but you know, look, we're an adult podcast too,

so let's not be, he's done now anyway, so you don't have to worry about the recruiting part of it. Yeah, no, you know, with Nick, it was more the intensity and the things where you realize like this dude, it's not just for you because you know, I think sometimes when you're a young player, especially like a freshman in college, you think, uh, the coaches hate me. That's why he's always screaming at me. You know, it's, he's just, you know,

trying to be mean to me. And then you'd have these moments where you realize, like, Oh, he does that to everybody. And so I'll never forget. Me and Benny Brazil, we'd finished our freshman year at LSU. Benny and I obviously had a great time, we both got drafted to Cincinnati together, you know, you end up being the best man in my wedding, like lifelong friends, but I'll never forget, we're both freshmen and we're waiting for,

Nick would do at the end of the year, every guy to have a sit down with him in his office. And if people don't know, Nick Saban is a sports psychology freak. Like everything he does is thought of, prepared. So you're in his office. It's a big, nice chair. He's sitting in, you're sitting in a little tiny chair. He's tippling you the whole time, you know, all of that, right? Everything's thought through. So we're sitting there in his office and we're

both nervous, like, man, about this meeting. What's it gonna be like to have to sit with Nick one-on-one? We've seen him like light people up and all this stuff. And we hear him going crazy on somebody and we're like, and he is, is wow, like we got to follow this. Like this is the mood I got to follow. He opens this door. And when I tell you, Skip Burtman walks out of that office and I'm like, that's the AD who won like a hundred national championships as the baseball coach at FLSU. And Skip just looked head down like tears, like he looked so sad.

And I was like, oh my God. So Benny and I started, you know, paper, rock, scissors, or who's going next. Because it's like, at that point, you're like, wow, this dude will let anybody have it if he's letting skip Burtman habit. And I will never forget that ever because as a freshman in college, you're like, that's like watching your dad yell at your mom or your mom yelled your dad. You're like, Oh my gosh, like I have no chance. Uh,

but Nick was intense all the time, man. And that's really, honestly it's something I took from him is his sense of urgency is intensity, uh, that when you want to be your best, uh, there's a standard to everything. I can't remember, but I think we had booked a game, like one of those games to get some opponent that like Nick didn't want to do. And anyway, so it fell through, but, uh, I think that's what it was about, but I'll never forget that moment seeing that skip Burtman walk out of that office. Ty Jerome, you know him now as the breakout Cavs player who just signed with the Grizzlies this offseason. But before that, he was a national championship winner at Virginia after bouncing back from that UMBC loss.

But let's go back to what led him down to Virginia in the first place. Let's go back to Iona Prep, you're a four star. When I'm looking at the rankings here, you're kind of in that 40 to 50 range as a high school player overall. So that's pretty big boy stuff there. Give us your best recruiting story from that time in your life. I'd say the funniest recruiting story that comes up top of my mind. It's not that crazy,

but it was right before my junior year and I was driving up, I was visiting GW and then right from George Washington, I was going to drive to Virginia and Virginia was the first high major to offer me. Tony, Tony's there and you know, the whole staff is there. So I'm at GW and I love it. I love the staff. It's in DC. A lot of good things, cool things about it. It's in the A10. And I tell them, yeah, I love it. And they're like, all right, just promise me one thing. When you go to UVA, you won't commit right away. You'll take it all in. I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to commit for another few months, a year at least. My junior year didn't even start yet.

I go to UVA. Two days later, I commit. I call them. I'm like, sorry, guys year, like at least. My junior year didn't even start yet. I go to UVA two days later, I commit. I call him, I'm like, sorry guys, like I just love it here, I gotta go. So yeah, I'm just like sorry. I really wasn't planning on it, but when I took the visit, it was like a no-brainer. Did you ever waiver from that, even though it's that early in your life?

I had doubts, I had doubts. Uh, they had, they had a tournament in New York and I went to watch, I think it was like 40 to 32 at the end of the game. And I was sitting there like, Jesus, I don't fit. I don't fit here at all. It gets all about defense. We don't, you don't shoot, you know, I don't fit here at all. Like I can't come here. And then after a while, it was just like, you know, you, I think people make the mistake of going to a school. You got to go to a school where you really get along with the coach because the

style can be one thing, but when you really trust that coach, he's going to be sure you see your full potential. And that's what made me hold strong. Get to Toronto's main venues like Budweiser Stage and the new Rogers Stadium with Go Transit. Thanks to Go Transit's special online e-ticket fairs, a $10 one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel on any weekend day or holiday, anywhere along the Go network. And the weekday group passes offer the same weekday travel flexibility across the network, starting at $30 for two people and up to $60 for a group of five. Buy your online Go pass ahead of the show at Gotransit.com slash tickets.

Jesse Palmer, high school ball in Canada, ends up down in Gainesville. It was probably just Gainesville, but it was also Spurrier, his time being recruited. Okay. Let's go back to a young gunslinger, north of the border. You're putting up big numbers. Were you playing for your dad? Was Dollar Bill your coach? Yeah. Dollar Bill was dialing him up. It was dialing him up at Minto Field, the PN Ontario. Okay, so you're starting to get calls. Our boy Jesse, there's some interest down south to get him down there to play college ball.

What's your best recruiting story from that time? It was probably the first, it was actually surprisingly not Steve Spurrier, which is probably surprising to a lot of people. You can only imagine what, you know, everybody's listened to his press conferences and you can just imagine. I think the most memorable recruiting story was my first phone call that I got. I'll never forget it. It was like August 15th. It was like the first day coaches were allowed to call you in the morning. I get a phone call

and I had this little terrible like little red and black phone with like a cord. It was just brutal. And I pick it up and it's Nick Saban at Michigan State. And he comes on the phone and I'm super excited. So amped. I just can't wait to get into it. I just have so many questions I want to ask. Like I'm just out of my realm as a Canadian kid. This is like the dream. And he gets on the phone and he literally talks for like eight minutes and 47 seconds, completely monotone the entire time. And it was like he wasn't breathing. He literally gets on the phone and he's like, we really think at Michigan state is a great opportunity for you on the field. It's a pro style offense.

So we'll give you an opportunity to throw the football down to over to clean really show off some of your passing ability. And you really highlight that here, the big tents and outstanding conference with great competition. You'll play good defense and if all evaluators are here each and every week, lots of friends in the NFL right now that can help figure it out for you. Once you get done here to also academically Michigan state, you're fantastic. You can get a degree that you need.

It'll help you at the next level. East Lansing, very safe place to live. We'll get you great housing here as well. And it was literally like eight minutes and 47 seconds. The pitch was unbelievable, but I just, it was so much volume. I just couldn't, I don't even know what he said. And that was, that was it.

A little like, and like, and imagine like, if you had said to me, like, by the way, dude, that guy's gonna win seven Natties, just so you know, the guy that he just spoke to, that's seven Natties. I would have been like, I don't know. So why was it Florida then? Like, who did you stay with? So it was, well, Florida was on their way

to winning the 96 national championship. Werfel was on their way to winning the 96 national championship. Werfel was on his way to winning the Heisman trophy. And listen, I went down for homecoming against LSU. Like it was like October something. I'm down in Gainesville. It's sunny. It's warm. The scenery and like in Canada in October, it's like, it's like minus 12. You know, and it's it was it was pretty good, like the Gators like work through like six TDs and it was like, I don't know, they just smoked LSU at home and it sold it pretty easily. For me, if if the transfer portal was as prevalent, then as it is, or as prevalent as now back then, would you have been like,

okay, this splitting reps bullshit? I'm going to cause it. Because I think, did you have the Mertz-Lagway game where they were, yeah, right. So they were splitting up series and then we know in the other game against Mississippi State, I don't know if you had that one where they were going to give him like three, six and nine or something. And every time I think about it, I think of you because I never played the position. I would despise that. I would despise. So I think you, 2024 Jesse Palmer would be like, hey, let's start planting the seed that I want out of here. Dude, I did it twice. Like I was doing with Doug Johnson and then Rex Grossman like two years later.

It was, it was crazy. Like I was all about that. You know, it's crazy though, man, cause, cause you know, my buddies, my boys on the team back then, we talk about it still today. Like in the late nineties, like I, that was an era where I feel like if you transferred, that was like, that was like a

Red flag. Red flag. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to pick another word, but yes, that was a red flag. That was, that was a, that was mentally weak. Yeah. It was like, yeah, you can pick it. You can pick a few. It was, it was just like, dude, like back then, like just compete, figure it out, get your job back. Like you're trying to go to the league, like figure it out, get back out there, practice better, play better and just deal with it. And just seize the moment.

Like if you had transferred back then, everybody in the locker room would have lost respect for you. And so, yeah, I mean, it'd be easy to say now, like absolutely, I'd been one of these guys, like I was just talking about the guys that transferred three or four times, I would have done that. I would have gone where the to say now, like, absolutely. I'd been one of these guys, like, I was just talking about the guys that transferred three or four times. I would have done that. I would have gone where the most money was, by the way.

I would have been like an NIL. Yeah, I would have been all about the NIL for sure. But I don't think I would have. I just think back then my headspace was like, I got to like, we have four NFL quarterbacks on our roster at the same time. And it was just like, we just, I got to beat these guys. Like that's it. And I just got to get on the field and I got to get drafted and get into the league. And

that's kind of how I thought about it. And that we don't see that very much anymore. I don't feel like. And look, you got to the league and without your mentorship, Eli Manning may not be Eli Manning. That's true. That's true. Eli Manning would have, yeah, he would have missed so many. That's a, that's a good point. You know, that's not talked about enough. Basically, you know, forget Plaxico Burris and all these other guys that made him. Jeremy Schock, I made Eli Manning. That's a good point.

To be totally honest. And I don't think you'll mind me sharing this. We were talking about it once. You're like, it was probably the best thing ever that they got me away from them. The best day of my Giants career, my worst day was the day that Eli moved into the same building I was living in Hoboken, New Jersey. That was great news and that was bad news, all at the same time. That'll do it for this edition of Recruiting Stories. Ryan Roussel podcast. You can listen on Ringer Spotify. They were gonna name me Michael Jordan.

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