Chip Kelly Interview, Pac-12 Vax Rates, Nick Rolovich, Recruiting, Hot Streak or Hot Seat

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, here we go, Pack twelve fans. This one's
for you. This it's the Pack twelve Apostles and only
the truth lives here. Twelve Apostles Apostles. It is almost
time for the season. Next week in PAC twelve play

(00:22):
kicks off. But before all that, we have an interview
with Chip Kelly, head coach of the u c l A.
Bruins UM Pack twelve. Vaccination rates are notable and it
applies to even one head coach, Mr Nick Rolovich, who's

(00:43):
not vaccinated. But the Governor of Washington says not not power.
It's got to happen. UM recruiting in the PAC twelve
is up for some people, down for some people. We
will take a deep dive into Washington, Arizona and a
couple of other teams, and a new segment today, Hot
Streak er Hot Seat. What does success look like for

(01:07):
coaches in the Pack twelve this season. I'm George Rice Stir,
He's Ralph Amason and this is the Pack twelve Apostles.
The Pack twelve Apostles podcast is the podcast Bipack twelve Fans,
four Pack twelve fans, where we keep it one hundred
all the time, No sugarcoat it, no bias, We just

(01:27):
tell you the truth. So Ralph with you know, nine
days until Hawaii kicks off against u C l A.
How excited are you, like from a scale of one intent, Well,
I mean, I think most people that are doing shows
or work together in sports media in some capacity, I

(01:48):
think you know, when they show up, they go over
their notes and then they go into the topic. Um,
you and I are on the phone for forty five
minutes every single day arguing about different Pack twelve stuff,
just so that we can record one hour and a
half episode once a week. We should be recording all
this stuff. We're talking about it all the time. The
storylines in the Pack twelve this year, there's a lot
to get excited about. Every team has some drama. Every

(02:11):
team so much graduated out of the Pack twelve this
year that we're gonna get so many new stars and
new storylines and that's incredibly exciting. Um, you got the
whether it's you know, n C double A investigations or
UM coaches calling each other out over either vaccinations or
recruiting issues. UM, it's been it's been fascinating. And then

(02:34):
you have a new commissioner, so there's some excitement around that. Uh,
and then the out of conference schedule and just having
an out of conference schedule, which we didn't have last year,
is incredibly exciting. I don't know if i could be
more excited. The only thing I'm worried about is how
I'm going to adjust to doing some of this Pack
twelve stuff on East Coast time. Yeah. Right, that's gonna

(02:55):
be weird, especially for games You're gonna be up till
two o'clock in the morning. Why to PAC twelve after dark?
Two o'clock? I mean, think about it. If they kick off,
that's almost midnight for me. And some of these games
are four hours long. We might be talking four o'clock.
Oh my god. Yeah, especially if you have one of

(03:16):
those marathon games where like Washington State's playing against you
know who, Washington State U c l A. Do what
they did last year, I'm never going to bed. You
might as well just stay up and watch the NFL
in the morning pretty much. Um So, what do you
think success looks like for the PAC twelve this year?

(03:38):
Because I think that success looks like a college football
playoff birth. I think that one of the teams I'm
talking about as far as the conference as a whole,
not individual teams that for the conference as a whole,
they have You know, UH, Oregon is the highest rank

(04:00):
team in the a P pole at number eleven, and
then you've got USC at fifteen, Washington at twenty, you
taught twenty four, Arizona State at five. So with five
teams starting off ranked, I think that you're in a
very good position to even though none of them are
inside of the top ten to start that you're actually

(04:22):
starting from a place that's higher than we have in
the last couple of years. Yeah, so I think getting
a team in the playoff would be far exceeding current expectations.
Um ending the season with five teams ranked, the way
that we're starting the season is what I would consider
meeting expectations. And for some people, meeting expectations wouldn't necessarily

(04:44):
be elite forward or success. I feel like it would
be UH. And then I think the way that they
could um they could fail to meet expectations is by
not having a team ranked in the in the top
ten and not having more than one team ranked in
the top twenty. The end of the season gives that
to just go to show you that the thing that
really makes a conference strong, which is it's you know,

(05:07):
four through eight teams and how formidable uh they are
and what type of quality they actually give the top
competition without actually knocking them off, like how well they
prepare them for the end of the season without completely
tripping them up, which is a delicate balance. If those
four through eight teams um end up going to bowl
games and getting embarrassed like have been in years past

(05:29):
when the pactwell went to in seven um, I believe
season in bowls then that I think that's that's where
you would really feel like you've you've blown it. As
far as expectations, I expect seven bowl teams and I
expect five teams and to be successful. For me, seven
bull berths, five teams in the top twenty five at
the end of the season, that's success for me. Yeah.

(05:52):
And and it's funny because it's hard for PAC twelve
teams to be ranked at the end of the season,
just like it is twelve teams and Big Ten teams
as well, because they play nine conference games and towards
the end of the season, you'll see teams slide out
because some of the SEC and a CEC teams, they'll

(06:13):
play those November cupcakes, and you'll have a conference game
against the twenty verses, and then the loser falls out,
and then a team that you know, like Mississippi State,
who will be seven and three, will bump up into
the rankings after they played you know, Divide in November.

(06:35):
So I think that it's so I don't think that.
For For me, success looks like four teams ranked in
the top twenty five at the end of the year,
and one top ten team like actually sorry, one top
four team because I think they have to make the playoffs,
and then another top top ten twelve team. I think

(06:58):
that that's the that's its success looks like the problem
for the Pack twelve is it really depends on which
team has the most success, because I feel like if
Arizona State goes eleven and one, they'd be held out
of the top five. But I feel like, yeah, it's
hold on, hold on, hold on, wait what wait eleven

(07:18):
and one and then do they win the Pack twelve championship.
So you're saying, if they went twelve and twelve and
one and one, I'm talking about leading. I'm talking about
leading into the PAC Tweld championship. I think I think
it really it really depends on the team. And that's
why these dumb preseason rankings. I think it's ridiculous that
the preseason rank It's not a matter of whether or

(07:39):
not the preseason rankings should exist because we are all
in agreement that they hold far too much weight over
the final product. But ultimately things work themselves out over time,
and it's not that big of a gripe. The real
gripe is that Week one doesn't weigh as heavily as
something that happened at the end of the season. It's

(08:02):
it's it's the natural um increase of consequence towards the
end of the year. Uh So, when when pack twelve
teams get to that ninth conference game and you're in
a situation like Oregon was where they got knocked off
in Tempe, that that's going to come with a far
greater consequence than if that loss had happened at the

(08:22):
very beginning of the season. And uh And I think
that's part of the thing that gets frustrating is that
as teams naturally wear down over time playing similar competition,
that the consequences are are a little bit greater and
like you said, a lot of these other teams get
kind of a refresher um getting to play against Grambling
and stuff like that in late November. Yeah, and I

(08:44):
am a big fan um of like, well, I'm a
big fan of schedules and and my new schedules and
narratives matter right because us if and I think you're
right when it when you said that there are certain

(09:07):
teams that would get the benefit or not benefit of
the doubt because if Arizona State goes eleven and one,
what are what is the first thing that people are
going to say about Arizona State? Their schedules trash. They're
gonna be like, oh, they played uh Southern utah U
n l V and b y U and the nonconference

(09:29):
Oh my god, like go go play somebody please. Yeah.
So we got to talk about by you here for
a second. Because of how weird it is that they're
factored into this. The teams that beat b y U
are in a weird position because then they have to
root for b y U to at least also be
respectable within the pack twelve. So long as it's teams

(09:52):
that they're not meeting up with. It's the way that
B y U is the twelve and a half member
of the Pack twelve this year. Is is very interesting
to me because you know, do Pack twelve fans want
b Yu to come in and go over five so
that ultimately their schedule doesn't look strong or is every
team hoping that you you have a couple of hallmark

(10:12):
victories on your schedule and if the Yu happens to
be one of them, that works better for you. So
if you're Arizona State and you beat b y U
early in the season, do you root for b YU
to run the table so you have maybe two elite
victories on your schedule at the end of the year.
That that that that part of it is so fascinating
to me, because you're right, people will bring up the

(10:33):
weakness of the schedule unless unless some of that schedule
includes teams who did really really well outside of you
playing them. If you if you l V wins the
Mountain West and b YU manages to go four and
one against the Pack twelve, then it doesn't look so bad.
But does everything else look bad because b y you
got those wins. The interconnectedness of it, especially with b

(10:55):
YU being one of your out of conference games, it
really feels like five pack twelve team teams actually have
ten conference games this year. M hmm, yeah, yeah, no, No,
that's a really good point, and I think that it
is it's important for us to recognize how important it
is for that b y you actually does well, you

(11:20):
know what I mean, Like because their schedule is they
play Arizona, then U tak Utah, Arizona State, and then
they have to beat you at UH Central Florida I'm sorry,
South Florida, Utah State, Boise State, Baylor, Virginia, Idaho State,

(11:43):
and Georgia Southern because then they still have Washington State
and USC as well. Like they they have to win
all the rest of their their games, and then you
need the five pack twelve teams that they played to
beat them, right or do you need them to beat
some of the PAC twelve teams? I don't know. That's

(12:03):
the weird thing about all of it. Would you be
I mean, do I know that there's some PAC twelve
fans who would absolutely be enraged by the idea that
we're we'd even entertain this, But I consider them and
I think we'll probably run the podcast accordingly that we're
essentially covering thirteen teams this year. Oh yeah, you you
have to factor in b YU because they play five teams.

(12:26):
I mean, so it matters what happens. Even if they're
not playing against PAC twelve opponent that week, they're probably
still a team we should talk about within the context
of then they're gonna come background and playing, so to
update people on exactly what they have going on, who's
playing well on their roster, Like, we have to pay
attention to be YU not just for those five weeks,
but for the majority of the season. Yep, um, all right,

(12:52):
getting into it. So PAC twelve vaccination rates came out,
and were you surprised at anything that you saw with
the vaccination rates. Yes, because I feel like my personal
life is probably more sixty vaccinated it's unvaccinated. Yeah, um,

(13:20):
And I just always assumed that the world of college
football would probably be closer to um, my own personal world.
But so I would say that I was very surprised
that a lot of the vaccination rates are as high
as they were, including Washington State only being in the
mid seventies by the time pactual media day rolled around. Yeah,

(13:42):
that was that was But actually Washington State being so
low didn't shock me considering of the situation that they're in,
that their head coach isn't vaccinated, and I think that
that plays a big part in how the team has
handled the vaccination rates as well. I think you're right,

(14:05):
But again, I when I look at those vaccination rates,
I considered them consumed when you factor in the whole um,
the whole thing of the head coach not necessarily leading
the way I considered it to be high. It's because
it's it's higher than the baseline rate of society. It's
higher than like my personal bubble of of people. And

(14:27):
and then you have to factor in that that it's
not that while he is encouraging his players to explore
whether the vaccines are right for them, the head coach
isn't out there like some of these other head coaches
saying you've got to do it. So uh well, I've
been pleased. I've been pleasantly surprised by the entire Pack
twelve and college football in general, because it is to me,
far far far greater than where we're at as a

(14:50):
um overall, just as an adult society right now, because
they have the most to lose, right is that because
they had games canceled last year. And I know this
from from my fifteen year old son who was like, Dad,
if if I get contact tracks out, I gotta miss
ten days. That's that could be two games, depending on

(15:12):
how it is. I don't want to miss any games.
And so I think that that's the way a lot
of players are feeling. So you have U c l
A at and I think the Chip Kelly said that
they only have one player who's not vaccinated, and that's
for a religious reason. Arizona States at ninety seven percent,
so we have to assume that if they're at ninety seven,

(15:32):
it's either one or two kids that are not vaccinated.
And my my guests on the Arizona State one is
it kids that play no, no no, that that's an Arizona,
Oh Arizona. Well, I think if if the University of
Arizona Arizona State have the same policy, which is that
UM unvaccinated players won't travel with the team, that I

(15:55):
mean that was the consequence that Arizona State was trying
to institute, and that's what ultimately leave their punch. Michael
Turk to transfer University of Oklahoma because for religious reasons,
he's abstaining from getting the vaccine. He's arguably the best
puncher in the country. So I don't even know if
it's arguably. He seems to be clearly the best punter
in the country. Yeah. Him, he has a mastery of
almost every element of of the game. It's it is crazy.

(16:19):
He not just like a boom the ball guy. He
It is absolutely crazy how good he manages to be
at punting while also being like kind of a bodybuilder.
And he I mean, if you remember two years ago
at the NFL Combine, UM he put up twenty five
reps on the bench of two pounds each. So he's

(16:40):
somebody who puts a lot of work in UM kind
of the new age Pat McAfee of of of punters.
And for Arizona State to put their foot down with
him and watch him leave to go to University of
Oklahoma was was very interesting. So you're right, I mean,
built in consequences and having more to lose probably definitely
factor into the high vaccination rate amongst fact twelve athletes. Yeah,

(17:00):
so you've got U c. L A at Arizona at
seven Washington above Colorado at ninety four point five Oregon
between ninety and ninety five, Utah above ninety, USC above nine,
Oregon State at eight, eight, Stanford at eight five, Washington

(17:22):
State at eight and not information not available for Arizona
State and caw m hmm. I don't know. I'm impressed,
I really am, because it's and maybe that's just it
is essentially like built in consequences or a common goal

(17:45):
are a far greater uh factor into people getting vaccinated
than shaming them or throwing scientific facts at them or
anything like that. If it's just a matter of a
hurdle that you have to clear in order to get
a job done, then it seems much easier to convince
people to uh to go and and get vaccinated, especially
if you still leave it as a choice, right I mean,

(18:06):
it's not it's technically very is evident right now that
it's not a choice. But if you don't put it
to them as if like, you're gonna lose your spot
completely if you don't get vaccinated, but still say like,
but you have the opportunity to achieve this goal if
you do it, it seems like that is a much
higher motivator in getting people vaccinated than just you know,

(18:27):
hitting them with numbers and whatnot. Yeah. Um, Okay, Well,
now onto a more touchy subject, which is you have
a head coach in the back twelve in Nick Rolovich,
whose job could be in hot water at this point.
And I said this a while ago, and we talked

(18:49):
about it on the Right Star Wrong podcast. You guys
make sure that you listen to that as well. Um
is that Nick Rolovich is the leader of Washington State.
He's the coach, and the state and the the schoolll Sorry,
the state already said that all state employees or people
in the colleges, all this stuff, that they have to

(19:10):
be vaccinated to come back on campus, the kids have
to be vaccinated to come on campus, all of all
of that. But then but then the you have Nick
Rolovich who didn't go to Pact twelve media day because
he wasn't vaccinated, and he didn't give the specific reason why.
I didn't say whether it was a medical condition or
a religious reason, which are the only ways out. So

(19:34):
then you had the governor of Washington come out and
say this rule applies to even to um UH state
employees and and football specifically, and that was a clear
shot at Nick Rolovich and some people on his staff.

(19:55):
And so I'm sitting there like, does this mean that
Nick Rolovich his job is in jeopardy and it looks
like it at least a suspension if he's not vaccinated. Yeah, yeah,
you're right. I mean, he could really be putting his
job on the line right now. And what do you think, George,

(20:17):
do you think he's do you think he's got the
stomach too to walk away from being a Power five
coach before his first top of him? And yeah, and
before his first full season. And dude, there's a lot
of money on the line. I mean, we're we're talking
potentially tens of millions of dollars for for him, right

(20:38):
assuming assuming that he does well because he was at
Hawaii and and then you come to Washington State, he's
making over two million or three three million bucks. That's
a that's life changing money. And then you stack a
few of those years on top of each other when

(20:59):
reading negotiate, we're literally talking potentially twenty thirty million dollars
for his life or more that he could potentially be
giving up. I don't know about that, Paler. It's not
a lot of people that would be willing to turn
that down. He's still do twelve million on this contract.

(21:20):
And and the one thing we know about Washington State
is if you go out there and you give their
those fans a ten win season or you look like
you're on the way to their ten wins, they'll pay.
They'll keep making sure that you're extended four to five
years out, which is what every college program does. But
he is one good season away from having the university

(21:40):
owe him million dollars and they already him twelve Yeah. Yeah,
So this is a financial windfall that he's in the
very beginning of. Like if it were dabblo Sweeney, right,
and he just had the convictions about this or something, well, actually, no,
I'm not ever gonna use that devo because his convictions

(22:02):
are apparently negotiable. Because remember when he said, oh, college players,
at the point in time college players they started getting
getting paid, that's when I'm out. I'll go do something else. Well,
he game went to go do nothing else. He had
ninety million reasons to to stay. So I'm assuming that

(22:26):
in this same position he would make the same this
he would make the same decision and be like, ah, well,
you know, I still want to be around here for
the kids. I can help them out and help groom
groom their futures. So so the date looks to be

(22:48):
it looks like they might give him a little bit
of grace to go into the season unvaccinated. Why do
you say that? Um? On Wednesday, Washington Governor Governor j
Ensley announced that he'll be requiring all High edgy Case employees,
including coaches, to get vaccinated. If employees refused to get
fully vaccinated by October eighteen, their employment will be terminated.

(23:10):
Hold up, though, that that doesn't give you as much
time as you think, because what does it say. It
says to get fully vaccinated? So does that mean that
you're two weeks that you need your two weeks? So
that means it means his first does His first dose
would probably need to be administered around the time of

(23:30):
their fifth game of the season for him to bring
it all the way up against the deadline, and then
he'd have to get the second dose about at the
halfway point of the season. So either way, no matter
what he does, and I'm sure the university is gonna
want to know so that they're prepared. Either way, he'd
probably allowed to coach the first four games without having
to make a decision, so he can he can. He

(23:54):
can finish the game at Arizona State in Tempe before
getting his first dose if he wants to. He can
maybe even extend it all the way out to right
after their game at home against USC and still get
in under the deadline. Well, or if he did, Johnson
and Johnson, he could wait all the way till October,

(24:17):
That's true, he could. He could. Uh, he could have
coached their first six games of the season before getting
the one and done vaccine. But who I don't know, George.
Do they want you cleared of the two week window
after your second vaccination or do they want just for
you to just have the second shot, because see, your
vaccine is considered fully if you take the two shots,

(24:40):
your vaccine is considered you're considered fully vaccinated after the
two week window of because that's what it takes. That's
the amount of time it takes for the for the
um proteins to essentially been broken down by your b cells. Dude,
this is gonna get sticky and crazy because to see

(25:01):
what Nick Rolovich does, because there are probably some coaches
who haven't done it. And then when schools make rules
like Arizona says, you can't travel if you're not vaccinated.
That would impact coaching, and the same thing if stadiums
don't let unvaccinated people in. So now you're going to

(25:24):
create a bunch of issues for travel as it relates.
Because let's say that that they're going to go play
Oregon State. Uh, let me that because this is a
legitimate question, right, because you have Washington State they play.

(25:45):
Let me see if they play Oregon State. Yeah, they
play Oregon State. Oh, thankfully for them. They play Oregon
State at home. Oregon State is requiring well, actually Oregon
States were requiring everybody in the stadium wear masks. Um.
But there are some schools that maybe forcing mandatory vaccination

(26:08):
for you to come in the stadium as as well.
So then how would that work If your head coach
can't even come in the stadium, it would not work.
It would not work at all. You can't be like
Liberty and have your coach coach from a hospital bed
or or or a television set, uh somewhere else. You
can't do that. Um. But so here we are, right now,

(26:32):
let's just take what I know. I know the state
of Arizona, right, so, currently of all reported infections which
comes out to be about one in seven are of
people who are fully vaccinated. So if only one in
seven new infections is coming from somebody who's fully vaccinated,
would that, to you, George, not be overwhelming data that

(26:55):
that the vaccine is working or at least covering up
the symptoms to the point where someone wouldn't even be
motivated to go get a test. Yes. And but I
think that people that they look at it when people
who are vaccinated get it, that they turn around and say, oh,

(27:16):
well see, look even vaccinated people can't can't get it,
and not thinking about how many times they don't get
it after they were exposed. Right, But if you were
six times flecked a thousand arrows and one arrow hits you,
then they're like, ha, that suit of armor does not work. Right.
But it's just if you were six times more likely

(27:37):
to get kicked in the dick for wearing a green shirt,
you probably it's not like the green shirts in the
dick kicking zone, right, exactly exactly, So we got Nick
Rolovich out here trying to wear a green shirt and
in the dick kicking zone. And I don't understand the
logic of that. And less again, this is very important.

(27:58):
We have to keep reiterating this unless his personal doctor
told him not to get vaccinated, in which we're in
a really messy situation where the governor of the state,
who is I'm sure very aware who the highest paid
employee is in the state, and the second highest paid
employee is in the state, where the governor is basically
like trying to at least get him to reveal his reasoning. Yeah,

(28:20):
I feel like that's where they're really trying to force
his hand because if then if he goes and gets vaccinated,
then how everybody's gonna interpret it is, Oh, it didn't
really matter to him all that much anyway, but it
could have mattered a whole lot. It might just not
have mattered three million dollars a year a lot. There's
a lot of stuff that matters to me a great
deal that would not matter as much if three million

(28:40):
dollars a year was on the line. You are right
about that, dude. Three million dollars will change your convictions
about a bunch of things. It'll make you think two,
three or four times. You you're like, you'll start justifying,
like um am, I sure, ah, it'll it'll It'll be
all right, but just remember, just think about it, like

(29:02):
he'll forgive me. There was a week. There was a
week where we did a show. We were like, man,
Mel Tucker is really committed to the University of Colorado,
and then Michigan State came in and they're like, what
about seven point five million a year for your assistance alone?
And he was like, it's been fun. Guys like, hey, hey, yo, Colorado.

(29:29):
You know I love you. Yeah, So let's just let's
let's hope that this vaccine essentially plays the Michigan State role.
If Nick Rolovich is is Meil Tucker in this metaphor? Yea?
All right. The next thing up, I had an opportunity
to interview Chip Kelly this this week and he was

(29:52):
absolutely forthcoming. He was you know, I really liked it.
So here's the interview. Hopefully you guys enjoy it. And
now we're joined by the head coach of u c
l A Football, the Bruins, Mr Chip Kelly, coach. Thanks
for coming on the show. Thanks for having me, George.

(30:13):
All right, first thing is every time I have a
coach on the show, my first question to them is
how should you be addressed as should in the media
should we address you as coach, should we address you
as chip whatever, because there's been a bunch of coaches
that have had have taken objection to how they've been addressed. Yeah,

(30:35):
I really don't care. As long as somebody tells my name,
I'm happy whatever. I don't. I don't get caught up
in that part. So UM, well that's good. Well, I'm
happy to see you in in Brewing Colors because my
wife is the u c. L A grad and we

(30:55):
have season tickets there even even though even though I'm
a duck. But it um. But this year in particular,
you guys have gone undergone a big change in going
from under Armour over to Jordan's brand. And people wouldn't
think that that would be a big deal on its surface,
but to recruits, that's a huge deal. How has that

(31:17):
impacted you know, you're recruiting so far? Well, it's sins
impacted it because of the product that the Jordan brand has.
UM obviously tied with Nike. UM. You know, really, I
think it's the best um sports footwear and affarel company
out there. When we were excited, you know, I have
been with Nike before, and the fact that we're back

(31:39):
to them now, Um, you know has an appeal and
and that brand. You know, you could just see the
the silhouette of the Jordan branding and you know what
you're getting into. So when I know our players love it,
they love the shoes. Um. We officially started, I think
right at the beginning of July, so for our summer workouts,
our guys were all in Jordan's gear and um, the

(32:00):
players we have seemed really excited about it, and recruits
seemed really excited about it. Yeah, and recruiting over the
last you know, eighteen months has been unlike anything any
coach has ever experienced. What has it been like for
you at u c l A dealing with things in
the pandemic, the regulations of the UC system in California

(32:21):
and all that. It was interesting for all of us.
I mean, um, I think it was March thirteenth or
March Friday. March thirteenth were really the n c A shutdown,
you know, and we were on a dead period in
all sports from the thirteenth of March and two June one. Um,
and that opened the window back up for visits. So

(32:42):
everything we did from March thirteenth until June one Um
was all over zoom or FaceTime or phone calls or
text messages, so none of it was in person. You know,
our class that we signed in December of twenty UM,
some of them enrolled early, but eleven of them showed

(33:04):
up here on June one, and it was really the
first time for most of those guys that we had
ever seen him face to face because everything was just
for the last eighteen months had been done online. So
it was it was unique. UM. You know, I think
the technology part helped everybody. UM, but it was different.
You know, usually you want to see kids in person,
you want to see him practice, um, maybe play another sport.

(33:28):
You know what it was like when you're when you're
getting recruited is if the kids a basketball platy, you
want to watch and playing the basketball court, or or
see him at a track meet. Um, but all those
things are out the window, or just see him at
a camp. You know. The whole camp circuit was off
that that in the year of twenty and we weren't
allowed to go to camps and see any kids either,
so UM, it was all done off the film. UM.

(33:48):
A lot of schools played, but there are some high
schools you know, New Mexico, Hawaii, some of those because
they didn't play football, so you don't have any tape
from a kid after a sophomore year, so you try
to project them. Um, in the m c a A.
We gave everybody the year back, but in high school
they didn't give the year back, so kids kept moving on.
So you just had a dad adapt and adjust. But

(34:09):
the good thing was that everybody that you were competing
with was following the same rules, and Um, that was
just part of the process that you have to do
with you know, yeah, yeah, well some of them were
following the same rules. But but but but I digress. Um,
what is your philosophy though on on offers? Because U

(34:31):
c l A and you guys have offered either the
least or second least amount of scholarships two players versus
you know, other schools around the country and in the
Pact twelve that are north of four hundred offers, which
most of those have to be an offers because they're
not committable. Yeah. So to me, um, our workers are bombed.

(34:55):
So if we offer you it's committable, I don't understand.
We're gonna offer you but not a committable offer. Then
my answer would be, then it's not an offer. You know,
we're not making reservations for dinner. UM, you're dealing about
your dealing with young man's lives. And I don't think
it's fair to offer a young man UM and then
tell him it's not a committable offer because I don't

(35:15):
know what message you're sending them. You know, you can
trust me, but not in everything I say. You know,
so our word is our body. UM. The other thing
for us is we have a uh a great school here,
academic we and not everybody can get in. So we
wouldn't offer a kid UM if we didn't, if we
didn't have a transcript in hand that we could show
to our admissions office. UM to see is what is

(35:39):
this young man tracking towards if he continues to do
the same work keys an admittable student athletes UM. Because
it's also not fair to a kid that you offer
a scholarship and he says, hey, I want to go there,
it's my dream school, and then a year later you say,
well you didn't get in. You know that kid has
shut down his recruiting has told people, UM has told
people that, UM, you know he's going to stif school

(36:02):
and no one else's recruiting him, and then you tell
the kid a year later we can't get in. So um,
we make sure we've got In most cases, we need
at least five or six semesters of high school work
for our missions office to be able to tell us
of the kids in the medable student athletes. So in
the rush of some people offering eighth graders and freshmen,
you know, my response all the time is, the kid

(36:23):
doesn't even have a trund skit. How do you know
if he's in a medable student So um, we want
to make sure we got the right kids in the
right fit here. Um. Kids are about books, kids are
about vall um and then they understand that in the process.
But I think they understand what they get an offer
from us. It's a committabal offer and it's not a
it's not a reservation for dinner. It's actually a scholarship pump. Yeah,

(36:44):
people get a real caught up in stars and recruiting
rankings and where you rank? Where do you think that?
And and my mind, you when you were in Oregon,
you had a ton of success and you didn't finish
in the top ten of recruiting rub up there. So
it's like, how do you balance you know, finding guys

(37:05):
that are great for your system that allows you to
have tremendous success on the field, but also kind of satisfying,
you know, getting elite athletes at the same time. Yeah,
I think we have a UM a system of how
we evaluate both academically, athletically and characterized of the students
that we offer and recruit UM, and we go by that.

(37:27):
We're not governed by somebody else's opinion. UM. That's just
not the you know, the way to go about it.
If if that happens to be you know, the kid
happens to be somebody that UM people at the recruiting
services think very highly on, then they have highly ranked
and UM, then that's great. But if if they don't,
we don't offer a kid UM because of his ranking. UM.

(37:49):
You know, those guys work really hard at it. But
I don't know if all the recruiting rankings have all
the information i e. The academics and the character background
things that maybe schools have. And I don't think that's
any different, George than the NFL draft UM as you know,
you know, being a former NFL guy, UM, school programs
in the National Football League. Teams in the National Football

(38:11):
League find out a ton of information, you know, at
the combine and the interviews and scouts on campus and
things like that. And you always see a guy in
the draft that everybody thought was the first share first
round pick and he dropped to the sixth or the seventh. Well,
it may have been a medical, it may have been
a character issue, um that maybe the public wasn't aware
of it. I think that happens a lot in recruiting rankings,

(38:31):
where you know, they may look at a highlight pick
and say, this kid is really good, he's a hip star,
but you know, didn't know that he's had multiple concussions
and he may not be able to project to be
a college player, or um, he may have had some
problems off the field, or he may not have UM
the requisite grade point average to UM attend certain schools
or even be an n c A qualifiers. So I'm

(38:53):
not sure they have all the information all the time,
but UM, we have to do that. That's that's our job.
That's the school's job to do all that homework, because
there's more to the evaluation and the offer than just
he has a really good highlighting. You know, there's a
lot more to it than that. When you're projecting who's
gonna end up being, um, you know, a player that

(39:13):
that's going to be successful at the Polter five level.
That makes a lot of sense. Um. You guys were
on with coach Chip Kelly, head coach of the u
c l A Bruins. Um. If when when you look
at this season for you, for you guys, you have
Dorian Thompson Robinson quarterback coming back. You you your defense
is much improved, which I think is going to be

(39:34):
one of the best defenses in the Pact twelve this year.
What does success look like for you guys on the
field this year? Yeah, I think we'll ultimately be graded
by the standard that we all hold ourselves suiting in
terms of how we prepare daily, um, not get caught
up you know and looking too far ahead, um and

(39:55):
being anxious for the future, and also not being frustrated
by things that the one in the past of you know,
can we continue to just put you know, good days, um,
whether it be a Monday, you know, over about two
weeks before our first game, um, or or or on
the day of our first game, you know, it's it's

(40:15):
really about being consistent in your approach. Um. The best
players that I had an opportunity to coach, whether it's
at the college level or the professional level, they were
the same person every day, you know. And it's it's
your ability to handle the successes um and the disappointments
the same way. You know, because you're not going to
be every single day. You know, that just doesn't happen.

(40:36):
You know, we're not striving to be perfect. You know,
we're worth striving to be UM the best version of ourselves.
And part of that is UM when we don't when
we do face adversity, or we do face a loss,
so to speak, UM, whether it be on a particular play, UM,
how do we bounce back from that in the hand?
How do we learn from that to make ourselves even better?

(40:56):
So really it's how do we respond on a daily
basis to you know, what's throwing at us? UM will up,
we'd be our what we measure ourselves on here every day?
Is this team this year good enough to win the
PAC twelves out then end up in the PAC twelve
championship game? Yeah, we don't talk about that. You know,
it goes back to our mindset is if we are

(41:17):
talking about that, George, then we're way too far ahead
of ourselves. You know, this team has to be good
enough to have a really really good Monday, UM and
not get caught up in it. And it's hard. Now,
that's a lot easier said than done, UM, because of
a lot of talk. And we do have a lot
of players back from UM and have a lot of
that and have a lot of returning experience. But I

(41:38):
think if you get caught up in that, then you
lose sight of what what what you need to do,
and that's what you need to do is come to
work every single day and UM. We'll continue to harp
that with our players. So it would be kind of
disingenuous of me to answer questions like that and talk
about predictions and things like that, because that's not something
that really governs how we work. It's it's just what's
our standard and can we live up to it on

(41:58):
a daily basis, And we have our game meeting UM tonight,
you know, at the end of every day, and we
talk about it. UM. You know, in our players actually
great themselves, you know, did they did they win the day?
Or did they or did we're using today as a
learning experience. So UM, we'll continue to use that model
because I think that's the one UM that that really
has proven over time that if you're about the process

(42:21):
and not the outcome, UM, then the outcome will take
care of yourself. Have you always had that philosophy or
is that something that you've picked up with your experience
in in the NFL now, UM, I have had that
philosophy for a long time. UM. I probably didn't articulate
it as well as I was a younger coach, UM,

(42:44):
but I think I've learned how to really try to
explain it is that we are outcome aware. I think
everybody's outcome aware, but we are process driven UM. And
I think when you focus on the process, UM, that
helps you UM actually with the outcome. You know, and
it sounds our intuitive, but it's it's really the key
part of it. You know. I think sometimes people get

(43:04):
too high UM, and then at times get too low.
You know, when I think it's it's really about being
consistent and steady, because it isn't a game of perfect
you know, it's a it's a game of resiliency. And
if you're going to develop resiliency. You've gotta understand that
it's about focusing on the process will help you develop
that resiliency. Yeah. And over at U c l A,
you guys have you know, your biggest rival is USC

(43:28):
and you guys have a linebacker on your team with
the last name Trojan. How is that in the locker room?
That's a good question. Um, you know what, I've never
really thought about it, or we've actually never really talked
about it. I would have to ask him, I, um,
you know what it's like in the locker room. But

(43:49):
I think, uh, um, I think most people don't call
him by his first name, that the last name right,
just to just pretend like that didn't even happen, Just
pretend like the right you you came from New Hampshire,
and I remember when you first got to Oregon they
were like, yeah, we hired this guy from New Hampshire.

(44:10):
I was like, from New Hampshire? What? And then you
turned out to be, you know, and a guy who
has changed college football and kind of how uh in
terms of tempo and you know the way that you're
running spread, but it's also a running attack at its core,

(44:32):
and that was primarily it seems like the developed with
the the New Hampshire Mafia. Can you tell us about
the New Hampshire Mafia. UM, I don't know what mafia
is the work, but there are a few of us
UM in football now that we're all from the same hometown.

(44:54):
So Ryan Day who's at Ohio State, Danny Malves at Florida. Uh,
we all grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire, and our
paths have crossed along the ways UM at times. I
actually coach Ryan in college UM, and then his first
job was with US at New Hampshire, and then he
went on to TA at Florida and full time coach
at Temple in Boston College before we reunited in the NFL. UM.

(45:18):
I had known Danny. I actually was coaching Division threeball
when Danny was playing college Division three football and got
a chance to coach against him. And then when he
first started getting into coaching, UM, you know, told them about, Hey,
there's there's a job overen here, maybe you should apply there.
And uh, he started off at Columbia University where I
started out. UM. So we kind of intertwined UM together

(45:39):
at at different times. But I just think it's a
you know, it's a great place to grow up. Um.
You know it's it's it's uh sport, you know, in
the fall and in the winter and in the spring. Um,
and you go from one sport to the other sport.
And we had great youth coaches and UM, great high
school coaches and just a great placed too to raise

(46:02):
a young man. UM and I we're just all byproducts
of you know, the coaches that are an opportunity to
affect our lives when we were young kids. Yeah, and um, finally, finally, coach,
you are big on something that I am big on
as well, because I've been around the world speaking at
a bunch of um military bases and like it. It

(46:24):
seems like now so much of the military appreciation within
sports that it borders on performative. But that's not the
case for you, because you attended the funeral of an
Oregon Fan Army Sergeant Joshua Linkstorff, who was killed in Afghanistan,
and you've also been overseas to visit service members. When

(46:45):
you see what's happening in the news right right now,
so much of the reaction is about scoring points and politics,
But how important is it too that we keep the
human cost and all of that at the forefront when
it comes to these types of issues. Yeah, you know,
I think you're spot on with that, George, And to me,
it's never been political. But there are a group of

(47:05):
people in this country, UM, servicemen and women and their
families that have sacrificed, um, their time and at times
the ultimate sacrifice, their lives so that we can live
in this country, you know. And and it's something that
I think at times, when you get to the holidays,
the fourth of July that ten today, things like that,

(47:27):
people kind of think about, you know, the sacrifices that
these people have made, UM. But I think on a
daily basis, we should remind ourselves that, um, we live
the lives that we live right now because of other
people that are sacrificed for us. And whenever you have
a chance, I think, and when you talk to most
of the people in the military, just a recognition and

(47:48):
thank you for what they've done, um in in in
the contribution that they've made so that we can live
the lives that we live right now. Is is really
the most important thing for me. And when I had
the platform of being a head coach, um, just to
take some time in the opportunity to just say thank you.
And that's that's what I think ultimately for for all
the men and women and their families. UM. The sacrifices

(48:10):
when people are deployed and go overseas and their families
are back here in the States and you don't know
if you're ever going to get that faithful phone call. UM.
That's that's tough to live in on a on a
daily basis. And there are a bunch of people that
do that so that we can do what we're doing
right now. We're you know, we're I'm sitting in my
office talking ball with you, you know, And and it's
because other people have made sacrifices for us. So UM,

(48:31):
I've always been Uh, I have family members that have
been in the military. UM. But I've always just been
respectful of people that, UM have given part of their
lives to serve our country, UM and allow us to
live the freedoms that we live. Yeah, I want agree
with all of that because we wouldn't have the cushy

(48:52):
and and you know, operate the cushy opportunities and be
able to sit in the air condition without those servicemen
and women. UM. I wanted to ask you one one thing,
and this is a kind of a question for the
Oregon fans as well, is that Okay, So when you
got a chance to go back to Austin Stadium, I
was actually at that game, um, a couple of years ago,

(49:15):
and it was your first time playing against Oregon as
the U c l A head coach. What was that
like returning back to Austin Stadium and how and how
well you were received by the autsin crowd. Um. It
is weird because you ran out of the wrong tunnel
and I ran to the wrong sideline. If you're not

(49:38):
used to going that way. I was used to always
going the other way, so that had to kick a
little bit used to But UM, I've always said that,
you know, Autson Stadium is one of the most special
places in the world, um, and the reception that I
got there was was truly special. I met a ton UM.
I've had so many fond memories of that place. And
you know the one thing about ore again that I've
always said, Um, they do have it, I'm legal facilities,

(50:00):
But to me, the thing that always resonated was the people,
you know, and in in the fans, UM, and the people
that had an opportunity to meet my six years there
were um told a special place in my heart. So
it was it was it was a surreal moment. Um,
just because of you're going to compete against the place
that you worked so hard you know when you were there.

(50:22):
So that was different. Um. Once the whistle blew, it
was different because it's just competition. Um. But before the game,
it was it was different, you know. And and getting
a chance to visit with some of the people that
I knew from Oregon that were down on the sideline
pre game, just to say hello to some of them
was really special too. And so, UM, I root for
them in every game except for the game I coach
against them. So um, I'm hoping they get uh they

(50:44):
have a great season this year, and I got a
lot of friends that are still associated with that school,
and I hope everything goes well for them, ex up
for the one time they playoffs. Well, coach, I'll be
rooting against you in that game, but in all the
other you gotta be Lloyd's buddy. I understand that. But
but no, no, I will be rooting for you in

(51:07):
every game because hey, I want you to do well.
But also most importantly because I like to have a
happy household because my my wife is a big time
football fan. I knew you were smart first time I
ever met in George. You're a smart guy, all right,
you guys. He's coach Chip Kelly, head coach of the
U c l A Bruins. Thanks for coming on today, George,

(51:29):
take care of a great song. So, Ralph, what did
you think about the Chip Kelly interview? Well, for starters,
the pylon is official. Whether you talked to Clay Hilton,
you talked to David Shaw and now Chip Kelly about
this idea of of how offers are viewed. UM. And
you know, Stanford and U c l A obviously have

(51:51):
offered you know, quite a few less than anybody else
in the conference, and they have what would you would
probably need to consider more unique perspectives, um, within the
grand scheme of things on whether an offer should be
committable or not. UM. But I think we're starting to
see a little bit of a pile on for some
of our for some of our schools in the conference
that are going north of two fifty offers ten times

(52:13):
the amount or more that you can you can you know,
bring in with a su creeping up on sixteen seventeen
times the amount that they could actually bring in and would,
which is actually not true number anyway, because you have
to consider people are looking to get thirty of their
classes now from the transfer portal. So it is interesting
to hear these coaches speak out on the idea that

(52:35):
um that an offer shouldn't be meaningless um And I
know that, I know that people can argue about the
connotation of of the term meaningless, But if an offer
is not committable, then it's not an offer, correct. It's
as David Shaw called, it's an offer. Right. There's such
time things, a limited time offer. Those exist all over society.

(53:00):
But otherwise we're just in that Kevin Garnett scenario of
why the f would you show this to me if
I can't have it? Like, why are you saying that
I've been offered a scholarship to your school in the
event that twelve preconditions that will never be met are
going to get met, or in the case of like
a school like Arizona State, where they make you the
offer in order to even have a relationship with you

(53:20):
in the first place, it's like scheduling eight tender dates
and deciding which one you're going to show up to
and leaving the girls sitting at the table that like that.
That's essentially their their method of doing this, which is
whether an inching closer and closer to four and fifty
offers just in the cycle, whether they're probably not going
to take more than twenty kids. So we've we've kind

(53:42):
of reached a crux, and I think that Chip Kelly
did a good job of our articulating it that at
some point these offers are gonna have to mean something
to these kids. Well, I would agree with that because
I think that if I were a head coach of

(54:03):
a university, my philosophy would be probably very similar to
Chip Kelly's, but I would probably give out a couple
of more offers as well, right to to some depending
on the university I was at. If I'm at Stanford,
obviously I can't give out as many because or even

(54:25):
at U c l A, because getting kids in school
is is an issue sometimes, right. But if I'm at
A still a good academic university, but still at the
same time, I know that I have more flexibility with it,
and I want to build a relationship from a kid
with a kid from the time. He's younger than I
would probably give out. How many offers have um U, C,

(54:50):
l A and Stanford given out? Who have given out
the because they've given out the least amount in the
PAC twelve, right, Yeah, two weeks ago when we were
looking at the numbers, they were the only two pack
t of teams under a hundred and they were both
in the seventies. Yeah, I would probably be around that
hundred number, like a couple of other extra ones, but

(55:12):
probably more to higher end kids that maybe we weren't
sure that we were going to get the way we
end up, maybe in their top tens, top fives, you
know what I mean, Like try to build some of
those relationships on top of that, because I do think
that you want to keep your offers exclusive right the

(55:33):
way people, the way kids and their parents know, if
I get an offer from X, Y and Z school,
then this is a real offer. But then at the
same time I want them to, you know, use the
publicity of that as as well. Yes, and so right
now Stanford only has eighty one offers out to this class,

(56:00):
with only a little over twenty remaining two uncommitted prospects.
They they obviously have to identify a very clear um
set of kids, uh that they're going after that they
have to meet certain academic requirements, um, certain matriculation requirements,
like they have to be at a certain place and

(56:22):
on pace to do a certain thing to be able
to qualify by the time they need them to qualify.
Uh So Stanford has every reason to be as low
as they are. U c l A is kind of
doing this by choice. It really comes down to Chip
Kelly's personal philosophy, which is a philosophy that a lot
of people have actually expressed frustration with and believe it

(56:43):
or not, U c l A is the least in
the entire pack twelve this year. They're currently at six
total prospects with an offer and right now maybe maybe
twenty offers out to uncommitted prospect x um with with
most of those being really really high end guys who

(57:04):
are within the rivals to fifty. Uh So it's not
like they're not going after um good football players. It's
just that they have their way of doing it, and
they want to make sure that you're fully um, you're
fully on board. I know that University of Washington has
and we'll get into them a little bit later, but
you know they want to make sure that your commitment

(57:26):
is your commitment. UM. I talked to a University of
Arizona commit this week where they kind of said the
same thing that, Hey, once we commit to you, we
expect you to be committed to us, and so you
know you've got a wandering eye, don't commit you. What
do you think about that? Where coaches like at the
University of Washington with Chris Peterson where they had the

(57:47):
policy of and then it started with Jimmy Lake, but
now they're gonna have to change it where if you
are committed then and you go see another school or
something and you don't shut down your recruiting, then we're
gonna dry rop you. It's fine if you've built up
the trust in order to be able to do that,
but that's it's hard when you're cycling in a new

(58:07):
staff and nobody knows whether or not you're serious. We
have so many coaches within the Pac twelve and college
football in general, that if they have the opportunity to
get a better recruit that pops up at the last minute,
they will drop you. We've seen it happen. There was
an entire debacle with an offensive lineman named Frank Thompson
UM a little bit ago with with Arizona State University,

(58:28):
who Arizona State UM dropped as a you know, as
one of their first commits in the class. They dropped him,
but they didn't tell him. They leaked it out to
all of the media, so everybody knew this kid, Frank
Thompson was going to get dropped by a s U,
but he didn't know yet. And I remember watching him
play in the state championship game at Sun Devil Stadium

(58:49):
in Tempe and watching media members ask him what it's
like to be playing for a championship on the same
field that he's going to play his college ball, and
he was super happy to answer all those questions. But
the truth is every media member that also covered air
is on a state that was in attendance knew that
he didn't realize a SU was about to drop him
like that that type of stuff that real specific stuff

(59:12):
leaves a bad taste in people's mouth. Oh dude, I
would be hot as fish grease, broish grease, and uh,
you know, I talked to a parent this week as
well who was not aware of a of UM you
know who basically had been told, Hey, uh, just so
you know, I know your family has already committed to

(59:34):
the school that they're going to be committed to, but
there's a really good chance that they blow up anyway,
so just be ready for what that's like. And I
remember the parent just being like, why would we why
would we blow up if we're already committed, Why would
more people offer us? I don't understand. And it's just
it's important to remember that these people who pay attention
to recruiting year in, year out are not the same

(59:56):
as people who have never paid attention to recruiting and
are in it for the first time, and it can
be a really dejecting whirlwind experience that is incredibly expensive. Um,
there's a lot of travel involved. The travel is a
risk because not only are you traveling cross country with
COVID going around and everything like that, they're saying, if
you come out to our camp at cal or you

(01:00:16):
come out to our camp at Washington, there's a much
better chance that we offer you. What if you go
out there and you spend all that time and all
that money and you don't get that you know, it's
and I don't know, there's just recruiting is a very
interesting and strange thing. And I would hope that if
I was in charge of a department, I would want
to be thought of as somebody where my word was

(01:00:37):
my bond. Um. So I wouldn't want too much of
my word out there, because the more word that you
put out there, the harder well well, and the more
that you gotta live up to it. Yeah, And it's
like having an affair with like five different people at once,
like which lie, which play am I spending? Which lie is?

(01:00:58):
It needs to be maintained today? You know, it can
get really tough. So I understand coaches like David John
Chip Kelly who try to simplify that process. Um. And
I guess I understand using it as a marketing or
political tactic the way that Ari is on a state
does that basically says like, hey, we want to offer
you scholarship. It's not technically actually a scholarship offer. It's

(01:01:21):
just an introduction. You know. It's like those that it's
as he's walking around hand and out offers like the
uh three day two or three day to night hotel
vacation package. If you sah, if you sit through the
four hour seminar and by a time share then yeah,

(01:01:41):
So that that's kind of the situation we're in is
putting a lot of preconditions on a scholarship offer, of saying,
if we like you, if you improve, if you're good enough,
and if the five people we have ahead of you
on our big board don't commit, then we'll consider you.
And that's um. I think that's tough for some of
these recruits to swallow. But if you don't have too
much else going on, then that's something that you can

(01:02:03):
really hold on hope for that. You know, maybe the
first five guys ahead of you will all commit somewhere else.
Maybe you'll continue to improve, maybe you'll earn Arizona State's respect,
and you'll end up on that team. But that's um,
that's I don't know. It seems like a tricky way
to do things. Up to this point. It seems to
be working as far as a a su being able
to up their level of recruiting over the last few years. Um,

(01:02:25):
But also the level of drama surrounding the program has
increased exponentially as well. Yeah, I'm looking at well in
terms of recruiting in general though, right, how like because
we were going to talk about the different schools and
the and the recruiting, because recruiting is a big deal

(01:02:47):
and it's the lifeblood of your program. But I see
schools now who aren't doing as well at recruiting as
what they would like. They turned to, oh, well, the
rankings are probably off this year, and recruiting rankings don't
matter all this stuff. But and I'm like, are you

(01:03:09):
sure they don't matter? Are you sure? Because if you
go back to let's say, uh, well, fifteen and twenty
sixteen kids are seniors right now? Right kids? No, seventeen

(01:03:30):
kids would be here right well, seventeen season, nineteen season,
twenty season, um, and then you throw in the three years.
So no, the twenty seniors. A true senior, a Stanford
senior is recruit. Okay, So let's go with a SOD.

(01:03:53):
So do you want to assume they read shirted or now?
Or do you want to take from eighteen We'll say,
we'll just say seventeen red shirts? Okay. So, so here
are the top classes right from that year, according to Alabama, Ohio, State, Georgia, USC, Michigan,

(01:04:16):
Florida State, l s U, Oklahoma, Auburn, Notre Dame, Florida, Miami,
Texas A and M Stanford, Penn State, Clemson. Okay, So
go back, go back, read me the recruit like, are
you on that? Okay? Read me the seen recruiting ranking position,

(01:04:44):
and I will tell you where they're at in the
preseason eight PO pole um number one, Alabama number one,
to Ohio State number four, three, Georgia number five, number four,
USC UH number five, Michigan UH unranked. Okay, Florida State unranked,

(01:05:17):
l s U sixteen, Oklahoma number two, Auburn Auburn is
currently unranked. Almost I'm missing something here, yeah, I think
they are rank Notre Dame, Notre Dames number nine, Florida,

(01:05:40):
Florida is number thirteen, Miami, Miami's number fourteen, Texas A
and M number six, Stanford unranked, and fifteen is Penn
State fifteen Penn State nineteen. So the So the schools
in the AP top ten that have far outperformed their

(01:06:02):
recruiting rankings are Iowa State in Cincinnati really it and
North Carolinas on there as well. So credit to mc
brown yep. And then when when you move to twenty nineteen, right, yeah,
let's twenty nineteen. It looks very similar with the exception

(01:06:23):
of Tennessee and Auburn and Michigan. Uh, it looks very
similar to the AP top and the closer and closer
that you get. So people will point to, you know,
outlier seasons like Utah had two years ago where they
don't finish high in the peck in the recruiting rankings,

(01:06:45):
but then don't necessarily finish I'm sorry, but then finished
way higher in the pole rankings. And granted it's not
an exact science, but there is something to it that
the that the top fifteen or twenty teen he was
every year just so happened to be the top twenty
teams in the in rankings every single year, right and

(01:07:09):
beyond that, it also goes a long way to show
you that if you can point out teams that were
really high in the recruiting rankings in twenty seen that
aren't in the current AP top twenty five, that they've
also had a recent coaching change because they failed to
meet the expectations that that are set by the fact
that talent is usually destiny. So the only team that

(01:07:30):
doesn't fall into that is probably Michigan, and they were
at like thirty three um in in the in the
a P poll with twelve votes, and they've cycled pretty
much everybody out in the last five years except for
Jim Harbaugh. So you will see a lot of transition
in teams that don't meet the expectations set by their

(01:07:51):
recruiting rankings. And then the rest that are that are
in that top ten are usually in the top fifteen
of the AP pole throughout the season, going into the season,
and after the season. Talent is destiny. That's just the truth, correct.
And the blue Chip ratio which is calculated which is
the amount of five and four star players on your

(01:08:13):
roster versus three and two stars UH ranked UM ranked
players on your roster, and those teams have won the
national championship every single year. Every single year. If you
have a blue chip ratio over then you have a

(01:08:34):
chance to win the national championship. And and the blue
chip ratio over the last four classes, if you look
at Alabama, they are number one of their roster is
five and four star players, and then Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson,

(01:08:55):
l s SHO, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, Texas saying in Michigan, Auburn, Oregon,
Penn State, Notre Dame, Miami, and USC. That's the end
of the list, Ralph, that's the end of the list.
So this idea that people think that you can win
a national championship when it hasn't happened without your blue

(01:09:19):
chip ratio falling within this, then you are sadly mistaken. Well,
then let's go back to Chip Kelly, because he says
that he doesn't care about any of these rankings, that
they do all their own internal evaluations. As long as
you're doing your own internal evaluations and you set an
internal standard of what you think your football team should
look like and you adhere to those, then do you

(01:09:40):
get to throw these things out the window or do
you still think, no matter what, you're gonna have to
try and get your hands on some of the best
players available. I think that you can be a good
football team. And because I don't think that you should
recruit from star rankings, right, I don't, because sometimes I
do think kids who are three stars are totally mis ranked,

(01:10:03):
that they should be mid four stars, high four stars,
something something like that. Right, I totally agree with that,
But I also understand that of the five star players
and of some of the higher four star players. Some
of these guys are so elite athletically, like they're just
built different, you know what I mean, Like because you've

(01:10:23):
been around so many you know of the top kids
at these camps, don't five star kids typically just look different,
like when they when they get off the bus. Yes,
I mean, I'll tell I'll tell you a story, um
that I was there for in Las Vegas. Uh and
I believe to kill Harry showed up for a Rivals

(01:10:44):
camp um and got to get out in front of
Mike Farrell, who was at the time the director of
recruiting for Rivals, and everybody else that was part of
Rivals that was kind of high up was there. And
Blair Angelo, who is now seven And I remember Nick
Kill Harry walk out onto the field, hadn't even done
a thing yet, and and Mike Ferrell's like, that's a

(01:11:04):
five star. That's what a five star looks like. Like
he hadn't even done anything in front of Mike Fairl yet.
And Mike was saying, like, that is what a five
star is supposed to look like. Six ft four two pounds, vertical,
Like forget all the other stuff that can that can

(01:11:25):
be developed over time. But the star rankings are an illusion,
not illusion with an eye, illusion with an a. The
star rankings are an illusion and a projection to your
NFL value, not your collegiate value. You can look at
the star rankings and say, here's how we um reverse
engineer what it would mean to have collegiate value. You'd

(01:11:49):
want your three star to be a multiple year starter.
Do you want your four star to be an NFL
draft pick and a college star level player? And you'd
want your five star to be a first round pick?
That is that is what they're saying. When when rivals
calls somebody a five star, what they're saying is three
to five years from now, that person will be a
top thirty pick in the NFL draft. They're not saying

(01:12:11):
that they'll be the best college player of all time.
They might not even be saying that they'll figure it
out while they're in college. That it might be later
down the road. But that here's what an NFL here's
what an eventual NFL player looks like. That's what they're
talking about. So when a player doesn't fit into those
physical specifications and they're still riding the thin line between
four star and five star, or they are a five star.

(01:12:32):
That just goes to show you how much they think
of that player's skill set. So like a Christian Kirk
who from the state of Arizona went to Texas A
and M and then ended up drafted in the second round,
I believe he was a five star recruit and he's
somebody who's under six foot taller receiver. They believed that
his skill set would ultimately translate to being somebody who
would be a first round picking. He almost was. Um

(01:12:55):
Tate Martel. Tate Martel is currently at un l V.
It's his fourth third school, like sixth one he's committed to,
but third school he's attended, and he's a five ft
ten quarterback. So they must have thought a whole lot
of Tate Martell. And I've seen Tate Martell in person
at the high school level, so I understand what they
were getting at. They must have thought a whole lot
of Tate Martell's skill set to be able to say

(01:13:17):
that we believe this guy is gonna play in the
NFL one day, because physically he's not that guy that
you look at and say, oh, that just looks like
an NFL player. Um, but I think that Chip Kelly.
I mean a lot of what Chip Kelly does and
even her Edwards to some extent at Arizona State is
say that our team needs to be big, and you're
seeing the the the recruiting sort of reflect that. If

(01:13:40):
you go into the ten players that u c l
A has committed this year so far, every single one
of them is is over six ft tall, and they
even have a six ft five um linebacker and a
six ft four wide receiver to six ft four tight ends. UM.
That is the type of thing that they're looking for,
is that you're underdeveloped, then that you've got a lot
of length um in order to go to to u

(01:14:03):
c l A. And to be honest, that's probably a
lot of what UTAH has done as far as being
um one of the best in the conference that actually
developing people from where they're at to where they finish. UM.
Utah does a really good job of getting UM players
that that they can develop over time who are three
star recruits and turning them into NFL caliber talent. So

(01:14:25):
you either have to have faith in the continuity and
the ability to develop amongst your staff, or you just
need to go and get the best piece of clay
so that no matter how you shape it, it works out.
You can remove the amount of human error by getting
the best players available, or you can trust your staff
to the point of where you believe that you can
turn anyone into um, somebody who can compete at the

(01:14:48):
highest level. I just don't know what the perfect balance
is there. And it's very obvious within the PAC twelve
that we have people who have extremely different philosophies on that. Yeah,
And so for this year, the recruiting rankings for two
you have according to seven you have for the Pack twelve,
Oregon is ranked eighth nationally, and then after that Stanford

(01:15:13):
is at twenty four, USC is at twenties twenty nine,
and then Arizona is at thirty seven, U c l
A at forty two, Cal at forty three, Washington at
forty eight. UM. And as you continue to go down,

(01:15:35):
Oregon State at fifty seven and lordy you taught seventy,
Arizona State at seventy five, Washington State at seventy nine.
And is that the end of the list. I think so. Overall,
So just on the rivals and overall commits goes a

(01:15:57):
long way into your overall recruiting ranking. So if you've
got a lot of commits early, then that kind of
boosts you up. But what you really need to look
at is the total commits and the average star ranking.
So you want your average star ranking to be you
don't if it's under three, You're you're gonna struggle. Your minimum,

(01:16:19):
uh should be getting three star recruits minimum for twelve schools. Yes, yeah, absolutely,
so your minimum should be getting three star recruits. You
want that average to be as high as possible, and
then you want the total commits to be as high
as possible. So right now, Oregon as eighteen total commits
and on rivals they average three point five stars. That
three point five stars is number two in the conference

(01:16:42):
um and it's tied for number two with Arizona State,
but they have three times the commits that Arizona State has.
Arizona State has six total commits, good for last in
the conference, but they currently average three point five stars.
Um USC is currently leading the conference because they have
two five stars and four four stars, bringing their overall
average to three point eight, but they only have ten

(01:17:05):
total commits. Stanford is doing really solid there there there
at three point to seven stars per commit and currently
have fifteen commits. The really really interesting one right now
for me is University of Arizona because they have fourteen commits,
which is a really good place to be at this
point in time, and they're averaging three stars per commit,
which they have not done in the last decade. The

(01:17:28):
last time that they even averaged over two point nine
stars per commits per commit was I think the season,
and so I got I'm sure you saw this, George.
I got in a pretty big argument this week with
a with a local site publisher UM when University of
Arizona got a three star six ft seven, two thirty

(01:17:49):
pound tight end out of Phoenix UM, and that publisher
alluded to the fact that, like, getting Arizona three stars
is probably gonna get jet Fish fired. UM. And I
found that weird to say. I mean, I found it
weird to say anyway, because you did it right on
the heels of a kid's commit, so you kind of
stole thunder from them, and that wasn't something his family
was too happy about. UM. But at the same time,

(01:18:11):
like again, Arizona hasn't even averaged three stars per commit
in at least nine recruiting cycles, and they just got
done they've lost twelve in a row and they just
got done losing seventy seven. Are we really going to
say that Arizona is doing the wrong thing by getting
better recruits than they have in nine years after going
oh and twelve. I think that that's a really weird

(01:18:32):
time to take that, and they were just in the
in the running for one of the better Uh why
why receivers in the country. Yeah, I don't know, it's
just it was. It was to me, it was a
really weird thing to sort of like undercut a kid's
recruit to make that red meat point to your subscriber base,
which could have been made an article former on your

(01:18:54):
message board. But he decided to do it out in public,
and that's his choice. But like, what I wanted to
point out when when that was done was the fact
that Arizona has not recruited well, they just took the
worst loss I've ever seen in my entire life. The
hired a coach that everybody laughed at, and yet here
they are with eight more commits than Arizona State University
at this point in time, averaging over three stars. Are

(01:19:15):
recruited for the first time in over a decade. They
should actually probably be looking at something like this as
a step forward and in in the right direction. And the
other thing that really got to me is the idea
that you're saying that Jed Jed Fish, if he keeps
doing this for the next five years, is gonna get fired.
He's gonna find out what Dennis Ericson found out and

(01:19:36):
what everybody else found out, that if you get only
three stars from Arizona, it's gonna end in you losing
your job. But why would we have projected five years
out because they got one kid from the state of Arizona?
Do you not get the best players available? Like, why
would it be a strategy five years down the road
to get three stars? If you actually have success, you
will try to recruit the best kids that you can

(01:19:57):
get at the time. So how do we know this
is a five years year strategy? How do we know this?
Just isn't them doing what they can right now? Yes, dude,
you just lost seventy to seven. It looks like a
dumpster fire. They're just the fact that you can get
four star kids some four star kids to buy in
or potentially buy in, bro, Like, what what else do

(01:20:18):
you want them to do? The uh It's not like
if USC just falls off the map. Right, if they
that lost to u c l A seventy to seven, Right,
they bring in a new head coach, recruits are gonna
come just because it's USC. It's not like that at Arizona.

(01:20:38):
So so I think that that was an unfair criticism
of jet Fish, who is actually killing it on the
recruiting tril considering the circumstance. Not only are they overperforming,
they're doing the thing that Todd Graham used to do,
which actually ended up helping him down the line. Not
not after he lost so many assistance that he just

(01:20:59):
kind of us the motivation to recruit altogether. But when
you finish in a kid's top three or four, and
it happens over and over and over again, guess who
is first to be considered when a lot of these
kids end up hitting the transfer portal like that is
how Arizona State University got Christian Westerman on their offensive

(01:21:20):
line when he bounced a five star offensive lineman who
bounced back from UH from Auburn. That's how they got
Casey Tucker, a borderline five star offensive lineman who bounced
back from Stanford. That's how they got Henry Hattis like,
if you get into somebody's final schools, then they're still
probably considering you later when they're trying to look at
their other options. So you want to have an open

(01:21:42):
line of communication with these people, You want to be
honest and everything like that. And I think the thing
the thing that that uh that this publisher also seemed
to be really upset about, which wasn't even directed toward him,
as when I pointed out that because Arizona State puts
out so many offers that don't mean anything currently if
you put them head to head with Universe Steve Arizona
for kids that they've both offered that have committed to

(01:22:03):
either one school or another, a s U s two
and eight. A SU should not be two and eight
against University of Arizona four kids in any recruiting season.
So you have to do one of two things. But
they either need to well right, so right then don't
then don't don't pretend to is my point. So don't

(01:22:24):
pretend to want them. And and with this kid, I
don't know why we're even arguing about it, because this
kid got text messages like from Arizona State saying they're
gonna ramp his recruiting up right before we committed to
a s U, Like, there's no reason for him to
lie about it. There's no reason for me to invent
a story that was just the truth. So I'm not
sure what everybody is so upset about. But like the
idea that you would be two and eight against Arizona

(01:22:47):
head to head for recruits after beating them seventy to seven,
to me means one of two things. One you either
got to stop giving people offers that don't actually count
for anything so that the dumb public doesn't interpret that
two and eight incorrectly as aris on the States getting
their butt kicked over kids that they don't even want,
or you gotta go harder for those kids and you're
actually losing. I don't think a s U is actually

(01:23:07):
losing out on these kids. I think a lot of
them they offered and it didn't mean anything. But to
the lay person, they look at that and they say
Arizona is out recruiting a s U, and I don't.
That's definitely not a fair perspective. But you create the
opportunity for that perspective when you throw out offers like
candy yep. Now, what do you think about the University
of Washington's recruiting because much has been made out of

(01:23:29):
out of that because they didn't get de commits and
now they are getting de commits, and um, there was
an article written by a Washington writer in The Athletic
that say it basically that they have an Oregon problem
because they just lost being being. Roberts Hed committed after

(01:23:51):
going to Saturday Night Live. And I saw him at
Saturday Night Live and I was like, Oh, this kid's
gonna d commit. Explain for all those Senners. Explain what
Saturday Night Saturday Night Live is an event that Oregon
puts on every year. It's been there since Willie Taggart
got there. Was that seventeen seen and so it's, uh,

(01:24:17):
they try to do it right before camp starts, so
that last week they will have on a Saturday, all
the kids come in from all over the country, the
kids that they really really want. They will have them
there and they'll they'll do a workout, then they'll have
a barbecue, photo shoot, all of these sorts of sorts

(01:24:38):
of things. So then they have kids who are committed
come they recruit the other kids. It's just a good
It's just a really good event. That the energy is great,
all the coaches are there, it's like that they'll have
some kids on their official visits there too. It is
just it was just really cool to see and to

(01:25:00):
feel the energy around it. And when I saw Ben
Roberts there, I saw Euli the kid from Washington as well.
And at first Washington fans were like, yeah, we're gonna
try to flip Uli. And and I told my my
son that who was participating that Saturday Night Live. I
was like, Washington thinks that they're gonna flip this kid.

(01:25:21):
And he was like that kid right there. He was like, Fred,
do you see him either, He's the greatest actor of
all time where there's not a chance he d commits.
And then Ben Ben Roberts was hanging out with with him.
They're both policies like. It was just like you could
just feel that something even though he was committed to Washington,

(01:25:43):
that something was brewing under the surface. And but Washington's
recruiting class last year wasn't up to what they had
typically had and a lot of that blame was placed
on the fact that it was during the endemic. You
couldn't get kids on campus, but I don't. Well, and

(01:26:05):
then you had a new coach, But I'm like, you
kept all your recruits from the prior year. It's not
like he was a foreign coach. The people who were
that they had already talked to him. The kids had
already talked to him because he was a defensive coordinator.
So I'm just like, I just what do you think
has changed for them? One of the things that happened was,

(01:26:31):
obviously Jimmy Lake was one of their best recruiters and
one of the best recruiters in the Pac twelve. I
don't think that that's up for debate. I witnessed him
getting kids that I didn't think he was gonna get firsthand. Um,
he's been a really good recruiter for a really long time.
And he started to be coveted by other people within
the Pack twelve, and so University of Washington started to

(01:26:51):
increase his pay and increase his role. And I remember
when he went from just the defensive back coach to
the Code d C when obviously that team did not
even need a Code d C and then ultimately to
be named Chris Peterson's successor. UM, and then in making
that move. He wanted his staff to be his staff, obviously,
so he made some changes. You look at some of

(01:27:13):
the guys on his staff that he got rid of.
Jordan Pow Pow, who went to UNLB before bouncing down
to University of Arizona is one of the more energetic recruiters,
and and and is helping University of Arizona have a
really good year. I look at this University of Washington
staff and I wonder do they have the ability to
do what Oregon staff does. When you say that they

(01:27:34):
have an Oregon problem, I think the real problem is
this University of Oregon has a bunch of really good
recruiters who have the ability to get people on Mario
crystal Ball's radar and then he'll take it from there,
like Mario crystabal if University of Oregon wants you, Mario
crystal Ball is the one to lead the church. And
to be recruited um directly by the head coach is

(01:27:58):
not something that happens a whole lot in college football.
Usually your primary relationship is with the position coach. And
you look at Jimmy Lake and you say, man, he
was such a great recruiter to put him in the
position of head coach could kind of be a waste
of those talents unless you can have the same model
as as Oregon and get as many kids into a
relationship with him as possible and then have him just

(01:28:19):
be able to trust that his coordinators are going to
do a good job. But his coordinators are like John Donovan,
who is like brand new, it's his first season as
the as the o C. And then Bob Gregory, which
will be Bob Bob Gregory because he was the defensive

(01:28:39):
backs coach at Oregon while I was there, and this
is gonna be his first season as a d C correct.
And then you have Um the co d C uh
in coach Mallow Um and it's gonna be his second
year as as the code defensive coordinator. He's somebody who
was elevated by Um Jimmy Lake, who would kind been

(01:29:00):
in the in the background and coach the D line
before that. So the entire staff is pretty new to
their role. So they have to balance trying to build
a championship staff off of people who were essentially loyal
to Jimmy Lake and at the same time also be
elite recruiters. And what you're seeing right now is that
maybe they don't have the ability to do to do both.

(01:29:21):
It's gonna be a huge problem if they go out
and struggle this season, because you can't struggle in recruiting
and struggle on the field if you if you're struggling
to recruit, you need the talking to get done on
the field for you so that you can just point
to the scoreboard and that makes kids want to come
to your school. So there's a lot of pressure on
University of Washington to succeed this for for sure, because

(01:29:42):
they do have a good roster, like there's there's no
question how that there is talent at a lot of spots.
They're super thin, a linebacker, super super thin, wide receivers
paper thin as well. They've had a bunch of transfers
out and injuries at as well. And if people aren't

(01:30:02):
afraid of your wide receivers, the deep ball and all
of that, bro, they will crush your running game. They
will they will say, we double dog dare you to
throw the ball because we don't believe that you can
do it, and we will heat you up and we
will see what you can do. They're just so short
on experience as far as like actual years spent Um

(01:30:23):
as position coaches. You know rip row in their defensive
line coach. Um was an analyst as late as twenty nineteen.
Was named the d line coach in February of this year.
UH Junior Adams has been the maybe one of the
longer tenured ones is the wide receiver's coach, and the
season is just gonna be his third. Um Durham Cato,

(01:30:49):
the guy who replaced Jordan Papae as a tight ends coach,
was an analyst at the University of Washington from nineteen.
This is only gonna be his second season as the
position coach. The big issue right now seems to be
with University of Washington that everybody's really green, really new
to the job. They haven't found their footing in as
far as getting and retaining recruits yet, so if they

(01:31:11):
don't show it on the field, it's gonna be it's
gonna be scary season. They don't have a whole lot
of guys with a ton of experience. I mean, I
think the most tenured guy on that staff outside of
Jimmy Lake is their offensive line coach, Scott Huff. They
don't have issues on offensive line. They have issues seemingly,
you know, getting a lot of skill position players in
yeah and so, and there's been a lot of talk

(01:31:36):
on their message board about what's wrong with them, what's
wrong with their recruiting all of that, because if you
look at where the kind of the top teams are
right now in the recruiting rankings and how many commits
that they have. Right so, you have the team who's

(01:31:58):
number one right now is Penn State, but they have
a full class based basically they have twenty four commits
already and Notre Dame has twenty one commits. And then
you have the next tier of teams that are in
the teams like the mid to high teams, and then
like so I think that based upon the teams that

(01:32:19):
are higher up and where they're gonna finish, you should
for USC, I would be concerned with the amount of commits.
Only having ten commits at this point, that would, you know,
scare me a little bit, only because only because like
you need to get more fire firepower in and probably

(01:32:44):
seventies of the top three kids are already committed, so
and some of them are geographically unavailable to you. So
let's say that ten percent probably well, actually I per center,
the kids are available to you that are in the
top three hundred. I think that that would be concerning

(01:33:08):
to me if I were a team like USC and
even Washington, that would scare me. The fact that we
don't have a ton of commits at this point in
point in time because the early signing period is in December,
so kids are so uh. Some kids are gonna take visits,
but not really as much because they've already taken them

(01:33:28):
because their season is going to start. They're gonna have
you know, your season is going on, So the recruiting
aspect changes a lot. So you do not a lot
of good kids left either, yes, like the nother Okay,
so out of the and I'm not I'm not I'm

(01:33:49):
going to get into the accuracy of the state rankings.
I think they're they're way off base. But as far
as the top ten recruits in the state of Arizona,
only one is uncommitted and he's probably not going to
a Pack twelve school. That's Anthony Lucas. I'd look more
in the direction of Texas A and M and or
or or Notre Dame for him. So you're not going
to get any opportunity to get guys out of Arizona, California. UM.

(01:34:12):
They have Ernest Green at St. John Bosco, the number
six recruit, David Bailey the number seven recruit, a linebacker
at a modern day and Hero Canoe out of Santa
Margarita defensive tackle the number eight guy. Those three are
uncommitted out of the top ten, and then you have
to go down to the number twelve and number fifteen
guys UM as far as being undecided. So you only

(01:34:35):
have five guys left in the top five team tomorrow
and your little Tucker right, So you're running out of
guys in amongst the cream of the crop in California
to be able to get and and as it stands
right now, the it doesn't look like Washington is either
in contention or or on the board for any of

(01:34:56):
these top guys. So then let's take a look at
the actual state of Washington where the need to make
a big impact or they're gonna struggle, UM to compete
because some of the best players in the state of
Washington have been leaving the state. And you've got Josh
Conner Lee, a six ft six five found offensive tackle
who is the highest rated recruit in the state right
now and he is uncommitted UM. And then that you've

(01:35:18):
got the number five guy, Malik Ogbo, who is who
is a six ft six three twenty offensive tackle. I mean,
if they could show up their offensive line with two
top five UM commits out of the state of Washington
and that that would be huge for them. But as
far as the elite, the really good four star and
above recruits, there's not a lot left to go get
for anybody, much less somebody who's probably doing a mid

(01:35:41):
pack twelve level job of recruiting. Overall, you've got to
hope that you you you can find a way to
get the attention of some of these guys UM, especially
the number one player from from your state that plays
right there in Seattle at Renier Beach and Josh Connerley
in the number forty seven overall player in the country.

(01:36:02):
That would I think go a long way and restoring
UM people's faith, I think, yeah, and that's right. But
if they lose UM, if if connor Ley doesn't go
to you dub granted they doesn't have to go to

(01:36:22):
Oregon go but if he goes anywhere else and Ogbo
as well, who is they think that he's an l
s u Lean. Actually, he didn't even have UM Washington
in his top top five. So let's let's take them
out of that one. That's gonna be a huge problem
for them. Yeah. I think they need a guy like

(01:36:44):
Josh connor Ley to even when even hit the snooze
button on the criticisms of this class. Yeah. Um so
all right, um, and they're playing they're playing Michigan in right,
University of Washington's playing in Michigan. Yes, yes, in the
non commerce right. That's where Josh Connelly just got back

(01:37:08):
from his Michigan visit. So you go a long way
into helping yourself there if you can go and beat
up on the on on the Jordan brand of the
Big Ten exactly. Um. Any other schools that you want
to cover their recruiting, Uh No, I think I think that. Um.
I think that the schools that are most impressed with

(01:37:30):
right now are are Oregon and and and USC. They
have seen things that they've seen. The stuff that they've
done payoff. You know. Obviously, Oregon lost guys like Apprentice
Guilt to Arizona State, they lost Dante Williams to to USC,
but they've still managed to to keep pace and I
think that should be really encouraging for Oregon fans. And

(01:37:52):
I think that UM. I think that if if U
c l A has a good year this year, then
chip Kelly's method will get a little bit easier to execute. UM.
But for the most part, I think that the team
that should be most encouraged right now that's seeing a
little bit of uptick, not relative to the amount of
success they've had UM or the amount of of of

(01:38:13):
effort that they've put in, but still a little bit
of an uptick. UH is Utah. I know that they
currently only have seven commits, but they're actually some of
the kids that I've talked to, they're actually in it
for more kids than they usually are. UM. There have
been times and they really struggled to get any four star.
They've got a foothold in Florida right now. Jalen Glover,
the four star running back. It's a really good player.
He can end up being really really great for them. UM.

(01:38:36):
I think that I think that even though there's not
a lot of players that are committed to Utah, I
think the quality of player, in my mind, continues to increase.
And the more open you've seen them to to getting
people out of the trans report role and being able
to develop them. I think Utah Utah fans should not
be sounding the alarm right now. UM. I think that

(01:38:59):
they're just going to continue you to improve. I think
that Oregon fans and USC fans should be satisfied. I
think U c l A fans should be encouraged, and
I think that everybody else right now is kind of
I want to give the University of Arizona some credit
as well, but I think everybody else right now needs
to UM needs to make sure that they finished strong,

(01:39:19):
including Stanford, because Stanford's classes have to be with with
the way that they actually like matriculate their talent and
the very short window for these guys to actually contribute.
They have to make sure that if Stanford is not
getting top classes, then they don't even have a shot
at being in the top. No, you are right about that. Uh.

(01:39:41):
The last thing up is hot streaker, hot seat, and
this is where we're going to talk about what success
actually looks like for someone who pack twelve teams this season. UM,
what does success look like to you from the University
of Washington, Let's say University of Washington success. Um that uh,

(01:40:05):
to me, looks like a ten win season and getting
trying to find a way to finish at least fifth
in the recruiting rankings, because if they are somewhere between
six and eight in the recruiting rankings and they have
somewhere between six and eight wins, then there's not gonna

(01:40:25):
be a whole lot of reason at University of Washington
fans or maybe Jenko and their athletic director ultimately see
for keeping this staff trending in the direction that they're going,
because it's not like they really got to go out
and interview people. This was a succession plan with Chris Peterson,
and I'm sure they'd rather have Chris Peterson be the
coach anyway. So, um, I think that in order to

(01:40:46):
meet expectations, you're looking at a nine or ten win
season um for University of Washington, and they have to
find a way to get that recruiting component in as well. Yeah,
I would agree with everything there that obviously go wing
okay for For me, success looks like two of them
is that they cannot cannot, cannot lose to Michigan and Oregon.

(01:41:11):
They can't. Those are those are the two games that
I think that they have to get one of them
for them. What if what if that's it? Though? What
if that's the only teams they lose too? Oh? Then
actually that would that would be acceptable too, I guess
right they the fans would be a tabbit disappointed, but

(01:41:32):
at least they would have hope. They'd be like, Yo,
we won ten games, we lost to Michigan. But then
that would depend on Michigan being good too. You see
what I'm saying. Yeah, if if Michigan goes and goes
six and six, then that's an atrocious loss, you know
what I'm saying, And that will make the PAC twelve
look god awful. So Michigan particularly, I think the Michigan

(01:41:58):
win is that must win, especially if you believe that
you have a really good that this is one of
your all time most talented teams and all of this stuff,
then that's the game that you on September eleven that
you have to be circling like, this is the game
that we have to win. Yeah, all right, Washington State.

(01:42:21):
What does success look like for them? I think it
is having Nick Rolovich as you're as your head coach
at the end of the season, well after after the
middle of October. That's the first thing. And then just
recruiting I think is going to be their issue, which

(01:42:42):
is finding a way to get really good talent up there,
which will then allow you to compete for Pack twelve championships, uh,
you know, in a couple of years, because I don't
think they're ready to compete for a Pac twelve championship now,
and Washington State kind of waits for those outlier or
seasons where they have a really good team and then
they can make a run then. And I think that

(01:43:05):
they're not close to a run right now. So I
think that putting some good tape down, you know, getting
to a bowl game, get Yeah, getting to a bowl
game has to be success for them this year. I
think a bowl game would be good. I also think
that we know that they were able to put up

(01:43:26):
with a lot from Mike Leach so long as they
were top three in offense and defended home field. We
know that those two things matter a lot to Washington
State fans, um, and we know that they'll give you
a little bit of grace if if, if that's what
you're doing. Um, I don't think you have to beat
Washington I think that you have to UM, I think

(01:43:47):
you have to play extremely well at home. I'm thinking
no more than one loss, which is gonna be tough, UM,
because you got Stanford, b y U, Oregon State, USC,
Portland State, Utah State in Arizona. So maybe two losses
that maybe they could get away with going five and
two UM at home. But they're gonna need a top

(01:44:09):
three offense because you don't want to. You don't want
to have gotten rid of Mike Leach to bring in
another head coach had the same level of drama with
with that head coach is extracurricular media perception and then
not be a top three offense. They've averaged over forty
points I think three of the last seven years, and
only seven packed twelve teams over the last seven seasons

(01:44:30):
have averaged over forty, so almost half of that is
Washington State. They need to They can't massively regress offensively
and then also be expected to put up with with
extracurricular headaches. So to me, success is winning at least
five home games, which I think would would put them
in contention to go to a Bowl as well as
finished top three offensively. Okay, how about cal uh cal

(01:44:57):
cal So weird because they've got injuries and retirements, and
while they've recruited well, it's not necessarily mind blowing at
the skill position. Um, they've had some staff turnover that
could ultimately affect things. But at the end of the day,
they're gonna be a good team. They don't just not compete.

(01:45:19):
So I think that I think that cal fans would
be willing to put their eggs in the basket of
the season so long as they win seven games and
don't have a losing record in the Pack twelve North.
I agree with that the seven seven wins. I think

(01:45:41):
that eight is a bonus right that if they get
to eight wins that they should be celebrating this this
season and you know, a decent bowl game and then
go win that bowl bowl game and get to like
a ninth win. That would that seems like success to
me because they're not kind. Prince games against Nevada, TCU,

(01:46:02):
and Sacramento State all seemed winnable. Um, how about the
Beavers of Oregon State? What does success look like for them?
Because they start the season out at Perdue, then they
play Hawaii and Idaho in the nonconference. I think if
they can replace production like if, if, if Oregon State

(01:46:23):
can show some of these recruits that they're that they're
in competition for that. Hey, it's not just the special
group of talent that we had that allowed us to
be Oregon UM last year. It's no matter who Jonathan
Smith plugs in at quarterback, or no matter who they
plug in a running back, or no matter who's in
their defensive backfield or playing linebacker for them, this is

(01:46:47):
what our team is going to look like so that
they can replace the talent that they had last year
and continue to be a threat. UM. I think Oregon
State fans know exactly what they are their hope to
be in competition for a bowl. So starting out the
season with three wins and out of conference play would
be extremely important, and then trying to get three wins

(01:47:09):
within conference play to get them to that threshold is
really what they should be looking at. Six wins would
be extremely successful. You cannot lose to Hawaii no matter
what you do. You can't lose to Hawaii in core ballas.
Don't let Todd Graham come in and get revenge for
that twenty um what was it November uh game that

(01:47:30):
that knocked a s U out of UM college football
playoff competition. Like you you don't let Todd Graham get revenge.
You gotta take care of business. Make sure that you're
at least two and one going into that USC game,
hopefully three and oh so that if you end up
going on a two game losing streak against USC in Washington,
that you're not wringing your hands thinking the season's over. Yeah.

(01:47:53):
Success for Oregon State this year to me looks like
a bowl game. If I don't think it's enough to
get three wins and have one of them be against Oregon.
Yeah yeah, so uh well six and six if they
can beat per per Due, which I don't think they will,
but obviously they have a shot if they can start

(01:48:16):
out three and oh. Uh, they gotta be able to
I mean, like if you're if you're them, you have
to say, all right, can we find three wins out
of USC, Washington, Washington State, Utah, Cow, Colorado. So I
think they got a shot with Colorado because they don't
have a quarterback. Um, maybe they can sneak out Cow,

(01:48:37):
maybe Wazoo. They might have a shot. You taught at
at home. They might get a fall game versus a
s U and as you might might not have coaches
at that point. They gotta have. They gotta be able
to scrape out three three wins to try to find
a bowl game. I think that that's what success looks

(01:48:58):
like for them. How about out to finish out? Well?
Almost finished with the North, but you have Stanford. What
does Stanford success look like this season? Because for for me,
I'm like David Shaw thinks that they're back. For me,
I need to see a rejuvenated offense that a an

(01:49:20):
offense that looks like it can run the football again,
but it also has some explosive capabilities. And for them,
it's nine wins. Like, there's nothing under nine wins that's
acceptable at Stanford right now. I think you're probably right
about the nine wins, just based on the way that
David Shaw was speaking about his team, because he never

(01:49:42):
comes out and hypes his team the way that he
did in this preseason, So why why would he be
happy with them? Could go in eight and five on
the season or something. You know, Yeah, they definitely need
to average more points than their opponent's score. I think
that's important. They didn't do last year. No, they didn't.
They went four and two last year. And they gave

(01:50:04):
up two more points a game than they than they scored.
You can't do that, Yeah, like that right when that happens? Um, alright, Oregon?
What does uh success look like for Oregon this year?
Oh man? I don't know, because my expectations are lower

(01:50:26):
than anybody else's that I've seen. Um, which is why
you should not be judging the PAC twelve North right right.
I mean we we could compare our picks, um, we
we could compare our picks. Whoa, whoa, it just comes.
But what it comes down to, I know. But what
it comes down to is me just doing slightly better

(01:50:48):
in the PACK twelve South than you did in the
PAC twelve North once we switched divisions. I did pretty
poorly one way and you did pretty poorly the other way. Yep.
So uh so for me, Oregon success to leven wins
to leven wins like that? Uh ten at the very least,
and you can't lose to Washington though like that? The

(01:51:13):
that that's what success looks like this year is a
ten into eleven and one, and one of those losses
is not to Washington. And you gotta put on a
really good showing against Ohio State if you don't win.
I think success for Oregon looks like people talking about
Anthony Brown like he's one of the best offensive players

(01:51:36):
in the pack twelve. I think it's I think it's
Anthony Brown being up for awards at the end of
the year. You know, if he's up for awards at
the end of the year, you you might go twelve,
twelve and o. If he's up for you know, if
he's up for the Davey O'Brien awar at the Heisman
or something like like that, that means that you are

(01:51:57):
twelve possibly twelve and oh and you beat Ohio State,
which would be a huge win. And for Oregon, success
to me looks like Joe moorehead and Anthony Brown proving
that they made the right decision. And the way that
they can prove they made the right decision is for
people to be talking about him being the best quarterback

(01:52:18):
in the back twelve, not Keaton Slovis. And we're talking
like end of year stats where he maybe doesn't throw
as many touchdowns as Keaton Slovis because of the overall office.
But yeah, but the way the offense moves um and
with his athletic ability, I mean it's definitely possible. There's
no defense in the Pack twelve that should be able
to figure out what's coming next from this offense because

(01:52:42):
they're just they have everything you you would want. They
have somebody to go between the tackles, they have uhum
threats to catch the ball out of the backfield. They've
got a tall receiver, they've got a tough receiver, they've
got a quarterback that can run um, and the offensive
line is amongst the best in the Pac twelve. They're
just kind of low on excuses, and I think that

(01:53:05):
my hesitation with Oregon has always been a hesitation with
Anthony Brown, not a hesitation with Mario crystal Ball, not
a hesitation with the program in general. I believe they're
as talented as anyone in the Pac twelve. I just
don't know if Anthony Brown is the guy that can
deliver it. That's all. Uh Now on to the South
the U c l A. Bruins. I am success for

(01:53:29):
this team looks like minimum eight wins. Anything over eight
wins is a huge success for for them, and I
believe that they will get there. I got amid eight
or nine wins this year. Yeah, finishing anything below third

(01:53:49):
in the PAC twelve South is a failure and I
think should cause them to possibly need to reevaluate the
direction of the program. That's and that's why finishing third
in the PAC twelve South is not an option because
that could put chip Kelly in jeopardy. I think that
second is the worst case for them to finish for

(01:54:10):
everything to be look like it's moving in the right direction.
I think they can get eight wins and still finish third,
so long as they beat It's gonna sound crazy, but
like they have to beat Utah. Yes, they gotta beat
Utah head to head. They've been dominating Arizona State as
long as they get either a s U or USC,
it just has to be one of the two. But

(01:54:30):
they have to beat Utah. Yeah, they can't. They and
they can't do the thing where they fell down by
eight touchdowns against Washington State either. They have to find
some stabilities of program. They need it out of conference
when chip Kelly's got to get that monkey off his back.
But eight wins a minimum, and anything below third in
the pactul South, you gotta make some type of massive overhaul.

(01:54:53):
They are so they're they're not gonna lay an egg
against Hawaii and Fresno State. Uh so there, so that's
two wins. I think they can win this that L
s U game, Pal that that L s U game
on September nine, I'm pointing to that one like m
m m hmm. That's that could be the upset of

(01:55:16):
Week one in college football. So, um, that have everybody
talking for sure? Yep, they just see they they theyre.
I believe that they're tougher than they were under their
previous coaching staff. They might not be as talented, but
they're tougher and if they lean into that toughness, they
can bully some of these pack twelve teams because not

(01:55:37):
every Pack twelve team is hard all the way deep
down to the core. Yep, Um, okay, USC, what does
success look like for Clay Hilton and the Trojans winning
at all? It's a it's a weird place to have
to be in. But they gotta win the Pack twelve. Well,
I don't care. I mean a successful season then I

(01:55:59):
don't care if they lose three games, but they gotta
they they got to be the last team standing. Yeah,
when the will adjust a Pack twelve, So would it
would it be good at good enough if they went
ten and two and then played in the conference championship
game against Oregon and lost, No, no, and I have

(01:56:22):
them going TENANTWO and missing the conference championship. So like
I have them going tenant too, because you are you
are out of your mind with this Arizona State love.
But okay, it's not ok whatever, it's whatever, irrational, Um, Okay, Arizona.
I don't get embarrassed. Be competitive, right, be competitive. They

(01:56:47):
were competitive at some points last year that game against USC.
They're better than they were last year. No one can
argue that they have more talent this year than they
did last year. It's not a lot more. So it's
really gonna come down to the amount of effort that
they get and the quality coaching, because it doesn't make
sense it just transitive properties alone. It doesn't make sense

(01:57:07):
that you can basically be on the doorstep of beating
USC and then having that fall apart at the end
of the game and then have an Arizona State team
that also lost to USC beat you by sixty three.
Something happened to that team to where they quit, they
gave up. So they have to just not get embarrassed.
That's really what it comes down to, every game needs

(01:57:28):
to be competitive. They don't even gotta win. They don't
even have to win. They could go they can't go
oh and twelve, but they have to Like it's like that,
uh to East Dillon season. Yeah remember the East still
in season of Friday Night Lights where they lost everything
Friday Night Light. Oh, that's right, you and I gotta
go through that and make it part of our content.
But um, I don't want to spoil it. But there

(01:57:50):
is a season in which the team is very bad,
gets better over time, and then finally figures it out
and wins a game one game. But you have to
see improvement, you have to see effort, and you can't
get him back. Think that they need to do what
Jonathan Smith did in the Pack twelve that that where
his first year where like they still lost, but it

(01:58:15):
just was you could look and say, Okay, this is
a better we did not get how in the fourth
quarter we actually thought we could win right, also established
a quarterback to find a guy who's gonna be like
that that if they if if we get to the
end of the year going for the last three years, basically,

(01:58:36):
if we get to the end of the season and
they still don't know who the starter is going into
next year. That's a huge problem. Yeah, I would agree
with that, Um, what do we have left in this oh? Utah?
This is a tough one for me because I I

(01:58:58):
don't know what to do with them. I don't think
they're that good. But meanwhile, Kyle Whittingham, who never really
evangelizes about his talent, is kind of out there doing it. Yeah,
they're they're replacing the quarterback, they're placing the running back,
they're replacing their lead receiver, they're replacing people on the
offensive and defensive line and defensive backfield. So are they

(01:59:23):
just going to do the thing again where they've got
a bunch of people UM left in the in a
bunch of bullets left in the chamber to get them
back to being competitive for eight or nine wins. I
would tell you anything under eight wins is a disappointment.
And I have them going eight and four and finishing
fourth in the in the PacTel South. And I think
that that's something that Utah fans will be disappointed with
UM and and maybe should be. But what if what

(01:59:47):
if Whittingham's right? If Whittingham is right, and they win
the Pact twelve South. That means that, oh my god,
that means that Chip Kelly and Clay Hilton and Herm
Edwards are doing a very poor job right now and
and and that's not a disc to Utah. It's just

(02:00:09):
that you know that these teams seem to have more
talent on them. Um, they have to go to in
one against because I think they'll beat Colorado and I
think they'll beat you of A. They have to go
to in one against the usc U C l A
Arizona State Triumbrate. They have to nine and three, nine

(02:00:30):
and three and beating one of the l A teams
is a very good season. How about Colorado because they're
in a conundrum because they don't have a quarterback and
their backup court the guy who was going to be
the backup quarterback he transferred out. Dude. Their game versus

(02:00:50):
Texas A and M on September eleven, they could get
beat seventy to seven. Yeah. Um, success for Colorado looks
like one thing to me because this is actually what's
going to determine what things look like next year for them,
because they do have some very talented players on this roster.

(02:01:11):
What does that one thing, look like, keep Brendan Lewis
off the ground. If you can keep Brendan Lewis off
the ground, if you can actually give him time to throw,
he has plenty of weapons. He's actually a very good quarterback,
potentially kind of underrated coming out of high school in Dallas.
He protects the football. He's like most Colorado quarterbacks. He's

(02:01:32):
like physically supermature. Keep him off the ground. Keep him
off the ground. Don't make it to where he has
to extend too many um drives with his legs. He'll
do it. He rushed for like thirty yards in high school.
He can move. But if you keep him off the
ground and give him time to throw, then that means

(02:01:54):
you're gonna have a little bit of success in the
passing game, which will keep people from stacking the box
and making sure that Brossard isn't an effective weapon. So
I would say, if you can, if you can have
Brendan Lewis get sacked under thirty times this year, then
you were set up for a pretty good season next year. Yeah.

(02:02:19):
In in in all seriousness, you'd love to be able
to compete for a Bowl. You'd love for things to
come together. Um but this is gonna it's gonna be
tough starting a freshman. It's gonna be real tough starting
a freshman, especially when the freshman wasn't wasn't the guy
that was probably gonna be win the starting job. It

(02:02:39):
was probably gonna be j. T. Shroud who tore his
knee up. So um to me, success looks like Brendan
lewis not not getting destroyed by Texas and M's defensive
line or anybody else's defensive line. Keep him up right,
you'll be competitive most of the season, and then going
into next year, everybody will say, well, Colorado had the

(02:03:00):
established quarterback, while U c. L A's quarterback is gone.
Um Arizona States quarterback might be gone. USC's quarterback has gone.
The one team in the pack twelve South with a
quarterback you can trust is Colorado. You'll have You'll be
able to flip the narrative headed into next year if
you can make him look halfway competent. And I think
he's a good quarterback and I think he'll do well
as long as he's not having a fight for his life.

(02:03:20):
You know, uh final team is the Eras. Uh we
we didn't miss anybody, right, No, I don't think so is.
And I saved them for last on purpose because I
know that you're gonna have a lot to say about
them about what this success looked like for the team

(02:03:41):
that you picked to win the pack twelve and go
at eleven and one, Uh, they gotta win and and
even then, I mean, it's just gonna be like a
fond memory because this staff is not gonna be back.
So they're done. They're done, so they might as well
win it all that would That's a pipe dream, bro,

(02:04:03):
that's a pipe dream. The best the s U fans
I think can hope for is the brand equity that
comes with winning, because it's not the iterational nine in three,
which I think that they have a shot to do.
And you got them at eleven and one, which I
think is craziness. But there, who do you think that?

(02:04:25):
Who do you think I have them losing to? Okay,
so Southern Utah, you U n l v B, y
U Colorado all look like wins, right, okay? Um, so
that they should start the season out four and oh
then they play at U c l A, which is
an iffy game because U c l A has beat

(02:04:45):
them continuously and especially in u c l A. So
I think that they are going to lose that game,
the Stanford game, depending on how Stanford is, that's gonna
be a tight game. That's my loss. That's my one loss.
At you at Utah is gonna be tough. Um, Washington

(02:05:07):
State will be fine versus USC because USC it when
when they get into a seven on seven game. USC
is better at the seven on seven game. UM at
Washington is gonna be a nightmare. Uh, following by at
Oregon State and one of them fall games because that's

(02:05:27):
probably gonna be like a damn eight pm kickoff, and
then Arizona they will win. So I got them losing one.
I think they'll either lose Washington or Oregon State. So
that's one right there. I think they'll lose to U
c l A, lose to either Utah or Stanford. That's three,

(02:05:50):
and then USC. So I got them eight and eight
and four. Okay. I think that. Uh it's weird because
none of this matters because who are we talking. We're
talking about the coaching staff and the program moving forward,
like what would be successful to set them up for
future success, right, and what would what would the fan bases?
There's nothing they can do. There is no future. There's

(02:06:11):
not a future for this staff. Maybe there's not a
future for maybe like the like, like literally the whole
house is probably going to be clean, like there might
not be a future for the janitors. It's not yeah,
and and that's just and at this point, it's just
that we would continue to be priving you more information
than most people on this. It's it's done, so you

(02:06:33):
might as well win. In my head, I would love
to see them go out backs against the wall. None
of it matters anyway, because they're gonna have to clean house.
The internal review that a s U is doing right
now does not include the interviewing of any staff uh
that have been suspended, because they know that if they
interview staff that's been suspended, they're gonna have to suspend
more people. So a s U hasn't actually interviewed anyone.

(02:06:55):
They've just reviewed the documents and made recommendations based on
the documents. They have talked to anybody. They have not
gone and said, hey, guys, what do you know, right,
because if they did, it would ruin like you can't
you can't do that at this point, you can't do that.
So they just got to and I think that they can.
I think that they'll have a heck up against Stanford.

(02:07:16):
I don't like the way the schedule uh lines up
there for them, but I think that if everybody stays healthy.
I love this offensive line. I absolutely love the running game,
and you're not gonna have Jade and Daniels give the
ball away. So if you're not turning the ball over
and you've got a dominant running game and your secondary
is as good as it is and your linebacking corps

(02:07:38):
is as good as it is, I think the one
place where you might run into a little bit of
an issue is Stanford style. That's it. And I think,
isn't that game like a Thursday or Friday or something
weird like that? Too? Is on a Yes, it's on
a Friday, I believe, and it is a short rest Friday, yeah,
because it's they play U C. L A on Saturday

(02:07:59):
and then they come right act can play Stanford. Yeah.
So I don't like that game. The rest of them
for me or a toss up, and I could talk
myself into winning, into into them winning every single of them.
So I said eleven and one. I don't know what's
going to happen in the Pack twelve championship. I think
that I'm I might be the only person out there
that thinks it's a s U. Washington. Um m M,

(02:08:23):
I'm glad you entertained. Oh my god. Okay, cool, cool,
Well that's a great way to in fact, well apostles today. Guys.

(02:08:43):
We will catch you next week, but first I'll give
Ralph the final word. I won't say anything after. Um yeah, Now,
this is great doing this podcast with you and I
really I really enjoy a relationship and the confidence that
you you haven't and me and my prognostication of Thanks George,

(02:09:04):
have a good week, everybody,

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