May 10, 2024 • 54 mins
Welcome to The Unafraid Show's College Football Apostles with George Wrighster and Ralph Amsden! On today's episode, the guys get into whether or not it's possible to build a championship team through NIL and the transfer portal and discuss whether Deion Sanders is cooking up the correct recipe.
They also discuss comments by LSU's Brian Kelly, Auburn's Hugh Freeze, and Boise State's Spencer Danielsen about their reluctance to use NIL to buy players. Is this evidence that the NIL pendulum is swinging back to sensibility, or is this just spin from coaches that struck out on buying the players they wanted?
The guys also go through their top 10 teams coming out of spring football and heading into the 2024 season. Find out which Big 12 team gets some love, and why the guys think half the top 10 is in the SEC.
#Collegefootball #CFB #collegefootballNews #cfbplayoffs #collegefootballpodcast
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Unafraid Show, the College Football Apostles. Addition,
I'm George Reiser, this is this is Ralph Ams did
and you guys, this is what Thursdays is gonna be.
All college football, all the time. And we got a
bunch of really good things up for you guys today.
Can you build a college football roster through the transfer portal?
(00:22):
Because there are people that are trying, and then there
are people who are saying, we can't, we don't have
any money.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
And Brian Kelly here's one.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Of the people, because he can't get a defensive line
at LSU.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Is he taking the wrong approach?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
We gotta talk about Boise States head coach Spencer Danielson.
He's like, listen, y'all freshman, y'all ain't making no bread
around here.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
And then the statements got amended. I wonder why.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Sonny Dykes says that there are two different college footballs
in Division One at least, that there's the Alabamas and
then there's the Louisiana. The text and we'll talk about
that whether there should be a split. And the ACC
is trying to get broken, well, it's trying to get
packed to us. And we'll explain all of that today
here on the College Football Apostles presented by an Afraid
(01:15):
Show Rnsea, Ralph, can you build a roster in college
football through the transfer portals? Because you have Dion Sanders
who's trying to do it over at Colorado, you have
other teams that have shifted their focus away from high
school recruiting, which I think is an insanely ridiculous mode,
(01:39):
and they've translated into, oh, we're gonna get everything we
need out of the portal. But when you look at
the portal, Ralph, just to share numbers, and there's a
video on this on the Unafraid Show about just a sheer,
staggering number of players that are in the transfer portal
and why they transfer. Offensive lineman. Top offensive lineman don't
(02:00):
really transfer very often, so it's gonna be damnar impossible
to build a competitive in terms of league championship or
national championship offensive line mostly through the portal. And like
you can get spot players who are looking for big money,
but it's not normally, you know, like it's mainly guys
(02:22):
that are gonna take a year to develop or aren't
you know, or who can turn into potential NFL players,
but aren't quite there yet.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
You're gonna turn me into Bill Clinton here. It depends
on what the definition of is is, right, Can you
build a college football team through the portal? Are you
talking about a team that takes the field because Dion
already did that. He pushed, Yeah, but there's needs seven
people out of the program take the field, right, right, right, right.
(02:54):
But so we're getting into the question of like, George
is a Jackson Pollock art. Yes, okay, I would agree too.
I would agree too. There's a lot of people that
are like, that's just dots, but we've got Jackson Pollock
that have sold for two hundred million dollars. So it
really just depends on if it eventually works, and I
(03:17):
think we're too early in the process to know. I
do think it's interesting that you had to sit down
with Kenny Dillingham at Arizona State University. He outlined his
philosophy to you, which was that if you're going to
have to build through the portal, your goal should be
roster balance, right, that you should still be building according
to the plans that have always been there, which is
(03:39):
you should have some underclassmen, you should have some upperclassmen
the rules of college football and what makes a team
a team should still apply even if you have to
go to other college football teams other collegiate athletes to
be able to fill in that sequence.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
All right, So I look at transfer port the way that.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Teams used to build through JUCO.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I think that that's the way you should look at
Sometimes players come out of JUCO with three years, some
of them come out with two, some of them come
out with one. Is that when you're building an actual program,
that you should use high school recruiting as your base,
Like that's got to be your your foundation. And people
are like, well, these high school players leave and all
this stuff. Yeah, there is a an element to that,
(04:26):
and that is also why you need to that, Like, yes,
nil stuff has to be important, but that can't be
the only reason that you get a kid, Like you
have to be focused in the development business and not
just in the you know, yeah we're gonna we're gonna
pay for the highest ranked players. I think that there's
(04:46):
a balance between those two things, and that you need
to look at the transfer portal similar to the way.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
That you did JUCO.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Like, for instance, when I was in college, Oregon State
built with Chad who's the Ad Johnson, TJ. Houshman's out,
a bunch of other transfers at Oregon State. And I
think it was that two thousand or two thousand and
one year when they went and played the I'm sorry
Notre Dame in the Fiesta bo. So what the issue
(05:14):
is is that they didn't then supplement that or weren't
able to supplement that with, you know, enough good high
school talent to keep that alone, because I do believe
that you need high school talent that's going to be
willing to sit for a year or two years to
be able to come in. And I think that the
(05:36):
biggest thing for there is that I believe that high
school kids care more about going to the NFL and
the potential to go to the NFL than they do
then they care about INIO money. I think that the
that the balance of course the NIO money matters, but
I think that the sliding scale of oh I'll go
(05:59):
to Georgia because Georgia pays less in IL money than
a lot of other people, and a lot of people
don't know that, and Ohio State was doing that until recently.
That they want the that players will choose less in
il money if they believe that they're in a situation
to get developed to go to the NFL more.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Sure, And I I'm not I'm not pushing back against shortcuts.
And You've always been really clear that like this is
a pendulum. We're gonna have a lot of people that
take the easy money right away realize that what they're
sacrificing is one of the best things about college football,
having a home, having somewhere you can go back to,
you see all that stuff behind you. The Oregon Helmet,
(06:42):
your relationship with the University of Oregon has paid massive
dividends in your life. People are giving that up to
be a quarterback at five different places like JT. Daniels
or a Keaton Slovas or something like that. You know,
so I get it, I absolutely get it. But I
think that you've been right all along that people are
to realize that not every short cut is for you.
(07:04):
Sometimes it works out in your favor, Like sometimes you
can afford the V twelve ab machine if you're Drake
and and you know, you know you gotta do all
those sit up and that, like that's nice, you know,
that's nice to be able to have that. But at
the end of the day, you're a baseball fan, You're
a Dodgers fan of all things. Like this idea of
like can we build through the portal is a lot
(07:25):
like the baseball argument of can we buy a pennant?
And the Dodgers have had more resources than a lot
of the teams, at least in the West. And they
have one World Series since nineteen eighty eight, and it
came in a shortened season.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Well and and also though too, the the Dodgers, yes
they bought a tany they bought uh you know, well
they traded for bets. They also have had a number
of their core players. They're more doing what the Yankees
did in the nineties, where yeah, they bought a couple
(07:58):
of people, but they had a really good farm system too.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
And Fellinger was on that twenty twenty team and that
was an internal like so there has to be some
level of balance. But if you just look at baseball
and you look at the teams that are notorious for
buying players, look the Yankees, the Mets have had no success.
The Yankees have not had a World Series since two
thousand and nine. The Dodgers have won since nineteen eighty eight.
(08:22):
The one that seems to disprove the rule is the
Red Sox rattled off four in fourteen years right from
like o flour to twenty eighteen, but they haven't won
since twenty eighteen. You do have to build, You do
have to have a foundation. I think college football could
probably learn some lessons from Major League Baseball. If you
have the resources, you should spend them, but you need
(08:44):
to spend them wisely. And if your foundation, if your
base isn't there, if you don't have development up to
the system, like and if you have coaches that are
that are taking shortcuts, if they're afraid to develop, if
they it seems like some coaches have forgotten that players
are not the same as freshmen as they are at juniors.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Okay, so let's take Colorado for an example. What your
Rihanna is doing over at Colorado. I do not believe
like people have recently they're like, oh, you hate Dion
and this, and No. I called Dion out for, you know,
for going back and forth with kids on social media,
because I do think that he's above that. But I
(09:24):
don't think that he's I want him to have success,
Like he was one of my favorite players growing up,
but I do believe he's making a calculated mistake in
trying to build through the portal instead of building through
high school. And like, yes he's signed Seaton, big time tackle,
(09:46):
but you need more of those to be able to
sustain your class because once Shiloh and Shaduur are gone,
that loses a lot of its luster. So then the
question is, when the future doesn't look as bright with
your you know, NFL quarterback, how many kids are gonna
be willing to sign up to play there when you're
(10:08):
not building relationships with them in high school. So if
Nick Saban and Kirby Smart and Dabble Sweeney, if they
can get on the road recruiting and they're multiple time
national championship winners, you can get on the road recruiting
in Colorado. And the excuse of oh, oh, it's not
oh high school coaches will be upset, brother, that is
(10:30):
that is not true. Yes, yes, they may be a
little bit frustrated, but then they're also gonna be like,
all right, well, we don't have enough players on our
team to be to substantiate the head coach coming And
everybody understands that.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Yeah, okay, So a couple of things on don Number one,
disruptors are necessary in every industry. They are most effective
when the model is outdated and bad. The model of
college football players like high school players going into college,
getting developed, learning the game, growing into their bodies, and
(11:07):
becoming NFL players. That's not a bad model. Maybe the
business of college football, and you've had a lot of
complaints about the business end of college football. But the
actual model of taking somebody, developing them and getting them
ready for the next level and it taking three to
four years, that's a good model. I'm not one hundred
percent sure we needed a disruptor for that model. What
(11:28):
Deon Sanders has made it. Deon Sanders has made it
cool to play for Colorado. He has not made it
cool to be at Colorado. So he has created an
environment in which if you go to Colorado and you're
not playing, you gotta go. And so at college football you.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Have to have people are your roster who aren't playing.
I mean that that's literally the definition of a rosters
that you have people that aren't playing.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
We disagree.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
I have example, what Ohio State Oregon are doing. They
have kids leave in the portal, they get kids in
the portal, but it feels like that they are supplementing
spots where they're younger at and trying to recruit high
school kids that are younger and trying to replace like
(12:16):
if like Oregon had some holes in its secondary and
they tried to shure up the holes in the secondary
in terms of and when I say holes, I don't
mean that the kids would have never been good, but
that they weren't at the level that they were expecting
at that point in time, being that they're trying to
compete for a championship this year, and then while still
(12:38):
trying to develop your freshmen and your resural freshmen that
are in your pipeline to be able to take over
as starters, because that's the ideal goal, is that you
don't really have to hop into port.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Right right And but we're in a position right now
where a lot of people are and I don't want
to be the guy that's always reminding Dion of the
things that he said, But when he got to Colorado,
he said, not only are we going to revolutionize you know,
college football and college football at the University of Colorado,
the way that we're going to go after high schoolers
(13:13):
is not something that you will have seen before. We're
not worried about the kids who are marked four and
five star. Our coaching staff's going to be doing their
own evaluations. We're going to be We're going to be
offering kids that don't even have rankings yet. Do you
know how many kids the University of Colorado in the
last eighteen months has offered that Colorado was their first
offer and they were unranked by either on three rivals
(13:35):
or twenty four to seven?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
How many zero?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Not one? So he's saying a lot of stuff, but
not all of it is stuff that they're following through on.
You know who Deon Sanders is through his actions, and
right now, Deon Sanders is somebody that's like, if we
can get better at any position through the portal, you're
more than welcome to come here. In the minute that
we do. We don't have a use for the person
(13:59):
who who who was there like that. That is how
it's coming off, because you have players that came there
to play for him that are now leaving. This is
no longer Dion got rid of the dudes that were
under Carl Drel Because Colorado fans have, well Dion fans
have gone to the ends of the earth to make
excuses for getting all those dudes up out of the program.
(14:19):
And I understand that.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Ten of them left. I think, yeah, ten or twelve.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
But the people that he brought over from Jackson State,
like they're leaving. He has multiple running backs that he
brought the left. Cormonia McLain left. You made a video
on this, like it's It's one of those things where
if you can build through the portal, we're gonna find out.
We're gonna probably find out in the twenty twenty four
season because they're gonna go into the Big twelve you.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Have and have some stability of Rosta and say that
they got a whole opposive line and everything else.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
But speaking of building through the portal, LSU.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Fans are not real happy right now because they're looking
at their defensive line and.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
They're like, uh b K, Brian Kelly, what up, Bam,
what up? What up with this defensive line?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
And here's what Brian Kelly had to say about why
he has not, you know, gotten the defensive line to
look like everybody thought he was going to.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Look. Well, the D line interior, d Lineman, where are
you right now with that?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Well?
Speaker 4 (15:25):
I think I made it pretty clear and in a
number of the press conferences that I had that we
were in the market UH in recruiting UH in the
transfer portal, looking for defensive linemen. It hasn't fared very well,
quite frankly, because you know, we're selling something a little
bit differently, and and that is we want to recruit UH.
We we want to engage, build relationships, we want to develop,
(15:47):
retain UH and and have you and have success.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
We're not in the market of buying players.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
And and unfortunately right now you know that's UH, that's
what some guys will looking for.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
They want to be bought.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
And look, I understand ANIL is part of this, and
we have an incredible collective. We have very very generous
opportunities around the Greater Baton Rouge area for ANIL opportunities.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
So they are here.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
But okay, so I think Brian Kelly is getting to
like they were starting to see the market correction that
Brian Kelly sees and other coaches are seeing. Wait, hold up,
hold on, I can't just pay a kid a boatload
of money to come in because I actually have to
(16:43):
be in the business of retaining players. So I do
believe On one hand, it's a little bit of excuses
by Brian Kelly, But on the other hand, he's right
in that, okay, that we can't just be going out
buying players. But however, though, however, I do believe that
(17:04):
there's a difference in paying money to unproven players versus
players like the kid Harmon who just went to Oregon,
who USC was after, LSU was after, who came from
Michigan State. He was a proven player on the field,
So he's not a player who should have to come
in and prove himself to get money because he's proven
(17:27):
on the field, as opposed to a freshman who he
should not. I mean, this is like the NFL salary
cap when they moved it to the rookie Wade scale
when Stafford was making more than like Tom Brad. Then
I do think that there's a difference.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Yes'm I mixed feelings on what Brian Kelly is saying
here because I think that your values should define your actions.
I don't think that you're circumstances should define your values.
And what I wonder when it comes to Brian Kelly
(18:06):
is we're striking out on defensive linemen. So now I
got to come out here and come out against the ideas.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, so what percentage of that is excuse and what
percentage of it is is these are our LSU values.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
If you read me.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
That quote and you didn't tell me who said it,
I would say that's wisdom. And then if you told
me that it came from and you wouldn't even have
to tell me who it was, It's like, so this
has nothing to do with Brian Kelly bias. If you
told me that it came from somebody at Louisiana State University,
I'd be like, all right, I'm out because because like
(18:48):
they are, they are in the havels, not the have nots,
and and it's it's uh. And I'm not saying this
as somebody who like went to Arizona State and Jay
Daniels went to air on a State and I watched
him leave because he goes on to say like we
didn't buy Jane Daniels, and I believe that to be true.
But LSU has resources. We know this because Kaisham Bouti
(19:10):
lost ninety thousand dollars gambling on himself, like like where
did that money come from? And so you know they
have they have a lot of money there they do.
I think what it comes down to is you get
out bid for a few defensive linemen and then all
of a sudden, you're like anti capitalism. So I agree,
(19:32):
I agree with him. How dare we, comrade, Kelly? I believe,
I believe what he is saying to be true. It's
hard to digest coming from one of the schools that
not just football, but all sports from gymnastics to women's basketball.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yes, yeah, yeah, they are not hurt and trying to trying.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
To pay players to get the complay for Kim Mulky
over there or in gymnastics.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
And before it was legal, we'll wait, like they got money,
they've been had money. But I you know, as a
standalone statement, I agree, I absolutely agree, and and I
think it goes along with a lot of what you
were saying, like you can't get into a business of
just bidding worse for people who are looking for the
(20:22):
biggest uh payday. I mean you can in literally every
other industry in America.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Isn't it a difference though, between transfers and high school students? Yeah,
because he's oh, we want guys who want to be here.
We of course you want somebody who wants to be there,
But there's a market price for a starting defensive tackle
who is going to the NFL. Like, like, that's different
(20:48):
than oh oh oh, here's this hot shot, five star
defensive lineman who ain't proved the damn thing, and now
he wants two million dollars or a million dollars or
half of how yeah the amount is Well, the difference
between that and saying, oh oh yeah, oh yeah, we
(21:09):
want guys who just want to be here out of
the portal.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
Man, and you get a like if you get a
bulletan the cough Winner out of the portal, Like, yes,
he wanted to be Addison wanted to be at USC
because he wanted to play with Caleb Williams.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
But guess what else he wanted?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Ralph money, Yes, money, there were I bet you there
were a bunch of other good quarterbacks that that that
he had on the list. Was like, all right, yes,
I would love to play with Caleb, but here are
my other ones.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
And but here's the bottom line price.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
So if USC is only willing to give me one
hundred thousand dollars and hell, LSU with Jaydon Daniels was
willing to give me a million dollars, or I can
go play with Drake May for two million dollars. Yes,
or where he probably would have been at He'd have
been playing with Drake May and North Carolina like stop,
like there's or he would have been at LSU. There's
(22:08):
a sliding scale on all of these for the top transfers.
And he's not looking for on the defensive line, Like,
let's be clear, Brian Kelly's not looking for a freshman
who he can develop at the defensive line. No, their
defense was terrible last year and he has to get
(22:29):
it better. He's looking for front line starters right now. Yes,
and to again, I think independent of who it came from, wisdom,
but like, let's let's very briefly talk about who it
is that is saying this. The person that is saying
this over a period of three thousand, five hundred and
(22:49):
sixty two days, he is making let me do a
quick mass twenty six thousand dollars and twenty six twenty
seven dollars and thirty nine a day for ten straight years,
every day, twenty six thousand dollars a day, every day.
So this is the man. This, this dude is like
(23:09):
souped up Toyota Corolla every day for ten years, and
he's the one talking about, hey, we're not out here
like trying to buy people. So that's one end of it.
The other end of it like you're in business.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
And nothing puts you in a position as a head
coach to be extorted, because that's what that's how some
of these head coaches feel. They're like, we're getting extorted
by these players. Nothing puts you in a better position
to be extorted than having the eighty second ranked scoring
defense in all of college football while being in the SEC.
So you get into a room with a high level
(23:43):
defensive tackle and their handler or their mom or their dad,
and they say like, hey, we're gonna develop you better
than anyone else, And then they check last year's stats.
Are you are you gonna develop my son better than
anyone else? Or do you need him to make it
look like you're a developer. Oh, and then all of
a sudden, you're against the ropes. Yep, that's tough.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, And and and he's against the ropes and he's
building in an excuse, Hey, yo, we're we're we're so
he's going to have a different player for next year.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Bet you bet you.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Hey, everybody that's broke as a developer, I'm noticing.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yep, okay, So I would agree with that, except for
look at what Hugh Freeze said. I want to give
you a quote from Hugh Freeze and coach of Auburn
who did it, who proved that he could do it
at Liberty.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And now here's what he said.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Quote the options, and he's talking about developing quarterbacks instead
of spending a million dollars in the transfer portal. Now,
mind you, they did bring kids on officials. Now mind
jay did breach some of them quarterback or into portal
on officials.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Quoting his old quarterback, right, his old quarterback, Katon's yelter. Okay, yep.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Quote the options that you're presented with developed Peyton, develop Holding,
develop Hank, develop Walker, or go spend a million dollars
on this guy. I just couldn't bring myself to do
that because I wanted to put all the pieces together.
For some reason. I believe you Freeze in this situation.
(25:17):
I believe two things. I believe that he couldn't get
the guy he wanted, and that instead of just settling
for a guy, he said, Okay, so we can either
pay this money to this kid, and I think that
I can develop one of these other kids into that
kid versus.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Like that.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
It's it's like striking out on what you love, right
and instead of it's like shopping when you're hungry and
or shopping when you're in desperate need. If you're trying
to furnish your house for a party tomorrow and you
find the couchs that you really like and they're like,
(26:01):
oh man, we can't deliver it until till Tuesday, So
now you're just shopping for a couch. At that point
in time, you're still trying to find a couch that
you love.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
But then steam clean. I find the couch that you
can tolerate that.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
You're like, exactly your couch clean, yes, that that you're excited,
that you're mildly excited about, and you're like, I don't
really love this couch. So you can either buy that
couch or like you said, or you can steam clean
the couch that you that you have and then maybe
that will restore it and it'll be a perfect couch,
(26:35):
a great couch, or it's a good enough couch to
get you through the weekend, and then next year you
and then you can go get the couch that you
really want, and then you get it in advance. Even
if it takes six months to get you got plenty
of time because you order it in advance.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yeah, I would say that everybody's been in Hugh Freeese's position.
Like I've been out shopping with my wife. She'll see
handbag and she'd be like, oh my gosh, that's the
perfect handbag. I love it. And then she'll open it up,
pull out the tag and she'd be like, I don't
like it that much. Set back up the show, you know,
And so I think I think everybody has been in
(27:15):
that situation and you can rededicate those resources. But I
don't love Hugh Freeze painting it as like man and
at the end of the day, it just came down
to my morals. Hugh Freeze, mister morale.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Dude, dude.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
It's funny how they get real high on on on
the high horse. And I'm friends who are are coaching.
So it's not that this is not a condemnation of coaches,
but it's just the they do the exact same things
that people do in real life. So you know, so
so you can take it. It's not a good Oh,
we're killing that he hates our coach. No, we we're
(27:53):
just telling the truth. He's just like us, exactly.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I am.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Want me now on to Boise State coach Spencer Danielson
because he made news that ended up getting amended because
the school wanted to clarify what was going on. They
wanted to clarify Ralph because here was the headline from
on three news Poise State, Spencer Danielson announced incoming freshmen
(28:23):
are banned from taking nil money their first season.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
If you're looking for the easy way and you're looking
for a handout, don't come to Boise State.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
So that was the quote.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
And here is what the amended thing says that it
was quickly clarified that Danielson wasn't putting a strict embargo
in place on freshman earning nil deals, but that the
program would not be promising or offering nil deals two
recruits the first year players.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Which no one is supposed to do anyway technically.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
And yes, yes, So that clarification I think came from
the pushback, of course, because it was like, hold on,
hold on, you're not going to allow freshmen to make money.
You make money as a freshman, and there's a lot
(29:20):
of people that look at college football and they're like,
these kids should not earn money until they earn it
until There's a certain level of truth to that. But
there's also there's also people to get signing bonuses at
their job all the time before they start their job,
and they don't know if they're good at it. They
get recruited from one place to the next, don't know
if they get recruited out of college, don't know if
(29:41):
they're going to be good at their job. It just
it's the world that we work in. It's supply and demand.
When you are in demand, you can demand more money,
more resources. So I get the sentiment, but I do
also think that he's trying to stand on moral high
ground that is going to create a s Shay foundation
(30:01):
for his school, or he's just gonna have to be
like a damn I shouldn't I shouldn't have said that
he's gonna dabble Sweeney begrudgingly have to do what everybody
knows that he's gonna do.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
I will tell you that, like I had the reaction
I had to this because like I root for Wyoming,
I'm from Wyoming and Boise State's to bully on the
block out there. And so the moment he said this,
I was like, oh my gosh, he's so dumb. And
then publicly I was like, you know what, I think
he's right. I think Boise State needs to stay away
from give the money kids first year. I think that
maybe he's wise and we should listen to him. I
(30:39):
don't think it applies to anybody else, just Boise State. Yeah, bro, bro,
it's our only hope. It's our only hope. Like they've
been the kings of the Mountain West forever, like they
were when TCU was there. So I I thought it
was funny. It reminded me like, so I grew up
with this kid. He was a hooper and he went
(31:01):
out to a school that was by your old school,
Lewis and Clark. If you heard of Lewis and Clark
gets out in Oregon.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
So we had like a last big blowout summer after
he graduated high school because he was like, hey, they
don't let freshmen drives. No freshman is allowed to drive
on campus because they want you to get acclimated to
campus life. And I remember thinking to myself, like some
parents will think this is really great, but they probably
cut down there. They probably cut down the amount of
(31:29):
students that they would actually be able to get on campus.
I remember he was a hooper. He got brought in
to play basketball. It hurts their recruiting to be able
to say, like, you've had two two and a half
years of independence being able to drive, but when you
get here, we're taking that away. And he lasted one
year there before he went to go play basketball at NAU.
So like, I look at stuff like that and I say, like,
that's a calculated risk. I understand it. I understand that
(31:52):
there's probably wisdom in it, but in this era, it
just doesn't make any sense because one, you're gonna have
people recruit against you. Two you're gonna people on campus
not making any money looking at the friends they played
with in high school who are making money, and those
friends they played with in high school are like, hey,
you got to come out here. You got to come
out here to San Diego State, you got to come
out here to Colorado State, Like we we don't, we
(32:14):
don't have those problems that you have. And then envy
takes over.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
And then you start with your mentioned is on Twitter
because I quotes weeded it talked about how silly it was.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
They were like, what are you talking about.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
He's talking about exclusively from the Boise State collective that
they're associated with. I was like, it's not stopping them
from making money. I was like, it's the same day.
Where do you think most n I nil deals come from?
Slick for for for players who aren't established already and
(32:46):
pre nil and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yep, well pre nil.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
There was one school in the Mountain West that had
access to four star talent one and that was Boise. Like,
you think they're going to get another hand fakmeer if
you can't pay no. So anyway, at the end of
the day, I'm off for it. Spencer Danielson is a genius.
Don't let the administration tell you what to do. You
(33:14):
keep that money away from those kids, go Broncos.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Oh my yeah, all right. Next thing up is our.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Top ten teams coming out of spring ball, and we
have looked at quarterback situations, we have looked at everything
in between to make this top ten and this is
a consensus top ten. So anybody that is just blaming me, Nope,
you gotta blame Ralph as well.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
However, we are right, we are not wrong.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
We are reister, and we are not wrong in this
situation because these things matter. So we'll start at number
ten and we'll get to number one. Number ten Florida
State Dj Uiyan Galaile at quarterback. Jay I'm sorry, Norvale,
the head coach, and they have done an excellent job
(34:14):
Ralph recruiting. They are putting themselves in a position to win.
And after getting absolutely demolished by the playoff committee just
and then getting housed in their bowl game against Georgia
because nobody played, they went and took a bunch of
Alabama players and SEC players as well route this Florida
(34:37):
State team. If DJ plays really well, could I mean,
I think they're one hundred to be in the playoff
as long.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
As he stays healthy. Twelve team playoffs.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
But I do also believe that they they're one of
the teams that's gonna have a chance to win it.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Yeah, they lost to one of their top receivers in springball.
I think they'll be okay. They got a lot of athletes.
They the moment that Nick Saven retired me and they
went to work and and you know, to get five
players from Alabama to get you know what, like almost
ten from the SEC. They believe they're an SEC team. Anyway,
we'll get into that, but uh, I think that. And
(35:12):
then you also, you do have to factor in coaching,
you do. And Mike Norvell is elite. He's up there.
You saw it at Memphis, you saw it with the
Florida State build. His players believe in him, they bought in.
I've never heard a negative word about him, like post
Arizona State. This dude is you know, everybody who plays
for him, everybody who coaches with him. He's a new breed.
(35:33):
He's a guy you want to go out there and
play for. And uh and you know, he's a guy
who played receiver at Central Arkansas. He wore the braids.
Let's sell and so yeah, what is it the braids?
They want to play for him. They want to play
for him. So I think that they're gonna be fantastic.
There has to be a dip from last year. They
were very special last year, But I think top ten
(35:56):
is fair.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah, I think they're they're appropriately right, all right, Number two,
number nine, Now, this is the team I had out
on the fringe. And you talked me into this one. Missouri,
what do you love about them? Obviously they have a
returning quarterback situation and well, sir, and they just had
(36:19):
a couple of players drafted in the in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
What do you love about Missou?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Uh, it's a long it's it's a long term build.
They've got some stability. Uh. They had a lot of
contributions from people who are like fringe NFL players. Yeah,
like offensive line Xavier Delgado, guys like that. They are, Uh,
they to me feel like they feel like twenty twenty
(36:48):
three LSU. H really yeah, Like the offense.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Is gonna be He's gonna be okay, okay, yeah, yeah,
twenty twenty three LSU.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
They have no defense, Ralph.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Right, right, But I do think I think they're better
positioned defensively than LSU was. I think they have a
level of continuity. Obviously not you know, not necessarily the
coaching ranks, but with with talent, I maybe maybe it'll
be maybe it'll be eighty second overall ranked defense. But
to me, that's still ten wins. You get ten wins
(37:24):
in the set, you're you're a top ten team in
the country.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Well and Brady and Brady Cook will be good because
the more experienced that you get, obviously, and they've and
they've signed what five star players, gotten commitments from five
star players. This does feel like a program that's that
that's on the rise. But we're just talking about this
particular year because we did. We do have a video
(37:49):
on Unafraid show about the top about the future of
teams over the next five years. All right, number eight
Utah they have Cam Rising coming back. Uh, they they
they've got their quarterback. I'm sorry, they're tight end coming
back who missed yes last year. Yeah, and Whittingham has
(38:13):
done a great job, Like he's the definition like if
anybody could could say we're developing kids and not buying
them and it'd be a one hundred authentic and believed
it would be at Utah.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah, he can flat out and say like we're going
to pay you to get developed better than you'll get
developed anywhere else because they've got boosters yep.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yeah, And they're doing their thing in the collective for
the team and for their individual players. That's why unless
you're not playing there or it was like their quarterback
situation last last year where the will walk on where
he got a chance to start all year and he
was like, uh yeah, I don't want to go back
on the bench, and they probably gave They probably didn't even.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Try to keep him.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
They're like, no, man, go go uh go a spread,
spread your wings, go fly little butterfly.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Yeah. I just want to say this about Utah because
I get this feeling from Big twelve teams as they're
bringing Utah in. They kind of have this attitude of like, no,
the Pac twelve just was weak and they didn't want
to beat Utah enough. They didn't hate them as much
as we do. No, man, we hated them very much. Yeah,
(39:29):
we really really hated them. And the thing about hating
Utah is it gets you off balance. It's one of
those things where you start swinging wildly because you want
to take him out and they got balance and they
know how to fight, and they got that one punch
because you get close and you're off that Like, the
the more you hate them, the worse it is for you.
That that's just the thing. And so like there's this
(39:51):
attitude in the Big Twelve of like, we're gonna be
able to handle Utah in a way that you couldn't.
And I'm not it's not gonna be easy. It's not
gonna be awakening, buddy. Everything.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
He's rude.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Everything about Utah is rude.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Yep, all right, Number seven Alabama. I think that they
are this high on the list. Obviously, they are an
extremely talented team, you know, I mean like they are
extremely talented. The other part about this whole thing is
is that even in their talent, you're you're still looking
(40:26):
at them saying they have an opportunity to like they're
well coached.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
With Kaylin de Boor coming from Washington, so it is
hard to think that this team is going to be
terrible or miss the playoff or even though that they're
not as strong talent wise as they were last year,
they still got the same quarterback. And it feels like
Jalen mill Row could have a and a s like
(41:01):
we saw to Michael Penny Shunr. That's what it feels like.
And if that happens, it is gonna be uh elite
in the SEC and and people are gonna be piss
because they're gonna.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Be like, how the help did Nick Satan leave? And
these polls are still with it.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Yeah, Kaylyn de Boor is a genius. You're not gonna
hear a bad word about him from me. Ben grubbs it.
You know, my first reaction to him going to the
Seahawks was like, oh no, that's the secret sauce. But
if you're Alabama, how can you miss someone you never had?
So I think Kaylyn de bar is gonna be great.
I think the cupboard isn't full, but it's stocked and
(41:43):
uh and I think it's gonna be a fun first year.
And I think a big reason for this ranking is
that Jalen Milroe is is there and he believes in
himself a great deal, and I think he's gonna have
some funding this year. My issue with Alabama, your issue
with Alabama. We've never seen Kailyn the board recruit, so
maybe Alabama recruits itself. It's a different world now, but
(42:06):
you're one. I don't think it's going to be the issue.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
All right.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Penn State at number six their entire season, hinges on
Drew Aller and who you do not like?
Speaker 3 (42:21):
I said, who you do not like? Yes, I'm sure
he's a nice person, but I just want to put
this out there that, like you believe that they could
win a Natty with the right quarterback, and that's where
you're coming from. I just want to set that up
because you're gonna get Drew.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Allen obviously is a very talented kid. I saw him
throw the ball in high school. There's no question about
his arm talent. He didn't play well enough last year.
He knows he didn't play well enough last year to coaches,
everybody knows he didn't play well enough last year.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
So if Drew.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Aller can play better, if he can be one of
the better quarterbacks, he doesn't even have to be the
best quarterback in college football. He could be top fifteen
quarterback in college football. With this defense, they have a
shot to win a national championship. They got a new
offensive coordinator, so the whole running punt situation from last year,
hopefully it will be changed and helped by his play.
(43:16):
But I'm gonna tell you Penn State being not only
a national championship type team, but even a playoff team
hinges on drew out because Oregon and Washington going to
USC and UCLA going to the Big Ten is going
to be as It's not going to necessarily disrupt Penn
State because they've recruited really well.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
But it could be a problem if.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
That for their long term success, if well for their
success this year, if they don't get their quarterback played
up and better.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
Yes, man, hold on real quick, because my big issue
with Drew Aller is if you just watched him play
and you want pay and very very close attention, you
can be like, oh, this dude's got some rock Perdy
in him. Like he can he he can dink and
dunk down the field, you know. But guess what, he's
not six foot one ninety five. He's six five two fifty.
(44:15):
He does not play like he is six five two fifty.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
No, No, that's my issue.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Go out there and you are. You are bigger than
everybody else. You gotta go out there and look bigger
than everybody else.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Man up, homeboy, all right, number five, Old miss, old
Miss Jackson darts back. The difference between ls, I mean
Old Miss every other year and this year is one thing.
They put the D and D fits they put the
They put the N I the D N N I L.
That's what they did. They man. They so Lane Kiffin's
(44:52):
a portal king. The thing I like about this team
and the thing that makes me want to root for
Ole Miss is you know that Lane Kiffin wants to
kill everybody. Yep, he like the not and not even
like as a competitor as the joker and this water
shot yep, and Jackson Dart is the same way. He
wants to kill everybody. Like I like to have the
(45:15):
quarterback and the head coach be on that same mental
wavelength of like nobody nobody believes.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
We could do it. We believe we could do it,
and we hate you.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
And you know, when the stars aligned, like sometimes you
right into a roster where you have a special opportunity.
This is one of those special opportunities for oh miss.
And the difference is you don't have to make the
top four. Now you got to make the top twelve.
And I think that people are underestimating how that is
going to play into who wins the national championship because
(45:48):
you don't have to be good for one week and
then another week. No, like you like you could have
up to four games, which is which is that's different
when you got to get kids to play that well
that many games in a row, injuries, everything in between.
All right, number four Texas Texas Longhorns. Oh, there's a
(46:11):
theme returning quarterbacks on all these teams. Quinn Ewers, he
could have gone to the NFL this year, but he
would have been drafted probably around the same time Spencer
rather was, or in like somewhere between third and fifth
round probably, And this is his opportunity. Know, Exavier, you're worthy.
There are other wide receivers gone, so he's got to
prove that he can carry the low himself. And I
(46:34):
do believe that Texas is one of those teams. We
got them ranked at four, but they could end up in.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
Ten, eleven, twelve two.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
Quinn Ewers, to me, is the college quarterback like he is.
It's his time. We should see him take over. He
shouldn't need the most elite wide receivers. He's been called
the best. Like there was the year where it was
Trev Lawrence or Justin Fields coming out of high school
and people were like, who's number one, who's number one,
(47:04):
who's number one? And then quinn Ears came in the
next year and everywhere was like, this kid's actually better.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
And he has yet to live up to that billing,
but we've seen flashes of it. And he's a gamer
and when he's on the field, anything is possible. And
this you never want to be totally just going in
on a team because of who they have at quarterback.
But I am willing to push in all the chips
that that Texas could repeat as a college Football Playoff
(47:32):
participant based on quarterback play if they keep him healthy.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Yeah, I mean, and they're in the and they their
twelve team, so it makes it a little easy, yes,
all right, and I and we like sark number three
Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
The best thing that Ohio State.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
Got in the offseason, it is not Caleb Downs from Alabama.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
It is Schip Kelly calling plays because.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
There they're head coach Ryan Day, who had been you know,
doing doing that duty in big games, bad game plan
some sometimes his play caller was not always up to snuff,
and Chip Kelly is going to do what he sometimes
(48:23):
get gets away from. Chip Kelly is going to run
the football creat him all the time, every time and
then throw it over your head. It is going he
is gonna be back to Oregon day offense where it is.
Speaker 4 (48:37):
I I.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
Am nervous about the amount of sheer points that Ohio
State is going to score because those big team teams,
they're not used to seeing what he's putting out there.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
I'm gonna say the exact opposite. I'm gonna say the
reason that I'm so high on this team is I
think it is very possible that talent wise, they have
the best defense I've seen in college football in twenty years.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
Oh between downs h forty four to oh the oh
your favorite player in high school? Two years? Was it
three years ago? Now?
Speaker 3 (49:19):
Yeah? To them allowed JT. Tom allowed at to them
allow Leathan Ransom. Like they're they're set at corner, they're
set at safety, they're set at d line. They're gonna
be nasty. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm excited to see people
try to score on this defense. I think that I
think that take the over under on this Ohio State
(49:42):
six and a half defensive touchdowns in the regular season.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Hey all right, speaking of good defense, is number two or.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
This team put together a defense and that looks like
what Dan Lanning wants the eye offensive like, this team
looks complete. It is with the additional harmon in the portal,
this team feels complete. And when you have a complete team,
and then it feels like Dylan Gabriel a quarterback, even
(50:16):
if he does have an injury, you got Dante Moore
behind him who I'm not sure between him and Quinn
and you weres, except for I think that he's a
little more efficient than Quinn. Quinn just would you with
his arm in high school, Dante Moore probably throws the
(50:36):
best ball that I've ever seen out of a non
pro Like the ball jumps off of his hand. I mean,
I mean, granted, there's a difference between that and putting
it together on the field all the way. But this
is why everybody was so coveted after what happened at
UCLA because the detach You're like, we can riell this hand.
(50:57):
This is one of the best things we've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
Yeah. The thing I like about Oregon is they're very
proven when it comes to offensive line play. They keep
the quarterbacks jersey clean as well as anybody ever has.
I think bon Nicks got touched like three times the
last two years. Uh, Dylan, Dylan Gabriel is going to
be kept healthy, so you might not have to worry
about Dante Moore at all. I think that they had
(51:22):
some holes in their secondary last year, they that were
still good players that made me wonder.
Speaker 2 (51:32):
Play at that position.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
It was a championship level play at that position. And
but you still saw some of those guys get drafted,
which made me wonder, are they getting championship level coach?
That that's my only I have. I have one concern
about Oregon, and it's if they can keep things in
front of them and if they can be disciplined. You're
you're also not a new dB coach too, though that's helpful,
(51:58):
but you're also The nice thing is, you know, I'm
speaking a lot on some of their bigger games, and
there is no Debor or Michael Pennix or Roman Dunsa
or Jling McMillan to worry about next year. So sometimes
on the schedule. So but but Ohio State's not like
that on it Yeah, true, true, yep, you might say
(52:19):
yeah with Chip Kelly, but quarterback we don't know yet.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
Yes, that that they're the only team on this list
that you're I don't know, but the roster. So that
brings us to number one, Georgia. I don't know how
you can put Georgia at any other spot but number one.
That they got Carson Beck. They're loaded on defense, loaded
on offense. I mean, like you do want to see
what their wide receiver situation is going to be but
(52:43):
you're you're also like, I trust it, It'll be okay,
It'll be fine. That's that's the point where they've gotten
to where when Alabama was even shuffling the deck around,
you were like, yeah, I'll be all right, They'll figure
it out.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Definitely.
Speaker 3 (52:58):
I would say that the thing that's scared me about
Georgia is that they and this Kirby smart thing. I
believe this to be true. If you tell Georgia fans
and players that they're number one, they'll still feel disrespected.
They're like, what do you mean number one? They'll be like, oh,
(53:18):
in the twenty twenty four season, we think you're number one,
and they'll be like why not ever like that? And
I don't know what it takes to insert that mentality
into your players. By Kirby has done it. Like they
are delusional in the best way. Yeah, they they believe
(53:39):
they go into games they're gonna win by fifty, feeling
like people are counting don'account them out. Then they win
by sixty like they are. They're insane and they have
the talent to match. They're It's gonna be a fun
year for for the Georgia Bulldogs.
Speaker 2 (53:55):
It definitely is all right, well, you guys.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
That is is the Unafraid Show College Football Apostles for
this week.
Speaker 2 (54:05):
You guys. I'm George Reister, He's Ralph Am the peace Out.
Catch you guys next week.
This is the Unafraid Show, the College Football Apostles. Addition,
I'm George Reiser, this is this is Ralph Ams did
and you guys, this is what Thursdays is gonna be.
All college football, all the time. And we got a
bunch of really good things up for you guys today.
Can you build a college football roster through the transfer portal?
(00:22):
Because there are people that are trying, and then there
are people who are saying, we can't, we don't have
any money.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
And Brian Kelly here's one.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Of the people, because he can't get a defensive line
at LSU.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Is he taking the wrong approach?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
We gotta talk about Boise States head coach Spencer Danielson.
He's like, listen, y'all freshman, y'all ain't making no bread
around here.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
And then the statements got amended. I wonder why.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Sonny Dykes says that there are two different college footballs
in Division One at least, that there's the Alabamas and
then there's the Louisiana. The text and we'll talk about
that whether there should be a split. And the ACC
is trying to get broken, well, it's trying to get
packed to us. And we'll explain all of that today
here on the College Football Apostles presented by an Afraid
(01:15):
Show Rnsea, Ralph, can you build a roster in college
football through the transfer portals? Because you have Dion Sanders
who's trying to do it over at Colorado, you have
other teams that have shifted their focus away from high
school recruiting, which I think is an insanely ridiculous mode,
(01:39):
and they've translated into, oh, we're gonna get everything we
need out of the portal. But when you look at
the portal, Ralph, just to share numbers, and there's a
video on this on the Unafraid Show about just a sheer,
staggering number of players that are in the transfer portal
and why they transfer. Offensive lineman. Top offensive lineman don't
(02:00):
really transfer very often, so it's gonna be damnar impossible
to build a competitive in terms of league championship or
national championship offensive line mostly through the portal. And like
you can get spot players who are looking for big money,
but it's not normally, you know, like it's mainly guys
(02:22):
that are gonna take a year to develop or aren't
you know, or who can turn into potential NFL players,
but aren't quite there yet.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
You're gonna turn me into Bill Clinton here. It depends
on what the definition of is is, right, Can you
build a college football team through the portal? Are you
talking about a team that takes the field because Dion
already did that. He pushed, Yeah, but there's needs seven
people out of the program take the field, right, right, right, right.
(02:54):
But so we're getting into the question of like, George
is a Jackson Pollock art. Yes, okay, I would agree too.
I would agree too. There's a lot of people that
are like, that's just dots, but we've got Jackson Pollock
that have sold for two hundred million dollars. So it
really just depends on if it eventually works, and I
(03:17):
think we're too early in the process to know. I
do think it's interesting that you had to sit down
with Kenny Dillingham at Arizona State University. He outlined his
philosophy to you, which was that if you're going to
have to build through the portal, your goal should be
roster balance, right, that you should still be building according
to the plans that have always been there, which is
(03:39):
you should have some underclassmen, you should have some upperclassmen
the rules of college football and what makes a team
a team should still apply even if you have to
go to other college football teams other collegiate athletes to
be able to fill in that sequence.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
All right, So I look at transfer port the way that.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Teams used to build through JUCO.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I think that that's the way you should look at
Sometimes players come out of JUCO with three years, some
of them come out with two, some of them come
out with one. Is that when you're building an actual program,
that you should use high school recruiting as your base,
Like that's got to be your your foundation. And people
are like, well, these high school players leave and all
this stuff. Yeah, there is a an element to that,
(04:26):
and that is also why you need to that, Like, yes,
nil stuff has to be important, but that can't be
the only reason that you get a kid, Like you
have to be focused in the development business and not
just in the you know, yeah we're gonna we're gonna
pay for the highest ranked players. I think that there's
(04:46):
a balance between those two things, and that you need
to look at the transfer portal similar to the way.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
That you did JUCO.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Like, for instance, when I was in college, Oregon State
built with Chad who's the Ad Johnson, TJ. Houshman's out,
a bunch of other transfers at Oregon State. And I
think it was that two thousand or two thousand and
one year when they went and played the I'm sorry
Notre Dame in the Fiesta bo. So what the issue
(05:14):
is is that they didn't then supplement that or weren't
able to supplement that with, you know, enough good high
school talent to keep that alone, because I do believe
that you need high school talent that's going to be
willing to sit for a year or two years to
be able to come in. And I think that the
(05:36):
biggest thing for there is that I believe that high
school kids care more about going to the NFL and
the potential to go to the NFL than they do
then they care about INIO money. I think that the
that the balance of course the NIO money matters, but
I think that the sliding scale of oh I'll go
(05:59):
to Georgia because Georgia pays less in IL money than
a lot of other people, and a lot of people
don't know that, and Ohio State was doing that until recently.
That they want the that players will choose less in
il money if they believe that they're in a situation
to get developed to go to the NFL more.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Sure, And I I'm not I'm not pushing back against shortcuts.
And You've always been really clear that like this is
a pendulum. We're gonna have a lot of people that
take the easy money right away realize that what they're
sacrificing is one of the best things about college football,
having a home, having somewhere you can go back to,
you see all that stuff behind you. The Oregon Helmet,
(06:42):
your relationship with the University of Oregon has paid massive
dividends in your life. People are giving that up to
be a quarterback at five different places like JT. Daniels
or a Keaton Slovas or something like that. You know,
so I get it, I absolutely get it. But I
think that you've been right all along that people are
to realize that not every short cut is for you.
(07:04):
Sometimes it works out in your favor, Like sometimes you
can afford the V twelve ab machine if you're Drake
and and you know, you know you gotta do all
those sit up and that, like that's nice, you know,
that's nice to be able to have that. But at
the end of the day, you're a baseball fan, You're
a Dodgers fan of all things. Like this idea of
like can we build through the portal is a lot
(07:25):
like the baseball argument of can we buy a pennant?
And the Dodgers have had more resources than a lot
of the teams, at least in the West. And they
have one World Series since nineteen eighty eight, and it
came in a shortened season.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Well and and also though too, the the Dodgers, yes
they bought a tany they bought uh you know, well
they traded for bets. They also have had a number
of their core players. They're more doing what the Yankees
did in the nineties, where yeah, they bought a couple
(07:58):
of people, but they had a really good farm system too.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
And Fellinger was on that twenty twenty team and that
was an internal like so there has to be some
level of balance. But if you just look at baseball
and you look at the teams that are notorious for
buying players, look the Yankees, the Mets have had no success.
The Yankees have not had a World Series since two
thousand and nine. The Dodgers have won since nineteen eighty eight.
(08:22):
The one that seems to disprove the rule is the
Red Sox rattled off four in fourteen years right from
like o flour to twenty eighteen, but they haven't won
since twenty eighteen. You do have to build, You do
have to have a foundation. I think college football could
probably learn some lessons from Major League Baseball. If you
have the resources, you should spend them, but you need
(08:44):
to spend them wisely. And if your foundation, if your
base isn't there, if you don't have development up to
the system, like and if you have coaches that are
that are taking shortcuts, if they're afraid to develop, if
they it seems like some coaches have forgotten that players
are not the same as freshmen as they are at juniors.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Okay, so let's take Colorado for an example. What your
Rihanna is doing over at Colorado. I do not believe
like people have recently they're like, oh, you hate Dion
and this, and No. I called Dion out for, you know,
for going back and forth with kids on social media,
because I do think that he's above that. But I
(09:24):
don't think that he's I want him to have success,
Like he was one of my favorite players growing up,
but I do believe he's making a calculated mistake in
trying to build through the portal instead of building through
high school. And like, yes he's signed Seaton, big time tackle,
(09:46):
but you need more of those to be able to
sustain your class because once Shiloh and Shaduur are gone,
that loses a lot of its luster. So then the
question is, when the future doesn't look as bright with
your you know, NFL quarterback, how many kids are gonna
be willing to sign up to play there when you're
(10:08):
not building relationships with them in high school. So if
Nick Saban and Kirby Smart and Dabble Sweeney, if they
can get on the road recruiting and they're multiple time
national championship winners, you can get on the road recruiting
in Colorado. And the excuse of oh, oh, it's not
oh high school coaches will be upset, brother, that is
(10:30):
that is not true. Yes, yes, they may be a
little bit frustrated, but then they're also gonna be like,
all right, well, we don't have enough players on our
team to be to substantiate the head coach coming And
everybody understands that.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Yeah, okay, So a couple of things on don Number one,
disruptors are necessary in every industry. They are most effective
when the model is outdated and bad. The model of
college football players like high school players going into college,
getting developed, learning the game, growing into their bodies, and
(11:07):
becoming NFL players. That's not a bad model. Maybe the
business of college football, and you've had a lot of
complaints about the business end of college football. But the
actual model of taking somebody, developing them and getting them
ready for the next level and it taking three to
four years, that's a good model. I'm not one hundred
percent sure we needed a disruptor for that model. What
(11:28):
Deon Sanders has made it. Deon Sanders has made it
cool to play for Colorado. He has not made it
cool to be at Colorado. So he has created an
environment in which if you go to Colorado and you're
not playing, you gotta go. And so at college football you.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Have to have people are your roster who aren't playing.
I mean that that's literally the definition of a rosters
that you have people that aren't playing.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
We disagree.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
I have example, what Ohio State Oregon are doing. They
have kids leave in the portal, they get kids in
the portal, but it feels like that they are supplementing
spots where they're younger at and trying to recruit high
school kids that are younger and trying to replace like
(12:16):
if like Oregon had some holes in its secondary and
they tried to shure up the holes in the secondary
in terms of and when I say holes, I don't
mean that the kids would have never been good, but
that they weren't at the level that they were expecting
at that point in time, being that they're trying to
compete for a championship this year, and then while still
(12:38):
trying to develop your freshmen and your resural freshmen that
are in your pipeline to be able to take over
as starters, because that's the ideal goal, is that you
don't really have to hop into port.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Right right And but we're in a position right now
where a lot of people are and I don't want
to be the guy that's always reminding Dion of the
things that he said, But when he got to Colorado,
he said, not only are we going to revolutionize you know,
college football and college football at the University of Colorado,
the way that we're going to go after high schoolers
(13:13):
is not something that you will have seen before. We're
not worried about the kids who are marked four and
five star. Our coaching staff's going to be doing their
own evaluations. We're going to be We're going to be
offering kids that don't even have rankings yet. Do you
know how many kids the University of Colorado in the
last eighteen months has offered that Colorado was their first
offer and they were unranked by either on three rivals
(13:35):
or twenty four to seven?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
How many zero?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Not one? So he's saying a lot of stuff, but
not all of it is stuff that they're following through on.
You know who Deon Sanders is through his actions, and
right now, Deon Sanders is somebody that's like, if we
can get better at any position through the portal, you're
more than welcome to come here. In the minute that
we do. We don't have a use for the person
(13:59):
who who who was there like that. That is how
it's coming off, because you have players that came there
to play for him that are now leaving. This is
no longer Dion got rid of the dudes that were
under Carl Drel Because Colorado fans have, well Dion fans
have gone to the ends of the earth to make
excuses for getting all those dudes up out of the program.
(14:19):
And I understand that.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Ten of them left. I think, yeah, ten or twelve.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
But the people that he brought over from Jackson State,
like they're leaving. He has multiple running backs that he
brought the left. Cormonia McLain left. You made a video
on this, like it's It's one of those things where
if you can build through the portal, we're gonna find out.
We're gonna probably find out in the twenty twenty four
season because they're gonna go into the Big twelve you.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Have and have some stability of Rosta and say that
they got a whole opposive line and everything else.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
But speaking of building through the portal, LSU.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Fans are not real happy right now because they're looking
at their defensive line and.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
They're like, uh b K, Brian Kelly, what up, Bam,
what up? What up with this defensive line?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
And here's what Brian Kelly had to say about why
he has not, you know, gotten the defensive line to
look like everybody thought he was going to.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Look. Well, the D line interior, d Lineman, where are
you right now with that?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Well?
Speaker 4 (15:25):
I think I made it pretty clear and in a
number of the press conferences that I had that we
were in the market UH in recruiting UH in the
transfer portal, looking for defensive linemen. It hasn't fared very well,
quite frankly, because you know, we're selling something a little
bit differently, and and that is we want to recruit UH.
We we want to engage, build relationships, we want to develop,
(15:47):
retain UH and and have you and have success.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
We're not in the market of buying players.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
And and unfortunately right now you know that's UH, that's
what some guys will looking for.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
They want to be bought.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
And look, I understand ANIL is part of this, and
we have an incredible collective. We have very very generous
opportunities around the Greater Baton Rouge area for ANIL opportunities.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
So they are here.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
But okay, so I think Brian Kelly is getting to
like they were starting to see the market correction that
Brian Kelly sees and other coaches are seeing. Wait, hold up,
hold on, I can't just pay a kid a boatload
of money to come in because I actually have to
(16:43):
be in the business of retaining players. So I do
believe On one hand, it's a little bit of excuses
by Brian Kelly, But on the other hand, he's right
in that, okay, that we can't just be going out
buying players. But however, though, however, I do believe that
(17:04):
there's a difference in paying money to unproven players versus
players like the kid Harmon who just went to Oregon,
who USC was after, LSU was after, who came from
Michigan State. He was a proven player on the field,
So he's not a player who should have to come
in and prove himself to get money because he's proven
(17:27):
on the field, as opposed to a freshman who he
should not. I mean, this is like the NFL salary
cap when they moved it to the rookie Wade scale
when Stafford was making more than like Tom Brad. Then
I do think that there's a difference.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Yes'm I mixed feelings on what Brian Kelly is saying
here because I think that your values should define your actions.
I don't think that you're circumstances should define your values.
And what I wonder when it comes to Brian Kelly
(18:06):
is we're striking out on defensive linemen. So now I
got to come out here and come out against the ideas.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, so what percentage of that is excuse and what
percentage of it is is these are our LSU values.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
If you read me.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
That quote and you didn't tell me who said it,
I would say that's wisdom. And then if you told
me that it came from and you wouldn't even have
to tell me who it was, It's like, so this
has nothing to do with Brian Kelly bias. If you
told me that it came from somebody at Louisiana State University,
I'd be like, all right, I'm out because because like
(18:48):
they are, they are in the havels, not the have nots,
and and it's it's uh. And I'm not saying this
as somebody who like went to Arizona State and Jay
Daniels went to air on a State and I watched
him leave because he goes on to say like we
didn't buy Jane Daniels, and I believe that to be true.
But LSU has resources. We know this because Kaisham Bouti
(19:10):
lost ninety thousand dollars gambling on himself, like like where
did that money come from? And so you know they
have they have a lot of money there they do.
I think what it comes down to is you get
out bid for a few defensive linemen and then all
of a sudden, you're like anti capitalism. So I agree,
(19:32):
I agree with him. How dare we, comrade, Kelly? I believe,
I believe what he is saying to be true. It's
hard to digest coming from one of the schools that
not just football, but all sports from gymnastics to women's basketball.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yes, yeah, yeah, they are not hurt and trying to trying.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
To pay players to get the complay for Kim Mulky
over there or in gymnastics.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
And before it was legal, we'll wait, like they got money,
they've been had money. But I you know, as a
standalone statement, I agree, I absolutely agree, and and I
think it goes along with a lot of what you
were saying, like you can't get into a business of
just bidding worse for people who are looking for the
(20:22):
biggest uh payday. I mean you can in literally every
other industry in America.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Isn't it a difference though, between transfers and high school students? Yeah,
because he's oh, we want guys who want to be here.
We of course you want somebody who wants to be there,
But there's a market price for a starting defensive tackle
who is going to the NFL. Like, like, that's different
(20:48):
than oh oh oh, here's this hot shot, five star
defensive lineman who ain't proved the damn thing, and now
he wants two million dollars or a million dollars or
half of how yeah the amount is Well, the difference
between that and saying, oh oh yeah, oh yeah, we
(21:09):
want guys who just want to be here out of
the portal.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
Man, and you get a like if you get a
bulletan the cough Winner out of the portal, Like, yes,
he wanted to be Addison wanted to be at USC
because he wanted to play with Caleb Williams.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
But guess what else he wanted?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Ralph money, Yes, money, there were I bet you there
were a bunch of other good quarterbacks that that that
he had on the list. Was like, all right, yes,
I would love to play with Caleb, but here are
my other ones.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
And but here's the bottom line price.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
So if USC is only willing to give me one
hundred thousand dollars and hell, LSU with Jaydon Daniels was
willing to give me a million dollars, or I can
go play with Drake May for two million dollars. Yes,
or where he probably would have been at He'd have
been playing with Drake May and North Carolina like stop,
like there's or he would have been at LSU. There's
(22:08):
a sliding scale on all of these for the top transfers.
And he's not looking for on the defensive line, Like,
let's be clear, Brian Kelly's not looking for a freshman
who he can develop at the defensive line. No, their
defense was terrible last year and he has to get
(22:29):
it better. He's looking for front line starters right now. Yes,
and to again, I think independent of who it came from, wisdom,
but like, let's let's very briefly talk about who it
is that is saying this. The person that is saying
this over a period of three thousand, five hundred and
(22:49):
sixty two days, he is making let me do a
quick mass twenty six thousand dollars and twenty six twenty
seven dollars and thirty nine a day for ten straight years,
every day, twenty six thousand dollars a day, every day.
So this is the man. This, this dude is like
(23:09):
souped up Toyota Corolla every day for ten years, and
he's the one talking about, hey, we're not out here
like trying to buy people. So that's one end of it.
The other end of it like you're in business.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
And nothing puts you in a position as a head
coach to be extorted, because that's what that's how some
of these head coaches feel. They're like, we're getting extorted
by these players. Nothing puts you in a better position
to be extorted than having the eighty second ranked scoring
defense in all of college football while being in the SEC.
So you get into a room with a high level
(23:43):
defensive tackle and their handler or their mom or their dad,
and they say like, hey, we're gonna develop you better
than anyone else, And then they check last year's stats.
Are you are you gonna develop my son better than
anyone else? Or do you need him to make it
look like you're a developer. Oh, and then all of
a sudden, you're against the ropes. Yep, that's tough.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, And and and he's against the ropes and he's
building in an excuse, Hey, yo, we're we're we're so
he's going to have a different player for next year.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Bet you bet you.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Hey, everybody that's broke as a developer, I'm noticing.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yep, okay, So I would agree with that, except for
look at what Hugh Freeze said. I want to give
you a quote from Hugh Freeze and coach of Auburn
who did it, who proved that he could do it
at Liberty.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And now here's what he said.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Quote the options, and he's talking about developing quarterbacks instead
of spending a million dollars in the transfer portal. Now,
mind you, they did bring kids on officials. Now mind
jay did breach some of them quarterback or into portal
on officials.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Quoting his old quarterback, right, his old quarterback, Katon's yelter. Okay, yep.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Quote the options that you're presented with developed Peyton, develop Holding,
develop Hank, develop Walker, or go spend a million dollars
on this guy. I just couldn't bring myself to do
that because I wanted to put all the pieces together.
For some reason. I believe you Freeze in this situation.
(25:17):
I believe two things. I believe that he couldn't get
the guy he wanted, and that instead of just settling
for a guy, he said, Okay, so we can either
pay this money to this kid, and I think that
I can develop one of these other kids into that
kid versus.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Like that.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
It's it's like striking out on what you love, right
and instead of it's like shopping when you're hungry and
or shopping when you're in desperate need. If you're trying
to furnish your house for a party tomorrow and you
find the couchs that you really like and they're like,
(26:01):
oh man, we can't deliver it until till Tuesday, So
now you're just shopping for a couch. At that point
in time, you're still trying to find a couch that
you love.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
But then steam clean. I find the couch that you
can tolerate that.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
You're like, exactly your couch clean, yes, that that you're excited,
that you're mildly excited about, and you're like, I don't
really love this couch. So you can either buy that
couch or like you said, or you can steam clean
the couch that you that you have and then maybe
that will restore it and it'll be a perfect couch,
(26:35):
a great couch, or it's a good enough couch to
get you through the weekend, and then next year you
and then you can go get the couch that you
really want, and then you get it in advance. Even
if it takes six months to get you got plenty
of time because you order it in advance.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yeah, I would say that everybody's been in Hugh Freeese's position.
Like I've been out shopping with my wife. She'll see
handbag and she'd be like, oh my gosh, that's the
perfect handbag. I love it. And then she'll open it up,
pull out the tag and she'd be like, I don't
like it that much. Set back up the show, you know,
And so I think I think everybody has been in
(27:15):
that situation and you can rededicate those resources. But I
don't love Hugh Freeze painting it as like man and
at the end of the day, it just came down
to my morals. Hugh Freeze, mister morale.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Dude, dude.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
It's funny how they get real high on on on
the high horse. And I'm friends who are are coaching.
So it's not that this is not a condemnation of coaches,
but it's just the they do the exact same things
that people do in real life. So you know, so
so you can take it. It's not a good Oh,
we're killing that he hates our coach. No, we we're
(27:53):
just telling the truth. He's just like us, exactly.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I am.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Want me now on to Boise State coach Spencer Danielson
because he made news that ended up getting amended because
the school wanted to clarify what was going on. They
wanted to clarify Ralph because here was the headline from
on three news Poise State, Spencer Danielson announced incoming freshmen
(28:23):
are banned from taking nil money their first season.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
If you're looking for the easy way and you're looking
for a handout, don't come to Boise State.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
So that was the quote.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
And here is what the amended thing says that it
was quickly clarified that Danielson wasn't putting a strict embargo
in place on freshman earning nil deals, but that the
program would not be promising or offering nil deals two
recruits the first year players.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Which no one is supposed to do anyway technically.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
And yes, yes, So that clarification I think came from
the pushback, of course, because it was like, hold on,
hold on, you're not going to allow freshmen to make money.
You make money as a freshman, and there's a lot
(29:20):
of people that look at college football and they're like,
these kids should not earn money until they earn it
until There's a certain level of truth to that. But
there's also there's also people to get signing bonuses at
their job all the time before they start their job,
and they don't know if they're good at it. They
get recruited from one place to the next, don't know
if they get recruited out of college, don't know if
(29:41):
they're going to be good at their job. It just
it's the world that we work in. It's supply and demand.
When you are in demand, you can demand more money,
more resources. So I get the sentiment, but I do
also think that he's trying to stand on moral high
ground that is going to create a s Shay foundation
(30:01):
for his school, or he's just gonna have to be
like a damn I shouldn't I shouldn't have said that
he's gonna dabble Sweeney begrudgingly have to do what everybody
knows that he's gonna do.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
I will tell you that, like I had the reaction
I had to this because like I root for Wyoming,
I'm from Wyoming and Boise State's to bully on the
block out there. And so the moment he said this,
I was like, oh my gosh, he's so dumb. And
then publicly I was like, you know what, I think
he's right. I think Boise State needs to stay away
from give the money kids first year. I think that
maybe he's wise and we should listen to him. I
(30:39):
don't think it applies to anybody else, just Boise State. Yeah, bro, bro,
it's our only hope. It's our only hope. Like they've
been the kings of the Mountain West forever, like they
were when TCU was there. So I I thought it
was funny. It reminded me like, so I grew up
with this kid. He was a hooper and he went
(31:01):
out to a school that was by your old school,
Lewis and Clark. If you heard of Lewis and Clark
gets out in Oregon.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
So we had like a last big blowout summer after
he graduated high school because he was like, hey, they
don't let freshmen drives. No freshman is allowed to drive
on campus because they want you to get acclimated to
campus life. And I remember thinking to myself, like some
parents will think this is really great, but they probably
cut down there. They probably cut down the amount of
(31:29):
students that they would actually be able to get on campus.
I remember he was a hooper. He got brought in
to play basketball. It hurts their recruiting to be able
to say, like, you've had two two and a half
years of independence being able to drive, but when you
get here, we're taking that away. And he lasted one
year there before he went to go play basketball at NAU.
So like, I look at stuff like that and I say, like,
that's a calculated risk. I understand it. I understand that
(31:52):
there's probably wisdom in it, but in this era, it
just doesn't make any sense because one, you're gonna have
people recruit against you. Two you're gonna people on campus
not making any money looking at the friends they played
with in high school who are making money, and those
friends they played with in high school are like, hey,
you got to come out here. You got to come
out here to San Diego State, you got to come
out here to Colorado State, Like we we don't, we
(32:14):
don't have those problems that you have. And then envy
takes over.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
And then you start with your mentioned is on Twitter
because I quotes weeded it talked about how silly it was.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
They were like, what are you talking about.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
He's talking about exclusively from the Boise State collective that
they're associated with. I was like, it's not stopping them
from making money. I was like, it's the same day.
Where do you think most n I nil deals come from?
Slick for for for players who aren't established already and
(32:46):
pre nil and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yep, well pre nil.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
There was one school in the Mountain West that had
access to four star talent one and that was Boise. Like,
you think they're going to get another hand fakmeer if
you can't pay no. So anyway, at the end of
the day, I'm off for it. Spencer Danielson is a genius.
Don't let the administration tell you what to do. You
(33:14):
keep that money away from those kids, go Broncos.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Oh my yeah, all right. Next thing up is our.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Top ten teams coming out of spring ball, and we
have looked at quarterback situations, we have looked at everything
in between to make this top ten and this is
a consensus top ten. So anybody that is just blaming me, Nope,
you gotta blame Ralph as well.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
However, we are right, we are not wrong.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
We are reister, and we are not wrong in this
situation because these things matter. So we'll start at number
ten and we'll get to number one. Number ten Florida
State Dj Uiyan Galaile at quarterback. Jay I'm sorry, Norvale,
the head coach, and they have done an excellent job
(34:14):
Ralph recruiting. They are putting themselves in a position to win.
And after getting absolutely demolished by the playoff committee just
and then getting housed in their bowl game against Georgia
because nobody played, they went and took a bunch of
Alabama players and SEC players as well route this Florida
(34:37):
State team. If DJ plays really well, could I mean,
I think they're one hundred to be in the playoff
as long.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
As he stays healthy. Twelve team playoffs.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
But I do also believe that they they're one of
the teams that's gonna have a chance to win it.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Yeah, they lost to one of their top receivers in springball.
I think they'll be okay. They got a lot of athletes.
They the moment that Nick Saven retired me and they
went to work and and you know, to get five
players from Alabama to get you know what, like almost
ten from the SEC. They believe they're an SEC team. Anyway,
we'll get into that, but uh, I think that. And
(35:12):
then you also, you do have to factor in coaching,
you do. And Mike Norvell is elite. He's up there.
You saw it at Memphis, you saw it with the
Florida State build. His players believe in him, they bought in.
I've never heard a negative word about him, like post
Arizona State. This dude is you know, everybody who plays
for him, everybody who coaches with him. He's a new breed.
(35:33):
He's a guy you want to go out there and
play for. And uh and you know, he's a guy
who played receiver at Central Arkansas. He wore the braids.
Let's sell and so yeah, what is it the braids?
They want to play for him. They want to play
for him. So I think that they're gonna be fantastic.
There has to be a dip from last year. They
were very special last year, But I think top ten
(35:56):
is fair.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah, I think they're they're appropriately right, all right, Number two,
number nine, Now, this is the team I had out
on the fringe. And you talked me into this one. Missouri,
what do you love about them? Obviously they have a
returning quarterback situation and well, sir, and they just had
(36:19):
a couple of players drafted in the in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
What do you love about Missou?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Uh, it's a long it's it's a long term build.
They've got some stability. Uh. They had a lot of
contributions from people who are like fringe NFL players. Yeah,
like offensive line Xavier Delgado, guys like that. They are, Uh,
they to me feel like they feel like twenty twenty
(36:48):
three LSU. H really yeah, Like the offense.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Is gonna be He's gonna be okay, okay, yeah, yeah,
twenty twenty three LSU.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
They have no defense, Ralph.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Right, right, But I do think I think they're better
positioned defensively than LSU was. I think they have a
level of continuity. Obviously not you know, not necessarily the
coaching ranks, but with with talent, I maybe maybe it'll
be maybe it'll be eighty second overall ranked defense. But
to me, that's still ten wins. You get ten wins
(37:24):
in the set, you're you're a top ten team in
the country.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Well and Brady and Brady Cook will be good because
the more experienced that you get, obviously, and they've and
they've signed what five star players, gotten commitments from five
star players. This does feel like a program that's that
that's on the rise. But we're just talking about this
particular year because we did. We do have a video
(37:49):
on Unafraid show about the top about the future of
teams over the next five years. All right, number eight
Utah they have Cam Rising coming back. Uh, they they
they've got their quarterback. I'm sorry, they're tight end coming
back who missed yes last year. Yeah, and Whittingham has
(38:13):
done a great job, Like he's the definition like if
anybody could could say we're developing kids and not buying
them and it'd be a one hundred authentic and believed
it would be at Utah.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah, he can flat out and say like we're going
to pay you to get developed better than you'll get
developed anywhere else because they've got boosters yep.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yeah, And they're doing their thing in the collective for
the team and for their individual players. That's why unless
you're not playing there or it was like their quarterback
situation last last year where the will walk on where
he got a chance to start all year and he
was like, uh yeah, I don't want to go back
on the bench, and they probably gave They probably didn't even.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Try to keep him.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
They're like, no, man, go go uh go a spread,
spread your wings, go fly little butterfly.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Yeah. I just want to say this about Utah because
I get this feeling from Big twelve teams as they're
bringing Utah in. They kind of have this attitude of like, no,
the Pac twelve just was weak and they didn't want
to beat Utah enough. They didn't hate them as much
as we do. No, man, we hated them very much. Yeah,
(39:29):
we really really hated them. And the thing about hating
Utah is it gets you off balance. It's one of
those things where you start swinging wildly because you want
to take him out and they got balance and they
know how to fight, and they got that one punch
because you get close and you're off that Like, the
the more you hate them, the worse it is for you.
That that's just the thing. And so like there's this
(39:51):
attitude in the Big Twelve of like, we're gonna be
able to handle Utah in a way that you couldn't.
And I'm not it's not gonna be easy. It's not
gonna be awakening, buddy. Everything.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
He's rude.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Everything about Utah is rude.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Yep, all right, Number seven Alabama. I think that they
are this high on the list. Obviously, they are an
extremely talented team, you know, I mean like they are
extremely talented. The other part about this whole thing is
is that even in their talent, you're you're still looking
(40:26):
at them saying they have an opportunity to like they're
well coached.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
With Kaylin de Boor coming from Washington, so it is
hard to think that this team is going to be
terrible or miss the playoff or even though that they're
not as strong talent wise as they were last year,
they still got the same quarterback. And it feels like
Jalen mill Row could have a and a s like
(41:01):
we saw to Michael Penny Shunr. That's what it feels like.
And if that happens, it is gonna be uh elite
in the SEC and and people are gonna be piss
because they're gonna.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Be like, how the help did Nick Satan leave? And
these polls are still with it.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Yeah, Kaylyn de Boor is a genius. You're not gonna
hear a bad word about him from me. Ben grubbs it.
You know, my first reaction to him going to the
Seahawks was like, oh no, that's the secret sauce. But
if you're Alabama, how can you miss someone you never had?
So I think Kaylyn de bar is gonna be great.
I think the cupboard isn't full, but it's stocked and
(41:43):
uh and I think it's gonna be a fun first year.
And I think a big reason for this ranking is
that Jalen Milroe is is there and he believes in
himself a great deal, and I think he's gonna have
some funding this year. My issue with Alabama, your issue
with Alabama. We've never seen Kailyn the board recruit, so
maybe Alabama recruits itself. It's a different world now, but
(42:06):
you're one. I don't think it's going to be the issue.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
All right.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Penn State at number six their entire season, hinges on
Drew Aller and who you do not like?
Speaker 3 (42:21):
I said, who you do not like? Yes, I'm sure
he's a nice person, but I just want to put
this out there that, like you believe that they could
win a Natty with the right quarterback, and that's where
you're coming from. I just want to set that up
because you're gonna get Drew.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Allen obviously is a very talented kid. I saw him
throw the ball in high school. There's no question about
his arm talent. He didn't play well enough last year.
He knows he didn't play well enough last year to coaches,
everybody knows he didn't play well enough last year.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
So if Drew.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Aller can play better, if he can be one of
the better quarterbacks, he doesn't even have to be the
best quarterback in college football. He could be top fifteen
quarterback in college football. With this defense, they have a
shot to win a national championship. They got a new
offensive coordinator, so the whole running punt situation from last year,
hopefully it will be changed and helped by his play.
(43:16):
But I'm gonna tell you Penn State being not only
a national championship type team, but even a playoff team
hinges on drew out because Oregon and Washington going to
USC and UCLA going to the Big Ten is going
to be as It's not going to necessarily disrupt Penn
State because they've recruited really well.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
But it could be a problem if.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
That for their long term success, if well for their
success this year, if they don't get their quarterback played
up and better.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
Yes, man, hold on real quick, because my big issue
with Drew Aller is if you just watched him play
and you want pay and very very close attention, you
can be like, oh, this dude's got some rock Perdy
in him. Like he can he he can dink and
dunk down the field, you know. But guess what, he's
not six foot one ninety five. He's six five two fifty.
(44:15):
He does not play like he is six five two fifty.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
No, No, that's my issue.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Go out there and you are. You are bigger than
everybody else. You gotta go out there and look bigger
than everybody else.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Man up, homeboy, all right, number five, Old miss, old
Miss Jackson darts back. The difference between ls, I mean
Old Miss every other year and this year is one thing.
They put the D and D fits they put the
They put the N I the D N N I L.
That's what they did. They man. They so Lane Kiffin's
(44:52):
a portal king. The thing I like about this team
and the thing that makes me want to root for
Ole Miss is you know that Lane Kiffin wants to
kill everybody. Yep, he like the not and not even
like as a competitor as the joker and this water
shot yep, and Jackson Dart is the same way. He
wants to kill everybody. Like I like to have the
(45:15):
quarterback and the head coach be on that same mental
wavelength of like nobody nobody believes.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
We could do it. We believe we could do it,
and we hate you.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
And you know, when the stars aligned, like sometimes you
right into a roster where you have a special opportunity.
This is one of those special opportunities for oh miss.
And the difference is you don't have to make the
top four. Now you got to make the top twelve.
And I think that people are underestimating how that is
going to play into who wins the national championship because
(45:48):
you don't have to be good for one week and
then another week. No, like you like you could have
up to four games, which is which is that's different
when you got to get kids to play that well
that many games in a row, injuries, everything in between.
All right, number four Texas Texas Longhorns. Oh, there's a
(46:11):
theme returning quarterbacks on all these teams. Quinn Ewers, he
could have gone to the NFL this year, but he
would have been drafted probably around the same time Spencer
rather was, or in like somewhere between third and fifth
round probably, And this is his opportunity. Know, Exavier, you're worthy.
There are other wide receivers gone, so he's got to
prove that he can carry the low himself. And I
(46:34):
do believe that Texas is one of those teams. We
got them ranked at four, but they could end up in.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
Ten, eleven, twelve two.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
Quinn Ewers, to me, is the college quarterback like he is.
It's his time. We should see him take over. He
shouldn't need the most elite wide receivers. He's been called
the best. Like there was the year where it was
Trev Lawrence or Justin Fields coming out of high school
and people were like, who's number one, who's number one,
(47:04):
who's number one? And then quinn Ears came in the
next year and everywhere was like, this kid's actually better.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
And he has yet to live up to that billing,
but we've seen flashes of it. And he's a gamer
and when he's on the field, anything is possible. And
this you never want to be totally just going in
on a team because of who they have at quarterback.
But I am willing to push in all the chips
that that Texas could repeat as a college Football Playoff
(47:32):
participant based on quarterback play if they keep him healthy.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Yeah, I mean, and they're in the and they their
twelve team, so it makes it a little easy, yes,
all right, and I and we like sark number three
Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
The best thing that Ohio State.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
Got in the offseason, it is not Caleb Downs from Alabama.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
It is Schip Kelly calling plays because.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
There they're head coach Ryan Day, who had been you know,
doing doing that duty in big games, bad game plan
some sometimes his play caller was not always up to snuff,
and Chip Kelly is going to do what he sometimes
(48:23):
get gets away from. Chip Kelly is going to run
the football creat him all the time, every time and
then throw it over your head. It is going he
is gonna be back to Oregon day offense where it is.
Speaker 4 (48:37):
I I.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
Am nervous about the amount of sheer points that Ohio
State is going to score because those big team teams,
they're not used to seeing what he's putting out there.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
I'm gonna say the exact opposite. I'm gonna say the
reason that I'm so high on this team is I
think it is very possible that talent wise, they have
the best defense I've seen in college football in twenty years.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
Oh between downs h forty four to oh the oh
your favorite player in high school? Two years? Was it
three years ago? Now?
Speaker 3 (49:19):
Yeah? To them allowed JT. Tom allowed at to them
allow Leathan Ransom. Like they're they're set at corner, they're
set at safety, they're set at d line. They're gonna
be nasty. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm excited to see people
try to score on this defense. I think that I
think that take the over under on this Ohio State
(49:42):
six and a half defensive touchdowns in the regular season.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Hey all right, speaking of good defense, is number two or.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
This team put together a defense and that looks like
what Dan Lanning wants the eye offensive like, this team
looks complete. It is with the additional harmon in the portal,
this team feels complete. And when you have a complete team,
and then it feels like Dylan Gabriel a quarterback, even
(50:16):
if he does have an injury, you got Dante Moore
behind him who I'm not sure between him and Quinn
and you weres, except for I think that he's a
little more efficient than Quinn. Quinn just would you with
his arm in high school, Dante Moore probably throws the
(50:36):
best ball that I've ever seen out of a non
pro Like the ball jumps off of his hand. I mean,
I mean, granted, there's a difference between that and putting
it together on the field all the way. But this
is why everybody was so coveted after what happened at
UCLA because the detach You're like, we can riell this hand.
(50:57):
This is one of the best things we've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
Yeah. The thing I like about Oregon is they're very
proven when it comes to offensive line play. They keep
the quarterbacks jersey clean as well as anybody ever has.
I think bon Nicks got touched like three times the
last two years. Uh, Dylan, Dylan Gabriel is going to
be kept healthy, so you might not have to worry
about Dante Moore at all. I think that they had
(51:22):
some holes in their secondary last year, they that were
still good players that made me wonder.
Speaker 2 (51:32):
Play at that position.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
It was a championship level play at that position. And
but you still saw some of those guys get drafted,
which made me wonder, are they getting championship level coach?
That that's my only I have. I have one concern
about Oregon, and it's if they can keep things in
front of them and if they can be disciplined. You're
you're also not a new dB coach too, though that's helpful,
(51:58):
but you're also The nice thing is, you know, I'm
speaking a lot on some of their bigger games, and
there is no Debor or Michael Pennix or Roman Dunsa
or Jling McMillan to worry about next year. So sometimes
on the schedule. So but but Ohio State's not like
that on it Yeah, true, true, yep, you might say
(52:19):
yeah with Chip Kelly, but quarterback we don't know yet.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
Yes, that that they're the only team on this list
that you're I don't know, but the roster. So that
brings us to number one, Georgia. I don't know how
you can put Georgia at any other spot but number one.
That they got Carson Beck. They're loaded on defense, loaded
on offense. I mean, like you do want to see
what their wide receiver situation is going to be but
(52:43):
you're you're also like, I trust it, It'll be okay,
It'll be fine. That's that's the point where they've gotten
to where when Alabama was even shuffling the deck around,
you were like, yeah, I'll be all right, They'll figure
it out.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Definitely.
Speaker 3 (52:58):
I would say that the thing that's scared me about
Georgia is that they and this Kirby smart thing. I
believe this to be true. If you tell Georgia fans
and players that they're number one, they'll still feel disrespected.
They're like, what do you mean number one? They'll be like, oh,
(53:18):
in the twenty twenty four season, we think you're number one,
and they'll be like why not ever like that? And
I don't know what it takes to insert that mentality
into your players. By Kirby has done it. Like they
are delusional in the best way. Yeah, they they believe
(53:39):
they go into games they're gonna win by fifty, feeling
like people are counting don'account them out. Then they win
by sixty like they are. They're insane and they have
the talent to match. They're It's gonna be a fun
year for for the Georgia Bulldogs.
Speaker 2 (53:55):
It definitely is all right, well, you guys.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
That is is the Unafraid Show College Football Apostles for
this week.
Speaker 2 (54:05):
You guys. I'm George Reister, He's Ralph Am the peace Out.
Catch you guys next week.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.