Draft Season | Drew Fabianich

The guys talk about the 2025 College Football Playoff and are joined by Executive Director of the Panini Senior Bowl, Drew Fabianich, to discuss all things Senior Bowl.

:00 - College Football Playoff bracket

12:35 - Drew Fabianich

16:40 - Invitation process at Senior Bowl

26:10 - Quarterback position

33:00 - Offensive line

39:45 - Most surprising position group

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's now officially open.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
This is Draft Season, presented by A mood. He is
a proud sponsor of the New York Giants. I am
John Schmelk joined those always from Essentially Sports, Tony Pauline, Tony,
how are you man?

Speaker 3 (00:17):
I'm okay, I'm okay. A little bit of a break
of the upcoming weekend. A lot of awards being handed up,
but it was an exciting conference championship weekend in a
lot with a lot of those games.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, ar mean maybe coming up this week then we're
gonna have obviously the college football playoffs. We have that field.
We're not gonna do much on the field in this episode. Well,
next episode to complain about that, so say tune for
that next week. And later on the show, Drew Fabianich
from the Senior Bowl, the new executive director, will join
us to talk a little bit about the invitations that
have gone out. Many have been accepted already if you're
following them on social media.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
So a lot to talk about with Drew.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
But first Tony, let's start with one of the smaller conferences.
Last week, James Madison finding their way into the college
football playoffs because they.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Were with a knock off Troy in the Sun Belt Championship.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
Game, resounding when they finished the season twelve and one,
They're head coach Chesney is headed to UCLA. But in
the preview I spoke about raw Rod Thomas, the receiver
from Troy going up against James Madison, which has the
best defense in the Sun Belt. Finished with three receptions
for eighty two yards. He's an explosive receiver with big playability.

(01:23):
He's got a nice NFL frame. He catches the ball well.
If you missed the show last week, he was with Georgie.
He was highly rated by scouts. Prior to the twenty
twenty four season, had some off the field legal issues,
was dismissed from the Georgia program, did not play football
in twenty twenty four. Has had a good season this
year at Troy. Be interested to see whether he goes

(01:46):
back to school or whether he enters the draft. If
he enters the draft, he's a day through Day three pick,
but he's got some upside. He's got some potential to
his game, and he showed well against the James Madison defense.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
All right, now, let's jump to the big one.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Tony on Saturday night, Indiana manages to defeat Ohio State
thirteen to ten, most of because Ohio State just could
not score points in the red zone.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Just disastrous down there for Ohio State.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
But this really I think some men's Fernando Mendoza, atop
the quarterback rankings in this year's draft, didn't have a
wow game from a statistical standpoint, but made all the
plays when he had to down the stretch, and he probably.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Won the Heisman Trophy. Fernando Mendoza, I mean that big
touchdown drive in the third quarter and then that big
play in the fourth quarter for the first down to
Charlie Barker, which basically shield the game.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
I mean number one.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
But he in the gym and asked me Saturday, waned
what I thought, Ohio State?

Speaker 4 (02:37):
Ohise that.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
I was like, you know what, Indiana's got the best
coach in football in America, Kurtz Signetti, and he had
that team ready to play. They made in game adjustments.
Indiana didn't look good early. It was a lot of
bad penalties. You thought Ohio State was gonna run away
with it, but Indiana found the way to win. And Mendoza, I.

Speaker 4 (02:54):
Agree with you completely.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
He wasn't great, but He got the job done and
he won, and he stepped up when Indiana need him
step up, and the game kind of paralleled what we
saw when Indiana played Penn State.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
Number one.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
He was without a top receiver the Penn State game.
Elijah Sharrott was on the sidelines this game. Amari Cooper
left the game early, never came back.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
So what does he do.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
He goes to Charlie Becker against Ohio State as he
did against Penn State, and Becker comes up with just
huge plays, true sophomore, six receptions for one hundred and
twenty six yards.

Speaker 4 (03:27):
And I mean Mendoza made no bad plays.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Even that interception was not so much a bad pass,
rather a good play by the defender to read the
play and get up the field and disrupt the action.
So he really didn't make any bad plays. He goes
down in the first series. You're wondering they were talking
about a shoulder. I thought it was whiplash. You're wondering
if the guy's gonna come back. He looked like he
was in real pain. He came back two plays later

(03:52):
and then led the team. I thought his postgame interview
was fantastic, the way he talked to me two teammates
talking about throwing the ball at Charlie Becker at seven
o'clock on a Saturday morning, So he wasn't surprised by it.
And that goes a long way because remember mostly a
lot of the nations watching that interview, and he came
across incredibly well. So yeah, I mean Mendoza checked a

(04:13):
lot of boxes. Obviously, Indiana, the number one seed the
College football Playoffs, gonna win a Heisman Trophy on Saturday.
I mean to be massive upset if he doesn't. And
now you're talking about will teams trade up to the
first pick whoever owns it, you know, come next April
to get to get Fernando Mendoza. Trading up for Fernando

(04:34):
Mendoza makes a lot more sense in my opinion than
the Carolina Panthers trading off for Bryce Young. So we'll
see what happens.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, and right now the Giants owned that first overall pick,
but a long way to go to see what happens
towards the end of the year. And you know, it's funny,
I thought both defensive lines dominated this game, Tony.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
I was surprised.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
How much trouble do your hoo State offensive line had
with Indiana's front, and then we saw Kayden Curry continue
to have a really big year. He had a monster game.
Kenyatta Jackson was good, Kate McDonald was good. So I
thought both defensive lines did a nice job.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Kayden Curry played lights out. I mean that has to
be the best game of his college football career. There's
not about and he was playing over right tackle and
he was unstoppable. I mean, what really stood out to
me once again were those two undersized Indiana pass rushers
Caamara and Wiles as the other kid's name is, I'm sorry,

(05:23):
Stephen Dealy, Mike Mchael Kamara and Steven Deally, both the
late round picks. Del he's a transfer from Kent State.
But they're tough, they're fierce. They run a lot of
stunts and blitzes and games up front. And you know,
they really had Julian Saying running for his life, and
they really exposed Julian Saying, who's a smaller quarterback who

(05:47):
doesn't have the great mobility, and he really struggled. And
I think we saw it last year if you remember
with CJ.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
West. I mean CJ.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
West wasn't highly rated coming in a scouting process, had
a real good year transfer from Kent's. They plug in
the middle of that Indiana defensive line went to the shrine.
Bawl may play after play ended up in the late rounds.
I think that's what's gonna happen with Tamara as well
as Daily. And I gotta tell you the other player
who really stood out to me was D'Angelo Pons.

Speaker 5 (06:16):
Yeah, yea.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
He talked about him last week in the preview. He's
a smaller guy. That was a concern. They mentioned it
during the broadcast, but man, I mean, he's a small
guy that plays big football. He was not intimidated at all,
stopped Jeremiah Smith and the red zone, competed really good
ball skills. I mean, the fact is he's barely five

(06:39):
to nine. I don't even know he's one hundred and
seventy five pounds. Where do you draft a guy like that?
Probably in Day two as your nickelback. But he played
terrifically and he's got NFL type ball skills.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, Dan Bugler had a Mike Sanser still kind of
calm for him size wise, So I thought that was
a good one. And I thought Sony Styles played well.
I thought Caleb Downs played well. Rvel Reese had a
quiet game. Tony so just tough to keep an eye
on here. I thought it was a fun game. I
was locked in the whole time. And now hopefully we'll
get a rematch of those two teams in the college
football playoffs as the top two seeds at some point,
maybe even the national championship game. I guess that someone

(07:12):
would have to be all right, let's move over to
the SEC title game Georgia Alabama Tony, and we'll start
the quarterback here quickly. Ty Simpson's got to go back
to school. The end of his season just was not
very strong. He struggled again in this game, and I
just can't imagine. Look, I guess if if team tells
him they'll pick him in the top fifteen, it's hard
to argue with it. But I think even though he's
an older prospect, I think he's twenty four right, He's

(07:34):
someone that really could use some more seasoning.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
Listen on this show at at essentially sports dot com
last week, I reported that the word I'm hearing is
TYH Simpson is going to go back to Alabama in
twenty twenty six, and if there was any doubt in
his mind. This game proved he's got to go back
to college. And like you said, it's not just this game.
He was not good against Oklahoma. He struggled against Auburn,

(07:57):
and he made a lot of bad passes. He weren't
pass they weren't turnovers, but he missed a lot of
open receivers. He was making the correct reads. Georgia, to
their credit, was able to get a lot of pressure
up the field at Cayden. Proctor played terrible in this game,
but that's been Alabama in the past month.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
You know, Oklahoma and all.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
They struggled against a really bad Auburn team and then
they just got pounded. I mean, this really wasn't a game.
Auburn came out, Georgia came out and kicked their bottoms
from the get go, and ty Simpson did not play well.
And you're right, he's over aged, but he only has
one year of starting starting experience on the college level,
which we've talked about multiple times on the show. Really

(08:35):
has to go back. He's got a great quarterback coach
there and Ryan Grubb who could help develop his game.

Speaker 4 (08:40):
Even if a.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Team says we're going to take you the top fifteen.
The learning curve, the curve in the NFL is so
much steeper, the competition curve, the training curve, the classroom curve.
You got to wonder if he's ready for it based
on what we've seen, you know, the past month as
well as the Flowers Steak game to start the season.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, absolutely, I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Anybody else in this game jump out to your tone.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Well, like I said, I thought Kay Crocter played played poorly.
I think CJ. Allen probably established himself as a late
first round pick. As we've talked about time and time again,
the off ball linebacker position. He is incredibly strong.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
CJ.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
Allen's going to fit into that, you know, bottom half
a round one area if he enters the draft. I
would be surprised if he doesn't enter the draft. He's fast,
he's explosive. He's not a great blitzer, but he's a
sideline to sideline three down linebacker that can go from
point A to point B quickly to cut off the
corners and stop the run or drop back and covered

(09:39):
tight ends and running backs and coverage.

Speaker 5 (09:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
And by the way, we did get a Anthony Hill,
did a fellow inside linebacker did announce that he is
declaring for the draft after the year, the Texas linebacker.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
So just rang my head there talking about CJ.

Speaker 5 (09:52):
Allen.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Just something to keep in mind here, all right, Tony.
Then we got BYU Texas Tech Texas Tech second time
these two teams have met. Second time, Texas Tech really
took it b Yu.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, and again you know you look at those Texas
Tech pass rushers. I mean, we've talked multiple times about
David Bailey. One sack, one and a half tackles for loss,
five tackles in the game, can play off the line
in space, gets a lot of pressure. I feel pretty
convinced that Bailly's gonna be a top fifteen pick. Romelo height,

(10:23):
He's a smaller guy, comes out of a three point stance.
I think he's gonna be a good day three picking.
And Jacob Rodriguez, who we really haven't talked about much
on the show. I mean, a great story again, another
terrific off ball linebacker who has a great intellect, great instinct.
He's explosive, he plays like his hairs on fire, just

(10:44):
running sideline to sideline, making plays. Thirteen tackles in that game,
one tackle for loss. He was not announced as one
of the four finalists for the Heisman Trophy. People were
basically pushing him for that. I didn't think he deserved it.
But the fact is he's a much better player too
out of twenty five than he was in twenty twenty four,
which is going to help his draft stock.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah, no question about it.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
And then Tony just really quickly and would be joined
by Drew Fabian in a second here. You know, I
talked Anthony Hill. He declared Notre Dame after not making
the college football playoffs, which I'm not a No. A
Dame fan, but the idea that they're not one of
the twelve best teams is to me a little bit crazy.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
Not that Mammy didn't deserve to go too.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
And we'll talk about the teams that maybe people will
regret putting in. But we'll probably not going to see
Jeremiah Love play another football game now before he enters
the NFL draft. We talked about Jordan Tyson last week.
He's played probably his last game. Rutgers turned down a
bowl game, So those wide receivers on that team, we're
not going to see them again if they decide to
declare for the NFL Draft. So really we're to the

(11:43):
end of the scouting process for the d season scouting process,
at least for a lot of these players that are
on teams that are not in bowl games and are
not in the college football playoffs.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
It'll be interesting to see what happens with the teams
that are in the bowl games. Let's go back a
year ago when I had mentioned that a lot of
these nil deals that these players signed with the schools
and contractually at the end of December, and it requires
these players to participate in the bowl game because that

(12:13):
last NIL check is the biggest one that they have
coming to them. So it's going to be interesting to
see if any of these guys. Kyle Managhy opted out
of the bowl game last year records, but he was
a little bit banged up. You talk about the little
bit of information you talk about the Rutgers receivers. I'm
a big Ian Strong fan. I've been told for the
past month Strong's likely to return to school. He's looking

(12:36):
to either get a huge NIL deal in the transfer portal.
I've also been told that Rutgers are pushing hard to
get him back. So that's going to be an interesting
to watch.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Draft season is presented by Moody's. Moodies is a proud
partner of the New York Giants. Decode Risk, Unlock Opportunity.
Learn more at moodys dot com. And now we welcome in.
Our guest today is Drew Fabianici is the executive director
of the Senior Bowl. And Drew, I had my Reese's
quarter zippond today and then I realized it was a
sponsor switch, so I didn't want to wear it with
the old sponsor.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
This year is sponsored by Pinini, so people should make
sure they go check all that out. Drew, how has
this first year been for you?

Speaker 4 (13:12):
Man?

Speaker 2 (13:13):
We talked before the year, what this process is like?
Some of the changes you were making. You kind of
knew what you were getting into. But what has been
the process like getting these invitations out? You've gotten a
few dozen invitations back now, but players accepting.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
What has this whole process been like for you?

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Running the scouting process and getting these players in the
Panini Senior Ball You.

Speaker 5 (13:33):
Know it, It wasn't broken in any way. I told
you that, from Phil Savage to Jim Naggy, this wasn't broken.
And all I tried to do is just benefit the
player a little bit more and some of the personnel
folks too, because when you go through and we talked
about this before, when you go through that interview process

(13:53):
at night, I mean, it was absolutely miserable. And if
I felt as bad as I did, I can't even
imagine how bad the players felt, especially going into the
next morning and practice and everything else. So you know,
that's one of the reasons why I changed part of
the schedule, and I just thought it would benefit the player.

(14:14):
But then we also got some collateral positives along with it,
you know, because now the coaches that are coming down here,
they can treat this like they used to. And this
used to be the NFL Unofficial Coaches Convention down here,
and now they can come back down and interview I
mean not interview, but they might interview with new head
coaches have got jobs. They also can network. They also

(14:35):
can see their boys, they can go to dinner, they
can hang out, they can get jobs. Because they don't
have a convention, they don't go out and recruit and
form relationships like college guys do. I mean, some of
my best friends were guys I recruited against that I
just traveled around with for a while. We just got
to be good friends. They didn't tell me I was

(14:56):
going to be the unofficial marimobile either. I started this.
There's probably about three civic functions that I need to attend,
probably weekly, and I get that it's just part of it.
They just didn't tell me how many. And you know,

(15:16):
jumping into that. I am not a I'm not a
big media person. I'm not a face forward kind of guy.
That's been hard for me. But I've ran with it
and kind of just accepted what I have to do,
you know, and I always say, hey, it's kind of go,
kiss baby, shake hands, let's go.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
You know.

Speaker 5 (15:35):
So been a good process, John, I mean, and we
didn't change much. We still have ten scouts out there.
Uh they're doing areas and most of its tapework, and
when they do need to go to games, they go
to games. But we can't afford to actually pay them
to go on school visits. We don't have the budget
for that. We got, gosh, I mean, hundreds of years

(15:58):
of you know, NFL experience on our staff. They do
a great job. They're kind of like there are cross
check in the fall, but then we cross check them
as soon as we get their grades. So that's when
we put the whole list together and we put the
invite list out. That's kind of how the thing has worked,
I mean how it's worked in the past. It's just

(16:19):
changed just a little bit here and there, and you know,
and I get everybody involved in the office, you know,
and again it's it's no different than how we put
together a vertical board in the NFL. No different because
I've got every position stacked. You know, here's the number
one quarterback all the way down to the twentieth and
as soon as we figure out that he's not coming,

(16:41):
the next one moves up. I mean, no different. Sorry,
that was a little long winded. I apologize.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
No, it's a good answer.

Speaker 4 (16:48):
You know.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
It's funny because I've been going to the senior ball
since two past twenty five years, and I always said
it's people talk about the plant field, but it's always
a huge it's always been a huge job fare off
the field with coaches, you know, looking for for jobs
and things like that. I want to get to your
invitation process. The NIL the past couple years and especially
this year has probably thrown a wrench in the works.

(17:12):
Does do you have an expanded list. You span the
list of players that you're thinking of inviting, and when
you send out those invites, do you ask the player
to respond by a certain gate so if he says
I'm not going to go, you can move on to
the next player.

Speaker 5 (17:31):
Correct the nilpiece. I think it affects it the other way,
not so much. You know that, Hey, these guys think
they're going to get paid to come to the Senior Bowl.
Now that ain't gonna happen. You get paid because of
drafting your draft, boosting your draft stock, and you make
a heck of a lot more money by performing down
here against the best, against the best. I think you've
seen more guys that are that fifth to seventh round

(17:53):
pick that actually stay in school now and don't come
out as juniors like they used to. And gosh, before this,
I'm guessing there used to be close to like two
hundred to two twenty juniors that would declare I'll bet
you there won't be seventy this year. There won't be,

(18:13):
you know, because again, they're school's paying players fourth round
money to stay in school, you know, for another year.
And I get that because that's guaranteed money and a
lot of these guys in the back of their head,
they're going like, hey, that's guaranteed money, and that agent,
if he's smart, is going like, you know, hey, just

(18:36):
because you're a fourth or fifth round guy, you may
not make that club and you may end up on
practice squad and you may end up making a hell
of a lot less than you're making now. So that's
the I think that's where the landscape is changed. And
I think now we have to have more numbers that
are the draft eligible guys that are forced out that

(18:59):
they can't stay another year. That's that's where I think
we have to have more numbers now. I want them
still all to be draftable guys now, you know, and
again depending on who stays who goes. I mean, you
never know what ends up, you know, here on Thursday,
you know. But I'm making some things pretty attractive now
that you know, for the ones that do stay and

(19:20):
the ones that do play in the game, there's going
to be some some not monetary benefits, but there'll be
some huge benefits that you guys will you guys will see.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
So, Drew, how much when you put this list together
for your invites, do you consult with NFL teams and
kind of get their opinion on the players that they
want to see in these games. Maybe a player switching positions,
maybe going from college to the pros. They want to
see them at a new position. In All Star games
is a great time to see them at that spot.
How much do you console with all your friends in
the NFL that you've made over the years being a

(19:50):
scout for the Cowboys? Trying to get this list right
so the NFL teams see the guys they want to
see well.

Speaker 5 (19:57):
And again, I tried to do a pretty h try
to do my due diligence of stacking a whole vertical
board on every position. And I did share that with
six people that I trust, you know, implicitly because I
didn't want it out. I didn't want it out to agents.
I didn't want it out to other ballgames. I didn't
want to do somebody else's work for them. What I

(20:17):
asked him is, I said, am I out of whack
on any of these? And do you see a guy
below that needs to be up? Do you see a
guy that's above that needs to come down?

Speaker 4 (20:27):
You know?

Speaker 5 (20:27):
And again, like you said, hey, there is there an
outside linebacker that's maybe undersized that you want to see
a stackbacker because that's where I think he's going to be.
Is there a safety then maybe a will you know?
And again they they do say that they'd like to
see some guys, but you know what, really it's about
like kind of those late bloomers that you know, kind

(20:49):
of performed really well and maybe only perform really well
for like six games, and it's like, let's find out
what he is, you know, because a lot of these
guys you know exactly what they are and they're not
going to change. They're not going to get any better.
You know, they kind of are what they are. You know.
You want to get the guys with a little bit
more upside. You want to get that guy that's that's

(21:09):
got just that little something different and maybe you didn't
just spend enough time evaluating he's maybe been transfer I mean, yeah,
I mean I feel sorry for the NFL scouts out
there now that I mean. I used to go into
school and there'd be like like eight guys at Ohio State.
Now you're right up twenty four guys, you know, because

(21:29):
you don't know who the hell's coming out and transferring in.
I mean, you know, hey, where was he at last year?
Did he did he perform?

Speaker 4 (21:37):
Well?

Speaker 5 (21:37):
He got to go back on tape and watch. I
mean it's a hard job now, I mean just because
of this. Now it's going to start easing up because
the COVID year disappeared, and then hopefully they're going to
do the five for five hopefully here soon in this
coming month to where they can get that extra year
and that's it instead of soon for another six and

(22:00):
seventh year after junior college or whatever. So it's just
got to get scored away. You know, the nc's got
to do something.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
You mentioned underclassmen. When did the underclassmen invitations go out
after a guy announces like Anthony Hill? John was to
mentioning before Anthony Hill, the winebacker from Texas has declared
for the draft. If you have your if you have
your designs on inviting Anthony Hill, is it going to
be after the underclass after they make that official announcement

(22:29):
that they're entering the draft, or do you look at
the seniors first and say, okay, we'll we'll hold a
couple of invitations back for underclassmen.

Speaker 5 (22:38):
I'm holding back a lot of invitations for underclassmen that
I think are coming out. And again I've made agents
well aware of that, and I'll say, look, your player
is is five down and I'm waiting on four. I'm
waiting on four juniors, you know, something like that. If
they're a graduate already, I can invite them right now.

(23:01):
If they're not a graduate, I have to wait till
they declare between the sixth and the twelfth, Okay to
publicize it. You know, now I can tell you that.
You know, maybe I'm talking to some agents about those
guys already, and you know that's that's all I can
do right now. But I am holding back spots at

(23:21):
every single position. And I'm counting that on the guys
that you know, I'm going like, Okay, he's probably coming out,
and I probably have talked to somebody at the school
that has told me, yeah, he's coming out or no,
he's staying. And some coaches have actually asked me not
to invite them even though they were a graduate because
they were trying to keep them in school.

Speaker 4 (23:44):
And do you do that though, yeah?

Speaker 5 (23:47):
I do, because again I'll hold I'll hold that invite
if the head coach asked me to. But if the
kid declares and he's a graduate, he's getting an invitation
the next day because I can't you know what I'm saying,
but I'm respecting his wishes because when I was coaching,
if you got invited to the Senior Bowl, you're going like, hey,
that's a big damn deal, and I'm gonna get drafted

(24:11):
and I going to get drafted high. Well, that may
influence a kid to leave when the head coach really
thinks he needs to stay. The head coach asked me, hey,
do you think he needs to stay? Yeah, And now
you can only turn in three year guys to the advisory.
So they're coming to me about the value on the

(24:31):
players and saying would you mind saying something to them
or telling them exactly what you told me, you know, like, hey,
you know, you probably better stick around. You're really not
anything more than the fourth rounder, and you could increase
your value next year, you know. And because the advisory
was getting so many guys that the coaches were turning
in that they said, we can't expect the NFL to

(24:52):
great all these guys on first or second round guys
or go back to school. So a lot of them
are coming to me and because they know I'm watching them,
because it's either hey, is he coming out? Or do
you want him to stay? You know? And that's that's
why I have to play it, because I want to
be respectful of the head coach and their program.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
I do so, Drew.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
I get the feeling then that we might see more
underclassmen than at the Senior Bowl, even though the number
of early declares might be low, that those players might
be more interested in playing in an All Star games.
Should we expect to see more underclassmen at the Senior
Bowl than we have in the past this year?

Speaker 5 (25:28):
I would say yes, you know, but again, I think
the number isn't going to be as high on the
declaration side because I think those I think those fist sixth,
seventh round guys are going to stay in. You know. Now,
would I have invited them if we were if we
were low at the back end, yeah, I would up.
But you know, again, I'm kind of I'm not really

(25:52):
sure how this is going to work, you know, with
the juniors now, right, And I mean because put this way,
there's some quarterbacks are going to go back and they're
gonna make a lot of money staying in, and you know,
the portals, you know, excuse me, my layers paying ass
to nine money for quarterbacks, you know, and some of

(26:12):
them played really well and some of them played really
really bad, you know, and that's cost a couple of
dudes their jobs, to be honest with you, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Talking about quarterbacks, we've seen in the past senior Balls
where each team has three quarterbacks and other years where
each team has had four quarterbacks.

Speaker 4 (26:32):
They have been eight quarterbacks at the Senior Ball.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
The quarterback position I think is up in the air,
especially with the other classmen, because I don't think it's
of up to expectations.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
What's your feeling right now that you can share.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
Are there going to be six quarterbacks, three on each
side at the Senior Bowl or would you do you
think you could get.

Speaker 4 (26:46):
That number could move up to eight forties, like I'd
like to.

Speaker 5 (26:49):
Have it at eight. To be honest with you, I would.
I think that's that's fair to the to the to
the process. And I think that now we can actually
spread the wealth, I mean with practice and with the
game snaps to where they're all kind of comfortable and
with one hundred and forty guys out there, I mean,
you should only play like twenty to twenty five snaps

(27:09):
at most anyway, you know, and most of your reps
are going to happen during the week and that's going
to be the pieces that's evaluated. But the piece about
the competition is always huge with NFL personnel and coaches,
because if a guy doesn't want to compete, especially a quarterback,
there's goes those red flags. You know, everybody's hey, they're

(27:30):
always bitching about a guy not thrown at the combine. Well,
quite honestly, if I were a quarterback and I highly
rated one, I wouldn't throw it to combine either, because
I mean I don't work with any of those guys. Yeah,
I mean, I have no time with any of those guys.
I mean I want to throw to my guys, you know,
and obviously I don't care if they throw it at
the combine. I just want to see him throw. I mean,
I want to see him play. And when they're playing

(27:52):
the best against the best, that's a good thing. So
you and i'd like I said, I bounced around a
little bit on that one. I apologize.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
No, that's all right. We talked about the quarterbacks. Any
other positions this year drew where you found it very
difficult to narrow it down to a number of guys
where they were just super heavy. And on the other hand,
any positions where you're like, all right, I'm gonna have
to expand my breath through a little bit because I'm
having trouble falling up the two rosters.

Speaker 5 (28:19):
That one's easy. This this is a real heavy defensive
end and edge rusher class. I mean real heavy. I'm
probably gonna leave eight to nine guys you know out
that I would be real happy to have any other year.
I mean, but this is really I mean glutted in
probably first and second day guys that are pushing guys out.

(28:44):
You know of this game. You know, it's just it's
just the way. It's just the way it works every year.
I mean, like last year was the defensive interior lineman
were stronger than the defensive ends. Right well, the defensive
interior linemen aren't as strong as the defensive ends. This
year are kind of holding the same. And I think
that's been kind of the case for about six to

(29:05):
seven years because I don't think I don't think kids
want to play linebacker anymore. I don't, and there's not
a lot of run centric offenses anymore. I mean, it's
all spread and everything else, so you're playing with safeties
and wills anyway most of the time, and those those
mics now want to touch the ball, so they are
your h's and your fs now, you know. On offense,

(29:26):
it's just where I've seen that kind of twist, and
I think it's because of seven on seven also because
all the seven on seven teams, the safeties are not deep.
The running backs are probably about the same as last year.
In the middle, I think it's pretty good. In the
upper two or three quarterbacks I think are actually a

(29:47):
pretty good class, and I think this is going to
prove out to be a little bit better class than
people think it is. You know, I really do. Receivers
aren't loaded with number one receivers, but there are a
lot of twos and threes this year, and it's really deep.
I'm probably leaving about six to seven of them out
that I would have loved to have in any other year.

(30:10):
Tight Ends and H and f's are really good this year.
I mean really good. I think this is probably gonna
be one of the best slash why tight end F
and H tight end classes probably in about the last
three or four years. I really do you know, corners
are probably about the same as always. I mean, I
think there's probably fourteen guys in the first three rounds,

(30:32):
probably right in there. So it's it varies every year,
and you know that. I mean, it's just it's kind
of the luck of the drawing and who actually comes
out early and who actually stays in. So we'll see.
But I'm really thrilled with the pass rushers with the
edge guys. I really am.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
I mean, ask you do teams ever asked you to
lean into a specific position, maybe invite more guys at
one spot.

Speaker 5 (30:59):
Yeah, I can. I mean I got to keep it
kind of constant because I got to keep the I
got to keep the roster kind of fluid, and like
like you were talking about, I mean, what if what
if I lose three guys, right? I mean, where am
I going to pull them from? You know? Can I
pull them from another position?

Speaker 4 (31:15):
No?

Speaker 5 (31:15):
I just got to replace them, you know. So I've
got to keep it kind of constant. And I've got
numbers for each position that I feel comfortable with. And again,
they're not going to tell me, you know, hey, I
need more I need more running backs here. I mean,
they're not going to tell me that I mean at all,
that's just I mean, that's just what I've experienced so far.
Maybe that'll change, but nothing yet.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
You're with the transfer portal.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
How difficult is it these days to find kids from
FCS programs, nonpower five school There's some man of those
kids in the transferring up right because they want to
go to an you know, powerhouse school where you have.
Because I know that's something the Senior ball has been
so good at over the years, is trying to find
these kids from smaller programs to highlight them against some
of these power for program players of those programs. How

(32:01):
hard is it now to find some of those smaller
program players just because a lot of them don't stay
there throughout their college career.

Speaker 5 (32:07):
Now incredibly hard to find because guys like me are
taking college jobs and being gms and they're rating the
division twos they're reading. I mean, they're rating everybody. I said, hey, guys,
I want you to look at every single division. I
want you to find every single statistical leader, all the
measurable guys. I want to evaluate it. I'm ready for
the portal. I mean, so guess what I mean when

(32:29):
I looked at when I looked at our board. We
only had twenty two guys that were non power four
guys on the board. That's it. And I'll bet she
was probably fifty to sixty in the past. I mean,
I mean put it this way. My small college guys there,
I mean, there's like one one's kind of considered a
little you know, G five ish, but I got two

(32:54):
and maybe three depending on how the quarterbacks shake out.
So that's it. I mean three guys.

Speaker 4 (33:02):
I want to ask you about the question on the
offensive line.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
It was a position that you didn't bring up when
you did your evaluation. You know, we see a lot
of tackles get pushed into guard, sometimes they get pushed
into center. Is that decision made by the coaches on
the field, or do the coaches on the field take
input from yourself or maybe teams to say, hey, listen,
this guy's a little bit undersized. Can you slide him

(33:26):
inside the guard for a couple of reps one day?

Speaker 4 (33:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (33:29):
I think it's really kind of festers from me and
from the other teams, you know, because again I always
say this, like like last year, I mean, why milam
I had at West Virginia. He had short arms and
I said, he's he's an insight guy. All day long,
I kept trying to tell everybody that he's a guard,
and sure enough, Jacksonville's playing in the left tackle still.

(33:51):
I mean, he's a guard, you know, but they got
to see him play guard here. There are some other
guys this year, like the hardy kid that plays at
Oregon that just committed to us he's gonna be playing
guard here. He knows that, I mean, because his arm
link doesn't equate to the NFL arm length. Like you said,

(34:12):
is he really a guard center? No, he's really just
a center only. I mean we're going to talk about that.
But these coaches, I mean, they're not stupid. I mean
they can just look at body each other, just like
I didn't go, Okay, guess what I mean. He's not
gonna be able to function out there. I mean he
doesn't have plus thirty four inch thirty four inch arms.
I mean he's not long enough. I mean he's play guard.

(34:34):
And then it's like, okay, can he ben well enough
play guard? Then can he play a guard? Center? Combo guy?
And I did miss the the guards and guards and
centers and the tackles. Guards and centers are a little low.
This year, tackles are about the same as last year,
just number wise.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
I think, is that a salesman job you got to
do to these players sometimes, Jubas, I'm sure some of
these players are stubborn. They're like, no, I'm an offensive tackle.
I want to be an offensive tackle. What are those
conversations like with the player and with the agent to
get them to understand that it is in their best
interest to maybe start a position switch early in the process.

Speaker 5 (35:08):
Well, not even so much. A switch is just I mean,
do you want to show position flex right? Because you
know a lot of times, I mean, these guys don't
understand that that seventh offensive lineman is usually either a
guard center or he's a swing tackle, one of the two.
I mean, because you can't carry enough guys when you
go to the forty you when you go to forty seven, now, right,

(35:29):
So yeah, it is a sales and put this way,
I'm gonna tell the agents the same thing I'm gonna
tell the kid. I mean, it's like, you know, hey,
guess what, the league's not gonna like him out there,
so you better show him. Show the kid what he
can do inside, or his draft stock is not going
to be going up. It's going to be stagnant, and
it's gonna be there's gonna be a lot of questions
going like can he go inside? Well, if they say

(35:52):
can he go inside, are they going to take a
risk or are they creatures a habit and say show
it to me, let me see it. All all of
us were the same way. You know, Hey, he never
saw his hand on the ball, never saw him snap
in a game or in practice. I saw him doing practice.
I'm good, didn't do it practice, didn't do in a game.
I'm going like, I don't know if he can play center.

(36:15):
I mean, so show people what you can do because
so much of the league is what they can't do.
And what I'm trying to the league is always trying
to tell the player know, right, well, what do they
do well? Show the league what you can do well,
that's that's the biggest thing. So that's that's my sales pitch.

(36:35):
I mean, you know, do what you do well and
show people what you're capable of doing, because if you don't,
when it's a gray area, coaches and personnel people are
tunnel vision, dude, they.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Are One last question for me, I know it's still
early in the process, but we always see a great
story come out of the Senior bo Last year was
the receiver back from TCU makes that catch in.

Speaker 4 (36:59):
The whole story.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
Where we sit right now and it's early December ninth,
what do you think is going to be the big
store or do you have a player right now that
you think is going to be somebody that pops up
up in stout, say last year, that pops that no
one is paying attention to.

Speaker 5 (37:17):
I think that. I think Jack Pieburn is going to
probably go back to what he showed at Florida instead
of what he showed at LSU. I think he'll he'll
show people he's a hair on fire guy and you
know he's one of those types. It's going to make
it really, really difficult on guys down here, Like you
talked about a couple of the the non big name guys.

(37:38):
But Chris Johnson at San Diego State, he's gonna play.
He's gonna play really well here. He really will. He's
stayed there the whole time. I mean, he's developed, he's
become a really good player. The Demings kid from Stephen
f Austin Long Corner that you know is really good
and pressed really good, got really good length, and he's
got really good feet for his length. And I and

(38:00):
people don't understand what I mean by that is, you know,
when you're short limbed, you should have great footspeed. When
those limbs get longer, from that, from that need to
that heel, I mean, it's harder to move that body
and have good footspeed. He's got really good footspeed. He
just needs to gain some weight and get some strength
and mass. But I think you know that'll be a story.

(38:20):
I mean, you know, I mean, quite honestly, Michael taff
I mean, just off the field, what he's done. I mean,
just a community service he did for the floods and
everything else down there, I mean, for those kids. I mean,
and he's I mean, I hate to say it, but
he's he's a mighty little dude. I mean, and he's
going to play in the slot. He probably won't be

(38:42):
playing a ton of safety here. You know. Now he's
capable of playing safety, but he's a slot body. So
they're going to want to see him play in the
slot and play it free. So I mean, you know,
is he a third round guy? No, But you know
he's going to show pe his value and techies will
walk on and earned everything there. Plus, like I said,

(39:05):
great in the community, I mean great community service. We
had a lot of guys that have put a lot
of great community service out there too, which I think
will get highlighted too. You know, you know one of
my favorites, you know is probably you know, well, I
can't say his I can't say his name because he's

(39:26):
a he's an underclassman. But uh, there's a running back
that and it's not Jeremiah Love. There's another running back.
It's an underclassman that I'm really excited about. And I
look forward to him coming down here. And he reminds
me of a long better Tony Pollard.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
All Right, I like that.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
So Loois is a proud part of the New York Giants,
uniting the brightest minds that turn today's risking tomorrow's opportunities.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
Learn more on moodies dot com. Drew a coup more
from me real quick.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
What position group have you changed your mine on the
most from what you thought about them before the season,
where maybe we've had the most guys kind of revealed
themselves to be really good and it's kind of lifted
that group up any which group had do you think
has really forced you to rethink what your priors were
before the season started?

Speaker 5 (40:16):
Tight Ends? Tight ends there there are more. There are
more more quote why tight ends out there this year
than I think have been in quite a while. And
I mean guys that now are they George Kittle? No,
But there are guys out there. There are two or
three guys that can do everything. And now are they

(40:36):
phenomenal out of like Kittle? No, but there's two or
three of them that can do everything. There's really really
good receiving tight ends. It could be big slots. Even
they've really changed my mind. And like I said, it's
going to be a really good group. And there's one
tight end I was talking to last night. He was like,
you know, hey, he says, you know, and I feel

(40:57):
like I'm I feel like I'm a first round wrestler. Really,
you've come down here and prove it, because I think
there are two guys that are just as good or
better than you are, you know. So again, that's that's
what you have to deal with. There's there's some really
again agents agents talk to area scouts, and that is

(41:18):
the worst possible thing that can happen because area scouts
don't see everybody in the country and they don't understand
that because we used to have guys come back and go, yeah,
he's a first round. I go, now, he's really a third.
She's like, he's like the thirteenth best tackle right right,
he's not a first rounder, but in his area, that's
like his best player. And so they tell the agent

(41:43):
that and guess what. Then the agent tells the player,
you know, and the agent's not smart enough to go, hey,
could I get like a couple of different opinions on
this guy?

Speaker 4 (41:51):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (41:51):
I got it. I got two second round grades on him. Okay,
he's not he's really a fourth. So again, I don't
know it all. But I just doing so many guys
so many years, I can least tell you where a
guy is going to get drafted. Do I know specifically
what team in their needs and all that, But but
I know a fourth round or a fifth round or

(42:12):
like like in a snap. I mean I got that,
you know. So that's the biggest piece I have to fight.
John is telling those agents that now you're really he's
really not. You know, I had wanted to call me
and says I got three, three second round grades on
an underclassman quarterback, so you to tell him to go
back to school, okay, because he's not a second round quarterback,

(42:35):
not even close. Yeah, yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
It's it's funny because I I not, not to your extent,
but they'll tell me. You know, I get a second
round grade and I and I respond second round on
the last day of the draft, on the third day
of the draft. If he's uh, if he's not that good,
you may want to try that angle on occasion.

Speaker 5 (42:55):
I just I try to be as polite as I can,
and if they start arguing with me, I'm like, gotta
be honest with you. I really don't care what you think.
I really don't. I mean, again, did you really watch it?
Because I promise you have said this and you won't
try this one too. What do you think about him?

(43:19):
You'd be surprised. They can't tell you a damn thing exactly.
And they're looking for me to give them an evaluation
so they can go back and tell the kid what
he needs to improve on, you know.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
And I'm like, that's interesting.

Speaker 5 (43:31):
I might giving my information away for free because I
don't work for you. Yeah, you don't pay me, so,
I'm sorry, I saw a boxed I pred no, I
love it.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
When does your evaluation and decision making process start on
who's going to be coaching the two teams? I'm assuming
it's going to be the all star coaching format again, right,
so you got to start picking the individual coaches eat spot.
Do you already have like a working list from people
around the league that you think about? Obviously it depends
teams make the playoffs, what coaching staff is all retained
and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
But where are you in that process?

Speaker 5 (44:05):
Well, put it this way, it would be it would
be really a bad look for me if I reached
out to teams about their coaches thinking that they were
not going to for in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Of course, so I.

Speaker 5 (44:18):
Actually have to start reaching out to the ones that
are mathematically eliminated now and just say could we get
a nomination list from you guys? And then it's going
to go to the league and there'll always be that
maybe two to three spots that we'll save for that
first round of the playoffs that you know, those teams
could possibly squeeze a guy in if they wanted to.
After you know, they get eliminated, but I don't want

(44:41):
to tell them they're possibly getting eliminated either, you know.
So it's like, you know, hey, hey, just you know,
I know you're in a playoffs, but could you give
me like two guys you know that you know, maybe
you think could play, you know, coach in the Senior
Bowl and then the league and I will get together.
We got four people I you know, discuss this with,

(45:02):
and then we'll put that together about fourteen days out
to thirteen days out from the game, and you know,
and again it's still a little fluid past that first
round the playoffs to where some of those guys may
get squeezed in. So that's that's what they want to do.
And I get that because it's a developmental piece for
the coaches. And it's also because, like I said, they

(45:24):
don't form relationships other than the staffs they're on or
the staffs they've been on. So it's good for them
to coach with other people too and get to know
other people on staff. So because you never know, I mean,
could get hired by somebody that you work with for
three days. You never know.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
And by the way, you talk about being coaching convention,
the Giants might be still looking for their head coach
at the time. The seed your bull cubs along, So
we'll have to see how that ends up going.

Speaker 5 (45:49):
I hope I would hope they wouldn't be well.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
You'd laugh though.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
I was the year that the Giants hired Pat Schrmer,
and I was one of two people from our department
that were there covering the Senior Bowl, and on my
cell phone, I had to take the first picture of
Shermer and Gettleman together sitting in the stands at the
Senior Bowl watching practice. And that was like literally Giants

(46:12):
higher Pat Sherber the picture on the website.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
So sometimes these things go.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
Out a little bit longer than you might want to think,
depending if your target might be in the postseason, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (46:21):
That happened sometimes.

Speaker 5 (46:23):
Oh yeah, And can I go back real quick on
college ball? Sure, maybe they should have called Matt Campbell
the first first call phone call Penn State instead of waiting.

Speaker 4 (46:33):
Well and Drew, let me ask you, how do you
handle something like that?

Speaker 3 (46:35):
I mean, you know, you got the Titans and the
Giants are I have a question as to who's going
to be coaching them in twenty twenty six. Do you
send that nomination list out to franchises who basically we
don't know yet who.

Speaker 4 (46:51):
Had you just gonna be?

Speaker 5 (46:53):
You have to, I mean, because you never know. I mean,
and again, if that doesn't happen and those guys end
up you know, how to work or whatever, and they
come down here, I mean, it's still an opportunity for
them to show people that they can coach. I mean, so,
I mean again, hopefully they're not getting nominated because they
can't coach. Hopeully they're getting nominated because they actually can.

(47:13):
So I mean, I got to play it both ways.
I got to be respectful, but I also have to say,
you know, hey, I don't know if they're going to
be there, but you know there's some guys there that
can coach. I mean, so why not give them an opportunity?
I mean, I wish I'd had I wish I'd had
this opportunity when I was coaching. I mean, you know, hey,
just at least get to know other guys, you know,

(47:35):
especially you know, like people, if you know what I mean,
coaching wise.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Yeah, for sure. All right, Drew, make your pitch before
we say goodbye.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
Why should people tune in and watch all the senior
world practices in the game. If you're down there, why
should they come out to the game. Why is it
such a great experience down there.

Speaker 5 (47:51):
Well, first of all, I don't know how the game
experience is. I've just heard it's an incredible game experience.
But here's my pitch to what I've always said, just
in the state and and you know, I'm out speaking
to colleges and you know, and when they bring me in,
where can you go and watch more draftable players at
one place at one time. Sure, it's that damn.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
Simple actually playing football, by the way, that's right, That's right.

Speaker 5 (48:15):
I mean because somebody will say, like, well Alabama Auburn, No,
that's not the case. Not everybody on that not everybody
on that twenty two now is going to be playing
in the NFL. Everybody, everybody here is going to get drafted.
I mean, it's just that's just how it always has been.
And to say that it's just a local game, it's not.

(48:37):
I mean it should be more nationally pieced, you know,
from different media areas like the like the New York,
like the Denvers. I mean, they ought to be covering
this a little bit thicker, I think, and some reason
they don't, I mean because they think, oh, well, we
can just watch watch it on TV and listen to
everybody else. You know, being down here, there's a lot

(48:59):
to be seen that's not seen on TV.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Yep, a lot.

Speaker 5 (49:03):
And you're also going to hear a lot more down
here than you would if you weren't somewhere else. So again,
that's my pitch, and that it's that simple, I mean,
and again you're seeing the future of the NFL here.
Every single year. This is year I think seventy seven,
you know for this game, and the last two years

(49:26):
it's been sold out, I mean sold out, turn people away,
and I've heard it's an incredible party outside too, pregame.
Don't know. I've never been here, but this is my first.
And you know, the community loves this game and revers
this game and treats this as their own and that's

(49:47):
why it's been successful. How many other All Star games
have stayed in one place? You know? This long true? Nowhere?

Speaker 3 (49:55):
I mean, well, unlet's think Jim Drew said, Jim reach
out to Jim Naggie at all, you know, because I
mean he did such, he did a terrific job at
the Senior Bowl. He'll always be my hero for pulling
off the twenty twenty one Senior Ball practices when the
entire world would shut down, and Jim said, we're going
to have the event and he did. Did you reach

(50:15):
out and speak with him? And now he's having great
success at at Oklahoma, which is great to see. Did
you reach out to him at all and speak with him?

Speaker 5 (50:23):
We've talked about three or four times, but bo see,
we've known each other for years and you know, and
he asked me about the whole general manager thing and
I was like, I was like, what, Welcome to college football.
I said, welcome to the b S Show. Okay. I
was like, welcome to June because he had never done
the June in college football. I said, is the worst
possible month you will ever spend in your entire life, right,

(50:46):
And I described to him this is how it's going
to be. And he was like, He's like, who, I
didn't know that? And then I tell him, I said, Hey,
I said, all these Christmas surprises that you're leaving for
me down here that I didn't know about, I would
really appreciate it. You had told me up front you know,
especially about the unofficial mayor of Mobile. He should have
told me that. You know, way back, He's just like, hey,

(51:06):
get used to the media piece, and they said, get
used to being on TV, get used to doing interviews,
get used to doing the radio. I was like, ooh,
because he knows. I just don't like it, you know,
I mean, but it is, it is what it is,
and I got I gotta do what I have to do.
So yeah, we and again we hadn't talked, uh talk
two weeks ago about his players. You know that we

(51:27):
were sending invites to so we feel good about those
guys too. They're not getting their invites yet because Venerables
is not handing them out till they're done. Oh wow,
there's a lot of them guys. I mean, I know
Mario is not going to do it at Miami. I
know I know a lot of coaches that are not
going to turn them over till they're done. I mean,
Ohio State will hold them until they're done, promise you.

(51:47):
Indiana's went out yesterday.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
What is the thought process behind that?

Speaker 5 (51:52):
When you're coaching, you don't want any distractions. You don't
want to you want to, you don't want to single
players out for those certain honors that other guys may
feel that they're equal to, which they're not. You know,
That's why I was just at you know, oh, well

(52:12):
it'll be out today. I was at Lubwick yesterday. You know,
they asked me to come out and do their invites
and they were doing their Senior Appreciation night out out
of the Steakhouse out you know, way out from Lubbick,
about fifteen miles out the kind of like that ranch.
And they said, hey, could you just do it there?
And I was like sure. I mean, so I did

(52:34):
the Senior Bowl invites before they did each senior appreciation
you know, that night, and we did one local player
that I did him early and put him on a
zoom call. You know. Jack Gilmore set it up for him.
It was he's a local here, Lee Hunter's out of
Texas Tech. And he had his head coach from Junior

(52:56):
High high school, his mom, and the principal all on
in by hall.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
That's awesome.

Speaker 5 (53:02):
Yeah, And he was he was so jacked up. I said, hey,
someone wants to talk to you. Set him down right,
And when he saw his mom, it was just it
was over his face, just blew up, you know. So,
but yeah, that's that's what I did yesterday. So I
mean there's a lot going on, and it's there's always
a lot going on.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
So for those stakes, and by the ways, for those
stakes in public, did they just like pull the cow
off the ranch like twe hundred feet away, bring him
at the back and just start growing them up.

Speaker 5 (53:29):
I'm gonna tell you what now. It was the It
was the best life. I mean, they had two hundred
and two hundred fifty people there and they had all
the steaks already done in the cooler, right, they all
had them by temperature. Right, you got to choose them
out of a cooler. They size all lined up, I
promise you. They finished probably in fifteen minutes and there

(53:51):
were two hundred and fifty people there.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
Texans, those steaks Man Texans Saks.

Speaker 4 (53:55):
They don't mess barbecue.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
I mean when we were out there at Frisco, you
go to the barbiege places, you just picked the meters.

Speaker 4 (54:01):
It's being coached, you know.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
It's funny you talk about Lee Hunter and people try
Texas Tech for being the best team that money can buy.
But there have been great transfer success stories like Lee Hunter,
like David Bailey. I mean, I don't know that those
guys would have played to the level that they did
in twenty twenty five had they not transferred to a
place like Texas Tech. So, yeah, benefits the school, but

(54:24):
it also benefits the players.

Speaker 5 (54:26):
Agree. But I'm gonna I'm gonna go back a little
bit on you. Now, you said the best team money
can buy. That's not true.

Speaker 4 (54:32):
Well I'm not saying that's what people say.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
I'm not even saying I agree with it, But that's
what you hear because because.

Speaker 5 (54:37):
They're I can name three teams that spend hell a
lot more money than they do, and they're not They're
not there. Okay, So I mean again, I think they
just did a really really good job of the evaluation
process on finding exactly what they needed. I mean, gosh,
I think they went from like like a hundred hundredth
in defense to like fifth. And they say, well, he

(55:00):
spends seven million dollars on the defensive line.

Speaker 4 (55:02):
Well guess what.

Speaker 5 (55:03):
They also have buload of sacks, a bowtload of pressures.
They stopped the run. I mean, so guess what. Why
don't you give Joey, Why don't you give Joey some credit?
And James Blanchard for bringing in the right guys, okay,
instead of going, well, it's just money, no, because Oregon
spends more money than they do, Ohio State spends more money?
To Texas, does they spend more money? I mean Texas

(55:23):
A and M spends more money. I mean, but all
of a sudden, just because they do that, that it's
out of the norm, you know. So again, I'm just
I'm kind of supporting them because I like the idea
that guys should get credit for evaluating the right players
instead of busting on the right on the wrong players.

(55:45):
Because put this way, there's a guy that got his job.
He got he got kicked out the curb because he
chose two quarterbacks right, none of them could play, and
spend a lot of money on them. So he's out
of work. Okay, Well, maybe if you would add somebody
like James Blanchard running around that place and said, no,
these guys can't play, and we already be signing this guy,

(56:07):
he might still have a job. But these coaches they
don't see. They see like I want to control everything
and I know more than everybody else does. Well, go coach,
let the guy that's a player personnel professional handle that
piece up. But that's what I did. It was like, hey,
guess what, you go, coach ball, I'll handle everything else.

(56:27):
Let's roll. Yeah. So again, I didn't mean to go off,
but I just I get tired of hearing that about
Texas Tech gain that brought up every single time they're
on TV. You know, well, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
Now, I'm sorry. I dined the drop that you're done.

Speaker 5 (56:40):
I just like it much to say how how much
a Worgan spent on their D line. I bet it's comparable.

Speaker 4 (56:48):
What I say was not the disparage. I know.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
It's also that it works well for these players because
if David Bailey's station Stanford, if Lee Hunter was at
such a Florida, I don't know that they they progress,
they developed to the level that they.

Speaker 5 (57:03):
Have in Romelo Heighten. I mean yeah, I mean I
totally agree with you, and I know you weren't disparaging
Texas Tech. I just I just get tired of the narrative,
you know, because that's always the narrative like, oh, well,
you know, they just spent a lot of money, that's
why they're good. No, that's not that's not why they
were good. They got they chose the right guys, you know,

(57:24):
And put this way, when I was with the Cowboys,
when we chose the wrong guys, guess what we got
penalized for it.

Speaker 4 (57:30):
You know.

Speaker 5 (57:31):
It's like, guess what that guy can't play. That's your fault.
You're the one being to town and being to Tom
Tom for him, you know. And guess what, our coaches
didn't use them right way. You know, you always say that,
you know whatever, But no, I didn't mean to say
that at all, John, No, that were good.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
And by the way, you're speaking of which are our
mutual friend speaking of scouts, that that that got yelled
at for stuff. Brian Broadest sends as regards to you,
by the way, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (57:58):
Well as ask him about the Tony Romo's story one day.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
I will do that.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
And by the way, you say you don't like doing
the media stuff, Drew, you're pretty good at it. This
was a fun conversation and it's nice to get an honest,
true take from someone that's done the scouting and on
the college side and on the pro side that's able
to kind of put this all together in a logical way.
So we really appreciate the time.

Speaker 5 (58:20):
Hey, I appreciate. I appreciate that, because I mean, you know,
I don't. I don't care for it. And again, it's
just like you said, the best part about this with
you guys, this was a conversation, right. There are times
when it's like, and I'll be nice about this, I
refuse to do some media now because I don't get

(58:43):
talking points. It comes out of the air and it's
totally off base, and I'm trying to figure out exactly
how to answer this, and I'm going like, wait a minute,
I mean, what was the reasoning for even asking this question?
And then I'm supposed to answer it and I'm going
and then I get a paragraph a long question. Sometimes

(59:03):
I'm going like, okay, how about have I just answered
one of those? You know, that's when I get That's
when I get flustered, and I I flustered, but I
get pissed off and I get salty about it, and
I'll probably just tell people I get I guess what,
I'm not doing the interviews with those dudes anymore, not
doing it. Not doing it. Yeah, and you guys understand.
You guys understand ball, which which helps a great deal too,

(59:25):
you know, because we're just talking ball, right, that's all
we're doing, you know. So I appreciate you guys too,
I really do.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
Nah, we appreciate you, Drew. Thank you so much. And uh,
this is only the beginning of the chaos for you.
I'm sure you don't quite know what the next eight
weeks are going to be like for you. I'm sure
they're not gonna be a ton of fun. There'll be
a lot of long days and long nights, but I'm
sure it's gonna go great. Thank you so much for
the time.

Speaker 5 (59:45):
Yeah, thank you, guys, thank you. Thank you for having
me really.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
No, thank you for coming on and giving us all
this time. And that's you, fib be honest, Executive director
of the Pennini Senior Bowl. We thank you for joining
us on draft season, brought to you by Moody's. We'll
be back with your next week of the preview of
the college football player offs.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
We'll see then.