RJ discusses Texas' win-now attitude, Deion Sanders' time away from Boulder (9:10), Nebraska's gem in Dylan Raiola (18:17) and Texas A&M's KC Concepcion as a $2.5 million WR.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Of the programs in the state of Texas, which one has the most
pressure to win and win right now?
I kind of think it's down to twoprograms.
What's up, Ken folk, it's RJ Young.
(00:21):
I am not on a step mill. If this is your first time
watching, adapt and respond. Thank you for joining us here.
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question in the comments below. Which Texas football program do
you believe has the most pressure to win in 2025?
(00:42):
And winning can mean a lot of different things.
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(01:28):
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OK, so I'm looking at the state of Texas, which has been doing
pretty damn good all things considered about winning and
winning at a high level. But I'm curious which team has
to win something in 2025 becausewhile Southern Methodist was
(01:49):
good last year, they did not winthe ACC Championship and they
lost their first round game to Penn State in College Football
Playoff. Texas Christian made the
national championship game in 2022 but did not win the Big 12
championship that year. Baylor has been up and down.
A&M hasn't won a championship ofany kind in the 21st century and
(02:13):
a national championship since World War 2 hasn't happened.
Keep going around, keep looking around.
You go ask, has Houston been good?
Not in the ways that we expectedthem to be or even when Art
Briles was head coach down there.
To say nothing of Andre Ware when in a Heisman at Houston.
Rice, What are we even talking about when we talk about Rice?
(02:33):
And then you get to Texas State.I really think it comes back to
who has invested so much in their program that they are
unwilling to suffer a losing season, or I should say a season
that does not meet expectations in 2025.
And I think it's really just Texas Tech and Texas.
(02:54):
Texas Tech has a really great coach and Joey McGuire and they
have decided they are going all in on paying people, not just in
football, but basketball and softball as well.
There is already a great stat that's put out by Brandon
Marcello at CBS Sports. Texas Tech expects to spend $55
(03:18):
million on its athletic population.
Meaning they're going to spend money everywhere they have to to
win in every way they can because they see what Ohio State
sees and what I see, which is ifmoney is the object, cool.
We're going to remove that obstacle.
We're not going to. We're not in the mode of
complaint about paying people tocome play here.
(03:40):
Ohio State did it with $20 million to a football roster
last year. They won the national
championship. Texas Tech looked up and said,
why can't we be Arizona State? Why can't we be the team that
wins the Big 12 championship andgets that bid to the College
Football Playoff? And they have a guy in Joey
McGuire who knows from winning in high school.
And it doesn't matter that his 23 wins in three years is better
than what Mike Leach was doing because the resources are
(04:03):
different, OK? Texas Tech was fighting to be in
the mix when Mike Leach got there.
And then you found money with O8, Texas Tech, Michael
Crabtree, Graham Harrell that year that they beat Texas.
OK. Now you're in a spot where there
is no OU or Texas to contend with in the Big 12.
There's only Arizona State, there's only Iowa State, there's
(04:24):
only Kansas State, there's only Kansas, there's only Colorado.
You have to demonstrate value right now, especially with all
the money that they are investing into that program.
They're gonna try to find someone else to do it if it
doesn't get done. And I think nobody knows this
better than Joey McGuire, who knows his first job his his real
(04:44):
job is to win and win often. So this year they got to make
the Big 12 Championship and I would say they got to win it.
Now, they've also been very loudabout how much they're spending
and they were loud in the portal.
They brought in all these great players that we expect, if they
come together, could be class ofclass.
(05:04):
But right now, is it a top 25 team?
No, not in the preseason. I don't think so.
But they can get there pretty quickly, right?
You stack some wins. Let's get to Week 5 and take a
look around. The other team that I mentioned
that I think has to win this year is Texas.
I don't know that they have as much pressure to win the SEC
championship as Texas Tech does to win the Big 12 championship,
(05:27):
but you've been getting so closeat Texas that you're bumping up
against what I'm calling the Oklahoma ceiling.
You won the Big 12 championship to make College Football
Playoff. You get bounced out first round,
OK semi final. That should say then you make
the SEC championship. You get doubled up by Georgia,
right? And looking at Ohio State after
(05:47):
after beating Clemson, going damn, after beating Arizona
State going damn, I think at some point you're going to look
at Steve Sarkisian and go, it's great that you got 1000 yard
back every year and you like to hang your hat on that.
It's great that you got arch man.
And you've had Quinn Euers, which are two of the best
quarterback recruits in the country over the last five
years. It's great that you were able to
make something happen in the running backroom without CJ
(06:09):
Baxter, without Christian Clark.But now you get both of those
guys back, including Contravion,Wisner and Jared Gibson.
It's time to go play. It's time to go win, right?
And I don't mean win 10 games Texas.
That's what you're supposed to do.
You're supposed to win 10/11/12 games.
You're supposed to play in the SEC Championship.
You're supposed to start winningit.
More than that, you're supposed to win the national
(06:29):
championship. Going into this season, I expect
most people are going to pick Texas to win the national
championship. Given the potential of what Arch
Manning has showed himself capable of doing, given the
potential what Ryan Wingo, DeAndre Moore have shown
themselves capable of doing, given the potential with Anthony
Hill on that defense has been able to show he's capable of
(06:51):
doing. Pete Wilkowski going into a year
where I expect him to once againcontend for the Broyles Award
and Sarkisian we know as an offensive play college, one of
the best in the business. You also have every resource
available to you in a state thatlove football more than it loves
anything else. They love Texas football more
than they love the Texas A&M football more than they love
(07:11):
Houston football or Baylor football, SMU football, Texas
Christian football. I can keep going down the line
here. It's the flagship university and
for the flagship university in the football state to not have
won a national championship since 2005, something got to
give. That's the point here.
I think that if Texas Tech gets to ten wins, Joey McGuire gets
(07:32):
stick around, they're going to keep building, right?
Because the expectation at Tech has not been till this year to
win the Big 12 championship yearin, year out.
That's what they're trying to become.
They're on that Oklahoma State program, right?
But Oklahoma State has been up and down.
They haven't always been good year to year.
They want to be good year to year.
Texas is good year to year. Texas is winning at a high level
(07:52):
year to year. Now, it's not just about making
the College Football Playoff like Oklahoma would Lincoln
Riley. It's about winning the whole
damn thing. And the more times you go
without winning it, the less I think you're likely to win it.
Because that's generally how this thing is gone, right?
You get in that thing to go win it.
And after that, we'll see. Ohio State was able to make this
work, right? They're making the College
Football Playoff. They're running up against good
(08:14):
teams. They're losing those games.
They also were able to do it without winning a Big 10
championship. It's possible, but I think for
Texas to be successful this year, you're going to have to
see Steve Sarkeesian win the national championship.
Now, that said, apart from an abysmal season, I don't think
Joey McGuire or Steve Sarkeesianare going to get fired, but an
abysmal season at Texas Tech is winning six games or fewer.
(08:36):
Seven games or fewer. An abysmal season at Texas is
winning eight games or fewer. OK, you're right there.
You got to figure it out. You got to figure it out right
now, right now, right now, because that's that's all we
care about is right now, man. You don't want to be billed for
2026. You don't want to build for
2027. You've got Arch Manning, you've
(08:56):
got CJ Baxter, you've got Ryan Wingo, you've got Anthony Hill.
Go make it happen. So who is the best head coach in
the Big 12? Well, I find that one to be kind
(09:17):
of fun because there are a lot of good head coaches in the Big
12 and we got 16. And really it's about for me,
did you win championships? And can you win championships?
Right? So like at the bottom, when I'm
looking at this, I'm. I'm asking Arizona and Brent
Brennaman to do something a little bit different, right.
I thought you were going to havesomething.
(09:38):
And Teddaroa McMillan and Noah Fafita didn't turn out exactly
the way that we had planned. But then you get into places
where coaches have won at some level with some regularity,
Right. So Scott Frost is back coaching
again. It's Central Florida.
Last time he was there. Yeah.
They they ran the table 2017, they beat Auburn, they have a
claim it's in the national championship, goes to Nebraska,
(10:00):
then go so well it takes me years off.
Now he's back to try to rebuild that program after Gus Malzahn
was fired and or took the job asoffensive coordinator at Florida
State. Scott Satterfield's actually won
three Sunbelt championships. People just forgot about it
because Cincinnati ain't been that great.
Right next on the list got to befor me, Willie Fritz, who came
over from Tulane at Houston. Now he's got Connor Wigman.
(10:22):
He looks like he's going to haveKeyshawn Henderson.
If both of those guys turn out to be players, Houston could be
once again, good. I don't know that they're going
to put up Andre Ware numbers or Casey Keenum or Case Keenum
numbers, but they should be good.
I mean, Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia, another guy that's
coming back like Scott Frost to a place where he has some
success after having success at Jacksonville State.
(10:42):
I'm not real sure how good we can expect West Virginia to be,
but we know that Rich Rod runs arun centric offense that usually
can put some points on the board.
Sonny Dykes and Dave Aranda had a hard time with because both of
those guys when they have had teams have been great.
Aranda is one of my favorite head coaches because his get
down is unlike anybody else's incollege football.
(11:03):
There's actually two of those inthis league.
He's a philosopher at heart and a defensive coordinator at heart
and Baylor and he are symbiotic.Like, I didn't know that this
was going to work the way that it's working.
But he feels like part of the furniture now, which is high
phrase at a place like Baylor Baptist.
Because Baylor Baptist has been a really difficult place to win
football games. And I'm looking at it and I'm
(11:25):
asking, OK, are you going to be like art brows?
Not not not the bad art brows, not the scandal Art brows
eyebrows for that, right? Maybe.
But more I look at it, the more I go, you know, Joey McGuire in
Texas Tech give me those vibes like the RG3 2011 vibes because
they are being loud about the money that they are spending on
(11:45):
their athletics. They've been loud about the
stadium renovations they want todo.
They have been going after players.
They have a billionaire of financier a la Boom Pickens at
Oklahoma State and Cody Campbell.
And Joey McGuire is a winner. Like he hadn't done it at the
college level cuz he this is hisfirst head coaching gig.
But for those that remember Cedar Hill, he's something like
(12:06):
142 and 42 or in like 4-5 national or national champion
state championship down there. Joey McGuire is a legend in
Texas high school football. So was Art Briles, right?
That's my point here. And the way in which Texas Tech
wants it is the way that Baylor Baptist wanted it, right?
Then you got to go, I think Kalani Sataki, right, at BYU,
(12:27):
who hasn't won any championship to speak up, but he's gone 72
and 43. He's done a lot with what we
didn't think was really great atthe time, like Zach Wilson for
instance, and turned that into awinner.
Jake Retzloff got, I don't know he's going to be starting
quarterback at BYU this year, but last year was decent enough.
We'll see what happens there. Kalani Sataki's been doing a
(12:48):
really good job of taking what he's got at BYU and turning that
into a winner once again, a teamthat was good last year that we
didn't know was going to be thisgood last year.
And then I think you got to go Mike Gundy, who's kind of
falling down the ranks here after having won championships
in this league. And I thought this was going to
be the time for Oklahoma State to ascend to the top of the
(13:08):
pyramid in the Big 12 with Oklahoma and Texas leaving.
But it's been anything but that.They were garbage last year and
they were garbage with a returning offensive line and a
returning, what we thought Heisman candidate at tailback.
They just didn't do anything. Some of this is a quarterback,
but a lot of that was just they didn't know who they were.
And by the time they figured it out, it was too late.
Colorado's putting hands on themlike you read about, which is
(13:31):
where I think you get into a space is where you start talking
about Deon Sanders, right? I think as I'm looking at this,
Kyle Winningham and that 08 Utahteam, one of the better football
teams, we don't talk about enough.
They beat Pam out. They should have a claim in the
national championship. I think that given what he was
last year, I could see him falling down the ranks here.
(13:52):
And he's obviously getting toward the end of his career,
but he doesn't want to go out, you know, like he went out last
year, so he's coming back. So I'm going to continue to put
Kyle Whittingham right there. But if you're talking about a
guy that you don't want in a fistfight, yeah, Kyle
Whittingham's at the top of the list.
Then I think you go Kenny Dillingham, who got Arizona
State to win that championship last year after being picked
dead last to to finish in the Big 12.
(14:14):
And he did it with a transfer quarterback in Sam Levitt from
Michigan State. Jordan Tyson was really great.
He could be great again. I really think he's going to be
one of the better wide receiversin this league this year.
And they're got Kanye Udo comingfrom ARMY after replace.
What was their best player in camp Scataboo who took them
almost almost to the College Football Playoff semi finals and
(14:37):
took Texas into the deep water needing to get heroics from
Quinn yours in them to go get that W.
It's a really great team last year.
I don't know if it's going to bereally great this year, but that
I think has really flipped him in the spot where I expected
Oklahoma State to be. Then I'm going to go.
I think I'm going to go Deion Sanders here.
I think that's top five coach inthis league.
(15:00):
And the reason I'm going to stopat 5 here is because the other
guys that I'm looking at, Matt Campbell, what he was able to do
last year with Iowa State, I don't sneeze that I don't think
anybody should. You could actually convince me
that I could flip both of those guys, Matt Campbell and Deon
Sanders. But when I'm talking about guys
that know how to coach ball and know their teams and coach their
teams to their personalities, I don't think that there's a
(15:23):
better duo in the entire countrythat really have a team that
personifies who they are. But in Matt Campbell does at
Iowa State and prime does Colorado.
It's one of the reasons we're doing the segment today is Prime
saw the love that was on online and he wanted to tell everybody,
look, I'm alright, I'm good, I'mrecovering.
I can't wait to get back. When I get back, I'll let y'all
know what was up. But that's kind of how you want
to do it. Like this is black folks stuff,
(15:44):
dog. Like black folks be moving in
silence with our grief and with our pain and with our suffering.
And I say this as a man, my bestfriend, my best friend, he did
something like this similar. The man talked with me for two
hours from the hospital and thenhe was like, hey, hey, yeah,
this thing happened. You couldn't leave with that
homie, You know what I'm saying?Some of y'all seen Atlanta where
(16:07):
Alfred is sitting in the countrywith his his face all bloody and
whatnot. Talk about I'm good to earn.
That's how black folks be movingmost of the time.
You'd be like, Oh yeah, you know, it's cool.
Homie had a quadruple bypass, 3 hip replacement surgeries and
got a new back installed. But he good now.
He good now y'all gotta let us know something.
(16:27):
That's how we feeling about prime right, like undisclosed
health reasons that that that give everybody the willies and
you know, I'm not even sure thatDion junior was supposed to be
saying something like Bucky may not have that been able to say
something, but I'm glad to know that he saw that and told
everybody, hey, I'm good, I'm chilling, Just give me a little
bit time. I get back to you, right?
And it's also kind of cool to see just what he means to the
(16:49):
community because Dion has been decisive, divisive, excuse me,
since he got into college football as a head coach, I
should say. But he's won Jackson State, won
swag championships last year. He had the Heisman Trophy
winner, which I still think is wild because what?
The quarterback and a dude played both ways and it was
amazing, right? And now what?
(17:10):
What? Why are people upset?
They're upset because Shadeur Sanders got his jersey retired.
Miss me dawg. One of the better coaches in all
the college football, certainly one of the better coaches in the
Big 12. Then I think you go Lance Lipold
and Chris Kleiman, right? Because Lance Lipold won 6
championships at the Division Three level.
Chris Kleiman won four at the FCS level.
(17:32):
Both of those guys know how to build teams from nothing into
absolute winners. Last year, if Kansas played the
first half like they played the second-half, we might be talking
about them playing in the Big 12Championship last year.
And then this year, you know, I think Kansas State's got a real
opportunity with Avery Johnson, with Dylan Edwards.
They're going to have the fastest backfield in the league.
(17:53):
It's going to be a lot of fun. But I just want to take a moment
and talk about these coaches because when we get the season,
we're just the Big 12's not really going to rate the way the
SEC, the Big 10 does. It might rate with the ACC.
We'll see. But I wanted to talk about it
now so we know where everybody kind of stands and what we can
expect from them or what we. I'm thinking that Dylan Ryola
(18:22):
ought to get the Arch Manning treatment nationally because I
think he's getting it at Nebraska.
This is a favorite son of a former great who has done for
Nebraska what nobody been able to do for Nebraska since 2016.
Lead them to not just a bowl game but a bowl win 2800 yards
(18:43):
not that many T DS, not that many interceptions, but he
played really well as a true freshman quarterback at a place
that craves winning and hadn't been bowling in years.
Some of this is about finally Matt Rule getting a quarterback
in the Nebraska that he likes and can trust because the
Heinrich Harburg thing was just not going to work right.
The Jeff Sims thing was not going to work.
(19:05):
You needed to have a quarterbackthat you knew you could trust
and to roll the dice on a guy that is a 5 star, right?
This is a true talent, but was still a true freshman, was bold
and it paid for them. Because at no point where was I
saying or anybody saying Dylan Riola is the limit of this
offense. No, you need to get him some
downfield threats. You need to get him a credible
(19:25):
run game and you needed to get him a playbook that actually
worked. One of the things that I also
think that Matt Rule didn't get enough credit for was bringing
in Dana Horgerson from off vacation and almost immediately
making him the offensive coordinator and play call.
And that showed up for them. Like, put another way, we know
that Dylan Riola played well against Colorado.
(19:47):
They got that great win. I think he played well against
Ohio State. They didn't win that game.
The USC game got away from them,but they could have won that and
yet and still they go bowling. The other thing that I would
point out here is the last threegames for Dylan Riola, he threw
for 707 yards with two T DS and one pick.
That's what Dana Hulgerson calling the plays.
Now extrapolate that four times,right?
(20:10):
You're getting close to the totals that he had.
But the interception of TV ratiois probably going to go up.
And I think that Dana Hulgerson is once again in a great spot.
Like he's been a head coach for so long that people forget when
he was at Oklahoma State callingplays.
That was weeding the black men. That was the I'm going to find
out who our best player is and we're going to feed him.
(20:31):
The football. People forget that.
That 2011 team was so good. And I also remember Daniel
Hogerson never mentioned words about what works is what makes
an air raid guy an air raid guy.To me, it's not the office that
you run. It is that the air raid is about
getting your the ball to playersin space.
More importantly, feeding the ball to the most talented player
you have as often as you can, right?
(20:52):
Mike Leach did this with MichaelCrabtree.
We saw Daniel Hogerson do this with Justin Blackman.
They'll identify that guy on theoutside and I expect them to try
to go at him over and over again.
This also worked for Pittsburgh with Mark Whipple and Kenny
Pickett and Jordan Addison. I think it's a great way to go.
You play the two man game and then you'll open it up for
(21:12):
whomever's left to give somebodyan opportunity to not just take
the game away, but to give a different look to the defense.
Now that said, he's turning overbasically both the quarter
coordinators with Tony White going to Florida State.
So you got Dana Horsten going into a real year one and you're
going to do something different on defense.
But I think as Rayola goes, thisteam goes because that dude had
(21:38):
a recruiting that was all over the map, committed to Ohio
State, committed to Georgia, flip commit to Nebraska.
And in this age of transfer portal and name, image and
likeness, he is giving us the feeling that perhaps he might
have tested the market, right? Like, if Rayola wanted to do to
Nebraska what Niko E Amaliava did to Tennessee, it'd probably
(21:58):
go down the same way. But it speaks volumes that there
are a lot of people that were trying to lure him into the
portal for one reason or another, because they see the
talent. They see what he's capable of
doing and what Nebraska was limited in last year.
And he stayed there, stayed the course.
And that rule has been trying totell anybody would listen.
That's the kind of guy that I want to recruit to play Huskers
(22:18):
football. Like no head coach in the world
wants to tell you that they are recruiting the guys by saying
I'm going to pay you more than everybody else.
You want that to be a side effect.
You want that to be one of the things that comes along with I
want to play Nebraska football. Not the thing that is driving
you to play Nebraska football because it doesn't work that
(22:39):
way. It doesn't fit.
But I think also you have a Dominic Rayola and a Donovan
Rayola that have in their brainsand have told Dylan what it
would mean to not just play at Nebraska but be the starting
quarterback. I think that's also working in
Nebraska's favor. I think as we continue to look
at legacies and we look at how players are built and what they
are walking into, we're going tolook at Dylan Rayola and we're
(23:01):
going to go, you know, that could have been much different.
Like, imagine if Rayola had stuck with his commitment.
Ohio State probably transfers the way that Aaron Nolan did,
the way that Devin Brown did, the way that Kyle McCord did.
It's it it can't happen, right? It could have gone the same way
at Georgia. Carson Beck goes down.
Is it Gunner Stockton? Is it Dylan Rayola, Right.
(23:24):
Wouldn't have been Jaden Rashad and we know, but I think he made
the best decision given his talent and his ability right
away and the want to play. One of the things that I tell
the kiddos when they're going through the through their
recruitment is a don't just go to the school that is the
biggest or the one that's offered you the most money.
Go to the one where you know you're going to play.
Be honest with yourself about that.
(23:45):
Because if you got an offer fromAlabama and you got an offer
from Ohio, but you don't see yourself cracking the too deep
at Alabama in the first two years, go to Ohio where you
might play as a true freshman. Because that's the whole point.
We want to play ball. We want to play ball with our
teammates. We want to play in meaningful
games. Rayola was not going to do that
at Georgia. He was not going to do that Ohio
(24:05):
State, but he was given the opportunity to do that at
Nebraska. What that means is you're
walking into a situation that's not as good.
He could have been on that Ohio State team and won a national
championship. He could have been that Georgia
team and won an SEC championship.
But he's chose to go to Nebraskaand to try to return that team
to something like outstanding asopposed to simply good.
(24:27):
But simply good is new for Nebraska is since 2016.
Certainly them playing for championships.
We haven't seen that since they left the Big 12 to go to the Big
10. They basically haven't had an
identity. We're using Nebraska as a comp
for this. Could be Oklahoma in a couple of
years. But I also think Rayola could
change that if he's a 3500 yard passer and he can throw 35 T DS.
(24:48):
I have no reason to believe thatNebraska can't win 10 games
given their schedule and can't compete in the Big 10.
If nothing else for a new year 6bowl berth.
But maybe, just maybe, playing the College Football Playoffs in
the cards, too. So I'm looking at this thing and
(25:13):
I'm thinking, OK, A&M, what do we expect from this team in
2025? Because I feel like they flirt
with being good at least once every year that I've been alive,
and particularly the last five, right?
The Jimbo Fisher win that A&M had against Bama, only to get
that man fired, right? Mike Elko feels like a better
(25:35):
hire, but really, we're not talking about him doing much
more than what Jimbo was doing, except he's putting together
seasons that you can kind of, sort of feel good about.
He settled on a quarterback lastyear in Marcel Reed.
OK, cool. But we need Marcel Reed to
develop as a passer, and he's real streaky in that.
But he might not have to with the tailbacks that they're going
(25:57):
to have at their disposal. Le'veon Moss's back, he had 765
yards on the ground last year, average better than 6.3 yards
per carry. Ruben Owens is back after a
season that he missed with injury.
That alone is going to make yourbackfield that much better and
you're going to be able to run almost anything you want if
you're calling Klein from that standpoint, as long as the
offensive line shows up. Now, you're losing a bunch on
(26:20):
the defense, but particularly defensive line, but that's not
that big a deal because they've been really good about
recruiting and reloading at thatposition.
I'm also looking at just how much money A&M spends on
football, and one of my favoriteexamples of this now is actually
KC Concepcion, who is apparentlyalready secured 2 and a half,
(26:42):
$1,000,000 in name, image and likeness at A&M.
The reason I'm bringing this up is this is a this is a wide
receiver who has not put together 1000 yard receiving
yet. His best season is still 2023
when he had 71 catches for 839 yards with no T DS at all.
Excuse me, that's wrong. 10 T DS, no T DS rushing, 10 T DS.
(27:07):
That's a great first year. Is it a two and a half million
dollar third year? No, not after you have 53
catches, 460 yards and really didn't get to do all that much
with the North Carolina Wolfpack, but North Carolina
State Wolfpack. I think for him to get their
money's worth out of him, I should say for A&M to get their
money's worth out of Casey Concepcion, you're probably
(27:29):
going to need a 1200 yarder season, probably going to need
at least 10 T DS, if not 1415. But that is also about the
service, right? So on the one hand, do I think
the wide receiver today is overpaid?
Sure, sure I do. Based on what he has done and
what they expect him to do, You got you got a ways to go here.
The way of putting this differently is Jeremiah Smith's
(27:51):
probably going to make about four to $5,000,000, right?
And that's the best wide receiver in the sport.
Two and a half million dollars. You are getting into power for
starting quarterback territory. If nothing else, a quarterback
that at the very least right is going to start in the middle of
the SEC like, say, Jackson Arnold at Auburn or even a Beau
(28:13):
Privola at Missouri. You can go a little bit further
up. Maybe DJ Lagway makes a little
bit more than this, especially given the kind of praise that
he's received in this offseason.But I look at this team and I, I
absolutely, positively got to wonder just what it is that we
can expect for them to do in 2025 and what's going to
constitute a really great seasonfor A&M.
(28:33):
Because it's the top 25 team. They'll probably start there in
most people's preseason rankings.
And then we'll have to take a look at what the schedule does
or does not do for them. And it goes the way it normally
goes, which is they'll probably beat some people that they have
no business beating. And then they will lose a couple
of games to some folks that theyhave no business losing to.
Like getting very close to beating a Notre Dame team that
(28:55):
played for the national championship, but also taking a
loss to an Auburn team that you know you should have beaten UPS
one side and down the other. I really want to be able to get
a handle on this team. But as much as I like to make
the jokes about A&M, because they haven't won a conference
championship of any kind this century, 1998, never won a
national championship since 1939.
I recognize a fan base that is also thirsty, right?
(29:17):
And I don't want to continue to come after the Aggies for
wanting to spend money on players that they think are
going to help them. But I I am going to point out
you're spending two and a half million dollars on Casey
Gosepiano. You brought in a 7th year
quarterback in Jacob Zeno to back up Marcel Reed.
I, I just don't, I don't see it.I don't, I don't understand it
and I don't need to. That's your team, right?
(29:37):
But if you think that that's what you it's going to take for
you to beat Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Texas, because I think
those are the teams you're goingto have to contend with.
You're talking about trying to play for a championship this
year. I don't know that this is the
team to do it. And some of that got everything
to do with Marcel Reed, right? Like I, I think if Marcel Reed
develops into a Heisman caliber quarterback, we're having a
(29:58):
different discussion. But for him to develop into a
Heisman caliber quarterback, I need to see a 3500 yard passer
and at least 700 yards on the ground.
Maybe thousand. If I get a 3001 thousand year
out of Marcel Reed, we're talking about a top ten team
here. It's that simple.
So how good do you expect MarcelReed to be?
It's going to perform, how good Le'veon Moss is, how good Rubens
Owens is, how good Casey Concepcion is.
(30:21):
But again, it's it's the SEC andwe know that because it's the
SEC. You can take nothing for granted
in as far as what your schedule is because even the bad teams
are still not that bad. Like Mississippi State might be,
terrible they might be, but Vanderbilt is no longer a
doormat. Missouri can play, Auburn can
play. People really like Auburn this
(30:43):
year, especially knowing that Q Freeze has got to get it
together in a way that he hadn'thad to get it together since he
got to Auburn. Kind of on that Billy Napier
chain where you just need to win.
So now we're looking at the schedule here.
UTSA to start that's August 30th, then the Utah State, then
Notre Dame again, we're going tolearn a lot.
Then you go into the buzz saw that is Auburn, Mississippi
(31:03):
State. I'm joking there.
That's that's a joke. Florida and then Arkansas, LSU,
Missouri, South Carolina, Sanford, Texas.
It's a doable schedule. It's a doable schedule.
That's that's A10 win schedule. Yeah.
Honestly, I don't think that youshould be out of any game not
named Notre Dame and or Texas. Every other game is there for
you to win. So if I sound like I'm trying to
(31:25):
talk myself into A&M being wortha damn in 2025, it's because I
am, right? Like I, I think sometimes when I
talk about that team on this show, it's from the standpoint
of Oklahoma having played Texas A&M&A&M having been a Big 12
member and A&M doing a lot of talking without doing a lot of
winning. It's true.
(31:46):
But even I get tired of that, right?
Like I I really want you to breakthrough, especially with
that 2021 class that you had that was we thought was going to
be so great. Nope, not so much.
Not only that, we've got bust after bust after bust and we got
dudes catching charges. It's just not a cool thing for
anybody. I don't like referencing that
you've paid $80 million to a coach to go away or that Ross
(32:07):
Bjork was allowed to hire first.He was allowed to fire Jimbo
Fisher, allowed to hire Mike Elko, then took his behind Ohio
State and won a national championship.
Trevor Albert's got a lot to work with over there.
But the following that sort of an act, I just don't see it that
that that sucks. You really need to win.
You need to win in the worst way.
(32:27):
And I think if you can put yourself in a position for that
Texas game to matter in as far as making the playoff or even
making the SEC championship game, you're doing everything
that you should. So Casey Concepcion makes two
and a half million dollars. They played for the SEC
Championship and he is a big part of the of the reason as to
why it's going to be money well spent.
Of the programs in the state of Texas, which one has the most
pressure to win and win right now?
I kind of think it's down to twoprograms.
What's up, Ken folk, it's RJ Young.
(00:21):
I am not on a step mill. If this is your first time
watching, adapt and respond. Thank you for joining us here.
We talk college football year round.
If that is something you're into, go ahead and hit that
subscribe button. Like this video and answer the
question in the comments below. Which Texas football program do
you believe has the most pressure to win in 2025?
(00:42):
And winning can mean a lot of different things.
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OK, so I'm looking at the state of Texas, which has been doing
pretty damn good all things considered about winning and
winning at a high level. But I'm curious which team has
to win something in 2025 becausewhile Southern Methodist was
(01:49):
good last year, they did not winthe ACC Championship and they
lost their first round game to Penn State in College Football
Playoff. Texas Christian made the
national championship game in 2022 but did not win the Big 12
championship that year. Baylor has been up and down.
A&M hasn't won a championship ofany kind in the 21st century and
(02:13):
a national championship since World War 2 hasn't happened.
Keep going around, keep looking around.
You go ask, has Houston been good?
Not in the ways that we expectedthem to be or even when Art
Briles was head coach down there.
To say nothing of Andre Ware when in a Heisman at Houston.
Rice, What are we even talking about when we talk about Rice?
(02:33):
And then you get to Texas State.I really think it comes back to
who has invested so much in their program that they are
unwilling to suffer a losing season, or I should say a season
that does not meet expectations in 2025.
And I think it's really just Texas Tech and Texas.
(02:54):
Texas Tech has a really great coach and Joey McGuire and they
have decided they are going all in on paying people, not just in
football, but basketball and softball as well.
There is already a great stat that's put out by Brandon
Marcello at CBS Sports. Texas Tech expects to spend $55
(03:18):
million on its athletic population.
Meaning they're going to spend money everywhere they have to to
win in every way they can because they see what Ohio State
sees and what I see, which is ifmoney is the object, cool.
We're going to remove that obstacle.
We're not going to. We're not in the mode of
complaint about paying people tocome play here.
(03:40):
Ohio State did it with $20 million to a football roster
last year. They won the national
championship. Texas Tech looked up and said,
why can't we be Arizona State? Why can't we be the team that
wins the Big 12 championship andgets that bid to the College
Football Playoff? And they have a guy in Joey
McGuire who knows from winning in high school.
And it doesn't matter that his 23 wins in three years is better
than what Mike Leach was doing because the resources are
(04:03):
different, OK? Texas Tech was fighting to be in
the mix when Mike Leach got there.
And then you found money with O8, Texas Tech, Michael
Crabtree, Graham Harrell that year that they beat Texas.
OK. Now you're in a spot where there
is no OU or Texas to contend with in the Big 12.
There's only Arizona State, there's only Iowa State, there's
(04:24):
only Kansas State, there's only Kansas, there's only Colorado.
You have to demonstrate value right now, especially with all
the money that they are investing into that program.
They're gonna try to find someone else to do it if it
doesn't get done. And I think nobody knows this
better than Joey McGuire, who knows his first job his his real
(04:44):
job is to win and win often. So this year they got to make
the Big 12 Championship and I would say they got to win it.
Now, they've also been very loudabout how much they're spending
and they were loud in the portal.
They brought in all these great players that we expect, if they
come together, could be class ofclass.
(05:04):
But right now, is it a top 25 team?
No, not in the preseason. I don't think so.
But they can get there pretty quickly, right?
You stack some wins. Let's get to Week 5 and take a
look around. The other team that I mentioned
that I think has to win this year is Texas.
I don't know that they have as much pressure to win the SEC
championship as Texas Tech does to win the Big 12 championship,
(05:27):
but you've been getting so closeat Texas that you're bumping up
against what I'm calling the Oklahoma ceiling.
You won the Big 12 championship to make College Football
Playoff. You get bounced out first round,
OK semi final. That should say then you make
the SEC championship. You get doubled up by Georgia,
right? And looking at Ohio State after
(05:47):
after beating Clemson, going damn, after beating Arizona
State going damn, I think at some point you're going to look
at Steve Sarkisian and go, it's great that you got 1000 yard
back every year and you like to hang your hat on that.
It's great that you got arch man.
And you've had Quinn Euers, which are two of the best
quarterback recruits in the country over the last five
years. It's great that you were able to
make something happen in the running backroom without CJ
(06:09):
Baxter, without Christian Clark.But now you get both of those
guys back, including Contravion,Wisner and Jared Gibson.
It's time to go play. It's time to go win, right?
And I don't mean win 10 games Texas.
That's what you're supposed to do.
You're supposed to win 10/11/12 games.
You're supposed to play in the SEC Championship.
You're supposed to start winningit.
More than that, you're supposed to win the national
(06:29):
championship. Going into this season, I expect
most people are going to pick Texas to win the national
championship. Given the potential of what Arch
Manning has showed himself capable of doing, given the
potential what Ryan Wingo, DeAndre Moore have shown
themselves capable of doing, given the potential with Anthony
Hill on that defense has been able to show he's capable of
(06:51):
doing. Pete Wilkowski going into a year
where I expect him to once againcontend for the Broyles Award
and Sarkisian we know as an offensive play college, one of
the best in the business. You also have every resource
available to you in a state thatlove football more than it loves
anything else. They love Texas football more
than they love the Texas A&M football more than they love
(07:11):
Houston football or Baylor football, SMU football, Texas
Christian football. I can keep going down the line
here. It's the flagship university and
for the flagship university in the football state to not have
won a national championship since 2005, something got to
give. That's the point here.
I think that if Texas Tech gets to ten wins, Joey McGuire gets
(07:32):
stick around, they're going to keep building, right?
Because the expectation at Tech has not been till this year to
win the Big 12 championship yearin, year out.
That's what they're trying to become.
They're on that Oklahoma State program, right?
But Oklahoma State has been up and down.
They haven't always been good year to year.
They want to be good year to year.
Texas is good year to year. Texas is winning at a high level
(07:52):
year to year. Now, it's not just about making
the College Football Playoff like Oklahoma would Lincoln
Riley. It's about winning the whole
damn thing. And the more times you go
without winning it, the less I think you're likely to win it.
Because that's generally how this thing is gone, right?
You get in that thing to go win it.
And after that, we'll see. Ohio State was able to make this
work, right? They're making the College
Football Playoff. They're running up against good
(08:14):
teams. They're losing those games.
They also were able to do it without winning a Big 10
championship. It's possible, but I think for
Texas to be successful this year, you're going to have to
see Steve Sarkeesian win the national championship.
Now, that said, apart from an abysmal season, I don't think
Joey McGuire or Steve Sarkeesianare going to get fired, but an
abysmal season at Texas Tech is winning six games or fewer.
(08:36):
Seven games or fewer. An abysmal season at Texas is
winning eight games or fewer. OK, you're right there.
You got to figure it out. You got to figure it out right
now, right now, right now, because that's that's all we
care about is right now, man. You don't want to be billed for
2026. You don't want to build for
2027. You've got Arch Manning, you've
(08:56):
got CJ Baxter, you've got Ryan Wingo, you've got Anthony Hill.
Go make it happen. So who is the best head coach in
the Big 12? Well, I find that one to be kind
(09:17):
of fun because there are a lot of good head coaches in the Big
12 and we got 16. And really it's about for me,
did you win championships? And can you win championships?
Right? So like at the bottom, when I'm
looking at this, I'm. I'm asking Arizona and Brent
Brennaman to do something a little bit different, right.
I thought you were going to havesomething.
(09:38):
And Teddaroa McMillan and Noah Fafita didn't turn out exactly
the way that we had planned. But then you get into places
where coaches have won at some level with some regularity,
Right. So Scott Frost is back coaching
again. It's Central Florida.
Last time he was there. Yeah.
They they ran the table 2017, they beat Auburn, they have a
claim it's in the national championship, goes to Nebraska,
(10:00):
then go so well it takes me years off.
Now he's back to try to rebuild that program after Gus Malzahn
was fired and or took the job asoffensive coordinator at Florida
State. Scott Satterfield's actually won
three Sunbelt championships. People just forgot about it
because Cincinnati ain't been that great.
Right next on the list got to befor me, Willie Fritz, who came
over from Tulane at Houston. Now he's got Connor Wigman.
(10:22):
He looks like he's going to haveKeyshawn Henderson.
If both of those guys turn out to be players, Houston could be
once again, good. I don't know that they're going
to put up Andre Ware numbers or Casey Keenum or Case Keenum
numbers, but they should be good.
I mean, Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia, another guy that's
coming back like Scott Frost to a place where he has some
success after having success at Jacksonville State.
(10:42):
I'm not real sure how good we can expect West Virginia to be,
but we know that Rich Rod runs arun centric offense that usually
can put some points on the board.
Sonny Dykes and Dave Aranda had a hard time with because both of
those guys when they have had teams have been great.
Aranda is one of my favorite head coaches because his get
down is unlike anybody else's incollege football.
(11:03):
There's actually two of those inthis league.
He's a philosopher at heart and a defensive coordinator at heart
and Baylor and he are symbiotic.Like, I didn't know that this
was going to work the way that it's working.
But he feels like part of the furniture now, which is high
phrase at a place like Baylor Baptist.
Because Baylor Baptist has been a really difficult place to win
football games. And I'm looking at it and I'm
(11:25):
asking, OK, are you going to be like art brows?
Not not not the bad art brows, not the scandal Art brows
eyebrows for that, right? Maybe.
But more I look at it, the more I go, you know, Joey McGuire in
Texas Tech give me those vibes like the RG3 2011 vibes because
they are being loud about the money that they are spending on
(11:45):
their athletics. They've been loud about the
stadium renovations they want todo.
They have been going after players.
They have a billionaire of financier a la Boom Pickens at
Oklahoma State and Cody Campbell.
And Joey McGuire is a winner. Like he hadn't done it at the
college level cuz he this is hisfirst head coaching gig.
But for those that remember Cedar Hill, he's something like
(12:06):
142 and 42 or in like 4-5 national or national champion
state championship down there. Joey McGuire is a legend in
Texas high school football. So was Art Briles, right?
That's my point here. And the way in which Texas Tech
wants it is the way that Baylor Baptist wanted it, right?
Then you got to go, I think Kalani Sataki, right, at BYU,
(12:27):
who hasn't won any championship to speak up, but he's gone 72
and 43. He's done a lot with what we
didn't think was really great atthe time, like Zach Wilson for
instance, and turned that into awinner.
Jake Retzloff got, I don't know he's going to be starting
quarterback at BYU this year, but last year was decent enough.
We'll see what happens there. Kalani Sataki's been doing a
(12:48):
really good job of taking what he's got at BYU and turning that
into a winner once again, a teamthat was good last year that we
didn't know was going to be thisgood last year.
And then I think you got to go Mike Gundy, who's kind of
falling down the ranks here after having won championships
in this league. And I thought this was going to
be the time for Oklahoma State to ascend to the top of the
(13:08):
pyramid in the Big 12 with Oklahoma and Texas leaving.
But it's been anything but that.They were garbage last year and
they were garbage with a returning offensive line and a
returning, what we thought Heisman candidate at tailback.
They just didn't do anything. Some of this is a quarterback,
but a lot of that was just they didn't know who they were.
And by the time they figured it out, it was too late.
Colorado's putting hands on themlike you read about, which is
(13:31):
where I think you get into a space is where you start talking
about Deon Sanders, right? I think as I'm looking at this,
Kyle Winningham and that 08 Utahteam, one of the better football
teams, we don't talk about enough.
They beat Pam out. They should have a claim in the
national championship. I think that given what he was
last year, I could see him falling down the ranks here.
(13:52):
And he's obviously getting toward the end of his career,
but he doesn't want to go out, you know, like he went out last
year, so he's coming back. So I'm going to continue to put
Kyle Whittingham right there. But if you're talking about a
guy that you don't want in a fistfight, yeah, Kyle
Whittingham's at the top of the list.
Then I think you go Kenny Dillingham, who got Arizona
State to win that championship last year after being picked
dead last to to finish in the Big 12.
(14:14):
And he did it with a transfer quarterback in Sam Levitt from
Michigan State. Jordan Tyson was really great.
He could be great again. I really think he's going to be
one of the better wide receiversin this league this year.
And they're got Kanye Udo comingfrom ARMY after replace.
What was their best player in camp Scataboo who took them
almost almost to the College Football Playoff semi finals and
(14:37):
took Texas into the deep water needing to get heroics from
Quinn yours in them to go get that W.
It's a really great team last year.
I don't know if it's going to bereally great this year, but that
I think has really flipped him in the spot where I expected
Oklahoma State to be. Then I'm going to go.
I think I'm going to go Deion Sanders here.
I think that's top five coach inthis league.
(15:00):
And the reason I'm going to stopat 5 here is because the other
guys that I'm looking at, Matt Campbell, what he was able to do
last year with Iowa State, I don't sneeze that I don't think
anybody should. You could actually convince me
that I could flip both of those guys, Matt Campbell and Deon
Sanders. But when I'm talking about guys
that know how to coach ball and know their teams and coach their
teams to their personalities, I don't think that there's a
(15:23):
better duo in the entire countrythat really have a team that
personifies who they are. But in Matt Campbell does at
Iowa State and prime does Colorado.
It's one of the reasons we're doing the segment today is Prime
saw the love that was on online and he wanted to tell everybody,
look, I'm alright, I'm good, I'mrecovering.
I can't wait to get back. When I get back, I'll let y'all
know what was up. But that's kind of how you want
to do it. Like this is black folks stuff,
(15:44):
dog. Like black folks be moving in
silence with our grief and with our pain and with our suffering.
And I say this as a man, my bestfriend, my best friend, he did
something like this similar. The man talked with me for two
hours from the hospital and thenhe was like, hey, hey, yeah,
this thing happened. You couldn't leave with that
homie, You know what I'm saying?Some of y'all seen Atlanta where
(16:07):
Alfred is sitting in the countrywith his his face all bloody and
whatnot. Talk about I'm good to earn.
That's how black folks be movingmost of the time.
You'd be like, Oh yeah, you know, it's cool.
Homie had a quadruple bypass, 3 hip replacement surgeries and
got a new back installed. But he good now.
He good now y'all gotta let us know something.
(16:27):
That's how we feeling about prime right, like undisclosed
health reasons that that that give everybody the willies and
you know, I'm not even sure thatDion junior was supposed to be
saying something like Bucky may not have that been able to say
something, but I'm glad to know that he saw that and told
everybody, hey, I'm good, I'm chilling, Just give me a little
bit time. I get back to you, right?
And it's also kind of cool to see just what he means to the
(16:49):
community because Dion has been decisive, divisive, excuse me,
since he got into college football as a head coach, I
should say. But he's won Jackson State, won
swag championships last year. He had the Heisman Trophy
winner, which I still think is wild because what?
The quarterback and a dude played both ways and it was
amazing, right? And now what?
(17:10):
What? Why are people upset?
They're upset because Shadeur Sanders got his jersey retired.
Miss me dawg. One of the better coaches in all
the college football, certainly one of the better coaches in the
Big 12. Then I think you go Lance Lipold
and Chris Kleiman, right? Because Lance Lipold won 6
championships at the Division Three level.
Chris Kleiman won four at the FCS level.
(17:32):
Both of those guys know how to build teams from nothing into
absolute winners. Last year, if Kansas played the
first half like they played the second-half, we might be talking
about them playing in the Big 12Championship last year.
And then this year, you know, I think Kansas State's got a real
opportunity with Avery Johnson, with Dylan Edwards.
They're going to have the fastest backfield in the league.
(17:53):
It's going to be a lot of fun. But I just want to take a moment
and talk about these coaches because when we get the season,
we're just the Big 12's not really going to rate the way the
SEC, the Big 10 does. It might rate with the ACC.
We'll see. But I wanted to talk about it
now so we know where everybody kind of stands and what we can
expect from them or what we. I'm thinking that Dylan Ryola
(18:22):
ought to get the Arch Manning treatment nationally because I
think he's getting it at Nebraska.
This is a favorite son of a former great who has done for
Nebraska what nobody been able to do for Nebraska since 2016.
Lead them to not just a bowl game but a bowl win 2800 yards
(18:43):
not that many T DS, not that many interceptions, but he
played really well as a true freshman quarterback at a place
that craves winning and hadn't been bowling in years.
Some of this is about finally Matt Rule getting a quarterback
in the Nebraska that he likes and can trust because the
Heinrich Harburg thing was just not going to work right.
The Jeff Sims thing was not going to work.
(19:05):
You needed to have a quarterbackthat you knew you could trust
and to roll the dice on a guy that is a 5 star, right?
This is a true talent, but was still a true freshman, was bold
and it paid for them. Because at no point where was I
saying or anybody saying Dylan Riola is the limit of this
offense. No, you need to get him some
downfield threats. You need to get him a credible
(19:25):
run game and you needed to get him a playbook that actually
worked. One of the things that I also
think that Matt Rule didn't get enough credit for was bringing
in Dana Horgerson from off vacation and almost immediately
making him the offensive coordinator and play call.
And that showed up for them. Like, put another way, we know
that Dylan Riola played well against Colorado.
(19:47):
They got that great win. I think he played well against
Ohio State. They didn't win that game.
The USC game got away from them,but they could have won that and
yet and still they go bowling. The other thing that I would
point out here is the last threegames for Dylan Riola, he threw
for 707 yards with two T DS and one pick.
That's what Dana Hulgerson calling the plays.
Now extrapolate that four times,right?
(20:10):
You're getting close to the totals that he had.
But the interception of TV ratiois probably going to go up.
And I think that Dana Hulgerson is once again in a great spot.
Like he's been a head coach for so long that people forget when
he was at Oklahoma State callingplays.
That was weeding the black men. That was the I'm going to find
out who our best player is and we're going to feed him.
(20:31):
The football. People forget that.
That 2011 team was so good. And I also remember Daniel
Hogerson never mentioned words about what works is what makes
an air raid guy an air raid guy.To me, it's not the office that
you run. It is that the air raid is about
getting your the ball to playersin space.
More importantly, feeding the ball to the most talented player
you have as often as you can, right?
(20:52):
Mike Leach did this with MichaelCrabtree.
We saw Daniel Hogerson do this with Justin Blackman.
They'll identify that guy on theoutside and I expect them to try
to go at him over and over again.
This also worked for Pittsburgh with Mark Whipple and Kenny
Pickett and Jordan Addison. I think it's a great way to go.
You play the two man game and then you'll open it up for
(21:12):
whomever's left to give somebodyan opportunity to not just take
the game away, but to give a different look to the defense.
Now that said, he's turning overbasically both the quarter
coordinators with Tony White going to Florida State.
So you got Dana Horsten going into a real year one and you're
going to do something different on defense.
But I think as Rayola goes, thisteam goes because that dude had
(21:38):
a recruiting that was all over the map, committed to Ohio
State, committed to Georgia, flip commit to Nebraska.
And in this age of transfer portal and name, image and
likeness, he is giving us the feeling that perhaps he might
have tested the market, right? Like, if Rayola wanted to do to
Nebraska what Niko E Amaliava did to Tennessee, it'd probably
(21:58):
go down the same way. But it speaks volumes that there
are a lot of people that were trying to lure him into the
portal for one reason or another, because they see the
talent. They see what he's capable of
doing and what Nebraska was limited in last year.
And he stayed there, stayed the course.
And that rule has been trying totell anybody would listen.
That's the kind of guy that I want to recruit to play Huskers
(22:18):
football. Like no head coach in the world
wants to tell you that they are recruiting the guys by saying
I'm going to pay you more than everybody else.
You want that to be a side effect.
You want that to be one of the things that comes along with I
want to play Nebraska football. Not the thing that is driving
you to play Nebraska football because it doesn't work that
(22:39):
way. It doesn't fit.
But I think also you have a Dominic Rayola and a Donovan
Rayola that have in their brainsand have told Dylan what it
would mean to not just play at Nebraska but be the starting
quarterback. I think that's also working in
Nebraska's favor. I think as we continue to look
at legacies and we look at how players are built and what they
are walking into, we're going tolook at Dylan Rayola and we're
(23:01):
going to go, you know, that could have been much different.
Like, imagine if Rayola had stuck with his commitment.
Ohio State probably transfers the way that Aaron Nolan did,
the way that Devin Brown did, the way that Kyle McCord did.
It's it it can't happen, right? It could have gone the same way
at Georgia. Carson Beck goes down.
Is it Gunner Stockton? Is it Dylan Rayola, Right.
(23:24):
Wouldn't have been Jaden Rashad and we know, but I think he made
the best decision given his talent and his ability right
away and the want to play. One of the things that I tell
the kiddos when they're going through the through their
recruitment is a don't just go to the school that is the
biggest or the one that's offered you the most money.
Go to the one where you know you're going to play.
Be honest with yourself about that.
(23:45):
Because if you got an offer fromAlabama and you got an offer
from Ohio, but you don't see yourself cracking the too deep
at Alabama in the first two years, go to Ohio where you
might play as a true freshman. Because that's the whole point.
We want to play ball. We want to play ball with our
teammates. We want to play in meaningful
games. Rayola was not going to do that
at Georgia. He was not going to do that Ohio
(24:05):
State, but he was given the opportunity to do that at
Nebraska. What that means is you're
walking into a situation that's not as good.
He could have been on that Ohio State team and won a national
championship. He could have been that Georgia
team and won an SEC championship.
But he's chose to go to Nebraskaand to try to return that team
to something like outstanding asopposed to simply good.
(24:27):
But simply good is new for Nebraska is since 2016.
Certainly them playing for championships.
We haven't seen that since they left the Big 12 to go to the Big
10. They basically haven't had an
identity. We're using Nebraska as a comp
for this. Could be Oklahoma in a couple of
years. But I also think Rayola could
change that if he's a 3500 yard passer and he can throw 35 T DS.
(24:48):
I have no reason to believe thatNebraska can't win 10 games
given their schedule and can't compete in the Big 10.
If nothing else for a new year 6bowl berth.
But maybe, just maybe, playing the College Football Playoffs in
the cards, too. So I'm looking at this thing and
(25:13):
I'm thinking, OK, A&M, what do we expect from this team in
2025? Because I feel like they flirt
with being good at least once every year that I've been alive,
and particularly the last five, right?
The Jimbo Fisher win that A&M had against Bama, only to get
that man fired, right? Mike Elko feels like a better
(25:35):
hire, but really, we're not talking about him doing much
more than what Jimbo was doing, except he's putting together
seasons that you can kind of, sort of feel good about.
He settled on a quarterback lastyear in Marcel Reed.
OK, cool. But we need Marcel Reed to
develop as a passer, and he's real streaky in that.
But he might not have to with the tailbacks that they're going
(25:57):
to have at their disposal. Le'veon Moss's back, he had 765
yards on the ground last year, average better than 6.3 yards
per carry. Ruben Owens is back after a
season that he missed with injury.
That alone is going to make yourbackfield that much better and
you're going to be able to run almost anything you want if
you're calling Klein from that standpoint, as long as the
offensive line shows up. Now, you're losing a bunch on
(26:20):
the defense, but particularly defensive line, but that's not
that big a deal because they've been really good about
recruiting and reloading at thatposition.
I'm also looking at just how much money A&M spends on
football, and one of my favoriteexamples of this now is actually
KC Concepcion, who is apparentlyalready secured 2 and a half,
(26:42):
$1,000,000 in name, image and likeness at A&M.
The reason I'm bringing this up is this is a this is a wide
receiver who has not put together 1000 yard receiving
yet. His best season is still 2023
when he had 71 catches for 839 yards with no T DS at all.
Excuse me, that's wrong. 10 T DS, no T DS rushing, 10 T DS.
(27:07):
That's a great first year. Is it a two and a half million
dollar third year? No, not after you have 53
catches, 460 yards and really didn't get to do all that much
with the North Carolina Wolfpack, but North Carolina
State Wolfpack. I think for him to get their
money's worth out of him, I should say for A&M to get their
money's worth out of Casey Concepcion, you're probably
(27:29):
going to need a 1200 yarder season, probably going to need
at least 10 T DS, if not 1415. But that is also about the
service, right? So on the one hand, do I think
the wide receiver today is overpaid?
Sure, sure I do. Based on what he has done and
what they expect him to do, You got you got a ways to go here.
The way of putting this differently is Jeremiah Smith's
(27:51):
probably going to make about four to $5,000,000, right?
And that's the best wide receiver in the sport.
Two and a half million dollars. You are getting into power for
starting quarterback territory. If nothing else, a quarterback
that at the very least right is going to start in the middle of
the SEC like, say, Jackson Arnold at Auburn or even a Beau
(28:13):
Privola at Missouri. You can go a little bit further
up. Maybe DJ Lagway makes a little
bit more than this, especially given the kind of praise that
he's received in this offseason.But I look at this team and I, I
absolutely, positively got to wonder just what it is that we
can expect for them to do in 2025 and what's going to
constitute a really great seasonfor A&M.
(28:33):
Because it's the top 25 team. They'll probably start there in
most people's preseason rankings.
And then we'll have to take a look at what the schedule does
or does not do for them. And it goes the way it normally
goes, which is they'll probably beat some people that they have
no business beating. And then they will lose a couple
of games to some folks that theyhave no business losing to.
Like getting very close to beating a Notre Dame team that
(28:55):
played for the national championship, but also taking a
loss to an Auburn team that you know you should have beaten UPS
one side and down the other. I really want to be able to get
a handle on this team. But as much as I like to make
the jokes about A&M, because they haven't won a conference
championship of any kind this century, 1998, never won a
national championship since 1939.
I recognize a fan base that is also thirsty, right?
(29:17):
And I don't want to continue to come after the Aggies for
wanting to spend money on players that they think are
going to help them. But I I am going to point out
you're spending two and a half million dollars on Casey
Gosepiano. You brought in a 7th year
quarterback in Jacob Zeno to back up Marcel Reed.
I, I just don't, I don't see it.I don't, I don't understand it
and I don't need to. That's your team, right?
(29:37):
But if you think that that's what you it's going to take for
you to beat Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Texas, because I think
those are the teams you're goingto have to contend with.
You're talking about trying to play for a championship this
year. I don't know that this is the
team to do it. And some of that got everything
to do with Marcel Reed, right? Like I, I think if Marcel Reed
develops into a Heisman caliber quarterback, we're having a
(29:58):
different discussion. But for him to develop into a
Heisman caliber quarterback, I need to see a 3500 yard passer
and at least 700 yards on the ground.
Maybe thousand. If I get a 3001 thousand year
out of Marcel Reed, we're talking about a top ten team
here. It's that simple.
So how good do you expect MarcelReed to be?
It's going to perform, how good Le'veon Moss is, how good Rubens
Owens is, how good Casey Concepcion is.
(30:21):
But again, it's it's the SEC andwe know that because it's the
SEC. You can take nothing for granted
in as far as what your schedule is because even the bad teams
are still not that bad. Like Mississippi State might be,
terrible they might be, but Vanderbilt is no longer a
doormat. Missouri can play, Auburn can
play. People really like Auburn this
(30:43):
year, especially knowing that Q Freeze has got to get it
together in a way that he hadn'thad to get it together since he
got to Auburn. Kind of on that Billy Napier
chain where you just need to win.
So now we're looking at the schedule here.
UTSA to start that's August 30th, then the Utah State, then
Notre Dame again, we're going tolearn a lot.
Then you go into the buzz saw that is Auburn, Mississippi
(31:03):
State. I'm joking there.
That's that's a joke. Florida and then Arkansas, LSU,
Missouri, South Carolina, Sanford, Texas.
It's a doable schedule. It's a doable schedule.
That's that's A10 win schedule. Yeah.
Honestly, I don't think that youshould be out of any game not
named Notre Dame and or Texas. Every other game is there for
you to win. So if I sound like I'm trying to
(31:25):
talk myself into A&M being wortha damn in 2025, it's because I
am, right? Like I, I think sometimes when I
talk about that team on this show, it's from the standpoint
of Oklahoma having played Texas A&M&A&M having been a Big 12
member and A&M doing a lot of talking without doing a lot of
winning. It's true.
(31:46):
But even I get tired of that, right?
Like I I really want you to breakthrough, especially with
that 2021 class that you had that was we thought was going to
be so great. Nope, not so much.
Not only that, we've got bust after bust after bust and we got
dudes catching charges. It's just not a cool thing for
anybody. I don't like referencing that
you've paid $80 million to a coach to go away or that Ross
(32:07):
Bjork was allowed to hire first.He was allowed to fire Jimbo
Fisher, allowed to hire Mike Elko, then took his behind Ohio
State and won a national championship.
Trevor Albert's got a lot to work with over there.
But the following that sort of an act, I just don't see it that
that that sucks. You really need to win.
You need to win in the worst way.
(32:27):
And I think if you can put yourself in a position for that
Texas game to matter in as far as making the playoff or even
making the SEC championship game, you're doing everything
that you should. So Casey Concepcion makes two
and a half million dollars. They played for the SEC
Championship and he is a big part of the of the reason as to
why it's going to be money well spent.
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