Drafting the TOP head coaches in ALL of College Football: Curt Cignetti, Kirby Smart, or Ryan Day?
It's vacation week for Andy & Ari, but before they head off for the week, it's time to draft the top current college football head coaches. As Curt Cignetti led Indiana to the national championship in his 2nd season as the Hoosiers' head coach, has he already solidified himself as the no-doubt first pick in the draft? What about Kirby Smart or Ryan Day? Does Dabo Swinney even get drafted? Watch here as Andy & Ari draft their top quarterbacks before taking off for vacation.0:00 On Today's Episode0:30 Presenting Sponsor2:33 Intro: Previewing Draft of Coaches4:33 Round 1: Andy's first pick11:48 Round 218:49 Round 324:03 Round 427:01 ZenAI28:11 Ari's Round 4 Pick31:22 Round 536:04 Round 640:43 Round 745:13 Round 848:07 Round 951:44 Round 1057:51 Full list: Thanks for watching!Thanks for watching! See you next week!Send your questions to:andystapleson3@gmail.comari.wasserman@on3.comCheck Zen AI out: bit.ly/zenAI_bpp_andyandariHosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River BaileyInterested in partnering with the show? Email advertise@on3.com
Video Transcript
On today's episode of Andy and Ariana 3 presented by Bet MGM, we're draft in coaches.
A couple of weeks ago, everybody did on three ranked the coaches in each conference.
We didn't put them all together.
And Ariana decided instead of ranking him and having very similar lists that would probably both start with Kurt Zignetti, we're going to fight it out in a draft.
Who are the best coaches in America?
We'll find out right now.
On today's Andy and Ariana 3 presented by Bet MGM.
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Welcome to Andy Rion 3 presented by Bet MGM.
We're having a little fun.
It's the middle of summer.
It's time to do another draft.
We knew these every Friday but you're going to live it up your Monday because Ari like three so you know.
I love drafting with you.
I do.
I do.
evacuation, everybody on three, including us, did rankings of coaches by conference, which is always fun when you have to rank someone number 17 of 17, because that makes everyone happy.
But we didn't put them all together to see who's the best of the best.
And if we both did lists, I think I've come to understand that while we do disagree about things sometimes very passionately, that we've come to view the sport very similarly over the years.
So why make two lists that'll look the same mean like if one person has coach X at five, any other one has them at seven, like there's no difference between those two things.
So let's fight.
Let's argue.
Let's see what we can do.
Let's try to get a winner here.
And the cool thing about this too is that there's no defined.
It's not just about titles or wins or what.
No, it's like you can pick based on feelings if you like.
And I like feelings.
Yeah.
So we'll do that.
But I'm excited.
And the cool thing about doing it on three, you know, all the national writers have one conference each is that you also get very opinions and very viewpoints, which I think is actually kind of cool and makes for fun offseason conversation.
But a little competition ever killed anyone.
And there's also one coach who definitely fits in the top coaches in America.
But his team's not a conference.
So people with the right focus, Freeman get a land here.
Yeah.
Okay.
Enough dilly dallying.
Let's figure out who gets number one and who gets our guy.
You know what Andy, since your your name comes first on the show and you've had to deal with a lot of the *** that I've thrown at you the last few weeks with scheduling issues and things, I'll give you the honors of going first.
All right.
Listen, I'm not I'm not turning down by chance.
Yeah.
To take the man who if he had been hired as a power conference head coach when he was 45 or 50 even, we might consider the greatest coach of all time.
Like, can you imagine if the man I'm about to take Kurt Signetti in the end of coach Kurt Signetti number one pick.
Imagine if when he left Alabama.
He had become a power conference head coach within the next few years.
Like would Kurt Signetti versus Nick Sabin at the height of his power has been the greatest rivalry in college football ever.
Yeah.
So I have a lot of thoughts about this.
Okay.
And I don't want the show to be three hours long when I think that there's some things that we should dive into and signety as an interesting person because I have I have one thing to say.
Okay.
Because there there might be two or three people left who are going to keep living.
Pixignetti over Ryan Dane Kirby smart and Marcus Freeman.
I'm going to say this once.
It's all you need to hear.
He won the national title at Indiana.
There's no other argument after that.
Andy, I had the pleasure of getting assigned the big 10 in our five week long journey through the listicles and I put Kurt Signetti number one and granted I understand that I have a lot of Ohio State followers given where I covered in the past.
There was a lot of outrage like more than I anticipated.
Uh, in terms of who should have been number one and I don't know like if there are SEC fans out here that have a few coaches that are rolling their eyes right now.
Like how many people do you think are pushing back at this because if I had the number one pick just for context purposes, I would have taken him to.
So what do you think?
Like do you think college football fans as in general are up to speed with this thought process or do you think you're going to get flack when the graphic comes out?
I think the smart ones are.
I think the *** ones aren't.
He won the national title in Indiana and here's the other thing to say anything else.
I'm the king of analogies and I love analogies.
Sometimes they make sense.
Sometimes they don't.
I don't know.
Icebergs float in the ocean and you see the tip of the iceberg.
But sometimes the iceberg beneath it is massive.
And I'm wondering if Kurt Signetti's head is the tip of the iceberg and we're going to come to find out in 15 years of more context that what he did becomes or is viewed less remarkable later on than it is right now.
Like are we at the beginning of a trend where if you hit the calculations right, you get the three or four good players that you need, not saying that it's not great.
Don't get me wrong.
But if other teams because what because right now it's unprecedented what happened here.
But what if it becomes precedent at one point?
Okay.
I'm going to say one more time.
I'm just pushing back.
I'm just pushing back.
So okay, if somebody was either Purdue, then sure.
I mean, but do you think it's possible that like in eight years the national champion is like, I mean Vanderbilt was really good.
Like it's not like he's the only one that's got like he's gotten over the top.
I think the thing that's most remarkable about this was 10 and 3.
He went 15 and oh Andy, the thing that you're leaving off of your sentence, which really just like, no, just 16 and no.
It's just that he won the national championship at Indiana.
He won it in year two.
And made the playoff in year one.
So like I'm with you.
I'm with you.
I'm just trying to like contextualize this in a way that it's just like, yes, this is the most unbelievable story in the history of sports.
But will it become less unbelievable if other people do what he did?
Because yes, I don't know is, is would Kurt Signetti be Kurt Signetti?
If he had if he landed in Indiana in 2016 and had to recruit high school classes?
Like that's like, so it's like, it's a little bit different the way you build is different now.
And I, and I'm as we draft these, I'm wondering how you're going to weigh.
We'll coaches who have done so many.
If somebody was a national title at Purdue and somebody was a national title at Mississippi State and somebody was a national title like, if that happens in the next 15 years, then I will take all of this back.
We will, we'll do a show.
I'll come at a retirement.
Well, that's not a show.
And I'll say, I'm sorry I was wrong.
These rankings change every year.
So for the time being, this is all the information that we have and this is the correct, this is the correct thing.
Yeah.
He won the national title at Indiana.
Okay.
Let me go now.
And the King of overthinking is not going to overthink this one.
I'll give me a first mark.
I'll give you a choice.
No, no crazy, no crazy curve balls, no weird thought processes here.
Although I did mention last week on an episode, Andy, that I was a little bit wary of where Georgia was headed.
We are talking about the two-time defending SEC champion.
We're talking about a coach who in the old era won two national championships and looked like he was at one point going to be the heir apparent to Nick Saban and the guy who was, and I firmly believe that if the sport didn't change Kirby Smart would have another national title to his name by now.
So, but he's also done a pretty good job if not a great job of keeping Georgia afloat while they're dealing with the changes.
I think there are other coaches that other places who accomplish similar feats during the old era of college football who have failed to keep up.
I think Kirby Smart has done a good job modernizing his program and keeping Georgia at the top.
And I know that I got a lot of flak two weeks ago from my Texas viewpoints, but if I'm taking a coach to lead my program right now.
I cannot believe it's Kirby Smart's the number two overall pick a six months ago.
It's number one without even a second thought.
I am more than comfortable handing over the keys to any program in the country to Kirby Smart right now.
And that's the thing.
I don't think Kirby Smart is on a downswing.
I don't think he's lost his fastball.
I think the game has changed.
There are lots of other teams that can now put together rosters that look like the roster Kirby Smart has.
They are still there.
They are still winning at a very consistent clip.
They're still producing draft picks at a very consistent clip.
So I suspect they will be back in the national title game or hunt.
And if it goes five years and they don't want to play off game or they don't want another national team, we can revisit it.
But I don't I think it's too close.
You can't the SEC is still a very deeply.
The SEC is still a very good league and they've won it two years in a row and a coach that is going to be drafted pretty high on this list at Texas has yet to beat him.
So I'm comfortable with this pick and I think that most people will see that this is the right move.
This next pick is going to be hard for me because there's two guys I feel like really deserve this spot.
And there's different reasons.
I feel like one's degree of difficulty is a slight bit higher but the other ones accomplish more.
I know what the two are and I get a number one overall pick as I knew you were going to have to make this choice.
Yeah.
I'm going to pick Ryan Day.
Okay.
I think Ryan Day it was very hard not to pick Marcus Freeman because I think his degree of difficulty is probably tougher than Ryan Day.
But what Ryan Day has done is really interesting to me because we keep saying you can't make super teams in this era.
You can't do it.
You can't do it.
You can't do it.
Their talent level still above all pretty much everybody else Ohio State still collects talent better than everybody else.
And maybe that tails off as we go, but Ryan Day seems really good at managing this and in the transfer portal era like when he goes and gets somebody out of the portal, they make an impact.
I think Ryan Day is very complicated.
And I think this is a good pick.
But the thing that I don't know about him is twofold one.
How do you feel about the fact that they lose with all the players they've had?
They've lost games with really good, deep teams, two teams that they should not have lost to the last few years, I think.
All some Michigan game is the only one.
And that might have been one of the worst losses in my career for a year.
It is one of the worst losses in Ohio State history.
I agree.
They also won the national title that year.
So I don't, I'm not going to *** Ryan Day because here's the thing.
You can have a really good team, but sometimes you will lose to other really good teams.
That one Michigan game is the one instance where he's lost to a team that he shouldn't lost to.
And the first or a reminder did that more often than he does.
Two other because I just like talking this through and I think I might have taken day to just, you know, for.
Then I struggle with his one.
If you were to hire him at a place that wasn't as built, what would it look like?
Because he did.
I still think it'd be really good.
I, I, because if he'd really been born on third base, like somebody said one time, they wouldn't still be doing this.
They would have never won the national title when they did.
They would have fallen off.
Yeah.
There's still great every single year.
There's still the best team in terms of talent.
Pretty much every single year.
He hasn't fallen off and the thing is he's given, he's been given every excuse to fall off, every reason to fall off because like we just said with Kirby smart, everybody, not everybody.
More people can make a team like you can now.
But more people don't make teams like Ryan Davis.
I just don't think it's possible to be Ohio State's coach and not be in the top five because if you're not, you're fired.
Like I agree with that.
Yeah.
So like that, that, you know, there are a lot of inherent advantages to being Ohio State's coach.
And I don't think that anybody could say that Ryan Day hasn't done the best job of maximizing those things.
I do think, and I think this is also true for Urban Meyer that Ohio State, their ingredients should have equated to more wins in my opinion.
But I also think that I'm probably pretty *** them because I've been there and I've killed over there for a while.
But I think that going with accomplishments in a draft like this is probably more important than theory.
So you're going to go with theory next time and I'm going to agree with most of your theories.
I'm going to tell you that right now.
So the layup here is Marcus Freeman, right?
So yes, those are the two that you were you were battling between with all of the things that I just got done saying about Ohio State and all the advantages that there is to being Ohio State's coach.
Marcus Freeman had his Notre Dame team, a team that had a two decade plus postseason bowl game drought against good teams on the same field as Ohio State in the fourth quarter of the national championship game two years ago.
And I understand that Notre Dame did not make the playoff last year.
I also understand the fact that that like Ryan Day, Marcus Freeman has also had some pretty head scratching losses.
But given what Notre Dame was, and I think you're going to see this as a theme throughout my draft, I have a great appreciation for the coach that evolves the program.
What Notre Dame is today is not what they were when Brian Kelly was still there.
And I know that they haven't broken through and they haven't won the national championship yet.
But if you change the place, it's not too long ago where everybody was like, I don't blame Brian Kelly for leaving Notre Dame.
He got them to the top.
He got them to the best that Notre Dame can be in.
Yeah, we thought he'd gotten into the ceiling and Marcus Freeman proved that wrong.
He's burst through the ceiling that Brian Kelly and he still hasn't crashed through the ceiling that he created, which is national title.
And I think that there are inherent challenges.
And I still a lot of advantages, being at a place that is historically one of the most recognizable brands and all of sports and Notre Dame is a special place.
But I also think that the private school thing and the lifestyle that you have to live while being there is a little bit different than most power five schools, power four schools.
He has turned everything that could have been a negative and to a positive.
He is very young in his career.
I think we forget too that he hasn't been a head coach for very long.
And I think that he has exceeded all expectations tenfold to the point where he could have been an NFL head coach right now.
I would take mark in the thing that I think I would 100% say is I would take Marcus Freeman to build anywhere.
And I think that's what he does will work anywhere.
His degree of difficulty at Notre Dame is probably higher than say Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, Penn State, schools like that.
So I'm with you on that.
That's why the decision was so hard for me, day or Freeman because I think if you put Freeman at Ohio State, he's kicking ***.
Yeah.
And if there ever became a time and I don't know, he would be the ideal candidate for Ohio State's job, depending on the better.
And the other thing too is both of these guys and I think that Ryan Day, maybe less so even because Marcus Freeman was in the throes of actually negotiating and hearing what NFL teams had to say last year there have been thoughts that Ryan Day could potentially test NFL waters at some point in the future too.
So, you know, given what the show that we had last week, Andy, about, you know, what Dusty made that and stuff, maybe we'll come to fruition a little bit faster than it would have maybe otherwise.
But I do think that both of these coaches, depending on your viewpoint, belong in the top four.
And I'm happy we both got one.
So I have a feeling this next round will be an either or for both of us too.
Like if I take this one guy, you're going to take this other guy and vice versa.
They're the same except one's younger.
Am I right?
Okay.
I think we agree.
I think we agree.
I'm going to go with Steve Sarkiesian here.
I'm going to go with Steve Sarkiesian because I watched so much failure at Texas for the 10 years before he got there, which there should be no excuse for, but it seemed unsolvable at the time.
Like, why can't these people make draft picks?
Why are they taking five star talent and churning out eight and four seasons?
What is going on here?
He makes draft picks now.
They make the playoff.
They finish near the top of, at or near the top of their conference now.
Like he's doing all the things you're supposed to do.
Texas has great players every year.
They're getting players drafted really high every year.
Everything you're supposed to do.
Now you just need to finish the drill and win a national title.
But I think, and Steve Sarkiesian's an interesting story because like another guy, one of his former co-workers that will probably wind up on this list somewhere, he's been through it.
He got fired at USC for a reason.
He had to deal with that.
He had to go through the Nick Saban witness protection program.
He came out of better coach on the other side.
And I remember the reaction to what it was when he got hired.
Like how did people react to that?
Remember?
Guys, number one, 10 things.
He ***.
He's a drinking problem.
All the things that people said about him, I think that he has come through the other side, a better man, a better coach, and certainly a better steward for a program.
Like Texas was a dysfunctional, I mean like our genesis of our show is arguing about Texas and why it stinks and why he couldn't get rid of it.
Like that's not.
And they have all the resources and that's what everybody always says.
They have all this stuff.
Okay, they do.
But for whatever reason, people couldn't unlock it.
Mac Brown who actually did unlock it couldn't figure out how to, you know, the door shut and he couldn't figure it, couldn't figure out how to get back in.
And then Charlie Strong couldn't do it.
Tom Herman couldn't do it.
Sark's figured it out.
And that is not easy because it was easy.
One of those other guys would have done it.
Yeah.
Cindy, I'm actually having a crisis for my next pick.
Uh oh, Ives.
And I know that you will take the other one.
Can I ask for help?
There's that faux pas in draft.
Happy to help make my draft better.
What?
I think everybody think that I'm going to take Dan landing and I'm not.
That's what I thought you're going to do.
What about the person who left Oregon?
That's a good choice.
I'm having a hard time.
Well, one made the national title game and the other one hasn't yet.
I'm going to take Mario, Chris, the ball here.
Okay.
Um, Dan landing was my initial gut reaction.
Uh huh.
But then you started talking about having stuff.
And you know, Mario had all that stuff too.
And I think you can make the case that Oregon is better than when Mario was there now, which is what makes this complicated because Dan landing is the coach that took over.
But would would Mario have involved at Oregon the way he evolved at Miami?
Probably.
You'd probably see them in a similar spot.
Both of these places are rich.
And both of these places have done a very good job of recruiting high schoolers and doing the portal very well.
Uh, I got to say as much as I think Oregon has a chance to break through maybe as soon as this year.
Why would I take the potential over the, over the outcomes already?
Like Miami was 40 yards away from winning a national championship last year.
And you want to talk about a dead program?
Like when Mario got there, like everyone was like, if he can't do it, no one can stick a fork in Miami.
It was two long decades of ***.
And he has made that program back into a national power in a relatively short amount of time.
And I don't know if this is going to be controversial.
And I think I would hire Dan landing for any job in America.
I'm obsessed with him.
You know this about me.
But buddy, deep playoff runs and slang narratives is what this is all about.
Dan landing still has to slay those narratives and has to get, and I'm sure he will.
But as we're drafting today on June, whatever day it is, like, I'm taking the guy that was in the national title game last year in the ACC.
They have less money from their league.
They have harder challenges when it comes to keeping players at home and changing the narrative of what they were.
I think they've done all that.
I think they're also going to be awesome in 2026.
Give me Mario, Cristobal.
I'm not going to argue with that.
I'm happy to get Dan landing.
So I would say Dan landing, Oregon coach.
I agree with you.
But I also think Dan landing has a really high ceiling because Miami had, or excuse me, he takes over for Cristobal when Cristobal leaves for Miami.
You saw in game one when they had to play Georgia.
How far he really had to go when he took over that team.
Now you can probably argue that they still had that far to go after the semi-final game against Indiana last year.
But I see what they've done in terms of building the roster, in terms of producing NFL players, in terms of success over seasons that only lose games they're not supposed to lose.
When they lose this to somebody really good.
So he's going to break through.
He will break through.
They've lost the eventual national champ each of the past two seasons.
The breakthrough is coming.
He is soon as this year.
Look at Oregon's roster.
They're stacked.
I get the Texas is too.
Ohio State is too.
Georgia is too.
But Oregon is right there with everybody else.
Now they've got the veteran quarterback.
He's built it very similar to how Kirby Smart built it.
A lot of the same questions that have come a long way, but he just keeps knocking on the door.
Yeah.
I agree with all of that.
The worst part about my pick was letting you get Sark and landing back to back.
And I fear what that's going to do to the graphic.
I see.
I think Chris is really good choice.
I think if we look at some of the other people have ranked it, people are still, I think people still maybe a little more down on Chris the ball than they should be because of I saw enough history.
I don't know.
Yeah, I saw enough.
I think so here's where I will back your pick.
I also think Dan landing knows how to build a roster in this era, but I think Mario Cristobal has kind of given everybody else the blueprint on how to do it with homegrown recruiting and portal recruiting.
Like his, his mixture is the best formula that we've seen so far.
Yeah.
And by the way, might have laid some of the blueprint too for for landing at Oregon of like how he was like.
Definitely question was definitely like building teams the same exact way while he was.
Yeah, because this is the news.
Yeah, it was 20 end of 2021 going into 22 that they, they switched.
And so it wasn't like, it wasn't like now where if you leave the whole team goes with you, like it didn't work that way.
Yeah.
Planning benefited quite a bit from what Chris the ball had been doing at Oregon.
So I'm with you.
Okay.
So forward before we go to the next pick.
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Okay, Ari who is your next selection?
Let's get weird.
I'm going to go lane kippin here.
I was hoping you forget him.
I would not forget how could I forget him.
He's literally been the balls of our show for the last six months.
I think this is a risk and I have been falling back on accomplishments more so than potential.
And I think that there are other player, I mean other coaches that will come on this list that have more concrete proven assets on their resume than lane does.
He has yet to win a power conference as a head coach and he has yet to break through on the biggest stages.
That said, he has unequivocally proven in my mind that he can not only fair well in this, but excel in this new landscape of college football.
He's a great portal master.
He's a good evaluator and the best thing that he does is take a bunch of new pieces together to put them together and make a functional meal.
I think he's going to do that with LSU.
I don't know if it's going to be this year, Andy, but given what we know, his skill set is and the resources that LSU is going to give him to back through it.
I think it's inevitable that they're going to win a national title.
He set on the podcast last week that I wrote about that he's going to win when I LSU, like I found out to be believable.
This might be a list that looks a little funky to some people and they see it on Monday or Tuesday, but what I do know is that in three years it's going to age well, I think.
I'm with you on this.
He lifted, because I do think degree of difficulty has to be accounted for here.
He lifted all of this to a place that they'd ever really been before.
Yes, Pete Golding coached the two playoff wins.
That's fine.
We don't have to give Lane credit for that, but we can give Lane credit for getting him.
He got all missed the playoff.
He turned all missing to one of the best programs in the SEC.
When Matt Luke got fired, the idea of whoever came next turning them into one of the best programs in the SEC would have sounded crazy.
He did an amazing job.
And like Sarkisian, you have to kind of separate the early part of the career from the latter stage of the career.
He learned quite a bit.
Yeah.
And then came out a different coach.
The thing that scares me with him is that if this was a rankings of people I would hire first, I don't know if that would impact me because I do think that he has a tendency to create a scene.
And I'm not sure that that's something I would want to sign up for.
But what I do know is that if you win a national title, they can like the place on fire or start over again later.
Those titles live forever.
LSU is playing for keeps here.
And I think that while I thought everything was a circus that happened, like I totally understand LSU's viewpoint on this and the investment in the roster and the coach and the buyout, all the things that they've had to do, they're doing because they want a title.
And I think that they have all the assets, including the head coach in order to accomplish that and say what you want about him.
You might not like him.
You might.
He elevated Ole Miss and he illustrated some of the same things that we were talking about with Sarkeesian and some of the coaches that were drafted higher.
And now he's at a big boy place.
So I think that's going to probably bowed well for people in Baton Rouge here in the next few years.
So with my number five pick, I am going with the veteran, the veteran presence, a guy who's done it, who's been around the block a few times.
I'm afraid.
But like some of the other people we've talking about, degree of difficulty matters, where you are matters, what your opportunity is now matter.
You just talk about Lane Kiffin.
Lane Kiffin's expectations at LSU were different than Lane Kiffin's expectations where it Ole Miss.
But we saw him do something at Ole Miss that gives us the idea that he can do great things at LSU.
I know who it is.
I am selecting Kyle Wittingham of Michigan with my number five pick.
Kyle Wittingham did things at Utah that we didn't think would be possible.
Now he goes to a place where the expectations are higher, the resources are much better, and he's expected to win national titles, or compete for national titles.
And probably right away, probably not any grace period here with Kyle Wittingham.
And look, he's in his 60s.
He probably doesn't expect a grace period.
So I am fascinated by this.
And I know I've said this a bunch of times on the show since the move was made.
I cannot believe Utah ran him off.
Now maybe that will make me look *** if he doesn't actually do it.
Yeah, yeah.
Just have girls here.
Sure.
If he was Utah's head coach right now, would you have drafted him here?
Probably not.
And that was something.
It would have been close to this.
It would have been right around this.
Because that was a big one.
I had him in the top five of my Big Ten rankings and people were like, "Oh, so a guy just shows up at a big brand and you just give him all the credit in the world."
And I think that there is a level of projection.
That coach for 21 years.
I know.
I think there's a level of projection here because you're counting on his past of those 21 years to tell you what's going to happen next.
And I think Michigan's a very interesting thing.
You're pretty freaking good last year.
I mean, breaking through and going all the way or being a deep run in the playoff, they were very good.
He is very good.
I'm not pushing back at you.
No, no, no.
You're right.
There's projection here, but he's never had a roster like this.
So we got to take swings in this thing.
You can't just go with everybody else's list.
All right.
Can I swing then?
Yeah.
You ready?
I think it's a good pick.
I think that that.
I'm getting somebody that I'm obsessed with.
And then I just, I think it's going to be good.
It has been good.
I'm going Mike Elko here.
Is that a reach?
Is that a reach?
No, that's a good one.
That's a good one.
Um, every single thing that comes out of this man's mouth, I agree with.
And that's like not, and that's not very typical for me because my brain doesn't operate properly.
But let's be honest with you, each other.
He's already done what Jim Bo Fisher, a national championship winning head coach could not do.
He has broken through.
He got Texas A&M into the playoff.
And frankly, as bad as it seemed when we were on a college station that day, off of no sleep, they played a team that went to the national championship game down to the wire there.
Like they were, yeah, they were all the way to the end of the chance to win the game.
He is 12 and four in the SEC in two seasons.
His teams are becoming progressively more talented.
Although I know this year's kind of a question mark when it comes to the eggs.
I just think that Mike Elko gets it.
And I think part of the reason why he gets it, Andy, is because he has such a wealth of experience at all different types of places.
You know, like he's been in the SEC.
He's been at Duke.
He's been at lower levels.
He's in the IBS, I think, right?
Like he went to Penn, but he's been at bowling green.
He's been everywhere.
He's been everywhere.
FCS.
He's been in a lot of places.
And I just, I feel like A&M is a very complicated place.
It's not like everywhere else.
And I know that when they hired him, there was a big circus around, you know, Mark Stoops and all the stuff that happened there too.
And A&M has spent a lot of money doing some dumb things in the past.
And I think that that Mike Elko might be the most functional thing that A&M has done in a long time.
And I think that he epitomizes that place in a way that I'm not sure people who even went there understood.
And I think he's done a tremendous job.
A&M is one of those teams that is on the cusp of trying to break through.
A&M has been the *** of jokes for years and years and years.
We talk about battered Aggie syndrome.
I think he's putting a rest to that.
They're different right now.
And that might not manifest this year, but I think that Texas A&M is going to have a team that makes a deep playoff run during his tenure in the next few years.
And I am very happy to buy stock in this man, even if it's a little early and a little high on this list.
I think that's a very good choice.
The next choice I'm going to make, I think, is going to be kind of a lightning rod.
Okay.
This guy's done some really great things already.
Okay.
We're not sure about the job he's in right now.
We're not sure how well he's performing.
So I think if he were somewhere else, we would be more sure about him.
That's Kaylen Abor.
Oh, I thought you were taking somebody else.
I wasn't ready for that.
If it was the person I thought you were going to take, I was going to freak out, but I think this makes sense.
So Kaylen Abor takes Washington to a national title.
Was excellent there.
Was good at Fresno State.
Two years at Alabama.
He just misses the playoff year one.
He makes the playoff year two wins a game on the road in the playoff in year two.
Had Penn State and Michigan wanting to hire him.
Alabama wanting to keep him.
And then they get blown out by Indiana.
And it's like, are you sure?
And I remember we said this because all of that stuff was going back and forth.
The Michigan stuff was happening.
You knew that they'd agreed to an extension in Alabama and raised Alabama.
And I said after they lost the Rose Bowl, watch everybody freak out when they announced this extension and everybody did.
Everybody did because he's not Nick Sabin.
Well, nobody's Nick Sabin.
Maybe Cignetti would have been Nick Sabin.
I don't know, but he's not Nick Sabin.
He's still a really good coach.
And you like, think about the guys we've been talking about.
If you, if you're in your first two years in the SEC, you go nine and three and then, and then 10 and two and you make the SEC championship game in year two at seven and one in the league.
Like, we're taking that.
We're taking that.
Yeah.
I do think it is funny with him how current location messes with the signals for what should be proper.
It should be easy.
Right.
It's more difficult because of the job that he took.
And I think that I give him credit for taking that job knowing those signals will be mixed.
Like I think he knew that this would be more complicated than what have you done and what were I give him credit for that, especially because he could have stayed at Washington and been a hero there forever and not been under the street chose this and he gets my respect for that.
All right.
Let's see what's next here.
This is, this is starting to get difficult.
And I think that we are going to start.
Yeah, because there's a lot of, is this are we picking them for what they can do now and going forward or are we picking them for what they've already done?
Yeah.
I'm going to go with somebody that I've just always really admired.
I'm going to go with Kalani Sataki here.
Good.
And I don't know if it's the sexiest pick.
Obviously, BYU has had a kind of a glass ceiling when it comes to tacking some of the more talented teams in the country the last few years.
But there are 23 and 4 over the last two seasons.
They've been in the big 12 championship both years.
And I get a lot of credit too because like stability and culture at a place like BYU, excuse me, you would think would be easier because of the honor code and those things that people sign up for.
But the types of athletes that you can bring in is much more limited than anywhere else.
And a year ago at this time, they lost their quarterback and Jake Retz left and then they go back to the big 12 championship after their program was blown up by the honor code violation.
Like there's a reason why this guy was the prime or first candidate for Penn State's job when it opened.
And I know that there's always going to be location issues as it pertains to how we perceive someone.
We just got them talking about how that impacts Kalan Bore.
I think it impacts Sataki in the same way.
He has not made the playoff yet.
But I don't think it's out of the question that if BYU continues to have this mentality, that hard-nosed thing that just drives BYU to win.
Like here's the other thing too.
I don't have any stats off the top of my head.
But BYU knows how to win close games, man.
Every time they're in a close game, they figure out a way to come out on top.
And you want to know something when it comes to actual like X's and O's coaching and mentality.
Like a lot of times I think that coaching shows up in the margins.
And those margins are what determine games.
Like I would hire this guy anywhere in the country and I would know exactly what I'm getting.
And I think it would have been a great hire for Penn State.
I understand that there's like geographical differences and culture differences and all those things.
But what he's done at a place that has more challenges maybe than anyone else in the country.
I don't think you could speak enough about how awesome he's done.
So I had to do the ACC rankings when we ranked the coaches.
My next selection would be the guy I took at number two in the ACC behind Mario Cristobal.
James Franklin.
And he's either going to make me look great or *** here.
Because either last year was the anomaly.
And Penn State should have been more patient.
Or last year was the sign of something.
I'm going to say last year was the anomaly and it's back to the guy who won nine games two years in row at Vanderbilt, who was consistently winning double digit games at Penn State who didn't quite get over the Ohio State Michigan ***.
But upgraded Penn State's talent, upgraded their expectations.
And now he's at a place where their star for wins.
If you win 10 games there, they'll love you forever.
I think James Franklin is actually probably in a spot where this suits his personality pretty well.
I have a theory.
This suits the chip on the shoulder mentality.
Maybe even better than Penn State.
I have a theory about James Franklin.
And I think that the remedy for this theory is a fresh start, which is what he has.
I think that James Franklin was ultimately swallowed by the narratives that defined him.
I think that his team's the shoulder, the burden and the pressures of not being able to top top five teams.
And I actually think that last year when they had *** on the ropes at home and they ended up losing early on in the season, that's something within that roster, that team that locker room snapped.
And that they couldn't just deal with that anymore, even though they still had their entire season ahead of them, like it was just like the last straw, I felt like.
And you want to know where that's not going to exist.
Virginia Tech.
Virginia Tech.
So I think that this is a pretty good pick.
And now I'm going to move on and I'm going to do something that I'm unsure of.
You mentioned that you did the ACC.
And I don't recall off the top of my head where you ranked this person.
I bet I ranked him number three.
But you're telling me that what are we in?
I have, this is my seventh pick.
So four, you know, seventh round here, eighth round.
I'm going to go ahead and take the coach that's one to national titles.
I'm going to take Davos Weeney and I understand the risks involved in this.
I understand that things seem to be coming to a head in Clemson.
Last year was an absolute nightmare for him and his program and their fans.
But I have not given up because they had a team in this era that produced eight draft picks.
So he has already proven to me that at least he can assemble a roster with good players.
I would be more alarmed if they went seven and six with bad players, although that makes no sense because it's a coaching malfunction.
But like, do you think that's very important?
I really just forgot how to coach.
Do we think that he forgot how to coach games?
I thought he forgot how to build a roster.
But I think this is kind of a value play and this might look bad in a few years.
I don't know where things are headed.
But give me a person that I have utmost respect for, a person that did something that very few coaches on this list have done anywhere.
And I will just do my best that this doesn't age poorly.
But I think that from a value standpoint, not taking him this late in the draft, I'll take him and put him on my list.
Yeah.
And that's the thing.
He still has a good roster.
I did the ACC playoff picture last week.
I put Clemson in there as a serious contender because the roster looks like a playoff roster still.
Yeah.
And I think that there's a case to be made that if we're going to do a 10 round draft and we have 20 coaches, like I don't think it's unforgivable to not take him at all.
Like if you were a person who said, I have all the respect for this guy in the world, but I just don't think he can do it anymore.
I think that you have a case to make.
Certainly, but I just, you know, some people might have taken him in the top three because of what he's done.
And I think accomplishments come into play here, but he's one of the very, what's he, one of two active head coaches with multiple national titles?
Yeah.
Like I'm in charge of getting seventh round.
I'll take it.
So, you know, we'll see how it goes, but very complicated pick.
And I felt for you when you had to do the ACC rankings because you had a few coaches in there like, like, dabbo, and Bill Bella, unfortunately, that I had to put the other.
Yeah.
I know for you on that, but, you know, I'll take the heat, but I think this is a rational place for him.
Well, I'm going to go with the guy who had right behind him in the ACC rankings.
And this is a guy who's charging up fast.
He's only been a head coach for three years.
The first year he won his league.
The second year he made the conference championship game.
In the first two years in a new league, his team is 14 and two in conference play.
She down the street for me.
S and U's right.
Lashley.
That's exactly right.
Yeah.
I think right last, he might be a pretty *** good head coach.
I think he may, he may be a natural at the whole head coaching thing.
Listen, they are a last minute drive at Cal last year away from making the ACC championship for both years there in the league.
They shouldn't have messed that up.
They should have played for the ACC.
They probably would have won it.
Maybe.
I mean, I don't know if they would have beaten Virginia, but they would have made playoff if they could have gotten in there and beaten Virginia.
So he was on our show a few weeks ago.
He says this is probably his best team at SMU yet.
And I believe them too.
And like the whole financial thing is so interesting because they have a lot of money, but they're not getting a lot from the ACC right now.
If they're getting anything from the ACC, they said they wouldn't need it.
And somehow is continued to put together a really good team.
I like that pick.
All right, Andy, this is kind of a chess move pick, but also I think very undervalued.
Maybe because this kind of goes, you know, in line with how his career is played out.
But if you're going to take Kyle Whittingham as high as you are, don't do it.
I was hoping you forget this.
Who am I going to take?
Matt Campbell.
Yeah.
Dang it.
He's the best coach in Iowa State history.
Yes.
How many coaches on the list above him are the best coach in any program's history?
Probably not that many, right?
Right.
Right.
Now he's going to a place that like Whittingham is going to give him all the things that he needs.
I think you can make the case that Penn State's probably even more impatient than Michigan at the moment to get back to prominence given what they just did.
I think Pat Eager is a good indication of what's to come.
And they found him and they put their trust in him with a lot of Iowa State players coming with him to do that.
Now I don't know what it's going to look like this year.
I think he has a chance to get some really good early returns because they're schedule is favorable.
But Matt Campbell has accomplished so much at a place that I think Iowa State probably, and you might agree with this, is a harder job than Utah.
And he did it with such grace, such class and such success and consistency and much that.
Now you're putting him at one of the three or four most expectation heavy programs in the big 10.
I will take Matt Campbell and I will think I'm going to label that the steel of the draft so far.
I think so.
I'm going to take a guy who grew up right down the street from you.
Okay.
Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham.
Look over an absolute dumpster fire.
The end of the her med words era at Arizona State was as bad as it gets.
The roster had to be completely flipped.
He comes in.
He wins the big 12 in year two.
Last year they go six and three in big 12 play, even though they lost.
Same level halfway through the season.
Three.
Jeff Sims is a starter.
George Tech fans and Nebraska fans.
Let that sink in or anybody who has eyeballs.
Yeah.
Let that sink in.
This man can coach was the only game that Texas tech lost in commerce play last year with Arizona State.
They lost Arizona State.
Yeah.
Who had Texas on the ropes and peach bull.
I believe there would be errors on the state.
Yeah.
And there's a reason why he was a candidate or at least was linked to the Michigan job wouldn't open.
And here's the best part.
When he was retained at Arizona State and he made a plea to get a huge influx of capital.
And that one person could change the program.
He got that money.
So I'm very excited to see.
He donated 10 million bucks.
He's like, he got the money, which is the most ***'s the whole thing ever.
But good for him.
And I'm excited to see Arizona State.
We talk about places that are different now than than when a person got there.
Arizona State is certainly different.
And I think that's a good pick.
Okay, my turn.
River strike up the music, baby.
Strike it up.
You know who it is.
Ball for life.
I'm going to take Josh Hyple.
Tennessee when eight and five last year.
And like, would you say that's the best coaching job that he's done during his time there maybe?
Like, could you make that case?
Considering what happened with Nico?
Like, I don't know.
I don't know.
They could have been defense matters too.
And they didn't do that very well.
Yeah, I know.
What I thought they were going to do.
He's done a great job.
He lifted them out of a deep, deep dark hole.
Yeah.
Does anybody argue with this statement?
Tennessee is better off and better than they were before his arrival.
I think that like without a hard question is I think he did it faster than people thought he would, which I think also is making it harder for him.
But I think that Tennessee has become consistently tough.
They have made the college football playoff already, which is important to at least acknowledge.
And now they're at this place where they're hoping to break through again and not only reach the college football playoff, but do it more successfully.
Although they were on the train track.
So the wrong team when they did make it.
I think he's done a remarkable job.
I think he's been tough put in tough positions and navigated those positions pretty well.
I thought getting Joey Aguilar in the portal last year and him performing the way that he did to the point where they were even interested in coming back for another year is a pretty good sign of being able to make things work when put in a tough position.
I think he's done a very good job and I think he's proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that Tennessee is lucky to have him.
I'm very curious because I think that he's one of these coaches that's also in an interesting cross section of his tenure because of the early results and kind of how things have gone the last few years.
I think they need a big year again, but I can't imagine that there's a Tennessee fan out there that isn't happy.
He's a coach right now.
I'm going to go with the longest tenured coach in the FPS.
I was wondering if this was going to happen.
Kirk Farence.
Now, I think we could argue that if Kirk Farence was a little more creative offensively or willing to let somebody be a little more creative offensively, then he'd even won even more games.
But if we talk about the degree of difficulty at Iowa recruiting to Iowa, especially in the old days, and the amount he's won and the consistency with which he's won and the consistency with which his teams play, he has to be on this list.
He has to be here somewhere.
Yeah.
It is interesting because I have a bunch of options in my last pick.
A lot of which have very strong ties to previous success.
And I think in terms of consistency over decades, like Kirk Farence is without question done that.
But I also feel like you have to buy into the future and like I just don't know if Iowa is going to ever be better than they were last year.
So you know, that's what they were only eight and four last year.
Yeah.
I know, but I think eight and four was a pretty good year for that.
The thing is the four lost, they gave, they gave some good teams *** in three of those four losses.
Yeah, they almost beat Indiana.
I think all four of those losses off the top of my head Andy were one possession games.
Yeah.
Almost a lead in almost the USC.
The Iowa State Games, the sort of unforgivable one.
Yeah.
But you know, in terms of, you know, competing at the highest of high levels, I'm not sure that's in the cards dry.
We're moving forward, which is what they're repos, but in terms of like resume and like decades of consistency, there's, I mean, there's a reason he's the longest tenure coach in college football.
Yeah.
I think it's a good pick.
I also have like 17 options right now.
And I don't know what to do because.
Okay, I'm not taking him, but Lincoln Riley kind of probably kind of been drafted, right?
Like I, yes.
Yes.
But I, I don't know that I'm.
He builds Heisman quarterbacks.
Like yeah.
And Jayne Mayava, his current quarterback is one of the best quarterbacks in college football.
Like Lincoln Riley, it's always going to be, can he ever have a good enough defense?
And, you know, I think he was taught in the country on everyone's list four years ago.
I know.
But he's had all the resources of USC and he's not been able to make the playoff with them.
Um, you know who I'm going to go with.
Hmm.
***, Eli Drinkwood's Jeff Brahms.
He's a fire.
Willie Fritz.
Willie Fritz.
Yeah.
Um, help me with my last pick Andy.
Who do you think I should pick?
You can't do that.
Don't help me.
Can I give you one?
Can I give you a guy that has one really big at one place?
Did okay at another, but then it fell off and is now turn to place that we didn't think was going to be able to win consistently into it.
One of the better periods that it's had in history.
Mm hmm.
Brett Belamo.
Uh, Brett Belamo would be under consideration.
Know who I'm taking though.
Who you got?
Brent Fennables.
Good choice.
I was wondering if we're going to get him because I think the job he did last year was pretty incredible.
And I just got River's text that says you have to take Fennables.
Uh, that was, uh, oh, he said that.
He, he texted to me personally and I just, what was that?
Was that like a, you have to take Fennables because that's the graphic package I have Q. I don't know what that means.
He just believes it.
I didn't do it.
I drafted him before I saw it.
So, uh, it worked out.
But how much is it only head coach experience?
This man was one of the best coordinators in college football for over a decade.
What?
And I would argue he still is.
Yeah.
You, I mean, I mean, it's his defense.
It's like, maybe I'm, Clemson was partially Clemson because of this man.
Like, like, so it's not.
He wasn't the head coach in Davos.
We need gets to absorb most of the shine.
It's not just that Oklahoma made the playoff last year.
And I think they're one of the most under appreciated coaches in college football heading into the year.
And you pointed this out.
What happened the year before is that we want to know what was the real one?
Was it the 24 Brent Vennables or the 25 rent Vennables?
Which is the real Brent Vennables?
What should we expect going forward more often?
24 or 25?
And I think that's like if it's 25, he's way too low.
Here's what I do know.
There was nobody under more pressure coming into last season than Brent Vennables.
And they made some investments in the quarterback.
They're, they're offence a coordinator with Ben Arbuckle.
They brought in.
They made the changes they needed to make from 24 in order to live up to those expectations in 25.
I think it's inherently difficult.
There are other coaches that came in last year that had similar expectations and failed to meet them because I think it's easy to crumble under the pressure.
I think you deserve some credit for answering the bell when you're in a winner go home scenario when they did that.
And they have a lot of potential to schedule too.
Yeah.
And the toughest, what we thought was the toughest schedule at the time in the country.
Nevertheless, they did enough and won enough to get into the CFP.
Now I do think that there are some strides that need to be made.
I think they need to be more competitive in the Red River game.
Like they can't keep playing Texas the way that they've been playing them.
They have to, you know, obviously beat them, but they have to be more competitive when they do.
And I think that, you know, last year with the Dr. Steven Shin situation in the hands surgery and all that stuff.
That's my favorite bit of last year.
But like I think that like that, not everything's been perfect.
They've had a lot of injuries the year before they lost their entire receiver room.
Like, you know, it hasn't been easy for him.
And I think that in the SEC, you can get swallowed up by expectations, by fan expectation, all the things that happen around you.
And I think that he did a pretty good job traversing that last year.
And I think this is a team that can make back to back CFP.
So I'll gladly take it with my last pick.
That is excellent.
This was a lot of fun.
Yeah.
We'll throw the graphic out everyone who yelled us.
We are on vacation at the moment.
JD Pekelle is going to be filling in on Wednesday and Friday of this week.
And we know how much fun his show is produced for River.
How are we doing?
What's up guys?
I think we need to read off this final list for the podcast listeners.
I'm also going to take this Andy and calling dibs now.
I'm going to make this our official Indian Ari on three top 25 or top 20.
There's 20.
I was going to say top 20.
Yeah.
Okay.
I'm just like, I'm going to transcribe the draft and just say here's how we perfect.
I love it.
I don't work.
All right.
Andy, you had the first pick and you started off with Kurt Signati at Indiana, Ryan Day at Ohio State, Steve Sarkies in Texas, Dan landing at Oregon, Kyle Whittingham at Michigan, Kalen DeBoard, Alabama, James Franklin at Virginia Tech, SMU's Retlashley, Kenny Dillingham at Arizona State and Iowa's Kirk Farons.
Ari, this is your team.
You have the second pick.
Kirby, smart Georgia, Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame, Mario, Chris, Abal, Miami, Lane Kiffin at LSU, Mike Elco at Texas A&M, Kalani, Sataki at BYU, Davos, Swini at Clemson, Matt Campbell, Penn State, Josh Hyple at Tennessee and Brent Minibles at Oak, Oklahoma.
And that's the list.
I think we both did good.
I don't know.
I should not be embarrassed.
I always like doing this.
I think I think people will be furious at both of us for various reasons because hey, this happens when you rank things.
I don't feel like I made any catastrophic mistakes, which I think is good for somebody who's in the side.
You didn't overthink it this time.
Yeah.
Sand landing one was a maybe it overthought, but I thought you I thought you reasoned that out very well.
And I think that they're going to be probably a 50/50 split among the people listening and watching as to which one you should have picked.
And there's you got to flip a coin there.
You got to pick one of them.
It's at that point.
Yeah.
So, but allowing you to have the Steve Sarkeesian landing back to back combo like from a graphics standpoint, I'm not sure that's going to play well.
I feel pretty good about getting Matt Campbell, Hype and Venables all at the end there.
So, they're a lot of good coaches out there.
Like we left Willie Fritz on the board.
We left Lincoln Riley on the board.
So there's there's a lot out there.
Guys, we'll be back next week.
Media day start next week.
Nine months sprint for your old pals, Andy and Ari.
We won't leave you again.
So just hopefully it doesn't happen then.
Pray for her.
Pray for Ari.
Happy 4th July.
Happy 250th birthday.
America.
I love that holiday.
Enjoy the hot dog eating contest.
It's going to be spectacular.
Guys, we'll talk to you.
Very soon.
Bye.
Bye.
(upbeat music)
