Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal.
Speaker 2: Holl that for me. I'm a man, I'm forty. I've
Speaker 2: heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy.
Speaker 1: You want to be happy for a day a of steak?
Speaker 2: Is that?
Speaker 1: Whoo whoo and them and tie hey, everybody, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the solid verbal. And it is. It's not signing day,
Speaker 1: but it's not only early so it's kind of signing day,
Speaker 1: but it's signing period. But there's an official signing day
Speaker 1: in early February. I don't know. I don't know if
Speaker 1: anybody truly actually knows. But in instances like this, when
Speaker 1: we bring on Brandon Hoffman, that's just what we do
Speaker 1: from twenty four to seven sports two four seven or
Speaker 1: twenty four to seven, twenty four to seven works.
Speaker 2: I feel like that's what I do, is do this
Speaker 2: recruiting gig twenty four day? How many days? Seven days
Speaker 2: in the week, twenty four See, that's that's what it is.
Speaker 2: Now your saving period.
Speaker 1: Yep, it's a signing period. We are recording this the
Speaker 1: day after you have eaten, slept, and presumably drank recruiting
Speaker 1: for these past few hours. He's showing off his coffee mug.
Speaker 1: If you're watching the video version of this. Okay, so
Speaker 1: it's Jackson State and Travis Hunter is the headline because
Speaker 1: of how unusual and knew that situation is coupled with
Speaker 1: how nil has begun in college football. Did you have
Speaker 1: any inkling leading up that this was a possibility? Was
Speaker 1: this anything on your radar whatsoever? And when you saw it?
Speaker 1: What was your reaction?
Speaker 2: So I got this question asked a couple times yesterday.
Speaker 2: It's just the biggest shocker. I mean, it doesn't even
Speaker 2: have any competition. The closest I could imagine and think
Speaker 2: of was when the Anthony Thomas flip from USC to
Speaker 2: Oregon in twenty eleven. That was you know, there was
Speaker 2: still three days. I think there was the Sunday the
Speaker 2: legendary message board post of the guy who saw him
Speaker 2: at the airport coming back from a visit, and then
Speaker 2: over the next couple of days there was a lot
Speaker 2: of talking is the Anthony Thomas going to go to
Speaker 2: organ or to stick with you a c That was big.
Speaker 2: The next year, I remember Deontay Greenberry flipping from Notre
Speaker 2: Dame to Houston on signing day. You know, d Anthony Thomas,
Speaker 2: he was the number one player on the West Coast,
Speaker 2: and at the time Oregon was a month off of
Speaker 2: playing for the National title s he was still in probation,
Speaker 2: so that makes sense. The next year, Deontay Greenberry leaving
Speaker 2: Notre Dame, which you know, Brian Kelly hadn't quite gotten
Speaker 2: it going Houston was just coming off of Kevin Sutherland's
Speaker 2: big season when he went to A and M. Still,
Speaker 2: it made a little bit of sense when the first
Speaker 2: text that we got in our group thread yesterday about
Speaker 2: Jackson State potentially being where Travis Hunter ended up and
Speaker 2: that he had scrubbed Florida State from Did I just
Speaker 2: say President State.
Speaker 1: Sorry, Florida State? Yeah, this season, Yeah, he.
Speaker 2: Had scrubbed the Florida State stuff from his Instagram, So
Speaker 2: of course I'm an old guy. I go to Twitter,
Speaker 2: there were still Florida State stuff there. Then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden you started to see it really taking over
Speaker 2: social media. Five ten minutes later, the first I think
Speaker 2: Steve Wilcom finally mentioned it on CDs Sports HQ, and
Speaker 2: that's when it became real. Yeah, it took a go,
Speaker 2: you know, a good thirty forty minutes to wrap our
Speaker 2: heads around, like did a kid just really decommit from
Speaker 2: Florida State to go to Jackson State. And the answer
Speaker 2: to that was yes, yes.
Speaker 1: He did put into context who Travis Hunter is both
Speaker 1: within this class and during your time following recruiting. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you don't know exactly how good any of these guys
Speaker 1: are because they're playing against highchool kids, but you're projecting.
Speaker 1: You're in the job of projecting and seeing how a
Speaker 1: kid develops. Is there a corner who is comparable? I
Speaker 1: was seeing a lot of like he is the highest
Speaker 1: rated corner or athlete or anything in the history of
Speaker 1: the twenty four to seven two four seven rating system.
Speaker 1: It was was that true to your eyes? Is he
Speaker 1: you know? Is he Patrick Peterson?
Speaker 2: Is he like?
Speaker 1: Who is he historically?
Speaker 2: Like? Is he?
Speaker 1: Does he have a comp or is he a guy
Speaker 1: sort of standing alone?
Speaker 3: I think that the comp that I saw, So I
Speaker 3: saw him in February out of the Pylon seven on
Speaker 3: seven in Mulitz and he was playing receiver but also
Speaker 3: played some dB when I watched him.
Speaker 2: This is going to kind of sound like a crazy
Speaker 2: comparison because their body tests are so different, but he
Speaker 2: was a little bit like watching the Dori Jackson with
Speaker 2: the way he could float, flip his hips.
Speaker 1: But he actually could cover right.
Speaker 2: And then it was like watching Jalen Ramsey with his
Speaker 2: ball skills and his coverage ability. So imagine Jalen Ramsey
Speaker 2: moving around like a Dori Jackson or Dori Jackson moving
Speaker 2: around like Jalen Ramsey. That's what Travis Hunter was. And
Speaker 2: I mean I've seen the Marquis Lee types, the Juju Smith's,
Speaker 2: guys that were receivers that could have probably been star
Speaker 2: safety's Keenan Allen. Then he saw some guys that played
Speaker 2: safety that could have been star receivers. I firmly believe
Speaker 2: Travis Hunter could be the best receiver in the country
Speaker 2: in this class. But he has such a unique style
Speaker 2: to his game that he's going to be a lockdown
Speaker 2: NFL corner after being a lockdown what is it slack
Speaker 2: CS corner. But I would say Jalen Ramsey to me
Speaker 2: was probably the closest com just in terms of the
Speaker 2: things that he can do as a dB. They're just
Speaker 2: so unique, so rare.
Speaker 1: The things that I mean, Look, we have all the
Speaker 1: coaching changes, so that's going to be fascinating. We can
Speaker 1: get into some of that and how the calculus has
Speaker 1: changed with basically no time to recruit for a new school.
Speaker 1: But fascinating to me was also what's happening in Texas
Speaker 1: right now because what Jimbo Fisher was able to do
Speaker 1: and I think he brings over the longtime Georgia recruiting
Speaker 1: coordinator and he sort of spearheaded efforts and improved efforts
Speaker 1: at Texas A and M. And obviously what Texas was
Speaker 1: able to do with Sarks first full recruiting cycle. I
Speaker 1: don't know if either one of those stood out to
Speaker 1: you in terms of a surprise the heights that they reached,
Speaker 1: or the types of kids, or if they're new types
Speaker 1: that the school wasn't necessarily getting. What was the more
Speaker 1: interesting story to you between those two schools this cycle.
Speaker 2: Well, I think for me it would have to be
Speaker 2: Texas A and M because we know they've been able
Speaker 2: to recruit at an elite level. They did it under
Speaker 2: Kevin Sumlin when they first got into the SEC. What
Speaker 2: I think was the most impressive was and it reminds
Speaker 2: me now again, if you're a Texas A and NFN,
Speaker 2: turn your head. I don't want to scare you, but
Speaker 2: it reminds me a little bit of the twenty ten
Speaker 2: Florida class that, of course a lot of people say
Speaker 2: is what ultimately caused all the heart problems Urban Meyer had.
Speaker 2: But you know, he was getting guys from all over
Speaker 2: the country, going up into New York to get guys
Speaker 2: going to Pennsylvania, coming out to California, staying in Florida,
Speaker 2: and truly Florida went national that year with its d
Speaker 2: line recruitment. Now you look at this class, this is
Speaker 2: one of the best defensive line classes I've ever seen.
Speaker 2: You got Walter Nolan from Tennessee, you got Gabriel Brown,
Speaker 2: Lodindi from Florida, you got any from Pennsylvania. So again
Speaker 2: that's where the Florida similar is kind of are similar.
Speaker 2: Anthony Luca is from Arizona, and you got the fifth
Speaker 2: best defensive alignment in that class is a kid from
Speaker 2: their own state. And you know he's the number twelve
Speaker 2: player in the state of Texas. But that's the fifth
Speaker 2: best defensive lineman in Texas A and M side signed
Speaker 2: in Malik Celia. So you look at what Texas A
Speaker 2: and M has done on a national level. We're used
Speaker 2: to Texas A and M recruiting well in the state
Speaker 2: of Texas. But to see them, you know, I mean, shoot,
Speaker 2: this is the other crazy thing. They you know, one
Speaker 2: of them is a kicker, but they got an offensive
Speaker 2: lineman and a kicker from the state of Washington. What
Speaker 2: is Texas A and m ever really recruited the.
Speaker 1: Northwest other than Scott Woodward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there you go than Scott Woolward. You know,
Speaker 2: it's it's in I mean you just look at this
Speaker 2: class and you see, yeah, it's still its strength is
Speaker 2: in Texas, but a good chunk of their class was
Speaker 2: made up nationally. We we knew Texas was going to
Speaker 2: be able to recruit. Texas's problem has never been recruiting, right,
Speaker 2: you know, Steve Sarkasian's problem has never been recruiting. But
Speaker 2: I will say that Texas's offensive line class, you know,
Speaker 2: and we've talked in the past about when Nick Saban's assistance.
Speaker 2: The guys that have been former college head coaches, NFL
Speaker 2: head coaches, you know, those guys know how to recruit.
Speaker 2: They kind of understand how to run a room. And
Speaker 2: I think Kyle Flood has done one of the best
Speaker 2: jobs from a position coach standpoint at Texas this year.
Speaker 2: And you know, we all thought Pete Kwaikowski, And when
Speaker 2: I say when we all for sure me I thought
Speaker 2: peak Kwikowski was the best assistant coaching higher he made.
Speaker 2: And there might be some people that disagree with the
Speaker 2: way the Texas defense played this year, but well, Kyle
Speaker 2: Flood has done. From a recruiting standpoint, Texas's offensive line class,
Speaker 2: getting Kelvin Banks fresh off of his Oregon de commitment,
Speaker 2: you know, getting Cameron Williams who also decommitted, getting leek
Speaker 2: Ago out of Washington. They're in the mix for Devon Campbell.
Speaker 2: I think Texas's offensive line class is good, but it's overshadowed.
Speaker 2: I would say the biggest surprise is just how well
Speaker 2: Texas and and recruited nation to the point where right
Speaker 2: now they have the number one class in the country.
Speaker 1: Do you think they did anything different? Obviously they're going
Speaker 1: to be snickers about, you know, nil and being paid
Speaker 1: and everything like that. What changed? What I mean, was
Speaker 1: it the new recruiting coordinator? What changed? Or do you
Speaker 1: think it is pudentially a product of teams they usually
Speaker 1: recruit against having turmoiled situations? Right you have lsu down
Speaker 1: and fire as a coach and they're the you know,
Speaker 1: the closest you know in that geographic area. LSU is down. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Alabama is going to do what it does, but the
Speaker 1: Mississippi schools are not recruiting on a super duper high level.
Speaker 1: They're fine, Arkansas is recruiting alright, Texas recruited well. But
Speaker 1: there is something right now about especially Maybe it's the
Speaker 1: down LSU thing, Maybe it's whatever it is, what changed
Speaker 1: from Jimbo and A and M going from becoming very
Speaker 1: good recruiters to top flight elite.
Speaker 2: I would say there was a couple of factors. I
Speaker 2: think there might be some credence to LSU being somewhat down. Obviously,
Speaker 2: Ole Miss and Mississippi State with those two coaches that
Speaker 2: they're not new, but when they first got hired Ole
Speaker 2: Miss Mississippi State didn't have a lot of time to
Speaker 2: get coaches onto CARRA and get recruits on a campus
Speaker 2: because they were hired so late in that twenty twenty cycle.
Speaker 2: There was a February dead trade for the first time,
Speaker 2: and there was about ten to eleven day in Mark
Speaker 2: before the pandemic shut everything down. Whereas I think the
Speaker 2: other thing is when we see this a lot in recruiting,
Speaker 2: you may not see the byproduct of that current season
Speaker 2: having an effect on recruiting, especially now with the early
Speaker 2: signing period, you usually see the bump in the following year.
Speaker 2: And I think Texas A and M. So if you
Speaker 2: look at some of the better classes Utah has had
Speaker 2: out in the Pac twelve, it's been on the heels
Speaker 2: of their previous season. Well, now you take a Texas
Speaker 2: A and M that finished what number three in the
Speaker 2: polls last year? Number four won the Orange Bowl. So
Speaker 2: they had this entire offseason where they were going to
Speaker 2: be a preseason top five team. They were coming off
Speaker 2: their best season under Jimbo Fisher, and again they were
Speaker 2: able to kind of spread that wall. Plus the fear
Speaker 2: of defensive linement. You look and you see one of
Speaker 2: the most dominant defensive linemen in the NFL is Miles Garrett.
Speaker 2: Even though he never played a snap for Jimbo Fisher.
Speaker 2: There's still that word association defensive lineman and A and M.
Speaker 2: You know, a guy like Von Miller, So there's Texas
Speaker 2: A and M has a lot to sell. But I
Speaker 2: do think the Marshall Malschow hiring away from Georgia. He
Speaker 2: was a big part of the success Kirby had with
Speaker 2: his recruiting classes. And now you see there's a clear
Speaker 2: plan in place, there's assistant coaches in place that execute
Speaker 2: that plan, and now you have Texas A and M
Speaker 2: at the top of the ranks as a.
Speaker 1: Result of that, it was weirdly a quiet maybe it
Speaker 1: was a quiet signing day or a quiet cycle for
Speaker 1: some of the powers of recruiting, it seems, even though
Speaker 1: they had excellent classes. Obviously, with changes at places like
Speaker 1: LSU and Notre Dame that changes some of the mechanics
Speaker 1: of early signing day. But like Alabama's class was in
Speaker 1: terms of average recruit ranking the best in the country.
Speaker 1: We didn't hear a lot because of the Travis Hunter thing,
Speaker 1: because of Jimbo and A and m ascending in the
Speaker 1: Texas and whatever, and the new hires out west. But
Speaker 1: Alabama's class, Ohio State's class, Clemson's class, which I think
Speaker 1: is kind of tiny, what jumps out to you. Obviously
Speaker 1: they're stacked, But is there a narrative? Is there a
Speaker 1: story to either of those classes or any of those
Speaker 1: other top flight classes that are sort of lost in
Speaker 1: the shuffle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you said it was a quiet day for Alabama
Speaker 2: and they ended up with the number two two class
Speaker 2: in the country and they might not still be done.
Speaker 2: It was a quiet day for Ohio State. They lost
Speaker 2: to commit to Texas and they finished with the number
Speaker 2: four class in the country, and they might not still
Speaker 2: be done. So I think we've gotten so used to
Speaker 2: Bama and Ohio State having big signing days, even Georgia.
Speaker 2: You know, Georgia has led for a good chunk of
Speaker 2: the fall in the recruiting rankings. Over the last ten days.
Speaker 2: We've had Texas, A and Georgia and Alabama at various
Speaker 2: points leading. But Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State or schools
Speaker 2: that you know, we were used to winning signing Day,
Speaker 2: well they've won all the way leading up to Sunny Day.
Speaker 2: So it was a little bit quiet yesterday. I think
Speaker 2: the one that probably you know, you look at and see, okay,
Speaker 2: well how did they get in here is a North
Speaker 2: Carolina you know, and we see the mac brown effect.
Speaker 2: But if you look at the top ten rankings, it's
Speaker 2: kind of status quo, kind of the same schools that
Speaker 2: even though it might not have been as loud and
Speaker 2: boisterous on signing day for in Alabama, or for Georgia,
Speaker 2: or for an Ohio State or for a Notre Dame.
Speaker 2: They all ended up with top ten classes. That is
Speaker 2: the one where it's like we're used to seeing Clemson
Speaker 2: when North Carolina is Dabble had to deal with things
Speaker 2: he's never had to deal with this year. And that
Speaker 2: was not just losing his two coordinators as athletic director,
Speaker 2: but he lost three d commitments in the span of
Speaker 2: about forty eight hours that were all committed largely because
Speaker 2: of brand Bennables. So for the first time on the
Speaker 2: field in about seven years and now for the first
Speaker 2: time in recruiting in about seven years, Dabo's had to
Speaker 2: deal with a little bit of an uncertainty. It's a
Speaker 2: little bit of drama. I don't know if drama is
Speaker 2: the right word, but he's had to deal with with
Speaker 2: some things that he hasn't had to deal with for
Speaker 2: a while. So we'll see how he responds and if
Speaker 2: Clemson can bounce back to where they were from twenty
Speaker 2: fifteen to twenty twenty. But with the coordinator departures and
Speaker 2: then losing the three players and they were all from
Speaker 2: IMG Academy, which is a school that clems in has
Speaker 2: had some success at so it's been kind of a
Speaker 2: unique offseason and fall in Clemson.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and don't cry for Clemson because even though it
Speaker 1: was a smaller class, I think they had like the
Speaker 1: fifth or sixth average recruit rank. I believe, I'm we're
Speaker 1: in there. So it's still secut to the ACC right
Speaker 1: third of the ACC, right, yeah, behind North Carolina and
Speaker 1: Florida State. Oh, in Florida State, that's right, Florida State.
Speaker 1: Even with the de commitment of Travis Hunter. As I
Speaker 1: look at the rankings, by the way, a number of
Speaker 1: teams who are by no means powers on the field,
Speaker 1: and maybe there's excitement around the program. Maybe it is
Speaker 1: that you know, the year after bump. But even in
Speaker 1: the SEC missoo Kentucky Stanford I won't fully understand from
Speaker 1: a football standpoint, but you can never really criticize anybody
Speaker 1: for going to Stanford. Who jumps out to you in
Speaker 1: terms of the unusual players in that top fifteen.
Speaker 2: Range, Well, you just said Kentucky and Missouri the two.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're used to seeing Kentucky up there, but
Speaker 2: it's for basketball practice. You know, Indiana with a top
Speaker 2: twenty class and again that's where the previous season bump
Speaker 2: comes into play. Indiana had a great twenty twenty season,
Speaker 2: a completely miserable twenty twenty one season, and yet recruiting
Speaker 2: definitely was a bump in the twenty twenty two cycle
Speaker 2: as a result of that. But I think, you know,
Speaker 2: Missouri and Kentucky are two that were not used to
Speaker 2: see you. First of all, he was one of the
Speaker 2: most stable jobs that I think Mark Soops has done
Speaker 2: a phenomenal job there. I think was at the Athletic
Speaker 2: that said it was the number one job in college
Speaker 2: football to have because of the stability and because it's
Speaker 2: a basketball score, you know, but Seops has done a
Speaker 2: great job recruiting there. Kiante Goodwin, I mean, what a
Speaker 2: win for him, not only to get his commitment the
Speaker 2: first time. If you haven't seen Kanta Goodwin, folks, go
Speaker 2: look at his Twitter. It's one of the most fascinating
Speaker 2: themes because he was committed to Kentucky, but he took
Speaker 2: five official visits and every time he went on a visit,
Speaker 2: you'd see this massive six foot eight, three hundred and
Speaker 2: thirty pound three hundred and forty pound game next to
Speaker 2: guys like Jimbo Fisher or guys like Nick stated. But
Speaker 2: the one that really makes you just go, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: this kid's gigantic was there was a picture from his
Speaker 2: official visit to Michigan where he's standing with Juwan Howard.
Speaker 2: Now I'm old enough to remember the Fab Five. I
Speaker 2: was an when they were in college. Now we think
Speaker 2: Juwan Howard, Michigan basketball coach. I remember Juwan Howard, Michigan
Speaker 2: basketball player, and he was the biggest dude on that team.
Speaker 2: So we see not at all so good One's standing
Speaker 2: next to him in this picture. Now, good One committed
Speaker 2: to Kentucky, but five schools were trying to foot them.
Speaker 2: As late as Wednesday afternoon, there was still uncertainty where
Speaker 2: he was going to go. He then came on the
Speaker 2: air and said he was going to stick with Kentucky,
Speaker 2: but didn't send his nli in. Finally, on Thursday, his
Speaker 2: nli went in and that was a gigantic win for
Speaker 2: Mark stew a five star player and pretty much cemented
Speaker 2: that in the top dozen. Missouri gets a five star
Speaker 2: in Luther Burton. They got an All American quarterback in
Speaker 2: Sam Horn, So Kentucky Missouri definitely benefiting from being in
Speaker 2: the SEC, Missouri more so than ever because they've been
Speaker 2: always kind of the foreign school in the SEC. But
Speaker 2: those are two schools we're not used to see in
Speaker 2: the top dozen nationally.
Speaker 1: There are a number of high profile schools across the country.
Speaker 1: You know, basically every major conference dealt with high profile
Speaker 1: coaching changes, right LSU, Notre Dame, Oregon, USC, Washington. I'm
Speaker 1: going to include Washington in major programs I am because
Speaker 1: I'm nice feeling nice today. Obviously, floor to Miami, like
Speaker 1: you know, Oklahoma. It's all over the place, and it's
Speaker 1: all happening generally within two weeks of the early signing period.
Speaker 1: So to you from those schools that had to scramble
Speaker 1: to either secure and maintain a class or go out
Speaker 1: and find new fis in not that much time, what
Speaker 1: storyline stood out with what those schools did or didn't do.
Speaker 2: I would say Notre Dame was was probably one of
Speaker 2: the more remarkable stability, and a lot of that was
Speaker 2: from hiring from within, Marcus Freeman being a no name,
Speaker 2: being a player that the commits were openly campaigning for,
Speaker 2: the players were campaigning for. You know that one I
Speaker 2: think Notre Dame lost two D commitments since the departure
Speaker 2: of Brian Kelly and then a third was kind of
Speaker 2: trending that way even if Brian Kelly had stayed. But
Speaker 2: they still ended up at the top seven class. Oklahoma,
Speaker 2: you know, they lost a few guys and sold I
Speaker 2: think they had at one point lost six commits. They
Speaker 2: ended up getting one back in the boat. They got
Speaker 2: really killed in the twenty twenty three class though some
Speaker 2: of their commitments. But I still I think Oklahoma's got
Speaker 2: to be pretty happy with the top ten class. Oregon
Speaker 2: in Miami are the two schools that. You know, this
Speaker 2: was kind of an incomplete because Miami did get Martin
Speaker 2: Christin Ball, but it was ten days before Sagnay Day.
Speaker 2: Oregon got Dan Lanning three days before Saturday. So by
Speaker 2: the time Dan Lanning was actually hired, there was no
Speaker 2: more official visits that they were allowed to host, no
Speaker 2: more Anhelm visits that they were allowed to make. And
Speaker 2: I think eight D commits from Oregon plus a few
Speaker 2: guys that stayed committed but didn't sign. But I think
Speaker 2: Oregon can kind of rectify things down the stretch over
Speaker 2: the next six weeks leading up to the February signing period.
Speaker 2: And they might have some major things rectified by the
Speaker 2: end of the weekend. If to Tory McMillan sens this
Speaker 2: nl I to Oregon, he didn't announce, I'm sorry he
Speaker 2: didn't sign on Wednesday. He's down to Oregon and Arizona,
Speaker 2: and Arizona's making a push because they signed three of
Speaker 2: us serve by teammates, including his best friend and quarterback Nofafita.
Speaker 2: But I think if Oregon can get him. The big
Speaker 2: news for Oregon yesterday was they got the nl at
Speaker 2: Jelil Tucker had said he was going to wait until
Speaker 2: February to sign his teammager Liil Florence already decommitted, but
Speaker 2: getting Tucker, who I think is the better of the two,
Speaker 2: getting his NLI flipping Anthony Jones from Texas, and then
Speaker 2: having the six weeks to secure some of the uncommitted
Speaker 2: unsigned guys that are committed. I think Oregon's going to
Speaker 2: be fine when February gets here. They're number one class
Speaker 2: in the PAC twelve in away, but they're still probably
Speaker 2: in line to be the number two class. And then Miami.
Speaker 2: They got a couple of key players yesterday, including Nigelie Kelly.
Speaker 2: But I think you give Mario Chris Ball another six
Speaker 2: weeks on the job in Miami, will end up with
Speaker 2: a pretty decent class by the time we get around
Speaker 2: two February. I think right now they check in at somewhere.
Speaker 2: I'm scrolling through here.
Speaker 1: Sorry, no your got here, Miami, Miami.
Speaker 2: There's somewhere on this list. I think they're ahead of Miami, Ohio.
Speaker 1: Mimmy is sixty seconds, right behind TCU, who made a
Speaker 1: new hire major program making new hire, right in front
Speaker 1: of Memphis and Pitted.
Speaker 2: I'm going to put my glasses on because I just
Speaker 2: scrolled right past them on that one. But with only
Speaker 2: a commit. So it's a small class so far. I
Speaker 2: don't anticipate they're going to be sitting pat at eight.
Speaker 2: They'll probably try to get another six to eight guys.
Speaker 2: But because of the coaching carousel, because that this class
Speaker 2: lost the spring evaluation period, in six weeks out of
Speaker 2: the spring official visit period, there's a number of guys
Speaker 2: that are still going to make their decisions either at
Speaker 2: the All American Ball in January, the under Armor Game
Speaker 2: in January, or on signing day. A lot more guys
Speaker 2: are pushing their decision off, and that's why I think
Speaker 2: we had such a relatively quiet signing day outside of
Speaker 2: Travis Hunter on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: One school you didn't mention, which I think there has
Speaker 1: been and rightfully so a lot of excitement around is
Speaker 1: USC tiny class and I imagine another one of those
Speaker 1: schools that you know, without a lot of time to
Speaker 1: evaluate and visit and whatever, is going to take its
Speaker 1: time and figure out who fits come February common Class
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty three com transfer portal. Whatever. What is
Speaker 1: your I guess short term and long term outlook on
Speaker 1: what Lincoln Riley has done and can do in la
Speaker 1: an area that you know there are a lot of
Speaker 1: talented players in US when it's operating, can land all
Speaker 1: of them? What is your outlook with Lincoln Riley, with
Speaker 1: the class and beyond.
Speaker 2: So when the days started on Wednesday, USC was ranked
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifth in the country and twelfth in
Speaker 2: the Pac twelve. They only got two new editions yesterday'
Speaker 2: Zion Branch out of Las Vegas, a top fifty player nationally,
Speaker 2: the number one player in the state of Nevada, and
Speaker 2: then they landed Garrison Madden out of Georgia, linebacker, highly
Speaker 2: rated linebacker in the three star group out of Georgia,
Speaker 2: but they only added two commits to jumped up twenty
Speaker 2: four spots. As a result of that, they're now tenth
Speaker 2: in the PAC twelve. But if there's anybody that's going
Speaker 2: to fit from the February signing period more than the USC,
Speaker 2: I'd like to find it because Dolmanti Jackson, who's the
Speaker 2: number two corner in the country after Travis Hunner, will
Speaker 2: announce his final decision on Friday between Alabama and USC.
Speaker 2: He was a longtime commit to USC. Alabama had been
Speaker 2: putting the press on him. He took a visit out
Speaker 2: to Michigan. A lot of people thought he might end
Speaker 2: up in Michigan. He eliminated Michigan from his list, went
Speaker 2: with Alabama and USC two days after Lincoln Riley was hired.
Speaker 2: Two days after Lincoln Riley, changing the entire complexion of
Speaker 2: Pack twelve recruiting re Leake Brown, his teammateem Modern Day,
Speaker 2: ended up decommittee from Oklahoma to USC. CJ. Williams was
Speaker 2: a long time commit to Notre Dame, another Modern Day prospect.
Speaker 2: He is likely going to end up at USC. He'll
Speaker 2: announce at the All American Ball so Cyrus Moss had
Speaker 2: a top three in Arizona State, Alabama, and Oregon. Now
Speaker 2: USC is right back in the mix for him. So
Speaker 2: there's three top fifty, top seventy five players just right
Speaker 2: there that USC is either leading for or has a
Speaker 2: good chance to get. So those three alone should continue
Speaker 2: to move this class up. But I think you're now
Speaker 2: seeing those elite players that had been leaving the area.
Speaker 2: Demanta Jackson, if Clay Helton's retained, Demanta Jackson probably signs
Speaker 2: to Alabama yesterday. But now with Lincoln Riley, there's reason
Speaker 2: for these West Coast kids to stay in southern California.
Speaker 2: And I think we're going to see the power shifting
Speaker 2: back a little bit from Oregon to USC in terms
Speaker 2: of who's the alpha when it comes to recruiting.
Speaker 1: Interesting, I don't think there's a question in the Midwest
Speaker 1: at this point still who the alpha is because of
Speaker 1: what Ohio State ceiling is in terms of looking nationally
Speaker 1: and securing nationally incredible classes. But Michigan and Penn State
Speaker 1: are kind of right there. This year sixteen blue chippers
Speaker 1: for Ohio State, sixteen blue chippers for Penn State, eleven
Speaker 1: from Michigan. Then of course a drop off before Indiana
Speaker 1: and Michigan State. What did Penn State and Michigan do
Speaker 1: this year that seemed different? Now Jim Harbaugh and James
Speaker 1: Franklin have recruited, well, it seems like they both closed
Speaker 1: and in the case of Penn State opened pretty strongly
Speaker 1: this year. Was there something different in the way they
Speaker 1: went after kids? Are their kids from this class? We
Speaker 1: were just like, man, those are your cornerstone dudes? How
Speaker 1: do you look at those two classes?
Speaker 2: So remember earlier when I say you really get a
Speaker 2: bump in your recruiting depending on the season. Four ignore
Speaker 2: that for Penn State and Michigan, who both had horrible
Speaker 2: twenty twenties, especially compared to what James Franklin and Jim
Speaker 2: Harbive experienced at their respective schools. Pen's safe for a
Speaker 2: good chunk in the year. Habitat class in the now.
Speaker 2: A lot of it was because they got a lot
Speaker 2: of early commitments and held on to a lot of
Speaker 2: those guys, but other schools ended up passing them up.
Speaker 2: Michigan the same way they'd had a Jim Harbaugh's problem
Speaker 2: has never been recruiting. It's been beating Ohio State, beating
Speaker 2: his rival beating Michigan State, but this year they did
Speaker 2: at least one of those two. But their recruiting was
Speaker 2: great and they actually closed well down the stretch. Getting
Speaker 2: Darius Clements a flip yesterday or not flip, but he
Speaker 2: was a long time It was long thought he was
Speaker 2: going to end up at Oregon. Were not having a
Speaker 2: permanent receivers coach probably cost him. Darius Clements, but they
Speaker 2: were able to get him. Derek Moore, who'd been a
Speaker 2: long time commit to Oklahoma, ended up signing with Michigan yesterday,
Speaker 2: so and then key On sapp one of those long
Speaker 2: time comes and commits from Ing, he signed with Michigan.
Speaker 2: So they closed really well. Penn State did a good
Speaker 2: job of holding on to guys, and what they have
Speaker 2: going for them is they had the twenty four to
Speaker 2: seven Sports number one quarterback, Drew Aller, a guy that
Speaker 2: they did a phenomenal job of early identifying. He was
Speaker 2: a three star I thinkue when he first started to
Speaker 2: blow up onto the scene we saw at the Elite eleven.
Speaker 2: He's now our number one quarterback in the country. Nicholas
Speaker 2: Singleton out of Pennsylvania. He was the Gatorade National Player
Speaker 2: of the year, a big time running back, top five player.
Speaker 2: They got Kaden Saggers, who's just outside Columbus from Ohio,
Speaker 2: but he's been committed to Penn State for quite some time.
Speaker 2: Danny Dennis Sutton out of Maryland. I think at Penn
Speaker 2: State he did a really good job was the early
Speaker 2: commitments and then holding on to them. While Michigan use
Speaker 2: again they're going to see their best bump in the
Speaker 2: twenty three class. But Michigan definitely got some success in
Speaker 2: December based off of the Ohio State win, the Big
Speaker 2: Ten championship in the spot in the Cultural World playoff.
Speaker 2: Darius Comes alone told me that when you're winning and
Speaker 2: then going to the college football playoffs like Michigan did,
Speaker 2: that definitely makes them more appealing to me.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the quarterback class of twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: thus far. Who are you excited about? Who are not
Speaker 1: deep sleepers, but who are guys where you're like, man,
Speaker 1: this team got somebody and it is incredible that this
Speaker 1: team got them. I don't know if you have that
Speaker 1: guy or not, but what is your evaluation of the
Speaker 1: class as you see it?
Speaker 2: So it's interesting because in twenty twenty two we had
Speaker 2: Quinn ewers in this class, he was the number one
Speaker 2: FOT in the country. He reclassifies the twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: Now he's in Texas where he might as well be
Speaker 2: at twenty twenty two, but he was kind of the
Speaker 2: alpha and the omega of the quarterbacks, and everybody else
Speaker 2: was kind of behind him. Fast forward to the Elite
Speaker 2: eleven in June and July. Quinn was there, but so
Speaker 2: is Kate Klubnick, Connor Wegman, Tys Simpson, Drew Aler, Walker Howard,
Speaker 2: who are all the top five. Devin Brown made a
Speaker 2: big jump, and now we have Kate Clubnick as the
Speaker 2: number one quarterback in the composite. We have Drew Aler
Speaker 2: ourselves at twenty four seven as the number one quarterback.
Speaker 2: Penn State gets taller, Clemson gets club Nick, and if
Speaker 2: all things go as planning, club Nick will sit behind
Speaker 2: dajat Leandalilei in twenty twenty two and then have the
Speaker 2: chance to be the guy in twenty twenty three. Connor
Speaker 2: Wegman's a big, physical, duel threat type that's going to
Speaker 2: Texas A and M A great pig is. So you
Speaker 2: look at the schools that had the top six seven
Speaker 2: quarterbacks they're who you expect, Clemson A and m Alabama,
Speaker 2: lsut Ohio State and Georgia, even Florida State in aj
Speaker 2: Duffy and holding on to him when it looked like
Speaker 2: he was going to ASU. Schools were still trying. But
Speaker 2: then the schools that kind of end up in the
Speaker 2: top fifteen that were not used to seeing them pulling
Speaker 2: in quarterbacks. You got Purdue getting Brady Allen. And when
Speaker 2: I say not I used to getting quarterbacks. It's been
Speaker 2: twenty years since Drew Brees was plus. Drew Brees was
Speaker 2: small and he's still small now. But in nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: seven when he signed, there weren't quarterbacks like Drew. But
Speaker 2: hees going to college. But pretty gets Brady Allen out
Speaker 2: of Indiana. You have Missouri getting Sam Horne, who's a
Speaker 2: teammate of Travis Hunter at Collins Hill. They'll be playing
Speaker 2: on ESPN this weekend in the Glico State both series.
Speaker 2: And he's a baseball player too, But a big pick
Speaker 2: up from Missouri to go with Luther Burden. You also
Speaker 2: see Michigan State with Kiten Howser, who was in a
Speaker 2: very unique situation, played his first two years in Las Vegas,
Speaker 2: Vegas didn't have football In twenty twenty two, thousands went
Speaker 2: to Saint John Bostoll split duties with Pierce Clarkson and
Speaker 2: they were doing an alternate series basically for two years.
Speaker 2: Kateen Hawser was going to Michigan State despite never being
Speaker 2: the full time starter out of school, so we're not
Speaker 2: he's seeing really Michigan, seeing Purdue getting that they're usually
Speaker 2: the ones that get the outlier type quarterbacks right end
Speaker 2: up going to the NFL in spite of their ranking.
Speaker 2: Utah as well, getting Nate Johnson, who phenomenal track athlete,
Speaker 2: and he's going to Utah where I think you look
Speaker 2: at him and you can see a little bit of
Speaker 2: Tyler Huntley and him where he's a guy that's going
Speaker 2: to kill you with his legs as much as he's
Speaker 2: going to kill you with his arm, but as he
Speaker 2: continues to develop as a passer, he will kill you
Speaker 2: with his arm more than his legs because he's got
Speaker 2: a good arm. He's just continuing to develop as a
Speaker 2: thrower as a passer, but a guy that has really
Speaker 2: unmatched athleticism from any quarterback in this position.
Speaker 1: Were there any schools this class that you heard that
Speaker 1: were doing a particularly creative job in the way that
Speaker 1: they recruited kids. I don't necessarily mean nil or whatever,
Speaker 1: but it's just like, Okay, this guy's a big personality
Speaker 1: that really resonated with kids, and he's kind of new
Speaker 1: to this. Like, is there anybody who stood out to
Speaker 1: you like, oh man, this is interesting the way that
Speaker 1: Boston College, the way that Minnesota. Is there a school
Speaker 1: that really did something new this year?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I go back to kitten Houser. I
Speaker 2: really feel like with Milt Tucker's reputation as a defensive guy,
Speaker 2: they really made kitten Houser their priority from the get go,
Speaker 2: and they really hammered home. You know, this could be
Speaker 2: your program. You're not from the West Coast, so you're
Speaker 2: not from the Midwest. You're from the West coast. But
Speaker 2: even on his official visiting, I remember seeing videos of
Speaker 2: him walking into the stadium and hearing his name on
Speaker 2: the jumbo tron or seeing his name of the jumbletron,
Speaker 2: hearing his name over the loudspeaker, and he just said
Speaker 2: it resonated with him. And we're used to seeing that
Speaker 2: with receivers or with dbs, with running backs. You don't
Speaker 2: necessarily see quarterbacks get caught up in all the hype
Speaker 2: of recruiting. But I think Michigan State did a phenomenal
Speaker 2: job of recruiting kitten Houser. He was committed to Boise State,
Speaker 2: which isn't a bad school, which is turned out some
Speaker 2: decent quarterbacks in years past, but Michigan State just really
Speaker 2: hit a home run with him off the official visit.
Speaker 2: And you know, because quarterbacks commit so early, you don't
Speaker 2: really hear about a lot of quarterbacks who the official
Speaker 2: visit is the swing to get them there. So that
Speaker 2: was how do the unique take that that was official
Speaker 2: visit that really swung him away from Boise State, And
Speaker 2: maybe it was just Miltucker, and maybe Miltucker was selling, hey,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be here for ten more years, but
Speaker 2: because they're going to pay me one hundred million dollars.
Speaker 2: But even then, they did a really good job of
Speaker 2: flipping him from Boise State, which it has to success
Speaker 2: with him, and again, not a whole lot of creativity
Speaker 2: there other than it was just one of those weird
Speaker 2: situations where you finally heard a quarterback talk about the
Speaker 2: official visit being why he hit the school.
Speaker 1: You're in the Pacific Northwest, which has now gotten to
Speaker 1: be a lot better in terms of a recruiting ground
Speaker 1: top kids from Oregon, Washington, but the West Coast in
Speaker 1: general has been I don't know if it's come off.
Speaker 1: It's just being pillaged by Georgia, Clemson, Alabama, whatever, a
Speaker 1: lot of top flight kids. But you're still around all
Speaker 1: these kids at camps and you're going to games. You
Speaker 1: know their coaches, you know their parents. What is it
Speaker 1: like in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two to be
Speaker 1: a top flight kid being recruited? What is their daily
Speaker 1: life like in terms of what their communications is like
Speaker 1: with the expectations for how they behave online, offline whatever.
Speaker 1: What is that life like right now?
Speaker 2: So I'll get a good insight, you know, you and
Speaker 2: I talked a lot about it during the recruiting process
Speaker 2: of JT. Two Molobile, who was the number one player
Speaker 2: in the country in twenty twenty one, And you know,
Speaker 2: I got a really good insight into how the recruiting
Speaker 2: process works with the number one player in the country,
Speaker 2: more so than in previous years. Remember when Najie Harris
Speaker 2: was the number one player, he committed early at Alabama.
Speaker 2: The really rules school that ever really seemingly had a
Speaker 2: chance to get him was Michigan, but it was always
Speaker 2: kind of you know, on Alabama and Naji. Although he's
Speaker 2: a great interview now, back in the day, Nagie hated talking,
Speaker 2: so he didn't get a whole lot from him. Now
Speaker 2: he was with JT five years later when he took
Speaker 2: his official visits in June. This was the first time,
Speaker 2: and that was because there was no official business in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one for the most part. But instead of
Speaker 2: schools talking about their facilities, instead of them talking about
Speaker 2: their training table, instead of them talking about their coaches,
Speaker 2: he started to hear in June how much NIL was
Speaker 2: being discussed in the recruiting process. So now when I
Speaker 2: talked to JT, how's presentation? Oh, I was cool, you know,
Speaker 2: Or how's the visit? I was cool? You know their
Speaker 2: NIL presentation? Not Hey, there's strength and conditioning programs. This
Speaker 2: it's It's not because he didn't care about it. It's
Speaker 2: that the schools were trying to hammer that home. When
Speaker 2: people saw Travis Hunter leave yesterday Florest State for Jackson State,
Speaker 2: the first thing that came out was NIL. And that
Speaker 2: is now what is being hammered home with his recruits.
Speaker 2: But it's also something that recruits are hammering home with
Speaker 2: these schools. So when you look at the elite recruits
Speaker 2: in the twenty twenty two class, in the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: three class, there's no longer as much of a concern
Speaker 2: about NFL development being at the top of the list.
Speaker 2: It's nil. How is my brand going to grow? How
Speaker 2: can you grow my brand for me? Then it's what
Speaker 2: does the depth chart look like? Again, it used to
Speaker 2: be NFL development. Well, believe it or not, Dan, there
Speaker 2: was a time where it was where your degree from.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, I know we're old, but it was
Speaker 2: that time. Then it was about winning. Then it was
Speaker 2: about development. Then there was the NFL and the depth
Speaker 2: chart and all that. Now it's change. It's nil, it's
Speaker 2: depth chart. It's what is the traffic looking like at
Speaker 2: the position I'm at? And oh, by the way, coach
Speaker 2: in your back pocket, keep these five schools warm just
Speaker 2: in case I don't get a shot at the school
Speaker 2: that they're telling me I'm going to get because I'm
Speaker 2: going to go in the portal. So you're almost recruiting
Speaker 2: a number of schools when you're a recruit not being
Speaker 2: recruited by them, but you're keeping other relationships warm just
Speaker 2: in case you ultimately need to end up there in
Speaker 2: a year from now.
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask what is it like from the
Speaker 1: other side, Like if I don't know if Lincoln Riley,
Speaker 1: I'm just making up names here, but if you know,
Speaker 1: Billy Napier is recruiting a kid and they've got a
Speaker 1: great relationship with the kids, says you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to George, I'm gonna go to Alabama
Speaker 1: or whatever. What is it like from the coaches knowing
Speaker 1: that because the portal has gotten so huge, how are
Speaker 1: they maintaining relationships? Obviously they're not talking to the kids
Speaker 1: while they're at another school and tampering. How do these
Speaker 1: coaches maintain how do they stay in good graces of
Speaker 1: like remember me, guys, I'm you know, if it doesn't
Speaker 1: work out, it's so and so. Are they keeping up
Speaker 1: relationships with seven on seven coaches? Are they keeping up
Speaker 1: relationships with high school coaches? How is that? How are
Speaker 1: these coaches massaging the recruiting universe if you're watching on
Speaker 1: video and edge, Yeah, they're not tampering at all, But
Speaker 1: they're talking to somebody who's talking there to them.
Speaker 2: There is a middle man involved, you know, the high
Speaker 2: school coach, the seven on seven coach, the trainer, whoever
Speaker 2: it may be. What's interesting is, you know, you talk
Speaker 2: to schools about you got twelve guys committed, you have
Speaker 2: root for twenty five. You know, why are you only
Speaker 2: bringing in twelve because we're going to go hit the
Speaker 2: portal hard. Why because we don't have time to recruit
Speaker 2: the high school kids. We have to recruit our own
Speaker 2: kids that are talking about going into the portal, plus
Speaker 2: the portal kids that can actually come in and help us,
Speaker 2: So we don't have time to go chasing around kids
Speaker 2: that are still unknown quantities. Even the league kids are
Speaker 2: still an unknown because they haven't played it down on
Speaker 2: college football. But then there's guys that are in the
Speaker 2: portal that haven't played it down that they want to leave.
Speaker 2: But those relationships existed. You at least knew he had
Speaker 2: a year of training table, he had a year of
Speaker 2: you know, development in the locker room, in the weight room,
Speaker 2: of you know, whatever it is that that school does
Speaker 2: for a year for their football program. You're at least
Speaker 2: willing to take a risk on a transfer that's a
Speaker 2: freshman or a sophomore more than a high schoo team,
Speaker 2: because you know, he at least had some experience at
Speaker 2: a college program. So now colleges are having to spend
Speaker 2: as much time recruiting their own kids. I mean it
Speaker 2: used to be back in the day, when a kid transferred,
Speaker 2: it was usually a kid he was buried on the
Speaker 2: depth chart. He might have been completely homesick, and it
Speaker 2: was usually you know, sion was on the wall, right,
Speaker 2: was on the wall that he wasn't going to play.
Speaker 2: Then there was the whole process of going through the
Speaker 2: transfer portal, or to be a transfer. There wasn't a portal.
Speaker 2: Then the portal came. Now you're seeing guys that are
Speaker 2: multi year starters, multi game starters, twenty five games, meeting
Speaker 2: because they want to go play somewhere else. They want
Speaker 2: to go play with their friends, they want to go
Speaker 2: play in front of their family, they want to go
Speaker 2: play at a place where the system is better dedicated
Speaker 2: to what they want to do. You're seeing grad transfers
Speaker 2: that have been starters, stars at those schools. They're going
Speaker 2: into the portal and maybe want one more year. Maybe
Speaker 2: with this quarterback you or with this receiving core, and
Speaker 2: you know, you never had to worry about recruiting your
Speaker 2: own players back in the day. You had to recruit
Speaker 2: the players that were considering going to the NFL a
Speaker 2: year early, and at least you were going to lose
Speaker 2: them to the NFL, not to another college team, not
Speaker 2: to a team that could be in your own conference.
Speaker 2: We're seeing so much interconference transferring now too, that schools
Speaker 2: are genuinely worried that are my guys being tampered with
Speaker 2: because I have to deprogram them from their dis scene
Speaker 2: for this program that they're playing in and talk about
Speaker 2: of why they want to go play at that program,
Speaker 2: which they haven't even been on the campus of in
Speaker 2: a number of months. So college coaches and I think
Speaker 2: that that's why you're hearing so much above about the
Speaker 2: early signing period now, is that college coaches are having
Speaker 2: to use their to set because you know, the first
Speaker 2: Monday after the NFL season end, it's called black money.
Speaker 2: That's when all those coaches get fired. Now, we saw
Speaker 2: the largest number in one day of transfers. Have excuse me,
Speaker 2: the Monday after the regular season ended. Guys now know
Speaker 2: where they stand, So you're having to spend as much
Speaker 2: time recruiting your own guys as you are. You can't
Speaker 2: go do in homes with recruits until you know a
Speaker 2: certain period, but you can call that kid into your
Speaker 2: office that's on your campus, say get in here, what
Speaker 2: are you talking about? Why are you leading? Why don't
Speaker 2: you come to us before this. Schools are just as
Speaker 2: son when a kid puts themself into the transfer portal
Speaker 2: as I think fans are when that kid goes into
Speaker 2: the portal. So they're having to do more work keeping
Speaker 2: their own guys happy. And these are guys that are
Speaker 2: starters that have you know, taken the majority of snaps
Speaker 2: at those positions.
Speaker 1: Am I correct and assuming? And you know this is
Speaker 1: I have no idea who would actually be an expert
Speaker 1: in this, but it seems that with all the portal activity,
Speaker 1: and when we hear about coaches wanting resources when they
Speaker 1: want guys in their recruiting department, should schools have portal
Speaker 1: specialists that just watch as much college football as humanly
Speaker 1: possible so they know when somebody enters the portal like,
Speaker 1: oh this guy's legit. Oh yeah, this because you don't
Speaker 1: have any time, so basically you're recruiting your own players.
Speaker 1: You're recruiting high school players and now, and I don't
Speaker 1: know if twenty four seven has I think Chris Hummer
Speaker 1: does this stuff. I believe right, is that his name?
Speaker 1: Who does? Who focuses on the portal? But should all
Speaker 1: schools not have somebody who's like, I know seven thousand players?
Speaker 1: Is that? Is that a reality in which we live now?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? You know, Chris Summer and Clint Brewster both do
Speaker 2: a phenomenal job of the daily on going on of
Speaker 2: the portal, and it's like they're always putting on names,
Speaker 2: and then they have to deal with angry fans that
Speaker 2: have been because they're reporting. And then there's like the
Speaker 2: kids want to put themself in the portal. Don't get
Speaker 2: mad at me for disreporting it. But I remember when
Speaker 2: Nickolovich got hired at Washington State in twenty twenty, in January,
Speaker 2: shortly after Michaelischia left from Missippi State. And I want
Speaker 2: to say Washington State was the first school that hired
Speaker 2: a full time director of transfer recruiting, whether that was Juco's,
Speaker 2: whether that was the poor But now you're starting to
Speaker 2: see schools that we talked to the director player of
Speaker 2: personnels director of recruiting. They're spending as much time hitting
Speaker 2: refreshed on the portal to see who they can reach
Speaker 2: out to right now, because no longer are the days,
Speaker 2: you know, with the transfer, you no longer have to
Speaker 2: wait for the kid to get the release. You see,
Speaker 2: you had to get the release, and it was maybe
Speaker 2: the school said you can't play at any school that's
Speaker 2: on our schedule for the next four years, or you
Speaker 2: can't go to any school that's in our conference. Now
Speaker 2: these kids can go from USC to UCLA, they can
Speaker 2: go to Florida to Florida State, they can go wherever
Speaker 2: they want. So these guys are constantly hitting a refreshed,
Speaker 2: a seed who's available. We don't have to wait for
Speaker 2: a release, We can hit that kid up immediately. Now,
Speaker 2: there's some kids that don't allow themselves to be contact.
Speaker 2: Usually that means they already know where they're doing, which
Speaker 2: right again, it's crazy how they know without ever talking community.
Speaker 1: Weird and how that works. Yeah, so weird.
Speaker 2: But you're having situations now where schools are having to
Speaker 2: recruit the portal far heavier than they ever recruited high schools.
Speaker 2: Now they're having to watch film that they have cut
Speaker 2: up of from those Saturday games instead of having huddle
Speaker 2: for high school kids or camp clips. There's no camp
Speaker 2: clips of these kids that are recent, so you're going
Speaker 2: to try to watch any game that you can find
Speaker 2: to see is this kid gonnefit our system. But you're
Speaker 2: seeing a new trend to schools having such a focus
Speaker 2: on transfer recruiting, and you're seeing it more with schools
Speaker 2: that are with a first time head coach or a
Speaker 2: new head coach program where he sees there's a need
Speaker 2: for a quick fix. Oregon State's a good example. When
Speaker 2: Jonathan Smith first got to Oregon State, they hit the
Speaker 2: portal hard. They hit JUCO transfers hard. Yesterday they signed
Speaker 2: sixteen players and only one was a transfer, and it
Speaker 2: was a JUCO transfer from the area where they've recruited
Speaker 2: some good dbs out of the last few years from
Speaker 2: the JUCO ranks. But now in year four he could
Speaker 2: start focusing on high school development. He's got those quick
Speaker 2: fixes in place. So you're going to see schools that
Speaker 2: rely heavily on the transfer portal because that's the best
Speaker 2: way to build their depth chart and the roster. So
Speaker 2: that means the admins and the personnel. Guys are spending
Speaker 2: more and more time watching current college film than granny
Speaker 2: junior high school huddle film.
Speaker 1: How does how does this trickle down to high school recruiting?
Speaker 1: That is, does it mean that there are more Power
Speaker 1: five level kids going G five? More G five level
Speaker 1: going Power five? With the amount of movement at the
Speaker 1: Power five level? I just I feel like there's not
Speaker 1: enough scholarships to go around for everybody. So where how
Speaker 1: is this affecting the borderline high school kids?
Speaker 2: I talked to a PAC twelve DPP this week, and
Speaker 2: if you don't know what a VPP is, record player personnel,
Speaker 2: and he made a you would know what it means.
Speaker 2: If your listeners don't know what it means, that's what
Speaker 2: it is. And basically, these guys don't help with the
Speaker 2: day to day coaching. They don't help with the day
Speaker 2: to day development of those players. They're worried about your
Speaker 2: two years from now, three years from now, four years
Speaker 2: from now. And talking to him he said some of
Speaker 2: that it was kind of key and stuck with me.
Speaker 2: He said, I am worried that scholarship numbers are going
Speaker 2: to be so heavily predicated on the transfers that more
Speaker 2: and more high school kids aren't going to be recruited.
Speaker 2: And if we're not recruiting high school kids, then who's
Speaker 2: going to be able to go into the portal. Schools
Speaker 2: are going to have a hard time keeping eighty five
Speaker 2: guys on the roster because they're doing such a poor
Speaker 2: job of recruiting high school kids. And I never thought
Speaker 2: of it that way. Now, you were saying that in
Speaker 2: the time where you still have players that have their
Speaker 2: COVID season, the extra year of eligibility, so you have
Speaker 2: super seniors, you have probably two or three more years
Speaker 2: of that happening, where the twenty twenty season was essentially
Speaker 2: a watch. But schools are going to eventually have to
Speaker 2: get back to the eighty five scholarships so they can
Speaker 2: have those players can have the eligibility, but it's going
Speaker 2: to come at the expense of the scholarship that school
Speaker 2: has to give. Now, let's say you've got eight ten
Speaker 2: guys that you want to keep in because they have
Speaker 2: that extra year. Then you want to go get some
Speaker 2: guys from the portal. You might only be able to
Speaker 2: sign a classes ten to twelve guys. Well, that ten
Speaker 2: to twelve guys makes a trickle down. So there's FCS schools.
Speaker 2: There's a group of five schools that are sitting there going, oh,
Speaker 2: hell yeah, we get guys that we had no shot
Speaker 2: at getting in previous years. Now we're going to come
Speaker 2: in And it's not necessarily a bad evaluation thing. No,
Speaker 2: it's a number. So you're going to see probably in
Speaker 2: the twenty four, twenty five, twenty six NFL drafts, you're
Speaker 2: going to see a larger number of FCS G five
Speaker 2: guys drafted because they fell down to schools that normally
Speaker 2: wouldn't have GOTTENAM and those schools took a chance on
Speaker 2: those kids without maybe some junior film, without senior film.
Speaker 2: But because the portal people are saying it's going to
Speaker 2: kill hashs to recruiting, well, yes and no, it still
Speaker 2: means that guys are going to have a spot to
Speaker 2: go if they're good enough. It just might not be
Speaker 2: at the biggest level that those guys want to go
Speaker 2: right away. But then the flip side of that is,
Speaker 2: what if you go dominate a division two? What if
Speaker 2: you go dominate at the FCS level. You do that
Speaker 2: for a year or two, all of a sudden, you
Speaker 2: know you're starting to see those Power of five schools
Speaker 2: come creeping around on a kid from Weaver Saved or
Speaker 2: from Albany or from Buffalo or Buffalo's a G five school.
Speaker 2: You're seeing some of these FCS schools that are now
Speaker 2: losing guys that were stars. You know a Zoo specific
Speaker 2: where I went to school Division two school. It was
Speaker 2: in any High School and I was there. They've been
Speaker 2: in two school. Two years ago. They lost their All
Speaker 2: American receiver who transferred as a grad transfer to Penn State.
Speaker 2: I think he had like six receptions the year he
Speaker 2: was there. He had ninety receptions the year before. But
Speaker 2: the problem is those kids graduate, they now I think
Speaker 2: this is my only pathway to the NFL. The shot
Speaker 2: is going to a Power five school. So they do that,
Speaker 2: and now you're going to see the back end those
Speaker 2: scs and G five schools and D two schools paid price.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you an opportunity here because it's
Speaker 1: very easy for you to sit back and look back
Speaker 1: to the last two or three classes and say, I
Speaker 1: thought this guy would be awesome. He was awesome. Turns
Speaker 1: out I was right. It's not that nice to go
Speaker 1: back and say, didn't think this kid was any good.
Speaker 1: I thought he was overrated, and it turns out I
Speaker 1: was right. That's not especially nice to do when a
Speaker 1: lot of people are listening to this show. So I
Speaker 1: want to give you an opportunity here to say, and
Speaker 1: because nobody's ever right about everything, who are some of
Speaker 1: the kids that surprised you have these last two or
Speaker 1: three classes that you were like, look, I thought he
Speaker 1: was going to be fine, or look, I didn't see
Speaker 1: it for whatever reason, and this kid just totally shocked
Speaker 1: me with how good he was a college football player.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I appreciate you letting me go
Speaker 2: with who's been good as a player, because it's a
Speaker 2: lot better than Hey, which guy is your Darryl Scott
Speaker 2: moment of twenty and eighteen nineteen twenty classes? Yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't There's there's a couple guys that I thought we're
Speaker 2: going to be, you know, average players, maybe guys that
Speaker 2: I didn't think we're going to be, you know, superstars
Speaker 2: that I thought we're going to be, you know, just fine.
Speaker 2: I would say probably one of them was. I was
Speaker 2: a big Drake Jackson fan, but like I didn't know.
Speaker 2: Let me preface that by saying his junior year was
Speaker 2: up and down, and that was as much dedicated to
Speaker 2: the just the instability at USC, but he even he
Speaker 2: outplayed what I thought, you know, we had him as
Speaker 2: as a top sixty, top guy. I thought he'd be,
Speaker 2: you know, potential second day pick. He's played himself into
Speaker 2: being a potential first rounder. But he's a guy that
Speaker 2: I fully expected to, you know, be a solid player
Speaker 2: in the PAC twelve. But I didn't think he'd be
Speaker 2: like an elite player.
Speaker 1: Trem mcdonnal.
Speaker 2: I will say he was another guy we were higher
Speaker 2: on than his teammate Christile, but even Tree McDuffie has
Speaker 2: outplayed what my expectations were for him, where he may
Speaker 2: end up being a first round drafting. As a result
Speaker 2: of that, now full disclosure, I will say that there
Speaker 2: were some guys that I was completely wrong on, you know,
Speaker 2: just period, that I thought were going to be really good.
Speaker 2: One of those was Bru McCoy, and I'll chalk that
Speaker 2: up to all the off the field issues that he's
Speaker 2: dealt with, part of them self inflicted, most of them
Speaker 2: self inflicted, all of them self inflicted. But he's not
Speaker 2: been the number ten player in the country or the
Speaker 2: number one player in California, like we thought he was
Speaker 2: going back. One more guy that I thought would be good.
Speaker 2: I didn't think he would be uber. Uber elite is
Speaker 2: Drake London. And you know he was a guy that
Speaker 2: you know, you and I are both from the same
Speaker 2: part of southern California. I kind of have a little
Speaker 2: bit of a special place in my heart for those
Speaker 2: kids from the Valley in Ventury County. But what Drake
Speaker 2: London did it at see, I never did a million
Speaker 2: years saw coming.
Speaker 1: What happened, What happened?
Speaker 2: What? Like?
Speaker 1: What didn't he show and how did he get there?
Speaker 2: Well? I don't think what he didn't show was he
Speaker 2: didn't show up to a lot of events because he
Speaker 2: was a hooper. And this was a guy that when
Speaker 2: he came to the Nike camp he was good. But
Speaker 2: he was a big time basketball player. His first college
Speaker 2: offer was a basketball offer from Tony Bennett at Virginia,
Speaker 2: So that's the kind of caliber basketball player he was.
Speaker 2: And then he tried to play basketball for a year
Speaker 2: at SC. But I never thought he would be the
Speaker 2: player he is now. He had the athleticism, he had
Speaker 2: the tools, but you always thought he was a basketball
Speaker 2: player first who played football. Now, he's arguably one of
Speaker 2: the top three receivers in the NFL in the NFL
Speaker 2: Draft and a player that probably had a very good,
Speaker 2: strong case to be the Black mc coffe winner before
Speaker 2: the injury. But he's a player that definitely outplayed it.
Speaker 2: Going back a year before that too, Chris Alata. We
Speaker 2: snuck him into the back end of the top two four, seven,
Speaker 2: but we never expected him to be the player he
Speaker 2: became at Ohio State. At that time, there was a
Speaker 2: guy on the other side of it, Jack Tuttle, out
Speaker 2: of San Diego as well. Seven on seventeen. We thought
Speaker 2: it was going to be a dude to Utah. It's
Speaker 2: to Utah. He's out within the first probably two months
Speaker 2: of school, ends up in Indiana, barely plays, and a
Speaker 2: lot of the ends up being the star. Jack Tittle
Speaker 2: ends up making me know, be my Darrel Scott for
Speaker 2: that class.
Speaker 1: Wow, all right, Brandon Hoffman, I guess the only thing
Speaker 1: I have left is what are we expecting this next
Speaker 1: like month and a half ish is what percentage of
Speaker 1: top kids are still yet to sign? Where do you
Speaker 1: expect fireworks? Where do you expect quiet? When we have
Speaker 1: I think about six weeks until the true signing day.
Speaker 2: I think we're going to see fireworks in College station
Speaker 2: because I think A and M is going to do
Speaker 2: a little bit more to lock up the number one class. Wow,
Speaker 2: they're still in the mix heavily for Harold Perkins. They're
Speaker 2: still in the mix heavily for Shamar Stewart. Two top
Speaker 2: ten players to go along with Walter Nolan. Evan Stewart's
Speaker 2: been committed. He hasn't signed yet, but he's the number
Speaker 2: one research, number two receiver in the country. You also
Speaker 2: have you know USC. Can they get Dewane Jackson this week?
Speaker 2: We'll see j Williams announce for them in January? Can
Speaker 2: they make a lay run to get Cyrus Moss back
Speaker 2: in the fold? Can they surprisingly surprise everybody and maybe
Speaker 2: get Hero Canoo? Can they get Josh Connelly out of
Speaker 2: Seattle with whoever their offensive line higher is. So it's
Speaker 2: some schools that are doing really well that could just
Speaker 2: fully solidify this class, texas A and M being the
Speaker 2: most notable. And then what do the schools with a
Speaker 2: new coach like an Oregon, like a USC like in
Speaker 2: Miami do to empties when they can really unleash their
Speaker 2: coaches on the road.
Speaker 1: In the month of January, everybody follow Brandon Hoffman sign
Speaker 1: up twenty four to seven Sports. They do a fantastic job.
Speaker 1: They are all over the place. The talent there. I
Speaker 1: mean you brought in Bud Elliott, like, come on, we
Speaker 1: got a murder's row of recruiting talent and college football talent,
Speaker 1: college sports talent at twenty four to seven. Brandon, thank
Speaker 1: you very very much for your time. And I hope
Speaker 1: you're eating something good tonight. You've earned it.
Speaker 2: Oh, I would be eating from Mali's tonight.
Speaker 1: Is the time of year. Yes, do you have a
Speaker 1: preferred filling?
Speaker 2: I am going to go. You know, I'm always been
Speaker 2: more of a poork Tomali guy. I don't mind. Must
Speaker 2: also some chicken Tamali. Sometimes I'll get the Hall of
Speaker 2: Pango cheddar one just to be really fun. But I'm
Speaker 2: more of a you know, a pork chieri ver they
Speaker 2: type of guy.
Speaker 1: I'm right there with you. I've grew up my soft
Speaker 1: spot for like a Rajas Tamali just with some leblanos
Speaker 1: and cheese in there. It hits it for me. I
Speaker 1: don't know what it is. Maybe it's my old age
Speaker 1: there you can't really go that wrong with a good Tamali.
Speaker 2: No, you're from southern California. We basically it's the Tamali
Speaker 2: capital of the United States, where all the good Tamali's
Speaker 2: come from. So yeah, you to a high standard. So
Speaker 2: you have to try different Tomali's from different places to
Speaker 2: see if they hold in the standard. And that's what
Speaker 2: I did during December, is try Tomali's from everywhere.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize the more places I've lived and now,
Speaker 1: obviously Chicago and New York do really well with Mexican food,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people I've come across don't realize
Speaker 1: it gets a little bit cold. Oh it's Tamali season.
Speaker 1: It's Tamali's season. Absolutely, Brandon Hoffman, thank you very much
Speaker 1: for your time.
Speaker 2: Thanks Sam