Welcome to the solid verbal.
I'm that for me. I'm a man, I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for Dake Edith.
State is that?
Whoo whoom?
And Dan and Tie? All right, welcome back to the solid verbal. You're hearing my voice because I am in full control. Tye is out. This is a Dan only situation. Out now. Tie is sick. Ty has the flu. And we want to keep doing shows. We want to keep putting out content, and we haven't talked about new coaches, coordinators, staffs,
assistant strength and conditioning coaches. So we turn to the man who not only is a senior columnist and everything for the Athletic covering college football, not only host the Andy Staples Show, which it's really good that they found Andy Staples to host the Andy Staples Show, but he's also uniquely qualified to look at new coach and grade. I guess his own perception the way that we are trying to do today, which is on a hot chicken spice scale, because why would you do anything other than
that once you realize that that's an option. Andy Staples, thanks for coming on.
Well, thank you Dan, I am proud to say I have consumed the Extra Extra Extra hot at Prince's in Nashville, the basically the founders of hot chicken in America, and so I feel like I'm uniquely qualified for this. In fact, I'm going to send you the video of myself eating said chicken. It's like a chicken grenade essentially, or a spice grenade. It does not hit immediately, but when it does, oh dear lord.
It's not the explosion, it's the shrapnel. That's where they get you. It's the after effect.
It's well, it's not just the after effect.
It is intense, and it's intense for a while, like normal icy food. It's intense for a few seconds. It's intense for a solid minute, minute and a half. It's it's different now, but I still recommend it to everyone who loves hot chicken because this is the place where it was born.
The legend behind it is incredible. You know.
Yep, he was out cat and around and Wifey did not appreciate that, and so for breakfast, she just emptied the contents of the spice cabinet into the dredge and there you go.
So, yeah, this is the Prince Family.
Yeah, yeah, so, I mean infidelity has never produced something so delicious.
I mean, that's the tagline for the Andy Staples Show. I mean, not accusing you of anything, but well, actually think my parents of something. But oh that is true.
No, that was I was born in blessed wedlock for those who are there, but right, But the Andy Staples Show. I am glad they found Andy Staples to host that. It would have been very awkward otherwise. But also the name of the show did not occur to me for a solid two months, three months that the initials were ass.
Yeah. I mean that's a that's a very key component of college football, as if you're going to choose, if you're going to choose any direction to go when putting together a roster, you can do worse than putting together a team of ample rumped individuals.
Well, that's exactly right.
And the thing about the show, I mean, it's we were talking about some serious search engine OPTIMSM optimization. I don't know if you've seen the colon after the name of the show, which is funny after the word ass. Yes, of course, it says a show about college football. So basically we are we are the what time is the super Bowl of podcasts.
You're nailing it. Apps sub the Andy Staples Show. Subscribe for college Football podcast. It's a good name. I can't hold it against you. And also, if we have time at the end of the show, after we discuss new college football hires within the context of hot Chicken spiciness, I want to do a show within the show called like, I don't know, chat and Chicken Poultry Pals. I don't know what it's going to be, just about the state of fried chicken in my world.
Well, I mean, given how you and Ti have cast some aspersion on us at the Athletic as being in the bag for big poultry, I think we probably should clear the air.
At least.
We're not the most talented duo. We don't. I guess maybe we do sound the best, but we are not the smartest. We're not the most connected, but we do notice ongoing trends in college football media, perhaps better than anybody else.
It is. It is a gift, I assure you.
But my contribution to that writing about the greatest chicken sandwich on Earth, which is the sandwich that is only served on Tuesdays at Blue Ook Barbecue in New Orleans. Mine was made earnestly. There was no nothing from above that said Andy, you must write about Chicken today. So I know everyone thinks it's a vast conspiracy that ESPN people are supposed to favor the SEC and people at the athletic are supposed to write about Chicken.
Sometimes it just works out that way.
Yeah, Well, when I when I hear that Tyson or Purdue presents the Andy Staples Show, that's p ER, not p u R, then I'm gonna know something's so well. I'm just watched.
If if I give Sam Pittman the highest of grades, you probably know Tyson Chicken is involved here.
Okay, here's here's the uh, the the movement right into the head coach higher. So let's start with head coaches. And I guess in terms of actual spiciness it would be hard to go anywhere else but the state of Mississippi. I would. I think it's probably easiest to say that Mike Leach and Lane Kiff, and who have coached against each other in a different conference, that is the spiciest duo in just a specific state. So what is your
perception of each of those hires? And if we're going to define spiciness, I suppose by how is the fit? You know, it's not necessarily we need to find the next dabbo, it's how does this person fit at this school? You know, it's all the jarrins that I came up with ten minutes ago. It's hiring, firing, inspiring, tiring out other teams, and I guess all while perspiring. It was very nice, don king of me. What is the spiciness? What is the fit? Where are the factors? To you?
With Mike Leach at State and Lanekiff and at all, Miss.
Well, you gave me some helpful levels of spice, which I'm glad you did.
Yeah.
You started with country slash Southern, which I'm assuming is so is no spice at all, just salt. And then you've got mild, mild with spicy, honey, medium, hot, extra hot, howland or atomic or reaper with a side of frozen teepee of assuming frozen teaiod yes, correct, correct, I will I will change the last one to nuclear.
Yeah, that's fine, and anything that is beyond just your standard adjectives.
Yeah, there was a there was an incident when I was in college with the nuclear flavored hot wings from winging it now. Okay, I want to make sure people do understand we are talking about Nashville hot chicken.
We are not talking about hot wings.
Because I remember a few years ago, back when Nashville was the only place where you could still get hot chicken. You'd say hot chicken and people would go, oh, wings.
Buffalo wings.
M yeah.
But the rest of the country has hipped to what hot chicken is. But just in case you don't know, it is a whole piece of fried chicken, thigh, breast, whatever you want, and it is fried. And then the way that most of the places spice it is they use kind of a pepper paste that they put on it, and this the paste have varying degrees of intensity depending on how bad you want to hurt afterward.
And what what types of peppers they use.
Yeah.
Yeah, So like you go to Princes, you get the extra extra extra hot. It is hotter than the blazes of Hell. Like their medium is hot. If you go to Hot Chicken Takeover in Columbus, Ohio, they've kind of dumbed it down for a non Nashville audience.
We're amateurs. Yeah, well no, but there's.
It's still delicious. You just have to. It's like it's sort of like sizing up and shoes.
You know, if if you're normally like it hot, you would get medium at Princes, you'd have to get the hot at at Hot Chicken Takeover and all these other places that have sprung up.
So I'm going to go with nuclear for the.
For the top level, and I am going to go nuclear on both of these high on Lane Kiffin and on Mike Leach because this cannot possibly end well from an egg Bowl perspective, right, they actually like each other.
My guess is they'll end up hating each other.
This is going to be an intense recruiting rivalry, an intense rivalry on the field. If they do manage to do what they've been hired to do and make their programs better, then imagine if the egg Bowl is for say, we're not going to say for the SEC West title. Let's not go crazy. Alabama, LSU, AUVERURGN are still in the division. But let's say the egg Bowl is for a New Year Six Bowl.
Berth sure, which is the ceiling for both of these teams. We've seen them in the last decade. Get to New Year's Six games, Mississippi State got's number one in the country. Ole Miss has beaten Alabama multiple times, so I think your ceiling is correct.
So I mean, I'm assuming because of the stakes of the game that no one would try to pretend to urinate on the field. They would probably try to pretend to defecate on the field, and that would probably cause I don't know, is that.
A thirty yard penalty?
If pretending a pee is is a fifteen yard penalty, Pretending to poops gotta be thirty.
So if you do the if that the Adam Carolla like using the football as a deuce prop, yeah, then I think at a certain point if you're if you're bringing props into it, then it's it's multiple unsportsman likes.
Sure.
Yeah, So that's gonna cost one of these teams a spot in a New Year six Bowl, and then probably the coaches are going to blame one another. There may be a fight at midfield. I cannot wait for any of this. By the way, I am so excited about the possibility of all the things that might happen when Mike Leach and Lane Kiffin coexist on either side of the nastiest rivalry in sports.
Are you believers? Are you a believer in either of them getting them getting their respective teams to New Year six Ish territory? How have the Hires been in your mind?
You know?
Does is it the right I guess era of their careers to be making this move.
Yes, I think both of them can do it. And if you say, oh, you can't both do it at the same time, well, actually you kind of can. Because Mississippi State went to the Orange Bowl after the twenty fourteen season, Ole miss went to the Peach Bowl after the twenty fifteen season, So they've been good at the same time, and so it's definitely doable.
And I think this is a case where they can. Now the leech thing.
Feels more of a sure thing, I guess because look at what he's done. Texas Tech, Washington State, both places that it's not really easy to win. They're kind of considered the most remote location in their league. Right, he had them punching above their weight. I would assume he does the same thing here. Now, it's not as remote
as those places. There is a lot of talent around there, but the thing is, it is cutthroat competition to get that talent, including competition with Lane Kiffin and the ole Miss which Lane Kiffin hired a very aggressive recruiting staff, so they're gonna get after it. Leech is going to have to try to do that too, But I think if you look at Leech's history punching above the weight,
that's what you want. Kiffen's a little bit different story because obviously he was not ready for the Raiders' job. I thought he did a decent job as Tennessee's head coach. The record may not reflect it, but you have to think of what he inherited and what they actually did. That team was better than it should have been. Usc was another story. He had one good year with them, but was kind of underachieving the rest of the time.
So the question is, is what we've seen at FAU an accurate representation of Lane Kiffin as a head coach, because obviously the stakes do rise, the degree of difficulty rises when you go to a Power five school, so we'll have to see about that. But if he's the guy he was at FAU and that was an accurate representation, then I do think Ole Miss can be one of those teams that wins seven or eight games a year and occasionally cycles up to a very good record, to
a nine to ten win season. And if that happens and Leech does what he's supposed to do, we are going to have a very explosive egg Bowl. And that's all I'm asking for. That's how i want to finish my Thanksgiving night.
I'm right there with you. Not terribly far from Oxford is Memphis who loses Mike Norvel to Florida State, who takes over a headline job in the ACC. I remember I was fairly confident that Willie Taggart would succeed in Tallahassee. I remember you being very confident because of how well he has been as a recruiter in Florida specifically. It didn't work out. Mike Norvell goes to Tallahassee. Another big ACC hire, somewhat big ACS hire Jeff Hafley to Boston College,
a school that can succeed has succeeded. What do you make of those two hires at two very different places in the same conference.
Norvell, I'm gonna give an extra hot too. I think that's a really good hire. I think he's going to inherit a roster that's better than what he had at Memphis and probably moved pretty quickly to improve them, because you know, you look at the rest of the ACC.
Obviously, Clemson is Clemson.
Louisville's gotten quite a bit better in Scott Saderfield, but there is plenty of room to just beat up on everybody else in the ACC. So I think they're going to do all right pretty quickly. And I think just the attention of detail he tends to pay is very special. Teams heavy, the little things tend to matter to him. That's very opposite of Willie Taggart's administration. And I was completely wrong on the Wily Tigert thing. I thought he'd be great there, but it turned out he was not
quite ready for that big of a job. And I know you'll say, oh, well, he was an Oregon right before that and he was doing fine.
Well look at who was.
At Orgon with him, and look how Orgon's done with those people still there. He had a nice safety net at organ That safety net wasn't there at Florida State, and the result was what you saw. So I think with Norvell, he's prepared for this. He's been in a situation where he's had to deal with with less talent going as pretty good competition, because let's be honest, the American West last year isn't that different than what you
play against in the ACC non Clemson Division. Now, I think there's some a SEC teams that are getting better, and so I don't think the American and the AEC will be that close together going forward. But Norvelle understands the competition level he'll deal with right away.
Now.
Maybe not Clemson, but that's a different story. You don't have to be Clemson right now. Just get better and then in a few years we can talk about that.
Do you think he's built and has the ability to succeed where Willy didn't? And whether that's with administrators, whether that's setting expectations, whether that's hiring assistants who are competent across the board, whether it's getting a team ready, inspiring a team to play sort of sound dis football. Does Mike Norvell inspire that in you?
Yes? I think so.
When you look at how many assistance he lost at Memphis and he managed to replace them and Memphis kept getting better, I think that's a really telling thing, because you know, at Memphis you just couldn't afford to keep those guys, and then he gets to Florida State and starts rehiring some of those guys that he'd worked with before because it's like, hey, I can afford you now come back. And so I think that's a pretty good sign.
And I also think again the attention to detail. He tells a story about when he first got to Memphis and he had been looking through their stats and realized that they had not returned to kick for a touchdown in however many years, and he said in his first team meeting, we will.
Return kicks for touchdowns.
And sure enough, they were close to the lead in the country in that while he was there. So that sort of I'm going to identify this thing and then we were going to work tirelessly to get better at it.
That's a good sign.
And I realized what I've just said is the definition of coaching in basic, but it's not.
That basic.
You will find guys who are decent big picture guys who are not great at drilling down on the small details. And at the level where he is now at Florida State, you have to be good at the big picture and at the small details, because the small details are what win you games or lose you games. It's why Willie Tiger got fired in year two, not so much that he didn't have a good long term vision for the program, but that they kept losing the same way over and
over again. It was clear he was not focusing on those minute details because they kept messing them up time and time again. So that's the part that I think Mike Norvel will will definitely help them with. They got to get better on the offensive line. Still, that's not an overnight fix, but I do think you will see you will see immediate results and feel like, Okay, they're in a better place.
People are very high on Jeff Haffley as a specific coach. Obviously, it's different when you have the amount of talent he had on the Ohio State defense and he was in the NFL a couple of years ago. He is highly regarded across the board from the Northeast. How much of an uphill climb is there at Boston College, where things didn't seem great both in public and private view.
I feel like they were in sort of the Bopolini Nebraska territory, although not quite as successful, but on a plateau where they just wanted to feel something and So now the issue with that is you might feel something awful like when they hired Mike Riley at Nebraska, and you don't want that. But I think Hafley was a good choice. He was known as a good recruiter in the Northeast back when he was a college coach before
he went into the NFL. That's critically important at Boston College because you do need to be able to cultivate guys close to home, and that's not the easiest thing in the world. But you look at the history of Boston College College, they've been able to find people in the Northeast. They've also been able to find some under the radar guys and really develop them. That's something that that Adasio was pretty good at too, but maybe just
not enough of them. So that's that's Halfley's challenges is can you improve upon and look, you don't have to win ten games a year at Boston College. That's asking an awful lot. They wont eight, they were winning seven. They would like eight. That that I think would make them happy. I think you can do that, but you've just got to You've got to recruit a little bit better. Maybe maybe hit the portal for some bounce back guys, and that's something again, that's something a.
Dasio did with, especially at the quarterback position.
But half Lea's Halfley's got to be able to to cultivate players near home because you I'm a firm believer that you can't rely on a whole bunch of guys from one thousand miles away. That it's hard to make that into a team. It's hard to make that group care as much as a group that is, you know, has a foundation of guys who grew up knowing about the school, who care about the school. So I think his ability to recruit up there is going to help.
Now again, Adasio was the same thing. So if we're talking about someone who was at a a you know, a program recently helmed by urban Meyer who's good at recruiting the northeast and good at developing people on the line of scrimmage, well that also describes Steve Dazio. So you may have hired something fairly similar. But in terms of charisma ability to connect with today's player, I think
Hathley has a little bit of an advantage there. So if that's good enough for one more win a season, I think that's that's enough right now.
And to be clear, Boston College has developed some all time great maybe on the conference, maybe on the national level. Defensive players. Absolutely, don Brown. You know, it's Mark Hurt, Look, it's Luke Keegley, it's Harold land Qwanuka. Yes, absolutely so. If he can maximize the number of above average or very good players, Boston College should be in an okay situation. Let's stay in the Northeast because this one's probably one
of the stranger hires, but to be expected. In Greg Ciano at Rutgers, I believe the only new Big Ten head coach hired this cycle. Is there a reason to believe I know a lot of people like his assistant hires. Is there reason to believe Rutgers, now in a different conference, will at least be a bowl team more often than not.
I think this was the best hire Rutgers could make.
And I know people will say, well, wait, you didn't think Tennessee should hire him, And no, I didn't. I thought he would fail spectacular at Tennessee. I don't think he'll fail at Rutgers one because I've seen him succeed at Rutgers already. But two, I just think he understands what he's dealing with there. You know, at Tennessee, certain aspects of his personality would not have matched very well with the environment there because he's a very controlling guy.
He likes to be in charge of everything. He likes to be able to control the message, all that stuff. Well, you can't do that at a place like Tennessee.
But you can.
Absolutely do that at Rutgers because people don't care that much and so you're going to be able to run it the way you want to run it.
And the fact that.
He has the respect of all the high school coaches in the state, you know, there's a chance they get more of the players in the state.
Now, they're not going to get a.
Really good state for talent right State Jersey.
Here's the thing, Dan, If Rutgers could get all the best players in New Jersey, Rutgers would be a big ten title contender. That's not going to happen. Historically they haven't been able to. There's a reason for that. You know, Notre Dame's going to go in and invade the Catholic schools. Michigan and Ohio State are always going to come take their share. Penn State's going to come up and take its share. You're asking too much. If you're asking the Rutgers coach to lock down the state.
He's not going to do that.
But Schiano is going to get enough good players to make them better. And what I think what you said, where they go to a bowl game every once in a while, that's about all you want to ask for there. They are in such a harder situation in the Big Ten than they were in the Big East. To remember, he never won the Big Easter Ruggers, So right, you you're asking too much if you're thinking, oh, he should be competing with the likes of Ohio State and Penn
State and Michigan. No, that's not it. Every once in a while you might beat one of those teams. Ball eligibility is your baseline. Six wins your goal every season. If you have a seven eight win season, fantastic, that's great, be happy about that. But he can get you to that more modest goal, and I think that's all you need to ask.
Also, it's a great time to have ball aspirations in the Big Ten with the bottom of that conference. We just saw Illinois in a bowl comfortably in a bowl game.
We saw Indiana almost winning one. Good.
Yeah, I want to get back to the SEC in a moment. But I guess let's transition with an SEC assistant who just became a head coach. That'd be Dave Randa moving on from national champion LSU to Baylor. Nothing to do with the higher But I had never heard him speak. I just sometimes you just don't hear a coordinator speak. I don't live anywhere near Baton Rouge. I don't really watch media days, and I didn't know he sounds like Batman, like the Christian Bale Batman. He's got
like a gravel, like a confident gravel to him. He does suddenly I really like a lot more.
Very cerebral Christian Bale Batman. So yes, we'll probably a little more Christian Bail Bruce Wayne in there.
But he is.
He's a very interesting guy, and it's one of those things you write where you didn't. He didn't let much of his personality show, but you can tell that that he is.
He's a thinker.
He's very much a how do I fit this puzzle together? And I think that will go over well with a bunch of plays who were just with Matt Rule. Now Matt Rule is a little bit different where he's that dude. You don't meet many college football major college head coaches who act like normal human beings, and Matt Rule was the most normal of normal human beings. Like, you want Matt Rule to be your neighbor. Essentially, you want to him hang in the beer over the side of the fence.
That's who Matt Rule is. But Matt Rule is also a very thoughtful guy, has a lot of very bright ideas about how football should be played and about how culture should be built. I think Dave Randa will fit in very well in that environment, and the players will will appreciate that they got somebody who maybe isn't exactly like the guy they just lost, but is close enough that they're going to feel like they're in a similar program. And you know, Miranda, it's one of those things that
he didn't talk very much. I remember thinking as I was watching him at media day before the National title game this year, he's he was talking about some of the ways that that offenses have attacked the defense and also some of the some of the limitations they had when they had some injuries in the middle of the year. For LSU and he's kind of referring specifically to the Old Miss game in the Alabama game, and you could tell he wanted to say more and and his brain
is catching him, like, wait, I am saying too much. Schematically, I'm not supposed to give this much away. I am supposed to speak in cliches, but I would like to answer this question.
So, uh, I thought that was interesting, So it will be.
I'm curious going forward when he's in a situation where he has to talk all the time, will he will he kind of figure out where that balance is because you do want to give decent answers, but you do not want to give away the stores schematically.
So I'm hearing maybe mild with spicy honey, Maybe medium because of the inexperience, because going into a situation where it's difficult but there has been recent success, so I feel like it's it's a little bit tricky.
I'm a medium medium here because it's okay, it's a difficult situation.
One.
Matt Rule is an excellent head coach and did something that I don't know that many coaches could have pulled off, going from one and eleven to eleven and two or eleven and three at Baylor, So he's he's stepping into some very large shoes and we've never seen him as a head coach before.
Now, if you read.
What I write, you know I'm not a must be a head coach beforehand kind of person.
I've looked at.
I look at what the best teams are, and a lot of them are led by guys who weren't head coaches before they became head coaches. So you don't have to be. The question is do you have that in you? And we just don't know that yet with Dave Randa. But I do think mac Rhodes is a very good ad. Something Dave dr Anna must have said impressed mac Rhodes and made him believe that this is the guy who can fill Matt rules shoes.
So I think that is a pretty good endorsement.
All Right, We'll keep going less before going back to the because we still have Missoo Arkansas to hit. The state of Washington has new head coaches, although somewhat familiar with Nick Rolovich coaching in the Mountain West and Jimmy Lake simply being promoted with Chris Peterson's retirement. I think Nick Rolovich has resonated with people because he's been in the spotlight a little bit more as a head coach, whereas Jimmy Lake seems like, well, first of all, just
his quotes are already spicy. I don't know to what level there.
Is pretty much spicier than everything he says after every Apple Cup?
Correct, How do you feel about both of these hires? Was Washington in need of going in a brand new direction after stagnating in the latter part of the Chris Peterson era And is Nick Rolovich too similar to Mike Leach or does that even matter?
No, I'm perfectly fine with both these hires. I really like, okay both. I thought Rollovich was an inspired hire by Pat sewn at Washington State because you went from a guy who was want to get you attention and have you playing better than you probably should, to a guy who was going to get you attention and, at least in the place he was just at, have them playing better than they probably should. So you go from the air raid to the run and shoot, that's all good.
I think that's that's really cool. I don't know if that wins you an Apple Cup, because Jimmy Lake seems to have some definitive ideas about how to stop offenses like that, and it seems to be pretty good at it. But and the Jimmy Lake thing, I thought when when I saw Peterson step down and that they had immediately promoted Jimmy Lake, I thought, they get it. They understand they have a good culture. Don't mess with that, don't
mess with the infrastructure. Keep all that in place, and you get a little new life, new ideas at the top. But you got a good thing going, you know, you said stagnating. I think they had one bad year. I really I don't think the year before was that bad. I think they had this year was below their standards. But I think they are absolutely from a culture standpoint and recruiting standpoint and evaluation standpoint, they're good enough to be contenders in the PAC twelve North every single year.
And by promoting Lake, you just keep all that rolling. You don't have to go find a bunch of other stuff. And you may find a situation like you did at Ohio State, where look, nobody in their right mind would have told you that urban Meyer is going to leave and the guy who you hired from within to replace him is going to make them better.
But that's exactly what happened. You know, it's not a knock on Urban Meyer.
That's just you know, it was a perfect storm of Meyer had recruited some really good players. They brought in a little bit different attitude that meshed really well with the chemistry of this team. And look they lose nothing. You know, they keep right on rolling. I think Washington can do the same thing with Jimmy Lake. You had
a great culture. If you can get away with not changing it, I think that's the most important thing because it like with Ohio State, my thing's always been keeping Mickey Muradi as the strength coach was the most important thing they did. You couldn't have done that if you didn't hire from within. They did it, and look how smooth it was. I think we'll look back a year from now with Washington and say, look how smooth that was.
I think you're right in that there's a reason why, maybe outside obviously outside of Nick Saban, but you look at the most successful coaches right now, and a lot of them are promoted from within because day one they can go in and say here's what I liked, here's what needs tweaking, here's what we need more of. Here's what we're completely throwing out. When you look at in the same conference Mario Christabaal, you look at obviously Dabble at Clemson, Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma.
At Oorgeron because while he was atron, but the most some of the more important things that at Orzeron did. We're not changing the things at LSU that were working, you know, hmm. There was a great infrastruct in place at LSU with Tommy moffittt the strength coach, Jack Marucci the trainer. They didn't need to change anything there, and if they'd gone outside to hire a coach, all of that probably would have changed. And the fact that Ogron was able to keep that in place, I think is
why they got things turned around so quickly. And so yeah, I mean, it's if you have the right people to do it now. If you have issues in other parts of your program, like Stanford right now is running into some of those ancillary issues where they've got, you know, gotten rid of the strength coach and trainers different and I think that maybe some of the reason why things are going on there, then maybe you have a different situation. But if you have a situation where your infrastructure is
really good. You really trust those people. It's almost more important to make sure they stay than to hire some genius from outside.
So take note, Jimmy Lake, bring back cookies, because I think that's what helped us, right, didn't that orders run bring that was.
You, that was usc that was well.
We did that at sc Y.
And they didn't give them the job.
They didn't give them the job. Does this So here's here's my homer laced, my Homer colored question. Though, with both Rolovich and in Washington State has I think they won four out of five against Oregon before this season, and Washington, you know, gets over a couple on Oregon before losing a couple in a row. Do either of these hires bring them closer to a situation in Eugene that looks like they're pulling away from the conference in terms of both infrastructure wins and recruiting.
I think Jimmy Lake getting promoted at Washington makes.
It harder for Oregon to pull away. Okay, that's that's the one where I think he can. He can probably try to keep pace with them better than anybody else. But I still think Oregon is has put some distance between itself and the rest of the north, and it's possible that they can increase that distance as long as USC keeps messing around, because the second USC has a different vibe in place and can recruit the way USC.
Is supposed to recruit. Suddenly, Orgon's roster.
Is not going to be as good as it is now. So that's the part that Oregon just has to be aware of. But right now, while they can kind of go into southern California how their pick, they can create some distance.
I like the waiting for goodot element of like someday USC is gonna be good again, and we keep waiting. So I'm sensing a good amount of spice with the Rollo itch in Lake.
Yeah, I like it.
Not quite as spicy as the state of Mississippi, but the state of Washington.
It's spiced with a little rain on it because it's Washington.
Let's go before we go back to the SEC. I keep teasing that because so many big G five jobs seem to be on the western half of America. We have San Diego State, Fresno State, Hawaii, all teams who have won a lot of games past ten fifteen years. UNLV not a power. I'll hire new coaches and then east of the Mississippi. My geographies right, Ryan Silverfield takes over at Memphis. Who's been terrific.
I mean right on the Mississippi, right.
On the Mississippi. Colorado State has won games. They hire Steve Dazio. What g five hire or hires jump out to you as having a good amount of cayenne pepper.
I think Jeff Scott at South Florida is a really good one. He's one that kind of went the Dabo route. He was the receivers coach, he was the recruiting coordinator at Clemson. He served in a lot of the same roles and was very important in helping them build the organization that they have, so he understood exactly what he needed to bring down to Tampa. He's also been recruiting
Florida forever. Basically he was born recruiting Florida. He tells a story about his dad dragging him to one of Dion Sanders high school basketball games when his dad was working at Florida State.
And his dad, by the way, is kind of his chief of staff.
Brad Scott former Florida State offensive coordinator Florida South, former South Carolina head coach, so he's the chief of staff there. And you know, Jeff Scott understands the recruiting landscape in Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, in Fort Myers, places that he's recruited for a long time, places that he has to recruit heavily as USF's head coach. So he's got the trust of those high school coaches. They're not going to lead him astray where you go.
This is something coaches need to worry about when they're new and they don't know anything, because they'll go into a high school and the high school coach will say, well, this kid's great, and not mentioned that the kid has all kinds of problems and could be a terrible influence on the locker room. No coach is going to be s Jeff Scott because he knows them well enough already and they're not going to want to burn that bridge.
And so I think it's going to help their recruiting now.
They need it, because if you're at USF, the school you have to recruit against the most is going to be UCF. UCF has better everything than USF, better stadium, better facilities, better everything, and so Jeff Scott's gonna have to overcome that with with sheer force of personality, and he may be able to do it.
And was he made promises when he was hired about their movements.
There were no promises.
They're working on raising money to build a football building and that was underway already, so they're they're working on it. They're trying, and he's going to actually play a big role in that. You know, he has said, I will go raise money for you. I will be a fundraiser. Whatever you asked me to do, talk to donors, take him out, you know, play golf, what do you want me to do, I'll do it. So I think he
understands that too. But in the intervening time, before they can raise that money, he's just got to out recruit UCF. But he also has to get those players in Florida who are considering maybe UCF and USF to not go to Minnesota, to not go to Wisconsin. That's that's the hard part too, because those big ten schools, the ACC schools that'll come down and recruit them, they got really nice stuff, and so you've got to say, listen, being closer to home is better than having that nice stuff
that you would have and freezing. So it's it's a challenging job, but I think they picked the right guy for it. The other guy I was gonna say that I thought was interesting as Kaitlin Boor at Fresno State. Yeah, did a really good job with them before, was amazing at Indiana as the offensive coordinator.
I'm excited to see what he does there.
Fair Enough, let's go back to the SEC because you mentioned Sam Pittman at the top, who it seems like if the culture looks like what it can under Sam Pittman, who gets his first big job opportunity here in Fayetteville with his hires with Barry Otam and Kendall Briles, with his you know, knowledge of the area and that program, I feel like it's either going to go really well or it's just going to be a disaster, which is sort of what happens at Arkansas.
I guess that is what happens at Arkansas.
And you're right, I don't think there's a middle ground there. I do like the way he's hired. I talked to him on my podcast right after he got hired, and this is before he had hired Kendall Briles. I'm assuming he was decently down the road with him and knew what he was about to do from a coordinator standpoint.
But you know, I.
Asked him a lot of offensive scheme questions. And it's interesting because the assumption is, Oh, he's an offensive line coach, he's going to want to play that bullyball that Brett beielam have played back when he was at Arkansas and Pittman was the offensive line coach, because isn't that what all offensive line coaches want to do?
Well, No, not really.
Mario Christoball is an offensive line coach and they don't run that offense. Matt Campbell's an offensive line coach, they don't run that offense. So I think it was but I do think the offensive line coach thing, the stereo type of it, kept him from ever being mentioned for Do you remember Sam Pittman ever being mentioned for a head coaching job before he got the Arkansas job.
No, it sort of seemed out of nowhere. He was in a good place. He was hired away to Georgia, and you know, maybe he'd be considered for a G five type job after putting in all that time, well talking.
To him about what he wanted to do, offensively. You could tell how much thought he'd put into this, how much thought he'd put into if I ever run a program, This is how I wanted to be. He said, got to do more rpo stuff, work with tempo, do all the things that take advantage of all the rules.
And that's the right answer.
You know, it's not, Hey, We're going to ram it down your throat because at Arkansas you're probably not going to be able to recruit good enough players to do that to Alabama, or to do that to Auburn, or do that to LSU. You've got to find a way to outscheme them at times. You've got to find a way to develop guys, to find under the radar guys.
And I think, you look at what he's done.
The Bury Otem thing is great because you've never been head coach before. So you hire a guy who I realized Barry odom just got fired. I'm not sure he should have been fired at Missouri. I thought Barry Odin was a very good leader at Missouri. You look at the situation he had where the NCAA sanctions come down. Basically every senior on that team could have left and transferred and played without penalty. He didn't lose a single player.
That tells you that he had built something there where the players trusted him, where they liked him, they liked the staff.
To have that guy there as a sounding board for Sam Pittman is critical.
I think it's hugely one of the things when I look back on when Dabo got the job at Clemson, not the interim job, but when they gave him the full time job.
Two of his first hires were Woody McCorvey, who.
Was his position coach at Alabama, had been a position coach at like half the schools in the SEC at that point, just one of those guys who had been there and seen everything, and so he was the chief of staff. And then he hired Dan Brooks as the defensive line coach, and Brooks had been at Tennessee as
the d line coach under Fohmer. He had been at Florida where he under Galen Hall he recruited Emmitt Smith, So I think or maybe he was there of Charlie Pell, but he was one of those another been there, seeing everything, done everything.
I think that helps.
That matters that you have that kind of wisdom and experience on a staff. When you've not done it before. Now, Pittman's not a super young guy, but he's never been in that chair. He's never had to make those decisions. Having owed him there gives him that sounding board. Briles, you know, offensively, not really sure which one's his because at Florida State, is it was it his or Willies? We know it was Arts when he was the offensive
coordinator at Baylor. I think the probably the closest distillation to which one's his is the twenty eighteen Houston offense, which is far and good.
So I like that.
I think, you know, you've got a guy who's experienced recruiting Texas, who's experienced recruiting quarter Texas, and let's be honest, Arkansas should have quarterbacks from Texas. That's that's the most logical place for them to go look for quarterbacks.
I'm gonna take that as mild, maybe with some spicy honey, just because you kind of know what you're getting into. Yeah, but you don't know what it's going to be super hot or not.
It's still it's a first time head coach who, yeah, to that point, had not really he while he'd been interested in being a head coach, I don't know that he exhibited the trailer have been allowed to exhibit the traits of a head great, right, So.
Yeah, you didn't hear about like he's a finalist with this guy for this interesting job that was the name never came up like that.
Yeah, Now I think that I think that's more of stereotyping offensive line coaches than anything else, and I'm glad to see it. As you know, the the online coaches are very thoughtful people. They're very smart. They look at the game in a different way and you look at look at the guys now christ of All, Matt Campbell, Kirk Farence, there's some really good head coaches who were all line coaches.
Fair. I don't know what to think about Eli Drinkwitz. I know he comes in with people thinking he's smart. The NC State offense was pretty good under him. He was at Boise's at Arkansas State from the gust Tree. I think he was at Springdale with Gus as well, but he just sort of kept everything going after Scott Saderfield leaves app State and he's gone after a year, and so I don't know how it can be viewed as anything other than incomplete.
Well, I'm with you. So two things in the state of North Carolina. Yeah, he's the head coach at Apleachian State for a year. They're really good, but they were really good under under Scott Saderfield and Jerry Moore, right, I mean, they've always been really good at Appalachian State. How much of that is what was already in place, the players that were already recruited. So there's that you don't know, and we won't know the answer to that really probably until we've seen him coach at Missouri.
What we do know, though, is it NC State fell apart when he left.
Yeah, that's true.
So I do think that is a sort of a notch in his favor, unfortunately for Ency State that when he took off, NC State suddenly became a very bad football.
Team, especially on offense.
Yeah, so you could say he was the straw that stirred the drink quits.
Oh, you've been sitting on that. I like it, though, I was sitting on my hiring firing perspiring thing. There's no reason you can't.
Well listen, A long list of Jaron's is probably way better than one bad pun.
Yeah, I'll take it, So I take it as mild just because you don't know exactly like the hires have been. Okay, it seems it just it's hard to look at him and say, all right, I know exactly what Miszoo is going to look like moving forward. Because when they were successful, it was a long time experienced head coach who slowly built the program into what they were, which was an SEC East champion.
Yeah, and I'll say this again. I say this every time his name comes up.
But we do not give.
Gary Pinkell enough credit. No, Gary Pinkell was a miracle worker. And that twenty thirteen Missouri team, had there been a playoff, might have made it and might have might have done something real special. That That team was awesome. That's the one that lost to Auburn and maybe the most one of the most fun SEC Championship games ever played. That team was loaded, and we just we do not give
Gary Pinkle. This is the same thing I was saying about Mississippi State with Dan Mullen, where they won so many games under him that they started to think it was easy to win there.
Right.
I think Missouri was the same thing. Gary Pinkell was so good for so long that they thought, hey, this is just normal. Well, it's never been normal for Missouri.
No, they were really good in the Big twelve, really good in the SEC East under him. And by the way, to bring it back to Barry otom that I think was twenty fifteen defense that he coordinated for Miszoo was like a top five national defense with a bottom five national offense, which seems like do well.
No. Remember, the ultimate of that is that you're at Boston College when Don Brown was the DC, where they were the number one defense and the dead last offense.
It's unbold. I can't imagine how taxing and frustrating that has to be. So I guess good for that a coordinator who's able to keep a team focused like that. And there's a reason Don Brown has succeeded before Ohio State games, and there's a reason I think Barry Odom will keep succeeding.
I am with you there. Now.
The question is can Arkansas bring in enough talent with Barry Otam there to and in Sam Pittman there to beat the teams that are in their division. Because you know that's the part when we talk about these SECU West jobs with Leech, with Kiffen, with Pittman, these are all the bottom of the SEC West jobs. You know, you've got the defending national champs. You've got the program that's been the best program in college football for the last ten years, Alabama. You've got Auburn, which is every
other year really really good. You've got Texas A and M, which is paying a guy seven point five million dollars a year and he'd better win soon. And oh, by the way, he does have a pretty good roster right now. So that's the issue with all those SEC West hires, because you know, I think Arkansas fans are happy now that they've gotten here, Pipman. I think they weren't quite as jazz at first. But like Ole miss fans are over the moon. Mississippi State fans are over the moon.
They I hope they don't think this means they're going to win SEC championships.
I believe that they don't. Let's go quickly to coordinators entering into situations where a head coach already exists. There's a lot with the last name M. So I guess which of these names won or meant multiple get as close to frozen TP status to you. We've got morehead Morris, Musgrave, Monkin and Meacham are your big ms. So it's a really nice year for m offensive coordinators. And then some other notables Tom or Tommy Reese, depending on who you
are at Notre Dame to go Tommy Miami. Let's stick Tommy, Mike Bobo at South Carolina, Kirk Sharraka if I'm pronouncing that correctly at Penn State, yep, Mike, you're sick of Texas and John Donovan at Washington. So where is the highest potential for extreme pain in the best possible way.
That's Monk and at Georgia. Now, okay, there's also potential for it.
Not going so well, but that's the one where if it works, they take.
The next step. Because this looks.
Like Kirby Smart saying we need to have a different DNA on offense. We need to have a different offensive philosophy. I'm going to bring in a guy who's run the air raid, who's been in the NFL, who understands all the different ways you can move the football down the field, and I'm gonna put him with Jamie Newman, who they got from Wake Forrest as a grad transfer, and we are going to be a different offense because George is gonna be great on defense next year not good, not
pretty good. They're gonna be great on defense if their offense is adequate gets you the SEC's title. Pretty good probably wins you the SEC, and then really good wins you a national title in that situation. So that's that's the part that where it could really go well. It has a very high upside. Now I don't know that it will go that well as he comes in with a not really bringing his own staff. You know, Matt Luke's running the offensive line. He's a former head coach.
You've got guys who've been with Kirby since he got there. Now, the Matt Luke thing, I think is interesting too because of all the people you could have as a position coach who's a former head coach. Because a lot of times when you have a former head coach as a position coach, that OC is gonna get a little bit intimidated or there's gonna be some friction there. You don't have to worry about that with Matt Luke. Matt Luke is not that guy. His ego is not big.
He's not gonna sit there and go, well, this is how we did it at Old Miss Right.
That's a situation where you'll have a guy one who's been through it all and is willing to help you. And I think that that's a big thing. I was worried when they lost Sam Pittman, just because what's gonna happen with their offensive line? But they got Luke, who
is a good offensive line coach. And I think the fact that he's been a head coach in the SEC, and that he's very well versed in a bunch of different kinds of offenses because remember he worked for David Cutcliffe, he worked with Hugh Freeze, Phil Longo was his oc when he was at Ole Miss, So he's seen a lot of different variations come through.
I think that's very helpful.
And and he's already coached these players because he only took a month off. It's already coached charge of players exactly.
It's amazing.
So you know, I also think I also think Kirby Smart's willingness to make this change, yeah, is an important thing. I think that we can't just gloss over that because the concern with Kirby was that he was going to be too stubborn, that he was going to be like Jimbo Fisher at the end of his Florida State tenure where he could have done some more things, but he just refused to change. And it's like Kirby I think, realized, Hey,
you know what I mean. Nick Saban's so good. He's willing to change, He's willing to adapt and sometimes before everyone else is. So I think his willingness to adapt shows that Kirby smart is deadly serious about this and is not going to sit there and say, well, I'm I'm the genius, that we're going to do it the way I want to and that's the only way we can do it. That is a big deal given the amount of talent they have.
When you look at the defensive coordinator hires going into situations where the head coach is already in place, it seems like a who's who of like twenty fourteen hot names. It's Paul Rhodes, Tony Gibson, Bob Diaco, Chris ash Todd Orlando and obviously Justin Hamilton steps in for Bud Foster Virginia Tech and Kerry Coombs in for Jeff Halfley at Ohio State. Is there a clear resurrection candidate to perhaps go from mild to medium where their name stands now.
Well, I want to see some staff meetings with Jeff Brahm and Bob Diacos as the season goes on. Yeah, I'm pretty excited about that because, for those who don't know, Jeff Brom's pretty pretty spicy guy himself, and Bob Diaco is a little out there sometimes.
So that could be come October if they have a.
Weird game where they give up more points than Jeff Brom would prefer, that's gonna be a very interesting situation. One you didn't have on your list that I think is is an interesting one. Zach Barnett at Mississippi State. Oh yeah, coming from San Diego State. Now, I remember he Arnette initially took the Syracuse job and then went,
you know, changed his mind, decided to go to Matt Lubick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, And so now he is he is in Starkville running in the three three five where, you know, in the state of Mississippi's where the three three five was invented, Starkville, Misissippi.
Joly done.
So I like that that they were, you know, with the defense at San Diego State. It's sort of hard to tell because Rocky Long obviously had such a big hand in it. But I thought Danny Gonzalez when he left, did a really good job at Arizona State. He's now the head coach at New Mexico. So if Arnett can can do what Danna Gonzales did, where he brings what Rocky Long had taught and can travel with it, I think that could be good because I kept I said before,
Leech has never had this kind of talent. Honest, Remember at Mississippi State, you're gonna have talent, but the bulk of the really elite.
Talent at a place like that is gonna be on your defense.
So you need a really good defensive coordinator, really good defensive scheme to make that work. The three three five, I mean, I realized you get a little sentimental about it because it is Misssippi State. But I think given today's offense, is that that's a pretty smart way to go. And then they had three first round draft picks on defense just this past draft. You know they have access to that kind of talent. If this guy does a good job, his next job is a seven figure job.
Wow. Good to know. Before we go, I promise we do a show within the show. I know you've only got a couple of minutes left here. You have obviously displayed your acumen for hot chicken. Either I guess a dry dusting of spice or a mop of some sort of marinateive spice. I'm gonna flip it. Do you have a blind spot? A fried chicken blind spot? If you go to any number of countries, they have their own version of fried chicken. I think I have one of mine.
But is there a species? Is there a genus of fried chicken that you're like, I need to get my hands on what this culture is doing.
The Vietnamese fish sauce wings, Yes, are amazing.
You're you know Pock Pock in Portland is the place that made those popular in this country. Those things are spectacular and you'll find those around the country. The Korean spicy wine, Oh my god, which there's It's kind of sweet and spicy at the same time. I found a really good place in Chicago called doc which is right next to the the Loyola Chicago.
The underrated Korean town.
Yeah, yeah, the place that made the final four a few years ago, so just down the street from their campus.
Beautiful wings. They're delicious.
And then there's place in Salt Lake City, and it's weird because you think this would be a very common thing, and it was the first I've ever heard of it, and I googled afterward to try to say, well, there's got to be more of these in other towns, and there really aren't. There's a lot of home chefs do this, but you don't find a lot of restaurants that do it.
Curry fried chicken.
I was gonna actually jump in with something similar.
Continue, Yeah, so the places in Salt Lake is actually just called curry fried chicken. Oh okay, exactly what you what it sounds like, and it's it's delicious. I mean that those flavors just go really well together.
I was going to jump in with if a Japanese kitchen is dead set on cooking a certain type of food a certain way, that kitchen is probably going to do it really well. And I've had chicken katsu, which is like, yes, it's the thinned out fried chicken, and there will be like a curry factor in some dishes over white rice or something like that. You're now seeing a lot of chicken kotsu like clubs on a Japanese
milk bread with a slough. I need to have more chicken katsu in my life, and I need to figure out how that can happen as soon as humanly possible.
If only you lived in a city with a varied.
Yes, I think that's what my focus on twenty twenty is going to be. I'm eating less meat for health reasons, but when I do eat meat, I'm making it count. And the Japanese chicken katsu tradition feels like it's one for me.
I think that's a great idea. Now, I'm going to make an announcement on your show. I'll probably expand on this on my show.
Please, this is.
My last hurra this weekend.
I have decided that I exercise entirely too much to be this fat, and I am I am going to get my diet under control.
Now.
That doesn't mean I'm gonna stop eating a lot of the fun things I eat. Yeah, it does mean I'm going to exercise a little more moderation.
I am. I'm going to try the intermittent fasting.
Oh, I do it right now. We can do a whole show about this.
So when do you eat? What hours do you eat?
I will generally eat between twelve and eight or one and nine, So it's the sixteen hour of no eating, and it'll take like three days for you to get used to it if you can push through. I have black coffee and maybe sometimes green tea in the mornings, drink a lot of water because sometimes when you're hungry, you're actually thirsty. And then I'll eat lunch at twelve or one, have a little bit of a snack, eat dinner seven or eight after the little man goes down,
and I feel pretty good. And like when you work out on a starved, starve time of your day, you actually burn more fat You're.
Fat, which is which is painful. When you get into fat burning, you feel it. But that's what I need to Donna. I'm gonna try to get that under control. I think, given my schedule, eleven to seven is probably the best thing for me. I already know that green tea is going to be my new best friend, so I've been at the grocery store sort of scouting out the different green teas that that will probably be what I drink in the morning because I'm gonna try the black coffee. I don't know that I can be a
black coffee person. I just never have been. So what I could do is just drink the green tea and then when I do want to put some cream in my coffee, then I'll do it between eleven and seven and have a little coffee.
But uh, it's not that difficult. It is not all that difficult. You're just you're a little more thoughtful about what you eat and when you eat it and.
Hurrying real reasons.
Via is the other thing that's okay because I'm a now I'm a big, you know, sweetener type guy, like artificial shorer type guy. But you can't use the the sucralose, you can't use the aspartame, you can't use the sacharine. So no no yellows, no blues, and no pinks. You can only use the greens. So my sister in law carries liquid cevia with her in her purse. I think I'm gonna start doing that.
I think that's totally good. I sleep better, My digestion of metabolism is definitely better. And working out just there's something very I'm trying to find the right word here, but it's it feels better to work out when you don't have something weighing you down because I'll work out in the mornings, so I recommend it.
I'm a morning workout person too. That's that's I'm glad you said that, because that was something I was kind of worried about, is working out on an empty stomach?
And what's that going to do to me?
But if if, if you, if you're right, and I can get used to it, then it sort of works out very well because you never eat.
You don't really want to eat.
Right after you work out because you're feeling kind of now, you know, you just exerted yourself. And so that will put me ready to roll at eleven o'clock when I'm allowed to eat, And that way I can I can eat some you know, fairly balanced day's worth of food.
Yeah, and you can eat a bigger dinner because you're gonna be digesting longer. It has to last you longer, and you get a sort of lighter lunch, but something that satisfies you that you're gonna be able to burn off responsibly. I recommend it.
I am very excited about this. My pants are already getting ready to be fit better, all right.
I like that we went from chat and chicken and the fried chicken that is singing to us in twenty twenty. Onto breakfast is not a big deal unless you have some sort of blood issue or you're pregnant or something like that. That's what I feel.
Anyway, You're not pregnant, are you, Dan?
I am not. I can confirm right here. Everybody listened to the Andy Staples Show. A good starting point would be and I listened to this recently. Andy did a show with Nicole auerback right after the National Championship game, putting LSU's run and game into context and everything that needed to happen to get them to that point. That's the good stuff that you can listen to on a podcast that you don't have time for on a radio show or a TV hit or something like that. That's
why you should listen to the Andy Staples Show. It's available wherever podcasts are available. But you should also subscribe to The Athletic because I think there's bonus podcast content on there. There's probably a deal and there's one hundred percent chicken content on the Athletic dot com.
So much chicken there it is.
Andy, Thank you very much for joining us.
Thank them