Welcome to the solid verbal hell.
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And then and tie Welcome back to the solid verbol, boys and girls. My name is ty Hilda Brand, that fine gentleman over there, the monster of the Midwest, the one of the only Dan rubis Sezer.
Hey you doing, I'm good. I like when you change up my introduction. It really keeps me on my toes. I'm good, I'm good. I had some honey roasted peanuts, I took a shower, and now I'm talking to you. That's like the trifecta of fun times midweek. So no complaints and.
The superfecta is in root. We've got Ari wasser Grew stopping by here momentarily. We want to talk to him specifically about twenty twenty three quarterbacks. Yes, notably arch Manning. Arch Manning is the name you've if you filed college football. Even if you don't follow college football, just follow foot ball or sports. You know that arch Manning is a thing we will talk about. Arch Manning. Is he worth
the hype. Yeah, we don't know where he's headed. You know, you could throw dart and find any number of like half a dozen schools that could be in the running for arch Manning. I don't know if we'll get quite to that extreme with it, but I'm interested in talking to him about that. I know you're interested also in talking about just ramifications that we've see from the rapid change of college football as of late, things like nil transfer portal, how do you manage stuff like that From
the coaching side. We'll get into all that and much much more with our good friend Ari Wassman. Also need to talk boat goals with Ari. While we're always sort of like our lane, now after the last couple, I think we're just going to devolve to a place where everybody is kind of saying the same thing about big boat, the Adriatic, the Mediterranean, you know, the French Riviera or whatever, which which is good, although I mean there's something to be said for a lot of different places around the
world that's not in that place. But that just I don't know, it seems pretty attractive to me the twenty twenty three quarterback class to go back to that momentarily, I don't know if you have any thoughts. I don't believe Notre Dame has a quarterback committed at the moment. I don't think that Domino has fallen for the Irish yet. No for Marcus Freeman. Same goes for Oregon, who very much was in the hunt for Nico Yama Lava Yama Lava, who ended up at Tennessee with much bally Who considering is.
That might be the first time I've ever said Bally Who on Bally Who.
I'm pretty happy about it.
It's a fascinating class. It's a fascinating class because of Anil, It's a past fascinating class because of Arch Manning. Whatever he is or isn't, obviously, he has the attention of a lot of huge schools. We had Malachai Nelson who was committed to Oklahoma when Lincoln Riley was there, and he flips he's from southern California, he flips to USC
And so there are a number of dominoes. I think there's a quarterback from northern California who's considering a few big places that is a five star and also fascinatingly, and I want to ask Ari about this quarterbacks committed to non offensive powerhouses that have options. That are the schools that they're committed to are out of their their geographic footprints? And is it a transfer portal thing? Is it these schools doing a better job selling themselves?
Is it a.
Schools bending over backwards? Is it an nil thing? It's it's a fascinating year for quarterbacks. Not the least of which reason whyse is that's not English is the number of coaches who are on the move, Like what is LSU going to be doing? What is you know, Florida going to be doing, Oregon Notre Dame, like all of these huge places. USC moving forward after this year obviously
is going to be a huge destination. So I just I think Oklahoma has a big one in the fold right now if you're looking at the list.
Is that true?
Believe they do? Yes, absolutely, Oklahoma is like the number five or six Jackson Arnold, Jackson Arnold, there you go. Which was the name of the father on the Wonder Years? Was he not Jack Arnold, Dan Lauria jack Arnold. I think that's true? So, uh, this is great, This is this is great for us off season fodder. And I suppose as soon as arch Manning makes his decision, I assume coming up, dominoes are gonna fall.
Domino's dominoes will definitely fall. We'll talk about that about so much more with our good friend Ari, who we haven't spoken with in I don't know a couple months now, so it'd be good to have him back. Don't forget this show. All our shows brought to you by our good friends over at Geico, driven by Guyico. As we say here at the of every episode, subscribe and follow this podcast if you haven't already. That helps us out immeasurably.
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You can find it out there at solid giveaway dot com. Daniel agreat You definitely can, all right, Dan, it is that wonderful time of year again. I don't know if we brought him on this time last year. Probably at some point, no last spread, I don't know.
I don't know when. The last time he was on was during the season at some point.
Yeah. National college football reporter for The Athletic on his Twitter bio, it says stars matter, I hate your favorite team. Ari Wasserman, Welcome back to the show, sir. How you doing h.
I wish I was on every week, guys. I'm so excited every time I get every single time I get that text you have time for SV Yeah, I've got it always, And today was actually a pretty busy day for me, and I still I made time.
How would Andy Staples feel hearing that he knows the truth? Yeah?
Wow, yeah, I mean I didn't say anything bad about our show. I just love being on this show.
Wonderful. Well, let's get things started in as light of fashion as possible. This has nothing to do with football, but you are down in Dallas. They have a big lake down there. Dan and I have been talking at nauseum lately and I don't really even know how he got on this topic.
Wait, we're doing this then in the onset right to start.
We're coming in hot, Dan, We're coming in hot. How about this specialty? I'm going to introduce the premise of boat Goals now, oh okay, and we're gonna give Ari an opportunity to think about it and then respond later.
Okay, Okay.
I think he's probably already thought about it, but yes, hashtag boat goals. We're trying to speak it into existence. Ari, what are your boat goals? You don't have to answer now, just think about this. I'm gonna ask a recruiting question.
Moment, give it tease.
But you know, like we're talking about doing some sort of big boat adventure in like the bay or the harbor outside the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, all sorts of crazy stuff like what would you want to do on a boat if you had limitless funds, whatever kind of boat at your disposal, et cetera, et cetera, that type of thing.
Yeah, you said, I live near a lake and my boat's not going on a freaking lake.
Exactly right. It's a good attitude to have.
So we'll talk about it all right.
Yeah, yeah, oligarc level aspirations.
If you say money is not an object, you can automatically assume that I'm going one hundred percent of the way with it. Yeah, of course, I'm not going to be one of those people. It's just like, well, I want what I want. I'll just take a two person sail boat and just go on and pat.
I'm a low key catamaran type No, Yeah, absolutely not. You're in a bezos boat with that kind of money, all right, So yeah, R. Wasserman the big name in recruiting right now. I mean, we just finished one recruiting cycle, we're about to start another. Or the other that we'll be talking about more often is well underway. Arch Manning. Arch Manning is the name that everybody knows. Everybody is waiting with bated breath to see which direction he goes.
I've heard about a thousand different schools that might be interested. Lately, it's been a smaller handful. Let me start with a really dumb, potentially obvious question. We know he's a Manning. Is he really worth all the hype?
So that's a kind of a difficult question for me to answer because because it's just there's no way to separate the hype from his name, so like it's impossible. So what I'll say to answer that is that he is a five star quarterback. Like if his last name was Wasserman, he would be a five star quarterback. Now would he be the number one overall player? Would he be gaining as much attention as he is right now?
Probably not, because I think that there is a certain mythical thing about him, and having two Hall of Fame uncles and his family and his last name that just exudes greatness. And the thing that I think about arch Manning more than anything is that if you look at the schools that are pursuing him outside of ole miss I mean, everyone's pursuing him, but the ones that he seems to be giving the most attention in return to all have signed five star quarterbacks in the recent past.
I mean even Texas just got Quinn yours last year. So it's not like he is a commodity for these schools that is irreplaceable. What I think that he is from my viewpoint is almost a symbolic figure in the sense of if your school is able to get this person who doesn't speak to the media, who doesn't tweet, who has advisors on his side like Peyton Manning and Eli Manning, it proves to the world that your program is the most fitting for a person of his stature,
which I think matters to people. So the thing that recruiting has gotten to the point that it is is because people like competing when there are no games, and it's like what recruit could ever match the magnitude of what that commitment would mean. So if he goes to Georgia, you know, a team that has brought vandergriff on the roster already, it's not like Georgia is in well maybe you know, you know help. My take is on walk
on quarterbacks who just won the national championship. But you know, in order to sustain that level of success at some point they're going to have to have an NFL quarterback playing there. Do they absolutely need arch Manning? No? Does Alabama absolutely need arch Manning when they've got the best player in college football right now playing the quarterback was No,
all these teams won't cease to exist. But if he goes to Georgia or Texas or Alabama, what it means for that program has a destination for other players to
go to. It's kind of like picking royalty. So that to me is the height more so than his ability, because when you look at quarterbacks in the day, in this day and age, and my colleague Antonio Morales wrote a really good story about this, the amount of money people are spending high school parents on quarterback coaches and weightlifting regimen and diet and basically making these show these soldiers of players out of their teenagers in order to
get a scholarship. I mean a lot of times, it's actually kind of funny to me because financially they're paying more than the education than in training that it is to to just you know, you know, do it the right way or the wrong there's no right or wrong way. But I'm saying the amount of money people are sinking in outweighs how much they would just pay to send their kid to school. But the quarterbacks in general, and I've been to the Elite eleven I'm going this year,
I went last year. Those guys on that field are all very very very good. In a lot of time, is very indistinguishable from one another, and I think whether or not that they are successful in college is based on a lot of other things, not just pure talent, but fit, attitude, in tangibles, all the things that you know coaches like to say on the podium. So is he worth the hype? I don't know if it's an easy thing to answer, because I think from a talent standpoint,
he's worth the hype because he's really good. But I think that the hype in this case is more valuable as it pertains to the symbolic nature of landing him than it is for what he's actually going to add athletically to a program.
I have not heard that take before Ari. That is maybe I'm kind of just getting caught up with the twenty twenty three cycle on the fly here, But it's definitely an interesting perspective because so much of the recruiting game, as you would know better than Dan and I, is about reputation. It is about what are we selling. What
is the marketing pitch for this program? Obviously putting guys in the NFL is one thing, but having that sort of mystique, having that are around the program that you can track the best.
What does that say about your school if you get arch Manning to future quarterbacks? Yeah, I think the value of that is probably more important than him winning games. And I think that sometimes, like I am a little bit more on the recruiting symbolism of everything you know and what it means for program rankings and stature. But you know, I don't doubt that arch Manning is going to be a very good college football player. But I also don't doubt that Dante mor is going to be
a very good college football player. And I don't know if the difference between those two athletically is as stark as their reputations, because everybody's heart of arch Manning. Maybe Notre Dame fans and other fans in the in the Midwest and recruiting notts to know who Dante Moor is,
but everybody knows who arch Manning is. So and it's like funny because last year at the Elite eleven I wrote a story because Quinn Viewers was at the time the highest rated prospect of all time, and you go when you put them on the field with a bunch of other five star quarterbacks who are doing the same drills and doing all the you know, same work outs, and there isn't some intangible gap between Quinn yours talent
and everybody else on that field. So I think when you start getting to the most elite, elite players at that position, they're very closely no capable. So is arch Manning standing above the rest of the quarterbacks and doing something that those guys can't do? I don't think so. But I think that his background, his understanding of the lifestyle, what it takes, you know, all the things that you
get from being in that family. It was probably going to give him a leg up on understanding what you know, what you have to put in. But I don't know that I would sit here and say with a straight face that Arch Manning is the greatest prospect I've ever seen in my entire life, because I just got done watching quin you weres throw a football that hummed in the air, you know, six months ago, and who's to
say who's better? And you know, a lot of times that's why people say recruiting is anc inexact science, and to a certain extent, that's kind of the reason for it.
And there's also the ripples, right, there's the ripples, not just of the QB dominoes that fall. Right, if Arch Manning decides to go to Georgia, then Alabama knows where it's, Texas knows where it's going, they have their backup plans in place, and more domino's fall. So everybody's sort of waiting for Arch And then you have the receivers who are say want to I want to catch balls from Arch Manning, and I want to go to that school now I want to you know, the offensive lineman who
say they're building something at this school. The symbolic nature of arch Manning committing there. And I'm glad you brought up quin Yours because the Ohio State quarterback room, of which you are especially familiar, was fascinating last year. Everybody knew it was not going to last, especially as CJ. Stroud became more and more successful. But when you mentioned that, you know, Georgia has a five star waiting obviously Alabama.
I think it's what Ty Simpson is in Tuscaloosa. All of these top, top level schools are not skipping five star quarterback class prospects. What is it about Ohio State right now? What was that room like last year? Why did Quinn youers go there for a year if that was not going to be a place that really looked like it was going to be a long term solution
for him with CJ. Stroud in front of him. What is it like managing those rooms now with every cycle, including somebody that your school will will go after in a big way.
Well, I don't know exactly what quin Yours main motivation was. The idea was that he went there to go get paid for an nil deal, and people like to say that he signed a one million dollar contract. I would eat my hat if he actually earned a million dollars, right. I think that that's the most frustrating thing about NIL is that it's not public information. So anybody can say someone's making something, but you can't you can't verify it.
So my idea, you know, at the time, was that he's going to go to Ohio State a year early,
make whatever money he can. From an NIL standpoint, you know, maybe not start right away, because how could you the guy arrived on campus three weeks before the season started, you know, give it the full season, and then come back next year, which would be coming into this year, sit behind Stroud or whoever won the job again, and then as a red shirt sophomore, which really would have been his red shirt freshman year if you take into account that he was already supposed to be in high
school for one of those years, step in and try to compete for a starting job. So like to me, when he committed and enrolled early, it made sense. But if his anticipation was I'm going to go to Ohio State and in two and a half weeks I'm going to be starting over another top one hundred player who's been in the program for a year, that's borderline insanity.
And the thing that's really really tough about, you know, quarterbacks in general, because of the money that's been sunk into these training programs, because of the elital levens and the openings and the camps that these kids go to. There's a return on an investment that these parents and these families are hoping to receive, and they don't want to wait as long as you used to, you know, back in two thousand and five, which is like the golden era of when I was consuming the football. They're
the sport of football. As a fan, there was a certain level of honor to going to a program and sitting for two or three years, learning the system, being a good teammate, becoming a leader, and and stepping into that role when you've earned it. Those days are over. If kids aren't playing their freshman year or at the earliest or you know, by the latest their sophomore year, they're going to be gone. So when you say, how do you manage that room, and my opinion, there is
no managing it. The idea is you pick the best player on your team to play the quarterback position in that given year, and if people leave as a result of it. There's always a five star quarterback or another quarterback coming in through the rankings next year, and there's no way to properly appease every single person on your roster. In the world of the transfer portal, people can leave freely.
And there are a lot of quarterbacks that play on Alabama's rosters and the Clemsons and the Ohio States that could go compete and maybe start at eighty five percent of the other schools in the Power five that can just go do that now, So it's going to be a nightmare for people in trying to I mean, I remember when I was covering Ohio State. Ohio State had Braxton Miller, j T Barrett, Cardele Jones, and who am I forgetting there's one other one that was on the
roster all at the same time. Those days don't exist anymore, and that's fine. So but the idea now.
Is, I mean one of them switch positions because of Braxtlly, Yes.
And in my opinion was the best quarterback out of all of them for at the college level. So you know, I think Joe Burrow was the other one I forget, forgive me.
For you, Yeah, he was. He lost out to Dwayne Haskins.
Yeah, yeah, So, I mean, they've had a lot of really, really good quarterbacks at that school, and sure, you know some have left and won the Heisman and are now the best player, are one of the best players in the NFL, and you know some other guys have been Heisman finalists. And what you do is you you piece mail together what you think it's going to be. And it's funny because we used to play a game, my coworker, Bill Anders and I have who's going to be the
starting quarterback at this program in four years? And if you play that game at any place, you're going to be wrong ninety percent of the time. So it's just kind of like the new world of the game. And the sooner that these kids are ready to play, and the sooner you can get them on the field, that's the best shot you have at having a bona fide quarterback for two or three years that you can build
a system around. But depth and patience and leadership and learning the playbook and all those things that would make our dads proud while they sip whiskey and just it's not it's not there anymore.
One of the things that's fascinating, and maybe this has become more commonplace just with how easy it currently is to move around if you're not satisfied in a place, if it's not a fit a year or two after you get there. Is the geographic footprints of quarterbacks right now. It's not just like a California kid heading to Alabama. Like I believe Iowa has a blue chip quarterback coming in from New Jersey. I want to say, Purdue has one coming in from Louisiana, Utah has one coming in
from Mississippi. Do you think we're seeing And I don't have the data, but do you think we're seeing more guys, especially who are more and more coveted though those four and five star guys taking more geographic and or system chances, because like, why would a top flight quarterback go to Iowa after we saw from the Hawkeyes last year? Or even the inconsistency of Louisville. I think it's Pierce Clarkson from California heading to Louisville? Like are we seeing more
dice rolls because of the ease of movement? Do you think I do have.
The data to a certain extent, So five or six years ago, I wrote a story for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the headline was it was a series about quarterbacks, and it was called QB Quest. And basically what I did was I took every top one hundred player of during a ten year period at every position, and I added up where they were from in the mileage to where they went to school. In quarterback, compared to linebacker, cornerback, offensive line, tight end, receiver tended to stay closer to
home at a pretty dramatic rate. Interesting. There's something about quarterbacks being the hometown savior. There's something there. I don't know what it is. There's theories about, you know, being loyal to home or being the face of the program, and then being more appealing being closer to where you are.
Being more familiar with the conference.
Yep.
Yes, Whereas a tight end or a linebacker might not care as much as a quarterback because there's many of them on the roster and multiple players of those positions play at the same time. But I thought it was an interesting finding and I haven't done it again since, but it'd be very interesting now to do that again, right and compare it to the findings of five years ago.
It was a lot of Google Maps. There's a lot of adding and averaging, but it was interesting, and now I think that the entire nature of the sport has changed, like national recruiting in general is so prominent, even at places that didn't typically do it that way. You know, I mean, I guarantee you right now, without even looking, if you went in Iowa's class, I bet you they've signed more out of state prospects in the last three years in the previous five combined, just based on the
way that the trend is. So, you know, are people taking more chances. Sure, if I were a five star quarterback or any quarterback and I'd got an offer from a school that in the past I would have been dissuaded to go to because I was afraid I wouldn't
get on the field, why not go there? Be a part of the experience for a year, you know, use the facilities, get coached by better assistance, and if it doesn't work out, you've got nothing to do because you can go back to the place that you would have gone to in one off season to be the start of the following. So I don't think that the you know, the the gravity of that decision isn't the same anymore because of the ease of movement, which then makes people
looser and more willing to take risks. While in that scenario like Maryland, for instance, I think has signed three top fifty players in the last week of the year or the last week of the signing period the last years, and all three of those guys, if I'm not mistaken, have already entered the portal. Right, And it's like that, But that makes it hard on places like Maryland because you know, getting the player is the hard part, but
keeping them is the harder part. So if guys are going to go and leave it, I think that as things continue on this way, the actual meaning of the final recruiting rankings is diminishing year by year, which is scary for my job security. But it's true. And what you said is one hundred percent accurate. Why not take a stab at it because worst case scenario it is transfer home next year.
Right, fair enough. And one of the things you brought up the name I think with Dante Moore, right, if five star quarterback, I want to say he's in the Detroit area.
He is Martin Luther King High School.
Okay, so he's in that midwestern big ten footprint, a footprint in which basically no blue chip quarterbacks go on to succeed. I don't know why that is. I don't know if you've looked into that. I don't know if
it's just a crazy coincidence. And I don't know if means in the NFL or succeed on the field on the field in college, like if you look at the past I don't know, decade or so, like, uh, there have been Like I'm obviously Terrell Prior succeeded from Pennsylvania from he's from Western PA, right, he's from the greater Pittsburgh area. But outside of there there may be a couple of exceptions. But if you look at like the four and five star quarterbacks from the Midwest, by and law.
You mean from where they're from in high school, not where you're playing college. Yes, Oh that's interorrect. I didn't know that.
Yeah, yeah, that A lot of them, an overwhelming number of them are not all conference types. Are not four year starters winning ten games. Like it's just it's not a place to come from and be a very successful college quarterback. Is there a place where if you could choose, if you were running a generic school and you were saying, you give me ten five star quarterbacks from around the country. This is the location from which I'm trusting him the most to be a successful college quarterback.
It's so funny that you just said that, Dan, because I never really put that together. I just went and looked at just like the twenty eighteen class randomly, yep, and the top fourteen or fifth, okay, the top ten. There's only one player from the Midwest who is at the quarterback position, and he's number ten. So everybody else is from somewhere else, and that's Phil Drikovich. So and you know, whether he was successful or not, I guess is still to be seen. But that is an interesting dynamic.
So I'm sorry.
My question is, basically, is there a part of the country that you would most trust a quarterback being from like that he is prepared to that, he has had the training to that he has faced the competition to ultimately give himself the best chance to succeed in college.
Atlanta, Okay. I think Atlanta is a pretty good place to start because Justin Field and Trevor Lawrence were from Atlanta. They've got a high quality of football there. They take it very seriously down there. It's a very highly concentrated area for recruiting, so the standard is higher. I think. I think that the more programs that are in a school hallway makes that school want to be better in
all regards. So I think the elevated nature of Georgia football has certainly been been the case, but it would be very interesting study. Again, don't have the data. We should just rename the show. Don't have the data, but I think.
That No, I just want theories, that's all theory.
Atlanta is the is the place that really stuck out to me because like even some of the California kids, there's a lot of really good California kids that come up. But I don't know, like unless I'm forgetting somebody obvious and I look like a moron, which is a daily occurrence in my life. Like like JT. Daniels and Tyler Buckner.
I know he's very young, maybe he'll be a star one day, but a lot of the guys that have come from California in the recent past, Tanner McKee at Stanford or maybe it's still to you know, Matt.
Tyler Buckner is actually from Metro Chicago area but transferred there early in high school.
Yeah, you know, Adrian Martinez. I guess it's from Fresnoe. Just trying to think like and also the one thing that you know, you mention it. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention. And Andy Staples went out to Arizona, did a great a great story of hers. But Arizona has had a lot of very good quarterbacks come out, yeah, in the last four or five years, and how somehow
has become one of the states that has produced though. So, but I think that if you were talking about city of where you could feel good about the player you're getting, regardless of what position, but especially a quarterback, I think Atlanta would be a really good place to start.
Now with the dawn of things like nil, do you see any kind of like shift in the way that some of these top flight recruits go about their business when it comes to picking a school. Has it changed the way that you cover it, the way that you project forward, you know how things are going to shake out at the end of a recruiting cycle.
Well, I'm happy that you asked that, because it's like the elephant in the room. You know, you can't talk about quarterback recruiting without discussing this, especially considering the fact the Athletic just posted a story about an unnamed recruit
that everybody knows who it is. It took eight million dollars over a four year period, And I got into an argument with a coworker the other day that said, you know, I was the number one person that would say, if you pick a school because of nil and you're going to make that decision for fifty thousand bucks, you're a moron and you're short sighted, and you're all the way that money works. But if somebody offered me eight million dollars over four years, I think that that is
enough money to make where I'm going. A secondary concern, like if I were a five star quarterback and somebody wanted to pay me eight million dollars over the course of a four year period to go to Miami of Ohio, I think I would consider that because what's the main goal for a quarterback. Is it to be famous and to be the starting quarterback of USC and get ladies, or is it to get wealth long term wealth that can set up your family for a long period of time.
And fifty grand or one hundred thousand or maybe even three hundred thousand isn't enough to change your life forever. But if you start getting into numbers where like eight million dollars, where you have already successfully achieved financial security, which is the main goal for everybody at age eighteen before you even get out of the blocks, then that kind of changes your mind a little bit. Now the
question isn't how much are you getting paid? The question probably is what's the difference between School B and School A. But you know, now, if if Arizona comes up with a collective that says, hey, you know what, We're going to pay somebody eight million dollars and Alabama's paying two, why wouldn't you go to Arizona and you still could
get drafted there. So the idea of the collectives and how much money is at stake here, I think is a very interesting dynamic because you know, people talk about leveling the playing field, but how does anil play a
factor into this? Well, if some school that is in the Power five wants to pay somebody eight million dollars just to go there and play, and that's guaranteed money regardless of whether you're injured or not, you won the game, you've already ascended to the level of football where you've achieved insurmountable wealth, you know, within reason, from the game of football, and you haven't even started college yet. So
to me, how is that going to change it? If this becomes normal in the big schools like Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia and stuff, aren't going to back it up the same way that a place like Tennessee might or a place you know, you know in theory Tennessee because we don't know who it is, you know, it changes things.
So the question to me, and I guess I could ask this back to you guys, is how much is going to a place that isn't typically known for football or sorry, how much is going to a place that's known as a football powerhouse worth to you in dollars when somebody that might not be a football school is
offering you more money. Also, while taking into account that the best players in the NFL at the quarterback position have gone to a random collection of schools that aren't you know, I know that Alabama recently has Jalen Hurts and Tua and but like I mean, think about who are the best player at the quarterback position in the NFL and You've got a bunch of Texas Tech and cal in there, you know, and it's like, these aren't
schools that are are known for that. So like to me, like, if you start talking about that type of money, how much is going to Alabama worth and how much money is at stake for you for you to decide? Well, you know what, where I end up is a secondary concern to the money.
Go to Missoo and be Chase Daniels and make three hundred thousand dollars a throw? How about that?
And you know what's funny about Chase Daniel is a good buddy of mine here in Texas that I've met, played with Chase Daniel at Missoo. And you know Missoo isn't the beacon of quarterback recruiting. Chase Daniel's got a
hell of a life. And if somebody wants to pay that man eight if pay me to be eight eight million dollars to go to Missoo and maybe be like Chase Daniel, who was a really good college quarterback and yeah, has been good enough to stick around in the NFL long enough to fool people to pay him four million dollars for a year, not to do anything. You know,
that is a hell of a deal. And to me, it's like if MISSOO is paying me eight mil and Alabama's paying me too, is the experience of playing at Alabama under Sabment in the development that they've shown that they can do worth the six million dollars to you.
The other thing is this, people forget how few NFL quarterbacks are actually any good. I know, all right, we've got thirty two teams. How many are actually good eight?
How many NFL teams are in a situation that are like I don't have a quarterback and I can't find.
It, like seventy five percent of them? Yeah, you know, everybody else is on the verge of being traded or dropped or cut, and so you know, there's no way to answer the question. Obviously, the cousins is.
Like the richest guy at the port, one of the richest guys in the world playing quarterback, and was he like a marginal player?
He may have vocals that we need to talk to him about. With lake min A Tonka, I don't know, but like it's impossible to answer. We these kids are coming at this from a completely different perspective. We don't know what their situation is at home, if they need the support, if their family needs a support, like you get people from all walks of life that level of wealth though eight million dollars even like one million dollars, I mean sure. My question is is it possibly going
to be the norm? You know, is that something that we could see five years from now being something that all the schools do because that's a lot of money.
Yeah, And I don't know if it's going to be in a world where Tennessee is paying eight and Alabama can't mustard up to Like I'm sure we'll get to a point where everybody's offering the same but as it pertains to right now. And I'm sorry to cutting you off.
The in but like, no, you're good.
How much is going to Alabama worth?
Right?
No, it's totally true because if you go to Alabama, you will be coached by presumably some of the best coaches. You'll be playing behind one of the what five best offensive lines annually? At Alabama, You'll be throwing to one of the three best groups of receivers and handing the ball to one of the four best groups of running backs, and you won't play until you are ready to be a winning quarterback. You are not going to be thrust into action too early. Sometimes it'll be as a freshman,
sometimes you'll be Mac Jones. And it's just you have a certain amount of trust that playing for Nick Saban will put you in a better position long term than playing for you know, Jedfish if Arizona was your example, because there is an unknown quality to what Arizona's offensive line is going to look like, with their offensive coordinators,
what their offensive systems are going to look like. And so I don't begrudge anybody for taking the money because it is a weird, dangerous world out there financially, and so if you don't come from a place with a lot of money and a lot of opportunity, and that is life and a life changing amount of money, you
gotta take it. But like you wrote a piece today or this week about arch Manning, it is a at this point, Arch Manning is fortunate to be able to choose the best fit for him in an nil universe.
He is.
It is a privilege that he can say I'm going to go to the place where I feel like I'm going to develop the best, where I fit in best with a coaching staff, with a community, with a campus with academics whatever, that's it's a weird thing. That's gonna not that Tennessee isn't that place. It is a very quarterback friendly looking place. They also might receive sanctions in a year, who knows. But I just am never going to begrudge anybody for looking at the finances as a
big deal in choosing a school. But in terms of long term, you can't just assume coaches are going to be around forever. Receivers are going to be around forever. But when you are comparing Tennessee to Alabama or Arizona Alabama, you know that on the margins, Alabama is going to have every advance, give you every advantage to succeed long term. But there's just one guy on the field, there's just one spot.
Jones went to Mizoo. He might not be correct the cork Jones. Yeah, you have to you know understand that going to Alabama put you in the best scenario to not only succeed on the field and to win national championships and you know, get drafted, but also just like your personal development in the angevity of the game.
Benefit of the doubt, benefit of the doubt as well. Right, like benefit of easier to get overdrafted coming from Ohio State, Right, it's easier to get overdrafted coming from Washington, Georgia or wherever. And I mean, look, Christian uh what uh? Hackenberg Penn State five star, So we're always going to look at him, five star former quarterback, major place, has a promising freshman year overdrafted given way too many chances, given the actual
proven success. That's the difference in going to a major place that somebody's gonna say, but so and so school liked him, So there's something there, there's a spark there, that's that's what you can't get necessarily at Arizona or Cincinnati or UCF or.
Is that no more place than that might be?
Right?
Yeah, probably in the long term getting getting multiple chances in the NFL. Jase Daniel says, likely.
Yeah, yeah, I get. But this one also protects you from if you blow your knee out. It's totally true, you know, so that that also, you know that helps. But yeah, I grew up in a middle class family. I didn't want for anything. We had food on the table. I've got a very sure less background, and I would
take the money in a second. Yeah, it's just like right now, if somebody said, I Ari, I'll give you one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to go do something else that you don't want to do, I'd be like, no way, right. But if somebody who was like, I'll give you eight million dollars, be like, where's the shovel? Bro Like you know what I mean, Like that's the that's the way.
That it is, and got daycare bills.
Yeah, daycare bills. And by the way, holy, I don't know if I'm allowed to I don't know if I'm allowed to cuss on this, but my god, my god.
Yeah, that falls into your your theory that as soon as you become more domesticated home ownership, children, wife, everything, everything costs one thousand dollars minimum. Everything is a thousand dollars minimum. I like that theory.
Yeah. Yeah, it does seem like no matter what it is, it is a thousand bucks. But I actually got I saw those meme on Instagram, which might not be true, but I sent it to a friend because I was arguing with him and I don't want to veer off the quarterback. No, you're too much. But the Basically, it's a breakdown or a budget breakdown of a couple that makes cumulatively five hundred grand as a couple per year, So five hundred thousand dollars gross salary, you got an
eighteen thousand dollars four away contribution from both partners. Then the salary after the four to one contribution goes down to four hundred and sixty four thousand. Tax rate takes out one hundred and eighty five thousand right off the top. You're at two hundred and seventy eight thousand dollars expenses two childcare for two kids is forty two grand. Food for the four twenty five thousand bucks for the year, mortgage sixty thousand dollars, property tax is twenty grand, property
insurance five thousand. You go down the list gas, car insurance, life insurance, clothes, and two vacations a year. You know it's a nice lifestyle because if you're paying five grand a month for your mortgage, you got a nice house.
But it's all said and done, you're at seventy three hundred dollars of excess at the end of the year, and that doesn't even account for miscellaneous, which could mean something came up like your roof is linking, or your car exploded or all the other mindless bull craft that we spend money on from an unexpected place. And it's like, yeah, like things that you spend money on that you're like,
why am I spending money on this? Yeah, Like my windows cracked, So I'm just going to spend two thousand dollars to fix a window in my house that does the same thing that it should have already done. And it's just a waste of money. Five hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money for two people on an annual basis. That's five million dollars over a ten year period. And if you break read down that breakdown, they're actually not that affluent.
Go take Tommy Haslum's money. That's the lesson here. Don't look back.
Yeah, and also if you put you put it into the market in your patient, maybe take a mill, you know, get your Jordan's, get your Rolex, do what you want to do with the miller, take the seven, you know, throw it togion, Yeah, adding yeah, yeah, I get it. I'm I'm no stranger to irrational splurges. But yeah, it's just kind of is a. It's a nice stark reminder that one hundred thousand dollars is not that much money anymore.
It goes quickly.
I just don't know, And like I feel blessed because, you know, we're in a pretty good position, you know, financially, with some of the savings that we've had and some of the fortunate things that have happened in our lives. But I don't feel I don't feel, you know, like I can do anything I want. And I also don't know, And I have a lot of empathy for people who don't have much at all in how they were able to raise two or three children. Now their lifestyles vary.
They're not getting married in Laguna and going on vacation and doing things that were fortunate enough to do. But like, how does a single mother of three children, you know, working three jobs support their family. I don't know how these people do it. And they're superheroes.
Yeah, So, now when we're into this new era of we don't know what the contracts are, we don't know what you know, the specific language in those contracts are. But do you see us entering or have we already entered into a phase of the recruiting world of more organized negotiation that Nico at Tennessee allegedly, with the deal
with the collective that Tennessee has put together. Are are people on his behalf or are you seeing a world in which somebody and you know, we always have the you know, the Cecil Newton story with you know, Mississippi State and Auburn allegedly, But are we entering into a phase where we are going to have representatives and savvy representatives at that savvier representatives than just a dad, an uncle, a trainer or something like that saying okay, Florida State
is offering this much with this language, We're going to go back to you now, Oregon or USC or Michigan. What is it that you can do? Are we entering that territory? It'll be very savvier way than usual.
How do you guys do your taxes? Do you do them yourself? Or do you have somebody?
I have, I have an accountant.
If you don't mind me asking, how much do you paying the guy for hour? I don't know, well minus three hundred and sixty five dollars an hour, and I don't know if that's typical or not right. I don't know how much it would cost for a lawyer to sift through all those pages of documents and to go back and forth. And I know that a lot of the people who are in that position do not have the means to invest fifteen thousand dollars for proper contract negotiation.
But to answer your question, I do believe that to be, you know, on the verge of that, because when you're starting to talk about that type of money, you got to be some sort of asshole to not do one hundred percent of your research to make sure that you're
ensuring definitely, you know, maximizing whatever potential you have there. So, you know, if we are getting to a point where you have collectives doing recruiting trips on their own without the staff there and having informal meetings with family members and discussing these things, and there's five collectives coming at you, then of course you're going to pit them against each other. Yeah, you know, it's like that commercial for the banking you
know what happens when banks compete, you win? You know, like that's that's kind of like the way I view it. So, you know, I think that you know a lot of recruits in their families are far more apt to understand the intricacies of the game now than they were ten years ago, because the Internet is a wonderful beacon of information and in resource. But as it pertains to like lawyers and contract negotiations and you know, back and forth, there's going to be a tremendous amount and maybe they
won't have to pay it up front. You know, these guys are smart enough to know they say, hey, give me six percent of whatever the contract is and I'll take care of this for you, you know, and maybe we'll be at that level, but there's going to be a tremendous amount of expense and research and negotiation. You know, when it comes to this sort of thing. Now, the question that I have more than anything is how common is eight million over a four year period going to be?
Is that? The is that the cap is that the beginning? Is that the baseline? What are we doing with the three star offensive guard that plays in the same position or the same roster? And what does it mean for other players? You know, if Tennessee is allegedly the school that has got a collective that's paying Nico eight million dollars, then what.
I hope it is because he just committed there. I hope you know the Michigan State collective is not paying Tennessee's quarterback.
But yeah, no, no, no. What I'm saying is is we don't know if Nico got a dime, right. So, like the idea is, now, if Tennessee goes into another person's living room and that person is a four star receiver from Fresno, is that person going to be like, whoa, whoa, this guy got that. I believe that I'm worth this.
And the other thing that I think is an interesting discussion is in the NFL, what do we see all the time we see receiver on Team B say whoa, wait a minute, that guy just made this much money.
I'm better than him. I want more than him, right, And if so, it's going to be like it's like an increasing salary structure where people are going to compare what people got, you know, in this area of the country from this program at the same position, and in judging based on what your ability is, you know, you know, setting a market.
Now and how the information is about a Texas receiver or a Rutgers receiver or a Wisconsin receiver, Like, how do you trust any of it?
Because these people who go public with this information have an interest in doing so. They want to promote what they're doing, and they want to But in six years, when everyone's doing it, I don't know what there is to gain about releasing the terms of any individual deal. So, you know, how we navigate these financial waters is a very tricky discussion. And I think it's gonna be murky, it's gonna be money, it's gonna be weird, you know.
And it is very fascinating to me. And I'm working on a story right now, or thinking about working on a story right now about what does this mean for a place like And let's just stick with Arizona because I went there as the example. But what does this mean for a place like Arizona is if they create a collective which doesn't have the means or the passion as a fan base to match what we all know Tennessee is able to do what is their collective's goal.
As their collective's goal to just maintain the recruiting level that they are right now and improve to scale the same way that the other teams have not catching them, but just improve as much as the other ones are. So the gap remains the same, or are they going to try to throw money at five star quarterbacks and start to shake up the market because there are so many different programs they are going to try to do this? You got collectives popping up at Rutgers and Wake Forest
and all these other places. And the fascinating thing to me is that, well, once Alabama, Georgia and all the other big dogs catch up to what Tennessee is doing, what is it going to mean for the middle tier programs that don't have the same financial backing, of the same passion from the fan bases. And what's the goal of that going to be?
But yeah, I think, isn't it what like ty can speak to this better than I can? Isn't it what like savvy EPL clubs do in that they position themselves in the best possible case to find value to Like we are going to be if we are the Arizona Wildcats, if I am Jed Fish, if I am who's their ace recruiter Johnny Nansen on defense, if I'm those guys, I say, how do we annually establish ourselves to be
the destination for the quarterback? Leaving Texas for the quarterback, leaving Oklahoma for the quarterback, leaving Oregon for the quarterback, leaving UCLA for the best possible Southwest and West coast footprint transfer not unlike what Oklahoma did in succeeding in attracting Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray. Looking at the big twelve foot print, you know, super talented guys who were
ultimately not a fit at their previous places. I think it's you're actually probably going to have a better batting average because you'll have a better sense of who these guys are as college quarterbacks, at least practicing, if not playing in games. That I think is the move for a school like Arizona to say, what can we do to attract Spencer Rattler, What can we do to attract Tanner Mordecai, What can we do to attract Hudson Card.
I think that's probably the win that you're looking for value more than you're looking for a place at the table of big spender. And isn't that a little bit what Dion Sanders reference to one of his recent reviews, you know, trying to trying to leave room on the roster for some of those guys who might want to go elsewhere after they've got a year or two on campus,
didn't get their fair shake at the starting job. Now they've got a little bit more development, and they're also, you know, perhaps more mature from being on a college campus for a couple of years.
Yeah, I am very fascinated by the portal guys, because these guys go into a program and then they disappear and they're behind the scenes and if they don't play, sure, you know, and I don't know how much insight they're
getting from current coaches. Maybe they're all texting each other behind closed doors and saying this guy is really good, or this guy could play for you, or but I sometimes one or two, Like blindly going into the portal and trying to take somebody that's kind of vanished for two years seems to me to be just as big of a risk as taking somebody out of the recruiting ranks.
So you know, they're more easily vetted though, right right, you can talk to people around them. We're just like, hey, they're they're Joe Burrow. Right, they had bad luck, they were behind some good quarterbacks. There's a lot of upside who By the way, Joe Burrow is a blue chip quarterback from the Midwestern footprint who succeeded Let's be clear.
Yeah it's true, but he's a tiger now. Yeah.
Now I'm just saying succeeded anywhere. Yeah, yeah, anywhere. Yeah, you're right, yeah, but yeah, but like Hunter Johnson was one of those who didn't know.
It makes me want to go add it up, Dan, Yeah, go for it.
I was going to ask you Ari, I want to ask about you for a second if I could.
Oh, oh boy, I mean this Q to turn it off.
Everyone had a warning.
And covering college football, of course, but I mean you're clearly somebody who pays attention to the nuance. You told us earlier you were measuring as the crow flies from hometowns to eventual colleges. So clearly you care about the small details that make this whole thing go. How do you like your job now? And I don't mean that
like a negative way. Oh no, it's I'm no how you present it's but it's different, right, the three sixty view that you have to consider is dramatically different, probably even then when you started this gig. Right, Like, it's funny that you're asking me that because I've had real internal discussion and like my goal in my career has
never been to be a recruiting guy. Like my goal has always been to you know, I guess not to pump up Andy Staples too much, but to be in a position like that where you're writing about everything, like we wrote about Bishop Sycamore and I covered the Cotton Bowl, like, you know, like those are the types of things I'm trying to transition it. But like I think, recruiting is a major piece to cover in college football and you
can't do it without it. So even if I became Bruce Feldman one day, like, I would still have a very and he does this to a you know, a very good job too, but I would still want to cover it. But the thing that I resent not your question, but the thing that I resent is in recruiting. There is a large amount of analysis that takes place. Where are people from, where are they going, What classes are being signed at, what schools? What are our normal you know,
reasonable expectations for those schools and stuff. And if the answer every single time somebody goes somewhere is that person is paid, then we are robbed of that analysis. Now we'll be able to say, well, here's the best class in the country, or here's who got the best players. But how could you be critical of a coach anymore? How can you be complementary of a coach like you know, for instance, is Tennessee's coaching staff basking in the glory
of getting this five star quarterback? Or did a collective pay this kid enough where it completely removes any discussion from it.
So like, I do worry about that. I do think that if in seven or ten years from now, what everything we just got them talking about is happening, and you got lawyers negotiating contracts and players are going to the highest bidder, it removes any sort of analysis or critical thinking that takes place in my area of work. So, you know, I think there will always be stories and players will always have stories to tell, regardless of where
they're going. But like that fun analysis of why did quarterbacks stay closer to home than other positions, it's like, well, if the answer in four years is the money did it? Then it's just like, right, how interesting is that you don't have NFL people, you know, writing in depth stories about how rosters are built other than draft success in free agent signings, and it's all financial, which sucks.
The good news for you is Tennessee was not the only school with an affiliated collective or booster or NIL situation that was willing to pay for NICO. Right that there are other schools and that you know, if you listen to the people who know one of whom is you, it's that if you are in the West coast footprint,
why do you stay out west right now? Given the seriousness or lack thereof of a lot of programs in that conference right now, that if you can look at brock Bauers going from California to Georgia, that you can look at Bryce Young, that you can look at you know, DJU wasn't great for Clemson, but he did make that move that clearly the Southeastern part of the United States is where you go, no matter where you are from, to play on the biggest stage and give yourself the
best opportunity to be seen by the most people in the NFL or by NIL sponsors whatever. That Tennessee is not an accidental fit for NICO. They play in the largest conference in college football, on the biggest stage and playing against the biggest opponents. That he has the best possible opportunity to prove himself given the visibility of his destination. So I think there's still room for you to provide analysis that is outside of financial Yeah, but you know, if you go.
Look at a lot of the comments on the stories that I've written, is who cares you got paid anyway? That's comments that's like no, no, I know, But like if the general fan and I know that, like maybe sometimes I have a hard time I'm like hearing one person on Twitter and thinking that everybody's thinking that way,
and I've got to work on that. But if there's a large portion of the college fan base that's going to view recruiting as who cares they paid him the most, they kind of just strips the joy out of trying to come to the bottom of these things because everything in call that's your challenge.
But isn't that also a much smaller percentage of guys like of course the headliners, right arch Manning, he's going to get headlines. Nico in this case got headlines. But there are guys plenty of guys who are three stars, who are you know, low four stars that probably aren't in line for you know, seven figure deals from anybody. So I would I hear what you're saying, at least who write about line But you know, when you go down a few pegs, there's still a lot of room for analysis.
And like I do write stories about a two star quarterback that no one's heard of. Yeah, that might be really good, but that's a small percentage of my job. You know, I'm sure I'm writing about the most visual or the people who have the most visibility, because that's
the people that people care most about. So yes, I think that to a certain point, that there is a scale of you have arch Manning and then you have random three star offensive tackle from Fresno over here, and they're in completely different categories.
There's no question just taking so many hits today.
You know, I think what I do and I actually somebody made a comment on like a review on The Andy Show, is that I come up with an example and then I keep using that example over and over again. I locked on Fresno in Arizona on this podcast, but I'm using them as a symbolic sure. Also I've lived in both of those cities for shorts periods of time, so I wanted to, you know, make sure I paid it.
I know, I did an internship in Fresno California for four months in the summer of my junior year in college, in the tough summer, but it was like the greatest job I ever had because it was MLB dot Com and I covered minor league baseball for MLB dot Com and I had my dad's Honda Cord and I basically drove the entire state of California for an entire summer
covering minor league baseball. And it was fun because they paid mileage and I lived in the middle of nowhere in Fresno, so like I had more money than I've ever had in terms of disposable income because I was making like two grand a month just on mileage a
loan for a car that I didn't own. And that's where I've developed my propensity to want to play poker and gamble, because in Fresno, I had no friends and nothing to do on my off time, and they had a casino where the age was eighteen to gamble at that time. So that's kind of like.
The Man Origin story.
Yes, yes, and there's a place called Me and Ed's Pizza and Fresno that was pretty good. Great, Okay, but it's been fifteen years since I've been there.
Now, this is the obvious transition. This is the obvious segue to get you out on your boat goals from out of the San Joaquin Valley, out of the grape vine, out of the heat, onto a body of water with all the money you made at your eighteen plus casino that you didn't spend at the pizzeria, that you can spend on.
Leave the casino with a hundred bucks and feel like you hit.
The lottery, feel like a champion of champion. So money is no object. You get to choose where, on what kind of boat, with whom, what the experience is like, is this current you? Is this past you? Is this future you? What are your boat goals?
Well, those answers would be completely different depending on what you are talking about.
Right, I'm just boat goals, And it could be parallel universe where it's like twenty three year old Ari the Laker Girls Catalina Island. Like it's like now, it's.
Like unfair because my fiance listens to these podcasts. I wish I was twenty three years old and had twenty eight models on there in a pool and there was a cocaine guy, Like, what am I going to say?
You know, like a current ari knowing that his bride may be listening.
Yeah, well, I love my bride very much, and the beautiful thing about that is that I enjoy spending time with her, so current ar. I think the boat would be the same in all the categories. So I guess the boat goal would be the Wolf of Wall Street yacht that had as a pool in a kitchen and a helipad. And you know, there's one scene in that movie, and I know, it's like such a frat dude, like simple, you know, basic guy thing to cite that movie, but it's the only the only movie really that kind of
illustrates this. But there was a scene where he is sitting next to or laying next to Margot Robbie on the top of this boat and there's like an aerial view of it and they're just like sailing from one Mediterranean island to another. And like being able to have a boat like that where you can travel around the most beautiful places in the country by sea, but also feel like you're in a floating mansion that has every luxurious, you know, amenity that a human being could ask for.
I think it's probably the only answer to this question, like, I don't even know how else you could answer it. And here's the thing with me too, I've been fortunate enough. I went on a Mediterranean cruise with my parents when I was twenty four, and I saw these in action, Like I've been to Saint Trope, I've been to Monica. Like I've seen these people who park their yachts or
or dock their yachts. You see, I don't even say it right, Yeah, and they come off the side of the boat and like these these boats are bigger than my house. Yeah, and you know, you have a staff, and you have a weight you know, a waiting staff and a housekeeping and they've got legitimate pools on there and more theaters and hot tubs and kitchens and cooks.
And who are you bringing with you? Who is who is in this group?
Well, my kid and my wife have to come, right, my parents.
I don't think they do. It can be anybody.
My fantasy is to get a boat and leave my family.
I'm apped out the friends that I would bring, and I wouldn't like my kids would appreciate. My three year old and one year old sons I don't think would appreciate. And it would detract my attention right that I want to be in the hot tub thinking about the appetizers that are being served to me. I don't necessarily want to be changing diapers.
So are we? Are we talking like boat goals? For like, how would you use a boat for a month right now? Or is this boat a week? To you? A week?
You get to charge a boat for a week.
Oh, if I charter a boat for a week, then me and all of my best guy friends okay in Monaco with unlimited amount of money, throwing lobsters at people off the side of the thing, in all sorts of people onto the boat. Yeah. I thought you meant like, how would you manifest it in your life?
No, no, no, no no no.
We're not talking like Armageddon water World situation where you've got to live at sea for an extended period of time. We're talking you get unlimited funds one week at sea in some capacity on some boat, presumably with the helipad. Are how are you so?
I think the actual answer would be because I would never betray my fiance's trust in a million years. I'd rather die. I would want all of my best friends and their spouses with my wife or.
Future wife, great answer.
And we'd party like maniacs because you know, britt can can get down like you see her at a bar, at a dancing on a tabletops as a mother at eleven PM in Dallas. I mean, she knows how to party. She's a lot of fun and just like going from city to city in the Mediterranean, eating like kings, drinking like maniacs. Pool that's the whole. That's the dream right there with all of my friends and their wives too great, ty are you?
Tye is still sort of working out the details. I think ironing out the detail.
I think Tonight's bought a battle boat on local Lake.
Like I'm a huge I'm a huge fan of the boat. Yeah, I just I have like sort of sensory overload, Ari. I have too many thoughts in my head about how I'd want to spend that time. But damn, what was the word that you introduced me to in the last podcast, the small lobster legostino, the.
Lango Stein's pastinos.
H Do you know what that is?
Ari? I've never heard of that in my life.
Yeah.
See, I have an either.
So I'm working through just some of the terminology here before I settle on some concrete boat goals, but I'll get there eventually.
Oh yeah, I just I want a local person grilling seafood on the boat. That's that's a Manda element to my boat goal.
You have an amazing I mean food could mean anything. I mean, you'd have a top flight chef. You'd have a pool, a movie theater, you know, for those you know times where you can look out the window and see the ocean, but also you know, watch a movie with people and hang out while you're going from place to place.
I want to side off of the sidelide Wide would be of course.
Yeah, it would just be one of the craziest like one hundred million dollar yachts you could come up with.
I I think I would probably get the captain's hat. I would have my own ceremonial captains and I would not be wearing at any point during the week. You would not what not wear a shirt for no, no, no, I mean occasionally if I'm burnt up a little bit, I'll do like a mid level button. But I'm showing a lot of skin.
Hit with you, tp off.
Would you or ari would you be interested in a Dwight shret type of situation where they give you a fake wheel so you feel like you're in charge.
No, I don't. I don't want to even go anywhere near a steering wheel. I want the ceremonial captain's hat. I would love to be referred to as skipper for the duration of this of this journey.
But otherwise, now I'm in charge of who comes on and goes off the boat.
Here, the bouncer, the boun the manifest.
Yeah, yeah, that would be just I just you know what. And I don't know if it's just because I'm a snob, but I would want to stand on the back of the boat whither backing it into Monaco with my shirt off in a role x, everybody looking at me and just going wow, I wish I could be that guy. Wouldn't that feel?
What?
What does he do for a living?
Yeah? Yeah, he actually is a search mid window where I bet you if I did, I can make a lot of money off that information. Yeah, I was in money, Carlo or what if, I don't even know what it's called. We were on a boat, like a charter boat, like having a booze cruise or whatever. And this was back when I was covering Ohio State and this huge Wolf of Wall Street like yacht came up and on the back it said limited and it turned out to be
Les Wexner's boat. Yep, and he was just out in the Mediterranean on this huge, massive boat that basically was like one fifth the size of the Titanic. And I just thought to myself, like that guy and me live in the same city, and boy are our lives different.
Yeah, very much. So okay, Ty, keep developing, keep researching. I'm still working on it. Yeah, you're mapping. I cannot wait. Well kind of a he said. You know, you know, I was just teasing you. Dan said at the beginning, you're from Dallas. There's a lot of lakes around here. No boat that I'm going to be having that lake. But I'm assuming that all of us are have the
same boat. Like if you if you could have any boat in the world, of course you're going to take the craziest, most amazing And I actually it's funny that you mentioned it.
But on Instagram, I think I follow a luxury yacht instagram that just posts pictures of amenities on luxury yachts because I like to, you know, look at things like that and aspirational I think once you get to a certain point, though, all of them are amazing. So like it's like, how many extra bedrooms do you need? Enough to sleep everybody, enough showers and things like that. But as long as there was a pool, I think the
pool on the boat is the most important element. I just outside of the kitchen.
Tie's initial answer was something along the lines of I had nothing fancy. I'm an easy going guy. Just see, I want to maybe a lake.
I mean, there was also part of me that didn't understand the question.
That's fair, okay, so it's me too.
I was misguided too, because I had, like, I had like nine different fantasies there. I had single twenty three year old ari fantasies, of course, And let's be honest, if you're single twenty three and you haven't met the love of your life yet, you're probably gonna have the best possible week of human being could have on that thing. M hm, especially if you're the bouncer of who comes on and goes off the boat. But you know, thinking about it as a as a family man. Now that
that fantasy is much different than the other one. So if I had to pick one, I mean just don't make me answer that, but like that's those are very different questions. Now. The one thing I will say before we go, And I know that you guys are probably dying to end this because I'm.
I'm talking too much, but all good, keep going.
I'm not a boat person. Like if somebody said, would you rather have a private plane or a private boat, I think I would take the plane.
Yeah, I'm not making you choose. I'm you know this is I'm not I'm not trying to make an equivalency here. A plane gets you places and a boat is somewhere where you can chill.
Right.
A plane is a means to an end essentially, and a boat is where. I mean, yes, you can travel ya a boat, but I think in this scenario a ritzy boat is meant for parking.
But my friend actually bought a boat. I people own boats, and I feel like buying like a boat that's like a two person speed boat. It sounds awful.
People love that, though. I think the key is just to know people who do that, not to be that person.
Yeah, yeah, that's what they always say. No, somebody who has a boat.
Don't ever own don't don't buy the boat, all right, why don't we leave it there, guys, don't buy a boat.
No matter what I say on a show, I'm automatically have never gotten through a sixty minute podcast without offending twenty percent of the people.
No, that's okay, But if you are offending nobody, then we probably wouldn't have you back. Okay, I said.
That on the last show.
Don't buy a boat. You're good.
That's okay.
You're a good company. Ari Wasserman of the Athletic of the Andy Staples Show. Go check him out, get his fine recruiting analysis. It is always a pleasure, sir. We'll have you gun sometime soon. Okay.
I love you guys, Thanks so much for having me on.
Love you all.
Right, there you go, Ari Wasserman. He's got boat goals. He's got boat goals. Yeah, I don't like you punking me for not having to do a specific answer. I love boats, you know, I'm a boat person. We've talked about this before. Definitely, I just want to take more time to think this through before I commit to anything. I'm sure. I'm sure of the tens of thousands of folks that listen to this show every single time we
drop it. I'm sure about zero point two percent. Actually a damn about my answer here, But now I am taking this seriously. It is my prerogative to do. So.
Do you have another genre of ritzy goals? Do you have car goals? Do you have house goals? Do you have vacation goals? Do you have playe goals? Do you have toy goals? In terms of technology that kind of thing, like you know that you want to, you know, create a home theater of some kind, Like would you are you more specific in your ritzy dreams about another area of luxury?
First off, even my ritzy dreams aren't that ritzy? Oh? Come on, They're just not They're just not. I just maybe I just don't think in those terms. I don't know, Like i'd buy an extra microphone, I don't know.
But I will say this, do you have a mic goal? Like if if suddenly we had a one thousand dollars budget for microphones, are you buying the uh what's it called? Electro?
Yeah?
The only one I don't own is the electro voice. Yeah, that's the only one I don't own.
So that's a good one.
Yeah.
When we were up at doing that video show twenty twelve, for Espionation. They had the electric voices up there and I loved it. Yeah, but the one we have is fine. We have the same mic. The sure is fine. Right. I will say this about my luxury goals.
You want to call it all right, I'm ready.
I love this. I did have the pleasure once a flying private.
I told you about this, Yeah, it was.
It was mostly by accident. It was for the mysterious day job. It was unlike any experience I'd ever had before. I hate planes, Okay, I don't like planes at all. This was an experience. This is an experience. We weren't exactly in the lap of luxury. They weren't coming around with you know, tall boys of champagne or anything, but it was. It was just so convenient that I think if I had limitless funds, that's something I'd need to consider.
What.
Okay, so, what is your biggest inconvenience at the moment that could be solved simply by throwing money at it. I mean that you don't have but could have someday. Biggest inconvenience, right, you know, sometimes like if you're living somewhere and you would like to go to a weekend home instead of driving your magnificent car, that you take a helicopter right that you don't you get to avoid traffic that way?
Yeah, I mean, look, this is going to be the dorkiest answer possible. But I could really go for some quicker internet.
Here, I was gonna say, that's not unreasonable. I could really go for some quicker internet.
And I don't believe the cable company has any plans to change the infrastructure anytime soon. They actually just upgraded it like two years ago.
So what are you getting up?
Excuse me?
You uploading? What speed are you uploading at?
I think only like twenty five?
Yeah, I get forty, I get I'm a gigabit down. But I have this awful Exfinity. Maybe in the new house, whenever it is that we go there, finally moving, I think we'll try to do. I think it's gigabit up and down. Yeah, you need, but I don't have it now. We need fiber. If I need, I need to lay the fiber.
Right. Yeah, so something like some sort of tech goals. You know, I'm and everybody's got some home renovations in mind, things like that. But no, it again, I need time to think about this. I need time to think about this. The first thing that came to mind was the electro voice are forty five. So I've got.
Issue I would I would address almost related inconveniences. I would do private chef and personal trainer to sort of offset there.
That's a good answer, good answer.
I'm just not a good answer.
Yeah, yeah, I'm just not programmed to think like this.
But this is why I would upgrade, upgrade, av upgrade travel. The private jet thing, doesn't I mean, that's it's I'm sure it's nice. I've never been on a private jet, but yeah, that's why I talk about boat goals, because that's so outlandish. The other thing is that I just I would definitely build my own fantasy factory.
Well we're going to close out with this, Okay, Okay, I saw probably on Instagram somewhere, but somebody with way too much money decided that they were going to burrow deep into the earth and sort of build a hidden cavern within their house. Interesting, okay, And I suppose it could double as a panic room or a bomb shelter. That's not really the motif I'm going for here, but I just sort of like the idea of having a trick wall or a bookcase.
You want a batcave is what we're talking about here, Yeah, something like that.
Yeah. I don't know what kind of zoning laws would allow for such thing, but if I could have a trick wall in the basement that would lead into the back cave of sorts, I don't know what i'd do there, but to have it, okay, to be able to show friends like, hey, push on this wall right here, watch what that'd be kind of fun.
I think what you would do in a heartbeat. And I just look this up. I just had to google his name, Lucius Fox. You know that name. It's Morgan Freeman's character from Batman.
Oh yeah.
I think if you could commission somebody to say, here's not necessarily from a weapons perspective, no, but just from a technology perspective. If you're like, I am going to create an incubator of things, of toys that I just would like to have in my life, right, I think that's something that you would pour your money into.
Like a Tony Stark type of situation.
It's exactly right. That's why I said Lucius Fox because he has the you know, he was associated with Batman. I'm not a posed to this time I was called that's well, it just made me think when you said bat cave, or when I said batcave in response to your you know, hidden cavern. I just think you would love to commission a tinkerer that you could every so often go down and say, what do you have for me?
Steve?
Commission what do you have for me? Tinkerer?
Right?
Okay at gmail dot com is the email address. As always, we appreciate ari A. Wasserman's time. His insights is know how when it comes to all things college football and recruiting. Don't forget going out the Verballers dot com. Every Friday we drop a new brew and a episode. We answer your questions. It's the most fun that Dan and I haven't any given week answering questions from the verbawler hood. So Verbowlers dot com again is where you can find that.
Don't forget to subscribe, and don't forget once more to check out Solid Giveaway dot com. Dan, that is all I have for now, anything further for you.
Now.
I am deep in the the the personal chef and personal trainer mindset right now. And how I get there It's gonna.
Take some time. Takes some time. Yeah for that guy over there. Yeah, n room. Esteem to myself tied hell the brand. We will talk to you all in a few short days. Meantimes, stay solid, peace,