Shehan Jeyarajah and Bobak Ha’Eri go back and forth bringing up what they’re most looking forward to in college football’s spring. Whether it’s how USC changes its defense and maybe even the way it practices, Ohio State, Ole Miss and Texas’ big time transfers, Michigan and Alabama’s restart and much more.
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Note: This is an automated transcript and won’t be entirely accurate.
Bobak Ha’Eri (00:01.651)
Oh my God. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think my hair’s incredible, but I’m like, God dang it. This is like, oh God, why do I look so bad in this one compared to what, because of the topic, only because of the topic, but I thought it only underlined, I mean, I will do whatever it takes to sell it. I mean, it’s funny, but I’m like, oh man, I really am selling how good his hair is because I’m awful.
Shehan Jeyarajah (00:08.426)
No.
Bobak Ha’Eri (00:25.435)
So in terms of this, we’ll just kind of go around, talk about things and dandy about, I wouldn’t be surprised if we have similar ideas. At first I was looking at teams and then I decided to do categorical stuff, but however we wanna do it, it’ll be a fun conversation for sure. Oh, one last thing, by the way, I don’t know.
Shehan Jeyarajah (00:25.499)
Oh, man.
Bobak Ha’Eri (00:43.055)
I don’t know how this video didn’t get shared a lot in October because it’s a hilarious video. And then given our conversation about the combine, I don’t know if you saw, I tweeted it out this morning and I know it. So I forgot his name, the Texas tech guy, uh, who didn’t believe in planets and stuff before a game in October. I don’t know which one he caught a live bird, like adding war pregame warmups, like a.
Shehan Jeyarajah (01:00.47)
Tyler Owens. Yep.
Shehan Jeyarajah (01:06.679)
Oh, that was him? I remember that. I didn’t realize that was him.
Bobak Ha’Eri (01:08.995)
Yeah, no, it’s him. So I’m like, oh shit, did he check if it’s real or not? And then he could have talked to the other guy. And then we would have like a whole conversation. Like I couldn’t believe it when I realized it was him who caught the live bird. So like, and I love it. Cause when he releases it, he’s like, it’s a great video to rewatch cause he’s confused with this thing. He’s like, fuck, what do I do? I have a bird in my hand. And he’s holding it like carefully and everything. And he’s kind of like, they just can’t go.
Shehan Jeyarajah (01:15.393)
UGH
Shehan Jeyarajah (01:22.831)
Hehe
Shehan Jeyarajah (01:27.574)
Yeah.
Shehan Jeyarajah (01:36.854)
Hehe
Bobak Ha’Eri (01:39.067)
Oh, what a great moment. Anywho. Alright, it’s good times. Let’s start this up.
Bobak Ha’Eri (01:53.211)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the College Football Survivor Show. I’m Bob Echiary with my co-host Chauhan Jayaraja, National College Football writer for CBS Sports. We love college football and we hope you do too. During the season we look at the race for the College Football Playoff Champion. In the offseason we broaden it just a little bit. Spring has sprung. Well, well not really, not here in Minnesota, but at least for college football the spring camps are springing up and we wanted to take a quick look at some of the storylines we’re going to be following.
It’s a bigger playoff, so more teams have a shot to get in. More college football means more of it to love, just like me. Hi-oh. As always, you can find us on X and TikTok at CFB Survivor Show, where we have video highlights, run polls and listen to your feedback. You can take a moment to like, rate and subscribe to us. Wherever you get your podcasts, we always enjoy your reviews. But all of that said, let’s get springy with it. How are you doing, Shahan?
Shehan Jeyarajah (02:48.238)
I’m doing well. It’s definitely pushing into spring weather down here. I think it’s in the high 70s right now. It hit 90 the other day in Texas. So, weather’s a little different around the country. I don’t know if you knew that.
Bobak Ha’Eri (03:02.595)
Yeah, I heard that. I mean, I had to get up at 5.45 this morning to take my younger kid to school super early. So he could get on some buses and go to a sleepaway camp with his fourth grade class, except it’s gonna be like 30 degrees, which is actually kind of warm for here. So it’s gonna be like 30 degrees. But I mean, like my older kid did it a couple of years ago with snow everywhere. And I’m like, this is crazy. That’s all I kept thinking. I’m like, because I grew up in California. So yeah, I do know.
the weather changes a bit, but my goodness. So my kids are, this is something they’re used to, the idea of going out to camp in March and enjoying that lousy, smart weather, however you wanna look at it. I mean, it’s something else, but you know what, football never stops. So we got the spring games coming up. We’ve got our spring, I should say camps are gonna culminate in games for the most part, but there’s always good storylines going on here. So I thought, you know, let’s talk about it. As you said, what’s one of the,
I mean, how are you categorizing it? I kind of went thematic with this. Are you looking at specific teams?
Shehan Jeyarajah (04:05.49)
a mix of both of them. I think that you know there are obviously so many coaching and quarterback changes across the country that’ll be something to watch and just to take a little bit of a step back I mean look let’s kind of talk about spring camp in general right people love to overreact to this stuff they love to overreact to spring games they love to over overreact to a coach saying a player’s having a great camp or something like that so to start things off
I kind of want to go through what I as a reporter and as somebody who covers the sport nationally I’m looking for whenever I am covering spring ball kind of as a whole. And you know one thing is certainly you know with the spring game I want to see film of especially new quarterbacks right. I want to see how comfortable they look under center. I want to see you know the way that they’re throwing the ball because we haven’t had a lot of access to see a lot of these guys throw in live action before.
And that’s kind of something that translates to a lot of players. I want to just see how they move I want to see how big they look on the field next to other starters I want to see how precise they are how they’re running routes granted You’re only gonna see vanilla offense and defense. You’re not gonna see anything crazy. Nothing exotic You’re not gonna really get a good feel for how they know the playbook but I think that you can at least get a feel for timing for precision things like that
I think that you also want to take a look at how have guys changed physically over the off season. There are examples of, especially with red shirt players is a great example of it. So many players come out and they are 30 pounds heavier in spring camp and listed that way than they were heading into the previous season because they’ve had a whole year essentially to try to get ready for this time. And the other part too is just kind of getting a first look at a staff.
whether it’s a head coach, a new coordinator, the way that they’re talking about their players, the way that they’re talking about their teams, the way they’re kind of laying out their philosophy. So again, will we know at the end of spring camp what teams are going to be good? Not necessarily, but I think it’s a great opportunity to kind of check our priors a little bit and learn a little more about what a team might be trying to do come the fall.
Bobak Ha’Eri (06:26.299)
How do you think the spring portal window has affected the spring camp?
Shehan Jeyarajah (06:32.234)
Yeah, I think that there’s more urgency to have position battles than there might have been in previous spring camps. A lot of the time in previous spring camps, you’re talking about guys just going out there trying their best, but understanding if it doesn’t go well in the spring, we’ll have a chance in the fall to maybe push my way into the rotation. But I think that the blessing and curse of the spring portal window is that guys have a strong understanding of their place on the team right away.
You know, obviously I’m down here in Texas. I went to Baylor. You know, there was a great example of this two years ago, which was Gary Bohannon, the quarterback who won Baylor, the big 12 in 2021 came back, but he was getting pushed by Blake Shapin, who also played a huge role on that team. And Baylor decided to name a starter before the spring window closed so that Gary Bohannon could go out and find himself a new program, because he knew that he wasn’t gonna come back if he didn’t win that quarterback job. Now, not every…
team and program is gonna do that. But I think that players do have a little more of an understanding of where I stand, what is my pathway to getting on the field. I think with these new staffs, certainly, Alabama is a team that I’m gonna get to in just a second. I think that they’re gonna really have a focus on, the spring is a clean slate for everybody. You don’t have sort of the implicit preferences for guys who are recruited by this current staff or developed or any of these things.
you get a fresh start, but that can also mean that if you don’t make a good first impression, you’re kind of ready to go. So I think that the Spring Portal window has added a lot of urgency for guys to make their case for them to move up the depth charts. But ultimately, you know, again, I think that these are these are battles that if they didn’t go in the spring, they were going to go into the fall.
Bobak Ha’Eri (08:20.131)
Meanwhile, where’s Blake Shapley right now? He’s at…
Shehan Jeyarajah (08:22.763)
Blake Shapin is at Mississippi State now, playing for Jeff Levy.
Bobak Ha’Eri (08:27.128)
Yeah, so that’ll be interesting. I didn’t get two and two, because I think both of us probably ran into this question because you could go through so many teams. So I tried to keep mine, I think a little bit more towards teams that had a more likely shot at the college football playoff. Again, there can be surprises. We’ve certainly seen plenty. I mean, after TCU a couple of years ago, really, you know, any teams on the table, only underlined by Washington last season, but certainly more so for TCU. But my goodness, we’re
What, where do you want to kick off? What, like what, which question kind of is the leading one in your head?
Shehan Jeyarajah (09:00.374)
Yeah, I’m going to start by going out west. And we’ve mentioned this program a couple of times, but let’s go ahead and focus on it. And I’m going to talk about USC’s defense. We obviously saw a complete staff overhaul with them bringing in Danton Lin, at defense coordinator over from UCLA, but that wasn’t where they stopped. Of course, you know, they bring in Eric Henderson as defensive line coach, Matt Antz to coach linebackers and be kind of a head coach in charge of defense.
This is a very different staff than the one that Lincoln Riley brought to Los Angeles with him from Oklahoma and not just in terms of the actual position coaches, but Philosophically, I expect this staff to be a lot different, you know people complained about Alex Grinch in the way that he ran things but a lot of what they did was on purpose They wanted to run a speed defense. They wanted to force turnovers. I think you look back It’s at some of these mid 2010s big 12 teams
the most successful ones were the ones that were able to steal possessions and give their offense more possessions and not necessarily the ones that tried to get stops every single time, they tried to get teams off the field. And so I think that Lincoln Riley leaned on that a lot, something that worked by the way for his former mentor, Mike Leach. And now I do think he’s going to play more of a traditional style of defense.
One that I think is gonna emphasize stopping the run. We saw that Danton Lin did a tremendous job of coaching that at UCLA. One that I think is gonna be bigger and a little more physical. We’ve seen them get a little bit more bulky in the trenches, I guess you could say. And I think ultimately this is a program that is kind of recommitting itself to being a balanced program. Now again.
We’ve never seen Lincoln Riley fully pull this off. The improvement from year one to year two under Alex Grinch was legitimate at Oklahoma. They did improve. That’s kind of the revisionist history of Alex Grinch and Lincoln Riley, but that did not happen during his time at USC. So I’m gonna be very curious to see, bringing in guys like Isaiah Riggs, bringing back Bear Alexander. Are these guys going to be able to add a physical presence that ultimately…
Shehan Jeyarajah (11:18.667)
can help change this program.
Bobak Ha’Eri (11:20.887)
Yeah, and I know it’s interesting too, because you’ve mentioned some of the people they brought in, because it’s impressive that not just Danton Lin, like getting him, stealing him away from UCLA, but also, you know, as you said, Eric Henderson, Matt Entz, just getting a head coach from North Dakota State who was getting, I think, a little fed up about the fact he wasn’t getting looks to come and join them to get Doug Belk, who was a defensive coordinator at Houston, to come over and be their DB’s coach. I am curious to see, I mean, and what are your thoughts? Do you think they’re going to see how this…
who what they have and then perhaps at the spring portal a little bit more than I think people expect because I haven’t I was looking at the transfers and kind of you know who’s coming into USC and I think more people just notice the fact that of course they brought in well first of all Miller Moss kind of threw it threw off the plan by having such an incredible game at the in the holiday bowl but they still got Jade my other from UNLV but I mean do you think they’re going to perhaps see who they need on the defense and
and get some spots in there. I mean, that’s a question that’s kind of been in my head.
Shehan Jeyarajah (12:22.922)
Yeah, I think that that’s going to be a huge part of their calculus. They also, again, I mean, you look at the transfer class that they brought in so far, and the one that they brought in last year, I think that they feel like, especially on that defensive line, they can get a little bit more out of it. I’m excited to see Anthony Lucas with a little bit better defensive line coaching. He was a transfer from Texas A&M as well. So ultimately I do think that, again, one thing I’m gonna be very curious about, and this is actually something, again, that I’m going to be…
kind of keeping an ear out for is with USC and with Lincoln Riley, a lot of these offensive coaches tend to structure their practices to benefit the offense. Again, I covered Baylor back in the 2010s. This was something that you heard a lot, was that the defense never necessarily learned great fundamentals because they were having to practice against the offense that was moving a million miles per hour.
Now, I don’t think it’s quite the same for a Lincoln-Riley offense. It doesn’t use pace the same way, but I’m gonna be curious, you know, do we see more hitting in camp? Do we see more tackling in camp? That’s something that I think that USC has not embraced under Riley in a significant way, and you’re gonna have to do that, I think, moving over to the Big Ten. So again, we won’t necessarily know, and because of how secretive Lincoln-Riley is, maybe we won’t get to hear much about it in the spring, but.
I do think that this is an aspect where if you’re gonna recommit yourself to defense, and by the way, if you’re gonna bring in North Dakota State’s head coach to run your defense, this is how you do things, man. You get physical, you practice physical.
Bobak Ha’Eri (13:59.643)
Now I’m imagining USC is gonna borrow those robots that Dartmouth was using to reduce the amount of tackling except making them a lot more violent and angry. And somehow, you know, that’s where Skynet was born. Not in a military lab, but they accidentally made some linebacker or some running back robots that were a little too violent that decided to have a singularity and go on. But you know, I love the USC selection only because when I was looking at, I ended up becoming more categorical. I realized there’s another team that I also kind of fits.
into the mold, although they were more successful last season. That’s LSU because of course the offense, it’s more or less like how they’re going to reload Garrett Nussmeyer. You know, that, yeah, they’ve got a new QB coach, but I think, you know, again, it’s not going to be a big question. Like who’s going to replace Malik neighbors and Brian Thomas. They’ve got plenty of guys who can probably do that, but on the defensive side of the ball, you know, they’ve got a bunch of guys actually staff, I should say returning to, to fill in roles. So you got headlined by Blake Baker from Mizzou. They were able to get him to be their defensive coordinator.
He’s known to work with linebackers before getting Harold Perkins is a tremendous linebacker and be interesting to see if they can help him reach the next level because I know there was a little bit of disappointment based on how we had done in 2022 heading into 2023. Uh, they’ve got Corey Raymond, another LSU alum, coming back to coach the DBs and try and regain the, uh, the reputation as DBU that LSU has had. And then you’ve got Bo Davis who they got from Texas to be on the defensive line. So.
I think there’s a lot to go there. And I love it too, because the storylines just write themselves. Cause as, as we know, and as some of you out there may know, LSU and USC open the season together in the venerable old Vegas kickoff classic heading into its second season, then I believe three years, cause they skipped last year, but that’s going to be an exciting game to see both of these programs in Allegiant. And I, and I do fear that maybe one of these two teams or both, perhaps their
haven’t improved enough, but we’re gonna see either the other offense not spew or maybe both offenses just look on fire, but it turns out the two defenses just aren’t quite there yet. So it’s gonna be one of those great games for, I think a lot of perhaps overstatements of how each team might’ve done. But the fact that these two teams are gonna square off in the opening week is absolutely perfect considering how similar they are in what they’re trying to do.
Shehan Jeyarajah (16:21.758)
No, I totally agree. It’s gonna, I think, be a game that defines a lot of the 2024 college football season and kinda kicks us off to a big start. And by the way, these are two coaches who obviously have a lot of similarities with them kinda leaving and taking the big contracts and it’ll be a great opportunity to kinda tell where are each of these programs just a couple years into this experiment.
Bobak Ha’Eri (16:45.211)
Yeah, I mean, the last time this game was played, at least the one, the neutral side game was Arizona and BYU. I gotta say the story for this one’s gonna be way bigger. I mean, big, big credit to them for bringing these two teams in, that’s super exciting. You know, kind of in another vein, kind of a thematic area where I was looking at several teams and I realized all of them have the same issue. Was trying to figure out looking in the spring, how are these transfers, these big name transfers gonna mesh? And I mean, Ohio State.
Ole Miss, Texas, those are the three I decided to kind of hone in on only because, arguably those are the three biggest teams in terms of the playoff race at this point. Ole Miss clearly won the signing race for the transfer class. I mean, they’ve got so many guys headlined by Walter Nolan, of course from Texas A&M, Juice Wells, Logan Diggs, Prince Lee, I always get it wrong, Oman Miellan, right? Did I do that? Okay, all right, sorry. Now here’s the awkward thing, like,
Shehan Jeyarajah (17:37.214)
Yeah, Yma Mjellen, yeah.
Bobak Ha’Eri (17:40.527)
Obviously as co-host, we have complicated names in of themselves. So I always feel bad when I kind of, when I kind of mangled somebody’s name. And that is definitely on me. But again, so many big names there. It’ll be interesting to see how they can mesh with teammates. Um, let me, and then obviously Ohio state and Texas, we’ve talked a lot of me. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, how do you think, do you think we’ll, do you think these are programs that should smooth these through, or do you have any concerns looking into it?
Shehan Jeyarajah (18:09.526)
Yeah, I mean, it’s a good question, right? Uh, sir, can you repeat that question? I kind of lost track there of what you were asking.
Bobak Ha’Eri (18:17.731)
Yeah, I mean, well, how well do you think they’re going to mesh into this? I mean, do you think these are programs that can take guys in? I mean, I’ve seen Texas is a little simpler of the three because, you know, yeah, they lost a three top receivers.
Shehan Jeyarajah (18:28.555)
Can, sorry, can you, let’s pause for a second. I lost track of which programs you were kind of asking about. Yeah.
Bobak Ha’Eri (18:33.071)
Oh shit, I’m sorry. Okay, we’ll go back. Sorry, I was doing Old Miss Ohio State in Texas.
Shehan Jeyarajah (18:38.706)
Just in terms of integrating transfers, that’s what you’re asking.
Bobak Ha’Eri (18:41.255)
But like, I mean, do you feel like they should be able to, I mean, we can hammer down on any one of them. I was just kind of like, well, you know, looking at these three as kind of championship contenders who are bringing in some really major transfers. And I admit Texas was kind of like, I wanted to just have three and with Texas, you know, replacing their wide receivers and their tight end with three other good wide receivers in the tight end, I just threw them in there as well.
Shehan Jeyarajah (18:50.472)
Hmm
Shehan Jeyarajah (18:54.45)
Okay, I gotcha, I gotcha.
Shehan Jeyarajah (19:05.674)
Sure. Okay, okay, well, Colin, let me just go back to when he kind of asked that first question. I’ll just start from there.
Shehan Jeyarajah (19:18.422)
Yeah, it’s a great question. I think that when you look at these three programs, they kind of each have slightly different strategies, right? Like with Texas, I’d make the comparison to Georgia or Alabama last year, where they kind of have these targeted transfers. And I think that when you are targeted, it’s easier to find spots for guys. I will say it’s gonna be very interesting with them to see how these wide receivers kind of fit in and replace the two guys that they’re losing, because…
These are two of the better guys that are being lost in college football this year. Um, you know, with, uh, with Ohio state and Ole Miss, I mean, they’re kind of trying to transform who they are in some ways with Ohio state, you see this, uh, kind of shift to a run-based attack, both at the quarterback and running back positions with Quinn John Judkins coming in while Howard as a transfer from Kansas state.
You do also have Aaron Oland and Julian Sayen as well as quarterbacks. So I’m gonna be, that’s gonna be a storyline that I’ll be watching as well as kind of, expect Will Howard to be the starter, but even who ends up being the backup, I think is gonna be a great kind of topic of conversation. Lincoln Kynholtz, Devin Brown getting in there as well. I can’t imagine that all of those guys are still on campus by the time that the 2024 season starts, but.
Who knows, it’s gonna be a fascinating dynamic to watch. And then with Ole Miss, you know, you’re kinda talking about them also shoring up a specific spot, they are shoring up the trenches. They got Walter Nolan to come in, they got two transfers on the offensive line from Washington. And so that’s what I like about all three of these teams. I think that they brought in a lot of transfers, but they brought in a lot of transfers with a purpose. They knew exactly what they were trying to address. With Ole Miss, it was depth.
They need to get deeper and more powerful in the trenches. With Ohio State, they’re kind of undergoing a shift a little bit in both their offensive and defensive philosophies. And with Texas, they’re kind of just trying to fill gaps where they feel like they’ve maybe lost some talent and are bringing some young players along. So I think that all three of these teams are poised really well to integrate what they brought in. Will it be enough to kind of get them to title level? I think that’s going to be the million dollar question in a lot of ways, but I kind of like the
Shehan Jeyarajah (21:32.95)
the disparate ways that each of these three teams attack their strategy.
Bobak Ha’Eri (21:37.879)
Absolutely. What’s another major topic that’s kind of got your attention hanging into the spring?
Shehan Jeyarajah (21:43.23)
Yeah, I think for me, you know, look, there are just so many teams that are integrating new quarterbacks, whether it’s transfers, whether it’s guys graduating. And, you know, so some that kind of came to mind for me, of course, Ohio State, as we mentioned with Will Howard coming in, Riley Leonard transferring into Notre Dame from Duke. He was somebody who I think
prove that behind a less than dominant offensive line, he could be dominant and be a playmaker. Now he’s going to be asked to do things in structure. And look, I mean, I think that a great example is, we talked about Sam Hartman on the last show. It’s not a guarantee that just because you can do something one place in one system that you can do it somewhere else, but I’m gonna be kind of curious to see. One, I expect he’s going to be the starting quarterback. I expect that’s not going to be a competition between him and Steve Angeley. But,
I’ll kind of be curious to see how they handle that, just to see ultimately, you know, is this what it looks like? I think that when even you talk about guys stepping into bigger roles, Jackson Arnold at Oklahoma is a freshman, now I guess going on sophomore that they’re really excited about, had a very lackluster first half of the Alamo Bowl, but kind of figured some things out in the second half. Now he’s gonna be a full-time starter. Another great example, DJ Uyunga-Lay, transferring back to the ACC.
coming to Florida State, that Florida State Clemson game is gonna be very spicy. And so the other piece of this too is last year, we had this conversation. The three heavies in college football were all replacing quarterbacks, Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia. And I kind of made the case, this is the best year to try to get them.
whenever they’re trying to integrate a year one quarterback. And that’s exactly what happened. You saw the national championship game was between two established entrenched quarterbacks and JJ McCarthy and Michael Pennick. So it’s gonna be a great challenge to see for these teams. Can they integrate players quick enough? And especially can they integrate them well enough when you do have so many of the other top teams in college football, specifically Alabama, Georgia and Texas, bringing back.
Shehan Jeyarajah (23:57.554)
second year quarterbacks who are extremely talented. So it’s gonna be a fascinating dynamic and I don’t necessarily know what to expect.
Bobak Ha’Eri (24:05.899)
Yeah, I think that’s a great point. And for some of the transfers who are kind of like, they’re going to get it, like Cam Ward, no one’s expecting anyone else at Miami to be the quarterback in Cam Ward. Will Howard, to an extent, Riley Leonard, to an extent. I’m curious to see though, in the spring, will we have a surprise where someone who we thought, you know, will Dante Moore suddenly step up, shake off the freshman issues with, you know, mistakes, decision making, things you expect as a true freshman thrown into being the starting quarterback in the Pac-12.
and give Dylan Gabriel such a challenge that perhaps we go into the fall not being certain. And I mean, I would imagine it that way. We’d go into the fall not being certain, not that they’d ever announced, because I think to an extent, the coaches and the coordinators can be a little smart and greedy about trying to keep talent in those spots. But I’m curious to see where that goes. Another big question actually I have is Michigan. I mean, because if we’re talking about quarterbacks in general, that kind of leans into
probably the biggest question as a quarterback battle. And for me, it’s trying to figure out who’s gonna get out there at Michigan. Cause you got Alex Orji, who obviously was more of a situational player. You’ve got Jayden Davis coming in, who’s obviously a touted quarterback. You have journeyman Jake Tuttle, who got a seventh year after playing at Utah, Indiana and being there as a quarterback at Michigan. And then you’ve got again, you’ve got other guys. And then the question is, are they gonna just go into the spring? Because again, they were late to the transfer portal.
and just grab somebody else, maybe whoever doesn’t win at Oregon. Um, I’m curious to see, like, what are your thoughts on Michigan?
Shehan Jeyarajah (25:38.55)
Yeah, that quarterback situation is one of the most interesting dynamics because they lose a number of players on the offensive line, but Miles Hinton back at right tackle, Colston Loveland at tight end I think is going to be a huge player for them. Simaj Morgan was a young player who showed some promise at receiver. I do feel like ultimately…
when you look at Michigan and when you look at Sherron Moore, he has the opportunity to almost make a choice, right? Like, does he want to go with a pocket pastor like Jack Tuttle or does he want to go with a more dual threat quarterback like Alex Orji? We saw at times during the 2023 season, I mean, this is somebody who loves leaning on the run. He is an offensive line coach by trade and Alex Orji gives them much more of that running component.
You know, I don’t want to make like a crazy, but like, you know, Alex Orgy, you maybe structure your offense like he’s Tim Tebow a little more, right? Whereas Jack Tuttle, you kind of do some of the early Harbaugh stuff where they’re running a lot of pro style. I think that where I lean is probably more towards the Alex Orgy side of things. I think that they’re going to want to lean on that running cape. And by the way,
Donovan Edwards, Kalel Mullins, both back at running back for them. So this is gonna be a team that runs the ball hard and runs the ball effectively. And once they run the ball some, they’re gonna keep running more and more and more. And so ultimately I am pretty fascinated to see if that’s the direction that they end up going, especially because, you know, look, they’re replacing a lot on both sides of the ball after winning a national championship, but they’ve got some big time players coming back, especially on defense. Will Johnson at corner.
Rod Moore at safety, Kenneth Grant at defensive tackle. And so do you just kind of try to play not ball control necessarily, but do you try to shorten games like they’ve done? I think that’s been so much Michigan’s MO. I expect that Orji is just gonna be the safer choice, especially, I mean, look, Jack Tuttle is a seventh year player, man. If he’s not, if he wasn’t really a factor to be as part of that quarterback rotation last year, I just don’t know that the seventh year is gonna be the one that he does it.
Bobak Ha’Eri (27:51.207)
Hey, you know, at the rate things are going, they’ll just keep granting you years to stick around. I mean, we’ve got the ninth year guy at Miami, so we’ll see where it goes. You know, kind of building off of this, another theme that was getting my attention was coordinators and some of the key ones that are coming up here, particularly on the offense. I mean, just this week, I was fascinated to hear Chip Kelly finally talk a little bit about why he was willing to leave, because everyone knew he wanted to leave UCLA and be a coordinator in the NFL anywhere. I think no one expected Ohio State
But still, I mean, nothing was entirely shocking just because Chip is kind of a unique bird in and of himself. And he is real for the record, but, sorry, I love the birds not real thing. I just had to tuck those in everywhere. But, you know, he was talking about how when they were doing prep for the LA bowl, I mean, his quarterback coach had taken off to be the offensive coordinator at Oregon State. And he was happy for him, of course. But so he had to step in and be the quarterback coach. And he was talking about how…
Shehan Jeyarajah (28:33.41)
Hehe
Bobak Ha’Eri (28:47.823)
He just loved it. He’s like, he, I haven’t really coached the players since 2008, like on that level. Um, and being that CEO coach, his wife had apparently told him, like, he seemed happier than he’d ever been. Um, so watching him, it made a lot of sense. It fit into, I don’t know, again, it sounds like he’d been looking for a couple of years at moot leaving and departing and doing something else, but certainly, um, it kind of underlined that. So there’s a lot of interest to seeing, and for example, how he’s going to do at UCLA. I mean, he’s got a plethora of weapons to choose from, probably at Ohio State.
He’s got a plethora of weapons to choose from that we just talked about. He enjoys calling plays. I’m gonna be really interested to see how he gets to use this running talent as well as his quarterback talent and frankly, who he thinks the order should be in that quarterback room, given his background and then his reputation for developing quarterbacks. What other, I mean, in addition to Chip, I mean, there’s others, I mean, Tim Lester in Iowa. I think Iowa is gonna be theoretically out there as a wild card to potentially
move forward as a offensive juggernaut. Even though I don’t think they’re going to challenge for the SEC or even necessarily in that large spot, it’s hard to ignore Bobby Patrino at Arkansas. Like I would be like, he’s by far probably the most interesting. Like what?
Shehan Jeyarajah (30:04.065)
We can ignore him. It’s very easy to ignore him.
Bobak Ha’Eri (30:05.939)
Hahaha!
Oh my goodness. I mean, I just like that story. I just can’t get it over. And then you look at what he’s got to choose from. I mean, the, the story of the Arkansas offense probably going to be one of the most entertaining, like where’s it going to go, who are they going to use and how they’re going to use them. I mean, I’m absolutely fascinated by that, but where are you at on that? Well, like which, which coordinator has got you the most interested in how they’re going to fit into the team in this upcoming, in these spring camps.
Shehan Jeyarajah (30:35.158)
Yes, great question. I think there’s a couple that come to mind, certainly Chip, I mean, that kind of goes without saying. I’m gonna be fascinated to see Colin Klein moving over to TechSANM, a very different type of offense, a very different type of coordinator than TechSANM has obviously had the past couple of years, moving from an extreme pro-style system under Jimbo Fisher.
to one that will embrace the spread, will embrace the run, will potentially be creative using the quarterback on the move or, you know, I don’t necessarily think that they’re gonna use Connor Wegman in the run game. That’s not his strength. But I do think that we will see him used more creatively, you know, getting out of the pocket, bootlegging, doing stuff like that. And we also saw over the past two years, you know, Mike Elko is not sort of the negative stereotype of a defensive coordinator. He’s somebody who…
last two years they hired Kevin Johns as offense coordinator at Duke and they played a lot of creative offense. They weren’t afraid to go fast, they weren’t afraid to be explosive and so I do think he’s going to be empowered in a unique kind of way to kind of take things to the next level of TechSANM and for everybody who’s watched them over the past couple of years we’ve seen TechSANM, they have made the game very difficult for themselves and I think that this is going to be something that helps quite a bit. You know, to stick in the States.
I mean, you could go to Baylor, right? Jake Spavidol coming in, completely changing whatever they’re doing, moving from a wide zone run offense to now they’re gonna be more of a spread. I think that when you look at their receiver talent, that might be something that works well for them. And they also bring in a transfer in Daquan Hardy over from Toledo at quarterback, who I think is gonna give them a lot more in the running game as well. So I think that those two in the state of Texas are ones who are gonna potentially be big, big time players.
Bobak Ha’Eri (32:25.031)
So I’ve been tossing out a couple of these last sort of themes. What’s another one or at least another story that’s got your attention coming into this spring game camps. I always say game. I always want to say, I always want to jump to the it’s force of habit, force of habit.
Shehan Jeyarajah (32:33.462)
So, yeah, they’re always tied.
Shehan Jeyarajah (32:41.42)
So for me…
Bobak Ha’Eri (32:41.755)
By the way, for the record, for the record, I just want to throw this out there, might as well. One thing I admire, and again, this is an international college football thing, and it’s something they do in Japan, and it only made national news in the United States because something like the quietest time ever, May, something happened over there during one of their spring games. But they actually do an exhibition schedule, like of underclassmen. It’s like the freshmen and sophomores get a chance to just play like three or four exhibition schedule against some of the other teams. They get a chance to see everybody.
The reason it became like even the New York Times wrote on it, there was a, they call it the dirty tackle incident. And it became like a phenomenon, like some freshmen linebacker ended up doing a, I mean, it was flagrant by any standard, a late tackle of this, this quarterback. And then it ended with the team. Like, well, it got, it got crazy because of all the honor and stuff in Japan. Like he had a, a teary press conference where he, you know,
does a thing where he apologizes, stands up teary-eyed and does a solemn bow for a long period of time. And then things went out of control. Not only did that happen, then he said like, I quit football, you know, I disgraced, you know, my university. It ended with the head coach being kicked out, the offensive core, the defensive coordinator being banned from the sport and the entire team dropping football because the conference forced them to end their season for one year because they said,
we did not feel you were sincere enough in your what you did to rectify this situation. This team had just won the national championship in Japan. They had a sit out a season and because they have promotion relegation, they were automatically relegated because they went like zero and whatever. I mean, like, can you imagine like that in the United States, but sorry, that kind of got into a whole other story there. But I mean, I love the concept of spring games. I think those are cute spring exhibition games.
Shehan Jeyarajah (34:30.175)
Yeah, I-
That’s the takeaway that’s about this free game. I don’t think that we have quite the same system of like honor and right doing in the United States. I think that our college football is a little different than that. Let’s keep this moving though. A name that I actually probably should have mentioned whenever we were having this last discussion, Penn State.
and Andy Kotelnicki coming in from Kansas. I am so fascinated to see how that’s going to go because you have a Penn State offense that talent has never been the problem, right? I mean, they’ve had dynamic receivers over the years, De’Andre, sorry, Jehan Dotson, you know, you look Chris Godwin coming through and you’ve had some quarterbacks who are pretty good, you know, a Sean Clifford.
a Trace McSorley and Drew Aller was supposed to be the best of the bunch and they have not gotten very much out of him. And now with Andy Kulnicki coming in, this is somebody who has been a miracle worker in a lot of ways at Kansas, at Buffalo, even all the way down to Wisconsin Whitewater as well. And I expect that he is going to add an infusion of fun to an offense that really has not had very much of it since James Franklin took over.
Part of this is going to be, again, listening to James Franklin and what he’s saying, is this going to be Andy Kudlnicki’s offense or is it gonna be James Franklin looking over his shoulder kind of messing things and mucking things up to protect his defense? I mean, you have to let Andy Kudlnicki be himself and do things at a high level, or this hire is not going to work out. But again, I mean, when you talk about Kansas, they use so much misdirection, they use so much…
Shehan Jeyarajah (36:23.978)
you know, sort of side to side spread action. I’m fascinated to see how they’re gonna use these two running backs that they’ve got, Nick Singleton and K-Tron Allen, maybe the best running back combo in college football in 2024. I expect there are gonna be plays where, you know, Nick Singleton’s taking snaps and running option stuff with K-Tron Allen and maybe Drew Aller’s on the field too. I don’t know. They have so much upside if this works. And credit.
to James Franklin. We’ve talked a lot about Ohio State responding to Michigan winning a national championship. I think that this was Penn State’s response to Michigan going and winning a national championship and seeing we literally cannot hang playing the kind of football that we’re playing right now. And James Franklin has made no secret that his goal is to win a national championship, to become the first black coach to win a national championship. It has not, in FBS of course, it has not happened to this point.
I think that Andy Kudlicki is the kind of hire who, if you let him do his thing, which has been a James Franklin issue, can potentially change a whole lot.
Bobak Ha’Eri (37:33.619)
Absolutely, and I mean, you think about the tools he’s gonna get with Nicholas Singleton and Kate John Allen and Adushinna Drew Aller. And I love the fact that you mentioned that he’s gonna try and hopefully bring in, introduce fun into it, because that’s part of the reason that I think makes some of these D3 programs so successful. You got these guys that have to wanna come and play for you. It’s not like you’re throwing a big scholarship their way. And yeah, and hopefully Franklin gets out of the way. It reminds me of, you know, you made me think of…
an analogy to how some of these programs and their practices run. It reminds me of there. There was this famous incident where they were doing like, I forgot who it was. The Marine Corps University was running this like theory, this experiment of like game, like running a war simulation. And they brought in this general Peter van Ripper. And they said, like, you got to probably Paul van Ripper. You like you got to pretend like you’re, you know, our enemy. So he got so creative.
that they had to stop the simulation, say like, look, the US isn’t gonna win if we keep running the simulation, you have to change what you’re doing. So, I mean, that analogy reminds me of some of these, these coaches where it’s like, okay, no, but the offense still has to be good. You know, we gotta keep running or the defense still has to look great. And you’re just, you’re kind of, you’re not allowing that creativity to flow in some of these great opportunities, but that’s a great one. Cohn-Lekki’s apps are gonna be a fascinating one to watch. You know,
This is kind of a story that I don’t know like with Utah, because we’ve talked about them, they were favored to potentially win the big 12. They certainly are, I mean, you know, obviously Oklahoma State and K-State are potential contenders as well. And then there’s other great solid teams, I think in that conference. But to me, one thing I’m looking into this spring is can they stay healthy? Because that’s been one of the biggest issues for the Utes. I mean, Cameron Rising obviously got banged up in 2022 and didn’t even get to play last season.
You got Brett Keithy, the tight end, but they had so many other injuries. They had Micah Bernard, the running back, Micah Pittman, who was a Florida State transfer, and they’ve got that linebacker, Lander Barton. Can they keep it together? Because they play a physical style of football, and maybe that’s part of the reason why the practices and in the games, maybe they wear out, I’m not sure, but I really want to see how healthy Utah will actually be.
Bobak Ha’Eri (39:51.187)
uh… in the fall and so the spring game is gonna be a big question for me i don’t know do you have a concern at all watching that just i was not just you top it’s in these other programs where we excited or for some programs really get excited about the guys coming in and the next thing you know all that’s not who were gonna actually end up with because some unfortunate tragic injury that occurs
Shehan Jeyarajah (40:11.146)
Yeah, so I think that it’s going to, I think, there’s going to be a little more focus on health this spring than I think previous years, because these guys are about to have to play in a much longer playoff, because they’re gonna have to go through a full season and a conference championship game and maybe a first round game and then play two or three more rounds of the college football playoff. And, you know, I think one, that’s gonna make things so much harder for the ACC and Big 12 teams that-
don’t necessarily recruit at that hyper elite level. That’s going to be, I think, a huge issue for a lot of programs. But then again, like you mentioned, I mean, even just, I think when you talk specifically about the Big 12 and the parity and balance in that league as well, I mean, you can’t afford to fall half a step behind. What happened in the Pac-12 last year is kind of what the Big 12 has been for the past five or six years, where everybody’s just kind of above average. And so I do, I think that Utah is a great place to go
I mean, it wasn’t just that Cameron Rising was out. It was that they didn’t necessarily seem to have the best options to replace him. And now, by the way, their two top quarterbacks from last year, Nate Johnson and Bryson Barnes, have both transferred out too. So you’re in a situation where if it’s not Cameron Rising, it’s Luke Batari, who is not necessarily a player who you want on the field. And even you talk about
Sione Vachy who was there to do everything running back safety last year. He’s gone too. So In a funny way the margin of error for these guys injury situations I think is gonna be even smaller in the big 12 and 2024 than it was in the Pac-12 in 2023
Bobak Ha’Eri (41:55.891)
That’s wild. I can think of a lot of youths fans that are gonna be, they probably are aware of it if they’re not, my goodness, that’s gonna make them, that’s gonna keep them up at night. It’s amazing we’ve gone through this conversation. We have yet to talk about the new coaches that are coming in, the new head coaches. And that’s certainly one. Of the new head coaches, and there’s certainly, obviously as we’ve talked about before, three of the four playoff teams last season all have new coaches, but we don’t have to limit it to there, but of the coaches that are coming in,
Well, or should I just say of the coaches that are named Kaelin D’Bour, or I mean, I don’t know. I mean, what coach or two are the ones that have got the most attention for you heading into the spring?
Shehan Jeyarajah (42:37.11)
Well, I do want to touch on Caelan D’Avore because I think that it is just so fascinating. I know, he is.
Bobak Ha’Eri (42:42.715)
He’s like his own category because of replacing Nick Saban. I mean, it’s almost like it would be like, which coach are you most interested in seeing how they do? I mean, well, you know, I mean, any other year you might have, there might be a difference of opinion, but not this year. No, not this year at all.
Shehan Jeyarajah (42:56.914)
Yeah, let’s certainly come back around to Kailin DeBoer. I am curious, you know, look, I made the case this off season. I feel like this was a great hiring cycle. I think that a lot of coaches and programs did a good job of finding matches with each other. You know, the no brainer is one like Sharon Moore, who was just promoted internally. You know, I think that even you go and look at Washington, right, with Jed Fish, that’s…
That was, I think, also a very straightforward, no-nonsense type thing. Jonathan Smith going to Michigan State, that is a tremendous get and a tremendous fit. They have to be so lucky and happy that Washington didn’t open until a little later because Jonathan Smith at Washington would have been a very scary sight as well. I’ve mentioned earlier this year, Kurt Signetti at Indiana being somebody who.
I’m fascinated to see even Spencer Danielson at Boise State. I think that he has a chance to maybe lead the best, the best potentially group of five program next year. But you know, to settle on one, I actually, I do also want to mention Del McGee becoming Georgia State’s coach, former Georgia running backs coach. To me, he should have been the head coach at Georgia State a long time ago. I cannot believe that it took this long for him to kind of come in and figure things out.
You know, look, when I look around, you know, I think that some of the ones that I’m most fascinated by, I think it would have to be that Jonathan Smith thing at Michigan State. I think that he coming in, and we talked about this a little earlier this off season, but he’s a coach who knows how to be in the shadows a little bit and still maximize what he has. He’s a tremendous.
developer of talent, identifier of talent, schemer of talent. He’s never had the kind of resources that he will at Michigan State and the kind of focus that the program has right now in the aftermath of the Mel Tucker dismissal. And I think that this is a program too that is a sleeping giant when it comes to NIL and potentially player acquisition. You talk about that giant new television contract that’s coming in. You talk about the access they have to Detroit and Ohio and the rest of the Midwest.
Shehan Jeyarajah (45:15.622)
And I think the other piece too that you have to like is Jonathan Smith has done a lot of recruiting of techs in California. And I expect that Michigan State is gonna go out to those places and continue to improve what they’ve got. So I think that this is maybe the, I don’t even know if the, is it the best hire of the off season? I think that there’s a really good case that it is. And I will also say this is not going to hit year one. They are not going to be awesome.
in 2024, but when you talk about them heading forward, I think that this could just end up being a perfect fit.
Bobak Ha’Eri (45:49.915)
You know, just as one other name I wanted to throw out there and I want to ask you how you think they may do on a scale of, you know, zero to, oh my gosh, Sonny Dykes. No, in year one, no, that’s unfair. But I’m wondering how Willie Fritz is going to do and how quickly things are going to turn around at Houston with him there. Because obviously a lot of connections to the area just from his previous stops, but also to Wayne also has to look into that region as well.
Shehan Jeyarajah (46:05.134)
Hehehehehehe
Bobak Ha’Eri (46:19.527)
But I’m curious to see how well of a transition, how smooth of a transition it is and how quickly we see that effect in the Big 12. I’m curious to see that, I think, more so than some of the other programs that are out there with new head coaches.
Shehan Jeyarajah (46:32.778)
Well, I think there are two things you have to mention whenever you’re talking about Houston heading into 2024. One, I mean, everybody that I talk to says it’s going to be a tremendous fit. They’re so excited about what he’s brought in. I know that the Athletic did a survey of Texas high school coaches, specifically in the city of Houston, just a few weeks ago. And they were like, these guys have been in my door even more than the previous staff. And they’ve only been here a few months. And they put together a great transfer class with a lot of guys who…
either played for Willie Fritz or are from the city of Houston. So I have zero question about whether the tire is going to work out. I think that he is a tremendous fit. That said, this cupboard is bare, man. This is not a good roster. This is not a good program. There’s a reason that Dana Holgersson was fired. I know that Houston’s president, René O’Cotture, actually said that basically the reason that Dana Holgersson was let go was because at a talk he basically was like
Yeah, we’ve given up on the 2024 class because we aren’t going to get it and we’re focusing on 2025. And when you’re already like giving up recruiting classes as a head coach, like you can’t be looking that far ahead. And ultimately, you know, they put together the 61th best high school recruiting class in the country, which is not very good. It was even worse than that before Willie Fritz got there. So I think this roster is just in a hole right now. And I don’t think it’s a one cycle away.
I think it’s maybe a two cycles or three cycles away type hole. But here’s what I will say. I think that Houston’s going to go out there. They’re going to give some teams hell. They’re going to pull an upset that they have no business pulling. And then they’ll probably finish second or third worst in the conference. Just because I think that this roster is not ready for prime time. But look, if you are Houston, if you’re Chris Pesman, their athletic director, if you’re Tillman Fertitta, their board chair,
I mean, just give him some time. Don’t pull the plug after one or two years, because this is a coach who knows how to build a winner. Like you said, coming from the city of New Orleans, he used to be the head coach at Sam Houston State University down in Huntsville, just outside of Houston. And so he knows everybody. He is really well liked down there. And I am very confident that if given the pieces and the chances, he has a chance to really hit.
Bobak Ha’Eri (48:53.915)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he it took a little while to get to lane going because they were even emptier arguably, because that’s always been one of those. But but he’s able to build things up. Absolutely. You know, he just had me thinking like, that’s such a Dana Holgerson thing to say, and I hope he gets like a talk show like interviewing, like almost like own WWE, like those kind of silly fictional talk shows. Let’s get the real one like sponsored by Margaritaville, where it’s like on a beach somewhere like interviewing somebody kind of with a couple of beers in front of them. Like that to me.
Shehan Jeyarajah (48:58.639)
Yeah, yeah, no doubt.
Bobak Ha’Eri (49:23.495)
would be the perfect like next stop for Dana Holgerson. Cause I’d watch that. I bet it would be entertaining, it would be chill. And you know, beers in the beach with Dana Holgerson. I’d watch that one. Oh my goodness. But how about Katelyn DeBoer? We should talk about it. We saved it for the end.
Shehan Jeyarajah (49:58.478)
I think that Kaelin DeBoer is a very unusual hire in the best of ways for Alabama. This is not somebody who’s ever coached in the South. He did not come up through major college football programs before he got to Washington. His Power 5 coaching experience was at Indiana and his head coaching experience was in NAIA and at Fresno State. I think that there’s some things you have to like about it. I wrote a story about him right before the national championship game for CBSsports.com and
The biggest thing that I took away from it is that he is just somebody who figures things out. And that can be in recruiting, that can be in development, that can be in the transfer portal, anything. Like he’s just somebody who figures things out. And going into a roster at Alabama, where he’s going to have the most talented team that he’s ever had in his life by a mile, even with all of the departures so far, I think that that’s going to be a real positive for him. And look, I mean, Jalen Milrow.
working with Kaelin DeBoer is a scary thought, right? That is something that I think could really work in a big way. They’re gonna know how to maximize both his passing and running ability. At the same time, I mean, this is not the staff that I was hoping that he would end up with whenever he did come, right? Like, I mean, they already have lost multiple assistants to other jobs in the NFL, notably Ryan Grubb did not come with him as offensive coordinator. Defensively, I like a little more what they got going on.
the South Alabama head coach, higher-distered defense coordinator, and Mo Linguist as a defensive backs coach. But I’m gonna be curious, right? We’re gonna learn pretty quickly, I think, and probably even this spring, whether Alabama and Kalen DeBoer are up for the challenge, whether they’re up for the pressure of replacing Nick Saban. How does he handle the kind of media scrutiny? You know, one thing that we talked about whenever Washington was in the national championship game, we were down there in Houston, is man,
Washington for a program as good as they are, it’s really not covered all that much. They do not have that kind of media environment. Alabama ain’t gonna be like that. So we got our good friends over at AL.com leading the charge on that, but you even see, I mean, you know, my team over at 247 CBS Sports, they just added Alex Scarborough just to cover Alabama for 247. Like this is one of the great writers in college football right now, so.
Shehan Jeyarajah (52:17.046)
This is a different kind of media market. It’s a different kind of pressure. He’s replacing the greatest coach in the history of college football. And by the way, he’s never coached further south than or like Southeast than like Indiana to the East and Fresno State to the South. Like it’s a different kind of animal going now to live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and have to deal with all the complications that comes with. Again, I think that Kaylin DeBoer is a star.
I think that Alabama, the institution, can do things to protect him just a little bit from all of the outside pressures, but this is gonna be a fascinating hire.
Bobak Ha’Eri (52:57.239)
And I am absolutely like, it’ll be interesting to see, because I mean, 17 years and the time I guess, crept by on me, because I never, I remember when he was retiring, everyone’s like, wow, he’s been there for 17 seasons. And I kind of went like, wow, gosh, I really only feels like not that long ago, he was at Miami, but coaching the Dolphins, but.
Shehan Jeyarajah (53:14.846)
Yeah, agree, agree. I was really enjoying the seventh grade at that point.
Bobak Ha’Eri (53:20.147)
But there’s a thing. I mean, how many people in Alabama just, you know, when you still start paying attention to college football when you’re born. So how many kids like in Alabama like that are going to be in their 20s, you know, that got really into the program or even 30s, you know, all they knew was Nick Saban. So this, this spring practice, this spring camp, I mean, the scrutiny on the, I mean, I assume are they having a spring game? I mean, that that’s going to be a
I can’t even imagine. I assume it’ll be a sellout, uh, just because everyone’s going to want to see what Alabama is going to look like. Um, this is tremendous. I can’t even imagine the amount of attention, the amount of pressure on just the scrutiny on such what might be minutia. My mind might not even be important because as you said, like, you know, at the beginning of this show, going into the spring camps, you know, you gotta be a little bit careful about how people talk about, Oh, this is the greatest camp we’ve ever had, or, you know, this guy looks great. Then you actually put them against, or, you know,
A defense that isn’t kind of playing along with how the how the practice is being run just runs over them But I’m absolutely looking forward to it. I think that’s he is by far it’s just such a special situation that it’s a category in and of itself the replacement of Nick Saban and how that’s gonna progress and You know how thrilled are some of those holdover because again that was the thing he inherited such a rich cupboard
that even with all the departures, he’s still got the most probably arguably the most talented or one of the most talented teams in college football. But, you know, got a spring portal window coming up. Some of these teams are now looking for guys. Maybe some of those guys will now start to look a little bit further, especially going from the Saban situation, the Saban organization and how he runs things in his way to the board. I mean, it’ll be fascinating to say, I mean, there was a quote, an interview with Saban, I just read actually today where he was talking about
how he was starting again, and I admire Saban and how he talks about this stuff. He’s like, look, I’m not saying this is good or bad, but he was noticing that some of his players were talking more about like, not only getting touches on the ball, but how much money can you get me to stay? You know, a lot of these questions where he realized there’s an evolution in the sport. And it was one where he wasn’t sure if he was even necessarily getting it. Like he was that concern that was kind of coming out of that interview. And again, to his credit, he’s like, I don’t know if it’s good or bad, it’s just evolving.
Bobak Ha’Eri (55:40.267)
and looking at how some of those players are going to act with Kailin DeBoer and with the situation in Alabama as it moves forward. You know, as we kind of slowly wrap this up, it’s been a while since we asked a question. It’s been a couple of weeks. I want to know, you know, Barry Odom totally got my heart when he decided, for those that aren’t aware of, obviously Barry Odom, he’s the head coach of UNLV, he had a great initial season there, took them to a bowl, just really excited, got things excited in Vegas,
for a promotional event to kind of raise money. It was, I believe it was called the horns and helmets at South Point, which is one of the, the strip, bottom of the strip, not unlike on the main strip in Las Vegas, they have a huge venue. So they had a rodeo. So he got on a bull and not just on any bull, not a mechanical bull. He got on a real bull called the Widowmaker. And he decided to do a straight up bull riding event. Like he’s like, I think 47, 49, somewhere in that range. I’m 44.
That sounds so crazy now, maybe my twenties, when I was in better shape working out all the time, I might’ve done that. But he lasted like maybe two seconds generously and just watched him. If anyone’s ever watched bull riding, he got the full effect of bull riding in there. I mean, luckily not major injuries, but got a good shaking. And I thought to myself, what would be something fun for a head coach to do to get attention to their program and get that? Like, how can you top bull riding?
Is there something like, and you haven’t had a chance to think about this, but I mean, I just, I had to bring it up because first of all, I love what he did, but it can, is that something we should see more coaches do? Cause I mean, that got a viral moment. Like I think a lot of people were like, well, the UNLV coach is riding a bull. Um, it kind of, it’s something Nick Saban certainly wouldn’t do. Maybe Kailin DeBoer. I don’t know. But I mean, what would, what would you do? What would, what would be something fun to get people’s attention? Like Harbaugh? Okay. I could see him willing to do it fricking anything. But, um, what, what do you think?
Shehan Jeyarajah (57:33.41)
Well, I mean, I think, I think Kalen DeBoer is from South Dakota. I assume that he’s probably just like already done that. I’m assuming that he just like ropes steers or goes horseback riding just all the time. I don’t know. I don’t really know much about South Dakota. I mean, can you beat Bill Self dancing with a gold chain and Snoop Dogg? I don’t know if you can get a whole lot better than that, especially after you are under active investigation by the NCAA for paying players. That was like an
all-time flaunting wealth moment and the craziest part is they didn’t even come back to bite him. They didn’t even get hardly any punishments as a program. That to me stands apart as probably the best. Do you have one in mind? I’m going to think a little bit more if I have another idea.
Bobak Ha’Eri (58:16.975)
Well, you know, I was thinking like, I would love to see some of these coaches that are in the better shape, maybe a Marcus Freeman, like enter. And the show doesn’t exist anywhere, but something like an American Gladiators, like have them actually enter something where you’re just, you know, this kind of came up. I loved someone said that the NFL combine is kind of like the Olympics for football players. You know, you get them to see. And I thought, well, can we still analyze the players and do something fun with them, like create an American Gladiators type of thing, like have them run through a whole.
you know, gamut like the eliminator where they have to run through a bunch of things. So it might be fun to see some of the coaches do that or maybe do a joust, like with the pugil sticks or something. And just to raise money. Like again, come up with some great charity, get Nick Saban to chair it. Because again, if you get him to do it, suddenly everyone will come. Um, I just want to see some, I think it’ll be fun. I think that’s something where, for example, historically, and you’ve seen this evolution, I think as well as I have, college football used to be stodgy.
It still used to hang on to just a certain level of staginess. And I think over the time with, especially with some of the transitions, not only with the head coaches and administrators, but also the sports information directors, to an extent, a willingness to try things to get to, I don’t know, the youths, however you want to say it, you know, um, the big 12 certainly suddenly started leading the charge with Brett Yarmark because the guy is willing to being from his MBA background, willing to look a little looser and try some fun stuff. So I’m trying to think of what would be something
that could get their attention, that could get the public’s attention and maybe just do something like that for a program. Ohio State’s head coach, Ryan Day, doesn’t need to hop on a bull. He doesn’t need to do that. I mean, he could go for it. I mean, he’s a big dude. I would love to actually watch how that would go. But I mean, I’m trying to think, like some of these smaller programs, if you’re trying to get attention, like if you’re in New Orleans, like do you, I don’t know what you can do that would be entirely like. I mean, I don’t know, going well on Bourbon Street may not be the greatest way to sell it, but.
Shehan Jeyarajah (01:00:05.602)
Well, another great one was, so Oklahoma State has a tremendous wrestling team, right? That’s like probably their signature sport. And Mike Gundy very famously did a promo for them where he was like decked out in a wrestling sinklet. And that photo still flies around the internet all the time. I think that like, that’s a sort of thing, right? Where I think you just have to…
Bobak Ha’Eri (01:00:15.171)
Mm-hmm. One of the best.
Shehan Jeyarajah (01:00:35.014)
I think a great example of this too would be like, okay, if you raise this amount of money or whatever, like yeah, I’ll do like our pro day or something like that. And I think that would be great for the coaches who maybe aren’t in the best of shape too, right? Like, you know who would absolutely be down for something like that? It would be like this Poggi over at Charlotte, right? Like just him like running the 40 or him like racing the fastest guys on the team or something like that. I think that
I think that physical battles are always something that are pretty funny. You kind of alluded to that with the American Gladiator thing. I mean, I think that’s definitely something where, you know, maybe having like a one-on-one basketball tournament or something like that. I don’t know. I think that things where you get these coaches out there to do physical feats.
against other players on the team especially. I think that’s always fun and I think that always makes for a good time.
Bobak Ha’Eri (01:01:35.527)
Yeah, exactly. Because the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, the holiday bowl suddenly introduced that eggnog dunk that I was not aware of until there was a picture of Lincoln rally gang dunked by that. I mean, we’ve proven that people like seeing the head coaches acting silly and having a little bit of fun. So you know, maybe that’s what we got to do. We got to start consulting business coming up with wacky things for head coaches to do and then to bring some attention and get the get people hyped up. I love it.
Shehan Jeyarajah (01:01:51.662)
I think it’s a little embarrassed.
Bobak Ha’Eri (01:02:02.263)
Oh my goodness. Well, I think that’s a good spot to wrap this up. I think we’ve kind of, uh, we’ve kind of, uh, reached the end. We’re getting into the silly season here, but we want to thank all of you listen to us and we want to thank our producer, Joey Aliberty. Be sure if you get a chance, like rate and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and you can find us on X and tick tock at the CFP survivor show. Uh, not the die. I always tend to throw that in there at CFP survivor show. He’s Sharanj Aradj. You could find his work on CBS sports.com.
And that’s Shahandhra Raja on X and TikTok on Bobak Iary. Thanks so much for listening. Have a great one.
