College Football Apostles - WE LOVE CFBRyan Day Contract, Brian Kelly vs Brooks Jr, Juju Lewis, Jalen Milroe, Ron Rivera
On this episode of the College Football Apostles, George Wrighster and Ralph Amsden talk about Ryan Day's new (unnecessary?) contract, Brian Kelly's response to the accusation that he abandoned a player during his recovery from brain cancer, Colorado QB commit Julian Lewis' father TC saying he's been one of the most scrutinized recruits in recent history. The guys also get into which teams performed well in the 2025 high school recruiting rankings, as well as talk about Alabama QB Jalen Milroe being asked about switching positions in the NFL, and Ron Rivera returning home to Cal to assist Justin Wilcox.
We got to talk here on the College Football Apostles today because Ryan Day just got a new contract, highest paid coaching college football. But who was Ohio State really betting against? The SEC is continuingly trying to make the college football Playoff in their path just a little bit easier. Jaln Milroe says, don't even ask me about playing running back in the NFL because it ain't happening. Boston TC Lewis says that his son Julian Lewis is one of the most heavily scrutinized recruits of all time, and I can't really disagree with him. And Brian Kelly is in hot water and has to defend himself. Do you believe him? Is the question that and so much more here on the College Football Apostles. Make sure that you like, subscribe, get notifications, and tell a friend about the show. Let's get to it, all, right, So we're gonna start with Ryan Day, and y'all make sure y'all hop in the comments. Tell me what y'all think. So, Ryan Day just got a new seven year, twelve and a half million dollars per year contract from Ohio State after he won a national championship. And this is no disparagement upon Ryan Day, the actual person, Ryan Day, the coke, none of that. But this makes zero sense to me. Ryan Day loves Ohio State. Ryan Day is not leaving Ohio State. This is the same man that people were considering firing two months ago, Ralph. They wanted him fired for two months and maybe a year prior to that. But now he's won a national championship and now all of a sudden, it's hey, let's give him a new twelve point five million dollar contract. Yeah. I'm like, you're bidding against yourself. How does this make any sense, Ralph?
Yeah, that's the whole part of it is you have obligated your institution to a buyout that's gonna be north of seventy million dollars when you were negotiating against absolutely no one, having on the heels of something you pointed out on your Unafraid Show Daily Live on Tuesday, which is teams don't often follow up losing their coordinators with success, and almost everybody who wins national championships loses their coordinators. So a perfect example would be Dabo Swiney six straight college football playoff semi finals when he had his co offensive coordinators with him and none since they both left. And so you know, kude Ohio State, who hadn't won a national championship in ten years prior to this, be in trouble now that they've lost their defensive coordinator to Penn State and their offensive coordinator to the Las Vegas Raiders.
And they lost their O line coach as well.
Yeah, that's tough. But if you possess the belief that you're going to be able to have the financial means to build this roster year over year, and you think the best person to deal with all those financiers is Ryan Day, then he's going to earn this contract in spades.
But here's the thing I don't understand, Ralph, is after all of these institutions, see these buyout situations. Look at what happened over at Florida State with Mike Norvel. He got an extension. He wasn't going to get the Alabama job, but they gave him an extension anyway, and then they had a terrible season and now they're in a buyo out situation. Now, on one hand, I don't mind it, because I do think that teams and schools overreact a little too quickly sometimes, and this marries them to their coaches to give them a good enough runway, right, But it also incentive because the contracts are pretty much fully guaranteed. It also incentivizes that if you get sick and tired of something, if you get sick and tired of the administration, and for all the people who are like, listen, let's stop the handouts in this country. Let's let's stop people from not working for their for their keep, letting them, uh just suck on the teats of the institutions and the government and everything else. How are they okay with this Ralph that?
I mean, because he is it not the same thing. I don't know, I don't know. I mean, it's he's doing his job, so it's.
Not if he decides that if he wants to pull a Jimbo Fisher and mel it In.
Then that comes down to the thing that you often say about player talent. Then I guess what you paid for is the success you already had. I guess the the bulk of this contract is going to be justified by pass value because there's nothing to stop a coach, I mean ed or Dron's quote's going to live in infamy that when when they said we're going to pay you your buyout, he was like cool, And I mean I would.
Want out of and how and what time you want me out of?
Here?
I was in the same building and that was alo like twenty million dollars, well a little under twenty million dollars. Imagine if it was seventy six million.
Dollars, right, And that's what I'm saying is I was just at the Peach Bowl where Jimbo Fisher was down on the field being inducted into the college or into the Peach Bowl Hall of Fame. And the crowd was full of Texas fans, so of course they're all gonna boo Jimbo Fisher for his time at their rival Texas. But he had the biggest smile on his face the whole time. I'm saying, he looks rested, he looks RelA he looks like he's getting all his vitamins. He looks like he sleeps on the matching and have a single muscle ramp. He looks like his golf swing's probably better than ever. He is enjoying life right now. And so you know the stresses of being a college football head coach. If at any time you could say, yeah, pull the ripcord, hand me eight figures and let me walk off into the sunset, it gets really really hard, I think maybe to stay to stay motivated, because that's a lot of money. And so the next time Ryan Day loses to Michigan and all the fans are wanting to harass his kids and drive past his house laying on the horn and everything like that, it's going to be in the back of his mind that he could just belief and get and his grandkids could never want for anything, you know, And so or he could buy the house of the people who are harassing him.
And just victim, or buy the or buy you know, buy equity stake in the company so they can fire them.
Yeah, I mean, he could become one of the love of State's biggest boosters and steer things. However he wants, like he's the kind of money he's got now is the kind of money you can do a whole lot with. So it'll just be interested to see if if they can keep him motivated, because obviously giving somebody this type of money when one of the major prerequisites of having this job is beating Michigan and that hadn't happened since COVID. You know that that you better hope that starts happening, is all I'm saying. It also makes me wonder what Sharon Moore is getting paid. If the school that's beating Ryan Day, you know, is paying their head coach twelve point five million dollars a year.
Yep, that is a good dude, that's a good point. So, yeah, these these coaching contracts. I thought that with the with the advent of revenue sharing and all of that, and and coaches not getting fired as much, I thought that you would have schools pushed back on just the amount that coaches are making. Don't look like we're gonna be in that saga, buddy.
But speaking so, the average average salary I just wanted to point out real quick in Columbus, Ohio is about sixty five thousand dollars per year.
He makes a day.
R Ryan Day makes more than that every two days. Brian is gonna make thirty four dollars a day. So I make you he's gonna be floating in the contract.
Is gonna bring a lot of pressure, though, buddy, a lot of pressure because, like we told y'all the idea that you're gonna lose your both your coordinators and then having up year that does not happen. That that means that they're probably a ten win team. That's what that means. They may make the college football Playoff, but winning him back to back national championship ain't happening. Speaking of coaches getting paid a lot of money, you got Brian Kelly, And this one was very interesting because on Good Morning America, well well Brian, Brian Kelly. Yesterday he responded to the Good Morning America interview about his former player Great Brooks Junior, who ended up with a brain tumor and ended up having to have surgery. And the kid is not right. He's in a wheelchair now, like he speaks differently, his faces disfigured, all sorts of things. And the allegations are that LSU, that the person that LSU, that there was some mishandling of his medical that the doctor who did it, that he was not qualified to do that type of surgery. Obviously he was qualified surgeon, but not to do that level of surgery. And they levied heavy allegations against Brian Kelly that he has not checked up on the kid with what the expectations that the family has had and all sorts of stuff. So now the family suing, and then Brian Kelly went up there and he was like, I need to defend myself the thing that really rubbed me the wrong way. And I hated Brian Kelly's response to this Ralph because it felt like it left it feeling like he was trying to defend himself, even though he talked about the kid some, it just yeah, it felt like it was more about him and defending his own reputation than the empathy for the situation that Brooks is going through because Brian Kelly wants to save face four recruits and you know his public image.
Well, let me read Brian Kelly's statement, because I think the comment that really riled Brian Kelly up was Greg Brooks Senior saying, my son almost lost his life. Coach, where were you forget about football? Pick up the phone and say you love the kid. So the accusation was essentially like once the surgery was had, Greg Brooks Junior did not hear from Brian Kelly, and his recovery has been an uphill battle because they believe the doctor who performed the surgery wasn't quite messed up and caused his recovery to be a lot longer over road. He's wheelchair bound. Greg Brooks Junior has had to relearn how to talk. So pretty serious stuff. And this is Brian Kelly's response. He said, you can question me as a football coach, you can question me with things we do on the field, but off the field as a parent, a husband, as someone who is actively involved in every community that I've been involved with. This is where I draw the line. That comment struck a nerve with me. It hit my heart. I'm in this business for our players, and it rattled me that somebody could possibly be so factually incorrect in stating that I was not part of Greg Brooks' Junior's care and support. The support was the entire university and entire community. I needed to make sure that record was clear. There's some issues I think with this statement that you can probably point.
Out, Yes, very much. So you know how the young kids now they say it gives you the ick. It gave me the ick.
Because well, to be fair, so Brian Kelly is saying that someone from his staff that Brian Kelly was intentional about having someone from his staff around.
Yeah, yeah, he said, he said somebody was there every day. And do I think that he checked on him at some point in time, Probably early on. But sometimes people that get caught up in the stuff, like as a parent, you want to feel like that your coach that it's bigger than football for him and that he cares. Right, So Brian Kelly can't, on one hand, say I do this for the kids. When you left Notre Dame not worried about the kids. You left Notre Dame to pursue your own personal interests. You have one of the top college football jobs in the nation, but you didn't feel like you could win a national championship there. So and I'm not even begrudging him for that, because everybody gets to live where they want to live, have the economic stability that they wanted, what all those things. But it just rings a little hollow when you say I'm here for the kids when no, you're actually here for yourself and the kids benefit on on some level from that, and then you add in the fake accent, you add in the like it just doesn't row regardless of the level of even if the truth is somewhere in between what Greg Brooks Senior is saying and what Brian Kelly is saying. It's still to me doesn't feel like Brian Kelly, like when you hear him talk, when I hear other things that other people have said about It just doesn't feel, as you know, like he loves the kids on the level that maybe, let's say a Dion Sanders does, if that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, because it feels like that Dion really loves his players that are that are there, and you can say that about a whole host of other coaches too, but I'm just using him as a as a prime example.
Right, And so with with Brian Kelly, what's interesting about his response to this is it is it's fifteen years later and it's markedly different than when the kids.
Off the yet oh my god, I forgot about that Notre Dame so to in case anybody doesn't remember, they were practicing. It was windy conditions and November. Yeah, so teams always have these cranes that go up and they filmed practice from the cranes super windy, either the kid fell off the crane or the crane blew over. One of the two kid dies take it away.
So yeah, Declan Sullivan, student employee of Notre Dame football, filming the practice. The tower collapsed that he was filming from. They rushed him to the hospital. He passed away. Brian Nelly didn't say anything for a few days, and then he gave a post practice update three days later in late October of twenty ten. And you know, this was, like I said, November, but it was late October. Gave an update and he's like, yeah, we had a good practice today, you know, gott to avoid distractions all that stuff. Didn't mention the kid. And then from that point on, you know, there was a lot of pushback to Brian Kelly that that that basically said that, you know, he's focused on the outcome and that's it. And it gave Brian Kelly this reputation of being just ruthless, right like it, three days after somebody passes away trying to film one of his practices, he's out there saying, you know, yeah, we got to stay focused through weather conditions and stuff like that, so.
You didn't even mention it. Like That's the thing is that at the end of the day, people won't remember what you said. They won't remember what you did, but they will remember how you made them feel. And for some reason in that moment, So regardless of like no judgment on Brian Kelly, but for some reason, there's something that he's doing that he has to recognize that it didn't feel like he cared enough in that situation, and to the Brooks family, it hasn't felt like he cared enough in this situation. So, and you don't want anybody to pretend that they care, but there is something that he has to recognize within himself that this is how he's making other people feel and do some soul searching and figure out how to change, because that's not going to land you the recruits that you want. It's not going to give you the connections that you want in terms of with your players and coaching staffs and everything in between. So the question is, Ralph, do you believe that this will impact Brian Kelly's recruiting and LSU's football and do you believe that that's why he made the statement.
I'm interested into and why he actually felt the nerve to respond. It's a pretty series creous accusation. The news cycle probably would have washed it out with with with other things happening. Potentially it could have been handled privately, with a conversation with with Greg Brooks Senior, because probably the best thing for the situation would be the Greg brook Senior to come out and be like I was, I was emotional, you know. Upon further review, I had a conversation with Brian Kelly. Turns out he was getting updates from somebody he had their daily you know, maybe he didn't want to interfere in the process. If there is a side yeah, yeah, but at least something from Greg Brooks Senior would be better than saying than getting us into an immediate he said. She said, But here, here's what it reminds me of. Here's what it reminds me of. Do you remember Kanye West standing by Mike Myers after Hurricane Katrina doing a benefit commercial. He said, George Bush doesn't care about black people.
Yeah, right.
George Bush has talked about that being the thing, like the moment in his presidency that hurt his feelings the most, right, And the response from George W. Bush kind of rubbed people the wrong way, like, oh, your feelings were hurt. You know, what what do you think, Kanye? Who you think Kanye was speaking for ye right, And that's what reminds me of is Brian Kelly coming out and be like, Hey, you can say whatever you want about the way that I coach on the football field, but the kid with brain damage that I didn't visit, that's where I draw a line, you know. And it's like, okay, well, how about we focus on the kid with brain damage that you didn't visit, because nowhere in this statement are you saying that you did show up and the criticism was that you didn't call him or that you weren't there. That was the criticism. You weren't there, doesn't matter what else you did. That's the thing that hurt their feelings. He is a former player of yours and a response like this, George, just to end a response like this, goes a long way to showing that that you don't view him as one of yours anymore, because otherwise you got to go reconcile.
Yep, that's that right there. Well, it's a lawsuit going on, so what this is If this is about the humans, right right, then yes, the lawsuit should not matter in terms of you saying, hey, yo, like let me you don't have to go in there and say, man, I'm sorry I didn't show up enough, blah blah blah, because that can be used like just man, I'm sorry that you feel like this. I'm I'm here for you, all right. So next up, TC Lewis Julian Lewis's dad, Juju Lewis, who has been a very prominent recruit for what the last three years. Ralph like the expert sinus freshman year in high school. He has been looked at as the future and he didn't end up as the number one quarterback in the nation people thought he would. But he's played from the time he was a freshman, thrown for umpteen yards, you know, like, looks good everything else. So his dad said that he's one of the more scrutinized recruits in the last in recent memory. I one hundred percent agree with that, Ralph. And this is this reminds me of when players who are fantastic, right and they come back for their sophomore junior year because they got to be three years remove from their high school graduating class. Let's take Jeremiah Smith for example. In two years when he's draft eligible, people have been saying, now he would be the number one overall pick. The next year, they're gonna find more holes in his game. Stuff he needs to work on junior year when it's time to go to the draft, and it'll still be a top ten prospect. It'll be Ah, here's some things we don't necessarily like about him, blah blah blah. But then guy who flies on the radar for one year, Oh my gosh, he's the next hottest thing. We're so juiced, we're so excited about him. So the longer that you're on the scene, the more data there is on you, the more critical that people are going to be of you because they've seen the greatness that got excited. So then it's the tear down process. And that's why I believe that his dad is right because we weren't well we but we as a public weren't trying to tear down you know, Jaron's s Kiwi satu Pa Telly or excuse me, kids name from Hawaii who went to Oregon and they went to cal We weren't tearing him down because he came on the scene late. That's the point.
Yeah, I don't I don't necessarily disagree with the idea that that he is highly scrutinized. Whether he's one of the most scrutinized, that really depends on what TC Lewis has been paying attention to. Because I think you're it comes back to you being right. Once you determine that somebody is a high level quarterback, right that then if it happens early enough, you start to really pick them apart. And sometimes that rating goes up and sometimes that rating goes down.
Right.
So a guy like hussa On Longstreet, who replaced Julian Lewis as the as the USC commit at quarterback, right, he's somebody who floated around being ranked fiftieth in the country by two four seven to starting about at this time last year, climbing up the rankings to jumping into five star status and finishing finishing as the last ranked five star in the class of twenty twenty five. What's interesting about Hussan Longstreet and Julian Lewis is they are also the only two quarterbacks in the top fifteen in the country according to most you know on three rivals two four seven that are under six foot two. So then you have that additional scrutiny of your size comes into play. And so with Julian Lewis, he finished as far as two four seven goes as the number ten quarterback in the country. But just in twenty twenty four, in a one year period, he went from being the fourteenth ranked prospect in America to the one hundred and twenty sixth ranked prospect in America. So TC Lewis saw his son drop over one hundred spots just in the course of only his senior season of high school into.
Achilles Smith Junior. Same thing happened to a few quarterbacks where you're like, oh wow, what okay? What that that was an interesting, you know, evaluation, And I think that that brings into the question the evaluations just to begin with, right, and this is where people have problems and grow frustrated on some level with some of the rankings because there does I okay, So in different pockets of the country there are more if thataders like, for instance, on the West coast, there are less people for on three two four seven rivals who are evaluating talent on the West Coast, then there are people who are doing it on the in in the South. Can't can't would you say that that's a fair statement.
I do agree with that, but it's also depends on the on the recruiting service, So I work with the Rivals affiliate. Rivals I think does a really good job in the Southeast. The reason I used two four seven for Juju Lewis is because two four seven is a much larger presence on the West Coast, which means the guys who are seeing Lewis the most are the ones who dropped him the most. M and that and what's crazy? What's crazy about that? No, I'm sorry, Julian Lewis is East Coast based quarterback, so it's the opposite of what I just said. The the two four seven probably sees him the least, they dropped him the most, so that you don't have to put as much stock into into that, I guess if you're t C. Lewis. But if so, if you look at the Rivals ranking where they have a heavier presence in the Southeast, he finished as a five star, so they believe he's the number three quarterback in the country. They believe he's a five star, they believe he'll eventually be a first round pick. And and you know, his national ranking did drop to number ten in the country overall, but there's a much I think, much less of a problem if you're Juju Lewis when you see rivals drop you from the number one quarterback in the country to the number three quarterback in the country, while over on the other side, you go from the number fourteen player in the country to the number one hundred and twenty six player in the country. And the wildest thing about that, George is nobody has had more continuity in their high school career than Juju Lewis. He had forty eight touchdown passes as a sophomore. Forty eight is a junior. Forty eight is a senior.
Yes, yes, So it's not like his play dropped off it. No, he was the.
Most consistent all throughout high school in Carrollton, Georgia.
Yeah, it's the excitement of the other players. That's the thing about it is that it's the excitement of seeing the other players and you're like, oh man, this kid's so good, and the kid that you've seen the most, you're like, I don't know, he's a little shorter, not sure, blah blah blah. It just it's a perpetual cycle that goes on. But let's talk about these recruiting rankings because the final recruiting rankings are out because National Signing Day, which was probably the most uneventful National Signing Day that we've ever had. Is that is that fair?
Absolutely? I mean this is part of my job, and I almost forgot that yesterday that that yesterday through like Sunday is the second signing day. So you're seeing teams announced players and I was like, oh, oh yeah, and a lot of them are the smaller.
So it was funny because Sierra Kenyon had a kicker that that we we know Ashton Zamadi, who's one of my kids' friends, he just signed to go to UCLA, but he's been committed to u C l A And it was just funny because I was like, why, why did he just sign? I was like, oh my god, his National Signing Day. And it was just very interesting to me because this has changed so much and the coaches and like, I want there to be some pomp and circumstance surrounding National Signing Day again, whether it's in the first window, second window, and I know that you can't do it in a second window anymore because kids like my kid check in in January, so maybe we need to change the pomp and circumstance surrounding National Signing Day to the first window and then leave our second window as you know, as not the expectation, if that makes sense.
Yeah, So I've got some I've got some recruiting tidbits for you that I just want your reaction to because we're in a brand new world of recruiting, right. High school doesn't matter as much anymore because of the transfer.
Speaking of that, let me let me tell you so on three had to come up with a new way to even track these recruits, right, because okay, so they will either have when they commit, you know, the the thing goes big and everything, and and then it says commit it, and then it says signed, right, and then eventually it'll say enrolled once they're enrolled, and wait, is Bryce Underwood not checking in early at Michigan anyways? So for jaring Kiwi, sagapool sagapool Telly the quarterback, short term signee. That's what it says now, sow it says short term signee. I thought that was funny. I was like, oh wow, they had that fun Like the world is constantly evolving. So they had to create a new box inside of their box, a new option in there.
Well, speaking of evolving, it used to be there was a cap of twenty five total recruits between the transfer portal and high school that you could bring in every year. Those caps have been removed. You tell technically could turn your entire roster over in one season. You could get eighty signees if you if you wanted to.
You can get one hundred and five if you want to, because remember the new scholarship limits are going to be one hundred and five. But God, that deep dives into the settlement and all of that stuff, which I don't even think is going to get approved. But that's a whole nother conversation.
So, but that brings me to this. Four teams. Four teams signed twenty eight or more high school players in this signing class. Three teams signed thirty plus and one team signed thirty five high school kids.
What So I'm actually not mad at that because you should be signing a lot of like you need to build your roster from the high school players. So you got so I just found one. You got Syracuse thirty five commits.
That's it. I was gonna have you guess who it was. That went above and beyond. But yeah, Syracuses high school class is thirty five deep and has like seven cornerbacks.
Hey, hey, he's like one of them gonna turn like two of them turn out.
Yeah, No, Frean Brown. Frean Brown went crazy in this class.
West Virginia went crazy in the class thirty one.
Yes, and they needed to got rich coming in and and so they're the only one over twenty eight that has a first year coach. TCU is the other one that went over thirty, which I thought was very interesting.
One more you forgot, there's a new coach at Washington State.
Washington State went over thirty signees.
Thirty five, but they absolutely needed thirty five signees because their whole roster got guted home. So they are they are the They're they're the farm system team. Unfortunately for a lot of programs them Utah State, Georgia State, Nevada.
Yeah, you're right, I see, I see that they will.
Wait.
But the thing with Washington State is they only have about twelve of those enrolled. The rest will We'll see if the signing sticks. Because you can just ask out of your your national letter of intent. You had that happen with a quarterback.
Well that that's what happened with Washington State's quarterback signing. He's at washing He's at Wake Forest right now.
That's right, Steele Pozzella. And so here's another one. This will make you laugh. Uh So, one school I went to and I'm obviously a fan of and had spent time covering. Another school I didn't go too, but I grew up around there. My mom went there at uncle's go there.
Okay, And so Arizona State.
We're talking about Wyoming in Arizona State. So there was a player out of the state of Texas who was committed to Wyoming, and two weeks ago he asked out of his NLI because their running backs coach, who's been to the school for eleven years, went to be the associate head coach at North Dakota. So he asks out of his NLI And I was really excited about this kid. He was like fifty nine and when in high school he moved up from six man to eleven man and he also averaged fifty as a basketball player, averaged fifty what So he was going to go and he was going to try to walk onto the basketball team and play running back at Wyoming kid's name is Grace and Brigden. I was so excited for him, the jewel of the Wyoming signing class. So then he asks out of his NLI and I've spent the last two weeks trying not to be a we didn't want him anyway guy, because it's really common if a guy signs with you to just hate his guts yes right when he asks out. And you've had this happen with a quarterback. Now you got to spoiler Bridges at quarterback at Wyoming. We don't got much right hey, man.
Man, you wish the kid kid well? Man, I hope it works out for you. It just took me.
It just took me a few days to get to the point where I wish the kid well.
But in the back of my head has a difference where like at Oregon, you feel like you have two starting quarterbacks on your roster right now, and so you're like, okay, yeah, but with this kid, I'm like, oh, man, you can't be worried about a high school freshman at this point when you have a starter for one or two years, because the world will look dramatically different twelve months. It's true, these are all the things I've been telling myself over the last two weeks to not get mad at Aire's roster could be gone next year. Everyone up right, and it is possible. So the story ends with this signing day hits yesterday, and guess who's signing day list. This kid, Grayson Rigden, pops up on Arizona State. That is correct. So you were like, no, yes, yes, yes.
I was like it was like the scene from Happy Gilmour at the beginning when he's like, come on the stairs, baby, and she's like, I don't want to, I'm done, and he's like, well, you're a lazy niggarden teacher. I've seen the finger paintings you bring home when they suck. And then five seconds later he's like I'm sorry baby. Yeah, that's how I felt two weeks mad at this kid. And now here he is rolling up to Arizona State and I'm like, oh, great signing, great signing.
I hope you didn't tweet anything crazy.
No I did not.
Yeah, all right, so let's talk about these class rankings. So according to two four seven, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, Auburn, Florida, Texas A and M and LSU round out the top ten, and then over on three Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, A and M, Auburn, LSU, and Tennessee. Now there was one note that there was something that happened in this class that has never happened to the University of Oregon ever before. They finished with the highest average ranking.
Of perm per recruit, and.
They signed everybody that they signed except for one player was four stars or five stars. Never happened. So Dan Lanning is putting this roster in a position to where it is not good, it is special. Like you're gonna have Oregon with one of the highest blue chip rankings of any team in college football, which puts you in national championship contention. Because still nobody with the blue chip ratio less than fifty percent has won a national championship since they've been calculating it. And now we have to look at, you know, like the teams that are obviously recruiting well but then have a chance to win a national championship.
Bro, Yeah, I mean the blue chip rating still matters. You have to hang on to this talent. Oregon finished with the highest average per recruit on rivals of four point one to one stars per recruit. They are the only one in the country with an average recruit rating of above four, which is crazy. And then what's even crazier is you look over at the other school that got four or five stars or above in Texas. And it depends on which recruiting ranking you use, but let's say that you use on three. Texas has four of the top twenty three players in the country coming in. Yeah, that's the type of stuff that you, I mean, if you can manage to and and it's probably got about a fifty percent hit rate of if you're graduating these kids or if you're going to have them for three years. And I'm pulling that statistic from the greatest recruiting class ever, which was what Texas A and M's twenty twenty one, Right, they retained about half those guys over a three year period. So even assuming that, then you if you're at the top of this list, if you're Georgia, you have to be feeling fantastic. If you're Oregon you have to be feeling fantastic. If you're Texas. Your baseline expectation at this point now that you made two college football playoffs in a row, is that you're not going back to what you were for the last twelve years. You were in the Big twelve. Yes, which was extraordinarily inconsistent. And then if you're Ohio State, you know, you look at the Rivals rankings and you have twenty two players that are that are committed to your high school class that are four star and above. That means Rivals is saying that twenty two of the guys that are coming in are NFL caliber. That's a who lass recruiting class.
We have the highest rating last year of ninety percent, ninety percent, and yes, a lot of those guys are gonna graduate, but they're reloading them with guys who were in that same category. So it so the question is, though, well, I believe that we're gonna see judgment of coaches differently, that as the playoff expands, especially if it expands the sixteen teams, that the judgment will be significantly more like college basketball. Because if your coach makes it to the Sweet sixteen or the Elite eight every year and never wins the championship, he's never getting fired. You're gonna have college football coaches who make the tournament every single year, win a game in the tournament, and then lose or end up in the semifinals, never win, and you're not gonna be able to fire. Their fan base is gonna be frustrated. But how can you fire a guy to get you damn near to the finish line every year and you're like, one of these years, he's gonna come through.
Right, right? So do any of these teams stick out to you as being surprising in where they landed in the high school recruiting rankings?
Oh? Probably. I think Alabama still got the luster run it right. If they have another disappointing season, that's gonna be rough on their recruiting. I'm surprised a little bit by Auburn, but I know that they're spending big bucks right now to try to get their recruiting class better. And I would probably say Florida State being at twenty in on threes was that feels a little bit surprising and over in their number nineteen in two four seven, like that's not what you would be expecting out of Florida State, where they had thirteen four stars ten three stars signed.
I think the biggest surprising The biggest surprise for me was that Wisconsin, who is coming off of and six record in the Big Ten, Luke Farrell's probably officially in hot seat territory. Luke Ferrell going into next season, I feel is where Sam Pittman and Dave Randa were heading into this year. Yeah, is that fair? And so for Wisconsin to get ten four stars out of high school and only three of them being offensive linemen, because he was like, yeah, they got ten four stars, they're probably all on the O line. No, they got a four star dB out of Ohio, they got a four star dB out of Chicago, they got a four star wide receiver out of Indiana, and they got a couple of really really high end defensive ends out of Florida and Illinois. That was the one that stood out to me that like, Okay, even though they're losing guys in the transfer portal, even though they went five and seven in season, Luke Ferrell is still getting high school studs. Yes, and so that to me says that maybe maybe we shouldn't be looking at Wisconsin as like a next year or bust, but maybe a two years down the road.
YEP. I gotta give some credit to Colorado Deon Sanders fourteen high school recruits, which.
Is and that really is the thing he likes to do last year.
Because hopefully he's like, oh damn, I gotta actually recruit high school to have some long term success. I would probably say Mississippi State being inside of the top twenty five, that's intriguing. They had a ton of players enter the transfer portal or is this SEC rankings beginning SEC rankings.
I'll throw one more out there. That absolutely shocked me. Oregon State. Oregon State finished sixty in the team recruiting rankings, which is crazy to me considering they don't have a conference, right yep. And that's also where they finished in twenty twenty three was around sixty. They finished at fifty ninth. So that's when they had Jonathan Smith. That's when the Pac twelve was still alive. That's when they were coming off a winning season and they had the number sixty recruiting class in the country at the well fifty ninth, and then two years later, after having lost everybody and their conference is gone, they still land around sixtieth. And so that's Trent Ray right.
It's like reference right, just for reference, the teams that are around them. We're talking about Iowa State, cow Boston College byu UCF, Louisville, Kansas, vander Built, Like that's who they're around. It's not two lane, Boise State, Washington State would be in the same situation as Oregon State. That's Ralph. That's actually a very good point, just the fact that they're able to hold on that they're able to recruit on that level with no conference, no revenue plan.
Yeah. Is and with Jonathan Smith and Mian State like they maintained their level. It's like everything around them.
Three is ranked fiftieth, fiftieth and that's not.
That far state.
Huh, that's not that far ahead of oregonst on two four to seven.
There you go, developer, but good lord, But yeah, that's that's a bravo to Trent Bray. In my opinion, we're looking for a deep cut of who you know of who was a big winner when it came to high school recruits. Oregon State is setting themselves up to be the class of whatever this new conference is. And like you pointed out, they so Michigan State had seventeen to three star recruits according to Rivals, Oregon State had twenty Yeah. What sets Michigan State apart is they did land a lone five star or a four star recruit, which they typically do every single year. They'll get a couple of guys who are were really high end in this year, that was Derek Simmons' defensive tackle. But other than that, if you flipped Michigan State and Oregon State's recruiting classes, that wouldn't be that much different as far as the ratings go.
Nope, And I want to point something out to that teams that have good seasons, they typically don't see those those results in the immediate recruiting class is usually the cycle after, like for instance, Arizona State, they are forty four on two, four seven, and then on on three they're forty eight. So the result of this college Football Playoff appearance will be felt this upcoming year, provided that they continued the momentum. I expect I need to be somewhere close to the top twenty five for twenty twenty six, assuming that they start the year off well.
Unless your Boise State, than those days just never come.
Yeah, yeah, get them days ain't coming.
Boise State's always doing the most with the least.
Hey, but they're going to the PAC twelve, so they got a shot.
They're going to the PAC twelve getting eleven less three star recruits than Oregon State got this year.
Not good? All right? So before we change the subject, which of these teams in the top twenty five? Right, because you got obviously Penn State, Miami, USC, Missouri, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Oh miss is lower than much lower than they were last year, much lower. And this goes to a something I was reading about where they talked about that there are schools that spent some of the twenty six money, the twenty five or twenty six money this last year for the revenue sharing money that they borrowed forward, which I'm like, how can you do that? But that's a whole other thing. So which of these teams in the top twenty five? So well, let's take the on three rankings, the or the two four seven, or we can compare which one of these teams inside the top twenty five because somebody is going to underachieve. Who would you.
Choose USC USC Geez?
Okay? Why because everybody? Because because you got Josh Pate, you got other people that are like, they're so excited about everything that's going on about USC like he's hired a great defensive staff. I cannot argue with that hired a fantastic defensive staff, they still need a quarterback, like for somebody to step up as their true you know, leader quarterback guy. But about that, yeah, and everything else, So why do you and what does underachievement look like in your mind?
Well, the underachievement in my mind looks like not finishing around where your recruiting ranking was.
In the Oh okay, okay that yeah, Like so not finishing in the top fifteen in the country.
Yes, So if on threes recruiting ranking for USC was fifteen in twenty twenty five and fifth in the Big ten, do I think three years from now they're going to match that? And that's assuming there's no drastic changes or anything like that. I definitely do not. And one of the reasons is the makeup of this high school recruiting class for USC. They got about eleven kids that are considered future NFL draft picks out of the high school rankings or that are borderline, because that's what these ratings are. Four star are people that the recruiting services believe will be an NFL draft pick. Five star is who the recruiting services believe will be a first round pick. So for USC, the only projected first round pick is Hussan Longstreet. Right, yes, so at that one you can say, all right, they got their man at quarterback. But getting their man at quarterback hasn't been enough for USC in the Lincoln Riley Eric because they always get their quarterback. Now the issue is for me that only four of the rest of the ten of those high level recruits came from the state of California. They're still not doing good or as well as they should be in California. Now that a guy that you're very familiar with to transfer back as a four star transfer recruit from San Jose State, So they have DJ Harvey who went to see Er Canyon, I believe with your son who is a high level transfer at the cornerback position, and they got your guy Sam Hewart to transfer into play backup quarterback. But as far as the high school recruits, I'm not super impressed with how they're doing in the state of California. Therefore, I think they're going to severely severely underperformed because the kids they get from out of state, they have a higher tendency to maybe go back home. So when Alex gain out of Georgia, that's one of their best bag and.
Take take, take the bag and bounce, because USC has up there, nil and up the entire like how much they're offering everything else and like they've made some offers that kids cannot say no to, and those.
Kids are from Virginia, Michigan, Baltimore, outside Atlanta. Might go home.
Yeah, okay, So for for me, the pick that I'm going to make, I'm gonna go with in the top twenty five. Oh man, let's go Missouri, Missouri inside of the top sixteen. I was thinking Missouri l s ut No, no, no, I'm gonna go with LSU because L s U's at nine and I don't believe that they're gonna be at nine.
So yeah, that's a pretty good pick considering that that what what Brian Kelly has done with what he currently has to work with. Yes, and the five stars that he have, he has, you know, they they they aren't typically at positions where where five stars typically work out. So DJ Pickett is a five star corner. Five star corners don't often translate you and and the evidence of that is Kiley Ringo being a five star and ending up like a fourth rounder, Elias Rix being a five star, top ten player in the country and ending up, you know, marginal draft pick. So DJ Pikett's gonna have to fight through for that. And then one of their other five stars is a running back. How many five star running backs actually live up to that billing? And Harlem Barry, you know he's gonna have to. He's gonna have to find a way to stand out immediately. I mean, this is the number one player in all of Louisiana that got him to play running back and he's considered a future first round pick. Doesn't often work out that way, So I think you're you're kind of on the right track here, all right.
Next thing up on the college football apostles, make sure you guys like subscribe, get notifications, all of that, and share hopping the comments. Right now, we'll give you a second before we get to talking about Jallen Milroe. So, Jylen Milroe, people have asked him about changing to the running back position, and he was like, you don't ask a zebra to be a What was like, you don't ask a zebra to be something something else?
He said, you don't ask uh, you don't ask a zebra to be a dog.
Yes, I one hundred percent stand by, up for and with Jalen Milraw about what he said. There are so many times and now now there now this is going to be a ship sandwich where all those things about Jalen Mirro I won one hundred percent agree with him. I applaud him for standing on business because sometimes coaches don't know how to deal with the athleticism or what they're taught and all of this stuff and figure it out and all of that. If you're a quarterback, you're a quarterback. If it doesn't work out, then you can change positions. But at at the same time, if anybody drafts Jaylen Milroe with a top well with a first round pick, be prepared to get your pink slipper.
He is.
I believe the kid is a phenomenal athlete. He seems like a cool kid. I don't know him, seems like he might be, you know, like a good person. However, good people don't make great football players all the time. And I do not believe that he has the requisite tools to be that. He needs more development and refinement to be a good NFL quarterback. This feels like a if somebody grabs him in the first round, because somebody told him that and he came out of he needed another year of college football. But if he gets drafted in the first round, this feels like it'll just be a money pit, like the like the Anthony Richardson money pit that the Colts are a part of right now.
Now, Anthony Richardson is going to make more money as a first round quarterback than he would as probably a star running back or semi star running back yes, or tight end yes in his career. So like there's more as a backup quarterback than a starting running back.
Yeah. But that's the point though, Ralph, is that you got to get drafted in the first round though, and there's no guarantee that that's going to happen.
Regardless. He's not another position, right, he says, Bill O'Brien told him he wasn't a quarterback. Well, he went on to be a pretty successful quarterback at Alabama and at the NFL level. He's got a good deep ball, he's extremely athletic. He could get away with it for a while probably, but he's got the smallest hands of any quarterback in the NFL. Ever ever, ever, we yeah, and I mean I think about Dante Colpepper a little bit that it does. It does cause problems. Yes, you could be a fumbler. But at the same time, like again with his act, the way that Anthony Richardson gets away with it, he could too, which I think would be enough for people to keep him around as a backup quarterback. You're gonna make more money at that position than any starting position that you would play. Regardless, I do feel bad that he has to answer questions like this, but also for him, I do feel that we've probably moved beyond the racism of it. Yes, and people are just talking about the fact that this is a freakish athlete at the quarterback.
He's a freakish athlete who has it, who didn't throw the ball very well this last year. I mean, it's it's fair. It's fair. I mean, you gotta It's like it's like Riley Leonard. Yes he should be thinking about potentially playing tight end. But maybe I'm just saying.
And it happens your guy, Matt Jones, Felipe Franks, like, people do make that Logan Thomas Yep. People do make that transition for sure.
Speaking of transition, though, Ron Rivera, oh he's gotten the Bill Belichick bug. He's like, oh, I'm going back to college. Bill's made it cool to go back to college. I'm gonna go help Justin Wilcox. O Brad cal I like this move because Justin Wilcox needs some help. And Ron Rivera now he can sell even more. Even though Justin Wilcox put a lot of defensive players in the NFL, he can sell. Listen, here are the things that I know, here are the things that work, and maybe he can help him get an offense together. They tried this last year, which which the irony where their offense was much better and their defense wasn't quite as good, which was ironic. So in the ACC can Ron Rivera help him when they're playing against Bill Belichick? Yes, yes, this is at some level though, but okay, like Bill Belichick and Ron Rivera in college football, nobody then we.
Talked about how is nobody wanted to work in college football anymore? And now we got all these pro coaches dropping down to Hey, it's funny how that works. It's funny how that works. I would be worried.
Remember the talking point was all the coaches are gonna leave, and I was like, so what if they don't want to be be here? Sayonara, there will be plenty of coaches who want these jobs, guarantee and good ones. You don't have to worry about chasing after. If Ryan Day is like, oh I'm sick of being a college I want to go, Okay, peace out. Do you think that there's Do you think Ohio State is gonna have any trouble finding stealing somebody else's head coach? No? And then wherever that coach comes from, do you think that you know, if he leaves Miami, do you think Miami's gonna have trouble finding the coach? No? And then the coach that replaces Miami from Memphis, do you think Memphis is gonna have trouble finding a head coach? No, So don't worry about them talking about they they leave it. So what, Sayonara?
Yeah? If I'm justin Wilcox like, yes, yes, I do think that it will be helpful. You know, I think I watched this with Arizona State and Marvin Lewis. I think that it'll be incredibly helpful. Now, well, if I'm if I'm Justin Wilcox. I do worry a little bit that Cal fans are would be happier going six and seven with Ron Rivera than they would going six and seven with Justin Wilcox's head coach's and sevens. There's been quite a few that George. This year, if they don't have a winning record in the ACC, will be their fifteenth straight year with the losing record in conference.
Damn, so I I see Ron Rivera, Are you actually edited in the right direction?
No, Fernando Mendoza just left. You're definitely not headed in the right direction. Now they get Jayden Ought back, which is cool, But uh I my worry is that Ron Rivera is from cal Berkeley.
Ron Rivera is not oh that that he's gonna get, Oh my god, that that he's gonna pull at Doc Rivers with Alvin Gentry. Yes, me, Alvin Gentry when when he was basically a consultant with the Bucks and then they just fired the Bucks coach.
That's what I'm saying. Because Ron Rivera's not done coaching. He interviewed for NFL jobs this year. Yes, he's not done, and he is a Cal golden Bear and Justin Wilcox has never once had a winning record in conference, and eventually the cal fans, who are very passionate, are gonna get sick of that.
They went two and six in conference this year. Lord have mercy. That's not good. That's not good. Ralph. I'm just gonna tell you that.
He's had two conference wins or less four times, one of those of the COVID year. But still they weren't good.
Yeah, all right, next thing up, the SEC, Ralph, you were talking about this. The SEC is trying to make their path to the College Football Playoff a little bit easier.
Yes, they want, they want. They had a meeting, the Big Ten was involved, and that's it because they don't think anybody else matters anyway. And what they want is they want more SEC teams, they want to recede, they want to get rid of the conference champion guaranteed by They just want things that are that are gonna make life on the SEC easier.
They want four guaranteed spots, which this year proved they they should not have four guaranteed spots. Nobody should have four guaranteed spots. I'm thankful that this year played out the way it did because nobody should have guarant guaranteed spots throw that mess in the trash outside of conference champions. Now I do, on the other hand, subscribe to the theory.
What now if if you get in on a guarantee, you're getting made fun of?
Oh yes, yes, yes, that is charity case not worked for what you got all of that. But I do agree.
And if they guarantee, they still would have complained this here because.
Oh well it should have been five in Yeah.
Because if it's then you would have even you still would have left either South Carolina or will miss out. And the fans wanted South Carolina and the one person who's loud wanted old miss Yep.
So I would say that the receding crucial, that the automatic births I'm one hundred on, but that the top four teams in the rankings should get the buys, and yeah, that wherever you're ranked, that's where you should be seated. But with the guarantees. So if it's twelve teams and then number sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen are the guarantee, are the top five champions are the power are the conference champions, then they should be number nine, ten, eleven, and twelve.
But why is there Why do people even care what happens with the buys when it's now been proven that they weren't necessarily good for you, Ralph.
See. The only reason why I think that matters is because then it keeps what people complained about Oregon having to play Ohio State in the first round, so you actually then get a chance to play more competitive games in the first round, and then the teams that where your better teams should end up playing easier games in the second round of the playoffs. Even though I don't think that there should be buyas begin with just either eight teams or sixteen teams.
I'm I agree with you. There is quite a movement for a fourteen with only the top two, and the top two are going to be your SEC, your top ranked SEC, and your top ranked Big Ten every year. But I'm afraid is every concession that we give is gonna get closer and closer to people just saying we don't want conference championships anymore at all, because what the SEC is going to run into is they're going to have their second best team win a conference championship and get a bye, and then the best team is going to find a way to complain.
Yep, now you are one right about that, because they will not be happy at all until it's a Big ten SEC only in invitational. And that's why I'm actually rooting for the Big ten and the ACC and the group of five schools to keep winning games in the playoffs.
If I'm in the ACC or the Big Twelve, I will concede eight guaranteed spots for the Big two conferences. If they concede, that's all they get. I will, yeah, I will hand that to them on a silver platter. If they then turn around and say, all right, well then only four get in, I'll guarantee four. But you only get four.
Oh and especially at sixteen, they get real funky, buddy, real funky.
Because it's gonna work out in your favor to get a third ACC or a third Big twelve team in over a fifth SEC team. So yeah, I would that I need that as long as art so then it's only four from both.
I like that you onto something, but you, guys though, that is college football apostles for this week. Make sure that you like, subscribe, get notifications, and tell a friend peace out. We will catch you guys later.
