Latest / Run After Cast: The College Football Podcast / Most Improved Teams Out of the Spotlight in 2026 | Rainbow Warrior’s Dark Horse?

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Most Improved Teams Out of the Spotlight in 2026 | Rainbow Warrior’s Dark Horse? · Run After Cast: The College Football Podcast

• RAC Aaron: Welcome back to Rack. usual, I'm Aaron and I'm joined by Chandler. RAC Chandler: What's on, gentlemen? RAC Aaron: and Ryan. RY4N: Hey guys. RAC Aaron: And last week we wrapped up our discussion on who we thought were going to end the season at top 10. this week we wanted to go with people that might get a little more overlooked compared to those top 10 teams. So we thought some niche teams that we think are going to have the biggest growth from last season to this season. But before we get into it, we gotta check in, as usual, with the Raction News Desk. RAC Chandler: So this week is going to be a lot shorter than the last two weeks, but there's some fun ones. So the first one, just to tie a bow on it, finally from Pete Famel today, it came out this afternoon as we're recording this on March 27th, that the NCAA submitted an appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court for Trinidad Chambliss to not play and his eligibility extinguished. But it came back that that was denied and finally RAC Aaron: You RAC Chandler: last ruling is eligible to play this upcoming season. I thought he already was, but supposedly the ruling finalized today and the NCAA appeal finally got squashed. So at last he can play his year as a quarterback at Ole Miss. RAC Aaron: It does feel like we've had a lot of players from the COVID years that at this point are having grandkids they have been around for quite a while. And I mean, I get those ⁓ being in place for them, but it is something where it's like they've been in college for a decade almost. ⁓ they're, on the plus side of roundup territory. RY4N: Yeah, like TJ Finley. He actually, just saw actually declared for the NFL draft, which is shocking. He's been in college for like eight years or something. RAC Aaron: Then we have to call him doctor, right? RY4N: Yeah. RAC Chandler: Well, I saw a thing that was like granddad Finley is declaring for the draft. But what was he like? What is it like? What school was he at? What was he going to be at? RAC Aaron: Yeah. RY4N: Mm-hmm. Dude, I don't know, it some nothing school. It was some weird name. RAC Chandler: It's crazy. I mean that was like yeah, like you said his seventh school He's like, no, I'll hang it up. We'll to the NFL RY4N: Yeah. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: So the other two pieces of news we have that will tie together. The first one is Syracuse, similar to Ohio state where they have the black stripe that Ohio state players will have when they come into the program. Whenever they lose their black stripe, quote unquote is when the coaches see. Extreme growth throughout spring camp and summer or throughout the season. ⁓ lose that black stripe and then they get the red stripe on their helmet. And that's when they. can start working into active lineups and they become a depth piece in the roster. So Syracuse did a similar thing and they have triple digit numbers implemented this year to all their players they have to earn the double digit numbers. So 20 players right now have those numbers earned, which, you know, it's pretty quick coming off spring. I'm assuming it's a lot of the starters, so no surprise there, but that's interesting that another team kind of took that same route and Triple digit numbers look funky on the back of the uniforms. RY4N: Yeah, it looks like they have those little pennies from like, Intramurals or something with the triple digits. Or something looks awkward, like you're at like a combine. RAC Chandler: Yeah, they're just the exactly they're the the jerseys in the back of the locker room that had knocking off dust that used back in like 1919. They brought those back out. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RY4N: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓ RAC Aaron: It's just a bunch of printing errors that they've collected. Just like, ⁓ these are supposed to be two digits. These are, were ordered as two digits. RAC Chandler: Yeah, Custom Ink came back and said, hey, actually we have an order that we produced for you guys that have a bunch of triple digit numbers. Here you go. RAC Aaron: you like perfect we got a whole system in place now RY4N: They're like, ⁓ we need two number 23 jerseys and they've put 223 on a jersey or something. I think it's a good idea. I like the idea. Weird implementation. I like y'all's stripe thing a lot better. I'm sure schools do like something like that, but that's very interesting. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: you Yeah, I'm sure a lot of schools do it, but as flashy, or as noticeable as the triple digits in the back of the jersey, RY4N: ⁓ do you think also the guys that get the digit off quicker get to pick their Do they get priority? Because that'd be another thing. It's like, I need to get this off, you know, my number four, my number two is still out there. I'm going to get it. RAC Aaron: You think there's like back room prison deals going on of like, okay, like, listen, I want 21. Please, please, you're, you're going to get called this week. Like don't take it. I'm willing to give you, you know, my Xbox or something. RY4N: He's just sabotaged her at practice so doesn't get his single digit yet, you know? RAC Aaron: Yeah, yeah. But I do, I do like this coming out in the news because as we've talked about with NIL and all these things, coaches are going to have to be creative in some ways to instill quick loyalty to the team and that that accomplishment that might not necessarily come out monetarily. But some of these systems, whether it's, you know, Ohio or Syracuse doing this, all the I'm sure multiple teams have it as we were saying, but just something to get the players involved, get them feeling something, get them competing with each other ⁓ you know, hopefully mitigating of the transfer outs that they're going to see, ⁓ even it's just one player ⁓ that might have it's still an impact on it. Even if it's weird. RAC Chandler: Yeah, Ohio State's is cool because they all have a big team celebration after the practice. think the strength and conditioning coach, he'll hold up the black stripe from the player and the position group will take a picture with it and then ⁓ guy will go up and give a little mini speech of thankful of all the different yada yada things. And they'll on his red stripe and then that's that. RY4N: Yeah, that's awesome. And I like a little bit, you know, these guys are coming in out of high school or they're getting paid all this money and it's still a little bit of like you got to come in and you got to earn it. I kind of like that aspect. It adds a little bit of competition in there and I love that. RAC Chandler: Exactly. RAC Aaron: Yeah, yeah, it's, you know, somebody might come in four or five star, but that fuel for a three star to go after him and, you know, make his name too. So like I said, just some of those behind the scenes things that have been around the whole time. But I think it's just more important now that money is such a big factor in the game. RY4N: Yeah, and I know it doesn't fully do it, even knock those five stars down, like you gotta earn something too. Even if it's for two weeks to get your number, you're gonna kinda earn this, you're with the rest of the team. And I kinda like that. Not just you're getting more money than all of them. You're the best, you know? They know they're the best. RAC Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. RAC Chandler: Then, you know, a three star walks in the door, they get their double digit number for a five star. Then all of a sudden, you know, you have a lot of competition internally, so it could create a lot of good things. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RY4N: think there's an issue here where somebody wasn't very happy that he couldn't get his three numbers gone. I'm gonna clip for him a little. Rapper 2C Najor Granger is his name. Everyone knows who 2C is. There was some big thing last year that he was out there practicing in Syracuse facility with the uniform on, but he just transferred to LSU and he's a wide receiver. He's 26 years old with no collegiate. RAC Aaron: Hahaha RY4N: Football experience. He's a 26 year old freshman at LSU. I don't know how Elaine Kiffin led him on, but he was at Syracuse. Never actually got on the team. RAC Chandler: And he has two kids. RAC Aaron: Is this like a Rudy situation at this point? Like he just was there hanging out. RAC Chandler: I don't know. He said that he wanted to be the first artist who played division one football as well. So props him. Yeah, he's and has two kids and has never played a single snap of college football. He has played high school football. So he ⁓ at least touched a football before on a football field and a competitive scene. But to be that far removed from high school to being 26, mean, there's a lot has to go into it. RAC Aaron: Yeah. Hey, to play it, to play it LSU though, that's a, it feels like something you'd slide into like a G5 ⁓ school say you got it taken care of. like I did what I was said I was going to do, but LSU that's a, that's a big program. So props to him for being 26 and being competitive enough ⁓ to make team. RAC Chandler: And I think it's more like me and Ryan were talking about today at the gym. I don't think he's ever going to touch the field. He might come in for like a snap or two for like publicity. That'll be like the most viewed LSU clip ever. If he goes on the field and like catches a pass and gets a first down or something. But I don't think he probably got a lot of NIL if any, because it's the weird one-off situation that it's just one of those things where right now there's a lot of eligibility gray areas. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: Now is the best time to do it and exploit it while it's not fixed. And I think he took advantage of that and good on him for finding a way in. I mean, he's going to be 30 if he stays all four years ⁓ LSU. ⁓ you'd have a 30 year old suiting up. RY4N: Yeah, it's pretty hilarious though. He's pretty famous. He's gonna be like the big guy on campus going to all the parties and everything. There are no two seniors in play. No, no, he's definitely not taking real classes. It's like another level. Yeah, even another level how the football players don't take classes. The rappers don't take any classes. He's probably taking art, yeah. ⁓ RAC Chandler: He's never gonna do homework. No, he's taking like pottery. RAC Aaron: No. RAC Chandler: ⁓ yeah, rappers or athletes, RAC Aaron: Yeah, that's my favorite thing. Anytime you watch like a college football documentary that does that deep dive and then they're like talking about the assignments they're doing and you're like, that's not real. they're in a very unique class setup that they can write two sentences and that's their whole assignment they got to take care of. But NIL wise, we'll see if it has to pay off. We'll have to keep track of this. The 2C tracker throughout the to see if he signs any big brands. because the brands aren't necessarily going to care if he's good at football. They're going to care if he makes headlines and he gets his name out there. if we get another Spotify ad set with ⁓ 2C and it, we'll have we'll have to see if it works for him. Yeah, easy. RAC Chandler: Easiest NIL deal ever. RY4N: If he plays, it'll be crazy. Everyone's gonna start freaking out. RAC Chandler: They might stop the game. He might halftime perform too. That'd be crazy. RY4N: ⁓ He could do that in his uniform. We also Aaron how you said the classes were a joke there was a time when they're interviewing Carson Beck for the playoffs and they asked like was he having like trouble with his class or whatever and he's like I've graduated I've been in college for like six years. I'm just think I'm working on my second degree in quotes RAC Aaron: Yeah Yeah, yeah. RAC Chandler: Well, this might blast Ohio State, but Mylon Graham and Quincy Porter, when they got to Notre Dame, they did a presser and they were talking about the biggest changes from Ohio State to Notre Dame. And they were saying having in-person classes was a big change. So I don't know what that means if they all took online classes only, if they never went to a lot of classes. mean, who knows? But you're like, yeah, they're going in person all the time and doing the coursework in person was a big change. RAC Aaron: Yeah RAC Chandler: Which is, yeah, crazy. RY4N: They're definitely online. They're definitely all online. Especially guys like that. They're not there for school. They are football players. They are not at- RAC Chandler: Well, Jeremiah Smith even said in an interview with On3 that he was like, I have to door dash groceries. Like I can't go to the grocery store and get groceries or I'm just going to be in there for like two hours and just be talking to people or people will come up to me. it's nuts how much of a spotlight these guys are on. RAC Aaron: Buh. RY4N: Yeah, especially him, you're RAC Aaron: Yeah, yeah, can imagine at that level where especially if you're in the town, there is going to know you. But for I've always that's the system of like, ⁓ we have this class that you can fill in. The seats are held for the football players. And it's like, the professor comes in, it's like, all right, want you to write your first name down and then your last name and we'll get that graded. But it's got to be in by midnight two weeks from now. So. RY4N: Yeah, Bo Nix didn't even go to school his last semester. He just graduated early so could play and just not have to worry about it. Like, how are you still in the school? You don't even take any classes. What are we doing? RAC Chandler: Fantastic. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: Super super super senior. RY4N: Mm-hmm. Yeah! RAC Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. That is something where it like so many people have come at the angle of like it's about the education first. And it is a college degree for a lot of these kids is unobtainable without going through a sports program. As much as we've said, it's about the education and for a lot of these kids, the football program or whatever sport they go through is their means of getting a collegiate education. NIL is there and everybody says like it's lost that spirit, it was lost. Like there are so many instances of those big schools where those kids did not ⁓ participate in classes. They played football first, but they got a degree at the end. all for that. They be gaming the system a little bit, but they still went and worked for that school. But it's something that's been there the whole time. We've tied the athletic programs to the ⁓ abilities. RY4N: Yeah, we've also lost it too. Even the old players like Cam Newton would go and he's like, yeah, I went back and got my degree and all these old guys in the nineties, they're like, I've told my parents, I'd go get my degree. It's the most important thing. But I think kind of the mix of the transfer portal, not being in a stable spot. And then also this kind of new age after COVID that everything's online. There's like nothing online before. They just definitely just skewed it. really bad, these guys are in college forever and everything's online. It just makes it too easy to kind of make school a joke. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: Well, similarly the pressers and the media days and the interviews and the NIL sponsorships and having to go to these businesses and record commercials and all these different things, especially as it ramps up when you get paid more and more NIL, where's the time for them to have practice, do that and do school? There's got to be some kind of give somewhere and they're not good all these big billion dollar corporation of College football is not gonna flex on the making money portion I don't know where the give will be because it's just gonna keep ramping up RAC Aaron: Absolutely. I think it is really eye-opening. Like as you watch any of those that are centered around a particular student or anything during their time, you see behind the screen a little bit of just how much of their time is eaten up by ⁓ school publicity of like, whether signing events or meeting with donors and those things. I think it was the Johnny Manziel documentary that gave a good example of just how much time and why it was such a big issue that, or why he decided to grandstand it as such a big issue. He was participating for the school and nowhere in there was it like, I got to get to class. It's like, no, he's got to get to a signing or a presser or something like that. So it is an incredible, incredible amount of time that the school asks of their athletes, but they also are paying them a ton of money at this point. So, you know, there is a fair give and take, I think. RAC Chandler: Yeah, in that interview, he said, the bookstore, I would go in and see the number two jerseys flying off the shelves. I said, where's my cut? RY4N: Johnny Manzell got paid though. RAC Aaron: He did, he did. Yeah. RY4N: I was literally about to quote the same thing. That's so good. RAC Chandler: So him and his best friend or whatever went and started just making money. And that's when Money Manzell was born. RY4N: Made in I.O. Mm-hmm. It was good. RAC Aaron: It is a fun documentary to go through. RAC Chandler: Yeah, it's very good. I Shannon Sharp has a lot of interviews with them. All kinds of people do. But yeah, he's very outspoken about how that process went down. And granted, we talk about all this all the time. But imagine Cam Newton, Johnny Manzo, like all these guys, like Tom Brady. Imagine if they had NIL. crazy it would be. Nuts. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RY4N: know about Tom Brady. College. That school up north, you know. RAC Chandler: ⁓ yeah, he wasn't. True, Annie was like one of the last picks, so yeah, nevermind. Bad example. RY4N: He's him though. He's him now though. ⁓ RAC Aaron: You RAC Chandler: I think that's all the news I have. Unless you have anything else Ryan that I missed. RY4N: day today, nothing going on, unless we want to talk about clavicular. RAC Chandler: Exactly, reaction out. RAC Aaron: No, it does seem like this week was a short week, but I feel like we're going to be there. Like as everybody's kind of gearing up for spring game, lot of stuff's kind of quieted down, waiting. So at this point we are recording still at the end of March. We should be closing in on spring game. So if you're, when you're listening to this should be just about a week out and that's where we will be caught up. So you will have the spring game reactions. week of the spring games. So this is one of our last pre-recorded ones. But now that the news is wrapped up, we'll get into the main meat of today's... meat's weird. The main meat! You know what? I love my big old meat. So, back to the ⁓ meat. RAC Chandler: The main meat, baby. Big meat, nice balls. RY4N: Leaving it in. I'm editing this one, I'm leaving it in. RAC Aaron: as I said earlier, we're talking about three schools that might not get the press, might not get ⁓ the coverage, the talking heads in circles about them. But we wanted to take a little bit of time and pick three schools. RAC Chandler: This episode is sponsored by Big Meat. Nice balls. RAC Aaron: My big meat. snakes or steaks. can reach out. ⁓ RAC Chandler: What? I'm all snakes. RY4N: Ooh, Ball-Steak? You should have a steak night called Ball-Steak Night. RAC Aaron: I think that would be for any other state school. ⁓ RY4N: But it rhymes with states. ⁓ I guess, yeah. RAC Aaron: ball parts, the one that would make it less appetizing. RY4N: You RAC Chandler: nice balls of my stick. RAC Aaron: Yeah It's alright. RY4N: I'm just kidding. RAC Aaron: off. we want to take a moment each bring three that might not get the coverage, the ESPN talking head circuit, all the glory that some of our top 10 teams But we still want to point out that we think they're going to show great improvement this year and be a better program by the end of 2026. ⁓ So. To start things off, Chandler, why don't you give us one of your first picks? RAC Chandler: So in my number one in no particular order, the first one that came to my mind, Oklahoma State. And the reason you have Oklahoma State as well, don't you? RY4N: I bad news. ⁓ sorry. RAC Aaron: Alright. RY4N: I don't have a Oklahoma State. I would have been really surprised by that one, but I accidentally just scrolled down and didn't realize you had it the same page and I read all your three on accident. But I turned it off. That's the only one I read. That's the only one I saw. RAC Aaron: Thank RAC Chandler: Alright, I'm gonna need you to another reaction and be surprised this time. Okay, ready? Go, Aaron, kick it to me again. RAC Aaron: Yeah. So Chandler, why don't you give us first pick. RAC Chandler: So in my number one slot in no particular order, it's just the first one that came to my head is Oklahoma State in the Big 12. for the raw reaction. So they finished 1-11 last year, to say that they could be improved is an understatement. You know, they have a lot of upside, not a whole lot of downside. So... Exactly. RY4N: You're welcome. RAC Aaron: you was going to say it's a safe bet at this point. ⁓ I mean, they could go zero and 12, but we won't wish that kind of fortune on them. RAC Chandler: They had the quote next to them of the worst power conference team in the country. So again, a lot of upside. They got the North Texas coach from the American Athletic Conference, Eric Morris, and he came off of a season where they had the best season North Texas has ever had. And they were in the race for that G5 spot for a little bit, like midway through the season, and then it kind of fell apart. But they were in that conversation during the season for having that G5 spot in the playoffs. So they got 54 players from the transfer portal, making them the number one team in the transfer portal as far as player acquisition goes. 17 of them came from North Texas. And they got the quarterback, the leading receivers, the running backs, all those from North Texas. Their coach already similar to the USF Auburn Flash. Their coach is very familiar with their key skill players on offense the scheme shouldn't be too crazy to kind of plug and play and get going. So the only bad thing is in the last 20 meetings, they have not beat a single FPS team talking about Oklahoma State. So again, lot of upside. So we'll see if that translation from his success at North Texas can happen, but with all those key pieces ⁓ ⁓ he had everything clicking over at North Texas. I think that they definitely could go into the bowl game category, probably seven-ish win ceiling season, but definitely a lot better than one of 11. So that's why I had them as my one of most improved. RAC Aaron: Yeah, if they hit seven wins, that would be incredible. Like that's a great turnaround. RY4N: Yeah, and that's really good. I didn't think about having such a low floor. Should've thrown FSU in here on my list if we were thinking like that. I just don't know if they're gonna improve that much. RAC Aaron: haha RAC Chandler: No, but I think there is something to say that taking a coach that wins and kind of going up that stepping stone progression, like we had talked about going from the G5 to maybe a bottom power four conference in the big 12. I'm spreading lightly, exactly. ⁓ think that's a good jump. I don't think it's a crazy jump. ⁓ RY4N: Loosely, yeah. RAC Aaron: You RAC Chandler: especially having the pieces that he's used to in his offensive program, it's going to help a lot. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RY4N: Yeah, it's like signetti. Winning coaches win. RAC Aaron: Yeah. Well, and if you have such a low bar from the previous season coming in, you guaranteed at least have that safe first year from critique. if one in 11 was the previous coming in being reworked, say like, even if they get a three or four win season, as long as there's some improvement there, if there's something that's changed and they say, well, next season, RAC Chandler: Google Eric Morris. He wins. RAC Aaron: we could be a better team, then that's at least getting the ball rolling. RAC Chandler: So I'm gonna stamp it right now and I'm gonna double down and I'm gonna back my research and I'm gonna say that they will make a bowl game this year. RAC Aaron: Okay, so Chandler says they're gonna take the whole thing. RY4N: What are you willing to bet on it? What are you willing to bet on it? RAC Chandler: I will bet you... a tub of pre-workout. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: of your flavor choice. RAC Aaron: This is a good time audience to understand that we have already had a history of making bets with each other and, having a free workout seems pretty lax, but recently we have one going for my hair by the end of the year in bench press. So if I can't beat Chandler's bench press by the end of the year, I will be bald. So I'm January 1st. Come expect me to be clean shaven. RAC Chandler: That light bar is gonna be glistening on the top of his noggin. We can green screen something on his head. RAC Aaron: ⁓ yeah, I'm going to have makeup up here to keep it from shining too bad. Yeah. RY4N: Yeah, have to wear a wig like androgenic. You know androgenic? RAC Aaron: No. RY4N: ⁓ he's one of the mauger guys like with the ASU frat leader. He wears a wig people keep going up to him in public and take it off his head. It's really bad. RAC Chandler: Okay. RAC Aaron: I'm old. RAC Chandler: There's Ryan's insertion of his modern social media just pitfall. RAC Aaron: Yeah This is Ryan teaching his elderly friend about popular figures in modern culture. RY4N: Yeah, Not only did the ASU frat leader frame mug androgenic, also hairline maxes in hairline mugs androgenic. RAC Aaron: and audience I know are demographics. I know you don't understand those words as as I don't. RAC Chandler: guys we'll blur all of that out we'll cut him out completely he won't be in there so Ryan what's your one slot or I guess what's your first team you want to talk about not necessarily your one slot RAC Aaron: Yeah. RY4N: BLEH BLEH Okay, this is gonna be my my third team. I have mine in order. Third. I will preface y'all are gonna say what in the world? That's not a niche team. Notre Dame! RAC Chandler: Okay. RAC Aaron: you RY4N: You're say, okay, okay, and you're gonna say, I think they're gonna be good. And I know you're gonna say, what? They were good, they almost went to the playoffs. Is that what thinking right now? RAC Chandler: Those are almost the exact words came out of mouth, but I will also say they only lost two games. Right? Three games? Two games? RY4N: Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna get there. RAC Aaron: We have like the opposite side of the spectrum here. You got a one and 11 and you got a 10 and two team. Like both of you are ⁓ far into the spectrum there. RAC Chandler: So their room for improvement is they're gonna go undefeated. Yeah! that was in the national championship two years ago. Most improved. Okay. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RY4N: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, let me okay. Yeah, I was just prefacing that I think they will be most improved I Know ⁓ might think they're good last year. I don't think they were good I don't think they played anybody the only two games that they lost they barely lost to Miami and they barely lost to Texas A ⁓ as a yeah, they barely lost but Miami was okay and A ⁓ ended up being really fraudulent and they had the easiest schedule in SEC ⁓ RAC Aaron: You RY4N: Still a hard SEC schedule, but they easily had the easiest one. They were fraudulent. Beat them. It was only by one point. RAC Chandler: you Hold on. Time out. Miami was okay. They were in the national championship. They were in the national championship. RY4N: They're only okay. No, no, no, no, it's whatever. It's fine. RAC Aaron: It was a competitive national championship too, wasn't like a 54 to 7. RAC Chandler: In Texas A ⁓ they barely played over 500 SEC teams. RY4N: Hey, that's all I'm saying. don't think they deserve to be there. They should have got blown out by Ohio State. The Texas A ⁓ Miami game in the playoffs was probably the worst offensive performance I've ever seen. RAC Chandler: in a hurricane. RY4N: What do you? I know what RAC Chandler: You RAC Aaron: Hey, but it's also that's Texas A &M's fate though. Like as they get closer, the more chances they are going to have to blow it. So. RY4N: I know it's RAC Chandler: This is good, yep, most improved. We're here. RAC Aaron: It is. It's heartbreaking. Yes, more super. RY4N: Alright, alright, but I'll tell you that. That's why I think they were okay. I know they barely lost those. But I've talked about it before. They've had a bunch of key players to actually fill in these key spots. They got defense aligned. Tiongrey from Oregon. They got Francis Brew from Pittsburgh. They got an Ed Drescher, Keon Kealy from Alabama. Their defense is going to be so much better. They strategically went in the transfer portal, got all these little key guys that they actually need. to fill in gaps. RAC Chandler: running back. RY4N: That's the only issue I've mentioned that before. They're trusting their recruiting process. Dabo Sweeney type thing here, where you're getting the guy to house you high school, you're going to develop them. But on offense, they kept their quarterback, CJ Carr. He was pretty good last year, especially for being a freshman beat out their veteran guy, you know, that they thought was going to start. And I think he'll develop nicely. I think his production is going to be super good because RAC Aaron: Yeah RY4N: They're going to have the second best wide receiver duo in the country. Behind Jeremiah Smith, with whoever decides to step up, whether it's Christina or someone else, or if it's just Jeremiah Smith, there'll be the second duo behind them, Quincy Porter and Milo Graham. I think they were two of the best receivers in the transfer portal. And Notre Dame has a super easy schedule. I think they would just blow every team out every week. And then I think they'll dominate even the playoffs when they get good. I think they will drastically improve from last year. RAC Aaron: hold here for a second, allow light adjustment. RAC Chandler: My light didn't agree with your opinion. RAC Aaron: And we're back. RAC Chandler: So for all the viewers out there, want to preface with before we started this recording, just like Teal putting Auburn in his top 10 list earlier in the episode tree. we decided that it was gonna be a niche theme, top three. And I would argue that Notre Dame is the opposite of niche, but that's neither here nor there. So... RAC Aaron: We could say, I mean it could be an insane prediction, but if Notre Dame, if this is the year they go all the way, he's a future teller here. Like he can, he can see the matrix. RAC Chandler: Let's rock with it. RY4N: Notre Dame's gonna be a serious team this year. I don't think they were serious team last year. And this, no one expected me to pick Notre Dame. We're talking niche. I was expecting me to pick the worst team ever. Gotcha, you know? RAC Aaron: I- No, absolutely. RAC Chandler: Yeah. RAC Aaron: You did. You did surprise me. RAC Chandler: Well, I wanna take out my OSU in Oklahoma and put OSU Ohio State in there then. They're gonna be most improved as well. RY4N: I don't know about that one though. Are they going to improve? Maybe a little bit. Maybe. Not as much as Notre Dame though. RAC Chandler: you RY4N: I hate Notre Dame and I'm excited to watch them this year. think they're gonna be amazing. The one time ever. Mm-hmm. Well, not anymore. They lowered the hands. Remember that. Yeah. Mild Irish. Mm-hmm. RAC Chandler: writing Irish. Yeah, the calm Irish. The welcoming Irish. The interested Irish. RAC Aaron: Heh. Heh. RY4N: I this. Integral. RAC Aaron: So I am very excited to see them. I do think, I've already said, I've already covered how much I enjoy it. If take the whole thing. Great. Ryan's right. wins. ⁓ wins this So, we'll have to come back. We'll, do a revisit at the end of the season to see who was the closest with their predictions. Of who's the most improved if Notre Dame does not make the playoffs though. RY4N: Alright. Aaron, Do you have a number three or is it not in order? RAC Aaron: So mine is in no particular order. I think I will start out with the one we already know because I talked about in my top 10 list. So I believe in them that much. I'm starting with Virginia Tech. RAC Chandler: Okay, I was about to say, no way you're gonna throw a big team in there too. RAC Aaron: Yeah. No. RY4N: They will be a big team and that's why they're on this list. RAC Aaron: But no, I, I, I won't take too long on this because I did reiterate a lot of these on the last episode, but I'm just going to have faith in Franklin here. do think Virginia tech ⁓ program that has a lot of fan loyalty. I spent a lot of time in Virginia. So I know Hokies and how they love their program. So I think Franklin's going to have the support there that he needs. And he's going to take from just some of the transfer he's bringing in. I think he's got a concept rolling. Is this year going to be their best year? Probably not, but it's probably going to at least be an improvement over the last couple of seasons where they just really haven't had anything going ⁓ live. Like I don't think had a winning season a little bit. In fact, let me. RAC Chandler: You know, I like that, Aaron, while you're looking that up. I like that because Ethan Grunklemyer coming from Penn State, they played Ohio State this year, that was the first time I had seen him play. I knew he took snaps last year in some earlier games this year before Jerala got hurt when they were blowing out teams. But watching him play, especially in the second half of the Ohio State game, he did up to the pressure and he was comfortable in the pocket. He was making smart throws. So in that kind of environment, I think RAC Aaron: the head up. RAC Chandler: being with his coach again, I think he will be a lot better in the ACC. RAC Aaron: ⁓ yeah, yeah. RY4N: Yeah, and let Grunk loose, you know? They're handing the ball off 40 times a game. Let him loose! He has potential. He looks good. RAC Chandler: Exactly. They don't have the two-headed dragon that they had at Penn State. Now they have, you the grunk show. RAC Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. RY4N: Ooh, that's good! That's what you can call Quincy Porter and Mylon Graham. Two-headed dragon. Really good. Aaron, I like your Virginia Tech a lot. I would have put it on my list if I a strange intuition you're gonna put that on here. But it's very good. RAC Aaron: Yes But yeah, last season they had a three wins, nine losses, two wins ACC. So. isn't a high bar either. So. ⁓ Yeah. RAC Chandler: See? We're in the same ballpark here. RY4N: Mm-hmm. It's good, very niche. RAC Chandler: Not, not Ryan's Notre Dame national championship people two years ago. RAC Aaron: Now I will say, I'm not gonna stay in the low bar territory for much longer. ⁓ yeah. RAC Chandler: I'm not either, actually. RY4N: ⁓ I'm getting narrower as we go on. RAC Chandler: boy. Buckle up, viewers. RY4N: Like, Notre Dame is filling up my bottle and I'm getting to the neck and it's tapering off. RAC Aaron: like I said, what gone on it, it really wasn't a deep dive here for it because I talked about a lot less, but we'll see how the running game develops. And I, do we have any teams in the ACC that are predominantly run games right now? My, well, yes, I guess I forget Miami. ⁓ RAC Chandler: Miami. RY4N: Not anymore. They were. RAC Chandler: No, he's still there. Mark Fletcher is still there. RY4N: Well, yeah, but they have a quarterback who can throw the ball, hopefully, so they don't have to just beat it to Mark Fletcher. That is true. That is true. GP. They will buy. I Darrym Mincey could throw a little bit. Carson Beck can't throw the ball. RAC Chandler: Darien Mensah also runs the ball. They're gonna have a really good run game. He can, but the RPO game is going be deadly down there because they run a lot of it. And the screens and all kinds of stuff. Miami is the team to beat for sure in the ACC for the foreseeable future. RY4N: Yeah, it will be crazy. Yeah, he'll fit in good there. Yeah, he'll fit in good there. They like a mobile quarterback down there. RAC Aaron: Chandler why don't you give us your second up to bat RAC Chandler: So I'm going to take this one to the old Lewisville territory in the ACC. So like Louisville because for starters, they got Lincoln Keenholz and I think that's a great fit. I think he is a great backup or he was a great backup at Ohio State. He's big. He's 6'3", 220. He's fast. He's physical. He has a great dual threat mentality. He can throw the ball well. I just don't think he was... ever going to be in that starting role at Ohio State. So jumping to a team like Louisville, I think is great. And Louisville, it was seven and one last year with a win at Miami. When Miami was ranked, I think 10th going into that like week eight game. So they had a big upside potential last year to kind of run that ACC and get that slot. But in the back half of their season, Isaac Brown got hurt. They're running back and he's going back this year. So now they have a bunch of receivers coming in. They have him healthy. have Lincoln Keenholz who is a mobile quarterback and I'll be curious to see how he plays there. they should have all their starters on defense for the most part coming back. And this they play five of the seven ⁓ worst teams from last year in their regular season schedule. So they have a manageable schedule to go through to be able to get that Improvement season ⁓ real tester is going to be though. Unfortunately week one against Ole Miss ⁓ that's probably going to be an L but If they go out against Ole and throw a little upset wrinkle out there or keep the game close It could be a great season for them and I think they could have a better finish than they did last year RY4N: That Miami Louisville game last year was so good and he had the little fingertip interception in last play of the game. Yeah, that was good. RAC Chandler: It was. Yep. They also got a receiver from Vanderbilt and he had like 800 yards last year. So he was a productive guy and having that piece coming into a veteran receiver will be So I think their offense will be good. I think as their defense can step up and play well, then they should be able to be a top three ACC team. RY4N: Lincoln needs to step it up though. I'm kind of surprised he didn't follow Brian Hartline. Did Brian Hartline just not want him? That's a little scary, if that's the case. RAC Chandler: We'll see. I don't know. RAC Aaron: Yeah, it definitely is. RY4N: I like it though. RAC Chandler: He wanted to be in Kentucky. Not Tampa. Who wants to be in Tampa, Florida? RAC Aaron: Yeah. RY4N: Nobody. Coolvicular. I'm just kidding. RAC Aaron: Yeah, that's just standard words of us panhandler haters out here, ⁓ No, it's definitely one of those programs where as the coach position Louisville, a lot of these schools are less pressure. So you can take a little more time to develop something. You're not going to be in the hot seat. You know, the second you have a couple losses under your belt, but it is something where it's like, you do have to turn results over. So, sometimes that will push it forward for them. RAC Chandler: And I mean, we're talking about niche programs that had bad seasons in the past. I mean, starting the season seven and one is not bad. I want to preface with that's not a horrible season. That's bowl eligible. They went, they played. So I'm really, I'm not picking super, super harshly. I mean, it's still a program that's to be fun to follow, but does have room for growth. And that's going to be similar to my, my third slot as well. RAC Aaron: Yeah! RY4N: Yeah, and they show that they had potential last year, they upset Miami, and even if some of that carries over and they get the new pieces, it just gives them such a higher chance to even do better. RAC Chandler: Exactly, and if Isaac Brown can stay healthy the whole year and not battle injury again, because I think the back like three or four games of the season, the last three or four, he was hurt. Brian, what's your 2 slot? RY4N: It's funny we're just talking about injuries. that's kind of why I picked this team. My number two, again, I picking them in order, the Kansas Jayhawks. RAC Chandler: Wow. RY4N: Kansas like what they went five and seven last year, so it's not terrible But like we were talking about injuries. They had a ton of injuries Jalen Daniels not Jane Daniels Think is an amazing quarterback, but he dealt with a bunch of back issues and he wasn't a hundred percent last year I think him being healthy will help out so much. He's really good. He can extend plays with his feet RAC Chandler: Okay. RY4N: He can throw and I think he's super dangerous, nice dual threat quarterback on offense. think Devin Neal, their running back is also amazing. I think he might be one of the most talented running backs in college football. But I think when Jalen Daniels got hurt, they definitely just depended on him too much, but he's super fast. He has great vision. He just had too big of a workload last year and they were too dependent on him. So I think that affected their performance a lot. But I think having other positions in offense healthy will keep them a lot fresher and up his efficiency next year. They have Luke Grimm, a receiver who missed some time with injury and he wasn't at full strength. And he will be a good weapon for Jalen Daniels. Also their main receiver, Lawrence Arnold, he's really good, nice veteran receiver. But it was evident that whenever Jalen Daniels got hurt that his production just went down a bunch with the instability of quarterback. So I think if Jaylen Daniels is healthy, Arnold is going to be a monster on the field. And I don't know if it matters how good these guys are if they're hurt, know, so they got to stay healthy. I think they're going to have a super good offense. They have some good defense guys, too. They got a couple of DBs. They got some in the front seven. Just a little boost will make a difference because They had a few games where they couldn't get late stops, but now if you even have a slight boost, you might not even be put into the situations anymore. So all in all, I think the best players being on the field will help a ton, and I think they could possibly win 8 or 10 games realistically. RAC Chandler: mean, look at this guy's ball knowledge. Just throwing out Kansas information like he is a Jayhawk down to the heart. RAC Aaron: Hahaha RY4N: Kansas. I'm a big Jalen Daniels. But yeah, but I'm a huge Jalen Daniels guy. I think he's the guy. He'll be the guy to watch this year. Fun to watch. RAC Aaron: He's got that Jayhawk mobile plan. RAC Chandler: He is good. think Byron Brown will be more fun to watch. RY4N: Dude I hope he I hope so Aaron, you ⁓ got another good one here or what? RAC Aaron: So number two for me, this is also not a surprise. This is something I've talked about previously. second one is a less sure thing, but I feel confident it ⁓ University of Las Vegas. once again, I'm going on coaching staff in my gut and Dan Mullen over there. First season year, great first season. But we're in the G5 ⁓ now. ⁓ RAC Chandler: Jackson Arnold. RAC Aaron: Yeah. So familiar face here, but we had some issues with Arnold ⁓ You, is a, this is a transition out of the sec to G5. So that's a change. Like this is the, you know, you can have a quarterback like that. And I'm going to say the level of play. RY4N: Mm-hmm. RAC Aaron: is drastically different in the G5, but aren't up against SEC, 10 defenses. You're not. ⁓ Yes, throwing it out there for you. ⁓ I ⁓ I ⁓ mean but I still set it for you. But, it is a big change though, where you can get somebody like that and credit to Dan Mullen, pulling them. ⁓ I that's probably. RAC Chandler: appreciate the Big Ten, they're out there. RY4N: Another niche reference for the day. RAC Aaron: Got to be some wheeling and dealing because I'm sure there's a slot somewhere in some team in a P4 conference or in a P4 team that he could, he could move into. But Dan Mullen pulled him in and just looking at UNLV and what they're putting together. I think they're making a push. ⁓ gut unsubstantiated no roof. dealing or anything, I think they're trying to make a push to P4 conference. I think they're trying to make a case to ⁓ But ⁓ by looking at ⁓ of the videos of their facilities, their facilities are incredible looking. They're very top dollar level stuff. I mean, right now they are playing an Allegiant, so I don't know if that would be impactful on a conference move. But I think Dan Mullen's putting together incredible program. mean his first year, going up is going to be difficult because they did go 10 and 4 last year. that is a pretty strong ⁓ opener. RAC Chandler: But shout out to Dan Mullin. I mean, coming from Florida, he's a sleeper recruiter over there in UNLV. I mean, that's guy that knows how to get people in a program. ⁓ is going to ⁓ a successful name over there that players will want to come play for, especially at that level. ⁓ to me is a no-brainer and I think Jackson Arnold can develop well under him. RAC Aaron: ⁓ yeah. Yeah. RY4N: ⁓ yeah. And it's almost disrespectful to me that Dan Mullen is coaching a G5 ⁓ I think he's going to tear it up over there. And I don't think Jackson Arnold was bad. I think Jackson Arnold was really good. He was in a weird situation with a terrible offensive system. I think you put him under a coach like Dan Mullen, he's going to do great. And he's also super good at running the ball. That's like his main thing. I think he can throw the ball, especially in the G5. And I think he's gonna run all over the place on these guys. I think it'll be great. RAC Aaron: Well, and then they have some, talent running with Thomas. ⁓ seems like he's going to be good, but I'm, I'm looking at a lot of the staff and they've a former NFL coach and defensive coordinator, as their defensive coordinator. they've got another NFL coach talent and, Adagio. Gunther the DC was with the Raiders and Cowboys. And I Adazio was just with the Chiefs before he went over to Vegas. So it is still some high level talent that we're seeing for a G5 school. And so to that tells that that sends the messages of ⁓ we're aiming bigger. ⁓ Dan Mullen, you talking about the recruiting. Dan Mullen, think his weakness in recruiting was at the high school level. He was better with working with transfer athletes. And Florida when the time when he was doing that, he left Florida in what 2001 before he came to coach for Las Vegas, which was last year. So there was a downtime. So a lot of the changes in the new field that we see in part of the recruitment He's coming in and I think they almost all of this current recruiting meta that we're going to see from teams are the strengths of Dan Mullen. if you're a top three star talent and you're looking for a home, he's going to slide in ⁓ and he's going get you a promising offer. RAC Chandler: I think too, having NFL assistant coaches at the collegiate level, matter where you are, a huge nod to your program because they are overqualified for every collegiate job on the market, no matter what team you go to. So having that kind of NFL experience, no matter how successful you were, you could have not been successful at all, or you could have been a Superbowl assistant coach. RAC Aaron: ⁓ yeah. RAC Chandler: Being in the NFL and seeing the best of the best and coaching against the best of the best and scheming against the best of the best will do wonders in the collegiate level because I feel like the game just gets easier when you go down to the collegiate level and not the NFL level. Because like Aaron has talked about in previous episodes, the room for error is more and there's the stuff that, you know, young teams will let slip or break a coverage on. And I feel like NFL assistant coaches can really kind of counteract that with their experience and kind of fail safe things. RY4N: ⁓ And they bring a different kind of discipline to the teams as you're saying. And I also think they're trying to do more than just win their conference. G5s get a bid. If they get a bid in the playoffs, it might not be a JMU or a two way just getting blown out. They might be trying to win. They have guys like Jackson Arnold who have played on big stages. They played in the SEC. They're kind of used to it where they're going to throw them in there. You have these enough low coaches. think they have potential to go pretty far. think this is a great pick for your niche turnarounds. RAC Chandler: crazy would it be UNLV got the g5 bid and Auburn somehow someway got in the playoffs and they clashed how awesome would that be ⁓ even in the lower scale if they played a bowl game against each other would be cool too but if they somehow met this year it would be really cool to see them playing each other RY4N: That'd be crazy. RAC Aaron: I'd say we'd be going. just seems like it'd be a great game. RAC Chandler: Yeah, that'd be cool. RY4N: would be great. mean, Jackson Arnold played Oklahoma last year and he came from Oklahoma. He can do it again. He can play Auburn at UNLV. That could be his new thing. RAC Chandler: Any Auburn fans might hate the comment that's about to come out of my mouth, but I think Jackson Arnold had a higher ceiling and was better than Ashton Daniels. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RY4N: Yes, and I've said that a bunch. He wasn't the issue. He freezes the issue. He did everything the coach told him to and when it failed, backfired on him. The coach took it out on him. RAC Chandler: I agree. RAC Aaron: And that's something ⁓ that's part that Dan Mullen, where he, think he can see that. And I'm sure other teams saw it. That's the thing that I'm like, there's gotta be some kind of resources he's pulling from that he was able to pull Arnold to UNLV. and to ⁓ I guess just see like a conspiracy tinfoil hat theory here that Dan Mullen was out of the coaching game. had a talking spot. And you know, that's probably pretty good money for not the stress and effort of coaching. And I'm sure there's part of it that it's in your blood. You know, you love doing it, but for him to come back after years of sitting out, I feel like it's because he saw something in UNLV. I think he knew his ceiling. think he saw the landscape changing. if they are committed to financially supporting ⁓ push, He might be seeing this and especially after Indiana last year, there is, ⁓ know, a Cinderella story that could happen out there. Am I it's Las Vegas? If it happens, then yes, I am saying it right now. If not, then it's just a theory, but it is something that, ⁓ it at least exciting to see it. And I do believe there's that potential. If you give him a few more years to really turn what he's doing into something amazing. It would be great to see the ceiling of that is. I mean, looking at their schedule this year, it's not a bumpy road. It's a pretty straight shot, I think. RY4N: And think about it, the title Jackson Arnold national championship winning quarterback. can do the video of JJ McCarthy where he's signing the camera. I'd love to see that. I want Jackson Arnold to do good. I'm sad he didn't do it on Auburn though. He didn't get a chance. Jackson Arnold, Jackson Arnold I think you just aren't getting RAC Aaron: Yeah I'd love to see him do great here. I'd love to see him take off. ⁓ no, you RY4N: the exposure that you really deserve and everyone's hating on you. It's really easy to blame the quarterback, easy to blame the coach. I think it was the wrong time for him. This is the right time. RAC Aaron: It would be exciting if he puts up huge numbers out there. RAC Chandler: adventure to say that this is going to be his best statistical season he's had. RAC Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. is something I'm not up to date on his ⁓ line, but was he a five star coming into Auburn? RY4N: Yeah, by far. He was. RAC Chandler: Yes. RAC Aaron: So I mean that it just, it's one of those like, you five star going into a G5 school. a, there's a lot of field to run. Well, I think that rounds up everybody's second pick. So Chandler, keep the ball rolling and you take us into the third round. RAC Chandler: So for my third, it's the biggest scale team I have and it's USC. And again, similar to Louisville, I think they didn't have a horrible season. mean, they finished nine and four. It may not have been what the boosters and the staff and everybody wanted, but I mean, they still bowl game. still were almost a 10-1 season. So it could have been a lot worse, but I think with the talent acquisition they have at their disposal. at USC, Lincoln Riley has always done a great job recruiting. And I think especially this year, the boosters and the staff and all the fan bases and everything surrounding that program is really kind of doubling down on him this year because of the fact that in the 2026 class, he had the highest recruiting rank. He was the number one team in the 2026 recruiting class. He has a lot of five-star talent. has a five-star offensive lineman and a five-star defensive lineman coming in that are just huge. One from modern day where Chris Henry and all those other guys came from. So they're big players that could have play and play potential out the gate. But I think having that number one recruiting class and having your Jade and Maivia quarterback coming back, your whole offensive line is coming back, your whole starting five and your running backs coming back. Plus. You have plenty of offensive weapons you got in the portal and in that recruiting class. If their defense can step up and improve, because I think they allowed on average 23 points a game last year. If they can improve that and get that sub 20, then I see no reason why they can't make a playoff run this year be contenders in the big 10 as for big 10 championship. The real test for them is going to be in week four. They play Oregon. I think if they can get through Oregon, if they can win that game. I do think Oregon's going be a top 10 team as well. If they can win that game or keep that game close, then I for sure see them getting a slot there in the CFP later on in the year. RY4N: love Lincoln Riley. I think he's a great coach. Wonderful coach. I love their going all in with them. And I was saying the same thing with you. know in a previous episode, I mentioned that Oregon USC, if USC can pull off, that'd be huge. But it sucks for them. They have an auto loss on their schedule. Whatever week they play Ohio State. So that's unfortunate. But I think they'll have a huge turnaround, which is good. I thought they were a little too big to put on my list though. ⁓ RAC Chandler: Yes. RAC Aaron: Thanks RAC Chandler: I just think, yeah, but I think they're just kind of those, they're, they're new additions to the big 10. And I think there's sleepers in there as well. think Oregon and Indiana are getting a lot of forefront activity. They're getting the Ohio States, the Michigan's like all those big name teams up there. And I think USC is just kind of behind the scenes operating at a very high level. And I think in this off season, for sure. mean, getting the number one recruiting class is huge. And I mean, who wouldn't want to go out there and play in California. RY4N: Yeah, yeah. RAC Chandler: for Lincoln Riley. That's beautiful area, great coach, ton of resources. I think they could have a great season. And that's when I looked at the Ohio State schedule that I kind of circled as it could really go either way because if USC plays how they should, then that's going to be a really good game. RY4N: I think it will be good game. They're very competitive. RAC Aaron: And that's, yeah, and that's something like, feel like we've kept waiting to see that. Like they have the pieces, they have the components. It's kind of like what, you know, A ⁓ and Jimbo Fisher, where they had the pieces ⁓ it just didn't ever really come together for that solid ⁓ that we were looking for. ⁓ I agree. I think. RAC Chandler: Yes. RAC Aaron: This could be something where we've seen that high level out of this whole time, but it's always been that couple terrible feeling losses ⁓ have like kept them out of contention. But I do want to pose the question of ⁓ this year is another one of those, if this is another nine win, eight win out of the talks, do you think Riley's in the hot seat at that point. RAC Chandler: I and I hate this question only because Ryan Day was in the same boat recently. And I don't necessarily think he should be, but I think as we've talked about with how much NIL is circulating until that gets wrangled down, coaches are really on a year to year contract, no matter how seasoned you are in that program. Now, of course there's your one-offs, but RAC Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: If coaches don't have an immediate impact, especially with the resources they have, and they keep having these eight, nine win seasons, then yeah, he probably is going to be in the hot seat because they expect when they kind of have the number one recruiting class to come in and they expect to be playoff contenders. So I think the leash just gets shorter with the more money that gets involved in this game. And it's unfortunate because college football used to be your high school kids through the program, your third year they're there, they start really producing it. It was kind of like a system into the NFL and they just really got developed underneath that program and they stuck it out. They had their ups and downs, but ⁓ bread and butter was in the recruiting and the development of players. And now I think it's really just a talent acquisition of who can win now. And if those guys come in and they trump a two or three year guy that's been on your roster that was expecting to start this year, then so be it, because they want that guy in now to win. And unfortunately, I think instead of developing players underneath your program and having those second and third year guys getting those starting spots, I think it's moving to an era where talent acquisition and getting players in your seats now that are veteran guys that can win now, even if they take the spot of those second and third year guys, is where it's heading. So I think... Him not having the time to develop players as much as they would have 20 years ago does have a negative impact on impact on coaches around the country, not just him. I think you're forced to make very quick year to year transactions to get the best roster available. No matter if it comes from high school kids that are just extremely gifted five stars or it's a fifth year senior, you have to rebuild your roster every single year. So I think. pairing that and him having his number one recruiting class. If he doesn't make a college football run in the playoffs, then he might be on the hot seat and it might not be fair, but with how much money is circulating in the sport, I think that's just the way it's going. think any coach is expected with the resources they have, especially like in that place, to be a playoff contention team. RY4N: I think it's a little scary that people are kind of abandoning this idea of getting it because a lot of people are probably like I didn't do that good in high school recruiting this year. It's okay. I'll just get a bunch of transfers next year. But if you have both lanes, why not utilize them both? And you do like USC. They got to give them a couple years, obviously the boosters, because they can see I have the best recruiting class. I'm going to let them develop. You fill in key spots in the transfer portal, but it is a little risky that you might develop these guys. They don't play for you. RAC Chandler: Exactly. So who's to say that these five star guys that you've spent millions of dollars on come in and have a year of development if they don't get immediate impacts like they want. Who's to say that their agent isn't in their ear artificially inflating how much they're worth and then pitching that to other teams that are willing to have their program centered around that guy. And then all of sudden you just lit money on fire for that year. RY4N: Leave. That is kinda scary. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: So it really is a, the boosters have to be on these or the boosters have to have the coaches on these short leashes because they don't have the future telling ability to say, Hey, this five star is going to stay in the program. So he's a junior because he might not. RAC Aaron: And I agree with you here. Cause I think like when we get into the topic of like biggest issues that we're facing right now in college football, everybody's top two is going to be NIL transfer portal. But I think correct some of the transfer portal issues. The NIL becomes less problematic because the money's always been there. The ability to change schools ⁓ a dime. Hasn't. And ⁓ feel the same way. like seeing the young guys develop up, know, the next in line guy, get his shot, go for it. But it feels like we don't see that as much because now it's like another ⁓ every, you know, one spot is filled with a fifth year senior from somewhere. And a name I hadn't seen before coming from a different school or a different conference, fill in a slot. And I that's not, course, across the board. But for the most part, we're seeing that. So don't want to dive too deep into the transfer portal discussion. Now we are definitely going to do a whole episode on it, but. RAC Chandler: One more quick thing. I would also argue that if your boosters agree that you want to make a deep run in the playoffs and your route is transfer portal. And as we know, all these transfer portal players are artificially inflated because they just have these boosters. I mean, not the boosters. have these scouts and agents in their ears saying, Hey, this guy got this here. You can get this here. And they might say, Hey, he got 1 million here. We'll just go in with 1.5 and we'll have that be the starting thing. So they're arguably spending more money on this transfer portal hall than they would just recruiting kids out of high school and developing them. So you might be on a more hot seat even then if you have a ton of incoming transfers from just the portal, because you have so much more money backing those guys. RAC Aaron: Absolutely. RY4N: It's also crazy they're putting monetary value on these players because everyone's gonna be like, ⁓ Brennan Swartzby is a good quarterback now just because he's getting $6 million. And when there was like rumors that Jalen Milrow and Carson Becker can get $4 million from Notre Dame, Miami immediately turned around and paid Carson Becker a bunch of money. So it is weird that, yeah, the agents are trying to get them to leave. And then everyone's putting a monetary value, which is giving these people an inflated kind of skill that they might have or not. RAC Aaron: No, I agree. RAC Chandler: And if they don't get their worth out of that $5 million guy, then that money might dry up the year later. So it really is a disaster of a template that they're working off of. RAC Aaron: Yes. Yeah. And obviously we're going to have to make some changes. I think that is destined to happen. I do think it's one of those where they are very slowly coming up with a concept because as soon as you implement it, it's going to affect an entire graduating class, just like they did with the COVID exemptions, where ⁓ still felt that like we still had players that were in those years and that affected all the way till now. So a slight change is a big change as it affects the student eligibility. mean, not all of them are going to win appeals like Chambliss does, which, hey, I'm glad we get to see him some more, but it is something that it's like any kind of end of paper becomes very concrete, very quick. But a solution does have to be reached hopefully sooner than later. But like I said, that is something we've talked about it many times and I'd love to throw our theories out there, but I do think it's going to need its own slot in an episode at some point. RAC Chandler: For sure. RY4N: Yeah, it's so funny though, it's such a big deal we talk about like every week. RAC Chandler: Ryan what you got in your last and final three slot? RAC Aaron: Yeah, ⁓ yeah. RY4N: Alright, and again I went in order. This team, I think will be the most improved in the country. I'm gonna go down the street from USC. RAC Chandler: in the country. RY4N: Most improved, this is my number one, I went in order. Most improved California golden bears, cow. RAC Chandler: Okay. RAC Aaron: You I'm embarrassed. RAC Chandler: Let's hear it. RY4N: Cal Guy, Fernando Mendoza was there, you know, back in the day. I they kinda got a new quarterback room, which would be good. They struggled a little bit. they missed a lot of reads. They didn't really have a good deep threat capability. They couldn't really run consistent drives. They kind of just go and sputter out. And their quarterback player just kind of iffy, you know? I'm probably going to butcher this name. Their quarterback's name is Jaron Kiwi Sagapuluti. Puh. Sagapuluteli. That's his name. He's a returner. He was a freshman last year, but he had little glimpses of talent. He was just really inconsistent. He threw for 3,400 yards. had 18 passing touchdowns. He had nine interceptions, but the issue, he was sacked a bunch and since stacks. count towards the rushing stats in college football, guess how many yards he had at the end of last season. RAC Aaron: Is it negative? RY4N: It is negative 120 yards. So that's a huge issue, you know? I think he'll develop more and if he doesn't, they also got a guy named Jackson Bro Sal from Colorado State. He only had 1300 yards, but he had low turnovers. And we kind of saw the same thing with Ash and Daniels from Auburn last year. That he kind of came in under the radar. He was similarly kind of in the low thousand yards and passing and he came into Auburn and after Hugh Freeze was fired he actually came in and did pretty well performed in those games. So he might be a good addition if anything he's played snaps at college football if J. Ron Kiwi Sagapalooeteli gets hurt. But I think that he could be a good quarterback and it'll be a better quarterback room. and there will be a chance for some competition if he steps up. He could even take the starting role, never know. But- RAC Chandler: Hey, shout out to Spence. We can ask Spence about the Colorado State transfer and how good he was. Exactly. RAC Aaron: I was going to say shout out to our Colorado State fans out there. RY4N: Yeah, we'll ask him how he is. But none of that really matters without the O-Line. Like we talked about the sack issue. I think we saw a similar thing with Auburn Bonix. That he was a young guy, he had glimpses of greatness, but he was too frantic, got out of the pocket a lot, and they calmed him down there at Oregon. So I think trusting your O-Line can do a lot, especially for a young guy. And they got a few... kind of older linemen to come in that are veteran guys. And with that experience, I think it just helps they can come in, they can play, they can make the young quarterback feel comfortable. So I think the O-line helps with everything too. It seems boring sometimes that we're O-line, O-line, you know, it doesn't seem that important, but it gives more time for the quarterback. It really opens the run game. I think it's a make or break for the rest of the offense. But I really... RAC Chandler: think this year specifically with Miami and Indiana in the national championship, those two teams had the best trench play in the country. And I think they set the paved road ahead for the rest of us to really dial in and get those guys developed. Because it is key factor now more than ever. And it always is a cliche that, the games will be won in the trenches. Well, this year it really was. RAC Aaron: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And we've talked about it many times of how many quarterbacks, promising quarterbacks end up with such bad habits because of a bad O line that, you know, they're seeing ghosts out there in the field. RY4N: Yes, I think that'll be so good that I think their quarterback J-Ron Kiwi probably butchering his name. I think he could be actually really good. So Mr. J-Ron Kiwi, I think he'll be great because of the O-line. I think the O-line was just such a bad issue. But then also like they got a few running backs. They got Ashton Emery from UTEP. Even though it's a smaller school, I think he's really good. And you can never really have too much depth in the running back room. RAC Chandler: Kiwi. RY4N: They also got Adam Muhammad from Washington. Washington had a really good running back last year. So this was kind of the second guy. But he averaged about five yards of carry because he wasn't the main guy. He'd come in when he's fresh. There's glimpses of potential there. And for receivers, they got Ian Strong from Rutgers. Rutgers, weird school, but he's a big guy. He's 6'3", 211. He got 762 yards last year. Which I think is really promising. You come over here with this good quarterback, new line, all this stuff. I think that'd be great. I think he will be a great weapon, but I think he will be overshadowed by another receiver they got named Chase Hendricks from guess where the Ohio Bobcat down the street from your, from your Buckeyes. had 1,037 yards and seven touchdowns on a team like the Ohio Bobcat. So I think he does. I think he's pretty good. I think he'll be an immediate game changer. So their offense has a big improvement. Their defense seemed to not really be the problem last year. They weren't the best and they kind of got the job done for the most part, but it's hard when your offense is just putting you on the field over and over and over. You're getting bad field position all the time. So I think the new offensive, additions are just going to help the defense even more. And with all of this, they also hired Tosh Lupoi as the head coach and he coached the NFL. He coached at Alabama and he coached at Oregon. All pretty good places to come from. And he immediately came in and brought a top 20 class in the portal. He had like 30 players and it's kind of weird, but they hired Ron Rivera, the old NFL coach in the front office, which is super weird for college. But I think it really shows how hard they're really trying to get those experienced guys in the building. And we've seen that work. were mentioning it earlier, Aaron, and we've seen it with Matt Patricia at Ohio state and hopefully Arthur Smith at Ohio state in the future. So I think their new coaching will bring a lot more dynamic offense, especially with all these guys. And I think they'll bring some level of discipline over from the NFL. Like we've also talked about when you're talking about UNLV and all these guys. So I think we could see him maybe win nine games, maybe have a couple upsets. They only went four and four in this. in the ACC last year. So I think they could even be competitive in the ACC, maybe be pretty high, go to conference championship. I think it'll be a pretty big turnaround from last year. RAC Chandler: I mean, let's get a like and a rating on the show for this guy's in-depth knowledge of the cow-bears. I mean, it is unbelievable the passion this guy brings to this or this organization we have here at REC. RAC Aaron: Yeah. do appreciate it, but I do have to say that you did pick a team that goes against two of my selections this year. So for their October games, it's UNLV then Virginia Tech. So back to back, you're squaring off against me. So you're either going to put me in the dirt or I'm upset in your day. RY4N: Apparently I'm a Cal fan too. I don't know. I'm so sorry. RAC Chandler: We're gonna have to circle back. We'll have to look back at that. RY4N: That'll be tough. RAC Aaron: come October, you can expect a rack followup on how our predictions came out because there'll be some obvious headway here. But no, I do like as a call because I do feel like the ACC as far as conferences go, it's an up in air conference right now. There's not anybody that's crazy dominant outside of Miami. kind of was locked in with Clemson for a while, but I do feel like Clemson's ⁓ off the gas and at this point now where if a school can make a good run They can be in for the championship, which ⁓ puts in for playoff potential And it's gonna be Virginia Tech because we don't have room out here for Golden Bears. We're a turkey kind of podcast RAC Chandler: and it's going to be for Genitech, not the Cal Bears. RY4N: do think Virginia Tech could be better. I'm just saying, I think the stuff they were doing at Cal is insane. RAC Aaron: the RAC Chandler: No, no, no. No, no double back. You gotta stand on that pick. That's your most, most improved in the country is the Cow Golden Bears. RAC Aaron: I do too. Yeah. Now this is me versus you. RY4N: I think this is great. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RY4N: Doesn't mean they're the best team, it's just they're the most improved team. That's like getting the comeback player of the year award, you know? You're just stuck, playing upward basketball here. I just see you come in, you clean house, and you get all these weapons for your guy, you're building around your fran- Like, it's almost like NFL, you got a franchise guy, you got this great quarterback, and you're gonna develop a little more, get all these weapons, bring on- Yeah, I mean, I think it'll be pretty RAC Chandler: Green sc- RAC Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: ⁓ yeah, it's impressive. Mr. Kiwi. So what do have Aaron? Follow up that master class of a presentation of number three. What you got? RAC Aaron: can't follow that up because this is just a vibe check for me. I went number three. This is just a team I like to see and I wish them the best. I'm going with Hawaii and not a lot out there. I'm sure a lot of listeners don't know what's going on in Hawaii. I'm sure you two don't know what's going on in Hawaii. I barely what's going on in Hawaii, but it is a team that I think is fun to watch. I do feel like out of ⁓ all the college football, another G5 school that I'm pulling here, but I just feel like they kind of have a raw deal when it comes to schedules and everything because fundamentally every game is a huge travel for them if they're not playing at home. So ⁓ you're limited. Now recruiting wise, you probably are in the best place you can be to offer a student. RAC Chandler: Yeah. RAC Aaron: Say, Hey, you want to come live in Hawaii for a while? grew up for a few years in Hawaii. ⁓ is a wonderful place. One of the best. So there's fondness of my heart for him, but I do truly think there is some growth there. I, last season it was, it's going to be a hard season to top. They were nine and four. So ⁓ they been doing well. And I say this year's gonna be. ⁓ a bruvate year for them, but I do think if they do, they've got a very competent year because they did lose their starting QB and the wide receivers that they were playing under have also left, but they did pull in some talent and in the towards the end of the season last year, we did get to see their freshmen QB step up, ⁓ Michael Alato and yeah, it's something where it's, know, seeing a freshman come in, play really well. It's always exciting. And they with him. There's a young guy going to have a team. they did pull in a four star. They got Decambra in the safety position. So defensively safety and RAC Chandler: through for a lot of yards. RAC Aaron: D5 I think you've got a good talent pool that you're pulling from. We're going to see what they have. I don't know if they're going to pop out much higher than a nine win. I think we might see 10 and that would be really good for them, but I just feel like they've had a trend of getting better. I don't necessarily think that they might be playoff bound. I Las Vegas have a better shot at that as they develop, but. Hawaii's just fun and let's see him some attention every once in a while because I know every once in while they're like calling people like, want to come out and play us? ⁓ you please? ⁓ RAC Chandler: I think what can get them to that 10 win threshold is if you go and you have Dukes provide you with some of those barbecue bacon cheeseburgers only on their bar menu, then that will really up their production in that whole locker room. mean, those things right there are a thing of beauty and that would get them to 10 wins. RAC Aaron: ⁓ yeah. They might have to limit it to their O and D line there because they're going to start putting on some pounds quick. RAC Chandler: Exactly. The barbecue bacon cheeseburgers, man, those things are so good there. Holy moly. RY4N: hehe RAC Aaron: No, I can't speak high enough about Hawaii. RY4N: We love Dukes. RAC Chandler: Every time I go there, every once a day, if not multiple times a day, I'm going to Duke's. Staying at the Hilton Wine Village, walking right over, getting a food coma. ⁓ boy, yeah. Speaking of which. RAC Aaron: Yeah. You RY4N: Yeah, we seem privileged. Me and Chandler have been there a couple times. actually did- not in person, but I watched the Hula Bowl last year and I saw their freshman quarterback and I actually thought he was really good. But speaking of that, if Byron Brown wants to take me to the Hula Bowl, I would love to go to the Hula Bowl, Chandler. Will you come with me if Byron Brown takes you to Hula Bowl? RAC Chandler: There we go. ⁓ absolutely. I will be there. I will be there. RAC Aaron: ⁓ yeah, we'll be rag on site there. not gonna have to pull our arms to get us to Hawaii. RY4N: Okay, Byron Brown, if you're watching this somehow, if you don't take us to playoffs, please take us to the Hula-Pool. I wanna go to the Hula-Pool. RAC Aaron: Yeah, you know what? That's a standing invitation for anybody going to the Hula Bowl. If you want to bring us out, we'll film with you. Do whatever you want. We'll carry your bags. Take us to the Hula Bowl. RAC Chandler: Show you a good time. a barbecue bacon cheeseburgers. ⁓ RAC Aaron: Yeah. RY4N: Dukes can sponsor us! ⁓ yeah, also, also if Dukes wants to sponsor us, you know, we love Dukes, so... RAC Chandler: Boy would I do that too RAC Aaron: ⁓ that be war- y'all remember the Super Bowl, how I put on like 20 pounds the week after? ⁓ I couldn't imagine what Dukes would do to me. RAC Chandler: There's not much I wouldn't do for a Duke's Hawaiian mean, ⁓ door's wide open. Anything they want me to do, I'm doing it. RAC Aaron: Yes. RY4N: You know, I've only eaten there one- I've only eaten there one time and I'm allergic to everything so I just had a plain steak with nothing on it and plain white rice and even that was good. So that- that's a good sign. RAC Chandler: Last time we were there, like right down from our table, they had like right when you go outside that restaurant, there's the whatever it's called, the comedy room where they do like live stand up shows for up and coming comedians. Trevor Wallace was there. So he was like valeting a Jeep and like I was just, know, munching on a barbecue bacon cheeseburger and there comes Trevor Wallace going to perform his comedy. So another reason why we should go. RY4N: I love Trevor Wallace. RAC Chandler: to the Aloha Bowl or whatever it's called because he performs there a lot. RY4N: I love Trevor Wallace and you never know who you're gonna see there. RAC Chandler: Exactly. RAC Aaron: Well, let's hope that Chang keeps taking the Hawaiians in a positive direction and you find us a connection that can get us to the hula bowl to support our favorite team ⁓ because we'd love to. But no, to round things out there. do wish them the best. I hope they have a great season up ahead of them. RAC Chandler: Absolutely. RAC Aaron: schedule again because I opened up to California. I do feel like for their current roster, they will have an interesting season going ahead of them. they do go against ⁓ my UNLV though. So I putting my own picks head to head. We'll have to see how that comes out. they could be undone either way. that'll be up in the air for it. But like I said, if they get another nine to 10 wins, I would still see that as an improvement for the losses they had from last year and what they put back together. It's showing a consistent program at that point, which I do think is an improvement. RY4N: You know, I think the make or break for UNLV game is whether or not Jackson Arnold likes bacon cheeseburgers. I think it's very easy to get caught up. Okay, if Jackson Arnold likes barbecue bacon cheeseburgers, because I think it's very easy to get caught up, especially those guys that are coming out of state. They're like, I want to come to Hawaii. I want to have fun. I don't know how anyone actually shows up and plays the game. They're probably just having fun for three days and they go play Hawaii. That's just a boost for them. RAC Chandler: BBQ bacon cheeseburgers. RY4N: Double home field advantage and the travel. RAC Aaron: Yeah. RAC Chandler: I mean, they're throwing out eligibility like with 2C we talked about earlier. I mean, I'll enroll in Hawaii and take one for the team and walk on to their football program if that means we can go over there and get some content. RAC Aaron: Absolutely. RY4N: I will too. I'll play running back, get smashed by our overall release every play, when we get to go to Hawaii. RAC Chandler: They're never playing Hawaii, but yeah, and he's in the NFL now. He's in the NFL. RAC Aaron: Yeah. So, Coach Chang, if you find yourself running out of room in the depth chart there and you need three human bodies ⁓ to be able to throw out the field and break, you got ours. RY4N: You know what saying? RAC Chandler: with no charge of NIL, but you have to pay for our flight over there. RY4N: I'm very encouraging. RAC Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. RY4N: I'm a very encouraging person, even if I suck at football. RAC Aaron: But I do think we have some interesting games watch. will say more excited to watch some off teams for these games that will add in our season roster here of games we're going to have to tune in for. I'm not sure who's going to come out on top here because one of these teams, one of the nine is going to be, I think a shocker better than they've done. It's not going to be Notre Dame. unless they take the whole thing, ⁓ the other eight are in contention for a chance at a lot of improvement. So it'll interesting. We'll do a follow-up, ⁓ definitely post season to ⁓ see won this one. RY4N: Yeah, we'll come back to these later in the season. But also, it's kind of weird that a lot of I'm kind of surprised we don't have any dupes, first of all. And second of all, which one? RAC Chandler: We did. BBQ bacon cheeseburger. RAC Aaron: Why? RY4N: I'm at the teens, We didn't have any duplicate teens. Also, a lot of them are ACC. And I know you said something about Clemson. We can't talk bad about Clemson. Their backup quarterback is a fan of us, apparently. So we just gotta wait till he starts and then they're gonna be a great program. He's gonna be the next Trevor Lawrence. RAC Aaron: You It's true, it's true. RY4N: Most approved. RAC Aaron: Even better. So with our picks locked in, that's gonna wrap up this episode of Rack. But next week, we're coming in to fight the stat line to see if we're gonna take the Vegas odds on wins, and losses of different teams throughout the season. So follow us there. Our link tree to all our social medias are in the description of the episode. Feel free, our email link is also in there. So if you have any followups, if you have any questions, if you have any topics you want to see us discuss while we're in the off season, feel free to send an email over or comment directly on whatever you're watching this. If you can, please follow the show on whatever platform you're listening or viewing us on. That really helps us get out there, pops us up in the algorithm, gets us out to more people. So for all of you that have done it, thank you for all of you that will do it. We thank you as well until next time. RY4N: and if you watched this far, please comment Which team you think is the most improved and thank you for watching the whole video. Bye. Bye