Latest / The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views / TABLE TALK: College NIL Issues And The Coming Football Season

Transcript

TABLE TALK: College NIL Issues And The Coming Football Season · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:00
Hey there, everybody, It's Jeff. We recorded this Table Talk interview in
0:03
podcast on Sunday, March thirty first, twenty twenty four. By the time
0:08
you hear this, some things may have changed, but we hope you enjoyed
0:11
the show. All right, everybody, you are listening to Table Talk here
0:30
at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast
0:34
show in the world. That's right, we're getting close to eleven years strong
0:38
here, April eleven years that we've been doing this show. I think it's
0:42
like April seventeenth. I think it's the official anniversary of when we did the
0:47
very first episode back in twenty thirteen. But anyway, we got a great
0:53
show coming your way here, a great discussion here on Table Talk this week.
0:58
Really wanted to get into some NCAA talk, talking about the NIL,
1:03
some college football as well, what is going to be happening with the upcoming
1:07
NFL Draft, some college storylines that we're going to be following as we look
1:11
to this next season. We got a great guest, let's get to him
1:15
right now. It's great to have back on the podcast from Fox Sports Radio
1:19
of the Lehigh Valley. Always love talking to him about the world of college
1:25
athletics. We have, mister Mike Raymond. How are you doing, Mike,
1:29
the ever changing world of college athletics. Yes, you need to call
1:32
it now, Jeff, but I'm doing fantastic. I hopefully hope you had
1:34
a great holiday weekend and you are ready for the changing of the guard.
1:40
We said earlier on the radio show this week that it's you know, spring
1:44
in terms of a season, but certainly in terms of sports too. Everything
1:47
is coming up in blooming right now, which is fantastic. Yeah, you
1:49
know, I'm really missing college football. Of course, you and I we
1:55
talk a lot of college football throughout the course of the year. You know,
1:57
when you're able to jump on the pod here every now and again.
2:00
I've jumped on on the Happy Hour as well at Fox Sports Radio, and
2:06
we've talked about various issues. But I mean, I got to tell you,
2:09
Mike, and I wasn't planning on talking to this. I just haven't
2:12
been as into the March madness stuff this year. Women's tournament absolutely, Men's
2:17
tournament not so much. And I'm telling you it's a bizarre thing. It
2:22
started a few years ago for me where the men's tournament. I was like,
2:24
yeah, and we've talked about it on this podcast platform, how we're
2:28
just not into the men's stuff, but the women's tournament absolutely. Yeah,
2:30
And it helps when you have Caitlyn Clark, you know, carrying the torch
2:34
and you know, obviously getting that semi final matchup with LSU, and I
2:39
think that's fantastic, and you know, and you know, in terms of
2:42
the men's bracket, I think so much chalk came through this year. I
2:46
know we're kind of a couple minutes a way to see if NC State could
2:49
be a double digit final four team, but yeah, it's so much chalk
2:53
this year. And I really think that when you have stuff like that,
2:57
I think March madis, you know, certainly with in the first weekend lives
3:00
on the upset and Yep, nowadays it's kind of like, I don't know,
3:04
if we have Burdue and Yukon who wanted a year ago kind of still
3:07
alive and clawing, I think the interest kind of wanes, even though there
3:12
are some spectacular players on both squads. Yeah, it really makes me like
3:16
long for the days back when, back when we really did have those like
3:21
those high quality like Duke Kentucky type of type of matchups, and I mean
3:25
it's been it's really been a while. But look, I wanted to talk
3:30
about where college athletics is really going this year here in twenty twenty four,
3:35
what we saw last year, how it relates to twenty twenty four, where
3:38
we're at. I mean, I mean, we saw some exceptional college football
3:43
talent this past year. We saw some exceptional talent in college athletics in general,
3:47
both male and female sides of things here, but we also saw an
3:53
explosion of NIL dollars that were just flowing across the NC double A. Of
3:58
course, Caitlin Clark and throughout college football, we saw just NIL dollars everywhere.
4:03
I mean Kaitlyn Clark, she made over three million dollars off of her
4:08
NIL deals. And then you have Shadar Sanders. He came in as the
4:13
top NIL earner with in college football four point seven million dollars, arch manning
4:18
two point eight million dollars. Because there's a lot of money for some college
4:23
athletes out there, Mike, A lot of colleges now because of this,
4:28
have NIL based offices within their athletic departments to help a lot of these students
4:31
really navigate these waters here. What are your prevailing thoughts about how the NIL
4:36
is very much a part of the college athletic experience at this particular point in
4:42
time. You're naming some of the names that we're obviously very familiar with,
4:46
but you know, there's there's the guy on the swim team that's doing the
4:48
local car dealership still too, you know, not as lucrative as you know,
4:51
Caleb Williams in Kaitlyn Clark, you know, doing subway commercials or state
4:57
farm commercials or whatever. But yeah, it's an interesting platform. It's certainly
5:02
uncharted waters, and I think you're seeing a lot of apprehension as teams kind
5:08
of know and to try to understand what the boundaries of this really are.
5:14
And I think the answer is there truly are none, because you're seeing more
5:17
and more that you know, states are kind of getting involved, and you
5:21
know, they're bringing up litigation and saying that you can't prevent certain athletes from
5:27
doing this and you can't call out all. I'm all, I'm looking at
5:30
it as Okay, some people who are basically were being used for their name,
5:32
image and likeness prior to now are actually getting to cash in on some
5:38
of that and keep some of that money in their pocket as opposed to it
5:40
going completely to the university. And and I'm for that, but I Jeff,
5:45
you know, there's got to be some parameters and rules and balance,
5:47
some balance balance, you know. And I think when you keep hearing about
5:53
you know, you mentioned that each college will have, you know, an
5:56
office or a department that's kind of running this and leading this. And while
5:59
they're you know, primarily there to help the athletes, you know, they're
6:01
obviously bringing in a lot of dollars to allocate towards those athletes. So what
6:08
does that look like in terms of the haves and the have nots? Right?
6:11
And We've talked about this on the Happy Hour plenty, and I think
6:15
that's where I struggle the most when it comes to this, because if you're
6:18
Ohio State, if you're Washington, if your organ if your Penn State,
6:21
if you're Florida, if you're Alabama, all those Tier one, top level
6:27
programs are going to be able to bring in lots of dollars through sponsorships,
6:30
through donors, through various different ways. How does how does a Troy,
6:36
for example, compete with that? There? You know, they're still a
6:40
Division one A ar FBS. How are they supposed to compete with just being
6:45
able to get sponsorship dollars in? And so here's the other thing too,
6:49
Like, what's preventing this nil collective from essentially expanding the roster? Right,
6:57
Jeff? So like we know there's an exit number of scholar athletes on every
7:00
team, right, So what's preventing that nil collective to just saying, hey,
7:05
we're just going to pay your tuition. It's not necessarily're not on scholarship.
7:08
So technically the football program isn't breaking any rules, but we're taking care
7:12
of your scholarship because that's where we see the value, and that's where you
7:15
would like to allocate those funds and then you know, put yourself in a
7:19
better situation. Are how are we supposed to regulate that? Because obviously there
7:25
are FBS level schools that are certainly not going to be able to keep up
7:30
with the bread and with the top level the top level of what college athletics
7:34
is. And that's only one sport. I'm only kind of referring to football.
7:38
What does it look what does it look like? You know, Title
7:41
nine stole like keeping your keeping your compliance for Title nine is making sure the
7:45
same amount of resources are going into the same women's sports. I don't know
7:49
how you're going to be able to regulate any of that, and be curious
7:54
to see how currently they do that and what parameters can be put on the
7:59
books for schools to follow in the future. I think it's interesting you mentioned
8:03
that, and you use the phrase earlier in the discussion here. This is
8:07
uncharted waters that we are in, and I guess to expand upon this nil
8:13
discussion that we're having here, Mike, I mean Kirk Herbstreet, he tweeted
8:16
out right at the end of January how college football is going to continue to
8:20
change, going to continue to alter in different forms, but that the NC
8:24
Double A is going to end up needing a new governing body a CBA,
8:28
an actual collective bargaining agreement as they're moving forward with this nil issue that they're
8:35
dealing with and trying to wrap their heads around here and inevitably the revenue sharing
8:39
aspect of this. I mean, this is a guy in kirk Krbstreet who
8:41
understands the game, He understands the business aspect of what at least NC Double
8:46
A football has been and again, like you said, we're just talking college
8:50
football here. It's amazing where this sport of college football has gone. When
8:56
discussing the many issues surrounding the NIL, I mean, do you agree with
9:01
Kirk kurb Street and what he has said needs to happen in the future with
9:05
regard to this NIL situation here? Like, what do you think we may
9:09
be seeing here perhaps ten years down the road. Yeah, I mean,
9:13
governing body. Sure, it's certainly not the end. It's certainly not the
9:18
nc double A, And I think that's that's evidence as to so you and
9:22
I both know, Jeff, where where does the money come from for college
9:24
athletics? So primarily primarily it's coming from television revenue contract exactly. They're not
9:30
going to the NCUBLEA to negotiate those contracts. They're going to the Big Ten,
9:33
they're going to the SCC, they're going to the ACC, and they're
9:37
coming up with a dollar amount that they're going to pay that conference for the
9:39
exclusive rights to broadcast X amount of games. And the NCUALEA doesn't have any
9:46
part of that conversation. You know, NAA does a really good job of
9:48
thinking their name into the march madness and owning that tournament right right now is
9:52
as the College Football Playoff is concern. Nope, you know, it's sponsored
9:56
by all states, sponsored by whatever. You know. It's it's interesting because
10:01
you know, you got to take that whole because if you're going towards the
10:05
CBA, you're going towards creating a steparate governing body, you're going to have
10:11
to take that student athlete name out of it because I mean, that's an
10:13
NCAA torn I think. I think the fact that you're going to be attending
10:20
college, yeah, that's great, but like you're there to play football and
10:24
you're there to play or basketball or whatever. But you know, we're talking
10:26
football right now, and it turns in terms of, like you know,
10:31
the revenue sharing. So it's interesting because we saw a couple of years back,
10:35
remember in Northwestern try to unionize ye uh, you know their football program.
10:37
And I believe there's another school I can't think of the one off the
10:41
top of my head that recently tried to do the same thing. It was
10:43
a basketball program. I think it was a basketball program you trying to do
10:46
like Vermont or something. But my point is, yeah, you're going to
10:50
have to have a share of the pie. You know, if we're going
10:54
to continue to go after this revenue with television networks, why should and you
11:01
have a share of that, and you should be at that negotiating table and
11:03
you you know, yeah, so all of this is not it's not currently
11:07
how they do business, and it needs to change. If Kirk kurve Street
11:11
is saying CVA, that's fine, your revenue sharing, we could talk about
11:15
that, And I l how is it supposed to balance out? I want
11:18
to see the rules on the book, show me how it's going to all
11:22
balance out. And I don't think I don't think anyone has the courage right
11:24
now. Certainly it's not the NCAA. This this thing is alf the rails
11:28
now, But I don't think anyone has the courage to step forward and offer
11:33
a great solution. You know where now we're sitting in the new era of
11:37
college football playoffs. You know, we've expanded now to twelve teams and we're
11:41
talking about a further expansion to fourteen teams in two years. You know,
11:45
this is not going away. It's only growing larger and more powerful. So
11:50
you need to put some roots down at some point and make a stand and
11:54
say we have to have some parameters because you're getting to the point where you're
11:58
hearing coaches this isn't right, This isn't right. Nick Saban, He's like,
12:01
I don't want anything to do with his nil stuff. He's like,
12:03
I'm out of here. This is not what I signed up for. This
12:07
is not how I've done business for my entire career. This is not what
12:09
I build my legacy upon. And he's one of you know, we know
12:13
the old guard has to change at some point. You're seeing no more Bill
12:16
at Belichick either he's not getting the job in the NFL. But you know,
12:18
the old guard has to change at some point. But there also needs
12:22
to be some parameters that they need to stick to. Jeff, absolutely,
12:24
I agree with you, and I think it comes back to that word balance.
12:28
We're gonna need to see that at some point in the future. And
12:30
it's tough when you have a lot of different little tentacles, you know,
12:35
it's like the octopus tentacle. You have a lot of tentacles within this college
12:39
athletic world. It's gonna be interesting to follow. For sure. We're gonna
12:43
get into some coaching in a little bit here. You brought up you know
12:46
Nick Saban leaving Alabama. We're gonna get into some coaching changes in just a
12:50
bit here, but I wanted to really talk about the upcoming NFL Draft with
12:54
you, Mike. It's right around the corner, less than a month away.
12:56
There's gonna be a lot of new talent heading two the NFL, and
13:00
wouldn't let our listeners know that we're gonna be getting into the NFL Draft some
13:03
prospect talk a lot more in the coming weeks here before the draft. But
13:07
I'm wondering, do you think this twenty twenty four NFL Draft will end up
13:11
being perhaps the draft of the quarterback, you know, the draft of the
13:16
wide receivers or possibly another position? How are you how are you looking at
13:20
this upcoming draft from more of a macro standpoint. Yeah, I'd have to
13:24
think back, and I don't know if we're at the at the standpoint where
13:26
we can look at the nineteen eighty three draft with Marino and La and all
13:31
that. Yeah, But like you're talking, you're talking about some really talented
13:33
quarterbacks. Two Heisman Trophy winners that are coming out this year, which which
13:39
obviously is gonna have a lot of spotlight shine on them. So you know,
13:43
obviously, right now, Caleb Williams seems to be the guy who's standing
13:46
out. You know, whether it's the draft of the quarterback. You can
13:48
talk about the wide receivers that are out there as well. There's some top
13:50
end talent, and I think what's gonna happen is you're going to see such
13:56
a push in the top ten picks to get the right quarterback to the right
14:00
team. So you're gonna see you know, how much have we'd heard from
14:03
JJ McCarthy from his pro dag you know at Michigan. You know he he
14:09
is a guy who's obviously won a national championship, but really, like you
14:11
wouldn't have gotten that much that excited about JJ McCarthy a year ago, exactly,
14:16
you know, And that's not that's not Shane at McCarthy. I actually
14:18
like him. I think I think he's a guy who and I've said this
14:22
on the Happy Hours, and let me finish my statement before you overreact.
14:26
I said, he's kind of he's kind of like Patrick Mahomes, all right,
14:30
but in the way that he just extends plays long enough there for his
14:35
receive receivers to get open. Okay, I think that I think that's the
14:39
one the one thing that I like about JJ McCarthy. But whether it's Jane
14:41
Daniels, whether it's j J. McCarthy, Drake may Uh, there's some
14:46
really great quarterbacks out there. The big conversation I had heard, and there
14:48
was something that I had to respond to on social media, was the comparison
14:54
at the wide receiver spot between Marvin Harrison junior obviously from Ohio State, who
15:00
who put up some big numbers, and elite Neighbors at LSU, and everyone's
15:03
saying that Neighbors is probably better than Harrison, doesn't get the same amount of
15:05
love for it. And I said to me, wait a minute, yeah,
15:09
wait a minute, nothing against Neighbors, but you had a Heisman Trophy
15:13
winner throwing you a football. Yeah, Marvin Harrison had Kyle McCord, you
15:20
know who's not even playing. I don't have to state anymore. He's like,
15:24
he's off to Syracuse, and I'm thinking of myself. Marvin Harrison is
15:28
the dude, and there's a reason he's getting looked at as one of the
15:31
best wide receiver talents of a generation, and Neighbors is just as good.
15:35
Yeah, certainly a first round talent. But let's not split hairs when we're
15:39
talking about the top wide receiver in this draft. One made Kyle McCord look
15:43
good for entire football, right right, Yeah, I don't necessarily think this
15:46
is going to be a draft of the wide receiver. I think it'll be
15:48
more if you're looking for at an offensive standpoint, more than a draft of
15:52
quarterbacks. I mean, I mean, let's take a look at twenty eighteen.
15:56
I mean, that was the draft of the wide receivers. AJ Brown,
15:58
Deebo saying, Emuel, Terry McLaurin, Marquise Brown, to name a
16:03
few, DK Metcalf as well. I believe that was his year. Uh
16:07
So, I don't necessarily know if it's gonna be the year of the wide
16:08
receiver, but it's gonna be really interesting. It's gonna be fascinating. And
16:11
Mike, what else is fascinating as we're moving along here is to really watch
16:15
what happens to a lot of these football programs, these college football programs now
16:19
that they've had some coaching changes, I mean coaching changes. And I'm saying
16:25
that, you know, you and I have been watching a lot of these
16:26
teams saying, oh god, these guys are going to be there till the
16:29
day they die. But it's amazing, you know. I mean, we're
16:30
gonna be seeing Chip Kelly going to Ohio State to be their new offensive coordinator,
16:36
Jimbo Fisher's out at Texas A and M. And of course we know,
16:41
you know, Harbaugh's heading out to to Los Angeles. I must had
16:45
San Diego Los Angeles Charge all the time. I know, I'm still it's
16:49
still it drives me crazy. I did an opposition Territory podcast recently with talking
16:55
about the Chargers and which I almost call them San Diego all the time.
16:57
It drives me crazy. But and of course with Nick Saban as you mentioned
17:00
earlier, you know, saying, you know, this isn't the college football
17:04
landscape that it's been for me for all these decades. You know, he's
17:08
heading out the door here too, Jonathan Smith taken over at Michigan State here.
17:15
So yeah, two part question for you here with regard to all these
17:18
coaching changes, I'm wondering which coaching change do you think is going to be
17:22
the best for its program and which do you think maybe you know, won't
17:26
really work out at all in the end. Yeah, well, yeah,
17:30
let's let's start with the positive, and I'll say Klen de Bor, I
17:33
think he's I think the athletic department at Alabama had had a name in mind
17:37
as soon as they knew Saban wasn't going to be back yew with Klen Debor
17:41
and I think, you know, it's going to be a proving ground for
17:44
him to get it done in the SEC as opposed to where the where else
17:48
he's been. But it seemed like they had a firm grasp on who that
17:52
was going to be when they when they turned the page on Nick Saban.
17:56
I want to just give a quick shout out to David Braun at Northwestern.
18:00
Think about what that where. That program was just a year ago and after
18:03
the Pat pitch Gerald fiasco, they're they're retaining him. They had a winning
18:07
season this year. They went to a bowl game. Like this is a
18:10
team that led an expired season after like having a terrible back to back to
18:15
back bad seasons. It was it was pathetic. Shout out to David Brown,
18:22
but yeah, Calen divorce definitely brings out to the top of the list.
18:25
I want to also throw another quick shout out at the University of Buffalo
18:29
if you will this. This is a deep dive here. Pete Lembo former
18:33
You know, we're Fox Sports Radio of the Lehigh Valley. So Selembo,
18:37
former Lehigh Mountain Hawk coach, still making waves in college football. So I
18:42
want to throw his name into the mix in terms of an interesting hire,
18:47
one that I don't love, Jeff. The top of the list to me
18:51
is Deshaun Foster at U c l A. That was a quick decision and
18:56
I think timing kind of played into that. And it's not to say that
19:00
he isn't all in for U c l A. I think he absolutely is.
19:03
I think he holds that job near dear is harder than a lum and
19:07
form a running back there, and obviously he's been around for a while.
19:11
I think that, you know, I would be a little bit more comfortable
19:14
had they done a nationwide search and not really turned around within a week and
19:17
said this is our guy right away like that one. I'm not sold on.
19:21
Not really sold on the Sharon More situation up in Michigan. Now,
19:26
it's kind of a bad situation. He's kind of taken over there in Michigan
19:30
because the roster is turning over so much so even if they take, you
19:34
know, a three or four four loss season, it's going to be all
19:37
on him, not necessarily playing into what else the roster had turned over with.
19:42
And and I just don't understand what Bill O'Brien's thinking. You know,
19:48
he's at the at Ohio State for like three weeks and he's like, I
19:51
want to be the head coach at Boston College. Yeah, that's an interesting
19:56
one too. I love Bill O'Brien too, by the way, just for
19:59
what he dude with the Penn State program. I am always rooting for him,
20:02
but this was the first time where I was just like you. I
20:04
was like, Bill, what are you doing here? What's going on here?
20:07
Yeah? Well, one more in terms of a really good coaching higher,
20:11
really good coaching higher. I think Manny Diaz is the right guy for
20:14
Duke. Yeah. I think that was you know, as much as Penn
20:15
State and fans are going to miss him, I think Manny Daz certainly deserves
20:18
another run at things. And obviously in the ACC he's familiar with the conference
20:25
in a prestigious academic institution like you, as long as he has the right
20:29
guy to run the offense, I think they're going to be in great shape.
20:30
I think that that's great. You know, we really are going to
20:33
miss Manny Diaz. I'm sure you and I are going to be talking about
20:36
that a little bit more for the season starts, for sure. And again
20:40
folks were talking to Mike Raymond from Fox Sports Radio of the Lehigh Valley.
20:44
Follow him on Twitter slash x at Mike Raymond LV. He's a great,
20:48
great follow and uh getting into and I know it is so preliminary here some
20:53
of these college football rankings, I mean ESPN back in like mid February,
20:57
they released their rankings ahead George at number one, Ohio State is number two,
21:03
Oregon is number three. Our beloved Penn State Nitney Lions, Mike,
21:07
they're ranked number eight heading into this coming season here again based on ESPN.
21:14
This year, we finally get that expanded National Championship tournament. I can't wait
21:18
for it because, like, if all things being equal, God willing,
21:22
we're gonna have some fun as Penn State fans. We're certainly gonna get into
21:26
some Penn State talk in a bit. I think that's gonna be the biggest
21:29
storyline, just that expanded National Championship tournament here. That's coming this season.
21:33
What do you think is gonna be one of the biggest story lines that we're
21:37
going to be focusing on this coming college football season. I think it's going
21:41
to be the continued expansion of the conferences. You know, we're talking about
21:42
the Big Ten bringing in all those Pac Pac twelve teams, you know,
21:45
with Washington and Oregon and missing the other two UCLA in USC YEP, which
21:53
I think obviously is a huge big it's a huge deal. And obviously the
21:56
SEC continuing their expansion with Texas and Oklahoma, which I think is a fantastic
22:03
thing. I want to see how Texas competes in the SEC. I want
22:06
to see, you know, especially with what they've got going on down there.
22:08
I think it's a great thing. And I'm always a Texas apologist,
22:12
but what they've got going down there, great quarterback play, great coaching.
22:18
I think they have the right They're finally at a position where I feel like
22:22
they have the right people in the right places to make a run. I
22:25
also want to see if the team that Pence they played in their bowl game,
22:29
the Old Miss Reds, can make a run too, because with Jackson
22:33
Dart, you know, the way he played in the bowl game. You
22:34
know, he looks dangerous. He's got some great weapons around him. I
22:38
want to see if a Link Kiffen his squad can continue to build on the
22:41
success that they had one of the best seasons of Old Myths history last year.
22:45
I want to see if they can continue on with with what they've been
22:48
able to do. Between the expansion of the playoff, expansion of the conference,
22:52
there's gonna be plenty of this. And by the way, is it
22:56
just me or have we kind of forgotten about Notre Dame A lot of us
23:00
have. Yeah, it's a good point. I feel like they're lingering in
23:03
the weeds somewhere. I want to see what they are able to do here.
23:07
I know it's they still continue to bring talent in there and they still
23:11
have some great things going. I just want to see if they're able to
23:14
come back around and be part of that discussion, because their is going to
23:18
continue to get more difficult as the expansion of the college wall playoffs continued.
23:22
I want to see what Notre Dame has this year. I think that's a
23:25
great point. I think in that ESPN rankings that I was just talking about,
23:29
I think they were ranked like sixth or seventh I believe in there so
23:33
like still top ten perhaps, but there's not a lot of storylines coming out
23:37
of coming out of Notre Dame Sleeping Giants. Perhaps, yes, perhaps perhaps.
23:42
All Right, well, let's get into some Penn State talk here,
23:47
Penn State football talk to conclude our discussion here, Mike, I mean,
23:51
I'm really wondering on offense, who the wide receivers will be to really step
23:56
up this year. Julian Fleming who transferred over from Ohio State, He's going
24:00
to likely going to be taking on probably more of a leadership role within that
24:04
unit than you have receivers Harrison Wallace, the third KeAndre Lambert Smith also being
24:10
a part of that top wave of the receiving talent for Penn State. Now
24:14
I'm wondering, Mike, who are you looking at to really step up this
24:18
year on this Penn State football team to make a real difference, whether it's
24:21
on the offensive side of the ball or the defensive side of the ball.
24:25
Well, after I mentioned Jackson, dark and old myths, I think the
24:27
secondary has a lot to prove after the way they got torched in that ball
24:32
game. Yes, and obviously you're graduating Kaylin King, who's one of the
24:36
best defensive back they've had in recent years. Keaton ellis no longer there as
24:40
well. Johnny Dixon is going into the draft as well Taikwon Hardy, so
24:45
that there's a lot of cornerstone pieces that have been a part of this Penn
24:49
State secondary from any years that will not be there next year. So it's
24:53
going to be a yeah, losing Chops, losing Chopp Robinson's got that's going
24:59
to be huge. Yeah. But I think the plan as Tom Allen comes
25:03
over as the new Tape defensive coordinator from Indiana, the plan as of right
25:07
now, I keep hearing Abdul Carter, the amazing linebacker, is going to
25:11
be moved into that defensive end spot, which I think is going to be
25:14
a great fit for him to continue to bress out the quarterback opposite the Idana
25:18
Sutton, who I think is a fantastic defensive end that just kind of got
25:21
buried on a deep depth chart. I think the defense front that the front
25:26
seven will be okay, it's maybe that back half of the defense I'm a
25:29
little bit more concerned about in terms of a positive though, Jeff, I'm
25:32
looking at the unit of the offensive line. Yeah, they're gradually graduating Olu
25:37
Fashionu, one of the best left tackles out there in this upcoming draft.
25:41
But they have Drew Shelton, who's played the position in the past, who's
25:45
going to slide over and he's going to take over that left tackle spot.
25:47
Uh. You got Nick Dawkins who went to Parkland High School here in the
25:51
Lehigh Valley, who's slated to be the new center of the Penn State and
25:55
Indie Lions. And you get Nolan Rucci who Penn State heavily recruited. I
26:00
went to Wisconsin and decided to come back to Penn State via the transfer portal
26:03
this offseason, who was a five star offensive lineman that went to Wisconsin.
26:07
So I love the fact that he's in the mix as well to add to
26:11
that depth. So we saw a little bit of a dip with the running
26:14
backs last year, so I think that'll kind of go away with this solid
26:18
offensive front. Five in front of this guy in front of this guy's walking
26:22
for Singleton and k Tron Allen and Quinton Martin, who is another Pennsylvania guy
26:27
who are bringing in this off season that I'm really excited about as a freshman.
26:32
Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see who's going to be that
26:33
number three running back too, and perhaps we can talk about that at some
26:37
other point down the road. Again, folks, Mike Raymond from Fox Sports
26:41
Radio the Lehigh Valley at Mike Raymond LV on Twitter, slash x, whatever
26:45
you're calling it these days. Mike, buddy, it was great to talk
26:48
with you. Thank you so much for taking the time. Let's talk more
26:51
college athletics down the road, my friend. I'm ready when you are.
26:55
Joe Ken, I wait to see what the Penn State Dneye Lions do this
26:57
coming season as a Penn State Tom. Yes, Mike and I both our
27:00
loves and we both absolutely love following Fenn State football program. We're gonna talk
27:06
about that team a lot more Big ten SEC, what's happening within the world
27:10
of college athletics more well into the future. That's gonna do it for us
27:14
here on Table Talk. If you are new to listening to the podcast,
27:18
we'd appreciate if you would give us a follow. If you're on Apple Podcasts,
27:21
if you're listening on another podcast platform, subscribe. I think you're gonna
27:25
like the content. It's not just Philly Sports one hundred percent of the time.
27:30
Again, like this podcast here we got into some college athletics. We
27:33
also tend to get into some other areas of the sports world and dive into
27:38
some interesting, interesting subject matters and content here at the PST podcast show and
27:44
on this platform. So if you are listening to us on Apple Podcasts,
27:48
give us a follow there. And I think I said to subscribe before too,
27:53
right, But if anything does happen your podcast feed as you're moving along
27:57
listening to the PST podcast showing thing happens to that feed, head on over
28:00
to Philadelphia Sports Table dot com. We've got all of our shows over there.
28:04
Follow me on the Twitter slash x at Jeffrey Underscore Warren, and you
28:10
can follow the show at Philadelphia PST. Head on over to threads. You
28:14
can follow me over there at mister jeff Warren, and you can follow the
28:17
show at Philadelphia Sports Table. So it's gonna do it for us. Everyone,
28:21
Take care, we'll catch you next time.