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ITG 131 - Portal Season

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00:00:00 (upbeat music)

00:00:02 In the gun, episode 131 of your new favorite

00:00:08 WVU football podcast here.

00:00:10 It's time to talk some portal updates,

00:00:12 some coaching changes, some around campus,

00:00:15 a little headlines style edition of ITG here, if you will.

00:00:19 I am Wesley Uhler, got the best teammates in the business.

00:00:22 Got the signal caller, Jed Drenning with me here.

00:00:25 Our dear signal caller, Owen Schmidt.

00:00:27 Listen, he is Santa's little helper.

00:00:30 I mean, he is in busy season, UPS, right?

00:00:33 It's Christmas time.

00:00:36 We're about two weeks, less than two weeks away

00:00:38 from Christmas as we record this episode today.

00:00:41 So Big O's got some stuff going on.

00:00:43 I think he had to take a coworker to MedExpress

00:00:45 or something, they had a little injury.

00:00:47 He's got it all going on.

00:00:49 So we'll catch up with Big O here in a couple of days,

00:00:51 later on in the week when we will do a WVU season

00:00:54 in review episode.

00:00:55 But for today, you got myself, you got Jed.

00:00:58 I think our buddy Skyler is going to hop in

00:01:00 for the final segment as well too,

00:01:02 maybe when we talk some WVU portal updates.

00:01:05 But this episode of ITG, as always,

00:01:07 brought to you in part by our friends at BETtOnline,

00:01:09 where the game starts.

00:01:11 And Jed, we have got plenty to get to, like I said,

00:01:13 some portal updates, some coaching changes,

00:01:17 some All-American honors, a whole bunch of stuff

00:01:19 to hit on here in this edition of ITG.

00:01:22 But we start with a little around campus shout out.

00:01:25 I think two of our Mountaineer programs

00:01:28 deserve just a quick moment of our time here.

00:01:31 The first being the men's soccer program,

00:01:34 making it to the final four, the college cup,

00:01:37 as they call it in collegiate soccer.

00:01:39 But for all intents and purposes,

00:01:42 for the common vernacular, they made it

00:01:44 to the final four of men's college soccer.

00:01:48 They played Clemson.

00:01:49 And unfortunately, in the national semifinal,

00:01:52 they did lose 1 to nothing.

00:01:54 Tough game.

00:01:54 One of those games, Clemson scored early in the first half.

00:01:57 And that's just-- Jed, I know you're not a soccer savant.

00:02:01 I'm not a soccer savant either.

00:02:03 But I think I have an OK understanding of the sport.

00:02:08 That's just how it works sometimes.

00:02:09 Team comes out, they jump on you, they score 1-0,

00:02:12 and then they're kind of just able to suffocate you

00:02:14 the rest of the way.

00:02:15 And WVU, a couple chances there, but just not the night

00:02:19 that they had against--

00:02:20 or not the night they wanted to have, I should say,

00:02:22 against a talented Clemson team, who was, like I said,

00:02:24 able to get that advantage early and protect

00:02:26 that lead the rest of the way.

00:02:28 But certainly a historic season.

00:02:29 First time ever in program history

00:02:31 that they've gone to the College Cup.

00:02:33 Big shout out to Dan Stratford.

00:02:36 He talked about taking this program to new heights

00:02:38 and winning national championships

00:02:40 when he took the job, and just got as close as anyone's ever

00:02:43 been in program history.

00:02:46 As you touched on, Wes, I know less than zero about soccer.

00:02:49 But in listening to the comments of the opposing coach,

00:02:53 it was pretty apparent that he recognized

00:02:55 they got away with one.

00:02:57 So yeah, I'm not so sure that the better team

00:03:00 won just based on that, if I can apply

00:03:02 any context to those comments.

00:03:04 And then there was a tweet that was making its rounds.

00:03:07 And I thought it was very telling.

00:03:09 It was Ren Baker embracing Coach Stratford,

00:03:14 embracing each individual player as they made their way off

00:03:17 the field after suffering that top loss.

00:03:20 And I've seen it up close and personal.

00:03:24 Let me tell you something, guys.

00:03:25 Ren is a servant leader.

00:03:27 There's no doubt about it.

00:03:28 Wes, I don't know if I told you guys this,

00:03:30 but I remember after the Baylor game,

00:03:33 we were on one of the five buses heading from the stadium

00:03:36 to the airport.

00:03:37 And as we made our way up on the tarmac,

00:03:39 and we were actually waiting on Zach

00:03:42 to get loaded on the plane, because they

00:03:44 had to make special accommodations for what

00:03:46 was going on with Zach.

00:03:47 So we were on the buses a little longer than normal.

00:03:49 And we get the box meal when we leave the stadium,

00:03:53 much like you do with the Steelers.

00:03:54 Everybody has the box meal.

00:03:55 So a lot of trash ends up piling up throughout these buses,

00:03:58 right?

00:03:59 Well, Ren is in the front seat of the bus.

00:04:02 And he ends up picking up the big trash can

00:04:05 and making his way down the aisle,

00:04:07 harvesting the trash, filling the trash can.

00:04:10 Our athletic director is collecting the trash on bus 5.

00:04:15 That's your servant leader.

00:04:16 So when I see a tweet with Ren embracing

00:04:20 some heartbroken athletes and coaches,

00:04:22 I am not even slightly surprised.

00:04:25 He's the real deal.

00:04:26 He's what you see is what you get.

00:04:28 He's absolutely the real McCoy.

00:04:30 And hats off to Ren Baker, and hats off to the men's soccer

00:04:33 team for that effort.

00:04:35 Yeah, absolutely.

00:04:36 Had a lot of fun watching those guys go on their run

00:04:39 to the Final Four, to the College Cup.

00:04:42 63 years as a program, farthest we've ever been.

00:04:44 First time into the Final Four.

00:04:47 Let's have this be a building block, right?

00:04:50 To when we look back in another year, another two years,

00:04:52 another three years, and we're hoisting a national

00:04:54 championship trophy saying, that all got going in 2023.

00:04:59 Great job by all those guys to, again, like I said,

00:05:01 take the program somewhere it's never been.

00:05:03 But let's make this a starting point and not

00:05:06 the final destination, certainly.

00:05:08 Jed, you mentioned Ren Baker there.

00:05:11 Transition here, Ren Baker, first coach

00:05:15 that he hired as athletic director of WVU

00:05:18 was, of course, Mark Kellogg, women's basketball head coach.

00:05:21 And while one team in men's soccer

00:05:24 is having a historic season come to an end,

00:05:28 man, a really good start to the season for the WVU women's

00:05:30 basketball team and Mark Kellogg here in a new regime.

00:05:33 9-0, Jed, including beating Penn State for the first time

00:05:37 in years, an 18-point win over a ranked Penn State team.

00:05:41 They are 9-0, the WVU women's basketball team,

00:05:44 not ranked this week, though.

00:05:46 Although I got to think, that's one of those things.

00:05:48 You know how coaches are.

00:05:49 I'm sure Coach Kellogg, he probably

00:05:51 doesn't hate that because he could still, hey,

00:05:53 you guys are 9-0, but no one's still believing in you.

00:05:55 You're not getting ranked.

00:05:56 Nose to the grindstone, keep working,

00:05:58 keep proving people wrong.

00:06:00 But we just wanted to, again, take a moment and shout out

00:06:02 ladies hoops for a very strong start to the season.

00:06:05 And it's a 9-0, as you touched on, with some big wins

00:06:09 that you mentioned, but also some wins

00:06:11 and they are absolutely taking some folks behind the woodshed.

00:06:15 So I don't know how you would assign any kind of scorecard

00:06:20 through nine games of a new hire,

00:06:23 but whatever that scorecard might look like,

00:06:26 at least through nine games.

00:06:27 Now, let's see what it looks like through 19, 29, and 109.

00:06:30 But through nine games, wow, that is an impressive A-plus.

00:06:35 They've taken care of business.

00:06:36 It's obvious those girls are having fun playing together.

00:06:39 He's made things exciting.

00:06:41 So, so far, so good.

00:06:44 Incredible job by Coach Kellogg and his staff.

00:06:46 Incredible job of those girls.

00:06:48 Now, let's keep it cranking.

00:06:49 As you know, a big 12 plays

00:06:51 can be right around the corner.

00:06:52 Let's see how things shake out once they get into league play.

00:06:54 No, absolutely. It's exciting.

00:06:56 Great start. Keep it rolling.

00:06:57 Let's look up and be ranked here in another week or two.

00:07:01 And, yeah, like you mentioned, not only some big wins,

00:07:04 but also, I mean, just some demoralizing victories

00:07:07 in there as well, too.

00:07:08 Hitting triple digits with 107 points the other day

00:07:11 against Delaware State.

00:07:14 Could be a fun winter on the hardwood

00:07:16 for the ladies basketball team and for Coach Kellogg.

00:07:19 We'll be keeping an eye on them the entire way.

00:07:22 Another thank you to our friends at Toothman Ford

00:07:24 for presenting this episode of "Into the Gun."

00:07:26 Big shout out to our guy, JR.

00:07:27 We all know cars cost less in Grafton.

00:07:30 Make sure you're supporting those who support us,

00:07:32 who support our student athletes.

00:07:34 Toothman Ford does both.

00:07:36 And a big thank you to JR and Toothman Ford

00:07:38 for all they do for us here on this podcast,

00:07:40 for our WVU student athletes and NIL,

00:07:43 and for the cheapest vehicles,

00:07:45 cars costing less in Grafton there.

00:07:47 Jed, a piece of news that I think a lot of us

00:07:51 anticipated hearing at some point,

00:07:53 but now it is official, Drake May,

00:07:55 to kind of spin the block back to football here.

00:07:59 Drake May, of course, the talented signal caller

00:08:02 for the North Carolina Tar Heels,

00:08:04 a young man who has a chance, hey,

00:08:06 potentially to be the number one overall pick

00:08:08 in the NFL draft, but certainly a top five, top 10 pick.

00:08:12 He, to no one's surprise, but again, now it's official,

00:08:15 will not be playing in the bowl game.

00:08:17 He will, you know, he will forgo the opportunity

00:08:21 to play in the final game for UNC,

00:08:23 as he will get ready and start the process

00:08:25 of preparing for the draft, preparing for the combine,

00:08:28 preparing for his pro days.

00:08:29 So again, like I said, a piece of news

00:08:31 that we all anticipated would happen,

00:08:33 but now official, Drake May will not be under center

00:08:36 for the Tar Heels.

00:08:37 - He won't be the only North Carolina Tar Heel

00:08:40 not participating in this bowl game.

00:08:42 I mean, there's gonna be a list on both sides,

00:08:45 and we'll talk about that as the game approaches,

00:08:47 but as time flies, and it doesn't seem that long ago

00:08:51 that Drake May was coming out as a much heralded,

00:08:53 highly regarded four star,

00:08:55 and it looked for the longest time

00:08:58 like he was gonna end up playing for Nick Saban.

00:09:00 So it was a bit of a coup when he stayed closer to home

00:09:03 and ended up playing for the home standing Tar Heels.

00:09:06 And a lot of people feel that, all right,

00:09:07 this is the best kid the program's ever had.

00:09:10 He's a record setter.

00:09:12 I think he has just about every club in his bag.

00:09:16 And a year ago, it almost felt somewhat blasphemous

00:09:21 to suggest something short of Caleb Williams

00:09:23 as the outright unanimous number one overall pick.

00:09:27 But I'll tell you what, this conversation has turned.

00:09:31 Now, again, not as much because of the indictments

00:09:34 against Caleb Williams and how things didn't shake out

00:09:36 down the stretch for USC,

00:09:38 but Drake May has really gained some fans

00:09:41 in NFL front offices.

00:09:43 And people regard him as an absolute,

00:09:46 bona fide, legit stud.

00:09:48 A lot of people have said,

00:09:50 if these two were in last year's draft,

00:09:52 they're easily the top two quarterbacks taken.

00:09:54 And it's to the point, I would almost go as far as to say,

00:09:57 if he doesn't sneak in there and unseat Caleb Williams

00:10:02 at the number one overall spot,

00:10:04 I would be very surprised

00:10:05 if he's not taken number two overall.

00:10:07 So he's gonna be playing a lot of football

00:10:11 for a lot of years to come.

00:10:13 And he has been nothing short of impressive.

00:10:16 Now, what does that mean for West Virginia?

00:10:17 Again, we'll dive into that later.

00:10:19 They have a dual threat backup

00:10:20 that was a highly regarded recruit in his own right

00:10:23 that'll play in his stead.

00:10:25 But Drake May's been fun to watch.

00:10:27 I mean, it seems like every time I've been around a TV

00:10:30 with North Carolina playing,

00:10:33 he's what you walk away from most impressed by.

00:10:35 I mean, he makes all the throws, he extends plays,

00:10:39 he has a moxie to him,

00:10:41 just a salty football player that's fun to watch.

00:10:45 And I think he has a tremendous,

00:10:47 a very bright pro career ahead to him.

00:10:50 - Completely agree.

00:10:52 I will obviously get a much closer look at him in February

00:10:55 when I'm in Indianapolis at the Combine there.

00:10:58 And I know he'll be one of the big names

00:11:00 along with Caleb Williams.

00:11:01 It'll be a big quarterback class draft once again.

00:11:04 Michael Pennix, a bunch of big names gonna be in there.

00:11:07 The Heisman Trophy winner, Jaylen Daniels,

00:11:09 we'll talk about him here in just a minute as well too.

00:11:13 But yeah, I'm with you, I think Drake May-

00:11:14 - You did it.

00:11:15 Did you say Jaylen?

00:11:17 - Oh, I did.

00:11:19 - All your people have been doing that.

00:11:20 It's easy to do, right?

00:11:22 - Yeah, Jayden and Jaylen.

00:11:24 Those sons of guns.

00:11:26 Yeah, those talented quarterbacks.

00:11:29 - Is there a conference in the country

00:11:31 other than Big 12 officiates,

00:11:33 and not just like ourselves,

00:11:34 that make the same mistake

00:11:36 or is it because of our allegiance to the Big 12

00:11:38 that we slipped into the Jaylen Daniels

00:11:40 instead of Jayden Daniels?

00:11:41 I don't know.

00:11:42 - It's probably 'cause we're a Big 12 show,

00:11:44 a Big 12 program.

00:11:45 I don't think- - I agree.

00:11:46 - I don't think SEC podcasts

00:11:48 are doing Freudian slips with the Kansas quarterback.

00:11:54 And I promise you Pac-12 aren't because he played there.

00:11:56 So, anyway. - That's true.

00:11:57 That's a good point.

00:11:58 Eric was at Arizona State before he was LSU.

00:12:00 But yes, Drake May, I'm with everything that Jed said.

00:12:05 I think he's the real deal as well.

00:12:07 He'll be off the board quick on night one of the NFL draft.

00:12:10 I mean, all these teams at the top of the draft,

00:12:13 the Bears, okay, maybe they're gonna stick

00:12:16 with Justin Fields now after what we've seen

00:12:18 in the last couple of weeks

00:12:18 and seen down the stretch here,

00:12:19 but you've got New England picking high in the draft.

00:12:21 They're gonna need a quarterback.

00:12:22 You've got Arizona picking high in the draft.

00:12:24 Who knows what happens with Kyler Murray.

00:12:25 I mean, there's gonna be some real teams

00:12:28 in that top three, that top five that need quarterbacks.

00:12:31 And it will be, once we get to the end

00:12:33 of college football season,

00:12:34 once we get past the Super Bowl

00:12:35 and we get into combine and draft season

00:12:38 as it relates to the NFL calendar,

00:12:40 I'm telling you folks right now,

00:12:41 you're gonna hear Kayla Williams

00:12:42 versus Drake May at nauseam.

00:12:45 That's gonna be debated for months.

00:12:48 And it's gonna be a lot of fun whenever we do get there.

00:12:50 - You know what's interesting, Wes?

00:12:52 The conversation, I didn't expect the gap to close

00:12:56 until the timeline you're talking about.

00:12:58 In other words, I thought that once the off season kicked in

00:13:02 and they started heading to the combine and ND

00:13:04 and they started having pro days,

00:13:06 that's when I thought you'd start to hear the conversation

00:13:09 of the gap closing between those two.

00:13:10 I'm a little surprised that the gap has closed

00:13:14 as soon as it has.

00:13:15 Does that surprise you?

00:13:17 - Yes.

00:13:20 I mean, if you would have told me before the season,

00:13:23 I would have said absolutely,

00:13:24 because like you said, it was almost a,

00:13:26 if you would have said that anybody other than Kayla Williams

00:13:30 was the unquestioned guy,

00:13:32 was almost like an insult to your football intelligence

00:13:34 coming into this season, right?

00:13:37 But when you see how this year played out for USC,

00:13:39 and to be fair,

00:13:40 I think Kayla Williams still did a good job.

00:13:42 I don't think he was the reason that their season

00:13:45 bottomed out or anything like that.

00:13:48 But there's been some other stuff with him too.

00:13:51 Some of the rumors about, is he gonna stay?

00:13:52 Is he gonna go?

00:13:53 Does he wanna maybe tow that line

00:13:54 and try and influence where he ends up getting drafted?

00:13:57 The reports that he was gonna ask for equity

00:14:00 in the team of whatever drafted him.

00:14:03 I think there's some things now

00:14:05 that have played into that as well.

00:14:08 Whereas Drake May, he's got the other side,

00:14:11 the NFL teams and front offices and talent evaluators

00:14:14 just gush over, right?

00:14:15 He's got the family bloodlines.

00:14:17 I mean, he's got a dad who was a professional athlete,

00:14:18 a mom who was a professional athlete,

00:14:20 a brother who was a professional athlete.

00:14:22 And I think that's one of those things that,

00:14:24 again, I don't think I know,

00:14:25 scouts and coaches and talent evaluator,

00:14:27 they always drool over those bloodlines.

00:14:31 So yeah, I always thought Drake May

00:14:35 would be in the conversation as a top five pick,

00:14:37 as the number two quarterback.

00:14:39 But yeah, I did not think we'd be here already where,

00:14:42 I mean, I'm sure if you look at some big boards,

00:14:43 people have him as number one

00:14:44 over Kayla Williams at this point.

00:14:46 - Yeah, and it's a growing number.

00:14:49 I mean, I'm not gonna say it's the preponderance of GMs.

00:14:52 - Sure, sure.

00:14:52 - But it's more than that short handful

00:14:54 than I thought it would be at this point.

00:14:56 - Absolutely.

00:14:57 - I mean, I'm telling you,

00:14:58 he's gained a lot of purchase and a lot of traction.

00:15:01 I mean, people have been very impressed

00:15:02 with him down the stretch.

00:15:04 And it almost felt as though,

00:15:07 and we're way out in the weeds with this now,

00:15:08 but it almost felt as though the Kayla Williams piece

00:15:11 was almost like a Trevor Lawrence vibe to it.

00:15:14 In other words, a generational type,

00:15:16 once every 10 years, this kind of kid comes along.

00:15:19 He felt that way, and I'm not saying he doesn't.

00:15:22 What I'm saying is typically when someone feels like that,

00:15:25 you don't have a 1A encroaching closely behind,

00:15:29 but here comes Drake May,

00:15:30 and it kind of has that vibe to it.

00:15:32 - Yeah, no, it definitely does.

00:15:34 And like I said, it's gonna be a lot of fun

00:15:35 when we get to February, March, April,

00:15:37 the combine, the pro days, all those different things

00:15:39 here in the back and forth over, to be fair,

00:15:42 two very talented signal callers who both have a chance

00:15:45 to carve out great NFL careers for themselves.

00:15:48 What is Drake May being out now mean for the Mountaineers,

00:15:51 mean for the Tar Heels, mean for the Mayo Bowl?

00:15:53 Well, you're just gonna have to tune in in a couple weeks

00:15:55 when we bring you our WVU UNC preview right here on ITG.

00:16:00 But speaking of high profile quarterbacks,

00:16:03 Jed, we had two hit the portal.

00:16:05 Dylan Gabriel, of course,

00:16:07 we're familiar with him in this parish.

00:16:09 Went from UCF to Oklahoma,

00:16:11 was the starter for the Sooners last year,

00:16:13 helped them get that thing turned around

00:16:15 in Brent Venable's second year at the helm.

00:16:17 Well, Dylan Gabriel hitting the portal

00:16:19 and announcing he is gonna go to Oregon.

00:16:20 So he will go from one high flying offense to another.

00:16:24 He'll go out to the Pac-12,

00:16:25 following Bo Nix's footsteps there

00:16:28 and be the next Ducks signal caller

00:16:30 in his final year of eligibility.

00:16:32 And then Riley Leonard, the talented Duke quarterback.

00:16:35 He is following, I guess, the Sam Hartman path of an ACC,

00:16:39 a tobacco road signal caller,

00:16:41 maybe at a more historic basketball program,

00:16:45 going to play out the rest of his eligibility

00:16:48 under touchdown Jesus there in the Golden Domers

00:16:51 in South Bend for Notre Dame.

00:16:53 Either of those, I guess,

00:16:55 Riley Leonard not as surprising.

00:16:56 Dylan Gabriel, I mean,

00:16:57 I think some people were surprised by that.

00:16:59 I think some people expected him to follow Lebby

00:17:01 to Mississippi State,

00:17:02 but I'm drawing a blank on the young kid's name now.

00:17:05 But do you think this is just as simple

00:17:07 as Oklahoma saying to Dylan,

00:17:09 "Hey, we have this young five-star recruit, Jackson Arnold.

00:17:13 Yes, we have Jackson Arnold.

00:17:15 It's his time.

00:17:16 It's this era.

00:17:16 We can't make him wait around.

00:17:18 We're gonna kind of turn the page as we go into the SEC

00:17:21 and thank you for your service."

00:17:22 Is it that simple with Dylan Gabriel

00:17:25 where it's an amicable split by both sides,

00:17:29 even though they just had a pretty successful season?

00:17:32 - I think it's a factor.

00:17:33 In my estimation, there's a lot of moving parts.

00:17:35 In other words, let's start with this.

00:17:37 Never does the portal feel more free agency-like

00:17:41 than when these types of things happen

00:17:43 with these marquee quarterbacks

00:17:45 at these blue blood programs.

00:17:47 So a couple of things have played out.

00:17:50 Again, this is just me from the outside looking in.

00:17:53 When I see Dylan Gabriel,

00:17:55 the security blanket that surrounded Dylan Gabriel

00:17:58 at Oklahoma was the Jeff Lebby system

00:18:00 that he knew and he loved,

00:18:02 that he played in all the way back to his days at UCF.

00:18:06 Now, to ask a quarterback to lose that play call

00:18:10 or to lose that OC and stick around

00:18:13 and not encounter more than a hiccup or two,

00:18:17 that's a big ask.

00:18:18 So I have to think that factored in,

00:18:21 but at the same time,

00:18:22 here's the NFL piece of this may be impacting Oklahoma.

00:18:25 Could Oklahoma have put together a package enticing enough

00:18:28 to retain Dylan Gabriel?

00:18:31 I have to believe that for all the resources

00:18:34 Oklahoma has access to, yes, they could,

00:18:36 but at the expense of what else?

00:18:38 They already have Jackson Arnold tied in as a kid

00:18:42 that they are incredibly high on

00:18:44 and believe he has a tremendously bright future.

00:18:46 So do you want to mortgage the farm and give up

00:18:50 who knows what else at other positions

00:18:52 from an NIL standpoint?

00:18:54 And maybe if you sign Dylan Gabriel

00:18:55 to the type of deal it would have taken to keep him there,

00:18:58 you lose three, four, five other kids.

00:19:00 I don't know the answer to that.

00:19:02 But so Dylan Gabriel loses his OC.

00:19:05 It makes perfect sense for me,

00:19:08 for him to step out in the open market and says,

00:19:10 "Hey, let's truly see what my name, my image

00:19:13 and my likeness demand after all the things I've done now

00:19:16 at two stops, including a blue blood like Oklahoma."

00:19:20 And when you look at the situation in Oregon,

00:19:22 he will now be stepping in for a guy in Bo Nix,

00:19:25 a former transfer himself,

00:19:27 who by the way, set a career record for most starts

00:19:31 by a quarterback in college football.

00:19:34 And guess who's going to be poised,

00:19:36 knock on wood, hope the kid stays healthy to do it,

00:19:38 to break that record, Dylan Gabriel.

00:19:41 So is Dan Lanning ahead of the curve

00:19:44 in the sense that-

00:19:45 - Give me all the 24 year old quarterbacks and let's roll.

00:19:50 - Yes.

00:19:51 So I'm going to build my roster in such a way

00:19:53 as a guy with a defensive pedigree

00:19:55 that I'm going to have a lot of play things

00:19:57 and a lot of toys on the offensive side of the ball

00:19:59 to make it a very enticing and inviting ecosystem

00:20:03 for a 23, 24 year old quarterback

00:20:05 who wants to step in here as a barely,

00:20:07 it's very established commodity.

00:20:09 In the course of one off season,

00:20:11 he'll step right into the locker room,

00:20:12 he'll lead these men.

00:20:14 Is this the new normal for Oregon?

00:20:17 I mean, maybe, maybe you can pull that off.

00:20:20 I mean, it's kind of a rental.

00:20:23 I mean, he's there for one year and he's done,

00:20:25 but there's worse things than getting Dylan Gabriel

00:20:28 for one year.

00:20:29 So it's interesting,

00:20:31 but as you touched on the Riley Leonard thing,

00:20:33 I don't know if I'm as surprised or for that matter,

00:20:36 I don't know if I'm as sold on Riley Leonard

00:20:38 as I am Dylan Gabriel,

00:20:40 but this is truly to me,

00:20:43 the free agent nature of this new age.

00:20:47 - No doubt.

00:20:48 - Unlike any other situation you're going to encounter.

00:20:50 It's a very quarterback centric

00:20:52 and quarterback driven sport.

00:20:54 It remains that.

00:20:55 So if you can get a highly established

00:20:58 and fortified battle tested signal caller,

00:21:01 like these two, especially like Dylan Gabriel,

00:21:04 think of what that means to your program at large.

00:21:07 I don't expect them to encounter much more

00:21:10 than a couple hiccups as they make their way

00:21:13 out of the Pac-12 into the Big 10

00:21:15 with this newer tougher schedule.

00:21:17 So good for Dan Lanning.

00:21:18 I mean, it seems like he's trying to figure it out

00:21:21 with Phil Knight's money, right?

00:21:23 Phil Knight's willing to finance this type of thing.

00:21:27 Now we'll never know the true numbers.

00:21:28 I mean, the agents are going to inflate it

00:21:30 to be two or three times what it actually is

00:21:32 because that's what the agents do.

00:21:34 So we'll never know the true numbers

00:21:35 that it took to make this happen,

00:21:37 but it's fascinating to me,

00:21:40 but get ready for more of this.

00:21:42 I mean, I think that's what you're going to see.

00:21:44 You're going to see, when you have Oklahoma

00:21:46 losing its starting quarterback,

00:21:49 I mean, that truly speaks to the brand new nature

00:21:53 of the modern college game,

00:21:54 which we always call college football 2.0.

00:21:57 College football 1.0 is dead and gone.

00:21:59 That's over.

00:22:00 This is 2.0.

00:22:01 Now, can Jackson Arnold pick up where Dylan Gabriel left off

00:22:06 and what's going to be, to some extent, a new system?

00:22:08 We'll see.

00:22:09 But I didn't, on any level,

00:22:12 expect him to follow Jeff Levy to Mississippi.

00:22:16 I didn't really expect that.

00:22:17 I thought that was, wow.

00:22:18 He's got bigger fish to fry than,

00:22:22 you know, all respect to the good folks there in Starkville.

00:22:25 He's got bigger fish to fry than Mississippi State.

00:22:27 That would have taken a heck of an NIL package,

00:22:29 I would imagine.

00:22:29 So that's what's intriguing here.

00:22:32 And Wes, we're going to close this portion

00:22:36 and just talking about some of these big name quarterbacks

00:22:38 we've mentioned.

00:22:39 Well, you already mentioned Jaden Daniels.

00:22:42 Some people are upset.

00:22:43 I want your thoughts on this.

00:22:44 Jaden Daniels wins the Heisman.

00:22:47 To me, it's a Michael Penix year

00:22:50 because at least he had the signature moments

00:22:52 plus the numbers.

00:22:53 Now, he wasn't flawless for the balance of 13 gains,

00:22:56 but I just think that, to me,

00:22:59 if there's a Heisman winner this year,

00:23:01 it probably should have been Michael Penix.

00:23:04 But I thought before, Wes,

00:23:06 maybe there shouldn't be a Heisman winner every year.

00:23:08 Maybe there should be a threshold or a criteria.

00:23:11 Make it like the electoral votes to get to the White House.

00:23:15 If you don't get 270, you don't get there.

00:23:17 So make it some sort of minimum votes.

00:23:19 If you don't hit the qualifier,

00:23:22 then that means nobody's dominant enough

00:23:23 or good enough or historical enough

00:23:25 to be included in this long list

00:23:27 of the greatest players in the history of the game.

00:23:29 Some years you have one, some years you don't.

00:23:31 I'd be fine with that too.

00:23:33 And this might, in fact, be one of those years

00:23:35 that we fall short of the mark

00:23:36 and you don't have a Heisman winner.

00:23:37 I'm fine with that too.

00:23:39 But if you want to go for bold thoughts and bold statements,

00:23:42 that's my bold thought and my bold statement.

00:23:44 - Jaden Daniels, I understand the complaints

00:23:47 about compiling numbers against lesser competition

00:23:49 and he really had no signature moments.

00:23:52 He got his doors blown off by Florida State.

00:23:54 He lost Alabama.

00:23:55 You don't think of a signature moment.

00:23:57 I mean, throwing six touchdowns against an FCS team

00:24:00 in November is not a signature moment.

00:24:02 Michael Pennix at least had that.

00:24:04 But still, either way, I don't know if that's something

00:24:07 that should be meted out every year.

00:24:10 You vote on it every year.

00:24:11 And if there's enough votes to say,

00:24:13 "Hey, that guy is of the caliber we're looking for

00:24:16 in the great history of this award,"

00:24:18 then you hand it out.

00:24:19 Otherwise, maybe you don't.

00:24:20 Thoughts?

00:24:21 - Interesting.

00:24:23 I would have, I don't hate that idea,

00:24:24 but I would have thought there's,

00:24:25 I would think there's some more recent years

00:24:28 that would have been better examples of that than this year.

00:24:31 Because I did think that this year's candidates were viable,

00:24:33 if that makes sense.

00:24:34 But I don't hate that.

00:24:37 I mean, you're doing like the Baseball Hall of Fame thing,

00:24:39 where like someone doesn't have to get in

00:24:41 every single year, right?

00:24:42 If you meet the threshold, you do.

00:24:44 If not, you don't.

00:24:45 Like, I don't hate that idea in general.

00:24:46 But I'm with you.

00:24:47 Like, listen, on a scale of one to 10,

00:24:50 my outrage here that it was Jaden, not Jalen Daniels,

00:24:54 Jaden Daniels, the LSU signal caller, is like a four.

00:24:58 I would have voted for Michael Pennix.

00:25:00 I think it should have been Michael Pennix.

00:25:01 I understand the definition of the award

00:25:04 is most outstanding player, right?

00:25:06 That's it.

00:25:07 Most outstanding player.

00:25:08 And I think Jaden Daniels probably was

00:25:10 the most outstanding player.

00:25:11 But this is a lot like the college football

00:25:13 playoff conversation.

00:25:14 Like, it's never been the most outstanding player, right?

00:25:18 It's been the most outstanding player

00:25:20 on the most outstanding team.

00:25:21 That's how this has always been done

00:25:23 for the Heisman Trophy.

00:25:26 And Michael Pennix, man, 13 and 0,

00:25:30 bunch of those moments.

00:25:33 It's always been about those Heisman moments

00:25:34 like you've talked about.

00:25:36 And in those 13 games,

00:25:37 seven of them were against ranked opponents.

00:25:39 He was seven and 0 against ranked teams.

00:25:42 What was LSU's record against ranked teams?

00:25:43 I don't know off the top of my head,

00:25:45 but I know it's not seven and 0.

00:25:46 They went nine and three this year.

00:25:47 - Put me over the top, Wes.

00:25:49 Well, put me over the top

00:25:50 because I remember late in the season,

00:25:52 I was even thinking,

00:25:54 we might've had a conversation with Phil Steele about it.

00:25:56 And I was like, look, I'm kind of fine

00:25:57 if it's Jaden Daniels, right?

00:25:59 But I think the exclamation point

00:26:01 that Michael Pennix put on his resume

00:26:04 with the Pac-12 championship

00:26:06 and a second win head to head against Bo Nix in Oregon,

00:26:09 that's enough for me.

00:26:11 I mean, up until that point,

00:26:12 I would have more readily entertained

00:26:14 the Jaden Daniels conversation.

00:26:16 But after he did that and won the Pac-12 for them,

00:26:19 that's enough.

00:26:20 Come on, right?

00:26:21 - I agree.

00:26:22 And that's what it's always been about in the past.

00:26:23 It's always been about those moments.

00:26:25 And even, you know,

00:26:26 some people were drawn the Robert Griffin Jr. parallel.

00:26:28 Well, Baylor went nine and three

00:26:30 and he won the Heisman.

00:26:31 Yeah.

00:26:32 Well, 10 and three if you include the bowl win, right?

00:26:34 Yeah.

00:26:35 But I think nine and three regular season.

00:26:37 - Yeah, you're right.

00:26:38 Okay, two things.

00:26:39 One, Baylor going nine and three

00:26:41 was a lot different than LSU going nine and three.

00:26:44 Baylor going nine and three back then

00:26:45 was the best season in program history.

00:26:49 And two, Robert Griffin had the Heisman moment

00:26:52 when he threw the game winning touchdown against Oklahoma.

00:26:55 You know, like I, again, I'm not outraged.

00:26:59 I'm not screaming into the void about this.

00:27:01 I think Jaden Daniels is a worthy winner.

00:27:04 I think, again, just by the term most outstanding,

00:27:07 I think you could very easily argue

00:27:09 he was the most outstanding player in college football.

00:27:12 He was certainly the most valuable to his team.

00:27:15 I think that for sure.

00:27:16 But as I think you and I are on the same page,

00:27:18 so often this award in the history of our lifetimes

00:27:21 has been about moments.

00:27:22 Not only the most outstanding player,

00:27:24 but the most outstanding player

00:27:25 on the most outstanding teams

00:27:27 in the most outstanding moments on the biggest stage.

00:27:31 And man, Michael Penix had a couple of those

00:27:33 and I don't think Jaden Daniels had any, but that's all.

00:27:36 I'm not outraged about it.

00:27:39 - If Brian Kelly, I put it on him.

00:27:43 Look, it's your fault that you're LSU

00:27:46 and you lack a feature back.

00:27:47 If you have a true feature back,

00:27:50 a true bell cow, like LSU should,

00:27:52 Jaden Daniels doesn't need to run for 1134 yards

00:27:56 and shoulder the burden of the entire run game.

00:27:58 Their leading rusher among their running backs

00:28:00 was Logan Diggs with 652 yards.

00:28:04 Dropping off from that, Josh Williams had 233.

00:28:07 Jaden Williams was asked to do far too much

00:28:10 in the LSU run game.

00:28:12 And I think that if they had a bell cow,

00:28:15 they're not nine and three, they win 10 or 11 games.

00:28:18 They pull an upset or two.

00:28:19 They're a better team.

00:28:21 They're a better offense.

00:28:23 They're more formidable.

00:28:24 And you just asked too much of this kid.

00:28:26 And I think it caught up to you at large as a program.

00:28:30 And it was just,

00:28:31 you're not gonna beat the best teams in America

00:28:33 when you're asking this kid to throw for 360

00:28:36 and oh, by the way, run it 14 times

00:28:38 for 95 yards against Alabama and Florida State.

00:28:41 That's a tough way to make a living.

00:28:43 - Yeah, I completely agree with you on that.

00:28:44 Maybe this was all part of Brian Kelly's master plan

00:28:47 because he knew he wasn't gonna compete

00:28:48 with Alabama and Georgia this year.

00:28:50 So might as well get me a Heisman Trophy winner

00:28:52 so I have something to show off

00:28:54 to all of our big money donors.

00:28:55 Another thank you to our friends at Fortis and Rick Lewis

00:29:00 for presenting this episode of ITG

00:29:02 for Roof Performance and Financial Certainty,

00:29:04 guaranteed.

00:29:05 Visit fortis.us.com.

00:29:08 So the Heisman is the ultimate award in college football.

00:29:11 You had the ultimate post-season individual award,

00:29:14 but there's also a lot of different other awards

00:29:16 and honors and things of that nature that go along

00:29:19 that are announced at the end of a college football season.

00:29:23 And some of our Mountaineers have found themselves honored

00:29:26 here in the last week or so.

00:29:28 Beanie Bishop, of course,

00:29:30 talented defensive back, Football Writers of America,

00:29:33 first teamer, Walter Camp, first teamer,

00:29:36 College Football Network, first team,

00:29:38 Bleacher Report, first team,

00:29:40 and AP, second team, All-American.

00:29:43 Our guy, Zach Frazier, College Football Network,

00:29:45 second team, USA Today, second team,

00:29:47 the Athletic, second team,

00:29:49 Sports Illustrated, second team,

00:29:51 AP, third team,

00:29:53 and Jaheim, the freshman,

00:29:54 Phenom White, College Football Network's first team,

00:29:57 freshman, All-American.

00:30:00 So some other, you know, we had discussed, Jed,

00:30:02 some big 12 honors and things like that,

00:30:04 I believe on our previous episode,

00:30:06 but nice to see a couple of these Mountaineers

00:30:08 get some national love,

00:30:10 some All-American love as well, too.

00:30:13 - Yeah, start with Beanie.

00:30:13 Not bad for a backup corner from Minnesota, right?

00:30:17 A kid that bounced from Western Kentucky,

00:30:19 made his way up to the Big Ten with the Gophers

00:30:21 and found his way to West Virginia.

00:30:23 And what a perfect role that he played

00:30:25 on this West Virginia defense

00:30:28 throughout the course of 12 games.

00:30:30 We've talked about his ability

00:30:31 to play the football in flight.

00:30:32 We've talked about the impact that he's had

00:30:34 from a pass is defended standpoint.

00:30:36 So, I mean, that's just it.

00:30:39 When, I think the lesson to be learned here,

00:30:41 as we are in portal season,

00:30:45 how many people, when we signed Beanie Bishop,

00:30:49 were absolutely lighting it up?

00:30:50 Well, there you go, problem solved.

00:30:52 Locked down corner right there.

00:30:54 I can project that right now and tell you,

00:30:56 no problem at all at that corner.

00:30:57 No, I mean, a lot of people are complaining.

00:31:00 Oh no, I've never heard of him.

00:31:01 That means he's not very good.

00:31:02 Oh no.

00:31:03 I mean, the concerns outweigh the exclamation points, right?

00:31:07 So just be cautious of that

00:31:11 and understand that in this crazy wilderness of mirrors

00:31:15 that is the portal,

00:31:17 you have to trust your scouting and your evals.

00:31:20 That's what you have to trust.

00:31:22 And we're gonna pursue kids that we think fit

00:31:25 in every possible metric, fit what we want them to do.

00:31:30 Financially, on the field, between the lines,

00:31:32 outside the lines, locker room presence,

00:31:35 and Beanie Bishop checks every one of those boxes.

00:31:39 He has been a tremendous addition for us.

00:31:41 He is one of, in my estimation,

00:31:44 I think we'll look at, reflect on Beanie

00:31:46 as the poster child for all things that,

00:31:49 when you get things right in the portal.

00:31:51 See, we need another Beanie Bishop.

00:31:52 We need to hit on another guy like that.

00:31:54 That's what you're looking for.

00:31:56 So now the standard has been set.

00:31:58 Now let's try and hit that standard

00:32:00 as many times as possible and get as many Beanie Bishops

00:32:03 in that locker room as we possibly can.

00:32:05 And then you jump to Zach.

00:32:06 You talk about Zach Frazier.

00:32:08 I'm still salty.

00:32:09 I'm still sore.

00:32:10 It's gonna take me a while, maybe half the off season

00:32:14 to really relish and enjoy what Zach has won

00:32:18 as opposed to being ticked off about what he hasn't.

00:32:21 So I'm just very defensive of Zach Frazier.

00:32:25 I truly believe he's the best center in college football.

00:32:29 I truly believe he's gonna play in the NFL

00:32:31 for a long, long time and make somebody very, very happy.

00:32:35 So as nice as it is to achieve some of these awards

00:32:41 and some of these honors that you just talked about,

00:32:43 these are some big names that he hit second team

00:32:47 and in the case, the Associated Press third team.

00:32:49 That's great, but I'm always gonna feel

00:32:52 like Zach deserved more.

00:32:54 And it's just gonna take me some time to acclimate

00:32:58 and adjust to that.

00:32:59 - Hey, Jed, what's the best medicine?

00:33:01 - The best medicine. - Revenge.

00:33:05 Revenge, right, is the best medicine?

00:33:06 - Revenge.

00:33:07 - You know, the Athletic and College Football Network,

00:33:12 they could give him second and third teamer, all right?

00:33:14 That's fine.

00:33:15 But 15 years from now when he's getting his gold jacket

00:33:18 and going into Canton, all right,

00:33:19 then you and I will be laughing

00:33:20 and saying who's laughing now.

00:33:22 - Yeah, absolutely.

00:33:24 And then, you know, Jaheim,

00:33:26 when I think back to,

00:33:30 I mean, Tomas was a freshman All-American.

00:33:32 I mean, that speaks on a lot of levels

00:33:34 to an incredibly bright future.

00:33:36 And he earned that.

00:33:38 When you stop and think about it,

00:33:40 here we are not just in portal season,

00:33:43 but in the recruiting season.

00:33:44 In the early enrollment period,

00:33:45 we got national signing day coming up on December 20th.

00:33:48 We got to do a big production, a big show,

00:33:50 just like we always do

00:33:51 for the Mountaineer Sports Network, Learfield.

00:33:53 And you think about it,

00:33:55 every school in America is doing some version of that.

00:33:58 Extolling the virtues of their 18 to 25 kids

00:34:02 that they signed as being world beaters,

00:34:03 as being the best out there, as being the best among us.

00:34:06 Now that's 18 to 25 kids times how many programs?

00:34:09 130, 130 plus FBS programs?

00:34:13 Well, it's a very short list of those.

00:34:15 When you start doing the math,

00:34:17 you get way up into those numbers.

00:34:19 It's a very short list of those

00:34:21 that actually make freshman first team All-American.

00:34:24 And to think that Jaheim White,

00:34:26 that kid who this time last year,

00:34:29 I was watching him on tape for the first time.

00:34:31 This time last year,

00:34:32 I was talking to his high school coach.

00:34:34 This time last year,

00:34:35 I was learning who he was and what he was about

00:34:37 and getting excited the more tape I watched

00:34:40 that 12 months later,

00:34:42 he would be one of those very select,

00:34:45 very few to be a first team freshman All-American,

00:34:48 much like Tomas was.

00:34:50 So great for him,

00:34:53 great for what that says about his future

00:34:56 with the Mountaineers.

00:34:57 And I think it's a tip of the cap

00:34:59 for all three of these kids.

00:35:00 And there's others that we haven't mentioned,

00:35:02 but as you touched on from the Big 12,

00:35:04 we talked about them previously,

00:35:06 but these honors on the national scale,

00:35:08 they're tough to come by.

00:35:11 It's not like, you know,

00:35:13 West Virginia is in that blue blood club

00:35:15 and they just toss these things out readily

00:35:17 with a smile on their face.

00:35:18 I mean, you truly have to earn it time,

00:35:20 almost a time and a half

00:35:22 if you have the flying WV on your helmet

00:35:24 and to make your way into any of these teams.

00:35:27 So credit to Beanie, credit to Zach,

00:35:30 and credit to Jaheim, great job by all.

00:35:33 - Absolutely.

00:35:35 There's your All-American honors updates

00:35:38 as it's cool to see some Mountaineers

00:35:40 get honored at a very high level here

00:35:43 as the season has come to a close.

00:35:45 With another season coming to a close,

00:35:46 as always, not only is it a portal moving

00:35:49 and shaking season,

00:35:50 but it's coaching carousel moving and shaking season.

00:35:54 And Jed, some significant changes,

00:35:57 hires, departures around the Big 12 Conference,

00:36:00 where you want to start here,

00:36:01 kind of run us through the gambit.

00:36:03 - On the defensive side, I find this interesting.

00:36:06 Joe Gillespie, who just finished his second year at TCU

00:36:10 on Sonny Dykstad.

00:36:11 Now, remember, this was the superintendent of the defense

00:36:16 that helped them achieve all those great things in 2022

00:36:19 that they did on that run to the National Championship.

00:36:22 Well, now he's out.

00:36:24 So TCU is going to be with a new coordinator

00:36:27 heading into 2024.

00:36:28 I find that terribly interesting.

00:36:30 And then on the offensive side,

00:36:34 if you look within the league,

00:36:37 we talked about the fact, or maybe we didn't,

00:36:41 Andy Kotelnicki from Kansas,

00:36:43 very highly respected coach,

00:36:45 had been on Lance Leipold's staff

00:36:47 all the way back from their Buffalo days

00:36:48 to their D3 days.

00:36:50 Well, he took the job as the new OC at Penn State.

00:36:54 So that leaves Kansas in need of an OC.

00:36:59 So meanwhile, Penn State,

00:37:00 if you're looking at West Virginia's

00:37:01 future opponents next year,

00:37:03 it will be a Penn State team with new coordinators

00:37:05 on both sides of the ball,

00:37:06 'cause Manny Diaz is off to take the Duke job.

00:37:08 So West Virginia on September 1st

00:37:10 is gonna face a Penn State team

00:37:12 with a new OC and a new DC.

00:37:13 Now back to Kansas, Andy Kotelnicki left.

00:37:17 Well, Jeff Grimes parted ways,

00:37:21 Baylor parted ways with Jeff Grimes,

00:37:22 the offensive coordinator on Dave Aranda's staff at Baylor.

00:37:25 And you just had to know

00:37:28 that Jeff Grimes wouldn't be on the market for long.

00:37:30 He's very highly respected.

00:37:32 I think that he was kind of a scapegoat

00:37:34 for some of the things that went wrong

00:37:36 on a very young football team

00:37:38 that got banged up in the wrong spots.

00:37:40 And just as you suspect,

00:37:42 he wasn't out of work for very long.

00:37:44 Lance Leipold taps him as his new OC in Kansas.

00:37:47 So now you have Jeff Grimes in Kansas.

00:37:50 Well, as the musical chairs go,

00:37:52 that left a spot for a new OC at Baylor.

00:37:55 Well, a very familiar face lands

00:37:57 on Dave Aranda's staff at Baylor.

00:37:59 - Spaff.

00:38:00 And so a guy that West Virginia has a lot of history with,

00:38:05 and that's Jake Spavadol.

00:38:07 And I've always been a big fan of Jake's.

00:38:08 Jake's a quality human being.

00:38:10 He's a quality football coach.

00:38:11 And I think that's a good pairing

00:38:14 with another quality human being,

00:38:15 a quality football coach at Dave Aranda.

00:38:17 So I do think those two will work well together.

00:38:21 When you study or understand what Jake does,

00:38:26 I mean, he's from the old school,

00:38:28 10 personnel, no tight end air raid,

00:38:30 kind of like I was back in the day

00:38:32 on the run and shoot side.

00:38:33 Well, like the more productive coaches,

00:38:36 he started to recognize it's easier,

00:38:39 or teams have come up with more creative ways

00:38:41 to defend these spread air raids

00:38:43 because they're so mainstream now.

00:38:45 So you've had to incorporate the use of some big body guys

00:38:48 like tight ends, fullbacks.

00:38:49 Jake's done that and done it well.

00:38:51 And he was doing some really creative things

00:38:53 with Dane the last time he was here in 2018.

00:38:56 He's coached a lot since he left here.

00:38:59 He was the head man at Texas State,

00:39:00 just didn't work out for him.

00:39:02 But I do think that Baylor got themselves a good one

00:39:05 as their new OC down there.

00:39:07 And then finally, if you want to legally play,

00:39:09 league play, another future West Virginia opponent,

00:39:13 and you talk about a guy that I really feel bad for,

00:39:16 Kerwin Bell's son.

00:39:19 Kerwin Bell's son has been the coordinator

00:39:22 at Western Carolina.

00:39:23 Been putting up, Kerwin Bell coaches at Western Carolina.

00:39:27 For those of you who don't remember from a past life,

00:39:29 I mean, I'm dating myself, but Kerwin Bell,

00:39:32 the former University of Florida quarterback from the '80s,

00:39:36 okay, is now the head coach at Western Carolina.

00:39:39 And his son is regarded as really an up-and-comer

00:39:42 on the offensive side of the football.

00:39:44 He's done some really productive things

00:39:46 for Western Carolina, put up some big numbers there

00:39:49 at the FCS level.

00:39:50 Well, don't look now, but Pat Narduzzi has hired him

00:39:55 as the new OC at Pitt.

00:39:57 And I can't imagine how miserable that existence will be

00:40:01 for a guy who likes to believe in high-octane,

00:40:05 aggressive offense, stepping into a building

00:40:08 to be bossed around by Pat Narduzzi,

00:40:10 who fired Mark Whipple for no good reason,

00:40:14 replaced him with a Frank Signetti hire

00:40:16 that he thought would be a better fit

00:40:17 because it was very conservative, very close to the vest,

00:40:20 very boring, and very appealing

00:40:23 to the powers that be on the Pitt football staff.

00:40:28 But now they have new coordinators.

00:40:29 So let's see how this works out.

00:40:31 Expect them to at least have the pretense

00:40:34 of being more aggressive,

00:40:35 but let's see how aggressive Pat Narduzzi

00:40:37 allows them to be.

00:40:38 'Cause last time they were aggressive

00:40:40 and last time they were explosive,

00:40:41 he wasn't a big fan of it.

00:40:42 He didn't like winning that way.

00:40:44 There's a certain way he likes to win.

00:40:45 - He didn't like winning an ACC title that way.

00:40:48 I don't care that we won the ACC title

00:40:51 and had the best season in 40 years

00:40:54 that our program's had.

00:40:56 - He's like, "We're supposed to win ugly with defense.

00:40:57 Get rid of this guy so I can show people

00:40:59 we can win ugly with defense."

00:41:00 Well, now they're leaning back

00:41:02 into a little more aggressive. - Run the football

00:41:03 and stop the run.

00:41:05 - Little more aggressive posture on offense

00:41:06 with a new hire.

00:41:07 Let's see how deferential he truly is

00:41:10 to his new young OC.

00:41:12 We'll see how that works out.

00:41:14 - Well, if his new young OC has success,

00:41:18 he'll fire him and then trash him in the media

00:41:21 and to the boosters, just like he did with Matt Canada

00:41:23 and just like he did with Mark Whipple,

00:41:24 the two best offensive coordinators he ever had at Pitt.

00:41:27 And if it doesn't work out well,

00:41:29 well, then maybe your favorite post-game presser

00:41:33 will have to be moved somewhere else

00:41:35 because this might be a make or break hire

00:41:39 for Mr. Narduzzi.

00:41:41 I can tell you folks this. - Absolutely.

00:41:42 My guilty pleasure.

00:41:44 - I can, no doubt.

00:41:45 And my guilty pleasure is saying things like this.

00:41:48 I know he wasn't Pitt's first choice.

00:41:50 I know he wasn't Pitt's second choice.

00:41:53 He might've not even been their third choice.

00:41:54 Now, that takes nothing away from him.

00:41:57 That just makes me laugh a little bit

00:41:58 because I know some people didn't wanna work

00:42:00 with Pat Narduzzi, but I'll also say this.

00:42:02 That doesn't always mean disaster.

00:42:04 Sometimes in history,

00:42:05 that's ended up working really well for places.

00:42:07 Jed, when I was in Philadelphia, right?

00:42:09 When I first got to Philadelphia,

00:42:11 it was at the very end of the Andy Reid era with the Eagles

00:42:15 and they wanted to hire Ben McAdoo.

00:42:18 Ben McAdoo, Ben McAdoo, Ben McAdoo, Ben McAdoo,

00:42:21 who ended up taking the Giants job

00:42:22 and the Eagles hired Doug Peterson.

00:42:24 And everyone in Philadelphia was like, we're doomed.

00:42:27 We missed out on our coach.

00:42:28 Not only did we miss out on our coach,

00:42:30 he's in our division up in New York with the Giants.

00:42:32 Oh man, we're screwed.

00:42:34 And three years later,

00:42:35 Ben McAdoo had run the Giants into the ground

00:42:37 and Doug Peterson was hoisting the Lombardi trophy

00:42:40 with Nick Foles after out-dueling Tom Brady.

00:42:43 So it's weird how these things can happen.

00:42:46 Now, hopefully this isn't a success story like that

00:42:48 for Pitt and for Pat Narduzzi,

00:42:50 but obviously I'm glad you snuck that one in there

00:42:53 as we're always keeping an eye on those guys to the north.

00:42:55 And obviously we'll have them on the schedule

00:42:58 as Jed mentioned early again this season,

00:43:00 we'll get a look, an early look at that new look Pitt offense

00:43:04 up there at Akershaw Stadium.

00:43:07 All right, Jed, one more here before we go to break,

00:43:09 we'll come back on the other side,

00:43:10 close out with some WVU portal updates,

00:43:13 but Nico Markeel, of course,

00:43:15 quarterback for the Mountaineers.

00:43:17 You shared this with us earlier

00:43:19 and we all thought that this was pretty cool.

00:43:22 Nico has posted it on all of his social media.

00:43:24 So if you follow Nico or you go search him out

00:43:26 on social media, you'll be able to find this

00:43:28 on his Twitter page, on his Instagram,

00:43:30 all those different things.

00:43:31 But basically, trying to raise some money for Cody,

00:43:36 who has been battling neuroblastoma.

00:43:40 Ooh, that's a big word.

00:43:41 Neuroblastoma for 18 years, now has leukemia,

00:43:45 was recently placed in ICU after having double pneumonia.

00:43:50 So Nico has struck up a friendship with Cody,

00:43:53 has posted a video of them FaceTiming with each other

00:43:56 and things like that.

00:43:57 And Nico is now trying to raise money to help Cody

00:44:00 in his fight and with his medical bills.

00:44:03 Our guy Skyler, we'll make sure he puts the link to that

00:44:07 here in our YouTube description if you wanna get involved.

00:44:11 But like I said, the links are on social media

00:44:13 on all of Nico's different platforms.

00:44:17 If you can find him there, we'll put it in the YouTube

00:44:19 comments here of this video.

00:44:21 But pretty cool, Jed, too.

00:44:22 I mean, you and I and Owen,

00:44:24 we all talked about earlier in the season

00:44:27 what Garrett Green and Zach Frazier were doing

00:44:29 at Children's Hospital just hours after that

00:44:31 heartbreaking loss in Houston.

00:44:33 We've always got time to highlight when athletes,

00:44:37 when Mountaineers are out there giving back in the community

00:44:39 and this is certainly another example, a great example.

00:44:43 - It's a great example and it just speaks

00:44:46 to the incredibly high character on the team in that room.

00:44:51 Garrett Green retweeted this with a shout out.

00:44:54 So I'm not surprised that a young man like Nico

00:44:57 has taken it upon himself to try and move the needle

00:45:02 for a kid in need like Cody.

00:45:05 Let's talk about this real quick.

00:45:07 Stop and consider the circumstances, okay?

00:45:11 Neuroblastoma, typically diagnosed at a very young age.

00:45:15 It's no joke, it's a handful,

00:45:18 all hands on deck to fight it, right?

00:45:21 Well, this kid has been battling this for a long, long time.

00:45:25 - 18 years. - And now,

00:45:27 you're talking for 18 years and now you're talking about

00:45:29 in addition to that, he now has leukemia,

00:45:33 an entirely separate cancer.

00:45:35 So he's been battling leukemia in addition

00:45:37 to the neuroblastoma.

00:45:39 And recently, as if things weren't challenging enough

00:45:43 for this poor kid, he was placed in intensive care

00:45:46 after having double pneumonia.

00:45:48 So please, the holidays are upon us.

00:45:51 Again, I always like to say, I sit down with my wife

00:45:54 and we discuss these things

00:45:56 and figure out what we can offer.

00:45:58 Please do the same, credit to Nico

00:46:01 for putting this on the radar.

00:46:03 But even just a couple of bucks in circumstances like this,

00:46:06 I'm sure that when this kid's support structure

00:46:10 leans into this, they'd like to have a couple of extra bucks

00:46:12 to stay at a hotel on the way

00:46:14 or for some gas to pay for a meal on the way,

00:46:16 whatever it might be.

00:46:18 These types of things are so often used in ways

00:46:20 that you maybe can't even envision.

00:46:22 But whatever you can put yourself in position

00:46:24 and find your way to giving in the season of giving,

00:46:27 please do.

00:46:28 As soon as we finish taping,

00:46:31 that's probably one for me to sit down with my wife

00:46:34 and we're gonna discuss this.

00:46:35 But credit to Nico, Nico Marchio is an exceptional young man

00:46:40 and whatever you can do to help this poor kid out,

00:46:43 he's obviously a fighter, he's obviously a battler.

00:46:47 I mean, he's been dealt the shorthand in life

00:46:50 and he just keeps coming back and punching and swinging

00:46:52 and punching and swinging.

00:46:53 So please do what you can do to help this young man out.

00:46:58 - Yep, well said.

00:47:00 Jed, I know I'm guilty of that at times.

00:47:02 Sometimes you see things like this and you think,

00:47:05 "Man, what am I gonna do?

00:47:06 "I wish I could donate a couple thousand dollars,

00:47:08 "but I can't donate a couple thousand dollars.

00:47:10 "How can I really help?"

00:47:12 I'm telling you, it's the most cliched thing,

00:47:15 but it is because it's true.

00:47:16 Every little bit helps.

00:47:17 You get 20 people who each give 20 bucks

00:47:21 and that might not seem like much,

00:47:22 but it might not seem like you're doing much,

00:47:24 but all of a sudden there's $400, like you said.

00:47:26 That's a couple of nights at a hotel

00:47:28 to ease a travel burden, things like that,

00:47:31 food, gas, whatever it may be.

00:47:34 So yeah, it is the season of giving, it is Christmas,

00:47:37 and we love to see our Mountaineers out there

00:47:40 spreading goodwill and using their platforms for good.

00:47:45 And like I said, we'll have that link

00:47:47 in the description of this YouTube video.

00:47:49 You can find it on all of Nico's social media channels

00:47:53 as well too, and big shout out to Mr. Markeol

00:47:56 for doing good and giving back and using his platform

00:47:59 to benefit others here.

00:48:00 Like I said, we've always got time to highlight that here

00:48:03 on "In The Gun."

00:48:04 All right, we gotta get to a break.

00:48:06 When we come back on the other side, we will close down.

00:48:08 We'll take a look specifically at WVU in the portal

00:48:10 to this point, who's in the portal,

00:48:12 who have the Mountaineers reached out to,

00:48:14 what do we know here a couple of weeks

00:48:16 into this wintertime portal window being ongoing.

00:48:20 We'll discuss that when we come back on the other side

00:48:22 to close down this episode of ITG, you are "In The Gun."

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00:50:27 (upbeat music)

00:50:30 Get your Coyote at the new location of Johnston Equipment,

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00:50:38 - Back in the gun here, and you will notice,

00:50:40 we have added a line mate here

00:50:43 to our final segment on this edition of ITG.

00:50:46 Our producer/co-host/everything extraordinaire.

00:50:50 He's here, he's there, he's everywhere.

00:50:52 Skylar Callahan, of course.

00:50:54 You guys know him from "In the Gun,"

00:50:56 "Fan Nation," "Si Now," covers what?

00:51:00 The Carolina Panthers, the Charlotte Hornets,

00:51:01 the WVU Mountaineers.

00:51:03 We were giving him some grief when he hopped on here.

00:51:05 You could say he's wearing his UNC colors,

00:51:07 but you know what?

00:51:08 We're still two weeks out from the game.

00:51:10 There's enough buffer.

00:51:11 We'll let this one slide, Skylar.

00:51:13 - Yeah, yeah, it's interesting,

00:51:15 'cause when the game was first announced,

00:51:17 we were watching it kind of unfold,

00:51:20 and we had been hearing there might be Notre Dame,

00:51:22 might be Louisville, Virginia Tech, Carolina.

00:51:25 It still hadn't been picked 'cause the ACC was taken forever.

00:51:28 And my wife was just like praying,

00:51:30 like, "Please let it be Carolina,"

00:51:32 'cause she's a Carolina fan, but she's a WVU graduate.

00:51:35 So we were just kind of like,

00:51:37 "Man, it'd be really cool if we had this matchup

00:51:39 in our own backyard."

00:51:40 And lo and behold, now I'm going to the game

00:51:43 with her in the stands instead of working in the press box.

00:51:46 So it'll be kind of cool, but yeah.

00:51:49 - Well, listen, hold on, wait.

00:51:50 If you're not gonna be in the press box,

00:51:51 how am I gonna get someone to steal me

00:51:53 one of those Dukes Mayo West Virginia Jars?

00:51:55 - I still got you.

00:51:56 I got somebody that's gonna be there working it for us,

00:51:59 and he said, "I don't need it," so.

00:52:01 - Listen, I'll pay shipping and handling, all right?

00:52:03 I just need one.

00:52:04 - I should charge you, you know?

00:52:06 - You can charge Venmo.

00:52:07 - What are you guys wearing?

00:52:08 - Put the Venmo request in.

00:52:09 - That's the question, Skyler.

00:52:11 What are you guys gonna wear?

00:52:12 What are you wearing?

00:52:14 - I know what Skyler's wearing, all right?

00:52:15 - I mean, she's already been trying.

00:52:17 Like, the moment it came out,

00:52:18 she was looking for these half Carolina, half WVU shirts.

00:52:21 I'm like, "You're never gonna find that."

00:52:22 I think she's gonna go with a West Virginia beanie shirt

00:52:27 and a Carolina jacket or something like that.

00:52:30 - Okay.

00:52:31 - I don't know.

00:52:32 I might have to dress somewhat professional, but we'll see.

00:52:36 - Yeah.

00:52:36 You'll leave the eat shit picture to him, all right?

00:52:41 Little professional.

00:52:42 All right, well. - Track you down,

00:52:43 get a picture.

00:52:44 - Speaking of which, Mr. Professional,

00:52:46 I mean, I feel like, honestly,

00:52:47 for these last 15, 20 minutes

00:52:49 or however long this is gonna be here,

00:52:50 I should just get out of the way,

00:52:51 'cause this is your guys' realm.

00:52:53 I mean, Skyler has the Transfer Portal Tracker on si.com,

00:52:58 or what's, give me the exact direct,

00:53:01 Mountaineers, is it mountaineersnow.com, right?

00:53:03 - Yeah, you can go to mountaineersnow.com,

00:53:05 and that's- - Mountaineersnow.com.

00:53:07 Yep, I know you have the Transfer Portal Tracker.

00:53:09 So I'll open this up to you two.

00:53:11 Where do you guys wanna start?

00:53:13 Additions, departures, offers, visits?

00:53:17 Where are we at?

00:53:17 What's kind of the place to begin here?

00:53:21 - I'd say- - Hit the additions.

00:53:23 - Yeah, yeah, let's hit the additions first.

00:53:26 Well, there hasn't been any yet, so-

00:53:28 - Yeah, that's right.

00:53:28 - Hit the breaks, right?

00:53:29 Pump the breaks.

00:53:31 - Exactly. - Patience, young one.

00:53:33 - Yeah, and I know a lot of fans-

00:53:35 - Patience, young Padawan.

00:53:36 - On Twitter are getting a little antsy,

00:53:38 but I promise there is good news coming.

00:53:40 I'm not gonna reveal that or anything,

00:53:42 but you got a couple of decision dates already set.

00:53:47 One's coming this week, Friday,

00:53:49 it's Duquesne Transfer Aiding Darns.

00:53:52 Very familiar with him, obviously,

00:53:54 playing West Virginia earlier in the year.

00:53:56 George Kilgore from Tennessee Tech

00:53:59 just released his top three,

00:54:00 FAU, West Virginia, South Carolina.

00:54:03 And Devin Cromwell, kid from Guelph,

00:54:06 which was funny because when I first typed it,

00:54:09 I was like, all right,

00:54:09 that just sounds like a D2 school, right?

00:54:12 So I'm just gonna put D2.

00:54:14 And then I published it and I'm like, wait a second,

00:54:16 I wanna double check this, make sure it's not like NAIA.

00:54:19 Lo and behold, it's in Canada.

00:54:21 So I'm like, all right, this is a first for me.

00:54:24 So they are a part of some league,

00:54:26 college league up there in Canada,

00:54:28 but he's heavily considering West Virginia

00:54:31 and should expect a decision on him soon.

00:54:34 So those are kind of a few names to watch out for.

00:54:36 Michael Morata, who's a transfer from Valdosta State,

00:54:41 a center, he's gonna be in town this weekend.

00:54:43 There's a host of these kids coming in.

00:54:44 So if you keep track of that tracker,

00:54:47 you'll pretty much have everything you need there,

00:54:49 offers, visits, guys leaving the portal

00:54:52 or leaving West Virginia to go to the portal,

00:54:54 guys coming in, we'll keep it all in one spot for you.

00:54:57 - And it's an ongoing process.

00:54:59 And what I mean by that,

00:55:01 yes, this is a critical juncture

00:55:04 these next handful of weeks

00:55:06 because kids have an opportunity

00:55:08 to jump into the portal right now.

00:55:09 But you're gonna have other windows

00:55:12 between now and next fall, including the May window.

00:55:17 That's gonna be a critical window too.

00:55:20 So if you itemize this,

00:55:23 and let's try and sort through this

00:55:25 and make sense out of it for folks

00:55:28 as to people sitting at home listening or watching

00:55:31 might be thinking, "Well, I can't imagine.

00:55:33 Why don't you jump right in right now

00:55:35 and grab all these kids?"

00:55:36 Well, this is typically how this works, right, Wes?

00:55:40 There's the top tier of kids

00:55:43 and everybody in the free world

00:55:45 is gonna want this top tier of kids.

00:55:47 Well, everybody doesn't have the resources

00:55:49 or the pedigree to land these top kids.

00:55:52 - Correct.

00:55:53 - Now, the next group of kids,

00:55:55 you might be thinking, "Okay, you're not gonna get,

00:55:58 let's just attach some arbitrary numbers to this.

00:56:01 You're not gonna get one through five, for instance."

00:56:03 These aren't foolproof numbers.

00:56:05 I'm just, for posterity's sake, to explain this.

00:56:07 One through five, let's say they're going blue blood.

00:56:09 They're going big package, big aisle package,

00:56:11 blue blood, whatever it might be.

00:56:13 Okay, so now let's look at six through 15.

00:56:16 Well, six through 15 is gonna be a combination

00:56:20 of some blue bloods that want a bit of a discount

00:56:23 and the rest of the kids that are packed in with West,

00:56:27 the rest of the kids, the rest of the schools

00:56:29 that are packed in the same stratosphere as West Virginia.

00:56:32 Let's say that's 30, 40 non-blue blood schools.

00:56:35 So you're still competing with the market being driven up

00:56:39 by all those potential suitors for six to 15, for instance.

00:56:44 So really the trick to this, as a school with a budget,

00:56:48 you have to be disciplined with your budget,

00:56:50 disciplined with your resources.

00:56:52 You can't overspend.

00:56:54 But the true trick is to find that kid sitting at number 17

00:56:59 who is kind of off the radar of the other 30 schools

00:57:03 that are in the same stratosphere as you.

00:57:05 And they're kind of looking at it like,

00:57:06 "Yeah, what did you see in that kid?

00:57:07 We don't quite see that."

00:57:09 But your scouting is telling you

00:57:10 that he's ready to take the next step

00:57:12 these other schools aren't comfortable with

00:57:14 because now you're gonna get that kid for cheap.

00:57:17 In other words, like a backup cornerback

00:57:20 at a Big 10 school that's not a starter.

00:57:22 - Yeah. - Who's that sound like?

00:57:24 - Beanie Bishop.

00:57:25 - Beanie Bishop.

00:57:26 That's exactly how you ended up landing Beanie Bishop.

00:57:30 In other words, you trusted your evaluation,

00:57:32 you trusted your scouting,

00:57:34 you studied all the tape that he had available.

00:57:37 And he played enough to put some tape out there.

00:57:40 But you're saying, "Look, we feel about this kid.

00:57:42 He's ready to take that next step

00:57:44 that maybe some other teams aren't."

00:57:45 I'll give you another name.

00:57:46 A couple of years ago, West Virginia was in on Josh Newton

00:57:49 from Louisiana Monroe.

00:57:51 Well, he ended up going to TCU

00:57:52 and being a first team All-Big-12 performer.

00:57:55 Well, most teams in the Big 12

00:57:58 didn't think Josh Newton was ready to take that leap.

00:58:01 West Virginia and TCU did.

00:58:03 So we found ourselves in a bit of a bidding war with TCU.

00:58:06 They outbid us.

00:58:07 They won in the 11th hour.

00:58:09 We almost got Josh Newton in the same way.

00:58:12 That's what it's gonna take.

00:58:13 In other words, everybody can look at it and say,

00:58:16 "Well, obviously, one through five,

00:58:18 we know those are great players and we'd love to have them,

00:58:20 but we can't get them.

00:58:21 We either can't afford them,

00:58:23 or there's packages that they find more inviting elsewhere.

00:58:25 We're not gonna get them."

00:58:27 So then when you look at kids clumped together

00:58:28 six through 15, well, we might have a shot at them,

00:58:32 but it's gonna take a huge part of your budget

00:58:35 because you're competing with 30 or 40 other schools

00:58:37 that have as much money or more than you do.

00:58:40 Does this make sense, what I'm saying?

00:58:41 So... - 100%.

00:58:43 - Jed, Jed, Jed, it's like when Shohei Ohtani's out there,

00:58:47 right, he ain't going to the Pittsburgh Pirates

00:58:50 or the Milwaukee Brewers, brother, right?

00:58:53 'Cause they ain't got the budget.

00:58:57 - Exactly.

00:58:58 So what you have to do is you need to find somebody

00:59:01 who is competitive and skilled enough to help you win games

00:59:04 that maybe you see and nobody else quite does yet.

00:59:07 That's the true trick.

00:59:08 There's a reason that we have a guy,

00:59:11 and Drew Favianich is the new general manager,

00:59:13 the first general manager

00:59:14 in the history of West Virginia football,

00:59:16 who spent a career in the NFL with Bill Parcells

00:59:19 in the scouting realm.

00:59:21 That's what you need in that room.

00:59:23 That's what you need making those evaluations.

00:59:26 You need to find those kids who aren't necessarily top tier,

00:59:30 who aren't even not necessarily the tier after top tier,

00:59:33 tier two, tier three.

00:59:34 You need to find the ones who are almost quite that,

00:59:37 and you see something that they're ready to take a step,

00:59:40 and you can afford them with the money you have,

00:59:42 and you can get them in here,

00:59:43 and they can help your program.

00:59:45 And that's not something that a week into the portal,

00:59:48 well, there you go, we signed all our guys,

00:59:50 we're ready to go, we've had seven days.

00:59:52 That's not how this works.

00:59:53 There's no rush.

00:59:55 - And Jed, in fact, a lot of times there's benefits

00:59:57 to being patient, right?

00:59:58 Skylar, you talked about this before we started recording.

01:00:01 I thought this was a great analogy by you.

01:00:04 It's like this, some, you know,

01:00:06 NFL free agency opens in March, right?

01:00:09 And the big names come off the board right away,

01:00:12 and they get the big contracts and all those things.

01:00:16 But then after the first couple of days,

01:00:17 the market cools off a little bit,

01:00:19 and there's that second wave of NFL free agency.

01:00:22 Okay, maybe some of these guys didn't get the money

01:00:24 that they thought they were going to demand.

01:00:26 And I think the smart teams in the NFL

01:00:28 are the ones that swoop in

01:00:29 in that second wave of free agency.

01:00:31 And so maybe they're not getting the A plus easy,

01:00:34 nailed on, plug and play player,

01:00:37 but they're getting an A minus B plus guy at a big discount.

01:00:41 Like that's the, it is, you're working with a budget.

01:00:45 You're not the LA Dodgers, you're not the New York Yankees.

01:00:48 You're a mid-market team

01:00:50 who's got to be smart with your money.

01:00:51 - But the one thing I think is really cool though,

01:00:54 I mentioned this on one of our shows earlier last week.

01:00:57 It's for the first time ever,

01:00:59 fans can actually have a part in making this team.

01:01:03 Now they're not going to be able to pick these,

01:01:04 the guys that they go and get,

01:01:05 but you have a chance to say, you know what?

01:01:08 Why can't West Virginia spend the same type of money

01:01:11 as a Florida State?

01:01:14 Maybe not an Alabama or Michigan, but Florida State.

01:01:17 Why not be able to have that type of pockets?

01:01:18 You can do that.

01:01:20 But the trust is something that has to be built up.

01:01:23 And they made remarkable progress here

01:01:24 over the last couple of weeks.

01:01:25 There's no doubt about that.

01:01:27 But for as much passion and as much love

01:01:30 as there is for this fan or for this school in this state,

01:01:33 it needs to be a heck of a lot bigger than it is right now.

01:01:35 And I think it will be.

01:01:37 And they've done a really good job marketing all that.

01:01:39 The second thing I want to say is,

01:01:41 I think with the portal,

01:01:43 what's going to get lost in all this is,

01:01:45 I think JUCO is going to get wiped out,

01:01:47 like very, very quickly.

01:01:48 Because why would you take a JUCO kid

01:01:51 when he's already got technically that one transfer,

01:01:54 unless the transfer rules change.

01:01:55 When he goes again, he's stuck there.

01:01:57 So for him, why would you go to a JUCO in the first place?

01:02:02 Unless there's an academic reason or whatever.

01:02:05 If you're a Power Five or G5 school,

01:02:07 you have a chance to pluck kids from these other programs

01:02:10 that have played at a higher level.

01:02:12 So I feel for them, I feel for D2, D3,

01:02:17 all those types of people.

01:02:18 I talked to Fairmont State's head coach,

01:02:20 Jason Woodman, over the summer.

01:02:23 And he's like, "Man, we can't even get

01:02:25 into high school recruiting until like December

01:02:29 because all the portal kids come,

01:02:32 and all the other big schools,

01:02:34 they come into our backyard

01:02:36 and they try to take our kids away.

01:02:38 And then we have to see what's left.

01:02:40 And then we can't even really recruit the portal

01:02:41 until it's chosen over

01:02:43 because everyone's trying to move up instead of down."

01:02:46 So I really feel for those types of schools,

01:02:49 especially JUCO, 'cause I just don't know

01:02:51 how much longer that's going to last.

01:02:53 - Cleveland, here's what happens in high school recruiting.

01:02:57 And you're starting to see some of it happen

01:02:59 in the portal space as well.

01:03:02 And you're right about the JC side of things, Kyler,

01:03:05 especially when you have football staffs.

01:03:08 Neil Brown's talked about this.

01:03:10 There's two types of portal targets.

01:03:13 There's the immediate impact target,

01:03:15 and then there's developmental target.

01:03:16 In other words, when you look at TOME,

01:03:18 when TOME came from Kentucky,

01:03:20 we almost got TOME out of high school,

01:03:22 but we lost out on TOME to Kentucky.

01:03:26 In some regards, we're better off

01:03:28 because we land TOME in a more secure situation

01:03:31 because he's not able to leave until he graduates.

01:03:34 But when you look at what happens at the high school level,

01:03:37 sometimes what happens,

01:03:39 you might think that you're in a good spot with a kid.

01:03:42 And for the better part of a year and a half,

01:03:44 you'd forge this relationship with him, his staff,

01:03:47 his family, and the next thing you know,

01:03:49 he's burbled to you.

01:03:50 And he's been a long time burble, six, eight, 10, 12 months.

01:03:54 Well, wouldn't you know it, three, four weeks before NSD,

01:03:59 here he comes and he bails out

01:04:02 and he's going to Ohio State.

01:04:03 What ends up happening is something fell through

01:04:07 for Ohio State and they now found,

01:04:10 hey, we thought we had this extra receiver,

01:04:13 but now we lost this extra receiver.

01:04:15 So go pluck that guy from West Virginia

01:04:17 and tell him we want him there.

01:04:18 That's what happens.

01:04:20 They lose the kid to whoever else.

01:04:22 And they're like, all right,

01:04:23 well, we didn't offer this West Virginia kid,

01:04:25 but now really aggressively go after this West Virginia kid,

01:04:28 tell him Ohio State's in love with him

01:04:30 and we desperately want him.

01:04:32 So you always lose kids like that,

01:04:34 or you often lose kids like that.

01:04:36 Well, now let's see how that translates

01:04:39 on the portal front, okay?

01:04:41 You might have some kids who have situations

01:04:44 with their handlers communicating with the schools.

01:04:48 And maybe they think as a middle tier kid

01:04:50 or a second tier kid, again,

01:04:51 if you want to go tier one, tier two, tier three,

01:04:53 let's say he's tier two.

01:04:55 Well, they thought that they had a deal in place

01:04:57 with Ole Miss and next thing you know, they don't.

01:05:02 It fell through.

01:05:03 So now they're left scrambling

01:05:05 because they thought they were going to be a hot commodity

01:05:07 with a secure place to land right a week into the portal.

01:05:11 And now they don't.

01:05:12 And now their head's on a swivel.

01:05:14 Oh no, what do we do now?

01:05:15 Well, if you're West Virginia,

01:05:17 it serves you well to wait on those things to happen.

01:05:21 It doesn't serve you well to rush into something

01:05:24 and make these commitments that otherwise,

01:05:26 by and large, are going to be there.

01:05:28 It's not like you're flashing money at a kid so large.

01:05:30 Hey, we better flash it first and land them now

01:05:32 'cause we're going to outspend everybody.

01:05:33 No, you're not.

01:05:35 No, you're not.

01:05:35 When they're coming here, they're not coming here

01:05:37 because you're out flashing everybody else's money.

01:05:40 I mean, it's going to be a comparable package

01:05:42 if in fact you think they bring the relative value

01:05:45 to your roster.

01:05:46 But you have those things happen at the high school level,

01:05:49 and they have for many years,

01:05:50 where somebody lands a spot with Alabama or Georgia

01:05:55 or Notre Dame, whoever it might be,

01:05:57 that things change in the 11th hour

01:05:59 at these massive schools with these massive resources.

01:06:03 And now they end up offering this kid

01:06:05 that they didn't think they were going to offer.

01:06:07 Well, that's how the West Virginias of the world

01:06:09 lose out in the 11th hour on some of these kids.

01:06:11 Well, now you're going to start seeing

01:06:13 some of that same type of thing happen in the portal.

01:06:16 And you already have.

01:06:17 So what's the mad rush?

01:06:18 It really doesn't stand to benefit you on many levels

01:06:22 if you are going to hurry into this.

01:06:23 Does that make sense, what I'm saying?

01:06:25 - Yeah, I agree.

01:06:26 And there was one point that Matt Rule actually made today

01:06:30 on the Pat McAfee show that really I didn't think about

01:06:34 is there's no binding contracts to this thing, right?

01:06:37 So whatever collective and the kid that,

01:06:39 whatever deal or package they come up with,

01:06:42 either side can break that.

01:06:44 So you can sit there and say,

01:06:45 yeah, we'll get you a million bucks if you come here.

01:06:48 But then the kid might go there

01:06:50 and the money may not ever come.

01:06:53 And if he's already transferred from one school,

01:06:56 he's stuck there like we just said.

01:06:57 So that's the really bad thing about it.

01:07:00 I feel like these kids really have to be smart

01:07:03 about where they're going, when they're transferring,

01:07:06 if they need to transfer.

01:07:07 And then also you got to be careful

01:07:10 about the money thing too, because,

01:07:12 and I think the biggest kind of disconnect

01:07:14 that fans don't realize,

01:07:16 the school cannot do anything with the money.

01:07:19 The coaching staff, they can't even have conversations

01:07:23 about money with the kid.

01:07:24 That's only directed through whatever collective

01:07:27 that school has.

01:07:28 So there's no tie at all.

01:07:30 Neil Brown's not going and saying,

01:07:32 hey, we're about to get this kid from the portal.

01:07:34 Can you get about $800,000 ready for me?

01:07:37 Like he can't do that.

01:07:38 - No, he can't.

01:07:40 And the people that work in this business every day,

01:07:45 and I've got friends in the industry across the country,

01:07:48 but the general rule of thumb that almost invariably

01:07:52 they'll tell you to apply to this,

01:07:54 whatever number you see publicly as a very general rule,

01:07:58 at least cut it in half.

01:08:00 At least cut it in half.

01:08:02 Whatever figure you see floated,

01:08:05 agents have inflated that figure

01:08:07 and rest assured that most of the time

01:08:09 you can at least cut that number in half.

01:08:12 - Yeah, Marvin Harrison Jr. is a dog,

01:08:14 but he ain't getting $20 million

01:08:17 to stay at Ohio State for another year.

01:08:20 And it happened.

01:08:21 - Talk me through on any level

01:08:21 how that will be sustainable.

01:08:23 - It's not.

01:08:26 - You wouldn't even get the return.

01:08:27 Even if you won a national championship,

01:08:29 like how much are you getting back in revenue from that?

01:08:32 - The only way to me that type of investment makes sense

01:08:38 is if you're getting like a Tim Tebow

01:08:40 for four years type quarterback.

01:08:41 - Right, not a one week deal.

01:08:43 - Who's gonna elevate your program for four years

01:08:45 and bring you multiple national championships

01:08:47 and win a Heisman.

01:08:48 Okay, maybe that's worth $20 million,

01:08:50 but yeah, cool.

01:08:52 It's a wild time, gentlemen.

01:08:53 It is for sure.

01:08:55 400 people, over 400 people have joined

01:08:58 the Country Roads Trust in the month of December.

01:09:01 That's fantastic.

01:09:02 I'm one of them, baby.

01:09:03 Yeah, I'm waiting to get my decal and my hat

01:09:05 and everything in the mail,

01:09:07 and then I'll display it here in the background somewhere.

01:09:10 But like Skylar said, if you're a nut like me,

01:09:13 and you wanna influence this,

01:09:16 it's that same conversation we had earlier

01:09:18 when we were talking about the money that Nikko's raising.

01:09:21 Every little bit helps.

01:09:22 You ain't gotta give 20 grand a year to the trust.

01:09:26 Heck, you don't even have to give two grand a year

01:09:27 to the trust.

01:09:28 Couple hundred bucks a year,

01:09:31 couple dollars a month, couple Starbucks lattes,

01:09:34 couple 12 packs of Bush Light a month,

01:09:37 and you could be the difference in WVU getting a player

01:09:41 that they wanna have the budget for.

01:09:43 And what I've been telling people, too, is like,

01:09:44 listen, you can't be one of these schmucks on Twitter

01:09:48 that just run your mouth about all--

01:09:49 Correct.

01:09:50 They're going after all these FCS guys.

01:09:52 Why can't we get this guy or whatever?

01:09:55 If you're gonna have those type of opinions,

01:09:58 you better be donating your money

01:09:59 either to the trust or the MAC or something

01:10:01 because it's kind of like voting, right?

01:10:03 Like, you can't complain about it

01:10:04 if you don't put your say in it.

01:10:06 That's exactly what I was just gonna say.

01:10:07 It's like voting, right?

01:10:08 To your point, Skylar,

01:10:09 every year, FCS Division II on the line,

01:10:14 players at those levels go to the NFL.

01:10:16 Oh, yeah. Now what's happened,

01:10:18 now what's happened is Tower Five schools

01:10:22 are trying to see the same things those NFL teams say

01:10:25 and say, "Hey, I'm not gonna wait on that kid

01:10:27 "to get drafted.

01:10:28 "I'm gonna bring him in right now

01:10:30 "because Alabama's getting all these other kids.

01:10:32 "I wanna get the kids Alabama doesn't want.

01:10:34 "So why don't I get this kid for one year?"

01:10:37 He's going to the NFL anyway from Western Kentucky

01:10:40 or even an FCS program,

01:10:43 but I'm gonna get him here instead on his way to the NFL.

01:10:46 That's what these non-Blue Blood Power Fives

01:10:49 are now trying to do.

01:10:50 And guys, we've asked a million times,

01:10:52 what does the new path to winning look like

01:10:54 for West Virginia in college football 2.0?

01:10:57 Please stop telling me about how we won

01:10:59 with college football 1.0.

01:11:00 I get it. It was great.

01:11:02 We took undervalued assets,

01:11:06 two and three star kids who were pissed off

01:11:08 that they weren't valued higher.

01:11:10 They came in with a chip on their shoulder.

01:11:12 We kept them for four and five years together as a team,

01:11:15 as a program.

01:11:16 We overdeveloped them in our strength and conditioning,

01:11:19 and we churned out more talent to the NFL

01:11:22 than anybody had any business doing.

01:11:25 That is over, okay?

01:11:27 Major Harris would have been a great player

01:11:29 for Ohio State.

01:11:30 That's most likely the reality

01:11:32 that we would have been living in.

01:11:33 - Yeah, Steve Slayton would have been

01:11:35 a great Georgia Bulldog, man.

01:11:37 - Hey, Ronald Austin.

01:11:38 - Yeah, imagine what Steve Slayton would have demanded

01:11:40 on the open market after breaking Tony Dorsett's

01:11:42 rushing record as a true freshman of the Sugar Bowl.

01:11:45 So yeah, the new reality is,

01:11:47 you can't do to the extent we used to do it.

01:11:49 You can't keep your whole team intact

01:11:51 for four and five years and do that.

01:11:53 The best you can hope for is,

01:11:54 everybody in the country is gonna have roster turnover now

01:11:57 somewhere at 30, 40, or even 50% in some cases.

01:12:01 So what can you do?

01:12:04 First of all, continue to develop at least half your team.

01:12:07 It's not gonna be the whole team that it used to be

01:12:09 that we won all those games with,

01:12:11 but continue to develop at least half your team,

01:12:14 and that's where your culture comes from.

01:12:16 But the new path to winning is outscouting everyone else

01:12:20 when it comes to the portal and your evaluations,

01:12:23 even out of the high school level.

01:12:24 So if you can out scout teams that have more resources,

01:12:28 more money, and more assets than you,

01:12:31 and get kids that they don't want, but you do,

01:12:33 and plug them in to the 50, 60%, 70% of your roster,

01:12:37 whatever it might be, that you're able to keep each year,

01:12:40 that is how you win.

01:12:42 And then you get on to the more difficult part,

01:12:44 and that's how do you sustain that.

01:12:46 First, how do you win?

01:12:47 Second, how do you sustain it?

01:12:48 Because every year,

01:12:49 you now have to reinvent your football team,

01:12:52 and that wasn't the case before.

01:12:54 It's the case now.

01:12:55 - You got to re-recruit. - You got to re-recruit.

01:12:57 - I get tired of saying it. - You got to re-recruit

01:12:58 your own football team every year, too.

01:12:58 - What's that?

01:12:59 - He said you got to re-recruit

01:13:00 your own football team every year, too.

01:13:02 - That's what I was going to say.

01:13:03 The piece of this that's missing,

01:13:05 because we're talking about the portal,

01:13:06 and we're talking about those that have entered the portal,

01:13:09 and we're talking about the names

01:13:10 that we're hoping to get through the portal,

01:13:12 but what we haven't even mentioned

01:13:13 are the kids that we've retained,

01:13:16 which are hands down the biggest wins.

01:13:19 - And I think, guys-- - I don't care

01:13:19 who you land in the portal.

01:13:21 - Okay. - I think it's hilarious.

01:13:23 - I'm not even Garrett.

01:13:24 - I was just going to say, I think it's hilarious.

01:13:26 You see a couple days ago, breaking Jaheim White,

01:13:30 and I'm like, son of a, you got to be kidding me.

01:13:33 Says that he's staying.

01:13:35 - It's weird. - And I'm like,

01:13:37 this is what we're living in now,

01:13:39 where I have a heart attack,

01:13:40 'cause I read the first four words of a tweet,

01:13:42 and I think, oh God, he's leaving,

01:13:43 and no, he's committed to stay for another year.

01:13:47 - Let's start right now.

01:13:48 Nobody we're going to get in the portal,

01:13:50 nobody is going to excite you more

01:13:52 than keeping Wyatt Milam, keeping Tomas Rematch,

01:13:55 keeping Jaheim White, keeping Garrett Green,

01:13:58 keeping Trey Lonray, keeping Rodney Gallagher.

01:14:01 That is so incredibly massive.

01:14:05 - Yep. - That's a problem

01:14:07 that so many teams in the Big 12 and beyond

01:14:09 are dealing with right now,

01:14:11 losing these critical pieces of what they're doing

01:14:14 to the portal.

01:14:15 We're all going to lose pieces,

01:14:17 but it's remarkable what we've been able to retain

01:14:20 to this point.

01:14:21 So that's part of this conversation too.

01:14:24 - Take care of your own first,

01:14:25 before you start the program. - Take care of your own.

01:14:27 - Yeah. - I think what you're saying,

01:14:28 Judd, too, is like, the scouting thing.

01:14:31 Drew Fabianich is a huge pickup for this program,

01:14:35 and not a lot of teams around the country have GMs.

01:14:38 So you have an advantage in some respects,

01:14:40 because he's done this for years.

01:14:42 He's projected kids, when he was in the NFL,

01:14:45 what they were going to do from when they came out of college.

01:14:48 It's the same thing, just a little earlier in the process.

01:14:50 So I think that's an advantage for West Virginia.

01:14:53 - And Judd, to your point- - And the names

01:14:54 that we've seen surface, right?

01:14:57 I'm not so sure that there are a lot of surprises

01:15:01 in the building.

01:15:02 I can't say there's none, okay?

01:15:05 But as somebody who knows the people in the building,

01:15:08 I can't say there are a lot of major surprises.

01:15:12 This thing changes on a dime every day, right?

01:15:15 But it's not as though they feel completely ambushed

01:15:18 by some of the things that have unfolded, on any level.

01:15:22 And maybe in the past, just like here and everywhere else,

01:15:26 we were kind of ambushed.

01:15:27 We didn't have the trust in order

01:15:28 quite the way that we do now.

01:15:30 You didn't know how to anticipate these things

01:15:32 quite the way that we do now.

01:15:34 In other words, there's no-

01:15:36 - A keen message.

01:15:37 - I remember how surprising and shocking a keen was.

01:15:39 None of us saw that coming with a keen.

01:15:41 None of us in the building saw that coming with a keen,

01:15:44 right?

01:15:44 And that hasn't played out again, probably since then.

01:15:49 I mean, you've had mild surprises, but discussions,

01:15:51 and they're reasonable when you understand

01:15:53 the why behind what the kid's saying.

01:15:56 But so yeah, we've at least started to acclimate to it.

01:16:00 And to Skylar's point,

01:16:02 the trust is far from a finished product.

01:16:04 It never will be, to be honest with you.

01:16:06 But where it is now compared to where it was three years ago

01:16:10 or even two years ago, or even a year ago,

01:16:13 or even a week ago, based on the progress

01:16:15 that we've made in the last couple of days,

01:16:17 they've forwarded some inroads.

01:16:19 They really have.

01:16:20 And I hate to use the word stabilize,

01:16:23 but compared to what it was a couple of years ago,

01:16:25 it has stabilized at least.

01:16:27 The infrastructure of what's behind it is in a better place.

01:16:31 - I completely agree with you.

01:16:34 And I think that Akeem Macedor example was a perfect one

01:16:37 of knock on wood, but I think we've stabilized

01:16:41 beyond that point of those type of shocking

01:16:44 portal departures.

01:16:45 Country Roads Trust, certainly a huge part of that.

01:16:48 Skylar mentioned a bunch in those names,

01:16:51 Jed as well too, of guys who have already committed

01:16:55 that will be back in with the Country Roads Trust.

01:16:57 So you know where to go to get involved.

01:16:59 You know where to go to find Skylar

01:17:01 for all of your latest portal updates.

01:17:04 And yeah, you guys are right.

01:17:06 I mean, this is, listen, a guy like Drew,

01:17:09 that's how you stay ahead of the curve

01:17:10 when you're WVU.

01:17:12 You don't have Texas A&M money.

01:17:13 He ain't got Ohio State money, right?

01:17:16 But you can be, so you gotta be Billy Bean in Moneyball.

01:17:19 You gotta adapt or die.

01:17:21 You gotta grab Jonah Hill and you gotta adapt or die.

01:17:24 Get with it or get lost.

01:17:27 And it seems like we are doing the best we can

01:17:30 to get with it and stay on the front foot with this thing.

01:17:32 And I think that's gotta be encouraging now.

01:17:35 And as Jed kind of mentioned,

01:17:37 when we look at where we've been over the past couple

01:17:39 of years, how that thing has stabilized,

01:17:41 that feels huge to me.

01:17:43 A final thank you to Johnston Equipment,

01:17:45 new friends of the show here.

01:17:47 Make sure you're checking out their new location

01:17:49 outside of Weston on Route 33.

01:17:53 Gentlemen, this was a fun one.

01:17:54 This was a, you know, some portal stuff,

01:17:56 some coaching stuff, some headlines, some around campus.

01:17:59 We touched on a whole bunch of different things here.

01:18:02 We will have later in this week, our WVU season review.

01:18:06 We've had some time to digest the season now.

01:18:09 We'll talk the highs, we'll talk the lows,

01:18:11 we'll hand out some awards, all those different things.

01:18:13 We'll do that later in the week.

01:18:14 So make sure you're checking that out.

01:18:16 A reminder,

01:18:17 in the description here, in the comments as well too,

01:18:23 if you wanna get involved with Nico Marquiole

01:18:26 and the money that he is trying to raise as well,

01:18:28 that'll be in the description.

01:18:30 Thanks to our guy Skyler for hopping in here

01:18:32 for the back half of the episode.

01:18:35 Skyler will join us.

01:18:36 We'll have the full round table, all four jabronis

01:18:39 when we do our WVU season review here in just a few days.

01:18:43 So that will be a lot of fun.

01:18:45 The last thing before we get out of here,

01:18:48 the one thing we ask of you is to be in here

01:18:49 and tell in here about your new favorite

01:18:52 WVU football podcast for Big Owen Schmidt,

01:18:56 for Skyler Callahan, for the signal caller Jed Drenning.

01:18:59 I'm Wesley Uler.

01:19:00 Thanks so much, everybody.

01:19:01 We'll talk to you soon.

01:19:02 You've been in the gun.

01:19:04 (door opening)

01:19:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]

ITG 131 - Portal Season

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