Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:10 Welcome to the SB live California podcast. I'm your host Connor morrisette join this week with our new director of recruiting at SB live. Andrew Nemick. Andrew has been covering Oregon recruiting for a very long time up in the Pacific Northwest. Eventually he is gonna be doing the whole country for us, which we were talking off the air. Andrew, it's been a bit of an adjustment so far, but really excited to have you on board. And how excited are you to take these, uh, recruiting beats from couple states to eventually the whole country?
Speaker 2 00:00:36 Yeah, I mean really excited. It's it's gonna be a lot of fun I've because I've covered the ducks and the beavers that's, that's a lot of Washington and California and Oregon prospects. It touches on Texas. It touches on Florida a little bit, but to really expand that out and do the whole country is really exciting and, and to learn and to get to learn and dive in specifically to California, which is just loaded from the Trinity league on is just absolutely loaded with talent and to get the opportunity to like, okay, go have fun in this sandbox, the California talent sandbox. I'm just excited to go play, man. It's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1 00:01:09 It is a, a blast covering stuff down here, for sure. So really excited to have you on board. Let's start with some of the N I stuff, because it has totally changed recruiting. And you've been doing this for a long time, but we're still starting to see the money just plays a big role and that's kind of obvious, but covering that is a challenge. You're not gonna come out cuz it's not a contract per se. You're not gonna come out and say this kid's going to this school because they got gave them this amount of money. It's it. It's tough to, to come out and say that we're seeing a lot of recruiting reporters have, have that issue. Can you tell me a little bit of about how complex it, it is to cover N I L because you don't wanna burn the CA you don't wanna burn the school, but money is a big factor.
Speaker 2 00:01:50 Yeah. And it's so nuanced and, and really to start, the thing that people need to understand is schools can't actually directly set up your N I deal now, no one believes like there's rumors of an 8 million deal for a potentially a California quarterback going to Tennessee. Um, you know, there's, there's rumblings of that, right? But you can't just Tennessee. Can't be like, Hey, here's 8 million bucks. It's a business. But if anybody believes some business in Tennessee is like, Hey, let's just give a California quarterback, 8 million Tennessee. Do you even want this kid? We don't, we don't know. We'll just give him 8 million. But I mean, there's obviously some stuff going on behind the scenes. And so that's the first layer. That's complicated. The other thing that's really complicated with it is the fact that kids don't want their money out there. Potentially if you get $8 million, there's rumors that Josh Connerly potentially got Evan figures to go to Oregon.
Speaker 2 00:02:46 I'm not confirming that. I don't know that, but that's something that hit that that's certainly, I've heard from a number of places that, and other reporters have said that that's kind of roughly, maybe the number he got. He doesn't want that out there, cuz he doesn't want on his side, potentially family hitting him up, asking for money. And I don't mean counterly specifically just any recruit. And then the, the next layer is for the school. If you are the school, if you're the rumor is that Tennessee gave a million dollars to a kid. If that young man is trying to bring other talent with him and say, he wants to bring a five star wide with him, that receiver can be like, you got eight. We know that. And if it's out there, I'm saying, if it, once it's public, you got eight I'm worth at least one then because I know you're a quarterback, but I'm worth at least one.
Speaker 2 00:03:30 Suddenly these schools start pricing themselves out of their own fellow elite recruits. So is, is then the onus on the kid to start dishing out his money. Like, Hey, I want an offensive tackle. I got this much money. I'll give you, you know, then it gets really messy. So there's a lot of reasons that we're not seeing, even though it's above board, I think everybody thought, oh, well now when a kid commits, it'll just we'll know the price tag we'll know the number and we don't. And the reason is the school's protecting it, that they don't set the bar for a kid, even look at, you know, if the Josh Conley rumors are true and he got seven figures potentially to go to Oregon, does that mean that every high level four star five star kid that goes to Oregon can ask for at least a hundred thousand since he got a million, can I at least get half a million?
Speaker 2 00:04:17 I'm a five star. You know, I'm a five star line back her, I'm a five star corner. You start pricing yourself outta the rest of your recruiting class. So you can deny, deny, deny, and keep recruiting and, and not giving a ton of money. One of the ways the schools are handling it too, and you we've seen this, we have seen schools release kind of a baseline, like every kid in our program through a deal with saltines, Nike under armor, whatever the case may be, you know, Z bar, you know, power bars, whatever the case may be. Uh, every kid that comes to our school gets at least 25,000 bucks. Every kid that come to our school gets at least 40,000 bucks. Every kid that comes to our school through this deal gets 5,000 bucks. We have seen that, we know that Oregon has sold off some, some shoes connected to some cryptocurrency and all the money went to the pro or the players on, on the team. So we know those players got five figures each in a deal. So schools are finding ways to say, Hey, if you come here, there's at least a baseline. But in terms of those big ticket numbers, those big ticket items in the recruiting trail, they're trying to keep it covered for a number of reasons.
Speaker 1 00:05:18 When will that change? Because we all know what's happening. When will you be able to say this kid's going here? Because the money was a big factor. I feel like it's unsustainable just to keep dancing around it. We're still in the first year you see this changing at all, anytime in the next three to five years, maybe even next year that I, I feel like this can't keep going on like this.
Speaker 2 00:05:39 Well, I, I can tell you it won't be the recruiting community. And, and part of that has to do with the fact that the recruiting community doesn't want to alienate kids. They don't want to alienate coaches. They don't want to alienate their sources. And so you, you don't wanna say, okay, it was this amount of money to this school. Cause the school's like, wait a minute. Now, every kid that comes to us, like you reported it. So every kid that comes to us and say, and you know, Andrew Nimic said it was a $2.2 million. I'm making up a number 2.2 million for Mike Jones out of Missouri to go to North Carolina wherever. And so it's like, well, if it's fact, if we know it's 2.2, I want 1.5. I want one point have at least so recruiting people won't do it. What it's gonna take is public records requests from probably newspapers or online sites that cover news and, and really try to delve into it from an investigative side.
Speaker 2 00:06:32 If that doesn't happen. I mean, it like kids have been getting the whole time I've been covering recruiting and they got paid before I got recruiting. And it didn't get talked about. So this idea that it's inevitable that people will eventually learn the numbers publicly, I don't necessarily think is true, unless someone wants to, you've already got the NCAA saying we're not gonna police ITI is outside our jurisdiction, essentially a, um, so I, I'm not entirely sure that it will be inevitable unless again, uh, a pocket of journalists or a journalist says, you know, the New York times or USA today, or so one of the big overarching papers, like let's do a deep dive multi-year piece, public records requests and find out how much everybody got paid in the class of 2023.
Speaker 1 00:07:17 So then what did you make of the athletic releasing, not the name, but the 8 million figure about a recruit. And you know, we probably know who it is that probably like is Tennessee upset about that. Is the player upset about that? Is that kind of a, a sticky situation from your understanding? Because let's be honest, not everyone's worth that much money. It's kind of a finite list of people who could make that. And then once you kind of put it all together, it it's a little bit obvious. Um, did that ruffle feathers?
Speaker 2 00:07:51 Yeah. I, I mean, I imagine it did. I haven't talked to that recruit in his father about it specifically, and, and I haven't talked to Tennessee, but there reason Tennessee didn't come out and say, we're the $8 million school. And there's a reason the recruit, didn't say I'm the $8 million quarterback. Uh, nobody wants that out there on that side. And again, I mean, I, I, I have a radio show in Portland. I talked about it did Tennessee because it became so obvious that it was Tennessee. Did they price themselves out of the market for other top recruits? If I'm a, if I'm a five star offensive tackle, if I'm a five star wide receiver and I am being recruited to Tennessee, and I know potentially that $8 million on the table for a quarterback, I, okay. I want a little money. And it's like, well, we don't have it well, right. Because you gave your whole pool to one guy. So why would I go here if I can get it half a million from make it up school, Alabama, Michigan, Ohio, state, USC, whoever the case may be. Um, so yeah, I think, I think probably it did ruffle feathers. I think probably Tennessee's not real happy. I think probably the prospect's not real happy and his family's probably not real happy.
Speaker 1 00:08:57 Two other N IL things. You know how sometimes in professional sports, a contract seems massive at the time and then a few years go on and, oh, that's just kind of the going rate. Do you think that for a big time quarterback 8 million, it sounds crazy right now in 2022, do you think in the future million, that might just kind, that's what it takes and if that's as small as your pool is, you're probably not gonna get 'em. I think some, well, maybe see these pools be like a $20 million for a class situation in the future. And eight goes to the quarterback. Do you think we could see something like that where 8 million sounds crazy now, but it might not be in the next few years.
Speaker 2 00:09:30 I think we already saw potentially a, a eight figure recruiting class put together Texas a and M at the highest rated recruiting class in the history of recruiting. There are rumblings that that was 20 million plus to put the, that class together. I have not heard anything specifically. I truly haven't, uh, when it comes to that, but I don't know if a single player got 8 million. I don't know how they, I sat up. I don't know if it's even true, but yeah. I mean, I think we're gonna see a variance. I think we're gonna see a deal. And it might be that the 8 million figure is the high mark is the water, you know, is the watermark for a long time. And we go, okay, that broke the market. And actually, we mean to find a middle ground here, we thought, you know, right now on three sports is doing their player evaluations.
Speaker 2 00:10:16 And I think they had, uh, Nico is the player who's rumored to be that we don't know, but that's the rumor. They, they valued him as a $300,000 player. So on three missed the mark potentially by 7.7 million. I mean, we don't know yet. We don't know exactly where this is gonna go. I, I think Josh Connerly was valued, did around a hundred thousand dollars. The rumor is that he got over a million. So even the experts are wrong. And, and it seems like they're wrong by a lot. But I bet, I would guess that at some point there's, there's a market correction where we're gonna, somebody's gonna do a deal that's way too high, and then we'll see it. They all, they will it'll happen, cuz that's how it will. It's like this, kid's a game changer. We think he's the number one player in America.
Speaker 2 00:11:00 Let's give him 25 million or maybe that number's eight. Maybe we reached it and he'll get there and he'll not be successful and schools will go, okay, wait a minute. Let's come back down to earth a little bit. Let's not invest all our money in one guy. And let's put a class together at this much and balance ourselves out. I think we're gonna to see the market kind of dictate. It's a free market. We've never had a free open market for recruits. We've had a free, hidden black market for recruits, but never an open market that was legal. So it's interesting to find out exactly where that middle ground's gonna come from. And obviously based on, on threes, valuations, that ha that are off by, you know, their like 5% of the actual number, 10% of the actual lumbered that's being rumored. Um, obviously even the experts are way off right now.
Speaker 1 00:11:42 They base that a lot on followers. Right. So I can see on social media. Right.
Speaker 2 00:11:47 But clearly it's time to throw that formula away and, and hit the reset button. It's like, well, it doesn't, it doesn't go based on followers. And if it does, uh, each follower's worth a whole lot more than we thought, you know, I mean, they've gotta tweak that formula for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:12:01 The, the only recruit and I'm crossing sports like Brony James and all of his followers, that would make sense because he has so many, but I, I don't really feel like it makes to do it like that for a lot of other guys. Okay. Last arch
Speaker 2 00:12:15 Arch Manning. How much is he worth? I mean, oh boy,
Speaker 1 00:12:19 He, he just got social media, right?
Speaker 2 00:12:22 Yeah. It, it doesn't his last name's Manning. He'll, <laugh>, he'll have more followers than I could ever dream of within 12 hours of his account, you know?
Speaker 1 00:12:29 Exactly. Especially when he gets to wherever he is gonna go and starts playing well for sure. Uh, the, the last thing on this, Andrew, are there any changes that you would wanna see made with with N I that's such a broad question. Are there any obvious ones that might change, take that any direction you want to go with it you've been in this space now since it's legal the whole time, anything, uh, you think will change anything you wanna see change.
Speaker 2 00:12:54 Yeah. I, I desperately wanna see signing day change. What happened last year was, was chaotic. And it was unfortunate to see so many coaches leave right around that December signing period. And, and it's not their fault. It's a business. So of course college is like, Hey, we want you here. Leave your team middle of the year, leave them abandon 'em for their bowl game. I don't care if they're in the final four leave 'em because we need you to come here to put our class together. So leave in early December, you know, tell that other program dos, we, we need you. So that needs to stop because it's not, it's not fair to the kids who are committed. And then a week before they commit their head coach leaves at, and they're left scrambling while all these kids are signing everywhere else, suddenly they don't have a landing spot.
Speaker 2 00:13:38 It's not fair to the guys who are already on those football programs who have invested, who are committed to a coach. Yes, it's a business, but at the same time, mid-season departures right at the end of the post-season when, when that's supposed to be the celebration, that game is what you've earned through your hard work, through a 12 game, regular season to have that now be a circus where I think there were bowl games where neither head coach was there, like the team that, you know, the teams, the coaches that had been there for those teams throughout the whole season left. So they had interim coach against interim coach. It's like, oh my, what, what is this? I mean, this is goofy. So what I would do is make an N I L eligible only signing day, starting like August 1st. And if you've signed an NYL deal that like wink, wink, nudge, nudge, links you to a school.
Speaker 2 00:14:26 Only if you signed an NYL deal, you can sign with a program August 1st. So several months before it's, before the season starts and you can say, well, yeah, but a lot can happen, right? But you already made a big boy decision signing a contract to be an NYL guy to get money, to go potentially to that school. So you're already locked in and people can say, well, actually you're signing a, you know, an agreement with, um, you know, a marketing group that that is not completely connected to the school. It's like, okay, come on and you don't have to do it. It just makes you eligible. There are clearly kids who have signed N IL deals that know where they're going. They can sign in August. And since you, again, got money, you run the risk of your coach being gone. You run the risk of your program, not being very good, but again, you already got a bunch of money.
Speaker 2 00:15:14 So you, you chose the business side, then get rid of the December signing period and have that traditional February signing period. So now you've gotten through your season, you've gotten through those December ball games. You've gotten through into January that college football playoff, and that's when then the coaching carousel can turn and it's done potentially you hope fingers crossed by late January. And you have some time before signing day, that gives you all of January to take visits. You don't have four days after a school, you know, a coach leaves to decide, do I want to follow him to his school that I've never visited? Or, or do I wanna stick with my commitment where I don't know the coaching staff, it erases that issue. And, and I think that takes care of the current college football climate. I think it helps take care and bring some clarity to the N I, you could also connect it where if you sign in August, you have to disclose your N agreements.
Speaker 2 00:16:09 So then it becomes optional. But if you sign, you have to disclosure N IL agreements that then makes it a front facing situation, a front facing business that people can see and say, okay, we understand what this is. Does that make sense? Because right now it is, it's all hidden. We don't know what's going on, but if you have to sign in August because you took the money and that's okay, that's your choice. I don't, I don't knock anyone for taking the money. You have to say what you got. And in that way, then the market starts to define itself. Because right now it's still the legal, wild, wild west,
Speaker 1 00:16:43 For sure. And I like, excuse me, I like what you had to say too, about pushing the sign day back, because when all the coaches leave, that creates a really awful situation. I wonder if that is something that we'll see, but yeah, I, I agree with a lot of what you said there. Interesting. I'll be following along just to, to see what does change, cuz this is really, really crazy, but let's get into some just regular recruiting stuff. Now, Andrew. So who are some of your favorite west coast players in the class of 2023 and why? It can even be, you know, the highly kids to maybe someone who thinks underrated 20, 23, who do, who do you like from out here?
Speaker 2 00:17:19 Uh, I mean, we can go by state, I guess, to some extent. And in Washington, I, you know, Jayden Wayne is kind of continuing that tradition. Washington is not a power state. When we think of California, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, those are power states, right. You know, there's a good chance. Five star kids are coming outta there. And you know, there's a lot of depth coming out of there. Washington's been on the rise for a number of years and you know, Sam Huber, JT Tuo, G Scott junior, uh, CCA, AKA, and there's lots more. I mean, they produced a ton of talent. The next wave is gonna be Jayden Wayne, this five star defensive lineman outta Lincoln high school in Tacoma, really phenomenal player. Caleb Presley really impresses me as an all American corners outside the top 100 prospects and talk about kids that are on to rate it.
Speaker 2 00:18:08 I know he is a four star prospect. I really do think he could be a top 50 kid nationally. I really, really like him a lot, uh, in, in Oregon. It's a really down year, unfortunately. And, and that's something that, you know, it comes and goes in some states and in others, you, you kind of know like we're gonna have 45. I D one guys in Oregon. It fluctuates sometimes it's two, sometimes it's 15. Uh, and, and right now Oregon's going through a down cycle, but Riley Williams, number two, tied in, in the country and on three sports, number four tied in, in the country in 24, 7 people told me about him. And I get that all the time in Oregon cuz you know, I was covering it and for the Orian there and uh, people would be like, go check this kid out, go check.
Speaker 2 00:18:53 Okay. So you go watch and it's like, dude, he's nothing somebody said, go watch Riley Williams. Then I got another one, go, go see Riley Williams, Senator for Catholic. He's really good. I'm like, okay, we'll see. He says, he's a basketball kid. We'll see he was, he stopped playing football for two years cuz he said he was a basketball kid. So he goes out and I'm through the first quarter. And I, I text somebody he's even better than you could have ever possibly told me. He's very special, got a chance to be a five star prospect, six foot 7, 230 pounds. His brother's at Oregon. He's got a couple of uncles that played at Oregon. One's in the hall of fame at Oregon. They're gonna have a little bit of an inside track early, but he's got off from all over. He just picked up an offer from Alabama.
Speaker 2 00:19:33 Uh, I really like him. He's a great kid. Uh, the rest of Oregon is a major question mark. And when we talk about that state, that's pretty typical. You'll have a list of guys who are pretty good. Maybe it's two, maybe it's five that you know, these kids are blue chip caliber guys, you know, tele Noha fun came now chase Coda was at UCLA. He came out and was a four star guy. Elijah Molden came out of, of Oregon outta Westland high school. He was a four star guy. And then you have like 15 kids who are major question marks. They could end up in the big sky, you know, FCS level. They could pop and be power five. So Oregon's a big time question mark. Probably a couple kids will pop, but it's it. It's just too early to say, uh, California. I'm just trying to sink my teeth into the idea of like, who do you like in California?
Speaker 2 00:20:21 It's like, well, can I just say like the entire modern day program? I mean it's, it really is an adjustment for me. I really like the CA the California quarterback class. I mean, when we talk about position, you look at quarterback in California with Malachi Nelson, outta Los salamis. You look at, uh, Nick, I'm gonna butcher his name, the long beach poly quarterback. Who's committed to Tennessee, Nico phenomenal, phenomenal player. Jayden Rashada out of Pittsburgh, had a chance to see him throw he's phenomenal. Those are three quarterbacks who are in the top five nationally, three of the top five quarterbacks nationally coming from California. So that's really exciting. We look at that domino effect that happens with quarterbacks. A guy comes off the board and he goes to Alabama and then suddenly a Georgia and LSU and USC and Oregon and all the top programs, Michigan, Ohio state, they all need to adjust their board.
Speaker 2 00:21:13 So much of that conversation. So much of that domino effect began with Malachi Nelson to USC and Nico to Tennessee. And Jane Rashad is sitting there and he's still got Oregon and miss and uh, Miamis after him. And he's gonna be a major, major player in what happens nationally in the quarterback market. So even though he is the number five quarterback, he might be ki him and arch Manning might be the jumping off point, cuz Jane Rashat is the last great quarterback west of the, of Mississippi. So I think he's the, I, I think there's a guy in Michigan too. Actually I take, so I gotta look at my geography and see exactly where the Mississippi hit. So certainly in the west region completely, you know, in that west region, Jane Rashat is it for west coast folks. So it he's going to be a major player and obvious the arch man, he's the number one player in the country outta Louisiana.
Speaker 2 00:22:10 So those guys really interest me. Uh, Mateo Ang is a fascinating player. The younger brother of DJ who's the quarterback at Clemson five star defensive lineman. Um, it's gonna be interesting, his recruitment, you know, he's, I believe he's visiting Alabama here, coming up. Um, he's visited Oregon a number of times, obviously USC is always gonna be involved with a California kid. It's gonna be really interesting to see what happens with his recruitment. Uh, going down the list, see, this is the thing I have to like look at a list of guys to be like, there's so many, there's so many. Um, I think Pierce Clarkson's commitment to Louisville really fascinating when we about, you know, needle movers. This is a kid that basically chose, like I'm gonna carve my own path at a program that isn't a traditional recruiting power and I'm gonna see how much pull I have.
Speaker 2 00:23:01 Am I, am I, you know, I call 'em pied Piper recruits guys that go to a school. And because they went there, there's, there's gravitational P whole. When they, when they go to a school that they bring talent with him, he's he's betting. And he maybe rightly so that he's a PI Piper recruit that he's got magnetism, that when he goes to Louisville, he's gonna draw talent from the west coast. That I'm really fascinated. I admire it, uh, tremendously, I think to, and we see really, really talented players go to programs where they're not gonna be the dude they're gonna be, you know, Clemson just picked up another quarterback commit. Well, they've got DJ U and they've got the number one recruit in the country from last year, uh, competing for that starting job. So that's a guy that's gonna sit potentially for two or three years. Why not go to a Louisville? Why not go to a, go to an Oregon state? Why not go to an Indiana and, and carve your own path and see how much pull you have. I, I just think that is really, really fascinating.
Speaker 1 00:24:04 You mentioned a lot of great stuff there. I think what's really interesting about Malachi going to USC is I'm close with Nico and his family. And I talked to them and they wanted to go to USC as any LA kid would. But when Lincoln Riley got the job, he of course was gonna take Malachi. And so Nico now has a chip on older and I'm excited as the years go on and we see head to head how both of those guys do in college, how much that ship will have an impact on, on, on what Nico's able to do. So
Speaker 2 00:24:35 I, I, I, and that's, and, and that's that domino effect, right? Yeah. Like one guy goes somewhere and then it's a mad scramble to figure out where everybody else is gonna go. They have to find the next spot and, and schools and next man up. So it's always fast quarterback, quarterback, recruitment, man. We could do a podcast talking quarterback recruitment for three hours, especially in California. I mean, we could talk California quarterbacks, especially this year for a long time. There's some really good ones.
Speaker 1 00:24:59 Certainly. How about in 2024? And you don't have to mention a, a, a million guys if you don't, because I know that there's just so many on the west coast. Who do you like in that class? And I'll get into a few more specific recruiting questions,
Speaker 2 00:25:13 Man. Um, you're testing me here. Julian say obviously is a big time, big time quarterback. I, I like him. Peyton Woodard have had a chance to talk to, and I was really blown away by him. I mean, Julie, from an, from an interview stand point, uh, about as polished a kid, as I've ever spoken to, he, he knew what he wanted to say. He was interesting. He was appropriately funny. He wasn't like cracking inappropriate jokes or anything, but he was comfortable enough to make jokes about, about certain things. We talked about the safety position and different safeties in the NFL and, and who he potentially patterns himself after we talked about be what, what it means to be Kyle Hamilton's cousin and like what, what that means from a legacy standpoint. And obviously not. Dame's like, Hey, you know, come, come be the next that guy.
Speaker 2 00:26:01 Uh, but also so often when guys are highly recruited, he's a five star safety in the class of 20, 24 or so often when guys are heavily recruited, they start to give you stock answers. They start to give you answers that are practiced, they're rehearsed. And I thought he was very authentic and very honest, and that's so refreshing because this is big business now. And elite recruits start getting hit up when they're in the eighth grade. And they probably do 10 to 60 interviews a week, depending on how good they are and what time of the year it is. So to still do that and give me the time he doesn't know me yet, you know, he has no idea who I am to give me the kind of time he did and be genuine is, is really refreshing. And, and I, I expand upon that because I think it matters for everybody.
Speaker 2 00:26:47 It's not just that he did a wonderful thing and, and is an interesting kid. I, I hope as recruiting evolves, even though these kids are young, they understand you don't have to give the stock answer and just say like, Alabama was great. I loved it. They're a winning pro. USC is awesome. They have tradition. They're the homeschool. A lot of people like you can really talk about how you feel. You can say, man, I sat down in Nick Saban's office and it's Nick Saban. Like that's crazy, you know, like you're allowed to be your authentic self. And, and I thought that was, that was really encouraging. I'm fascinated by this modern day O line, like just from a, from an old line standpoint. Yeah. There's all these sophomores, but people are saying the freshmen are really good too. So we could be looking at an era at modern day and they're great all the time.
Speaker 2 00:27:33 There's the era is just like forever, you know, it's, they're the Yankees of, of high school football nationally almost, uh, certainly last year, they're gonna be so good on that O line, not just this year, not just next year, but the year after that. And I'm excited to see the, the evolution of the modern day O line because yes, they've got great sophomores. They've also got some great freshmen and when you've got that many good and I mean, I, I don't mean like, oh, he could be a college guy. I mean, like he could be an all American when you've got that many, all American potential guys, when they're 15, like what does that become? And I, and I think that's, that's really, really exciting.
Speaker 1 00:28:16 Yeah, for sure. Deandre Carter, we talked about the modern day Duncanville game at the, or before the show, I should say. And the, he, everyone knew that this kid had great potential, but he comes in and really just dominated some really good senior Duncanville, defensive lineman as a sophomore, and really his coming out party game as a sophomore. That was really, really cool to see that I, I think the sky's the limit for that kid. Amazing, amazing performance. And he's just so consider it just doesn't get beat. It's amazing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:28:47 Duncanville was loaded up front. I mean, I think their like third best D lineman was Quincy Wright and he went to Oregon state and he's like, okay, we've got a true college, PAC 12 nose tackle, you know, and it's like for a sophomore to go up against a guy that's, you know, pushing 300 pounds and, and move him around you is, is really impressive. Uh, certainly that, that modern day O line, if, if you could pick any unit, I, I, I think that's fascinating. I love this kind of stuff. Like if you could pick any unit like wide receiver groups from any high school or an old line from any high school or linebackers from any high school just to watch and you just get to enjoy them and follow them, uh, Mo other day might be the number one O line in America for the next two years. That just like, man, let's just put on the tape and have fun and learn because we're gonna see some fascinating stuff. And a whole lot of pancakes like IHOP, cherries. I don't know what, I don't know what they have in California. That's Elmers is here. I don't know what the, the hot breakfast place is in California, but whatever it is, uh, just pancakes galore, uh, coming outta that group.
Speaker 1 00:29:52 <laugh> from an intrigued perspective, which recruitments are you most excited to cover in 2023? Is it Mateo Ang gal? Because it's not gonna be Clemson. It looks like, but a bunch of schools are in the mix. Is it Jayden Rashada as the quarterback who could make some dominoes fall? Those are two names that come to mind for me, who, who are some big time, 20, 23 kids that there's a lot of intrigue left with their recruitments.
Speaker 2 00:30:15 Yeah. I mean, anytime you're talking intrigue with recruiting, you're talking about the big time kids, right? Like if we're talking about three star kids, it's like, eh, I'm not that excited about whether he is going to Cal Washington state or Oregon state. And there's nothing wrong with those programs. They just they're great programs, but it doesn't move the needle. We're not blown away. So Jayden Wayne is, is fascinating because we have so many different layers to it. Jayden, Wayne's a kid from the state of Washington, Washington hu the Washington Huskies have a new coach. It's really important for 'em to start keeping that instate talent in the state cuz they, they haven't done it. Now they've gotten, you know, Sam Adams was a good get and they got SAEL smalls. They've they've gotten Sam Huber at five star quarterback. They've gotten a handful of guys, certainly, but they haven't put the hammer down.
Speaker 2 00:31:00 You know, JT, two Ohio state, a MECA BCA number one receiver in the country, Ohio state G Scott junior. I think he's transitioned to tied in now at Ohio state, but was a receiver and a big time receiver, Ohio state, Josh Conley, Oregon, Dave, I Uly Fourstar uh, two-way lineman. He probably play uh, O line at Oregon. He's he's headed to Oregon. So the, they have not built that fence. In fact, they've basically like, go on, have fun. Now go see the world. Like they have not done a good job of building that fence. So he's going to be a massive, massive priority for them. Same with Caleb Presley that the all American cor they have to get those guys. Then you've also got Oregon who is trying to battle fight off Lincoln Riley. Now Lincoln, Riley's gonna maybe build an, forget a fence. He's gonna build an iron curtain around California.
Speaker 2 00:31:50 No one else can get in this place. So does Oregon fight through that? And they're able to get some guys in California. We'll talk about that. When I talk about some of the guys in California, I think are interesting or does Oregon say, okay, we'll pick and choose our spots in California, but Washington's a little weak right now in terms of in-state recruiting. Let's dominate the Northwest is Josh Conley's commitment, a precursor for what? We're gonna see the rest of the way where Oregon goes, okay, we'll dominate Washington. We'll dominate Oregon. We'll pick our spots in California. We'll get some guys in Texas. We'll get some guys around the country and we'll battle you that way. So I think Jayden Waynes, obviously there's, you know, Miami, Mario crystal ball's pull, does he still have pull to the west coast or from the west coast? From his time at Oregon?
Speaker 2 00:32:31 Sure. Looks like he does right now. Sure. Looks like he still has that pull, given that he's pulling a bunch of Oregon transfers to my, uh, to Miami. So if Jayden Wayne stays in Washington, they'll put that feather in their cap and say, we're fixing it. If Oregon gets Jayden Wayne, they'll say we're beaten back Mario. And we own the Northwest. That's a big feather in their cap. If Lincoln Riley at USC is able to somehow get Jayden Wayne, they'll say we dominate the whole west coast. So there's so many obviously. And then he could also just go to like Alabama or Clemson or Ohio state. And those would be big from a PAC 12 conference standpoint in the sense that the PAC 12, hasn't done a great job of keeping their top talent in the state. Everybody knows about Bryce young and DJ U like, huh?
Speaker 2 00:33:14 What could have been if they'd kept those guys, Keely Ringo gets a big interception in the national championship game to seal it. He's an Arizona kid who grew up in the Seattle area. So we all know the problem. And Jayden Wayne for a lot of different reasons is going to be one of those guys where people go see we fixed it. And I think that's really fascinating in Oregon. It's Riley Williams, Riley Williams is you could argue Riley Williams is the only blue chip prospect in the entire class of 2023. In fact, I think it would shock me if someone else ended up earning top 100 status. It's a really down year in the state. Riley Williams is fascinating. Cause he's so good. He's just so good. And he's, and he's from Oregon and it, Dan Lanning's made that a priority. So they're going to really recruit the heck out of him.
Speaker 2 00:34:01 But also Mario was his older brother's coach. Corbin Williams was at Oregon under Mario Christal. So does he want to potentially go carve his own path and go to Miami? Uh, that one is fascinating. Obviously Riley Williams has a bunch of schools involved, Michigan state, I think USCS involved. Oh no. USC got eliminated, which was pricing actually. Uh, because he liked USC early, but I think they're gonna go after some higher rated tight ins, they have a shot at the number one, number two tied in, in the country. So that's another domino issue, but Riley Williams, fascinating to me in California's Jane Rashada in terms of needle movers, every school, you know, from the Midwest over he's the best core, the rest of the way. So if arch Manning goes to Alabama, if arch Manning goes to Virginia, if arch Manning goes wherever arch Manning goes, you know, Georgia does Texas get involved?
Speaker 2 00:34:52 You know, does does every PAC 12 school say we have to have Jayden Rashada cuz otherwise we gotta go get somebody far away. That'll be fascinating. You and I think he is a massive domino. He's also a very good quarterback, which helps. But uh, that one, that one absolutely fascinates me. Uh, Mateo is interesting because you're always gonna get the dynamic of like, what's dad gonna say too, like, you know, Clemson's, Clemson's not hitting me up, you know? And you're like, oh interesting. You know, like we're gonna get layers to that. We're gonna of see a little bit more behind the curtain potentially with that one than we do with most recruitments because you know, uh, big Dave is a little bit more open with what's going on in the process. So I think that's fascinating. And also anytime a California kid could potentially end up, you know, at either USC or Oregon or Alabama or Ohio state or Clemson, that's, that's fascinating because it's, it's a big time recruit.
Speaker 2 00:35:44 Um, going down my list, Roger, Pleasant's a big time one I'm interested in Walker lions. This is a really, really good tight in group, a historic tight in group in the west region. I obviously mention Riley Williams already. Uh, D Robinson's the number one tied in, in the country. He's from Arizona Walker. Lyons is arguably the number two tied in, in the country. He just visited USC. He's a great one. There's a bunch of really good tight ins and traditionally tied ins. Aren't a position where there's any type a domino effect, cuz there aren't a ton of 'em. If, if there's a great tight end in your area, everybody wants 'em but there's so many good ones in the west region right now that schools are gonna pick and choose their spots. We've got the best shot. You know, if you're Oregon, we've got the best shot with Riley Williams. So let's go after that. If you're USC, you're like, well, Riley Williams is great, but maybe we like Robinson or lions a little more. So let's put all our eggs in that basket. It's gonna be fat fascinating to see how the tight end. It's almost like a tight end carousel. We talk about coaching carousel. It'll be interesting to see how the tight end carousel, uh, plays out. So those are the recruitments that fascinate me. Is that a short enough answer?
Speaker 1 00:36:49 <laugh> that is perfect. And I think we can, uh, get you outta here with that because Andrew, you've done such a great job. Uh, this podcast has been awesome. So I I'm really excited. I have a few other questions, but let's save 'em for another episode down the line. Does that sound good?
Speaker 2 00:37:03 Perfect. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:37:04 Thank you so much. That's Andrew Nemick ESPB lives, director of recruiting, really excited to work with you and see the work that you'll produce. Especially as we get closer to football season in the fall. I know now though, it's big recruiting time, so you're really diving in head for so thanks so much for all the great work that you're doing. It's great to have you on the team, man.
Speaker 2 00:37:23 Of course. Thank you. Appreciate it.
