On why he picked the Miami Hurricanes to win the national championship: All right, I got so many things I want to say. Firstly, it's good to be here. I appreciate the intro. I'm excited to talk in this space here because I can be a little more—I can undo the tie here that I'm not wearing and be a little bit more forthright with how I feel about this. So you're right. I picked Miami to win the whole thing. And I don't know that the public's—in fact, I know the public is not with me on this, but that doesn't always mean anything. I think it's just maybe the public is a month or two behind on realizing a few things. Firstly, just because you lose hellacious pass rushers doesn't mean you won't have a formidable pass rush. That's the first thing. The second thing is, in the aggregate maybe of losing some production defensively, you can also gain some things. And I know if you got Hetherman on the show today—I didn't see that you had him booked, but if you had Hetherman booked today, I guarantee you inject that guy with truth serum, he would speak about how much better he feels about their secondary, not just health-wise, but overall skill-wise than they did a year ago. Also, it's his second year, by the way. So everyone who believes in this year one to year two coaching coordinator bump, we got to apply it there. More importantly than any of those facets is they upgraded at quarterback, in my expectation. So if I'm wrong on that, I'm wrong on that. But I've watched Darian Mensah practice down there a couple of times. People have watched him play. It's not like he's a true freshman or anything like that. But you haven't watched him play with those kinds of ornaments around him. And for anyone who doubts them, who doubts Miami at offensive line, look, I'm not telling you week one, week two, there may not be, some discombobulation at times, but when that unit hits its stride, and it will at some point, I think it'll be a net even or even a plus strength of that team. I loved them at tailback. I am in love with them at wide receiver. I think Lofton will probably be a better pass-catching presence at tight end than they had there a year ago. So my default position has not been to try and defend this. My default position has been against anyone who's pushing back on it, give me the reasons why you're so aghast at me suggesting that the team that was at midfield with a chance to win it last year, and I think improved in certain areas, can't do it this year.
On what he learned that gave him more confidence in picking Miami: I think really it's not quantum leaps of confidence in any one compartment. I think what happens in college football right now, especially if you portal guys in or you have guys elevating from role players to main event players, is you trust but verify. So like in the spring, I was in trust mode with Miami, but then spring, summer, early fall camp, you kind of want verification. You want people in the program that you know you can count on not to BS you about this sort of thing, which never pays off to do, by the way, because the games eventually happen. You want those people to kind of give you the feedback you hope to hear. So it's been a very mixed bag nationally. There's some pretty highly ranked teams right now where internally they don't feel great about their positioning. Miami is not that at all. Miami is a place that they're enjoying the quietness, maybe outside of my prediction and a few others, of the national landscape and how the prediction landscape looks right now. But I think they feel very good, defensively mainly. I think they feel very good about where they are and then where they could grow to be in a month or so. And so two other things that I would just like to bring up. Firstly, I think it spoke volumes last year that they started to have that dip that they had had a couple years prior, and then they pulled the nose up and played their best football, like played the best ball they played under Mario to date. That's a big deal, because I know they have spent a ton of man-hours in that building trying to determine, like, what is it? What are the critical factors? What are the reasons maybe why we started fast and then we tailed off? So that's paid off for them. And then the other part of it is some of these programs out there, like LSU—I'm going to go see them Saturday—they got Clemson and Ole Miss and A&M the first four weeks of the season. So they got to have it together. Like, they don't have an option. They could be a two- or three-loss team by the time it comes together for them. I'm not going to look past anyone, but Miami can afford to not exactly have the 97-mile-an-hour fastball early if we know it's going to lead to them eventually finding it. I want to talk to you a little bit about the SEC here.
On the current state of the SEC: Well, it can't get back to where it was. First off, so let's go further down this rabbit hole a little bit. Where it was was it had the biggest alpha giant program in the history of the sport as the face of it. So even in that stretch, if you were to have done nothing more than remove Nick Saban from Alabama, it still would have been a power conference, but even in that era, it may not have looked like the behemoth that it ended up looking like. But you got to give credit to Georgia or LSU or whoever made a run occasionally. But no, it can't look like it looked, because the landscape is flattened, and because more doors have opened. It's like there used to be six holes in the dam, and now there are 12 holes in the dam, and by that I mean talent flowing out of the South to other portions of the country. So the other side of that coin, which you can't quantify, so it doesn't make for a good soundbite or a graphic, but I believe it's true, is I think they got really lazy, not in terms of work ethic, but they got really lazy in the SEC for a while because they knew they could take for granted that they'd have a talent edge. So two things happened. Number one, I think they cut corners on winning in the margins because they knew they didn't need to. And number two, I think they cut corners in their hiring practices because it greatly behooved them to just load up with recruiters instead of real legit high-level A-minus or better ball coaches, because they knew if we got better talent, it doesn't really matter so much. We don't have to out-tactical you on Saturday. The Big Ten wasn't doing that. Like the Big Ten as a conference, your Illinoiss, for example, I'm just using them as an example. Like Illinois was never under the misguided notion we're about to out-talent anyone in the top 20 or 25 at least. So they knew they had to win on the margins. Okay, well then the sport just violently lurches. It seemed like over the course of two or three years, it just violently lurched. And I don't think it's any coincidence Mario has been able to do what he's done at Miami because he has combined the SEC formula of getting the best players, but they also have greatly improved their quality of staff. I mean greatly improved it over the past couple of years. Like the Lance Guidry defensive days are just two years in our rearview mirror. So they've greatly done both things. But I think the Big Ten was sitting there— Notre Dame's another good example of this— of a place where the sporting sort of come back into their wheelhouse, and by the time it got back into their wheelhouse, they were also much better staffed. And I also think there's something to be said, and this does not get said much on public airwaves, but it's like a working theory in back rooms of the SEC, that the overall— how should I put this? Like the team-based culture of some of maybe your Big Ten programs, your Miami's, your Notre Dame's, are just flat-out better than what you see in the SEC. And again, it's not quantifiable, but where it shows up is in somebody's close games in these playoff settings or these out-of-conference settings, and you just watch and you say, I can't quite put my finger on it, but then that outfit over there seems a little more well put together than this outfit over here. Sound familiar?
On Darian Mensah being the best quarterback in the country: Yeah, I just think he's gonna win the Heisman, so I think he'll be the best quarterback in the country. I guess you could do it projecting, like NFL draft-style, but I don't do that. Like, these guys, they're in my wheelhouse when they're in college, and then when they go to the NFL, I'm sadly watching them walk out the door. I'll do the same thing I did, like ten minutes ago when I was answering Mike's questions. I just ask people that doubt Darian Mensah: what is it that you need to see, or do you think he needs to be capable of, that he lacks? And maybe it's as simple as people just haven't paid close enough attention. Like maybe it's as simple as people don't really understand the talent roster and the offensive climate and the team climate that he's being plugged into down there. But, I mean, that dude, people can think whatever they want and have, like, objections to the way Miami got him. That's not what I'm asked about when I'm ranking top ten quarterbacks. I'm asking how that dude's gonna do this year. I mean, he just made probably a decision that will be a huge eight- to potentially nine-figure difference for him over the rest of his life, coming to Miami as opposed to staying at Duke. Now, I don't doubt the guy would have always been a future NFL player, but if he stays healthy, what Shannon Dawson is about to put him in position to do, I put that against what maybe a Julian Sayin would do, or a C.J. Carr, or a Dante Moore, any of these guys. I think it stacks up favorably with any one of them. But did you notice, speaking of Malik Zaire, did you notice that when he shot back at me and I said, Hey man, I think Darrin Mensah gonna have the best production in the country this year, he said, I see why, and he screenshotted Miami's schedule. I'm just telling you, I'm willing to put up with some schedule slander from a lot of different angles in this country, but Notre Dame shooting a schedule screenshot at me, it was not something I was prepared to tolerate.
On what he learned that gave him more confidence in picking Miami: I think really it's not quantum leaps of confidence in any one compartment. I think what happens in college football right now, especially if you portal guys in or you have guys elevating from role players to main event players, is you trust but verify. So like in the spring, I was in trust mode with Miami, but then spring, summer, early fall camp, you kind of want verification. You want people in the program that you know you can count on not to BS you about this sort of thing, which never pays off to do, by the way, because the games eventually happen. You want those people to kind of give you the feedback you hope to hear. So it's been a very mixed bag nationally. There's some pretty highly ranked teams right now where internally they don't feel great about their positioning. Miami is not that at all. Miami is a place that they're enjoying the quietness, maybe outside of my prediction and a few others, of the national landscape and how the prediction landscape looks right now. But I think they feel very good, defensively mainly. I think they feel very good about where they are and then where they could grow to be in a month or so. And so two other things that I would just like to bring up. Firstly, I think it spoke volumes last year that they started to have that dip that they had had a couple years prior, and then they pulled the nose up and played their best football, like played the best ball they played under Mario to date. That's a big deal, because I know they have spent a ton of man-hours in that building trying to determine, like, what is it? What are the critical factors? What are the reasons maybe why we started fast and then we tailed off? So that's paid off for them. And then the other part of it is some of these programs out there, like LSU—I'm going to go see them Saturday—they got Clemson and Ole Miss and A&M the first four weeks of the season. So they got to have it together. Like, they don't have an option. They could be a two- or three-loss team by the time it comes together for them. I'm not going to look past anyone, but Miami can afford to not exactly have the 97-mile-an-hour fastball early if we know it's going to lead to them eventually finding it. I want to talk to you a little bit about the SEC here.
On the current state of the SEC: Well, it can't get back to where it was. First off, so let's go further down this rabbit hole a little bit. Where it was was it had the biggest alpha giant program in the history of the sport as the face of it. So even in that stretch, if you were to have done nothing more than remove Nick Saban from Alabama, it still would have been a power conference, but even in that era, it may not have looked like the behemoth that it ended up looking like. But you got to give credit to Georgia or LSU or whoever made a run occasionally. But no, it can't look like it looked, because the landscape is flattened, and because more doors have opened. It's like there used to be six holes in the dam, and now there are 12 holes in the dam, and by that I mean talent flowing out of the South to other portions of the country. So the other side of that coin, which you can't quantify, so it doesn't make for a good soundbite or a graphic, but I believe it's true, is I think they got really lazy, not in terms of work ethic, but they got really lazy in the SEC for a while because they knew they could take for granted that they'd have a talent edge. So two things happened. Number one, I think they cut corners on winning in the margins because they knew they didn't need to. And number two, I think they cut corners in their hiring practices because it greatly behooved them to just load up with recruiters instead of real legit high-level A-minus or better ball coaches, because they knew if we got better talent, it doesn't really matter so much. We don't have to out-tactical you on Saturday. The Big Ten wasn't doing that. Like the Big Ten as a conference, your Illinoiss, for example, I'm just using them as an example. Like Illinois was never under the misguided notion we're about to out-talent anyone in the top 20 or 25 at least. So they knew they had to win on the margins. Okay, well then the sport just violently lurches. It seemed like over the course of two or three years, it just violently lurched. And I don't think it's any coincidence Mario has been able to do what he's done at Miami because he has combined the SEC formula of getting the best players, but they also have greatly improved their quality of staff. I mean greatly improved it over the past couple of years. Like the Lance Guidry defensive days are just two years in our rearview mirror. So they've greatly done both things. But I think the Big Ten was sitting there— Notre Dame's another good example of this— of a place where the sporting sort of come back into their wheelhouse, and by the time it got back into their wheelhouse, they were also much better staffed. And I also think there's something to be said, and this does not get said much on public airwaves, but it's like a working theory in back rooms of the SEC, that the overall— how should I put this? Like the team-based culture of some of maybe your Big Ten programs, your Miami's, your Notre Dame's, are just flat-out better than what you see in the SEC. And again, it's not quantifiable, but where it shows up is in somebody's close games in these playoff settings or these out-of-conference settings, and you just watch and you say, I can't quite put my finger on it, but then that outfit over there seems a little more well put together than this outfit over here. Sound familiar?
On Darian Mensah being the best quarterback in the country: Yeah, I just think he's gonna win the Heisman, so I think he'll be the best quarterback in the country. I guess you could do it projecting, like NFL draft-style, but I don't do that. Like, these guys, they're in my wheelhouse when they're in college, and then when they go to the NFL, I'm sadly watching them walk out the door. I'll do the same thing I did, like ten minutes ago when I was answering Mike's questions. I just ask people that doubt Darian Mensah: what is it that you need to see, or do you think he needs to be capable of, that he lacks? And maybe it's as simple as people just haven't paid close enough attention. Like maybe it's as simple as people don't really understand the talent roster and the offensive climate and the team climate that he's being plugged into down there. But, I mean, that dude, people can think whatever they want and have, like, objections to the way Miami got him. That's not what I'm asked about when I'm ranking top ten quarterbacks. I'm asking how that dude's gonna do this year. I mean, he just made probably a decision that will be a huge eight- to potentially nine-figure difference for him over the rest of his life, coming to Miami as opposed to staying at Duke. Now, I don't doubt the guy would have always been a future NFL player, but if he stays healthy, what Shannon Dawson is about to put him in position to do, I put that against what maybe a Julian Sayin would do, or a C.J. Carr, or a Dante Moore, any of these guys. I think it stacks up favorably with any one of them. But did you notice, speaking of Malik Zaire, did you notice that when he shot back at me and I said, Hey man, I think Darrin Mensah gonna have the best production in the country this year, he said, I see why, and he screenshotted Miami's schedule. I'm just telling you, I'm willing to put up with some schedule slander from a lot of different angles in this country, but Notre Dame shooting a schedule screenshot at me, it was not something I was prepared to tolerate.
