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Cover 3 College Football
Week 7 Problems, Next ELITE College Football Running Backs, and MORE | Cover 3 Recruiting Show
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- [00:01]
A
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- [01:29]
B
What's going on y'? All. Bud Elliott here. That's Andrew Ivins. This is the COVID 3 podcast recruiting hour. Back with you for another week as we lead up till national signing day that first way Wednesday in December plus a little bit more. Appreciate you guys enjoying all these episodes. Make sure you like and subscribe on the COVID 3 podcast YouTube channel, especially if you are enjoying on the audio. Again, we do think this is a slightly better video product than audio and probably more so than the normal POD because we do incorporate, you know, a lot more video of recruits. And you know, while you may not know who a guy like Dylan Raiola is, you can picture him in your head. Some of the guys we're talking about you probably can't actually visualize because you've never seen them before. We bring them to you and we'd appreciate it if you want to hit like and subscribe there on this channel. Ivan, what's going on man?
- [02:14]
C
Not much. But hey, I was told in college that I have a voice for radio so if they want to stick with the audio download, we'll take them. But I do agree easier to Put, I don't know, a face to a prospect on the video side.
- [02:28]
B
I, I, I like the golf shirt today. I was considering the, the blade collar underneath the blazer yesterday and I was like, I don't know, like can you go suit jacket and blade collar polo? Like I, I just chat GPT told me it's, it's okay. But I, I opted against it and it ended up being a big, big TV day yesterday in studio with James Franklin kind of shockingly being out at Penn State. So I guess we need to start there. Being that we like to look at things from a recruiting and personnel slant here in this hour, how much of this can we really attribute to the recruiting at Penn State?
- [03:02]
C
Well, Bud, I think that is, it's been fascinating to see, you know, this, this James Franklin eras over at Penn State and where the blame is, is going right as, as there's all these like diagnosis of what went wrong and obviously the past two weeks, the results on the field and then you could take it even further to Penn State and the big games. I don't think like recruiting was the issue here. And if you look at Penn State's past four recruiting classes of all of them are in the top 15 now, you know, none of them are in the top five, none of them are in the top three. So yeah, is there a little bit more out there?
- [03:42]
B
Sure.
- [03:43]
C
But Penn State is a program that is consistently churning out NFL talent and the reason why there was so much expectations heading into this season coming off a, a semi final appearance in the College Football Playoff is because they have a bunch of talent. They have a bunch of former blue chip recruits everywhere on the field. So to me, I don't think like recruiting is the root of the issue with Penn State. Yeah, could they get better in certain departments? Sure, we can talk that through. But I mean James Franklin hit the pavement, right? His staff recruited, we saw them all over the country. You know, me and you located both in Florida. I mean James Franklin is a regular down in the Sunshine State. We saw them try to get into Alabama. I mean they have really tried to get to all different parts of the country. And I look at the roster and I don't think it's like a talent issue.
- [04:39]
B
I, I would agree with you if you want to take a look at where his classes have finished, generally not in, in the top 10, more in that kind of, you know, 10 to 15 range pretty consistently at least over like the last half decade, yet consistently produce top 10, you know, type results. I, man, look, I, I Understand if you think James Franklin is your Mark Richt and, and maybe he is right, Georgia pulled the plug and went after Kirby and they thought they had their guy and they stepped up their level of support for Kirby as well. And they even changed like state laws to help him out. But there's also a strong chance that he was your Bo Pelini. And like Nebraska would kill for Bo Pelini's results right about now. So we'll have to see where they go with that. Quarterback ended up being an issue this year. Last year, like they have Drew Aller, who has tremendous arm talent, just really couldn't always put it together. You know, we know receiver has been an issue there as well. You know, Franklin was an offensive guy when he came to to Penn State from Vanderbilt by way of Maryland, where he was the oc, you know, a long time ago now under Ralph Friesen. But he was also like an absolute stud recruiter for that Maryland program back when. I mean, they would pull good classes and a couple like real freaks every year. Which continued obviously at Penn State. Many Penn State guys have been all over your freaks list over the years and that that really continued. Like, what do we think about their quarterback and receiver recruiting moving forward? Is this a turnkey operation for whomever gets this job?
- [06:09]
C
I think a few things here, right? But there's like a narrative out there that quarterback development at Penn State was what sunk James Franklin. And I've kind of marinated on that a little bit overnight. I think like Drew Aller is kind of like your first round pick, right? Hey, so a five star and this quarterback just didn't work out and hey, the head going down with him. And obviously Drew's out for the rest of the year. But the more I thought about it, like, is is quarterback really the issue for Penn State? If you look at the three previous starters for James Franklin there, all of them were selected in the NFL Draft. Unless I'm missing someone. Christian Hagenberg, Trace McSwirley and Sean Clifford. And I think you can make the case that like Penn State squeezed the most out of all those guys, right? Like, like they got the most out of all of them. And obviously it hasn't worked out with Drew, but I don't know if like quarterback is the root issue. And we're going to see Ethan Gronkmire, he's next in. He's going to step in. Jackson Smolik's also on the roster. Like those are two elite 11 finalists. A lot of teams try to go after Ethan Grunkmeyer. Who was a late bloomer coming out of Ohio. My big question is, when you look at the two D, you know, I think four guys on the offensive line are seniors. Obviously the two running backs, Nick Singleton, Katron Allen, they're gone. The top three receivers, while they might not be producing how some would like, they're all gone. And then obviously Drew, I would assume is probably not going to be playing at Penn State in 2026, right? NFL, maybe another school. I don't really know the eligibility. Maybe he gets a medical or whatnot. So, you know, I look at 2026 and it's going to be kind of a reset, a roster reset. And just given how Penn State has recruited the wide receiver position, I still don't think they have like that difference maker and NFL guy there. So I think whoever comes in number one has to still be able to recruit at a very, very high level. But they also have to navigate the transfer portal and they're going to, if they want to be competitive in 2026, specifically on the offensive side of the ball, they're probably going to have to go find some, some veterans out there. Because I look at the guys they signed in, in 2025 and I look at what they got committed here in 2026, you know, what's still part of the class. I don't know how many of these guys are ready to go year one, so to me they gotta find that, I don't know, CEO that still prioritizes high school recruiting. Primarily because I, I think football in the state of Pennsylvania is trending up, but still can go out and, you know, find the right parts in the transfer portal.
- [08:54]
B
That, that makes a lot of sense if you look at this thing. I mean, the schedule next year is extremely favorable for Penn State. I mean like this is a schedule. If you look at this Penn State 2026 football schedule, the guy coming in, man, he's set up to do something like the defense should still be pretty strong if they can put together a nice portal class. It's Marshall at Temple, Buffalo, and then your, your four conference roadies are Maryland, Michigan, Northwestern, Washington. Like that's not crazy easy. But I think if you're Penn State, you're expecting two and two there at the worst. And then Minnesota, Purdue, Rutgers, usc, Wisconsin come to Happy Valley. It's not unreasonable to think you could sweep those at home and be looking at a 10 and 2 type season heading back to the college ball playoff. Which certainly if you're going to fire a guy that brought you to the College ball playoff that brought you to the Final Four last year, things had fallen apart for James. I understand they feel like his tenure there had run its course. I'm not trying to be a James Franklin apologist. I really don't think there's much to apologize for. But man, you're right. If this guy does it right, if they hit the transfer portal running, if they maybe you get a coach who brings a quarterback with him. Certainly not the motivation for making the hire. Like that's, that's bad process. Like yeah, we need to get a coach that's going to bring a QB with him. But yeah, like getting quarterback right here in this upcoming portal, if Grunk Meyer is maybe not the guy, maybe he is would be really important here. As far as Penn State as a job recruiting potential wise, how would you comp it to, let's just say hypothetically in Nebraska. Right. I, I, we're not going to waste our breath on the Iowa State discussion. It's a much better job than Iowa State. But as we know, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft is very tight with current Nebraska coach Matt Rule. He actually hired him, I believe when they were together at Temple. Rule has a lot of connections to the Penn State program as well. Do you think Nebraska or how big is the gap between Penn State, Nebraska as jobs from like the recruiting and personnel perspective?
- [11:01]
C
Well, I think they're similar, bud. Right. Because they're kind of like both isolated. But I would give pen of an advantage here. I think the brand, you know, resonates a little bit more with the high school recruits than Nebraska right now. And hey, maybe Dylan Raiola changes that in, in the next few years. But I've read a ton of fallout on this Penn State stuff and like no one is pointing out that Penn State like turned Abdul Carter, who was, you know, back in four star prospect into a, a top five pick. Like a lot of kids on the phones that they know who Abdul Carter is. And I think the other thing, you know, Adidas is, is going to take over for or, or be the new apparel company for Penn State. I think that starts in, in 2026. I'm a guy that's, I don't know, involved or, or aware of what's going on with like the whole grassroots initiative. Adidas is going to pour a ton of money. We've seen it with Nebraska, which is an Adidas program. We've seen it at Texas A and M. I mean Nebraska this past summer hosted a Club 7 on 7 tournament in Lincoln and got four and five star recruits all around the country to come to this isolated campus and check it out. And, and what I think makes Nebraska and Penn State very similar is, is there are programs where you have to get the kids there before the official visit, right? They have to check it out. They got to see the whiteout, they got to see a game day atmosphere. So you know, I think with Penn State, I'll circle back to what I said. I think the football in that state is getting better and better. And really in the class of 2027 now it's super early, right? So hey, the signing day coming up, that's, that's 2026, that's all the seniors. I, I think 2027, the juniors. I think it's a golden age in, in the state of Pennsylvania. There's already two five star prospects. Come on, Spell, the running back and then offensive lineman Maxwell Hiller. We got nine other guys already inside the top two, four, seven. And why I bring that up is, you know, you still got to recruit locally in your backyard and I think that's one of the main factors that would make, hey, you know, Penn State better than Nebraska just because there are guys within the three hour drive and both of them are going to have to recruit, you know, across the country. So yeah, I think Penn State, you know, there is certainly a leg up on Nebraska.
- [13:27]
B
So you mentioned one position in particular, running back. Man, come on, Spell, is this a dude? Let's go ahead and talk about this awesome kind of running back group we have right now in the prep ranks. Tell us about Spell.
- [13:41]
C
Yeah, bud. And I think me and you were talking about this over the weekend, right? You kind of watch college football right now. There isn't maybe a, a go to clear cut number one running back out there in the country. I mean Ahmad Hardy at Missouri, you know, Justice Haynes at Michigan. I think both those guys were the mid season All Americans for CBS Sports, which came out earlier this week to me, you know, over the past few weeks, getting into the senior tape, getting into the juniors. I think there are like four running backs out there right now that can be the faces of offenses, guys that can carry teams to the College Football playoff. And I think it starts with, come on, Spell. He is a five star running back in the class of 2027. This is a kid that had been committed to Penn State for well over a year. He goes ahead and formally decommits on Sunday after that James Franklin News, you know, hits the wire. And this was kind of in the works, right? A ton of schools have Been making a move on Come on Spell. But how good is he? Well here are the first three touches of his junior year. He had a 98 yard kickoff return. The next time he touched the ball it was a 56 yard touchdown run. And then the next time, the third time was an 80 yard touchdown. So I call him a jackrabbit mixed with a tank.
- [15:04]
B
Right.
- [15:05]
C
He is like super elusive. Agility, it's all there. But when people get their hands on him, extremely difficult to get him on the ground. Everyone in the country's on this kid. But if we listed him, I just was watching his most recent game, the other from last week. We can list him as like a safety, linebacker. He's going to be a top247 player for us. He is a football player Excellent on the 7 on 7 circuit when he's been asked to catch passes. So he's got that three down capability. We don't haven't settled on a comp for him just yet. But I want everyone to like picture Ashton Genty. Like I mean this is a guy where you know we're talking 25, 30 carries if you wanted to with Come on Spell and you know Ohio State's in there, Michigan's in there, Notre Dame's in there. Brian Doane at 247 Sports kind of had a, a what's next for Come on Spell on Monday. He's going to have no, no shortage.
- [16:05]
B
Of options when you watch him. I think that Genti comp is, is really good like from a size perspective I was thinking mjd but the running style is certainly much closer to Genti. I think that's a great pull, you know, by you but he's not the only one in the prep ranks right now who is really looking as you mentioned, like a complete stud. How about the kid going to Michigan? Tell me about him.
- [16:27]
C
Yeah but and I'm calling my shot right now. So this is before you know all the college football media gets, gets ahead of it. I think Michigan is going to have the best Backfield in, in 2026. Now everything needs to stay in place. There can't be transfers in or out. But think about it. You have Bryce Underwood, the true freshman sensation at quarterback Justice Haynes is going to come back. Jordan Marshall is going to come back and then hey, here's this five star running back Savion Hider. But I was actually writing up his teammate, a wide receiver last week and my eyes kept going to Savion Heider and it's like hey, first run you know, 50 yard touchdown, next run hit six yards in the backfield, still manages to get six yards. I think he's got everything to be a featured back. And he's there in Virginia. Total package, power, speed, vision, creativity. Hits the hole with plenty of juice. Downhill momentum. Reminds me of actually Nick Singleton at Penn State. I, I think he's got some Nick single to him. He was a five star running back. We'll see where he goes in the NFL Draft. Young for the grade, right? So he's only 17 years old. This is a guy that could play another year of high school football if he wanted to. And then the testing profile on, on, SAVEON is unreal. 417 in the short shuttle. He's gotten 22ft in the long jump. And I know those are numbers that people are like oh, what does that mean? What does that mean for my studies? Like hey, short shuttle is like the number one indicator of future success at these running backs and Sabion's got one of the best in the class. So I think for Michigan, hey, you got your quarterback figured out. You got this run game right? I think there's 6 19th nationally right now in rushing offense and then you know, they're going to drop in a guy that should be able to contribute. Day one there in Ann Arbor.
- [18:18]
B
Man, that is going to be a lot of fun for Michigan fans to watch. Today's a nice little, you know, bit of positivity for them, you know, coming off that loss to usc. Next name I want to ask you about here, Crowell, who's a commitment to Alabama. Do we. Is he related to Isaiah Crowell? I do not get back from like 10 or 12 years ago. He was committed to Alabama for a bit.
- [18:40]
C
I do not believe so.
- [18:41]
B
Okay.
- [18:42]
C
But I, you know, I think the, the big message here is Bama's got another Bama running back coming down the pipeline. I think they've been kind of missing that in, in recent cycles. And this is no shot at, at Jam Miller or any of these guys. But you go back to when Nick Saban obviously had Alabama humming. I mean they had a dude at running back and Xavier Crowell, he's a kid that reclassified, right? So he was in the class of 2027. He has moved into the class of 2026. And right now he's running back number four for us, like number 71 overall. But he's going to finish much, much, much higher in the rankings. Thick cut, right? So he's like £210 but such an easy Mover, lateral quickness, you know, always finishing forward. This is a guy that can also catch the ball out of the backfield. I love his bend, I love his agility as a senior. He's got like three full defender hurdles on the highlight reel. He is, is someone that I, I think is playing his best football right now. He's going to head to College with over 4,5000 career rushing yards. Another one where like the testing profile is, is off the charts. And to me, you know, Alabama Jam Miller is going to be gone. You know, I'm very familiar with, with the other running backs having scouted them over the years. I think Crowell, if you're looking for an early candidate to be like, hey, you know, potential freshman, all American, I think it's Crowell. Like I think it sets up perfectly for him to come in. He's got that three, three down capability and certainly I think a name to know. Alabama got him to shut that recruitment down. But I don't think other schools are going to keep trying to chip away as we get closer to signing day.
- [20:25]
B
Man, you said, when I watched that Missouri game, I said man, Bama's really committed to the run here. Obviously Missouri has an elite pass rush. I don't think they want to drop back 40 times in Columbia, but gotta be nice if they had a kid who could actually break one, you know, like Jim Miller do. Credit was a workhorse for them in that ball game. Ended up getting himself knocked out there kind of late in the third or early in the fourth quarter. But if they just had a guy who hit a home run like, like a Justice Haynes, you know, then maybe that's a, a little bit more comfortable of a win for them when facing Missouri. All right, another great battle.
- [21:02]
C
Reminds me of, he reminds me of Josh Jacobs from what was that like? Okay, Bama, first rounder in 2019. Like similarities, right? Just, just low to the ground run style. But those guys can do a little bit everything. And I think the biggest thing with Crowell and, and Jacobs is the ability to catch the ball to the backfield, right? You can, you can put them in the slot. They're not just guys that are check down options.
- [21:25]
B
No 100%. All right, so last year we had a pretty, a lot of hype leading up to the playoff game. It ended up not being much of a game at all. And that was a battle between Ohio State and Tennessee and these two are actually facing off for a top flight running back here in David Gabriel, Georgia in the 2027 class. I know he visited Tennessee over the weekend. What do you like about this guy?
- [21:47]
C
Oh well bud, from what I've heard through the, you know, college contacts like whatever this guy's number is, schools are, are going to pay for him. And he is a, he is a super unique story. Josh Jacobs, originally from Canada and I think he's going to be the best Canadian born running back maybe since Chuba Hubbard, right. Like is is the real deal. He's in the class of 2027, talking with Tom Loy, some other people at 247 sports, a lot of rumors, hey, he might reclassify and jump into 2026. I don't know if that's going to happen. He's going to the Baylor school there in Tennessee. But man, he is, is everything you want right in a featured running back. You know, he's 61200 pounds. He's got the speed, got the vision, got the agility. Recruitment is very unique because he is from Canada and when he was at Tennessee over the weekend, read according to go Vols247. Like Tennessee needed a translator, right? French translator to kind of work with mom and dad and explain to them hey this is SEC football. But he's a kid where I don't think nationally a lot are talking about him but man against top flight competition this season like best on best settings he has delivered. We're calling him DGG as the nickname David Gabriel Georges, but man, he's what you want and, and all four of these guys I think could be, you know, that featured back at for a college football playoff contender. And David Gabriel Georges, he's one where compared to the others I think the recruitment's a little bit more open. But man, Ohio State, you know, he's like Bo Jackson but I think to another level. And we've seen what Bo Jackson has been able to do as a true freshman for the Bucke.
- [23:35]
B
Can I suggest D2G?
- [23:37]
C
D2G I like that.
- [23:38]
B
It kind of rolls off the tongue a little bit easier. I feel like there's some branding opportunities for him if he wanted to do that.
- [23:44]
C
Well, you know, we were playing off the, the DGB Dorial but D2G I like as well.
- [23:53]
B
So we know from your research that reclassing from a development perspective from actually having success in college perspective is not a lot but, but more often than not, probably not ideal. There are some guys who have done it who've had success. Now granted like the financial component is big here too. If you reclass, you get paid a year earlier, right? Like the Most important, you know, half a million you're ever going to make is the first. So from a financial camp like component totally get reclassing. Like this guy's film looks like he's ready. I don't know if he needs another year of high school football. So I'm curious, how much do we think the reclass analysis you've done is applicable to the running back position?
- [24:33]
C
Oh, I think running backs, it's the easiest position for true freshmen to get on the field. That's what it was in. And when we looked at the 2024 college football season, you know, all the, all the true freshman running back and a lot of them, you know, transferred up Ahmad Hardy, you know, Fluff Bothwell, those guys went from the G5 ranks and up and up into power four. You know, I said, hey, if I was a Power 4 program, I, I wouldn't pay big money for one of these running backs. I would just look to find the, the G5 guy that is having the best season and try to grab them. And we've seen that with Ahmad Hardy. Hey, Makai Hughes, maybe at Tulane, it hasn't worked out as well. No, I think it makes a ton of sense because you know there's, there's only so much tread for these running backs. And from what I've gathered with reclassification, right. The ones that are having success right away in college. So that would be, you know, the Ryan Williams, that would be the Malachi Tony Antoine Redmond at Rutgers is a running back that reclassified. What we have found out, LT Overton at Alabama is the kids that also like we're getting a ton of workload as, as freshmen in high school.
- [25:44]
B
Right.
- [25:44]
C
And some of them even as 8th graders, those are the ones that, that hit, right. Like they have already played four, five years of high school football and those are the ones that seem to be ready to go. And with the case with D2G as you're calling him, David Gabriel Jordan, he was Mr. Football in Tennessee last year. He's ready to go. Crowell is going to have scored close to 100 touchdowns and ran for 6,000 yards in high school. Like those guys aren't one hit wonders. They've been doing it year after year after year. And, and the thing I'm always looking for with these running backs, I said that short area quickness. Are they home run hitters? Right. Like the kids that end up getting drafted are usually the ones in the, in the youth league parks that are scoring touchdowns. Like that never changes. You don't kind of just figure that out. Like you got to have it from an early age and I think all four of these running backs, they fit.
- [26:34]
B
That category that that makes a lot of sense to me. So speaking of recruiting, so this is the Recruiting Hour here on the COVID 3 podcast, joined by Andrew Ivins, National Director of Scouting Recruiting. Do you just do it all? Your title should just be like everything recruiting for 24. 7 sports.
- [26:56]
D
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F
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G
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- [28:48]
B
So Kirsten Eddy is a name who has come up on a lot of these very early hot boards for the Penn State job. Obviously has done a tremendous job. It's hard to think of a bigger turnaround job someone has done. You know, maybe like Deborah Washington did a really good job. You know Chris Peterson, obviously Washington did did a nice job, maybe a couple of others. And we should acknowledge it's a little bit easier to do it now in the portal era, but still like really difficult overall to turn it around to this level at a program like Indiana, which just had their first, I think first top 10 road win in 46 years. So tremendous work by them to go on the road. And Oregon didn't give them that game. They went and took it, which to me was probably the most impressive thing because Indiana normally like as a team, it doesn't beat themselves and they went out there and just beat the other team. But as a recruiter, how would, how would this fit at Penn State? Like, do we think this would work? Do we have any evidence that it would or would not work?
- [29:45]
C
Yeah, but I can't, I can't figure out Indiana and I, I feel foolish because last week on, on CBS sports.com I, you know, profiled Mendoza and Dante Moore and I was like, all right, you know, one game starter, who you taking? And I was like, well, I'm taking more. And then it's like rest of the season starter, who you take it? I'm taking more. And you know who you select? The number one in the NFL draft, I'm taking more. And then it's like to your point, Indiana goes out there and it's not some fluke win. I mean they take it to Oregon, which you know, as a top five point of attack program. I can't figure Indiana out. I, I think SIG is elite game day coach, ex and O's coach. Because when I look at the roster construction, you know, it's, it's still kind of like puzzling to me. Like they are so good in the transfer portal and it's not like the high profile transfers, it's, it's these other individuals. I mean, for Indiana's starting 22 on Saturday, right? So the 11 guys on offense, 11 guys on defense, only two of them Signetti signed when he was at Indiana from the high school ranks. It has been all transfers that have come in and have fit right into that culture. So yeah, I continue to see Signetti's name linked to all these potential job openings. Hey, he would do great here. Hey, you would do great here. And I just, I just wonder, you know, what does it look like from a recruiting standpoint? What does it look like once you are in the big leagues, you're out of blue, bud. Where everything revolves around player acquisition, you know, 365 days a year. I just don't know what that looks like for Kurt Sagnetti. I, I really don't bud. And you know, kind of reminds me similarly of Kalyn DeBoer when he left Washington and goes to Alabama. Now DeBoer has figured it out here. We've seen him adjust and pivot. You know, initially when he arrived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama was still kind of recruiting the west coast and they, they didn't realize, hey, the yellow Hammer State like this is needs to be ground zero for us. And he has made that adjustment. I think Signetti is a very sharp individual. I think certainly he could surround himself with the right people, but I do think that is the biggest question mark with him. If you put him at a, a Florida, if you put him out of Penn State, where, you know, most fans can name the top five guys in the recruiting class, what does that look like?
- [32:18]
B
Man? I, I, I think if you have hope that Signetti could recruit a high school level, there is that he is someone who worked for Nick, has at least been around an elite recruiting operation. And I think if I was an Indiana person, I would say, yeah, you can't recruit at all. You don't want him. Right. But if you're the Penn State person looking to make a hire and you know, if we think that Penn State's a better job than Indiana, which I, I do, although Indiana deserves a lot of credit for like teams came after their DC they held onto them. Like, I'm sure teams came after sick. They held on to him at least, you know, after last season. And like they needed the Portal, that thing. I don't think you could really build Indiana through high school to flip it this quickly, but I think I would just say, hey, like I wouldn't doubt this guy. He pretty much wins wherever he goes. He finds a way. He does what is needed. And he has been around elite recruiting operations when he worked for Nick. I think he understands how that works. And I'm sure they're looking to get more into high school eventually there at Indiana because what Indiana is going to run into is they definitely have money. But given Indiana's hit rate on the Portal classes so far, that's going to become an issue too where teams just sort of start saying if Indiana wants this guy, we need to take a second look, Indiana wants this guy. Maybe we need to match what Indiana is offering. It's going to become more expensive to recruit the portal at Indiana because they're so damn good at it. You know, like there, there are certain G5 teams out there. We know that some of these Power 5 teams kind of take a look at they monitor. Okay, who did they just offered like that. That's a staff that we kind of respect and, and they do a good job repeatedly. Certain, with certain areas, certain positions and they kind of bird dog off them a bit. So yeah, man, it'd be interesting to see if he could do it. Like, I, I don't want to definitively say that he can't, but certainly hasn't ever really shown the, the ability nor like the need to, I guess. Right. Yeah.
- [34:08]
C
But I just think it would look a little bit different than maybe some of these power brokers are accustomed to. And sure, we should bring up like, okay, yeah, he's brought in a lot of transfers, but most of those kids at James Madison, you know, excellent evaluations by his staff. D' Angelo Pons is the name that comes to my mind. Right. A kid that was at Shaman Madonna Prep playing with Jeremiah Smith, playing with C.J. bailey. Kind of a forgotten individual. But hey, you know, he was a state champion in track. Hey, he was a multi year starter for a program that continues to win state titles. They get him to James Madison, bring him to the Big Ten. He's one of the top cover corners in, in that league. So. And I, I just wonder, okay, like, are they going to be in it for the high profile household names? Probably not. But where those recruiting classes would be very dialed I think would be, you know, player five through 20. Right, right. The, the real, you know, kind of bulk of your class. I think his staff has always done an excellent job. The guys he's brought with him just making those talent IDs, finding guys with developmental traits. Because again, right, I said only two high schoolers that they signed while Indiana started against Oregon. I think there's like eight guys from James Madison that were ready to go. Ponds is one of them. But like Aiden Fisher, Elijah Surratt, Mikhail Karma there in the middle. All those individuals they, they found when they were at James Madison.
- [35:39]
B
No doubt about it. So another Big Ten team that had a great win over the weekend is usc. I know you've been all over this. You know, they're five and one now. Like, I mean they, they pretty much dominated the, the Wolverine set down there in la. They have done something repeatedly under Laken, which is kind of assemble these big time classes over the summer. And a lot of us back east are like, yeah, it's going to fall apart. That's not really going to hold for, for whatever reason. There's reason to think this could be different this year. What have they built? And more importantly Here, I think. Why do we think that they have a real shot to keep it?
- [36:17]
C
Well, Bud, I mean they have the number one ranked recruiting class according to the 247 sports composite team rankings. They've been sitting in the pole position really since this, the spring months and they got a new gm. Chad Bowden comes in from Notre Dame and you can instantly, right away you could tell there was a different philosophy, a different plan. USC started making LA and the surrounding areas a huge priority. They've continued to swing at some of these big time recruits in SEC country, but they've also cut bait. Xavier Griffin, our number one ranked linebacker, long time USC commit. I think at some point USC realized hey, likely not going to go our direction. Let's stop investing our resources here and let's pivot elsewhere, right? Let's not be left at the altar which has been the case multiple times with other high profile guys. So I kind of said a few months ago that this was setting up the schedule for USC to legitimately hold on to this number one ranked recruiting class. If they could get some on field results, you know, it was a softer start to the schedule. They trip up at Illinois and then now they take down Michigan. They're 5 and 1. We'll see how the next few week goes. Weeks ago, but this is what Lincoln Riley needed because I think this recruiting class, 32 commits, right? 32 guys. It's been a while since we had these monster groups. USC is invested in high school recruiting and I don't think it's, you know, a fraudulent class. I think there are guys that are going to come in and we're going to see them in 2026. There is a ton of star power here and I commend Lincoln Riley for making a change with the general manager and for them recalibrating and getting it together because this is, this is shaping up where, you know, foundational to make a college football playoff run. If they can hold on to this.
- [38:14]
B
Group, man, that would be such a big deal for Lincoln rally. You think about some of the shakeups going on right now in the Big Ten, you know, Penn State, USC could and how big would it be for the Big Ten if USC is what they hoped USC was going to be? It just makes this league like we have the baseball playoffs going on right now. It makes their lineup so much deeper. If you have USC back as like a legitimate national title contender. They have hit on quarterback. The receivers are really good. I, I love what, you know, what we were talking about pre show, just the seven Offensive lineman, eight defensive linemen committed. Man, it's just like rebuilding the trenches there. Establishing some competitive depth is a big deal for that program. And you know, like, it feels like Lincoln Riley is finally getting this right. They, they, they have not figured out the travel road game stuff yet. Like, they're demonstrably worse on the road. It's not just like a traditional home road type split. And that's one of the next, you know, challenges for that program to face. But if you watch them against Illinois, this is the team as currently constructed, that they have some really nice top line pieces and I think they do have some critical depth problems in some areas. In that Illinois game, they didn't have their left tackle. The center goes down and it's like, oh man, okay. And like the backup center gets a pretty critical penalty on, on a real big gainer they had and it just kind of snowballed from there. They had a, like a DB get lost to ejection and another guy got hurt. And you, you kind of saw Illinois poured on them a little bit and the game ended up being probably closer than it was actually played out because Illinois fumbled at the goal line like three times. And USC scoop those up. But man, I think if this could be a deeper team then, then they could be a team that is really threatening the college ball playoff on a much more consistent basis, which I think is what Trojan fans really want to see.
- [40:04]
C
And again, I think, I think the depth is coming, right. I got a chance to tour USC back during the summer months when we were out there for the elite 11 finals. They are building a brand new football facility. It's going to be state of the art. It'll be interesting to see if this is kind of like one of the last ones grandfathered in with the rev share and where everything's going. Like these facilities, they might be a thing of the past, right? You got to pay the players. Money's got to go elsewhere. So usc, they're really excited about that. And I thought the other thing that stood with stuck with me having, you know, just interacted with some of the people inside those, those buildings is we can't rely on transfers. Like, we can't. They're expensive. You know, the hit rate with them sometimes isn't what you would want it to be. And that's why, you know, they're going to sign 35 guys from, from the high school ranks. And again, I think some of these individuals are going to be able to go right away. But it starts with tight end Mark Bowman. You know, they beat out Georgia for him, they beat out Texas. Everyone in the country wanted Mark Bowman. He's another reclass, right? Another reclass. But he's been doing it for three years in the Trinity League there at Matter Day High School. One of the best. Gotta see him, Bud. Back in August. Maturday was down in Florida. He might be the best high school tight end I've, I've ever scouted. Like Brock Bowers, we'll put him in that, in that category. Tenacious blocker, receiving threat, you know, the production isn't there because he plays in an offense that has, you know, a bunch of other high end toys like Chris Henry, the Ohio State commit, Kaden Dixon, Wyatt. So he isn't someone that gets the ball a ton, but to a trained eye, you know, this guy does everything you want, right? He's a technical blocker. I think USC is under the impression he's going to be able to come in and play right away. I think the same. Right, Kenye Pepe, five star offensive tackle. That is their left tackle of the future. A kid out of IMG Academy. Let's not forget, Bud, there used to be a time when Alabama got whoever was the top, the top dog at IMG Academy, right? It was Tyler Booker, it was J.C. latham. Well, Miami and Mario Cristobal, they went in there, they got Francis Malagoa. We know how that's, that's going for them in Coral Gables. Jordan Seaton, Coach prime, he's at Colorado, we talked about him on the last show. That's a big hit. Kenye Pepe is next up and Lincoln Riley able to go in there and get a kid that had original west coast ties. So they're excited about him. And then I'll give you one more and maybe the theme of this show is the reclassifications. Booby feaster out of DeSoto High School in Texas. This is a kid that reclassified, but he reminds me of like the old guard of USC wide receivers, like when I was touring their facilities. Like I'm talking about these big wide receivers, you know, single digit number, you know, high white socks, black cleats, just game breakers on the outside. I think Booby Feaster fits. That reminds me of juju Smith Schuster, right? They're excited about this guy. Now it's going to have to all come together, right? He's going to have to buy in. But his ability to separate, guy that's six foot two, I mean he can get deep, he can get vertical. They're really excited about him. And after digging into what he is doing in his now senior season, it's easy to see why. Right. I mean he's going to have to buy into the process. But man, post Mai Lemon, post Jacoby Lane, they got another guy that they really like in Booby Feaster and he's someone that you know could be making plays as early as 20, 26.
- [43:40]
B
Man, you'd rather have first crack at him and let him get someone else's program figured out, right? Like if he doesn't figure it out, he doesn't figure it out. But like the upside there is, is pretty enormous. Yeah, we, but I don't often love like tight end prospects who play tight end in high school. I know you've done a lot of research on this. Just anecdotally it looks a lot like a lot of your better prospects who end up being like top draft picks at the tight end position and actually played the different position coming out of high school and they just kind of ate their way into the tight end spot or maybe they moved from defense, you know, to offense. But man, Bowman, that is special.
- [44:17]
C
Like that is, he's, he's like polished, right? It's like very, very rare to come across these guys. Usually when you talk with, with college coaches or hey, looking for a tight end, do they inline block? No. Okay. All right, well find me one that in lines blocks with Mark Bowman. I mean you said it bud. I think look at last year's NFL scouting combine. Like 20 tight ends were there, five of them were high school quarterbacks. Usually it's an extremely late developing position. Guys are doing something else. They put on a ton of weight and then they're kind of unlocked as these cheat codes. And if you think about a tight end, you're asked to do so many different things. One of the most fun positions to scout and evaluate but it's very, very hard to get right in. In the case with Mark Bowman it's like, yeah, I mean maybe he's not a multi sport guy, you know, maybe he isn't doesn't have a thousand yard receiving season. But the game tape paints a different picture with him. He is polished and I think he's gonna be ready to go.
- [45:22]
B
So let's go ahead and get here to the evaluation of the week. Well picked this kid destroyed my knowles. This is Desmond Reed of PIT 8 catches for career high. I mean it's better be a career eyes or running back catching 155 yards for the passes. It seems like Pitt scouted that FSU's linebackers can't cover. Just as Miami also figured out in Virginia. Kind of exposed there on that Friday night in Charlottesville. Added 12 carries for 45 yards his first game back from injury. He told Panther Layer, obviously Chris Peak does such a great job for us over there on our tremendous pit site. I mean I took this game personal. I showed my face to their campus and they didn't recruit me. We see this a lot from the state of Florida, man. Like there's so many kids that come out of this state didn't get recruited by, you know, one of the big three there goes to Pitt and what, what year is he? I'm trying to think was this, was this a find from our friend who used to recruit Florida so well and is now in the NFL?
- [46:21]
C
This is actually K. Bell, the offensive.
- [46:23]
B
It was a bail fine, okay at.
- [46:26]
C
Pittsburgh and we can get to Bell here in a second. But Desmond Reed, but it was funny, I was at a birthday party on, on Saturday night, a lot of, a lot of sad Knowles fans and they're like, man, that Desmond Reed kid. And I, I looked right at him, I said it was a lock that Desmond Reed was going to have a monster performance against the Seminoles. Bud, the rule of thumb, if the big three is playing a kid that the big three overlooked and didn't offer, they almost always score a touchdown. These huge big time performances. I don't know if it's a chip on their shoulder. It applies to Miami, it applies to, to Florida, to Florida State. If, if they're playing a conference foe and there's a guy that, hey, none of them offered like that guy's going to score a touchdown. Everyone remember that. And, and the next time you're watching the big three, it will happen right? Like those guys will score. And I love that quote from, from Desmond Reed, Bud. We actually had him as a three star prospect coming out of, of high school, out of Miramar High School. I remember seeing him at a seven on tournament at Florida. He was the best kid on the field that day playing wide receiver. The Gators didn't offer him either, but Cade Bell is the one that deserves a ton of credit here. Signed Desmond Reed to Western Carolina, brought him there to Pittsburgh and really Cade Bell, that entire Pittsburgh offense, guys that were just overlooked. And Jakarrion Turner, the other running back, he scored two touchdowns. Ralph Williams, the wide receiver, I mean all these guys are from Florida. None of them were four star prospects. They're all three stars. Cade Bell, you know, he, he has an eye, he's got a system. But I think if you're like a G5 school, someone in the American, hey, you're looking for a hot name that number one can recruit, but number two can score a ton of points. I think Cade Bell, who is the son of former Florida coach Kerwin Bell, makes a ton of sense. Pitt right now 30th nationally in scoring offense. They're 15th last year. So Desmond Reed is the eval of the week. And again, like you go back to his high school tape, over 1500 yards rushing, 27 touchdowns as a senior regional qualifier in the 100 and 200. The only issue was he was 5.
- [48:40]
B
8, which, hey, you know what? For every 58 guy who hits, there's a whole lot who don't. It's. It's just the math of it, but tremendous job here by Cade Bell and Pittman. Yeah, like, if Goles gets a job at usf, that might be my first call from the usf.
- [48:57]
C
AD would be mine. And he's worked at. He's worked at usf. Just. Just gonna put that out there.
- [49:04]
B
All right, so let's get out of here on this one. I know this is a guy we mentioned before on. On cover three, and I just wouldn't move on from Satterfield. They're doing a good job building this roster, and the guy in charge of building the roster is Zach Grant. They just routinely like Scott Satterfield on game day. Don't love it. Scott Satterfield making hires actually do kind of love it. Like, he also hired Tyson Veidt away from Iowa State to fix that Cincinnati defense, and that's gone extremely well as well. But that exact. Grant was a pretty sharp hire from him. Came over from Ohio State Bearcats 5 and 1. They, like, are legitimately in contention to go to the Big 12 championship game to have their shot at Texas Tech, man. And I. I think he's got a nice little staffer. They routinely find guys. I mean, since he doesn't have a ton of nil money to. To get it. But ultimately, like, they're on guys early, and I think they do a great job.
- [50:03]
C
Yeah. But I thought this would be kind of fun to do in leading up to signing day and obviously with the coaching carousel spinning. Right. We all hear about these GMs, and, you know, not a lot of people can put a name to a face. So I thought, hey, you know, let's start highlighting some of the GMs that are doing an excellent job. And Zach Grant, I think he deserves a ton of Credit, you said it. Cincinnati right now 5 and 1, right? They are in the hunt to play for a Big 12 title. And a big reason why is because of Grant and his staff. What these guys are able to do. Carter Wilson, he's their high school evaluation guy. Jack Griffith, he's their portal evaluation guy. You look at that roster, a lot of transfers, some high schoolers mixed in there. I mean, Jeff Caldwell, he's their highest grade, highest rated player according to pff. He's a transfer from Linwood. Their highest graded defender, Logan Wilson, he's a transfer from North Texas. Jake Golday, transfer linebacker from Central Arkansas. And then they, you know, have defensive starters that they got from the high school ranks. And I think Zach Grant, his team, such a smart approach at Cincinnati. They, they can recruit in Ohio, but they, they look in the south, they look at powerhouse programs. They got a defensive starter from St. Francis Academy, they got a defensive starter from Phoenix City Central in Alabama. These guys do a great job. And, and bud, really, why I want to give them a shout out is last year, their recruiting class, they lost kids to Florida, Ohio State, Michigan, Mississippi State and Illinois. All right, before signing day. It's going to happen again here in 2026. I think they're already going to lose, you know, their top three guys. But you know what? Like, they have a backup plan, right? Like their plan B is ready to go. I think Zach Grant, you know, does an excellent job of building that roster and he's one of the most respected names in the entire industry. So, you know, a lot of GMs get praise out there. Some of them are way more in the media than others. But hey, Cincinnati is doing some really good things and it starts with that personnel department, man.
- [52:09]
B
No doubt about it. I think we should do this a little more often, that there are definitely guys in the sport, you know, doing good work and signing day doesn't always tell the tale. And you might counter, hey, like, they should go after only guys that they can afford to sign. But, like, ultimately it does take a. That's a lot harder to do than you think you want to. You want to get commitments from the best guys you can possibly get, get verbal commitments from. And you hope your boosters and your school come through to help keep those guys in the fold. Ivan's enjoyed this, man. About a clean hour here and we'll probably end it here. What are you looking forward to this weekend? Anything on deck for you?
- [52:43]
C
Oh, hey, follow up on the GM thing. I was going to say, like, I'm looking Forward to like GM hot boards on, on the 247 sports messages boards like that. That's where my mind went with this because, you know, we always see like the coordinator short list or like the assistant coaches. I, I want some of these gms that are under the radar to get some love. I'm looking for, hey, we need to hire this guy, right? Like, he's done an excellent job. What am I looking forward to this weekend? I don't bud to me, like, you know, I'm a group of five individual. I think the, the, the G6 bid situation is, is fascinating with the, the American Conference. So I, I got my, my eye on that. What about you? I mean, plenty to choose from.
- [53:25]
B
I, you know, I'm, I want to see if our old friend Barton, like they're favored over lsu. I, I, it's not super likely, but, and there's an outside shot they could get to the playoff at Vandy. Like, how wild would that be, dude? So I, I want to see if they can pull that off. If they do. I mean, if you look at this fanny schedule, it's, it's not insane that they have a loss to Bama. They fumbled twice there or, you know, two turnovers in the red zone. They host lsu, they host Missouri. You got to go to Texas. Who knows how Auburn's gonna look, you know, by, by November. Like that, that might just be a team with some chaos going on or maybe they'll write the ship. Who knows? Kentucky is, is one you should, you should win and then they go to Tennessee. But if you could somehow win three of those four, the lsu, Missouri, Texas, Tennessee. I think you're, you're buying playoff tickets for a vanity fan. So that's just kind of cool. And, and a real, they just, they would never be in the conversation in a four teamer. And this is kind of one of the examples of like, where the 12 team, for all of its flaws, it does have so many more fan bases engaged much deeper into the season. I mean, we were talking today on cover three, like there's 25 or 30 fan bases that still have a legitimate, like not crazy type shot to get into the playoff. And that's exciting for me.
- [54:48]
C
But I, I said this to someone over the weekend, like, I think we're all calibrated to think that like you have to go 12, 0, like that is the path to the playoff. Like you got to be 12, 0, 13, 0. And that's really not the case. Like 10 and 2, 9 and 3, you know, when your team loses some of these games, everyone just writes them off and it's the end of the world. We got to fire the coach. And it's like no, like parodies at an all time high. You can get beat every single week. I, I was sitting there on Saturday night watching the SEC games and it's like all these games are close. All these games go either way. So I think we all need to recalibrate how we view a season like this. You're gonna slip up. You're gonna if, if we're going closer and closer to the NFL model, guess what? In the NFL, you can lose every week and good teams lose games as well. So just something I've been thinking about.
- [55:43]
B
No doubt about it, man. I think we'll wrap it here. Great. Great shopping it up to you as well. We'll see you next time.
- [55:49]
C
Now streaming on Paramount + someone is.
- [55:52]
B
Trying to frame us until our names are cleared.
- [55:55]
D
More fugitives from interval like Bonnie and.
- [55:58]
E
Clyde with better snacks.
- [56:00]
C
NCIS Tony and Ziva. Now streaming on Paramount plus What's up everyone?
- [56:05]
H
It's the counselor of Cash seeing a job from the Early Edge, a daily sports betting show powered by Sportsline and part of the CBS Sports Podcast Network. If you're looking for the best bets, picks and analysis for the day in sports, we're your one stop shop. We're locked in every day with NFL bets and player props, college football picks and so much more. Download and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and anywhere podcasts are found. Subscribe to the SportsLine YouTube page to watch us live at 10am Eastern Time every weekday. Make sure to turn on those notifications so you don't miss a single pick all season long.
- [56:34]
B
Good luck.