Remembering Purdue star Rondale Moore | Tennessee's Upcoming QB Battle | Kansas basketball & Darryn Peterson

On today's episode of Andy and Ari on three presented by BetMGM, we start with a very sad topic. We mourn the passing of former Purdue star Rondell Moore, who passed away over the weekend. And we're just going to talk about what he was as a player and how there are certain players that you will always remember if you're a fan of a team. And Rondell Moore is one of those guys. And we'll also talk about what happened with him. And if things are going badly with you, some things you can do about that. So it's a sad conversation. It's a tough conversation. It's one that needs to be had. And Rondell Moore needs to be celebrated. Plus, Joey Aguilar's request for an injunction was denied on Friday, which means Tennessee is going to have an old-fashioned quarterback competition. We don't see these much anymore in the NIL transfer portal era. But this is an old-fashioned quarterback competition between two high-profile recruits that the school signed out of high school. George McIntyre versus Faison Brandon, who you got. Oh, by the way, there is a transfer, Ryan Staub, in the mix. We'll talk about that, too. Plus, the Darren Peterson situation at Kansas. As the Jayhawks get ready for Big Monday against Houston, it gets weirder and weirder, it feels like, with each passing game. Ari and I will break down all the elements of this because this is an NBA story. This is a college basketball story. This is an NIL story. This is something that could translate to football. There's a lot going on here. We'll talk about it all on today's Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. This show is presented by BetMGM and there's no better place to be during March matchups than Las Vegas. This year, college basketball fans can win a VIP trip to the Court of Legends event featuring the Cavender twins. Simply play sports bets and your position on the leaderboard will determine if you win one of the 25 grand prize packages. 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Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. Ari, we've got to start with a very sad topic, and that is the passing of Rondell Moore, who we watched play at Purdue. We try and play in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals. Vikings roster passed away this weekend. The police in New Albany, Indiana have said it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. And just terrible news and a sad day for everybody who loved Rondell Moore and college football in general because he's one of those guys that you were at the Ohio State-Purdue game in 2018. but he's one of those guys that everybody who saw that game kind of remembers where they were when they watched it. Purdue fans especially. I mean, Purdue fans, this is one of the legendary games in the school's history, but everybody knows where they were because this guy was unstoppable in that game and actually for most of that season. Yeah. You know, in this sport, you know, in this position, I think that there are times where we get to know people and there are times that we don't. And you're just obviously generally aware of everybody and their abilities on the field. But, you know, I had interviewed Rondale a few times back in 2018. I believe once at a Big Ten media day and, of course, you know, after that game. And I didn't know him well. I don't really know him at all. But for whatever reason, when that notification popped up on my phone on Saturday night, I was saddened just because of one, and he was responsible for so many people's happiness, especially on one October evening. But to, you know, a guy who went to the NFL, a guy that, you know, had his whole life in front of him. And it just it's just awful. And there's no other way to say it. So that one really hit me. And I thought it was important, Andy, that you and I got on here today. and at least remembered him as a player and spread his message of what we can learn from this. And, of course, publicly acknowledged and mourned his loss. Yeah, it's one of those things that is so – 25 years old. And this is one of those that, as I get further along in age, you realize how young that is, how much you have ahead of you, how many things you miss. and it's just the saddest to know that this is how this ended and this is a guy who you know went to purdue he believed in jeff brahm he could have gone to some other bigger places was a big star as a freshman we actually probably never got to see a fully realized rondell moore as a football player because remember he got hurt his sophomore year. He had a pulled hamstring and didn't really get to play all that much his sophomore year. 2020's the COVID year where the Big Ten goes to cancel the season and then they played a very shortened season. He had injury issues during that season as well. His best NFL season was probably his rookie year with the Cardinals. And then I think there were more injury issues that popped up. But we may have never really actually seen how good he could have been. But it's one of those things where because of the way college football works, because of the lore of college football, because of the way we remember as fans, he's immortal because of that night against Ohio State. If he never played another game after that, he was immortal. Yeah. I mean, that night in general, Andy, I don't know how much you remember it. I remember it vividly having been there, was the Tyler Trent game. And, you know, it was heavy just in and of itself because of the sadness of that story. Tyler Trent was the young man who had cancer, who Purdue's football team had basically adopted him. Yeah, and I think that, you know, if I remember correctly, he had wished that Purdue would win that game against Ohio State. and they not only won, they won 49-20, and Rondale Moore had 170 yards receiving on 12 receptions and two touchdowns, one of which was like an emphatic throwing defensive backs off of him as he ran into the end zone to seal the game shut. And I think what was so remarkable about that too was that Rondale Moore in stature wasn't a very big person. I think he was 5'8 1⁄2", if I remember correctly. And when he was on the field that day against – And that was the epitome and the peak of the talent accumulation era. Like he was the largest man on the field. And, you know, it was just kind of like a shocking result for obvious reasons. Ohio State didn't typically lose those games, but the way that they did it, the atmosphere that was in that building that night. Like I have a hard time believing that Purdue, based on what Rondale did on that field that night, wouldn't have beaten anybody in the country. They were unbelievable. and I also you know I'm not an NFL reporter and I haven't been to a ton of NFL games have gone to a few as a fan like that was the type of environment that could only be cultivated in college football and part of the reason why I love the sport so much and you know that's a night that I'll remember for the rest of my life and Rondale Moore has a large part of the reason for that so yeah terrible terrible sadness on my end and you know I can't imagine what it's like to be a part of the Purdue community, his family, people who coached him. He was, from what I remember, a really great guy and, of course, a tremendous football player. Yeah, and so he was a player rep for the NFL Players Association as well, and the NFLPA put out a statement which kind of gives you a little, maybe a little peek behind the curtain of what was going on. And it says, in part, in moments like this, we're reminded how much our players carry on and off the field. To our members, please know that support is always within reach. check in your teammates and prioritize your mental health if you or someone you know is struggling we encourage you to take advantage of the many confidential resources available to you through the nflpa and to extend that more i want people to understand this like because our show we know what demographic we're reaching here it's we realize this is a mostly male audience here and i i think things have gotten better in terms of not feeling like you you have to hold everything inside that you can't go ask for help. But I want people to understand that you can always ask for help, that you don't need to feel like there's anything unmanly or, or wrong about asking for help or saying I'm not okay right now. And I saw Ari, I saw a flyer on a light post the other day when I was at the grocery store. And it hit me again when I saw the news about right now more, there's a number now it's it's nine, eight, eight. And I, like, I remember when I was a kid and they were trying to train all of us to use 911 in an emergency. And it was still a fairly new thing. I was not aware of 988 until I saw this flyer the other day. But that is, it is the number you call if you are feeling like you might harm yourself. And so I just, if I didn't know about it, I'm sure there's other people who didn't know about it too. So 988 is the number. I just want you to everybody just kind of put that in the back of your mind in case you or somebody, you know, gets into one of these situations. And I just I want to make sure everybody understands it is OK to not be OK. It is OK to ask for help. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that, Andy. And I think, too, that, you know, this show, college football in general, is so filled with levity and, you know, humor. And it is just a game at the end of the day. and you know every now and then you get hit with like really heavy stuff uh from people who are involved in the sport or people who used to be in the sport and it reminds you that you know as fun as college football is like there are bigger things your mental health your relationships with your family you know your health all those things um that are bigger than college football and uh you know i just thought it was important and andy did too to at least just kind of get that message out there of just like take care of yourself be good to yourself and there's nothing that you could be going through that's worth doing uh harm to yourself so um anyway i wanted to thank rondale more and remember him for one of the coolest nights on the job i've ever had and uh you know hopefully uh the purdue community and his family are okay yeah just prayers to to his family and his loved ones because i can't even imagine what you're going through right now so So we now turn to the actual business of college football, Ari. And we're going to turn back the clock a little bit because on Friday, we had the modern thing happen. We had a court decision involving college football. So Joey Aguilar started at quarterback at Tennessee last year, was trying to get an extra year of eligibility. He had sued in state court. The judge had said, hey, I'm going to take this information and I'm going to think about it for a while and I'll make a decision. So a week after their hearing, the judge releases his decision on Friday afternoon. Joey Aguilar denied an injunction. So he's going to the NFL Combine this week. He's going to head to the pros. He's not playing for Tennessee next year, which leads to a genuine old school quarterback battle. Now there is a transfer involved here, a third guy, But the two favorites in this quarterback battle at Tennessee, George McIntyre, Faison Brandon. George McIntyre signed with Tennessee in the class of 2025. He was a four-star guy. Faison Brandon, I believe rivals had him at a four-star, but kind of like 40th in the country. So right on the cusp of being a five-star and was a five-star by some recruiting services. So two very highly recruited guys who signed out of high school. This is how every one of these used to be at premium schools. Yeah. We don't see this anymore. You know, I don't know, and River can help us out here, but I really don't think, it doesn't feel like Tennessee is devastated by the news. Now, of course, I think they would have liked to have Joey Aguilar back. But the fact that they have three players on their team, two of which are high school guys, one of which is a five-star freak of nature. I mean, it doesn't seem like things are overly dire in their room. Between those three guys, they should be able to find a pretty high-level quarterback. And before we get into the two high school guys, Andy, you remember last season the transfer. I don't know. College football head should remember Ryan Stobb Colorado was like a story for three weeks when he in um and i think he lit it up in the second half of one of the games that he got yeah it was it was the delaware game so he comes in against delaware lights it up deon decides to start him the next week against houston it does not go particularly well they lose he throws a couple of picks there toward in the second half he doesn't play again until mop-up duty in the utah game five weeks later. So he, yeah, he was a story for a minute. So he's in, in this competition as well, Ryan Staub, but you've also got George McIntyre and phase on Brandon who, you know, both of those guys committed to Tennessee fairly early. So George McIntyre committed to Tennessee in January, 2024. So it's, it's interesting to look back at what was actually going on at the time. So George McIntyre commits in January, 2024. Faison Brandon commits in August, 2024. So that's a year and a half essentially ahead of when, when Faison Brandon arrived on campus in January, 2024, when George McIntyre committed, Nico Iamaliava had made one start for Tennessee. He'd started the bowl game against Iowa and it was Nico mania. Everybody was pumped. The idea that, you know, they went out, they signed this guy to this big NIL deal. We're finally going to get to see him as the full-time starter. This is the dawn of a new era of Tennessee football. And by the way, they made the playoff that year. And then George McIntyre is on campus in spring practice when Nico decides, I'm out. Yeah, and like last year, George McIntyre was like the, well, what if we have to roll with him guy? And we thought, well, maybe that would work. But if you get another year of development, if they go find somebody to plug and play, keep him in the system for another year, he will be unquestionably ready from an experience standpoint to at least compete for a job. And here we are, Andy, a year later, and he's right in the thick of things. So, you know, and I know that you have this view, and I tend to agree with you, but whenever you have people who commit to places that seem to be spoken for or if they don't shy away from signing with the team when there's another player in that class with them, that's more, you know, lauded publicly, that those tend to be the guys who quietly turn out to be awesome. But who's that in this case? Because George McIntyre signed with the idea of succeeding Nico. Yeah, but he was only a year before him, wasn't he? So he's still signed. No, he's two years. Oh, he was two years? Oh, I thought that he was only a year before him. Nico's class of 23, McIntyre's class of 25. Okay. Great. Let's just cut that whole thing out because I sound like an idiot. I thought they were a year apart from each other. Faison probably fits that category. Yeah. We don't need to cut this out. Because I think Faison fits exactly what you're talking about. Faison Brandon committed in August 2024. Nico is the starting quarterback in August 2024 when he committed. George McIntyre is committed, hoping to be the successor to Nico Iamaliava. Faison Brandon says, I don't care who's there. I'm going to be the one who succeeds Nico Iamaliava. Yeah, well, you want to make the same case I was making in reverse, too, because usually if you're the guy in the middle who isn't a five-star and you're sandwiched between two five-stars, that usually is a one-way bus ticket out of town. Yeah, and George is staying. So, exactly. You're right on this. I think you got the two guys right, which probably has a little bit to do with why the majority of Tennessee fans are not broken up about not getting Aguilar back. Yeah, and I also think that this is kind of vintage college football in the sense of like we had our guys. They played their time, and now we're moving on to the homegrown guys that Heupel plucked out of high school. Now, I don't know if you would have asked me three years ago, Andy, do you still feel like in order to be a functional program, you have to eventually get back to recruiting guys out of high school and developing your own guy and kind of doing what like Notre Dame did with CJ Carr, where you play the transfer game, you know, two or three years, and then you finally go to a guy you you developed yourself. And that's when your program becomes whole. I don't know if I believe that anymore, because there's so much success now on a year to year basis of guys just like going to new places and having great years. but I do really think that there is a benefit to signing with a place out of high school, staying on campus for a year or two, and then competing for the job. And I don't know if George McIntyre is going to win it because, frankly speaking, I just don't know if he has the physical traits that Faison Brandon has, but it's going to be a hell of a competition, and you've got to feel like between those two and Staub that whoever they land on. Staub kind of reminded me in his big game against Delaware of the way that Joey Aguilar plays a little bit. He was chucking it downfield, kind of throwing it all over the place. And, you know, I know it didn't last for the rest of the year, and he ended up going back to the bench. Didn't last for the rest of the week. Yeah. They called him Martin Luther. I don't know if you remember that because he stayed on campus, could have transferred out. Do you remember? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was a big week. Yeah, he committed to Carl Durrell's staff and decided to sign with Dion, which means the Dion staff looked at him and thought, okay, we'll take this guy. And then stayed with, yeah, backed up Shador Sanders for two years. Could have left after that when they brought in Caden Salter and Julian Lewis and decided not to. So it was a big deal not only because of the way that he played, but because he went in before Juju, if I remember correctly. Or he came in before Juju or something. Well, no, they put Lewis in, I believe, and it didn't look good. Right. And then he came in and threw for like 300 yards in the second half. And I get it. They were playing Delaware. But it was a big moment of like, oh, my God. So who knows? Who knows how it's going to play out? But I do know this. Josh Heupel has, in my opinion, done a very good job as Tennessee's coach. And if you think about where they were at this time, maybe a little bit a month later, but this time last year, with the Neko situation, what we thought Tennessee was going to be. I mean, I remember Urban Meyer said that Tennessee was screwed on his podcast. That went viral. It's like Tennessee was falling. I'm saying Urban Meyer's right. You did or I did? I can't remember. I did. I reread it the other day. And I thought they were. But Joey Aguilar was the medicine they needed at the time. Now, it's going to be interesting watching this. George McIntyre is 6'6". Tennessee lists him at 195 right now. We don't have an updated roster. Our guy Austin Price for BallQuest interviewed him about a month ago. And he asked McIntyre about his weight and workouts and the new strength staff. and McIntyre did not mention a number, which I thought was telling. But that's been the thing with him, is can he get some volume on? Can he get a little bit bigger and stronger? Because he's got a really good arm. He's a good pocket operator. The thing with Faison Brandon, who's a really good athlete, dual threat, just from talking to Charles Power, who's our director of scouting, is that Faison Brandon's high school offense did not really ask him to throw the ball down the field very much. and so it's unknown how good he is at that you've seen it against air in camps but you haven't necessarily seen it in the games and i think that's going to be something that that they'll have to evaluate come spring practice that was a big element of tennessee's offense last year that's the thing that you know you can make the case that joey did the best you know he was the one that was connecting with these deep shots to their really good receivers a year ago and then when nico was on the team the year before he seemed to miss all those so i know tennessee wants to make sure that whoever's playing quarterback next year still dialed in with those shots because it's a big part of Tennessee's offense yeah so that's that's where it's going to come down to and I think that's where Staub who comes into this thing as the dark horse is interesting because he's pretty fearless maybe a little too fearless which is exactly what we said about Joey Aguilar coming in last season um but you know at the very least I don't know if Staub's going to be the starter I I may probably be surprised if he were, but getting somebody who has been in a program for multiple years, stayed with it, you know, kind of the same ilk. I mean, it's probably a good position room guy. Well, yeah, it's definitely what you want in a backup. For sure. So it gives you some comfort there. And let's not forget, Tennessee gets Deshaun Bishop back at running back. He averaged 5.9 yards carry, 16 TDs. They're going to run the ball pretty well. Probably they'd revamp their offensive line. So this quarterback does not have to come in and be Superman for them to be okay. We're going to find out defensively. Because remember, defensively, they had bigger defensive problems, I think, last year. And people realize that's why they part ways with Tim Banks. That's why they go out and get Jim Knowles. So I think if they're better defensively, if they can still run the ball, this quarterback is not going to have to do anything amazing. And if one of these quarterbacks happens to be amazing, then you can start getting very excited. Now, I will point out, as producer River throws up the schedule, Texas and Auburn coming to Neyland Stadium to open the SEC schedule in September and early October. They then are dealing with Alabama. They've got to go to A&M. They've got to play LSU. Vandy, obviously, probably still going to be a problem. this is going to be a tough schedule yeah they play at Georgia Tech early now Georgia Tech's radically revamped their OC's gone quarterback's gone but Brent Key is going to mash you up front that's that's what he does yeah does it kind of feel like and I don't know if this is right or wrong but that like the benchmark for Tennessee this season is yet again another you know nine and three type year like is that what you're hoping for like what are tennessee's rational expectations for this year and you know the question that i do have is is that like it's funny to me because i feel like josh heupel has done such a really good job as tennessee's coach and i don't even know if last year like if they had a bad year last year i'm not even sure i would have counted it against him but does he get credit for how good they were in spite of the situation that they were in last year. And if they go... That's the problem. I'm kind of sensing here. Demanding place. It's a demanding place. Here's the thing I'm sensing. If Tennessee goes 8-4 or 9-3 this year, are people going to start becoming frustrated with him? Yes. Yes, they will. It was just like, don't you dare hire our coach away like six months ago, you know, whenever the coaching carousel was three months ago. Oh, I thought the timing of all that was more, we're getting this out here so you ungrateful people start appreciating what you've got a little bit. Yeah. I think that's what that was. That may have been coming from Hyples Camp or something because I didn't get that sense from the schools that were looking. That's not where I got that sense from. So I think that was more of a, hey, why don't you guys look at what this guy has actually done and try to appreciate him a little bit. I almost wondered, did Josh Heupel get Tennessee out of hell too early? It's like almost too fast. Yeah. The situation he inherited was horrific. Now, remember, this is early in the NIL transfer. Actually, well, the NIL era hadn't even started when he got the job. It starts six months into him having the job. the transfer rules hadn't really hadn't all the way changed yet what he inherited looked awful and then he's winning 10 games in year two and it's like oh oh okay we're ahead of schedule now and then they make the playoff in year four Tennessee was an absolute dumpster fire for like the first 12 years of my professional career and I don't even remember that like that's like I'm like past that like Tennessee was kind of like no man's land in my head and now Tennessee is like consistently at least solid and I think that that's obviously much better than what they were like I mean just think about to where Tennessee's program was when all the uh they were bad when Jeremy Pruitt coached them that's what I'm saying and uh you know uh it was just like a nightmare they kept hiring coaches they were firing them prematurely like they weren't winning any games they were getting their ass kicked on the biggest stage. Jones had a good year and a half, essentially that, that, that between, between Lane Kiffin taking the job and, and being, I guess. Okay. For a year, they weren't even that good that year, but they, they had a plan clearly. And then he leaves. So between then post 2009 season and Hypo getting there, they had a good year and a half. That was it. It was a long time. And I was like, kind of in the not in the center but like at least kind of in the atmosphere like when the greg shiano stuff was happening and like i remember like oh my god that place is such a dumpster fire like i remember thinking like there's not like that it's i think two things i think two things can be true i think it was highly dysfunctional what happened with greg shiano i also don't think greg shiano was the right fit for tennessee that's great yeah no i don't disagree with that i just like what happened there and why it happened and when it happened and how it happened it was just kind of like why would he even want that job and then Hypo goes in there and turns it into a place that feels like it's on the verge of being excellent or at least elite now and like and I think he's accomplished that without ever really breaking through now they didn't make the playoff one year and obviously the way that the playoff run ended was kind of rough for them but they did make the playoff one year and it feels like they are just consistently going to be solid now Tennessee fans are left wanting more for obvious reasons and they should and I just don't know if this is a year they're going to get it and and how long of being consistently solid you get before you start getting choked out by your own standard that you created like exactly and now how do you ascend to another level with a great quarterback how do you get a great quarterback either go buy one or you develop one now they did try to buy one they had Sam Levitt on campus Let not forget Lane Kiffin going to the McGee Tyson Airport in lovely Alcoa, Tennessee to go find Sam Levitt because Tennessee was working on him. He had to post that picture to his Twitter, didn't he? He just had to. Of course he did. Now, you can argue whether Tennessee was just sort of messing with LSU and driving up the price. But the fact of the matter is they had one of the most sought-after transfer QBs in the market on their campus. I think they would have been fine and very happy to sign him, which would have been crazy because you've paid a bunch of money to these highly touted recruits. And at what point do you want a little ROI on that? Because here's the thing. I can tell you just mathematically, one of the people you paid for, be it George McIntyre or Faison Brandon, you will get no ROI out of him, most likely. That's the nature of the position. It's not like two offensive tackles where one can play left and one can play right. Well, I think, yeah, like when you – I think that you need to look at it as we made an investment in the quarterback room and did we get our money's worth. Exactly. Exactly. And the thing is, if they wind up with a quote unquote franchise QB, who they're going to get to at least two good years as a starter out of, then yes, you invest your money well. Exactly. So we'll see. But I do wonder, and I have had these thoughts, they're dark thoughts. But like if Tennessee goes eight and four, like do we start next August talking about Hypel as like seat being? We'll be talking about it in November. okay we'll go to megaboard wednesday and we'll pull up vol quest the general's quarters and it will be just rivers of fire you had to say rivers didn't you producer rivers just silently i like looking whenever we're talking about scenes and on this this topic i can i can see him but you can't audience fully look at him while we're talking about it um and i don't know i don't know how he feels but i think that like river is you know he's been in this why don't we call him up he's a very famous person on this show hi producer river i think that he's like at least been in this in a professional setting long enough to like be a more rational fan than most people uh so i don't know if he's a good reflectant of all my family i i know what was going on saturday night when tennessee was winning at basketball i i know he's not that rational uh no it's fun river if if uh Tennessee goes 7-5 or 8-4 this year. Where are you with Josh Heitman? Oh. Well, definitely. Oh. I mean, it depends on who you lose to and how you lose them. But, I mean, look at the SEC schedule. You start off the SEC schedule, those first four games, Texas, Auburn, Arkansas, Alabama. You need to go at least three in one of those. And you can't lose to your old OC, right? Like if Alex Gullish brings Byron Brown into Neyland Stadium and wins, oh boy. Now, what's going to be telling is when Kiffin comes back to town on November 21st. That's going to be either nail in the coffin or we're back. Ari, I know we can't make travel plans for November this early. We got to go to that game. I want to go. See, I want to go to, like, I don't know. Again, River's probably more offended by this than I am. But, like, Tennessee does not hate Lane Kiffin as much as Ole Miss does right now, do they? Like, is the pain still there? No, no, no. They don't hate him, but they just hate if he's the one sticking the knife in the side of you. They don't want him to do it to him. Like, they could just let him be in Baton Rouge, but, I mean, now. Yeah. Well, I think the goal is things worse because I do think after Byron Brown had his first good year at USF, it's like, why doesn't Tennessee just go get Byron Brown? We know he can run that offense. I lost my Instagram for three weeks. Right. Welcome back. And this is going to make sense, Andy. I know you always go, oh, God, what the hell is this going to be? But I promise you I'm going to land the plane. But when I so I lost hope because it was like so hard to get back in. And I was like, I'm never getting it back. So I created another one. And there's a mechanism that you can sync your contacts with to help find people to follow faster. And I did that. And I ended up following accidentally some women in the past that I would have no interest in ever talking to again. And if you would have. I didn't even know where this is going, but I'm happy. But if that would have happened to me in 2020, like that would have been like, it would have ruined my week. But now because I'm secure in my own life and I'm happy and I've got a beautiful wife and child, like I have stopped worrying about other girls that I may have had problems with in the past. So my point is, is that Josh Heupel is Tennessee's Brit. Like you have a good coach. You're in a healthy place. You're not dysfunctional anymore. For those who don't know, Britt is Ari's beautiful, saintly wife. He puts up with him all the time, and I don't know how she does it. But actually, this is a great analogy. The deeper we go, the better it gets. Yeah, but you don't have to worry about Lane Kiffin, your crazy ex-girlfriend, and she might be smoking hot, and she might be the apple of somebody else's eye, but you have your stable, beautiful wife with you. On the other hand, like, at Ole Miss, like, your wife was, like, banging your neighbor. Like, and she's, like, and now she moved in with him. And now she's coming back to your house for, like, a Christmas party, like, the first week of the year. Like, that is so much worse. So, like, I – Definitely. Like, right? Like, it is so much worse. Tennessee, that's just a girl that you hooked up with. Ari, I have an idea. This is a – you know, we were always looking for – for good segments in the offseason. Let us scour the schedule. This is homework for this week. And I want all of you listening to do this too. So this is next Monday's show, unless there's crazy news. But next Monday's show. So I want everybody to write in. You know how to find us. Andy Staples on three at gmail.com. Ari.Wasserman at on three.com. Social media at Andy Staples at Ari Wasserman. Hit us up. what games this college football season have the juiciest storylines. LSU at Ole Miss, I think, is going to be number one, pretty sure. But there will be other ones. I want to know what you think are the juiciest games of the 2026 season, because we are going to go into that. I cannot wait to dive into that list. I am excited to even think about it. Like the idea of Lane Kiffin coming back to Ole Miss, the idea of Lane Kiffin going to Knoxville, the idea of Alex Golis going to Knoxville. These all seem very intriguing to me. It's like a scorned lovers list or just. It doesn't even have to be that though. It could be a quarterback left somewhere and then they go back to play him. There's all manner of this. Yeah. It's everywhere. But I had, and I don't know, we talked about it and joked about it through text, but like I had September 26, Texas at home circled on my list for a big Rogersville, like banger weekend. I bring the starter log. We, we light the fire in the Walmart parking lot. We just get, we just like roll. They don't have the bonfire in the Walmart parking lot. That is just where everything starts. That's where the night begins. Like a, I thought that there was like a big metal can that they, do you think the Walmart corporation would be down with that? Come on now. Not that crazy. Oh, I don't know. I just, we just, that's the, that's the local gathering place it's like you start there and then uh but drinks are consumed in the parking lot i assume right in the car in the car you keep them in the car you get your it's not legal in the car either but yeah well is it illegal are you in a dry county river we used to be oh are you moist now all right is it illegal to consume beer in a car if your keys are in it uh it's illegal to consume beer in a car period in a lot of states like if you had your keys for a safety measure on the hood of the car and you were just sitting in the seats i would have to read the the individual state law yeah yeah yeah i don't know i i wouldn't i wouldn't chance it i wouldn't invite the cops over to check out your uh your cup holders in that scenario yeah Well, I mean, Uber is, I don't know. Uber has been the biggest godsend in that regard. I don't recommend drinking and driving. I think that's a terrible thing to do, not condoning it. I just was, I'm just also trying to figure out, like when in Rome. Another public service announcement on this show, like ride sharing services exist now. There's no excuse to get a DUI. Yeah. But when in Rome, you do as the Romans do. And I want to party in the Walmart parking lot before we go to the bonfire. and like i like i want river to turn this into like a homecoming rogersville to me who's so is this our friday night or our thursday night you can decide that i just want it to be one of the nights i mean it's going to be a high school football friday night so it's probably go to the game rogersville yeah we we bring we bring former slot receiver river bailey we've shown his highlight tape before river was a beast yeah but i've never been to a game in noxville and i really want to rectify that. It's so close to the office too. It's like it makes no sense that I've never been to one. We're going to fix it. Texas, Tennessee sounds amazing. I think we can pencil that in probably, but we can't make any promises. Ohio State too. That would be huge. Looking forward to the juiciest storylines, let's do that Monday next week. Yes. Send us your favorite games. The games that you are thinking, from a soap opera standpoint, this excites me more than anything. Send us those. All right, Ari. We got to get into a topic that is a basketball one, but I feel like it's universal. The Darren Peterson thing at Kansas, we talked about this with the Arizona game, with the guy texting from the sideline saying he's out. Bill Self told him, don't play if you're going to give it 100% all that. It gets weirder and weirder and weirder. So Cincinnati blew out Kansas on Saturday. Darren Peterson played 32 minutes. I believe the most minutes he's played all season. That came after he pulled himself out of the Oklahoma State game while having a great game, and they just sort of shut it down for most of the second half. Kansas plays Houston tonight on Big Monday. So 9 p.m. Eastern time. The current line is Houston is a one-and-a-half point favorite on the road, which, by the way, that's come down in the last hour or so. Yeah, because didn't Kansas beat Arizona at home like a week ago? That was two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, running Bill Self's Big Monday Fog Allen Fieldhouse record to 40-0. Like, Bill Self is 40-0. And remember, Big Monday always means you're playing somebody good in Big 12 play. So it's insane that his record is what it is. Insane. That's a pretty wild stat. Yeah. And maybe that's why. But Houston's a top 10 team. Houston was number two last week. They lost Arizona on Saturday at home. They are still very good. They lost to Iowa State before that. So they basically lost to other top five teams last week. this is going to be crazy but this darren peterson thing is wild because he's supposed to be the number one pick in the nba draft he might not be now his nickname among the college basketball fans is dnp he trademarked that i think i hope so hopefully can make some money off of it but it's the strangest situation because there's an espn story out today by myron metcalf where he talked to peterson between the Oklahoma State game and the Cincinnati game. So clearly Peterson's camp is now trying to get his story out. It's not a case of Kansas. Kansas isn't hiding him or protecting him or anything like that. If anything, it feels like Bill Self just kind of said, all right, enough of this. But it's very interesting because I don't know what to say. How do you handle this situation? if you're Bill Self and you're Kansas. Because that Cincinnati game, he plays 32 minutes. He scores 17 points. We won a 7 from 3. This is a guy who can do everything offensively but just kind of float around the perimeter for a lot of the game. Is it possible they're better without him? I mean, I saw some basketball coverage saying that Kansas didn't flow as normal on the court offensively. Right. And this Myron Metcalf story, which was very interesting, like he talks to some of the other Kansas players, it sounds like they're a pretty tight-knit team independent of Darren Peterson. And I'm just wondering if you're Bill Self, how do you handle this? Because obviously he's incredibly skilled. We can get into the draft part of this in a second, but that's another discussion. I'm more interested in Kansas right now as they go to play Houston and try to prepare for the NCAA tournament. If you're Bill Self, If he can play the way he supposed to play or if the way he supposed to play takes the rest of your team out of its chemistry Are you better off just saying you know what Maybe this didn work And we're going to ride with the guys who've been playing all season. Well, the thing with basketball is, and we didn't mention this, but like go USA winning the gold medal on Sunday morning. I woke up early to even watch that. I don't know if you did. We watched the whole thing. I had three minutes to go in regulation. My wife throws her phone down and says, I can't watch it. It's too tense. Yeah. My wife was getting coffee. But the thing that I always marvel with when it comes to hockey and watching events like that, too, is that these guys all play hockey, but it probably takes quite a bit of time and effort to get on the same page with people in a game that flows the way that those games do. And I don't know if it's Darren Peterson's, the amount of time that he's missed that has been injured like he's had a hamstring injury it's not they're not making that up no right but regardless of the reason he's been out basketball is a very flowy game that's relying on chemistry and if some major piece of your offense no matter how skilled he is is in and out of the thing all year I can see why when he's in it becomes harder to operate as a five-man, you know. Yeah, and it changes your substitution patterns. It changes how much each player gets used because Darren Peterson's usage rate, which is a term that measures how often you are the guy initiating the offense or taking the shots or doing things with the ball, essentially. I mean, doesn't this happen in the NBA? He's using his rates off the charts when he plays. this happens in the nba all the time like when there's major blockbuster trades or off-season acquisitions and stuff like you have a lot of really good players who just don't play well together and it doesn't work um so like here's the you know the question you have to ask andy is one bill self's job is to put the best team on the floor not the best players on the floor yeah um so can you sink as much money as you do from a financial perspective into an individual player in a five when there's only five players on the court and then not play that person or are you okay with eating that investment in a player that could be a top five or maybe will be a top five pick in the NBA draft and then fielding a better team? I don't know from a financial perspective what's even expected. This is where this bleeds into football and any other sport really, any pro sport because college sports is now pro sports. If you had a college football team and you paid all this money for a quarterback and when he's on the field, your team struggles, and when the backup comes in, your offense moves, what are you supposed to do? What are you supposed to think? Well, like you just said about Bill Self, the coach's job is to win games. The coach's job is not to satisfy whoever has the biggest paycheck. And so... Or satisfy the donor who wrote the checks, because that's the other aspect of this, too. That is the other aspect of it. Why did the donor write the check? To win. For that player or to win games? To win games. so I would say you view it as a sunk cost. If you are worse with him on the floor, then do the thing that makes you better. Or go to him and say, listen, this is how we need you to play, and if you don't like that, you don't have to be here. It's funny I say all this because the guy's probably going to drop 25 tonight. They're going to beat Houston by 10. Is the situation tonight, though, that he is expected to play and be in the game the entire game? There's no weirdness happening right now. The Kansas fans who seem to grow more cynical with each passing day, I was cruising Jayhawk Slant, our Kansas site. And on their message boards, some of the fans are like, well, it's a good defensive team, so he's probably not going to play. That's where they're at. They've reached that point already. I think after the Oklahoma State game, when he pulled himself out and Stephen A. Smith got on first take the next morning and said, there's no way in hell I'd take him with the first pick. I think Darren Peterson's team at that point was like, uh-oh, now we screwed up. Because right now, AJ DeBonta at BYU, who is probably the highest paid player in college basketball, he's full bore, pedal to the metal all the time. He ain't playing around. He's carrying that team. Cameron Boozer at Duke. You saw him against Michigan on Saturday night. He scored a bunch of points right there at the end. He took over the game. Who would you rather have playing for you in the NBA? Because one thing I think is interesting about NIL in football and basketball. Okay, the Combines this week, the NFL Combine. What are they going to ask all these players? Do you love football? And it used to be you would ask that because you want to know when this guy gets some money, is he still going to treat it the same way? Is he still going to play like he would play it for free? Well, now you actually have the answer to it before he even gets to the combine or ditto for Darren Peterson before he gets to the draft. You already know what he's going to be like when he has money. They have money now. Well, I think that is interesting because it's very easy to be nonchalant with your college team because you're all looking forward to the NBA. And it's like, well, regardless what happens in Kansas this year, I'm going to the NBA. I'm going to be the first pick. But if your conduct or your production or a combination of those two things hurt you from being that number one overall pick, and I know Stephen A. Smith says a lot of things, but my understanding of Stephen A. Smith is that he knows the most about the NBA. That's kind of like his special piece. That's his area of expertise, yes. So if he is saying that publicly and casting doubt on your draft stock, like that is the, that signal to me to be like, get your shit together and play. You know what I mean? Like I, if I'm, if I'm picking number one in the NBA draft, I want the guy who plays his balls off every, every game, no matter what the circumstances are. You want your Cooper flag. You want that guy or, or Ant-Man. Right. Ant-Man played on a bad Georgia team. or not a great Georgia team. I know that was during the pandemic. Ant-Man plays his ass off. Yes, yes, all the time, all the time. Like Ben Simmons, when you saw him at LSU, and guess what? Ben Simmons took a lot of money to not play basketball in the NBA. Yeah. So you've got to figure that out. You mentioned the hockey game. Here's a good example of this. Did you see after the game when they gave out the medals and the stuffed animals? Mm-hmm. The most painful part of watching that was watching the Canadian players get the stuffed animals. Yeah, right. So Conor McDavid and Nathan McKinnon. Conor McDavid is the best hockey player in the world. Nathan McKinnon is one of the best hockey players in the world. Like watching them get the stuffed animal and the look of disgust on their face. because they had just played. That's the hockey equivalent of the Pop-Tart Bowl, by the way. Right. They had just played as hard as possible. Like, they get paid to play in the NHL. They're not getting paid to play for Team Canada. They had just played as hard as they could, given everything. They were gutted by that loss. Like, those are the types of players that you want to pick first. Connor McDavid was picked first. But those are the kind of players you want on your team. You don't want someone who, despite a wealth of talent, either can't mix in with your team, can't get into the team chemistry, or isn't willing to play through some stuff every once in a while because he just wants to get on the court and win, or the ice and win, or the field and win. That's what's interesting to me about this whole situation. And a lot of it, like our friend Jeff Goodman at Field of 68, points out that some of this is out of Darren Peterson's control. There's some, I talked to an NBA GM today who I had talked to three weeks ago, same guy. And three weeks ago, he said, hey, I'm not worried at all. And now he said, you know what? I'm starting to get a little bit worried. Obviously, we got to see what checks out with medical. But again, I think part of the issue here is, again, I got to be very careful. I have to be very careful. You do need to be careful. Again, he's not always making his own decisions also in this process. He's got a lot else going on right now, and he's trying to navigate it. And Bill Self is trying to navigate. It looked like today they had never played with Darren Peterson before. I don't know if you guys agree, but it looked like literally they brought in a new player. It looked like they brought in, you know, Charles Bediaco or somebody like that. They had no idea how to play with him. And I think we've covered enough high-level college sports, football, and basketball already to know what that means. Like, that means somebody's camp is like, no, you do it this way. Do it this way. Don't listen to your coach. Don't listen to these people. Do it this way. But Bill Self is also, like, accomplished enough to be like, that stuff's not flying here. Exactly. Exactly. Why did you go? Like, that's my question. Why did you go play for a Hall of Fame coach? If you want to call the shots, you're not going to be able to do that for him. Yeah. Yeah, well, maybe this will be the thing that propels him to an awesome game on Monday night. Because I feel like if he does go out there and score 20 points and leads Kansas to a win at home against Houston, then that kind of like rewrites the narrative a little bit, right? Because you – And that's what Bill Self said last week. So after the Oklahoma State game, this is before they lose to Cincinnati, Bill Self said if he wants to fix this – and by the way, Bill Self has been very diplomatic about all this. Yeah, he has. Publicly. Very diplomatic. But he said, finish games. Change the narrative. Finish the game. Play well. And people will stop talking about this. He's right. He's right. The Stephen A's of the world will move on to the next thing. And the NBA GM's will be calmed if Darren Peterson hops in there tonight. And remember, the games are hard from now on. because you're only a couple weeks from conference tournament play. Then you got the NCAA tournament. You only got a little bit left here. So you can change it. This is the entire point of playing college basketball, too. This is the time of year where, like, if you love basketball, this is when you want to show up the most. And don't let A.J. DeBonsa and Cam Boozer take your spot because they don't seem to be slowing down. They don't seem to care about their draft position. They're trying to help their teams win. but in the process are looking like much more valuable draft picks than you. Yeah. Dogs again at home. We'll see what happens tonight, but I'm going to watch it. I'm going to make a point to watch it. It's great. There's so many Kansas-related – now their Big 12 title streak ended a few years ago, but the dominance they've had, especially at Fog Allen Fieldhouse, is incredible. And remember, they got blown out at Fog Allen on Saturday by Cincinnati. But I am always fascinated by the dynamics of these big Monday games because you always have some kind of crazy thing that happened on Saturday, and then you turn around 54 hours later and play on Monday night, and the vibe can be completely different. But Bill Self showed up at the lottery where the students figure out where they're going to be for the game and kind of apologized for Saturday's result and said, hey, savor this. want different energy. So I guarantee you it's going to be crazy. I guarantee you. I can't wait to see it. Yeah. Talking about a team that went to the Final Four last year and has one of the better coaches in college basketball on the other sideline, too. So it'll be cool. I can't wait to watch it. All right. We will maybe talk about it on tomorrow's show because it's... I mean, it's drama. It could be one of the more interesting results of the season. Andy, you know me. I like feelings more than sports. This is an ultimate feelings game. So such a feeling and feelings drive ratings. So yeah, we'll, we'll check back in the, you know, at least maybe we'll talk about it for a few minutes on tomorrow's show to see how it went. Yeah. Check that MGM right now. Houston is a one and a half point favorite. Like I said, that line has moved within the last couple hours. So as we're recording this at noon Eastern, they're one and a half point favorite. I'll be very curious to see where that line is. Will we get any text messages from somebody courtside? I don't know. Before the game starts. Yeah. I don't know. We will find out, but we'll probably talk about that a little bit on Tuesday's show. If you want to bet MGM, I wanted to ask you something that's kind of quasi-related to what we were talking about. Oh, yeah. Go for it. I'm just asking for a friend. Just was wondering, like, if an American bet on Canada in the Olympic final, are they a bad person? Yes. Okay. You should have to move to Canada. I was just wondering. I just was. I mean, that American, theoretically, hypothetically. Hypothetically, that guy. Should have to move to Canada. Okay. Do you want to live in Toronto? Do you want to live in Montreal where they invented poutine? Maybe moose jar medicine hat if you want a little more open space. But you shouldn't live here. Okay. Because you know what? Hmm. That eagle swooped down on that goose. Free bird. They stole their game. No, that was awesome. Our game. The women, the men. It's our game now. Look at it. Look. We're the captains of hockey now. Yeah. We'll talk to you tomorrow.