Mailbag: The Best Single-Season Coaching Jobs In College Football? PLUS, Spring Game Previews & More

Welcome back to the Cover 3 podcast with your hosts Chip Patterson, Tom Furnelli, Danny Cannell and Bob Elliott. It's your call for the best college football coverage from National Signing Day to the National Championship and everything in between. CBS Sports presents the Cover 3 podcast. And welcome back to the Cover 3 podcast here on CBS Sports. That's Tom Furnelli. That's Danny Cannell. I'm Chip Patterson. Come to you live at youtube.com. And everywhere you get your podcast on demand, thanks for hanging out. Smash that subscribe, smash that like and come and join us in the chat. AKA the Cover 3 tailgate where they are submitting their own recommendations, suggestions and answers for what I introduced yesterday as one of our big questions for today's mailbag episode. Some of the best single season coaching jobs in college football. So the lots there, we've got some of our answers, some of our analysis as well. That'll be coming up along with a host of other great questions from the Cover 3 tailgate live and from Spotify comments. Spotify, we've been seeing you growing audience over there. So we want to make sure we get into those Spotify comments. And of course, the big old bag of mail, a couple of news items as well. But first, if Ryan Jones is going to jump in at 8.54 a.m. Eastern time, more than two hours before we get started on the subject of coaches, Ryan says, other than Hayden Fox, who are your favorite fictional college football coaches? Why does Ryan assume Hayden Fox is our favorite college football coach fiction wise? I would, I would not make a list of 10 without coach. For those who are unfamiliar, Hayden Fox is the main character played by Craig T. Nelson in coach, which obviously is a very, very clear call Hayden Fry, the legendary Iowa coach. You know, really, really stretching on that one. But a great character, great show. I think Ryan can can say he'll take some liberties that that would make at least a top 10 list. It has to be college. Because my favorite fictional football coach is coach Taylor and also Mrs. Coach. Right. Night Lights. Oh, Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Coach Taylor. That's one of my favorites right there. I mean, my guy from the program played by James on Sam, coach Sam Winters. You know, coaching up Joe Kane, number 13, which was dead, which is definitely not Florida state, right? No, I mean, the colors were garnet and gold. You had a wild man at quarterback who just couldn't be corralled. A lot of similarities in there. Good point on the top. There were no stairways. College is a smaller, because we've got, you know, the, you've got professional football coaches that have been there. And we've got many famous, you know, high school coach stories that the college football coach landscape and fiction is a little bit then. Oh, did you guys ever watch Blue Mountain State? Yeah. I played golf with the dude that was the coach. Marty Daniels was the character of all spans. Italian dude. What was the coach's name? I know, I know Richard, the guy who plays Richard was in the show. Yeah. Alan Richter. Is that a name? Don't, don't, don't, don't mess with him. He's riding his bike through your neighborhood. Or don't tackle him off his bike. Yeah. Probably not the smartest thing to do. Oh, and, and Coach Taylor did end up going to TMU, right? Yeah. So he did. Yeah. Yeah. He did. So yeah, that counts. Another coach under the radar, you know, I think the program kind of sucked up all the oxygen when it came out a few years later, but coach Ed Gennaro from Texas state that fighting armadillos. Yeah. That's probably a little bit of a necessary roughness. Yeah. That's probably a little before your time, Chip. You were just a little boy. I just love the kicker in that movie. Yeah. Very, very, very good kicker. Very great legs on that kicker. My entry point to, you say it was before my time, so it came out before the program. Yeah. It was 1991. So yeah, my path is that by the time I get to the program, I've already seen Omar Epps in Major League two, you know? So it's like I was, I was working my way back at that point to, I was, oh yeah, look, there he is right there. Lots more coming in from the tailgate. So the hang tight, whether it is Adam, whether it is a law loving, lots more contributing to the coach conversation as well. All right, let's start with a couple of news items. So Iowa announced the settling of some NCAA violations for tampering. A couple items for this that are, I think interesting to pull on. Does this change Brian Farance? Because if you vacate the wins that have been vacated, Brian Farance's points per game average during the year, which we were calling to task, the Hawkeyes offense, it is adjusted. You know, does this, is this justice for Brian Farance? And then number two, Tom, fill me in on this. Did the call come from inside the house on these tampering allegation? Have you heard about this? Well, it was self reported, right? Right. And then this show, yeah. Which I mean goes once again, example number 3427, don't tell on yourself. Because nobody told on Michigan, who by the way, Iowa, like that's the irony, Iowa played Michigan in the big 10 title game in 2023. Michigan went on to win the national title. We know all the scuttlebutt around that Michigan team in 2023 of what was going on. And of the two teams that played in Indianapolis that year, Iowa was the one who received NCAA penalties. I think we also might have a double vacation coming out of that one. And that's not time away from work. That's a Michigan State, Iowa game in which both teams have vacated. I mean, only one winner, obviously. But, you know, just, I talked to us. So we had a coach Ferris booked on the radio show yesterday morning. And it was the news came out Tuesday afternoon. And so I texted our produce. I actually told coach Ferris this when he came on, because I texted our producer and I was like, Hey, is he still going to come on with the news? And he said, as far as I know. So and we were supposed to have an 805 at 805. He pops up in the zoom, like precisely at 805. And I told him that. And I was like, I appreciate it. Cause I think you're somebody that would stand up and would talk like would not be willing to just cancel and would be a man of his word. The details of this, you could tell he was hot. Like he was as much as he could, like he was, he said a lot and he didn't get like angry, but you could tell he was significantly irritated because, and if you look at some of the details, and he goes like, if you pay attention to the details, you realize how ridiculous this is in our, you know, in our current landscape. Apparently, and in the article that's written, it does mention this. It was in the hours before the portal opened. It was not like he was working them in the relationship in September while Mac Demarro was still playing at Michigan. And also Mac Demarro had made it very clear to everybody that he was leaving. Like he was, he lost to JJ McCarthy. He's like, I'm out. And so yeah, that was the thing that bothered Farance. The other thing that really bothered him was the two and a half year wait and that this comes out now, which again, we just saw Dabo Sweeney make accusations against Ole Miss. You know, a couple of months ago when he went scorched earth around the linebacker safety, who was the player from Cal who was for really, for really look for L. He was there and he's like, I'm going to send this up the chain. So I guess we can expect in a two and a half years to possibly or possibly not. I mean, I guess if Ole Miss doesn't do anything, you probably won't. But if they self report, then maybe we will get some, some punishment, but it's just shows you how broken the system is. Do you think the timing was coincidental? I know. Punishing somebody for tampering with a player in the portal as they're putting in all these new rules for tampering and like the ghost portal and all that kind of stuff. I don't think it was, I don't think it was an accident. I think they purposely waited till now to announce the, you know, the punishments, which I'm grateful that they did because I'm happy that the criminals at Iowa will be punished for their transgressions and all the evil stuff that they did. Well, to one piece about this that I do think is significant is that in the official release from the NCAA, the panel in writing says that the old punishment structure is outdated. You know, like if you want to talk about seeing some of these more archaic approaches to tampering, seeing some of these more archaic punishments for tampering, this is from the actual NCAA. The panel, so the panel therefore found that under the current infractions process, as proposed and approved by member schools, the vacation of records penalty is appropriate. The panel, however, acknowledged that the changing college sports landscape naturally requires regular reevaluation of rules, including consequences associated with rules violations and appropriate penalties. Quote, changes to historical practice, particularly around what trigger, what violations trigger student athlete ineligibility and how ineligible competition is penalized should be made by more traditional governance committees through the government, through the governance and legislative process. He is tell, not he, I don't know, it's a he or she, so this is from the panel. The panel is saying in their announcement, this was like more than any of the actual punishments. My biggest takeaway is that from inside the NCAA enforcement, they are telling the member schools change the rules. Now it's up to the member schools to go and change the rules to avoid this being something, you know, Dabbo might love everything the way it is. I mean, he's like, well, why don't you go enforce these rules? But even inside the NCAA enforcement, which we have criticized often, they are saying these rules are outdated. Now, will they change? I don't know. But that was one piece of this that I thought was significant that even within the NCAA, they're acknowledging these rules don't work. But the NCAA is not the one who makes them. That comes down to the schools. Again, which only kind of emphasizes why I don't think this was accidental as far as timing. One last NCAA note before we hit the hit a break and then start to dive into the big old bag of mail, your mailbag questions, and maybe look ahead to some spring games NCAA set to continue the eligibility discussion. Danny, have you gotten a sense of where this might land? Because I had someone mentioned that are we going to have a floodgate if we end up having a new set of eligibility rules that would allow fifth year players under a certain age to be able to come back? I mean, are we about to have a floodgate of personnel based on the way that things could land? How do you see these conversations and what might end up happening? So I haven't talked to anybody, but reading between the lines and reading some of the reporting from Ross Dellinger and others, it seems like this rule is going to happen. They're just trying to figure out the timing because exactly of what you're talking about, right? Right. Like they, and I think they might want to delay this so that maybe this doesn't happen. Because if they announced it today, I think you would see a floodgate of players who maybe, you know, aren't going in the NFL draft or kind of their eligibility is done and they're maybe done with college football. They'd come rushing back, say, Hey, sign us up. We can make more money. We're eligible. All of a sudden they would play. So that to me feels like the one dynamic that is uncertain outside of that. I think it's going to be this. This is going to be the way they're moving forward. It's just a matter of when they release this and make it official. Yeah. I don't have much to add to that. Does Danny have a year left under these new rules? No, because you only get what five years, right? They give you a five year period to play. The clock does. So there's, so there's three exemptions, right? It's religious exemption, it's military exemption, and it's maternity leave. Those are the three exemptions. There's not a baseball play, go play pro baseball exemption, which, uh, Whedon and Chris Wanky both took advantage of some other players have done that in the past too. So we won't see that anymore, which I don't know. I kind of wish there was, I get, you know, I was somebody who considered taking that avenue actually did the reverse, went back and played baseball after playing in the NFL for a season, but I'm okay with this. Cause I do think it'll, it'll solve a lot of the issues that play college sports. And I think it, the one big one is probably the college basketball players who were playing professionally and trying to pop back in, you know, after they play in the G league or minor league overseas, I think it solves that problem. Is the maternity for male athletes as well? That's a great question. Because if it is like Antonio Cremardi could still be playing. That's right. Get, get, get, just, just rack up all the different, uh, I mean, that would be like, that would, that would be a loophole. Like if you're a guy, just keep knocking somebody up and then saying, I have to go away, you know, like for a maternity leave, I get another year to play. So if I am a cornerback, I'm trying to maximize everything while I'm still young and I got my, I got my, my best up, my best speed, you know, best agility, all those, all those things seem to be something that I could get by father time, but the Cremardi loophole certainly we'll see if that ends up being something that's exploited along the way. Well, coming up on the other side, we take a look at some of the best single season coaching jobs of all time and what to look for in spring games this weekend and more. Next. Selections only. TCCs and exclusions apply. Back here on the covered three podcasts. Well, if you want to get involved with a Thursday episode, there are many ways you can reach out to us individually. You can leave comments under Spotify comments or you can go leave us a five star review and in that review, put your question. So let's head on down to the mail room. And that is exactly where we find this question right here. This question comes from Apple username William, long time listener, better late than never on giving a five star review. My question is in regard to a comment I heard Urban Meyer make saying that Kurt Signetti's 2025 season was the best coaching job he's ever seen. My question is what other single season on field coaching jobs come to mind when talking about the best you've seen? Not necessary, not thinking necessarily about a Saban Kirby day team with 85, four and five stars, but teams that were much better than the sum of their parts off the top of my head. I was thinking Malzahn's 2013 Auburn, Jeff Brom with Purdue in 2018, or Kenny Dillingham with Arizona State in 2024 as examples. Thanks for the great content all year round. Well, Signetti was going to be my first answer. So I guess that one's out the window. I think Malzahn's also another one that's on my list. I got one. Okay. Jim Harbaugh at Stanford going 12 and one. Yeah. With Andrew Luck knocking off USC. That was, and I mean Stanford, I mean, and it took a while. I mean, it was, I think it was his fourth season and then he bounced after that, but that was similar to like, and that was pre NIL and pre portal where you had to do it the old fashion way. And along the same lines, I know we give Cam Newton all the credit in the world for it, but Gene Chiswick won a national title at Auburn where he only had one player who was an NFL draft pick on the team. And it was Cam Newton. It was the number one pick in the draft, much like Andrew Luck was the number one pick in the draft for Harbaugh at Stanford. But when you look at the overall roster and also the competition that they were playing, you have to give the coach some credit. I mean, they fired him a couple of years later and it's not like they've been winning more national titles since. I, you do, I suppose. Wasn't Nick Fairley a draft pick? Yeah. I think he was no offensive player. Yeah. Yeah. The stat is no offense, but even I think the full, the full look at the entire depth chart would reveal some along the way. Does Kurt Signetti, do you think it's a better single season coaching job? So isolate them 2024 or 2025? I mean, it's hard to say winning enough because it's national. Because of who you beat. I mean, if you want to go with the quality of the teams that were defeated on the title run, 16 and 0. Okay. Yeah. There's this, I was, I was ready to, I was ready to allow for, you just showed up and you just like put the, the daggum paddles on them, you know, clear. I got, there's something to be said for that, but I would agree that within the single season, on field, in the competition, the path was much tougher. I've got a couple others. Can I, can I throw them at you? No. Okay. Luke Fickle was Cincinnati 2021. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not going to say no, but there were what, nine draft picks on that team? Fair. But he did recruit them and develop them. So you have to give them some credit for that. How do we feel about Jamie Chad? Well, with that coastal team in 2020. I know nothing against Jamie. I don't take anything that happened in 2020 seriously, as far as football results or any sports. Mike playing in front of crowds. It's just completely different. Mike Gundy in 2020, in 2011, excuse me. I mean, they didn't get the job done because they lose to Iowa State, but that team, Brandon Weedon, I think is your quarterback. Yeah. Went 11 games or 11 or 12 games and just, that was a, that was, that's Mike Gundy's peak, right? You know, his career peak was that 2011 season, sort of the epitome of everything that Oklahoma State fans were hoping he'd become. I got one for you. All right. How about 2007? Man, Gina, Mark Man, Gino at Kansas, 12 and one. I mean, we've talked about Kansas, what a great job Lance Leipold has done. He never had 12 and one. And, but it, since that time, it's been pretty much one of the worst programs out there, but he had him humming. He had one of the best teams in the country. The reason I had Man, Gino on my list too, is that it, I really taps into my opinion to the single season because he's fired less than four years late. You know, like this was, and that was an outlier. Yeah. Big outlier. One year you got it all rolling in the right direction. A couple of, like in the situations of like we're considering where they pick over, Jim Grove for his one year at Baylor in 2016, after all the Arbrile stuff, to go seven and six and get that team to a bowl game, I thought was a pretty good season, but it's not like you're competing for a national title. And then I would say a few years ago, Pat Fitzgerald gets fired like months before the season begins, coming off of a one and 11 year. David Braun basically gets the job because he was the one guy on the staff who hadn't been there when all the stuff that was alleged was going on. And that team goes eight and five and really surpasses expectations. I think that's a great job. And then another one, like I know how history kind of looks back on it now because of how things have gone since. But like the UCF program, Scott Frost took over, wasn't exactly incredible. Like George O'Leary had some concessions, but he gets there, they go six and seven in his first year and then 13 and 0 in his second season. I think that 13 and 0 for UCF, pretty good season. I have two different TCU coaches for different individual single seasons here. Sonny Dykes in 2022 kind of emphasis on single season. You show up, you've got this group that by their own admission had kind of been broken down, you know, by the previous coaching staff and just needed to be loved up to fulfill their potential. That was a big part of the way that they talked about it during that run. And then Gary Patterson, I would say the 2009 team would be the one that I would look at. That's a Rose Bowl team for the frogs. The one that, if I remember, like the Rose Bowl is finishing, Joe Tess maybe on the call. And even as the, as everything, the game is winding down, he's like Cinderella in college football is alive. Or, you know, there's some, some call because the place was packed out TCU fans, biggest game in school history. You know, that was for a lot of people, the, you got 2007 Boise State undeniably, like that's huge. Whoa. Moment. But then to follow that up with TCU in all games, winning the Rose Bowl out there in Pasadena, a game watched by a lot of fans who don't follow college football. That was a big breakthrough. And so I don't want to look at the game specifically, but the season that, that Patterson had, I want to throw that 09 frogs team on there. Going for you a little bit off the wall. Let's go. Go back to 2017. He's been there for a while. He's had some success. He's had far more success than most of his predecessors had at that point in that they've far more than they've had since. But in 2017, Terry Bowden got the Akron Zips to the Mac championship game. They went six and two in conference play. They lost to Toledo in the championship game. They only finished seven and seven, but Terry, but like that's a program that has been to a bowl game twice in the last 20 years. And Terry Bowden was the coach for both those teams and they've been dreadful most other seasons. I like that. Well, that's kind of, um, what's just interesting that we went with Terry Bowden, we did not go in an undefeated season at all. But with the season that he had in the Mac, well, I'm saying my overall point here, though, or maybe not my point, but it's like Terry Bowden, probably a better coach than he generally gets credit for it. Agreed. Uh, David Cuckliffe, the 2013 Duke team loses to eventual national champions in the ACC championship game, but then follows it up with a given Johnny football, all he can handle in that pitch bowl. They again, they end up losing those last two games and you know, you won the coastal. So throw in all your coastal chaos jokes about the, the many different ways you could make your way to Charlotte, but to have Duke playing for the ACC championship, to have them going toe to toe with that Texas A&M team, I think that David Cuckliffe 2013 also on the list. Any others, you want to start looking at, uh, what we got from the tailgate? I mean, my last one would be 2025 North Carolina, Bill Belichick getting that team four wins like that takes a lot of Super Bowl rings. That, you know what evidence has shown six Super Bowl rings does equal four wins. All of the evidence that we have from college football history says that that math checks out. Great one here. 20, I guess, I think 2018 is Gardner-Minshew with Washington state. Going off the top of my head there, but, um, that, I think that was Leach's peak with Washington state. I mean, Leach has a lot of those seasons. Well, like, I mean, in his career where it's like really good, really good job done considering what he had to work with. Like what was the year that Texas Tech was, they went to 2008. Yeah. When they went 11 and two, it's like, yeah, he, he, he does that every once in a while. He's got multiple years like that. He was a good coach. Turns out you've, uh, you've mentioned the, uh, the David Braun. This one goes a little bit further back. Prisoner of the moment. The answer is Kurt Tignetti. How about Gary Barnett, Northwestern 1995? Yeah. Pat Fitzgerald was probably a starting linebacker, right? Oh, absolutely. And this, oh, this one was on my list. I, uh, I hadn't gotten a chance to mention it. Chip Kelly's 2010 Oregon team, which I think is Jeremiah Missoli at quarterback. Yeah. Check here. Kind of a breakthrough team. They end up playing. Oh, that was Darren Thomas in 2010. Darren Thomas in 2010. Okay. Missoli must have been, oh, nine the year before that was, that was the little Michael James. Oh, the team that lost to Auburn. Yeah. Either one of those teams, I think pretty good. And then neither of us mentioned this, but it was a big topic of conversation. Yeah. There's a lot of talent on that team. Yeah. I don't think that was a great coaching job as much as it was a hell of a football team. Yeah. Yeah. But you still got to pull together. Yeah. But even if we think back to 2019, who was getting most of the credit for that team as far as coaches, it wasn't Joe Brady. It was Joe Brady. Yeah. Joe Brady. M's anger, right? So Inzminger was the offensive coordinator. Joe Brady was the passing game coordinator. And we had to really start to split hairs on who did what. And the story was going into the title game that Joe had third down in red zone. And that Inzminger, I mean, it was a damn near a Hugh Free situation on our hands. Steve Inzminger calling first and second down, then on the money plays. That's when young hot shot Joe Brady steps in with the magic answers. Um, Kojo was a great, he was a great vibes guy. Great vibes guy. Great vibes. Got all the vibes that year. Yeah. That was exactly what that team needed. Sometimes he puts those vibes out a little too strong at the wrong time and he gets them in trouble. If he's checking vibes with the locker room, it's fine. Checking vibes at a gas station can be problematic. All right. Know your scouting report. This is a great one. How about 2022? Willie Fritz in 2021, two lane was two and 10. And then Fritz took two lane to 12 and two, winning the American and the cotton bowl against USC, finishing in the top 10 in the AP, largest year over year turnaround in FBS history. Yeah. Turn down Georgia Tech after that, which led Brent Key getting the job, which is a lot of Brent Key to have some success delayed at a year. So he goes to Houston a year later than he possibly could have blocked going into that season. Houston had a great year this year. They're one of my dark horse teams in the big 12 this year. Oh, I know. It's a great corner to be on. You know, like when you're holding, when you're holding all the Willie Fritz stock, everything feels great. Bring back the Mohawk picture. The, uh, the thing about Willie Fritz as a leader is didn't they, they had a, they had to move, right? They didn't two lane. Was it, there was, it was, um, Is there a hurricane or was it because of the new stadium? It, the program in the two and 10 season, the program was uprooted. Was that COVID? Was that still COVID related? There was a lot of, the first season back. I think, I don't know what it was, but yeah, there was Willie said, he thought he had the team in 2021 to be able to be good, but there was just so much disruption that they, you know, weren't able to capitalize on it. And that he saw, if I'm pulling this off the top of my head, I apologize. I know Willie's a huge fan of the cover three podcasts and especially if Danny Cannell off the top of my head, he talked a lot during the 12 and two run about how this was sort of fulfilling a lot of what he thought the, the last, the previous year's team was going to be able to do. So, um, lots of fun, more, uh, more conversation coming in. Also a call in your shot from wet blanket 77 Eric Morris will be this next year. That'll be a popular take. Yeah. Certainly will be. This Saturday, I know Tom's already cleared his calendar. He ain't doing a damn thing, but watching spring games all day. Um, we have, and just hold on to your, hold on to your seats here. Ohio state, Texas, Georgia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Auburn, year one, Alex Gholish, Virginia tech year one, James Franklin, Miami, the reigning national runner up Kentucky under Wilstein, Danny's Houston Cougars, and so many more. Uh, it's going to be taking the field. Tom's already got this locked into his calendar, but Ohio state will be on the big 10 network, Georgia on sec network plus Michigan on the big 10 network, Texas A&M on sec network plus for those who want to be able to tune in. As we mentioned last week, we will really be relying on our eyes and ears for a lot of the takeaways, especially what's not going to be available on television. So open floor with a loaded Saturday. Um, Danny, what's where are you jumping to first in terms of, uh, intrigue, interest storylines you want to follow up on? Well, I am headed on a golf trip, uh, to a Hoopie match club in Vidalia, Georgia, and I might just have to sell the boys like, Hey, at noon, I got to, I got to take it in. I can only play in the morning and I just shut it down for the rest of the day. One second, guys. One second. Challenging, you know what? They're not on TV. A lot of them. So it'll be listed on the radio. And that's what I can do is instead of having music on the speaker, we'll just listen to the spring game football. Guys, hold on a minute, guys. George is putting in their, their new freshman third string defensive tackle on this series. I got to see what this kid's got. Yes. Oh no, I'm calling this. I was thinking it was going to be a Chris Henry juniors in it's a red zone. Oh man. I promise. Oh man. I mean, yeah, I think there's, I think this weekend, if I recall the teams play, I think there's a bunch of teams that are really good that are flying under the radar because they don't have new coaches. They don't have new quarterbacks. I got to get Georgia. I think Oklahoma, um, we've Oklahoma States this weekend. Now they have a ton of new stuff. So I'm very curious about that one. That one. Like, so the teams that have the little buzz kind of want to tune in and kind of see where they are, where they're standing with some of their young players. But I do think, and since he brought it up, I do think Oklahoma State will be very interested to see what they look like with all these new moving pieces and new parts and players. How long into the spring game until I'm calling for Dia Bell to be starting over archmanning? That's really the biggest question I have going into the weekend. Well, you're going to be disappointed. Not playing. There is no spring game. Oh, that's right. They canceled it. They said, we're just going to do a fan day because Sark has been faithful through and through where he's going to stick to his guns. He wants to see the NFL model. The other thing too is Dia has been getting a lot of reps because arch had this offseason surgery. Yeah. Which kind of flew under the radar, speaking of flying under the radar. So now I'm going to be depressed all weekend. That's right. What are you going to do with one last game? Written my heart out of my chest and stomping on it. I'm A-OK with all things Texas with the positive Dia Bell takeaways and buzz from players, coaches, reporters. I mean, let's go. Are we sure that the real reason Sark doesn't want a spring game is because he knows Dia Bell will outplay arch and he doesn't want that narrative spreading because he's promised arch the starting job. Is that the real reason? Some are saying that's right. Well, that would be good coaching. You know, the pulse of the team. You can't you can't undercut Sheriff Manning, you know, when he's still got one more year to go out there and patrol the streets of Austin. You know, that's I think that's just great coaching right there. I mean, they straight up canceled it last year and his argument was we just played 15, 16 games. Season went long. Well, my guys need a little bit of time. They'd made the playoff the year before two. So this year coming off the Cheesepole had a little bit more time, but this seems like it's going to be additionally there. I think UVA is also on the list as well. Got quarterback battle there. So Georgia Tech, I think they're playing this weekend post Haynes King post Buster Faulkner post Aaron Filo, a lot of pieces to replace in the Alberto era gets kicked off. I just wish there were more hours in the day so I could watch all of these games. I know you do. I know you do. We will be back on Monday to be able to recap those and that'll be a little bit robust. We only had a couple to get into this Monday, but we will try to do our best and look like I said, eyes and ears. So we've got reporters to 24 seven sports network does a great job of being able to give as much information as possible. Sure that you're you've got your VIP subscription locked up perfect time of year to have it, but we will also, you know, if you've got takeaways, if you're in the stands, let us know what you think from a robust weekend of spring football action coming up on the other side. More of your questions and our answers, including would you rather be Cal or UCLA and more next back here on the cover three podcast. Okay. This question comes from the big old bag of mail. Apple username Grant both question both the University of California and the smaller sister branch in Los Angeles have new coaches over the next five years. Would you rather be Cal or UCLA? So the Cal algorithm is infected. The big old bag of mail. It's very clear where Grant went to school and or roots for it might be osky for all I know. Yeah, both UCLA and Cal have both replaced their coaches Bob Chesney now taken over for the Bruins, Tosh Lupoi taken over for the bears. So five year outlook Tom, would you rather be Cal or UCLA? Well, I'm sure he might hate UCLA, but I'm sure he appreciates the welfare check he gets from UCLA's big 10 contract every year. That's a separation agreement. That's alimony. Sorry, my bad. Child support. Yeah. I think it depends like financially I'd rather be UCLA. And if we're considering other sports like UCLA's basketball program still seems to be in a pretty good spot. I don't know what the ultimate ceiling for them will be in football. Football wise, I'd probably rather be Cal because I think that I have an easier or clearer path. I don't easier throw a word a clearer path to being at the top of my league, potentially getting into playoff consideration. But long term, like he said, what for the next five years? Five years. I think there's a reason he kept it at five years because five years from now, Cal might be needing a home. So then you get to shop around and go anywhere you want. True. But where are you? Cal be? So yeah, I think for the next five years, football wise, I'd rather be Cal, especially if I know I'm keeping JKS for the next two. Yeah. That's what I was going to say was a big portion of it. And I know UCLA, they were able to get Nico that was pretty cheap last year when they got him. It feels like Cal has a little more money to spend a little bit more of a willingness, you know, to kind of be more aggressive. UCLA, I've haven't really solutions to the problems that they've had there and I L wise. So I think I'd rather be Cal right now too. This season, definitely Cal. You'd rather have JKS year two over Nico year four or yes, four already three playing right? Third, third year as a starter. Yeah. Right. And then 10 years down the line, UCLA, no doubt. Yeah. You forgot to mention you didn't throw in softball. They are really good at softball too. Cal or UCLA UCLA UCLA. They were number one, just about everything, but football. I mean, yeah. UCLA, I'd be between the baby blue, the director's cup profile. I mean, it's, it's easy for me to look at UCLA and be like, Hey, he me. They just had like what six players go on the WNBA draft. No, well, cause that whole group had stayed together, right? It's just that they won an addy. They had six players going. They're probably going to have the number one pick in the MLB draft this summer. Like everything but football is going pretty damn well with that school right now. But this is the cover three podcast and the mail bag question was about football. So the loop era attached loop boy, getting a little bit of support here. One more from the big old bag of mail. Then we'll get to Spotify comments. Okay. This one comes from Apple username 521234. Okay. Long time listener of this show. Love it. Mailbag question. Is Michigan's word manual the greatest AD of all time? What a turnaround. I'll tell you what, that is a glow up if there ever was one. Hey, here's what he's got. Six national championships in three years at Yukon kept Harbaugh through a two and four 2020 season when everyone wanted him fired, then won the CFP title three years later, just let just won the 2026 men's basketball title at Michigan, making him the first AD ever to win a men's basketball national championship at two different schools. Now the bad, this is again coming from our question, not me. Sign stealing a federal hacking indictment, two football coaches fired or arrested on his watch or is Michigan just outspending everybody with NIL. So his ward manual, let's get a, let's get a fair read on the ward manual athletic director rating. I mean, if we're going to count you con and give them the credit for you con winning national titles, it's not like he was there at the start of that run. Like Yukon's women had been winning national titles before ward manual, they've been winning national titles after him and same with the men. So I feel like that was just being in charge of a athletic department that was winning, which he helped maintain. So he deserves credit for it. I, your perspective, like if you only care about winning, hell yeah, incredible athletic director. You've won so much, but it's also important to remember that part of the reason Jim Harbaugh left was because of ward manual. Like he, they were butting heads. Now in ward's defense, I can't remember the last boss Jim Harbaugh had that he didn't butt heads with. So I don't really hold that against ward manual, but then you did go with Charone Moore as the replacement and you didn't really do any kind of actual coaching search for replacement. And that didn't work out well, but at least Kyle Whittingham suddenly fell into your lap because you talked, kicked him out the door. Basketball wise, you hired Dusty May, which was a great hire, but you also hung on to Juwan Howard, probably a lot longer than you should have. So the timing, I think, worked to his benefit and that by the time he finally did move on from Juwan Howard, who by the way, did not get mentioned in the question, also had some run ins there during his time as the Michigan's men basketball coach also coincided with Indiana deciding not to fire Mike Woodson while Dusty May was available, even though Dusty May was very much interested in the Indiana job. So you were able to get him instead of Indiana. So he's been, he's made some good hires. He's also benefited from some good luck, which everybody needs to be successful. I don't know if I would call him the greatest, but I would say he's on a heater right now. Danny. I mean, we can talk about all we want. College, college football basketball fans want to win titles. They don't really care. I mean, ask Michigan, do you think they care about the cheating scandal that unfolded? They don't care. Ohio State fans care. Like they don't care about controversy. They want to win championships. I think it's fair to criticize this handling of the Chiron more. Yes. The end of the show. I'm I might in its recency that might not sit right with me more than the sign stealing stuff. Yeah, you know, a lot more. Okay. All right. Sorry. I was just, you know, I'm thinking I'm going processing this right now in real time. But to me, I can yada yada some of the sign stealing stuff more than I can yada yada. The personnel, the way as an athletic director is the leader of the business, the way that the personnel decisions were handled at a couple of different places, you know, hanging on for too long, not making moves at the right time, the timing of decisions, how they were handled. I there's definitely some fault there. If you're going to power rain with the scandals at Michigan, under Ward manual, would sign stealing even be in your top three as far as like worse things going on? No, the hacking is ahead of the sign stealing. Did you see he was asked about this? Someone was on the court on the court and asked him about if he's the greatest AD and he's like, I don't want to give all the credit. And he said it like, I like you guys write that, but definitely. What do I, the question did also mention the money. The money doesn't hurt either. Michigan having a lot of money available to it at a time when money has become a huge factor in the sport does not hurt. No doubt there. Would we think of rocking the hoodie under the blazer on national title night? Fine with that look. Yeah, it was cold up there. Wasn't it chilly? You know, I think people that were in Indy were chilly outside. There are some hoodies that cost far more than a nice little button down. That is true. That thing had no logos on it. It was just yellow. That's what I'm saying. So that, you know, that thing was expensive if it didn't have a logo on it. That's how you know. Well, I know Danny's got the best hoodies that I know and they normally have a logo, but it's like tiny and like right here. Yeah, it's not flashy. It's subtle enough. Yeah, just a little bit. You can't hide money. You can't hide logos. Hold on. Let me find this. This was funny. He said, of, I would rather, there was a, you know, with everything that he had seen, wouldn't you, if Ward manual released a tell all book, I would read it, right? So Chuck in the tailgate says as much rather his read his book than the 700 page doorstop from the Nebraska IAD. I'll tell you that. That is, I believe a reference to Bill Moose book, Crab Creek Chronicles from the wheat fields to the ball fields and beyond. Sorry, Bill. Didn't mean for you to catch a stray here on a mailbag Thursday, but it seems as though you telling your conference realignment tales, which we discussed, I mean, newsy enough for us to discuss you on the cover three podcast. It's not riveting enough for Chuck to be able to compare to the things that Ward manual has overseen and could possibly write about. Yeah, I would read the ward manual book, but it would be more in like a have to do it for homework sense. Like, you know, like when you get assigned a book that you have to write a report on, not because I'm like, Oh, I can't wait to read this. Yeah, I mean, again, there's some of that stuff. I do not want to relive. No, no, it wasn't one great. Okay, now with the few minutes we got left here, I do want to say thank you to everybody who's been getting in on Spotify. I pledge it. I try my best. And now we've got some things worked out on the back end. We'll be able to get more of these Spotify comments, you know, into the show, get them to our attention. So we see you. Thank you so much for your growing support there. Before we get to a question from the Spotify comments, I want to acknowledge a general response from the Spotify comments that I noticed, which was seemingly a misunderstanding of the if Vegas was right series. When we went through, we identified what? Title contenders, first year coaches, coaches on the hot seat. There are a lot of fans of teams with like six and a half wind totals right on expectations that were a little upset that their team did not get discussed. So I wanted to, we see you, we hear you, the wind totals series, which will be coming up later in the summer, will actually have a full team by team. This was intentionally, as you might think in March, was just a very like top of the, you know, just grazing the very top of it, the stuff that stands out the most. So, you know, whether it is an NC State, you know, whether it is a Virginia, say I saw a lot of, where's the Virginia talk? Listen. Charlottesville. There you go. We'll be getting to you a little bit. I think there was some appreciation for the Cincinnati part of it, but we will be getting to a team by team breakdown of wind totals. That first one was very much just sort of the big stuff. New coaches, coaches under pressure, title contenders. All right. Now to the question. Hopefully the new bill, this is from Kimmon 003. Hopefully the new bill that passed in Wisconsin will help with NIL. It basically frees up 15 million for Wisconsin to use for NIL. If they do utilize it for a $15 million increase in NIL, I would think they would be at least in the top half of the big, would curious to hear what y'all think. Yeah. New state laws contributing to the way schools are handling NIL. Wisconsin trying to follow in the footsteps of some others there. Does, does that help the finance? And we just talked about Chris McIntosh stepping down from the job to go to the big 10. Do they return phone calls now? I can, I mean, I can talk about this publicly because Dan mentioned it on his own show, but for those who don't listen, pardon my take, Dan Katz talked about how the last few years he called to offer to donate money to NIL. They never called him back. And he also talked to Frank Kaminsky who played at Wisconsin and went on to play in the NBA, made good money in the NBA. It would call to figure out about how to donate money for the NIL program. And the school would never call him back. So it's like, I mean, hopefully now that there's new leadership in charge, maybe they figure this stuff out. But I do think the biggest thing that Wisconsin can do with their NIL program is accept the money being offered to them from their alumni. That's hard to believe. That is crazy. That they could probably all like that. Yeah. It's just, it's insane. Like, and it's a big name last year and a half. Right. And that if it's a big name, somebody who's got a voice, like, are they calling back just Joe Schmo who might want to like donate either, you know, it part of it. Like, Have you seen how much money that guy has spent on 50-50 raffle tickets? Exactly. He has it. He is ready to drop it on the Badgers. They've had Dan like on campus for like events, like he's been out there shooting like the t-shirt gun. So clearly, like there's a relationship between him and the athletic department. But for whatever reason, like the money part, there's just no, I don't know. It's been a odd situation there for a while now. So I guess the challenge then is congratulations to state legislators have cleared the path for it. If you're a Wisconsin fan and still not totally confident that it's good, you're going to be able to put all the pieces together to make it happen. They're just like four or five years late. I mean, most states like enacted these laws like right away because they realized, Oh, we don't have a chance to compete. It's probably a big reason why Wisconsin has struggled. Yep. All right. We will be back on Monday to recap what we saw, what we heard, what we learned from all across a loaded spring game weekend, Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Auburn, Virginia Tech, Miami, Kentucky, Houston, link Louisville's in there as well. That we'll be getting into all that and so much more. And you can follow him on Twitter at Danny Cannell. You can follow him at Tom Ferdale. You can follow me at ship underscore Patterson. Tom, thank you very much. Happy fourth birthday to pooch Patterson. Hey.