It's the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up everybody? This is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Locked On Podcast Network. And if you haven't heard yet, we started a club and we would love for you to join. It's called the Everyday Air Club. And one of the things that you get as a member is an ad-free version of the podcast that you're listening to right now. It works with whatever podcast app you already use. Same episodes every day, just no ads. There's also a member's only group chat for fans of your team, plus a lot more. You can check it out by tapping the Everyday Air Club link in the show notes. Oregon leads for 2027. Elite quarterback prospect Will Menzel. Can Penn State or Auburn? I'm doing my cold open, Zach. I'm doing my cold open. Will Auburn or Penn State rise up? And take him away? Let's find out. You are locked on college crossover, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Yes, it's that time for a crossover edition of Locked On Ducks, Locked On Auburn Tigers, and Locked On Nittany Lions. This is the first time it's ever happened where the three of us have been on screen at the same time. I'm Spencer McLaughlin, host of Locked On Ducks, Zach Blackerby of Locked On Auburn, Zach Seiko of Locked On Nittany Lions. Boy, I am outmatched here by the Zaks and by the land animal attacks that are going to come in this particular show because Oregon is of course flying high above the rest for the Will Menzel sweepstakes. You guys are trying to jump off the ground and hit the duck out of the air. By the way, this is part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day, the number one sports podcast network. Anyway, Zach, is Auburn going to make a serious push here? I think so. I think they already have, Spencer, to some extent. He's visited all the way from Arizona coming to the state of Alabama, which I guess Pennsylvania's even farther. Zach Seiko will touch on that. You guess? We think. I'm guessing. I'm pretty confident guess, but I am guessing. Okay, good. Well, I don't know the last time you looked at a map, but it wasn't recently enough. Sure. Sure. Take your digs. That's fine. I'm taking this as you're concerned about losing a potential five star quarterback. Or else we wouldn't be doing this episode. That's true. No, I do think he's interested. Rod, I mean, he's come multiple times. He came, I think it was early last week, brought his family. It's like his parents were blown away by everything Auburn had to offer and he's clearly developed a relationship with Alex Gholish that goes back several years, it sounds like, even before he really started his ascension and the rankings and everybody in college football wanting them. And I think that does mean a lot. It doesn't mean everything, but I do think it means something. And so, yeah, they're listening to what Auburn has to say. Absolutely. They're really blown away when tigers don't have wings to create wind. You're really into this mascot. Seiko, are you listening to the nonsense coming out of this guy? Yeah, but it's the Auburn Tigers. That's right. It's funny that I thought these were all the same talking points that I had ready to go for Penn State's perspective. The long standing relationship, they recruited him before his recruitment blew up. He's got a great, and where Zach Blackerby says, well, Auburn was recruiting him for a long time and it's a long standing relationship. The offensive coordinator for Penn State, Taylor Mauser is from the same area as Will Menzel. So there's truly a relationship with Will Menzel, with his high school coach, with the community around him. So I would say that Penn State has the leg up in that regard that it might seem a little more sentimental and it's more telling. That's okay. One thing, it's to go from Arizona to Alabama to visit Penn State for a multi-day visit, Arizona to Pennsylvania. So I think Penn State and Auburn have just as much of a chance as Oregon does as landing Will Menzel. I don't think it's this, Oregon's way out in front and you guys are just here for the fun. I think Penn State and Auburn are legitimate threats to potentially land him. Well, and I do think something that Auburn and Penn State have in this dynamic is they seem like Menzel is priority number one for Auburn. I'm assuming it's the same for Penn State. Seiko cut me off if that's not the case. But five star. You know, Oregon, it also seems like they're just as interested both from a relationship standpoint and financially with another top quarterback in this class, Spencer. Is that fair to say? Well, Menzel has been the lead target for quite a while. Oregon is definitely prepared for the possibility as you have to be in any recruiting battle that he might not choose your school. Like all of Oregon's chips are not in the Will Menzel basket, so to speak. It's not Will Menzel or Oregon's not going to get a quarterback in this recruiting cycle because they've shown serious interest and Jake Narott, who's one of the most talented passers in 2027, they've shown interest in Sione Cahoe as well, who's from a little bit closer to the state of Oregon than Menzel is. But I think that Menzel is still an Oregon lean at this point. And with Izzy Abrams coming off the board to Miami, who was going to be a player in this battle too, that makes me think that Oregon is in an even better position. Rivals had a bet going around the other day where they happened to agree with that particular sentiment. It's been seen as an Oregon lead for a while. I don't think that changes. I think that gets emboldened with the Miami quarterback news. But yeah, I think this will be a pretty serious battle. And what I'm interested in is from afar, you could look at this as Dan Landings going into year five. Alex Gull is just in year one. Matt Campbell is in year one. So it's a new head coach. But the interesting angle for this recruitment to me from the Oregon perspective is this is the first time that Koa Ka'ai has been the actual with title quarterbacks coach for Oregon. This is kind of his, he's a very young guy. He played tight ended Oregon back in his college career. This is kind of his first major recruiting battle for an elite prospect at the position that he is now overseeing and in a room that's currently got Dante Moore and Dylan Raola amongst others. And I think that makes this a really interesting sort of battle because Auburn and Penn State are legit recruiters. Yeah, both have access to NIL. I don't think it's Oregon's level competitively of NIL. And is that the most important thing to will mental or as long as you're in the ballpark, more path to playing time or just fit or relationship with coaches, right? I mean, there's more than one reason that you pick the school that you go to, assuming it's not NIL. But also, like, I mean, I just mentioned, I do think path to playing time is interesting. I mean, Oregon had a, I mean, they just picked up Dylan Raola, which is interesting. And then obviously, you know, the recruiting class last year, they added a pretty highly touted quarterback. So I do wonder. Well, but Bryson Beaver actually transferred to Georgia when Raola came in. Oh, so it's just Raola. What is the. Yeah, I mean, they've got Brock Thomas, who's a former three star or no star, depending on which service you looked at, who was the backup quarterback last year. And then you've got Achilles Smith, Jr. is probably who you're thinking about from the cycle before Oregon legacy recruit and a former four star guy who's going into year two this year. Yeah, we talked about it off there at some point and you made that point. So maybe it was him. I got the differentiating factor. Go ahead to tease it into break. Well, let's talk about it after break. The deciding factor. The deciding factor. Seiko knows. Seiko knows what it is going to be. And guess what? I don't have the ad transition, little nice locked on slides into this particular stream yard. So I let you down on that regard, but I will not let you down by telling you this episode is brought to you by our friends over at Robin Hood. What if sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets. It's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long. 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So different. Rocco Beck's from the port. Rocco Beck is Matt Campbell's guy. Byron Brown was from the portal. Byron Brown is Alex Golis's guy. And those were guys that stayed within the program and developed under one head coach. So I'm wondering if Will Menzel is more impressed by programs that are going to stand by their quarterback and develop them for three to four years, as opposed to saying, ah, you know, we think this guy in the portal is better for us. And then he has to constantly wait and wait and wait. I think that's the deciding factor there. I think that's it. I, I, I. Like if you're a five star quarterback, you typically play more somewhere else than wherever you commit. Like that seems to kind of be the trend at this point. But it, I'm sure that'll be brought up if they, if in the conversations with Menzel and his family, that they, if that seems like that's important to them, I'm sure Auburn and Penn State will bring that up. 100% agree with that. If they haven't already. I would, if I were those schools, to be sure, I wonder how much high school recruits differentiate between a school putting quarterbacks in the NFL and how those guys got to that program. Because Dan Lanning's track record with quarterbacks, boy, it's really good. Bonix first round, Dylan Gabriel, who, look, I, I love DG for life, dude, help orchestrate one of the best seasons in Oregon history, just the second, 12 and 0 regular season, like dude is an absolute gamer. He got overdrafted in the third round, but he was a Heisman finalist and got overdrafted because he was at Oregon and what Dan Lanning was able to give. And Dante Moore is going to be a top five pick whenever he goes to the NFL draft. And like, I think the transfer portal point is an, is an interesting conversation because no, Dan Lanning hasn't done that yet. But who's to say, Will Menzel wouldn't be the first guy to do it. Or maybe Achilles Smith does it in front of him. I don't know, but yeah, I think that conversation has to at this point be a little tricky. I think Bonix was different just because it was the, yeah, exactly. It's the guy that came over with, uh, when Dan Lanning got hired and it's the guy that was available and you had to have somebody. And then of course, you know, year one to year two, like here's the interesting part of it. Has Oregon developed a high school quarterback under Dan Lanning into a starter? No. Have they developed transfer quarterbacks? 100%. What Dante Moore was at UCLA to what he was last year, night and day. Bonix from what he was at Auburn. Zachary, familiar with Bonix's career, uh, from what he was at Auburn. He was good at Auburn. And then you put better pieces around them and then he's coaching. Like he could be a part of a good. Yeah. Better pieces, better coaching, consistency, consistency, all that sort of stuff. But even, you know, year one to year two, Bonix was great year one. Bonix had, had Oregon won that Pac-12 championship game, was going to be the betting favorite to win the Heisman Trophy in his second year with the Ducks. So they have developed. It just hasn't been traditional. And that, that has become, I think, a very fair conversation with regards to Oregon recruiting quarterbacks. But here we are. And the three guys thereafter are all four or five star recruits when you look at the recruiting services. So I don't think the long-term impacts have been felt just yet. Yeah, that's probably true. That's probably true. What do you guys think regarding timeline? Right? I mean, you mentioned Israel Abrams picking Miami and there were a lot of top quarterbacks that kind of all had the same five to eight schools all in their top three or top four when they put their graphics up. Oregon was in several, Auburn's been in several, Penn State, FSU has been in several. And so now I kind of wonder, all right, that was the, that was the first big domino, Israel Abrams. You've got a few more that are scheduled, but I do wonder, like, if you're Auburn especially, Penn State's probably in this boat. I don't know, speak for you, Seiko, Oregon probably not so much, but Alex Gholish hasn't gotten that big recruit when yet. I'm not sure about Matt Campbell. You can correct me if I'm wrong, but it's so early and you're still having the kind of like, I mean, you're playing from behind just with the nature of the timing of everything. When you come in, there's a million things you got to do with the portal. And then you've got to learn, you know, get relationships going with all these 2027 guys. This would be huge for Alex Gholish to pull this off. And I kind of wonder if they'll be willing to pull out a little bit more when it comes to resources to make sure that that happens or not. I think that's the case for Penn State too, is that for Matt Campbell, you haven't made your splash commitment. You haven't had your splash commitment yet. You've had some strong ones, but Will Menzel is a face of the program type of player. Oregon, I think that most Oregon fans are, yeah, it's expected. It's part of the course, right? You get to Cory and more, you get other big name five star players where this would be Brandon Finney. This would be, well, he wasn't a five star. You can bring him up, but Brandon Finney did in fact gain five star status by the end of the recruiting cycle. So he got, he got bumped up there. I guess I just didn't follow that recruitment after it ended. So it is what it is. But in terms of Alex Gholish and for Matt Campbell, this would be a foundational commitment. I think Oregon will be fine if they land one way or another, if they land Will Menzel, but this is a game changer for Auburn and for Penn State. I think now, now personally, I think Auburn has the most to lose here because Penn State is recruiting another top 10 quarterback in Peter Bork that has no connection to Oregon or Auburn. So if they don't get Will Menzel, I think they feel pretty good about where they stand with Peter Bork who is a consensus top 10 QB. I don't, and it sounds like a NaRott for, as another option for Oregon, I don't know what Auburn situation is if they lose out on Menzel. Yeah, there's a few other guys. Hold on Blackberry, hold on. I do want to throw another name into the fold that folks should be aware of because on April 11th, you're going to get a commitment from Andre Adams, four star composite, top 175 player. And according to 24 seven, Oregon's got that warm interest label. And you know, it seems like Florida State and Kentucky might be the leaders there, but just on a quick glance of what 24 sevens got as the latest on him. That's another guy to watch, not just because Oregon looks like they might be a finalist there, but also because Kentucky is going after Jake NaRott with former Oregon OC Will Stein now as their head coach. And Kentucky is one of the finalists there. So that could be another chess piece that shifts around where if, if Adams comes off the board and goes to the Wildcats, well, maybe that opens the door even more for Oregon to go after NaRott and they choose, do they like Menzel or NaRott more? Right. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of the same programs going after the same handful of guys. And so the timing of this is interesting, right? Like with the decision that you just mentioned, like if Auburn doesn't get Menzel, they probably would want to be in the sweepstakes for this, but they feel like they've got a good shot at Menzel. And so I don't think he's picking Auburn when he makes his announcement in a few days. And so that to your point, Seiko, like I do think Auburn is pretty in on this Menzel recruiting battle. Yeah. I think it's men's. I think it's Menzel or bust for Auburn. Oregon has options. Penn State feels good about both Menzel and Bork. And you can't go wrong with either. I would probably air that Penn State's going to end up with Bork, which means process of elimination. If Auburn doesn't get Menzel, well, then yeah, he's going to Oregon. Recruiting battles are on. He's Zach Black or be of lockdown Auburn. He on the other side of him is Zach Seiko of Lockdown Netany Lines. I'm Spencer McLaughlin from Lockdown Ducks. This has been a bonus crossover edition of all of our shows. Appreciate everyone listening. We'll see you next time until then. Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. The winner games are officially here. And if you're anything like us, you're locking in for events you only get to see on the biggest stage every four years. 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