BORDER WARS: UGA & Bama TRYING To Keep Talent Home–UF, FSU & Miami BATTLE For Sunshine State Talent

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There's nothing like down south recruiting wars with Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Florida,

State, Miami, LSU, and more.

Let's talk recruiting.

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We're going to be going through the deep south recruiting rules as I kind of call them

privately.

Hey, we're going to be talking about how they're shifting.

It's not as simple as it used to be.

It used to be able to kind of line up and say, okay, this area, these kids will go to

this school and then over here, yeah, this school will get that no more NIL transfer portal

and teams recruiting more nationally.

It's really wild.

How many different schools recruit differently, more national now than ever, even a program

like Clemson.

You ready for this stat?

In the 26 class, Clemson signed players from 15 states.

Clemson, you would think they're just Georgia, North Carolina, and a four-stock, Carolina.

Pretty much all they need, 15 states.

Recruiting has drastically changed even down south where talent is abundant.

So with that, keep in mind that every program has to adjust and I want to start with Georgia

on that point because it may be the best job in the country for recruiting because the

state of Georgia is so good with its high school coaching.

The players come into college a little more prepared, by and large, and Kirby Smart and

his staff do a tremendous job.

Anyway, but here are my questions about Georgia.

Does UGA's unique approach to NIL help or hurt the program long-term?

Here's what I mean by unique.

Georgia is not a program that wants to throw out a lot of money early on in a player's tenure

at UGA.

I'm not going to go into specifics, but I know of a player that they really want in this

next class that they didn't offer even in the stratosphere of what the money was at

another school where the kid ended up committing.

That's just their approach.

They're not going to budge on it.

Kirby's worried about the walkroom.

And to be honest, I absolutely agree with it.

There might be an exception every now and then, but overall, most programs, they're going

to have to beat Georgia with money because you're not going to outwork them.

You're not going to have more cache than Georgia, especially in state, and I'll go over

the numbers for these schools here in a minute, or you're not going to be able to just outwork

Kirby.

He is somebody that enjoys recruiting itself.

So I think the unique approach will hurt maybe on sunny day with one or two elite players,

but how many kids they keep in the program, their ability to keep guys there that want

to be part of the Georgia program really isn't going to change.

And I think they've adapted pretty well to the NIL era because if you look at the guys

that head out during the portal time, it's kids that just are playing.

And that's fine.

You're not always going to make everybody happy because kids want to play.

That's fine.

Number two, should Georgia recruit more nationally or continue with the local approach?

Well, to that end, here's the bottom line with Georgia, and I'll just read off the numbers

now.

From the 24-5 and 6 classes, they signed 10, 20, and 17 players inside the peach state.

So that's a grand total of 47 players over the last three classes.

That's pretty good.

That's almost 16 a year.

I think they're in a pretty darn good spot.

But again, this is the state of Georgia.

Per capita, it's number one state in the country for players headed to the NFL, and it's

a bulk state.

Georgia, Florida, California, Texas are the foremost prominent states to recruit in terms

of national recruiting and programs coming to other states.

They're kind of into perfect spot.

So could they recruit a little more nationally, maybe?

But as long as it keeps going after the alignment, and for whatever reason, the state of Georgia

is the elite with offensive and defense alignment almost every single year, I don't think it matters

much.

If you want to go get a quarterback from Texas or California or Massachusetts or whatever

that's fine, but I don't think they should really change their approach.

They're one of the very few schools that doesn't have to go nationally.

And honestly, they haven't.

So good for Georgia.

Number three, does any college football program do a better overall evaluation process

than Kyrgyz Mark and the Bulldogs?

Probably not.

This kind of goes back to the first part of this.

Evaluation isn't just how good he is.

It's about the off the field.

It's about the ability to recruit against Tennessee and Alabama and Georgia Tech and

Florida State and Notre Dame and Ohio State and Texas.

Are you getting the right fit for your program that's not going to decide but it's going

to stay in Athens?

Again, I don't think there is really a whole lot that you can knock UGA on in that regard.

I think they're about as good as anybody conservatively top five.

Number four, what happened to Georgia's depth and can it be fixed?

Here's the one problem.

They're not quite as deep as they used to be, especially D-line because the elite kids

want to go somewhere and play.

This is not Georgia's fault.

This is just part of the system.

Even if their NIO is similar, if you're not going to play,

kids want an opportunity to put film out there so they can get to the NFL.

I don't know if you can really fix that very much.

It's the one bug of view for Kirby Smart Squad.

If somebody figures that out, please tell me, but again, Kirby doesn't want to overspend

just to keep guys on the roster and then tick off other people, ask those folks at Oklahoma

State how that works out, like 111 last year.

When there are locker room fights about who's making what, it usually doesn't go well.

Or to state in 2024, same kind of deal.

NIO can cause problems with the locker room, so I think Georgia will mitigate worried about

the depth and kind of continue on and just look at this from a perspective of, you know

what, we're really good.

Our foundation is good.

What's not messed is up.

Now before I go into anybody else, I'm not involved, just read off the numbers.

These are the in-state recruiting totals for the prominent programs down south.

I think that it's a really interesting read because some of this surprised me, especially

the first one I'm going to mention after I talked about Georgia and in Georgia the last

three years, 10, 2017 inside the peach state, that's what you would expect.

Clemson though, inside the state of South Carolina over the last three classes, 1, 3 and

2.

Okay, that's pretty low, but they also recruit a lot in Georgia.

In 2024, they got eight players, but then 3 and 1.

Clemson's not done as much.

They've had to go further.

A lot of the kids in the areas that they want to recruit, Florida and Georgia, those are

much higher with NIL that I think Davos Weenie wants to go into.

They have to find kids in a broader stroke and they, again, signed 15 players, or excuse

me, players from 15 states in this past class, that's got to be darn near a record of

not a record for Clemson.

That's what Notre Dame or Stanford would do and they've got academic restrictions, they

got to go more nationally.

For Clemson to do that is wild, so we'll come back to Clemson here in a minute.

In state, 11, 2 and 8, the 2 was the 25 class from Caelin to Bohr and his group probably

didn't do a very good job.

I know firsthand, I'm somebody that handles a lot of recruits in the state of Alabama,

the Alabama staff going into this, they haven't handled things as well as they should

of in state.

I'm going to leave it at that, but they've ruffled some feathers, but they did get eight kids

this past class.

We'll see where they end up in the 27th group, but that's probably a little lower.

Auburn, 12, 12 and 6, now we've got a coaching change with Goish, but you freeze did a good

job of recruiting in state, they did.

If they don't beat Alabama though, moving forward, and it looks like BAM is starting

to shift a little more in state, that could be a problem for Auburn.

LSU, 18, 10 and 10, I'm going to go in to depth about their group here in a minute,

but there's no reason not to sign at least 10 kids, minimum a year for Louisiana, it is

loaded.

Eight, 12 and 10, I'm surprised it's not a little bit higher than that, maybe that's

one of the reasons Napier is no longer in Gainesville, four to state, 14, 11 and 17.

The numbers are right, but why are they still losing?

I'm going to ask that question about four to state and talk about them and could junk

to afford a little later on, and then Miami, 15, 13 and 14, they're pretty much, if for

a lack of a better term, Miami is probably the standard in the south of hitting the

high marks nationally, and doing a good job in your backyard, and of course Miami from

a location standpoint, is as good as any school in the country since I've heard.

So Christopher and his staff have done a great job.

We'll get into that more here in a minute, right here on the portal podcast.

Today's show is brought to you by our friends over at Mazda, moving the game forward.

For those who know the score, never tells the entire story.

For me, I think the greatest way to look at this is Mario Cristobal with the Miami

Hurricanes.

When he first got there and I was covered Miami at the time, that roster was not anywhere

where anybody in the middle of the ACC would want it to be, let alone the Miami Hurricanes.

And he put the grind on, he evaluated, he made sure players found the right fit within

the program or somewhere else.

And he continually grinded with his staff to get the right players to Coral Gables.

It took a time that probably he didn't want to do three, four years, but now he's there.

That consistency is what got Miami back to relevance.

And like that, there's no more of a situation you can compare to what happened with Miami.

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All right.

Let's talk a little bit about some of these teams, again, from a broader perspective.

There's a lot of change going on.

I want to remind you every time I go into a second.

This is going to be a longer show today because I got so many teams to cover.

Change, change, change.

That's something you should definitely understand.

They have my recruits more nationally now.

Clemson designed 15 players, or excuse me, players from 15 states, Florida.

They did a decent job in state that they still fired their coach.

So it's not just the numbers where you're at.

It's not just in IL.

It's not just a transfer portal.

It is a lot of things mixed together.

It is very convoluted, but it's still changed because it used to be.

You knew the Florida was going to get about 15 kids in state and sign a top 10 class.

Straight forward.

It's not as locked, stock, and barrel like that anymore.

Here's a stat for you.

We'll talk about the big three, Florida, Florida state in Miami now.

Over half the players in the state of Florida, there are P4, lead the state, and a part

of that's just volume.

It's state is massive.

Okay.

That's fine.

But at the top of the board, the top 20 to 30 players, it's a very high propensity to

lead the state as well, especially over the last 10 years.

That might change a little bit for a couple of reasons.

Number one, crystal ball in Miami are doing a good job, especially in South Florida.

I'll go over their numbers again here in a second.

And job somewhere on his staff are doing a pretty good job, too.

But that also brings up Mike Norval and the Noles.

I'm going to bring this up here because this is weird.

Like everything you would think about him in terms of personnel, you would do well.

And for the record, the last three years in state, four states signed, 14, 11, and 17.

42 players, 42 players.

That's 14 a year.

That's right where you should be.

But they're not having top 10 classes.

Why is that?

Because Norval is a very easy going guy.

People enjoy being around him.

I've never spoken to anybody.

Anybody.

They didn't like his personality.

He's not a nice guy, et cetera.

Nobody.

Whether it's a recruit, seven on seven coach, anybody else in the industry, yet they don't

sign top 10 classes.

It is one of the biggest conundrums that I've ever seen in recruiting.

It's wild.

I have no idea why Mike Norval can't do that to that end.

I also think it's very ironic because now he's on the hot seat and they have made some

changes to help Tim Harris is up at four to state now.

He's the offensive coordinator and he's the receiver coach.

He's a great recruiter.

Herpan comes over from UCF with Gus last year.

He should be able to get some guys.

People see that's their biggest bug of booze getting offensive linemen.

Their defensive staff has multiple guys that are really good recruiters.

But overall, the bottom line is still the same.

They've got to get a top 10 class while being up against it.

This is going to be so hard because everybody knows he's on the hot seat.

How do you do that?

That's very difficult.

So number two, what could four to state do differently?

I think they just did part of it and they went and got better coaches to recruit.

This flat out relationship still sell.

That's important.

We've got some NIL and they'll offer pretty good amounts under this first hand.

But winning is probably still the biggest thing to cause them some issues until otherwise.

Breven number three, how are four to state and four to tie together for the 27 recruiting

cycle?

In this or any four to four state fans, probably the most important part of the show.

I think that they're going to battle for numerous recruits, especially the skill guys

is for it because there are so many.

Four to fans want to see them stop four to state because Norbels on the hot seat.

And that fact she fans what Norbell gone for the most part anyway, and if he doesn't win

some battles against the Gators, especially Central Florida, like Orlando kids, Tampa

kids, Panhandle, Jacksonville, Ocala, etc., they're going to lose it.

So it's really rough.

Either way, somebody's going to have a very angry fan base.

You got one that has spent a bunch of money on a new coach and another one that wants

their coach, Jettison, by and large, watch the four to versus four to state battles.

I think they're going to be a lot of fun.

All right.

Since we're talking about the state of Florida, we might as well talk about Mario.

This is, of course, Katie's for those of you coming to the chat a lot, Katie's not a

big Mario guy, but she is a Mario fan in the sense of the team he roots for because she's

a grad.

So Miami South Florida recruiting strategy.

What is it?

Last year, they didn't recruit that many kids in South Florida this year.

They're off to a gangbusters starting South Florida.

I think they just do it, player by player.

We're talking to people around the Miami program, one person that's in the program a few years

ago.

They just want to recruit the best talent.

They knew they had to change the roster, regardless of what kids were from.

And they went national a little bit more early on.

Now they settled down and they recruited a little more locally, this class, but I think

they will adapt year to year.

And I've been glad out told they don't care where kids are from.

They want to meet players.

And I know that ruffles some feathers in South Florida, but it's still Miami and it's

the local school.

So they kind of get away with it, but it is intrigued.

Number two are the canes quarterback recruiting efforts hurt by portal quarterbacks.

Yes, to a certain degree, I think they have to prove that they're willing to take a quarter

back from the high school ranks, develop them and play them before that's not going to

be the case.

So let me be interesting.

Daven Davidson and some other kids that they're after, they're in on them, they've got a great

chance.

Neiman Lawrence, one of the best quarterbacks in the class in 2028 South Florida kids

playing in American heritage, they're in on them.

But are they going to make that decision to play for the canes with how they use the portal

yet to be determined?

It's possible though.

And to be honest, as good as they're playing by using portal quarterbacks, it may not

matter.

Number three, does Miami care about in state recruiting numbers?

Well, yes and no.

Again, I've been told they didn't care where kids are from, but they also know that their

bread is buttered in the sunshine stick, 1513 and 14, that's 2024, five and six.

The number of players that the Miami Hurricanes have signed from in state, they'll still go

get 10 kids from around the country, a couple of kids from Chicago on a high old kid, get

from Texas, a kid from Indiana, a kid from California, they recruit everywhere.

They kind of cherry pick though.

It's kind of like when Pete Carroll got a role in a USC, but in reverse instead of the

Western school coming to the east, it's the Eastern school kind of going out west, get

the Texas kid, get a kid from California, wherever it may be, Miami will do that.

I think they've got as good a balance as about anybody and I put them right there with Georgia

among others as a program that is not just good, but elite at recruiting nationally.

And to be honest with you, they've done a nice job of not overstepping their bounds

there because they go get a national kid.

It's somebody that truly is a big time player.

There's almost always a top 250 kid on like 24, 7 on 3 slash rivals, ESPN.

It's somebody that can help them within two years.

They're not taking projects, they're not, they're taking elite players.

So we come back, we'll talk about LSU Notre Dame and Ohio State and several other schools.

How they fit into the down south recruiting mix, what's it's like to kind of go into some

of these battles and what kids tell me, that is next right here on the portal podcast.

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All right, let's jump back in and let's discuss a few of the teams that

I think are really interesting still to come.

We haven't talked about Alabama much yet.

We haven't talked about LSU much yet.

We want to talk about a few of those things and kind of use them in combination.

Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana are kind of connected.

I live in Alabama.

And those three states are very, very important.

Alabama's always went into Louisiana, Mississippi and taken players.

Here's a question for the chat or anybody out there

if you're listening later on comment down below.

Well, Alabama now that the board is kind of in trench there,

assuming he stays there all the time.

Is he going to be able to beat Kiffin for kids in Mississippi

where he was just coaching?

And like Sabin used to go into Louisiana and take players out of there.

Will LSU lose any of those kids?

I think that's an intriguing thing to discuss.

Secondarily with Alabama,

now that they're recruiting a little more in state,

is that going to hinder Auburn?

That's another question for the chat.

Here is the question marks that I have on the LSU

Tigers under Wayne Kiffin.

Will Kiffin prioritize in state recruiting

over the transfer portal?

This is a great question.

I don't know if it's necessary to use the portal as much,

but Kiffin's really good at it.

I think he will still balance it,

but they had like 40 portal players or whatever it was this year

because the roster flipped.

Okay, that's fine.

But I think in most years it'll be more like 15 guys.

Why?

The state of Louisiana is about as good as it gets in state recruiting.

Per capita is right there at the top five in the country.

And there's no reason not to recruit the programs

that are within 100 miles of your campus.

Literally like you can go within 100 miles

of Baton Rouge and recruit a top 10 class.

You give them the whole state of Louisiana.

A few kids from Arkansas, Texas,

and Mississippi, you can be done.

Quarterback included pretty much every year,

but in fact they're quarterback of the 27 class.

Payton used him.

He's from the Shreveport area.

That being said,

being said,

Kiffin still could use the portal,

depending on when a little more.

So don't be surprised,

but I do think that he's really going to look

forward to recruiting closer to home.

It's easier on him and his family.

And there's just so much talent.

Number two, how many in state recruits per year?

Should LSU fans expect?

I would say 12 to 14.

Again, I expect Kiffin to stay closer to home

because it's easier on him as family and the staff.

There could be a few years that it's 9 to 11

or something,

but anything outside of that would be shocking.

And 9 is still a really low number.

That's probably more likely if they sign

like a 17 or 18 member class

because they had a young team that got a lot of guys back.

Number three,

will LSU focus more on recruiting than the portal?

It's not just recruiting in state.

I think nationally,

they're still going to do it a little bit.

I think though this one's a little harder

than number one, they're all there.

They're similar.

I think they will still go recruiting a little more,

but nationally for them is getting the kid

from Broward County on South Florida or Dallas.

I don't think you're going to see them

recruit up north or back east or out west

quite as much and less into quarterback

or five star kid.

Just my opinion on that.

Now, there's one more team I want to use.

And it's a barometer for several schools.

Ohio State.

Texas, Texas A&M, Southern Cal, Oregon,

Notre Dame, Michigan, all those schools come down south.

How do they have success and why?

Let me give a couple of things before I throw up

some questions here on Notre Dame.

Number one, they're big brands.

That matters to recruits.

If you're a Michigan or a Texas or a Notre Dame,

recruits are going to know who you are

when you come knocking

at their head coach's high school

and knock on that door and ask the kid to come down.

It's pretty easy to get the kid to come down.

Number two, kids want to know.

They want to experience things.

They want to go on trips.

More than ever, they want to travel more.

It's far easier for a Michigan,

for instance, to go to a Mississippi

or a Louisiana or Florida and get somebody.

And while Cal woulding him just to use Michigan

as a continued example,

doesn't really recruitness out that much.

They didn't get a few kids,

but he was a Utah from Florida.

Multiple good running backs, etc.

If you could do that a Utah,

no offense,

but it's going to be easier at Michigan.

So these states down south,

they're not just battling each other.

Tennessee will get a kid from Florida,

North Carolina get a kid from Florida.

Those kinds of things happen.

But Michigan, Southern Cal, Oregon,

Notre Dame,

all these schools get some kids to brand recognition.

Chemistry, relationships, they all matter.

To that end, and again,

you could use any school with this,

with their head coach, etc.

I want to use Notre Dame as an example.

They recruit a little bit down south,

but they're more sporadic because they're academics and stuff.

But when they do go and down south,

they have some success.

How important is Marcus Freeman

to Notre Dame's down south recruiting?

Well, I think it's massive

because he enjoys recruiting.

He builds relationships not with the players,

but parents,

the siblings,

the high school coaches,

seven-on-seven coaches.

He does a good job all around,

and he hires people

that want to be a part of that process as well.

So Marcus Freeman is the engine of Notre Dame's recruiting.

Number two,

do the Irish focus on specific Southern states

to recruit?

Not necessarily, it's still more about fit

because Notre Dame's probably

the most difficult one to pigeonhole here

because of their academic profile.

But they focused a little more on Texas.

Here recently,

they've had some success.

Ironically,

Wisenton are running back,

Wake and Wisenton,

just outside of Dallas,

about an hour away,

down in Waco, where they were at,

just committed to the fighting Irish.

But they kind of look at the kids

from an academic social fit,

not where they're from.

Down south, this has a ton of players,

so they got to recruit.

In Wana areas,

a focus for them,

to a certain degree, Tampa,

to Orlando,

that I-4 corridor,

they're always in on kids,

Dallas Golden,

some other guys have gotten

here in the last five years,

or from that area.

But overall, Notre Dame is an example

of just finding the right fit,

Michigan's kind of that way to a certain degree too.

Is it more about connections,

or what the Irish offer?

This is probably the hardest question.

I think it's still more about what the Irish offer,

but once a coach has a connection

in an area,

you hire a coach that

recruited Florida,

or Alabama,

or whatever,

it's going to matter more.

They've had several different guys

that have had connections

of recruiting the state of Georgia,

that's helped them.

But again,

it's Notre Dame.

It's not that hard to really try

and pitch the Irish.

If you're a coach there,

and it's no different,

if you are the Michigan Wolverines,

to Southern Kyle Trojans,

the Oregon Ducks,

it's just the right fit.

So let's use Florida as an example.

I've got green shirt on today,

anyway, so it kind of fits it.

But Oregon,

it's going to recruit one or two kids

a year out of four,

or they just want to leave.

It won't matter even what Mario.

Crystal ball wants from this,

or any other coach

that could be at any of those schools

at any given time.

Third kids are going to leave

in today's era.

So the SEC schools,

in Florida state,

in Miami,

in Clemson,

they're battling more than just each other.

You're always going to see

a few kids go to Ohio State,

Oregon, Texas, etc.

and have some success.

I don't think that's going to change.

And I'm not surprised

when people ask me,

hey,

why are we losing kids?

It's just because there's so many options.

Everybody spends more on recruiting

than ever.

They recruit more nationally than ever.

Again, the greatest example of this.

Clemson,

15 different states they signed a

player from in the 2026 class.

Clemson,

that's one of the last schools I would have thought that of.

So that's pretty well.

Let's jump into the chat and have a little fun

here and see what's going on.

Katie,

Clemson also brought in some good portal kit.

Yeah, they did.

They finally started to sign a few guys and

that ought to help their program,

but they still need to sign more.

A Georgia player said that Kirby smart every day is game today.

Every practice is game day.

And if you can't handle that,

don't come to Georgia.

Harder percent.

There, I've heard some things about their practices

from a friend of mine that goes to them.

Kirby is not the friendliest of guys at practice.

There's a lot of F-bombs towards Black.

If you do anything wrong,

it is he's on it.

It does not care.

Katie, Kirby doesn't hesitate to hold the exit door open for Carson back

when he lost the locker room to inspect

over his Diva behavior.

I don't blame him.

That is always a possible problem.

Hurricane chicks, Clemson will continue to struggle

until they open their wallets.

I've heard some numbers for them

for the record that were really low.

But to be clear,

you know, although it's not quite as bad as Georgia,

Georgia does not spend much upfront money.

They really don't like.

It's not even close.

And they're still signing top five fastest.

So relationships are always number one.

I don't think Clemson staff is as good at recruiting

as what it used to be.

Hurricane chicks, I'm curious who is

signing the South Carolina kids.

Well, honestly,

it's a combination.

Some believe the USC signs the most.

And I'm talking about the one in the SEC.

The Gamecocks do better in state than Clemson does.

But they spend way more on NIL

if it was equal footing.

Clemson would probably clean their clocks.

Clemson's the better program.

But USC's done better here lately.

Now Georgia,

Florida,

Florida State,

North Carolina, Tennessee.

Everybody kind of dips their toe in there.

We'll see how that goes this year.

Because I think that I'm just guessing.

I don't have any inside contact at Clemson here.

But I think Clemson's spending a little more.

Well, Clemson be able to keep out teams like

the cigar kid.

They're running back like Notre Dame's after him

in a whole bunch of schools.

I think Georgia's, I can't remember the whole list.

Will they keep those kinds of kids in state?

The Clemson?

And so they're kind of like,

that kid's awesome.

Clemson and USC,

they have to try to keep the elite skill guys home

at the very minimum.

And of course, your biggest priority

are those linemen.

South Carolina is doing a better job in Clemson right now.

I'm pretty sure that it's NIO related.

Katie, Brian, remind me one more time.

How many titles Mario's going into year five?

Didn't pass me the Kuwait.

What color is it this year?

Orange or green?

Look, I'm not saying Mario is the perfect coach,

but as a recruiter,

his plan is about as good as it gets.

He has a similar day, great roster.

And he's done the right things

to keep his staff together and keep them motivated.

He's going to put his foot on the pedal

to make his guys go after recruits like he's demanding.

But they're getting it done.

So, nonetheless, he's a really good recruiter.

I have to agree with Coach Hayes.

talent has never been a problem at Miami.

No?

Well, the 2022 team,

especially the trenches it was,

but overall, I agree with Coach Hayes.

Nickel needs to play next year.

It will help with recruiting.

Hurricane chicks.

Luke Nickel is the Retreat Freshman quarterback.

He's from the Atlanta area played at Milton,

one state championship, all that.

I would agree.

But at the same time, you've just signed Darian Mensen.

And I don't think Luke's going to play very much.

Katie, if you give me unlimited money,

me, Miami, weather, and our campus alone

could bring in a top or green class.

It's an easy spot.

Well, that's part of the award.

That's one of the reasons

many people want to Miami-jow.

They don't have to work that hard.

In terms of travel, they can recruit half their class

from the county to the ring or the one right north of it in Broward.

Okay, Dayton Broward, we're great.

But, at the same time, you've got to also remember,

Miami's done a nice job.

They've got Chicago talent, Ohio talent,

Indiana talent, and Jersey.

This has stopped out my head.

California and Texas,

like, they've done all of that.

It's pretty interesting.

Katie says, hold on here.

Don't bet on Nickel being at Miami next year,

if Mario goes portal again, agreed.

Coleman may ball, too,

and don't count on Heatherman and Dawson being around

after this season, either.

I know Dawson's looking for a job,

and I don't mind him.

He's ready for a head job.

I don't know about Heatherman.

He's in a pretty good spot.

I would probably worry more about him going to the NFL.

He's good coach.

He's good coach.

Hurricane chicks.

Dawson should get a nice job assuming they do well this year.

Probably so.

Teams seem to be rating North Carolina for players.

North Carolina isn't loaded.

You can think about it.

That state stinks for college football.

It just does.

When was the last time a North Carolina team finished

in the top 10?

That state's loaded, but nobody does.

Katie, what do you think about Sark hiring Mark Stubes?

Game changer.

Well, two things with that.

I'm not surprised.

They run a defense that uses three linemen,

the least part of the time.

He's a very good defensive mind.

He's another voice in the room.

A lot of those guys know each other from the recruiting

circles and from different staffs and all that.

My only question is what's his role going to be?

I didn't know that he was hired.

I can't keep up with everything.

If he was just hired, what are they going to use in fours?

In defense of fronts.

Is it run gap fits?

Is he going to mess more of the past game?

I'm curious, but

he can coach defense.

It's just an albatross to the offenses.

Keep him waiting for that.

You'll be all right.

Hurricane Chicks.

Yes, he can coach defense at a high level.

Absolutely.

I think that Stubes is a great example of what it's like

in college football to just be at the wrong program.

Woody have turned the reins over

to an offense coordinator.

A little easier if he was at a program that just got more talent.

Naturally, probably.

But I digress.

There's only so much you can do about that.

Into that end.

Mark Stubes in and of getting fired.

But maybe a lot of money.

I can talk.

And he was a better coach there than a lot of other guys they've had.

So congrats to him for that.

Thank you very much for checking out the portal podcasts.

I enjoyed these kinds of pods talking about all the things

that are going on in the recruiting world.

Down south.

It is definitely crazy.

And there's not a lot that I can possibly bring up

that would be more fun for me than talking about down south recruiting.

So with that, thank you folks very much.

It has been a pleasure.

Everybody have a good one.

This has been the portal podcast.

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