Recruiting Show: Power Balance Shift + 2028 Rising Stars + Big Weekend Ahead

- What's going on, y'all? What else is here of the Cover 3 College Ball Podcast at Tanner Ivin and this must mean it is the Cover 3 Recording Show. Ivin, what's going on, dude? - Not much, bud. Another weekend, another legendary performance from Jeremiah Smith. I heard Danny talking about it. One of the best performances he's ever seen in a person. I've long felt that way. I should rank every Jeremiah Smith outing. I saw dating back to his days in high school. I think that would be a fun content item. But he's one of those ones where it's like, "Yeah, you see it on the TV screen, "but when you're there in person, "just feels a little bit different." - Yeah, dude. I remember watching him at, was it Pylon or Battle, the tournament in Miami and we had weather rolling in and SFE was trying to work the ball to other guys to get them noticed too. And I told Gets, I was like, "Hey, "I do need to get a TikTok out of Jeremiah." He's like, "All right, cool, this drive." I was like, "All right, watch." So they just threw it to him like five straight times. And the kid on him was like a top hundred kid going to Clemson at corner and was not a bad player like by all rights. And I got my entire TikTok in that one drive and it was just absolutely embarrassing. He's a freak. I always ask Danny like, "Hey, how, "you're literally the guy who threw the Randy Moss "in practice at FSU when he was in eligible "the one year for weed." And he's going against the defense that probably A to the 11 got drafted for the Knowles at that time. How does this compare? He's like, "Yeah, that, that's probably the one "that I wouldn't put Jeremiah over." But like, it's close, man. And so Danny was there and I was sitting watching Jeremiah. He's like, "This is stupid." And everybody's like, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey." But you know what I'm excited for is just like the NFL scouting combine. Like, you know, you start reading different things online and people will point out, "Oh, he's not as athletic as Megatron was." And I'm like, "How do we, how do we know he's not?" - Yeah. - This kid was a state champion herdler. My theory has long been, he was never the biggest guy, which means he had to learn how to separate when he was the small guy. And then, you know, guess what? He's almost doubled in size since his sophomore year in high school. So, oh, Jeremiah's never backed down from any competition. Like, he went to everything. He did everything, competed everywhere. I just, I have a hunch he's going to show up with the scouting combine and do some wild things. - Dude, completely agree. And like, I just, I can't, like, I think there's some skies of limit, you know? Like, I was watching NFL on Sunday. I'm like, they could use Jeremiah, they could use Jeremiah. Like, he would play for them. I don't know if he's going to dominate the NFL in year one, but I mean, Smith and Jigba is in what? You're three now? - Yeah. - I think, like, and he's killing it. So, I think it's certainly possible. All right, from one NFL guy to a major game this weekend we have coming up with a ton of NFL guys on it. Georgia, Alabama, Ken Kirby Smart, finally beat Alabama in the regular season. They've obviously done it there in the SC Championship game before, but over in the regular season. There's so many different ways we could take this, but this is more that recruiting and personnel focus show. Now, these are teams that annually, like, battled for the number one recruiting ranking. Just, you know, it was like, okay, will it be Georgia? Will it be Bama or will it be the field, essentially? For quite a while, especially when saving in Kirby. We're going back and forth there. You know, I think these things are changing a little bit, right? Like, the, none of these teams feels like they're gonna land the number one overall class. I guess it's possible that they could close with some kind of crazy, you know, flourish, but, man, it's, it's interesting to see just how, how spread out the talent is in the sport now. - But that's, that's my thought with this game. And, and you're right, we're gonna turn it on Saturday night and there's gonna be two dozen NFL players out there running around in my, I don't wanna say it's like fear, but I wonder, you know, two, three years down the line, what does this matchup look like? And that's because you said it, Georgia and Alabama, I think for the past five, 10 years, consistently battled for the number one rank recruiting class. And you look up now in this 2027 cycle, which is going to sign in a little over two months. Georgia's recruiting class ranks ninth. Alabama's ranks 34th. So what has changed? Well, a lot of things in terms of name image likeness, revenue share, it's getting harder and harder for these two powerhouse programs to kind of just hoard all of the talents. I think that's very interesting about this matchup. And it got me wondering, who's in the best position to field one of these rosters in the coming years with all of these NFL players? Because yeah, I mean, Georgia's still getting five stars, Alabama's still getting five stars, but I think Bud, what really hurts is the depth of these recruiting classes. They aren't going out and picking who they want. They're having to evaluate a little bit more. They're having to project a little bit more. And most importantly, they're having to develop the players in house a little bit more. So I find it fascinating that we look at this matchup and then look towards the recruiting sections and the recruiting classes. And again, both these schools are not in the top five. Alabama's pacing design, their worst ranked recruiting class in the 24/7 sports arrow, which goes back to 2010. And if you really want to think about this in a different lens, you know, at the start of the NFL season, Ohio State had the most former players on 53 man rosters right behind them was Alabama and Georgia. So again, what does that look like a few years down the line? I don't know. To me, it's just, it's a fascinating kind of storyline as college football evolves, as these rosters evolve. Who is going to be able to find some sustained success in this new environment? Dude, I told you, and I wonder, and I don't have poker chips on my desk, so I'm just going to use these circular objects here as we switch from the sixes to the nines as the calendar turns to October and we all get tired. Push those chips in, right? It makes me wonder, hey, do I need to be using my resources on a crazy recruiting class right now? If I know that I might only have one more year of killing Russell, you know? Like, I may need to go absolutely Texas textile in the portal next year if I'm Bama knowing this may be the final year that I have killing Russell and just absolutely supplement around him with dudes to supplement what we already have on this roster. And, you know, I will get Courtney Morgan some credit here. Like, I, it wasn't red flaggy for me in the preseason, but it was a bit like, okay, I'm going to monitor this because their attrition rate has been super low and that can be a good thing. It can also be a bad thing, right? Like, if you're not, if you're not culling your misses, right, assuming you have them, but maybe they've hit at a high rate on the guys they have on this roster. I guess we'll see there's some, you know, who still haven't played, but, you know, certainly, and a lot of this is killing based. But like, they did not push many guys out and churn that thing, you know, very much and this is a multi-year evaluation. So maybe that is coming, you know, next year as they decide to go, you know, really all in, but it's hard to go all in on the portal and all in and recruiting in the same cycle unless you've got like a $60 million budget, right? Which, you know, maybe it's coming, but I kind of think it's like Windows now, almost like Pro Sports. - But I 100% agree, right? I do think the window is going to kind of win out, right? What would it play on words there? But hey, big, big two high school classes, that's the core, supplement with some transfers and then you kind of rinse and repeat. I think that is the model that is going to, to potentially win out. And I think everyone's trying to figure out, okay, what is the model that's going to lead us to the Promised Land into a national title? And I got some numbers here for me because I did think had a similar thought about Alabama, right? You know, past two recruiting classes, and they finished second and third, so they're sitting 34th right now. But, you know, six starters from Alabama's 2025 recruiting class, or I should say, out of the starting 22 for Alabama, six of those guys are from that 2025 class. That includes the Keel and Russell. That includes Ryan Williams. That includes, you know, two of the big boys up front, Jackson Lloyd and Michael Carroll. So they certainly are getting it done. Georgia to me is really, it's just all homegrown. Of those 22 starters, 20 of them, they signed through the high school ranks, five of them are starters from that 2025 class. And then, you know, the other thing is, all right, so Alabama, it's different than it was, you know, under Sabin's watch, right? It was, we're getting the best of the best. These guys are coming in and in playing, and in playing. I will say this, Alabama, they've already had two freshmen that have played over 50 snaps. Now, one of them is Xavier Griffin, who was the 24/7 sports true freshman of the week this past weekend for his efforts against Mississippi State. I mean, you know, Jihad, Campbell, Campbell clone, that was an easy thing, but Trayshawn Brown, the running back, who is graded higher than EJ Crowell. That was a late fine for Courtney Morgan in the Crimson Tide. So to me, it's like, okay, you know, they can value shop and find these guys. And Trayshawn Brown finished, I think, as running back 41 for us, he kind of came out of nowhere, late bloomer out of the state of Texas. He's been impressive this far. So what I look at Alabama's recruiting class now in 2027, You know, we've talked about these quarterbacks a lot on cover three. They've got Eliza Haven, they've got Trent Seaborne. You'll see right there of Sonny Gales. He's been another regular in this space. Tyler Younger, but excellent evaluation by the Crimson Side. I actually had another SEC staff kind of reach out to me a few weeks ago and they said, "Hey, you got to watch this kid. Alabama hit it out of the park here." We just made him a 90 outside. He's on top 24/7 watch. But this kid's got all of the traits in Alabama's one of the first programs to go on him. So I think they're doing some good things here. And what does that roster look like next year? I don't know, but to your point, hey, they kind of have a Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback in Q and Russell. There's going to be guys that are signing up to play alongside him. And I do think, and it's impossible to predict with like, you know, real precise. But like you tell me, who we're going to be the top transfer quarterbacks for this coming year? Man, like some of these guys have not looked that good. Like the South Dakota kid, certainly, that's my guy, Austin. He's going to get it back, right? I'm pretty sure. And like the Oregon State kid, like even though he's shorter, like he's competent enough, like somebody's going to pay him, right? But some of these other guys out there, I don't know, man. So I think the advantage of having a certainty at the quarterback position, having the certainty that he's really an absolute stud in Keelan, is a major edge for Bama. So like I, when I first saw, oh man, they're still 34th, you know, like you kind of think you, you, like I don't look at this every single day, but like, you know, once a week, I pull it up. Okay, like who's moved? Who'd they get? Just kind of go through them. Like 34th. It's like, oh, yeah. That makes sense. Next year is a chips in year, or better be for them, because I mean, he's got to chance me the best quarterback Bama's ever had, like in the history of the program. Oh, and I know we're talking about like transfer portal acquisitions here, but where my mind also goes is it's like, we are getting into the meat of, of flip season, right? The statulas are out. And as we see, you know, a lot of, a lot of rumors about maybe potential coaching changes, Alabama could be in, in prime position to, to make those flips and, and, and to make some competitive offers on guys that are playing great as seniors. So that's the other thing that comes to mind with Alabama, but I, I do want to talk a little bit about Georgia, because I found this, this note interesting. So last year Georgia finished with the seventh rank recruiting class. That was probably the lowest since Kirby first took over from Art Rick there in Athens, but they've already had seven guys play over 50 snaps for them. One of those guys is, is I key Helton, who's a, a starter on the offensive line? 17 year old, right? He's, he's extremely young and, I know Georgia, they haven't maybe played us as many league games as, as Alabama, but they, they, they, they are not afraid to play those young individuals. And I started looking at this recruiting class. And again, I know it's ranked ninth, but man, but I, I, I get so excited about Jackson dollar, that, that the five star tight end commit. I'm actually going to write it about it in the talent tracker, you know, George, I think they've had five different tight ends kept touch down past this season, Todd Hartley. He continues to just build out that room. Well, guys, guess what? I'm going to raise my hand here and this is going to sound wild. Jackson dollar has a chance to be Georgia's best tight end since Brock Bowers. And you can make a case that Jackson dollar, what he has done in high school is, is, it trumps what Brock Bowers did in high school, because remember, he lost his senior season, due to the global pandemic. Jackson dollar right now is fifth nationally across the country in high school football, according to Max Pres in receiving yards. He got 58 catches, just over a thousand yards, 17 touch downs, his kids also playing defense, two picks, sixes, you know, I call him a Tino, right? He's a tight end in name only. This guy is a mismatch. It kind of reminds me a little bit of Harold Fanon, he got a bowling green now with the Cleveland Browns, like this guy is an absolute dude. And what I also think is unique about Georgia's recruiting classes, we always think, okay, Kirby smart, defense, defense, defense, the strength of this group is actually on offense. We've talked about Command Spell, the five star running back, number one running back for us right now in the country. If Georgia can hang on to him, I mean, this is a guy that has a chance to be like Nate Frazier. I mean, you're talking about day one, part of the rotation can take over games. So he's a guy I like and then Jamir Dean, wide receiver out of Tennessee, Georgia flipped him from Penn State, this guy's a freak. Yep. And the reason I wanted to bring him up, everyone I think is starting to see what what Taylor is in that offense, right? He's kind of come on here, highest ranked, wide receiver, Georgia had signed in a long time. Jamir Dean, I'd put him in a same bucket, very similar, you know, can stretch the field as an ex ridiculous track and field profile. So this is another guy that I think can elevate that passing attack. So I don't know, bud, this is just, it's just interesting to me, okay, you know, two programs, it seems like every year, you know, when this game comes up, it's kind of a measuring stick. And then again, what does this look like a few years down the line? I will finish here on the Georgia, Alabama, kind of back and forth, you know, who has the edge where moving forward? I will say Georgia, what they continue to do in terms of investing in the offensive line. We don't, we're not seeing that from, from Alabama, right? They haven't been able to get the same beef up front specifically on that. I mean, Georgia doesn't rely on transfers, Alabama's relying on some transfers on that offensive line. On the flip side, Alabama, what they continue to do in quarterback recruiting, I mean, no one is recruiting that position like the Crimson Tide, like Kalenibor and Ryan Grubbs and, you know, Georgia's winning with with Gunner Stockton, excited to see his first test of the season, they seem to like what they have behind him. But, you know, Georgia just hasn't been able to get, you know, that caliber of a recruit at that quarterback position in a while. It's a choice, right? Like, do you want to pay up for it? Here's the thing though, you know, like, like, Alabama's been having to go to the transfer market for offensive lineman, right? And maybe you don't need quite the dominant road greater type in this Kalenibor scheme, but you probably do prefer to have an awesome quarterback, like everybody wants an awesome quarterback. Based on my intel, and maybe you've heard different, like, Georgia's solution for quarterback next year is not in their building right now. They're going to have to go in the transfer market. And this is going to be the first time I think that Georgia, outside of, of, when's the last time they had to go transfer for QB? Well, they flirted with Fernando Mendoza, do not forget about that, bud. Yeah, exactly. And I, I don't think that they were seriously going to make a move over Stockton this off season, although obviously he's, he's limited compared to like the really, really top guys. He's still a guy that functionally runs this offense. I think you have him at a pretty good discount to the market. If you look at like the other, other QBs of, of top 10 teams who are upper classmen, but I mean, they're going to have to go and, and, and, and go get a guy for, for, you know, pretty serious money this off season. So like everybody's going to have, you know, different transfer needs to supplement what they do well and, and what they have not done so well. And, you know, like, they've not done a great job recruiting QB, but they crush everything else, like, out of the park. So it's going to be interesting to see. But who's, who's, who's the big name quarterback that's going to be in that transfer portal before he hit a break? Come on, give me, I mean, I'm, I'm team free, like, I'm like team free JKS for that mess a cow. Like that, that looks like an absolute disaster, right now to me. He'd be interesting. I think Grunk Myers is really good. And I don't think, I think the Hokies will find a way to hold onto him, you know, but when I think of like accurate hits guys on the run, a lot of GAC knows where to go with the ball. That sounds a lot like what Georgia demands. I'm sure I'm going to get some angry calls about this, but like, he's thinking fit for what they do offensively, you know, I think he's really good. You know what I love just about, like, seeing these quarterbacks finally play, everything that Grunk does in the game is like, yeah, you saw this on tape, you saw this in the All-Star Games, you saw this, a lead 11, like, I thought he was one of the best in recent years at just throwing it into the teeth of a defense, like just no fear. I'm going to rip it on time, rip my guys and stride. No, that is certainly, yeah. It's cool when it translates what you see to what's actually going on on the TV screen. You want to find Stad here? All right, of the teams that are nine to one or better to win the national title. One, two, three, four, there's six of them and five of the six are quarterbacked by a guy they signed out of high school. So, you know, recently it's been more transfer heavy. Miami is the low in exception, obviously with Mensa, but Bama, Texas, Georgia, Notre Dame and Ohio State. Well, and I know, I know we're up against it here, but you brought it up. All right, you start going into, and diving into the analytics. Okay, where is the group of six quarterback at that everyone's going after? Because a lot of them are at a eligibility and there's really not a lot playing at a high level. I don't know who those individuals are. Because I don't think there's a lot of high level ones. There will be guys who move up to sort of the school like, let's call it school 30 to 70, you know, in the power for range, but I don't know how many g6 guys this year are like no doubt hey like if we are playoff aspirational that's the guy we go get to help us get there so I just bring up because you hear from a lot of personnel people oh we'll just grab a guy with experience you know that's done it before well I think that pool is is dry and up dry and up dry and up good luck yeah all right let's sit our first break you're doing a little long in this but I think it was it was well worth the discussion and coming back we're going to talk a little stock up man we got rankings coming out we're going to give you guys a little tease as to who who Ivan's in his team really love here and in the class of 28 all right back here on the cover three recruiting show at the Andrew Ivan's director of scouting for 24/7 sports joining us once again as we do every Wednesday all right so we got a new top 24/7 coming out next Wednesday it is the rankings update for the class of 2028 got about what six games of film for pretty much everybody out there in the country couple teams have played like seven or eight at this point as well you know getting down to that kind of district championship season and looking forward to locking in those playoff spots and I was let's go ahead and highlight a couple guys who are set to make make jumps and have just stood out as total ballers here so far first up let's go Hudson West Bud quarterbacks out of the state of Florida right in that 2027 cycle Davin Davidson was the name to know Hudson West is the name I think that a lot of schools are going to turn to especially as these dominoes have fallen in the class of of 2028 you see right there on the screen he's already got a crystal ball prediction in to the Florida Gators and John Somerall and his staff have done an excellent job of getting Hudson West to their Friday night lights camp they got him to swamp for a few games and and Bud the more I've watched this kid the more I just you fall in love with him I mean he's a tall spread passer with with rare throw variance right he's in this air raid system there at Sarasota high school you know Sarasota I mean when's the last time they had a power for caliber prospect and he gets it out fast right he can rip it around the yard he's athletic enough to sting plays I think what he's able to do off platform off balance that really stands out to me and he's an assassin at those first two levels but he's also not afraid to look down the field and vertically one of the reasons why we're so bullish on Hudson West right now he's got two four to yard passing games already as a junior and it's come against legit competition Palm Beach lakes which has some FPS guys in the second area in the two weeks ago against Venice high school which it seems like every year they're playing for a state title in the in the sunshine state so he's he's certainly one where I think a lot of these air raid offensive coordinators if Florida can't shut this down or you know maybe Florida State Georgia Tech they don't there are the other schools involved in the recruitment right now then I think he's going to be an extremely hot name reminds me and I got a cop here for you and I think if you're a Florida fan this one should get you excited reminds me of Kate and Belton camp at like you know 13th nationally and passing yards very similar builds very similar motions you know a lot of Florida fans coming out of that FAU game week week one they're like man who is this FAU quarterback well a Hudson West I think there's a lot of similarities here and and certainly a name to know quarterbacks always are moving up and down and this has got a tie to heck of a start to his junior campaign do I totally agree I won't watching this guy on his huddle like the he can really make all the throws but just like the timing and like the understanding of who's coming open and when and getting it there's a lot of like an anticipation throws he seems to be able to read it and that that's some it's kind of hard to tell with the way some of these high schools run these offices and there's not really much you can do about it as an evaluator like there's still a lot of guesswork that goes you can kind of see if a guy just totally doesn't see it but like he does seem to be able to like understand where the like where the ball should go like when he scrambles he's not just scrambling to take off like he scrambles to find a window and gets it there like I shoot I think he's gonna end up with better offers than if he enjoyed attacking in addition to Florida obviously like you have a good one you know the the other schools or I just yeah and you're right but it's always hard to all right like what are the progressions here what are they trying to do to me Hudson West like I think the final final note I had when I I wrote him up was a obvious command just of his offense right I mean it is a lot of four and five wide sets and they are pushing the pace and it's a guy that knows what he wants to do with the football very quickly all right let's go from Florida to Mississippi with receiver Josh Parker this kid can go man do you remember him from Oregon at the opening finals yes yeah yeah and I think for our listeners remember I talked about the over 22 under 11 club and why that's important for these explosive playmakers that is Joshua Parker this kid won five gold medals on the track as a 10th grader clear 23 feet in the long jump went 10 5 3 in the 100 meter dash this guy's an explosive big play receiver bud and what I love about him is he's got sneaky size right like you get around him you're is he really six feet and then you measure him he is six feet he's got to link them the arms I think he's got inside outside versatility and he's one where instantly Joltz out of his stance that puts these DBs in comparable positions he can go get a deep ball but he can also capitalize on his run and catch opportunities with the agility with the speed and his ability to separate you know this is a kid we we put inside the top 247 just kind of based on the profile and he has really rounded it into the form I saw I think three times this off season off to a heck of a start here as a junior at Brandon high school he's got an Illinois quarterback commit throwing him the football his recruitment starting to take off as well he's been a Tennessee he's been to Ole Miss he's been a Mississippi State he's been to LSU you think about all of what those offenses want to do they want to air it out they want guys that can get vertical Joshua Parker is just that the other thing that that stands out about him he is super super super young son of a former Marine moms like a crime scene investigator this is a guy that I'm going to bet on coming out of Mississippi also a really good baseball player bud was like hitting 347 so three sport athlete box checkered named to know especially if you're school they want to go on offense and and Josh Parker can do just that I was looking at that I was looking at his baseball box scores before the show and I kind of like how are we only stealing 18 basis like bro but then I realized he hits a lot of doubles and triples too so like it's it's it's a little harder to steal third and steal home but every time this guy's on first I just I kind of need him on second much like you know my my race do and as they're up up to oh on the Yankees all right Ivan let's go let's go to Jason Mitchell pretty cool running back prospect here yeah bud and in in the class of 2028 we're trying to find running back one and you know every cycle is going to be different right so we talk about the class of 2027 those are the seniors everyone knows David Gabriel George's everyone knows come on spell sir odd Baker I mean there's a lot landed Williams Calis there's a lot of establish running backs and I think in this 28 cycle you know the running back picture starting to come into focus Jason Mitchell he's out of San Antonio this is a kid that played a lot of wide receiver as a sophomore and they're using him more as a running back here as a junior which to me is it does it makes sense because Jason Mitchell his feel as a running back it's like he's been doing it you know since he was five years old sudden feet able to get out of trouble side step tacklers and then with him the contact balance I mean you turn on the highlight tape this guy will get hit and he finds ways to stay up and you know through six games as a junior average in over 10 yards per carry 17 touchdowns in those six games it's also got 300 yards receiving five touchdowns you've returned a pair of punts for touchdowns so to me when I watch him he can work between the tackles but when he breaches into that second level he's creative he's hard to get on the ground sometimes with these power runners you know once they get to that 20 yard mark it the runs over that is not the case with Jason Mitchell consistent finisher plus athlete for the position tested exceptionally well at the Navy combined back in January did it again at the opening regional there in Dallas but when we put him in the top 247 right he had two scholarship offers Purdue and UTSA you look up now Texas Oregon Ohio State Oklahoma Notre Dame Texas A&M Alabama Ole Miss Michigan Florida and George have all offered Jason Mitchell we had them as the top 247 player in the country so everyone that says hey we evaluate on offer sheets not the case I think we beat the schools to the punch here I mean they beat us all the time as well but this is a guy that we really liked and he's rounding into form I'm gonna say this about the running back position you want to see that production as a pass catcher that is so important you look at guys like Ashton Gentee huge monster receiving numbers in high school you gotta be able to do it if you're gonna play all three downs Jason Mitchell he certainly fits that box also the people who are like oh you guys just look at all offers, you would be an idiot to not use offers as part of your evaluation funnel, right? Like, oh, like, look, the market is saying this kid is getting a bunch of offers. We should ignore that and not watch them. Of course, you're going to watch them, right? Like that's just potentially signal. You still do your own evaluation on it. It would like, you know what? All the schools look at 24/7 sports stuff as well because they know that we're at all the stuff. You know what I mean? Maybe you've seen something that they haven't seen. Like, it's just, any information you can get is additive to your evaluation product. That always annoyed me. Like, you know, back to you, right? I know. This is silly. Come on. Of course. I just, I just, I had to get that one in because Hudson's stay on our scouting team, like, love Jason Mitchell and it's like, all right, man, hey, I see what you see. We're, we're, we're putting them in here. And then next thing you know, he's might be running back one in the country and he's a priority for, I think, every team that has CFP aspirations. All right. Now, let's go to New Jersey and let's talk about a linebacker who looks like he's about 35 years old. Taj Gray and Maddie, he plays like an absolute grown man, too. But I'm going to, I'm going to toss this out there. Arvel Reese vibes for Taj Gray and, you know, to, to peel a curtain back like in his car. Did we, in this kid in Naples? Yes. He was in Naples. Out at the opening finals and, and just to peel the curtain back, you know, we're having conversations as, as a group, you know, the analysts at 24/7 sports and, hey, should we move them to linebacker, or should we move them from a linebacker to edge? I'm like, guys, we're, we're keeping them as an off-ball linebacker. Taj Gray, he was at the opening finals and, but I'm sure you saw him moving around in shirts and shorts. He is a specimen, you know, almost pushing six for 235 pounds. He's got a near 82-inch wingspan. That was the biggest out of all the, or the longest, I should say, out of like all hundred players that came through our room at the opening finals. You can play this guy on the ball, you can play him off the ball. I just think the speed, when you put on the game tape, how this guy moves. The pursuit angle cuts down a skate pass. You can put him on the ball. He's got a few past rushing moves. You can drop him back into coverage, contact speed, explosive, explosive individual. This is, this is a kid that fits the modern game. He's going to fit these exotic defenses. Florida and Auburn are the only two schools that have been able to get Taj Gray on campus this season. He was scheduled to be at Ohio State, but, but, you know, noon kick off for the buck guys just wasn't able to get in time, but they seem to be pushing all the chips in. Those chips you had for Taj Gray, I certainly think he's a name to know. I think this guy is going to have a chance to step in. I know it's early. We're two years away. But, like, to me, just watching what he has done as his junior day one impact potential guy that is likely going to play in the NFL, he's got all the physical features and then just the way he sees it, the way he tax it, and what you're seeing on the screen here, like that's the sophomore stuff, junior stuff, it's like you're watching on fast forward. He is that, just that much more confident in his abilities. Just not that many guys, that amount of size, I guess, till move like that. And, you know, if you're, if you're an edge size and you have the agility to stay at backer, that's a problem for other teams. Yeah. All right. Great rundown. Let's go ahead and hit our second break here on the flip side. Got a little short segment on a guy that you probably heard about before, but he surfaced at a new place and maybe in line for a pretty quick bounce back. All right. Back here on the cover through the recruiting show, that's Andrew Ivens, director of scouting for 24/7 sports. I was never throwing a name at you, man. And we've heard this name before, former big-time prospect in the 26th cycle, Hayden Low. So, he was at Miami. Things didn't work out at Miami. You know, you were talking, "I wonder where this guy's going to surface." Dude, he's at Long Beach City College. So, like, the guy found a place to still play ball. What, what are you seeing out of him? What kind of impact do you think he could have as a bounce back for the 27 season? Yeah, but I didn't know back-to-back recruiting hours. We'd be talking junior college prospects, but I think this is like when we talk talent acquisition, roster building, this is one of the biggest news items that has surfaced in the past six, seven days, Hayden Low, yes, playing junior college football, likely going to be ranked. I would assume, you know, a top three player for us in the junior college rankings, just talking with Gabe Brooks on the scouting team. I think he's played in three games. He's got four sacks and four and a half tackles for loss. And when you watch the tape, it's not like he's playing 50/60 snaps. Like, just kind of comes on the field situationally. I think he's still trying to get the body. The leg's still underneath him and he just wrecks havoc on the corner. This was a five-star prospect for us two years ago. Everything I heard coming out of Miami, he probably would have played it last year during the CFP run. Remember, you're playing 15, 16 games like Deft becomes an issue. You need to get some bodies in there. There's attrition, injuries, Hayden Low, unfortunately, was injured at a really good spring for the Hurricanes. It doesn't work out there. So now he's back on the market. He has surfaced, as you said, out there in California, but look at the high school footage of him. And this is a guy that visited Tennessee this past weekend. Cal has been involved. Alabama's involved, UCLA's involved. And why is this important? As we talk about, like, the NFLcation of college football, like, to me, this is, like, free agent number one on a lot of people's boards, because premium position, guy that obviously could come in next season and boost your past rush right away. And, you know, what makes them different than a guy that's in the transfer portal? At some point, he's going to sign before that window opens up. And you either are going to know if you have him or you don't. It's, you know, I think when we talk about transfers and kind of that accelerated dating process, I don't know, but if you heard it a bunch from, from just GMs and personnel staffers, like, sometimes you think you have this guy signed seal been delivered and the next thing you know, he's enrolled at classes elsewhere. That is not the case with Hayden Low. He's a guy that could very well sign during that early signing period. And again, I think someone has a chance to get future NFL player, future impact fast rusher. Certainly when we follow, follow his crew because he's probably guy we're going to be talking about on the nonrecording show pretty quickly next year. All right. I was, I was also going to ask you about this. Like, can you think of Juco bouncebacks that, you know, started off P4, went junior college and then have had success? It's a rare group, but I do have two names written down here. So not in recent years since, I don't want to say cook the books, but like, they're were certainly instances like a decade or two decades ago where a guy would get on campus. He can't handle the coursework load, so he'd be academically analog, which really doesn't happen anymore, except in like really weird cases, you know, the guy goes to like a Mississippi Juco, they get the grades right for him and then he comes and bounces back and all of a sudden he's a stud again. Like so in recent years, not off top of my head, in prior years, like that would happen in pretty good bit or prior decades. Pretty good. Yeah, it's rare. I mean, the two names that came to me, Malik Benson, I think he was at some point and I'm familiar on maybe the exact timeline there. He might have been Juco straight to Alabama, but this one for sure that some Juco was Chris Marshall, who was at Texas A&M, Juco, Boise State, now at Arkansas, making plays. I think they're still a chance he could get drafted. I don't know. It's certainly something interesting, just just a bit different, but I think in, in Hayden Lowe's case, like he's still got a ton ahead of him. The other thing is he's still 18 years old. I mean, I remember him at the Navy All-American Bowl and it was, we measured him 34 in Charms, 10 1/2 in chance. I mean, this guy was built in a lab to get after the quarterback. No doubt about it. All right, let's hit our final break here and then we will flip and we'll talk about a little game kind of this weekend. Awesome, back here on the current recruiting show, Sandra Ivans, director of scouting for 24/7 sports. And Ivans, this weekend we had the Red River rock fight, oh, I was a front-legged joke, yeah. But defense is certainly ahead of the offenses in this classic Texas Oklahoma matchup that we'll see at 3/30. Let's go in and highlight a player, who are you watching this weekend? It's a main bishop, five star, I think we've talked about him in this space before, but number one, I think this guy is an absolute dude. Number two, do you remember back in 2021 when a guy by the name of Xavier Worthy took over the Red River shootout, nine catches, 211 yards, two touchdowns, he had produced as a true freshman prior to that game, but Sark kind of scheme some stuff up for him and I don't know, that's something I am monitoring when we get to Saturday because I think Texas coming off the by-week, we saw a germane bishop, yeah, that nice explosive play from archmaning against Tennessee, you read the Texas message boards, I think they went a little bit more of that from. Germain Bishop you see it on there on the screen five star prospect like I said number two athlete But we called them the Travis Hunter of Texas high school football This was a walking highlight reel at at Willis high school and I'm just interested to see if we start to see more of the Germain Bishop experience coming off the buy I mean if you think about it like Coleman is not slow, but he's not a burner. You know, Wingo It's a really good like run after catch guy like Bishop being the real take the top off guy It does unlock a lot of things what we were doing big game breakdown yesterday on cover three on Tuesday And like we talked about okay If you're Texas you could probably score enough points to win this game if you just think no turnovers first right But if the turnovers are on like real deep balls I don't think you mind those all that much what what you can't do is give Oklahoma short fields and keep them in this game like like how many Real drive is oh you gonna actually produce against you probably one, you know, maybe they hit an explosive drive and maybe they get one sustained, but Man like throwing throw them all deep this guy Not a bad option there. I've been certainly a guy really watching this weekend I'm also watching like some of these young offensive lineman's rope will home up to see like if they can hold up because text defensively Is dude, they're nasty like a 40 for them in that game against ten against Tennessee was really good Obviously you saw the Colin Simmons stuff and you know some of the hilarity with some of the hijinks there as well but man like I don't think material is anything special But also he's not getting a ton of help from from the offensive line so far those guys have battled injuries But if they're back and healthy off the by-week that they got to be able to hold up against that Texas front If not and if material doesn't play well think there's any chance we could maybe see uh seal backup action here. I thought I was gonna ask you right like Well, it's not forget what was it two years ago in the And this exact game Jackson Arnold was benched for Michael Hawkins Yeah, I bow bent leaves just on on on the on the roster You know, this was the number eight quarterback for us in the class of 2026 now Oklahoma's another quarterback That came from Mercer. I mean there's multiple names there um bow But if you didn't know this 131 as a starter in high school. I mean this is a kid that completed 72% of his passes I saw some Sam Howell in him. I think if you also want like a storybook ending Bow was a kid we had in the Navy all-american bulls and underclassmen Remember he told me uh, he was dating a Texas cheerleader at one point I don't know if that's still the case, but man you want to talk about a story line For Saturday a boat Bentley somehow gets on the field um just a just a little rivalry there that that would be incredible and you know like In Number eight quarterback is is a lot of hype somebody has to be number eight right and I think we can Mostly agree that like that was not a deep quarterback class of of no doubters like not every year of quarterbacks is created You know equally like if you scroll back and look at you know, maybe the the 25 class I bet you the guy who was 8th in the 25 class was probably a much You know, yeah, it was comario right and then jks right up right above him You know like some real that one felt like a lot deeper as far as dudes You know, but the class of 26 is still pretty young and Bentley does have you know quite a bit of skill I mean hey at some point these we're gonna see more true freshman quarterback right we've only seen phase We've seen phasen Jared Curtis and Tate Reynolds I mean injuries are gonna happen or guys are gonna play. I I don't know who those people are gonna be But you know bow Bentley's potentially in a situation where it might make some sense. I would agree man I'm looking forward to what heck of a weekend schedule we got to like just a a ton of I would call them basically elimination games for the conference title races especially in the g6 on all of these weeknights You know tonight will have a lot of the you know conference USA stuff with sam houston playing liberty Uh, you also have what msco state traveling fiu. That's a tough little road trip there Uh, be be looking forward to seeing and maybe hit which of those guys pop for uh for portal purposes as well and I think some important games Throughout the throughout the country as well just with like these games in early october shape the conference title races You know what like Arizona goes to west Virginia. They're favored They probably should win the game, but like if they drop that their path to actually get to Dallas and play In that big 12 title game is is uh, it's pretty narrow. So Lot of pressure on these teams to win these games issue win this weekend And we'll be watching all of the former four and five star recruits throughout the country This weekend. This has been the cover three recruiting show man. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me bud Saturday nothing hits like ufc on paramount plus Bossy legend Alexander Volcanovsky defends his wool title against undefeated months. I'm loyal for the featherweight championship Plus he order young and maraud de ball is being settled their epic trilogy in the phantomweight champion We have waited months for finality in this rivalry two title fights One massive afternoon live from Abu Dhabi. I mean to start run it ufc 333 saturday at two eastern free with your paramount plus subscription