THE ROOST PODCAST: Buying or Selling Post-Spring Storylines

Hi, I'm Jennifer Potter, Executive Director of B.Well Texas. Too many people are struggling alone these days and alcohol and drug deaths are increasing. We started B.Well Texas to offer high quality, science-based addiction, treatment and recovery services anywhere, virtually or in person. In many cases there is no cost for treatment or medications if you don't have insurance. Really. Welcome to B.Well Texas. We're glad you're here. Visit B.WellTexas.org [Music] Hey everybody and welcome to another episode of The Roos Podcast. As always, I'm Carter Spires, your with my co-host Matthew Bartlett, the Director and Managing Editor of The Roos. Your premier source for Rice Sports News at Nellysis. The Roos Podcast is part of the Dave Campbell's College Podcast Network. If it's happening in College Football in Texas, we are talking about it. We are talking for the first time in a while, really getting the microphones out of the tool shed again, dusting everything off. Just to check in with you all, I do a little post spring update. Take a tour through the overhauled Rice roster coming out of spring practice and see where we are at this point. Yeah, I'm getting back to it. I don't know what it was, but there was something about the Rice not going to a bowl game. And then, oh wait, Rice is going to a bowl game. And then it being in January, which turned into portal season, which turned into it's science. I don't know, man. Like my entire football calendar just got completely destroyed. And then they're like, oh yeah, we're at spring ball. And now spring ball is done. I was just like, I sure, man. Sure. And I guess not that I'm complaining that there is less of the calendar without college football content. But like the playoff goes so long now. Yeah, the season just ended. Like I used to just be starved for college football by the time. Like I was always so excited when spring practice cards started because I was like, yes, it's brief football oasis in the spring. And now it's like, okay, the season ended and four weeks later, teams are starting spring practice. And he's just like, oh, this is my bio rhythms are not ready for this yet. That's exactly what it felt like. We had not had spring was supposed to be the oasis in the desert. And I'm like, we just got, well, we just had dessert. Like we're not even hungry yet. Yeah, exactly what happened. And shoot half the roster wasn't there yet. And I guess that's that's where we can kind of get going. So a couple of things off top. If you haven't subscribed yet, patreon.com/atthorus, there are deep dives on everything from spring that we've been pacing out throughout the process. I have, I don't know, 3 or 4,000 words coming out by the time you hear this recording will be out on the offense of the defense breaking down some key takeaways and things we learned. We're going to do some of that at the podcast today, but there'll be a lot more in those notes. So grab those and if you're not subscribed on discord, you should join our discord. It's awesome and cathartic and it's been fun to kind of react. And it's it's fun sitting there on the ground floor and watching people see a highlight of Colin Lee, he that they post on the rice football Instagram and they're like, oh my gosh, is this guy the next coming of Luke McCaffrey and we can kind of break it down to pieces and this boy, Luke McCaffrey's not on this roster, but we got a lot of good football players. So, but discord's a great place to go and kind of talk through some of those things. So we're going to talk through a lot. We have a whole spring to get through. Is there a place that you want to start? Yeah. So, so we're going to kind of do a little go kind of position by position and do a little I'll throw in a statement and and and metal dive into the notebook and tell it tell us based on what he's seen this spring. Are we are we buying or selling that particular postulate if you will? So we'll start with the obvious place to start where else does one talk about football with quarterback. So our statement here, our storyline if you will is, jacory brown can elevate the ceiling and floor of this offense. This is the the pinata that I'm just teeing up. I'm buying this and I will say this kind of I it's hard to not get excited about the shiny new toy, right? But I I don't think it's too off board to say I am more excited about what jacory brown can do a quarterback that I have been for any rice quarterback, not JT Daniels. Like, even remember back when Luke McCaffery committed to rice and we were like, oh my gosh, he's going to play quarterback and it's going to be amazing. Like we were excited. But there was enough on the film with Luke that we were just like, okay, he's going to run all over people. I don't we'll see how it flies, but like this could be fun with jacory and special man. Can you imagine Luke at quarterback in this office? I was going to say like maybe maybe the excitement levels would have been comparable and yeah, you know, Luke's race career was great. I it would be so here is it, but like imagine the excitement level that we would have if he were coming into play quarterback in this office. Yeah, it's it feels like that's kind of where that's where we're at. And so we just if I go back a year ago with chase Jenkins and we're just like he can run, it'll be great. And then what kind of we watch throughout the fall. I don't know if you kind of noticed this. We kind of talk a little bit at the time and just kind of looked like he was timid like he just didn't want to like there were openings and he just didn't take them. And the one thing is, you know, it's sort of a thing you see with like athletic quarterback sometimes is there's a there's a tendency a lot of times to sort of know I'm proving that I can really play the position like that I am a passer I am a quarterback. I'm not just an athletic guy playing quarterback and I totally get that. But you are playing in an option offense like the quarterback run is not you are not like doing a disservice to anybody. If you run the ball a whole lot in this offense as the quarterback like that is that is a central feature. And you know, I was about to say not to speak ill of the dead chase Jenkins isn't dead he's just gone. But my fandom is speaking please excuse me. Chase Jenkins did have two season ending injuries in his career at rice and he's six foot. I'm looking into the roster right now. He was listed at six foot one ninety one. Like he's was not a big guy. He was like slender but I'm like Jason Bean like look like skin and bones when he was running around for no taxes but like but but he wasn't a big guy right. And so I guess a little bit that trepidation with the offensive line was it was okay. Maybe we cut chase some slack but chase six foot one ninety one. The Curry Brown is six four two hundred on the official roster. I've seen up where six six four two twenty in some places. So I don't know where that is but this is a big man and what I got a much bigger friend. The most about him in the spring is his decisiveness. And I think we said at some point last year and an option office it's an option offense. It's more important to be decisive than right sometimes. Yep. Like this going back to Luke McCaffrey. I vividly remember I believe it was they were playing Penn State and he was at Nebraska and he made the wrong read on a zone read play and went right into a five star defensive end and beat him because he was just more athletic but he had made the cut and the edge wasn't set yet and and that's what I see from the Curry Brown is he is willing to the whole is there and he explodes and he can run and he can move run over people and I think the arm is live. I think that was something that we haven't seen in arm like when we're not at JT levels. JT will probably forever be the most precise passer that sets foot on campus comfortably. But like jacquery can sling it and like he his timing down field is really really good. I think that was something that like we always felt that chase could throw it far but could he put it in a bucket. I think I've seen a lot more of jacquery in a bucket and you combine all those together and it it makes me really excited for this offense because I think what makes jacquery special could be what turns this offense from good to great but I think even just like what was so hard to evaluate in the moment is when chase sees a hole and he doesn't take it and that play goes for two yards on first and 10 like that's a drive killer in this offense. Like if jury if jacquery just because he's bigger and stronger can fall forward for four yards on the bad read like that keeps you on schedule. It changes everything, which I don't think we appreciate. because we haven't really seen it to that degree. So that was just a long way for me to talk about Chikari Brown being the sun, the moon, and the stars. Like we gotta see him do it on a Saturday in the fall, but man, I don't think they could have gotten a better person to play this position for what Able wants to do. - Yeah, and it just sends so much, like really to any offense, but especially to this one, when you have a quarterback, when you have a guy that's going to touch the ball on every play that is a five alarm fire for the difference, because we've talked about before about how this offense is designed to you make the defense wrong on every single play. And similarly, as to the offense, it's sort of a death knell for defending a defense like this, if you are, or as a defense defending this, if you hesitate, and anything that makes the defense hesitate even more, like just that slight bit of, oh crap, I better not be wrong about the quarterback pulling the ball out of the mesh here. Like the one fall step, and a guy is by you for 10, 15, 20 yards of touchdown, whatever. - Which, there's a force multiplier effect, yeah. - The third play from Scrimmage was a 70 yard touchdown run from Chikari. And it was right off the edge, inside, step outside a goal. It's gonna be more of that, please. - Yes, more of that. Chase could do it, he just didn't. I think Jekari's gonna do it. - Okay, we've went from the, we're going from the nice, easy, like, I don't know, 80 mile an hour fast ball right now, the ball will play. - We should have ended with quarterback, dang it. (laughing) - Now comes the 94 mile an hour cutter. So our next statement is, do you Andre Hardiman should get more carries than Quentin Jackson? Are you by any means selling that one? - I'm so in, man. Like, okay, okay. This is gonna be my hot take, and here's the thing. Okay. I think just for optics, sake, and for postseason awards, and the history of Rice football when all is said and done, and Rice is not running the option, Quentin Jackson's gonna be listed as a running back on this step chart. Like, he's not gonna be a slot. Not diminishing this lot position in this offense, it's just marketing, man. Everyone knows what a running back is. He's gonna be a running back. When you see the first step chart, Rice football pops out, Quentin Jackson will be the starting running back. The first carry that Rice gives from Scrimmage this season, we'll go to Quentin Jackson. But, I am here to report, I don't think I saw him take a carry from the running back position in the spring. And that was not because they're fooling up, you know, a massive con, and they're just doing a rope a dope on everybody watching. They know he can play running back really, really good. They know he's one of the best running backs in the conference, and he's not gonna forget that. They spent the entire spring acclimating him to the slot position. And, my, you know, every coach will tell you, we're just trying to find the best 11, right? I wasn't really able in person, I don't know who that was, but we're just trying to find the best 11. Go on, stop. Watching Deandre Hardiman run last year, as a true freshman, he was the, he missed the Louisiana game and played an every game after that. And I wrote about this in the rising star feature I did in January. He was the only freshman to play in 12 of 13 games, I guess every game but the bowl game, that wasn't just a special team's guy. Like a three or four other guys did it, but he was the only guy with, it was like a legit capital P player. And watching him this spring, he's the real deal man. And this is not a slight at Quentin Jackson at all. Quentin Jackson's amazing, but Quentin can do things on the slot and the receiving game that I don't think Deandre can do. And yeah, if you can think of it, - Things that we've already seen him do a little bit at the right position. - Yeah. - Like his first introduction to Rice was the, like the leaping grab in the, oh, the Alabama bowl, whatever bowl we play, they keep changing it. 49 Ventures or 67 Ventures. - Yeah. - That one. There's a mug on my desk here somewhere from it. But yeah, so like Quentin Jackson can do so much. So here's my bowl prediction I'm calling now. I think if I look back at the running back distribution for touches last year, Quentin Jackson was probably 65%. That's just a complete guess. I'd have to go and actually go look that up. I should probably do good sports reporting and have that in front of me. But it was the Quentin Jackson show with complimentary pieces. I think Quentin Jackson has less than 50% of the carries under center this year. I think they put him at 40%. I think he gets 10 touches a game as a running back. And I think he gets seven as a slot. Because Deandre Hardiman and Tyvon Biers, who haven't talked about yet, like are gonna be the one to punch that Rice needs. And now you're talking about three like real deal running backs for a offense that wants to run the football. And here's one, I gotta go pull this up. I was talking with head coach Scott Abel kind of debriefing the spring. And this is a direct quote because I just, I could not laugh. Direct quote from Scott Abel. He said, quote, we finished number 15 or something. And the, or sorry, we finished number 15 in the country in rushing last year. I'm embarrassed by that. We need to be a top five rushing team. (laughing) He said, oh, I love it. He said, top 15 was not good enough and he was embarrassed. Rice needs to be a top five rushing team, which means it can't be the Quentin Jackson show. It has to be Quentin Jackson in France. So just write it down now. A Q Jack will be the number one of the depth chart in every national magazine everywhere you see it. And he's gonna get his, but Deandre Hart, like, I don't know if I'm gonna stand on the table yet, but like Deandre Hart, I'm gonna rush for a thousand yards this year. That's how, that's how I think about him. Yeah, and I think there's something to be said for like one, you're getting Quentin more touches out of the, or more staps out of the slot. Like, you're, I think just by design, getting, that's not going to be as many touches if he's playing more snaps out of the slot. Hopefully they will be higher impact touches when he has them, 'cause you're kind of, you're kind of looking for bigger plays out of that position to begin with. And it's also a function of light, and you kind of got it this a little bit, but we know he can play running back. And it's one thing to be like, oh yeah, he can play running back and he can also play a little bit of slot, but like, if you're doing this, get your best to love it on the field thing. And you know, you want as many of your best playing the Acres on offense to play at the same time. And unequivocally, all these running backs are part of that. Then you don't want to, you don't want to do this thing where you're playing guys that are good players, but you are playing that they've had a position they're worth at. Like, you can't have a situation where, by putting in Quinn in the slot, you are getting just a lesser version of him. Yeah. You might as well just keep him running back. So it behooves them to like him getting all of those snaps out of the slot in the spring, makes it so that he can actually like, play the position for real. And so him not, like him playing there isn't just a, you know, fans always like to dream up a like, have Alabama fans used to always do a thing when like, we would have a whole bunch of great running backs at once, where it was like, oh, what if we play the wishbone? And we like, we're bringing back the wishbone. It's bear Bryant days and we're gonna put all those guys and it's like, but they can't. That's not how that works. You don't just get like, it's like for good running backs, all at once. If they're all in the field at the same time, that's four times the running back. It's like you're kind of diminishing it. Like you need them to be actually able to play the roles that you're putting them out there for. And so I like that they really put effort into it. It's like, okay, if Quinn's gonna be in the, playing the slot, I feel like I need to stop saying in the slot just because so that's like normal, wide receiver terminology, you know, like if he's going to be playing this position, then he needs to get a sort of full-time education in the position, if you will. - Yeah, and he got that in the spring. There was no mistake, that was the whole plan. So I'm, I think it's a good call. I think, and I just, this is size bias, okay? Like that's what it is, and I'm gonna cop to it. I just, I think his skill set fits better in that position than at running back. And I'm not saying that he's not a good running back, but I don't need him to run over linebackers. Like he, he's done, he won the Yukon game in overtime by running through someone and not stopping. Like he can do it, I understand. But like I think the best version and Quentin didn't really did not play like basically didn't play the UTSA game Because he was nursing an injury and now that game went sideways. You could effectively sit him and it didn't matter But like he's not injury prone and that's not what I'm saying But man, I I want to keep him as fresh as possible and let somebody else do the dirty work And I think I think Tyvon and D.R. Are the dirty work guys in the best way possible Okay, well speaking of the slot Last year kind of the air-in-turn show out of that position You know dramatic understatement So our our storyline for this one is the incoming transfers are good enough to make this position with multiple trusted options Multiple as in greater than one. Yeah Which I guess we get to cheat right if if we're counting Q Jack as a slot Even though he's not gonna be listed as we want to need one more right? But yeah, so what Q Jack brings to that position is like air-in-turner was quick Air-in-turner wasn't fast Like he had some good ride. I think about the the bowl game run where he hit it and he got tracked down in the open field Quentin Jack and I got caught like we saw that So You got Q Jack so that's some speed Davis Lane Like I believe state champion and I think was a was it was if I'm not Up on all my 40 meter hurdles. Is that I need to go I'll go pull it up Davis Lane My he's in the running transfer from Virginia played running back. He's in the running for top Five fastest player on this team with with you Jack. J'Currie's probably up there too, honestly But Davis Lane is has been incredible We only saw a little bit of him in the spring, but what we did see I really really liked Ben Greiss who I guess this was a receiver swap Dredin Dickman went to wake forest and rice got Ben Greiss Ben Greiss is great. I had somebody this week say that he might be the best football player in that room Which you know when when when a football guy calls someone the best football player like that mean something like it's not just like Oh, he's a good football player. He's like well, yeah, but it like he's really a football guy So and I really like those those two guys kind of really set up Guys be in dudes absolutely absolutely shout out splits undo Great great college football lore Those two have kind of separated themselves and I really really like what I've seen from them they both they are more It's just more talent frankly than rice has had at that position you look at the guys last year that were playing it And Dredin Dickman track guy, but had seen minimal action before and wasn't really Carved out for that role Landon ransom Hadn't really been fully healthy again not not what he was recruited to do they really really liked Tyson Thompson in that spot But he was never really healthy and so like last year like you said it was Aaron Turner And somebody else lined up in that position like some Ash Pierre true freshman was getting reps With the ones because that's kind of where they're at and someodge wasn't recruited to play that position. He was inherited With the rest of the recruiting class. So this is I and I'm putting this in my story that'll go out That'll be on the site when you hear this on the positions Able told me that defense Um, you know, we're we're not it's nothing special like we we run a s You know fairly standard kind of scheme that you can recruit a bunch of different players to offense. We're very intentional and specific You're like those less we have to have the right guys and they just didn't have the right guys and they They went out and lesson who are the right guys and they picked these guys and like everybody wants to recruit good football players, but like I don't know I'm I'm willing to give a little bit of the benefit out here and saying no this very nuanced skill set I believe it and so I think yeah, and I think it shifts the offense a little bit because I think last year we got to the point Even when Aaron really got going at the end of the year and the slot really became a weapon in the offense It was very much so a running back Centered offense where Quentin did a bunch of the work and then you'd have the gadget Play kind of the at the the cherry on top was the slot I think this year especially moving Quentin into the slot that you can you can get a lot closer to 50 50 With how you deploy this offense and I and I think that makes it less predictable gives you more options And I think it really helps a lot. So I think those are three guys with Q jack Greiss and Davis Lane that I think you're talking You know Five to seven touches a game out of the slot Which doesn't sound like a lot, but like that's a good amount of volume for a receiver or whatever they're playing Plus the running back touches like you're starting to the the count the touches are starting to add up and I think you can split it that way and then have jacquery and you start having Last year was there's two guys like it is special when chase like chase had a couple games where he really used his legs But for the most part he didn't and so it was it was Aaron and it was Q jack and I think this year You have four or five guys that like are really good guys and then you can sprinkle in you know whoever your ancillary Additional piece is to take your your Tyson Thompson whoever that's going to be this year to kind of take up a couple of other pieces and help out Yeah, we for as much as the excitement as we've had and as College football nerd him has had in general about rice switching to a triple option offense Lester was a whole lot of option one And it was a great option But you know we talked about with jacquery getting a little more of option two in there and it would sure be nice to have all three of them on the table And and that kind of requires this lot position to be a little more developed than it was last year so You know Be nice to actually have a little variety in there So be like would love to see this position really take office part of the offense now that as you said they actually have More and more guys that They have picked specifically to play this position or that have skill sets that really fit it But continuing to move I guess starting in the center and moving outward For the proper wide receivers our state our statement or short line here is the x receiver will be a viable part of the offense this season Before you get into that remind the class who played x receiver for rice last season Hey Braille and Walker Maybe Kind of Matthews Um I this was Of all the places that I was most strong when it came to this offense and just Picking my first understandings of it. Uh, I don't even remember who was the who was it Rice brought in a transfer receiver that played x last year and I made I made him as one of my rising stars Because I try and pick somebody that's not on the depth chart. Yeah Um Golly I want to go find out who who it was season preview rising stars. Who did I pick he I don't think he recorded a catch Artists call I don't believe our whole recorded a catch For rice and his entire career It frankly felt like this position win entire games without recording a catch last year So hey my other rising stars that I picked on that list Aquantus Clemens Who was very good and will be a starter this year on on the D line and and Tyvon buyers who I had to pick a freshman running back and I picked Tyvon because dr was hurt the end of camp and uh Tyvon like I'm gonna give that the way to year. He's gonna be yeah, but yeah, so here's Here's my thoughts. I think This is me if you said Matthew you have X amount of portal dollars to go spend and you can go build your your option offense If you ask me where I'm starting uh I'm gonna get a quarterback That's the first thing I'm gonna do. Yeah, probably then You could wrangle a little bit, but I'll probably go offensive line next At least a couple and then sprinkle in running back and and uh slot The last piece I'm touching is x-watt receiver and Just allocating what resources I have available and what how many roster spots I'm gonna I think there's four X for receivers on this roster right now. And I think that's probably, we talk about differentiators on next level of this offense. It's like, man, if you put, if you put, who am I? Like Brad Rossner. Like not a, not a showstopper, but like a very, very good trustworthy X receiver. If you put Brad Rossner in this offense, that takes it from woe to lights out. Like that's the, that's the amplifier. But if the offense isn't good, if the offense isn't good, Brad Rossner on this offense gets 18 catches in a season for 100 yards. So like, I, I think production wise, you're going to be in for what you were in last year. Because I don't think there's a guy in that room right now that they both, it has the talent and B is trusted by the coaching staff to do what he's supposed to do. I think the, the closest you have is Peyton Matthews. And he's a guy that I had several guys say he knows the playbook like the back of his hand. He is a willing, aggressive blocker. He knows where he's supposed to be. He's got some, some wiggle to him. He's pretty athletic, has some size. Like he's going to make some plays. I think he'll probably be your leader at the position. But I, I don't think this is like the saying that going to be the star, the straw that stirs the drink. And I, and I guess fine. Like I, it feels weird to be going into a year and being saying like, yeah, if we just don't get anything from this position, it's going to be okay. But that's kind of what I feel like, like, if, if Braille and Walker could get on the field again, I might feel a little bit differently. Like Barry Jackson, who came in from Cincinnati, like had a couple, whoa, highlight plays in the spring. But like is just not, not there with understanding all of his responsibilities and where he needs to be and hasn't. It's like, you know, when you're like, oh, he could be cool and the coach says, yeah, maybe. It's like, oh, so the answer is though, it's like, okay, so no, he's not going to be there. The answer is like, you just can't, you can't put that one highlight on and say that that's the player. So I don't think in that it is, it's April, we could be in a very different place in October, like things can click, guys can develop. But right now that's just, I don't think we get there. I don't think we get to, I don't know what percentage of actualization of the offense we were at last year. But I don't think we get to 100% this year. And so, and I think that 90 to 100% is that piece. And I just, it's not very exciting, but I'm kind of out here. Yeah. And I think the, I like what you said when you were talking about, you know, if you put bread rots or in this offense, it's very much a position in this offense where if you brought a really talented ex-receiver to this offense, it's like, hey, I got this, this like nitro boost to put on my car. And that's great if everything's running well on the car. I was going to say if you're driving a Honda Civic, I love my Honda Civic for a long time. If there's, if the engine barely runs in the first place, you're not getting much out of it by throwing the nitro boost on there. So it would be great if like, you know, it's like, okay, you know, we're three years into this coaching staff and the engines were everything's running real smoothly. And everyone knows what they're supposed to do. That guy, you know, the core of the offense is up and functional and we trust that to do what it's supposed to do. Now let's add on, you know, a big ex-receiver who can win all the one-on-one balls downfield. That would be great. But let's, let's get the foundation of the pyramid solid before we start adding a kutramol on top, you know. Yeah. Like, your room was fine. But there's nothing wrong with this room. It's a very capable room. Like, you know, paint methods and Keenan or Sega white side, Braille and Walker, you added a transfer that's got speed, which went in doubt, you know, add speed. Like, yeah, that's a fine, that's a good offseason in this room with where you're at. I don't have any issues with it. All right. So I'm going to give you, I'm going to take that statement off of the stage and I'm going to take the dude pictured there and make him slightly taller and slightly heavier. And then I'm going to put him right back up on stage. Next statement, the tight end will be a viable part of the offense this season. All right. So this one, I believe and I think that this is again another part of the offense where it's a cherry on top to some degree and that if you can be a number in the running game as a blocker, that's what we really need. But there's going to be two plays a game where we could really use you to do something special. And like I love Michael Barnett. Like Michael Barnett is just good football player, right? Like so diverse and capable was a bruising fullback. Did a lot of things. But like how many times did rice run that Texas route last year to Michael Barnett and he was wide open over the middle of the field and the pass was not completed. Like six or seven, at least like the same play and that's not all that's some Micah that's some chase or whoever's playing quarterback. I just did not connect. But man, if you take that and you can just boom complete that pass six of the seven times which like it's a wide open pitch and catch like it's not like. Yeah. This is not should not be a high technical. Like this should be pretty easy. Set your feet deliver the pass. Like and you do that and you can add four touchdowns to the tight end position. You can add, you know, two first downs a game. Like four touchdowns over the course of the season, two first downs a game from this position. Just being able to do stuff with it. Like that's what you need. Like you just need to be able to steal yards and a score here and there and I think I saw a he probably went down probably midway through camp and went down as a strong word, you know, this is spring. So everybody gets a hang now and it's like put him on ice like yeah. We don't want anything bad happening. So you know, he was limited the back half of spring. But Preston's enter the Notre Dame transfer transfer. First I was just like, oh, so you're getting the guy from Notre Dame so he can like, you know, give you the intel before you go play Notre Dame. Like NFL teams do this all the time, right? They go sign that, you know, backup receiver that got cut and like bring them in the week of the game. But no, Preston's Inter played linebacker defensive line at Notre Dame and played tight end in high school and I had a recruiting staffer reach out to me and say, hey, we're getting this tight in from Notre Dame. You should take a look at him and I went and looked and I was just like, who? And they're like, no, he's on the defense. And I was like, what are you talking about? You know, the tight end of the defense. And so I went and looked it up, go back and pull up a high school film. I was like, oh, I could see it. And then I got him here and like, man, like he's a real bonafide like tight end. Like like an actual like we talked about recruiting people to play the role. Like Michael Barnett was a converted fullback. Like James Falk in Cruddle, like, maybe not incredible, but very good blocker that can do some things down the field, but that's not his strong suit. You know, Reese Phillips converged as an H back. D.D. Oliver had like the play of spring where he caught like a 30 yard, you know, basically out when we'll route down the sideline. Those were fun. None of those guys were converted to be your prototypical, you know, versatile tight end. And Zinter was was was picked to do that. And surprise. He can do that better than the guys who weren't like that's no shame on anybody in that room. Like this is repurposing and he was great in the spring. And I I had so I file the rice feature for a Liddy's magazine if any of y'all read that. And so deadline was a week ago. And so I came down and it used to be really easy because everyone was on campus. You brought back 80 players. There were two transfers and like it was either you brought in JT Daniels. You knew you could write him down as the starter or not. And now I'm sitting here and I'm like, can I sit down and like put a transfer that I've seen play three practices as a starter in April. Preston's enter might be the one guy that I'm. that I have to go back and look. He might be the one just transfer that I saw four times that I said, yep, done. He's in. So again, I don't think that's 400 receiving yards. Like maybe it is, but man, if Preston's Inter can go for 30 catches, 280 and four scores, like that doesn't even, that's not even crazy. Like that's just like functional. And he might, I think he has some upside. I think he could be more than that. But if you can just give me that, that's more than we got it from the position last year. - Yeah, no, it would be a significant improvement on what they got from the position last year. And finally, moving further in and even bigger. - I like the transition steps. - There's enough steps on the O line to make it through the season, which almost feels depressing in a way, but I completely understand the sentiment of this one. - I've, we barely did, you know? In not having enough depth to properly get through last season, that helps you build depth for the season, right? - So yes, so throughout spring, Cole Princeby, who was one of those guys that got thrown in there at the end of the year, was a starting guard first team all spring. Nate Bledso, who played some emergency duty after David Stickel went down at center last year. Bledso started and played well, got pretty high regards from the coaching staff. He was the starting center all throughout spring. And then Justin Mikealis, who, I don't know if he got any starts, I don't think he did, but he saw action in several games last year, was one of the starting tackles. So, that was good that their first exposure to the offense wasn't this spring that they'd done that before. I think everybody, it might have gone as like, a bit of under the radar when it happened this off season, but the fact that they were able to retain everybody that they expected to from the line in the portal was huge because Patrick Valent, y'all remember, entered the portal in December, January at one point, and he came back and we can probably count on our hands the number of guys that entered the portal and came back at Rice. Like, that's just, yeah. Easily not how it goes, but they were pretty happy. They were over the moon when he came back and he's been him and Luke Miller, who started at Tackle, I think every game last year are pretty close. Those two, so, two guys, two starters that are back, locked and loaded, they were good. Three guys that played some that are gonna be asked to play. What I'm really, if we had to go play a game tomorrow, we, Rice is, the football team is playing. I'm gonna sit, sit, sit, passively observe and offer no physical effort, but, you know, go team. If Rice had to play tomorrow, I'd be pretty nervous because effectively you're trusting three green young football players that have not, they're playing Notre Dame the second week of the season. Like, I'm, yeah. And maybe, you know, we grow into it, but like year two, I was kind of hoping that like not the offensive line would be fixed, but that like, they'd be less weak one, like less of massive growth needed and incremental growth. I would love all of these guys to have more seasoning to before we have to rely on them. And the good news, Carter, is that I think we're gonna get that Leo Bloom and Scott Becker are two guys that haven't weren't here in the spring Ivy League. Stop me if you heard this before. Rice got a guy from the trenches from the Ivy League and they're just gonna plug him in and see how it goes. I just, Leo Bloom actually played with Sean Sullivan at Yale. So we saw that workout pretty good. - Well, I hear he really wants to be a producer for this offense. So there's a little, there's a little, there's a little tidbit for my fellow musical theater fans out there. - Is this Bloom or Sullivan? - Leo Bloom is the name of one of the main characters in the producers, Matthew Broderick's character in the movie. - Ah, I'm sorry, I'm gonna turn in my theater card. I'll come see it though, you rock rice theater. - Yes, this Leo Bloom is a dude. I think he's gonna plug in and it's, again, I feel hesitant projecting, starting roles for guys that have never seen play at rice, but I would not be, he's, I don't know if I'm gonna, he's, I'm, Preston Center is gonna be your starter in tight end, done. Leo Bloom, I feel pretty, pretty confident that he's going to start somewhere, guard or tackle. And then if Scott Becker can either beat out in a blood cell or be a guy that they can put in, 'cause rice said they were gonna rotate lineman last year with this coaching staff and I was like, that's crazy, who does that? And then they did it. So I, it's gonna happen again. So all those together, I think now I've getting to enough pieces where I'm like, okay, I think from that consortium of, you know, those guys and then, got, Needum is another guy, a culture alberting is a, a sophomore that had, that OC Vince Munch told me was having the best camp of anybody on the team before he got slowed down with an, with an injury, which is, which is great. So I, I think there's enough guys in there that are in that tier of like, you could be like a really good contributor that you can play 20, 30 snaps a game, but as, like, as long as we have somebody else also, that's maybe a bit more seasoned. Both of those, and I think they have that. I, I don't know, like do you remember that year a couple of years ago where Rice just brought in three grad transfers on the offensive line? And it was just, it was, yeah. And like two of them, like got into NFL camps, that Nick Levere, and, oh man, who else was that? Like two of them went straight to the NFL, and one of them was just rock solid. And you're like, yeah, I would love that, but that's probably not gonna happen every year. So I don't know if we're there. Turns out, when grown men play offensive line, is a winning formula, a lot of time. - The cheat code is get a 25 year old that already has a bachelor's degree. That's the answer. So yes, I'm gonna buy it. I think there's enough depth to make it through the season. I, I'm not, I gave you over the moon. I think quarterback, running back, and slot are gonna be night and day better than we've seen before. So I think offensive line, I think it's gonna be solid. Like I'm not, I'm not at the point where I am at other positions where I'm just like, I'd nervous, just like the saying gonna work. But yeah, I'm buying that the O line, we're not gonna be getting to week seven and be like, man, the offensive line is just stopping this offense from working. I don't think we're gonna be there. - Yeah. - All right, shifting to the other side of the ball, but staying, staying with the beefy boys. Rice will be able to pressure opposing Cubis consistently with this front. Consistently, I think being the, you know, operative word here. - Do you remember like at the end of what was it week three, week four, basically non-conference play? Rice was leading the American in Sacks. Like do you remember that? - What a beautiful time in our lives. - I don't know where they finished. I don't wanna look. It was not that high. - It was not that high. (laughing) - I don't remember the numbers, but I'll go ahead and tell you. - And so that was the point where you're like, okay, D line and then you lose Tonya Nyanwu and Blake Banish from that line. Michael Daley started the season. He's gone. So those are the three guys that like, where starters beginning of the year and are not here and they brought in a high upside unproven transfer from Eastern Washington. And I haven't seen, Tariq May is that guy that has not been in yet. Like athleticism off the charts looks great, got bins, film is good. I think he's more of a designated pass rusher. Like, where Tony started. Where you put him on for 15 snaps of game and say go do your job. And like that's a valuable important, like part of a functional college defense. Like to have a guy that say, hey it's third night, go get him boy. Like that's all you need to do. (laughing) So I think there's a role there. And I think if he hits and I get really nervous. nervous with like, unproven guy. Well, if this guy who hasn't done it in college before, if he doesn't hear, like it just sounds crazy, right? - Yeah, right. - If he has, if he has, if he has, then I feel pretty good, like that they'll be able to get enough pressure to make this work. But if he's just fine, and we have the kind of same kind of level of production we did last year, like with Tony was really good, but like didn't really have a lot of help. And so I just, it's a bunch of guys like Joseph Matumbo coming into last year, the talk was like, we just need Joseph Matumbo to like step up and be the guy. And he had all season in no competition and he did not. And I'm not saying he can't. I'm not saying he can't, like, and Chibi Nuajuaku, like his battle through some injuries, like he's had a great spring. He's gonna be the starting edge opposite Matumbo probably, like really like, these are all guys that like, I don't know, he's gonna, he's gonna be that baseball guy that hits for 280, 270, whatever the hitting for average now is, right? He's not hitting 320, he's not hitting 40 dingers, like he's not gonna strike out a hundred times. He's just a solid single when he comes to the play. And like that's good and you need those players. - Yeah. - But like, - If that's all you got, that doesn't get you a whole lot in terms of life. - Yeah. - All of the upside, all of like the home run pieces are just super young man. Like, - Yeah. - The freshmen that they brought in off the edge, had some moments this spring where I'm like, okay, I could see it, where's my defensive notes pulling up. Couple of them really looked good. Like Seth Clark had some moments, I like the bend, but again, Trut Rushman, Luca Icaritava had, I think, a couple moments last year, Brad shirt freshman, Braden Bayes had some moments can play a couple spots across the line in spring, Red shirt freshman, and just saw me if you heard that before, like young, young pieces. And so here's the thing, like, the most premium positions, the NFL drafts has happened at this point, probably by the time we get this out. The positions that got picked at the top of the first round, quarterback, this year's probably a weird draft 'cause we're gonna see some linebackers and safety's drafted, right? That's not supposed to happen. But typically, quarterback, defensive end, receiver in corner, like an offensive tackle, like the difference makers. Like, I'm gonna hear to tell you, there's not enough defensive ends to fill out how many FPS teams are we at now, 130, seven. Feels like at this point, we should just start running 250. Yeah, but we'll start there. But I just, I'm sure Rice would have loved to get a difference maker at defensive end at edge in the portal. And I just, there's some power, power conference programs in the state that would have loved the drafts. And defensive. Yeah. That's very, very expensive. And let's not be foolish about this. Rice isn't, you know, the brinkstrucks are going straight to the endowment and not to the football program. Maybe we can work on that. Like, if you're rice, you have a limited budget. Are you gonna, are you gonna blow your budget on the best defensive end you can afford? Who might be pretty good? Or are you gonna spend it on the offense? Yeah. Like you're, you're gonna spend it on the part where you think you can be special. And I don't disagree without philosophy. Like, yeah, I think everybody wants more pass rushers in college football in the NFL. Like everyone wants more pass rushers. I, you know, this is a room that I just, it was not great last season and they didn't do much of anything to make it better. And so I don't know why, like, I think what we've had in the before is we've had a defensive line coach that was there for a long time, Cedric Calhoun, that like, just produced guys and sent guys to the league that were not like G-Chip guys. And so they brought in Eli Rashid who was with Matt Campbell at Iowa State for eight to 10 years, like a long time. And like his accolade list is long. And when you go look up, this assistant coach joined your program and like, here's all the NFL Pro Bowlers he coached. Like, that's cool. I like that. So I like that pieces, but it's hard, it's hard to bank on. So it's a bunch of unknowns. So like, I don't know. I'm nervous about this. I don't think Rice is going to be able to pressure opposing quarterbacks consistently. I'm gonna sell that. I think that if you can't be consistently good up front to that degree and be differential getting to the quarterback, I think if you can be good against the run, which this D line has over the past several years, K and deeper, like been pretty good against the run. And you can just get a splash play a game. And K and Brian Smith before him have gotten creative safety blitz, odd pressures, doing stuff like that. I think you can, I was gonna say fake a pass rush. I don't think you can fake a pass rush. I think you can try. But I think you, you can scheme a pass rush. If you're solid everybody, everywhere else, you can absolutely scheme a pass rush. - Yeah. So I think that's the hope here that you can get enough pieces in the right places, that you can work the offense into doing what you want. Yeah. So this is one where I went into the spring and I'm like, I just, I wanna be wowed and I wasn't wowed. And I think it might have been, I don't know, irresponsible to expect to be wowed. I'll say the caveat here, Ty Thames who was American conference picture of the week like two weeks ago. Also Moonlight says a linebacker and his free times at Rice. Here's my ex-factor here. He played a lot of edge last year. I think Ty Thames is a guy that's just built different and we just didn't see him in spring. And he's, so he's showing up too. So there's another reinforcement there. So I think if you get, Ty Thames had a couple plays last year and his limited staps never having played edge before really. That was like, okay, I like this. So if you can get an unlock Ty Thames, that's another way. So I, there's probably a little bit more upside here. I try not to go sit through, you don't want me to sit through this podcast everybody listening and be like, "Well, every position's gonna be great. "They're all in the best shape of their lives. "I'm really excited." So like, I'm trying to give you some like, some real opinions here. Like, I'm nervous, but there is a bit, a bit of upside that we just don't know yet. - Yeah. And I feel like, I don't know, but the guys they have returning, I'm not necessarily worried about this defense flying being, they're not gonna be real. Yeah, they're not gonna get gashed, I feel like. I feel like they should be solid enough upfront, especially against the run that it's, you know, this isn't like a, like, oh, this is the Achilles heel of the team. It just, you'd really love to be able to get splash plays from your defensive line and it doesn't feel responsible to expect a lot of that. Now, I think it's our big takeaway here. - Yeah. So for linebacker then, we have, John Gay has done enough for the position that we trust it will be good no matter what. A lot of good linebacker play in over the last several years for Rice. Do we think that continues this year with a bit of a different look in the room? - I just, we have a short memory with these things, right? But like Andrew Allway was a safety. - Yeah. - That was buried on the Dept chart and didn't play. And John Gay turned him into, - Was he a walk on? - He was a walk on safety. And he was when he left a top 15 linebacker in the conference. Like, wasn't like the best linebacker in the conference but like was, every team in the American would've put Andrew Allway on their roster in a heartbeat. - Yeah. - If not to start. So like, at this point, I was just like, yeah, John Gay, whatever you, every once in a while and you see this through different universities and position groups, you're just like, and sometimes it's just like, well, we just get all the good players, we have the money, it's fine. I don't know, how do you feel about the Alabama running back coach and that example you were running back to? Who is the running back coach at that Derek Henry Mark Ingram? Like at that point, - Ernst. - Did it not matter? Or just like at this point, like we just, I don't know. Maybe John Kaye is our, our Bert Burns. (laughing) - You know, maybe it did matter, but I will say that there's a, there was a long time when I went without really thinking about him, and then there have been time since where I was like, maybe I should have thought about Bert and Burns more. (laughing) - But that said, I, John Kaye's gonna figure it out. I just, I'm, yes, they lost two really good linebackers. I'm not concerned. I think one of the reasons I'm not concerned is, Jesus Machado is really interesting story. So he was in all conference, all American. - I got, can we change the name of this conference please? (laughing) - He was an all conference player in the American conference at Tulane. - All AC. - All AC. - Yes. No, that was, that was, that was still when it was the AAC. I think he was, he was an AC. - Yeah, now, now I was, I had the, I had the, - He's put it in all AAC player, but not in all AC. - This is correct. This, I had the baseball game pulled up in the boxes we get in the headline for Rice and Memphis was American baseball. And I was just like, (laughing) - What are we doing? - American baseball. - Nothing else. - That's like a boring, - You said it. - I really liked it. - You really just, you said American baseball. - And it was Rice and Memphis. Good, good, this gracious. Machado, all conference player at Tulane got hurt and basically missed that next season immediately after that. Followed Willie Forens to Houston, where basically by the time he got healthy, it was clear you're not starting. And this got a lot of hurt, it was like, well cool, I'm not wasting my last year of eligibility as a part-time player. And so, entered the portal, ended up at Rice. And so it's one of those things, it's like, okay. He wasn't starting caliber, starting linebacker quality for a pretty stingy Houston defense. Doesn't mean he can't be really good at Rice. And he was, all conference caliber in this conference is ridiculous. So, and healthy. And like, you don't read too much into this, but basically the way they do it is one player on each level of the defense. Like first, second, third team gets the in-ear in-helmet communication for the defense. So, you know, I think, all the way at it last year, I believe, and then Blaze Tita also wore it, not Timoris, because you have to have the backup. Like, so you always have to have one guy on the field and only one guy that has the mic. So, Machado got the mic this spring. He was the guy, he's not coming off the field. And so, if you solve one spot with, if he's healthy, he can play, Rice doesn't rotate their linebackers. He's gonna play just better, he's staff he can. So, that's one of them. I think you can get enough there, and that, whoever, maybe it's Ty Thames, you know, it just as a pure mic or a linebacker could slide back in. So, we'll see what happens at Edge. You know, that's where Thames started. He was a linebacker. So, Bobarton is the guy that won every catapult GPS contest that they have every offseason. Like, one of the fastest guys on the team who plays linebacker, that is important at the position. It's not the most important thing, but range. Yeah. I remember like, Blaze Aldridge is famous at Rice because no one could outrun him, not because he's the biggest hitter. He could hit, but like, just range is important. So, I think that about this a lot with this position, and it's relevant to this particular point regarding John Kaye. Like, off-ball linebacker is absolutely one of those positions where at this level, at least, you, you can coach him up. Like, Edge, Russia, there's a degree to which you just got to be a dude. You know, like, if you're going to be a guy, - do you measure? - Yeah, are you explosive? Do you have, you know, the length? Do you have the bed, the strength, whatever? Off-ball linebacker is much, is as much as any position on the defense about being mentally ahead of the offense. And like, you know, a guy can be faster than you, but if you know what the offense is doing, and you're reacting to the play, that that matters more. You're anticipating the play based on rather than a guy who's purely reacting, like that makes a difference. That said, it never hurts to have a guy who. You can hopefully coach up to that level, and it's one of the fastest guys on the team. I will take that. That's a really good point. All right, and last but not least, moving back to the secondary, which we are saying, you can, in fact, build a secondary through the transfer portal. You buy in your cell on that one, 'cause the answer is very important for rice this season. I just. It feels so dirty. It does. Like, this is not like, I'm. This is not Old Man yelling at clouds. Like, I just, I remember the good old days where there wasn't transfers, and you had to stay at your school. I don't care. Like, give me the best football team. I don't care where they came from. Full stop. But historically, like, historically, what three seasons where this has been a thing, the teams that have tried to microwave a secondary, like, it's just. In this corner, it's just a very volatile position. Like, you could. Like, look, look at the NFL. Like, there are some guys that have 10-year careers, but there's a lot of guys who were like, we're really good, got a contract, and then we're just, okay. Like, finding a dude that can just win on an island by himself is just so hard. And just 'cause he did it last year, doesn't mean he's gonna do it this year. And that's what the best players. Yeah. It's very noisy in terms of the results of that position. So you add, like, I counted up when I was kind of putting my notes together, 12 new players in the secondary. That rice brought in this off season. That includes eight incoming, or sorry, that includes four incoming freshmen that aren't here yet. And another safety from Sacramento State, who I honestly think might start in Kaua Kui. So, but that's just. My experience and my just football bias says you can't do this. And like, there was nothing I saw on the field this spring that was upsetting, or just I was like, 'cause going into last camp, we were sitting here and I'm like, I don't think they have a second corner. And it turns out they didn't, and their first one got kicked off the team. So they had no corners. Like, so we were right. So going in here, I look like, man, Jumeer Benjamin, who came over from UCLA, is a stud. Like, I just. - Yeah. - So good. Like, so good. They have one corner. We're in the same spot last year. And like, I think to Rick Watson at UAB, did a lot of good things. Most of the other guys were hurt, and like, didn't play a ton. - Yeah. - So like, it was, I was like. - It does really weigh a little bit of it that they were like three corners playing at one point. - Yeah, I think of the spring game, three corners dressed. So like, didn't get to see a ton of evaluation there. So I think, I like Benjamin a lot. He impressed me. Just fluid and like sticky. And just everything you want a corner to be. So I think they got one guy for sure. I say for sure, I just told everyone listening, you can't say for sure. Well, with importing an entire secondary. But I like that. I think if they came in to the season and had Benjamin and to Rick Watson, I think they'd be okay. Like, I don't. We had several, I several year run, where Rice just had a lead corner play. Even when it was like, they're pulling their third corner and fourth corner off the bench. It was just really good. And maybe Jeremy got Modkins and his predecessor, Jared Wilter, were just great corners coaches. Or they just had good scheme. I don't know what it was. So I think there's a point where they brought in enough guys where I think they have enough, it's specifically a corner. I think the room's gonna be good. Like solid. I don't think it's locked down like it was, which Rice fans got really spoiled too. Like, and have a history of like, there was a time like in most fans' memory where Rice had two starting NFL corners on this defense. Like, standard high here. - What a hundred. - So we're not there. I think corner, I liked what I saw, and I'm hesitant there. And so I will say this, I loved what I saw it safety. So like corner, I was like, was good. I feel good. I feel better about where we are at corner through the spring that I do [BLANK_AUDIO] the defensive line because at least there's kind of these guys I either haven't seen a lot or I've seen a little bit and so there's still some projectable upside of it doesn't feel as crazy to say you know Jury Benjamin was a role guy at you say like I didn't play but like if he gets a starting job here could he be a guy like there's enough unknown there that I feel pretty good like it doesn't feel crazy to project that so there but the safety group I like Davian Hokus back and only play I think played four games last year um Davian Hokus really good football player like instinctive fast like can do can line up everywhere which I think is important in this defense he's back AJ Brown who came over from UAB was really good and just consistent center fielder always in the right spot made some big plays uh just veteran like a grad transfer that plays like a grad transfer who started I think over two seasons at UAB and was solid so I think those two guys are like I think mark mark losing Marcus Williams stinks because I think Marcus Williams if he was on the team would have been the best safety on the team this year so I think like you're you're up your best player is gone in that room but I think an aggregate the total quality of of ability and talent in the safety room is significantly higher than it was last year they brought in you Kate and Vermass a young guy from Nebraska made some good plays Jo Chavez played a lot last year he was really good I think Koei from Sac State not here yet but I think he probably slides in so I think you're starting group next year is AJ Brown Davian Hokus and a Koei who like go look at his numbers and his play at Sac State was incredible at the FCS wait FBS level Sac State is FBS now last year or this year were they were F's they played at FCS last year now they're FBS yes yes that's good that's right yeah there was some weirdness with them and their their comfort like well they like paid huge money to get into the Mac into the Mac is that what happened yes and they're playing in the Mac this year pretty much time final answer golly um so all that to say like there was a problem here and they brought in guys and I I think you I said I don't think I don't believe you can build like rebuild the secondary through the transfer portal I might be able to save like we talked about premium position safety is not a premium position like and there's there was a lot of there was a lot more quality safety is out there that you could go grab you take flyers on then corners of defensive lineman so I think rice scatter shot and we'll just like got numbers because they like rice had to bring in bodies so like everyone was gone and they weren't good so you had to go just flush the entire room and they did that and I everybody is like I'm the smartest guy in the room I'm gonna go find all the good players that nobody else thinks they're good players like you're you're selling something like so like I don't I'm nervous just because I my mind says you can't do this what I saw in the field in the spring was last year the secondary was a liability and it was untrustworthy and it was bad what I saw in the field the spring was like okay this looks pretty good and like honestly if you got pretty good secondary you got functional like I think we went so long with the defense being three steps in front of the offense at rice that were just like if it flips like that's a bad thing I think it's gonna be okay like and I think if you do this right and you limit the exposure if your defense is now playing 50 to 60 snaps a game instead of 80 I think you can hide a weaker second corner like I think you can hide the fact that you don't have the defensive line depth maybe that you want right and like if if it's flipping here because the the defense the offense is actually being what we hope it can be then then that makes a huge difference rather than just like the defense is behind the offense because the offense is okay and the defense is really bad I also think like as I share your general sentiment like I just like I am uncomfortable with the concept of just the wholesale wholesale importing a position group no not of the corners specifically the secondary if you told me like we just well they did it in the slot room if they did it with skill player like if you're just gonna microwave your skill positions like cool I buy that like that doesn't feel like but a secondary specifically a secondary if you want to do it on the defensive line and you're just gonna bring in three edge rushers like okay like the second area is the part where everything has to go in concert in like I just yeah that in the online those two spots that I'm just like it's usually you just can't just plug and play like that that's her I do think there is some element of with the corners at least if you are going to play a lot of man coverage that that is at least a little simpler conceptually than if you have I don't know a lot more complex things or lean or more interlocking parts going on because if there's one thing the do in the secondary can just do like if you can play man coverage you can kind of play man coverage is like safety is very much not a you know if you can play at one place you can play at somewhere else type of position like some very I feel like scheme dependent role corner can be that way in certain defenses it's not as much in a defense that relies on on my man coverage like so go lock him down one can you win one possible cause for optimism there but yeah no I tend to yeah I I think this roster is better than it was last year I like I think that's true of yes same both sides of the football and that they were five and 17 last year like they were supposed to win through games like I I have to look we're going in the right direction that's that's what we would we wanted to get out of spring and we need to say like is there just anywhere on this whole on this roster that is just like they're screwed and I don't think we're there like there's not a point where going into last last fall it was just like well man do they have anybody that plays slot like do they have a receiver like do they have a tight end like do like so many positions where there's like and the answer was like like not really like because they didn't have both those guys in and they brought those guys in there so the the roster is is unequivocally better than it was I think we have we have still a lot of I don't know I in in year one we're just like oh but when we get to year two like it'll be the second year and they'll be in order developed and I was like I'd kind of fooled myself in the thinking that man everything was going to be fixed like you're two everything's fixed and then then they just start winning and and now I'm just like oh no no no it's you still got a build and it's a almost like it is a whole process huh yeah yeah absolutely so we're still in the process I feel pretty good but it's I'm reminding myself it's a process all right uh and it'll be a process for us getting through the rest of the offseason but hopefully that was uh enough to tie jaw lower for a little bit so um we'll sign off here uh and we'll uh look forward detection base in the summer as we we spend back up uh so we'll see you again soon and rights by this show was edited and produced by Carter Spires it features music from Joseph McDade