Welcome to the Andy Staples Show and Friends podcast feed, the flagship college football podcast at The Athletic.

Thank you so much for joining us.

I am Sam Kahn, senior college football writer at the athletic, also known as the techspurt,

joined by my good friend, esteemed colleague of more than a decade, Max Olson, National

College Football at the Athletic, our transfer portal realignment expert, covers college

football coast to coast.

Max, it's week one.

How are you doing today?

I'm good, man.

I got a nice little appetizer with Week Zero.

I enjoyed it.

Did you have to run around with the kids all weekend, or did you get to pop down on

the couch a little bit?

Saturday, I got to watch the game.

I got to stay up for North Texas and U-Tep, and I say stay up loosely because I kind of

maybe ran out of steam there in the middle of the fourth quarter of that eight of that nine o'clock central kick but yeah I was I was texting Annie and Ari during uh vandy Hawaii in in the second quarter I'm just like fellas I'm tapped out can't do it see I I'm in preseason mode I'm going to be in midseason mode by time we kick off this weekend but welcome to our new podcast it's a new season we got a new show for you. Max and I are going to be in mid-season mode by time we kick off this weekend. But welcome to our new podcast.

It's a new season.

We've got a new show for you.

Max and I are going to be here with you every week in the Andy Staples Show and friends feed. And we'll talk about college football through our lens. As I mentioned, Max covers a lot of ground. He's our expert on the transfer portal. If you guys didn't check it out last week, log on at theathletic.com.

Check that transfer portal top 100 that he and Bruce Feldman did with 100 most impactful transfers in college football this year. Max is all over the realignment, which of course was a big topic of conversation this summer. Last summer, it seems to be every so often that coming back around. Yep. That's right. It's an annual deal now. Max, of course, lives in Nebraska, covers college football across the country, has spent some time in Big 12 countries, spent some time in Big Ten, even goes West Coast, East Coast. You got it. And of course, you know me as a tech expert down here in the great state of Texas. I've covered football in this state for 17 years, cover college football and recruiting in the state of Texas now.

And that's going to be me. That's going to be my flavor is a lot of Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, TCU, even some Houston, even some, we'll do some meeping with UTSA from time to time, I'm sure.

But Max and I are excited to bring you a fresh podcast with discussion of the teams and storylines of interest the most. Today we'll talk about the five things that each of us are looking forward to in week one. And we'll have some guests on a fairly regular basis. Today we're kicking off with a good one. Max got West Virginia coach Neil Brown to come and preview the backyard brawl on Thursday night. I'm excited for that game. How about

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