Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3.

Hope you are maybe starting your holiday weekend a little bit early.

Maybe driving somewhere fun.

We're going to party for the 4th of July.

Hopefully we're giving you something to listen to,

something to watch while you're driving.

But, Ari, deep dive week continues with a fascinating program. When we've talked

about a lot over the last few years, the Penn State Nittney Lions made it to the semifinals

last year. Bring back a ton, including quarterback Drew Allen. Huge expectations on this team.

And it seems maybe filled the biggest glaring hole through the transfer portal.

Yeah, we had a discussion and, you know, a month ago about whether or not this team should be ranked number one overall going into the season.

And, you know, the initial reaction to that sort of thought process is, well, James Franklin's going to choke or Penn State always is overrated. And it's like, that's not what we're doing here. We're trying to project forward. And it seems to me, like Penn State at least has an argument to be one of the three most well-rounded teams in the country. I think that would be my top three would be Penn State, Texas, and Clemson, which is illustrated there on that graphic. In terms of having game-changing players at a multitude of positions, they have a quarterback that, you know, people like to give a hard time because of that last throw we had in the semifinal, but at the same time,

it should be a much improved version of himself and somebody who could be a

first round pick a year from now.

There's a lot to like about this Penn State team.

And frankly speaking, Andy, you know, my thought process was that Penn State

would be the number one biggest beneficiary of the playoff system expansion because they

were always in the 6 to 10 range.

And that'll be true.

But if Penn State also improves while the system makes it easier for them to exist, years like

last year are going to be more regular.

So I'm excited to see if they can break through this year, though.

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