SEC Media Recap Coaches Pre-Season Poll Tiger 14 over, miss the cut at the Open

Andrew Zimmel talks about the coaches poll, Tiger Woods missing the cut, and SEC media day winners and losers. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I always appreciate it when Craig allowsme to fill in for him. It

(00:03):
is an honor. He is oneof the handful of radio legends that we
have in the state of Texas.He is by far on the Mount rushmore
and for a lot of people,my ute Mount Rush play by play.
Guys, all right, I teasedit. I teased it. I'm gonna
tease it no more. Your statof the day is four. Okay.

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Back in twenty eleven, there's ahead coach of a team that a lot
of people thought and still do thinkis the best team of the twenty first
century, The Alabama Crimson tied intwenty eleven after winning his third championship,
fourth overall, but third championship atAlabama, the University of Alabama did something

(00:47):
that they've only done for a handfulof coaches, and that's give Nick Saban
a statue. In twenty eleven,Nick Saban received a statue outside of Denny
Bryant Stadium. A re correction,let's get Brian Denny Stadium. I want
to get that right. Brian DennyState got a statue outside of the stadium,
and a statue is essentially living inimmortality. Right, like we give

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bus for the NFL Hall of Fame, we give plaques for the Baseball Hall
of Fame. Baseball Hall of Fameweekend this Saturday, by the way,
in case you were forgot it onyour calendar. We give these trophies and
these a war is that get collectdusk dust. But the reason that we
give statues is for immortality. Thatwe're hoping that the next generation and their

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next generation will look back and rememberthese larger than life figures and look,
you might roll your eyes and thinkyourself like, is it really that poetic
about college athletics? Yes, Itruly believe it is that important. It's
that impactful that Nick Stavid has thestatue. But the reason that I make
a point to say it happened intwenty eleven after he won three championships at

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Alabama, is that he won fourmore after that. That is just out
of the day that after Nick Sabanreceived a trophy outside of the stadium which
now has his name on the field, he won four more national championships eleven

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SEC titles. While in I guessyes, in the SEC he won the
SEC West fifteen times, majority ofthose coming at Alabama and Now his name
forever will be on the field.Alabama today renaming the playing field at Brian
Denny Stadium after Nick Saban. Now, it went through and I could not

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think of a more appropriate person tohave their name put on the field.
Now. Ironically enough, they're doingthis dedication to the new field on September
seventh, which is the second gameof the season. You might say to
yourself, why are we not doingit on the first They're doing it on
a second game of the season againstSouth Florida at Brian Denny Stadium. At

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seven seventeen seasons at Alabama, NickSaban two hundred and six and twenty nine
while winning six national championships and leadingthe Crimson tied to three SEC titles as
well. So just an absolutely incrediblelegacy at Alabama. He announced his retirement
in January. He's now in themedia pool as well, and it got

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me thinking about some of the otherguys who might deserve to have their name
on the field, right because Igot I understand why it's named Brian Denny
Stadium. I understand that they namedit after I think the stadium is almost
like one hundred years old at thispoint that they put Bryant at the end

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of it. After Bear Bryant,the legendary coach at Alabama, and it's
something to be said. Or thefact that Bear Bryant, who did the
almost unthinkable and did just had anabsolute incredible career at Alabama, it's something

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to be said that Nick Saban hastaken that title now of the greatest college
football coach of all time. Iargue with my friends all the time when
we talk about college coaching, becausecollege coaching in twenty eighty four is different
than it was in two thousand,and it's different than it was in nineteen
eighty If you go in twenty yearincrements, the sport changes so rapidly.

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In today's day and age, itis just you blink and things are changing.
But what Nick Saban was able todo at Alabama taking a team that
originally was in the BCS format,which not super subjective. You didn't have
AP writers voting for who should bethe national champion. I think God for

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that. Considering that some of themvote for Vanderbilt to win the SEC.
You know, it's probably a smartidea that we took the votes out of
the hands of some people and putit in the hands of a computer.
Then people didn't like that. Theydidn't like the BCS system. They didn't
like that the computers were picking.So they wanted to go back to,
oh, well, you know theeye test. We want to give it
to a committee. And also wewant to make sure that it's not just

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two teams playing for the national championship. It should be four. Four teams
should have a chance, and nowit's going to go to twelve. Teams
should have a chance to compete forthe national championship, which is probably the
line in the stand that Nick Sabandrew. He said, Nil, you
know, I probably can make thiswork. Alabama boosters, they've been known
to have a penny in their pocket. They've been known to be able to

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dish it out. Okay, Iunderstand that Nick Saban probably would be fine
in the NIL era, but withtwelve teams kind of waters it down.
And I imagine that Nick Saban acoach that built a program in the most
competitive era SEC football history. AndI don't just say that because Texas is

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now a member of the conference.I say that because the SEC went from
probably one of the if not thebest college football conference. I think people
in the SEC would tell you itwas the best college football conference for a
long time, but it was.It was competitive. PAC twelve had Heis
and winners. ACC had some funteams. The Big twelve had Texas and

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Oklahoma and Nebraska for a long time, Big Ten Michigan, Ohio State,
there were teams right. It waspretty spaced out, It was even playing
field. SEC might have a slightedge, but by the time that Nick
Saban took over Alabama, the SECwas the preempt They were the conference.
They were the like the PAC twelverip called themselves the Conference of champions,

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but the SEC is the conference ofchampions. The SEC. If you go
back in history during the Nick Sabanrun at Alabama, you look at those
other teams that were winning national championships. If Nick Saban wasn't winning the national
championship, well, then was therival in state Auburn. And if he

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wasn't winning, or if they weren'twinning the national championship, it was rival
LSU that was competing for national titles. And if it wasn't Alabama in the
West winning, it was Georgia inthe East. And if you go back
and you look at the last ofthe BCS title games. You go back
and look in the Nick Saban erathe amount of times that two SEC teams

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were competing for the title. Likeyou we go through and we talk about
Texas joining the SEC now, andwe say every single week it's a competitive
week. You listen to the coachesat the SEC media day say anytime you
could be humbled. Kirby Smart says, every week you have a chance to
be humbled. Yeah, that's probablytrue, there's one hundred percent fair.

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But in when ck Saban was playing, his teams were so good and the
SEC was so dominant that he playedpotentially three playoff games a year without there
ever being a playoff. He playedthree playoff games a year because he played
Auburn Slash LSU. That game normallydecided who was going to be the number

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one seed or the number two teamin the country. The SEC championship game,
which was a de facto playoff gamebecause Georgia was so good, because
Florida was so good, and thenof course the actual championship game in the
BCS. So then he goes andwe go into this four team playoff,
and he struggles in year one,in twenty fifteen and he gets pushed around
by Ohio State, Ervin Meiyer altmaneuvers the Crimson Tide and Ezekiel Elliott has

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that giant run and the Buckeys winthe national championship. And Nick Saban has
probably doesn't feel super great that Urban, who he coached against when he was
at Florida is now hoisting a nationalchampionship. He says, Okay, well,
we're gonna change things. Okay,the big Burley defensive lineman, though,
that's not the play anymore. Thestout running back isn't the plan anymore.

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Okay, Well, let me goget the number one quarterback in the
country and let me go get well, you know another one in Bryce Young.
Let me go get DeVante Smith,and let me turn Alabama into wide
receiver. You. Nick Saban joinedAlabama program that was very successful historically speaking,
a blue blood and took them toa different level that when you talk

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about sports in North America, youtalk about the New York Yankees, and
you talk about the Los Angeles Lakersand the Dallas Cowboys and the Alabama Crimson
Tide, and it makes sense forNick Saban to get his name on the
field. In fact, I'm shockedthat they didn't do it the day that
he retired, that they didn't makethis announcement, but he gets his name

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on the field at Brian Denny Stadium. The only thing I don't love is
a mouthful now Sabin Field at BrianDenny Stadium. It's too much. We
could have just called it Saban Stadium, and I think that would have been
fine. We come back. We'lldo more of SEC Media Day when we
come back. We have the exclusiveinterview. Craig Way joins the show talking

(10:24):
to head coach Steve Starkesian. Youdon't want to miss it. Don't go
anywhere. Sports Radio AM thirteen hundredZone