August 1, 2025 • 38 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:21):
What's up Ken folk, it's RJ Young.
I am not on a step. Mel, if this is your first time
watching, adapt and respond. Thank you for joining us here.
We talk college football year round.
If that is something you're into, go ahead and hit that
subscribe button. Like this video and answer the
question in the comments below. Is Oregon winning an in state
(00:44):
recruit for Alabama #1 ranked player in Alabama this year a
sign of the times, a harbinger of things to come?
What's it mean for Alabama? What's it mean for Oregon?
I know I gave you a lot to answer there, but that's because
I like reading your comments. So leave it in.
On Spotify, there's a comment section on Alabama.
On YouTube, there's a comment section.
I'm in there, please let me know.
(01:05):
We're also going to talk throughwhich coach is won the offseason
and I also want to have a conversation about which
programs we expect to build on their success and which programs
we expect expect to come back from what was a bad 2024.
Again, if you're new to the show, we have an audio podcast
on Apple and Spotify and I am constantly sending out stickers
(01:26):
to people who have left five star reviews on Apple and
Spotify. If you would like a sticker as
we're going to get merched here pretty soon, probably not going
to put stickers there. Go ahead and fill out that five
star review and tell me about itin the link in the description
of the YouTube video and I'll get you that sticker.
I don't plan to sell stickers because I think it's really cool
(01:46):
that this is one way in which you can participate in the show
and really show people your support because you will have a
sticker and they frankly will not.
We're getting closer and closer to live shows, live shows like
this one, the longer episodes with the segments that you know,
resemble much more of the kind of show that people have been
asking for and get a little bit more in depth and topics.
(02:07):
And we're like 3 weeks away fromplaying college football.
And it's my birthday. If you are listening on
Thursday, July 31st, your man's is 38 years old, damn near 40.
And I got to tell y'all single black man of some means be out
here getting it. Be out here getting it.
(02:28):
We, we we might raise a little hell.
And I might have to throw up thehooks around somebody that the
tongue might have to come out. George Clinton might have to get
played. If you understand what I'm
putting down, you understand what I'm putting down.
And what is it that the kiddos say?
If you know, you know. Yeah, I, if you see your man's
out and about, say hi. I get to meet some people doing
some things and I'm probably going to be out.
(02:49):
Chill downtown Tulsa. Say what's good.
I tell you what ain't in the state of Alabama.
And it is watching Anthony Tank Jones, a five star, 6 foot
three, 240 LB stud, commit to play at Oregon.
Which is wild when you think about just what has happened at
(03:12):
Alabama since Nick Saban got up off of his perch and Caleb De
Boer, who apparently just isn't tired of losing Dan Lanning
right now, took that spot. It's wild because we're looking
at this. Ryan Williams going to Alabama
had everything to do with Nick Saban, everything to do with the
(03:35):
kind of wide receivers they had developed just in recent years.
Matter of fact, I don't think there has been a better use of
wide receivers over the course of the last decade from a team
that was traditionally running the football below the Mason
Dixon line, which, again, we're getting to the point where it
sounds like in a Dome at night in October on a Friday.
(03:58):
Then Alabama, right? Alabama, who went from Mark
Ingram, right, as a Heisman winner and run the ball, runs
the ball, runs the ball. But also from the moment that
Nick Saban got Julio Jones to the moment that he figured out
he needed a dual threat quarterback, we have seen wide
receivers coming through Alabamaand turning into monsters,
(04:20):
right? Amari Cooper, I mentioned Julio
Jones, the Oh my gosh, that thatquartet of Jerry Judy, of Jalen
Waddle, of Henry Ruggs, I got Devante Smith just monster after
monster coming through there. Ryan Williams is the latest in
the series of those. But when I look and I see Naeem
(04:41):
offered is at Alabama and now you have Tank Jones is at
Alabama. Both those guys, I should say
play high school football in Alabama.
Both those guys choosing to go way West to play at Oregon.
Is this a sign of things to come?
Is it really beginning to fall apart and we get to ask this
question because Alabama won nine games last year, which for
(05:04):
them might as well be 6, right? They don't play that at Alabama.
You know, there's a lot of pressure on Caleb Dubois to get
this thing right. They allowed him to go get Ryan
Grubb out of the NFL to run the offense once again.
He got a new quarterback, Ty Simpson going to have a new bell
cow back in what we think is going to be pretty outstanding
running backroom. We'll see if Isaiah Horton can
(05:24):
actually add another dimension along with guys like Cole Adams
to what wide receiver core they have.
And defensively, I I expect they'll be better because Deonte
Lawson knows what he's expectinghim.
Damonte Jackson knows what he's expecting him.
And I think the shock of losing Caleb Downs is, is gone, right.
But getting Anthony Jones at Oregon again, that's twofold.
(05:47):
You kept that dude out of the SEC, you kept that dude out of
Alabama. And you are adding to the
defending Big 10 champions at a position where they have become
known as a force, right? Jordan Birch, Mateo Uyangale,
keep going down the line here. What is it that Tank Jones is
bringing to the table though? How about 18 tackles for loss,
(06:08):
16 sacks and 84 tackles last year out of high school?
My goodness, man, It feels like sometimes we come across these
five stars and we talk about them so often that it becomes
regular for us. But I keep trying to tell people
the way you should view a 5 staror any guy that gets to commit
and play at a powerful university is very simple.
(06:31):
He's not the best guy on your block.
He's not the best guy in your district.
He's not the best guy in your state.
He is the best player out of your school in a generation.
And there are going to be peoplewho will tell you when they
first met that person or when they knew that dude was
different. For me, it was Robert Meacham
and Felix Jones at Booker T and it was really difficult to
(06:53):
understand just what the chasm of talent looks like until you
see what you know a bell cow back at Arkansas is doing to you
in scout team. When Robert Meacham was so good
that you put 2-3 dudes to one side and you run in the rounds
to him so you can get him the ball and he still makes it
happen, he's playing safety for you.
(07:13):
Robert Meacham played wide receiver at Tennessee and for
the Saints for some time. You know, RW Mcquarters is
before my time, but that dude comes out of Booker T.
Again, it feels like some of these high schools can pump them
out, but each one of these dudesis that guy from the moment that
they start playing football. And to prove the point, we're
also talking about a 6A state champion in shot put in disc.
(07:36):
Excuse me not shot put in Tank Jones.
He also is more bang for an Oregon program that has been
banging. What I mean by that is take a
look at the five star plus that on three uses and you'll see
this is the last year was the most 5 five star recruit they
(07:58):
ever signed in Oregon in one class right with three and now
they've got 4. It looks like that could end up
being Ducks. So they go from they're the
highest number of five stars they had in the class to the
highest number of five stars they have in the class.
And it feels like Dan Lanning isdoing a great job.
He's always been doing a great job.
(08:19):
But I think really what we talked about with Oregon isn't
the money and it isn't the talent.
It's when are they going to breakthrough and win their first
national championship and they keep getting close to that.
They got a schedule this year that sets up for them and wants
to be good. I think when you look at what
the Corian Moore is going to add, Naeem offered, who I
mentioned playing quarterback, Trey Mcnutt at safety, you have
(08:41):
you have a core of young guys that can contribute right now
and probably want to who are also going to have to pick up
the slack, right? There's no Evan Stewart, Dante
Moore's coming into his first year as a starter, while I
expect them to be pretty damn good at tailback.
You want to see Malik Benson, come on.
You want to see Gary Bryant? Come on.
Dylan Fenneman, I think is the second best safety in the entire
(09:03):
conference and you'll get a chance to show that you were
able to keep a guy like Will Stein, who I think is one of the
best offensive coordinators in the sport since he joined.
They're they're 25 and three at at Oregon and people that know
from Dan Lanning know they're going to be aggressive.
They're going to come after you and they're going to go for it
on 4th down. They're they're going to apply
(09:24):
pressure. And that is another thing that
Tank Jones allows you to do coming off the edge, being this
big at six foot 3240, it's not hard to see him growing another
inch or two and then getting up to two 6270 still playing at the
edge position and making a true impact.
Meanwhile, at Alabama, I got to ask is, is this another sign of
(09:47):
just how the cracks are beginning to show?
I often say that programs take on the identity of their head
coach, and Nick Saban's identityas a head coach was kill
everybody, let paramedics sort them out.
One of the greatest statistics in college football, I believe
to be if you played four years for Nick Saban, you won a
(10:10):
national championship if you just stayed in school.
Which means that there is an entire group of alumni who get
to say, I was at Alabama when wewon the national championship,
right? No program has any more College
Football Playoff appearances andone more College Football
(10:33):
Playoff National championships 3and 88 and 3.
You think about the Heisman winners they have, right Heisman
winner at running back with MarkIngram, Heisman winner at wide
receiver and Devante Smith. You think about how many first
round draft picks they put out each and every year and how
competitive they were in the next statement era each and
(10:56):
every year after O 7 is canceledChristmas for the next 15 years.
You know, to say nothing of he went out on a very high note and
very cool note of, yeah, we madethe College Football Playoff.
We damn near beat Michigan. We probably should have.
But Jalen Miller also LED them past Georgia, which means Nick
Saban got to go out with a win against Kirby Smart.
(11:17):
Kirby Smart being really the only assistant that can go get
Nick Saban. Everybody else has had a hard
time doing just that. And he's since gone into
broadcasting. And it feels like a lot of
Alabama's identity, which still there, is being questioned and
people are taking advantage of it.
So when you get a guy like Tank Jones that wants to go on the
McAfee show and tell everybody he's going to Oregon when he
(11:37):
could play high school football in Alabama, it's going to be
interesting to see how that goesfor him the rest of the of this
year. I mean, people are going to root
for him individually, but they're going to look at him go,
you sure about this? You sure you don't want to flip
to Alabama? And we'll see.
But I think this thing is done. I think Tank Jones is a Duck and
you're going to get used to seeing him play at a very high
level. We come back, I want to talk
(11:58):
about which coach and maybe coaches won the offseason and
I'm going to tell you why. Back on adapt and respond.
(12:34):
Thank you for joining us here. We talk college football year
round. If you're into that, go ahead
and hit that subscribe button like this video and answer the
question in the comments below. Which coach do you believe head
coach won the offseason in 2025.I think you got a lot of good
candidates here as we've had a lot of movement like we expect
the last few years and we've also had some continuity, right?
(12:54):
And I think you can make a case for many coaches here, like for
instance, I would say Steve Sarkeesian could make this list
because he was he succeeded in keeping his staff intact and
keeping the core part of his team intact.
Those that could not go to the NFL chose for the most part say
Michael Taft is back, right Archman, he's going to take over at
quarterbacks. He did.
Baxter is like getting a guy outof the portal because he was
(13:17):
hurt all last year. Christian Clark too, Ryan
Wingo's a year older, didn't hitthe portal.
Anthony Hills coming into his own I I think that you can make
an argument for Texas staying together as and healthy.
Steve Sarkeesian winning the offseason.
You can make an argument for Penn State.
They got Jim Knowles after losing Tom Allen.
(13:37):
They're able to again, like Texas keep a lot of the core of
that 20/20/14 in Penn State, right?
We're talking about Nick Singleton, K Tron, Allen, Drew
Aller, denied, Dennis Sutton, names that you're getting to
know like household names very quickly and soon.
But for James Franklin, the offseason has never been the
(13:58):
challenge. It has been beating top five
opponents and I'm going to continue to hit this until it
changes for them. You can't be one in 15 against
AP top five opponents and expectthat not to be the headline for
your season going into a year where people are picking you to
be the number one team in the country to win the national
(14:18):
championship. I think James Franklin wants it
and you could see that in the coaching.
You could also see that he wantsa tough team.
He'll choose to run the ball whenever he can.
He'll he'll punt it and ask the defense to go play ball for him.
We'll see, right? Drew Aller's got to grow up.
And I mean, he's got to stand upin the biggest moments.
Can he do it? He hasn't been able to do it so
(14:39):
far against class football teams.
Maybe that changes in 2025. I think LSU is also a team that
you could say made this list forwhat Brian Kelly was able to get
out of the portal. They're so frigging fast on the
outside. They got speed everywhere.
We're thinking about Barry and Brownie.
We're thinking about Nick Anderson, couple guys gonna be
able to take the top off for 4000 yard passer in Garrett
(15:00):
Nussmeyer. Kaden Durham is gonna be a dude
at tailback. Blake Baker has them weeks boys
back and Harold Perkins, right? Getting Harold Perkins to return
to LSU can be overstated. And if you put him back at edge
and just let him go destroy people, I think that's going to
be best for all involved. They had a young secondary last
(15:21):
year that's that's an experienced secondary.
This year. They expect to compete for a
College Football Playoff spot, if not the SEC championship.
Because remember, that is the reason that Brian Kelly left his
job at Notre Dame to go to LSU. He thought that he had a better
chance of winning the national championship as a head coach in
the SEC, Particularly at a program like LSU where money's
not a thing, you'll have all themoney and all the support you
(15:45):
need to go win. And they've been able to do this
with three different head coaches in two decades.
That is about the program, that is about the university.
Nick Saban, Les Miles and Orgeron, 3 dudes that could not
be more dissimilar. And yet they were given the
resources they needed to win it their way.
(16:05):
That's exactly what happened. I think that can happen with
Brian Kelly in 2025. But the guy that I want to
linger on here that I think is at the top of the heap is Curt
Signetti at Indiana. And there's one really simple
reason for why Curt Signetti haswon the 2025 offseason.
We're talking about Indiana as areally, really good football
(16:32):
team. And we don't care that he turned
the roster over. We care that Kurt Signetti
walked in in December of 2023, told people at a cellar dweller,
at a program that has been as useless as a useful as a
chocolate exhaust on a Formula One car to the Big 10, that all
(16:56):
I do is win. Right in the DJ Khaled voice of
Google Me. I win.
That's why you want to come playfor me.
He went and got the guys that heneeded, put them together on a
team of call them the Hoosiers, send them out in the battle.
And those dudes won 11 games anda program that had not won 10 in
a single season as to a program that was as much a joke in
(17:19):
football as any in the sport. And they're quickly becoming a
team that people are going, hey,you're just going to deal with
them. They're here now because they
got the guy again. Your program takes on the
persona of your head coach. Curse Ignati's persona is
confidence earned, by the way. Confidence.
(17:40):
The man who won 11 games or morethan 4 the last six years.
James Madison, right? People going to us, James
Madison. But they showed up and we're
monsters right away. Right away in the Sunbelt, what
they call the little SEC, right?Making it happen.
Gets to Indiana and his only losses are to the two teams that
play in the national championship game.
He's got another good veteran quarterback and Fernando
(18:01):
Mendoza, 3000 yard passer. He added guys like Roman Henby
to the list. Did he lose Donovan Mccully to
to Michigan? Yeah, he did.
But he also returns 11 of the 16of 16 starters from last year.
This is a team that can win 11 games.
Again, this is a team that we expect to compete toward the top
of the Big 10 again. Now, they may be joined by
(18:24):
Illinois or they may be overtaken by Illinois.
But you're going to talk about Indiana in the same conversation
with Oregon, with Ohio State, Penn State, because you look at
also their schedule and it's, I mean, it's choice.
It's choice. You got to go to Oregon.
I think that's the toughest gameon the schedule for Indiana.
There's every reason that Oregonand Indiana could be 10 win
(18:45):
teams and could be planning the Big 10 championship if things go
their way again. Ohio State is huge over there.
Massive. But they have not won the Big 10
championship since 2019. They'll make the College
Football Playoff, but they ain'tgot to win the damn thing,
right? They ain't got to win the league
championship to get in in a way that, say, Indiana didn't have
to either. They lost Ohio State and they
(19:07):
still saw their names called. Did that mean they had to go on
the road to play a Notre Dame team in the in the national
championship game? Yeah, but it was that, I mean,
when that dissimilar what Ohio State had to do last year, they
just got to host the home game. Now, if you put Indiana in that
home atmosphere, what can they do in Bloomington?
Can they make a run? I don't think it is too much to
(19:28):
say I'm impressed like I I trulyam.
We're also at a very cool part of college football as people
want to decree name, image and likeness and revenue sharing and
what happened to an education? I'm saying have you seen how
volatile the sport has become and how much fun that has made
it? Freaking Indiana is good because
they could use the roster turnover to their advantage.
(19:50):
All they had to do as if it's simple, is identify the guys
they need it and get them in theIndiana.
That's it. You got money there, you got
people that wanted. To invest in the program and now
they have every reason to and they want to stay there.
Meanwhile, Michigan State's still trying to figure it out
with meanwhile, Wisconsin is trying to figure it out.
(20:12):
Iowa, they're back to figuring out Purdue in the bottom.
Minnesota back to trying to figure it out.
Here's Indiana right here, rightright here, right now.
Going to be a lot of fun to watch them play.
We come back, I want to talk about which program is most
likely to bounce back from a crappy year and a couple of
(20:32):
them, we're going to play each other in the non conference.
(20:57):
Back on ADAPT and respond with me.
RJ Young, if you're new to the show, thank you for joining us
here. We talk college football year
round. If you're into that, hit that
subscribe button like this videoand answer the question in the
comments below. Which team do you expect to
bounce back from what was a substandard year by their
measure? And I think there are a handful
(21:19):
of programs that fit for this, some of them because they can't
get any worse, and some of them because it was just really odd
to see them have a down year. I think it's top of the list.
You can go Florida State, right?2 and 10.
That ain't going to cut it. But also, we don't expect
Florida State to be that bad this year.
We expect them to flip it aroundin a quick fast, in a hurry.
(21:40):
They're they're embarrassed. And because they're embarrassed,
they're mad and they're mad theywant to take it out on somebody.
They get to play one of these teams that I'm going to talk
about a little bit later, that Ithink it's got a little bit more
to worry about than Florida State.
Mike Gravel turns over the staff, right.
New offense coordinator, new defense coordinator, tagged his
mentor Gus Malzahn to run the offense.
(22:01):
Brought in a guy in Tommy Castellanos who's going to talk
his noise. I don't know that Florida State
is going to compete for the ACC championship because at the top
it feels like it's Clemson. SMU is going to show me that
they're good or bad, right? North Carolina, we'll find out
real quick, but through the middle and Syracuse is good,
(22:21):
right? Miami is good.
Boston College is going to be tough.
Georgia Tech is going to be tough.
It's not going to be as easy as it might have been for Florida
State in years past to move up to the top.
But I do expect them to flip this thing around from 2:00 and
10:00 to bowling, right? And I think bowling is the bare
minimum that you would expect from Florida State.
Is that enough to keep Mike Norvell in his seat?
(22:44):
We'll see, right? Because it's getting kind of hot
there. I would also add Kansas.
They had an abysmal first half of the season last year, but
that's was very unlanced lipold.Like you had a Jalen, Jalen
Daniels that wasn't himself until the second-half.
And when they got in the second-half, Devin Neil's
running over people. I think you can expect them to
(23:05):
flip it around. I think really the teams that
fit this are ones for which we're like, you are parentally
really great. What happened last year?
What, why? Why this odd year?
Wisconsin fits the bill for me, right?
Wisconsin is better when they run the football.
(23:26):
Surprise, surprise, when they got away from running the
football, they lost football games.
When they ran the football, theywere really good and had Oregon
on the ropes. I get they're also dealing with,
you know, backup quarterback, which I think had a lot to do
with it. They lose Tyler Van Dyke very
early in the season. But Phil Longo's offense never
felt like the kind that fit Wisconsin's identity.
And sometimes that's what it's about.
(23:48):
Are you playing to the program'sidentity?
Georgia runs the ball and plays defense.
Wisconsin runs the ball and plays defense.
When you try to be somebody you haven't been, it's affecting,
right? And I think that's affecting it
at all levels. It's not just the players on the
field, the playbook coordinators, it's secretary,
It's the janitor, it's the students who have this idea in
their head and they're also doing their jobs a little bit
(24:10):
differently because they got this idea in their head.
I think it's emotional intelligence is what we're
feeling when we watch Wisconsin play, when they watch Wisconsin
play. Right down to jump around, right
house pain. Y'all should let that happen,
dawg. Like that.
I hate that. But since 2022, basically since
the Oklahoma State game, Wisconsin's 12 and O when they
(24:32):
run the ball for 150 yards or more, they are 13 and one when
they just hand the ball off 35 times more or a game feels feels
very cut and drives because it is.
So when when the offense last year rushed for its fewest yards
(24:53):
in the 20th century, 18144, that's that's a sign of why
you're bad. Like, that's the fewest yards
that Wisconsin and rush for in asingle season since 1995.
And every year that they got a tailback, they got a guy from
Melvin Gordon all the way back to Ron Dame, Monty Ball, they've
(25:14):
been James White. They've been really, really
difficult to beat. And I think in his heart, that's
who Luke Fickle wants to be. Having played the nose at Ohio
State haven't been defense coordinated.
Ohio State haven't seen what it's like for an Ohio State team
to run the ball down people's throats and play defense.
I think he's going to try to getback to that and that's why he
(25:35):
brings in Jeff Grimes, who had the offense at Kansas last year.
Devin Neal had 1000 yard rushingseason.
You're going to identify your tailback.
You're going to feed him the rock.
You're going to make it happen. I think making it worse is, you
know, you're averaging just 20.8points per game in 2024.
And we're talking about the fewest points that a Wisconsin
(25:59):
team has scored since 2004. But that year was also a magical
year for them. They won at Ohio State or ranked
Ohio State and a #5 Purdue. That's how long ago that was.
But that was that mean? Had this been 2024, the D9 and
O, right. But that that's not just 2004 D
9 and O. But that's not what it is,
(26:20):
right? We're expecting them to get back
to being who they are. The team that I think we should
be talking more about in this instance is actually Utah
because Kyle Whittingham suffered the first losing season
since 2013 at a program that hasbeen a perennial winner.
Now, going five and seven is onething, but they also had
(26:42):
quarterback problems. Cam Rising was never healthy and
Isaiah Wilson could never. Isaac Wilson never really
figured figured it out. So what do you do?
You watch your offensive coordinator go away and you go
recruit an offensive coordinatorand a quarterback, not unlike
what has become in vogue. You go get the pair.
(27:03):
And what he got was Jason Beck and Devin Dampier, A bad Lobos
team, but a prolific Lobos offense.
They put up 33 1/2 points per game last year, which ranked
24th in the country, and they put up 484 yards per game.
Wild Dampier himself average 7 1/2 yards per carry, rushed for
(27:24):
11166 yards, threw for 27168 yards. 27 total TDs to just 12
picks. Those numbers are Heisman level
in the SEC, right? In the Big 12, you're looking at
a guy that could be your offensive player of the year.
It's also getting away from the kind of offense that has become
(27:44):
synonymous with Kyle Winningham.We want to own the line of
scrimmage. We want to run the ball.
We want to play defense with Dampier and Ray, Sean Parker,
you know, a really great tailback transferring in from
Washington State. You're going to have
opportunities to run the ball, but is it going to be the kind
of forceful, beat them up, beat them down, run the football
that, again, we think comes fromKyle Winningham?
(28:08):
I think it is. But I think you're also going to
see guys that are taking deeper shots.
Now, this might be a case of just what I talked about with
Wisconsin. You get too far away from your
identity. It can come to bite you and hurt
you. But five and seven is just not
who we expected Utah to be. As a matter of fact, I think
Dampier might be the most talented athlete at quarterback
(28:28):
that Utah has had since Alex Smith.
And that, you know, it's a long time ago, but Urban Meyers
coaching at Utah. But you understand what I mean
here. Let's see just what Utah is
capable of with that guy at quarterback and with that
offensive coordinator and Jason Beck calling plays.
Last team I think we need to talk about in this instance is
(28:49):
Alabama. They got a bounce back from last
year. The I think there's more
pressure on them than any other team because they missed the
College Football Playoff when itexpanded to 12 teams.
That used to be you pencil them in.
Matter of fact, going into the season, we would have penciled
them in and after the first fourgames, that's what it should
(29:10):
have been. They beat up on Wisconsin.
A-Team, they got to play. They they're going to get an
opportunity to beat up on Florida State this year, a team
they got to play. But they are able to beat a #2
Georgia and then lose to Vanderbilt, lose Tennessee, lose
to bad Oklahoma and lose to a middling Michigan.
(29:30):
If you win two of the three games you lost, you're playing
in the playoff with ten wins. People are going to put that
team in. And I think the Nick Saban tax
is being applied to Alabama. That is to say, he ain't
coaching there so you don't get the benefit of the doubt in the
way that you might otherwise. I think if Caitlin Deboer was
head coach to Alabama in 2023, you would put Florida State in
(29:52):
that spot and not Alabama because it's Nick Saban.
You know what you're going to get on the football field and
that matters. It does.
It's unfair, but that's why you want a next statement so you get
that unfair advantage. And that's what they thought
they were getting. And Caleb de Boer, a guy who had
lost all the 12 games and won over 100 as a head coach, really
need to get that figured out quick, fast, in a hurry.
(30:12):
And I hope they do because sports pretty cool.
When Alabama is pretty good, we come back.
I want to talk about the programthat is most likely to build on
its success from last year and why I think it's an SEC team
that not enough people are talking about for reasons that
got everything to do with potential.
(30:56):
Back on adapt and respond with me.
RJ Young, if you're new to the channel, thank you for joining
us here. If you're listening on the
podcast, thank you so much for that.
To leave us five star review, fill out the form in the
description on YouTube and let me send you a sticker for that.
I want to talk about team that Ibelieve can build on its success
from last year. What we might think of is having
(31:18):
a banner year earlier in the show, right?
We talked about Indiana and how I think Herd Signetti won the
offseason. We talked about Penn State and
how building on their success would just mean, you know,
winning a top five matchup, particularly against Ohio State
or Michigan. If Michigan was ranked in the
top five, Ohio State probably will be when Penn State plays
them. But I think the program that the
(31:41):
programs that I have an opportunity to best build on
this are in the SEC. No, not Oklahoma.
Oklahoma didn't have a successful season last year, so
let's go ahead and put that one down, OK?
It's not Auburn because they didn't have any successful
season last year either. Hugh Freeze is very much on you
got it. You got his ass in the jackpot.
For me, it's Missouri and South Carolina.
(32:05):
OK Missouri, who has turned intoa force in the Eli drink Wiz
era. back-to-back double digit winning seasons 20/13/2014 and
then 2022-2023, 2020, 2020 24. You've also got Beau Privola at
quarterback, so you're going to be a little bit more athletic.
(32:26):
I don't know if you're going to be as good down the field.
Brady Cook was really great for you and you're able to go get
guys to help you with the loss of dudes like Luther Burden.
You're looking at a Matt Hardy who's coming out of ULM and
really was the straw stirring the drink down there.
As a true freshman, he rushed the 13151 yards and your defense
allowed just 20 points per game and gave up 300 yards a game,
(32:47):
318 yards a game. You get a guy in Kevin Coleman
who was one of the best players on a bad football team,
Mississippi State last year, 932yards receiving.
I think he's your Luther Burden.He's your Theo Weeks going into
this year. If Privola can add a running
dimension to the offense. Take a look at the schedule,
(33:09):
guys. I mean, they got a whopping 8
home games and then we're talking about at Auburn, at
Vanderbilt, at Oklahoma, at Arkansas.
That should be a playoff team. It should be.
It should be a playoff team. Thinking about South Carolina
with Lenore Sellers going into ayear, which some people believe
(33:29):
he can be the first quarterback off the board more.
The closer we get to the NFL draft, the more we think the
arch man is going to stick around for another year.
But after winning nine games, there's no reason to believe
they can't win 10. They beat a Clemson, right?
They're beaten up on Oklahoma. They they had LSU on the ropes.
They can, they can go win, win against the best teams in the
(33:51):
country. They just need things to go
their way, which means Nick Harbor got to develop into
somebody. He he's got to develop into
somebody. I think Lenore Sellers is going
to have every opportunity. Shane Beamer's going to put him
in a great spot, but it's going to be about can you get the ball
down field and does Lenore's have to be some version of Cam
Newton for this team to be good?He can be, but that's the comp
(34:12):
right at the at the far end of the ceiling for South Carolina
is that 2010 Auburn football team where it's going to be
Lenore Sellers and parts that can propel you to a national
championship. But we're so far away from that
and the sport has gotten so muchmore difficult to play that
we'll just have to wait and see what that is.
(34:32):
I I believe it. They're capable of this, but I'm
also looking at, you know, inside of this odds to make the
College Football Playoff among the SEC South Carolina's getting
plus 550, Missouri's getting plus 825.
For those of y'all that do the betting, that's pretty good
value. You take that, especially when
you're looking at Auburn at +300and Tennessee at +300.
(34:52):
You know, Oklahoma plus 45445. I can see four teams from the
SEC making the College Football Playoff.
That four team is what we're talking about when we talk about
South Carolina or or Missouri. If we're talking about teams
with best odds to make the playoffs out of that four team
in and probably go on the road to play a Big 10 team or a Big
(35:13):
12 team, you got to include those teams.
Also got to look at Florida, right?
Like there's what, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, that's three.
LSU, Ole Miss, A&M, that's 6 Auburn, Tennessee, Florida,
that's nine. Oklahoma, South Carolina,
Missouri, That's 12 out of 16 teams with odds from Circa at
least to make the College Football Playoff.
(35:35):
Other teams just not on the board.
That Auburn one is the only one.I think it's kind of squirrely.
That's it. Everybody else I can make a
really good argument for why they can make the playoff, but
it's going to be the margins here and I think the margins
going to be home field advantage.
While I'm high on Missouri, it'sgoing to be do I have a better
athlete at quarterback than you,Lenora Sellers?
Can we limit the mistakes that keep us from winning these one
(35:57):
score games? Right, that's it's going to be
huge. That's Utah in the Big 12.
They they are like something like 2 and 9 over their over
their last excuse me, two and seven in their last nine games
in one score games. You can flip a couple of those
into wins and all of a sudden we're talking about you nice and
we're having nice things to say and it's a lot more fun.
(36:20):
The last thing I'm going to say about the Missouri, South
Carolina, we expect them to improve on the success is
somebody's going to have to takea step back.
Somebody always does. Is it A&M?
Could be right. Is it Ole Miss?
Could be. If Florida doesn't have a
healthy DJ Lagway, you won't have to worry about them.
(36:41):
But a healthy DJ Lagway puts them in the conversation for the
FCC championship. That's how important he is.
Matter of fact, I think DJ Lagway is as important to
Florida as Lenore Sellers is to South Carolina.
You're just a different footballteam.
You know, it's it's the Florida State Jordan Travis effect.
We no longer think you're good. If that guy's hurt, that's
what's going to have to happen. Beau Privola is going to have to
(37:01):
be good. He's going to have to reach the
potential that he showed 242 yards rushing at Penn State.
You got to show a little bit, but you didn't get to show what
you're made of. Now he gets an opportunity to
show what he's made of. And I can't wait to find out
just how good he can be. And if Eli drink witch is just
going to be talking more noise and Missouri's never going to be
nobody possible possible that Arkansas game ought to be fun.
(37:24):
You know that Oklahoma games going to be fun.
Old Big 12 match up going to be a lot of John.
I think quietly people don't really understand Missouri and
Oklahoma kind of hate each other.
Oklahoma doesn't think Missouri's any good and Missouri
believes that Oklahoma's overrated.
But when the two come together, you'd be amazed at how much
animosity there is. Can't stand them.
(37:45):
They can't stand us. I remember the Chase Daniels,
Jeremy Macklin years, I rememberthem being all Brody and
whatnot. It's fun.
It's fun. All right, that's going to do it
for this episode of Adapt and Respond.
If you like the longer shows, let me know that in the comments
below and we will see y'all on the flip side.
What's up Ken folk, it's RJ Young.
I am not on a step. Mel, if this is your first time
watching, adapt and respond. Thank you for joining us here.
We talk college football year round.
If that is something you're into, go ahead and hit that
subscribe button. Like this video and answer the
question in the comments below. Is Oregon winning an in state
(00:44):
recruit for Alabama #1 ranked player in Alabama this year a
sign of the times, a harbinger of things to come?
What's it mean for Alabama? What's it mean for Oregon?
I know I gave you a lot to answer there, but that's because
I like reading your comments. So leave it in.
On Spotify, there's a comment section on Alabama.
On YouTube, there's a comment section.
I'm in there, please let me know.
(01:05):
We're also going to talk throughwhich coach is won the offseason
and I also want to have a conversation about which
programs we expect to build on their success and which programs
we expect expect to come back from what was a bad 2024.
Again, if you're new to the show, we have an audio podcast
on Apple and Spotify and I am constantly sending out stickers
(01:26):
to people who have left five star reviews on Apple and
Spotify. If you would like a sticker as
we're going to get merched here pretty soon, probably not going
to put stickers there. Go ahead and fill out that five
star review and tell me about itin the link in the description
of the YouTube video and I'll get you that sticker.
I don't plan to sell stickers because I think it's really cool
(01:46):
that this is one way in which you can participate in the show
and really show people your support because you will have a
sticker and they frankly will not.
We're getting closer and closer to live shows, live shows like
this one, the longer episodes with the segments that you know,
resemble much more of the kind of show that people have been
asking for and get a little bit more in depth and topics.
(02:07):
And we're like 3 weeks away fromplaying college football.
And it's my birthday. If you are listening on
Thursday, July 31st, your man's is 38 years old, damn near 40.
And I got to tell y'all single black man of some means be out
here getting it. Be out here getting it.
(02:28):
We, we we might raise a little hell.
And I might have to throw up thehooks around somebody that the
tongue might have to come out. George Clinton might have to get
played. If you understand what I'm
putting down, you understand what I'm putting down.
And what is it that the kiddos say?
If you know, you know. Yeah, I, if you see your man's
out and about, say hi. I get to meet some people doing
some things and I'm probably going to be out.
(02:49):
Chill downtown Tulsa. Say what's good.
I tell you what ain't in the state of Alabama.
And it is watching Anthony Tank Jones, a five star, 6 foot
three, 240 LB stud, commit to play at Oregon.
Which is wild when you think about just what has happened at
(03:12):
Alabama since Nick Saban got up off of his perch and Caleb De
Boer, who apparently just isn't tired of losing Dan Lanning
right now, took that spot. It's wild because we're looking
at this. Ryan Williams going to Alabama
had everything to do with Nick Saban, everything to do with the
(03:35):
kind of wide receivers they had developed just in recent years.
Matter of fact, I don't think there has been a better use of
wide receivers over the course of the last decade from a team
that was traditionally running the football below the Mason
Dixon line, which, again, we're getting to the point where it
sounds like in a Dome at night in October on a Friday.
(03:58):
Then Alabama, right? Alabama, who went from Mark
Ingram, right, as a Heisman winner and run the ball, runs
the ball, runs the ball. But also from the moment that
Nick Saban got Julio Jones to the moment that he figured out
he needed a dual threat quarterback, we have seen wide
receivers coming through Alabamaand turning into monsters,
(04:20):
right? Amari Cooper, I mentioned Julio
Jones, the Oh my gosh, that thatquartet of Jerry Judy, of Jalen
Waddle, of Henry Ruggs, I got Devante Smith just monster after
monster coming through there. Ryan Williams is the latest in
the series of those. But when I look and I see Naeem
(04:41):
offered is at Alabama and now you have Tank Jones is at
Alabama. Both those guys, I should say
play high school football in Alabama.
Both those guys choosing to go way West to play at Oregon.
Is this a sign of things to come?
Is it really beginning to fall apart and we get to ask this
question because Alabama won nine games last year, which for
(05:04):
them might as well be 6, right? They don't play that at Alabama.
You know, there's a lot of pressure on Caleb Dubois to get
this thing right. They allowed him to go get Ryan
Grubb out of the NFL to run the offense once again.
He got a new quarterback, Ty Simpson going to have a new bell
cow back in what we think is going to be pretty outstanding
running backroom. We'll see if Isaiah Horton can
(05:24):
actually add another dimension along with guys like Cole Adams
to what wide receiver core they have.
And defensively, I I expect they'll be better because Deonte
Lawson knows what he's expectinghim.
Damonte Jackson knows what he's expecting him.
And I think the shock of losing Caleb Downs is, is gone, right.
But getting Anthony Jones at Oregon again, that's twofold.
(05:47):
You kept that dude out of the SEC, you kept that dude out of
Alabama. And you are adding to the
defending Big 10 champions at a position where they have become
known as a force, right? Jordan Birch, Mateo Uyangale,
keep going down the line here. What is it that Tank Jones is
bringing to the table though? How about 18 tackles for loss,
(06:08):
16 sacks and 84 tackles last year out of high school?
My goodness, man, It feels like sometimes we come across these
five stars and we talk about them so often that it becomes
regular for us. But I keep trying to tell people
the way you should view a 5 staror any guy that gets to commit
and play at a powerful university is very simple.
(06:31):
He's not the best guy on your block.
He's not the best guy in your district.
He's not the best guy in your state.
He is the best player out of your school in a generation.
And there are going to be peoplewho will tell you when they
first met that person or when they knew that dude was
different. For me, it was Robert Meacham
and Felix Jones at Booker T and it was really difficult to
(06:53):
understand just what the chasm of talent looks like until you
see what you know a bell cow back at Arkansas is doing to you
in scout team. When Robert Meacham was so good
that you put 2-3 dudes to one side and you run in the rounds
to him so you can get him the ball and he still makes it
happen, he's playing safety for you.
(07:13):
Robert Meacham played wide receiver at Tennessee and for
the Saints for some time. You know, RW Mcquarters is
before my time, but that dude comes out of Booker T.
Again, it feels like some of these high schools can pump them
out, but each one of these dudesis that guy from the moment that
they start playing football. And to prove the point, we're
also talking about a 6A state champion in shot put in disc.
(07:36):
Excuse me not shot put in Tank Jones.
He also is more bang for an Oregon program that has been
banging. What I mean by that is take a
look at the five star plus that on three uses and you'll see
this is the last year was the most 5 five star recruit they
(07:58):
ever signed in Oregon in one class right with three and now
they've got 4. It looks like that could end up
being Ducks. So they go from they're the
highest number of five stars they had in the class to the
highest number of five stars they have in the class.
And it feels like Dan Lanning isdoing a great job.
He's always been doing a great job.
(08:19):
But I think really what we talked about with Oregon isn't
the money and it isn't the talent.
It's when are they going to breakthrough and win their first
national championship and they keep getting close to that.
They got a schedule this year that sets up for them and wants
to be good. I think when you look at what
the Corian Moore is going to add, Naeem offered, who I
mentioned playing quarterback, Trey Mcnutt at safety, you have
(08:41):
you have a core of young guys that can contribute right now
and probably want to who are also going to have to pick up
the slack, right? There's no Evan Stewart, Dante
Moore's coming into his first year as a starter, while I
expect them to be pretty damn good at tailback.
You want to see Malik Benson, come on.
You want to see Gary Bryant? Come on.
Dylan Fenneman, I think is the second best safety in the entire
(09:03):
conference and you'll get a chance to show that you were
able to keep a guy like Will Stein, who I think is one of the
best offensive coordinators in the sport since he joined.
They're they're 25 and three at at Oregon and people that know
from Dan Lanning know they're going to be aggressive.
They're going to come after you and they're going to go for it
on 4th down. They're they're going to apply
(09:24):
pressure. And that is another thing that
Tank Jones allows you to do coming off the edge, being this
big at six foot 3240, it's not hard to see him growing another
inch or two and then getting up to two 6270 still playing at the
edge position and making a true impact.
Meanwhile, at Alabama, I got to ask is, is this another sign of
(09:47):
just how the cracks are beginning to show?
I often say that programs take on the identity of their head
coach, and Nick Saban's identityas a head coach was kill
everybody, let paramedics sort them out.
One of the greatest statistics in college football, I believe
to be if you played four years for Nick Saban, you won a
(10:10):
national championship if you just stayed in school.
Which means that there is an entire group of alumni who get
to say, I was at Alabama when wewon the national championship,
right? No program has any more College
Football Playoff appearances andone more College Football
(10:33):
Playoff National championships 3and 88 and 3.
You think about the Heisman winners they have, right Heisman
winner at running back with MarkIngram, Heisman winner at wide
receiver and Devante Smith. You think about how many first
round draft picks they put out each and every year and how
competitive they were in the next statement era each and
(10:56):
every year after O 7 is canceledChristmas for the next 15 years.
You know, to say nothing of he went out on a very high note and
very cool note of, yeah, we madethe College Football Playoff.
We damn near beat Michigan. We probably should have.
But Jalen Miller also LED them past Georgia, which means Nick
Saban got to go out with a win against Kirby Smart.
(11:17):
Kirby Smart being really the only assistant that can go get
Nick Saban. Everybody else has had a hard
time doing just that. And he's since gone into
broadcasting. And it feels like a lot of
Alabama's identity, which still there, is being questioned and
people are taking advantage of it.
So when you get a guy like Tank Jones that wants to go on the
McAfee show and tell everybody he's going to Oregon when he
(11:37):
could play high school football in Alabama, it's going to be
interesting to see how that goesfor him the rest of the of this
year. I mean, people are going to root
for him individually, but they're going to look at him go,
you sure about this? You sure you don't want to flip
to Alabama? And we'll see.
But I think this thing is done. I think Tank Jones is a Duck and
you're going to get used to seeing him play at a very high
level. We come back, I want to talk
(11:58):
about which coach and maybe coaches won the offseason and
I'm going to tell you why. Back on adapt and respond.
(12:34):
Thank you for joining us here. We talk college football year
round. If you're into that, go ahead
and hit that subscribe button like this video and answer the
question in the comments below. Which coach do you believe head
coach won the offseason in 2025.I think you got a lot of good
candidates here as we've had a lot of movement like we expect
the last few years and we've also had some continuity, right?
(12:54):
And I think you can make a case for many coaches here, like for
instance, I would say Steve Sarkeesian could make this list
because he was he succeeded in keeping his staff intact and
keeping the core part of his team intact.
Those that could not go to the NFL chose for the most part say
Michael Taft is back, right Archman, he's going to take over at
quarterbacks. He did.
Baxter is like getting a guy outof the portal because he was
(13:17):
hurt all last year. Christian Clark too, Ryan
Wingo's a year older, didn't hitthe portal.
Anthony Hills coming into his own I I think that you can make
an argument for Texas staying together as and healthy.
Steve Sarkeesian winning the offseason.
You can make an argument for Penn State.
They got Jim Knowles after losing Tom Allen.
(13:37):
They're able to again, like Texas keep a lot of the core of
that 20/20/14 in Penn State, right?
We're talking about Nick Singleton, K Tron, Allen, Drew
Aller, denied, Dennis Sutton, names that you're getting to
know like household names very quickly and soon.
But for James Franklin, the offseason has never been the
(13:58):
challenge. It has been beating top five
opponents and I'm going to continue to hit this until it
changes for them. You can't be one in 15 against
AP top five opponents and expectthat not to be the headline for
your season going into a year where people are picking you to
be the number one team in the country to win the national
(14:18):
championship. I think James Franklin wants it
and you could see that in the coaching.
You could also see that he wantsa tough team.
He'll choose to run the ball whenever he can.
He'll he'll punt it and ask the defense to go play ball for him.
We'll see, right? Drew Aller's got to grow up.
And I mean, he's got to stand upin the biggest moments.
Can he do it? He hasn't been able to do it so
(14:39):
far against class football teams.
Maybe that changes in 2025. I think LSU is also a team that
you could say made this list forwhat Brian Kelly was able to get
out of the portal. They're so frigging fast on the
outside. They got speed everywhere.
We're thinking about Barry and Brownie.
We're thinking about Nick Anderson, couple guys gonna be
able to take the top off for 4000 yard passer in Garrett
(15:00):
Nussmeyer. Kaden Durham is gonna be a dude
at tailback. Blake Baker has them weeks boys
back and Harold Perkins, right? Getting Harold Perkins to return
to LSU can be overstated. And if you put him back at edge
and just let him go destroy people, I think that's going to
be best for all involved. They had a young secondary last
(15:21):
year that's that's an experienced secondary.
This year. They expect to compete for a
College Football Playoff spot, if not the SEC championship.
Because remember, that is the reason that Brian Kelly left his
job at Notre Dame to go to LSU. He thought that he had a better
chance of winning the national championship as a head coach in
the SEC, Particularly at a program like LSU where money's
not a thing, you'll have all themoney and all the support you
(15:45):
need to go win. And they've been able to do this
with three different head coaches in two decades.
That is about the program, that is about the university.
Nick Saban, Les Miles and Orgeron, 3 dudes that could not
be more dissimilar. And yet they were given the
resources they needed to win it their way.
(16:05):
That's exactly what happened. I think that can happen with
Brian Kelly in 2025. But the guy that I want to
linger on here that I think is at the top of the heap is Curt
Signetti at Indiana. And there's one really simple
reason for why Curt Signetti haswon the 2025 offseason.
We're talking about Indiana as areally, really good football
(16:32):
team. And we don't care that he turned
the roster over. We care that Kurt Signetti
walked in in December of 2023, told people at a cellar dweller,
at a program that has been as useless as a useful as a
chocolate exhaust on a Formula One car to the Big 10, that all
(16:56):
I do is win. Right in the DJ Khaled voice of
Google Me. I win.
That's why you want to come playfor me.
He went and got the guys that heneeded, put them together on a
team of call them the Hoosiers, send them out in the battle.
And those dudes won 11 games anda program that had not won 10 in
a single season as to a program that was as much a joke in
(17:19):
football as any in the sport. And they're quickly becoming a
team that people are going, hey,you're just going to deal with
them. They're here now because they
got the guy again. Your program takes on the
persona of your head coach. Curse Ignati's persona is
confidence earned, by the way. Confidence.
(17:40):
The man who won 11 games or morethan 4 the last six years.
James Madison, right? People going to us, James
Madison. But they showed up and we're
monsters right away. Right away in the Sunbelt, what
they call the little SEC, right?Making it happen.
Gets to Indiana and his only losses are to the two teams that
play in the national championship game.
He's got another good veteran quarterback and Fernando
(18:01):
Mendoza, 3000 yard passer. He added guys like Roman Henby
to the list. Did he lose Donovan Mccully to
to Michigan? Yeah, he did.
But he also returns 11 of the 16of 16 starters from last year.
This is a team that can win 11 games.
Again, this is a team that we expect to compete toward the top
of the Big 10 again. Now, they may be joined by
(18:24):
Illinois or they may be overtaken by Illinois.
But you're going to talk about Indiana in the same conversation
with Oregon, with Ohio State, Penn State, because you look at
also their schedule and it's, I mean, it's choice.
It's choice. You got to go to Oregon.
I think that's the toughest gameon the schedule for Indiana.
There's every reason that Oregonand Indiana could be 10 win
(18:45):
teams and could be planning the Big 10 championship if things go
their way again. Ohio State is huge over there.
Massive. But they have not won the Big 10
championship since 2019. They'll make the College
Football Playoff, but they ain'tgot to win the damn thing,
right? They ain't got to win the league
championship to get in in a way that, say, Indiana didn't have
to either. They lost Ohio State and they
(19:07):
still saw their names called. Did that mean they had to go on
the road to play a Notre Dame team in the in the national
championship game? Yeah, but it was that, I mean,
when that dissimilar what Ohio State had to do last year, they
just got to host the home game. Now, if you put Indiana in that
home atmosphere, what can they do in Bloomington?
Can they make a run? I don't think it is too much to
(19:28):
say I'm impressed like I I trulyam.
We're also at a very cool part of college football as people
want to decree name, image and likeness and revenue sharing and
what happened to an education? I'm saying have you seen how
volatile the sport has become and how much fun that has made
it? Freaking Indiana is good because
they could use the roster turnover to their advantage.
(19:50):
All they had to do as if it's simple, is identify the guys
they need it and get them in theIndiana.
That's it. You got money there, you got
people that wanted. To invest in the program and now
they have every reason to and they want to stay there.
Meanwhile, Michigan State's still trying to figure it out
with meanwhile, Wisconsin is trying to figure it out.
(20:12):
Iowa, they're back to figuring out Purdue in the bottom.
Minnesota back to trying to figure it out.
Here's Indiana right here, rightright here, right now.
Going to be a lot of fun to watch them play.
We come back, I want to talk about which program is most
likely to bounce back from a crappy year and a couple of
(20:32):
them, we're going to play each other in the non conference.
(20:57):
Back on ADAPT and respond with me.
RJ Young, if you're new to the show, thank you for joining us
here. We talk college football year
round. If you're into that, hit that
subscribe button like this videoand answer the question in the
comments below. Which team do you expect to
bounce back from what was a substandard year by their
measure? And I think there are a handful
(21:19):
of programs that fit for this, some of them because they can't
get any worse, and some of them because it was just really odd
to see them have a down year. I think it's top of the list.
You can go Florida State, right?2 and 10.
That ain't going to cut it. But also, we don't expect
Florida State to be that bad this year.
We expect them to flip it aroundin a quick fast, in a hurry.
(21:40):
They're they're embarrassed. And because they're embarrassed,
they're mad and they're mad theywant to take it out on somebody.
They get to play one of these teams that I'm going to talk
about a little bit later, that Ithink it's got a little bit more
to worry about than Florida State.
Mike Gravel turns over the staff, right.
New offense coordinator, new defense coordinator, tagged his
mentor Gus Malzahn to run the offense.
(22:01):
Brought in a guy in Tommy Castellanos who's going to talk
his noise. I don't know that Florida State
is going to compete for the ACC championship because at the top
it feels like it's Clemson. SMU is going to show me that
they're good or bad, right? North Carolina, we'll find out
real quick, but through the middle and Syracuse is good,
(22:21):
right? Miami is good.
Boston College is going to be tough.
Georgia Tech is going to be tough.
It's not going to be as easy as it might have been for Florida
State in years past to move up to the top.
But I do expect them to flip this thing around from 2:00 and
10:00 to bowling, right? And I think bowling is the bare
minimum that you would expect from Florida State.
Is that enough to keep Mike Norvell in his seat?
(22:44):
We'll see, right? Because it's getting kind of hot
there. I would also add Kansas.
They had an abysmal first half of the season last year, but
that's was very unlanced lipold.Like you had a Jalen, Jalen
Daniels that wasn't himself until the second-half.
And when they got in the second-half, Devin Neil's
running over people. I think you can expect them to
(23:05):
flip it around. I think really the teams that
fit this are ones for which we're like, you are parentally
really great. What happened last year?
What, why? Why this odd year?
Wisconsin fits the bill for me, right?
Wisconsin is better when they run the football.
(23:26):
Surprise, surprise, when they got away from running the
football, they lost football games.
When they ran the football, theywere really good and had Oregon
on the ropes. I get they're also dealing with,
you know, backup quarterback, which I think had a lot to do
with it. They lose Tyler Van Dyke very
early in the season. But Phil Longo's offense never
felt like the kind that fit Wisconsin's identity.
And sometimes that's what it's about.
(23:48):
Are you playing to the program'sidentity?
Georgia runs the ball and plays defense.
Wisconsin runs the ball and plays defense.
When you try to be somebody you haven't been, it's affecting,
right? And I think that's affecting it
at all levels. It's not just the players on the
field, the playbook coordinators, it's secretary,
It's the janitor, it's the students who have this idea in
their head and they're also doing their jobs a little bit
(24:10):
differently because they got this idea in their head.
I think it's emotional intelligence is what we're
feeling when we watch Wisconsin play, when they watch Wisconsin
play. Right down to jump around, right
house pain. Y'all should let that happen,
dawg. Like that.
I hate that. But since 2022, basically since
the Oklahoma State game, Wisconsin's 12 and O when they
(24:32):
run the ball for 150 yards or more, they are 13 and one when
they just hand the ball off 35 times more or a game feels feels
very cut and drives because it is.
So when when the offense last year rushed for its fewest yards
(24:53):
in the 20th century, 18144, that's that's a sign of why
you're bad. Like, that's the fewest yards
that Wisconsin and rush for in asingle season since 1995.
And every year that they got a tailback, they got a guy from
Melvin Gordon all the way back to Ron Dame, Monty Ball, they've
(25:14):
been James White. They've been really, really
difficult to beat. And I think in his heart, that's
who Luke Fickle wants to be. Having played the nose at Ohio
State haven't been defense coordinated.
Ohio State haven't seen what it's like for an Ohio State team
to run the ball down people's throats and play defense.
I think he's going to try to getback to that and that's why he
(25:35):
brings in Jeff Grimes, who had the offense at Kansas last year.
Devin Neal had 1000 yard rushingseason.
You're going to identify your tailback.
You're going to feed him the rock.
You're going to make it happen. I think making it worse is, you
know, you're averaging just 20.8points per game in 2024.
And we're talking about the fewest points that a Wisconsin
(25:59):
team has scored since 2004. But that year was also a magical
year for them. They won at Ohio State or ranked
Ohio State and a #5 Purdue. That's how long ago that was.
But that was that mean? Had this been 2024, the D9 and
O, right. But that that's not just 2004 D
9 and O. But that's not what it is,
(26:20):
right? We're expecting them to get back
to being who they are. The team that I think we should
be talking more about in this instance is actually Utah
because Kyle Whittingham suffered the first losing season
since 2013 at a program that hasbeen a perennial winner.
Now, going five and seven is onething, but they also had
(26:42):
quarterback problems. Cam Rising was never healthy and
Isaiah Wilson could never. Isaac Wilson never really
figured figured it out. So what do you do?
You watch your offensive coordinator go away and you go
recruit an offensive coordinatorand a quarterback, not unlike
what has become in vogue. You go get the pair.
(27:03):
And what he got was Jason Beck and Devin Dampier, A bad Lobos
team, but a prolific Lobos offense.
They put up 33 1/2 points per game last year, which ranked
24th in the country, and they put up 484 yards per game.
Wild Dampier himself average 7 1/2 yards per carry, rushed for
(27:24):
11166 yards, threw for 27168 yards. 27 total TDs to just 12
picks. Those numbers are Heisman level
in the SEC, right? In the Big 12, you're looking at
a guy that could be your offensive player of the year.
It's also getting away from the kind of offense that has become
(27:44):
synonymous with Kyle Winningham.We want to own the line of
scrimmage. We want to run the ball.
We want to play defense with Dampier and Ray, Sean Parker,
you know, a really great tailback transferring in from
Washington State. You're going to have
opportunities to run the ball, but is it going to be the kind
of forceful, beat them up, beat them down, run the football
that, again, we think comes fromKyle Winningham?
(28:08):
I think it is. But I think you're also going to
see guys that are taking deeper shots.
Now, this might be a case of just what I talked about with
Wisconsin. You get too far away from your
identity. It can come to bite you and hurt
you. But five and seven is just not
who we expected Utah to be. As a matter of fact, I think
Dampier might be the most talented athlete at quarterback
(28:28):
that Utah has had since Alex Smith.
And that, you know, it's a long time ago, but Urban Meyers
coaching at Utah. But you understand what I mean
here. Let's see just what Utah is
capable of with that guy at quarterback and with that
offensive coordinator and Jason Beck calling plays.
Last team I think we need to talk about in this instance is
(28:49):
Alabama. They got a bounce back from last
year. The I think there's more
pressure on them than any other team because they missed the
College Football Playoff when itexpanded to 12 teams.
That used to be you pencil them in.
Matter of fact, going into the season, we would have penciled
them in and after the first fourgames, that's what it should
(29:10):
have been. They beat up on Wisconsin.
A-Team, they got to play. They they're going to get an
opportunity to beat up on Florida State this year, a team
they got to play. But they are able to beat a #2
Georgia and then lose to Vanderbilt, lose Tennessee, lose
to bad Oklahoma and lose to a middling Michigan.
(29:30):
If you win two of the three games you lost, you're playing
in the playoff with ten wins. People are going to put that
team in. And I think the Nick Saban tax
is being applied to Alabama. That is to say, he ain't
coaching there so you don't get the benefit of the doubt in the
way that you might otherwise. I think if Caitlin Deboer was
head coach to Alabama in 2023, you would put Florida State in
(29:52):
that spot and not Alabama because it's Nick Saban.
You know what you're going to get on the football field and
that matters. It does.
It's unfair, but that's why you want a next statement so you get
that unfair advantage. And that's what they thought
they were getting. And Caleb de Boer, a guy who had
lost all the 12 games and won over 100 as a head coach, really
need to get that figured out quick, fast, in a hurry.
(30:12):
And I hope they do because sports pretty cool.
When Alabama is pretty good, we come back.
I want to talk about the programthat is most likely to build on
its success from last year and why I think it's an SEC team
that not enough people are talking about for reasons that
got everything to do with potential.
(30:56):
Back on adapt and respond with me.
RJ Young, if you're new to the channel, thank you for joining
us here. If you're listening on the
podcast, thank you so much for that.
To leave us five star review, fill out the form in the
description on YouTube and let me send you a sticker for that.
I want to talk about team that Ibelieve can build on its success
from last year. What we might think of is having
(31:18):
a banner year earlier in the show, right?
We talked about Indiana and how I think Herd Signetti won the
offseason. We talked about Penn State and
how building on their success would just mean, you know,
winning a top five matchup, particularly against Ohio State
or Michigan. If Michigan was ranked in the
top five, Ohio State probably will be when Penn State plays
them. But I think the program that the
(31:41):
programs that I have an opportunity to best build on
this are in the SEC. No, not Oklahoma.
Oklahoma didn't have a successful season last year, so
let's go ahead and put that one down, OK?
It's not Auburn because they didn't have any successful
season last year either. Hugh Freeze is very much on you
got it. You got his ass in the jackpot.
For me, it's Missouri and South Carolina.
(32:05):
OK Missouri, who has turned intoa force in the Eli drink Wiz
era. back-to-back double digit winning seasons 20/13/2014 and
then 2022-2023, 2020, 2020 24. You've also got Beau Privola at
quarterback, so you're going to be a little bit more athletic.
(32:26):
I don't know if you're going to be as good down the field.
Brady Cook was really great for you and you're able to go get
guys to help you with the loss of dudes like Luther Burden.
You're looking at a Matt Hardy who's coming out of ULM and
really was the straw stirring the drink down there.
As a true freshman, he rushed the 13151 yards and your defense
allowed just 20 points per game and gave up 300 yards a game,
(32:47):
318 yards a game. You get a guy in Kevin Coleman
who was one of the best players on a bad football team,
Mississippi State last year, 932yards receiving.
I think he's your Luther Burden.He's your Theo Weeks going into
this year. If Privola can add a running
dimension to the offense. Take a look at the schedule,
(33:09):
guys. I mean, they got a whopping 8
home games and then we're talking about at Auburn, at
Vanderbilt, at Oklahoma, at Arkansas.
That should be a playoff team. It should be.
It should be a playoff team. Thinking about South Carolina
with Lenore Sellers going into ayear, which some people believe
(33:29):
he can be the first quarterback off the board more.
The closer we get to the NFL draft, the more we think the
arch man is going to stick around for another year.
But after winning nine games, there's no reason to believe
they can't win 10. They beat a Clemson, right?
They're beaten up on Oklahoma. They they had LSU on the ropes.
They can, they can go win, win against the best teams in the
(33:51):
country. They just need things to go
their way, which means Nick Harbor got to develop into
somebody. He he's got to develop into
somebody. I think Lenore Sellers is going
to have every opportunity. Shane Beamer's going to put him
in a great spot, but it's going to be about can you get the ball
down field and does Lenore's have to be some version of Cam
Newton for this team to be good?He can be, but that's the comp
(34:12):
right at the at the far end of the ceiling for South Carolina
is that 2010 Auburn football team where it's going to be
Lenore Sellers and parts that can propel you to a national
championship. But we're so far away from that
and the sport has gotten so muchmore difficult to play that
we'll just have to wait and see what that is.
(34:32):
I I believe it. They're capable of this, but I'm
also looking at, you know, inside of this odds to make the
College Football Playoff among the SEC South Carolina's getting
plus 550, Missouri's getting plus 825.
For those of y'all that do the betting, that's pretty good
value. You take that, especially when
you're looking at Auburn at +300and Tennessee at +300.
(34:52):
You know, Oklahoma plus 45445. I can see four teams from the
SEC making the College Football Playoff.
That four team is what we're talking about when we talk about
South Carolina or or Missouri. If we're talking about teams
with best odds to make the playoffs out of that four team
in and probably go on the road to play a Big 10 team or a Big
(35:13):
12 team, you got to include those teams.
Also got to look at Florida, right?
Like there's what, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, that's three.
LSU, Ole Miss, A&M, that's 6 Auburn, Tennessee, Florida,
that's nine. Oklahoma, South Carolina,
Missouri, That's 12 out of 16 teams with odds from Circa at
least to make the College Football Playoff.
(35:35):
Other teams just not on the board.
That Auburn one is the only one.I think it's kind of squirrely.
That's it. Everybody else I can make a
really good argument for why they can make the playoff, but
it's going to be the margins here and I think the margins
going to be home field advantage.
While I'm high on Missouri, it'sgoing to be do I have a better
athlete at quarterback than you,Lenora Sellers?
Can we limit the mistakes that keep us from winning these one
(35:57):
score games? Right, that's it's going to be
huge. That's Utah in the Big 12.
They they are like something like 2 and 9 over their over
their last excuse me, two and seven in their last nine games
in one score games. You can flip a couple of those
into wins and all of a sudden we're talking about you nice and
we're having nice things to say and it's a lot more fun.
(36:20):
The last thing I'm going to say about the Missouri, South
Carolina, we expect them to improve on the success is
somebody's going to have to takea step back.
Somebody always does. Is it A&M?
Could be right. Is it Ole Miss?
Could be. If Florida doesn't have a
healthy DJ Lagway, you won't have to worry about them.
(36:41):
But a healthy DJ Lagway puts them in the conversation for the
FCC championship. That's how important he is.
Matter of fact, I think DJ Lagway is as important to
Florida as Lenore Sellers is to South Carolina.
You're just a different footballteam.
You know, it's it's the Florida State Jordan Travis effect.
We no longer think you're good. If that guy's hurt, that's
what's going to have to happen. Beau Privola is going to have to
(37:01):
be good. He's going to have to reach the
potential that he showed 242 yards rushing at Penn State.
You got to show a little bit, but you didn't get to show what
you're made of. Now he gets an opportunity to
show what he's made of. And I can't wait to find out
just how good he can be. And if Eli drink witch is just
going to be talking more noise and Missouri's never going to be
nobody possible possible that Arkansas game ought to be fun.
(37:24):
You know that Oklahoma games going to be fun.
Old Big 12 match up going to be a lot of John.
I think quietly people don't really understand Missouri and
Oklahoma kind of hate each other.
Oklahoma doesn't think Missouri's any good and Missouri
believes that Oklahoma's overrated.
But when the two come together, you'd be amazed at how much
animosity there is. Can't stand them.
(37:45):
They can't stand us. I remember the Chase Daniels,
Jeremy Macklin years, I rememberthem being all Brody and
whatnot. It's fun.
It's fun. All right, that's going to do it
for this episode of Adapt and Respond.
If you like the longer shows, let me know that in the comments
below and we will see y'all on the flip side.
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