December 18, 2025 • 9 mins
SEC Network's Cole Cubelic Joins the Show Discussing A&M/Miami Match Up
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Matt Thomas Show with Ross here from New Orleans. One
point thirty three is our time, and a very busy
man who is going to be greace enough to spend
a few minutes with us here on ESPN Radio will
be on the Alabama Oklahoma game tomorrow. You've seen him
on television, you see him on the SEC network. Also,
there's a show in Birmingham, col Koubalik with us on
the program. Colets, Matt, I appreciate you squeezing a few
minutes of your time with this real big picture question.
(00:23):
Becauld you follow that SEC very tightly. Give me the
group of schools if there's three or four among the
SEC that are NIL rich, that are really doing well,
and then give me three or four that our audience
to Houston would know about that you're worried about the
future of the NIL and that may be concerned about
the dollars coming in.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I mean, obviously you go Texas, Texas, A and M
we're doing really well. I think Missouri is a team
that does better than people think Tennessee does well. I
think people would be surprised where Alabama is. I think
they're a little behind most other teams in the League,
Old Miss.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Probably ahead of schedule. I don't know if that changes
without Lane there.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
And then I think Mississippi State probably a team you're
concerned about, believe it or not, and I know with
what we've seen in the public recently, it's not going
to appear that way.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
But from an NIL perspective.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Old Miss is not Scrooge mcducking and you know, swimming
in their giant vault of coins every day. So that's
an interesting to watch. That's one interesting to watch moving forward.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Cole, You've got a lot of ties to all the
Old Miss connections in the LSU. As you were doing
the Daily Show and talking about the SEC network, a
thought or two about your relationship with Lane Kiffin the
movement and what do you expect LSU to do right
away once he settles in.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I mean, my relationship with Lane is pretty much as
professional and it's been great. He's been really good to
me when we've needed to interview and we needed to talk.
He's never really short for words, always entertaining. He's great
to us in meetings, always good at giving us information,
always helpful. I don't really he and I don't communicate
much outside of that, which is fine. Some coaches I
(02:03):
talk to multiple times a week. Other coaches I talked
to once or twice during football season.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
So I think it just depends. I think he's gonna
win at LSU. Is he gonna.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Ultimately win to the extent that everyone expects or just
thinks that he is.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Nowadays, I think it's impossible to just say, oh, coach
A is going to place B and that equals championship.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
There are too many things that have to happen nowadays.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You mentioned Innil just a little bit earlier, being able
to navigate the transfer portal, and not so much who
you get and how much they.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Help you, but who you lose to the transfer portal.
That might not be a starter.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
That might be somebody who could fill in three four
weeks in the middle of the season, or come in
and play at a higher level than anticipated for the
last four weeks of the season, and that doesn't allow
you to be run out of the playoffs. We're seeing
guys go out and teams are changing. He go two
years ago, Tate Ratletz gets injured. Georgia team was different,
(03:01):
not just the offensive line, so it's not just quarterbacks
that are leaving the lineups or getting injured banged up
that are changing the makeup of teams.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
And it's not just a wide receiver.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I mean, it can be a guard, it can be
an inside linebacker, it can be one corner, And all
of a sudden, you have to shift the way that
you operate, the way that you play, and teams know
what to take advantage of. So I think all of
that is a part of how it's gonna happen. You
think about what team unity is, chemistry, leadership, those things
are tough nowadays to be able to fingerpoint, put your
(03:31):
finger on develop Like. We had a long conversation with
Clark Lee in the middle of last season and he
talked about how he had reshifted his mindset inside his program.
He said, I was developing these young men for later
in life to be better husbands and professionals and go
on to do great things. And they were spending their
last two or three years at Alabama beating US or
Kentucky beating us.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
So he got back to football and he got back
to I mean, I hate to.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Say this, but a little bit more of a mercenary lifestyle,
you know, more of the assassin's Creed. I guess of, hey,
come in here, get what you need to get done,
and you know we're gonna probably not have as much
of a relationship after that because we're gonna focus more
on football.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Cole Coople at ESPN SEC Network joining us here on
the Matt Thomas Show here from New Orleans a couple
more minutes. Cole which Carson Beck's gonna show up the
one that can throw multiple touchdowns in a game or
multiple I t's in a game Saturday in College Station.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Depends on if they live in third down or not.
If you see fifteen to seventeen third down attempts for
A and M, it's gonna be the bad one because
that's been pretty much every quarterback that's played A and
M this year. They have not been able to survive
on third down. And that's not something that's going to
go well for a lot of guys their age. They're
gonna get looks with guys that are gonna be playing
(04:44):
on Sundays and it's I mean, not A and M
defense on third downs.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Hell on wheels.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And there's not many, I don't know there's many pro
quarterbacks that could manage it effectively with what they give you,
and how they give it to you, and who they
have to utilize doing it. So if it's a lot
of third downs, more than average third downs, you'll get
the bad Carson back. But I think that decides this game. Honestly,
I think the quarterback that makes the least mount of mistakes,
that plays the cleanest football is going to win this game.
(05:10):
And some of that might come down to the coordinators,
might come down to Shannon Dawson, might come down to
Collin Kline.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
You know, who calls a game.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
That is efficient enough or has the potential to be
efficient enough for them to go out and execute that
way and win that game. Because both these teams have
good ground games, Both these teams have good offensive lines.
Both these teams have enough skill to be able to
help around them. But there are parts of these two teams.
I don't think Miami has seen a pass rush like this.
I don't think A and M has played a secondary
(05:39):
top to bottom that can run like this one can.
So those will be interesting factors to watch in that
game as well.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Did Texas open up any A and m wounds in
that game in Austin?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
No, I think arts Manning just played extremely well he
does that pass rush and those looks that I mentioned,
if you go back and dissect it, I mean I
counted about one hundred and ten yards that he saved
that offense where it could have been a sack, could
have been tackled for loss, and he was able to
escape and either throw the ball away, complete the pass,
or leave the pocket and pick up positive ground. So
(06:13):
a seven yard loss would it appeared to be turned
into a three yard game.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Or even an incompletion.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Those are the kind of yards he saved that team
consistently with what he was doing and how he was
operating the things the.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Way that he did it.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Those things have been there, It's just not a lot
of teams had the personnel to.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Be able to take advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
And you get some of the guys around, and that's
one of the better games that Texas offensive line played
this year. They have not been great the majority of
this season, and they did a nice job sorting some
things out, getting a hat on a hat, playing physical
football and picking some things up.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Col Cube look with us here on e from ESPN
on the Matt Thomas Show, ross the game that you'll
be calling on radio on the sidelines Oklahoma Alabama feels
like to me, you've got a hundred different opinions about
this thing. It's the tightest of all the Vegas board
at this point. What is the fourth quarter going to
look like? Football game? Do you think if you were
to get your crystal ball out?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Well?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Probably, And this is just like my assumption based on
how I think this game is gonna go. I think
probably middle of the fourth and on. You're gonna get
a couple, well at least one, if not two desperate offenses.
Now there's a chance that this thing could be fourteen
fourteen or held three to three, and you know we're
(07:26):
looking at a we're just gonna settle things down and
play for overtime, and both offenses just shut it down,
try to take advantage a better field position, feel like
their defense can get a stop, you know, kind of
a one off stop in overtime help get a win.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Or I think you're gonna.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Have two offenses that are really pushing and really kind
of going past their comfort zones to try to generate
yards and points because they haven't been able to do
anything the entire game.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Very last question, can Tulane and or James Madison. Stay
competitive on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Stay competitive. Yes, I mean Jamu has a Lonza bear
to quarterback.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
He's a mobile kid, can move around good on the run,
can push the ball down the field. That offensive line
plays a more physical brand of football than people give
them credit for.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
You know, it's just overall size is what's going to
be the difference there.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I mean, this is almost They're almost the organ of
twenty years ago, where you know, speed, athleticism, offense, scheme,
had everything, and then you get in this setting and
it's like, Okay, everybody's twenty pounds heavier and a little
bit faster, Like this doesn't make sense.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Now, tu Lane's a little bit different.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Tulane had three dbs that ended up in NFL camps
run NFL rosters, had another one transferred to Auburn and
started this year.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
That weren't there early in the season.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
That secondary wasn't really ready for an old miss passing
attack at that point. Also, you go back to Jake
retz Laf what he was at that point in the season.
He wasn't really a balanced quarterback. It was very run heavy.
He hadn't really found his way through the air, didn't
have that comfort level in the offense at that point,
he's gotten there to an extent, and I think because
of that that offense, being a little bit more balanced,
(08:58):
could potentially find more yards this time around. And I
think Retz laugh also just his playmaking ability with a
defensive line that's better than people give it credit for.
But I will say can be a little undisciplined at times.
They can find their way a little too far upfield.
They can find their way out of their gaps, and
that's something that Tulane may be able to take advantage of.
(09:19):
Ill Just the secondary's gotta be great, not good great.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
They gotta bat some passes down. They can't give up
free releases. They can't give big job aftretches. That's where
old miss kills you a high percentage throws.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Five eight yards in the air that go for you know,
eighty five seventy five yards on the ground.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Cole squeeze in ten minutes from me man a lot.
Thank you friends, safe travels to Oklahoma and we'll see you,
I guess with the Texas Bowl down the road as well.
Thank you for the time as always.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Absolutely look forward to seeing you. Thank you so much
for having Matt
Matt Thomas Show with Ross here from New Orleans. One
point thirty three is our time, and a very busy
man who is going to be greace enough to spend
a few minutes with us here on ESPN Radio will
be on the Alabama Oklahoma game tomorrow. You've seen him
on television, you see him on the SEC network. Also,
there's a show in Birmingham, col Koubalik with us on
the program. Colets, Matt, I appreciate you squeezing a few
minutes of your time with this real big picture question.
(00:23):
Becauld you follow that SEC very tightly. Give me the
group of schools if there's three or four among the
SEC that are NIL rich, that are really doing well,
and then give me three or four that our audience
to Houston would know about that you're worried about the
future of the NIL and that may be concerned about
the dollars coming in.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I mean, obviously you go Texas, Texas, A and M
we're doing really well. I think Missouri is a team
that does better than people think Tennessee does well. I
think people would be surprised where Alabama is. I think
they're a little behind most other teams in the League,
Old Miss.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Probably ahead of schedule. I don't know if that changes
without Lane there.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
And then I think Mississippi State probably a team you're
concerned about, believe it or not, and I know with
what we've seen in the public recently, it's not going
to appear that way.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
But from an NIL perspective.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Old Miss is not Scrooge mcducking and you know, swimming
in their giant vault of coins every day. So that's
an interesting to watch. That's one interesting to watch moving forward.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Cole, You've got a lot of ties to all the
Old Miss connections in the LSU. As you were doing
the Daily Show and talking about the SEC network, a
thought or two about your relationship with Lane Kiffin the
movement and what do you expect LSU to do right
away once he settles in.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I mean, my relationship with Lane is pretty much as
professional and it's been great. He's been really good to
me when we've needed to interview and we needed to talk.
He's never really short for words, always entertaining. He's great
to us in meetings, always good at giving us information,
always helpful. I don't really he and I don't communicate
much outside of that, which is fine. Some coaches I
(02:03):
talk to multiple times a week. Other coaches I talked
to once or twice during football season.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
So I think it just depends. I think he's gonna
win at LSU. Is he gonna.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Ultimately win to the extent that everyone expects or just
thinks that he is.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Nowadays, I think it's impossible to just say, oh, coach
A is going to place B and that equals championship.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
There are too many things that have to happen nowadays.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You mentioned Innil just a little bit earlier, being able
to navigate the transfer portal, and not so much who
you get and how much they.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Help you, but who you lose to the transfer portal.
That might not be a starter.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
That might be somebody who could fill in three four
weeks in the middle of the season, or come in
and play at a higher level than anticipated for the
last four weeks of the season, and that doesn't allow
you to be run out of the playoffs. We're seeing
guys go out and teams are changing. He go two
years ago, Tate Ratletz gets injured. Georgia team was different,
(03:01):
not just the offensive line, so it's not just quarterbacks
that are leaving the lineups or getting injured banged up
that are changing the makeup of teams.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
And it's not just a wide receiver.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I mean, it can be a guard, it can be
an inside linebacker, it can be one corner, And all
of a sudden, you have to shift the way that
you operate, the way that you play, and teams know
what to take advantage of. So I think all of
that is a part of how it's gonna happen. You
think about what team unity is, chemistry, leadership, those things
are tough nowadays to be able to fingerpoint, put your
(03:31):
finger on develop Like. We had a long conversation with
Clark Lee in the middle of last season and he
talked about how he had reshifted his mindset inside his program.
He said, I was developing these young men for later
in life to be better husbands and professionals and go
on to do great things. And they were spending their
last two or three years at Alabama beating US or
Kentucky beating us.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
So he got back to football and he got back
to I mean, I hate to.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Say this, but a little bit more of a mercenary lifestyle,
you know, more of the assassin's Creed. I guess of, hey,
come in here, get what you need to get done,
and you know we're gonna probably not have as much
of a relationship after that because we're gonna focus more
on football.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Cole Coople at ESPN SEC Network joining us here on
the Matt Thomas Show here from New Orleans a couple
more minutes. Cole which Carson Beck's gonna show up the
one that can throw multiple touchdowns in a game or
multiple I t's in a game Saturday in College Station.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Depends on if they live in third down or not.
If you see fifteen to seventeen third down attempts for
A and M, it's gonna be the bad one because
that's been pretty much every quarterback that's played A and
M this year. They have not been able to survive
on third down. And that's not something that's going to
go well for a lot of guys their age. They're
gonna get looks with guys that are gonna be playing
(04:44):
on Sundays and it's I mean, not A and M
defense on third downs.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Hell on wheels.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And there's not many, I don't know there's many pro
quarterbacks that could manage it effectively with what they give you,
and how they give it to you, and who they
have to utilize doing it. So if it's a lot
of third downs, more than average third downs, you'll get
the bad Carson back. But I think that decides this game. Honestly,
I think the quarterback that makes the least mount of mistakes,
that plays the cleanest football is going to win this game.
(05:10):
And some of that might come down to the coordinators,
might come down to Shannon Dawson, might come down to
Collin Kline.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
You know, who calls a game.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
That is efficient enough or has the potential to be
efficient enough for them to go out and execute that
way and win that game. Because both these teams have
good ground games, Both these teams have good offensive lines.
Both these teams have enough skill to be able to
help around them. But there are parts of these two teams.
I don't think Miami has seen a pass rush like this.
I don't think A and M has played a secondary
(05:39):
top to bottom that can run like this one can.
So those will be interesting factors to watch in that
game as well.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Did Texas open up any A and m wounds in
that game in Austin?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
No, I think arts Manning just played extremely well he
does that pass rush and those looks that I mentioned,
if you go back and dissect it, I mean I
counted about one hundred and ten yards that he saved
that offense where it could have been a sack, could
have been tackled for loss, and he was able to
escape and either throw the ball away, complete the pass,
or leave the pocket and pick up positive ground. So
(06:13):
a seven yard loss would it appeared to be turned
into a three yard game.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Or even an incompletion.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Those are the kind of yards he saved that team
consistently with what he was doing and how he was
operating the things the.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Way that he did it.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Those things have been there, It's just not a lot
of teams had the personnel to.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Be able to take advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
And you get some of the guys around, and that's
one of the better games that Texas offensive line played
this year. They have not been great the majority of
this season, and they did a nice job sorting some
things out, getting a hat on a hat, playing physical
football and picking some things up.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Col Cube look with us here on e from ESPN
on the Matt Thomas Show, ross the game that you'll
be calling on radio on the sidelines Oklahoma Alabama feels
like to me, you've got a hundred different opinions about
this thing. It's the tightest of all the Vegas board
at this point. What is the fourth quarter going to
look like? Football game? Do you think if you were
to get your crystal ball out?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Well?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Probably, And this is just like my assumption based on
how I think this game is gonna go. I think
probably middle of the fourth and on. You're gonna get
a couple, well at least one, if not two desperate offenses.
Now there's a chance that this thing could be fourteen
fourteen or held three to three, and you know we're
(07:26):
looking at a we're just gonna settle things down and
play for overtime, and both offenses just shut it down,
try to take advantage a better field position, feel like
their defense can get a stop, you know, kind of
a one off stop in overtime help get a win.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Or I think you're gonna.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Have two offenses that are really pushing and really kind
of going past their comfort zones to try to generate
yards and points because they haven't been able to do
anything the entire game.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Very last question, can Tulane and or James Madison. Stay
competitive on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Stay competitive. Yes, I mean Jamu has a Lonza bear
to quarterback.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
He's a mobile kid, can move around good on the run,
can push the ball down the field. That offensive line
plays a more physical brand of football than people give
them credit for.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
You know, it's just overall size is what's going to
be the difference there.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I mean, this is almost They're almost the organ of
twenty years ago, where you know, speed, athleticism, offense, scheme,
had everything, and then you get in this setting and
it's like, Okay, everybody's twenty pounds heavier and a little
bit faster, Like this doesn't make sense.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Now, tu Lane's a little bit different.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Tulane had three dbs that ended up in NFL camps
run NFL rosters, had another one transferred to Auburn and
started this year.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
That weren't there early in the season.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
That secondary wasn't really ready for an old miss passing
attack at that point. Also, you go back to Jake
retz Laf what he was at that point in the season.
He wasn't really a balanced quarterback. It was very run heavy.
He hadn't really found his way through the air, didn't
have that comfort level in the offense at that point,
he's gotten there to an extent, and I think because
of that that offense, being a little bit more balanced,
(08:58):
could potentially find more yards this time around. And I
think Retz laugh also just his playmaking ability with a
defensive line that's better than people give it credit for.
But I will say can be a little undisciplined at times.
They can find their way a little too far upfield.
They can find their way out of their gaps, and
that's something that Tulane may be able to take advantage of.
(09:19):
Ill Just the secondary's gotta be great, not good great.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
They gotta bat some passes down. They can't give up
free releases. They can't give big job aftretches. That's where
old miss kills you a high percentage throws.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Five eight yards in the air that go for you know,
eighty five seventy five yards on the ground.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Cole squeeze in ten minutes from me man a lot.
Thank you friends, safe travels to Oklahoma and we'll see you,
I guess with the Texas Bowl down the road as well.
Thank you for the time as always.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Absolutely look forward to seeing you. Thank you so much
for having Matt
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