July 17, 2025 • 43 mins
Cole Cubelic joins to break down the latest news at SEC Media Days and give an SEC conference preview for the upcoming season.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
You know what, you can start it for me.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Go ahead. Welcome in SEC Media Days, Josh Pate alongside
Cole Kublic for whatever platform this is going to be on.
It has been an interesting week for us, but not
so much for information coming out of Media Day. It's
been a little bit quiet outside of McElroy running his mouth.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah it sucked all right.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Cole Kublic alongside Josh pay We're here at SEC Media Days.
Here we go, sir, here we go. No, we're here
rolled the whole thing like, I'm gonna hear that whole thing.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm fine with it.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
You don't see a team to beat in the SEC?
Do you do you think there's a definitive team to beat?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I think there are a couple of teams at the top.
You could probably take your pick in a grouping of
one through four Alabama, Georgia, Yeah, Texas, and then LSU
would be one that I guess I'm now allowing because
so many other people want them there, which is odd
because normally you would have to have a quarterback for
most people to pick you to win the SEC, but
not as many people are on LSU. Yeah, I wouldn't
(01:06):
put one of them ahead of the others, I kind
of classify them together. So no, there's not a definitive
team out in front, but the classification of teams behind
them is what I find most interesting about the league.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
This shit, I've actually heard you talk about that. Because
I want to spend.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I'll be quiet.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, well they may have it, though.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Do they know where the podcast is? Some would say yes,
Some shows that are emanating from over there.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Would say no, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I may or may not have appeared on that show
this week.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
That's all you want?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Buy it several times though not to be specific you
the quote of.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
The week was from that show saying, I just love
like your work. You're doing that on that podcast and
those things.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Love it. Look one day it'll get a name. Yeah,
you're a NASCAR guy at all.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Tuesday Date Night podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Just drop it. We'll let you promote it.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Why not?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It has nothing to do with Nascar, but just promote
it anyway in Nascar, Like if you turn on Talladega.
I'm not a racing expert or anything, but I know
when you have like a lead of cars, if they're
all going one ninety, there's no skill in no one
who's gonna win that race. But number two, if one
of them goes down to one eighty five, they just
quickly fall behind the pack. So I think of the
lead pack of teams in the SEC that way, because
(02:13):
they send out the ballot like they email us a ballot.
You can fill it out or not, but it's your
order of finish in the SEC, and they literally have
you do one through sixteen. So as as a mental exercise,
I was sitting there doing it last night and I looked,
and you could go any any combination of Georgia or
Texas or Alabama or LSU.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Let's just call that a top four whatever.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
But then if you go you could go South Carolina fifth,
you could go South Carolina tenth easily.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
There's no change, Like there's no different.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Six ten, Florida six ten, A and M six ten, Ole,
Miss six ten, Auburn six ten.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
But if I were to tell my South Carolina cousin,
I got y'all finishing fifth in the SEC, He's like,
we're going to the playoff. If I tell him you're
finishing tenth, they said, Bro, there's no way we're finishing ten.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
There's no way we're that bad. And I'm like there's
virtually no difference between fifth and tenth.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Not much, but there is, Josh, somebody's going backwards. Yeah,
And that's what I find difficult to sort of pinpoint
in this is all these teams in group two that
we're classifying who's going to go backwards? Because not even
I don't think Vanderbilt's going to go backwards. Normally we'd
sit here media days and say, okay, Vandy back to
what you've always been. Here we go. But that's not
gonna happen. So is it Auburn, is it oll Miss?
(03:26):
Is it Tennessee? Tennessee takes a little step back? But
I don't know if they're going to five or six
wins Ole miss small step back five or six wins.
I don't see that. So the one thing you left
out of your Talladega reference there was when that pack
of cars is out front going that fast left, what's
the other thing that can happen? One bumps into the
(03:46):
other and they all go down.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Then they're all three lost cars.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Here comes Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
He like you just mentioned something, all right, So you're
talking about like all these lead pack teams. The perception
is ten and two is just ten and two, Like
there has always been a classification of teams the way
we talk about him in July. That's a ten win
caliber team, that's an eleven win caliber team.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
All right, So.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Georgia is ten and two, they win the league last year,
ten and two regular season, they win the league last year?
What caliber of team do you think will win the
league championship this year? In other words, do you think
a team will emerge that is better than last year's
Georgia twenty twenty one Georgia Alabama? There's probably not a
twenty nineteen LSU twenty twenty Bama out there, But like,
(04:35):
what caliber of team do you think emerges.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
At the top of this league this year?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Very similar to that Georgia team last year. And part
of this is you and I've had this conversation. We
haven't rewired our brains yet to a two loss team
is still pretty good. A three loss team, which our
SEC champions were at the end of it all last
year ten and three Alabama Alabama fans are mad that
they're a nine win football team. That's actually really good
with where we we are right now. I don't think
(05:01):
a team, though, separates to the extent that you're talking
about a twenty twenty Bama, a twenty nineteen LSU, even
say a twenty ten au Burn. I think it's gonna
be a two loss team. I doubted even be a
one lost team because think back to Georgia last year.
You're not gonna get an old miss team like that. Again,
that Alabama team was still pretty good and that was
a completely bonkers game on the road that you had
multiple chances to win. So no, I don't think one
(05:23):
completely walks away from everybody else.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
All Right, it's hard to get information this week.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
We do get it though, man, Like you can talk
to coaches one on one for a second, but the
better feedback is like when guys leave here and then
they're talking to you, it's just like they're loosening their
tie on the plane and they're they're shooting a little
straighter with you. But it pales in comparison to what
you get when you talk to him in the spring.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
But like I told you too, my best information is
like thirteen minutes before kid, Yeah, nobody want to tell
you anything about like, well, you know, the tight end's
not playing. Also, running back's been hurt all week. He
didn't even really practice. It's like, thanks, coach, why do
we even talk during the week? That's all I need it?
So similar to what you're saying there is yeah, same thing.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
So the feedback you've got, whatever you've gotten this week,
has there been anything that has changed in the way
that you perceive any team up or down this week
based on intel that you've gotten just from this event.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I'm a little bit down on Auburn after yesterday hearing
Hugh Freeze talk about instructing his defensive staff to essentially
make life easy on Jackson Arnold in practice to boost
his confidence. Is this the end all be all?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Does this mean Auburn's gonna go six and six? No?
I just don't like that when I know that confidence
is the one thing that needs to be rebuilt in him,
and you know I've talked about it. It's got to
be rewired. Like if this is Jurassic Park, you got
to go in the lab, pull the DNA out of
the mosquito and make it different for Jackson Arnold. He
can't be the same guy that he was last year.
(06:51):
But I also don't think you can fabricate that confidence.
Gotta go out and do it, and by doing it.
You gotta remember a conversation with Brian Kelly to you
years ago about Jade and Daniels not his heisman year
two years ago, and he said, we've talked to Jaden
and I told him go throw an interception. And you're
thinking to yourself, now, wait a second, that's the last
(07:12):
thing you want a quarterback to do. But he and
this completely goes against what I've told you. McElroy's comment
was on playing quarterback for a defensive coach, which I
think worked against Jackson Arnold, but he said, I want
to prove to him one you can take the shot too.
If it doesn't go our way, it's okay, we're gonna
get the ball back. We're gonna have opportunities to win
that game. And guess what he's never gonna do if
(07:32):
he doesn't go out and do it take shots. So
you got to take the shots initially to understand you're
capable of it and it might work. And if it
doesn't work, we're gonna do it again, so hopefully it
works next time.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
You know. The thing I wrestle with with Jackson Arnold,
but I always lean towards the pessimistic side because I've
I've built hopes up in too many seasons in the
past and had them wrecked that I won't allow it
to happen. So the pessimistic side of me looks at
Jackson Arnold, and he was all everything coming out of
high school. I went out to a lead eleven. I
watched him like, I thought that as good as my
(08:03):
eyeballs can see it, I thought he had all the
physical tools. So did a lot of other staffs because
they offered him a scholarship to play football for him.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Jeff Leby told me he's the most talented quarterback he's
ever worked. Yeah, like, I haven't forgot some talented quarterback,
Like you don't forget.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
That, Okay, But then it's also the case that you
don't forget that you saw the implosion last year on
all fronts for Oklahoma. So then there's this part of
my mind it wants to say, you know what, that
was just a terrible situation he was in. It probably was,
and and he's everything I thought he was out of
high school. That's the blip on the radar screen. Hugh
(08:34):
and Auburn will start pulling it out of him this
year and everything will be good and it'll be the
perfect meshing of quarterback in system. There's one side of
me that wants to say that. Then there's the other
side that is right in line with what you're saying
right now. And that's if we're talking about confidence, like
do we really think we're gonna find that on the
road on a Friday night against Dave a Randa in
week one? Like do we really think that's gonna happen?
(08:55):
And if it doesn't happen, this isn't like Georgia a
Kirby if he lost a game in week one, it's
Kirby and Georgia, everyone's still confident. Well, that's not the
biber A on Auburn. You need what in the media
industry we would call pop. You need proof of performance,
like you need a reason to believe Rod Stewart reference.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
You need a lot of the metaphorical stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
So that Phillips Arena down the street, by the way.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Was it Phillips or State Farm at the time?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Phillips. Those one of the best concerts I've ever been to.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Seriously, Yeah, Georgia Dome probably still next door too.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
So if we don't get that, if you go glass
af empty, like if they lose thirty to twenty to
Baylor in Week one. A couple of picks for Jackson Arnold.
I don't know if you've already jumped out of the plane,
if you just find all that intangible stuff you're talking
about on the way down. This is not a fix
your parachute after you jump sort of year for Auburn.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
This is why this is such a difficult conversation to
have around Jackson Arnold. You mentioned just a little bit
of that Oklahoma situation to go through some of the checklists.
Seth Latrell had never coached quarterbacks before he was doing that.
Jackson Arnold gets benched, I believe too early. Then Seth
Latrell gets fired. Then almost every offensive line was injured
at some point. His top seven wide receivers were injured,
(10:04):
this top two running backs were injured. Nothing went his
way around him. That is, but it doesn't mean that
your confidence can see that or feel that. If that
ruins your confidence, then your confidence is just gone. So
you take all of that and you put it into Okay, well,
can this situation and what's going to be around him
be different? That will be different. This could be Auburn's
best offensive line in ten years, eight years that they've had.
(10:26):
The wide receiver court, it's one of the best in
college football. The running back room is fine, and we
know Hugh can call plays. But the one thing Jackson
Arnold could not do last year was let go of
the football. How many quarterbacks do we say that about good, bad, indifferent?
I mean, you could take Jeremy Johnson, Eric Gaines, whoever.
Not many guys do we sit here and say he
couldn't throw the ball. And that was a real issue
(10:48):
with Jackson Arnold. If he gets through some of these hurdles,
he can be great. That offense can be great. It's
just hearing now maybe how it's being handled. I have
a little more pause with what I think Auburn may
be this year.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
There's a team that other coaches keep bringing up, Like
every coach talks about his team, but if if you
talk to him off the record a little bit, one
of the consistent teams they keep bringing up to me's Texas,
A and M. It appears they have a little more
respect for elcho in that roster maybe than the media does,
general public does. And so like the way it's been
phrased to me is a bowling ball does not gain
(11:20):
a lot of attention. But it just rolls, just rolls,
It goes, knocks down the pens and the right way. Yeah,
and so like in terms of identity, a lot of
times we get midway through the season and you're asking
the worst question, which is what is it? What is
that team's identity? So, for better or for worse, I
doubt we're asking that about A and M this year.
Like they should be able to run the ball. If
(11:41):
those three tailbacks are healthy about as well as anyone
does in the country, I don't think they'll have any apologies, make.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
No bones about what their identity is.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
The other thing that I wonder about is, all right,
so I know Mike Elko's track record coaching the other
side of the ball, and I listen to how blunt
and how direct he was at the end of last year,
and he swore, if I do nothing else, I'm putting
both my hands around the throat of this defense.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
This defense will be improved.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
If they're a solid ground game, if they can play
plus defense. It's just it's never gonna be a team
that I think wows you. How many times has Marcel
Reed been mentioned here? This week Lagway yet Sellers, Yes, Nussmeyer, Yes,
you know. A and M's got a return to quarterback
as well. But he's not in the Heisman conversation, nor
should he be, but he could be. He could be
a critical piece if the decision making piece is there
(12:29):
to a team that just when the dust clears and
the dust settles in December or January or November, is the.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Team that makes you go, how did that happen?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Like?
Speaker 1 (12:38):
How is A and M in this mix?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I'm with you, and I think one thing that Elko
is going to change is just gonna be the personality,
the mentality, essentially the DNA of the team. They're not
going to be out physical. You're not gonna have guys
with the elite talent that he doesn't take advantage of.
I think Mike's gonna be able to get that out
of guys like Casey Concepts. Yan has gotten almost no men. Sure,
and there's a stuff about eight guys that we should
(13:01):
probably go through just to let people know who they are.
He would be one that could absolutely shred this league
this year. They're gonna have a good ground game, they're
gonna have a good offensive line, but they add something
to that that only maybe Auburn has, and that might
be it, and that's offensive line depth. Texas A and
M has a number six and a number seven that
(13:23):
could start on most teams in the SEC. With their
offensive line. The backs are great, But what you just
brought up about personality is really interesting because I think,
similar to LSU, a problem I have with Texas A
and M is are you gonna just individually find that
identity on offense the Jecko and Hyde manner in which
Colin Klein call plays in just a couple of games
(13:44):
last year, Josh, that's got to go away. The inability
to continue to run the football at Auburn is inexcusable.
How the play calling was handled at times against Texas
cannot continue to happen. Now. I'm not bought into Marcel Reed.
I don't know if he's going to be a great
SEC quarterback. I think he's a great athlete. Yeah, he's
got a good arm, and I think that they can
(14:04):
design some things to where he can help them play
winning football. But they need to know what that is
and who they are as far as how they do it.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
See, I remember when we went there in the spring.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
One of the first people I saw when I walked
in the building was Colin Klein, and so he's he's
just so immediate to point out what you were talking about.
He said, these offensive linemen, you have no idea how
much cleaner that makes the lines on the grease board,
and when you draw these plays up the way they're
supposed to work. When you talk about the schizophrenic nature
(14:34):
of how play calling seems to have happened, he says, dude,
you have no idea. I don't think people can fully
appreciate the depth we have and the I think the
way he phrased it is the willingness to learn, the
willingness to be a sponge that Marcel Reid has about
him more so than like all American playmaking ability. He said,
if just if you've got those things, it makes my
(14:55):
job a whole lot easier. He said, there's just there's
literally no excuse for us. There's literally no excuse for me.
Year two.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
We've got the personnel like we can do what we
need to do.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Here's what I would want to hear from Colin Klein
is who have you added around you or whose role
have you either altered or elevated around you. I'll give
you an example when Barry Odom was at Arkansas. If
you recall that was the Matt Corral year at ole
Miss and who was the first team to run that
three three five or whatever drop eight that Ole Miss
(15:26):
really had some problems with it was Arkansas. Well, they
were so good at it. They stayed with it, and
it wasn't a dominant defense, but it was effective based
on what they had on offense. And we got them
much later in the year. And I said, Barry, there
are times on watching this defense and I feel like
you're just itching to blitz or bring more guys to
the line of scrimmage and get out of this defense
(15:47):
that you've never run before. It's foreign to you. And
he had a guy that played linebacker for him at
Missouri that was sort of his captain, his go to
guy that knew the defense with anybody who's his linebacker coach,
And he goes Mikey, sits next to me, and he'll
sit there the whole time. He'll be like, coach, stick
with the plan, stick with the plan. Stick with the plan.
He's like, because yeah, I want to blitz eight. I
(16:08):
want to walk youver by up to the line of scrimmage.
But I got this guy who I trust, who I
know is not trying to just do something cute for fun,
who's reminding me stick with it, stick with it, stick
with it all coaches, I think need I reference it
as an FU coach a lot of times, like you
got to have that guy and say, hey, stop do this,
It's okay, And they're not doing it for themselves. They're
(16:28):
doing it to help you. And same thing with Colin Kleine,
same thing with LSU. They've got to find a guy
that says, hey, hand it off, because they refused to
do that last year.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
As we continue to just unload any little nuggets that
we deem ability are able to be fit for air.
Alabama was in here as we're talking earlier today. They
I mean by Bama standers, they just sucked running the
ball last year. Who just wasn't there, Georgia, same problem,
wasn't there to talk about both of them, but Bama
furs for a second. I remember we went and saw
(17:02):
them this spring. And the one thing that kept getting
articulated to me about Ryan Grubb above and beyond, you know,
the Deboor line of it adds a layer of trust
for me, which I don't think should be overlooked, was
if we failed to run the ball again this year,
it will not be because we got away from it
the way that you know. It was kind of explained
to me by some folks in the building, was we
(17:23):
may or may not have had the personnel to do
it last year, but the way we called play sometimes
we never would have known because we dipped our toe
in it and it didn't work, you know, right out
of the gate in the first quarter, and we got
away from it. And it's one of a few fundamental
problems they had offensively. But if they failed this year,
I'll just say I don't think it's because you look
at the stat sheet and they've had eleven attempts going
(17:43):
into the fourth quarter with Ryan Grubb.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Ryan Glubb is an offensive line coach at heart. That's
how he came up in the business. Remember towards the
end of Sabans run, I think it was like twos
last year, and they struggled in foremanuted offense. Later in
the year a couple of times in the Bama fans
were losing it, and it had been about four postgame
pressers in a row that people had brought up not
running the ball late and why can't y'all run the
(18:07):
ball and finish off these games? And finally Saban lost it.
He said, let me explain this to you guys. He said,
you're asking us to do something that we don't do.
He said, so, when you give a quarterback the option
to hand the ball or keep the ball and throw it,
what do you think they're gonna do? Because I know
what they're gonna do. Most of the time. They're gonna
keep the ball and they're gonna throw it. They aren't
gonna hand it off to the back. Well, ourpo offense,
(18:28):
you got to creep off the ball so you're not
automatically downfield. Not like they're calling it anyway, but he
was essentially saying, if we want to be that, we
got to practice it. We have to live that life.
And I think that's where Debor is going with Grub
now there is they're about to live that life because
it's not like Bama was incapable. Look at the Missouri
game last year dominant on the ground. There were other
(18:50):
games Wisconsin dominant on the ground in the set mea
Kendrick Law blocking guys in the first row, the stand
receivers were blocking. So it's not like it wasn't a
part of the mentality. But Josh, you have to live it,
man like. You can't just one day say let's be
ground and pound. It doesn't work that way. You got
to do it in practice. You have to finish in practice.
You need to do it in games to understand how
it works, why it doesn't work. And I do think
(19:12):
mentally they'll go back to that and they'll be a
little bit more of that this year. I think he's
excited about this is why I took away from de
bor today watching him and then having him on our show.
I think he's excited about his team. I think last
year he was excited about a couple of players.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
That's a good way to put it. That's a really
good way to put it.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I think also, look, the testament to anyone taking over
a new program is when you get into the second
full go around, if you still got portal churn, especially
outward portal churn, and you're not sort of pushing them
out the door, then you probably still lack buy in.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
So they're not really dealing with that.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I mean, I think Smith went to Notre Dame guy
that didn't finish a lot of games for him last year.
So outside of that, they kept all their guys, which
was kind of a theme for Ohio State this past year.
But the way the way I looked at it is
that I mean Kaylyn de Borby and that dude is
never gonna have anyone.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Feel sorry for him.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I don't know of any other person who's been put
in a comparable position in recent history that he was
in last year, because no one's ever taken over for
Nick Saban. In the end, the Pole era in a
time on the calendar where the exit door's open, but
no one can come in for a little while. And
then you're also having to, you know, decide what parts
of this building am I gonna retain? Like you go
(20:24):
in there just like I do. They're critical parts of
Saban's infrastructure still there. And then they're trying to mesh
with guys that have coached in the Pacific Northwest, and
it's just it's kind of a weird dynamic. And again,
no one's especially him's I gonna ask you, hey, feel
sorry for me. I just felt like last year was
played on the heels for that program.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Have a little bit of understanding of where it all is. Also,
let's think personality wise Malachim more at the end of
the Vanderbilt game, Jalen Milroe getting Ryan Williams face after
a pick against Oklahoma. I don't recall a lot of
Saban guys doing those things, Yes, but to flip that
around when you're kayling to or how much of an
iron fist do you want to attempt to rule with
(21:03):
that early? Now, there's two scools of thought there One
Tommy Tuberville when I was at Auburn, blow it up,
run everybody off, and you know what if they go
through all this crap that we're about to put them
through and stick around, maybe they got a shred of
toughness and we'll find a way to use them, but
we want you all gone. Basically, well, they're too talented
to do that, right. There's no in this era of
trying to get guys in through the portal back out
(21:24):
of the portal. You can't really live that way. So
I think there had to be a little bit of
operating with kid gloves year one for the Boar and
he realizes now he doesn't have to do that because
these are guys that want to play for him, not Oh,
I'm not playing for Nick Saban anymore. I can act
however I want or do whatever I want to do
or wanted to do the whole time. And I've got
this free reign now. So I think that buy in
(21:44):
that you mentioned, I think it comes with even more
of how he's going to be able to operate than
just how the players operate individually.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I think also what's fun is the way you run
your offseason program. A year later, we I was down
there for a spring practice and like Blue and Rick
and a lot of those who run strength and conditioner
for Alabama, had one of them look at me during
a practice because I asked them how the strength and
conditioning portion go, and he just looked at me, you know,
like he had come back from a funeral, and he said,
(22:12):
it's not like it was in nineteen sixty.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
It's not like it was in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
But I swear to you, we pushed every limit we
possibly could in this last program, in this winter program,
we just put these dudes through. So anyone who came
out of that, I promise you wants to be here.
I promise you they do. Go over to the Chattahoochie
go over to Georgia for a second, go wherever you
want to like, general thoughts on them within the context
of last year coming into this year.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I have a weird feeling that what we saw last
year at Texas it wasn't as omnipresent. I'm trying to
get that in as much as I can, because it's impressive.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Man, you could tell that fortune cookie that you opened
at PF Chains the other night.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
It was on there somewhere.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
The LEADUS wraps weren't good, but either way, I think
that there's going to be more of that. It wasn't
as much in the SEC Championship game, not later. It
was because I think when Gunnar Stockton came in, that
offensive line hit a switch and they said, you know what,
We're about to run the football, and they did. But
I think there's going to be more of going into
games just saying we're more rugged, we're more bad, we
(23:12):
operate with more brutality. Can you deal with it? But
the skill is also going to be really good. People
wonder why I think the offensive line is going to
be so good. Well, I've seen Monroe Freeling put up
good reps. If Drew Bobo doesn't have the best grasp
of the offense in Georgia football history, then we should
probably stall shut it down. And two years ago Ernest
Green was one of the best tackles in the SEC.
(23:34):
I think he can get back to that. He had
a down year last year. It's fair it happens. I
think he can get back to being one of the
premier tackles in the Southeastern Conference. A great group of
tight ends to go with those guys running back depth,
holding onto the football maybe, but you got a quarterback
that's going to be able to give you runs. You
have an offensive line. I think it's going to be improved.
That physicality is not going to be an issue with
with great skill around them. I'm not overly scared of
(23:57):
the defense. But even I, Josh, have to tell myself
to slow down because I say this with Bama LSU, Oh,
the defense doesn't look scary, And then I have to
what am I comparing that to?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Right, You're compared's a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
It's not gonna be Bama twenty eighteen or whatever like so,
I think they have enough on that side of the
ball with guys like Raylan Wilson, who could pop out
and all of a sudden be the next Georgia star,
or kJ Bolden could be the next Georgia star. Even
everybody knows about it because a freshman safety, they're gonna
have enough guys over there to be effective. And I
think Kirby and his staff know how to get those
guys in place to make plays. And they have enough
(24:31):
guys that have been there long enough. Like take a
guy like Gabe Harris, like he's been there in the system.
He played outside linebacker, he's played three techniques. He just
he's a guy that knows how it's done. And I
think those guys are gonna start to emerge. And this
is gonna be a year that Georgia goes into it
and says, we might not be as skilled or as
big and bad as we are before, but we can
(24:52):
inject enough blunt force trauma to help us win games.
And most teams that we play are not gonna want
to deal with it.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
So it's very, very popular.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
As you just listen to the echoes around this place
for people to talk about how they couldn't run the
ball last year, defensive production a little bit off.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
I highly doubt that that is their terminal flaw two
years in a row.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
If terminal flaw is relative, there what I think could
bite them. If something does this year, they may go
twelve and oh regular season and go to the playoffs
the one seed. But if they don't, if they're sort
of vulnerable again. I think the vulnerability is in what
he's talked about a lot, like he's Kirby's talked about
this over and over again. You ask him, what's the
biggest fundamental difference right now as opposed to the teams
(25:33):
you had a few years ago.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
He said, my.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Nucleus is second year players. That's my nucleus. We used
to just be baptizing them in their second year three
or four years ago. So what he hasn't told me
or anyone else is well, I'm gonna simplify everything I
do defensively. We're gonna loosen the nood a little bit. Yeah,
we're not gonna do all the stuff that we used
to do because that's the only way I know how
(25:55):
to do it. So you're gonna face Steve Sarcusan this year.
You're gonna face Dbor, You're gonna face Kiffen, You're gonna
face a lot of the best offensive minds in the sport.
Now they're gonna come to your place. I think all
three of those come to their place. But if they're undone,
I think it's they look dominant at times and then
every game.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Out of the ones they lose. You can go back in.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
And say critical bust, critical bust, critical bust, young player,
young player, young player, Sark Kiffin debor exposing whatever small
mismatch I saw, and that's the difference in a fourteen
point swing in the game.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
That's what bid us.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I'll give you one name where I think going up
against those kind of guys and those kind of offenses
could end up making the massive difference this year, and
that's Elo Medozilo. Yeah, I was saying, Elo, I think
it's Loo.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
The Army kid.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I've been correct.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
The Army Gibb.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Who is as twitchy, as quick, as fast as bindy
as any edge rusher Georgia has ever had. That's Jarvis Jones, idiot. Now,
he might not have the bulk and the strength, but
if you're talking about get off, flexibility, quickness, twitch, he's
got all of it and his motor does not quit.
He's a great fit for what they have and what
(27:08):
they need and kind of what that program is and
when I'm talking about getting back to just we physically
are going to be more than you. Yeah, and not
that he's gonna overpower people, but I also think bringing
his mentality into that defense from where he's been just
makes it a great fit. I think you're gonna have
more just dogs on not no pun intended on that
side of the ball, to just find ways to get
(27:28):
things done, as opposed to first round draft picks that
overpower you no matter what.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yeah, what do you think about the personnel defensively especially
but you got to.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Where you want to.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Florida love Caleb Banks. Yeah, Caleb Banks again, Ello Mendozi
was just one of those guys. We could run through
a laundry list of guys that we're gonna mention that
no one's talking about in this whole four days that
we're here. Well, they don't know him. And Caleb Banks
is one of those guys. He is a legitimate takeover
in tier defensive lineman. And we used to come to
media days and every team had two, some had four,
(28:00):
or one might have one, but they were all over
the place. But the Jeffrey simmons Is and the Derrick
Browns and the Jonathan Allens. They don't really feel like
they're as plentiful as they were at one time in
this league. He is one of those guys. Yeah, the
front is going to be solid, The linebacking corps is
going to be good. I'll worry a little bit about
the secondary. But that offensive line, with how they operate,
(28:21):
you don't have to be Orlando Pace or Alan Fanica
in that offensive line running stretch play as much as
they do. Here's another name, jaden Baugh, who I think,
if they didn't have two running backs, would easily go
for eighteen hundred yards this year six one, two thirty
five legitimate wiggle, can run, pass you, over you, through you,
and then can give you a spin move unlike you've
(28:42):
ever seen. They have a good receiver corps. If DJ
Lagway's healthy, I don't know why their offense doesn't move
the football, and they'll be able to do it in
different ways and a lot of other teams will be
able to do.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
I legitimately think if you were to say there's a
player in this league that goes from like nowhere to
All American status nowhere on the national radar to All
American status, it's probably him ball because I think as
much as they may split carriers there, he's closing games
for him. And I also think that he's gonna be
in enough high profile moments like they got Texas coming
(29:14):
in there, They're gonna go to LSU, They're gonna play Miami,
and that's the first half of the season.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
They do all those things.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
I really think, man, he's one of those guys you
almost kind of discover him by accident, like gets he
gets some more reps last year because of injury, right,
And you could say the same about the quarterback position.
But you know what, if you think that bad luck
and bad breaks are a thing in this game, then
don't ever apologize when when something just happens to fall
in your lap. Don't ever apologize for that. And I
(29:42):
assume Billy Napi're done. But the other thing I think
about with them is, you know, everyone's so caught up
on schedule. Like I can't tell you how many times
I've heard this week or in general this spring, people say,
what do you think about.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Florida's team this year? That schedule?
Speaker 3 (29:56):
I didn't ask you about Florida. Let's just I want
to know how good do you think that team is?
And truthfully, I know this is dirty to talk about
pass lagway. Doesn't seem like people know many players at
Florida or any Yeah, doesn't seem that way.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
You have.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
First off, this is maybe the deepest season at center
in the SEC that I've ever seen. They have one
that's really good. The offensive line has a ton of experience,
Like I remember when Damien George was at Alabama and
now Nick Saban told me on the sideline before a game,
he said, we have to get him in the game. Yeah,
he's the most talented offensive lineman we have. Why is
(30:32):
he not playing? And I said, that's why you stay
with the DBS and make fun of it for watching
the old lines, because there's a lot more that goes
into it to being talented actually playing. But now he
knows what he's doing, he's in a system. This little
bit forgiving, he's down at guards so he can be
more physical. You got Barber out there at left tackle.
He's played a ton And I'm just telling you, Josh,
that is a complimentary offense. As to the receivers can
(30:54):
have heavier or less involvement running backs heavier or less involvement.
Quarterback run. It can be there or can be taken away.
Tight ends can be big or you cannot use them.
But also what it can do for your defense, the
secondary struggles a little bit, that could easily become a
ball control offense. Yeah, that shrinks the game. How many
teams in this league can we look at right now
and say, if need be, they can shrink the game tomorrow?
(31:17):
I know Vanderbilt can. I think Floren's going to be
able to. I think A and M will be able to.
I don't look at a lot of other teams in
this league and just say they're going to be able
to go do that. They can play that style ball
for long periods of game, of games, or even the season.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
The vibe around Tennessee right now. They were in here
yesterday as you and I were talking. You know a
lot of people ask the question, it's like default position.
If you made the playoffs the year before, but you
were one and done. The default position is all right,
how do you build off of that? Or like, how
do you take the next step? That's a really popular phrase.
And I look at it and I say, well, as
(31:55):
far as I know, everyone starts zero and zero again.
So like you do, you don't take the next step.
Hopefully you're better than you were last year. But with them,
I'm in this very weird headspace where, if you know
the entire context of where that program was, Hypel pulled
them out of the ditch big tests, all right. So
then you start to zoom in a little bit more.
You know, they made the playoff last year. It's a
(32:16):
pretty big deal for that program or any program. Then
you zoom in a little bit more, and you know, well,
they got blown out once they made the playoffs. So
the season ended on a sour note, but still relative
to where Tennessee had been phenomenal, like incredible improvement. Okay,
so you're supposed to feel really good coming out of
a playoff year, and I did about Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Having said that, if.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
You were around them last year and you talked about
anything other than the twenty twenty four season, they already
knew last year our offensive line situation.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Could be a little precarious next year.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
They knew that before they ever knew the Nico drama
was going to pop up. So my point there is
they probably didn't know they were going to be as
good defensively as they were last year, but they ended
up being really good defensively, so you have a lot
of attrition. Then you got the Nico stuff happened. My
perspective on them was already this may be a little
bit of a reset year, But now with the Nico stuff,
(33:10):
I haven't changed my opinion. I still think it's going
to be a reset year for them, of sorts. There's
this headspace I'm in right now where if they're an
eight and four team this year, all four losses are competitive,
they don't go to the playoff, but in the aggregate,
they developed a lot, They got a ton of returning
production for next year. They got the number one quarterback
in the country coming in, and you planted the flag
(33:31):
for your program harder than any head coach has in
terms of taking a stand on the Nico front. There's
this really weird way they could come out of that
kind of season and I could feel better about them
even than I did coming out of last year. And
they're double digit wins in the playoff last.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
There's any doubt And I've actually started to pump the
brakes on myself a little bit because I think we
all saw the Nico situation, and I was the first
one to applaud it. The nation applauded it. But I
warned parentheses with that, are you okay to accept and
eight wins season because it's probably coming. Nico made plenty
of mistakes last year. He missthrows, he misreads, but it
(34:07):
was that ceiling that we all saw the possibility that
we saw where he had the real potential to take them.
Joey Aguer doesn't have that. Now, that's okay. He's got
to cut down on the turnovers. He still played a
ton of football. Now there are fundamental portions of what
he's going to be asked to do that he's never done.
You can talk. I talked to Josh yesterday. I asked
him on set, I said, try to explain some of
the details that go into tempo, where the receivers line up,
(34:31):
where receivers run to for the next play when they
know they're not getting the football, what official to hand
the football too when a play is over. You have
to learn all these things, Josh, and that's different for him.
But then I asked myself the same question with him
that I've been trying to tell people about Lane Kiffen,
who was the last quarterback for Josh Hipel. That wasn't good. Yeah,
(34:51):
people say Joe Milton, and I would respond to I
think they got everything out of Joe Milton. They got
because Joe Milton was never going to be a great quarterback.
He was a great talent playing quarterback. And that's okay.
Joey Igrew has proven he's a quarterback. All he's got
to do is be good in this system, and he'll
be fine because the receivers are talented. He got a
good group of tight ends, and then I got concerned
(35:11):
about running back up until last week. I'm gonna give
m a fair shout of here, had Austin Price on
the show. He said, I love Dylan Samson. I love
how he presses a line of scrimmage. He makes offensive
lineman right, he follows his blocks and presses his blocks.
He's started going through a laundry list of guys that
have rushed for one thousand yards in Josh Heipel's offense.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yeah, yeah, and I'll see that.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Man. Maybe I'm a little too concerned about the Also
Dylan Sampson here. Now the offensive line stuff, I have
no counter for it. You can't offset it. You can't
tell me five stars are coming in. It doesn't matter.
Now this offense can get around it a little bit.
They can escape a little bit of the physicality they
had last year. But I had Tennessee probably five times
the last two years. There was one guy that consistently
(35:53):
was mentioned, we can't lose because we don't have another one.
We cannot lose that guy. And it was not Nico.
It was Cooper Mays was the guy they kept coming
back to and said, if we lose him, don't know. Yeah,
And I got that answer from a couple guys. Honestly, man,
don't know, don't know what we're gonna do. We don't
have another guy like him in big games that can
(36:15):
handle everything up there the way that he does. Now.
Javon Tess Braggins, he's gonna give you two three penalties
a game. But he also brought an edge. He brought
some extra fire, some extra intensity that I think was infectious.
And John Campbell was literally taking Virginia defenders into the
tunnel in Nashville. You don't have a bunch of those
guys coming back. The lance head might be great, but
(36:35):
you need some others and they need some continuity to
go along with a new quarterback. So there's gonna be
bumps in the road, But that d line's still good,
the linebacking course still good. They might have the best
corner in college football. You've got a couple of safeties back.
Tim Banks is going to do a good job with
the defense. They're going to be solid, dominant, maybe not,
but solid, And if some of the other parts of
(36:56):
that offense get going, it's not gonna be this completely
fall off the tich like some people think Tennessee's gonna suffer.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
So we'll wrap up here with just kind of kind
of a generic fifty thousand foot view.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I want to again, no one's talking about Missouri.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Well, I was about to bring them up.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
I want to caution people, here's what's impossible to happen.
What's impossible to happen is everyone who is expected to
take the next step takes the next step. And there
are an alarming number of teams in this league right
now that did kind of okay to pretty good last year,
and their fan base is mentality collectively is all right.
(37:31):
As long as we do what we're supposed to do
this upcoming year, it's okay, but if you don't do
what you're supposed to do, goodwill evaporates so quickly and
you go from like not even being in the periphery
of hot seat talk to some really crazy, like uncomfortable conversation.
Missouri is one of those teams that's supposed to just
keep progressing. South Carolina is one of those teams that
(37:54):
just supposed to keep progressing. Kirby and Georgia are supposed
to be right back there. Caitlyn de Boorn Alabama one year. Okay,
you're good. You're supposed to be there, Ryan Kelly and
Lsu are supposed to be there. Napier and Florida are
supposed to, Okay, we dip never on our way up.
We're supposed to just we're gonna We're gonna continue that trajectory.
And you do the math, and everyone's got to play
everyone to a certain extent, and the wins aren't there
(38:16):
for everyone, And so I keep coming back to have
we properly calibrated to understand what the modern college football
landscape is and what the modern landscape of the SEC is.
My answer is an unequivocal no, which means there is
a seven and five floating out there for a team
that was pretty good. It's just whoever gets banged up,
(38:37):
who is whoever is on the minus two side of
the one possession game statistic, or.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
As you stated earlier, who suffers an injury and all
of a sudden, the next guy's better and no one
knew about it. Next thing you know, he's dynamic playmaker
that changes the game for that team. So I agree.
I just I'm starting to go back and look at
personnel for some of these situations that you're referencing. Let's
start with Missouri Bretton Fleet at tight end. Nobody knows
who he is. That's fine, he's the best blocking tight
(39:03):
end in the SEC for maybe college football. Ahmad Hardy,
you don't know who he is because he played at
ULM last year, but you know who was offense. He
played in Bryant Vincent their bread and butter play stretch zone.
What did Drink do last year? He went and got
Nate Noel from app who had run seven thousand reps
in stretch zone, so he knew exactly how to do
it and how it operated. Well, Amon Hardy knows how
(39:25):
to do it, so he's gonna come in for Kirby
Moore and know exactly how it works. You get Connor
Thomson back at center, very deep year at center. This year,
Caden Green's back on the offensive line. There's not another
armand membu and receiver won't be the same. The big
question marks Perbula. I don't know. I don't know what
to tell people that they're getting. I'm anxious to hear
from Eli about it because I don't know exactly what
(39:46):
he's gonna look like. But I also know two years
ago they went and got a transferre d lineman from
Florida that's played pretty good reps. They got another from
Missouri's played pretty good reps. And they got a safety
that will named Dion Burks. Again, you don't know who
he is, but maybe you will now who is ways
less than you do and will literally come down and
try to hit Andre the Giant if he's carrying the football.
(40:07):
He does not care. He will try to crush everybody
at any point in time. My point is they have guys,
but we treat Missouri like, well, yeah they had Luther
Burdon last year. Yeah, Luthor Burton had one amazing fourth
down catch last year. How many games did he win
for him. Now he may have opened some things up
for some other guys, and Nate Noel was great, but
they still have guys South Carolina. I understand all those
(40:29):
D tackles they lost. I know Kyle Kinard's gone, but
you look at like Brian Thomas on one side, Monk
kill Goodwine is gonna be back inside. You got another
D tackle who is here that red shirted last year.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
So they are replacing those guys with other guys like
they're gonna put eleven out there.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
They're not putting quarterbacks there either.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
You look in the secondary like Judge Collier, Jalen Kilgore,
d Q Smith. They've all been there for like four years.
We've played in this defense. And then you go get
Sean Murphy who Alabama signed as a linebacker out of college,
out of high school. You know he's got talent. He's
probably more talented and Demetrius Knight. That means's gonna be
the player Demetrius Night was. Once again, they have guys
(41:07):
who has done more in the portal with less than
Shane Biemer.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Nobody actually I mean nobody.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Mario Anderson, nit Guard, Julo, Demetrius Knight, we just mentioned.
You can make it. You can make an argument that
last year they're tight end was their MVP of their
football team. They get it from Western Kentucky two years ago.
Nobody mentions him. So there's gonna be one, two, three
guys that are heavy contributors and good football players for
South Carolina out of the portal that we're just not
talking about. So this hole, like these teams don't have
(41:34):
guys anymore. I'm I'm a little lost in that narrative.
They might not be the talent that other teams have,
but there will be guys who have played and been there,
and that might mean more than some of what we're
talking about with some of these other fine star guys
at other places.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Hey, good luck with date night podcasts and whatever else
you do to day.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Date Night podcast episode two dropping in here in a
few minutes. Go check it out. We're gonna talk airplane voices.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
We're not live.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
You want to lay out for the audience what airplane
voice is, by the way, or should they tune in?
Speaker 1 (42:01):
They should probably tune in.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Do you want me to lay out or do you
want me to talk about it?
Speaker 1 (42:04):
I want you to talk in airplane mode. Voice like
talk in that.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
Right now feeling, and I will play the role of
your wife you mentioned Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Where are you around people right now?
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Hello, We're gonna talk, MISTERI state people are.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Looking at us. We gotta go. Goodbye.
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You know what, you can start it for me.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Go ahead. Welcome in SEC Media Days, Josh Pate alongside
Cole Kublic for whatever platform this is going to be on.
It has been an interesting week for us, but not
so much for information coming out of Media Day. It's
been a little bit quiet outside of McElroy running his mouth.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah it sucked all right.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Cole Kublic alongside Josh pay We're here at SEC Media Days.
Here we go, sir, here we go. No, we're here
rolled the whole thing like, I'm gonna hear that whole thing.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm fine with it.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
You don't see a team to beat in the SEC?
Do you do you think there's a definitive team to beat?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I think there are a couple of teams at the top.
You could probably take your pick in a grouping of
one through four Alabama, Georgia, Yeah, Texas, and then LSU
would be one that I guess I'm now allowing because
so many other people want them there, which is odd
because normally you would have to have a quarterback for
most people to pick you to win the SEC, but
not as many people are on LSU. Yeah, I wouldn't
(01:06):
put one of them ahead of the others, I kind
of classify them together. So no, there's not a definitive
team out in front, but the classification of teams behind
them is what I find most interesting about the league.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
This shit, I've actually heard you talk about that. Because
I want to spend.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I'll be quiet.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, well they may have it, though.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Do they know where the podcast is? Some would say yes,
Some shows that are emanating from over there.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Would say no, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I may or may not have appeared on that show
this week.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
That's all you want?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Buy it several times though not to be specific you
the quote of.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
The week was from that show saying, I just love
like your work. You're doing that on that podcast and
those things.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Love it. Look one day it'll get a name. Yeah,
you're a NASCAR guy at all.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Tuesday Date Night podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Just drop it. We'll let you promote it.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Why not?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It has nothing to do with Nascar, but just promote
it anyway in Nascar, Like if you turn on Talladega.
I'm not a racing expert or anything, but I know
when you have like a lead of cars, if they're
all going one ninety, there's no skill in no one
who's gonna win that race. But number two, if one
of them goes down to one eighty five, they just
quickly fall behind the pack. So I think of the
lead pack of teams in the SEC that way, because
(02:13):
they send out the ballot like they email us a ballot.
You can fill it out or not, but it's your
order of finish in the SEC, and they literally have
you do one through sixteen. So as as a mental exercise,
I was sitting there doing it last night and I looked,
and you could go any any combination of Georgia or
Texas or Alabama or LSU.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Let's just call that a top four whatever.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
But then if you go you could go South Carolina fifth,
you could go South Carolina tenth easily.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
There's no change, Like there's no different.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Six ten, Florida six ten, A and M six ten, Ole,
Miss six ten, Auburn six ten.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
But if I were to tell my South Carolina cousin,
I got y'all finishing fifth in the SEC, He's like,
we're going to the playoff. If I tell him you're
finishing tenth, they said, Bro, there's no way we're finishing ten.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
There's no way we're that bad. And I'm like there's
virtually no difference between fifth and tenth.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Not much, but there is, Josh, somebody's going backwards. Yeah,
And that's what I find difficult to sort of pinpoint
in this is all these teams in group two that
we're classifying who's going to go backwards? Because not even
I don't think Vanderbilt's going to go backwards. Normally we'd
sit here media days and say, okay, Vandy back to
what you've always been. Here we go. But that's not
gonna happen. So is it Auburn, is it oll Miss?
(03:26):
Is it Tennessee? Tennessee takes a little step back? But
I don't know if they're going to five or six
wins Ole miss small step back five or six wins.
I don't see that. So the one thing you left
out of your Talladega reference there was when that pack
of cars is out front going that fast left, what's
the other thing that can happen? One bumps into the
(03:46):
other and they all go down.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Then they're all three lost cars.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Here comes Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
He like you just mentioned something, all right, So you're
talking about like all these lead pack teams. The perception
is ten and two is just ten and two, Like
there has always been a classification of teams the way
we talk about him in July. That's a ten win
caliber team, that's an eleven win caliber team.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
All right, So.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Georgia is ten and two, they win the league last year,
ten and two regular season, they win the league last year?
What caliber of team do you think will win the
league championship this year? In other words, do you think
a team will emerge that is better than last year's
Georgia twenty twenty one Georgia Alabama? There's probably not a
twenty nineteen LSU twenty twenty Bama out there, But like,
(04:35):
what caliber of team do you think emerges.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
At the top of this league this year?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Very similar to that Georgia team last year. And part
of this is you and I've had this conversation. We
haven't rewired our brains yet to a two loss team
is still pretty good. A three loss team, which our
SEC champions were at the end of it all last
year ten and three Alabama Alabama fans are mad that
they're a nine win football team. That's actually really good
with where we we are right now. I don't think
(05:01):
a team, though, separates to the extent that you're talking
about a twenty twenty Bama, a twenty nineteen LSU, even
say a twenty ten au Burn. I think it's gonna
be a two loss team. I doubted even be a
one lost team because think back to Georgia last year.
You're not gonna get an old miss team like that. Again,
that Alabama team was still pretty good and that was
a completely bonkers game on the road that you had
multiple chances to win. So no, I don't think one
(05:23):
completely walks away from everybody else.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
All Right, it's hard to get information this week.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
We do get it though, man, Like you can talk
to coaches one on one for a second, but the
better feedback is like when guys leave here and then
they're talking to you, it's just like they're loosening their
tie on the plane and they're they're shooting a little
straighter with you. But it pales in comparison to what
you get when you talk to him in the spring.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
But like I told you too, my best information is
like thirteen minutes before kid, Yeah, nobody want to tell
you anything about like, well, you know, the tight end's
not playing. Also, running back's been hurt all week. He
didn't even really practice. It's like, thanks, coach, why do
we even talk during the week? That's all I need it?
So similar to what you're saying there is yeah, same thing.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
So the feedback you've got, whatever you've gotten this week,
has there been anything that has changed in the way
that you perceive any team up or down this week
based on intel that you've gotten just from this event.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I'm a little bit down on Auburn after yesterday hearing
Hugh Freeze talk about instructing his defensive staff to essentially
make life easy on Jackson Arnold in practice to boost
his confidence. Is this the end all be all?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Does this mean Auburn's gonna go six and six? No?
I just don't like that when I know that confidence
is the one thing that needs to be rebuilt in him,
and you know I've talked about it. It's got to
be rewired. Like if this is Jurassic Park, you got
to go in the lab, pull the DNA out of
the mosquito and make it different for Jackson Arnold. He
can't be the same guy that he was last year.
(06:51):
But I also don't think you can fabricate that confidence.
Gotta go out and do it, and by doing it.
You gotta remember a conversation with Brian Kelly to you
years ago about Jade and Daniels not his heisman year
two years ago, and he said, we've talked to Jaden
and I told him go throw an interception. And you're
thinking to yourself, now, wait a second, that's the last
(07:12):
thing you want a quarterback to do. But he and
this completely goes against what I've told you. McElroy's comment
was on playing quarterback for a defensive coach, which I
think worked against Jackson Arnold, but he said, I want
to prove to him one you can take the shot too.
If it doesn't go our way, it's okay, we're gonna
get the ball back. We're gonna have opportunities to win
that game. And guess what he's never gonna do if
(07:32):
he doesn't go out and do it take shots. So
you got to take the shots initially to understand you're
capable of it and it might work. And if it
doesn't work, we're gonna do it again, so hopefully it
works next time.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
You know. The thing I wrestle with with Jackson Arnold,
but I always lean towards the pessimistic side because I've
I've built hopes up in too many seasons in the
past and had them wrecked that I won't allow it
to happen. So the pessimistic side of me looks at
Jackson Arnold, and he was all everything coming out of
high school. I went out to a lead eleven. I
watched him like, I thought that as good as my
(08:03):
eyeballs can see it, I thought he had all the
physical tools. So did a lot of other staffs because
they offered him a scholarship to play football for him.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Jeff Leby told me he's the most talented quarterback he's
ever worked. Yeah, like, I haven't forgot some talented quarterback,
Like you don't forget.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
That, Okay, But then it's also the case that you
don't forget that you saw the implosion last year on
all fronts for Oklahoma. So then there's this part of
my mind it wants to say, you know what, that
was just a terrible situation he was in. It probably was,
and and he's everything I thought he was out of
high school. That's the blip on the radar screen. Hugh
(08:34):
and Auburn will start pulling it out of him this
year and everything will be good and it'll be the
perfect meshing of quarterback in system. There's one side of
me that wants to say that. Then there's the other
side that is right in line with what you're saying
right now. And that's if we're talking about confidence, like
do we really think we're gonna find that on the
road on a Friday night against Dave a Randa in
week one? Like do we really think that's gonna happen?
(08:55):
And if it doesn't happen, this isn't like Georgia a
Kirby if he lost a game in week one, it's
Kirby and Georgia, everyone's still confident. Well, that's not the
biber A on Auburn. You need what in the media
industry we would call pop. You need proof of performance,
like you need a reason to believe Rod Stewart reference.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
You need a lot of the metaphorical stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
So that Phillips Arena down the street, by the way.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Was it Phillips or State Farm at the time?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Phillips. Those one of the best concerts I've ever been to.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Seriously, Yeah, Georgia Dome probably still next door too.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
So if we don't get that, if you go glass
af empty, like if they lose thirty to twenty to
Baylor in Week one. A couple of picks for Jackson Arnold.
I don't know if you've already jumped out of the plane,
if you just find all that intangible stuff you're talking
about on the way down. This is not a fix
your parachute after you jump sort of year for Auburn.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
This is why this is such a difficult conversation to
have around Jackson Arnold. You mentioned just a little bit
of that Oklahoma situation to go through some of the checklists.
Seth Latrell had never coached quarterbacks before he was doing that.
Jackson Arnold gets benched, I believe too early. Then Seth
Latrell gets fired. Then almost every offensive line was injured
at some point. His top seven wide receivers were injured,
(10:04):
this top two running backs were injured. Nothing went his
way around him. That is, but it doesn't mean that
your confidence can see that or feel that. If that
ruins your confidence, then your confidence is just gone. So
you take all of that and you put it into Okay, well,
can this situation and what's going to be around him
be different? That will be different. This could be Auburn's
best offensive line in ten years, eight years that they've had.
(10:26):
The wide receiver court, it's one of the best in
college football. The running back room is fine, and we
know Hugh can call plays. But the one thing Jackson
Arnold could not do last year was let go of
the football. How many quarterbacks do we say that about good, bad, indifferent?
I mean, you could take Jeremy Johnson, Eric Gaines, whoever.
Not many guys do we sit here and say he
couldn't throw the ball. And that was a real issue
(10:48):
with Jackson Arnold. If he gets through some of these hurdles,
he can be great. That offense can be great. It's
just hearing now maybe how it's being handled. I have
a little more pause with what I think Auburn may
be this year.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
There's a team that other coaches keep bringing up, Like
every coach talks about his team, but if if you
talk to him off the record a little bit, one
of the consistent teams they keep bringing up to me's Texas,
A and M. It appears they have a little more
respect for elcho in that roster maybe than the media does,
general public does. And so like the way it's been
phrased to me is a bowling ball does not gain
(11:20):
a lot of attention. But it just rolls, just rolls,
It goes, knocks down the pens and the right way. Yeah,
and so like in terms of identity, a lot of
times we get midway through the season and you're asking
the worst question, which is what is it? What is
that team's identity? So, for better or for worse, I
doubt we're asking that about A and M this year.
Like they should be able to run the ball. If
(11:41):
those three tailbacks are healthy about as well as anyone
does in the country, I don't think they'll have any apologies, make.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
No bones about what their identity is.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
The other thing that I wonder about is, all right,
so I know Mike Elko's track record coaching the other
side of the ball, and I listen to how blunt
and how direct he was at the end of last year,
and he swore, if I do nothing else, I'm putting
both my hands around the throat of this defense.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
This defense will be improved.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
If they're a solid ground game, if they can play
plus defense. It's just it's never gonna be a team
that I think wows you. How many times has Marcel
Reed been mentioned here? This week Lagway yet Sellers, Yes, Nussmeyer, Yes,
you know. A and M's got a return to quarterback
as well. But he's not in the Heisman conversation, nor
should he be, but he could be. He could be
a critical piece if the decision making piece is there
(12:29):
to a team that just when the dust clears and
the dust settles in December or January or November, is the.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Team that makes you go, how did that happen?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Like?
Speaker 1 (12:38):
How is A and M in this mix?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I'm with you, and I think one thing that Elko
is going to change is just gonna be the personality,
the mentality, essentially the DNA of the team. They're not
going to be out physical. You're not gonna have guys
with the elite talent that he doesn't take advantage of.
I think Mike's gonna be able to get that out
of guys like Casey Concepts. Yan has gotten almost no men. Sure,
and there's a stuff about eight guys that we should
(13:01):
probably go through just to let people know who they are.
He would be one that could absolutely shred this league
this year. They're gonna have a good ground game, they're
gonna have a good offensive line, but they add something
to that that only maybe Auburn has, and that might
be it, and that's offensive line depth. Texas A and
M has a number six and a number seven that
(13:23):
could start on most teams in the SEC. With their
offensive line. The backs are great, But what you just
brought up about personality is really interesting because I think,
similar to LSU, a problem I have with Texas A
and M is are you gonna just individually find that
identity on offense the Jecko and Hyde manner in which
Colin Klein call plays in just a couple of games
(13:44):
last year, Josh, that's got to go away. The inability
to continue to run the football at Auburn is inexcusable.
How the play calling was handled at times against Texas
cannot continue to happen. Now. I'm not bought into Marcel Reed.
I don't know if he's going to be a great
SEC quarterback. I think he's a great athlete. Yeah, he's
got a good arm, and I think that they can
(14:04):
design some things to where he can help them play
winning football. But they need to know what that is
and who they are as far as how they do it.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
See, I remember when we went there in the spring.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
One of the first people I saw when I walked
in the building was Colin Klein, and so he's he's
just so immediate to point out what you were talking about.
He said, these offensive linemen, you have no idea how
much cleaner that makes the lines on the grease board,
and when you draw these plays up the way they're
supposed to work. When you talk about the schizophrenic nature
(14:34):
of how play calling seems to have happened, he says, dude,
you have no idea. I don't think people can fully
appreciate the depth we have and the I think the
way he phrased it is the willingness to learn, the
willingness to be a sponge that Marcel Reid has about
him more so than like all American playmaking ability. He said,
if just if you've got those things, it makes my
(14:55):
job a whole lot easier. He said, there's just there's
literally no excuse for us. There's literally no excuse for me.
Year two.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
We've got the personnel like we can do what we
need to do.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Here's what I would want to hear from Colin Klein
is who have you added around you or whose role
have you either altered or elevated around you. I'll give
you an example when Barry Odom was at Arkansas. If
you recall that was the Matt Corral year at ole
Miss and who was the first team to run that
three three five or whatever drop eight that Ole Miss
(15:26):
really had some problems with it was Arkansas. Well, they
were so good at it. They stayed with it, and
it wasn't a dominant defense, but it was effective based
on what they had on offense. And we got them
much later in the year. And I said, Barry, there
are times on watching this defense and I feel like
you're just itching to blitz or bring more guys to
the line of scrimmage and get out of this defense
(15:47):
that you've never run before. It's foreign to you. And
he had a guy that played linebacker for him at
Missouri that was sort of his captain, his go to
guy that knew the defense with anybody who's his linebacker coach,
And he goes Mikey, sits next to me, and he'll
sit there the whole time. He'll be like, coach, stick
with the plan, stick with the plan. Stick with the plan.
He's like, because yeah, I want to blitz eight. I
(16:08):
want to walk youver by up to the line of scrimmage.
But I got this guy who I trust, who I
know is not trying to just do something cute for fun,
who's reminding me stick with it, stick with it, stick
with it all coaches, I think need I reference it
as an FU coach a lot of times, like you
got to have that guy and say, hey, stop do this,
It's okay, And they're not doing it for themselves. They're
(16:28):
doing it to help you. And same thing with Colin Kleine,
same thing with LSU. They've got to find a guy
that says, hey, hand it off, because they refused to
do that last year.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
As we continue to just unload any little nuggets that
we deem ability are able to be fit for air.
Alabama was in here as we're talking earlier today. They
I mean by Bama standers, they just sucked running the
ball last year. Who just wasn't there, Georgia, same problem,
wasn't there to talk about both of them, but Bama
furs for a second. I remember we went and saw
(17:02):
them this spring. And the one thing that kept getting
articulated to me about Ryan Grubb above and beyond, you know,
the Deboor line of it adds a layer of trust
for me, which I don't think should be overlooked, was
if we failed to run the ball again this year,
it will not be because we got away from it
the way that you know. It was kind of explained
to me by some folks in the building, was we
(17:23):
may or may not have had the personnel to do
it last year, but the way we called play sometimes
we never would have known because we dipped our toe
in it and it didn't work, you know, right out
of the gate in the first quarter, and we got
away from it. And it's one of a few fundamental
problems they had offensively. But if they failed this year,
I'll just say I don't think it's because you look
at the stat sheet and they've had eleven attempts going
(17:43):
into the fourth quarter with Ryan Grubb.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Ryan Glubb is an offensive line coach at heart. That's
how he came up in the business. Remember towards the
end of Sabans run, I think it was like twos
last year, and they struggled in foremanuted offense. Later in
the year a couple of times in the Bama fans
were losing it, and it had been about four postgame
pressers in a row that people had brought up not
running the ball late and why can't y'all run the
(18:07):
ball and finish off these games? And finally Saban lost it.
He said, let me explain this to you guys. He said,
you're asking us to do something that we don't do.
He said, so, when you give a quarterback the option
to hand the ball or keep the ball and throw it,
what do you think they're gonna do? Because I know
what they're gonna do. Most of the time. They're gonna
keep the ball and they're gonna throw it. They aren't
gonna hand it off to the back. Well, ourpo offense,
(18:28):
you got to creep off the ball so you're not
automatically downfield. Not like they're calling it anyway, but he
was essentially saying, if we want to be that, we
got to practice it. We have to live that life.
And I think that's where Debor is going with Grub
now there is they're about to live that life because
it's not like Bama was incapable. Look at the Missouri
game last year dominant on the ground. There were other
(18:50):
games Wisconsin dominant on the ground in the set mea
Kendrick Law blocking guys in the first row, the stand
receivers were blocking. So it's not like it wasn't a
part of the mentality. But Josh, you have to live it,
man like. You can't just one day say let's be
ground and pound. It doesn't work that way. You got
to do it in practice. You have to finish in practice.
You need to do it in games to understand how
it works, why it doesn't work. And I do think
(19:12):
mentally they'll go back to that and they'll be a
little bit more of that this year. I think he's
excited about this is why I took away from de
bor today watching him and then having him on our show.
I think he's excited about his team. I think last
year he was excited about a couple of players.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
That's a good way to put it. That's a really
good way to put it.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I think also, look, the testament to anyone taking over
a new program is when you get into the second
full go around, if you still got portal churn, especially
outward portal churn, and you're not sort of pushing them
out the door, then you probably still lack buy in.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
So they're not really dealing with that.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I mean, I think Smith went to Notre Dame guy
that didn't finish a lot of games for him last year.
So outside of that, they kept all their guys, which
was kind of a theme for Ohio State this past year.
But the way the way I looked at it is
that I mean Kaylyn de Borby and that dude is
never gonna have anyone.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Feel sorry for him.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I don't know of any other person who's been put
in a comparable position in recent history that he was
in last year, because no one's ever taken over for
Nick Saban. In the end, the Pole era in a
time on the calendar where the exit door's open, but
no one can come in for a little while. And
then you're also having to, you know, decide what parts
of this building am I gonna retain? Like you go
(20:24):
in there just like I do. They're critical parts of
Saban's infrastructure still there. And then they're trying to mesh
with guys that have coached in the Pacific Northwest, and
it's just it's kind of a weird dynamic. And again,
no one's especially him's I gonna ask you, hey, feel
sorry for me. I just felt like last year was
played on the heels for that program.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Have a little bit of understanding of where it all is. Also,
let's think personality wise Malachim more at the end of
the Vanderbilt game, Jalen Milroe getting Ryan Williams face after
a pick against Oklahoma. I don't recall a lot of
Saban guys doing those things, Yes, but to flip that
around when you're kayling to or how much of an
iron fist do you want to attempt to rule with
(21:03):
that early? Now, there's two scools of thought there One
Tommy Tuberville when I was at Auburn, blow it up,
run everybody off, and you know what if they go
through all this crap that we're about to put them
through and stick around, maybe they got a shred of
toughness and we'll find a way to use them, but
we want you all gone. Basically, well, they're too talented
to do that, right. There's no in this era of
trying to get guys in through the portal back out
(21:24):
of the portal. You can't really live that way. So
I think there had to be a little bit of
operating with kid gloves year one for the Boar and
he realizes now he doesn't have to do that because
these are guys that want to play for him, not Oh,
I'm not playing for Nick Saban anymore. I can act
however I want or do whatever I want to do
or wanted to do the whole time. And I've got
this free reign now. So I think that buy in
(21:44):
that you mentioned, I think it comes with even more
of how he's going to be able to operate than
just how the players operate individually.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I think also what's fun is the way you run
your offseason program. A year later, we I was down
there for a spring practice and like Blue and Rick
and a lot of those who run strength and conditioner
for Alabama, had one of them look at me during
a practice because I asked them how the strength and
conditioning portion go, and he just looked at me, you know,
like he had come back from a funeral, and he said,
(22:12):
it's not like it was in nineteen sixty.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
It's not like it was in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
But I swear to you, we pushed every limit we
possibly could in this last program, in this winter program,
we just put these dudes through. So anyone who came
out of that, I promise you wants to be here.
I promise you they do. Go over to the Chattahoochie
go over to Georgia for a second, go wherever you
want to like, general thoughts on them within the context
of last year coming into this year.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I have a weird feeling that what we saw last
year at Texas it wasn't as omnipresent. I'm trying to
get that in as much as I can, because it's impressive.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Man, you could tell that fortune cookie that you opened
at PF Chains the other night.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
It was on there somewhere.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
The LEADUS wraps weren't good, but either way, I think
that there's going to be more of that. It wasn't
as much in the SEC Championship game, not later. It
was because I think when Gunnar Stockton came in, that
offensive line hit a switch and they said, you know what,
We're about to run the football, and they did. But
I think there's going to be more of going into
games just saying we're more rugged, we're more bad, we
(23:12):
operate with more brutality. Can you deal with it? But
the skill is also going to be really good. People
wonder why I think the offensive line is going to
be so good. Well, I've seen Monroe Freeling put up
good reps. If Drew Bobo doesn't have the best grasp
of the offense in Georgia football history, then we should
probably stall shut it down. And two years ago Ernest
Green was one of the best tackles in the SEC.
(23:34):
I think he can get back to that. He had
a down year last year. It's fair it happens. I
think he can get back to being one of the
premier tackles in the Southeastern Conference. A great group of
tight ends to go with those guys running back depth,
holding onto the football maybe, but you got a quarterback
that's going to be able to give you runs. You
have an offensive line. I think it's going to be improved.
That physicality is not going to be an issue with
with great skill around them. I'm not overly scared of
(23:57):
the defense. But even I, Josh, have to tell myself
to slow down because I say this with Bama LSU, Oh,
the defense doesn't look scary, And then I have to
what am I comparing that to?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Right, You're compared's a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
It's not gonna be Bama twenty eighteen or whatever like so,
I think they have enough on that side of the
ball with guys like Raylan Wilson, who could pop out
and all of a sudden be the next Georgia star,
or kJ Bolden could be the next Georgia star. Even
everybody knows about it because a freshman safety, they're gonna
have enough guys over there to be effective. And I
think Kirby and his staff know how to get those
guys in place to make plays. And they have enough
(24:31):
guys that have been there long enough. Like take a
guy like Gabe Harris, like he's been there in the system.
He played outside linebacker, he's played three techniques. He just
he's a guy that knows how it's done. And I
think those guys are gonna start to emerge. And this
is gonna be a year that Georgia goes into it
and says, we might not be as skilled or as
big and bad as we are before, but we can
(24:52):
inject enough blunt force trauma to help us win games.
And most teams that we play are not gonna want
to deal with it.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
So it's very, very popular.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
As you just listen to the echoes around this place
for people to talk about how they couldn't run the
ball last year, defensive production a little bit off.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
I highly doubt that that is their terminal flaw two
years in a row.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
If terminal flaw is relative, there what I think could
bite them. If something does this year, they may go
twelve and oh regular season and go to the playoffs
the one seed. But if they don't, if they're sort
of vulnerable again. I think the vulnerability is in what
he's talked about a lot, like he's Kirby's talked about
this over and over again. You ask him, what's the
biggest fundamental difference right now as opposed to the teams
(25:33):
you had a few years ago.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
He said, my.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Nucleus is second year players. That's my nucleus. We used
to just be baptizing them in their second year three
or four years ago. So what he hasn't told me
or anyone else is well, I'm gonna simplify everything I
do defensively. We're gonna loosen the nood a little bit. Yeah,
we're not gonna do all the stuff that we used
to do because that's the only way I know how
(25:55):
to do it. So you're gonna face Steve Sarcusan this year.
You're gonna face Dbor, You're gonna face Kiffen, You're gonna
face a lot of the best offensive minds in the sport.
Now they're gonna come to your place. I think all
three of those come to their place. But if they're undone,
I think it's they look dominant at times and then
every game.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Out of the ones they lose. You can go back in.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
And say critical bust, critical bust, critical bust, young player,
young player, young player, Sark Kiffin debor exposing whatever small
mismatch I saw, and that's the difference in a fourteen
point swing in the game.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
That's what bid us.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I'll give you one name where I think going up
against those kind of guys and those kind of offenses
could end up making the massive difference this year, and
that's Elo Medozilo. Yeah, I was saying, Elo, I think
it's Loo.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
The Army kid.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I've been correct.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
The Army Gibb.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Who is as twitchy, as quick, as fast as bindy
as any edge rusher Georgia has ever had. That's Jarvis Jones, idiot. Now,
he might not have the bulk and the strength, but
if you're talking about get off, flexibility, quickness, twitch, he's
got all of it and his motor does not quit.
He's a great fit for what they have and what
(27:08):
they need and kind of what that program is and
when I'm talking about getting back to just we physically
are going to be more than you. Yeah, and not
that he's gonna overpower people, but I also think bringing
his mentality into that defense from where he's been just
makes it a great fit. I think you're gonna have
more just dogs on not no pun intended on that
side of the ball, to just find ways to get
(27:28):
things done, as opposed to first round draft picks that
overpower you no matter what.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yeah, what do you think about the personnel defensively especially
but you got to.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Where you want to.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Florida love Caleb Banks. Yeah, Caleb Banks again, Ello Mendozi
was just one of those guys. We could run through
a laundry list of guys that we're gonna mention that
no one's talking about in this whole four days that
we're here. Well, they don't know him. And Caleb Banks
is one of those guys. He is a legitimate takeover
in tier defensive lineman. And we used to come to
media days and every team had two, some had four,
(28:00):
or one might have one, but they were all over
the place. But the Jeffrey simmons Is and the Derrick
Browns and the Jonathan Allens. They don't really feel like
they're as plentiful as they were at one time in
this league. He is one of those guys. Yeah, the
front is going to be solid, The linebacking corps is
going to be good. I'll worry a little bit about
the secondary. But that offensive line, with how they operate,
(28:21):
you don't have to be Orlando Pace or Alan Fanica
in that offensive line running stretch play as much as
they do. Here's another name, jaden Baugh, who I think,
if they didn't have two running backs, would easily go
for eighteen hundred yards this year six one, two thirty
five legitimate wiggle, can run, pass you, over you, through you,
and then can give you a spin move unlike you've
(28:42):
ever seen. They have a good receiver corps. If DJ
Lagway's healthy, I don't know why their offense doesn't move
the football, and they'll be able to do it in
different ways and a lot of other teams will be
able to do.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
I legitimately think if you were to say there's a
player in this league that goes from like nowhere to
All American status nowhere on the national radar to All
American status, it's probably him ball because I think as
much as they may split carriers there, he's closing games
for him. And I also think that he's gonna be
in enough high profile moments like they got Texas coming
(29:14):
in there, They're gonna go to LSU, They're gonna play Miami,
and that's the first half of the season.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
They do all those things.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
I really think, man, he's one of those guys you
almost kind of discover him by accident, like gets he
gets some more reps last year because of injury, right,
And you could say the same about the quarterback position.
But you know what, if you think that bad luck
and bad breaks are a thing in this game, then
don't ever apologize when when something just happens to fall
in your lap. Don't ever apologize for that. And I
(29:42):
assume Billy Napi're done. But the other thing I think
about with them is, you know, everyone's so caught up
on schedule. Like I can't tell you how many times
I've heard this week or in general this spring, people say,
what do you think about.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Florida's team this year? That schedule?
Speaker 3 (29:56):
I didn't ask you about Florida. Let's just I want
to know how good do you think that team is?
And truthfully, I know this is dirty to talk about
pass lagway. Doesn't seem like people know many players at
Florida or any Yeah, doesn't seem that way.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
You have.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
First off, this is maybe the deepest season at center
in the SEC that I've ever seen. They have one
that's really good. The offensive line has a ton of experience,
Like I remember when Damien George was at Alabama and
now Nick Saban told me on the sideline before a game,
he said, we have to get him in the game. Yeah,
he's the most talented offensive lineman we have. Why is
(30:32):
he not playing? And I said, that's why you stay
with the DBS and make fun of it for watching
the old lines, because there's a lot more that goes
into it to being talented actually playing. But now he
knows what he's doing, he's in a system. This little
bit forgiving, he's down at guards so he can be
more physical. You got Barber out there at left tackle.
He's played a ton And I'm just telling you, Josh,
that is a complimentary offense. As to the receivers can
(30:54):
have heavier or less involvement running backs heavier or less involvement.
Quarterback run. It can be there or can be taken away.
Tight ends can be big or you cannot use them.
But also what it can do for your defense, the
secondary struggles a little bit, that could easily become a
ball control offense. Yeah, that shrinks the game. How many
teams in this league can we look at right now
and say, if need be, they can shrink the game tomorrow?
(31:17):
I know Vanderbilt can. I think Floren's going to be
able to. I think A and M will be able to.
I don't look at a lot of other teams in
this league and just say they're going to be able
to go do that. They can play that style ball
for long periods of game, of games, or even the season.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
The vibe around Tennessee right now. They were in here
yesterday as you and I were talking. You know a
lot of people ask the question, it's like default position.
If you made the playoffs the year before, but you
were one and done. The default position is all right,
how do you build off of that? Or like, how
do you take the next step? That's a really popular phrase.
And I look at it and I say, well, as
(31:55):
far as I know, everyone starts zero and zero again.
So like you do, you don't take the next step.
Hopefully you're better than you were last year. But with them,
I'm in this very weird headspace where, if you know
the entire context of where that program was, Hypel pulled
them out of the ditch big tests, all right. So
then you start to zoom in a little bit more.
You know, they made the playoff last year. It's a
(32:16):
pretty big deal for that program or any program. Then
you zoom in a little bit more, and you know, well,
they got blown out once they made the playoffs. So
the season ended on a sour note, but still relative
to where Tennessee had been phenomenal, like incredible improvement. Okay,
so you're supposed to feel really good coming out of
a playoff year, and I did about Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Having said that, if.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
You were around them last year and you talked about
anything other than the twenty twenty four season, they already
knew last year our offensive line situation.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Could be a little precarious next year.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
They knew that before they ever knew the Nico drama
was going to pop up. So my point there is
they probably didn't know they were going to be as
good defensively as they were last year, but they ended
up being really good defensively, so you have a lot
of attrition. Then you got the Nico stuff happened. My
perspective on them was already this may be a little
bit of a reset year, But now with the Nico stuff,
(33:10):
I haven't changed my opinion. I still think it's going
to be a reset year for them, of sorts. There's
this headspace I'm in right now where if they're an
eight and four team this year, all four losses are competitive,
they don't go to the playoff, but in the aggregate,
they developed a lot, They got a ton of returning
production for next year. They got the number one quarterback
in the country coming in, and you planted the flag
(33:31):
for your program harder than any head coach has in
terms of taking a stand on the Nico front. There's
this really weird way they could come out of that
kind of season and I could feel better about them
even than I did coming out of last year. And
they're double digit wins in the playoff last.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
There's any doubt And I've actually started to pump the
brakes on myself a little bit because I think we
all saw the Nico situation, and I was the first
one to applaud it. The nation applauded it. But I
warned parentheses with that, are you okay to accept and
eight wins season because it's probably coming. Nico made plenty
of mistakes last year. He missthrows, he misreads, but it
(34:07):
was that ceiling that we all saw the possibility that
we saw where he had the real potential to take them.
Joey Aguer doesn't have that. Now, that's okay. He's got
to cut down on the turnovers. He still played a
ton of football. Now there are fundamental portions of what
he's going to be asked to do that he's never done.
You can talk. I talked to Josh yesterday. I asked
him on set, I said, try to explain some of
the details that go into tempo, where the receivers line up,
(34:31):
where receivers run to for the next play when they
know they're not getting the football, what official to hand
the football too when a play is over. You have
to learn all these things, Josh, and that's different for him.
But then I asked myself the same question with him
that I've been trying to tell people about Lane Kiffen,
who was the last quarterback for Josh Hipel. That wasn't good. Yeah,
(34:51):
people say Joe Milton, and I would respond to I
think they got everything out of Joe Milton. They got
because Joe Milton was never going to be a great quarterback.
He was a great talent playing quarterback. And that's okay.
Joey Igrew has proven he's a quarterback. All he's got
to do is be good in this system, and he'll
be fine because the receivers are talented. He got a
good group of tight ends, and then I got concerned
(35:11):
about running back up until last week. I'm gonna give
m a fair shout of here, had Austin Price on
the show. He said, I love Dylan Samson. I love
how he presses a line of scrimmage. He makes offensive
lineman right, he follows his blocks and presses his blocks.
He's started going through a laundry list of guys that
have rushed for one thousand yards in Josh Heipel's offense.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yeah, yeah, and I'll see that.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Man. Maybe I'm a little too concerned about the Also
Dylan Sampson here. Now the offensive line stuff, I have
no counter for it. You can't offset it. You can't
tell me five stars are coming in. It doesn't matter.
Now this offense can get around it a little bit.
They can escape a little bit of the physicality they
had last year. But I had Tennessee probably five times
the last two years. There was one guy that consistently
(35:53):
was mentioned, we can't lose because we don't have another one.
We cannot lose that guy. And it was not Nico.
It was Cooper Mays was the guy they kept coming
back to and said, if we lose him, don't know. Yeah,
And I got that answer from a couple guys. Honestly, man,
don't know, don't know what we're gonna do. We don't
have another guy like him in big games that can
(36:15):
handle everything up there the way that he does. Now.
Javon Tess Braggins, he's gonna give you two three penalties
a game. But he also brought an edge. He brought
some extra fire, some extra intensity that I think was infectious.
And John Campbell was literally taking Virginia defenders into the
tunnel in Nashville. You don't have a bunch of those
guys coming back. The lance head might be great, but
(36:35):
you need some others and they need some continuity to
go along with a new quarterback. So there's gonna be
bumps in the road, But that d line's still good,
the linebacking course still good. They might have the best
corner in college football. You've got a couple of safeties back.
Tim Banks is going to do a good job with
the defense. They're going to be solid, dominant, maybe not,
but solid, And if some of the other parts of
(36:56):
that offense get going, it's not gonna be this completely
fall off the tich like some people think Tennessee's gonna suffer.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
So we'll wrap up here with just kind of kind
of a generic fifty thousand foot view.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I want to again, no one's talking about Missouri.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Well, I was about to bring them up.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
I want to caution people, here's what's impossible to happen.
What's impossible to happen is everyone who is expected to
take the next step takes the next step. And there
are an alarming number of teams in this league right
now that did kind of okay to pretty good last year,
and their fan base is mentality collectively is all right.
(37:31):
As long as we do what we're supposed to do
this upcoming year, it's okay, but if you don't do
what you're supposed to do, goodwill evaporates so quickly and
you go from like not even being in the periphery
of hot seat talk to some really crazy, like uncomfortable conversation.
Missouri is one of those teams that's supposed to just
keep progressing. South Carolina is one of those teams that
(37:54):
just supposed to keep progressing. Kirby and Georgia are supposed
to be right back there. Caitlyn de Boorn Alabama one year. Okay,
you're good. You're supposed to be there, Ryan Kelly and
Lsu are supposed to be there. Napier and Florida are
supposed to, Okay, we dip never on our way up.
We're supposed to just we're gonna We're gonna continue that trajectory.
And you do the math, and everyone's got to play
everyone to a certain extent, and the wins aren't there
(38:16):
for everyone, And so I keep coming back to have
we properly calibrated to understand what the modern college football
landscape is and what the modern landscape of the SEC is.
My answer is an unequivocal no, which means there is
a seven and five floating out there for a team
that was pretty good. It's just whoever gets banged up,
(38:37):
who is whoever is on the minus two side of
the one possession game statistic, or.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
As you stated earlier, who suffers an injury and all
of a sudden, the next guy's better and no one
knew about it. Next thing you know, he's dynamic playmaker
that changes the game for that team. So I agree.
I just I'm starting to go back and look at
personnel for some of these situations that you're referencing. Let's
start with Missouri Bretton Fleet at tight end. Nobody knows
who he is. That's fine, he's the best blocking tight
(39:03):
end in the SEC for maybe college football. Ahmad Hardy,
you don't know who he is because he played at
ULM last year, but you know who was offense. He
played in Bryant Vincent their bread and butter play stretch zone.
What did Drink do last year? He went and got
Nate Noel from app who had run seven thousand reps
in stretch zone, so he knew exactly how to do
it and how it operated. Well, Amon Hardy knows how
(39:25):
to do it, so he's gonna come in for Kirby
Moore and know exactly how it works. You get Connor
Thomson back at center, very deep year at center. This year,
Caden Green's back on the offensive line. There's not another
armand membu and receiver won't be the same. The big
question marks Perbula. I don't know. I don't know what
to tell people that they're getting. I'm anxious to hear
from Eli about it because I don't know exactly what
(39:46):
he's gonna look like. But I also know two years
ago they went and got a transferre d lineman from
Florida that's played pretty good reps. They got another from
Missouri's played pretty good reps. And they got a safety
that will named Dion Burks. Again, you don't know who
he is, but maybe you will now who is ways
less than you do and will literally come down and
try to hit Andre the Giant if he's carrying the football.
(40:07):
He does not care. He will try to crush everybody
at any point in time. My point is they have guys,
but we treat Missouri like, well, yeah they had Luther
Burdon last year. Yeah, Luthor Burton had one amazing fourth
down catch last year. How many games did he win
for him. Now he may have opened some things up
for some other guys, and Nate Noel was great, but
they still have guys South Carolina. I understand all those
(40:29):
D tackles they lost. I know Kyle Kinard's gone, but
you look at like Brian Thomas on one side, Monk
kill Goodwine is gonna be back inside. You got another
D tackle who is here that red shirted last year.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
So they are replacing those guys with other guys like
they're gonna put eleven out there.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
They're not putting quarterbacks there either.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
You look in the secondary like Judge Collier, Jalen Kilgore,
d Q Smith. They've all been there for like four years.
We've played in this defense. And then you go get
Sean Murphy who Alabama signed as a linebacker out of college,
out of high school. You know he's got talent. He's
probably more talented and Demetrius Knight. That means's gonna be
the player Demetrius Night was. Once again, they have guys
(41:07):
who has done more in the portal with less than
Shane Biemer.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Nobody actually I mean nobody.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Mario Anderson, nit Guard, Julo, Demetrius Knight, we just mentioned.
You can make it. You can make an argument that
last year they're tight end was their MVP of their
football team. They get it from Western Kentucky two years ago.
Nobody mentions him. So there's gonna be one, two, three
guys that are heavy contributors and good football players for
South Carolina out of the portal that we're just not
talking about. So this hole, like these teams don't have
(41:34):
guys anymore. I'm I'm a little lost in that narrative.
They might not be the talent that other teams have,
but there will be guys who have played and been there,
and that might mean more than some of what we're
talking about with some of these other fine star guys
at other places.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Hey, good luck with date night podcasts and whatever else
you do to day.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Date Night podcast episode two dropping in here in a
few minutes. Go check it out. We're gonna talk airplane voices.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
We're not live.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
You want to lay out for the audience what airplane
voice is, by the way, or should they tune in?
Speaker 1 (42:01):
They should probably tune in.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Do you want me to lay out or do you
want me to talk about it?
Speaker 1 (42:04):
I want you to talk in airplane mode. Voice like
talk in that.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
Right now feeling, and I will play the role of
your wife you mentioned Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Where are you around people right now?
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Hello, We're gonna talk, MISTERI state people are.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Looking at us. We gotta go. Goodbye.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
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(42:58):
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present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas
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